[open]

[suddenlybees]

Who: Kano & OTA
What: magic practice, pettiness, finals
Where: Lumière, greenhouse, library
When: mid-month, before finals
Warnings: self-harm for prompt i., none expected for the rest
Notes: details of Kano's new Fey Contract can be found on his app

i. Lumière dormitory rooftop
[ Fey magic is a really... terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. But Kano is determined to make it work, this new Contract that he'd forged a couple of days ago, but it's just so different from his usual illusion magic that he'd worked ten whole years to get to the point where he is now, illusions seamless and effortless compared to him staring at his arm right now wondering what he's doing wrong?

Because his arm is bleeding, a bloody knife on his lap while he pokes at the wound with his other hand and it just comes back bloody, him wincing because it hurts and why isn't the magic working? There's nothing intuitive about this at all, and he has no idea how he's supposed to make it work, with the magic supposed to be healing and dulling pain but it's just doing the opposite for him, the pain making it hard to keep a smile on his face, and making him feel like crying a little.

With a sigh, he waves hand over the bleeding cut instead of touching it, and it disappears— simply masked underneath an illusion, but it's still there while he tries to figure out how to do this, preferably before he bleeds out.

It won't come to it, though. He has three years worth of band-aids stocked up, and he knew they would be useful someday. ]

ii. campus, on the way to the greenhouse or inside
[ But you know what always makes up for terrible days? Even more terrible ideas to get your mind off previous ones. This one isn't that bad, though, because it's something that'll have positive long-term consequences. Probably.

Anyways, it's Kano with long sleeves and pants and winter gloves and the hood of his jacket pulled over his head and eyes and also a bandanna over the rest of his face so he can have as little skin showing as possible. It isn't all because of botched healing practice, though, it's because he's lugging around a three gallon plastic jug in his arms— you know, one of those large plastic containers twice the size of your head that you can buy cheese balls in, but instead of cheese balls, it's bees.

It's a jar full of bees.

He had to ship them to a PO in town and then lug them all the way back to campus; this insect purchasing restriction is really an awful pain. ]

iii. library
[ But also, anyways, it's almost finals and while Kano did surprisingly okay on his midterms, he's got to do slightly more okay on his finals too, because exam scored are literally all that's carrying his grades without the homework to pad it.

So the library it is... Books, his arch nemesis... Him, sitting at one of the open study areas with a stack of brand new text books in front of him that barely look touched, a mug of something on the table that's a dark dark red to the point that it's almost black and also has four tea bags sitting inside it that's steeped so long the tea is no longer steaming, and also hands clamped over his ears like he's trying to block out ambient noise, or massage away a headache, or give himself a headache so he can go hang out in the infirmary for the next two weeks and not do finals.

Why does Daybreak have to be a school??? Schools suck. ]

Comments

[suddenlybees]

You're not getting them back, ever.

[ Not until you make the words come back! The 24-hour timer is on pause until he gets his words. ]

[deuteranope]

I can still change my mind and sit on you.

[suddenlybees]

And then neither of us can study and we'll both fail! Can't you just let me have this?

[deuteranope]

[Mav leans in and props his chin on the heel of his palm to accentuate his dumb grin.]

Ask nicely~ and actually study~

[suddenlybees]

Ugh! I'll ask nicely and actually study if you stop talking like that from now on!

[ It's terrible when Kano does it and even worse when he hears somebody else do it. It's infuriating, the worst, the sort of reason he wants to get out of other people but when it's turned on him, it's sucks!! ]

[deuteranope]

[That makes him laugh, and he sits back again on his palms.]

Don't like the taste of your own medicine, huh? Alright, let's hear it.

[suddenlybees]

[ He huffs, but does his best to ask nicely. ]

Please please pretty please with a cherry on top, make the words come back, please.

[ Nice = jam as many pleases as you can in there, people like pleases ]

[deuteranope]

[That's not the actually answer, but he'll give it to him.]

You tried, and that's what's important.

[So yes, with a tilt of his head that lands his gaze on the notebook again, the various colors seep back into existence.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Ahh, yes, his cheat sheet is back and now he won't fail.

...He can ask, right? They're at that point. ]

How's this work? They disappear and come back and you don't have to touch it at all? Is it as long as you can see the words, or does that not matter?

[deuteranope]

[...It's a weird feeling. He wants to throw up a wall because it's just a dumb party trick and he was useless and he didn't want people to know just how useless, but... Kano is asking about him. That's sort of a nice, warm feeling in his chest.]

Uh. Sorta depends. I used to have to touch what I was changing, so it just fucking sorta became a habit. I guess. [He doesn't change his sitting position, but one hand fidgets where it is, index nail scratching into the floor.] Shit I've done I don't have to look at, s'just easier, but if someone else wrote it, I gotta see. Might change as I practice more.

[suddenlybees]

Hm~ How useful! [ Being able to change something without having to see it is different from what Kano can do; for him, he has to be consciously aware of everything at all times, so it's not a magic he can just apply and walk away and have it stick. ]

Can you change it back at any time? Does it stick forever if you walk away?

[ He has to make sure of a couple of little things... for various no-good ideas. ]

[deuteranope]

["Useful"... It directly goes against his inner monologue, so he can't stop the brief grimace or the way his nail stabs at the floor like it can break the surface if he tries hard enough.]

You don't have to fucking pretend... I know it's kinda shit. [But anyway...] I haven't done much with changing it back. I know I got books from a couple years ago that are still how I changed 'em to be, so as far as I know it's forever.

[suddenlybees]

I'm not pretending.

[ He pushes himself off the ground, and sits up to face Maverick. ]

I can definitely make use of this. So practice hard, okay? See if you can change it back— immediately, thoroughly, at a distance. If you can do that, there's something I absolutely want your help with.

[deuteranope]

[Oh. He kind of freezes up, at that. Kano finding use for him was good... He'd love to help out his (thus far unconfirmed) friend, and his heart jumps with the urge to find out how, how!! But he's wary, too. What if he was just keeping Mav around and stringing him along until he finally found a use for him, and used it all up? A scary thought.]

You, uh, gonna expand on that at all, cricket?

[suddenlybees]

Nope.

[ What did he expect?

Kano leans back and grins, because it'd be really great to have Maverick's help with this, but he also doesn't want to get his hopes up and place all his hopes on Maverick's shoulders; if he did that, he'd slack off himself and that's no good. ]

But if it works, it'll be really cool and super impressive~ I'll tell you about it later, okay? I need to make sure some other things are in place first~

[deuteranope]

[Unfortunately, that's exactly what he expected. Sigh.]

Whatever. Banana jammer wants me to send her notes in class, so that's as good a time as any to practice. She'll probably get a kick out of it.

[suddenlybees]

-—Wait, what? You're sharing notes with Nana-chan but not me? How is that fair??

[ If Nana's going to class, she doesn't need notes, he's the one who needs notes the most. ]

[deuteranope]

[benjamin you’re so fucking stupid]

I can’t pass you notes in a class you don’t fucking go to, now can I, dumbass?

[suddenlybees]

You can slip them out the window while I walk past??

[ If there's note passing, he will find a way to receive the notes. ]

[deuteranope]

Just fucking go to class.

[He says, not knowing that after spring break the number of classes they share will be greatly reduced...]

[suddenlybees]

[ Now Kano will have to sabotage Maverick's studies so he can be held back again so he can help Kano out. ]

Ugh, no way. [ He crawls his way over to Maverick's bed to he can lie on something softer than the ground, if he's going to be staying here until these notes are copied over. ]

I never had to go to school before, and I don't plan to. I have the textbooks and stuff, right? It's all in there, and I can learn it myself!

[deuteranope]

[Ricktoria will hop up next to him, in that case, trying to stretch herself across the notes.]

Yeah, you could. Do you?

[suddenlybees]

I've managed to remain in my grade level, right?

[ Miraculously, somehow, he'd been scraping by... But Daybreak is more lenient than other schools, and he can also pick and choose what subjects he wants, and doesn't have to take six different courses if he doesn't want to. He can just scrape by like this, letting Ricktoria lie on Maverick's notes while Kano doodles little cats in his own notebook. ]

[deuteranope]

[Honestly, that’s still just copying Mav’s notes. He tends to doodle in his downtime, and of course he’s more inclined to drawing cats than other things.]

For all I know, you’re blackmailing your way on up. [But yeah, it wasn’t like Kano wasn’t smart enough to get by... Hm.] It’d boost banana jammer’s mood to see you around more.

[suddenlybees]

[ less blackmailing and more cheating, but... yeah... He can be smart, but there's just other things he needs to focus on besides school. Something something trying to ensure people's happiness in the long run, so he doesn't realize there's something he can do in the short term. ]

Is Nana-chan upset? Did she say something to you?

[ Being unhappy in general, she doesn't let that on that often, right? ]