ASK JEVIL! (And Queen)

*after the show you see the weird jester shaped man in the green room. He stops by the bar to ask for a drink*

@not-ask-the-chaoschaos

What the— hey!

You’re not supposed to be back here!!

This place is STAFF ONLY!!!!! What is your problem??????

*the man freezes and doesn't look at tenna*

... I HAVE A BACK STAGE PASS, PASS.

*he takes the drink offered to him and takes a sip. He would kick it back, but he would prefer tenna not to know that he's ordering alcoholic beverages when he's technically not supposed to*

Nice try pal, but we aren’t selling backstage passes right now!

You made a scene earlier, and now you’ve invaded the green room!

What’s the big idea?!

*shit*

*ok so he didn't think this far ahead, and really, he didn't expect tenna to be back here so soon*

I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN, MEAN. ARE YOU INSINUATING THAT I AM PURPOSELFULLY CAUSING TROUBLE?

*he takes another sip of his drink. It's not pleasant. He does it anyways*

I AM A... BIG FAN OF YOURS, YOURS. WHY WOULD I WANT TO CAUSE TROUBLE FOR YOU?

I HAVE NOT, AND WILL NOT CAUSE SHENANIGANS.

Well you’re not supposed to be here, fan or not! This place is staff ONLY!

... WHAT IF I GIVE YOU AN APPLICATION?

No job openings available, pal! The only way you’re getting on is if you have some sort of jaw dropping act, which I doubt!

So tell me what the HECK you’re doing here and scram!

*shit again*

I WAS A PERFORMER EXCUSE YOU! YOU THINK I CANNOT GIVE YOU A JAW DROPPING PERFORMANCE, PERFORMANCE?!

*why is he doing this. It must be the alcohol. Speaking of, he finished the drink and sets it on the table*

Just look at you! I’m not watching that!

So quit dancing around the question and answer me, goshdangit!

What the HECK are you doing here?!

I FEEL OFFENDED! I PREFORMED FOR KINGS! I WAS A ROYALE JE-!

*he looks away and fixes his disguise*

..... I HAVE PREFORMED BEFORE. AND AS FOR WHY I AM HERE, HERE. LOOK, I GOT A LITTLE BIT LOST, LOST. YOU SHOULD CUT A MAN SOME SLACK...

Well where are you looking to go?? There’s plenty of people around to ask for directions you snoobert!

WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW, KNOW. YOU COULD ALWAYS JUST KICK ME OUT, OUT.

BUT I CAN PREFORM FOR YOU! I CAN JUGGLE... No can't do that I COULD... POP MY HEAD OFF FOR YOU, AND MY MAGIC IS TOP NOTCH!

Juggling? Magic? Is that all? We already have plenty of magical folks, and plenty who can jongle!

And I want to know BECAUSE IT’S MY STUDIO.

I CAN ALSO ACT, AND PREFORM MONOLOGUES, AND SWALLOW KNIFES, AND I MAKE FUNNY NOISES WHEN INJURED.

*he is backing away, gesturing with his hands. What does he want he can do anything! Anything tenna asks for he can do*

Nothing we’re short on at all!

So.

Answer the darned question!

I DO NOT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO TELL YOU, YOU! I WANDERED IN HERE! I MEAN I DID NOT KNOW I WAS NOT ALLOWED HERE! YOU WOULD THINK THAT IF I WASN'T ALLOWED I WOULD HAVE BEEN KICKED OUT, OUT!

*he back towards the counter, he's just barely shorter than it.*

Well there must have been some sort of mix up!

***[he snatches up the unwelcome guest]***

Here, I’ll escort you out myself!

***[he begins walking toward the exit.]***

NO!

*the man is struggling in his hands. Jevil is panicking. It's not gonna happen again. He needs to calm down he needs*

PUT ME DOWN PLEASE! I BE GOOD ILL BE BETTER JUST PLEASE PUT ME BACK DOWN, DOWN!

*is his struggle the stupid glasses come off*

Wh- y-

***[Caught off guard, he immediately dropped Jevil, and stood there utterly stupefied.]***

*jevil yelps as he's dropped, his head popping off as he hits the ground. He groans and rolls over on his side as tires to put his head back on*

I am sorry, I'm sorry. I-

*he sucks in a breath. His heart is beating so hard, and he's starting to feel sick*

***[After standing silent for a few more moments, he lunges at Jevil, and hugs him. If Tenna weren’t so shrunken down now, it would’ve knocked Jevil over.]***

*jevil is shaking. He... He shouldn't be scared.... This is fine. Everything will be alright*

I'm sorry, I'm sorry

*he let's out a sob. He doesn't want tenna to be mad at him. God he can't handle that. Tenna doesn't want to see him, and jevil should've stayed away. He tires to hug tenna back as his body shakes against the CRT's*

please

don’t come again until i’m good enough

i don’t want to do any more harm

i’m supposed to be

i’m

defective

please i need to fix that first

i’m not mad, i love you more than life

please don’t seek me

i need to be enough

i’ll put on a better show for you to see

*jevil can't say anything. He just can't. He messed up. Tenna doesn't want him here. It's hard not to feel dread over it.... And Toby fox does he feel dread.*

*he holds onto tenna a bit tighter. He knows he should let go. He needs to let go and let him "get better" but...*

*jevil holds him tighter, still apologizing, but he doesn't know for what. Is it about the repairman, or hurting him, or coming back? He doesn't know*

***[Tenna hugs Jevil as tight as he can. Despite his now shrunken state, the grip is still very firm.]***

i’m not mad at you, please stop that

i’m sorry i dropped you, i was

i don’t know

i’m sorry

***[However, his clinging involuntarily gets looser and looser as he further shrinks.]***

*jevil tires to keep him close, but there is only so much he can do with just one arm. He's sorry, why is tenna sorry? He's fine, physically at least. This... He... Well.*

*jevil elects to try and curl around tenna. He can't bring himself to say anything. He doesn't get why tenna isn't upset. He came back... But he can't bring himself to care right now*

***[The space closing in around him brings a comfort. Compressed and wholly consumed by a wonderful embrace.]***

***[A sequel, no, reprise back to the past nice moments. There was instability and strife, but always relief to come with, always the connection that brought them into each other’s arms at. Something that was love— rotting away slowly. The motif of their entwined accordance, distorting like a memory in the stage 6.]***

***[Tenna himself curls up. He is vulnerable, of no threat whatsoever. But who are we kidding? We’ve all seen, and so has he. That could flip on a dime. So solemnly supposed, he sucks up the intimate attention he has missed so deeply. This will surely not last.]***

***[The catharsis pangs of a stab from a dull knife.]***

*He just feels so sick. He's so anxious. He doesn't want to mess this up. He doesn't want to crush him again… But… Then again he feels the wonderful swells of the comfort that he's been yearning so much for. It is hard not to love him. It is hard to hate him.*

*They both do a very complicated ballet together. The moves they do require precision and grace that Jevil doesn't think he has. He cannot be lifted and spun to the beautiful piece playing in the background. He cannot follow Tenna's lead in their dance. He knows he should trust him. The times he was dropped, or spun too fast, or pushed too far away wasn't on stage. It was just practice.*

*He is worried he cannot trust himself or Tenna to dance anymore. Who needs a ballerina that cannot dance. Who needs an actor that cannot act. Who needs a jester that cannot preform. He wants His CRT's love. Oh Toby he craves it. He years for the pleasure to pump through his veins.*

*He can hear that the end of the song is soon. The strings and brass for dancing more beautifully than they are. He should trust him. A jester needs to trust his king.*

***[Maybe it was inevitable for them to end up like this. They’d both respectively had their failed relationships before. And the web flown into was by no means entirely the fault of the other. Every flap of the butterfly’s wings had erected that complex system the two fell into.]***

***[Again and again carrying on in the breeze, semi pseudo factors determining fate of new programs already taxidermied and displayed on the wall for all to see.]***

***[Nonetheless, the hug. He wanted to be more. And yet here he is. This is all that is, all that could’ve ever been.]***

***[Flayed and vivisection before the adoring cheers of a soap opera audience, for a moment he reviled the world he was constrained to. The mind and body. The sickness he had, the nausea felt by the stomach he never had when staring at that severed nub beside him.]***

***[He kept hugging as tight as he could, not daring to touch an arm whilst doing so. Strong enough to cause true harm, but weak enough to actually do it. What better was he than that distorted reflection he abhorred?]***

*they dance, they stumble, they fall. Jevil knows his place, and by Toby he wants to stay there. He wants to stay. He wants to keep up the dance that he is failing so bad at. The caricature of love he thinks they're doing*

*A king, a ruler. He has to remember that Tenna is not a king. Not his king. He's not an understudy for Claudius.*

*he's not sure how much longer their dance would last. The music has stopped, and the band now waiting for the next que. A que that will not come. He should not be here. He shouldn't drag this scene out.*

*Alas, poor Jevil! I knew him, Court... Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?*

*Jevil slowly let's go of Tenna. The music is done, the curtains need to close, the stage crew needs to set the stage. Oh his hamlet needs to go on and kill his father. And Ophelia doesn't make it to the 4th act.*

*the polish prince is going to be coming soon. That's just how the play goes. And Ophelia must be in the ground in Yorikcs grave*

*make him laugh at that.*

***[Silver stars in their confluence burn above, gazing down in mocking interest. From afar they watch thoroughly. Thrice forsaken. Once cleaved. Twice deceased. All by his own mistakes.]***

***[A spire erected by culmination of all wrongs sat before him, ornery in will to adhere to that exquisite Stockholm he could’ve already left.]***

***[A non-contrived ailment, so dearly kept to the lord’s chest, in comfort, in guilt.]***

***[As Jevil pulls away from the hug, Tenna continues holding on tight.]***

*Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose and donned his clothes

And dupped the chamber door,

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.*

.... I am so sorry for all of the hassle I have caused, caused. I-...

I know you told me to never come back but...

I was worried... So very worried...

I’m fine. I’ve been fine, and I’m going to be better than that.

I’m sorry I’m taking so long. I’m sorry for the worry. I just had one stupid night.

I’m sorry for all of this. Everything that’s happened.

.... I am sorry I am not very patient... I just. I do not want to wait. I do not want to leave. I...

*jevil looks away. He's barely enough for Tenna. He's barely a person. Not even an actor. Not even a jester.*

*God ’a mercy on his soul. And of all Christians’ souls, I pray God. God be wi’ you.*

... I should probably let you get back to.. "Getting better"...

Do what you want

***[Selfish he was. His grand plan set up, the structures sealed blue awaited their completion to cross into the threshold of reality, thus, freeing him from divine imperfection. Making him as he should be— better than he was made.]***

***[And yet he sat pathetically, clutching onto the victim of his incompetence and drained away self control, as if for dear life. He’d missed the husk monumentally.]***

I can wait

*Everything points to wanting jevil gone. Just in the way he talks, the way everyone else is looking at them, the way the music isn't playing, the way his heart beats rabbit fast, and yet? Tenna hasn't to let go.*

*He feels like a fool. A fool that has forgotten all lines and stage directions... When did he even start thinking like this.*

*He rest his head on top of Tenna's, in such a way where his lips are touching the metal.*

I do not know what I want, want...

you can take your time to decide

.... Can't you decide for me, me?

i'm not going to try that.

I don’t want to cause any harm again.