Patterns (Open to all!)

[st_okedformadden]

Jason was standing in the lobby. At first it might just look like he had paused and was staring at his feet - maybe his shoelace was undone? But if you watched long enough, he didn't move. He didn't bend down to tie or fix anything or to pick anything up. In fact, if you looked closely, his eyes were moving around the pattern on the carpet with extreme concentration. His lips were pressed together and he almost looked like he was constipated.

And so he stood and stared.

Comments

[st_accato]

Buffy paused on her way to her room after her workout at the gym when she saw Jason just staring at... yeah she had no idea. She looked close at the carpet but all she saw was carpet. Was there a bug? Ugh, she hated bugs. "Whathca looking at?"

[st_okedformadden]

"I'm following the maze." His eyes curved over one of the leaf-like patterns. "Going to find the exit and win this big maze game thing."

[st_accato]

"Uh huh." Buffy was not quite sure where the maze was because she couldn't see it. But at least it wasn't a bug!

"What's the big maze game winning prize?"

[st_okedformadden]

"Uh."

He paused, blinked, and looked up at Buffy. For a moment it was almost like he wasn't actually registering her at all before his eyes seemed to focus. "Winning?" He paused again, then sucked in a breath of excitement. "Do you think the bakery would give me a cookie if I won??"

[st_accato]

Buffy looked over at the bakery with Mary Winchester waiting on people. She was pretty sure that she would give him a cookie whether or not he 'won'. "Maybe they would even give you a big enough cookie that they could write winner on it in icing."

She still had no idea what the big maze was but it was so much like talking to Xander that Buffy didn't care.

[st_okedformadden]

"Ooo like a cookie trophy! Cool." He liked that idea and nodded with a smile, though the smile suddenly disappeared when Jason realized he had taken his eyes off the floor. "Crap! Now I gotta start all over again!" He looked back down. "Okay... now, where did I start last time?"

[st_accato]

Buffy couldn't help it - it popped into her brain with his comment about starting over. "You have thirteen hours in which to solve the labyrinth." A beat, "remember he has no power over you."

Next to the Princess Bride, it was one of her favorite movies from when she was a kid.

[st_okedformadden]

The look that crossed Jason's face was a deeply worried one. His eyes widened and he looked up. "I didn't know there was a time limit!" He paused, then looked incredibly confused. "Wait. I thought there were only twelve hours!"

[st_accato]

"Sorry. I couldn't resist. It's a quote from one of my favorite movies. She had to solve the labyrinth to get to the castle and save her baby brother." Buffy explained, then added, "there should always be a time limit or I guess boredom works, too."

In Buffy's case, she got bored easily with puzzle solving. She would rather just punch her way through to the answer. Willow and Giles were the brains and she was the muscle. It worked for Buffy.

[st_okedformadden]

He had no idea there had been a movie made about solving a carpet puzzle and now Jason wanted to find the movie himself. "Maybe if I watch the puzzle movie it'll give me hints on how to solve it. Do you have a copy?"

[st_accato]

"I don't." Buffy shook her head, "not here anyways, but the library does." She may or may not have watched it about 100 times. "It will definitely give you hints about how to take control of your journey."

She was about to say destiny but not a lot of people understood the real meaning of that word.

[st_okedformadden]

He nodded very seriously to Buffy like she had given him the sagest of sage advice. "I'll go look for it now then. I want to be the best I can be!"

At carpet maze solving.