eachdraidh | seelie; video; why this

[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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I'm sure. I know it's--it's been over a year but...I am still married to Charming. I haven't yet found anyone else. But it certainly sounds like you have?

[What with this whole suggestion. There's still an ache at missing her family. Missing Charming. Perhaps in time and after a lot has occurred between them she might find and consider someone else here. Eventually.]

Never been married. But it's sweet you have that love to hold onto.

[No sarcasm there, he really means it. True love is a wonderful thing. Something to be respected and admired.]

Hm. It is. And I managed 28 years without him before. I mean, I was cursed. And then prior to that before I actually met him, but still. I'm not sure if I'd hit or kiss him first if he showed up here.

[For making her wait this long. For being stupid enough to get pulled into this mess as well. Regardless, she's been managing well enough without him for the time being.]

Ahh, the kill him/kiss him debate, now there's a marker of romance. By that measure of time, it seems as the world will end before you lose hold of that love.

[Literally. Because there's no way they have a full 28 years left here.]

It is True Love. I'm not sure anything could really stop us feeling this way. But there's nothing for it for now but to wait. Either I'll go home or he'll show up here at some point. We always find each other eventually.

[Just a matter of when. But she's hopeful that they won't be here a full 28 years. Even if they age slower. She couldn't dare consider that long without her family, that long with the fighting only escalating. Certainly Snow doesn't want to imagine actually dying here away from them in all of this.]

I wish you luck, Mary. As much of it as can be found here.

[Not a romantic, not in the slightest. But if there is something real—]

That's very sweet of you Dorian. Thank you. Do I dare hope you might find someone amid your own...celebrations?

[Everyone needs someone. Has their ways of dealing with things. But more than anything, she wishes him and everyone to find some happiness amid all of this at least.]

Not likely. But the gesture is kind.

[Dorian likes sex. Sex is about bodies and sensation. Sex is about pain and pleasure. Sex is about anything at all, even love, but it doesn't demand it, not like friendship.

Friendship is what has wounded him. Friendship is what he is running from. Friendship is what he is trying to block out with all this mindless hedonism.

The gesture is kind . . . but anything like that isn't what he's looking for.]

Well, there's nothing wrong with hope. You never know. I sure wasn't expecting to find any suitors when I was Wanted and on the run but it happened anyway.

[She can't help keeping that hope lit. Even against all odds. For happiness. The happiness everyone deserves. Including Dorian. Regardless, she's slowly starting to get to know him and many others and will always be there to listen if and when they need her to.]