Oil and Paint

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Scene Title Oil and Paint
Synopsis Phoebe gets a very unpleasant vision.
Date July 6, 2009

The Conservatory at Phoebe's estate


Painting has always been one of those things that Phoebe does to relax. Considering the number of meetings she has had throughout the day, it had only made sense that she'd settled into her conservatory with her oils and her easel.

Unfortunately, fate doesn't always see eye to eye with Phoebe's plans. Such being the case, it is more then a little distressing when fate intervenes and takes away her longed for opportunity.

Fortunately, despite her eyes glazing over, her faithful driver, Mosha, is there to tend to her. And, while he doesn't get in the way, or interfere with the painting, at all. He does make certain that she has what she needs and that the 'stupor' is not interupted by unwanted visitors.

…and when her eyes uncloud, it's hard to fully understand what it is she's looking at. It's the same canvas, the dimensions are just as she recalls, but the symbolism and imagery displayed in only three colors is profoundly disturbing. From the vantage point of where Phoebe sits on her stool in front of the finished painting, it looks as though she is staring out a window with perfect perspective of a recognizable street in Manhattan's lower east side. The moon is high in the sky, silhouetted by an enormous black bird with wings that reach from one end of the painting to the other. However, the pinions shed from the bird fall not as softly as a feather is wont to do, but with mushroom clouds of multiple nuclear explosions on the horizon.

It's only in further scrutiny, that Phoebe can see that the streets of New York are flooded, water has risen halfway up skyscrapers, drowning the city in a sea that was once a river. Only one color is used beside the black and white of the painting, and that color is a rich coppery red that is used to paint the ring around the otherwise black moon set against a starless night's sky.

As Phoebe's eyes drift to the other canvases on easels around her workshop, more paintings of a city submerged underwater is shown. Skyscrapers with barnacles crusting up them, reflections of broken crowns of ruined buildings in Midtown barely poking up beneath crashing waves that break on gargoyles and rain gutters.

It is as Phoebe stares at the paintings surrounding her, that Mosha's quietly calm voice breaks the silence. "Shall I incinerate them, Madame?" The question is uncertain, despite the fact that that has been standard operating procedure for quite some time, now.

But these… These paintings are considerably different then those in the past. This… This is not something that Phoebe can readily ignore.

"No, Mosha," she answers quietly. "Not this time." With a sigh, she pushes to her feet, heedless of the paint on her hands as she pushes dark strands of graying hair out of her face. It is as she walks to her desk and quickly pens a note that she adds. "I need you to take this message to Pastor Sumter." Extending the note, she adds in serious tones. "Wait for him outside the church, even if it takes all night."

"As you wish, Madame," is Mosha's steadfast reply. "Shall I fetch him if he declines your invitation?"

Ah, Phoebe knows full well how very good at 'fetching' Mosha can be. Even so, she sighs quietly. "He will not decline, Mosha." Which, of course, is an unspoken agreement to 'fetch' the good pastor in that unlikely eventually.

"We shall be back shortly, Madame." Is Mosha's emphatic response.

Once alone, Phoebe turns her attention back to the paintings, a faint frown touching her lips. "I hope you understand what this means, Pastor Sumter," she murmurs as her gaze lands on the enormous black bird in flight.


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