(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.

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[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]

Well, he can make her go look for it if he really wants, but that's less likely to be the sort of fun he's wanting.

"I did. My kind... we live such brief lives, usually, there are no heirs to inherit. So we must find replacements wherever they crop up."

[labyrinthking]

"Your land hides greater perils than it first seems," he observes, rising and offering to escort her. He simply wanted that niggling question settled before they set out.

[vicioussweetie]

"We all hide," she murmurs, accepting his arm, "the good and the bad and the in-between."

Much better, she's thinking, to change the subject now than to dwell on things neither of them can fix. "Do you have friendly relations with any of your neighbors?"

[labyrinthking]

Today, marble statues stand at the cardinal points of the circular basin, pouring an endless stream of steamy water from urns. "At times," he answers, "with some. We don't tend to have that much contact."

[vicioussweetie]

"Oh." Ali perches on the edge of the tub, sweeping her hair over one shoulder and beginning to braid it. "Not much for that sort of social life?"

[labyrinthking]

"We each have our own realms to tend," he answers, "and one doesn't often wish to visit a land whose shape and rules are subject to the whim of someone else." A simple shrug is enough to divest him of his clothes, and he descends into the bath with a sigh, holding out a hand to invite her to join him.

[vicioussweetie]

"Hmm." His answer leads to several interesting conclusions. She contemplates them while she undresses, which takes longer than his own divesting. Hopefully he'll at least wait until she's in the tub to ask his next question--it'd be so opportunistic otherwise.

[labyrinthking]

Jareth, an opportunist? Well, yes. "And what of your neighbors?"

[vicioussweetie]

Ali smirks a bit, settling beside him before she answers. "I know some of them better than others. But space, like time, is rather relative in my life. I like the people whose homes are near my own; they're quiet, respectful people usually, and they don't say much to my face about their disapproval. I can't ask for much more from them.

"My more political neighbors... well, a number of them have died or vanished already, and I don't know most of them very well. War does that."

[labyrinthking]

"Mm. Unfortunate, that. It doesn't sound as though there will be much opportunity for social introductions," he muses.

[vicioussweetie]

"Not for a while yet, no." Ali sighs, then pulls one of his arms around her shoulders. "You probably wouldn't like them anyway."

[labyrinthking]

His arm isn't around her shoulder for long--rather, his hand glides down her back to work at the knots he finds there. "No? Pray tell, why not?"

[vicioussweetie]

Ali shifts against him to give him easier access to her back, wrapping her arms around him in turn. "Well, I don't like them very much. Right now, especially, they're not exactly welcoming of differences. They're not exactly welcoming to people just like them, either. And most of them probably want to kill me."

[labyrinthking]

"Why? Was your missing king truly the only force to hold such differences in check?" Knead, knead, knead.

[vicioussweetie]

Ali sighs softly, caught between the delight of his hands trying to relax her and the realities of life that make her want to do anything but. "Mmm. Not everyone in power shares David's dream. Too many of the so-called nobles have used their power and position to abuse everyone around them. They hate me because I not only refuse to do the same, but give voice to my disapproval. And on the other side... they too often think that all nobles are alike."