omg log!
In which there is magical reaching for an excuse to let muses play while everyone else is away. Fight the logjams! XO
It's a beautiful warm day, clear blue skies, birds chirping, a light breeze and throngs of people wandering the streets running errands and doing chores. On a break from their work today, the boys and Eaze have come out to the main street of the town they are currently doing jobs in for a little lunch. Eaze, with an efficiency that would impress any exorcist that happened to witness his skills, has convinced Tiki that he wants to take him to the food stand on the end of the street outside of the library. While Tiki would normally like to stay a good 3 miles or so away from any establishment of learning, Eaze's small hand on his sleeve guides him to their destination efficiently, leaving the rest of their crew farther down the street.
Rabi sighs as he watches his mentor sift through the dusty old books, looking for…what was it again? Stolen bookman’s tome, ancient history text that might actually be right, dissertation on the medicinal properties of peat moss, cookbook containing the recipe for the perfect peach cobbler, he really had no idea. When the old man had told him why they were leaving the very well stocked library of the exorcist’s headquarters for some random place on the outside, he’d been too busy making a mental list of all the places Cross’s damn golem might have hidden his headband to catch that particular detail, and he hadn’t cared enough to ask and get hit over the head for not paying attention the first time. While the redhead did enjoy books and libraries, (with this apprenticeship, he’d go absolutely crazy if he didn’t) he was much too restless at the moment to just sit around reading while Bookman went about his business. At least not inside. His gaze drifts over to a high window, then back to his master before he quietly picks up the book he’d been not-reading and moves towards the door.
Standing in line with Eaze, Tiki leans back on his heels and watches the crowd around them. He doesn't think too much of regular humans, pinning them as weak and idiotic in their pathetic lives. Feeling a tug on his sleeve, the Noah looks down at Eaze. "What's up, kid?" The young boy points at the food on the counter in front of them, singling out what he wants to eat. "One of these? Or...oh, okay, one of those." He orders for them both, exchanging money for their lunch and handing the food down to Eaze.
Rabi doesn’t get far before Bookman notices his movements, asking where he thinks he’s going without even turning around. Unnerving. A short argument later, Rabi opens the door and steps out, calling over his shoulder into the library. “I told ya, Gramps, I’m not going anywhere but right outside!” Without waiting for another response, and ignoring a librarian’s icy glare at his raised voice, he lets the door shut behind him, sighing and brushing his hair out of his eye (that is what the headband is for!) before hopping up to sit on a short wall in front of the building and leaning back against one of the supporting columns. He closed his eye for a moment, enjoying the fresh air and sounds of a lively town. There was only so much of being cooped up in a musty old library with a crotchety senior citizen a guy could take, after all.
"C'mon, Eaze, let's go sit." Guiding the young boy out of the line, he looks around for a place to sit....and spots a conspicuously clad red-head sitting in the sun. Well well, how very interesting. Smiling to himself, he directs Eaze over to the other side of the street and plops down on a stone stoop, keeping an eye on the exorcist across from them. He wonders why that book person is here, there's nothing of interest to them in this town as far as he or the family knew.
Oblivious to the fact that he’s being watched by somewhat less than friendly eyes, Rabi opens the book he’d brought out with him and looks down at it, skimming the pages for the place he’d stopped, but ultimately ending up daydreaming rather than actually reading the words. He still wasn’t convinced being so out of the way wasn’t a complete waste of time, but it was nice to go places other than headquarters every once in a while. He only wished Kanda could have come along. Not only would it have made the trip far more interesting, nobody needed a day or so away from that place like he did, but Bookman seemed intent on allowing the two boys as little time together as possible for some reason. (a policy the Asian boy seemed to have no problem with, distressingly enough) Stingy old man was taking this “distance yourself from the rest of the Order” thing a little too far, Rabi thought. Bookman or not, there was nothing wrong with having a friend or two.
With one eye on Eaze, Tiki observes the exorcist. He's reading something, which is no great surprise knowing his calling, but he doesn't look like he's too much into it. So why would he be this far away, reading a book that he isn't very interested in? There must be something else that drew the young man here, and as Tiki's eyes flicker around their surroundings, they end on the library that is serving as a backdrop to his observations. It would make sense that something in the library was the red-head's reason for being here...but why sit outside? Ah, there must be someone else inside the library dragging the other man along. Feeling a poke in his side, Tiki looks down to find Eaze watching him curiously. "It's nothing, kiddo." He ruffles Eaze's hair, giving him a smile.
Realizing he’d been staring at the same phrase for several minutes, Rabi shakes his head and looks out to the street, deciding people watching sounded like a better option for the time being, since he obviously didn’t have the attention span for French literature at the moment. His eye lingers on a pair of pretty teenage girls, and he toys with the idea of going to talk to them. They might not be Akuma, and hell, if they were, it’d give him something more interesting to do. But Panda’d throw a fit if he got into a fight so close to the library, and he wasn’t quite reckless enough to go looking for trouble on what was supposed to be an uneventful trip, so he looks away as the girls move on. There was some sort of food stand over there, which was rather tempting, and…that kid across the street looks kinda familiar. Rabi’s green eye widens at recognition of the man smiling down at the boy, then narrows suspiciously. Had he seen him already? Not interested in risking it today, the exorcist jumps back down to the ground and heads back into the building. So much for sunlight and fresh air.
Catching the flicker of black and red out of the corner of his eye, Tiki carefully doesn't look up until he's sure that the exorcist has disappeared into the library. Well damn. The library is pretty much the last place Tiki wants to go into, but he has to find out what the bookworm is up to. Giving Eaze one last pat on the head, he smiles and stands, "All done? Let's go back to the guys, all right?" The boy nods, hopping off the stoop and falling into step beside Tiki as they make their way down the street. As they weave in and out of traffic, Tiki spots the taller forms of his friends and gives them a wave so that they stop and wait for them. Coming up beside the guys, he gives Eaze a gentle shove on the back to bring him into the middle of their group and out of traffic. With a quick apology and a made-up excuse about running an errand, he slips back out into the road and back the way he came, leaving Eaze in the care of the other men.
Rabi doesn’t say a word to Bookman as he reenters the library, though the old man gives him a questioning glance. There was just no way to tell the man there was a dangerous Noah outside without incriminating himself. Just where had he been that day he was nowhere to be found in all of headquarters a few weeks back, anyway? The redhead didn’t feel like getting into that potentially excruciating conversation now. Besides, he was sure the man wouldn’t follow him in here, even if he had seen him. A scruffy vagrant like that would stick out like a sore thumb in the place, after all, and that biddy of a librarian would be on him like a hawk on an albino squirrel. All Rabi had to do was stay inside until Panda finished his search for the codex of questionable importance, and then they’d be on their merry way back to the safety of headquarters. Reassured, the young bookman makes his way to a secluded part of the library and sets his book down on a table before starting to skim the shelves for something more interesting to pass the time.
Wandering back to the library, Tiki circles around behind the building, knowing that he would be quite out of place coming in the front. Making sure that no one is around, he carefully slips through the outer wall and into the back of the library. Coughing slightly (there was quite a bit of dust in the reference section he just stepped through), he looks around to try to locate the exorcist and starts to silently walk through the rows (in a normal fashion) before he spots a flicker of black and a shock of red hair stepping around a corner. Smiling to himself, Tiki follows, creeping up on the other side of the bookshelf opposite the junior bookman. As the exorcist stops and looks at something on the shelf facing Tiki, the Noah carefully steps through the bookshelf right in front of the exorcist.
Rabi had been pulling out a rather thick book in hopes that it would prove at least a little more engaging than the one he’d abandoned when he was suddenly face to face with the last person he wanted to see just then, although even a friend coming through the shelves like that would have been a shock. He stumbles back with a startled cry, running painfully into the table behind him as the book he’d pulled halfway off the shelf fell to the floor with a loud thump. The noises echo through the library, but god forbid anyone come to check if he’d been hurt, or if there was a bloodthirsty killer or something in the building, the only response was irritated shushing from that old bitch with the pince-nez. Rabi thought she’d at least come to check if any of her precious books had been damaged, but no luck with that either. He shoots an irritated glare over his shoulder in her general direction, but doesn’t dare remove his eye from the immediate problem for any elongated period of time. Breathing deeply in hopes of convincing his heart rate to go back down, he glares defiantly up at the man, not willing to give him any more satisfaction than he already had by startling him like that. “Well, isn’t that a nifty little trick? Must come in handy for sneaking into the opera.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Tiki steps all the way through the bookshelf, chuckling quietly. "The opera? Please. Like I'd go to that." He actually does like some of the finer things in life....or at least half of him does. "Take a deep breath, exorcist, you look like you've seen a ghost." His lips turn up into a shadowy grin, sliding across his face like a hungry panther.
“Yeah, I might’ve known you wouldn’t have the class to appreciate Wagner.” Ignoring the man’s jibe, Rabi moves around to the other side of the table, leery of allowing him to get close, though it was now painfully obvious that the heavy oak furniture was no obstacle at all to this Noah. It was really only stalling as he considered his options. While he could run, or call out for help, his pride wouldn’t allow him to show weakness like that in front of Tiki, and he wasn’t so sure it would serve any purpose other than to endanger any would-be rescuers anyway. Rabi had guessed that he was a toy to the man, and as such was unlikely to be disposed of, at least not yet. To kill his master in front of him, however, would likely seem a wonderful game to the Noah, and while the two of them bickered constantly and the boy joked about succeeding him any day now, Rabi knew he was far from ready to truly take on the title of Bookman, and even more, he did care for the old man almost as if he were a parent, though he would never outright admit it.
"Rhode's more the scholarly type, I'll leave that to her." He has no patience for homework, which was one of the reasons he was terrible in school. Tiki isn't an idiot, but he just has no interest in things that are boring or tedious to him...but those that have knowledge, especially the kind that the Bookman has, is very interesting. He knows his history, any Noah does (well, maybe not the twins), but it isn't often one gets a chance to corner those that guide the public's perception of the truth. Besides, he enjoys watching the red haired young man squirm. Stepping up to the table, but making no motion to go around or pass through it, he looks at the abandoned title on the floor. "Checking out a little light reading?"
“I guess you could say that.” Rabi glances down to the book, then back to Tiki before casually moving back towards the bookshelf behind him, skimming over the titles and feigning disinterest in the man, though he still didn’t dare look away for too long. Gee, this would be a lot easier if he had both eyes. “So what’s a guy like you doing wasting your time in a dusty old library? Don’t you have places to go? People to kill? Fun stuff like that?”
Tiki leans back, hips against the table, and puts his hands in his pockets as he watches the exorcist move about. While his posture is causal, almost friendly, his eyes take in every twitch that the red-haired young man makes, like a resting cougar watching a wandering fawn. "Such harsh words, kid, you make it sound like killing people is all we do." He grins at that, because he is sure that as far as the black order is concerned, that IS all they do. "I think I should be asking you that, though...what brings an exorcist all the way out here? There's nothing for one of your kind in this town." This is what really has perked his interest, and although he is still curious as to who the other man has come here with, what they are after is his main goal...unless it's that damn cheating albino.
“Nothing for an exorcist, no. But that’s the lesser of my job titles anyway.” Rabi pulls out another book and leans against the shelves as he flips idly through it, determined not to look too worried about the Noah. He even risked taking his eye off him a little more, but that by no means meant he’d lowered his guard at all. “I assure you, it’s nothing that would interest you in the slightest.” Hell, it didn’t even interest Rabi, but Tiki didn’t really need to know that.
"Ah, of course, you have a higher calling." He smirks, idly eyeing the title of the book that the young man picked out. Tiki is sure that it isn't that book, but there is something in this library... "I gotta say, it didn't seem like you were too interested in it either, coming outside to daydream." Pushing off the table, he walks over to the other man, standing close, but not close enough to raise any alarms should someone spot them in this quiet part of the library. "And are you so certain you know what interests me, junior? All those records and histories have such detailed information on us?"
Observant bastard, wasn’t he? Rabi shrugs off the accusation. “Hey, even I need a little fresh air now and then. Working too hard for too long in a musty place like this isn’t healthy. Gotta take a break sometimes, y’know?” Sensing that Tiki had moved closer, he looks up at him again, but stands his ground, refusing to shy away this time. “Well, you obviously don’t make a habit of going anywhere so dangerously educational, do you? There’s nothing here but boring old books, after all, and there’s no way any record concerning you guys would be in this library.”
Tiki mock winces, his expression one of hurt as though the shorter man's words had cut him deep. "Ouch, kid. Assuming I don't care at all about books just because of my looks? Harsh. I thought exorcists were supposed to be compassionate and understanding." He grins, obviously not too affronted....besides, he really doesn't care too much about educational reading. He switches to a different tactic, not pressing a physical advantage into their nice little discussion...yet. "I'm surprised your bosses let you come out here all on your lonesome to pick up some dusty book. It's dangerous for kids to travel by themselves nowadays, you know."
“Hey, you said yourself you weren’t the scholarly type. And where’d you hear nonsense like that? Even if it were true, I’m pretty sure ‘compassionate’ is on the list of undesirable attributes for bookmen.” Rabi frowns slightly, considering the consequences of letting the Noah know that he wasn’t alone here. Would the fact that he had backup make the man back off at all? Or would it be better to let him think he was unaccompanied? He settles for a vague, noncommittal reply. “Now who’s making assumptions? I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, by the way. Exorcists grow up fast.”
Tiki shrugs, it was true that he said that, but it's always fun to fish with carefully placed words and see what bites. Smiling, he places a hand on his hip, leaning comfortably on a long leg. "Ahh, that's right. You guys are supposed to be in the grey area between the black and the white." His smirk widens as he remembers an interesting tidbit of information the Earl let slip about these particular anomalies in their world. "So then tell me, little bookman, what makes you side with the exorcists? And don't feed me a line of crap, I know you guys travel in packs lately...not that it makes much of a difference." He's seen only a few loners of the exorcist crowd recently, and while larger numbers of the pesky black-robed figures make his job a bit more challenging, it hasn't been too much of an impediment in taking care of business.
“Packs, huh? That definitely wasn’t the case last time I saw you, and I did alright.” Rabi closes the book he’s holding, his attention once again fully on Tiki. He didn’t like that smirk. Of course, he was pretty sure he didn’t like most of the expressions he’d seen on the man’s face today. “And I’m an exorcist because my old man’s an exorcist. Don’t think it needs to be more complicated than that.” He narrows his eye. Why would a Noah care why the bookmen were part of the order, anyway? ‘By chance,’ his master loved to tell him. They happened to be conformers as well, and being on the front lines of this war was also a convenient way to witness the formation of the history they were to record first-hand. Wasn’t that all there was to it?
Chuckling, Tiki shakes his head. "I wasn't after you the last time." Not that he is this time, either, which would account for the reason that his conversation partner has stayed healthy throughout their discussion so far. "But Innocence is fickle, isn't it? Doesn't it choose certain people, not the other way around? Haven't you ever wondered why it chose you, why you're an exorcist and not..." Reaching out, Tiki brushes a finger down and across the middle of the shorter man's forehead. A ghostly cross. "...one of us?"
Rabi flinches when Tiki reaches out for him, but forces himself to stay still. The man’s touch, though almost feather-light, seems to make his blood run cold, but he only stares back, still too stubborn to allow his discomfort to show. “No. I haven’t.” He answers curtly, not even willing to consider what might have been on the other side of that proverbial coin. There was no point in thinking like that, he was an exorcist now, and that was that. Just what the hell was that bastard getting at, anyway? Probably just wanted to mess with him, as usual. That’s all it was.
The Noah laughs, a soft and deep sound of amusement that only carries to the two of them. "Now that I find hard to believe. With all of the stuff you've crammed up there," He gently pokes Rabi in the forehead, right over where his finger had touched moments before. "There's nothing that you've ever questioned? Please. Everyone wants to know why they're here and where they come from....isn't that part of being human?" Tiki smiles at his own words and the irony contained in them. According to some people, neither of them would be considered human.
The touch on Rabi’s forehead seemed to burn this time, and he wishes once again for his missing headband. Stupid golem. “I’ll leave the hypothetical questions to the philosophers. There’s no point in ‘what if’s for a historian. We’re only concerned with what has actually happened.” An answer worthy of a bookman, he thought. Panda’d be proud, if he wasn’t too busy smacking his student one for allowing the Noah close enough to have this conversation in the first place. “As for being human…well, there’s only so much of that someone in this field is allowed, anyway.” That particular point was an aspect of his apprenticeship that grated on him now and then, especially where certain other exorcists were concerned, but he brushes it off. It was a weakness, he knew, and now was certainly not the time for it to surface.
"Oh really? You're only concerned with the facts as they relate to you...can you really claim to be neutral when you wear that?" His eyes drop pointedly to the cross on the other man's shoulder. "Say what you want, junior, but at least we don't hide our feelings from history." He waves a hand out, fingers pointed out towards the regular humans floating around them in the library, the town, perhaps even the entire country. "They're sheep, kid, cattle. Mindless puppets that just mill about, doing whatever it is they do, day in and day out." He can see the tinge of bitterness in the redhead's eyes and decides to take a shot in the dark as to its cause. "As grumpy as your friend is, he knows that as much as I do."
“This?” Rabi’s hand hovers over the silver insignia for a moment before waving flippantly. “A convenience, really. One of these’ll get you just about anywhere if you know how to use it. Not everyone can walk through walls, after all.” He glares pointedly at the taller man before continuing. “Besides, the exorcists are the ones that shape the history we’re meant to record. What better way to see it unfold than to become one?” Rabi shrugs. He didn’t care much about the humans on the outside, it was just as he’d told Allen soon after they’d met, they were allies of the Earl, whether they knew it or not. What difference did it make to him whether or not Tiki was right about them? His eye narrowed again at the man’s last statement though. Why on earth would he bring him up now?
"Sounds like a pretty biased history." Tiki laughs again at the other man's description of his use of exorcist privileges, ignoring the glare accompanying it. "You guys are more like us than you'll admit...using the humans like that. Hell, you even kill 'em when they get in your way." Still chuckling, he runs a hand through his hair, thinking that he could use a cigarette...but it probably would not be a good idea to smoke inside the library and bring everyone to investigate the source of the smoke, especially other exorcists. Other exorcists...that reminds him, who else is here with the junior bookman? Could it be that grumpy kid, Kanda? The look he just got certainly makes it clear that if it is, the redhead isn't going to tell him. Hmm...interesting.
“Well, we work with what we’ve got. Wouldn’t get much of anything done at all on the outside.” Rabi shrugs the accusations off, harsh as they were. Tiki only wanted to rile him up, after all, and damned if he was going to let the man get his way. But he was running out of stalling material, and he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to break away from the man hovering over him. He almost did wish he had Tiki’s power for a moment, so he could simply sink back through the bookcase he was pressed up against. Dammit, wasn’t the old man done yet? How long could it take to find a book, weren’t libraries supposed to be organized?
"That's a pretty practical way to look at it." The way 'practical' rolls off his tongue makes it sound somehow wrong, shallow and harsh coming from the Noah. Although the young exorcist doesn't fidget, Tiki can tell he's becoming distracted....and he does want a cigarette, so it's time to get what he wants and leave. Besides, he doesn't want to worry Eaze too much. Stepping forward into the redhead's personal space, Tiki snaps his arm forward, hand passing easily into the other man's chest without hesitation. "Now, kid, why don't you answer my question? Why are you here and who's with you? You don't want them to have to clean your blood off all these nice books, right?"
Rabi gasps and freezes, completely caught off-guard by the sudden move. His fingernails dig into the wooden shelf behind him as the hand goes through him, although it didn’t hurt at all, it just felt…not right. Unable to suppress the shudder that went through him as a result of the bizarre sensation, he shuts his eye tightly for a moment, but soon regains most of his composure and scowls back up to Tiki, defiant once again despite how difficult even breathing had become for him. “Is that really all you’re after? Because I’m telling you, you’re gonna be disappointed.” Yeah, he was in deep shit, but like hell was he gonna give this guy what he wanted without a fight, even if what he wanted was completely irrelevant to the Noah as he suspected it was.
Tiki shrugs, completely comfortable with his hand sticking through the book and the exorcist as they chat. "Maybe, but I won't know until I find out, right? So stop stalling and just tell me. If it really isn't all that interesting, I might even let you go." Truthfully, he hasn't decided if he will let the redhead go or not. He's an enigma, and while he still holds some interest and isn't a direct threat, he might have more amusement value alive than dead.
Having a hand through his chest was most definitely making Rabi more than a little uncomfortable, but it was only because he had already decided there wouldn’t be any harm in telling the man what he was here for, that he let off of his stubborn determination to be difficult a little. But not much, and almost certainly not nearly enough. “What the hell does anyone do at libraries, huh? Look for books, obviously. Thought you’d be able to figure at least that much out.” Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he was asking for a world of pain, but he still sneers up at his captor brazenly, a little too set on proving he wasn’t afraid of the man, no matter how much of a disadvantage he was at.
Tiki is momentarily taken aback the sudden snark coming from the shorter man, but he recovers quickly with a chuckle, leaning well into Rabi's space and looking down at the exorcist. As the Noah moves, a shadow spreads over his skin like clouds moving over a grassy plain, stealing the sunlight in their darkness. There is even an accompanying wind, ruffling the loose open collar of his clothes and up into his hair, lifting it off his forehead as the tell-tale black marks materilize on his skin. The process takes a matter of seconds, and once it is done Tiki narrows eyes that are now a bright gold as he looks down at his captive exorcist. "Kid, I could tell it was a book....and you didn't answer my second question." With a quick movement and a twist of his wrist, Tiki's hand finds and holds Rabi's beating heart, exerting just a tiny bit of pressure with his fist. "Last chance."
Rabi’s eye widens as he watches Tiki’s features darken, showing the boy his black side for the first time. The change was morbidly fascinating, and he might have found the man a dangerous sort of alluring, were he not distressingly close to murdering him where he stood. He didn’t have time to think about it, however, as the hand closes around his heart, a soft, strangled sort of sound escapes the redhead, and he scrapes weakly at the books behind him. A stray thought floats through his mind, ‘This is how Deesha died,’ but he forces it away. He wasn’t going to die here…not now. His eye slips closed, and a voice sounding suspiciously like another young exorcist’s sounded in his head, calling him an idiot, as well as a few other nasty things. He couldn’t help but smirk at the imaginary sound, despite his current desperate situation.
Again, Tiki is surprised at the smirk curling the exorcist's lips. Did he think he was kidding? No...he's sure that the other man is taking him seriously. What could it be, that would make the redhead smile while death was facing him? Only the thought of a friend or a loved one gives someone that look of peace before death...it's a shame he didn't know who, or he could use it to his advantage. "Exorcist...you realize that I'm just going to kill you and then go and find your friend and do the same, right?" He shakes his head, tsking. "And here I just wanted information and you had to go and make things all complicated..."
It took a moment for Rabi to recover from the shock that had silenced him, but his bright green eye soon opens again, and he looks up at Tiki, grinning like the idiot he was. “I don’t know.” He chuckles a little, but winces at the dull pain it causes with the constriction still on his heart. “I don’t have a fucking clue what we’re doing here, because I was spacing out when the old man told me.” No reason not to tell the truth, really, and Rabi ignores the fact that he’d likely have been spared a lot of discomfort by spilling it in the first place. The loose tongue his master often chided him for seemed to pick the worst times to tighten up. But then, who’s to say Tiki wouldn’t have attacked him anyway? No, no point in thinking like that, just like he’d told the man. Whatever happened, that’s what happened. That’s what history was about.
Frowning, Tiki lifts his free hand to the other man's face, fingers seizing the exorcist's chin and making sure he doesn't look away. Gold eyes to a single verdant one, Tiki searches for any hint of deception...and finds none. Releasing the young man's chin, the Noah ponders on who this 'old man' could be. Didn't the kid mention him before, something about how he was an exorcist because his old man was....and a light bulb goes off. Tiki chuckles, wondering how much trouble it would save the Noah and the Earl if he killed the Bookman. "See? Now was that so hard, junior?" A smile pulls at his lips and he straightens, stepping back and letting his hand slowly fall out of the other man's chest as he walks backwards. "Thanks for the information...I think I'll pay your 'old man' a little visit." With a quick wink, Tiki walks backwards right through the bookshelf and out of sight.
Rabi tenses when the man lifts his head, but doesn’t drop his audacious smirk as he watches him thinking, not worrying over what he might be considering. He’s almost triumphant when Tiki finally steps away, but it’s short-lived, as his smile fades instantly at the man’s not-so-veiled insinuation. No way. Apparently there was harm in telling the truth after all. As the Noah slips back through the shelves behind him, Rabi slumps against the ones he’d been leaning on, sliding down to the floor in stunned silence.
It could end there, or we could go back to it and I can just edit this later. I possibly should have waited to send that last bit and asked Elly what she wanted to do, but I'm impatient, and posting this sounded more fun than oh, building a box or something. Ahaha, I am so screwed. :D
It's a beautiful warm day, clear blue skies, birds chirping, a light breeze and throngs of people wandering the streets running errands and doing chores. On a break from their work today, the boys and Eaze have come out to the main street of the town they are currently doing jobs in for a little lunch. Eaze, with an efficiency that would impress any exorcist that happened to witness his skills, has convinced Tiki that he wants to take him to the food stand on the end of the street outside of the library. While Tiki would normally like to stay a good 3 miles or so away from any establishment of learning, Eaze's small hand on his sleeve guides him to their destination efficiently, leaving the rest of their crew farther down the street.
Rabi sighs as he watches his mentor sift through the dusty old books, looking for…what was it again? Stolen bookman’s tome, ancient history text that might actually be right, dissertation on the medicinal properties of peat moss, cookbook containing the recipe for the perfect peach cobbler, he really had no idea. When the old man had told him why they were leaving the very well stocked library of the exorcist’s headquarters for some random place on the outside, he’d been too busy making a mental list of all the places Cross’s damn golem might have hidden his headband to catch that particular detail, and he hadn’t cared enough to ask and get hit over the head for not paying attention the first time. While the redhead did enjoy books and libraries, (with this apprenticeship, he’d go absolutely crazy if he didn’t) he was much too restless at the moment to just sit around reading while Bookman went about his business. At least not inside. His gaze drifts over to a high window, then back to his master before he quietly picks up the book he’d been not-reading and moves towards the door.
Standing in line with Eaze, Tiki leans back on his heels and watches the crowd around them. He doesn't think too much of regular humans, pinning them as weak and idiotic in their pathetic lives. Feeling a tug on his sleeve, the Noah looks down at Eaze. "What's up, kid?" The young boy points at the food on the counter in front of them, singling out what he wants to eat. "One of these? Or...oh, okay, one of those." He orders for them both, exchanging money for their lunch and handing the food down to Eaze.
Rabi doesn’t get far before Bookman notices his movements, asking where he thinks he’s going without even turning around. Unnerving. A short argument later, Rabi opens the door and steps out, calling over his shoulder into the library. “I told ya, Gramps, I’m not going anywhere but right outside!” Without waiting for another response, and ignoring a librarian’s icy glare at his raised voice, he lets the door shut behind him, sighing and brushing his hair out of his eye (that is what the headband is for!) before hopping up to sit on a short wall in front of the building and leaning back against one of the supporting columns. He closed his eye for a moment, enjoying the fresh air and sounds of a lively town. There was only so much of being cooped up in a musty old library with a crotchety senior citizen a guy could take, after all.
"C'mon, Eaze, let's go sit." Guiding the young boy out of the line, he looks around for a place to sit....and spots a conspicuously clad red-head sitting in the sun. Well well, how very interesting. Smiling to himself, he directs Eaze over to the other side of the street and plops down on a stone stoop, keeping an eye on the exorcist across from them. He wonders why that book person is here, there's nothing of interest to them in this town as far as he or the family knew.
Oblivious to the fact that he’s being watched by somewhat less than friendly eyes, Rabi opens the book he’d brought out with him and looks down at it, skimming the pages for the place he’d stopped, but ultimately ending up daydreaming rather than actually reading the words. He still wasn’t convinced being so out of the way wasn’t a complete waste of time, but it was nice to go places other than headquarters every once in a while. He only wished Kanda could have come along. Not only would it have made the trip far more interesting, nobody needed a day or so away from that place like he did, but Bookman seemed intent on allowing the two boys as little time together as possible for some reason. (a policy the Asian boy seemed to have no problem with, distressingly enough) Stingy old man was taking this “distance yourself from the rest of the Order” thing a little too far, Rabi thought. Bookman or not, there was nothing wrong with having a friend or two.
With one eye on Eaze, Tiki observes the exorcist. He's reading something, which is no great surprise knowing his calling, but he doesn't look like he's too much into it. So why would he be this far away, reading a book that he isn't very interested in? There must be something else that drew the young man here, and as Tiki's eyes flicker around their surroundings, they end on the library that is serving as a backdrop to his observations. It would make sense that something in the library was the red-head's reason for being here...but why sit outside? Ah, there must be someone else inside the library dragging the other man along. Feeling a poke in his side, Tiki looks down to find Eaze watching him curiously. "It's nothing, kiddo." He ruffles Eaze's hair, giving him a smile.
Realizing he’d been staring at the same phrase for several minutes, Rabi shakes his head and looks out to the street, deciding people watching sounded like a better option for the time being, since he obviously didn’t have the attention span for French literature at the moment. His eye lingers on a pair of pretty teenage girls, and he toys with the idea of going to talk to them. They might not be Akuma, and hell, if they were, it’d give him something more interesting to do. But Panda’d throw a fit if he got into a fight so close to the library, and he wasn’t quite reckless enough to go looking for trouble on what was supposed to be an uneventful trip, so he looks away as the girls move on. There was some sort of food stand over there, which was rather tempting, and…that kid across the street looks kinda familiar. Rabi’s green eye widens at recognition of the man smiling down at the boy, then narrows suspiciously. Had he seen him already? Not interested in risking it today, the exorcist jumps back down to the ground and heads back into the building. So much for sunlight and fresh air.
Catching the flicker of black and red out of the corner of his eye, Tiki carefully doesn't look up until he's sure that the exorcist has disappeared into the library. Well damn. The library is pretty much the last place Tiki wants to go into, but he has to find out what the bookworm is up to. Giving Eaze one last pat on the head, he smiles and stands, "All done? Let's go back to the guys, all right?" The boy nods, hopping off the stoop and falling into step beside Tiki as they make their way down the street. As they weave in and out of traffic, Tiki spots the taller forms of his friends and gives them a wave so that they stop and wait for them. Coming up beside the guys, he gives Eaze a gentle shove on the back to bring him into the middle of their group and out of traffic. With a quick apology and a made-up excuse about running an errand, he slips back out into the road and back the way he came, leaving Eaze in the care of the other men.
Rabi doesn’t say a word to Bookman as he reenters the library, though the old man gives him a questioning glance. There was just no way to tell the man there was a dangerous Noah outside without incriminating himself. Just where had he been that day he was nowhere to be found in all of headquarters a few weeks back, anyway? The redhead didn’t feel like getting into that potentially excruciating conversation now. Besides, he was sure the man wouldn’t follow him in here, even if he had seen him. A scruffy vagrant like that would stick out like a sore thumb in the place, after all, and that biddy of a librarian would be on him like a hawk on an albino squirrel. All Rabi had to do was stay inside until Panda finished his search for the codex of questionable importance, and then they’d be on their merry way back to the safety of headquarters. Reassured, the young bookman makes his way to a secluded part of the library and sets his book down on a table before starting to skim the shelves for something more interesting to pass the time.
Wandering back to the library, Tiki circles around behind the building, knowing that he would be quite out of place coming in the front. Making sure that no one is around, he carefully slips through the outer wall and into the back of the library. Coughing slightly (there was quite a bit of dust in the reference section he just stepped through), he looks around to try to locate the exorcist and starts to silently walk through the rows (in a normal fashion) before he spots a flicker of black and a shock of red hair stepping around a corner. Smiling to himself, Tiki follows, creeping up on the other side of the bookshelf opposite the junior bookman. As the exorcist stops and looks at something on the shelf facing Tiki, the Noah carefully steps through the bookshelf right in front of the exorcist.
Rabi had been pulling out a rather thick book in hopes that it would prove at least a little more engaging than the one he’d abandoned when he was suddenly face to face with the last person he wanted to see just then, although even a friend coming through the shelves like that would have been a shock. He stumbles back with a startled cry, running painfully into the table behind him as the book he’d pulled halfway off the shelf fell to the floor with a loud thump. The noises echo through the library, but god forbid anyone come to check if he’d been hurt, or if there was a bloodthirsty killer or something in the building, the only response was irritated shushing from that old bitch with the pince-nez. Rabi thought she’d at least come to check if any of her precious books had been damaged, but no luck with that either. He shoots an irritated glare over his shoulder in her general direction, but doesn’t dare remove his eye from the immediate problem for any elongated period of time. Breathing deeply in hopes of convincing his heart rate to go back down, he glares defiantly up at the man, not willing to give him any more satisfaction than he already had by startling him like that. “Well, isn’t that a nifty little trick? Must come in handy for sneaking into the opera.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Tiki steps all the way through the bookshelf, chuckling quietly. "The opera? Please. Like I'd go to that." He actually does like some of the finer things in life....or at least half of him does. "Take a deep breath, exorcist, you look like you've seen a ghost." His lips turn up into a shadowy grin, sliding across his face like a hungry panther.
“Yeah, I might’ve known you wouldn’t have the class to appreciate Wagner.” Ignoring the man’s jibe, Rabi moves around to the other side of the table, leery of allowing him to get close, though it was now painfully obvious that the heavy oak furniture was no obstacle at all to this Noah. It was really only stalling as he considered his options. While he could run, or call out for help, his pride wouldn’t allow him to show weakness like that in front of Tiki, and he wasn’t so sure it would serve any purpose other than to endanger any would-be rescuers anyway. Rabi had guessed that he was a toy to the man, and as such was unlikely to be disposed of, at least not yet. To kill his master in front of him, however, would likely seem a wonderful game to the Noah, and while the two of them bickered constantly and the boy joked about succeeding him any day now, Rabi knew he was far from ready to truly take on the title of Bookman, and even more, he did care for the old man almost as if he were a parent, though he would never outright admit it.
"Rhode's more the scholarly type, I'll leave that to her." He has no patience for homework, which was one of the reasons he was terrible in school. Tiki isn't an idiot, but he just has no interest in things that are boring or tedious to him...but those that have knowledge, especially the kind that the Bookman has, is very interesting. He knows his history, any Noah does (well, maybe not the twins), but it isn't often one gets a chance to corner those that guide the public's perception of the truth. Besides, he enjoys watching the red haired young man squirm. Stepping up to the table, but making no motion to go around or pass through it, he looks at the abandoned title on the floor. "Checking out a little light reading?"
“I guess you could say that.” Rabi glances down to the book, then back to Tiki before casually moving back towards the bookshelf behind him, skimming over the titles and feigning disinterest in the man, though he still didn’t dare look away for too long. Gee, this would be a lot easier if he had both eyes. “So what’s a guy like you doing wasting your time in a dusty old library? Don’t you have places to go? People to kill? Fun stuff like that?”
Tiki leans back, hips against the table, and puts his hands in his pockets as he watches the exorcist move about. While his posture is causal, almost friendly, his eyes take in every twitch that the red-haired young man makes, like a resting cougar watching a wandering fawn. "Such harsh words, kid, you make it sound like killing people is all we do." He grins at that, because he is sure that as far as the black order is concerned, that IS all they do. "I think I should be asking you that, though...what brings an exorcist all the way out here? There's nothing for one of your kind in this town." This is what really has perked his interest, and although he is still curious as to who the other man has come here with, what they are after is his main goal...unless it's that damn cheating albino.
“Nothing for an exorcist, no. But that’s the lesser of my job titles anyway.” Rabi pulls out another book and leans against the shelves as he flips idly through it, determined not to look too worried about the Noah. He even risked taking his eye off him a little more, but that by no means meant he’d lowered his guard at all. “I assure you, it’s nothing that would interest you in the slightest.” Hell, it didn’t even interest Rabi, but Tiki didn’t really need to know that.
"Ah, of course, you have a higher calling." He smirks, idly eyeing the title of the book that the young man picked out. Tiki is sure that it isn't that book, but there is something in this library... "I gotta say, it didn't seem like you were too interested in it either, coming outside to daydream." Pushing off the table, he walks over to the other man, standing close, but not close enough to raise any alarms should someone spot them in this quiet part of the library. "And are you so certain you know what interests me, junior? All those records and histories have such detailed information on us?"
Observant bastard, wasn’t he? Rabi shrugs off the accusation. “Hey, even I need a little fresh air now and then. Working too hard for too long in a musty place like this isn’t healthy. Gotta take a break sometimes, y’know?” Sensing that Tiki had moved closer, he looks up at him again, but stands his ground, refusing to shy away this time. “Well, you obviously don’t make a habit of going anywhere so dangerously educational, do you? There’s nothing here but boring old books, after all, and there’s no way any record concerning you guys would be in this library.”
Tiki mock winces, his expression one of hurt as though the shorter man's words had cut him deep. "Ouch, kid. Assuming I don't care at all about books just because of my looks? Harsh. I thought exorcists were supposed to be compassionate and understanding." He grins, obviously not too affronted....besides, he really doesn't care too much about educational reading. He switches to a different tactic, not pressing a physical advantage into their nice little discussion...yet. "I'm surprised your bosses let you come out here all on your lonesome to pick up some dusty book. It's dangerous for kids to travel by themselves nowadays, you know."
“Hey, you said yourself you weren’t the scholarly type. And where’d you hear nonsense like that? Even if it were true, I’m pretty sure ‘compassionate’ is on the list of undesirable attributes for bookmen.” Rabi frowns slightly, considering the consequences of letting the Noah know that he wasn’t alone here. Would the fact that he had backup make the man back off at all? Or would it be better to let him think he was unaccompanied? He settles for a vague, noncommittal reply. “Now who’s making assumptions? I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, by the way. Exorcists grow up fast.”
Tiki shrugs, it was true that he said that, but it's always fun to fish with carefully placed words and see what bites. Smiling, he places a hand on his hip, leaning comfortably on a long leg. "Ahh, that's right. You guys are supposed to be in the grey area between the black and the white." His smirk widens as he remembers an interesting tidbit of information the Earl let slip about these particular anomalies in their world. "So then tell me, little bookman, what makes you side with the exorcists? And don't feed me a line of crap, I know you guys travel in packs lately...not that it makes much of a difference." He's seen only a few loners of the exorcist crowd recently, and while larger numbers of the pesky black-robed figures make his job a bit more challenging, it hasn't been too much of an impediment in taking care of business.
“Packs, huh? That definitely wasn’t the case last time I saw you, and I did alright.” Rabi closes the book he’s holding, his attention once again fully on Tiki. He didn’t like that smirk. Of course, he was pretty sure he didn’t like most of the expressions he’d seen on the man’s face today. “And I’m an exorcist because my old man’s an exorcist. Don’t think it needs to be more complicated than that.” He narrows his eye. Why would a Noah care why the bookmen were part of the order, anyway? ‘By chance,’ his master loved to tell him. They happened to be conformers as well, and being on the front lines of this war was also a convenient way to witness the formation of the history they were to record first-hand. Wasn’t that all there was to it?
Chuckling, Tiki shakes his head. "I wasn't after you the last time." Not that he is this time, either, which would account for the reason that his conversation partner has stayed healthy throughout their discussion so far. "But Innocence is fickle, isn't it? Doesn't it choose certain people, not the other way around? Haven't you ever wondered why it chose you, why you're an exorcist and not..." Reaching out, Tiki brushes a finger down and across the middle of the shorter man's forehead. A ghostly cross. "...one of us?"
Rabi flinches when Tiki reaches out for him, but forces himself to stay still. The man’s touch, though almost feather-light, seems to make his blood run cold, but he only stares back, still too stubborn to allow his discomfort to show. “No. I haven’t.” He answers curtly, not even willing to consider what might have been on the other side of that proverbial coin. There was no point in thinking like that, he was an exorcist now, and that was that. Just what the hell was that bastard getting at, anyway? Probably just wanted to mess with him, as usual. That’s all it was.
The Noah laughs, a soft and deep sound of amusement that only carries to the two of them. "Now that I find hard to believe. With all of the stuff you've crammed up there," He gently pokes Rabi in the forehead, right over where his finger had touched moments before. "There's nothing that you've ever questioned? Please. Everyone wants to know why they're here and where they come from....isn't that part of being human?" Tiki smiles at his own words and the irony contained in them. According to some people, neither of them would be considered human.
The touch on Rabi’s forehead seemed to burn this time, and he wishes once again for his missing headband. Stupid golem. “I’ll leave the hypothetical questions to the philosophers. There’s no point in ‘what if’s for a historian. We’re only concerned with what has actually happened.” An answer worthy of a bookman, he thought. Panda’d be proud, if he wasn’t too busy smacking his student one for allowing the Noah close enough to have this conversation in the first place. “As for being human…well, there’s only so much of that someone in this field is allowed, anyway.” That particular point was an aspect of his apprenticeship that grated on him now and then, especially where certain other exorcists were concerned, but he brushes it off. It was a weakness, he knew, and now was certainly not the time for it to surface.
"Oh really? You're only concerned with the facts as they relate to you...can you really claim to be neutral when you wear that?" His eyes drop pointedly to the cross on the other man's shoulder. "Say what you want, junior, but at least we don't hide our feelings from history." He waves a hand out, fingers pointed out towards the regular humans floating around them in the library, the town, perhaps even the entire country. "They're sheep, kid, cattle. Mindless puppets that just mill about, doing whatever it is they do, day in and day out." He can see the tinge of bitterness in the redhead's eyes and decides to take a shot in the dark as to its cause. "As grumpy as your friend is, he knows that as much as I do."
“This?” Rabi’s hand hovers over the silver insignia for a moment before waving flippantly. “A convenience, really. One of these’ll get you just about anywhere if you know how to use it. Not everyone can walk through walls, after all.” He glares pointedly at the taller man before continuing. “Besides, the exorcists are the ones that shape the history we’re meant to record. What better way to see it unfold than to become one?” Rabi shrugs. He didn’t care much about the humans on the outside, it was just as he’d told Allen soon after they’d met, they were allies of the Earl, whether they knew it or not. What difference did it make to him whether or not Tiki was right about them? His eye narrowed again at the man’s last statement though. Why on earth would he bring him up now?
"Sounds like a pretty biased history." Tiki laughs again at the other man's description of his use of exorcist privileges, ignoring the glare accompanying it. "You guys are more like us than you'll admit...using the humans like that. Hell, you even kill 'em when they get in your way." Still chuckling, he runs a hand through his hair, thinking that he could use a cigarette...but it probably would not be a good idea to smoke inside the library and bring everyone to investigate the source of the smoke, especially other exorcists. Other exorcists...that reminds him, who else is here with the junior bookman? Could it be that grumpy kid, Kanda? The look he just got certainly makes it clear that if it is, the redhead isn't going to tell him. Hmm...interesting.
“Well, we work with what we’ve got. Wouldn’t get much of anything done at all on the outside.” Rabi shrugs the accusations off, harsh as they were. Tiki only wanted to rile him up, after all, and damned if he was going to let the man get his way. But he was running out of stalling material, and he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to break away from the man hovering over him. He almost did wish he had Tiki’s power for a moment, so he could simply sink back through the bookcase he was pressed up against. Dammit, wasn’t the old man done yet? How long could it take to find a book, weren’t libraries supposed to be organized?
"That's a pretty practical way to look at it." The way 'practical' rolls off his tongue makes it sound somehow wrong, shallow and harsh coming from the Noah. Although the young exorcist doesn't fidget, Tiki can tell he's becoming distracted....and he does want a cigarette, so it's time to get what he wants and leave. Besides, he doesn't want to worry Eaze too much. Stepping forward into the redhead's personal space, Tiki snaps his arm forward, hand passing easily into the other man's chest without hesitation. "Now, kid, why don't you answer my question? Why are you here and who's with you? You don't want them to have to clean your blood off all these nice books, right?"
Rabi gasps and freezes, completely caught off-guard by the sudden move. His fingernails dig into the wooden shelf behind him as the hand goes through him, although it didn’t hurt at all, it just felt…not right. Unable to suppress the shudder that went through him as a result of the bizarre sensation, he shuts his eye tightly for a moment, but soon regains most of his composure and scowls back up to Tiki, defiant once again despite how difficult even breathing had become for him. “Is that really all you’re after? Because I’m telling you, you’re gonna be disappointed.” Yeah, he was in deep shit, but like hell was he gonna give this guy what he wanted without a fight, even if what he wanted was completely irrelevant to the Noah as he suspected it was.
Tiki shrugs, completely comfortable with his hand sticking through the book and the exorcist as they chat. "Maybe, but I won't know until I find out, right? So stop stalling and just tell me. If it really isn't all that interesting, I might even let you go." Truthfully, he hasn't decided if he will let the redhead go or not. He's an enigma, and while he still holds some interest and isn't a direct threat, he might have more amusement value alive than dead.
Having a hand through his chest was most definitely making Rabi more than a little uncomfortable, but it was only because he had already decided there wouldn’t be any harm in telling the man what he was here for, that he let off of his stubborn determination to be difficult a little. But not much, and almost certainly not nearly enough. “What the hell does anyone do at libraries, huh? Look for books, obviously. Thought you’d be able to figure at least that much out.” Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he was asking for a world of pain, but he still sneers up at his captor brazenly, a little too set on proving he wasn’t afraid of the man, no matter how much of a disadvantage he was at.
Tiki is momentarily taken aback the sudden snark coming from the shorter man, but he recovers quickly with a chuckle, leaning well into Rabi's space and looking down at the exorcist. As the Noah moves, a shadow spreads over his skin like clouds moving over a grassy plain, stealing the sunlight in their darkness. There is even an accompanying wind, ruffling the loose open collar of his clothes and up into his hair, lifting it off his forehead as the tell-tale black marks materilize on his skin. The process takes a matter of seconds, and once it is done Tiki narrows eyes that are now a bright gold as he looks down at his captive exorcist. "Kid, I could tell it was a book....and you didn't answer my second question." With a quick movement and a twist of his wrist, Tiki's hand finds and holds Rabi's beating heart, exerting just a tiny bit of pressure with his fist. "Last chance."
Rabi’s eye widens as he watches Tiki’s features darken, showing the boy his black side for the first time. The change was morbidly fascinating, and he might have found the man a dangerous sort of alluring, were he not distressingly close to murdering him where he stood. He didn’t have time to think about it, however, as the hand closes around his heart, a soft, strangled sort of sound escapes the redhead, and he scrapes weakly at the books behind him. A stray thought floats through his mind, ‘This is how Deesha died,’ but he forces it away. He wasn’t going to die here…not now. His eye slips closed, and a voice sounding suspiciously like another young exorcist’s sounded in his head, calling him an idiot, as well as a few other nasty things. He couldn’t help but smirk at the imaginary sound, despite his current desperate situation.
Again, Tiki is surprised at the smirk curling the exorcist's lips. Did he think he was kidding? No...he's sure that the other man is taking him seriously. What could it be, that would make the redhead smile while death was facing him? Only the thought of a friend or a loved one gives someone that look of peace before death...it's a shame he didn't know who, or he could use it to his advantage. "Exorcist...you realize that I'm just going to kill you and then go and find your friend and do the same, right?" He shakes his head, tsking. "And here I just wanted information and you had to go and make things all complicated..."
It took a moment for Rabi to recover from the shock that had silenced him, but his bright green eye soon opens again, and he looks up at Tiki, grinning like the idiot he was. “I don’t know.” He chuckles a little, but winces at the dull pain it causes with the constriction still on his heart. “I don’t have a fucking clue what we’re doing here, because I was spacing out when the old man told me.” No reason not to tell the truth, really, and Rabi ignores the fact that he’d likely have been spared a lot of discomfort by spilling it in the first place. The loose tongue his master often chided him for seemed to pick the worst times to tighten up. But then, who’s to say Tiki wouldn’t have attacked him anyway? No, no point in thinking like that, just like he’d told the man. Whatever happened, that’s what happened. That’s what history was about.
Frowning, Tiki lifts his free hand to the other man's face, fingers seizing the exorcist's chin and making sure he doesn't look away. Gold eyes to a single verdant one, Tiki searches for any hint of deception...and finds none. Releasing the young man's chin, the Noah ponders on who this 'old man' could be. Didn't the kid mention him before, something about how he was an exorcist because his old man was....and a light bulb goes off. Tiki chuckles, wondering how much trouble it would save the Noah and the Earl if he killed the Bookman. "See? Now was that so hard, junior?" A smile pulls at his lips and he straightens, stepping back and letting his hand slowly fall out of the other man's chest as he walks backwards. "Thanks for the information...I think I'll pay your 'old man' a little visit." With a quick wink, Tiki walks backwards right through the bookshelf and out of sight.
Rabi tenses when the man lifts his head, but doesn’t drop his audacious smirk as he watches him thinking, not worrying over what he might be considering. He’s almost triumphant when Tiki finally steps away, but it’s short-lived, as his smile fades instantly at the man’s not-so-veiled insinuation. No way. Apparently there was harm in telling the truth after all. As the Noah slips back through the shelves behind him, Rabi slumps against the ones he’d been leaning on, sliding down to the floor in stunned silence.
It could end there, or we could go back to it and I can just edit this later. I possibly should have waited to send that last bit and asked Elly what she wanted to do, but I'm impatient, and posting this sounded more fun than oh, building a box or something. Ahaha, I am so screwed. :D