itscurtains | [After...party?] I would give anything, but for the grace of God I'm here and still aware

[So that... certainly happened. Christine ran along with everyone else to escape the suffocating smoke, slamming the doors behind them in the hope it would slow the flames down. She tries not to see sticky beer-stained carpet as she runs, tries to hear the voices of her newfound friends, rather than the screams of teenagers, but it's certainly difficult.

She only stops to hastily throw open the door to Steven's room and let out Lion with them, but otherwise retreats into the gardens before... letting herself watch the opera house in silence.

Thankfully, it doesn't end with as much damage as the last fire Christine experienced. In time, she can stop shaking and unfold the note still clenched in her hand. And then she looks back at the opera house with... a different kind of fear on her face.

A fear so deep that when Mephisto and Anne finally start suggesting the possibility of returning inside, she's up on her feet in an instant.]

Meeting in the woman's first floor washroom. Give me ten minutes and I'll be there.

[Before anyone can argue with her, she runs off, hoping she sounded firm enough for them to follow her request.

She and Lion move to Stephen's room first to acquire whatever notes might still be there, but she's returns to the bathroom soon enough, all the papers now collected in her binder.]

Okay. We're probably freaked out. God knows I still am. And I want to encourage you to leave when you need to, take a break if this all gets to be too much. But I think... I think I speak for everyone- [Finally, finally she can speak for everyone. Her voice is strong enough now.] - when I say this.

[Her knuckles go white around her binder and her eyes spark back to life.]

We are not letting that fucking Wizard win anymore. So let's talk time loops.

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I didn't know either. When I... When I lost Riley, and Jeremy, I didn't know what I was going to do. How I could possibly live with all those feelings pressing down on me, how I could go on knowing everyone I loved was just going to leave me behind.

[She continues unwinding the bandages while she speaks, and has to blink hard against the stinging in her eyes when she sees the damage. She looks around the room, hopeful he at least gathered some supplies in here.]

But... you know what you did. You know how you helped raise me back up, so I could meet those expectations you have for me. Why would I leave you alone when you need me to do the same?

[He's got a few more bandages left! They're sitting out on his desk. You're going to need them, he went to down on a grave out there. The bruising and cuts are looking pretty gnarly.]

Those that guided me onto this path are dead. [He swallows down a sound. His breath comes out with a shudder.] You are the last one that I have left. How long until this place takes you too?

[He closes his eyes, remembering that moment during Riley's trial. The desperation he'd felt as he'd called out to the Phantom. Would it have been different, if they were both alive?]

He and I made promises that we would do right by you. They're broken now. You're bound by no word, no obligation to do the same for me. Honor means nothing here.

[Christine just sighs quietly.]

I think we need some disinfectant, but we can do that when we change the bandages tomorrow.

['We,' just so Mephisto knows that she's not about to be taken just yet. She takes the gauze and starts almost rhythmically wrapping it around the worst of the cuts.]

I don't care about what you think I am and am not bound by. You're a father to me here. Someone who believed in me through no matter what fucking hell they put us through, and I, I honestly don't even think my real parents would expect me to save anyone in a place like this.

[She looks up from her work, with almost a manic grin on her face.]

I told you already that I would walk through hell for you. Your path can take me whereever it likes, but I'm not going to step from it. Even if you can't walk it.

[Let the torturing ensue
My soul is useless without you...]

[Tomorrow. A new day. For a moment, Mephisto can cling to that optimism, hold it like a lifeline. He can grab it tight until his knuckles bleed anew, and maybe it will keep him afloat.

The hope is gone before he can really let it take hold. Tomorrow, he'll wake up alone for the first time in ages. Even after their squabbles, he and Stephen had made their way back to one another. But there's no crossing beyond the grave.

Briefly, the thinks of the comparison he'd made to Orpheus. He at least has the control not to laugh bitterly at that.]

I don't want you to walk through hell. I want you to live. Outside of this place. No more trauma. No more hurt.

You should not have to save me. You should not have to put me back together because he was too much of a fool to speak with us.

[His eyes are burning again. He's still not bothering to hold it back.]

I have put pressure on you since you have arrived here. My salvation. My humanity. No wonder you were so ready to crack. We haven't been fair to you.

Edited 2020-08-09 02:27 (UTC)

[Christine just shakes her head stubbornly. It's a nice thought, to go back to a normal life, where trying to teach the popular kids basic acting skills and where she and Jeremy could go for their next date now that the bowling alley had banned them were the only problems she faced.

Christine may be an optimist, but even she knows that's impossible, after all they've been through together.]

What if I just make a quick detour there to gather up everyone's souls?

[Maybe she can make him laugh, a little. She finishes with the bandages as best she can, and then places her hands over his.]

You're allowed to be angry, and hurt. As much as I was the weeks before. But... that's not going to change the fact that even if I'm not supposed to, I will.

[Even if she was intimidated by it before. Even if she's really not sure what this place might throw at her to make her break down next.]

...I don't mind that it was unfair. It kept me going when I could have given in like Stephen. It kept me thinking of ways to bring everyone back.

[As long as she can keep it together a little while longer, then surely this time she can succeed.]

You can say you don't mind all you want. It doesn't make it right.

[But he doesn't want to argue. Even now, as he tries to keep from putting too much weight on her, his soul feels weary. He feels like Ariel must have, after Helena's death. Wallowing in his grief. Lamenting his love.

And he'd spat in his face the same words that he'd offered Stephen. Even if he wanted Stephen to burn in hell for betraying his trust, it didn't change how he still felt. That made him angrier than anything.]

Will you give me tonight to mourn, Christine? I promies that tomorrow, I'll pull myself back together.

It's... you can make it up to me some other day.

[She leaves that bit of hope for him, something to cling to, and smiles when he returns the favour. Tomorrow, she'll fix his bandages. Tomorrow, he'll pull himself together and help her, rather than just placing all his dreams of the future on her.

Tomorrow, they'll be alive. So she does slide off the bed, though not before wrapping her arms tight around Mephisto's shoulders.]

I will. But only if you promise you'll come find me if you need anything at all. You... don't have to be alone.

[It's hard for Mephisto to summon the strength to return the gesture, but he tries his best. He wraps his arms secure around her waist and even musters up a moment of strength to give her a squeeze.

He's content to leave it at that, nodding even as he plans to not need anything, just so he doesn't have to bother her. Something stops him, though, and before he can let her drift too far away.]

I love you. [The thing he couldn't say. The thing he regretted feeling for Stephen. If nothing else, he knows he can trust Christine with this truth.]

[He can plan to not need anything, but she can plan to also just be passing by, or just be sleeping outside his door that night.

Which... she feels even more strongly that she has to, when he says those words. Words she'd told Stephen just a few hours ago at the trial, words she'd tried a hundred times to make Jeremy accept. She clings to him a little tighter, in relief to realize, just once, the feelings she's had for everyone trapped in this hell with her are returned.]

I... I love you too. I'm sure it doesn't mean much from the Love Interest, but... at least you know I'm not lying about it.

[She slowly pulls away from his embrace before the door opens, and she's sent off to the meeting again.

But if he does check in the morning, Christine will be there, at his side, as she'd promised to. Her oaths are ones she refuses to break.]

[After...party?] I would give anything, but for the grace of God I'm here and still aware

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