[color=green][b][center][h2]MARK[/h2][/center][/b][/color]

[center][@liferusher][/center]

[color=gray]If Mark was a chess piece he'd be a pawn surrounded and cornered with nowhere to run, with an enemy bishop aiming for his juggular across the board. Her name was Rikka and she was currently sporting a look of concern and confusion on her face. She had flipped around the pages of her notebook for a bit before returning it to Mark to continue the conversation. Mark accepted it with suspicion and began to read what she had written.

[center][color=white]'My name is Rikka, what is yours? You don't have to write everything down if you don't want too ^-^'[/color][/center]
It was the second sentence that loomed over him so drearily. Mark's vocal cords felt like they were made out of beef jerky at the moment and he had assumed that the girl sitting in front of him had noticed and improvised. But what sort of magic allowed her to do that? Was she writing to him out of pity? Regardless of her intentions, he was determined not to reveal that the source of his power was currently MIA. His response would have to be straightforward and tactical. Rikka's pen found itself being brandished like a weapon as the words [color=green]"MY NAME IS MARK."[/color] were forcefully scribbled onto the paper. The cafeteria surrounding him devolved into a parade of horny ostentatiousness, but he paid not attention to it.

The soldier scraped the finishing touches onto his long and heartfelt response before his brain had registered a third component. The ^-^. Arrow Line Arrow. What did that mean? He squinted at it with all the confusion and terror that dogs had when exposed to vacuum cleaners. [i][color=green]THIS MARKING COULD BE A RUNE RELATED TO HER MAGIC ABILITIES![/color][/I] It was an interesting point of view from somebody who knew what a rune was but couldn't spell their own last name without visibly struggling. He brought the pen down and attacked the paper with a second message.

[COLOR=GREEN]RIKKA. WHAT IS THIS: 

^-^

ARROW LINE ARROW? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

^-^[/color]
[/color]