07-26-2016, 09:45 PM
Suspense. The concluding question that Arturo Nihm posed brought the two young mages to pause. Eyes that had been following an outline of dimensions on a map-chart jumped up quick and sharp to the older man's face, expressions a matching set of surprised eyebrows and the quick thinking that came with trying to spin on the spot tales. William and Margot glanced briefly at one another, still with the same matching looks on their faces (what do we do what do we say we didn't plan ahead quite this far shit--).
They took a breath each, looked forward, and in unison began to speak.
The only trouble with that was they weren't synced up in their speech at all. William was speaking over Margot, weaving some likely believable tale that could be lost in a network of people who knew people who were networked to getting to good positions for great opportunities, and Margot's was indistinguishably lost in any number of start-and-stop-again sentences amount to nothing. In the end, though, the cadence synced up and the words came together almost exactly:
"--and we're witches."
"--and we're wizards."
A pause, where they finally heard one another, and a glance together again. This time when they looked forward again Margot was the one who cleared her throat and pressed on in her small voice.
"Sorry. I mean, there's just a pull here, to this place--" she gestured around at the walls and shelves around them. "A gravity." As she said that, her eyes landed on the chess board that seemed to tip people in, that she'd seen physically shift and change in subtle ways with her own two eyes. An untrustworthy thing, she remembered reading somewhere to be cautious about things with their own consciousness if you couldn't see where they kept their brains. "It's a weird conversation to start no matter who it's with-- not exactly something you're open about at first. A thesis is a good excuse to research, so we use it."
They took a breath each, looked forward, and in unison began to speak.
The only trouble with that was they weren't synced up in their speech at all. William was speaking over Margot, weaving some likely believable tale that could be lost in a network of people who knew people who were networked to getting to good positions for great opportunities, and Margot's was indistinguishably lost in any number of start-and-stop-again sentences amount to nothing. In the end, though, the cadence synced up and the words came together almost exactly:
"--and we're witches."
"--and we're wizards."
A pause, where they finally heard one another, and a glance together again. This time when they looked forward again Margot was the one who cleared her throat and pressed on in her small voice.
"Sorry. I mean, there's just a pull here, to this place--" she gestured around at the walls and shelves around them. "A gravity." As she said that, her eyes landed on the chess board that seemed to tip people in, that she'd seen physically shift and change in subtle ways with her own two eyes. An untrustworthy thing, she remembered reading somewhere to be cautious about things with their own consciousness if you couldn't see where they kept their brains. "It's a weird conversation to start no matter who it's with-- not exactly something you're open about at first. A thesis is a good excuse to research, so we use it."