abrightboy | Voicemail (IC Contact Post) OLD

Malcolm hasn't gone to the book fair or the library. He's currently building a structure out of paper cups and pencils on his desk, but he looks up when she starts talking, taking the list and looking it over.

"Eye in the Sky? Ages ago. It's about people walking in each other's subconsciouses." He pauses. "Which is uncomfortably like what's happened here a couple of times." He offers her the list back. "How do you know everyone has it on their list?" he asks, half distracted by trying to get one pencil to balance on another that's sticking out of a cup.

“Wha- Malcolm, seriously?” She gestures at his paper cup and pencil house, half-amused, half-exasperated. She scrambles to grab a seat to pull up next to him. “I knew you would have read it, nerd.” She pauses as the words he said actually sink in, nose scrunching up in distaste at the top familiar note of the idea. “Okay, that’s creepy.”

She tucks her hair behind her ears. “Okay! Maybe not everyone, but I was at the book fair and I heard people talking. And everyone that mentioned it is like- you know, one of us. Displaced or- off-world or—“ she waves a hand dismissively. “Whatever.”

“Anyway, isn’t that totally weird? Come on, Malcolm, when is the last time I read something like this? And why is it on a list of items I’ve checked out, with a library card that was already on file that I never signed up for?” She spreads her hands on a wide flourish like all of this proves whatever convoluted point she was trying to make.

Malcolm shrugs.

"Because this place is weird and weird things happen and if they're not killing anyone, I'm not sure they're that big of a deal," he looks up from his pencil cup house to point out.

"OR–" she holds a finger up at him, "it's a clue to something that's coming that might try to kill us all. So."

She flops back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest and lightly kicks his chair with a foot. "You're clearly bored, why are you shooting down the possible mystery, here?" Stop ruining her fun, Malcolm.

"Because this is what they do, Ains. The Entities start things to get us wound up. They mess with our heads because they feed off our fear. This is Entity fear-mongering nonsense, is what it is," Malcolm tells her.

"I'm not scared," she rolls her eyes, "I just wanna know why. So they're not doing their job right." Which is totally the sort of thing to put out into a universe that basically feeds on screwing with you, probably.

"You're not scared yet," Malcolm corrects her. "But you've barely begun to dig." He looks up at her. "Don't let it get inside your head, okay?"

She levels him with a look that is so Jessica it hurts. "Please. I'm not going to let a little psychological fuckery keep me from the truth." It's mostly a joke.

Mostly.

He holds up his hands.

“Okay, if you want, I’ll go to the library and take a look around. See if there’s anything suspicious. Or see if anything from Eye in the Sky jumps out at me.”

"Really?" She brightens almost instantly. "Whitly siblings, on the case!" She's practically giddy at the idea of it. Even if it's nothing. Even if it's minor. It's something that feels... normal.

“It might be nothing,” he warns, lest she get her hopes up. “But I’ll let you know what I find.”

"But it might be something," she counters, finger in the air to push her point, a reckless sort of grin threatening at each corner of her mouth. She loves getting to be this with him. Siblings in a way they don't always get to be.

He smiles concession.

"It could be something." He gets up from his desk. "I'll go now. Okay?"

"Okay, okay. Go, go, go!" She practically shoos him away. "I'll be waiting!" Normally, she might go with him, tag along like the bratty little sister she is, but she wants him to get a totally unbiased view of things, and she thinks he won't if she's right there to press her thoughts all over him.

They can meet up and compare notes again later, maybe over dinner. Maybe he's right and it's nothing.

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