[attr="class","silasreescroll"]
Leonard found himself walking around in the festival area. There was the usual kinda atmosphere you would expect at one of these events. Everyone was positively enjoying themselves. That was a great thing to see, nothing like happy people making other people happy. With all the bad the world threw at you, sometimes you just had to take a step back and just enjoy some lighthearted fun. It was good on your body, and good on your mind. Perhaps not too good on the body, given that all the things that you could buy and eat around the various stalls littering the event grounds could probably give you more weight on your shoulders. He should probably avoid that! He was a noble and a magic knight on top of that. He was to keep both appereances and strenght, for his own sake and his family own. Besides, Leonard always liked form fitting clothes, so taking up weight was a great way to not be able to wear the super nice garments he was currently strolling in. As showy as they were, there was some pride in showing off the fairly sculpted six-pack he gained after a good few weeks of sweat, tears and relentless Vermillion training.
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He was still kind of livid he was yet unable to get on the same level of those around him of his age. His father always said he was a late bloomer and much like the element he controlled, he needed to take his own time and make sure he got the best training he possibly could. Results were bound to happen eventually, or so he said. On one thing he couldn't argue though. His grimoire had three leaves on it, which did mean he was indeed gifted. While he couldn't say he wanted to be as gifted as other people he knew, mostly because he did not want to disrespect those that gained power without having a strong innate propensity towards magic, he could still think about it. Was a glow up every once in a while all that unreasonable to ask? Did he had to sweat every single drop of power? In any case, this was not the time to think about that stuff. He wasn't there to get himself depressed, he was there to have fun in the festival the Blue Roses were so very gracious to invite him to.
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He didn't mind being alone, all things considered. Sure, perhaps company was going to be more fun, or so everyone said anyway. Still, being on your own had its upsides as well. First of all, he did not run into the risk of having to rush things or follow someone else. The young Vermillion prince was more than elated to take things in at his own pace and whims. For now, he would keep himself from the food stalls. He wasn't hungry and the day pretty much just started in any case. He could find a bite at noon or sometime later. Right now, the Vermillion wanted to explore the entirety of the venue high and low, left and right so that he would have a better idea on just what was where and what he could actually afford to do for the moment. Not that he had problems with money, that much was clear, but it was more of a matter of time. He needed to be responsible with the things he went and did before the sun went down and he would have to return to his place to sleep. Naturally, he did not have no cloning magic, so it was not like he could be in more than a place at once.
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So far, there were a couple of things on schedule he was interested in. One of these was going to happen much later, so Leonard still had to wait for a good while, but the first thing on his mental menu was happening in just a few minutes. That was great. It wasn't going to be his favourite thing to do, but at the very least he could occupy some time before dealing with the real fun stuff. The very light squeaking of his open toed leather boots stretching lightly to match his stride was the only thing Leo would hear for a while as he decided to take a shortcut on one of the less crowded streets of the city to cut some lines or in general avoid the absolute fustercluck of people around. Talk about being a fading tradition! To him it looked like this flower festival was as popular and as bustling with people of any age as ever. Kids he could imagine being all around the place, the kid's parents as well, but there seemed to be a good number of young and late teens like him...as well as a very sizable number of older people. In the middle of it all, however, fate seemed to be playing a game of his own.
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Leonard overhead a conversation from two people as he passed by. From the sound, it were two ladies. They didn't seem too panicked or angry at eachother, but their tone did sound slightly apprehensive. His curious mind, obviousy, would not allow him to just ignore this and go on with his day. The mageknight in him was subconsciously pushing his body in the direction of the supposed trouble. Ever the person to stop and help people, Leonard decided that a more thorough investigation was in order. As he approached the location where the two voices were hailing from, the young Vermillion had exactly what he was looking for: more informations. The two ladies were talking about being unable to finish something, apparently something that was going to be used in a later event. One of them was trying to propose ways to solve the problem, meanwhile the other was playing devil's advocate and shutting down one idea after the other. She seemed to be the more pessimistic one of the two.
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Leonard decided to check if there was really something he could do to help. Even if he couldn't he could at least let his mind be at peace again and go back to what he was doing without regrets. "Excuse me, miss?" He would say, finding the two commoners. "Leonard Vermillion of the Crimson Lions." He quickly introduce himself to avoid problems. "I happened to be walking by and couldn't help but hear there were some problems with something. Do you require a hand with things? I could help." He would add. He would blush lightly when the two bowed slightly to salute him. He didn't really need all that reverence, but it was much appreciated. The one trying to solve problems would try to explain the issue, with her friend trying to excuse them both for trying to rope a noble into what was nothing more than a menial task. Nevertheless, Leonard reminded that it was him offering to help and not the two ladies demanding, so it was absolutely fine to take his help if he could give something of value. Hell, he considered it his duty to be as helpful to others as he possibly could even in his extremely limited capacity.
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With all that said and done, Leonard would be brought to speed on the situation. The two were caretakers for a bunch of eggs that were going to be used in some sort of treasure hunt. That was one of the events that Leonard wanted to participate in! Apparently, the eggs needed to be painted beforehand, making sure the paint would dry by the time the other event organizer came by to get them to go hide them. Leonard did not think that painting an egg would be that troublesome... until he was shown what kind of eggs the two artist ladies had to contend with. Those things were huge! And not normal huge, those eggs were several sizes bigger than anything you would consider normal. Leonard took a moment to ponder. Clearly, with the people coming there to get those eggs not more than half an hour away, they needed those eggs to be all painted and finished as fast as possible, but with just two people it was looking to be quite the task. Just painting one of those eggs seemed like a huge chore. Not to mention doing so while going for a complex design on it.
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Leonard would sheepishly inform the couple that he wasn't a very good painter. He did not practice the art much, thus he was very dubvious of his ability to match that of two artists like the ladies claimed to be when they introduced themselves to him. Nevertheless he had agree to help in any capacity, so he would oblige as best he could. Especially since one of the two, the more positive one, seemed to think he wouldn't need to know how to draw much. The eggs were supposed to be for kids, so it wasn't like he was going to paint something for some art museum. Despite still holding some reservation about just how good his end result was going to be, the young mage relented and asked to be informed on how to mix the paint, which kind of brush to use and how much pressure to apply while painting. He was not risking the egg breaking. That would put the two ladies in a worse position than the start.
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The young prince found himself seated and with the large egg in front of him. He needed to figure our how to go about it. He needed something to draw. He tried to go about it the same way he would analyze a dungeon or a creature he would have to fight. He was clearly not skilled enough to draw even the most basic person, thus any kind of real to semireal composition was a no go. Not only that, but he didn't know how to nature either, still nature was all about expression and impression. All different angles, shading and lighting. With both of those out of the question Leonard turned his mind towards things less defined. He could proably get by with an abstract design. At the end of the day, he just needed to have the egg make an impact. No need for complex things if he could just make the thing captivating by itself. He did want to try and mask the thing as if it were a real dragon egg, but even that kind of stuff was hard for him to paint. He could visualize it in his mind, but he knew very well that the end result would look horrible compared to what was his own intention.
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The other two had gone back to tending to their errands and he still hadn't started. Damnit, he was burning time sitting there like an idiot staring at that egg. Time to not think and... just do. Usually that helped.

Leonard finally decided to move after about three to four moments of inactivity. He started with a base, thinking how the guy finding his egg would react. Art is about vision and mesage no? He should send a message even if he couldn't really draw any defined shape. After giving the thing a coat of vermillion red, he started slashing at it with his brush after he had mixed in a rather cool looking gold paint. Naturally making sure not to smash the egg as he did so, he figured that he could at the very least give a hint on who was behind the egg by using his squad colors: Red and Gold. Once the gold 'slashes' were done, he would consider a way to make the gold pop. As it were, the egg was kinda basic and the two color kinda smudged together in some places.
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Leonard suddenly had a moment of inspiration from his mother. She was basically an artist when it came to eyeliners and other cosmetic things she used to appear prettier. She would always use eyeliner to make her eyes pop and look more enticing. What was eyeliner essentially? Just a black border on the eye! That could work. Leo quickly grabbed a fresh brush and asked the ladies for the black paint they could spare. There was not much time left before the people in charge of the egg hunt arrived, but he was positive he could cheat a little and use his magic to dry the egg faster. He was more than capable to raise the air temperature around the colored egg just enough to speed dry the paint without having it crack. That was sure.
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After spending almost all of his time carefully using the black paint to highlight the golden slashes so that they would pop and be much more visible, he decided to fill the rest of the empty red space with small splotches of lighter reds, just to give a little more bizazz on what was basically a really basic design. The two other artists seemed supportive, but he wouldn't really know if they were doing it out of courtesy or not. Either way, Leo's grimoire would fly in his hand the moment the paintbrush was down. He flipped a couple pages and found the spell he was looking for. Extending a hand over his creation, he infused the thing with juuuuuust a smidge of his magma power. He kept going for a few minutes just to be sure that the thing was dry. Even when the other organizers started to arrive and begin collecting the eggs.
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Eventually, wether he wanted it or not, he would have to stop conjuring, close his grimoire and stash it away the moment a guy walked to his table to get the egg. As he watched him bring it away, he hoped his effort was enough for a decent result. He couldn't quite expect excellency from himself. In either case, job was done. The two artist ladies seemed to want to reward him for the help, but he would be quick to turn it down, repeating that it was his duty as a knight to help when needed as best he could. To that note, he would pick that moment to bow and salute the two, taking the opportunity to return to the festival grounds. Back outside Leonard glanced at the people taking the eggs, hoped for the best, and decided to resume his walk in the same direction he was going before the interruption. Plenty more stuff to do, plenty more stuff to see.
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