St-Art

Mushroom World

Shooting Star Valley was blanketed under eternal night. The sky was almost totally painted with stars, and hundreds of those stars fell to the valley every day. The sky was slowly, steadily moving as if it were a tremendous museum display. This was a sacred, favored place to many Mushroomians. When one stares at the sky too long, they are slowly drawn into sleep. The countless stars were like nightlights and their steady scrolling was hypnotic.

"Yaaaawwwwn…" Gabriel Goldenweek had trouble staying awake as he painted the moving sky on his canvas. The young artist had always loved the night sky, as reflected by his black T-shirt glittered with stars. Gabriel almost had the appearance of a doll, his cheeks always flushed on his dark-skinned face, his hair half-black and half-white, and his nose tiny and dot-like. His eyes were always wide and dull and his mouth was usually a frown, as though he were simply made that way. He also wore maroon shorts and red boots.

Goldenweek was his middle name while Winkiebottom was his last name. However, he usually introduced himself as 'Gabriel Goldenweek,' since he leaned more toward his mother's side of the family and their artistic talents. At 10 years old, Gabriel was rather short and skinny, complimenting his doll-like appearance.

"GABEY!" A pair of hands slapped his hip, accompanied by a cheerful shout that almost made his heart jump out. Mikaela Gilligan was a tall girl of dark-brown skin with mocha eyes and black hair. She wore a blue T-shirt with a black skirt and long blue socks with black dress shoes. "Don't fall asleep, you won't be able to finish your St-Art!"

"You're going to mess me up if you scare me like that! And what do you mean by 'Start'?"

"Star Art! St-Art! Or would 'star-t' be a better way to pronounce it? I really wasn't sure."

"There's a place like this in Chalk Zone." Rudy said as he depicted the setting on his chalkboard. "But you can make anything real there. It's nowhere as cool as the real thing."

Rudy Tabootie was a brown-haired boy with beady green eyes, a green shirt that was yellow down the middle (with a green oval in the center), yellow-brown shorts, and white and black shoes. Contrary to his cousin, Rudy always appeared more upbeat and imaginative, a big tooth hanging from his smile and the top-back of his hair bent up and back.

Rudy was rather "special" as an artist as he still favored the medium of chalk. Almost every school had stopped using chalk, due to it being too messy, and the common student would rather draw in a notebook than a chalkboard if they hoped to save their own art. That being said, the chalk Rudy possessed was no ordinary chalk.

"I tell ya, Rudy, this is the worst joint ya could've brought us!" snapped a blue and white humanoid boy made of chalk. He ranted on in his Mid-Atlantic accent. "Stars fallin' over there, stars fallin' over here, I'd take stars over rain any day, but the least you coulda done is draw me up a decent umbrella."

Snap appeared to have white skin under a blue mask, neckerchief, and shorts, with round shoes and gloves. Snap was Rudy's Imaginary Friend, given life thanks to the White Lightning Chalk.

At some point during her adventures, Gabriel's mother, April discovered a box of the supernatural chalk. Supposedly, it was created by a powerful psychicbender, who further imagined the world of Chalk Zone. Chalk Zone was like a dream world where chalk drawings could continue to exist if they were erased, but as chalk began to become unpopular, Chalk Zone's creations began to fade and disappear altogether. Even April herself hadn't much interest in the magical chalk, so she gave it to her cousin, Ib, who would gift it to her son, Rudy.

If not for Rudy, Chalk Zone may have lost its existence entirely. He could bring his Creations to the real world and have them fight, but as expected, chalk creations were fragile and couldn't endure for long. Still, Rudy would always rely on Snap in a snap.

"Come on, Snap, you need to be more like Aunt Mary." Rudy said. "The whole reason we go on these trips is to make Chalk Zone more pretty!"

"We don't gotta go on trips to do that, just look up a few cool areas on the Internet and boom, ya have inspiration."

"That isn't the same, Snap." Mika replied, aiming her camera up at the sky. "And besides that, traveling is healthy for people like us. The more things we see, the more we build our imagination. Haha, guys, take a look at this slow shot! I got it from the stars on the ground." She showed them a picture of a series of white and yellow streaks.

"Haha! Shooting stars on the ground, huh?" Rudy asked. "Let's give that a shot~" He recaptured the image on his chalkboard.

"Hmmm…" Forming an idea, Gabriel painted an image of Star Kids zooming around the ground on Star Cars. "Mika, this would be an impressive technique."

"Let's try it out right now!" Mika beamed.

Gabriel shared a soft smile of agreement. Both held hands and focused their chi on the open field. Gabriel released mini stars from his Space Chi, and Mika applied her psychic to them to make illusory Star Kids. They made the kids zoom around on their little cars, directing them at Snap as they tripped him off his feet.

"Hey, find someone else to trip with your combos, I'm a sidekick, not a guinea pig!"

"Haha, sorry, sorry!" Mika blushed, releasing Gabriel's hand. "Still, there's another trick for our Collab-Art! Way to work your magic, Gabey!" She passed him a cute wink.

"You took a great picture." Gabriel smiled up at the photographer.

At 12 years old, Mikaela was rather tall and spunky. Her mother had gotten her into photography at a young age, and Mika felt a kinship with the art. It became a strong source of imagination by using different filters and shutter speeds on different subjects and settings.

From what Gabriel understood, Mika's mother, Sunni wanted her to train herself in psychicbending and find inspiration on her own, with photography meant to serve as an impetus. Sunni was proud of her daughter's skill with the art; growing up, she hadn't really had many hobbies herself besides wanting to get stronger, so Sunni was glad that Mika had such a thing to keep her going. Gabriel could imagine Mika easily scoring a job when she got older, either for a magazine, newspaper, or otherwise, and looking super cute and perky while doing it. Even though she liked to tease him, often picking him up and calling him a dolly, Gabriel loved her as a teammate.

Of course, there was another reason Sunni got her into photography, and was another reason for their little quests.

As Sector RT, the kids were known for their art, both in battle and out of battle. Whenever an idea crossed any of their minds (or in Mika's camera), they would try to depict it, drawing inspiration from one-another as they planned their next move.

The four took a break from their art to relax their selves on the picnic blanket, their shoes put aside. The taste of crackers and cookies livened their tastebuds with diverse, colorful flavors, much like drawings on a canvas. "Hey guys, have you ever heard of Joey Drew Studios?" Mika asked.

"Not really. What's that?" Rudy asked.

"It's like a really old animation studio who came out around the time of Walt Disney, like over a hundred years ago. I think they were inspired from him or something, but they kinda got shut down for being too similar to Disney's creations. That, and I think some legal issues or something."

"Well, it's no wonder we never heard-a them." Snap said. "Who remembers things from that long ago?"

"Aunt Mary?" Rudy answered.

"She don't know an orange crayon from cheddar cheese!"

"Well, like, the studio where they used to work kinda got abandoned, but lately, there've been some weird rumors about it." Mika continued. "Like, some people go and explore the studio just for kicks, and a couple of them say they actually saw Bendy, the studio's mascot. I found the story online and I kinda just started researching the place."

"They're probably just trying to make a ghost story or something." Gabriel figured.

"How can you just say that?! We got a freakin' chalking walk boy with us! I mean, freaking walking chalk! We know Imaginary Friends can come to life!"

"Yeah, but wouldn't the guys who made that place be dead by now?" Rudy asked.

"That's why we should go see it! It's totally our speed!" Mika balled her fists and grit her teeth in anticipation and excitement. "I just dig haunted houses!"

"What speed are we talkin' about again?" Snap asked.

"I guess it would be a fun field trip." Gabriel said.

"I knew you'd agree, Gabey!" Mika lifted and squeezed her little friend in a hug.

"Maybe they're like the Chalk Zone." Rudy inferred. "Maybe they're Creations who were just forgotten, but someone started remembering them again and now they're alive. You might make some friends, Snap."

"Meh meh meh, so long as they don't have falling stars, they're fine by me. Ow!" A star hit his head.

"Heh heh heh!" Mika laughed. "Hmm… I think I got just about the whole sky by now." She studied the camera. "I bet you Jirachi will appear in a constellation or something once I process these in the darkroom."

"I still think ya got ripped off with this whole shebang." Snap said. "I mean, havin' a camera that does digital and printed photos is cool and all, but no one does this processing junk anymore. Ya shouldn't have ta go through that much trouble for silly hidden imagery."

"Hidden imagery or not, the magic of photography can't be captured by digital photos alone."

"And plus, you're not the one who should be saying that, Snap~" Rudy remarked.

"Hey, chalk is magical and it works in an instant, but you shouldn't have to wait in a dark, smelly room all day just to get a good picture."

"You may not have a nose, Snap, but you're not an artist if you can't adapt to the smell of your own craft~" Mika inferred. "Hey, speaking of stars, I bet Star's been here before. Too bad we didn't bring him!"

"I heard that he's meeting his Negative today." Gabriel replied.

"Oh, that's interesting! Who's his Negative?"

Star Haven

Star Winkiebottom was repulsed by the boy in front of him: his Negative wore white clothes with a blue bowtie, patterned socks with sandals, and had crossed eyes over his beady nose and buckteeth. On his way in the house, his opposite had tripped and knocked over a lamp, breaking it.

So, with a disgruntled scowl, Star hissed, "OH, RATS!"