all i can taste is champagne when it hits the brain like cocaine ( closed-ish )

[became]

CHARACTERS: neal caffrey + empathy link partners
LOCATION: all over the place, october 11- november 7th.
WARNINGS: tbd. potential blanket 'here be triggering shit' to start off safe.
SUMMARY: stage two and three links, to be back and forward-dated as needed.
NOTES: closed-ish, but if we haven't plotted a link yet and you'd like to my plotting post will be open the whole run.


[ individual starters below, separated by stage. ]

Comments

[became]

Calling to mind, not equaling— don't worry, I'd never mistake you for Peter. And I respect your skills more than most of his colleagues.

[ he lets that one trail off, shrugging. peter burke is a worthy opponent and a good partner; he's earned neal's respect, forced it out of him with one very ugly orange jumpsuit. the rest of the fbi?

well. they couldn't catch him. ]

I am, aren't I? [ he smiles widely in the face of the implied insult, laughing quietly. ] But it's nice to know you noticed, Julian.

[ he doesn't bother with trying to rise half an octave or emulate her slight, nearly-erased traces of accent, but the cadence of his voice takes on something decidedly closer to lauren's than his own.

to wit: they both know things, now. ]

She's very good at what she does, it's true.

[certainproclivity]

[Sark raises an eyebrow and holds the expression for a lengthy moment after Neal stops speaking. His mind's equally blank, because he's smart enough to know the circles that this little game will take them around in.] A woman after my own heart.

[He might not have held that memory so clearly had he not recently gotten it from Lauren's perspective, but it's fitting that he's able to call back to it so vividly here and now.]

But no one is ever quite good enough. [He got more memories than just simply Smiley after all. He can pick them apart all night if he has to until the link breaks and they're free to separate, rather than remain with their horns locked, waiting for one or the other to show a weakness.]

[became]

I did find myself in orange, after all.

[ which is the least of his sins— peter's a worthy opponent, and he knew it was a trap. despite the jumpsuit and limited living space ( and peter's eternal insistence he can't get out of owning he got caught by claiming he walked freely into the lion's den— he still got eaten, is one of the less pleasant metaphors ) that was a conscious choice.

it's his childhood that matters more, the regrets a sedentary life forced down on his shoulders after a lifetime without. given time, sark won't take long to put that together, but for now skimming the surface seems a better choice. ]

Even the best of us get caught, sometimes.

[certainproclivity]

[He's not the only one with a dark childhood- and maybe that's what keeps him on the surface, preferring the criminal to what made him. He doesn't want every door opening.]

Indeed. [He drawls it. He's been caught enough times to be embarrassing, but he's always gotten out. He tilts his head, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as he looks at Neal.] It's how we escape that truly matters.

[Did you ever really escape?]

[became]

I stole the warden's wife's credit card and walked out the front door of a supermax in a guard's uniform I used it to buy.

[ this time the grin meets his eyes, because circling like junkyard dogs is only fun for so long, and they've both clearly laid down their lines in the sand. no point in making this the unpleasant kind of antagonistic. ]

Wine? I have some stashed around here.

[certainproclivity]

The CIA attempted to orchestrate my escape in the hopes I would lead them to a foxhole. I led them to a cafeteria in Johannesburg.

[He relaxes a bit, still smirking. There now. That's proper fair trade and he feels Neal could appreciate that story- that much done, they can stop biting at each other so much. He keeps his hand on Neal's wrist but lowers it from his chest in a facsimile of a far less intimate version of hand-holding.] I would love some, actually.

[became]

Wine it is.

[ THEN THEY DID SEX

DRANK WINE

the eeeeeeeend look at us finishing shit man, we're ballers ]