[PRP] A conch-cious choice (Shiloh & Jamie)

[Melancholies]

"Honestly," Said Beel, who's arms were equally stuffed with a variety of ocean paraphernalia, "It really shouldn't be that hard to devise a way to notify me of your needs."

"You think we could make a sigil or something?" Shiloh tilted his head, "Like a doorbell? But I feel bad just sort of summoning you like that."

"Shiloh. Don't you think it's better than screaming my name for unnecessary amounts of time in the hopes I'll just appear around a corner in the Otherworld?" His patron was blushing, "And look at you; you're sick again. These are all highly unbecoming of a Noble like yourself."

Shiloh rolled his eyes, Get a load of this guy, he thinks he's my mom.

The door to Shiloh's domain was warm and rustic and wood, the only off thing about it was the start lack of a knob. For anyone unwanted, the surface wouldn't budge. For Shiloh's closest and only fetch, Shiloh himself, and Shiloh's favorite person, the door seemed all too eager to swing open at their arrival.

"I'd recommend you keep your trials out of the art study." Beel said, "It's far more open in the atrium, and thus you're less likely to break something. Besides the fact that all your important documentation is located in the back, and we don't need any premature mishaps correct?"

"Yeah yeah..." The door shut behind them and hummed, a low seafoam green color shining around the frame. No one else would likely be getting in any time soon, unless they had the means or the importance.

Beel sure as ******** wasn't wrong though; the atrium dome was stories high. "This way." He motioned for the duo to follow.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

He's just worried about you, he thought and figured Shiloh knew it, even if Beel played it more like a naggy nanny than a concerned friend. Now Jamie on the other hand, he didn't particularly try to mask his worry over the illness. If he so much as coughed a little too much... Well, things had gone okay so far. As long as that held up, he knew they had lots of work to do.

"Thanks for the help, Beel." As they followed, Jamie lifted his nose to the sky, a pleasant look on his face. "It smells nice here," he commented out of the blue, carefully shifting the load in his arms.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Thank you," Beel said as he stood a little straighter, "It took me some time to restore this space to its former glory." Honestly, with the expanse of the demesne, it felt more like a forest within a shopping mall. Trees held impressive canopies over their heads, flowering vines and bushes were neatly trimmed along the walkways...

"You'll like the streams, I think. A shame you don't have more time to dawdle." Said stream was a long, working length of water that snaked along the entire atrium, ghostly looking koi and other strange fish filling the waters. Somewhere were the other-turtles that Gloom had brought by. "Perhaps when you're done."

The meeting area they finally arrived at was quickly set up with a series of chairs and a desk. "Thanks Beel," Shiloh told his fetch as he excused himself. Providing refreshments was just as important as this process they were about to undertake. "Well, no time like the present, right?" Shiloh sat down in one of the chairs, but after a moment he shrugged and moved to the grassy floor, the load in his arms deposited next to him. "S'comfier down here." He explained.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

It really was a sight to behold. Not just a sight, either—there was something for every sense. Jamie wouldn't have minded spending so much longer here. Wasting away hours enjoying Shiloh and Beel's company (and the scenery) would've been easy.

"You'll definitely let me see all of the streams sometime after we're done right?" he asked Shiloh as he flopped down to the grass next to him. Everything he'd collected joined the rest of it. They did have quite a bit.

Picking up one of the conch shells, he turned it over in his hands. "Do we want to actually try to like... create a mini ocean in here?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Well, here's the thing..." He cleared his throat as he tried to ignore the scratchiness, "Have you ever met Gloom? He's an othercreature. He gave me an object that was kind of like a... a terrarium, but the space inside of it was way bigger than what it looked like." He leaned over, their arms brushing together.

"So I mean... why couldn't we, y'know?" He looked over at him, "Remember our mind link? It makes our magic way stronger, and I'm a principal, so... we should be able to do whatever we set our minds to, I think." He smiled, "Even if we mess up a little, it'll just be 'cause we're inexperienced." His hand found Jamie's, his touch delicate despite the roughness of his fingers. "So, I'm thinkin' we should try the drift thing... and see where it goes, if you're okay with that."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Oh yeah, I've met Gloom. Only once, really. He was kinda funny." Leaning into the touch was a reaction so natural that Jamie didn't even realize he was doing it. The conch was temporarily abandoned in his lap as Shiloh stole his hand. "That sounds cool, though."

So yeah, he was right, they could absolutely do it. After all, they could do anything. It was magic in the most basic of terms, but Jamie found himself believing more often than not that they could accomplish whatever they wanted if they had faith in it and in themselves. "I want to try," he said, voice damn near whimsical in its affection. "I do, I wanna see what all we can do. Together."

He leaned in, bumping his head gently against Shiloh's.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh laughed, "That's so gay man." But he was nuzzling right back, eyes closed but expression full of affection. "We can do it though. It's not a question of trying."

He leaned back then, legs criss cross applesauce'n all up. "I know we don't actually have to be close for the drift to work, but I wanna." He huffed, "It's been a while, so come here." He held his arms out, "Bring... the conch. We can both put our hands over it or something." Pause, "Actually, if we're trying to put the ocean in it, maybe we should've done this by the ocean..."

Beel made a retch of a sound when he came back, "Honestly, it's like you're both sixteen and it's your first date. It's ******** gross." He had a tray of water with him, "Besides the fact that you can't just stuff magic into an object and hope it sticks. You'd need to do a lot more legwork than that."

Shiloh was gawking.

saedusk

AND I NEED NEED AND I NEED NEED I NEED AND I NEED FOREVER AND I NEED YOU MORE NEED FOREVER

 

[saedusk]

Shiloh was gawking, but Jamie was blushing. Conch in hand, he was halfway to settling himself right in Shiloh's lap all comfy and cozy like. Now he was frozen in place like he'd been caught stealing a cooking from the jar.

"Don't be so mean, Beel," he huffed, plopping back into the grass right where he was. So what if they were still having fun with their relationship? This sort of silly, fun-loving playfulness was the kind of s**t Jamie lived on, no, thrived on. The fact that Shiloh was so receptive of it only made him feel good about himself.

"But... if that's the case, um..." he fiddled with the conch in his hands, "What would you recommend we do? Should we do more research?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Beel only shook his head as he sat in the chair like a civilized person would. "Like I said, it just isn't so simple. You're trying to create a construct that harbors the embodiment of water, correct?" He looked down at the conch shell as Jamie carefully removed himself from Shiloh's person. "Often times gems can be used to facilitate that. In other instances it depends on the integrity of the material being presented... a conch has a far different role than a clam shell, and the same phenomenon can be observed with different wood and such." He sipped the water; how he didn't spill a drop without lips was quite impressive. "The colors involved can play a part too, even the cycles of the moon in certain casting."

He set the glass down.

"But I suppose a lot of that is relative, too. Having an object like... perhaps a pearl? Aquamarines? Is that too obvious?" He laughed, but the sound was grizzled and rumbly like thunder, "The water is meant to sustain and refresh. To house an endless ocean definitely meets that end, but it's quite an undertaking..."

"So you think if we could find some shiny rocks and cram 'em in the shell?" Shiloh drawled, obviously unenthusiastic about the impromptu magic lesson.

"Honestly, you can be so crass." Beel sighed. "I only used them as a suggestion. If you want to imbue it with the power of the ocean though, I would suggest using a number of items from the ocean itself. The scales of Otherfish perhaps, mother of pearl, even eyes can be quite potent," He spared a glance at Jamie, "But I doubt you'd want to cause lasting harm to anything aquatic, so."

He gestured to the streams, "It isn't the ocean, but I've stocked the waterways in here with a variety of other-worldly things, if you'd want to peruse them."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Like he'd done to Shiloh before, Jamie silently crossed his arms over his chest in an x, but otherwise didn't interrupt. Lasting harm to anything aquatic, definitely not! Well, he supposed it might sound hypocritical that he liked to eat fish in that case, but there was a difference to him in respecting them as a life-giving meal and blinding them needlessly for the sake of a magical experiment. That was the definite no here.

If nothing else, he actually had enjoyed the magic lesson, even if Shiloh hadn't.

"It'll be fun," he assured, touching Shiloh's arm, then quickly rising to his feet. "The sooner we get it done, the sooner we can get to work, right?" The smile he wore betrayed the fact he wasn't disappointed about getting to play in the lovely streams. He couldn't wait to see what they found.

"Let's go!" Except he was already running off through the grass. When had he removed his shoes?

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Beel rolled his eyes, but it looked like he was following to supervise if anything. Shiloh made a face at him, Beel whacked his arm, Shiloh whacked him back, and then Jamie was running off and Shiloh took the opportunity to take off after him. For Shiloh though, he didn't have to remove his shoes.

"What the ******** man."

Beel was laughing a little, "I think you look pretty." He said to his patron, who was now in the arguably "summer time beach fun" version of his court attire, the dark purples and ribbons mesh and suitable for water. Even though his chest was bare, the Court seemed kind in giving him wet suit like sleeves that connected up around the collar of his neck. "Anyway, try not to get too distracted. You might find some fish bones in there too as I think of it... I tried to pick co-habitable species, but you know how wildlife gets..."

"Oh look, it got Jamie too." Beel observed noncommittally.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Taking off his own shoes—yes, he'd done it, even if no one had noticed—seemed to set off a chain reaction in a totally unaware Jamie as he ran for the nearest stream. It was only when he made it, the crystal clear water reflecting his appearance like a mirror, that his eyes widened and his mouth drooped and he spun back around on Shiloh in literal awe. "What happened?!" he exclaimed.

Where Jamie was shirtless, too, his bottoms were closer to the bathing suit variety, swirled in shimmery cotton candy colors, and surrounded by a short skirt that grew longer and wavy in the back. The same sheer fabric that made the skirt was banded to his upper arms with glittering silver jewelry, making an almost-capulet of pink and blue. Somehow, someway, his hair was pulled back into a cute ponytail, as well. Dotted around his neck and wrists and ankles was even more silver jewelry.

"Oh my gosh, Shiloh, your outfit changed, too...."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Your's is so much more pretty though." He said as he ran over to him. "But I mean, it suits you? Court is ********' weird."

He stepped onto the stream, but balked when he was standing on the water and not in it.

"Oh," Beel didn't seem all that surprised, "I had that put into place in case idiots tried to tamper with my landscaping. My apologies—" He snapped, Shiloh fell into the water, but it was only halfway to his knees at the deepest. "—Oh, but you know what I realized? Here I am asking you to find items..."

Shiloh looked up.

"It's as if I'm sending you on a fetch quest." He laughed, "Well go on. Try not to drown Shiloh, I know you can't swim. It would be very untimely and somewhat humiliating on my part if my peers learned I lent the death of my Noble patron as well as a principal." Pause. "Not that they know you're a principal, but I suppose the cat would be out of the bag, wouldn't it?"

"Oh my god don't you have anything better to do." Shiloh huffed.

Beel gave a silent look around the atrium.

"Okay whatever." Point taken; Shiloh flushed a little, "Let's look around then. Pearls, fish bones, scales... What if we did the same thing with the terrarium and stuffed an otherfish inside? Like, voluntarily. I dunno." He started to wade through the water.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Jamie tried so hard not to laugh when Beel pulled the figurative rug out from under Shiloh. He succeeded, mostly. Shiloh might have felt a tiny, rippling giggle in his mind if he was paying enough attention. Hopefully not.

Wading in—if you could considering shin-deep water significant enough for wading, really—he helped Shiloh back to his feet. And then promptly, unsurprisingly, plopped right over so as much of his body was covered as possible. Oh, how Jamie loved the water. It was such a comfortable sensation, the gentle, soothing flow of the stream.

"It's a fun fetch quest at least," Jamie joked, fingers poking at the rocks below. "I dunno about a fish, but maybe... the full experience? Does that even make sense? The sound, the smells..." As he daydreamed about it, something brushed past his hip, making him jump. When he looked, all he saw were bones. Wait, no, they were... they were moving?

"A bone fish," he murmured, voice full of wonder, "I think Shiloh would like this..."

Unbeknownst to Jamie, the waves that moved the water next weren't caused by wind, but by his voice, now trapped beneath the surface. It flowed downstream towards Shiloh.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh was helped up, but Jamie was gone as quickly as he had come, swimming off... to somewhere. Alone again; or well, alone with Beel.

Beel, who had conjured up a cheap looking fold out chair, like the ones you see by pools. He was wearing shorts now and had a sunhat, despite the atrium being bathed in a perpetual overcast. He made a go on motion with his hands and took out a notebook with a pencil. Was he taking notes? What a pretentious d**k.

"I think Shiloh would like this..."

Shiloh spun around like there was a ghost right behind him, except it was Jamie's voice and Jamie wasn't dead, but Jamie also wasn't there. "Jame?" He looked around, but to no avail.

"Focus on the mission, Shiloh." Said Beel. So it was a test then? Was he being graded? What a pretentious d**k!

Whatever. Shiloh huffed as he wandered downstream, his eyes scanning the clear water below.

saedusk