The Sounds of Minds

He didn't even try to come up with a response to that. He just plopped himself down on the ground and leaned up against the oak tree behind them. He could feel his lips - Pres' lips - wavering, a sure sign of impeding tears. He hadn't cried much lately. He hadn't the chance, not with Bartimaeus and Raptor watching every move. The djinni would consider it the final piece of proof that he needed, and the magician would have taken it as a weakness. He couldn't risk either one of those things.

But it just wasn't fair, dammit! He had tried so hard to keep up appearances, and now, when he should have been capturing Cassius Jones and getting every bit of information he could from him, he was sitting here revealing every single one of his secrets.

He felt something slide down his cheek.

He raised a finger up to touch it - it was undeniably a tear.

"Stupid waterworks," he muttered. He didn't even try to look away. Why bother? Knowing whatever had happened to him, he'd end up blurting out that he was crying.

He opened his mouth, only to close it again. He really didn't know how to respond to all of these confessions. As soon as he thought this, it came blurting out.

"I really don't know what to say." He reached back to scratch his neck nervously, only to receive a hard bite from Gem. He howled and shook his hand before shoving it in his mouth.

"Owww! You little demon, get out of there!" He exclaimed out loud, trying in vain to reach behind him and dispel the raccoon. In the back of his mind, he realized that he probably looked strange to the other company. Of course, he ended up saying that too.

"Would you stop scrambling around? You're making me look like a raving lunatic!"

Finally, he slung the top layer of his clothing off, sending his pet with it.

Spoiler

Description: A very tall, lanky man with the same proportions as a stork, about 6' 5". He's pale-skinned with ebon, shoulder-length hair and black eyes to match. Gold, wire-rimmed, rectangular spectacles rest on his nose and he wears somewhat formal attire: a white button-up, a gray vest and pants, a black tie, and dress shoes. He has a very well-kept appearance and is very cordial.

He woke up to a startled exclamation and spontaneous yelling as a shirt and raccoon came flying past the trunk of the tree he was leaning against and he quickly leapt to his feet, startled. His confusion was only increased as he noticed that he wasn't under a tree next to the picnic tables like he'd thought but was actually in a forest meadow. If this wasn't baffling enough he caught the scent of four very different, distinct people, three of which seemed human but had an odd edge to their smells that was alien. The third made the demon in him want to rend its way forth and fight.

He stepped out from around the massive tree trunk to see the individuals in question. One seemed about the same age as him, no older than twenty, and he was the one who appeared to have been the one who threw the raccoon. There was also a man crying with his back against the same tree Cornyx had been leaning against, a blonde, scarred man who had that inhuman scent, and a brown-haired man of average height and distinctive facial hair.

"Okay, look," James starts, already regretting speaking but unable to stop himself. "I don't know why we're all here and how you got here, but there's got to be some kind of... I don't know, airborne drug or some kind of magical cause that's drawing the truth out of us whether we like it or not. So I don't know about you, but I'm going to leave in hopes that the farther I get away from this place the more whatever this is will wear off, because the less you know about me, the better. I've had too many people get hurt or betray me just because of the price on my head or because they're afraid to be associated with me and I'm damned well not going to stick around for any of you to do the same, even though I'm starting to have a feeling that none of you would know who I am anyways."

James let out another sigh as the words flew out of his mouth. Well, it was truthful, but at least this time, less revealing and incriminating.

"Whatever," he mutters, beginning to walk away.

Finch shoved his wounded hand into his pocket and glared at Gem, who was whimpering slightly. Though he knew she was probably just nervous because of all of the new people and scents, her irritability had hurt his feelings a little. He ignored her and glanced at the tall, white man hovering around the tree.

"Hello. You're a little freaky-looking." Finch but his tongue hard, groaning. Maybe trying to suppress thoughts that he didn't want to share would help.

He turned his attention to the side- the bearded man was walking away. He forced himself not to think anything of it, in case he called out.

Cornyx's eyes flashed a reptilian silver underneath his glasses as he made eye contact with the German, whose own eyes took on a distinct metallic hue. In mere moments Cornyx's black wings unfurled and his forearms became draconic, his teeth elongating and becoming noticeably sharper, like a predator's. Kratzer's vampiric blood became evident immediately due to his fang-like canines and notably hostile posture. Neither of their focus is on anyone else present except for the other demon, and though neither of them makes an offensive move, it's evident that it's a standoff that is likely to devolve into a fight.

James hadn't walked very far through the forest before he found himself walking back into the clearing from the other side, looking at the same four strangers he's woken up with.

Now this was a cause for alarm.

Biting his tongue, he ran through the clearing, in an attempt to get away again. But he only ended up running back into it. It was as if no matter what direction he went, he always ended up back where he started. After three more sprints - each, increasingly more earnest and frustrated, he stopped, holding his knees and catching his breath.

"What the actual f*** there's no way out of here. Oh my gods there's no way out. Sh*t. F***. Godsdamned. I'm stuck here. How the hell."

He sniffled one last time before getting to his feet, wiping away his tears with his sleeve. Pres would be so disappointed if he could see him right now, which was exactly why he needed to focus on something other than how he had just sat down and started sobbing right in the middle of a bunch of strangers.

"Maybe it's just you," Puck said, joining the man who had just tried leaving. He eyed the area in front of them, got into a running position and proceeded to dart across the clearing.

Only to end up back on the other side.

"I know this has no chance of working but I'm going to try it again," he said, grateful that this time he hadn't said something more revealing. He darted across the clearing several more times before he came to a stop - panting, because he kept forgetting the limits of this body - beside the man who had attempted it first.

There's a few minutes of tense silence between the two demons before Cornyx submits, his gaze dropping as he furls his wings. Kratzer takes a step back and his posture returns to its former, more casual-but-guarded one. Neither of their eyes return to their normal color but at least it's evident they won't be fighting.

Finch looked around at the chaos that was ensuing- the creepy tall guy and the bloody one were having a stand-off and looking scary. The bearded man and the other one were somehow running one way and coming back from the other- he had an impulse to follow their example, but pushed it back. Sighing, he scooped up Gem, tired of hearing her cry and pout.
"It's just you and me, girl." He sat under the tree and stroked her fur, "sorry I threw you."

James looked over to the man - who'd only recently been crying - who recreated his own attempts at escaping. With, perhaps, more exasperation and annoyance than necessary, he gestured his hands at him.

"It's not going to work. Somehow, we're all stuck in this trap, unable to hide even the most intimate details of our lives by whatever hellish rules have been devised for us that we're not even able to exercise free will in the things that we say!" he spat, with the frustration not aimed at Puck, but at the situation. "It's downright immoral and unnatural that the urge to tell the truth would somehow be implanted within me when I've lived so many years living lies. It's not godsdamned fair, especially when I know none of you in a way that matters, and I'm not about to pour my heart out to a bunch of strangers because of whatever curse has been enacted upon us because I'm too godsdamned scared of my own sh*t!"

He grit his teeth as the last words flew out of his mouth and violently turned away from Puck with a growl. That was more than he'd wanted to say.

Something about the outburst rubbed him the wrong way, and, before he could even think about how he wanted to reply to something like that, the words came out on their own.

"I didn't ask for this either!" he shouted back, face already starting to get a little red - he still was having trouble reigning back his emotions in a body like this. He glared at the man and angrily crossed his arms. "I just want to get back home! But instead I've been trapped in my boyfriend's body for nearly a week, pretending to be someone neither one of us is just so I can get my hands on someone who might be able to help me! And now, on top of that, I end up in this place and it's a miracle I haven't said anything about the math club!"

James looked at Puck with wide eyes, somehow finding the filter for his thoughts had been ripped off and his words came tumbling out.

"I don't even know how the hell it's possible for you to be in someone else's body but I don't even give a sh*t about some club about math! I don't know any of you! Everything you've said means nothing to me! I! don't! Care!" He shouted back, throwing up his hands. "I'm sorry you've had a stressful week and I don't know what kind of hell you've been through in your own life that led up to you being in someone's body besides your own but I've been running for my life for four years and every single living breathing moment has been complete and utter torment because you know what?" His voice began to gradually raise, and he turned away from all of the others. "For the first godsdamned moment in my life I'd thought I'd finally worked up the courage to go back to my family but then I f***ed it up and became the most wanted man in Nye! And I couldn't go back to see them even if I wanted to because I'd be putting them in danger and I couldn't in my right mind go back home as a criminal!"

James grasped in the air and clenched his fists, as if his words could be caught before they reached the others' ears. But it was futile. He was only proving his own point, and what everyone else knew. There were no secrets here. But this one... this one was supposed to be his. This one wasn't mean for anyone's ears.

He huffed, frustration boiling up along with insurmountable anger and sadness mixing together, and he stomped to the outer edges of the grassy clearing, looking away from everyone and every thing. He crouched down, holding his head in his hands.

"F***." He spat at the ground. "F***."

Finch was stroking Gem absentmindedly. He tried to coo meaningless nonsense to her, so that he wouldn't look like he was just listening in on this very interesting yelling match, but what came out was different.

"I'm trying to gather information on these men so that I can possibly use it in the future." He murmured to his raccoon.

He growled a little in the back of his throat. Ah, well- everyone seemed to be focused on the bearded man. Maybe he had gone unheard.

They couldn't run. They couldn't hide. They couldn't fight there way out, there was nothing to even fight against, just themselves in this serene clearing that took away everything they had to keep from shattering into a million different pieces.

Kratzer sat down, and he could feel his walls slowly begin to falter. Not the ones that kept other people out - rather, the ones that kept the fear and the guilt and the grief and the pain in.

But when he couldn't lie, not to himself, and not to anyone else, where did that leave him?

"None of us can keep secrets here," Kratzer says. "We can't leave. We can't run. We can't fight. It's just...us. Here. With the truth, period. There are things that are meant for no one else's ears but the fact is that everything any of us have run from, or fought against, or tried to push down is going to come out whether we like it or not. That goes for our sins and our struggles and our loves and our losses and everything else, so the sooner we figure out how to work this as a team, the better it will be for us all. So let's sit down, and introduce ourselves, and at least attempt to make some kind of...anything, because I have a feeling we will be stuck with each other for longer than any of us would like."

Spoiler

Not the most poetic but I'll give him an A for effort xD