This is a silly place...
Who: Dorian Gray and Hayley Stark. Then, Dorian and Adrian Veidt.
When: Tonight.
Where: Seventh floor, though perhaps he will venture further.
What: Dorian is meeting Hayley so she can explain his comm to him.
Warnings: None.
Note: COMPLETE. This ends with Dorian going away angrily to read Dorian Gray, so he isn't lingering about after Adrian's thread.
( Dorian the explorer. )
When: Tonight.
Where: Seventh floor, though perhaps he will venture further.
What: Dorian is meeting Hayley so she can explain his comm to him.
Warnings: None.
Note: COMPLETE. This ends with Dorian going away angrily to read Dorian Gray, so he isn't lingering about after Adrian's thread.
( Dorian the explorer. )
Standing on deck, leaning against the railing and staring outward into empty space, he gave the impression of a man lost in his own thoughts, but he was very well aware of the new comer approaching, the one with a penchant for decadence and Wildean witticism. It was useful that Hayley was with him as well. He just needed to wait for her to point him out, and then proper introductions could begin.
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"Of course, that doesn't mean I believe every word of it is true -- only the bit about the portrait. Your own earlier response told me that much."
Lies. He knew every word of it was true, the way every word of 1984 portrayed Stephen O'Brien or how Fahrenheit 451 described Captain Beatty. Of course, if their positions had been reversed, and he had had all his secrets displayed for all to read, he would have denied it, refused to even acknowledge its existence or dignify the 'author' with a response. After all, he was a well known man in his world, and libel was a near constant. 'Libel' that happened to be true also ( ... )
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"I don't understand how it could be true."
Dorian looked... dazed. This conversation had to end soon, because he had to go read this. He had to know what was said about him, what other people knew or assumed about him.
"Is this the only copy here?" he asked, clutching the book more tightly to himself.
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"These two are the only ones that I see." He handed it to Dorian nonchalantly. "As for how it can be true? There are people here from different times, different places. Perhaps someone from the future saw fit to right about your life, however incorrect some of the details may be." He spoke casually enough, as if that may actually be the case, instead of it actually being a real man who wrote a fictional account of another man's life that turned out to be an actual account of a real man's life in another universe. The lie simplified matters immensely, and he got the impression that Dorian was a man who very much liked being told what he wanted to hear. "Some may insist that every detail is true, that you are even 'fictional,' but ignore their ridiculous claims."
He smiled again, but only slightly, though it was not unfriendly. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Dorian. I'll leave you to your reading now."
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Someone, after he had died, wrote about his life. He was infamous. He had, in some sense, been infamous while he was alive. He was still adjusting to the idea, perhaps the fact, that this barge travelled in time and that he was liberated from his own time, rather than merely being dead and in hell, or on the way to it.
"Fictional..." he echoed, kind of distantly. He was, to put it mildly, incredibly preoccupied. "Ignore them. Yes..." he frowned at Adrian, though he was not upset with him. This was not his fault. He actually owed him a favor for telling him about this quickly, helping him to possibly head off potential damages.
"Thank you," he said. "I trust that you won't speak of this..." though, he knew, from what Adrian had told him, that some people knew regardless.
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