[He. Kind of expected there to be more conditions, and the fact there aren't (part two notwithstanding--) is a surprise, which clearly shows on his face.
Anyway, about that "hey your happiness matters, too, idiot." point from earlier? The pin is being removed. The metaphorical sheet is being slapped down on the table.]
If you are suppressing any concerns because you're worried about our feelings on the matter, don't.
Though perhaps that little dance is why they seem to work well, despite the horrifying ordeal of being Known and seeing the Self in the Other.]
I do.
[All three things can be true. He can have a deep level of trust, can be desperately horny, and can still have a certain level of doubt in, well, everything.
They still don't know what happens at the end of all this, after all.]
But now that you've said as much... [A glance to the others in the room--] I suspect there will be a level of effort put forth to prove you wrong, instead. We are all rather stubborn, no?
[ They certainly do not know how it will end - where they'll go, if they'll go anywhere. This is a fragile joy, a fleeting comfort, a play that the curtain may close on every minute. ]
It's the one trait all four of us share in common... so I am counting on it.
[ The last time they talked about this, he said he wanted to be proven right. That it was satisfying when Izou tried to kill him just as McGillis knew he would.
This time, he'll say that he wants to be proven wrong. He will be well-prepared when that is not the case, but... he wants to see how far they can go, for real this time. ]
[And therein lies the biggest difference between them. While McGillis will fortify his walls for the inevitability of being proven right - while leaving a small window to be proven wrong - Celeste will do his best to make the most of the time they have left. He'll put on a hell of a show all the way to curtain call. He'll live intensely, love deeply, and make sure there are no regrets.
If whatever is constructed manages to persist on after, then so be it.
But if it cannot, he'll refuse to look back on it with bitterness.
If he can stubbornly convince McGillis to do the same - to whatever extent he is able - all the better. Especially now that he's changed his mind, now that he wants to be proven wrong.]
That's a dangerous admission, you know.
[An invitation to climb through the little window in his walls. A request for someone to try to tear them down. Trust and care that McGillis still insists don't exist within him.]
[ After all, McGillis is destroying the person he used to be.
He's doing it in homage to someone he once rejected so thoroughly, but he's also doing it for himself so as to not repeat the same regret he died with, however addled by blood-loss it might have been.
And all of him is screaming that he's making a mistake and straying from his path, but his path has been cut off by a bullet already. There is nowhere left to go, so he's forced to be right here. Wedged between friends, as they bother him while reading his book. Or sitting in dimly lit restaurants with a man he does not love, but who makes him feel like his heart is beating again. Or ordering too many appetizers in a karaoke room and talking about sex, like schoolboys... or like lovers would.
Comforts he once would have killed to put an end to.
They taste like chocolate milkshake. ]
I've given myself to three creatures with sharp teeth, but not to worry... I have my own fangs.
[ And he'll devour them and they'll taste like blood and chocolate too. If the happy end is not to be, then it will be a beautiful and haunting tragedy instead. ]
[And not just for McGillis. There is danger down this path for each and every one of them, and yet each and every one of them have decided to set off down it, for better or worse.
With nowhere left to go, with the path forward cut off, there's no choice but to forge a new one. McGillis could do that alone, sure, but he isn't. He's making the decision to reach out, and the rest of them are all taking his hand in turn.
What they are at the end of it can be nebulously defined. Celeste can freely admit he loves the three of them, certainly, but the depth and intensity felt towards Eli is something... more. He suspects McGillis and Izou have a similar distinction, whether or not they'll admit it openly.
But there had been curiosity, before. There were similarities that brought them together, and differences which threatened to tear them apart. Painful realizations. Confessions. Growth, even, if he dared to admit as much, all leading to them ending up here.
A simple little double-date in a cute little karaoke establishment, with too much food spread on the table and the terms laid out between the snacks far more simple and easy than expected.]
Then stop holding yourself back and bare them for us.
[They'll have to devour one another wholly, and hope to come out the other side unscathed.]
[ It's hard to believe how intense these two high school theater dropouts can get when bouncing off one another. Eli quietly munches on fries while they exchange all of this, though there's only so long he can suppress his typical stupid questions. He leans towards Celeste and in what could more or less be considered a stage whisper, asks, ]
...this is all metaphor, too, right? 'cause he has stubby human teeth. Though I'm pretty sure he'd make it work regardless.
[ It's honestly a good thing that Eli breaks the theater tension here. Left to their own devices, McGillis and Celeste could probably keep going like this for an eternity, increasing the layers of metaphor and melodrama bit by bit...
But what is mostly metaphor is not entirely metaphor and McGillis does catch the hidden meaning. He and Celeste have certainly talked about it before, even if it was so many weeks ago that it feels like a very distant memory. ]
Human teeth can still cut, it's just a matter of using enough force.
[ Izou also has human teeth and god knows he made McGillis bleed with them. Which was incredibly annoying after the fact because of the healing process, but pretty sexy in the moment. Such is life, dating a demon. Between the Izou bites and the Celeste bite, McGillis really is only lacking Eli... hm.
Eli is who he turns to now, also. ]
I think your boyfriend is coming on to me.
[ And after the tense part of these conversations is now over, McGillis feels a bit more receptive to it. ]
[ McGillis will have to ask nicely for a werewolf bite (non-turning, thankfully). Well, either that or knee him in the balls like a certain manslayer did in that scuffle of theirs at the beginning of this entire mess... ]
Yeah?
[ Here, Eli offers him a crooked grin instead of a scowl for saying such a thing. They wouldn't be having this conversation if any of this upset him, after all. ]
Can't say I blame him. He's got great taste in men.
[ The surprise is exaggerated for effect. McGillis knows he's an attractive man and also that Eli is incredibly weak to muscles. That the general attraction web here might form a full square has crossed his mind before.
Funnily enough, way back in the first week, Eli was the first person he'd considered attractive. Things have changed since then but... ]
Come to think of it, he does. I'll not it down for his strengths.
[ No actually the first mouth opening was still attractive, but it did go downhill from there. And then moving uphill again through the slow process of actual fondness. There's a whole graph in here somewhere. ]
Now you just sound like you're trying advertising him to me.
[Hey, wait, hold on, what's this?? He'd just been about to tease him for that comment on his taste in men, when he starts in on all this.
And, okay, his self-esteem is pretty good, so it's not like he'll deny any of it, but having it all laid out like that, by Eli, to go on this hypothetical strengths chart? Please.
It's a good thing they're already tucked close because he kind of just faceplants into his hair to halfway hide the blush that creeps up way too quickly for his liking.]
[ Looks like it's a rare moment where Eli is the one doing the flustering. There, there, Celeste. He gives him a pat on the leg and absolutely leaves the aforementioned hand there once he's done. ]
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[He. Kind of expected there to be more conditions, and the fact there aren't (part two notwithstanding--) is a surprise, which clearly shows on his face.
Anyway, about that "hey your happiness matters, too, idiot." point from earlier? The pin is being removed. The metaphorical sheet is being slapped down on the table.]
If you are suppressing any concerns because you're worried about our feelings on the matter, don't.
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[ If he's holding anything back, it is solely because of knots he is tying himself into for his very own sake, thank you very much. ]
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[Blunt. Coming right for you, my guy.]
At least in regard to us, here. Anyone else isn't worth considering.
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No, I'm still not kind enough for that.
[ He'll only be kind and considerate for pragmatic reasons of keeping you in line, sorry. ]
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[ How can you trust each other this much? And/or be this horny? ]
But I am already taking a chance on you all. I am just giving you more chances to prove me right and blow it.
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Though perhaps that little dance is why they seem to work well, despite the horrifying ordeal of being Known and seeing the Self in the Other.]
I do.
[All three things can be true. He can have a deep level of trust, can be desperately horny, and can still have a certain level of doubt in, well, everything.
They still don't know what happens at the end of all this, after all.]
But now that you've said as much... [A glance to the others in the room--] I suspect there will be a level of effort put forth to prove you wrong, instead. We are all rather stubborn, no?
[You included.]
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It's the one trait all four of us share in common... so I am counting on it.
[ The last time they talked about this, he said he wanted to be proven right. That it was satisfying when Izou tried to kill him just as McGillis knew he would.
This time, he'll say that he wants to be proven wrong. He will be well-prepared when that is not the case, but... he wants to see how far they can go, for real this time. ]
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If whatever is constructed manages to persist on after, then so be it.
But if it cannot, he'll refuse to look back on it with bitterness.
If he can stubbornly convince McGillis to do the same - to whatever extent he is able - all the better. Especially now that he's changed his mind, now that he wants to be proven wrong.]
That's a dangerous admission, you know.
[An invitation to climb through the little window in his walls. A request for someone to try to tear them down. Trust and care that McGillis still insists don't exist within him.]
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[ After all, McGillis is destroying the person he used to be.
He's doing it in homage to someone he once rejected so thoroughly, but he's also doing it for himself so as to not repeat the same regret he died with, however addled by blood-loss it might have been.
And all of him is screaming that he's making a mistake and straying from his path, but his path has been cut off by a bullet already. There is nowhere left to go, so he's forced to be right here. Wedged between friends, as they bother him while reading his book. Or sitting in dimly lit restaurants with a man he does not love, but who makes him feel like his heart is beating again. Or ordering too many appetizers in a karaoke room and talking about sex, like schoolboys... or like lovers would.
Comforts he once would have killed to put an end to.
They taste like chocolate milkshake. ]
I've given myself to three creatures with sharp teeth, but not to worry... I have my own fangs.
[ And he'll devour them and they'll taste like blood and chocolate too. If the happy end is not to be, then it will be a beautiful and haunting tragedy instead. ]
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[And not just for McGillis. There is danger down this path for each and every one of them, and yet each and every one of them have decided to set off down it, for better or worse.
With nowhere left to go, with the path forward cut off, there's no choice but to forge a new one. McGillis could do that alone, sure, but he isn't. He's making the decision to reach out, and the rest of them are all taking his hand in turn.
What they are at the end of it can be nebulously defined. Celeste can freely admit he loves the three of them, certainly, but the depth and intensity felt towards Eli is something... more. He suspects McGillis and Izou have a similar distinction, whether or not they'll admit it openly.
But there had been curiosity, before. There were similarities that brought them together, and differences which threatened to tear them apart. Painful realizations. Confessions. Growth, even, if he dared to admit as much, all leading to them ending up here.
A simple little double-date in a cute little karaoke establishment, with too much food spread on the table and the terms laid out between the snacks far more simple and easy than expected.]
Then stop holding yourself back and bare them for us.
[They'll have to devour one another wholly, and hope to come out the other side unscathed.]
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...this is all metaphor, too, right? 'cause he has stubby human teeth. Though I'm pretty sure he'd make it work regardless.
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Yes, this is metaphor, too... mostly.
[He's also caught a glimpse of the bites on Izou when he's shown them off, he knows that McGillis could probably make it work.]
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But what is mostly metaphor is not entirely metaphor and McGillis does catch the hidden meaning. He and Celeste have certainly talked about it before, even if it was so many weeks ago that it feels like a very distant memory. ]
Human teeth can still cut, it's just a matter of using enough force.
[ Izou also has human teeth and god knows he made McGillis bleed with them. Which was incredibly annoying after the fact because of the healing process, but pretty sexy in the moment. Such is life, dating a demon. Between the Izou bites and the Celeste bite, McGillis really is only lacking Eli... hm.
Eli is who he turns to now, also. ]
I think your boyfriend is coming on to me.
[ And after the tense part of these conversations is now over, McGillis feels a bit more receptive to it. ]
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Yeah?
[ Here, Eli offers him a crooked grin instead of a scowl for saying such a thing. They wouldn't be having this conversation if any of this upset him, after all. ]
Can't say I blame him. He's got great taste in men.
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[ The surprise is exaggerated for effect. McGillis knows he's an attractive man and also that Eli is incredibly weak to muscles. That the general attraction web here might form a full square has crossed his mind before.
Funnily enough, way back in the first week, Eli was the first person he'd considered attractive. Things have changed since then but... ]
Come to think of it, he does. I'll not it down for his strengths.
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I could go on about aaall his strengths if you'd like. You know, flexible. Very flexible. Gorgeous. Real smart. Funny as hell.
[ Sorry, McGillis, he's so in love it's gross. ]
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Now you just sound like you're trying advertising him to me.
[ Which is kind of amusing. ]
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[ insert "this is my boyfriend and this is my boyfriend's boyfriend" gif from parks & rec here ]
Although... I guess I, uh. Shouldn't be wingmanning my own boyfriend...? But he is all of those things.
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[ Except for himself, he's probably the most jealous guy here. But not jealous enough to stop this, not with this group of people. ]
I wonder if giving you leave to sleep with my own boyfriend would count as wingmanning? Or does having terms preclude it from that?
[ It's the first time he's called Izou his boyfriend out loud, yay! ]
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[Hey, wait, hold on, what's this?? He'd just been about to tease him for that comment on his taste in men, when he starts in on all this.
And, okay, his self-esteem is pretty good, so it's not like he'll deny any of it, but having it all laid out like that, by Eli, to go on this hypothetical strengths chart? Please.
It's a good thing they're already tucked close because he kind of just faceplants into his hair to halfway hide the blush that creeps up way too quickly for his liking.]
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Aw, c'mon. You know it's all true, Celeste.
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[...Okay, having a hand end up on his leg makes it worth it, and he's rather quick to put his own hand over Eli's, lacing their fingers together.]
That all is besides the point, right now.
[But is it?]
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hot as well... how did they happen lmao
they're disasters ur honor
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