Bishop tucks his hands into his pockets and shakes his head. "Are you talking to the painting?"
Wisteria nods absently. Then she glances at him with a trace of wariness.
Bishop shakes his head. "No crazier than anything else. Except me. I am a paragon of sanity." He rubs the back of his neck. "There's something wrong with that painting."
Wisteria tilts her head and climbs up on the bed to peer at the painting from close range. "What do _you_ think is wrong with it?"
Bishop says "She's not supposed to be there."
Wisteria says, "I get the feeling she doesn't want to be there. Does the picture move if you stare at it long enough, or was that just some kind of seizure I had?"
Bishop says "Uh, maybe a seizure. You have those a lot?"
Wisteria says, "If I don't take my medicine, sometimes." She shrugs. "Just little zoney ones, not big fancy ones."
Bishop says "Little zoney ones. Right."
Bishop glances at the painting again. "Anyway, I don't even know what made me think that she didn't belong there. Artistic style, maybe."
Wisteria looks at the picture hard and tries to decide if the woman belongs in it or what.
Wisteria twitches. That's what happened in the gallery, sort of.
Wisteria crawls off the bed, away from the picture, and goes to get herself a glass of water and check the time to make sure that she's within the duration of her last dose.
Wisteria shakes her pill bottle and makes dark-cloud thought-bubble expressions.
Bishop clears his throat, faintly. "Are you, ah, all right?"
Wisteria says, "Stare at it and cross your eyes a little. If you twitch, then I'm all right. If you don't, then I may not be."
Bishop drawls, "Uh huh."
Bishop licks his lips and shrugs. "What the hell." He begins to stare at the painting.
Wisteria picks up the cat and pets it while he does so.
Bishop cocks his head and continues to stare, wondering what the hell he's doing, anyway.
The woman in the picture stares flatly back, no matter how hard Bishop glares at the canvas. It's so easy to start imagining things, when you're alone in a cheap hotel room with a moon woman and a startling painting. But ... it has an oppressive feel to it. Definitely oppressive. The woman stays flat in the painting but the forest and the trees around her? Bishop picks up a flash of empathy(?) from the location in the painting. It's ferocious. Fleeting glimpse of whipping branches like tentacles. Nets. Traps. Bloodsucking trees. Dark and sour, madness descending. It's a trap. So what does that make her?
Bishop backs away, shaking his head. "Okay, so who put crazy in the air. I - what made you twitch?"
Wisteria says, "She changed, was crying fire-tears. Like in the gallery."
Bishop says "The forest isn't a forest, like there's something painted under it."
Bishop says "Some kind of weird stereoscopic thing, maybe."
Wisteria says, "I thought I heard someone talking, in the gallery, too. Begging to be out. I thought that maybe there was a cat trapped somewhere. Paintings don't normally talk to me."
Wisteria cuddles her cat, scratching expertly under its chin.
Bishop says "Cats do?"
Wisteria nods.
The cat purrs, its opinion clearly being that it is more important than a painting which smells strange.
Bishop opens his mouth, clearly with the intent of claiming that's impossible, then stops.
Bishop says "Paintings don't stop to me, cities do."
Wisteria blinks. "Cities?"
Bishop says "Well, they have the most to say. But towns, villages, hamlets, burghs, you name it."
Wisteria asks, "Isn't that noisy? Or loud, or something?"
Bishop says "Does this strike you as a noisy town?"
Wisteria ponders this.
Wisteria replies, "Maybe medium noisy, around when people get off work."
Bishop nods. "And it's not like cities chatter constantly. Well, no, it's - hard to describe. I'm not tuned in all the time. It's like being at a party."
Wisteria says, "Like being in the middle of a cat colony, maybe..."
Bishop says "Uhu."
Bishop says "But less stinky and full of hairballs."
Wisteria tsks. "I said colony, not litterbox." She peers at the painting. "But this painting talks to you, like a city?"
Bishop says "Well, I guess. Maybe forests talk to me, too. I wouldn't know, really."
Bishop says "I try to avoid nature."
Wisteria says, "Nature is nice. Nature doesn't care if people zone out a little."
Bishop says "Yeah, but it doesn't have cable tv either."
Wisteria giggles.
Bishop grins. "Anyway, that forest is - it's a net or something. Tentacles. Like Hieronymous Bosch meets a GWAR video. It's a trap."
Wisteria looks back at the picture with a mildly alarmed expression. "Ew."
Bishop says "Yup."
Bishop says "So."
Wisteria looks expectantly at Bishop. "Do you think that she's a ghost who's been trapped in the picture or something?"
Bishop says "You know, I can't shake the feeling that there's a camera in the corner just waiting for me to say something stupid like 'we have to free her from that painting'."
Wisteria giggles. "If there is, it got put there when I was gone. But you can check if you want."
Bishop grins and shakes his head. "Nah, if they want me that bad, they can have me."
Bishop says "So, we're agreed? There's something seriously spooky up with that painting?"
Wisteria nods. "It is spooky." She frowns. "I wonder if we should call up Lucretia. I was going to do it tomorrow, to tell her I got it, but she might know what's up, since she painted it."
Bishop says "Luwho?"
Wisteria says, "Lucretia. The artist. We knew each other a little in college."
Wisteria says "She's the one who arranged that I could go to the show."
Bishop rubs his jaw. "Well, sure we can do that. But if this thing really is bad and we're not just high on invisible fumes, then wouldn't that make her bad, too?"
Wisteria bites her lip and pets the cat. "I dunno... She doesn't seem..." Her voice trails off as she recalls Lucretia's conversation with her. Sadly, she continues, "Then again, she was talking about demons the last time I met her."
Wisteria adds, a bit wanly, "But I'm sure it was just talk."
Bishop says "She was what?"
Wisteria mumbles, "Talking about demons."
Wisteria mumbles, "That they don't like Tarot cards and they're sexy."
Outside the window, the city air is still and dark.
Bishop says "Wait, give me some context."
Bishop says "I mean, why would that come up?"
Wisteria says, "She came into the cafe, where I've got a job, and she asked if I were still into New Age stuff, and I offered to do a Tarot reading for her, and we talked about decks -- I've got a nice Robin Wood one, and she's got a Thoth one -- and she said that real demons didn't bother with Tarot."
Wisteria carries cat over to her suitcase and digs out her Tarot deck as corroboration.
Bishop nods. "And then she continued by pointing out that real demons were also sexy?"
Wisteria nods.
Wisteria says "And she said I should stick with my cards and crystals because they're safer."
Wisteria idly starts doing a card-layout on the bed, more for something to do than anything else. Cat-fur drifts lightly upon the cards.
Bishop nods. "Safer than what? I feel like I'm missing details, here." He glances at his watch.
Wisteria says, "Safer than demons, I guess."
Wisteria says, "So if we're not going to call her, how do _you_ suggest we loose a wandering spirit? I don't want to break the painting. Lucretia'd be upset."
Bishop says "Okay, when were you supposed to call her? I mean, when's she expecting to hear from you?"
Wisteria works on remembering this.
Wisteria says "I don't think she said. I was figuring on calling her tomorrow."
Bishop nods. "I've got a thing I have to do tonight."
Bishop says "Let me know before you call her?"
Wisteria nods. "Okay. I'll need a phone number from you, though."
Bishop nods. "You've got a pad?"
Wisteria points at the hotel notepad, dealing out the last card in her Tarot layout.
Bishop moves over to the pad and scribbles down the name and number for his hotel, and his hotel room.
The reading shows the Lovers card at the center and as pivot for the action of the answer, fenced around tightly by Swords and Wands, with the Moon, precursor of insanity, at the top, and the Queen of Pentacles, provider and nurturer, steadfast at the bottom.
Wisteria eyes the spread dubiously. "No, no Tantric," she tells the cards.
In the outcome position is the King of Swords. This card suggests a powerful, but stubborn, masculine influence who may be opposing you. In a new project, do everything exactly by the rules or you will lose. There may be a need for the services of an attorney.
Wisteria frowns. They should sacrifice a lawyer to the painting?
Bishop pushes the pad over. "There you go; that's how to reach me."
Wisteria takes it. "Thanks. My phone number's... well, on the phone." She quirks a smile. "Know any lawyers who would get a spirit out of a painting, or are the cards just being enigmatic?"
Bishop says "Huh? I've got a hard enough time finding lawyers who'll get themselves out of the bar."
Bishop says "Bunch of lushes, those guys."
Bishop scribbles down the phone number here and pockets the paper.
Wisteria grins. "Enigmatic cards, then. Good luck with whatever it is you're doing."
---