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Vic has put on a button-down shirt and tucked it into chinos. He's serious about sprucing up for something as august as art shopping. Sadly, a button-down and chinos are all he has in the name of fancy. Soon, though, soon he'll have suits. He's tried to comb out his curls, giving him waves instead. There's just nothing the boy can do about being pretty. "Are we going for classical art or eclectic?" he asks.
Kaleb had on his Oxford wingtip boots, charcoal slacks withthe sharp crease, black shirt and silver vest and matching tie, and sunglasses on. His hair was back, and he was ready for the hunt. An eyebrow arched over his frames and there was a faint shake of his head. He actually did enjoy walking through the downtown area but was too school for cool to admit is. Thoughtfully he informed, "Neither. We are going to go down into Artist's alley and you are going to see if anything really moves you. We're not going for what people tell us we want to want. We are going to find something we have a strong emotioal reaction to. Preferably not a violent one."
Vic follows along with Kaleb, walking at his side. "I'd like something that evokes comfort," Vic says, "so that people who are there feel good to be there. Like sunshine through a window or on the beach. Maybe with a lighthouse." Oh, Vic. Vic, seriously. "Or maybe just colors. Greens and blues, shades that ease the mind, a splash of yellow for rejuvenation."
Kaleb walked with a long efficient stride that seemed to own the pavement he covered. There was a nod though. Kaleb was a technical artist, that much was true and the points of executing fine art escaped him hampered by a very finite range in his emotional well of being. Still he asked enjoying theory and Vic's company as much as anyhting else, "Do you know what makes for great art and great poetry aside from the quagmire of 'nice't hat is really just meaning terrible while still trying to mind people's feelings?"
Vic is like that little dog that bounces around the big dog in the cartoons, all energy and questions. "I did not know that," he admits. "I just know that certain colors and patterns evoke certain emotions. So would something melancholy about the comfort and rejuvenation make it great art?" At least he's a step up from still lifes of fruit bowls.
Kaleb strode through the street and truthfully Vic and Kaleb could turn heads. If he was honest about it he kinda loved it. He held up a finger and shook his head once, "No actually. So it works like this: When you detonate something can you control what is affected or just the direction of the blast, Vic?"
Vic, alas, only notices because OldVic used to be a strutter. He settles into it without thinking, and that smile he flashes some of the girls checking him out could make knees weak. Sorry, ladies. "Can you?" he asks. "It would depend on where you put the explosives and how you determine the rate of detonation. If you just make a big old explosion, then no, you can't really control that stuff."
Kaleb says, "Can you detonate saaaaay just the paper in teh room or everything green and leave the rest unharmed and unaffected?" He blinked and turned to Vic offering, "You're still just finely controlling where the blast goes. I know that's not art but it'll make sense in a moment."
Vic shakes his head. "No, everything in the path of the blast is blown up," Vic says. His mind starts to wander. One would want to get all the paper out of there before the blast, and and and… He snaps to. It's a metaphor, Vic, not a plan to blow up the apartment. "Okay, I get you."
Kaleb left one hand dropped into his pocket and geswith his opposite thumb and forefinger, "Heh, right. Anyways Art is like that. GOOD art is like that. It's a detonation. It forces you to get caught in the blast and have an emotional response." He bit his lip and thought about it. "You remember that first time you kissed that person that makes your heart stop and feel like it's going to implode? That's a reaction. Going 'Awww that's nice…' … is not worthy of your wall. Now you can't control how people will receive it, but when it hits them they'll have their own moment."
Vic smiles dopily as he remember that first kiss with Kellan. He's really got it bad. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah I understand what you mean, now. Let's get something like that. What emotions do you want to aim for? I mean you have some discretion, right? Or do we look until we have a moment?"
Kaleb widened a grin and actually clapped Vic on teh back of the shoudler once. "Much like sex just carry on until you have a religious experience Vic and don't let anyone tell you how to go about gettin there, pal."
Vic laughs, and his cheeks color as he ducks his head. Yeah, he's picturing that with Kellan, too. "I let him tell me," he mumbles, grinning. Then he laughs as his inner twelve-year-old gets a snicker in. "So we're going to find a piece of art that makes us think about, um, getting there?"
Kaleb shook his head. "Nope. We're going to just wander around until something punches us in the heart. Now art collection is different. Sometimes that's about the who and the process. Is it a part of history? Frida Khalo? Worth more because her art was also part of a cultural revolution. She was unabashedly proud of her culture, her strengths, her passions and her flaws. She painted her autobiography. Sometimes it's an ability to have a piece of a person's life that was emotional enough to them to paint about it. How well they capture that and the reason why? Adds value. Wax fruit? Not so much."
Vic hangs on every one of Kaleb's words. "You're owning a reflection of someone's life," he says. "Someone remarkable." He thinks for a moment, then asks, "What if the wax fruit just adds some color to the room? Is there any room for that? I guess if you just want a little color in the room and not something fantastic. But we're going for fantastic."
Kaleb looked to Vic and stared. His eyes were not visitble behind the shades but one could feel him blinking. He didn't answer that and continued onto not some fancy gallery but a less flashy part of Greenwitch Village. They were headed for a more Bohemian gallery where the artists and the revellers meet. One would think Kaleb would make a beeline for SOtheby's but no, instead it was a gallery that was mostly unlabeled and felt wonderfully charged like a secret.
Vic's brow knits. "I mean if you're just a normal person with no sense of art," Vic explains. "Not us." Well, not Kaleb. Vic would probably smile every time he saw a bowl of fruit on the wall. A happy little bowl, oops a grape has fallen out. He follows Kaleb dutifully, though he's careful crossing the street. Nodding up the block, he says, "That's where I got hit." There's still bits of broken glass on the pavement from the headlight he demolished with his body.
Kaleb chuckled and said "Vic, They're on their own. We are young, We are needy of divine inspiration, and we have no budget. Stop asking questions. When you feel something and you know you can't live without it? That's what you should invest in. Stop making excuses for people I do not care about that do not care about us that are not here, and do not live in our home?" This was an anathema to him. He stopped though from crossing the street and squint. His voice fell quiet and asked, "Where?"
"Okay," Vic says without argument. He's not even offended by Kaleb's tone. He points down the street and says, "Just off that bus stop. You see the shimmering stuff in the street? The glass? That's where." Which means they weren't far from his parents' place, since his dad was out and about and saw him get hit. "I had baklava from Saganaki, and I got off the bus and went to cross the street."
Kaleb just stared a bit dead eyed down the street with his same stoic expression he always had. His jaw tightened for a moment and then relaxed. SO close to just wiping out all those little things in like that finally made his brother happy. Some asshole with a car that left his roommate- his friend broken and scared. This was so sub-optimal he needed a new word for it. Finally he sighed. "You, um, did you want to show me? What do… I don't know what you need right now and I have a vested interest in you being okay. I'm… decidedly bad at this Vic."
Vic nods and says, "Sure." He walks up the street, and his good cheer is somewhat subdued. "I can't remember much of it," he says with a wan smile. "They say that sometimes happens. I remember getting off the bus here." The bus stop isn't very far from where they're at. So, so close to where Vic could have — maybe should have — said good-bye to his short life. "I guess he came spinning out of that alley." He points at the alley in question. "Then gunned it. Wasn't even looking. Just kept on going."
Kaleb walked with Vic and nodded faintly. This was weird, it was uncomfortable, and it was a big part of Vic's life. Well it was the intermission between Act I and Act II. His voice was split speaking in casual but also lower octave at the same time. "I do nooooot know if I'd point this out to Kellan. Wow. This is… wow, Vic." Echo chewed thoughtfully on the inside of his cheek looking at all the shattered glass on the ground and the stain in the pavement with it. Too close to home. Too close. His hand lifted and hesitated a moment but as if Jay were compelling him there was a pat pat on the back of Vic's shoulder. "Well," Keep it causal Kaleb. Nice and casual, "I'm certainly glad you are still with us. You, um, you alright?"
Vic nods and says, "Yeah, he doesn't need to see this." Yeah, that stain isn't oil. This city needs a good rain storm to wash its sins away. The pat-pat causes Vic to smile, lightening him up to more Vic-like levels. "Yeah," he says, and he claps Kaleb on the shoulder in return. It's meant to be a comforting thing. "When I pass by it, mostly I'm just sad."
Kaleb wasn't good at making contact but sometimes it just seemed the thing to do. "Hey, I think you earned the right to feel sad. When I go back to see Pendergast for answers? I have no doubt there will be feelings about that too. Though… I really need to talk to Kell about that before I make any decisions." He looked at the more Vibrant Vic and offered, "Scary, but unkillable at least?"
"I hope you'll let me go with you," Vic says to Kaleb. "I want to punch him." Delivered with simple, amiable honesty. They stand not far from a bus stop, which is in turn not far from one of the art galleries that occupies Greenwich Village. On the pavement, there is a dark stain and broken glass ground into the asphalt. Vic grins and ducks his head. "Me? I'm not scary."
Kaleb was winding his way through the art district of Greenwich Village dressed, as always to impress in slate, black, and silver. Boy really loves his monochrome, but he knows well how to wear it. Presently he and Vic were looking at the aftermath of a bad accident from a few days ago. Someone shattering glass of a windshield likely and staining the pavement. This wasn't the art deco that he was looking for as it were.
Objectively Kaleb arched an eyebrow agreeing, "Well I want to hit him too. Pretty sure we're not alone. He does, however, have several missing pieces we want and he may be the enemy of our enemy which leaves us… Well heck if I know." With a side nod he silently suggested they continue. "Locals have a gallery not too far."
Hajime occasionally needs an escape that can't be accomplished with Mutant Town midnight visits, sometimes he needs a reason just to leave his house and no longer be under his father's eye during the day time. A stroll through the art district can be relaxing enough, so that's where he'd headed today. He didn't actually expect to see anyone he recognized. He does though, two of the young men from the bowling alley that Jay had introduced him to. He holds a hand up in greeting, but in case they don't see him, he does wrongly call out "Kellan?" as, well, Kaleb did introduce himself as Kellan first. He gets a pass once for messing it up, right? "Vic?"
"Maybe we'll all get our licks in," Vic says. There he is always being the optimist, even at the scene of his own death. He perks up when he hears his name, and he waves over at Hajime. "Jimmy," he says. "This is Kaleb." No fun for you, Kaleb. "We're heading to the gallery to find something to put in the apartment. What've you been up to?" Greeting Hajime like they're old friends, it's the Vic experience.
Kaleb was with Vic, it was a fair assumption to draw. Still he didn't balk at Vic's corretion. His expression squint behind the sunglasses a bit but relaxed. No hullo from him because if Kaleb didn't enter a conversation like a baseball through a church window during Sunday services where would we be? "I remember Maximus calling you something else. Do you go by Jimmy or what's the deal, pal?" Well it was a casual tone and not annoyed or abrasive. it was a start.
Hajime smiles when Vic greets him like they've been friends for a lifetime. That's nice, not awkward and though Kel-Kaleb's greeting is a question, it still makes him laugh. "Ah, my full name is Hajime. Try as he might, Jay can't really say it, so I let him call me Jimmy, it's easier for him that way." He explains with a smile. "No one calls me 'Jimmy' but all of you. Everywhere else, I'm Hajime or Shintaro." Or 'oriental' but he would rather they not call him that.
"Hajime," Vic tries out, and he gets it right in one. He's lived in New York all his life. Exposure to other cultures has been inevitable. "I can call you Hajime if you'd prefer." It's too bad Kaleb doesn't have Kellan's telepathy; Vic could ask if it's okay to invite Hajime along before just outright saying it, "Hey, Hajime, you want to come to the gallery with us?"
Kaleb aaaaahs slowly and paused . He sighed. OH the sigh. "That's… That esplains a lot. Look, I'm going to kill it, so gimme leeway here. Hadji-may? Hajime. OKay. Got it. Hmm." He eyed Vic. The whooooooole world was his friend wasn't it? "Yeah we have offensivly and unforgivably blank walls in the new place. And as you professed you are not part of th bridge and tunnel crowd," i.e. from Jersey, "feel free to join. What'choo been up to?"
Hajime nods when Kaleb also gives his consent to Hajime tagging along. "Absolutely, sounds fun. I would love to help you find something to mask your offensively blank walls." He agrees. He shrugs when he's asked about what he's been up to. "Studying and working mostly, I promise that beyond being a mutant, I don't lead a very exciting life."
"We're looking for great art," Vic mentions, and it's almost a warning. For the love of fuzzy little bunnies, do not point out a still life of a bowl of fruit to Kaleb. "That's pretty much what I do," Vic says. "Studying and working, and spending time with my friends, but that's because I'm lucky enough to live with them."
Kaleb arched an eyebrow notw enitrely curious at Hajime. Someone led withthe right ice breaker. "Oh hey now, Jay didn't menion you were good people like that." There was even a faint grin. "What's your knack Haj'me?" At VIc stressing wuality art instead of hotel art he gsmiled pleased that he was finally doing right by the world. See and they accuse him of being alleric to ommunity service.
"Good art, got it." He smiles when he can hear that semi-warning in Vic's tone. That must mean that either he or Kaleb were rather picky on that subject matter. "Good people? D-Do you mean what do I go to school for?" He stammers nervously at the question. He would have said he also spent his time hanging out with his friends, but really, up until he'd met Jay, he didn't really have any for lack of time and also the fact that he's clearly oriental and most people immediately wanted nothing to do with him for that reason.
Vic tells Hajime, "Good art provokes feeling. Not just any feeling, but deep feeling. It gives you a moment." See, Kaleb? Vic is teachable. No more 'maybe something with a lighthouse on it' from him. "What are you studying?" he asks. "I haven't decided yet." That Hajime is Asian seems to matter not to Vic. Vic is a friend to all, just like a golden retriever. "Are we getting a famous person's painting or are we just going to see what moves us?" he asks Kale.
Kaleb held up two fingers as he strode down the block like he owned the damn things, which given hims family being in international corporate industrial real estate? He may. Well Capstone may. "Two things, mon ami, 1- Jay's dead wrong. About the math anyways it's a sport. It's the fundamental of all sports and I will be happy to take on takers. I din't miss that one got dropped while bowling." Not that he followed race stereotypes, but the GQ Architecture nerd was going to defend his laurels in Math vehemently apparently. "Two? It's cool. I mean I'm a mutant too. I just don't fucking advertise it because people… well you met them. So" he repeated with a sly grin, "What…is your knack?"
"I'm going to school to be a surgeon. I'm not entirely sure that it's what I want to do but it makes my parents happy. I want to /help/ people and a healthcare profession does just that, you know?" He tells Vic. He also proves that one racial stereotype right, that all Asian parents want their kids to be businessmen or doctors.
"Oh! Oh. You meant what is my mutation." He says when he understands what Kaleb is asking him. "Well, there's fire but there's also…" He smiles slyly over at Kaleb. "Put your hand out? Promise I'm not going to hurt you. I'll /show/ you what else I can do besides set fire to things."
"A surgeon?" Vic asks. "That's great. What'd you rather be doing though?" When Hajime holds out a hand for Kaleb, Vic crosses his arms over his chest to watch. Not quite going into a defensive pose, but he's definitely positioned to have Kaleb's back in case things start blazing. "What're you going to do?" he asks. He may be protective, but he's also wildly curious.
Kaleb looked at the hand, and Hajime and the hand, and then up and down the street and if he wanted to do this here it was on him, though to be fair Kaleb had no idea what to expect. The answer came curiously opting to trust him enough and dropped his hand into Hajime's to shake it. Blue eyes squint curiously with that rapt studious expression. He answered Vic with a wry grin, "Something pretty cool that does not involve turning me into toast…right?"
Hajime smiles in what he hopes is a manner to put Vic and Kaleb both at ease. "I am definitely not going to turn you to toast." He promises and takes the hand that Kaleb had placed in his own with both of his, he turns it so Kaleb's hand is palm up, cradling the back of it with one hand, he hovers the other over top of Kaleb's. After a moment, a small triangle of ice falls into Kaleb's hand, followed by a second round one because, of course Hajime wanted to show off a little. Nothing to hurt him, just doing as he said, showing Kaleb what he could do beyond set fire to things. He pulls the hand hovering over top of Kaleb's away to reveal the ice to him and Vic.
|ROLL| Maximus +rolls 1d20 for: 3
As Hajime is doing the ice making, to match his fire conjuration, a man is coming down the street. Unlike all the other people who have somewhere to go, and are aggressively trying to not make eye contact with anyone, this Royal is /definitely/ making eye contact. He's making a whole lot of eye contact with Kaleb and Hajime's hand-holding. The man is dressed like some sort of Flash Gordon Space Prince, with his white and black trench fluttering in the swiftness of his walk, with its collar popped up, while the rest of his outfit clings to him like a glove, and part of that outfit is silver pants. There is eye liner around his eyes, and his hair is loose and wild, all askew and full of ringlets. He marches with the confidence of a God towards the trio of innocents.
"We definitely need you at a party," Vic says, and he clasps his hands together in delight. "Can you do animal shapes?" The hand-holding only means one thing to Strange's youngest child: fun! Well, it's the ice in shapes, really. He catches sight of the approaching Maximus and waves him over. "Maximus, come see this. It's so cool." Then he laughs a little. Ha ha. Cool, and it's ice.
Kaleb pulled his hand away from the shake, and turned his hand over looking at the ice growing in it with a wry amusement. "Okay that is… pretty groovy." What else were you going to say about it? Maximus? Wow, rolling down the street in a way that would leave the Lonely Hearts Club Band jealous. The stoic sonic for a moment forgot the world was there and just watched with that wave of wonder when he crossed his apartment the first time. There was a slow smile that warmed his face that lit into ha squint behind the sunglasses. There was a sight that merited some approval from the young lord of New York fashion. The hand that was not holding the sculpted ice cube extended outward. to greet him. "So it is. Maximus, you've been missed."
Hajime releases the back of Kaleb's hand as if he'd been scalded when they both acknowledged someone else. Someone coming down the street rather aggressively, though he thinks he recognizes him as well. "I.. uh.. I haven't progressed much beyond simple shapes. I can do a star right now. I'm working on making shapes more difficult though. My mutation doesn't stop at ice cubes, of course, but this is what I can show you in public without drawing everyone's attention to us." He stammers out in explanation, followed by an equally as nervous greeting to the newcomer. "Nice to see you, Maximus."
Mmmmmhmmmmmmmmmm. Maximus just reads the handholding like he's gonna when he's riding on a 3. He sweeps up to the trio and looks at the ice particles, then Kaleb, for way too long, then Vic with a tuck of a curl behind his ear. "Gentlemen. What /am/ I looking at? I am just back into town and my usual teleporter was out on another task so I had to use Baksha, and she teleports through a thousand tiny jumps, so…" he pauses there, "You know, its not important. But, if I pass out, drag me inside and force feed me honey. Its nice to see you too, Hajime..though I seem to recall you introduced your name as something else to people who cannot pronounce it correctly." He oozes arrogance, not uncommon when he's just been where he is literally royalty.
"Drag you inside and feed you honey," Vic says. "Got it." The boy scout is on the case. He then says, "Hajime here was just making ice in cool shapes. He was showing us what he can do." To Hajime, he says, "Check this out." He lifts a finger, and the circle shaped ice piece lifts into the air. He shows it to Maximus. "Neat, huh?" Then he moves the thing back to Kaleb's palm with an orchestrated movement of his fingertip. Maximus' arrogance he takes in stride.
Kaleb :watched and tried to survey a thousand tiny nuisances. Weirdly the Miller that had zero patience for people the world over seemed to take his time and answered showing him what the transaction was all about. He held up his hand with the ice formation in it as if to sate a thousand hackles. "Hajime was explaining his knack." He held eye contact trying, honestly, to see if Max was alright. Spending time among his own was a mixed bag far too often and the potential for stress could be amazing. At the note of collapse and being dragged around Kaleb shook his head no. "Carried maybe but that coat is not touching anything drunks sleep on." Far too much respect for the coat. The hand without ice on it extended to Maximus' arm slooooowy just in caste this was a reactionary day because one never knows with wrangling tigers. "Besides, I was on my way to pick up a surprise for you but since you're here you might as well come with us to grab it. And, we are teaching Vic here about how to look for good art and not sailboats and fruit bowls." His hand gave Max's arm a gentle and reassuring squeeze. Nothing's changed. Everything was just as he left it.
Hajime looks between Kaleb, Max and Vic and then decides that maybe his eyes are best trained on the ground. He's not sure what exactly he's done wrong but he can feel that it was /something/. He could have just told them what his mutation was of course but it was far more fun to show someone and watch their reactions. Jay had started that, honestly. "I had introduced myself as Jimmy before because that is what Jay calls me. I just ran into them as well. I can be on my way. It was nice seeing you both," He says to Vic and Kaleb and he finds that he means that. Having more mutant friends was so nice.
Maximus has a glint of…sympathy? in his eyes when Hajime suddenly has to go, like he's pretty sure that has to do with his manner, but he can't be sure. It is short lived though when Kaleb mentions two things that interest him greatly. First…that Vic needs to be trained in art buying, which sounds like a lot of fun, and then that there is a present somewhere for him, which is intriguing as well. "Good night, Hajime." Then he looks to Kaleb and reaches out to try and snap his hand so he can look at it, and what ice is still in it. While Vic uses his powers to usher around the ice to his view, he starts to calm down in the eyes. He cocks his head. "I was not aware that you…could do…/things/." he says to Vic. then steel eyes slide back to Kaleb. "Its good to see you. Where are you teaching him?
Vic wave a cheery good-bye to Hajime, then he nods to Maximus. "Oh, yes. I can do things. I can punch real hard and run real fast. I got this thing I can do with…" He looks at Kaleb. How does he describe this? He gestures vaguely with a hand and says, "It's the kind of thing I kind of got to show you for it to make sense." He gestures then toward a nearby gallery. "We were going to go in there. I was just showing him something first."
Kaleb noted to Vic with a wry deadpan, "Be that as it may, the name Brick Punch Meat, while encompassing those skills so well, makes a terrible name for dashing heroics. We gotta work on that." This amused him to no end. Now vagueness, after all that and the intense look coming off Max like a corona? Kaleb filled in quietly< "Someone in a vehicle hit Vic when he was down her ehte other day. It got sorted and he's alright but he was showing me where it happened."
"Vic is a playground of interesting talents turns out. I don't know that the street is the best place for all of them , but, to asnwer your question I was taking him to the Sable Gallery where a good number of the Worhols and talent with a pulse actually exhibit." He paused and grinned with that wide, sharp sharklike grin, "Oooooh MAaaaaaximus. Vic's never been to one of these without a budget before." He wasn't about to tell Vic how much the pieces were worth. Nope nope nope. "I told him to find soemthing he's absolutely in love with and he gets that. Should be fun to see what we find if anything… and I have Gio there put something together for you soooooo your apartment won't be contentiously absent of you."
Maximus lids his eyes and looks both suspicious and delighted at how playful and a little maniacle the twin-half was being. He wet his lips, then slid a somewhat flirty look at Vic, though it must not be serious. "Sooo…he's buying you art. Or rather…he's triaining you how to impress his brother." He reaches out to try to touch Vic's shoulder. "You should heed all his advice because I must say…he does seem to be doing it right." Then he turns his attention back to Kaleb and smiles, crookedly, and overbroadly for a moment.
Vic grins at Kaleb. "That's why I'm Serendipity." Because there's a manly name that inspires fear and awe. He nods along with Kaleb as his recent demise is described. He points down the street where there's still a stain on the pavement and some broken glass ground in. "Yeah, right over there." Apparently he's fine, so. Not even all that upset. The flirty look gets a quirky, humored look, and the touch is easily accomplished. Vic's all about being touchy. "There's nothing in the apartment that's me," he explains. "Just my clothes and books. This is so when people come over, there's something of me to see." He pauses, then admits, "But it has to impress Kellan."
Kaleb was so unbelievably pleased with himself. Oh the compliments did little to quell the mild haze of smug. His free hand, cold and damp from the now melted ice, extended towards Vic careful not to flick water on him, "You taking investment in the environment will. I know my brother better than myself most days. That said," In a pseudo conspiratorial tone, "Yes I'm financing this. No one wants to see what i'm like if I have to wake up to hotel art and I'm not able to write it off as simply being in a hotel. There would be words. Sharp ones." As in he might take out the whole damn wall with a few words berating some lifeless vase with flowers no one gives two figs about." That said he pivoted on heel and started leading them back to the Sable. Gallery.
Maximus wanders with the other two towards the gallery, amused with how excited Kaleb is. "Vic…or, Serendipity? If you do choose one of those Warhol paintings…I am never visiting." Then he grins again. Apparently Max is more ofa fan of classical types of art rather than the pop culture he can't understand.
Vic nods to himself. "No Warhols," he murmurs to himself. He grins at Kaleb. "Then you'll steer me right." Of course Kaleb will steer him right. Kaleb is to be trusted in all things. Vic believes this. But! Onward to the gallery!