♌ And Everyone's a Mind Reader - [OPEN]

[fundemetal]

Who: Leo and anyone
When: All week [Aug 19-25]
Where: Around Vatheon
Style: Will match
Status: Open

If he could, Leo would have holed up in his house all week. But he was never good at just sitting around. And there were things he needed to get that his tool belt couldn't provide. Or that his tool belt would take ridiculous amounts of time to provide.

The thought bubble wouldn't go away. He'd tried several times and it just lingered there, just out of his line of sight unless he looked into a mirror. He felt like a Sim, the only thing he was missing was the green plumbob over his head. Maybe he'd make one later.

Whenever he had to venture out, he'd try to keep his thoughts racing fast enough that no one would be able to make sense out of the symbols and words that filled the bubble. Or he'd focus on a single thought that he didn't care if anyone saw, usually whatever he was heading out for.

Neither method was perfect and it was near impossible to do whenever he wound up talking to someone. His thoughts varied from the mundane to the depressing to the flat out crazy and absurd.

Comments

August 19th

[terribubbly]

[ It's right smack in the middle of the plaza that she sees him walking by, and Feferi can hardly help herself. She bolts over to him, grinning with her characteristic exuberance. ]

Leo! Water you doing there?

[ She has a rather simple thoughtbubble of her own-- the contents are watery, oddly relaxed, and there's suddenly a small purple-pink cuttlefish swimming around a lionfish. ]

Did you notice your funny little fishbowl yet?

[ As if it would be hard to notice. ]

[fundemetal]

Just visiting the coral.

[He smiles as he looks at her thought bubble. In her case it really is like a fishbowl, though his own flashes between ^_^ and -_-# a few times at the mention of his. Leo's not thrilled by the curse, but at least Feferi isn't someone he's worried about seeing his thoughts. He likes her and when he gets past his frustration at the bubble it stalls on the happy face.]

Yeah, I noticed it. Kinda hard to miss. How're you?

[terribubbly]

Oh, I'm just fintastic.

[ She is absolutely sincere about it, too. It's reflected in her bubble, even, though soon there are weird tentacles wrapping around a growing coral-like structure. It was intended to be a hug, probably.

Or maybe attempted murder? ]

I love it when the coral gives us presents like this.

[fundemetal]

Wouldn't exactly call this a present.

[His thought bubble shows an upside down christmas stocking and a pile of lumps of coal.]

But glad you're happy with it.

[And he is, though he kind of worries about that image in her thought bubble. It's reflected in his own surrounded by question marks.]

[terribubbly]

What? Why don't you like it?

[ She seems legitimately perplexed. ]

It's great, nobubbly has to worry about what's going on with anyone else!

[fundemetal]

'Cause I think about things I don't want to talk about. And if I think about them and people can see, then they'll ask about it.

[And as proof, while he's talking about that, images flash of a woman engulfed in flames. It's only there for a moment, but it's easy enough to see. The thought is pushed away by a bittersweet memory of him working side by side and sharing a smile in a machine shop with the same woman when he was in early elementary school.]

20th

[shippingmath]

Leo isn't the only one who's been affected by the curse by far. Dirk had spent the first day of the curse in his house, struggling to deal with the bubble and to figure out a way to keep it from being too damning.

By Tuesday, he thinks he can manage to keep anything important from showing up in it, so he heads out. It goes pretty well, thinking his way through one of the old history texts he'd found online.

That is, it goes well until he catches sight of someone familiar. He adjusts his path to head in Leo's direction. "Leo, yo." There's a little question mark floating in the bubble just over his shoulder.

[fundemetal]

When Leo hears Dirk's voice his bubble flashes a heart that is instantaneously replaced with just a smiley face. He hopes that Dirk didn't notice, which results in a face with hands covering its eyes appearing in the thought bubble.

"Sup?" He says, clearing his thoughts back to something more mundane, this time a pair of fists as he reaches out with his own for a fist bum.

[shippingmath]

The fist bump is returned with aplomb, if the little thumbs-up in Dirk's thought bubble is any indication. Certainly it means that his attention hadn't been drawn by the little heart, though there are still a few question marks lingering at the edges of his bubble.

"Just going out," he says, as parts of his thoughts flash by with images of groceries. "You?" His guess is the nostalgia nook for more supplies.

[fundemetal]

It's easy enough to see that Dirk actually does have a plan for where he's going, and a thought to where Leo's heading. Groceries flash in his bubble followed by an image of Festus' head.

"Thanks for reminding me I needed some groceries, bro. But yeah, I was heading to get some more celestial bronze. Wanna come with?" He hopes that Dirk says yes, and that hope is reflected in his thought bubble. It's innocent enough though that he doesn't mind that being seen.

[shippingmath]

Even with the thought bubble to serve as positive feedback, Dirk doesn't hesitate to nod. "Lead the way. I'd sure as hell like to see what kind of place you have in the Nostalgia Nook anyway." His bubble flashes briefly with a place filled with a number of strange insectile commodities, legacies of the troll's impact on the world. "Getting ready to work on Festus? I can come back to your place and help out."

[fundemetal]

"Sure thing." Leo studied Dirk's thought bubble as he thought about the shop for his world or worlds or whatever. (He still didn't get how that all worked.) The fact that so much of its stock pertained to bugs didn't surprise him and his own thought bubble reflected that.

"Yeah, finally finished editing those schematics. Thanks again for all your help with that. And yeah, I'd like that." His thought bubble showed them working closely together on building Festus. Close being quite literal. He quickly halted that train of thought though and focused on leading the way to the Camp Half-Blood related store in the Nostalgia Nook.

[shippingmath]

Unfortunately for Leo, Dirk is very much focused on Leo's thought bubble , for the pictures of the shop it might provide. It means he absolutely notices the image of them working together, though fortunately his mind mostly focuses on the project itself, though there is a brief flash of the two of them leaning over their work, shoulders almost touching.

It's gone a few mere moments later, replaced by flashes of the Camp Half-blood store Dirk picked up from Leo's own thoughts, and little comparisons to pictures of historical greek artifacts Dirk's seen on the internet at some time. "C'mon, then, let's get started."

[fundemetal]

"Let's hit up the Nostalgia Nook first." He headed in that direction, quickly guiding them to the shop in near silence.

The entire walk there his mind is racing with various thoughts. Some to do with building Festus Jr., some to do with the contents of the shop and some to do with Dirk, mainly things they'd done together in the time since Leo realized his crush. The latter ones are short flashes, like he's trying to hide them or not think about them.

[shippingmath]

Curiouser and curiouser. Dirk never appears to be looking directly at Leo's thought bubble, but occasionally his thoughts reflect the things appearing in Leo's. His thoughts always go back to the plans for Festus, or the route to the Nostalgia nook, but if Leo's paying attention, he's sure to notice.

[fundemetal]

The closer they get to the shop, the more Leo's eyes keep drifting over to Dirk's thought bubble. And seeing some of those same things he's thinking reflected there puts what is probably the most confusing image to anyone not him into his thought bubble.

It's Karkat and Dirk with question marks and a heart. Which to Leo makes sense because he was asking Karkat advice on confessing to Dirk. But to anyone else, it probably looks like he's wondering if there's a thing going on with Dirk and Kakat. His thoughts kind of freeze on that for a long moment before Karkat disappears from the picture.

And then the question marks disappear. And then Leo disappears behind a tree because Oh gods. Yeah, he just thought all of that and now he's struggling not to catch the tree on fire. At least his thought bubble now shows a tree on fire instead of his feelings for Dirk.

[shippingmath]

And now it's just downright weird. Seriously, what is with everyone and picturing him with the wrong person in their thought bubble this week.

He can't not comment on it, but Leo makes it even harder to ignore by running off like that. Seriously, a tree? Dirk even takes a few steps closer, though he doesn't actually step around it. "Leo, bro, what the hell?"

[fundemetal]

"Uh... yeah... um," he says, stalling for a moment to think, the thought bubble now showing Dirk again, this time with him and not Karkat. "So... remember that convo we had way back when. In May? And I said you were an 8?" The bubble now shows the number 8 above Dirk's head and it gets crossed out and replaced with a 10.

Leo is still hiding behind the tree because facing Dirk right now is just too much for his nerves. He takes a deep breath as he waits for Dirk to reply.

21st

[findsrisks]

Dealing with thought bubbles was more difficult than Nanaki had initially thought. While she had a pretty good poker face, she wasn't used to hiding her thoughts as well as her emotions, so oftentimes her thought bubble conflicted with what she showed on the outside.

Today was no exception. While she was keeping a weary smile on her face, her thought bubble was gloomy and grey, not unlike a rain cloud. She was in a bad mood, and it showed way more than she would have hoped.

When she saw Leo, though, it brightened up a bit. Leo was one of Nanaki's good friends, and seeing him helped to lift her spirits. Her thought bubble became noticeably brighter, and she smiled as she gave him a friendly wave. "Hey there!"

[fundemetal]

"Sup, Nanaki?" Leo asked, cheerfully. He was glad to see her even if he still felt awkward about that last curse. His thought bubble is a mess of emotions and question marks.

[findsrisks]

"Not much," Nanaki said, though her attention was quickly drawn to his bubble of confusion, "How about you? Got something on your mind?"

[fundemetal]

"I'm good." When asked if he had something on his mind a naked Nanaki (with censor bars over her boobs and lady bits) flashed in his bubble before being replaced with just her face. He blushed and hoped she hadn't noticed it. But she probably did.

[findsrisks]

Oh god.

Nanaki doesn't yell at Leo, like she did with Devit, but she does turn pink in the face and quickly look away. She's really hoping the previous hearts and question marks have nothing to do with the naked mental images.

"I-I'm not mad at you for that," she said quickly, stumbling over her words a bit at the beginning, "We were both kind of stuck with that curse, so...yeah." Her bubble is full of grey squigglies at the moment.

But she will try to change the subject, to get Leo's mind off of her body. "So, uh, I was thinking. It's going to be fall soon, right? Do you think it'll get cold enough for the leaves the change color?"