open

[inkindled]

WHO: Matthias, Nikos, Salvio (tbd if Doki, Val, and Darras will get open stuff. how did I get all of these characters) + YOU
WHAT: just open stuff, man
WHEN: NOW
WHERE: various
NOTES: tiny bit of self-harm but it's so small and it gets fixed so fast

Comments

elbows my way in here

[hornswoggle]

What's all this?

[ comes John's voice from the doorway. He doesn't bother to sidestep anything, but he doesn't bother coming any further into the Forces office when it's immediately obvious to him that it's occupant is not in.

There is a small, folded sheet of paper in his hand. John tucks it into the pocket of his coat, resolved to hand it off in person. ]

Don't tell me he has you transcribing lines.

[ It's a little teasing. How long ago was it that he and Flint had sat together and worked over the accounts of the Walrus? A fair amount of ink blots had been accepted in that process, as they sped their way through it. ]

good

[inkindled]

[Startled, Matthias cuts off his mumbling, looks up, and curls his arm around the page he's working on, all at the same time. Instinctively he is trying to hide it from view--never mind that he's surrounded by its discarded brothers, some of them early drafts where he was doing poorly with regulating the size of his letters.

When he realizes it's Silver, he doesn't quite relax. But he does turn down the intensity of his wariness, his shoulders losing some of their hike. His arm stays where it is.]

Commander Flint doesn't give me lines. [Well.] Not precisely. This is-- [Erm. He looks down, then decisively sticks his quill in its rest and takes up the page, folds it once over itself with a decisive crease.] --nothing. Something of mine.

D'you, er, need him for something? The Commander?

[hornswoggle]

Nothing that can't wait.

[ Nothing that he would leave with Matthias, though he doesn't offer that explanation. ]

And I doubt any of this is nothing.

[ It's hard to be wary of Matthias. John should be, considering what Matthias knows about him, but there's a disarming quality in the quickness of his reactions, how they play out over his face. It seems so unlikely that he's capable of leveraging that secret for harm. ]

Are they love letters?

[ Teasing, as he steps out of the doorway and into the office, apparently invested in carrying on this conversation. ]

[inkindled]

[Matthias scoffs, as he crouches to start collecting armloads of discarded parchment and get it out of Silver's way.]

I dunno if love letters are our style.

[But, saying that--maybe Laura would like love letters? Hard to say. Not the sort of thing that you can just ask either, right. He looks down at the crumpled pages, and then at Silver, carefully sizing him up.]

It's sort of a personal project. And--not a secret, precisely, but-- [No, he's too excited to keep it to himself, he decides, as he dumps the parchment under his desk, corralling it between the four legs.] Shut the door, would you?

[hornswoggle]

[ It's a little amusing, hearing that request from someone other than the office's primary owner. But John does draw the door shut before moving directly over to Matthias' desk.

What kind of not-secrets would Matthias have? He's so young, and it seems every emotion he has shows on his face, flows forward freely. It's never occurred to John to think there's any particular guile in him, personal project or no. ]

Is this something that's going to get you into trouble?

[ Still humor in his tone, though the closed door has John considering whether or not this is a matter of some weight. ]

[inkindled]

No! Just-- I mean, it's all right. I'm only being careful with it all for now, 'cause, I dunno, it's not...

[He twitches the corner of the page down, creases it decisively with his thumbnail before he folds it back again. The door is closed now, so--]

I'm going to be having lessons, with Enchanter Leander. With magic and all. I asked him and he said he'd help me, formally, and all. 'Cause I wasn't at the Circle very long, and--I know things, obviously, but I learnt them sort of as I went, y'know? And I want to learn them a bit better. So it's nothing that's going to get me in any trouble but I haven't quite... I mean, I think people might be a bit... I don't want them to think anything of me.

[The abomination is right there as he says it, so in his mind still that it's like it's stood in the corner. Matthias looks Silver dead on. He will, he thinks, understand.]