[ota] this is just a tribute

[hamelinic]

So apparently there are a zillion things going wrong with the Deck these days. Murders and Challenges and hijinks and all the sort of thing which really, well, if the denizens don't expect it by now, they're just not the best at denizen-ing this particular location of denizenship, are they.

So you know who isn't concerned? This Joker.

And you know who is still riding a high from his weekend get-away with his super-best-friend Johniel? Also this Joker. So you know who is ready to talk your ear off about elephants and dyeing silk and macaroni on a stick? Yes, still Cynric. He is, at least, playing very energetically while he babbles.

Seriously, though. Mac and cheese. On a stick. You know you have hours to listen to him talk about that. Don't be shy.

Comments

[maidenthespade]

She had known Athena already in decline, ruined by drink and plots and insecurities. Katya's great strength and perhaps also her fault is that she has never seen reason to prove herself to anyone. She is sharp; she is deadly. She has created corpses enough to prove so, but killing is killing. It takes no great talent. Most inept human may end life. She has no use for those who strut and preen and show off about it.

She shifts head closer to better see sky from his angle. "You think it looks like ice cream cone?" She had imagined something else, but perhaps it is best to leave it at ice cream. She would not wish to shock him. "Bunny. Do you see?"

[hamelinic]

Kisses on the cheek are fabulous. But kisses on the cheek are not distracting enough. "Does the man in question have a name?"

[hamelinic]

So worthy of swooning. And of wiping an imaginary tear from the eye, apparently.

"You are indeed a blessed and lucky man, Rap."

[hamelinic]

"And what will always be an age old mystery to me, dearheart, is why no one's ever asked."

Other than the obvious fact asking Jokers things tended to lead to aggita rather answers.

[heartvestment]

She only pauses a moment before speaking with a shrug. "Jordan Novak."

[hamelinic]

It's slightly possible he's got ice cream on the brain. Slightly.

"Bunny," he agrees with a nod. "Bunny with wings."

And this, he suspects, is far more what the Queen needs than to be bombarded further with anything particularly stringent. Time, clearly, to simply point at another one.

"And that? Elephant in a top hat or malformed cluster of mushrooms?"

[messire_messer]

"I know it in my heart, my friend, I can assure you." Dramatic hand to heart. Perhaps over-dramatic hand to heart, seeing as his coffee's knocked over and spilling across the table onto both of them.

[gotyourheart]

"Oh, I'm rather certain they have. It's just that we're never given any straight answers."

Because Jokers were just as good at evasive twisting and turning of words as the rest of them.

[hamelinic]

Gasp. Shock. Scandal. Stay still while he goes to shout this from the rooftops.

Or, well. He's actually fairly comfortable here. Time instead to keep sitting here and make note to shout about it later. "And is he a worthy beau?"

[hamelinic]

...whoops.

Now, see, Cynric's instinct when large spills happen is to scatter. Hopefully Rap knows this is the plan.

If not, the Joker will see you later, sir, because he's absolutely skedaddling.

[hamelinic]

"Suppose no one else was quite clever as you are at asking the right questions." There's a brief tilt of his head before he amends it to shrug. "Or maybe you're just pretty. I hear pretty people get things handed to them."

[messire_messer]

He'll feel indignant later. Right now, he's keeping the spill confined to the table and not dripping onto him. And fast-talking the waitress that comes to help him into letting him doodle in the spill a while until it's properly dried. And creating another masterwork of ephemeral art which is quite a good portrait if he does say so himself, even if the waitress whose portrait he's done doesn't quite see it that way.

Later is when he patently refuses to make mac and cheese on a stick.

[heartvestment]

She sees that look on his face. It gets a light smack on the arm. "Don't go around telling everyone," she orders with a bemused smile that softens at his next question. "Well, he's kind, charming, great in bed - you tell me."

[hamelinic]

Then later is when there will be a long period of shock followed by a longer period of wailing. And probably the bargaining for assistance and the forever flopping on the floor lacking the will to live.

There will not be a stage of acceptance. None. Ever.

[hamelinic]

"Ruiner of fun." But fine. He'll only tell most people.

Huff.

"Does he make you happy?"

[heartvestment]

"He does," she admits with a smile. "I'm not sure if its going to ever become serious, but at this point... I wouldn't mind."

[messire_messer]

Can he evict Cynric from his flat or will there be clinging to the doorframe? Either way, Rap is patient. So patient up until his self-appointed bedtime. "Come on. Off the floor."

[hamelinic]

"Does that mean I've got to be nice to him?" Someone clearly does not approve of having to be nice to still more people.

[hamelinic]

There will be no eviction. There will only be leg-clinging.

"Not until our friendship and pasta-related dealings have been restored."

[heartvestment]

"Why would you have to be nice to him?" she asks with a laugh. "No need."

[gotyourheart]

"What about both? Both would be nice," she says with a glimmer in her eyes.

She'd hate not to be either clever or pretty for only being the one.

[maidenthespade]

Ice cream obsession can be forgiven more easily than runaway Royals playing hookey. It is rare enough circumstance for Katya, one she plans to thoroughly enjoy. She squints at sky, giving formation attention it deserves.

"Tortoise performing push-ups," she offers. "No, wait. Clouds move. It is now...hmmm. Tortoise being pulled up into sky by balloons."

[messire_messer]

Wagging his leg to shake the Joker off apparently isn't helping. Disappointing. "Friendship? Friends don't abandon friends." Huff huff huff. There absolutely isn't a cupboard half full of macaroni in his kitchen.

[hamelinic]

"Because I'd feel moderately bad about making you unhappy by scaring him off or accidentally setting him on fire."

It's a risk people in his vicinity run. Sometimes he's sorry.

Not always, admittedly.

[hamelinic]

"The pretty is obvious." And the tilt of his head is just a little reminiscent of earlier conversation. Just a little too sharp in the way Jokers sometimes get when they know something you don't know.

Which, to be fair, is true 90% of the time and a bluff the other 10%.

"Clever I suppose you've been proving."