Lich Arklow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gravemanagement) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
itsfairplay2020-02-27 03:09 am
gravemanagement) wrote in itsfairplay2020-02-27 03:09 am
Mingle and an Intro: Welcome to the Box!
[ On today, a long-time business has been bought for the day and paid well. Whoever paid it wants people to eat and make merry for some reason. Must be a holiday? Huh, all devices showing the date day it's the new year. It doesn't matter what day it was for you before now, it's not the new year. And you? You are at the Chloe Café at 1:30PM.
Waiters and waitresses will take your order. Really, it's a chill time. Even if you're supposed to be dead? You're alive now, somewhere in Los Angeles, Japanifornia. Welcome and have a good day, because eventually there's gonna be a murder to solve in this big ol' city. ]
Waiters and waitresses will take your order. Really, it's a chill time. Even if you're supposed to be dead? You're alive now, somewhere in Los Angeles, Japanifornia. Welcome and have a good day, because eventually there's gonna be a murder to solve in this big ol' city. ]
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[ It's the first time the veneer is actually dropped in this conversation, and those cold, dead eyes level on Klavier. They're piercing, like they see through someone to their core. Watching. In fact, if Klav pays attention, it might almost be a little familiar. Just a little. ]
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... Despair could easily consume him. He... knows that. He's seen it firsthand. But he... refuses. He won't... let that happen. ]
... Maybe. Maybe the world is a cold and uncaring place. After all, there'd be no reason for the system in the first place if men weren't hurting each other day in and day out. But... the law exists so we can give everyone a fair shake.
And you're wrong.
Because I've seen it firsthand. I've seen both sides of that courtroom working to help people... working to find the truth. That's what's important. Not who's guilty. Not who's innocent.
But the truth. Sometimes that truth is ugly, ja? But it's what needs to be shown.
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[ The cold eyes that look at him don't waver. What does Klavier know about the truth, wrapped in the comfortable world of the familiar? Of lies? He doesn't know the skeletons still in the family closet--why they're eight years apart. Why their parents hate each other and can barely stand him. Surely he'd noticed? But no, why would he? He was too busy following the unfavorite like a lost little puppy. ]
You want to know... The truth?
[ There's a dark chuckle. And the smile that slides across his features is a dangerous one. ]
...Are you sure you want to really look at the truth, Klavier?
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[ His smile seems easy, but the truth is that he's nervous. Unnerved. He was always usually pretty decent at hiding that, but... that was a habit he'd picked up.
From watching.
Even now, he's not able to escape emulating his brother to some degree. At this point, he wants to feel like his own person. Not "Kristoph Gavin's younger brother". ]
... I said I wanted to clean out the family closet, Kristoph, and I meant it. But it seems to me... like you're harboring some extra skeletons under your bed every night. We're past the point of lying to one another for niceties.
So why don't you explain it to me.
Why you hate my guts so much.
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Tell me, Klavier. Did you truly never notice? The stricter standards I had placed upon me? The fact that our parents fawned over you while I was forced to smile on the outside, unwelcome? I know you don't remember the incident that gave me this scar. You were far too young--four. But surely you noticed something was wrong with our happy, little family.
[ No. Not happy. It was always, always about appearances. Kristoph had learned far, far too young that the only one he could truly depend upon was himself. So why he'd thought he could depend on Klavier is beyond him. Maybe he'd still held out some hope someone would be there for him, to pull him from the darkness that had consumed him.
No one had. ]
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[ He'd always wondered. In fact, he'd confronted them about it a few times, and gotten stock answers of "he's the eldest, we expect more of him" or something like that.
He never bought it. ]
They were overbearing. Why do you think I left and did my own thing so quickly? You know I value my freedom.
[ The sooner he could get out of that place the better, in his mind. Something about them had always felt like a little bit too much, in every possible way. ]
I thought maybe I was imagining it. Or maybe I was young and stupid. But it always felt like there was a weird tension in the air at home.
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[ He takes a sip of his tea, letting the weight of that revelation sink in on Klavier. It's a big one. No one would believe that Kora Gavin would have an affair with the man who would go on to become a famous magician. And yet, the proof is right here, sitting at the table, talking to Klavier. It's almost funny how much one singular night could cause so much trouble. ]
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Like. After that trial he's so emotionally drained. And has been for awhile. He had an abundance of free time now that his band had broken up, after all. Free time he threw into yet more cases.
So this is just sort of an, "of course".
He isn't sure what he expected. But he's supposing, then, that this is the reason their parents were so... like that. Part of it, anyway. ]
... A magician.
[ Well gee, considering the timing. There's only so many people it could be. Given the date, certain others would be too young. ]
You know, usually magicians are supposed to make things disappear. Not the other way around. There was always something that sat with me... like a poorly tuned guitar. You connected to Vera Misham a little bit too easily, didn't you? And that stamp. Not a lot of those were made, looking into it, ja?
[ If he already had connections in some way, or if he cared enough about it, it would be easy for him to do that, wouldn't it? Kristoph WAS quite prolific as a defense attorney. He made a real name for himself. But it could've been ANY stamp. ... Right? Like. Surely, it would've been easier to send a regular old stamp in that letter, not a special one.
... So why? ]
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[ He's very... Pensive. It's very odd. It's like the cold mask has fallen away for a time, because Klavier is someone he can be vulnerable with. But there's so much more under the surface. Well. Klav had wanted to face the darkness at the bottom, the darkness that had swallowed up his brother. Time to shine the blazing, burning light of truth on it, yes? ]
In 2006, Magnifi came to television spotlight. The year you were four years old. I was twelve, and wanted nothing more than to do the magic tricks I saw on television. So I snuck us out with some knives, into the gardens. I wanted an audience. I should have known better at the time, but I think I was hoping that if I did get hurt, Mother and Father would finally stop being cold with me.
[ "How could you do something so dangerous with your brother!? What if he'd gotten hurt!?"
The words of his mother, shaking him by the shoulders angrily while Father checked Klavier over still ring in his head, echoing from the past. His parents had never cared. He was a mistake, an aberration in their family. Unwelcome. The unfavorite. Nothing he did would ever be enough, no matter how successful he happened to be. ]
...An accident happened that day. I tried to juggle a knife. I thought I could do it. It was stupid, looking back. The wound needed many stitches. Mother and Father... Didn't care that I was hurt. Only that I could have hurt you. Whatever positive feelings I had for them... Died on that day, strangled out by the yells and the shaking before they finally got the wound stitched up. I stopped trying to earn their approval and love. I was never going to get it.
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... Really, that odd feeling around his parents is part of why he wanted to leave. He'd always hated how he'd seen them treat his brother, and how they never listened to him, only kept going on about what was best for him personally. ]
Kristoph.
We're not our parents. Surely you know that. I don't need to remind you... that we're related, whatever that entails.
[ He says it slowly and gently. ]
Honestly. I'm disappointed in you. Didn't I tell you before? You could come to me for whatever. I told you that ages ago. I trusted you.
[ ... Sigh. ]
But I suppose you must not have trusted me. Or maybe you resent me. I suppose I cannot say I could blame you.
[ You know, at this point, maybe he's starting to think he's untrustworthy. Nobody seems to want to come to him for anything, other than to use him. He's starting to feel a bit like his only use is as a tool to others. It hurts, just a little. ]
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[ He lets that sink in for a moment. Lets Klavier think on that, lets it dawn on him. It's not about trust. It's about the fact that this all began so long ago, and he had, perhaps naively, wanted to shield his younger brother from the ugly truth of their family. The sordid affair was too much for even Kristoph, and he'd been a very hardened person by even then. But it was... Personal, perhaps. And he'd never been good with things that hit too close to personal. ]
Now, tell me. Why, oh why, would I burden by seventeen-year-old brother with the burdens of our family, the truth of his brother's heritage? You didn't deserve that weight upon you, Klavier.
[ This is... Perhaps the softest he'd been in a long time with his brother. The admission that he'd wanted to keep Klav from being hurt by all of that, because he knows his brother. Klav would have found some inane way to blame himself. Even though it's impossible for Klav to have been at faul for their mother's affair. ]