laytondressing | (no subject)

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[The Layton sitting on a chair in the lobby doesn't look particularly bothered by the fact that he's somewhere new. In actual fact he's just calmly drinking a cup of tea that got dragged along with him. Someone will come tell him what's going on, he's certain of that. And why put in the effort to go searching for information, when it'll come to him with no effort on his part?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Your opinion would indeed be most welcome, Clive.

[To Roulette.]

You, uh. You've had that scar for more than a year?

Quite. Tottenham Court, May ninth. You remember it, I'm sure.

[Listens, trying not to frown too much.]

[Clive hesitates, glancing at Monocle a moment.]

...I do, yeah. But I'm guessing... that you don't.

[That last part is directed at Monocle.]

No, I do not.

[Knows where this is going.]

[Clive chews his lip, looking over at Roulette.]

...you're dead in my world, though. I mean, you're... you're mine, I guess, but you're still...

Clive...

[It's the first show of any real emotion from him, and he reaches over to grasp Clive's sleeve.]

[Watches them, judging.]

[He watches Clive for a long moment, then raises his head to eye Monocle.]

You'll not touch him again.

He is your Clive, to be sure.

[Which... doesn't actually answer the question.]

[Clive shudders, glancing at Monocle for a long moment and then moving to crawl onto Roulette's lap.]

I-I... Layton, he's...

He's... important.

[He sets his tea aside, wrapping an arm around Clive even as he hisses at the words.]

Whatever he might have been in my absence, I'm here now and you are mine, Clive.

He is correct, of course.

...I will bid you both a good day.

[Turns to leave.]

[Clive lets out a keening noise from the back of his throat.]

H-Hershel, please...

[...oh.]

...you call him by his first name, and yet I'm still Layton to you?

My Clive has permission to call me Hershel. Yours can call you whatever he feels like, good sir.

H-hersh--

[Clive lets out another keening whine, shuddering for a moment before jumping off Roulette's lap and running out of the lobby.]

[Oh, now he's pretty much seething.]

Congratulations, double. My death in his world is part of it, certainly, but from what I've seen of you so far the level of brokenness he's exhibiting rather fits your particular brand of idiocy.

And I'm sure that with your skills you will have no trouble fixing the damage that has been done.

Good day.

[He watches Monocle for a moment, then removes his hat to run a hand through his hair with a sigh.]

Not without... a risk to myself.

For what it's worth, by the end of the... treatment, it's entirely possible that he'll turn to you and abandon me.

[His interest has been caught.]

But it was to my understanding that you felt I was inferior to you. With that in mind, surely he would come running back into your arms.

After what I'll do to bring him back from this, it's possible that he'll hate me whether or not I'm superior to you. The way that things stand for me, I am... willing to take that risk, for Clive.

Do you love him?

...do you think that either of us is capable of that, double?