once_janus | IC Contact

There's a lovely sort of torment involved when you can see freedom right outside your window. And that it could be yours, if only you were brave enough to take it. Your own mind ends up being the cage, in the end.

[But enough about that...this bedazzling thing is amusing her right now, okay.]

Well, when in Hell, right? No demon would dare mess with two angels glittering so wonderfully in gaudy rhinestones. We'd truly be a force of nature.

[Her ridiculousness is charming, right?]

I haven't spoken of it to him, yet. I intend to but it's a delicate subject. He's the sort to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. I know that he wouldn't hurt me. I worry that he'd make an attempt at hurting Hancock.

A cage is a cage, I guess; never any fun for the bird.

[Full serious tone:] It's very likely we would blind them, with so much excess glitter.

You think he'll take it out on Hancock? Odd. Seems like it's you he should be upset with.

No offense, Chris.

We'll have to invest in some quality sunglasses.

[Okay, okay, time to be actually serious.]

No offense taken. He should be upset with me. He will be upset with me, I'm sure. He'll still go after Hancock, though. Eliminate the threat even if there is no actual threat.

How much damage could he really do? We can't die again, for one thing.

I wouldn't put anything past Erik, honestly. He's a very creative person. His voice is but one of his many, many talents.

[This conversation is really making Christine realize what an idiot she's been and oh God.

But is that going to stop her...?

Probably not.]

He sounds like a man not to be trifled with. Actually from what you've said, he almost reminds me of this mad artist I apprenticed with... uhg, he wanted me to sing for him and I wanted a line on his trafficking business.

Not that Erik sounds quite that bad, by any means.

He might be exactly that bad. Perhaps worse. I never said my relationship with my darling almost-husband was particularly healthy.

I was politely trying to avoid mentioning that it was child trafficking, so I sincerely hope he isn't quite that bad.

And trust me I would be the last person to judge what makes a healthy relationship.

[You know. She only drowned the creature that raised her. And her father, too. Oops.]

No, no. He's likely murdered and tortured hundreds of people but he's never done anything like that.

[As if murdering and torturing people is that much better???]

Elizabeth...why were you trying to get involved with a child trafficking business?

[a wisp of dry laughter]

You and I seem to keep like company.

[Oh... that. Well shit.]

That's... actually a complicated question. The short version is that I was trying to get revenge on a man who had wronged me. I needed Cohen to... set the bait, more or less.

[It doesn't sound so good that way, but it won't sound good regardless.]

The man was a lunatic. Even had this mask with tall white rabbit ears. I didn't see him wear it all the time, but he certainly had a... fixation.

[She tries to nudge the conversation away from the hand she had played; it's not a story she's told anyone, so she isn't even sure how to begin.]

[WELL. That's just oddly specific in a way that pertains to Christine.

Just a little. A tiiiiiiny little bit. Barely even a thing.]

You know how I just mentioned that Erik is lacking a nose? He has a bit of a complex about it. He wears a mask all the time. Doesn't have rabbit ears, though. But he definitely qualifies as a lunatic.

[Christine lets Elizabeth get away with turning the conversation a bit. Christine is more than happy to put all the snippets of information together on her own. Like a puzzle.

But also, she's sort of distracted by her own giggling at the thought of Erik's mask having rabbit ears.]

Really? Huh. Constants and variables, I guess-- which means, more or less, that across time and space some things change, and yet others remain the same. The multiverse is fond of it's patterns, like that.

Hm.

Now I'm starting to get concerned. Cohen did things such as electrocuted me when I wasn't dancing to his absurd standards; please don't tell me we have some common ground surrounding that kind of treatment, too.

Erik never went as far as electrocuting me... But he might as well have. You've heard me sing. It was by his guidance that I learned to do so. He wasn't exactly kind with his methods. Can't really argue with the results, though.

Wonderful. Don't we have fantastic taste in men?

And you wanted to find him again? Why?

You must see something good in him.

[That's a bit of personal experience leaking in. Elizabeth does have her own murdering torturing war machine that she'd give anything to find, so there is that.]

I see a lot of good in him. His sense of humor, such a typical thing of a woman to say about her lover but it is the truth. He hides it so well but he is incredibly compassionate when he chooses to be. His intellect is unparalleled, the sort of man that could have changed the world if the world had chosen to see him as it should have... But most of all, Erik saw something in me that no one else saw. It took me years and years before I even came close to seeing it myself. And so I had to find him to show him that. That I finally had the courage to be everything he thought I could be and more.

Well, at least you see something worthwhile in him. Cohen was no more than a means to an end for me, and I was glad when his part was played. I didn't see anything in him aside from madness, and perhaps greed.

And a severe love of white rabbits.

And I would be the last person to pass judgement on who you happen to love. Sometimes those feelings allow us to look past the worst in people. Even when they have hurt us.

[Gee it's almost like she knows what she's talking about]

Considering what he did to you, I cannot blame you for not seeing anything beyond. Sometimes there really isn't anything underneath the surface and a madman really is just a madman. But sometimes madmen also have their reasons. I don't exactly condone the many, many crimes Erik has committed but I forgive him for them. He's more than the horrible things he's done. Did Booker ever hurt you?

And I only had to deal with him for two months; part of his following, The Artist's Struggle. I wasn't even his main fixation; poor, poor Fitzpatrick... and, the handful of men before him.

[Look at you Liz, charming the gay.]

I would say Cohen defined himself by his sins; I'm not sure he was capable of a single act of kindness. It sounds like your Erik is at least a better man than he.

We all have some blood on our hands, after all.

[ouch, right in the feels.]

Yes, he did.

But he did everything he could to undo it. Even though the cost was high. He paid his debt.

Two months too many, by the sound of it. Did anyone ever manage to stop this man? Seems like the sort of terror that ought to be stopped.

[And Erik's Opera Ghost antics weren't...? Christine, shut your mouth.]

I believe that Erik tried to define himself that way, for a time. As if it would...protect him. Treading some invisible line of what makes a man, what makes a monster. But yes. That we certainly do.

[look at all the pain in this conversation so much pain omg]

The more and more I learn about Booker, the more similar our stories become, my dearest Elizabeth. In the end, Erik tried to make sure I'd live a life in the light, tried to undo the damage he did. Clearly, it didn't work too well.

Not as far as I know. I... sort of had a hand in the destruction of the city where he lived, but I never actually heard of his death. Wouldn't surprise me if he was still kicking around. That's a much nicer thought than Cohen showing up here.

This was my cover to investigate him. I think he may have even been suspicious, but he still did what I needed him to do.

I've watched someone toe that line; it's not the easiest thing.

[Elizabeth ponders a few long moments. There are ways in which her friend's almost-husband sounds like Cohen... but there are ways in which he sounds like Booker, too. She can't see through The Doors anymore, but that doesn't mean she can't pick up on the patterns of the multiverse.

So, there may be a small chance...]

Did it cost him his life to try and save you?

[That being the price Booker paid.]

If he did show up here, perhaps we could take him down? Show him what songbirds like us can really do.

[Well, that just hit a bit close to home, didn't it.]

In a way, I suppose. He had been ill for a long time. There's no way to say for certain that he would have lived longer if I had stayed at his side. There's some part of me though, that suspects his death might have partly been suicide. Seeing no point in living on once ai had gone... It's not a conversation we've had the opportunity to engage in, yet. Nor do I think I wish to have it. But I do know, without a doubt, that Erik would have paid any price to ensure my happiness. Even if that meant a fate worse than death.

Here's hoping he doesn't; that man makes my skin crawl. Though I think the pair of us could handle him... depending on just how spliced and wild he got while the city drowned around him.

I'd rather not be put in a situation that would determine the answer.

['Seeing no point in living with you gone.' Ouch, that drove a sudden spike of unwanted emotion through Elizabeth's chest. She hasn't-- doesn't think overly on her death, but those words seem to frame it all too well.]

No, I understand; it's not exactly a light topic for casual discussion [There is a fine line between sympathy and empathy and Elizabeth is far into the prior, too bitter not to understand completely.]

Sounds like he really loves you.

[Right. In the. Fucking. Feels. For a while she thinks she will leave it at that, but even after she sends the message, one thoughts restlessly prowls her mind. She's never told anyone this... but there's never been anyone she trusts enough to tell. Part of her is... frightened to put the thoughts to words, but maybe... Maybe Christine is the only one who might possibly understand]

I know what that feels like, Chris.

He let me kill him.

Booker let me kill him, so that I would be safe.

Edited 2017-05-08 21:34 (UTC)

[She had been about to send off a message when she got the second one and...Oh.

Well, then. She'll just be deleting the message she had been about to send.

It's not quite the same but it's yet again enough to stab Christine through the chest and make her ache. Before responding to Liz, she takes a moment to text Erik out of a sudden need to remind him of her feelings. ( "Bonsoir, my love. I hope that you've had a pleasant day. Je t'adore. <3)

But then her attention is fully back to Liz.]

It's quite the burden to bear, isn't it. And you never thought you were worth that sort of sacrifice. But it's not our place to decide what we are worth to someone else. We'll find him, Elizabeth. And when we do, he will be so proud of you.

It is... even if his death paid me a debt he owed. I didn't want to kill him... I tried to stay behind, but I still remember him drowning in that god damn river.

He knew it was the only way. But I miss him. I miss him so much.

I hope you're right

[And then, a few notes softer and almost ashamed:]

I hope you're right

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wow this thread is suddenly full of feels I LOVE IT

BAM feels out of nowhere xD

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