realityshifted | ♪ EXEC

[Loki runs towards her, concern and shock painted on his face.] What is this?! What has happened? [Hesitantly, he approaches her and the pool of ink.]

Is this...I have heard the blood of those who have died on the Plane turns a black shade such as this...

[She just... stares at him. Wow, way to be alarmed... though, okay, it does look a little like it could be Plane blood. And given the things this place tends to do, it's not that far of a stretch. So, she'll cut him some slack. ~~Since she doesn't catch on that he's totally acting.~~ She keeps calm and explains.]

No. It isn't blood. Blood from the Plane has a shine to it, like glitter. This... came from the library, out of the books.

[She reaches out, places her finger in the pool of black and leaves it there.]

This is just ink.

[To be fair, if he hadn't caused this, he may have reacted similarly. It's why his lies are practically perfect.]

Ink... How is something like this possible? [He crouches down near her and pokes the ink himself, then looks towards the library.] What could do such a thing?

[She cocks her head to the side as she removes her finger from the ink, watches as it slides off of her finger and rejoins the mass on the floor. Her eyes are narrowed though, because it leaves something behind, something she can't make out just yet...]

Very powerful magic. Or maybe the machine is malfunctioning again. Who knows?

[She has a personal preference of explanation. Hint: it's the former. Because why would the machine break the library?

But that mark on her skin becomes clear now: retribution. She doesn't even flinch, doesn't even blink.]

How melodramatic. [And she leaves her finger there - he's free to look if he wishes to see.]

[He's very fortunate to have kept the true extent of his powers hidden from any other person who traverses the Plane--especially after his death.]

[He leans closer to peer at her finger. It pleases him to see that his trick works, though he shows only continued confusion on his face.]

Very.

[He dips a finger into the ink himself, seeing the word left on his skin.] There was a younger man--I believe his name was Wolfgang--whom I've seen try to control some of the events that have occurred here as of late. He works for the people who run the Machine. [His cloaking spells come in handy.] I wonder if this is a result of something he did--or someone else who works alongside him.

[She considers that for a moment.]

Well, if Wolfgang or any of the others have a vendetta against the written word, perhaps. [She sighs, attempts to brush her finger off on her outfit.] Maybe the bookworms bit them too hard.

[Because books don't hurt people unless you beat them with them so seriously wtf is up with this. :|]

It doesn't necessarily have to be someone who helps with the machine. Any one of us could destroy any building here as we saw fit. I doubt that dispelling ink would somehow be out of the question.

[But... she's beginning to sound a little bored.]

Do bookworms do such a thing in your world? [That's genuine curiosity there. He hasn't heard of such a thing before.]

[He looks thoughtful.] Perhaps I can try to dispel this. It may be beyond my abilities, but... [He stands and puts his hands together, making a show of this while accomplishing nothing. A gentle breeze kicks up, the ink ripples--and nothing happens. He bends over, feigning exhaustion and pants.]

Will...will your songs fix any of this?

[He doubts it will. He's ready to fight back against it if she does try and it appears as though her magic will ruin what he has done.]

They do. If you don't take care of the book, then the bookworm will bite you. [Absolutely, positively, 100% deadpan "serious", with a hint of a state of distraction as she's considering her options here. (You know, just to make her answer look a little more genuine~

She watches him "try" and fail to reverse this, sighs heavily and shakes her head.]

I couldn't restore something like this without knowing very specific things about every single one of those books. It'd help if I knew all of the words, too. That's not going to happen. [A beat.] I could get rid of the ink on our skin, though a bath would fix that just as well.

[He almost believes her. Here he is, the one with the silver tongue, but when it comes to foreign concepts and someone who's a master of straight-faced sarcasm, he still proves to be a bit gullible.]

You would need to know that much out of every single book? [Curious. And highly inconvenient. All the same, it suits him just fine. He can relax.] I would not decline the chance to again hear one of your beautiful songs. So long as lasers will not be involved.

Can you say you're all that surprised?

[ hello girlfriend.

york is meandering over, giving the pool of ink a wide berth because .. really, he doesn't trust it. not that he trusts much on the plane, but still. ]

How long're you gonna sit there and sulk at it?

[Hello boyfriend. Here to join her in staring at an oozing puddle of ink?]

I'm not surprised.

[Beat.]

And I'm not sulking. [uh huh.] I just want answers. If I can't have answers, then I want it to be fixed.

[Yeah. Totally not sulking.]

[ well. it is pretty interesting. you don't see an oozing puddle of ink just lying about on its own everyday, do you? ]

If you can't have this, then you want that … hm. [ he's now leaning down next to the puddle of ink, and ends up sticking a finger into it, maybe to test and see if it's really real.

and it is. which means he now has black gunk on his fingertips.

which also means that he's going to slooooowly reach over and tap the end of her nose with one of those gunked fingers. oops, now you have ink on your nose. ]

What kinda answers are you lookin' for?

[She squints at him as his finger comes closer, but by the time she realizes that he's going to poke her nose, he's already done it and now she has black on her nose. dfjkalsdjlk

She scrubs at it with the side of her hand, scowling at him.]

I want to know what purpose there is in draining all of the library media of its ink and then just letting it spill outside. [beat.] And now I want to know what you did that for.

[But she's also dipping her fingers into the ink, and then very quickly running the tips of blackened fingers over the side of his neck with a smirk.]

[ oops, too slow, girlfriend. now you have black on your nose. and he –

has black on the side of his neck. hey, at least he didn't smear it on you! you wanna start an all-out ink war? huh? because if that's what you want, you'll surely get it.

this has nothing to do with his competitive nature when it comes to ridiculous things like this. nothing at all.

york wipes at his neck, looking briefly at the smudge of ink on his hand and rolling his shoulders in a shrug. ] Seemed like a good idea. You were staring at it so damn hard I thought you were trying to set it on fire with your mind. I was savin' you the woes of a headache.

[ too much old-earth science fiction, this one. good grief. also, he is full of it. ( even if he almost said he's better than aspirin for that sort of thing. ) ] You've been here for how long, and you haven't figured out that sometimes things just happen? For no good reason? [ that's a lie! sometimes they do … but excuse him, he's just proving a point.

and he'll just be dipping his fingers back into the ink, and then drawing one of them across her cheek in the shape of a 'j'.

don't look at him. he's perpetually five years old. ]

Edited (i'm just making it worse and i can't stop laughing.) 2014-04-13 16:42 (UTC)

[If you start it, she will finish it, she swears. Bring it. She's already looking a little bit smug about that smear across your neck~]

I could probably set it on fire with song. That would be good enough. But... being able to just do it with only my mind would be a cool trick, too.

And there are reasons for things that happen here, even if that reason is just that someone in charge is bored. I doubt that's the case this time--

[Blink! ... There's a J on her cheek. ... ...

...

Okay, you, have a 'J' scrawled onto your cheek, too! Show you how it feels!]

[ you two are the biggest freaking children right now. what on earth are you doing.

he hmms in agreement, because she's right. he also thinks idly about what it would be like to set things on fire just with a song … man, there are some things that he would never have believed had he not started coming to the plane, and song magic is definitely one of them. he can't not believe, though, what with how she'd fixed his eye as well as she'd been able to … ] You're gonna have to show me what else you can do with that song magic of yours one of these days. [ a grin! ] Y'know, beyond fixing bum eyeballs.

[ oh. and now there's a 'j' on his cheek, too. but you see, here's the thing – it just makes him grin wider. 'cause you know he's yours just as much as you're his, right~?

so it feels pretty okay to him. ]

[They're being ridiculous, that's what they're doing.

Her first thought in response is, "It should have fixed more than it did." But she keeps that entirely to herself, refuses to let it show, furthermore refuses to dwell on it because now is not the time or the place. So she keeps up her spirits, makes sure not to betray herself even in the slightest as she shrugs for him, casual.]

I'll show you whenever you want. It's not like it's something I can only do sometimes.

[She's proud of that J on his cheek, thanks. She's also happy with the one on hers, too. Jacqli... James... whether they're intended to signify their own names or each other's names is entirely up to interpretation, she realizes, but there's still a sense of belonging. It's nicer than she's ever let herself believe a thing like this could possibly be.

So yeah. It feels pretty okay to her, too.

But she's still going to reach over and draw a line of ink right in the middle of his forehead, all the way down between his eyes.]

[ jacqli, this is what you get for hanging around this human so much. how do you feel about that?

he would have told her that she'd done everything she could at the time for him, and that it had done so much more good than she gives herself credit for – it still hurts when he reads, and he has to wearing those ridiculous reading glasses, but he has a pretty sizable percentage more of vision remaining than he would have otherwise.

his smile has turned soft around the edges, a fondness for her showing in its line that seems to have seeped in there all on its own. ] Yeah? Well, then it's a date. Whenever you feel like showing off.

[ he's starting to feel all nice and warm and fuzzy on the inside, still taking in that 'j' on her cheek and feeling the ink of the one on his own drying enough to make his skin feel a little tight, and regardless of how ridiculous this whole scenario is, it's kind of heart-warming, and –

excuse you, did you just draw a line on his forehead? oh, okay. it's on.

he does some more reaching of his own and ends up dotting her nose with the stuff, and if she sits still long enough, she might just find herself with a couple of whiskers on the rise of her cheekbones.

meow, jacqli. ]

[Yeah she'll get back to you on that...

Maybe one day, they'll talk about it. Jacqli is never one to talk about herself in that context, but maybe, if it would do either of them any amount of good...

She sees the shift in his smile, and she turns the faintest shade of red, completely unused to an expression like that directed at her.] Another date... I guess it will be, then.

[She only manages to keep her gaze averted for a fraction of a second, because then she has inked-on whiskers and a kitty nose and--

Nope. She inks up her fingers a little bit more, reaches over and starts filling in his cheeks with black swirls~

Meow nothin'. >|! ]

[ you love it and you know it! don't you even try to deny it now, when there's no turning back. you're just gonna have to sit back and let it all ride …

the shade of red she turns only proves to bring his grin a little bit wider, and he offers up a small laugh. ] Promise I won't try to cheat at skeeball this time. Well … not too much, anyway. If it happens.

[ you know. just in case they end up doing something else than her simply singing for him, though truth be told, he'll listen to that any day of the week, regardless of any intensive healing properties it may have. he just … really likes the sound of her voice. it's soothing.

but. hey –

asdlkhg!!

he tries grabbing for her hand, catching it at the wrist and wrinkling his nose in mock-distaste as the ink continues to dry on his skin. ] Since when do you come down to my level and start playin' around like a kid, hm?

[She'll deny it as much as she wants, thank you. She can't let him have the upper hand here, are you kidding? It doesn't matter what she says, though. Even she knows just how hard she's fallen for him. It might concern her, a little, but at the end of the day... she knows the truth.

And if all her acting like it's nothing but practicality and calculated interaction is actually fooling anyone, then she's got some excellent real estate to sell them on the surface of a poisoned, magma'd, dying planet.]

Hmm, don't bother. You may need to cheat if you want to win. I know how to play now. [She might even cheat right back, and then where will you be? Hmm?

she keeps her tone entirely neutral, even if she is smirking up at him like the smug little thing she is.]

It's common in child psychology to bring yourself down to their level so you can communicate better. [Implied: Pbbbbbt~~]

[ denial isn't only a river in egypt, you know.

and if you start thinking about trying to cheat at skeeball, he might start thinking that you've been spending a little bit too much time around him … and then insist that you spend even more time with him. because clearly he's being a positive influence on you, and you need more of that. right? right. ] We'll just have to see about that, missy … it's settled. Another arcade date. Whenever you feel like losin' to the master.

[ stop it. stop it right now. stop it immediately.

and wow excuse you! ] Child psychology, huh … Would a kid know to do this? [ and then he's grabbing her around the waist, tugging her close enough to plant a kiss on that little smirk – and simultaneously smears ink-dipped fingers over the side of her neck just as she had done to him not moments before.

nyahhhhh. ]

[She's got a summer home there lbr.

A positive influence. Right. ~~That is more true than you will ever know.~~ She likes a challenge, though, so that smug little smirk just grows! Which... ends up being comical. Given that she's currently kitty-ink'd. Teehee. Just don't tell her that...]

Master? Hmmm. We'll see how long you can keep that title.

[And, granted, she is not expecting to get tugged forward like that! She actually looks surprised! At least she manages not to make any sort of startled sound... score there. Still. She gives back the kiss... and though he still has hold of one of her wrists, she can just reach up with the other and put an inky line across his cheek, all the way to his ear.]

[ so do a few other people he knows.

he'll never tell her she looks anything but beautiful – even though she's downright adorable this very moment due to the fact that she has some nicely-inked kitty whiskers. ( you're welcome for that, by the way. )

he raises his eyebrows, clearly amused. ] You can be the mistress of skeeball … together, we can rule the world.

[ york do you even hear yourself? do you? because you sound about seventeen different levels of ridiculous and it's a wonder that she's even humoring you at all.

he's pleased when she returns the kiss, but he lets out a noise of mild surprise when he feels her draw that line all the way to his ear, and he pulls away just enough to huff petulantly. ]

Cheater.

We can rule the world with our other skills. We don't need skeeball for that.

[The problem is that's probably actually kinda very true. whoops.

That petulant huff gets a haughty little smirk as she straightens her posture.]

You started this. You should have thought of the consequences.

[ for you, maybe. not all of us can create viruses to destroy things … he'll just break you into places and you can take over from there. ]

… But skeeball's fun.

[ he tugs her close, kisses her again, even knowing full well that she might try the same thing a second time. he doesn't really care – for now, it's all about somehow managing to get and keep the upper hand.

good luck with that, sir. ] I did … somehow I didn't expect you to cheat, though.

[That's still teamwork. They could be unstoppable... (that's a scary thought.)]

Could skeeball really help you conquer the world, James?

[She doesn't try the same thing a second time, actually! She just lets him kiss her, gives back what she gets and lets herself settle close to him.

You don't have the upper hand. But you keep thinking that, it's fine with her.]

It isn't cheating if there are no rules, is it?

[ it's a terrifying but excellent thought. man.

ah, there she goes, using his name … he may be used to it by now, but it's forever going to make him grin the most ridiculous grin he's ever grinned in his entire ridiculous life. he wags a finger at her, and would shake his head if it didn't mean pulling away from her long enough to do so. ] Maybe. Y'never know what kinda skills are gonna come in handy.

[ hey. it's so true.

buuut she has a point with that last bit. ]

I guess not …

♪ EXEC_08/. ♫

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