✳ 004 ✳ [video] // [action] for Phancyhive residents.

[stabilimentum]

[The view isn't from directly overhead, but it's almost there and it's steady, displaying a mahogany table top and a pair of white-gloved hands busily manipulating crochet needles. Mingled with and leading away from the needles is a line of gold wire, gleaming in the light--it's being pulled into looped stitches like regular yarn would be. Off to

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action.

[killingame]

[ tiny rabbit-boy is coming down the stairs for you, claude, booted feet nearly silent-- whether because he's a light stepper naturally, or because he's learned to move silently, who knows. when he emerges, though, he has a tea-tray on his hip, and maybe it's weird for someone to be serving the butler, but there are two cups on it, so maybe it's not that weird, after all.

his long ears swivel back, then up slightly as he spots all the work, pink-red eyes like jewels in his white face in the candle-light. --he crosses to the dark-haired man, setting the tray down in a clear spot. he'd made cremes caramel earlier, so he's also placed one of those in a little covered dish on the tray for claude.

rabbit's not really sure what else to do for people when they're not quite being themselves, so he bakes. ]

Here. [ he's frowning as he pours for both of them, but then, that's his usual expression. ]

action.

[stabilimentum]

[The spider sentries always tell Claude who's coming long before they've come, so he's hardly ever surprised by anyone. Despite that, Claude can't manage to pull himself together before Rabbit walks in. He doesn't even know where these cracks in him are, much less what they are or why they're there, exactly. He feels very hollow and cracked all over, like he's going to fall in on himself--a heap of porcelain, some shitty vase his master has broken. Sitting here, petting the hair comb's pearls, he feels like he's losing cohesiveness bit by bit without the glue known as Hannah to coat him and protect him.

With a soft click, the comb meets the table again. He sits back and waits, staring at the nearby pool table, wondering if Rabbit plays at all and if he'd fancy a game. Strategy would distract Claude for a little while, at least, before he remembers what he's lost and how he can't have it back.

His chest really, really hurts.]

... Thank you, [he says, once he has his cup of tea and crème caramel. Getting a spoonful of custard

action.

[killingame]

[ he lifts his own cup with a grouchy little noise, ears flicking and flattening back. ]

Of course it's good. I made it, after all, didn't I?

[ he takes a sip of his tea, bright gaze flickering over the makeshift work-table at the jewelry, then back up to claude's face at the question. for a long moment, he just stares, gaze narrowing. claude must feel pathetic if he's going to ask something like that.

hm.

at last, though, he huffs, waving a dismissive hand. ]

You're just not being yourself. You haven't been for a while, now. [ a small tilt of his head, then, eyes opening fully again, guileless despite all his usual irritable behaviour. ] Anyway, it's fine to just want to have tea with you, after all, isn't it?

action.

[stabilimentum]

Mm.

[But Claude sets down the spoon decisively--for the first time in months, he isn't hungry. The hunger is still there, believe it or not, omnipresent per usual; he can feel it growling. It's just very distant from him--from his mind. It's very dull and distant, so far away that it might as well belong to someone else. When it bites into him, protesting, he doesn't care. He doesn't feel like eating.

This must be depression. What a mess.]

Among other things, Rabbit, I'm not sure of what "myself" entails anymore.

[He looks at Rabbit, finally, allowing only brief eye contact, and then deflects away to the jewelry. Aside from the hair comb, there is one other piece that he might've given Hannah: a bracelet of thin gold chains and tiny seashell charms. He thinks about throwing it out to sea.

Then, abruptly, he begins to tremble all over, from the tips of his hair and on down to his fingers. His teeth ache and and ache and ache from clenching them too hard.]

You are one of the few to want to share tea with me. [Without

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[killingame]

[ claude is shaking. he's shaking and rabbit isn't quite sure what to do with people when they're this-- depressed. jack had been one thing, because he'd been drunk, but how is he supposed to help claude when he's so screwed up, himself?

but ah, he knows what it's like to not know how to define yourself, suddenly.

he sets his own cup down, then reaches out with a hand, gently pushing claude's down before he spills it on himself. ]

Stop that. [ it's chiding, but surprisingly gentle. now, he knows isn't the time for defensiveness. ] .. You have a lot of things here to help you find a new definition for 'Claude Faustus'. I'll help if you like. I had to find a new meaning for 'White Rabbit' once, too. [ a pause, glancing away, fingers brushing against one of the half-finished pieces absently. ] .. It's not easy when you have to rebuild all the lines your world is drawn in, is it?

action.

[stabilimentum]

[The teacup returns safely to the table before too much tea can be spilled. There are droplets on his gloves now, tiny and discolored, interrupting satin perfection, and Claude stares at them and thinks, I don't know why it's this difficult. Hands trembling harder, he clenches them into fists and then says aloud,] It has never been this difficult.

[Because demons like him have to rebuild themselves and their world with every newly formed contract. They reach into their master's mind, sifting down to the subconscious, and find unspoken, even unknown desires to tailor fresh identities from. With Jim Macken, there was a childlike hope to find a prince charming; that's what Claude became. Claude made himself a gallant, gracious, unscripted, and somewhat smug prince charming that was going to save Jim Macken from his shitty life. As circumstances developed, as their contract filled in, the need for a servant with seriousness and propriety became more apparent

action.

[killingame]

[ for a long moment, rabbit stares at him, really looking at him. pink eyes narrow slightly, thoughtful and perhaps a little critical, because wow, this is serious. claude is serious about this (not that he's never not serious, and maybe that's why rabbit gets along so well with him).

at last, though, he breathes out a sigh, folding his arms across the table and poking absently at his cup. ]

I doubt it's anything you haven't seen or read or heard of before. "There's nothing new under the sun," right? Especially in a place like this. [ his ears flick, flatten. ] My world was dying. Alice was gone. Everyone was gone.. except me. So it was change or die. Fix things and patch things up, or give in and be erased.

[ his head tilts slightly, expression taking on a faintly concerned note. ]

Claude. What's this really about? I mean, what brought this on? Your master? The woman who disappeared recently?