tushanshu | CONSOLE [video/action] Guess who's back, back, back from the

[Skulduggery's at the Hotel console, looking exactly the same as he did when he went missing a month ago. He's impeccably dressed in a suit, hat, scarf, and coat - and also happens to be a living skeleton, for those new to the turtle. 'Back from the dead' has new and interesting connotations where he's concerned.

It's April 1st. It's a little past dinnertime. Skulduggery takes a moment or two, once the video turns on, before he speaks. He sounds the same as ever, too - Irish, his voice as smooth as velvet.]

I promise, I don't do this on purpose.

[That's directed at... a lot of people, actually. Pepper. Solomon. Cain. Raine. Anton. Erskine. Honestly, anyone who's not so much relieved at his return than annoyed.]

It looks like I missed quite a bit. Someone died, someone didn't die, everyone's blaming everyone else, and now we have a person or persons unknown trying to assassinate every prominent kedan in the city. On top of that, I heard something about an earthquake and power outages. Does anyone know more than the barest details about any of this? And if they do, would they be willing to share it?

[He reaches out to end the feed, then pauses.]

Oh, and why is all the furniture on the ceiling?

[OOC: Feel free to approach Skulduggery in person at the console if you're in the Hotel!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Not everything, he's sure. Just the important parts. More than enough.

He shakes his head, though China won't see it.] You're not avoiding me because I know what you did. If that were the case, you'd have left Keeliai. You certainly wouldn't have taken the time to welcome me back. You know I'm not going to fly off the handle and try to kill you, which is why I've picked now for blunt honesty. Why have you been avoiding me?

[Recognise that tone of voice, China? It's the quiet, inexorable, persistent tone of voice Skulduggery adopts when he is literally not going to stop asking until he gets an honest answer.]

[He can assume the years of cutting a bloody swath across Europe, yes.]

I took a few seconds to acknowledge your existence, it's true. That's hardly a great commitment.

[China could learn to hate that tone of voice.]

[She toys with a number of possibilities. Truth is the least appealing of them. Truth would mean admitting he stung her somehow in that last exchange; truth would be admitting she has any kind of softer feelings, let alone that Skulduggery still has the power to affect them. Truth, also, means laying bare a quiet desire she likes to pretend she doesn't have, save when she's alone with herself: something she knows full well she has buried any right to having.]

[No. Not truth. She could hang up on him. But that would be avoiding him further, and that tone says she would then find him on her doorstep or attempting to climb through her window in an hour or a day.]

[Counterattack is an option: something to put him on the defensive, off the inquiry. Somehow, though, China is not sure she wants to. She could hurt him, she knows which buttons to press-- but she won't.]

[Half-truth, then.]

Oh, aren't you? I never can tell with you, my darling; for all you know, I might have looked sidelong at one of your brothers while you were gone.

[It's a pretty obvious subject change. It initiates that old familiar flare of anger, too - probably exactly as China was hoping. Skulduggery's about to respond when he remembers the last time they spoke.]

You're avoiding me because I threatened you?

[If he sounds surprised, that's because he is. China Sorrows, taking threats personally? China doesn't hold grudges in the traditional manner, but there are certain more personal subjects she takes a very long time to forgive. Skulduggery didn't think threats were one of them.]

I admit I wasn't thinking clearly then, but you were avoiding me long before that. Ever since -

[ - since Skulduggery's brief tenure among the living.]

[Why couldn't you have taken the bait, Skulduggery? That would have been so lovely.]

My darling, did your brief sojourn damage your memory of that conversation? Frankly, I'd rather keep our relationship at 'I don't want to kill you.'

[For that phrase, she shifts her accent, takes on a slightly more pronounced cadence in mimicry of Skulduggery rather than her own more subtle tone. Then she's back again.]

Avoiding all of your friends is a little limiting, I'll admit, but I make do.

[Somehow this is still not an answer about her avoidance of Skulduggery. How about that.]

[For the love of whatever God might exist on a multidimensional level, China, even Skulduggery isn't this emotionally constipated. And for a man who only exists because his rage attached him to his skeleton, that's saying something.

For a good minute, he doesn't say anything at all. Then he sighs.]

Here's an idea. Let's call a truce. I've never said anything that offended you, and you've never said anything that offended me. We can wipe the slate clean and start over. I'm sure the lack of thinly veiled threats will help us both get on with things we'd much rather be doing.

[She's... something resembling touched. She wasn't sure he was going to respond, actually, and there's a silence following his words that's not precisely usual for China, always ready with a sharp word.]

[There is the sound of a deliberate breath.]

To borrow your metaphor, my dear, I think the slate is graven a little too deep to be wiped clean.

[But... well. China is, of all things, a little tired of the tension between them.]

When was the last time I threatened you, Skulduggery?

[She pauses a moment, to let him think on that, and then adds,]

I suppose, however, there is no reason that slate can't be... painted over, so to speak.

[To be perfectly honest, Skulduggery doesn't even remember the last time China threatened him. Not since the end of the war, he knows that much. During it? ... Not since he married his wife. Likely because China was too busy following through on the threats she never made.

But Skulduggery lets that anger pass in favour of seeing China's point, and his response comes about a minute delayed.]

Would you like to mark it with a gesture of good faith?

[This time, it doesn't surprise her that he answers, as belated as it is. China considers the silence, and China considers his question.]

Certainly. Now I'm curious. What gesture of good faith do you have for me, Skulduggery?

There's a good chance Milyn isn't dead.

[That's it. That's all he'll say. It's actually the first time he's said it out loud, and now that he has, the sense it makes is undeniable -- particularly if Milyn, fearing for her life, asked her rescuers to keep her survival a secret. Judging by the apparent assassination attempt only days later, she has the right idea.]

[There's the sound of a breath. It's as much of a tell as he gets.]

You really did mean faith, didn't you.

[Something she absolutely cannot take on faith alone; something she cannot use without proof; something she is reasonably sure he is not about to justify to her at all.]

[China disapproves on principle, but approves of Skulduggery's twistiness. She's just going to have to trust him.]

[Which she hates, a little.]

I suppose I'll keep it in mind.

I wouldn't expect any less.

[When has anything involving Skulduggery ever been straightforward, China.]

[Once. Maybe. She wouldn't want him any other way.]

Good.

...welcome back.

[This time: she kind of means it.]

CONSOLE [video/action] Guess who's back, back, back from the - wait.

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Good for ending here?

aye aye!