Topaz and Marie-Ange || Birds (Backdated)
Sep. 30th, 2019 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsTopaz goes to Marie-Ange with a strange problem. Even in the context of the mansion.
"Uh, Marie-Ange? You home?"
Topaz carefully peeked over her shoulder to make sure no birds had followed her, then closed the door to the suite, sighing. "I've seen this movie and I know how it ends," she mumbled darkly.
"That is my line." Marie-Ange was at the kitchen counter chopping apples into very precise sticks, and occasionally wrapping piles of the sticks with waxed paper. "Does this one end with cutting off a Skywalker's hand? Because I am sure that is going to happen in the next movie."
"No, I think it ends with my brutal possibly overdue death by way of birds." It was almost funny. Almost. "I know it sounds paranoid and like I'm overreacting and but I swear I've been seeing ravens everywhere."
"Have you visited Asgard lately, made any unwise bargains with the Allfather?" Marie-Ange asked, her voice light but her shoulders and arms having gone still and tense, fingers gripping the knife tightly.
Topaz didn't miss the tension. "Ah... not to my knowledge, no. Granted it sounds exactly like the kind of thing I would do, but I think I'd remember that trip."
She carefully set the knife down before wiping her hands, and then moved to look out the window. No birds - but then, they were rarely quite that bold. "How do you mean, everywhere? Are they getting into your room? The car with you? Or just outside and doing bird things around you?" Marie-Ange still sounded light, concerned, but light. But she snapped the blinds shut.
"Not getting into my room, no. Following me around campus, waiting outside classes for me - and I know that sounds like I'm just being paranoid, and I'd chalk it up to a coincidence if it was just one or two buildings, but it's every single building, no matter what time, day, weather. Sometimes they cut me off from the campus library. Sitting on my car. And they keep bringing me food. And getting insulted when I don't take it."
"How many? Two? A whole murder?" And then she cut herself off. "Wait, they are bringing you food? Food for people or food suitable for birds?" Marie-Ange had been worried, almost nervous. Now she was confused.
"What constitutes a murder?" Topaz shook her head. "Don't answer that. I haven't gotten close enough to look at the food. Once it was a taco. Then some kind of sandwich. Today it was a small thing of McDonald's fries that I'm pretty sure the bird stole from some poor bloke outside the student center."
If Marie-Ange had been the kind of person to say "What the fuck." this is certainly where she would have said that, but she was not that sort of person.
She was the kind of person who blinked and then went back over to re-open the blinds, because this was certainly not the ominous kind of omen, this was the very weird kind, and she knew the difference. "So not eyes, and not road kill, but poor food decision person food." She looked over at her kitchen counter and the sliced apples, and cocked her head, birdlike before taking out a ziploc bag. "Show them you have food, see what happens." She offered, packing most of an apple's worth of slices into the bag.
"You know," Topaz said slowly, taking the offered bag. "Possibly stalker birds aren't even the weirdest thing to happen in the last six months. I'm not sure how to feel about that." She knew there had been a lot of future meddling before everything with Adam. She had a lot of questions, but no way how to articulate them. She gave up, shaking her head. "I'll give it a try and check back in."
"We have had ravens around for perhaps longer, since all of those hammers were possessing the unsuspecting..." Marie-Ange wiped her hands and then picked a notebook up off the table. "But I was expecting them to go after we cut Bor's head off, but they kept visiting. I assumed it was because I was doing so much consulting of the future to ensure that the plan Amanda and I enacted would work. I do not know why they would be bothering you now, and so oddly generously."
"It's probably a delightful omen of my impending doom. Dear old Dad is still kicking around out there somewhere. Maybe he's plotting something evil." Topaz was only about forty percent serious. "Okay I don't actually think he's much of a threat. So you did some serious future looking to find out about Adam. There's supposed to be a price, right? Maybe the ravens are here to collect. No clue what they want from me. None of them have tried to give me an ominous note for you..."
"That is barely a theory." Marie-Ange pointed out. "Amanda and I only have just come up with it and are testing it and I do not know how much in advance I have paid with the eye, with Doug's blood.. with.." She cut herself off. "With who knows what else."
"It'd be nice if the birds would give a hint. Or spell it out on the lawn with sticks." Topaz frowned, trying to go through the last few months - the last year, really. "I guess I'll show them I know how to feed myself and see what happens? Maybe they'll start letting me go to the library again." Not that she couldn't study at the mansion - but it had been a while since a good old home disaster. Trying to get any schoolwork done there was always testing her luck.
"Tell them if they have a problem with you to come to me." Not that she could speak annoying bird but sometimes the birds gave broad hints. "Or I do not know, to tell them to go to Odin and he can send Thor to me, but if that is the case I want Thor to not wear a shirt. That is my deal. If I must deal with silly god things, Thor has no shirt."
And once more they had gone down a route Topaz had no hope of understanding. "Odin, shirtless Thor, got it. I'll try not to get those two mixed up. Shirtless Odin might not be as pleasant."
"Give them shiny things and they are more likely to listen." Marie-Ange said, packing another apple's worth of slices into another bag. "I have an entire plastic box of stupid shiny things in my art room, feel free to raid it."
"I'll take you up on that, I think. And let you know if anything comes from your shirtless Thor demands."
"Uh, Marie-Ange? You home?"
Topaz carefully peeked over her shoulder to make sure no birds had followed her, then closed the door to the suite, sighing. "I've seen this movie and I know how it ends," she mumbled darkly.
"That is my line." Marie-Ange was at the kitchen counter chopping apples into very precise sticks, and occasionally wrapping piles of the sticks with waxed paper. "Does this one end with cutting off a Skywalker's hand? Because I am sure that is going to happen in the next movie."
"No, I think it ends with my brutal possibly overdue death by way of birds." It was almost funny. Almost. "I know it sounds paranoid and like I'm overreacting and but I swear I've been seeing ravens everywhere."
"Have you visited Asgard lately, made any unwise bargains with the Allfather?" Marie-Ange asked, her voice light but her shoulders and arms having gone still and tense, fingers gripping the knife tightly.
Topaz didn't miss the tension. "Ah... not to my knowledge, no. Granted it sounds exactly like the kind of thing I would do, but I think I'd remember that trip."
She carefully set the knife down before wiping her hands, and then moved to look out the window. No birds - but then, they were rarely quite that bold. "How do you mean, everywhere? Are they getting into your room? The car with you? Or just outside and doing bird things around you?" Marie-Ange still sounded light, concerned, but light. But she snapped the blinds shut.
"Not getting into my room, no. Following me around campus, waiting outside classes for me - and I know that sounds like I'm just being paranoid, and I'd chalk it up to a coincidence if it was just one or two buildings, but it's every single building, no matter what time, day, weather. Sometimes they cut me off from the campus library. Sitting on my car. And they keep bringing me food. And getting insulted when I don't take it."
"How many? Two? A whole murder?" And then she cut herself off. "Wait, they are bringing you food? Food for people or food suitable for birds?" Marie-Ange had been worried, almost nervous. Now she was confused.
"What constitutes a murder?" Topaz shook her head. "Don't answer that. I haven't gotten close enough to look at the food. Once it was a taco. Then some kind of sandwich. Today it was a small thing of McDonald's fries that I'm pretty sure the bird stole from some poor bloke outside the student center."
If Marie-Ange had been the kind of person to say "What the fuck." this is certainly where she would have said that, but she was not that sort of person.
She was the kind of person who blinked and then went back over to re-open the blinds, because this was certainly not the ominous kind of omen, this was the very weird kind, and she knew the difference. "So not eyes, and not road kill, but poor food decision person food." She looked over at her kitchen counter and the sliced apples, and cocked her head, birdlike before taking out a ziploc bag. "Show them you have food, see what happens." She offered, packing most of an apple's worth of slices into the bag.
"You know," Topaz said slowly, taking the offered bag. "Possibly stalker birds aren't even the weirdest thing to happen in the last six months. I'm not sure how to feel about that." She knew there had been a lot of future meddling before everything with Adam. She had a lot of questions, but no way how to articulate them. She gave up, shaking her head. "I'll give it a try and check back in."
"We have had ravens around for perhaps longer, since all of those hammers were possessing the unsuspecting..." Marie-Ange wiped her hands and then picked a notebook up off the table. "But I was expecting them to go after we cut Bor's head off, but they kept visiting. I assumed it was because I was doing so much consulting of the future to ensure that the plan Amanda and I enacted would work. I do not know why they would be bothering you now, and so oddly generously."
"It's probably a delightful omen of my impending doom. Dear old Dad is still kicking around out there somewhere. Maybe he's plotting something evil." Topaz was only about forty percent serious. "Okay I don't actually think he's much of a threat. So you did some serious future looking to find out about Adam. There's supposed to be a price, right? Maybe the ravens are here to collect. No clue what they want from me. None of them have tried to give me an ominous note for you..."
"That is barely a theory." Marie-Ange pointed out. "Amanda and I only have just come up with it and are testing it and I do not know how much in advance I have paid with the eye, with Doug's blood.. with.." She cut herself off. "With who knows what else."
"It'd be nice if the birds would give a hint. Or spell it out on the lawn with sticks." Topaz frowned, trying to go through the last few months - the last year, really. "I guess I'll show them I know how to feed myself and see what happens? Maybe they'll start letting me go to the library again." Not that she couldn't study at the mansion - but it had been a while since a good old home disaster. Trying to get any schoolwork done there was always testing her luck.
"Tell them if they have a problem with you to come to me." Not that she could speak annoying bird but sometimes the birds gave broad hints. "Or I do not know, to tell them to go to Odin and he can send Thor to me, but if that is the case I want Thor to not wear a shirt. That is my deal. If I must deal with silly god things, Thor has no shirt."
And once more they had gone down a route Topaz had no hope of understanding. "Odin, shirtless Thor, got it. I'll try not to get those two mixed up. Shirtless Odin might not be as pleasant."
"Give them shiny things and they are more likely to listen." Marie-Ange said, packing another apple's worth of slices into another bag. "I have an entire plastic box of stupid shiny things in my art room, feel free to raid it."
"I'll take you up on that, I think. And let you know if anything comes from your shirtless Thor demands."
