IC INBOX for The Last Voyages

[magician_king]

You know what to do.

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[tetractys]

Bill zooms over his shoulder and lands on something high like an anxious bird.

"YYYYEAH, LIL BIT! HE'S MY, EH, YOU KNOW-"

He's struggling to figure out what word he wants here. He knows what he wants to say, but it's not-

This isn't really the way he wants to do that particular reveal about his personal life.

"I TALKED ABOUT THE CULTISTS, RIGHT? I KEEP GETTING SUMMONED BY PEOPLE WHO WANT TO USE MAGIC TO LEARN EVERYTHING AND GET FAMOUS OR POWERFUL?"

[magician_king]

"Erm- I think so. Or I figured that out. You're pretty Lovecraftian when you want to be."

So he'd already had that in his head, either way.

"Tell me you aren't his familiar or something?"

[tetractys]

Bill laughs a weak, nervous laugh.

"NO, I MEAN WELL - HE CAN'T MAKE ME DO ANYTHING I DON'T WANT TO, I'M BILL CIPHER!"

He puffs up a little.

"BUT HE CAN SHOOT MY FRIENDS, AND HE HAS DONE SO IN THE PAST! IF YOU SEE WHAT I'M GETTING AT HERE!"

He's still wearing the ring - it hasn't lit up once, but there's room here for clever phrasing to get around it.

[magician_king]

"I can't work out if that's a 'yes, actually,' or a 'he's Van Helsing.'"

He says, regarding him, as he settles into the desk chair.

"Who're your friends?"

[tetractys]

"YOU, DUMMY, YOU'RE MY FRIEND. ... HE'S MY PREVIOUS SUMMONER, WE'VE BEEN CHASING EACH OTHER AROUND FOR LIKE THREE DECADES. HE DOES REALLY LIKE TO PUT SUPERNATURAL BEINGS IN SUSPENSION JARS AND PULL THEIR WINGS OFF AND STUFF TO STUDY THEM, THOUGH. LITTLE OF BOTH!"

The ring flashes, early on in the sentence. Bill glances down.

"UGH, RIGHT, I GOT SUMMONED BY A COUPLE OF F-" Fucking kids. Bill takes a breath and starts over.

"...A COUPLE OF KIDS IN 2012. THIRD-FROM-LAST SUMMONER!"

There, that's true.

[magician_king]

"That all just makes me want to fight him."

Says Quentin, eyebrows going a little bit up. He also kind of unconsciously brightens; they're friends.

"So what the hell is he doing here? Warden, inmate, or is there some bullshit event going on that I missed the start of?"

[tetractys]

Bill's eye bends up a little in a smiley way when Quentin brightens.

"CAN'T TELL YET! HE KNOWS WHERE HE IS, THAT'S FOR SURE."

[magician_king]

He picks up the communicator to skim and find the face.

Oh, and to casually ruin Bill's life. He grins at him while he does it.

[tetractys]

"WHAT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING."

Oh my god.

"QUENTIN!"

He turns red, but his pupil is a dumb little exclamation-point: this is probably embarrassment. He starts trying to clamber down from his perch - a closed door means the access filter keeps him from using his powers.

"HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW I'M HERE YET!"

[magician_king]

"Don't panic. I'm taking the bull by the horns!"

Says Quentin, reaching for him with a laugh, moving to help him down onto the desk.

"Well, he knows now. Guess you're going to have to move your plans up, huh?"

[tetractys]

Bill accepts the help and then buries his eye in both white-glowing hands. His voice is very high.

"UGH -! THIS IS THE THING I ASKED YOU SPECIFICALLY NOT TO DO! CAN I TELL YOU MORE STUFF OR ARE YOU JUST GOING TO GO TELL STANFORD RIGHT AWAY WITH IT?"

[magician_king]

"You said don't talk to him until we debriefed. Which we did."

Points out Quentin, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands, smiling gently down at him.

"I'm your friend first. No matter how much he tells me about you throwing infants into lava pits. How are you doing with this- aside from feeling totally out of control about your carefully curated impressions potentially being shattered?"

[tetractys]

"THE DEBRIEF IS NOT OVER!"

Bill flails a little from his seat on the desk.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS EMOTION EVEN IS, IT'S TERRIBLE!"

[magician_king]

"I knew before you even said it, before I even saw him, that he was a Pines." Still watching him, still equal parts gentle and wry; "So maybe you should start from scratch there? The blunter than blunt version of that story."

[tetractys]

Bill drags his eye out of his hands - his eye isn't the usual black that it goes when he's angry, but white with pink-red creeping up from the bottom.

"IT'S HIS FAULT I'M EVEN INVOLVED WITH THE DUMB FAMILY. I'M INVOLVED BECAUSE WE WERE INVOLVED."

Holy shit, please get it. Don't make him be clearer than this, he might die.

[magician_king]

"He was the one who kicked the hornet's nest."

He says, still watching him.

"So how do you want to play it? His arrival here."

[tetractys]

"NO, NO, NO NO NO."

Bill stands up and walks across the surface of the desk to poke at Quentin. He has changed his mind, he is not going to die, because first he has to be very exasperated.

"NO, NO, HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THIS! BOYFRIEND! NO - NO PART OF THIS CONVERSATION EVER LEAVES THE ROOM!"

His voice is hitting truly impressive embarrassed-screech levels.

[magician_king]

"What?"

He's just always assumed Bill was... too triangular for that kind of thing.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Bill!"

Knowing him is sure an adventure in subverted expectations.

[tetractys]

Bill just... screams in frustration a little and re-covers his eye. He did not know he was capable of embarrassment like this, actually.

It's a fun day for learning.

[magician_king]

"Okay, I take back every response so far. If he's your ex-boyfriend he's a dick and I hate him, let's key his car."

Says Quentin, once he rallies.

[tetractys]

He doesn't realize he's been bracing for 'so how does that even work?' until it's not the question Quentin asks.

Bill manages a strangled half-laugh.

He's so bewildered by his own emotions right now. This has never happened in his actual entire life.

"OH BOY, Q. IT'S WAY WORSE. IT'S - HE WAS ALSO THE GUY I HUNG OUT AND DID RECREATIONAL MATH WITH, AND THE MORE YOU TELL HIM THE MORE HE'S GOING TO DRAW A BUNCH OF CONCLUSIONS! IT'S REALLY SIMILAR!"

This is a fucking mess is what this is, but it will be about one hundred times worse if Quentin hears it from Ford first. God, he should have just gambled on them never talking to each other because they're both horrible introverts. That would have been a better plan than this.

[magician_king]

"I don't think you're hitting on me just because we do cool things that you also did with a boyfriend once."

He confirms, right away.

"And if he thinks that he's dumb as a bag of rocks, and you probably aren't into dumb people. Truthfully I'm a little surprised you went mortal at all- we're a little two dimensional compared to you? Hardehar."

[tetractys]

"I KNOW! I STILL DON'T WANT THAT CONVERSATION TO HAPPEN, EVER! I DON'T EVEN WANT THIS CONVERSATION TO BE HAPPENING!"

He drags his hands down away from his eye. The red glow is leeching out back into yellow, at least.

"UGH, I DON'T. I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CORPOREAL FORM THEN. THE GUY WAS STARSTRUCK! HE THOUGHT I WAS DIVINE INSPIRATION. HE MADE ME A GOLD STATUE. HOW DO YOU IGNORE A GOLD STATUE? I SHOULDN'T HAVE GONE ALONG WITH IT, BUT I REALLY NEEDED SOMETHING OUT OF HIM."

[magician_king]

"Bill, you shouldn't use the people who love you. Perhaps it is you whose car needed to be keyed all along."

He chides him quietly;

"Why don't I just not talk to him for a couple of months, until you guys get on an even keel?"

i have been forgetting to narrate the ring my bad. it's been dark the whole time.

[tetractys]

Bill looks very forlorn.

"YEAH, I'M THE WORST, BUT HEY, YOU KNOW WHAT!"

He holds up the ring again.

"HE ALSO SHOT MY FRIENDS! AND HIS OWN BROTHER! BECAUSE I BRUISED HIS PRIDE, WOW!"

No flash.

"EVERYBODY IN THIS SITUATION IS THE WORST, AND I WAS HERE FIRST! IF YOU DUCK OUT OF THE CONVERSATION NOW IT'LL BE SUSPICIOUS. JUST DON'T EXPLAIN MORE THAN YOU HAVE TO. AND DON'T -" Frustrated flail - "ASK HOW WE KNOW EACH OTHER!"