PC: CALEB

[headmt]

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[headmt]

Awful. Never again. The food equivalent of keeping your hands out of your trousers for a week.

[He's just chattering amicably, not pointing out the hovering or anything. He doesn't seem to really mind it so much though. If it any point Caleb started to wander away he'd also have just followed him along like a baby goose. Anyway, getting way too much food and going to sit down, mostly just ... toying with it. Like he's pleased to be able to get it.]

[katzepaw]

Do you want to sit in here?

[In this weird cafeteria full of people?]

[headmt]

[Eating a fry covered in like. straight up hot sauce.]

Where to, Magician? [...] Dorms everyone keeps looking at me like a ghost.

[katzepaw]

It's a beautiful day outside. Go sit outdoors? Make it a picnic? There is also always the roof of Winter Dorm.

[headmt]

[Oh, right-- He immediately abandons his whole tray except for half a sandwich with! Cured meat in it!!! And picking up his coat. Which he still isn't wearing as much as carrying around on one arm.]

Oh, brilliant. Good idea. Let's go, come on then.

[katzepaw]

[Okay!! Well, I know there is a stargazing area on the roof of Winter Dorm. You may have to walk through Viola's room to get there, that I have no idea about. But either way, he is letting him up there. Or they can parkour up there IG. Somehow, they get up there.]

It is, uhm, very bougie here, but the people who live here are not.

[headmt]

[Caleb has dope monk shit and Molly just struggle-climbs the way up. Or he hides his face going through Viola's room.]

Yeah, I-- I heard all about it at the trial.

[katzepaw]

Oh. You watched those, then?

[Huh. That's a little interesting. Anyway, he brought a blanket up here and is setting it out so they can sit and enjoy the view.]

[headmt]

He immediately flops backwards, arms behind his head - just looking up at the sky and blinking a bit at how bright it is. Outside! It sure is wonderful.]

Just the one. With Otome and Catra.

[katzepaw]

Ah. Not. . . Caiman and Byleth.

[Probably good. He flops backwards, too, but he's looking at him.]

[headmt]

[He makes a bit of a face at that, but it's sort of hard to read. Missed emotion share, bud, so the mystery ... remains.]

Nope. Lost a few days there. Then a few days after. [...] Whole thing is a bit foggy, if I'm being honest. Cleared up at the end there, but, you know.

[He waves a hand.]

Sometimes these things happen to me.

[katzepaw]

Maybe that's not a bad thing. It was all ugly.

[They both went a bit crazy and aggressive, and the details were awful.]

I became a dinosaur and bit his head off. But it was less satisfying than it sounds.

[headmt]

[There's actually a brief huff of laughter at the concept of. Turning into a dinosaur and biting his head off. But he doesn't get why that would be very satisfying in the whole Cinematic Parallels sense. It was port-mortem for him. He does turn to look at him at this point, chewing on his lip a bit while he thinks over what to say about ... Caiman.]

He, uh-- You know, Aikawa. That's his name, you know. He's got a guy in his head. Someone who seems a lot like him, except for the fact he maims and kills his friends.

[katzepaw]

. . . Did he remember more about it, there?

[He's frowning a little at that. He did know some of that - not the name Aikawa.]

I knew he didn't remember. We talked about it for a bit after the trial. [. . .] When I was chosen to kill him, he tried to pretend to be the other guy. To make it easier. Well, it was easy for me either way, but that was a kind thing to do.

[headmt]

Think he remembered more. Pretended not to, a little bit. Not a liar.

[Molly is making quite the face at all of this. Probably because there's a lot about the Aikawa/Caiman/Kai story that is, uuuuuuuh, triggering to him in particular, but. It's probably worth talking about. Even if it's most definitely making him squirrelly.]

There's-- Well, three of them, I suppose. Aikawa is who he was. Is, now, I suppose. Caiman is who he made after he forgot. The last one is the. Hm. The ... [Lucien.] I don't know that he knows everything about it.

I know he woke up a few years ago, no memories, no past. The lizard head. And apparently he was happy. Described it as being in a long dream he woke up from.

[There's a pause here and he sort of looks away. It's maybe a bit terrifying to hear something so close to your own experience described as a dream. One you inevitably wake up from.]

Not angry with him or anything. Not like he's the person who did it. Hard to be angry when even the face has changed.

[katzepaw]

[Wow. Holy shit. Truly the same lore. It's a little insane to listen to him describe all of this. A little disconcerting. He understands Molly's squirrelyness; it's obvious why.]

. . . I liked Caiman.

[He doesn't say that so much out of sympathy for this person, Aikawa, but a little defensiveness. He likes the person who woke up as Mollymauk, too. If that's what it takes to find happiness, then. . .]

I was angry, though.

[headmt]

[He looks over at that - maybe a little grateful. For the attempt at least. He knows why he said that.]

I did too. 'Course it's where we disagreed. I didn't want to know anything. He seemed like he did.

[The expression gets a little more worried at the anger, though.]

That's alright. Think we're allowed to be angry on each other's behalf.

[katzepaw]

Beauregard punched a twelve year old.

[That didn't happen, and she's not twelve, and why is he telling on her anyway. He just. . . feels a little uncomfortable now. He had told Lucretia the message to give him, if they failed. It was short, because everything meaningful to say - there would be no way to say it, other than in person. But they're in person now, and he doesn't know how to find the words to talk about it. Doesn't know if Mollymauk would want to hear them, or if he would simply resent being reminded of another death.]

[headmt]

Did she? She's got to stop doing these things. She's going to get a reputation.

[He seems mostly just amused by that, the tattling. As it is, he's been riding on almost manic giddiness to be here again, on this side. He doesn't know if he'd call it life or death or the transition between the two. Is it death, if you don't actually pass on beyond the gate? Is it life, if you might have already been dead beforehand? Either way, it was a shock to the system. As much as you might want to stay in the dream, there was at least the fluttering of eyelids. The awareness that the dream is a fragile thing. It's hard not to come back changed at least a little.]

... I am so fucking glad to see you again. Shit.

[katzepaw]

[Oh. Well, that’s nice to hear, isn't it? It makes something swell in his chest, warmth and affection mingling with some residual grief.]

. . . We missed you. Turning up so suddenly only to go again so soon - that isn't how I wanted to leave things.

[headmt]

[Rolling over onto his side to look at him a little closer, sitting up on his elbow, tail jingling about the little Valentine's charm.]

Messy, yeah.

[katzepaw]

. . . I'm sorry. [He does sound genuinely sad, maybe a little ashamed.] I regretted that, after.

[headmt]

[Oh. He only meant to tease him, not make him legit sad.]

I mean, it is a little messy. Won't argue that.

[katzepaw]

[Well, too bad, because it did make him legit sad. Because he spent the past week wishing their last interactions hadn't been Caleb pushing him away.

He just looks up at the sky, lying back.]

. . . You scared me a little. That's all.

[headmt]

I know.

[He got that. That Caleb was a little freaked by the pursuit. He doesn't resent him that. Looking up at the sky too, settling onto his back - and sort of sneaking his hand over to maybe where Caleb's is and not exactly holding his hand as much as just touching his pinky and ring finger over his.]

Can't promise I won't leave again suddenly. I-- It's not like I want to. But you know. Apparently it's a thing that happens to me.