Chapter 18: Vision

Daniel raises his brows at Anne's canvas.

After finishing her self-portrait, he starts her with a more forgiving project: A client wanted an oil paint replica of a scene in a California national forest where he proposed to his wife. The provided photograph shows the sun perfectly rising between two valleys filled with evergreen trees. Having symmetry and mainly consisting of blues and greens, it's a perfect starting piece for his new motherly assistant.

Being a nature painting, there are more opportunities to hide mistakes than a close-up of a person. One might recall the famous quote by Bob Ross: 'We don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents.'

While that might be easy to say with nature paintings, such "happy accidents" on people with important details have caused him to throw away hours of work. So really, it's only happy until one has a client commission for a few-thousand-dollar art piece.

In any case, the first client piece he's entrusting to his mother might be considered forgiving, but it shouldn't be straightforward. Thus, the reason behind his surprise is that within an hour, she's already put a decent underpainting that pretty much resembles the major details of the photo the client provided.

'Is mom...a photocopier?'

That's an exaggeration since there's still a roughness to the outline, as expected. Still, Daniel thought that maybe she was able to create her self-portrait with ease due to her understanding of how she formed herself, but not necessarily anything new. Although the details aren't known to him, Anne's molecules process information far differently than humans. As a result, his slime mother can learn and mimic as needed, although she remains unaware of this factor as well.

"Has mama done good?" she asks, awaiting praise from her son.

Daniel twists his lips crookedly before swallowing his astonishment. "Yeah...something like that and more."

"More?"

"Don't worry about it. I think...yeah, this is a good stopping point for you."

The slime girl blinks. "Huh? But...I know I have to wait for first layer to dry, so mama should work on another painting!"

"N-no, no!" Daniel insists, sweating a little. "There's no need to rush things, okay? Just, um give yourself time to think about the drawing more and ensure everything is how you want it."

'Otherwise, what work will be left for me?' he adds in his mind, silently crying.

Anne cocks her head, then hums, looking back at her progress. While squinting her eyes and comparing it against the reference photo pinned to the side, she has difficulty finding anything that's particularly off that would matter in the finished result. Obviously, she has to figure out how to create a bunch of tiny trees in the distance without making them look like dots, but she believes that would come to her after working on the base colors that generally blend and remain prevalent.

Returning to his side of the studio, Daniel sighs and rubs his shoulder before refocusing on his new piece. It would seem he'll have to take a break soon too.

Without much to do, Anne makes her way behind her son, leaning forward to catch his progress just as he did with hers. What she sees is an outline of stones in a circular fashion on his canvas with some basic valleys in the background. Anyone would recognize this famous circle, and Anne is no different.

"Stonehenge?"

Daniel nods, suppressing some excitement as he draws a few more thin lines to capture the background. "Yep. This is for the client I visited after you first revealed yourself to me. She's a big CEO of a geological imaging company and was also an archeologist who had done excavations at Stonehenge before. She wanted a more magical vision of the site. It's not too often I get landscape requests with a fantasy element to it, so I've been itching to get this started."

He pauses and leans back in his chair, humming. "The only odd request is...she wanted green fire to be a part of the painting. She didn't specify how it should be placed and I'm glad for the creative control, but...I have no clue. Would it be in the center of the circle? What's the meaning of a green fire? Is it just a level of atmosphere?"

Daniel scratches his head for a bit. "She didn't even say if she wanted people in the background. I might have to call her secretary for more details, but...what do you think?"

...

Daniel furrows his eyebrows at the silence and glances back, calling her. "Mom?"

She's still behind him, but he sees her totally absorbed in the outline, staring blankly. While spacing out is fine, Daniel can't see any expression on her face...and that worries him.

"Hey, Anne! Are you okay?"

He calls her out more formally, hoping she'd react negatively, but his voice isn't getting to her. In the slime's mind, she's seeing something...

Fire burning in pits just outside the ring with embers funneling through each stone entrance towards the center. Drawing near, there's a hooded figure standing within the formation. The figure seems...male? His back is hunched as he stares inward into an uncertain direction on the ground.

Then, he turns his head slightly. A whisper...

'Viviane.'

"Anne!"

The slime girl snaps out of her stupor as she is shaken, then looks around. "Huh...wha?"

The artist relaxes and breathes easily, resting his arms down. "God, you scared me there. I thought that something was wrong with you!"

"The fire..."

Daniel raises one brow, then returns to his painting. "Yes, and?"

"Mama thinks it should be outside of the circle. Maybe wind blowing embers into the center somehow?"

The artist's eyes widen before he places a hand on his chin. "Oh, that...actually sounds interesting! Like multiple fires around concentrating itself into a bigger flame at center of the monument?"

He pauses, then narrows his eyes back at Anne. "Still, why did you freeze like that? Was that idea such an enlightening moment for you or something?"

Anne twists her lips and lowers her gaze, confused. "Mama is...not sure."

Daniel blinks, slightly concerned but decides not to press any further. He lifts off his chair and stretches his arms forward before facing his slime mother. "Well, I think for now, we should both take a break and eat something. After that..."

The artist grins. "Do you want to try being a model for me?"

"Ah, you mean transform?"

Daniel nods but pauses for a bit, finding himself having second thoughts. "Actually...will you be okay? Doesn't transforming take a lot of energy?"

He doesn't want her to eat his whole kitchen up again.

Anne tilts her head proudly. "Nope! I found I can make shifts in my layer without taking much energy!"

'Come to think of it, she didn't seem as hungry this morning after transforming into Amy,' Daniel notes. It makes sense, given she's shifting her outer appearance while maintaining the same structure.

"So that means that it's easier for you to turn into something human-like as you are now, but anything else would be costly?"

The slime girl nods, slumping. "Guess mama can't become a vase for you."

Daniel stifles a chuckle. "Ha, what? Why a vase? Look, in any case, there's so much that can be done! How about..."

He pauses as a person comes to mind. Slowly, his expression turns solemn. With a sad snort, he shakes his head to himself while Anne grows confused by the change in demeanor.

"S-sweetie?"

"Ah, sorry," Daniel begins, rubbing his neck and smiling bitterly. "There is one person I definitely should start capturing."