Stacking Chickens

[labyrinthking]

Jareth teetered somewhere near madness, at a juncture of fatigue and frustration. Encouraged by their breakfasting efforts, the goblins had continued their sudden proactive stance

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[vicioussweetie]

And here comes Ali, in her gardening best (a wide straw hat to keep her from being all freckles, and clothes worn and comfortable enough to be accommodating to any amount of dirt and mud) and bringing many new inhabitants to join the very plants Jareth is so carefully guarding. The guardian king is greeted with a bright smile and a wave, and once she's set down her burdens several kisses. "Hello, my love."

[labyrinthking]

He greets her with a weary "hello, love," of his own, kisses returned. "You had no trouble getting through?"

[vicioussweetie]

"No more than usual." Ali decides that it'd be a good idea to sit down and hold him a while, and so she does just that. "Is something wrong?"

[labyrinthking]

He leans against her with a sigh. "The goblins have been active," he tells her. "I was able to save the garden."

[vicioussweetie]

Ali shifts her hold on him so she can stroke his hair. "So I see. Thank you for that. We should find them a better project."

[labyrinthking]

"Yes," he agrees. "Mud is a poor substitute for soap. And chickens have never stacked very well."

[vicioussweetie]

"Chickens...stacked...what?" Confused Ali is very, very confused.

[labyrinthking]

"They ran out of straw before they ran out of chickens," he explains the goblin-logic slowly, "so they had to stack them. To make them fit."

[vicioussweetie]

"...oh. I don't imagine the chickens approved." Ali's remarkably adept at accepting these kinds of things, so he needn't assume she won't understand (or in the absence of understanding, accept). "What would you rather they be doing?"

[labyrinthking]

"If they must do something, I would have them do it properly," he answers. "Soap for the floors, a pen for the chickens--more straw if the situation warrants. They're welcome to do the work, at this point I would simply be pleased if they did it properly."

[vicioussweetie]

"Then perhaps," she offers, trying to gently prod him into being something like a king for once and not a tyrant, "instead of despairing of their mistakes, we should help them succeed?"

[labyrinthking]

"My dear, you speak as though I had not tried," he counters. "Their zeal to be about their work leaves them no patience to hear how it is to be done. And while I strive to set one group right, a dozen others are wreaking havoc."

[vicioussweetie]

"What is the difference," she asks philosophically, "between 'you' and 'us'?"

[labyrinthking]

"We are perhaps less tired," he guesses, "as half of us was elsewhere this morning?"

[vicioussweetie]

Ali says nothing, letting her expression do the talking for her.

That was not the right answer.

[labyrinthking]

He sighs, rising. "Very well, let us go see if we cannot chivvy some of them out of ruining me."