GRATIA // PSL

[birdsbirdsbirds]

"The Archive", as people call it, is the single-greatest collection of written information in all of Skeleton City. It is a massive, multi-leveled cylindrical chamber filled with concentric rings of tall, imposing shelves made from wood, metal, and occasionally, the cave walls themselves. Large platforms are suspended on stone bridges above and below the main level, allowing for study spaces and the occasional, separated collection. The space is hushed, as these spaces usually are, with most of the sounds of shuffling feet or conversation reduced to muffled background static between the rows of soft binding and thin parchment. High up in the ceiling is a large, back-lit, stained-glass window, which casts the entire chamber in dim, gently-shifting colors.

Despite all this, it's actually rather boring. There are very few actual books in this library, and most of those are recently-written biographies, historical accounts, philosophical texts, or extremely repetitive business ledgers. The rest of the space is taken up by scrolls, loose files, and what amount to simple index cards. A significant chunk of the Archive is taken up by identification records and police procedural. You could probably look up any recorded crime from any day in the past three decades, but good luck finding simple field guide or a scrap of poetry. The only people who frequent this building are religious scholars, hired detectives, and the spies who actually know how to read.

There are treasures to be found, of course, interesting folk stories or old books that have been lovingly hand-copied by someone onto a six-part series of scrolls, but the effort is not worth the prize for very long. The Archive also has a significant lack of information regarding magic or the existence of monsters, which is why it has taken Robin so long to find anything even remotely relevant to his current plight.

He's still where Tek left him, tucked into a desk near the edge of the room, mostly out-of-sight of the main walking paths but not so hidden away that he couldn't be wandered-upon by another visitor. At this point he's amassed several stacks of old-looking articles, genealogy charts, and weathered journals, and has slowly progressed from sitting like a human to hunching over some written account with his legs crossed and his head propped up by a gloved hand.

He hasn't found the answer he was looking for. He has some ideas, vague scraps of information that he could scrape together into a cover story... But if worse comes to worse, he'll be going up against someone almost as smart as he is, so vague ideas will only buy him time. They won't fix the problem.

The big... dragon-shaped, magic-using, monster-attracting problem.

He's not actually confident on the causality of that last one, but his research into that has not gone much better than his research into a new cover story. He's very wrapped up in his own busy thoughts by the time his aforementioned problem comes looking for him.

Comments

[heresyandlace]

It's funny, no matter how many places like this that Tek discovers, over decades and centuries, in darkened corners across every land, all throughout entirely disparate worlds, it always ends up the same. There is the initial rush of curiosity and nostalgia, basking in the familiar scents of aging paper, dust, and vellum, excited to dive in to a brand new sea of information... but it only lasts a little while before the inevitable disappointment sets in. He never finds what he's looking for, really. The little treasures never feel quite worth it. Every time, the best part is imagining all the things that he might find, and everything after that just falls short.

He considers himself easy to please, of course. All he needs is a few good tomes on languages, historical stories, or forgotten secrets. How hard could it possibly be to find something entertaining?

As it turns out, it's only a matter of time before he decides that if he runs into one more stale, unillustrated genealogy chart, he's going to have to rip it into confetti just to make something interesting happen. So, it's in the best interest of everyone that he gives up and tracks Robin down.

When he does find Robin, he strolls up behind him, invites himself to droop down onto his shoulder, and read around him.

"What's this?"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Robin's energy bristles a little when the dragon gets close, his awareness scurrying clumsily from whatever he was reading to the wider space around him... But the difference is quick, a flutter that ends in a low grunt as Tek leans on his entire shoulder and drapes into his collapsed little world.

"Ah, this is..." Robin rubs at one of his eyes with the heel of his hand, the first time he's moved in a half-hour. He sounds a little distracted. He feels like his brain is starting to melt. "...Old police article, L'rochian ninth, some account of a b'rabja wandering through the early Up-Top settlements. Colorful witness accounts, completely unreliable..."

And despite his sounding rather tired of the whole thing, he squints back down at the page to try to find wherever he left off, as if he actually intends to continue reading.

[heresyandlace]

And Tek murmurs an acknowledgement that could almost be mistaken for interest. He even leans up off of Robin's shoulder again, giving the other a breath of space to himself and a hope that he might be allowed to get back to work.

However, when the dragon settles again, it's to turn and half-sit on the edge of the desk wherever there happens to be room enough for him to do so, and pick up the nearest piece of parchment without regard for which particular pile it came from.

"Do we have enough of anything to work with, yet?"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Robin would have gone back to work, had Tek not hovered back into his peripheral and spoken up about something. Having lost the track again, he turns his head to look fully in the direction of the person half-sitting on his desk. He fixes him with a flat look, though his palm is now partly-smashed against his mouth as a result of being too lazy to move it from where he had been using it prop up his head against the desk.

"Sort of."

It takes him an extra couple of seconds to say anything else as he stares, blearily trying to fight off the thought that Tek is a much more interesting subject than whatever he's reading about... Even if he's also the reason he's reading in the first place.

"Just enough to stall... But I think I'm getting close to something, with these..."

He glances back at his papers again... They can't take anything out with them, so unless he wants to dig through all of this again some other day, he really needs to finish what's left in his pile. It's just a few more articles and a couple of boxes of census cards, shouldn't take more than an hour...

[heresyandlace]

The paper (probably accidentally) gets set back down in a completely different pile than it had started out in. A finished article being returned to the pending pile, perhaps. Tek doesn't seem to notice.

"Oh, good. So we're almost done, then."

A statement more than a question, of course. And he picks up another piece of parchment to inspect.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

It sounds like a statement to Robin, who would have considered simply sharing his time prediction with Tek if the sentence had not had so much flippant finality to it. Tek is giving him a nudge, and no matter what world they're in, he feels compelled to nudge back.

"I'm sorry," he says, looking back at Tek with a growing smirk still half-underneath his fingers, "Are you getting bored?"

He does not look nearly alert enough to be irritated or offended... but it sure isn't a genuine apology, either.

[heresyandlace]

Tek's attention lifts from the page and returns to Robin with a matching little smirk. And as if it's completely coincidental, this paper gets set down in a completely different wrong pile. It might not have made it into a real pile at all, if anyone is really paying attention.

He also wants to be a little closer to his friend, so he "straightens" some of the papers beside him out of the way, so that he has more room to sit on the edge of the desk and scoot over a bit. He'd like at least some part of his leg to be touching Robin's, if he can help it.

"I've just reached a wall in finding anything else helpful, I think. I wanted to see where you were at."

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Robin glances over Tek's direct acts of sabotage with a growing glimmer of irritation, but does absolutely nothing about it. Especially as the other scoots close enough to bump a leg into his knee, he finds this obvious challenge very frustrating... But not entirely unwelcome.

"Oh, good."

Tek didn't say he was bored, so... Robin pointedly turns back to look at the paper in front of him. As if he was determined to actually finish (even though those two articles he had specifically set aside are now mashed in with a pile of things he's already read, which would make him waste a good fifteen minutes all on its own), he starts looking for his place on the page one more time.

"I'll just be another hour. That should be everything."

[heresyandlace]

Tek leans too, looking over to inspect the page upside-down from where he's at. As he does so, he scoots over a little more and resettles. As he resettles, he casually bumps Robin's knee to the side with his, so that the pattern of their legs now alternate.

He's looking down at the paper and not at Robin's face. He sounds so innocent when he asks, "Another hour?"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

He technically asked for this. He could have acknowledged Tek's distractions at any level, and it would have been a greater deterrent than giving him no acknowledgement at all. Yet, somehow... He is still surprised at just how obnoxious the dragon can be about it.

So if Tek enjoys being a genuine pest, he's going to love the irritated sigh that comes hissing out of Robin like an air vent.

"Unless you would like to help me read." He suggests this with a tilt of his head, glancing upwards in his botherer's direction. "That would speed things up."

[heresyandlace]

He does love it. Robin can feel it in the subtleties of the dragon's body language. Just a little lazier and more forward as Robin feeds him little bits of what he wants.

He dresses it up like compromise. "I don't know about you, but it feels like my eyes couldn't focus on another word if they tried... What about a break first?"

And then they can diligently get back to work, of course. He bumps Robin's knee again--much more companionable and coaxing this time--with the leg trapped between both of his.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Oh, the familiar pang of regret. Too little and too late, he realizes that he literally has no choice, and that if he seriously wants to finish his reading, he'd have to give up something he cares about a lot more... Someone paying attention to him.

He might have been able to muster up a shred of self-control, say, a month ago, but the dragon's recent exploits with a certain, slimy individual have left him more wanting for Tek's undivided attention than usual. He'd be skipping out on much-needed reassurance if he told Tek to fuck off now.

So... after a tortured pause, he sighs again, uncrossing his legs under the guise of stretching them for the first time in an hour. Well, maybe not so much a guise. They really were starting to get stiff.

"Here I am, trying to keep you out of trouble..." He can't let this go without some griping, saving face as if there was actually something to save. "...And you can't make it one more hour."

His smirk is back, of course.

[heresyandlace]

"Does that meant you don't want a break? You looked so serious, I thought it might be good for you."

With his victory now secured, he allows himself to look plainly triumphant, leaning in a little and letting his smirk spread wide across his face. He's free to push his luck as far as he can, now.

"I'm just trying to help."

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Sometime after falling asleep on each other, they're interrupted up by another couple coming back to find their room unlocked and their bed already occupied. The noise is enough to stir both of them to consciousness, though neither one of them does much more than wave smugly from where they've thoroughly claimed the room as their own.

As the couple storms off, the two of them double down on getting comfy--Robin finally kicking off his shoes before helping the other out of his remaining clothes. They exchange comfortable kisses and little gestures along the way, even as the desk attendant wordlessly shuffles in to retrieve the other couple's bags, leave a room key on the table, and lock the door properly behind him.

They settle again, snuggled up under soft, stolen sheets. Tek can feel Robin's breath rise and fall in his chest, soft exhales against his neck as the demigod falls back into a blissfully dreamless sleep. And then time passes--it's still "daytime" when Tek wakes up again, so they've either been here for a few hours, or have slept so long that the interior lights have cycled forward into a whole new day.

Robin is already awake. He hasn't gone far; he's propped himself up on some pillows, but still has one of his arms wrapped around Tek, still about as close to the other as he can get. He's looking at a piece of paper--something that Tek may or may not remember him grabbing in the middle of their adventure in the Archive. He's reading it attentively, but in the few moments before he notices that Tek is awake, he looks unguarded relaxed and seems pleased about whatever it is that he's reading.

[heresyandlace]

Tek is in no hurry--to think, to wake up, to acknowledge the existence of the rest of the world around him--so he indulges himself in watching Robin's unwitting face for as long as he can get away with. A full minute or so slips by in peace before he finally must admit that he is indeed awake and engaging with reality.

And when he does officially make the transition into the waking world, it's to groan and stretch out an arm dramatically across the article in Robin's hand, interrupting his reading. Call it an homage to what had started this whole thing off in the first place.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Ah. The dragon makes his consciousness known.

After the fun they'd had, Robin is not nearly as put-out with Tek's interruption as he had been back in the Archive... So he rolls his eyes and sighs a little and says "Good morning, Magpie," as dryly as he can manage, but hardly hesitates to put his paper off to the side and start running his fingers affectionately through the other's hair.

[heresyandlace]

It is apparently still too "early" for words, as Tek's only answer is to happily groan and murmur while Robin plays with his hair. And with the way he wriggles himself up a little to be closer to Robin, take up more space where he drapes across his chest, he doesn't seem all that interested in waking up enough to become any more coherent.

In fact, he maybe seems intent on falling right back to sleep, happily pinning Robin there for the rest of his life.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

There's a soft laugh at the edge of Robin's breath as he continues petting Tek's hair, running his fingers over his scalp and dragging his nails lightly and affectionately over the other's neck. He doesn't have any reason to go anywhere, or move, or pretend he wants anything other than to be lavished with sleepy affection--so there are no complaints from him.

"Fine, fine..." He can't help but continue talking a little, even if just to keep Tek conscious enough to weigh in on his next decision, "Do you want me to order food?"

He figures it's the one thing Tek might go for, outside of more sleeping.

[heresyandlace]

Oh... yes. Robin does in fact know him very well.

If there is any question that might have a hope of actually piquing his interest at this level of contentment, it would be that one. The dragon even opens his eyes for it.

Without turning his head or moving the rest of his body an inch (he wouldn't want to interrupt Robin's doting) he peers up at Robin with lazy curiosity.

"...Food?"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

And Robin rewards his participation with more attention, continuing to lazily drag his fingers over Tek's neck as he explains.

"I've paid for the room, technically. We get room service. They'll bring things here."

So they don't even have to leave. Robin can keep soaking up affection and Tek can continue his campaign of laziness for many more hours. And someone will feed him at the end.

Robin looks over at Tek after that, wanting to catch his beautiful face... but also interested in looking at his neck and shoulders, to see just how many marks have stuck around.

[heresyandlace]

Between the promise of food being delivered basically right to his face and the nails dragging over his neck, Tek closes his eyes again and sinks into a very pleased smile. Like an animal, he arches his neck, craning his head to the side so that Robin has plenty of room to scratch... and incidentally gaze at the evidence left behind from all of their fun.

Dragons heal much quicker than mortals do, but apparently nothing compared to the rate of demigods. Robin's skin may have patched itself up back to flawlessness by now, but Tek's still shows telltale speckles and fingerprints of darkness just under the surface. Some of the bruises will even end up showing above the line of his tastefully high collar whenever he deigns to get dressed again.

Robin has successfully made his mark. Their hours of debauchery have, at least for some time, been recorded in flesh. It's a victory. At the very least, Robin can say that Tek has never come home from a jaunt with his clothier friend looking like that.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Seeing his work laid out like a map of constellations fills him with a sudden swell of affection, pride, even a little jealousy. He can't help but wish that his own marks would have stayed. It's a fleeting thought, though, nothing compared to the joy of slowly recounting the events that led them to this comfortable, perfect little place.

Tek can feel Robin's fingers slow down as he gets distracted, but only because he's brought his other hand to his own mouth to feel where he remembers Tek biting him very, very hard. He swears he can almost taste the ghost of broken skin, and it makes him smile.

"Missed you," he mumbles, the absent thought tumbling fondly between his lips before he can even consider not saying it. Maybe he realizes that it's kind of an embarrassing, stupid thing to say, because he follows it by nuzzling his face against Tek's soft, nice-smelling hair instead of doing any more talking.

[heresyandlace]

It is kind of an embarrassing, silly thing to hear spoken out loud like that, regardless of the fact that Tek may or may not agree with it. It's one of those things that causes a small, nameless pang inside of him--but things are too comfortable and Robin is too quick to distract him again for the feeling to take hold for more than a second. The fickle dragon only gets as far as hesitating and opening his eyes, before Robin snuggles into his hair and soothes him again.

He does smell nice, but different. Tek must have used whatever of Robin's had been within reach when he'd last taken a shower, instead of using something of his own, because his hair smells like his friend's usually does. Clean and perfumed and overly familiar. Who knows if there had been a reason for it at the time.

And even though Tek doesn't feel compelled to push back against Robin's little comment, he does still feel the need to say something. Letting the words hang there and take up space in the silence is almost as bad as addressing them. So, Tek wriggles up higher against Robin's chest, settling again once his face is nearly resting on his shoulder--barely interrupting his grateful, boneless lounging, and only looking minimally more awake.

"What were you looking at?"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

It's funny, for all the worlds they've visited and all the strange places they've wound up together, he doesn't think that Tek has ever smelled like his things before. It's almost enough to make him blush, that sudden realization that they're living together a little more than they usually are, almost like a real couple.

And that's a really stupid thought, so he definitely does not say anything about it. It just makes him all the more willing to move on when Tek asks his question, looking over for that little piece of paper again.

"This? I, ah, snatched it before we left." He picks it up with a spreading grin. It's just a clipping from some news article. It looks old. No pictures, with a clunky-looking typeface that's too small and squashed together to be easily readable. "I figured they'd be too busy trying to kick us out to search either of us properly. Maybe I can report them for failing to follow mandatory protocol."

He holds the paper up towards the lamp next to him (an electric bulb, harsh light softened by a tinted glass case), revealing something else. Thin lines, scribbles, and a few shapes come through, illuminated brighter than the rest of the page.

[heresyandlace]

"I can only imagine the screaming that would cause."

Reported for a breach of protocol by the man who had been caught screwing on their documents? The thought is horrifying enough to almost get a chuckle out of him.

But, he's feeling too lazy and content to put forth effort into actually make a sound. He settles for quiet smirking, while he leans over only an inch or two toward the paper as if the motion will make a difference in him seeing it more clearly. It's mostly just to show that he's interested, so that Robin will continue feeding him information that he doesn't have to work for.

Entertain him while he sprawls here, please.

"...Anything good?"