week 4

[stagemanagers]

[Another week, and two more dead. King Richard and Red are both gone, and once again, it was through nothing more than an accident in the heat of the moment. Maybe if you all stay calm and collected, nothing bad will happen again?

Well, maybe not.

When you wake on Sunday, you'll find that you've recovered another one of those memories - or had another dream, if you still wanna be in denial about it. The grounds remain as they are, but this time, the door blocking the stairwell has been unsealed. You can now venture up to the second floor! This is the second time that's happened; it's almost as if you get more space every time someone dies. Or maybe the whole place just seems quieter.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday


(( Welcome to Week 4! Please remember to submit your AC and your memory regains, as well as your coins! You can also still contact the Phantom. ))

Comments

[37773972]

You're not the only one planning on making sure this deal goes through, is all I'm saying. [Sure, Mephisto's half is a little less in-depth than his own, but...a thought occurs to him.] For all I know, it could take a lifetime to track down the people who start the FEC.

[heathencall]

Already planning on spending our lives together after one -- two kisses? How quaint.

[37773972]

Oh, were you planning on dumping me after you got your bearings, after all?

[He may have considered that an option once. Now...he could...deal with it, but. He finds himself Interested where Mephisto would go- and more, having a better idea of when Mephisto's just trying to get a reaction out of him versus actually meaning something.]

[heathencall]

[Mephisto is quiet for a long moment, tapping his chin as he pretends to really consider the question being asked.]

How would you stop me if I did make that decision?

[37773972]

[Oh, this is dangerous. This is easily in to secondary-deal territory, but he's not going to take the obvious bait. Instead, he'll throw the ball back in Mephisto's court;]

I'd see just how fascinating I could be.

[heathencall]

[It's clear that Mephisto is intrigued now. He places his hand against his chin, braces his elbow against the table and leans forward.]

And how, dear friend, would you do that?

[37773972]

What made you interested in me in the first place, huh? [Answer that first.]

[heathencall]

[He draws a slow breath in at that. He could counter with a question. They could go back and forth like this.]

Beyond the falsities? Your grief. I have always been -- I suppose the right term would be "put off" by the human condition, to live and love, create and die. But I've never known it so closely.

It was the first moment, however brief, that some of my convictions were tested. And I became very curious about those who could push those convictions to their breaking point.

[37773972]

[Well he isn't going to be fucking grieving all the time, especially not with Mephisto helping him stay sober. But?]

More than grief, then. Consider it a chance to examine humanity on a case basis - figure out once and for all whether it's worth something, whatever it is.

[heathencall]

[The proposition is considered for a moment, before Mephisto ultimately shrugs.]

You make quite the dealsmith yourself, Stephen.

[37773972]

Remember what I said about learning? We don't just do it from mistakes. Sometimes all it takes is observation.

[aka, He Learned It By Watching You]

[heathencall]

Been watching me that closely have you?

[That taunting note is back in his voice, but there's no bite to it.]

[37773972]

Is that a bad thing?

[heathencall]

Not on its own. But... One might begin to think you're starting to feel fond of me, if you keep it up.

[Mephisto doesn't wait for a response. He stands up, taking his mug back toward the counter.]

[37773972]

[He gets one anyway, Stephen blurting it out before he can think;]

I am.

[heathencall]

[Mephisto stops just short of the counter, straightening up just a little too far to be wholly comfortable. Dimly, he considers the earlier ache that had plagued him at the mention of this "Dana."

He was becoming more and more foolish with each passing day.]

Do you think that's wise?

[37773972]

...probably not. [It's a quiet admission, but he's...in it, now, he guesses. Still...

There's a guitar in the back of his mind as he thinks of Ariel - or rather, Mephisto's play at Ariel. How he thinks he might have actually started falling in love with him, if it'd continued. How Mephisto was the one to admit it was a falsehood, and the mixture of emotions after Stephen woke up the next day after himself asking for the lie to continue just a little longer- except he'd known it was a lie.

He'd been angry at himself, and at Mephisto then. And then they'd been locked in the kitchen and made their deal, and Stephen had told himself he wouldn't let himself think of it as anything more than that. And- he wasn't.

This was separate. This was him actually considering Mephisto a friend, all on his own terms.

He's singing softly without even realizing it;]

I think it's getting to the point
Where I can be myself again
It's getting to the point
Where we have almost made amends
I think it's the getting to the point
That is the hardest part

[heathencall]

[He hasn't turned back yet. Admittedly, Mephisto is wary of what he might find there. It's a complicated waltz that he and Stephen have begun to weave, beginning from the lies woven for two weeks, and the truth spilled thereafter. It had been Mephisto that had admitted that he was enamored, and that much was still true. For a man so much like Ariel, Stephen has consistently proven himself to be better at every turn. And that... speaks to Mephisto.

The words that Stephen croons do as well, but he can't bring himself to join in.

Don't say it's love.
Your fragile heart feeds my contempt

He turns, finally, elbow resting against against the counter. Whatever melody bouncing around in his head, it's pushed out. He isn't the man that had used Ariel's grief to twist him further around his finger. Whoever, whatever he is now is a wholly different beast.

His expression is plain, unreadable as he studies the other man.]

Speak plainly. What is it you feel?

[37773972]

And if you call, I will answer
And if you fall, I'll pick you up
And if you court this disaster
I'll point you home.

[He can't - quite - hold back the song as he gets to his feet. Not approaching, just...standing there, fingers touching the table as he stares at Mephisto's back, and then his face as he turns. Stephen's own gaze is focused, intent; he licks dry lips, swallowing down any further song to speak]

Tell me it's just fascination and I'll handle the rest on my end. [He can take being turned down. He can't take giving everything without anything to sustain himself.] Because if it is, then it doesn't matter what I feel- and I'm not going to let it break me. I can deal with it.

[You aren't going to fall apart on me, are you? Mephisto had asked him not long ago. And he won't. He won't do it to himself, he won't allow it to happen.

But he needs to know, he's realizing. He needs to know, at least at this point, where he stands - for certain. No more assumptions. If this is just all a matter of games, or if there's something there.]

[heathencall]

[Mephisto could probe him. He could push and pull at the threads Stephen gives, break him down to nothing just as he'd always planned. He could ask why Stephen's feelings didn't matter in the face of Mephisto's own, follow that strand until it's wrapped tightly enough around his fingers to make a proper marionette out of the doctor.

He won't lie to himself. A good portion of that idea is still compelling. He wants to see into Stephen's very core, understand how this man, this friend ticks at the barest of levels. The problem, Mephisto finds, is that he doesn't want to do anything with it.

Laziness. Sloth, he could call it. None of it would be true.]

Enamored. [He repeats his thoughts out loud this time.] That was what I told you last week. That is still true now. Obsession, you could say.

[Speak plainly, he'd only just said. But now he's dancing around in circles, pirouetting out of control in this waltz he and Stephen have chased since the moment they met only a few weeks prior.]

I cannot give you a word. I do not understand it myself. [But. But] But I do not want to see this place break you or take you. You have made a deal with me, and this place will not take that, take you from me.

[37773972]

[It's not enough. It isn't. But Stephen is uncertain he can get more at this point, not with Mephisto still apparently sorting out his own feelings. Still, he digs his fingers in to his palms.]

If anyone takes me. [Whether to life, death, another world, another future-] I want it to be you.

['And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge.']

[heathencall]

Then so it shall be.

[It takes only a few steps to cross the distance between them, but cross it he does. His hand covers the back of Stephen's own, fingers splaying out in an attempt to spread his companions, to loosen whatever fist he's worked his hand into.

It's preventing Stephen from hurting himself. Nothing more.

Even now, Mephisto lies to himself to hide from the gnarled web of feeling.]

You will be mine. And I shall be yours. [Not a deal, but a promise. An oath. Whatever happened, they would be bound.]

So. Do not get yourself killed.

[37773972]

[It takes a second, but Stephen allows it, looking down at that hand. After another moment, he looks up, and a moment more and he's not so much leaning in to Mephisto as sort of. Grabbing him. Fingers dig in to the back of the angel's shoulders as Stephen embraces him in his own securing of that oath, mouth near Mephisto's ear-]

But I'm warning you, don't ever do
Those crazy, messed-up things that you do
If you ever do
I promise you, I'll be the first to crucify you
Now it's time to prove that you've come back here to rebuild

[Don't you dare be toying with me, he means. Because that would break something in him, and he would survive, but- he would not be the same man.]

[heathencall]

[There's a surprising amount of force in Stephen's grasp, and Mephisto is taken aback by it enough to be led with no resistance. He listens, and while some part of him thinks to be amused by the feeble threat, the rest of him is... stricken.

He'd only just said that Stephen was his toy to break. But the idea of actually breaking him... Mephisto tells himself that it would simply be boring, but it's more than that. It's always been more than that.

He hesitates for a moment, weighing the concept of seriousness with defiance. He settles somewhere in the middle.]

I would expect nothing less.