sirenspull_logs | There Is A Dinner Party Right Across The Hall

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There Is A Dinner Party Right Across The Hall

Who: Phancyhive and invited/close CR!
When: Wednesday Evening for supper
Where: Phancyhive
Summary: With so many new additions to the household, it's only proper to welcome them with a dinner party.
Warnings: A bunch of crazy people around a dinner table. What could possibly go wrong?

_{[Ciel hated parties. Really, he did. They were an unbearable drudgery of having to socialize but he could manage to endure for one night. It was expected of him to host such an event, what with the new additions to the household, so despite his desire to lock himself away in his office, he'd been dressed in lovely clothes and had the whole thing arranged.

The dining room itself was decorated exquisitely and the food that had been set out was unbearably tempting to anyone who'd glance upon it. Hopefully, the whole night wouldn't be an ordeal. The last thing needed was more stress.]}

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[Stein's just gonna get out of the way a bit here, move off to the side so these two can have their lover's spat without him standing in the middle.]

[And this is probably a good time for Gilbert to pop his head back in and proclaim from the doorway:]

It...got away...

[Wow it's like there are other people in the room that Reim is completely ignoring. SORRY...]

Me! Oh, that's hilarious, Xerxes- you run off and get some kind of- of- Look at his head, he's clearly insane--

[No offense.]

--You go off and do all these STUPID things, and complain that I-

[Waaait. He actually processes that sentence, in between irate gestures.]

What?

[ All of the things he isn't saying all get said, furiously: ]

The Core brings people back from the dead, you're dead! You died! That little girl - she killed you for sport. You're the stupid one, you're the idiot, you should have been safe behind your desk, but you wanted to help me, you MORON!

You--

[ All the fight goes out of him, all at once. He's tired, suddenly. Defeated. ]

I...

I called your name, but you didn't--

[ Perhaps he had hoped, on some level, that if he didn't say these things, they wouldn't be real. The awful finality of it hits him. Reim died, for his sake. His voice cracks. He can't see Reim, but he still turns away. ]

I'm sorry!

[He isn't dead, first of all. But Break thinks so, and he thinks it was Lily-- oh. Oh.

It occurs to Reim that he never actually asked the last thing Break remembered from home. No one told him; surely, someone would have mentioned something of this magnitude. He had simply assumed... Things suddenly click into place; every stupid mood swing, every pitiful face he never got an explanation for.

This--is inconvenient. For lack of a better term. Reim doesn't say anything for a moment, stricken; on some level, this is his fault.

(Suddenly, a seemingly inane comment about a faraway rabbit makes much more sense.)

Where does he start.]

Xerxes...

[There is no satisfying way to apologize for this, is there. He had felt terrible the first time this happened, in the brief moments before he passed out- he isn't the one who keeps things from other people, it was awful...

The look on Break's face is one thing from that night he remembers quite clearly.]

I-- [He moves towards Break and then stops. Should he touch him? Should he prostrate himself and apologize for being so completely oblivious? He hovers there, not-quite-touching Break's shoulder with an outstretched hand.]

Xerxes, listen to me-

[WAIT THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE HERE]

Er--!!

[No. Forget them. He pauses, attempting to drive the thought that he's already had this conversation and it was already unpleasant out of his mind.]

My... March Hare. It- has one skill. I didn't tell you.

[Pause. Best not to draw it out even longer.]

It's "playing dead."

[... cough.]

[ Now that he's spoken the words, he feels a hollow emptiness in his heart. It's real. One day he'd leave this strange world; or Reim himself would be called back. And then no more. Their long friendship, snuffed out in an instant.

Break hadn't noticed Reim at first, all those years ago, except to shove him away. But, bit by bit, as his despair began to lighten, little things registered: Reim's wagging finger, his oversized clothes, his ridiculous earrings. His cracking adolescent voice, tinged with a foreign accent, always lecturing, always chastising.

It was… ]

[ It was hilarious.

Break learned to smile. And then he learned to tease. Poor Reim was his first victim.

And then he'd grown up, grown tall, grown into a meticulous perfectionist who took pride in his work, however unglamorous. Despite his tendency to go to pieces more often than he should, Reim was the very best of ordinary men. His dearest friend. ]

[ "Xerxes, listen to me…"

Reim is forgiving him; he, who is beyond forgiveness, the worst of men. Break can't bear it; he doesn't deserve it. His face is turned away because his sightless eye is filling with tears. He covers his face with his hands. This awful guilt, this failure, this-- ]

[ … ]

Playing… playing dead.

Your chain - playing dead--! You--

[ He's seen Reim's chain. That big, fluffy hare. With its inexplicable fangs and its hat and its little smile…

…its little smug smile! ]

YOU BASTARD!

[Reim says his piece and then he waits. If he's not believed--false death is still the dumbest power he's ever heard, it wouldn't be a stretch, and in Break's mental state- well, that would be difficult.

Within him, the March Hare doesn't even have the decency to stir, and take some responsibility for itself. Damn the thing.

But then Break is mad at him, and the unpleasant tension of guilt begins to slowly ebb away, replaced by the usual tension of being Reim, which he finds much more manageable. Automatically, he balls his fists and puts them on his hips, ready for lecturing.]

Well! I'm sorry I...

[Lied to you, hid it from you, made you suffer, didn't notice, did it again--he falters. The mini lecture dies in his throat.]

I couldn't have said anything.

[Baby steps, he thinks. Start with the easiest one. He is still aware of the other people here, and too many emotions will send Break fleeing from the room, so- later, he can agree that he's a bastard and whatever else.]

I am sorry.

[He drops his hands from his hips and reaches out to Break again, to fuss and brush at some dust on his sleeve that isn't really there. It's his comforting gesture, stylized and packaged for public consumption.]

Before arriving here, I had told-- I thought you knew...

[ Too many emotions, too many indeed. The magnitude of his relief and joy is too much to bear; his heart is bursting. He would start weeping again, except he is also... ]

How was I supposed to know? You never told me about your Chain's power. "Playing dead," how does that work exactly? The way it looks, I thought perhaps it gave out hugs or something!

[ ...indignant! He jerks his arm away from Reim's fussing and stands, shakily, on the strength of his fury alone. ]

Why did you keep it from me, who else knows about this?

[And it occurs to Gilbert at this point that...he's known all along.

And never said anything.

Because it never...came up...

Reim if you know what's good for you, you will not mention who else was there that night.]

[Well, this is more like the reaction he expected the first time around. "I'm glad you're alive"--he'd nearly lost it then and there. His fussing is thus rebuffed, and he draws back his hand to rub his temples. Why... is everyone in his life so moody...]

Oh, obviously I should have let everyone in the world know all about my unique ability to lie on the ground helplessly! Why, what could possibly go wrong!

I told you, after... [A gesture; "after pretending to be dead" feels too strong to say right now.] After the fighting. You didn't say anything, when I arrived here! How was I supposed to know you thought-?

[HRNGHGNRG. He doesn't even dignify "gave out hugs" with a response, that's so demeaning--!]

[--and. Who else knows? Well, everyone does now, but before-- Reim frowns tightly, as there is no possible way the answer to that question is going to make Break happier. He covers his face with his hand and mumbles it,]

Master Rufus ordered me not to tell anyone.

I'm "everyone in the world," am I?

[ He's actually shaking his cane at you, Reim. Be thankful you're not Gilbert, he'd be doing more than shaking. ]

You should have--

[ BARMA!!! ]

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1/2!!

2/2

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2/2

1/pain

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suffering complete

manpain combo

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so much manpain

more pain

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tada

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1/2... again...

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1/3

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