[He really needs to get to know Elle better, doesn't he? It doesn't sound like she and Toby were contracted long, but the other man clearly adores her. A friendship like that isn't going to fade, just because they won't be bound together anymore.]
Are you going to want to keep her room that way, after she's gone? [It wouldn't be such a loss, he supposes, if she really means a great deal to Toby. He'd prefer to make the room over in their own way, but he can have a heart sometimes, for the vampire's sake.
While he's talking, Dorian picks through and sniffs at all the bath treats stored away. Anything rose-scented gets a secondary, approving sniff.]
I've no idea. [He's not had to think about it in anything but an abstract "what if she disappears too?" sort of way, and even then he wasn't certain what he'd do with it. How do you choose what to do with a room that's become so much a part of the house and someone who's lived in it? Elle is still his friend and he wants her to have a comfortable place here, should she visit once Dorian snags him for a permanent contract again, but is it wise to give up their only spare bedroom when she can't stay the night without getting in trouble after the house is in their name once more?
That's far too heavy a thought when he's still swimming in the joy of Dorian having said yes to his proposal, so he shrugs it off for now.] I'll think on it. For all I know, she'll tell us to take it down after she's taken all her things out of it. [A stunned beat.] Actually, she may just do that. She is our biggest fan. [He can't blame her for that; they are the picture of romance, even if the younger immortal will deny it vehemently.
He smiles as he watches his fiancé picks through all the bath goodies. He'll let the man pick what he wants, but he does give a little push toward something particularly nice by plucking up a mini bath bomb labeled as orchid-scented.] It's got dried petals in the center of it too, [he offers enticingly.] I used up the rose ones last week, but we can get more of those this week. They've got a lovely effervescent feel to them and really good scents.
[Dorian samples the loveliness of the orchid bomb's scent, and then lowers the hand clutching it. It hits him how normal all of this is between them. How domestic. They're fitting back into each other's lives like this without almost no friction at all.]
Honestly, we could be about to bathe in nettles and I couldn't care, [Dorian admits, chuckling. He reaches for one of Toby's hands, and smiles up at that beautiful face.]
I just... want things to stay like this, with you, for as long as they can.
We have forever together, darling. [He smiles back and tugs Dorian closer to himself for a kiss.] Not going anywhere now that I've got you again. I'm yours until the stars burn out and we get that-- oh bloody Hell, what was it called again? The uh... inevitable heat death of the universe?
[It's a terrible and poorly executed dark joke, but he grins as if he'd delivered it perfectly. Nothing can tear down his mood now that his soulmate's back and he can look into those gorgeous, expressive eyes and touch that soft and beautifully sculpted body.]
But let's avoid the nettles. You may heal right away, but I still have to deal with the rash for a while before it'll go away. [It'll ruin ~the mood~ if that happens.] We have plenty of other lovely things to use instead. In the bath, in the shower, and in the freshly washed linens we can put on the bed before we pass out.
[A bed in which they will cuddle for a very long time before Toby's satisfied enough to let Dorian go so he's not shivering all night long. God knows it's going to take hours, and he can't care in the least.]
[He knows this won't be their forever, but he can live vicariously through Toby's grinning optimism, just for now. That fantasy is better than reality, and he needs it, when he's only had his vampire back for a few hours.]
The Big Chill, [he affirms, chuckling ... halfway convincingly at the dark joke.] Lucky for us, you can take the cold, and all I'll need is a good coat or three. [Pushing himself harder to overcome his own lingering wounds, he adds,] Hell, it'll preserve the portrait even better than the attic is going to do now. [Who needs feelings, just avoid them all. ♪]
I do like the orchid one. [He touches the bath bomb contemplatively.] But now I'm thinking about when I'll be able to get my things [the portrait] in here. Don't react, because I know it's bad, but the portrait's sitting in a closet right now. [There was no time, okay????]
[Well, then. This is certainly Toby ignoring everything his fiancé has said in favour of that last bit.]
We'll put it in a box I'll carry over tomorrow night. Or whatever night this week when it's packed and ready to go. That asshole can wait in a bin until I'm good and ready to deal with it for all I care. [He huffs indignantly.] Not like that whispering git can get anywhere without my help anyway.
[If Dorian thought there was any chance the vampire would be happy to hear the portrait is back... well, he shouldn't have. The portrait being here is only good in the context of Dorian being here. No more and considerably less if Toby can manage it.
I'm sure the portrait missed you, too, [he says, his tone obliging.]
It won't take long to get it in something, I just need the something, and help getting it in there. We can throw a sheet over it to muffle it, if we have to.
... Do you know a place that's going to throw out a box big enough to hold it? [Not having his memories really isn't helping, here.]
Oh yeah, he missed being the most restless pain in my ass that's ever existed. [Again: fuck that guy.]
We had to have someone build something big enough to carry it last time. I can look up who it was and get them to bring something 'round to the apartment again. [Because he absolutely tossed that box straight into the bin after they were done with it last time.] Won't be hard to get if you make the call. A 'brand new' Dominant, even a LIER, gets a fair amount of leniency from native shopkeepers when they have money for whatever they're asking for.
[He'll just. let that sink in for a minute. Reinforce that all the bullshit he was told during Orientation is true and unfortunately very real for everyday life around here.]
I gathered that from orientation. And all the people on the street acting like this place is the Torture Garden, 24/7. [Ah, the Torture Garden. Good times.
Just not when it isn't a choice.]
Frankly, I don't care what they're expecting. I'm not walking you on a leash, controlling you in public, or doing whatever else they want us to do to show that you're 'property'. [A beat, and then he huffs a laugh.] Unless we decide we're looking for a change of pace.
[It wouldn't be the first time, but still. There are always ways around rules he, or they, don't want to follow. This place might be in a different dimension, realm, or whatever it actually is, but it still seems enough like Earth that all the ways things work here can't be completely different.]
We certainly won't be doing that in public. My "diva" collar doesn't have a ring on it. [He offers that casually, then adds,] At least one of my pink collars does, though, if you're ever feeling like really taking me out for a spin when I've been a naughty boy.
[Troll mode: activated.
But he will totally do this if Dorian ever says he wants it even jokingly.]
[He can't help the laugh that comes at that, as he shakes his head.]
Collars, plural? How many do you have? [The fashionista in him gets it from an accessorizing perspective, but it's still weird, and new, that it's a social requirement to wear even one.]
Seven, actually. [Yes, he's very proud of this face.] Had to cover my bases, and then Elle gifted me a couple of cheeky ones. The "diva" included. She really knows how to gift once she gets to know someone.
[Which is to say he has many lovely things that are all her fault. Gloriously so.]
[Seven collars means that there's actually something to all the insanity introduced during Orientation. Thank Christ Toby's here to give him the full score of what it's like to live here, daily.]
After seeing her room, I've no doubt. [He frowns slightly.]
So it's all real, then. There's a sex quota that someone is actually checking, and people like you [he indicates the stripe on Toby's neck - that unfortunate tattooing of the other man's beautiful skin] aren't able to do as much in this place as people like me.
[Toby nods and frees Dorian's hands of the bath bomb to take them in his own.]
Yeah. Got to have a Dominant to let us hold a job, buy things, or basically exist in public. It's easier to do in the Down as the gangs have pushed LIES staff out, but it's not much better. Natives still don't like LIERs and Submissives still get treated like shit unless they're being led around or acting subservient to literally any Dominant. [He makes a face at that.]
It also smells awful down there. Completely underground and you can't get that kind of awful smell out of anything. [His nose wrinkles at the mere memory of it.] If you're wondering why we didn't go with the option of slightly less surveillance for the house, that's why. It's bad enough that anyone notices it, and people like me suffer.
We'll figure out how to deal with the surveillance. [He huffs a bitter sort of laugh.] I'm always being surveilled by something no matter where I go, anyway. [Is LIES more, or less, threatening than random supernatural forces? Time will tell.]
You have me, [he reasons] so doesn't that solve most of our problems in this place? Or is there more that I ought to know about?
I keep a clean sweep of the house itself, but there's only so much I can do. We can't get rid of their phones, and they've got so much shit going on with them. Sending out texts or pictures for us, recording us, using them as orgasm sensors. [The last one sounds so fake to him, but that's how LIES explains it and he's yet to come up with a better explanation. This newfangled tech is weird.
He chuckles softly.] Most, yeah. Things are harsher than they were last time you were here. The collars and cuffs are new, but they're trying to enforce "model" behaviour, too. SIN guards telling Doms to make their Subs act more submissive in public. Natives forcing Subs to eat out of a Dom's hand at a restaurant, kneeling beside them while they shop. Things like that.
[It wouldn't be so bad if people could consent to it. The city doesn't care much about consent in this particular instance, though.]
An orgasm sensor? [What the actual fuck.] You can't be -- you're serious, aren't you? What do they need something like that for? [And does that mean they're ... chipped, or something? Frowning, Dorian turns to the large mirror in the bathroom, and starts stroking down the length of his nude body, and looking for ..... hell, he doesn't know. Insertions beneath the skin? This is so fucked.]
Well, we're not doing that, obviously. It's patently insane. [Right?!]
To know we're meeting quota. [He cocks a brow at Dorian.] You didn't think we were manually cataloguing all that for them, did you?
[Like either of them would pause in their sex long enough for that.]
We can ignore some of it, but not all. If we try to tell natives to piss off about the rules of their restaurants, they'll kick us out and deduct money from our accounts for our food, whether we've finished or not. SIN guards can have us arrested or keep harassing us until we comply or make it home. [He shrugs half-heartedly.] I prefer to eat and drink at home anyway. Unless I'm going to some LIER-owned place, you can't trust a damn thing out of any of those kitchens not to be dosed.
I hadn't stopped to think about it, Toby. I've been running around ever since Orientation. [He turns in front of the mirror, and scopes out his back and buttocks, running his hands down along his body until he's satisfied that everything seems to be as it always is. Sighing, he gives up, and leans back against the bathroom counter.
And he doesn't love hearing any of that. They can't even go out to eat? What exactly are they supposed to do with themselves in this place, if they're going to be harassed whenever they step outside their front door?]
If they're really able to keep up with all of that, there have to be police everywhere - or whoever it is that's enforcing the 'rules'. [Fantastic.] All I've seen are hulking people with batons. Is that them?
It was a gentle ribbing, darling. [His timing may be shit, but come on, it was at least a little funny - in a horribly dark and dystopian way. Right up their humour alley.
He nods.] SIN guards. They've also got these weapons that will "de-power" anyone who isn't completely human. I've seen magic users suddenly unable to cast, superhero-types not be able to do their superhero thing, all from one shot of a gun or strike of a special baton. [It's terrifying, but he'll avoid mentioning he's been hit once by it. They don't need to go on about everything that happened with Veracity on Dorian's first night back.]
They want us to conform to their rules and get pissed off when we don't like how they "ask" for it. Best we can do is break the rules that don't require us being in public while we do it. Or play along in our way when we don't want to be forced inside. For example: you can always tell some native you're trying to see how long I can hold out for my orgasm while making me try on all the clothes while we're at some store.
[That might be the worst example given the better clothes shops are all the LIER-run ones, but it still counts!]
[What Toby's describing is just as authoritarian and shitty as Orientation forecasted. He'd taken it all with a grain of salt at the time, because, hell, who wouldn't? Surely a city built upon a BDSM foundation didn't, and couldn't work.
But it does, and it's real.
This is, without a doubt, the most fucked situation he's ever found himself in.]
So I'm out of the fire, and you're out of ... [death] where you were, and we're both in a sex dungeon. Usually, I wouldn't mind that, especially with present company. [Dark humour aside, he frowns.]
And there's no way to leave, I'm guessing? [Sex is great, and all, but he doesn't see most people staying for the compelled part of it, if there's a way to be free.] This place is a city, but, what? There's a giant guarded wall around the edges? Dimensional portals that toss you right back in?
Honestly, I'll take it over the alternative. [A gentle way of confirming he knows he's dead back home. If this is where they get to be together for eternity, he'll take it, no matter how shitty or Orwellian it may be.]
None as far as I know. Some people've tried to find out more about how we get here or what happens when we're sent away, but they've got naught for it. [He appreciates other people sticking their necks so he doesn't have to. All the better that they get the punishments for doing so. A way out to get back home and tell off Lucifer, maybe even take him out, would be nice, but there's no way in any version of Hell Toby's risking himself for that. Not while Dorian was gone and even less so now that the man's back.]
The city itself seems to simply exist somewhere. If you find any edges, you'll wander them only to find yourself back toward where you started sometime later. [It's trippy, to put it mildly.] Only place 'round here that's fully contained is the sister city of Veracity, and that's in a bloody dome under the water. [AKA a place Toby does not ever want to be.
Shit, he's going to have to explain it at some point, isn't he? There's so much with that shitty little city to go through, too, starting with its weirdness and ending with the Pit.]
[As he's listening, the stray thought of 'Perhaps nobody's tried hard enough' crosses Dorian's mind, but he dismisses it after a moment's consideration. As tantalizing as the secrets of the city's boundaries are, the very idea threatens this small slice of paradise where Toby's alive. No investigation is worth endangering either of them accidentally tripping into some secret that sends either of them home.
Thankfully, the idea of a modern Atlantis is interesting enough to grab onto, instead.]
Under the water? [He blinks.] So, under the waves of that beach out there, [he points at the window of the bathroom] there's an entire city that people here can get to?
[Goddammit. Of course he'd ask about Veracity. Toby sighs heavily. He could lie about the city and try to convince the man it's nothing special, but the fact that it exists the way it does won't stop him. So, best go for the big guns right away.]
Yes, and you don't want to go. Not because it isn't interesting in its own right, but because the last time you were there, the city had kidnapped you, made you powerless, and forced you and dozens of other LIERs through the most obscene dominant/submissive routines between literal torture. I know you don't remember that right now, but if you ask about Veracity around anyone who's been here long enough, they'll all give the same shudder before they can say anything about it.
[As quickly as his interest was piqued, Toby squashes it with that explanation. BDSM-styled torture. That'll be another fun memory to get back - whenever it is his memories are planning on returning.]
All right, point taken. Duplicity's Atlantis is better left alone. [He frowns slightly.]
I feel like you've given me the score of what to look out for, and what not to do in this place. Is that all Duplicity is? Rules and punishments? [If so, living here is going to be a pain in the ass.] We have all of this [he gestures at the surrounding bathroom] so we must have had some of the life we wanted?
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Are you going to want to keep her room that way, after she's gone? [It wouldn't be such a loss, he supposes, if she really means a great deal to Toby. He'd prefer to make the room over in their own way, but he can have a heart sometimes, for the vampire's sake.
While he's talking, Dorian picks through and sniffs at all the bath treats stored away. Anything rose-scented gets a secondary, approving sniff.]
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That's far too heavy a thought when he's still swimming in the joy of Dorian having said yes to his proposal, so he shrugs it off for now.] I'll think on it. For all I know, she'll tell us to take it down after she's taken all her things out of it. [A stunned beat.] Actually, she may just do that. She is our biggest fan. [He can't blame her for that; they are the picture of romance, even if the younger immortal will deny it vehemently.
He smiles as he watches his fiancé picks through all the bath goodies. He'll let the man pick what he wants, but he does give a little push toward something particularly nice by plucking up a mini bath bomb labeled as orchid-scented.] It's got dried petals in the center of it too, [he offers enticingly.] I used up the rose ones last week, but we can get more of those this week. They've got a lovely effervescent feel to them and really good scents.
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Honestly, we could be about to bathe in nettles and I couldn't care, [Dorian admits, chuckling. He reaches for one of Toby's hands, and smiles up at that beautiful face.]
I just... want things to stay like this, with you, for as long as they can.
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[It's a terrible and poorly executed dark joke, but he grins as if he'd delivered it perfectly. Nothing can tear down his mood now that his soulmate's back and he can look into those gorgeous, expressive eyes and touch that soft and beautifully sculpted body.]
But let's avoid the nettles. You may heal right away, but I still have to deal with the rash for a while before it'll go away. [It'll ruin ~the mood~ if that happens.] We have plenty of other lovely things to use instead. In the bath, in the shower, and in the freshly washed linens we can put on the bed before we pass out.
[A bed in which they will cuddle for a very long time before Toby's satisfied enough to let Dorian go so he's not shivering all night long. God knows it's going to take hours, and he can't care in the least.]
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The Big Chill, [he affirms, chuckling ... halfway convincingly at the dark joke.] Lucky for us, you can take the cold, and all I'll need is a good coat or three. [Pushing himself harder to overcome his own lingering wounds, he adds,] Hell, it'll preserve the portrait even better than the attic is going to do now. [Who needs feelings, just avoid them all. ♪]
I do like the orchid one. [He touches the bath bomb contemplatively.] But now I'm thinking about when I'll be able to get my things [the portrait] in here. Don't react, because I know it's bad, but the portrait's sitting in a closet right now. [There was no time, okay????]
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We'll put it in a box I'll carry over tomorrow night. Or whatever night this week when it's packed and ready to go. That asshole can wait in a bin until I'm good and ready to deal with it for all I care. [He huffs indignantly.] Not like that whispering git can get anywhere without my help anyway.
[If Dorian thought there was any chance the vampire would be happy to hear the portrait is back... well, he shouldn't have. The portrait being here is only good in the context of Dorian being here. No more and considerably less if Toby can manage it.
But seriously, fuck that guy.]
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It won't take long to get it in something, I just need the something, and help getting it in there. We can throw a sheet over it to muffle it, if we have to.
... Do you know a place that's going to throw out a box big enough to hold it? [Not having his memories really isn't helping, here.]
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We had to have someone build something big enough to carry it last time. I can look up who it was and get them to bring something 'round to the apartment again. [Because he absolutely tossed that box straight into the bin after they were done with it last time.] Won't be hard to get if you make the call. A 'brand new' Dominant, even a LIER, gets a fair amount of leniency from native shopkeepers when they have money for whatever they're asking for.
[He'll just. let that sink in for a minute. Reinforce that all the bullshit he was told during Orientation is true and unfortunately very real for everyday life around here.]
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Just not when it isn't a choice.]
Frankly, I don't care what they're expecting. I'm not walking you on a leash, controlling you in public, or doing whatever else they want us to do to show that you're 'property'. [A beat, and then he huffs a laugh.] Unless we decide we're looking for a change of pace.
[It wouldn't be the first time, but still. There are always ways around rules he, or they, don't want to follow. This place might be in a different dimension, realm, or whatever it actually is, but it still seems enough like Earth that all the ways things work here can't be completely different.]
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[Troll mode: activated.
But he will totally do this if Dorian ever says he wants it even jokingly.]
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Collars, plural? How many do you have? [The fashionista in him gets it from an accessorizing perspective, but it's still weird, and new, that it's a social requirement to wear even one.]
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[Which is to say he has many lovely things that are all her fault. Gloriously so.]
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After seeing her room, I've no doubt. [He frowns slightly.]
So it's all real, then. There's a sex quota that someone is actually checking, and people like you [he indicates the stripe on Toby's neck - that unfortunate tattooing of the other man's beautiful skin] aren't able to do as much in this place as people like me.
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Yeah. Got to have a Dominant to let us hold a job, buy things, or basically exist in public. It's easier to do in the Down as the gangs have pushed LIES staff out, but it's not much better. Natives still don't like LIERs and Submissives still get treated like shit unless they're being led around or acting subservient to literally any Dominant. [He makes a face at that.]
It also smells awful down there. Completely underground and you can't get that kind of awful smell out of anything. [His nose wrinkles at the mere memory of it.] If you're wondering why we didn't go with the option of slightly less surveillance for the house, that's why. It's bad enough that anyone notices it, and people like me suffer.
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You have me, [he reasons] so doesn't that solve most of our problems in this place? Or is there more that I ought to know about?
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He chuckles softly.] Most, yeah. Things are harsher than they were last time you were here. The collars and cuffs are new, but they're trying to enforce "model" behaviour, too. SIN guards telling Doms to make their Subs act more submissive in public. Natives forcing Subs to eat out of a Dom's hand at a restaurant, kneeling beside them while they shop. Things like that.
[It wouldn't be so bad if people could consent to it. The city doesn't care much about consent in this particular instance, though.]
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Well, we're not doing that, obviously. It's patently insane. [Right?!]
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[Like either of them would pause in their sex long enough for that.]
We can ignore some of it, but not all. If we try to tell natives to piss off about the rules of their restaurants, they'll kick us out and deduct money from our accounts for our food, whether we've finished or not. SIN guards can have us arrested or keep harassing us until we comply or make it home. [He shrugs half-heartedly.] I prefer to eat and drink at home anyway. Unless I'm going to some LIER-owned place, you can't trust a damn thing out of any of those kitchens not to be dosed.
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And he doesn't love hearing any of that. They can't even go out to eat? What exactly are they supposed to do with themselves in this place, if they're going to be harassed whenever they step outside their front door?]
If they're really able to keep up with all of that, there have to be police everywhere - or whoever it is that's enforcing the 'rules'. [Fantastic.] All I've seen are hulking people with batons. Is that them?
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He nods.] SIN guards. They've also got these weapons that will "de-power" anyone who isn't completely human. I've seen magic users suddenly unable to cast, superhero-types not be able to do their superhero thing, all from one shot of a gun or strike of a special baton. [It's terrifying, but he'll avoid mentioning he's been hit once by it. They don't need to go on about everything that happened with Veracity on Dorian's first night back.]
They want us to conform to their rules and get pissed off when we don't like how they "ask" for it. Best we can do is break the rules that don't require us being in public while we do it. Or play along in our way when we don't want to be forced inside. For example: you can always tell some native you're trying to see how long I can hold out for my orgasm while making me try on all the clothes while we're at some store.
[That might be the worst example given the better clothes shops are all the LIER-run ones, but it still counts!]
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But it does, and it's real.
This is, without a doubt, the most fucked situation he's ever found himself in.]
So I'm out of the fire, and you're out of ... [death] where you were, and we're both in a sex dungeon. Usually, I wouldn't mind that, especially with present company. [Dark humour aside, he frowns.]
And there's no way to leave, I'm guessing? [Sex is great, and all, but he doesn't see most people staying for the compelled part of it, if there's a way to be free.] This place is a city, but, what? There's a giant guarded wall around the edges? Dimensional portals that toss you right back in?
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None as far as I know. Some people've tried to find out more about how we get here or what happens when we're sent away, but they've got naught for it. [He appreciates other people sticking their necks so he doesn't have to. All the better that they get the punishments for doing so. A way out to get back home and tell off Lucifer, maybe even take him out, would be nice, but there's no way in any version of Hell Toby's risking himself for that. Not while Dorian was gone and even less so now that the man's back.]
The city itself seems to simply exist somewhere. If you find any edges, you'll wander them only to find yourself back toward where you started sometime later. [It's trippy, to put it mildly.] Only place 'round here that's fully contained is the sister city of Veracity, and that's in a bloody dome under the water. [AKA a place Toby does not ever want to be.
Shit, he's going to have to explain it at some point, isn't he? There's so much with that shitty little city to go through, too, starting with its weirdness and ending with the Pit.]
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Thankfully, the idea of a modern Atlantis is interesting enough to grab onto, instead.]
Under the water? [He blinks.] So, under the waves of that beach out there, [he points at the window of the bathroom] there's an entire city that people here can get to?
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Yes, and you don't want to go. Not because it isn't interesting in its own right, but because the last time you were there, the city had kidnapped you, made you powerless, and forced you and dozens of other LIERs through the most obscene dominant/submissive routines between literal torture. I know you don't remember that right now, but if you ask about Veracity around anyone who's been here long enough, they'll all give the same shudder before they can say anything about it.
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All right, point taken. Duplicity's Atlantis is better left alone. [He frowns slightly.]
I feel like you've given me the score of what to look out for, and what not to do in this place. Is that all Duplicity is? Rules and punishments? [If so, living here is going to be a pain in the ass.] We have all of this [he gestures at the surrounding bathroom] so we must have had some of the life we wanted?
cw: talk of drug use
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