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[youngtimer]

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[boneshears]

[Normally the only prolonged physical contact Gabriel will tolerate or even appreciate is Montgomery, so that's probably indication enough that he was worried.]

It can happen. Just can't be helped. But God am I glad to see you back. Can think of a lot of people who'll be glad to see you.

[He pulls away, clapping a hand to the younger man's shoulder.]

With how many have disappeared recently and all the chaos after the Cube, we were starting to worry you were... Taking a much longer time away.

[youngtimer]

I heard about the Cube, yeah. ... Wish I could have been there to lend a hand. Here, come on in and have a drink.

[he takes out his keys and moves to unlock the door for him]

I can't spare too much time since I've been gone so damn long, but ... I've always got a minute for you.

[boneshears]

You need to talk to Miss Ludenberg. She'll have worried. [But he follows him in, remaining eye sharp.] 'Spect if you've heard about the Cube Mukuro told you.

[Their very own Guy Fawkes. Except she wasn't aiming to hurt, unlike Guy.]

I won't keep you long. Not right to keep her waiting to hear from you. What have you been filled in on?

[youngtimer]

Yeah, she's definitely where I'm headed next. And you're right, I got some of it from Mukuro ... but the rest ...

[a shadow flits over his face as he notices that Gabe's eye is worse. Atem told him a little, but ... only his side. and that isn't fair or right of him to go on]

I want to hear your side of what happened with Atem while I was gone. I'm staying the hell out of it, but I want the whole story.

cw vivisection mention

[boneshears]

[There's a flexing of the piebald paw, and under the fur the knuckles whiten. Atem. Atem who hasn't even apologised. Atem who has been spending December's early days as if he didn't violently assault multiple monsters last month. He'd get his. That much was certain.

The manticore tilts his head back, so the damaged surface of his sclera can catch the light. Along with the previous injury from the manticore's brutal claws, there's skin that looks almost... Burned. The sort of injury Horatio might recognise if he's ever seen someone who got flashbanged up close.]

I was hunting. Combination of hunger from Elias' little punishment and my own high prey drive had me at what I'd call 'a cat playing with a bird'. [Horatio's definitely aware of how bad Gabe's prey drive is. Half time if he's interrupted while hunting it prompts a very, very catlike hiss.] Apparently Atem has appointed himself arbiter of who is and isn't allowed to be killed by a hungry monster.

[There's no lies here. Gabriel wouldn't lie to Horatio about anything.]

He told me to stop. I was half berserk and had already made it so he couldn't walk. Told Atem to fuck off. Hit him with the Fog impulse control shit I have to make him either leave or get on with it. [He has to pause to take a shuddering breath. In, one two three out.] He got bright enough to do this to my eye. I can't see out of it now.

[Hell. It looked bad before but it worked. Now it's just pure white.]

While I was blinded he took the guy away. Then started cutting me apart while I was still awake. Hamstring. Wing. [His voice falters.] I... I've been cut apart before, Horatio.

[Vivisection (from Latin vivus 'alive', and sectio 'cutting') is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experimentation on live animals by organizations opposed to animal experimentation, but the term is rarely used by practising scientists. Human vivisection, such as live organ harvesting, has been perpetrated as a form of torture.

The scars are still visible at the base of Gabriel's skull.]

I lost it. Shouted some shit at him while completely out of my head. Felt like I was back with... Him. Think I collapsed from the blood loss. I don't actually remember much after he did the wing. Montgomery found me.

[The good eye flattens. Be Lux. Professional.]

You know I can't let it stand. I won't touch anyone else unless they try to stop me. But I can't let someone put hands on me like that. Ever.

sorry this took so long, wanted to do it justice

[youngtimer]

[this is a lot to take in, and it's a goddamn rollercoaster of knee-jerk reactions and emotions. first there's shock at the recognition of what happened to Gabriel's eye: Atem did that? What the fuck, WHY? ... and then further shock when his game-master friend is referred to as being so damn judgemental. Horatio's jaw drops a little at that, and his mind is so busy trying to not only keep up, but comprehend, that he doesn't bother closing it.

he knows Atem plays his little mind games with the humans: that he has certain ones he marks to toy with, to target, to make them answer for certain behaviors and actions. hell, he's helped Atem raid Amanda's old trap workshop for the materials necessary for some of his games. it's fun. but it only ever has to do with the humans ... he can't understand why Atem would suddenly turn that judgement on a fellow monster. but then Gabe says "he got bright", and Horatio understands. it was the Nephilim, something about the temporary changes Atem had told him about, that had made him react so recklessly.

but being cut apart like that, awake - Horatio's gut tightens, twists, and turns. he'd first met Atem not long after he'd undergone that himself, at Daniel's hands. why, WHY would he even begin to consider doing it to someone else? he wasn't sure if Mana's little follies could explain that one away. that was beyond the pale. Horatio isn't sure he knows which "Him" Gabriel thought he was back with, but he can circle back to that if the moment arises, or ask later when things are calmer.

for now, he decides, as he finally closes his fishmouth long enough to swallow so he can speak, there's only one thing he wants to know.]

What are you going to do?

cw: eye trauma mention

[boneshears]

I intend to return the favor.

[It sounds so simple. It doesn't let on that there's been research that went into this, a hoarse argument with Montgomery while the latter still had Gabriel's blood on his hands from stitching his wounds and eyelid shut to try and save his sight to stop him from bringing his fury to bear on everyone Atem knew and held dear, the research journals pored over in the dark office in the depths of the Prison, the workput into constructing the closest the peninsula could get to a modern artificial heart - but none of that is important now. That was business that would be dealt with entirely between him and Atem.]

I won't kill him - God knows I only kill people if they're stupid enough to try and get in my way or trying to kill me - but I will make him feel every single inch of what he did to me. What he made me relive. Hell, I won't even blind him, which is far greater a kindness than he deserves.

[youngtimer]

[oh. OH. Horatio feels his lungs clench around the breath he was in the middle of taking, but thankfully he's very good at keeping a straight face.

he's going to vivisect Atem. Atem, who already died by that once: twice, if you counted the parasitic infestation that he himself helped end, hands covered in a new friend's blood.

Atem Is Not Going To Be Okay after this. But at the same time, he recognizes why Gabe needs to do it: and that he would have very similar thoughts, himself, if someone had tried that shit on him. Regardless of the way he personally feels about it, of how he knows it will go down on the other end, he can't be angry. He can't stop him, or speak out against it - not only does he have no right, but it's neither his place nor his business.

Instead of any other, broader reaction, Horatio nods slowly, his jaw and mouth pressed as he finishes breathing in.]

When?

[he just ... doesn't want to be there. or anywhere near wherever it's going to happen. so that if any of their friends come to him and say "you know Gabriel. DID YOU KNOW?" he has plausible deniability and will not have to choose a side.]

[boneshears]

Telling you that would make you complicit.

[There's the edges of that old, clipped way he'd spoke when he hadn't been here long. When Lux was still a name he hid behind. Strictly business. Horatio might be good at keeping his face straight, but Gabriel's been doing it longer. Reading people. Watching how they move.

And since he'd become a manticore, reading it in the way their heart thrums and how anxiety scents the air.]

The New Year. I'll not give you enough information to risk your friends accusing you of being complicit.

[youngtimer]

I know this is a really weird time for me to say something like this, but: I appreciate the hell out of you, Gabe.

[even when he's planning a little quid pro quo for a close friend, Gabe is honest and considerate. Javert is cut of the same cloth, he thinks: they're Considerate Monsters, unwilling to hide their monstrosity, but equally unwilling to let it make them barbarians. he can only hope he's becoming another example of the same. those signs of anxiety and stress Gabe was sensing ooze away to an almost eerie calm: old assassin habits of his own coming back into play]

I should probably go let Celeste know I'm not chilling out in the sea of stars ... Fog only knows how she's been about my absence.

[boneshears]

[His brow creases. It's a very odd thing to say, but then again - Gabriel isn't good at people.]

Go - you owe that girl dinner for napping that long.

[youngtimer]

Din-- uh. If she doesn't rip my throat out, I might just give that a try.

[thank you for adding another small heart attack to his upcoming itinerary, Gabriel, he needed that.]

Give my best to Monty.