(Untitled)

[labyrinthking]

In the aftermath of the dark tide, Jareth has much to do in order to set the labyrinth to rights. There were walls to raise, puzzles to plan, rooms to find where they had been shuffled away to nowhere. That said, even the master of the maze must rest from time to time, as he is doing now.

Comments

[vicioussweetie]

Ali sighed, staring at the door, and then knocked again. However reasonably certain she was that she could just sneak in and surprise him, it wouldn't be fair to Jareth to take such liberties with his home when she won't even let him into hers. So she knocks, again, and hopes someone hears her this time, while half her mind is already drifting away to other times and places.

[vicioussweetie]

"We're even on that score," she points out. "We could, I suppose, take turns."

[labyrinthking]

"Very well," he agrees, adding the invitation, "shall you start?"

[vicioussweetie]

Ali nods after a moment, looking up toward the ceiling (or where the ceiling should be) for a moment while she thinks.

"You can manipulate time, if I understand correctly. Do you see time as a linear construct?" He never clarified what she would start.

[labyrinthking]

He is surprised by the question. "I would have little chance of manipulating a line. Time here is clay, like so much else. I mold it as I will."

[vicioussweetie]

Ali's always got something on her mind; nobody promised it'd be easy to understand. "But do you live from one moment, to the next, to the next, to the next?"

[labyrinthking]

Now that is an interesting question. "Moment to moment, unless I should exert myself to the contrary," he answers.

[vicioussweetie]

"Huh." That's a pleasant surprise. It needs considering. "Your turn."

[labyrinthking]

"Who are the people I see in your life?" This question probably isn't surprising, but may not prove all that comfortable, for that.

[vicioussweetie]

"Uhm...I know a lot of people," she points out reasonably. "Could you narrow that down a bit?"

[labyrinthking]

"The ones who share your hearth," he clarifies, appreciating the finesse of the evasion.

[vicioussweetie]

It wasn't actually an evasion; she does know a lot of people and didn't want to get into details about the grocery store clerks and her hairdresser.

"Oh. They're my family."

[labyrinthking]

"Then tell me of them," he urges. "You guard them so closely, I wouldn't even imagine you had them had I not seen them myself."

[vicioussweetie]

"It's my duty to guard them," she snaps, looking away from him for a moment. "I've been remiss in that duty before, and maybe now I'm overzealous, but that hardly relieves me of it." "It" being duty, perhaps, or something heavier.

And then, with a sigh, she turns back to him. "I will speak of them, if you insist, but then I shall have the right to insist you speak of something you'd rather I not know. Are we agreed?"

[labyrinthking]

His tone and expression soften. "If you still think of me as a thing to guard them against, then I shan't press the matter now. I can ask something else, if you would prefer."

[vicioussweetie]

"They're children, Jareth," she answers tiredly. "It hurts them when people come into their lives and then swan off without even saying goodbye. We hardly even know each other yet. There'll be plenty of time, later, if you decide to stick around..."