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The art room is a pretty cheery place these days. Hazardous materials stay under lock and key, but otherwise it's bright, sort of chaotically organized (things are everywhere, but they're categorized) and paintings of what appear to be impressionistic shirred rainbows of light, or perhaps dazzling feathers, decorate a couple of the windows.

Hange did not do art before she came to the barge but she fits in, with her casual clothes splattered with old paint and evidence of where she's wiped her hands on her thighs after working with clay.

"Hi there, Randel. Been a bit."

[ Randel comes wearing some of his own handmade clothes, the cheap ones that he uses for when he's cleaning up after his cats. There's not much to them; just plain brown work clothes, like a handyman's jumpsuit.

A very very tall handyman. ]

Hello, Hange. I hope you've been well. [ Beat. ] I'm glad I didn't see you recently. When everything was going on.

I'm glad you didn't see me too. I wasn't a good person to be around then.

[Hange gestures him to sit on a nearby stool, and takes a seat at the wheel herself.]

I have clay ready for us! There's prep work involved in getting it ready to use, but I figured we'd skip that for now, and do a little throwing right away. If you're interested, of course come back and I'll show you how to do the prep. You might like it. [Look at those big muscles.] You'll probably be quite good at it.

[ Randel doesn't generally think he's good at much of anything, but he'll nod. ]

Are we really going to throw it?

[ He can see how that'd be messy but he'd rather not do something that just makes a mess. ]

Heheh. Only for the first step! Okay, Randel, this whole thing is called a kick wheel - you're gonna make this surface spin by kicking the big circular part down here with your feet. [Hange smooths her hand over smaller flat, circular surface where they're going to put the clay.] Before I start - do you think I should aim to put the clay near the edge of the circle, or in the center?

[ He takes in the instructions, then looks over at the device. He takes in the wheel, sees the mechanism where he's going to have to 'kick' it, and frowns as he looks at the flat circle. Then he looks at Hange. ]

...the middle?

Correct! Now, why did you guess that would be?

Because things are more stable when they're in the middle?

[ He has no idea ]

Hehehe, good! That's pretty much exactly it. You're going to be spinning the piece as you work on it, and if it's off-center, its momentum is going to push it out from the center of the wheel and it will be lopsided. If it's on the center, you won't see that happen; it's pushed out equally at every point, so your piece will be symmetrical.

Now!

[Hange picks up a near lump of clay, lifts it up over her head, and whams it down on the center of the wheel :D]

[ He startles a little at the loud noise of the clay onto the wheel before peering at the lump and looking at Hange for what they're doing next. ]

That's the only part that's actual, literal throwing!

Oh.

[ Loooooooong look. ]

What's the rest of it?

[With a chuckle:] Okay, watch me.

[Now she sits at the wheel and starts to kick it, with the spin slow at first. She shows Randel her hands: relaxed, flat, fingers straight out, and as the wheel spins and the lump of clay turns slowly, she gently taps at the clay so it's nicely rounded and centered even a bit better.

Once this is done, Hange dips her hands in a bowl of water, set to the side.]

Now I kick it a bit faster, see?

[She cups her hands around the lump of clay, so it's wet too.]

Heels of hands together - elbows against your sides - this is called a plow forward. [Her hands make a V shape, where they touch at the heels is the point.]

It's not wiggling or off center so now squeeze up - it's like a cone, see? Cut off the tip with your thumbs and flatten the whole thing out... I'm gonna - gonna get slower, here, we're going to start putting in the hole... I know this is going fast, are you following me?

[ He nods. This is physical. Simple. He can understand it even if he might need a few tries to get the physicality and the movements right, teach his muscles how it works, what resistences are there, the feel of it. He nods again just so she'll be sure he's paying attention. ]

Alright, then! The next steps are I'm going to push down in the middle. That'll open the bowl's mouth, and then I'll pick up some of the excess clay, which you don't necessarily have to do, and give the bottom a push...

[Hange kicks the wheel along as she talks.]

And then you'll more or less be done!

[Hange starts up the process as described, using her thumbs to start opening a hole in the cylinder of clay she's coaxed into being, and then coaxing the bowl's curve higher and a little thinner. At the last step, Hange picks up a wet sponge that she prepared and set to the side and pushes firmly down on the bowl's bottom.

Then she puts her foot against the spinning lower platform, and carefully letting the wheel halt with gradual loss of speed.]

What we have now is a bit crude, and there's more you can do, but you're a beginner, so just try this basic handling right now.

[ He'll nod and move to take the seat, which has his knees up pretty high and his hands carefully reaching out to touch the clay just to get a feel for the texture. Then, just as carefully, he'll start trying to get the kickwheel going. Slow and steady. Just letting his fingers glide gently across the clay... ]

Wet your hands, it'll help you work it more easily. It's soft, right?

[ He nods, careful, and moves to wet his hands. Then he's back and watching how his fingers affect the shape of the clay while it spins on the platform. ]

Let me know when you want to take it from the top! I'm just going do to a little circuit around, be back in a few minutes, okay?

[she'll let him mess with the clay without being observed.]

[ For the moment, he's just going to play with the clay a little, make the sides to up and push them back down, slow and steady, gentle and careful. He gets a little lost in it, in fact. ]

[Hange potters around for some minutes, checking on things, grabbing fresh clay so he can take his project from the top. When she's done:]

Randel?

[ She breaks him out of his seeming meditation hard enough that his hand shifts and he turns the 'vase' into a jumbled lump and he jumps a little before turning to look at her. ]

S-sorry! I didn't mean-

[ He looks down at the mess as the wheel slows. ]

I destroyed it.

Hahaha, Randel! [This reaction is not totally a surprise, but that doesn't make it any more necessary.]

Relax. It was just an example, not even fired. And even if it wasn't - I destroyed plenty of my own pieces learning to do this. The medium is great, because it's forgiving! Smush them all back down to the beginning again if you want!

[ He considers the advice for a moment before reaching forwaard and smushing it down. Then, considering, he wets his hands again and starts kicking the wheel. He's tentative but soon enough, it's going fast again. ]

Mess with that as long as you want, but the more you do, the harder it's gonna be to work with - it's already soft now since I worked it, and it's just gonna get mushier. Don't worry about the clay, though. We can reclaim it.

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carkeys for Randel

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