IC contact

[stabilimentum]

[A smooth, sedulous voice answers:]

You have reached Claude Faustus, butler to the Earl Alois Trancy. How may I be of service?

Comments

[text]

[goldilocked.livejournal.com]

[This is a bad idea y/y]

I don't care, I just want to be left alone.

[text]

[stabilimentum.livejournal.com]

[This is not going to work out at all, man.]

[... even though he'd love to see Jack rot in self-imposed solitude...]


[Where has the responsible father gone? Or was he ever there to begin with?]

[voice]

[goldilocked.livejournal.com]

[There's a long pause between the last text and reply, but.]

Hey, Claude. Does it get boring? Living for as long as you have?

[voice]

[stabilimentum.livejournal.com]

[Claude must be in the backyard somewhere, for all the sounds of nature.]

Very little has interested me in the last 3,000 years, Mr. Vessalius.

[voice]

[goldilocked.livejournal.com]

[Don't remind him of Glen B( When he hears birds chirping, there's a sharp intake of breath and he pauses.]

But something must have.

[voice]

[stabilimentum.livejournal.com]

By my own hand, I ruined everything that did.

[A demon's way is inherently self-defeating. What's worthwhile to them is meant for consumption eventually. All the light and color they find in their lives will slide down into their bellies and then fade away. If it weren't for Alois Trancy's xanatos gambit--

Crunch. Gravel underfoot.]

Until I was given a second chance. Here.

[voice]

[goldilocked.livejournal.com]

[And then he remembers Alois' reaction, that night he was drunk and ran his mouth off-

Ah.]

Is he enough?

[voice]

[stabilimentum.livejournal.com]

[The gravelly crunching stops.]

He's everything.

[voice]

[goldilocked.livejournal.com]

[There's only silence on his end, and jealousy bubbles up again—]

I see.

[And he cuts the conversation.]