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What are your feelings on pancakes?

Because I may have made far, far too many pancakes.

Generally, I'm pro pancake. I think I can help you out. Are you downstairs?

In the kitchen.

And I didn't burn them. Or myself. You should be proud.

I'm incredibly proud.

I'll be down in just a minute. Don't eat them all before I get there.

I'm sensing sarcasm, Parrish.

That would be literally impossible.

[He doesn't bother to respond, slipping his phone into his back pocket as he enters the kitchen. He actually is sort of proud that the kitchen isn't too much of a disaster area. They'll learn how to survive on their own yet.]

So is this stress-cooking? Should I be worried?

No, it's 'I accidentally poured out a whole box of bisquick and just went with it' cooking. Which means you should be hungry, since Ronan can't be bothered to answer his phone and I think Noah's at Rook's.

[he. he really did make an entire bisquick box of pancakes. actually, he's still making them, but the point is, an entire box. on the upside, they look surprisingly good, especially considering the source.]

Then I guess they're both going to miss out.

[Although now that he looks at the sheer amount of pancakes, he's not even sure the two of them can handle this. But he is willing to try.]

Do we have any syrup or butter? I'm hungry most of the time, so I'll do what I can to put a dent in these incredible quantities of pancakes.

Both, actually, although I seriously question whether any maple is actually involved in the syrup. There's honey too, and I think I picked up strawberry jelly at some point. Check the pantry. I should stop going to the store when I can't sleep.

[they're all going to be eating pancakes for at least another day. at least they can be refrigerated.]

Why are you always hungry? We're not short on food anymore.

Because I'm a growing boy.

[He pokes around the kitchen, retrieving syrup and butter and honey, and after some investigation he even manages to find the jelly. They're doing pretty well for themselves.

Adam dumps his haul on the counter not far from the pancakes and retrieves a plate, and only then does he give Gansey a more serious answer.]

I'm still tired a lot, too, and it doesn't make sense. Things are... strange. I've been seeing things more often.

[He doesn't look at Gansey when he says that. He doesn't really want to see any judgment there.]

[gansey scoffs at the growing boy comment as he pours the last of the batter into the frying pan. they're almost ready to flip when adam answers him for real, and gansey takes the moment required to do that in order to think.]

No, that doesn't make sense at all. The tiredness, I mean. The rest...is Cabeswater trying to tell you something? Or is this different?

[there's no judgment in his voice, but the words are carefully said. adam's obvious discomfort with the subject has made gansey cautious.]

It's trying to communicate, I think, but scrying doesn't help. It's like it can't quite make itself understood clearly. There's interference.

[The lack of clarity when he scrys disturbs him more than anything. He doesn't always have control over it, but it always helps him reach Cabeswater, and now it's... confused.]

There are other ley lines, I think. I can sense something, anyway.

[At home, it was easier, but here they've been slowly seeping into his consciousness. Maybe it's just that he's far from Cabeswater, or maybe it's just the way things work here. Adam should have sensed them as soon as they arrived, but it took a few weeks.]

Other lines? Well, hell. Is that good news or bad news? As far as I'd been able to figure out in my research, they're all connected somehow, kind of like roads. It's just that we don't know what travel conditions are like between here and there.

[gansey turns the burner off beneath the last of the pancakes to let them finish cooking that way, and comes over to where adam is. this is a confession, he senses, a delicate thing that adam might prefer he not know. except they had made that promise, and now adam is here.]

What can I do to help you? We all know I'm as spiritually sensitive as a doorknob most of the time, but there has to be something.

They are all connected.

[He says it with certainty. He remembers, so very clearly, Cabeswater showing him that vision of crisscrossing lines, its need for the energy to flow freely, the world and its ley lines.]

But I don't know about here. I suppose it's no surprise that there are ley lines, but I'm not sure yet whether it's a good thing or not. Either way, I know Cabeswater wants me to do something about it.

[What it wants is still unclear, but sleeping ley lines? There's really only one thing that can be done.]

If we could investigate them - go looking, see what we can find. I can sense where they are, but I don't know what's around them. What might be blocking them, or what things might be happening.

We can do that. You, me, and Cabeswater. I'm sure between the three of us we can figure something out. Maybe whatever energy there is can help you and Ronan.

[because as far as gansey understands it, that's all lines are. power running beneath the ground like the veins of the earth, neither good nor bad, just able to be tapped.

he spreads strawberry jelly over a pancake with the back of a spoon s that it's fastidiously even, then rolls it up like a a very thick crepe before taking a bite.]

When do you want to go?

Sometime soon, before things get too much worse. I don't know what sort of effects these ley lines will have, but it's already... been pretty bad.

[The hallucinations, the nightmare with Ronan. Gansey knows that it's been pretty bad, after the nightmare creature. Adam doesn't have to tell him.]

I'm just seeing things, but Ronan might pull something else out. The nightmare was because of the ley lines. I don't know how much worse it could get, but I'd rather not find out.

[He watches Gansey eat pancakes, tapping his fork against his own for a moment. Who eats them like that? Rich people? Weird.]

Yeah. It has.

[it isn't the first nightmare creature they've buried, but it was far more horrific than ronan's normal nightmares, and gansey was definitely feeling disquieted by both the creature itself and the effect it had on adam.]

Do you think we can control them better if they're awake? Or...you can, I guess, since that's your forte.

[it's really just a gansey way of eating pancakes, because gansey has a habit of eating with one hand and reading or writing with the other, but adam has no way of knowing.]

I think they'll settle if we wake them. They're surging right now because they're trying to get the power to wake fully, so if that's taken care of...

[He shrugs. Honestly, this is mostly guessing, but at least it's an educated guess.]

Things will fall into place. I hope. But I'll need to go out and look at them, maybe map them, and figure out what needs to be done.

[A pause, and he fiddles with a piece of pancake.]

I wish Persephone was here.

That would be good. Or at least less chaotic.

[gansey trusts adam's guesses, to be honest. he's the one with the strongest connection to these things, the one who can feel a line running through his veins most of the time anyway.]

We can do that. They don't...affect me the same way, so I can come with you.

[adam hasn't spoken of persephone, at least not to gansey, the whole time they've been stuck here. he knows she's a delicate subject, having left adam right when he really needed her most. gansey reaches over and squeezes adam's shoulder gently.]

She would know what to do. But I think you know too. She was a good teacher, and we all know you're an excellent student.

[He eats the pancake. Don't waste your damn food, Adam.]

I think it's better if I don't go alone, at least at first. I don't really know what's out there, and - well, I've been seeing a lot of things.

[Even for Adam, who's used to it, it's getting easier and easier to get confused. Getting confused around a strange ley line sounds like a great way to end up dead or even more contaminated by foreign magic than he already is.]

I don't really know what to do, though. I read the tarot, with Ronan's help, but - I don't know. Nothing's clear. We just have to wake them, that's all. There isn't much else we can do. Or I can do, anyway. This can't go on.

[gansey helps himself to another, this one with syrup. he eats it the same way, though, rolled up and held in his non-dominant hand.]

We can take turns going with you. Or just me, if it gets to Ronan and Noah like it gets to you. You're all tied to our home line more than I am. And don't worry so much. You'll know what to do when you need to do it.

[gansey just believes in adam that much. and he knows from the cave that sometimes things just...come to them. like waking the animals.]

...maybe we should consider telling other people, though. Just so they don't all think they're going completely nuts.

[which would be gansey's subtle way of admitting that he may or may not be having hallucinations as well.]

It's affecting Ronan in a different way. And, ah - he and I probably shouldn't - I mean, it would be weird.

[Yeah, he's just going to leave that there and move on, because he's not quite ready to plunge into the topic yet. And, of course, he doesn't feel like he should talk about Ronan's dreams.]

But you're right about that. The rest of the people here ought to be told, so they don't hurt themselves. Or anyone else.

[He looks at Gansey for a moment, but doesn't press the issue. It's affecting all of them, he knows.]

It would be weird.

[he says it flatly, neither confused nor skeptical. if there was a thing ronan lynch could do, it was make something intolerably awkward. he was practically a specialist at it.]

Does that mean you talked to him? Or are we talking different kind of weird?

[gansey doesn't really want to talk about ronan's dreams either, because the end result of the one he witnessed...that's just awkward. more awkward than even gansey is willing to take on.]

Edited 2015-09-09 05:39 (UTC)

Like I said, the ley line is affecting him, too. I think it's probably worse if we're around each other. He'd never have pulled out that creature if not for me.

[Adam is pretty sure, anyway. His appearance in Ronan's dream made it all worse, made the ley line affect Ronan even more than it had before. He doesn't want that to happen again.

And, reluctantly, he continues.]

I talked to him, too. So both kinds of weird.

You know, Adam, everything isn't your fault. Ronan's pulled out plenty of monsters on his own before. That one was...different.

[gansey finally slides into the seat opposite adam at this announcement.]

So you talked. And?

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