slightlyoffchilt | - IC CONTACT POST FOR MASKORMENACE -

[Abduxel wasn't expecting that comment, and it shows. He considers playing the which archangel do you mean? game for a little laugh, but decides not to bother.] He doesn't like to get dirt under his fingernails. I do.

[Boldly, and without missing a beat:] Does he like to get you under his fingernails?

[He lets out a surprised laugh, just a single heh, and looks down a moment before blinking back at up at the Doctor. There's a great many things he could say right now that would all serve him poorly. Instead, he enunciates clearly and decisively,] No.

Oh. [Chilton tilted his head, watching Abduxel enact that relatively muted reaction. Such restraint, when Lucifer was the topic between their tongues.]

So just Sam Winchester, then?

Well, Sam Winchester is quite a bit more handsome than the current host body, isn't he? Much younger, too, and so tall. If I had to get inside one of them, I know who I'd pick.

[Can it be called blasphemy to joke about Lucifer this way?]

((OOC: nvm my previous ooc note, i found it))

Edited 2015-07-22 04:38 (UTC)

And here I thought you favored older men. Maybe it's a demon thing. [Sensuality. Always on the forefront of demonic agenda, apparently.] Not that you require any vessel -- but I wonder how that works. I wonder what would happen if someone else got into Sam Winchester first.

I can appreciate the taste of a well-aged wine, but I'm fond of my own eternal youth.

[We are talking about possessing bodies, right?

It takes admirable restraint not to make this about Chilton directly, to confront him with flirtation.]

I imagine our archangel would be able to cast the intruder out, but then, things work a little differently with him than I often expect. [He shrugs a shoulder.] I'm not practiced at possession, if that's what you're getting at.

It might be useful to find someone who was.

[Not even a full-bodied implication, this subtle threat was like a transparent sliver of ginger: cut with care and easily flicked away. But if Chilton had to go after the one thing that Lucifer was vocally possessive about, then he would. And if Abduxel was to relay this information, Chilton didn't doubt that Lucifer would understand the stakes Chilton sought.

The psychiatrist smiled.]

How are things between you and your master? Good?

[His eyes glance up to the right, an unconscious peer into his own mind as something - someone - occurs to him. He knows someone who can hop bodies, in fact, although he doesn't know that she would. He doesn't share with the class, looking back at Chilton, and responds plainly, but with some measure of sincerity - a genuine question.] Yes, it might be. But what do you get from it, if he can't take his host?

[He bristles a little at the word master.] Oh, you know. Just peachy, I think. We don't talk much. Do you?

I spoke with him at the Swearing-In -- or rather, he spoke with me.

[Chilton bypassed the inquiry into his motivations; capitulation was a fruit too sweet to hang low. Offering a pleasant smile instead, Chilton leaned forward, his eyes lighting up with a quiet intensity. He knew, at least to some extent, what Lucifer meant to Abduxel.]

Cornered me during that blackout.

[Suggestively - as it couldn't be held back forever,] Well, we both know how much you enjoy that.

[He studies Chilton's face, curious where this is going.]

What did he discuss with you?

I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to discuss that with you, Abduxel. You are, after all, his metaphysical hetaera. How would that translate into a secular context? You're his b-- [Chilton licked his lips.] --lue-collared worker.

[His eyebrows raise high, his expression now humourless.

His jaw works a moment, like he's biting back words. He looks away, swallows, and looks back; then he says very slowly and sharply,] And yet I've been offering help and information to you, although I find myself suddenly reconsidering that position.

[Struck a raw nerve, maybe. Maybe.]

[Chilton held up his hands, his palms bald before the demon sitting across from him. A conciliatory movement. He dipped his chin closer to his chest, his eyes locked onto Abduxel's own.]

Don't be angry. That wasn't my intent.

[But it was, and Chilton had gotten the information he wanted proven: Abduxel was still resistant to his leash. There was still hope.]

You're right that you've been so efficient, so kind to me. I shouldn't have prodded.

Edited 2015-07-22 05:58 (UTC)

[He regards Chilton with open suspicion, because while these are the words he wants to hear, he doesn't know what to make of them. As always, the topic makes him uncomfortable as he can't reconcile so many conflicting truths about his feelings at once.

Although he's clearly still miffed, the intensity recedes to simply a darkly conversational tone.]

I've been immeasurably kind, and for what benefit to me? Insults? Secrets spilled to Crane? Balking from deals? You're lucky for my enduring patience.

Do you understand why I'm still associating with you? Guess, for me, please.

Edited 2015-07-22 16:17 (UTC)

Because I cared enough about you to involve your very safety within a deal? Because I'm probably the first human in a long time to exhibit any concern over your personal welfare?

[Inquired quietly.]

Is it because you hunger for something that seems sincere?

[The look on Abduxel's face is quiet surprise. Chilton had really been throwing him for a loop this appointment. This clearly hadn't been precisely what he was going to say. He's never so openly thought about whether any of these people genuinely cared for him, because it seemed without question that they didn't, and he himself could so easily justify why.

He looks away and it takes a moment for him to reply; when he does, the hostility in his tone has ebbed away to a sincere curiosity, pointing out what he sees as plain facts to make sense of what Chilton had said:]

But you don't trust me in the slightest. You think I'm out to betray you - that I don't care for your welfare.

Do you care for my personal well-being, or just for how I can be useful to your cause?

[It's not accusatory or angry; it sounds as plain and honest as anyone clarifying the nature of things. A genuine question, unburdened by second meanings and darker implications. He's leaning forward on the couch when he asks it, expression open and creased with lack of understanding.]

I think -- [He said, his tone remaining a gentle murmur.] That despite your immortality, despite your horns and powers, you are still engaged with your own humanity. You are still as much human as you are demon.

And humans get to be cared about in multiple ways. Isn't that the point of the New Testament? Or should I ask a higher authority?

[He shrugs a shoulder with a deflecting little smirk, unable to address his humanity so seriously at short notice.] I don't know. I never read the Bible.

Don't get me wrong. I expect you to care about my utility.

[He sits back again, uncertain how to finish that trailing sentence and getting increasingly uncomfortable with his own silence. If Chilton were ever enticed to find a sensitive spot in Abduxel, he had it right under his fingertips at the moment. He thinks briefly of what Crane said, his quip that Abduxel feared the future, and he feels uncomfortable - that humanity slipping away like grains of sand in an hourglass. Chilton described him as equally human and demon, which would put his count-down at half an hour to midnight. Wasn't that a heavy thought.]

But you'd prefer me to care about you beyond that -- am I correct?

[Chilton inquired almost kindly, his tone mimicking a sound of empathy that he had seen demonstrated in others.]

What do you want, Abduxel? Beyond immediate frivolities and distractions, what do you really want?

Because you can't have your freedom back, can you?

[Abduxel's gaze towards Chilton is practically unblinking, a little creepy in its intensity. He declines to answer the first question and, at least directly, the second question.]

Maybe I can. What I can't get back is my humanity, Dr. Chilton. I'm changed how I'm changed. Nothing else is impossible.

[He sighs, looks away.]

The reason I still associate with you is because no one else is standing up to him. And I can't. Not directly.

[He smiles a little.] And I like you.

Edited 2015-07-24 02:20 (UTC)

It isn't without price. Standing up to him.

[A beat, and Chilton furrowed his brow with a glance over Abduxel's shoulder. The indication of an internal struggle.]

Do -- [Another hesitation.] Do you know why? He wants me as the king on his chessboard?

[It was easier to ask now, because Abduxel just confessed how he liked him.]

Is that what he told you?

[Abduxel looks down with a rueful smile. He thinks for a moment of Lucifer telling him he's perfect, and feels something like needles walking up his spine. Things seem so much clearer when you're explaining to someone else. His gaze moves back up to Chilton.]

You think I'm a flatterer. The Devil himself, he knows just how to pull your strings. He'll make you feel special, like you're the apple of his awesome, terrible eye, if that's what it takes. You should never let the Devil sweet-talk you, Frederick; you're inviting him in.

[Ignore any/all parallels to Abduxel himself, please and thank you.]

You're not special to him. You're a tool, a dirty tool that he loathes to put his hands on, just like the rest of humanity, and he'll use you to show God how disgusting you all are. He sees that you have abilities, drive, that certain self-serving streak, but most importantly he sees your oh-so-exploitable weaknesses.

Why you, specifically? [He shrugs.] I'd tell you if I knew. I'd be surprised if he's thought it through all that much. But you have the right qualities, don't you.

No, you've misunderstood. It's what he told Raina. And she wasn't supposed to tell me -- she was supposed to take a deal that would plead me out of mine.

[It was almost too much information, but Chilton wasn't about to pander secrecy now. Abduxel would see through any attempt to obscure, and there was a chance the demon would mistake Chilton's sudden open honesty as vulnerability.]

He hasn't spent much time sweet-talking me, actually, he knows I'm expecting it. Why -- has he to you?

[Well, that's an interesting bit of information; he's heard his name said by all three parties quite a bit, lately, and this fits a lot of context to that.

Abduxel gives him a flat look.]

Did you really think he expected her not to tell you? He's still sweet-talking you, Frederick, even if it's into somebody else's ear.

He hasn't mentioned your name to me whatsoever.

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