Mesure Un

[likehim_likeme]

[He's looking down at the device with a look that is both sardonic and wary.]

Is this where we are to meet again? Or is this my condemnation? How easily I could lay it all at your feet had it been your doing and not my choices. [He laughs bitterly.] Ah, I suppose I should be appreciative that this is neither Paris nor Hell, and that all the choices and sins I have brought upon myself have yet to touch this place.

[He sighs.] So long as there is something similar to a cabaret here, I suppose I have no complaints.

Comments

audio;

[onlydancing]

Jean-Paul...?

audio;

[likehim_likeme]

Lilith?!

[Well, that's cold water on his thoughts that this was somehow Lucifer's doing. Unless Lucifer somehow took Lilith before her soul was called to God.

Or, of course, given their very birth was a sin, she was Hell bound and this was, what? His payment for his work? ...there could be worse forms of tender.]

Is it truly you?

audio;

[onlydancing]

Jean-Paul! I had hoped... you would come. That this place would somehow let us reunite. However selfish... such a thought was.

audio;

[likehim_likeme]

[He doesn't think it's selfish. After seven years, only seeing her long enough for her to die was not enough.]

Do you know where you are? Or how I might find you?

audio;

[onlydancing]

I am at the Welcome Center. I have been allowed to stay here since my own arrival... But I can find my way to the Fountain, Jean-Paul! I can meet you there.

audio;

[likehim_likeme]

[He's not certain about having her come to meet him. Sure, she's survived on her own for years as a blind woman, but it still feels... strange. But if he goes in search of her when she can get to him just fine, won't he be treating her like she's useless? Dependent on others?

He has no wish to make her feel like that.]

If you are certain, Lilith.

[He bites down on telling her that it's dangerous for someone like her. If she's found her way to some Welcome Centre, then... it must be safe enough.]

audio;

[onlydancing]

It will take me half an hour, so... please wait for me there, Jean-Paul. Please... please don't...

[She wishes to say "disappear again", but she knows she was the one to leave. That she brought her loved ones such hurt, although it was to save them even greater pain.]

audio;

[likehim_likeme]

I will be there, Lilith.

audio; 1/2

[onlydancing]

Jean-Paul...

[It is muttered hastily right before the device is shut off.]

[nomorefeathers]

And I thought I was pessimistic about this place.

I can't help myself; I'm sorry XD

[likehim_likeme]

It is less pessimism and more knowing myself.

[There is something about her face that reminds him of Sariel and it is a bit surreal. This could still be something else. Something he's seeing while passed out from drink seems the most likely thing.]

Is there call for being pessimistic here? It seems... fairly normal, even if I have no solid idea of how I came to be here.

I can't *imagine* why he'd think she looked like Sariel...

[nomorefeathers]

There needs to be more reason for pessimism than that? We've been snatched from home and taken to a strange city without so much as a 'may I?'

XD

[likehim_likeme]

Ahh, yes. I can see this. It is possible that somehow we gave consent. I wanted to see my sister again, and she is here.

[And he is just going to ignore all the chaos he brought down on everyone, the murder that (if one actually traced the cause-and-effect came back to him), and the fact that he, for all practical purposes, ruined himself. The knowledge gnawing at him that he would very likely need to leave Paris and begin again.]

That could have been enough to be considered consent.

[nomorefeathers]

Well, you're lucky then. There's no one here I'd wanted to see.

[likehim_likeme]

For that, you have my deepest sympathies, Madame. Should I learn some method by which you might leave, I will see to it that you are informed.

[nomorefeathers]

Thank you. Still, it is what it is. One can wallow in pessimism, or one can... move on.

[likehim_likeme]

Which do you plan?

audio only;

[rideofthefearlings]

Condemnation is such a subjective term though. Who says in cannot be both?

audio

[likehim_likeme]

Ah, oui, it would easily be both.

Re: audio

[rideofthefearlings]

Some days it seems as though there is very little difference.

audio

[likehim_likeme]

[There's a quiet chuckle.] You could be speaking of a good portion of my life.

Re: audio

[rideofthefearlings]

Is that resignation I hear?

audio

[likehim_likeme]

Ah, you might call it that, although it is more of a simply inability to make choices that do not create chaos.

Re: audio

[rideofthefearlings]

There's nothing wrong with a little chaos once and again.

audio

[likehim_likeme]

[He laughs.]

Ah, monsieur, you sound like a demon come to tempt me.