♌ 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

[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.