daario naharis , NOTES

I must be suffering from insomnia, Colette thought as she wandered through a vast open field in Exurbia, right besides the mountain. It was so early the sun didn't even come up yet, and the colony was asleep (except probably for some Crocodile Dundees who used this time for hunting, setting up traps or doing whatever they usually did in the wilderness). The young medic carried a large canvas and a pack of paint and brushes, in search for the best viewing spot available when the sun begins to lurk on the horizon.

Whose crazy idea was it to wake up so early and so some... painting? Well, painting is good for the soul, it's the best way to relax, Shoshi always said. Well, maybe for someone like her, who's a truly gifted artist. She can draw dead on sketches of people she's met for like two seconds, and back in Brazil, she did paintings of our little foreign exchange student class comparabe to Rembrandt at least. But me? I can't paint or draw a damn. Well, that was the usual excuse made by the Canadian when her Israeli classmate tried to convince her to try out doing some art. But now... well, it seemed Shoshi finally got her wish.

As it happened, a few days ago, a guy offered Col a set of canvases, brushes and cans of paint in exchange for her fixing up his disjointed shoulder. Having no other real option, she offered this weird kind of payment, and well, if she did, she decided to use this stuff the way it was inteded to be used - try to paint some. So, she woke up early in the morning to venture out and find a nice view of Mt. Whateveritscalled, which was said to be a magnificient view illuminated by the lights of sunrise. When she finally settled down on the field, dawn already began to hit the horizon, and she decided to capture the essence of this beautiful visual phenomenon.

Well, capturing the essence of a beautiful visual phenomenon is easily said, but much harder to be actually done. At least for someone like Col, who couldn't even do a straight line with a paintbrush. After giving in her best, struggling with the canvas and the paint for about an hour, she finally gave up. Her 'picture' looked like something out of kindergarten, or well, she thought 90% of the kids in kindergarten could actually do better than this. Shrugging, she wrote the large black words: "I CAN'T PAINT" on the canvas, and decided to find something more useful to do. However, in this moment, she heard the loud noise of someone firing a gun.

She insinctively jumped up, hearing the loud booms of an apparently large weapon firing multiple shots nearby. Listening to the noise, she tried to decipher its source and nature. It was probably one of those Bear Grylls guys hunting for animals or something, at least she hoped that. An image of a psychopath yieling a large grenade launcher to attack anyone within range crossed her mind - that was something she hoped would definately not be happening. So, then, what could it be? Venturing closer, but staying low and quiet, not to get caught in the fire of whatever or whoever it was, Col saw a man in the distance, apparently target practicing in the tall grass, using a large tree as target. She shrugged as she realized her instincts were good and it was just one of the Beverly Hillbillies doing his morning exercise in playing with deadly firearms.

But then, as she walked a few steps further again, she realized she knew this mountain of a man! It was Mr. Clean, aka Mr. Goliath, the guy who picked up the rifle from the drop. And it was the same gigantic rifle he offered her to hold, which made her chanting Kumbaya in her head for two days straight afterwards. Alright, it seems instead of bringing out my inner Picasso, I'm gonna bring out my inner Joan Baez again. Making sure she was out of target range, Col waved to the man, shouting to him, "Good morning, sunshine, the Earth says hello..."

daario naharis , NOTES

Whatwhatwhat?? Flying Spaghetti Monster in Pasta Heaven, it happened! Someone corrected me regarding a pop cultural reference. And it happened to be none other than Mr. Clean! Those musicals are quite awful anyway. All of them. Musicals are even more awful than those episodes of Voyager when they're in some awful Irish holo-town and Captain Janeway falls for a holographic Irish pub owner. Colette shook her head, realizing the man was correct regarding the lyrics of the song she was jokingly singing. Starshine, right. Well, at least, she had a better singing voice than him. Okay, basically an extinct dodo bird had a better singing voice than him.

"Yes, yes, I know, of course.", the young Canadian smiled with a shrug, "Actually, it's much older than that. It's from the '60s. The movie version from the '70s.", she explained, then reacted to the bulky guy's apologies regarding the noise his practie shooting caused, "And no problem. I wouldn't exactly describe it as scary. It was rather... unexpected."

Colette noticed how the man tried to hide, or at least, not put his large gun to the front while talking to her, probably the result of her uneasy feelings towards this not exactly modest piece of firearm the last time they've met. Neverthless, she glanced at the weapon, and then to the apparent target Daario set up on the tree, realizing that it wasn't exactly a successful target practice exercise. In fact, she was amazed by the fact itself that this wannabe wrestler could hold that Godzilla of a shotgun and aim with it properly.

"Trouble?", she then asked. Did she look like someone looking for trouble? Well, in fact, it happened that usually trouble found her, and not vice versa. "No, actually I was looking for a three-headed monkey, they said they're able to grant three wishes to anyone who finds them.", she said in her usual bubblish routine, "But since I haven't found any, I sat down to paint a picture of this scenery.", she added, now actually telling the truth, "Wanna see it?"

daario naharis , NOTES

Colette was pleasantly surprised. The big hulky guy didn't ask her to shut up or lower her tempo of speech, or talk about something which actually makes sense, and didn't show any signs of being annoyed by her bubblish demeanour. She was truly caught off guard by this apparent positive feedback to her behaviour. Recently, she got used to people (especially guys) shunning her off and showing clear annoyance regarding her more than talkative nature. Crocodile Dundee did that, and this Jaron guy too - especially him. She just tried to be nice to him, and engage in a conversation, and what she got for it? He almost dropped her out of his car.

But Mr. American Sniper was apparently different. She honestly never would've expected that, but it was the case. Rather than being annoyed, he found her bubbliness amusing - at least his smile and eased behaviour signaled that. Col would never have admitted it to herself, but she actually began to like this man. Or at least not feel that he's here to blast her head off with that Goliath of a gun as a demonstration of the eternal male ego.

"Whaaat? They were chasing him? Oh, dear...", she said, playing along, "I wonder if they catch him, and he'll grant everyone three wishes. We'll have lots of trouble on our hands.", she explained, with a less than serious grin, "Imagine if all those people get what they want. We'll end up having a madhouse around."

"Alright. I can show you my work.", the young medic smiled, intentionally not telling the man about the real nature of her so-called piece of art and how it ended up being scratched, "But I have to admit, I'm not exactly Rembrandt level." Well, that was quite an understatement, she thought, almost laughing, and showed the way to the nearby point where her abandoned masterpiece stood. She grinned in herself, thinking of Mr. Clean's reaction when he'll see the kindergarten-level masterpiece covered with the huge black letters.