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[reshapes]

action + written + crystal

Comments

[rathercommon]

Bartimaeus? [ Torn between being anxious and furious: ]

Say something, won't you!

[reshapes]

[A resounding silence answers, punctuated only by the ring of some distant bell marking the evening hour. Closer: a swelling of laughter, an indistinguishable bark of conversation underscored by the muffled sound of a fiddle. Then that too is muffled. A door opening and shutting. The sound of footsteps growing closer, then fading again.]

[rathercommon]

[ She lets loose a noise of frustration. He's screwing with her. He's obviously screwing with her. He's obviously not dead. But -

But. Why wouldn't he let her come and help? Why didn't she pester him till she knew where he was? He might be dead now. Or something. And she has no idea where he is.

So she gnaws on her knuckle, waiting, hoping he'll say something. And if not... ]

[reshapes]

[Lucky for both of them that it doesn't come to that then.

All at once, there is the sound of something slapping against the ground very near by. A scraping. A jostling. Breathlessly and rather irritated:]

--there you are. How you people remember to hold on to anything while you're walking around is beyond me. Do you realize how useless it is being stuck with two hands? Are you still there, Kitty?

[rathercommon]

[ She all but shrieks when he starts speaking again. In her mind, she'd resigned herself to the thought that something truly dire and awful had occurred; this, therefore, constitutes a very unexpected resurrection. ]

What - What is wrong with you?

[reshapes]

[Somewhere in Kirkwall, a young man is standing in an alley at the bottom of a rickety ladder leading up on to a series of sketchy rooftops, across which he's just double backed across and descended from when he'd noticed the little string about his neck had lost the crystal at the end of it, thanks - he's certain - in part to the desperate tug it'd recieved from a certain determined Lowtown mugger immediately prior to him being stabbed by own knife. This young man makes a distinctly flabbergasted noise.]

What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me! After all the effort I've put into carrying on this conversation while I've been busy, and this is the thanks I get?

[rathercommon]

[ Not that much effort. ]

You were quiet for - You'd just been in a fight, and then you went completely silent. What was I to think?

[reshapes]

[Oh please, he could have ignored her from the start.]

That some Kirkwall hooligan managed to do more than scratch me? Don't insult me, Miss Jones!

[rathercommon]

Well, I don't know! You were the one complaining about what the anchor shard did to you.

[reshapes]

I could be as weak as a kitten and it would still take five as you to so much as look at me the wrong way. But your concern has been noted.

[rathercommon]

[ What. ]

I'm not concerned. I'm - irritated.

[reshapes]

Oh, is that all? How silly of me.

[rathercommon]

Look, just keep better track of your crystal, won't you? It'll be a lot of trouble if you lose it.

[reshapes]

[A long, meandering 'Mmmhmmm' as if he's hardly listening to her. To be fair, he's also working his way back up the ladder but--]

[rathercommon]

[
U
G
H
]

Anyway. We were talking about names. And magic. And where you come from. And your home.

[reshapes]

Oh! That reminds me-- [in a circuitous fashion that he won't bother explaining]

I've a favor to ask of you.

[rathercommon]

[ ...ugh. ]

Yeah?

[reshapes]

That you keep all of this between the two of us, naturally.

[rathercommon]

[ Oh. ]

Well - Certainly. But - Why?

[reshapes]

Because I'm asking you to.

[rathercommon]

[ She wrinkles her nose. ]

Obviously. But why do you want to keep it secret? Doesn't seem like there's all that much in here that could be dangerous for you.

[ Oh, also - ]

What name are you going by here, anyway?

[reshapes]

[You know, he's just opening his mouth to snip back something about being tired of answering questions and then--]

What?

[??????????w h a t???????????]

[rathercommon]

[ ??????? ]

If names have got power, then - obviously you aren't going to give yours out to people. Are you.

this icon is the new math meme

[reshapes]

[???????????¿¿¿¿¿¿¿?¿

Somewhere, there is a djinni wearing the guise of a boy who is opening and closing his mouth like a gasping trout.]

I--

[What.]

What?

makes winona rider confused faces

[rathercommon]

[ Well. That answers the question, she guesses. ]

I guess it's too late now, isn't it.