seelie; video; why this

[depicted]

[Oh, look, it's Dorian Gray! Everyone remembers Dorian Gray, right? Sweet kid, a little naive, recently got scolded at the royal audience? Well, today you wouldn't believe it, not from how very self-possessed he looks, how pleased, how utterly brazen.

One might think that someone who just got publicly called out and punished might feel more need to keep their head down and be discrete, but apparently not. Every actor needs an audience, and this actor, at least, seems to be particularly committed to enjoy the show he's putting on. Feline in recline, he speaks as one who savours language, gesturing in smooth, languid movements. He is the 1890s Aesthete come to life, in all its hedonistic glory, and he is here to share.]

How dreary we all are getting. It's the fin de siècle all over again, but with far less Oscar. Or Yeats, for that matter. [Suitably, mockingly dramatic:] "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

[And here's a scoff.] I'm not feeling it. We are meant to be the court of tradition, of love, of welcoming the apocalypse. And yet I haven't seen even one orgy in my time at Caer Glaem. Frankly, I'm unimpressed.

[The headshake turns back into that canary-eating smile, and he purrs out his proposal for fixing this shameful problem.]

So tonight, at the sun's setting, I'll be holding a, ah, ritual in the Magi's Workroom. Wine from Mandragora Estates—top of the line, for those tragically ignorant of the most up-and-coming vinery in the Drabwurld—and various other substances. Children not invited.

It's a protection ritual, for the record. It would be so very unsuitable to be decadently useless in our embrace of the End. Try to bring yourself as magically charged as you can.

[ooc: THERE WILL BE NO LOG FOR THIS I am not going to put up an actual orgy log dear god. But this a thing Dorian will really be doing, any character can come as long as they're over the age of consent. Wine, drugs, and sex, all night. Technically, it really is an actual magical ritual.]

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[metalica]

[ A soft chuckle is the response, Adler looking more than a little amused. ]

I will first admit that I have never heard of an orgy tying in with the end of a world, but! It must make sense. Intimacy comes from desperation, at times, yes?

[depicted]

Oh, yes, there's that. But you might also say that liberation comes with the end of hope.

[metalica]

[ A hand, the other holding the locket, touches his chest. ]

My dear Master Gray, there must always be hope. How else will we survive in this world?

[ Internally, Erik is rolling his eyes. ]

[depicted]

[It makes Dorian laugh, bright and sharp as broken lights.]

My dear Master Adler, our court's goal is annihilation. Hope is for a world after ours, to be lost when they come to what we have.

[metalica]

[ He smiles, soft and almost gentle, almost. ]

But we must hope that what comes is brighter than this, surely. That what is ahead will be better than this war? I would like to think.

[depicted]

[Dorian isn't buying it—no, he could, but he won't. He's resisting it.]

You'd like to think it.

Do you?

[metalica]

I remain uncertain.

[ He shakes his head, curls falling over his face. ]

Some days, perhaps. Others? No.

[depicted]

[It's a very pretty face, damn him. Dorian cannot help but appreciate the beauty of it all.]

What are you thinking today, Master Adler?

[metalica]

[ He brightens a little, twisting - and the room appears behind him as he stands, nothing but a bare stone wall as he shakes his head. ]

Today, I think, is for the taking. I am undecided.

[depicted]

Perhaps I could help you decide. If it pleases you.

[erik please let him bang your fake personality]

[metalica]

[ Well.

He really hopes Charles isn't watching this. ]

Sadly, I am too far to attend and my heart is long stolen. I am sure you will make do without me, however.

[depicted]

I could always come to you.

[Flirtatious, persistent, horrifically hedonistic. Except—]

But I would not take anything that you didn't want to give. I hope your thief looks after your stolen organ.

[metalica]

My, an innuendo? I am flattered.

[ And he did give Dorian a rose, even as Erik is resisting the urge to run and hide. ]

My heart is well taken care of, what of it remains in this world. [ Because so many people know that Adler loved Reynard, and vice versa. ] You received my gift to you?

[depicted]

A truth. [Like everything else he has to say.

Poor Adler. Dorian has a spark of sympathy. He knows what it means to love and lose.] I did, and I liked it. I didn't think it came from someone with a previously-claimed heart.

[metalica]

Do not mistake it for anything less than my affection, Master Gray.

[ And he looks stern as he says it. ]

I do not give idle gifts. A token of friendship, of flattery, perhaps, and a desire for more of it, one day.

[depicted]

[Stern is a hot look on you too, dude. Also a bit funny because that face is mostly endearingly puppy-eyed.]

Of friendship. That's a dangerous desire to seek out.

[The inflection in Dorian's voice isn't quite right. Still this new personality in all its cat confidence, but the eyes are not quite smiling now.]

[metalica]

[ He makes a soft noise, almost wounded. ]

Did I toe out of line? Forgive me for it.

[ He turns his head away and, though Erik knows it is a lie - ]

If my heart was free, Master Gray, there is nothing that would keep me from your event. From your touch, surely.

[depicted]

You're not out of line. You're just—[He breaks off. Stops himself. Too close, too on the edge, and now that the mask has cracked, blood is spilling through the gaps.

He shakes his head.]

Friendship requires more time than affairs of this sort.

[metalica]

[ He pauses, considering, uncertain and almost gentle, before he speaks. ]

I have never had many friends. My only friend was my only love; I feel his absence. Perhaps, one day soon, I will find my pleasure once more.

[ And that is blindingly honest. Adler might have had and lost Reynard, but Erik once had Charles and lost him. There is no disguising that. ]

[depicted]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[Adler is not the only one honest. This, this most of all, strikes most painfully close to his heart.]

[metalica]

I lost him long before he died... But thank you, Master Gray. Your kindness is a great gift to me.

[ Reynard's madness breaking them up is a story Erik has been fabricating for many months now. ]