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

[sugarbear]

M'not flighty. I just know which side my bread is buttered on.

[ Totally flighty, but he's not going to make a big deal of it. His usual solution might just be waiting for the waffles to be finished, shooting Caffrey and making off with the waffles; that way he'd leave no evidence behind that there was a softer side to him at all. ]

And I've been thinking. You're inside my head. I have to make certain concessions for that. How would you know whether poisoning me right now wouldn't have some sort of feedback on you? No. I'm safe enough.

[ He was starting to feel like if he'd stubbed his toe the other person would feel it, but so far he'd managed to avoid any such accidents, and was loathe to hurt himself on purpose just to test out a theory. He'd feel pretty stupid if nothing happened. ]

Besides, you're not a killer. Not unless the ship fucked up more than just your face.

[became]

The scar is roguish.

[ it's a familiar defense, but neal's delivery falls flat and his smile freezes; after a moment, he snorts and shakes his head, raising a hand as if to mark off an invisible point to casey. ]

Direct hit. No, you're right— I don't like killing. [ which neatly steps around if he's capable of it, but that's the goal. ] And I'm still prettier than you, thanks.

[sugarbear]

[ He heard what wasn't said. It was like listening to orders from castle. If you didn't hear what wasn't being said, you were endangering the mission--and therefore your country. ]

You're a suspicious bastard. You try too hard not to be, that's the problem. Little advice-- [ Casey sets his cup down, leaning back in his chair. ] When you're talking to other people, don't just tell them what they think you want to hear, try and tell it the way they might do it.

You're too smart to play it foppish.

[ Maybe it was just because it was the opposite of how Bryce was; Bryce, who never shied away from being the handsome stranger or the bright eyed Harvard alumni. ]

But I won't deny you're prettier. And that you make better coffee.

[became]

It works pretty well in general.

[ direct hit ( the mistake he made with adler, who saw through the admiration to the ambition underneath and played neal instead ) and he lifts his mug in a mock salute even as his smile goes hard for a moment, and he concedes the point by turning away to fiddle with his waffle maker. ]

You're trained to doubt. It's why I don't con law enforcement when I can help it— people's natural tendency to believe things because they feel good to hear is every conman's best friend.

[ he snorts, quietly. ]

Foppish. I have doctorates, you know that? I've taught at Harvard and Yale. [ none of that honestly obtained, but details. ] I did something stupid, Casey. Very, very stupid— even for me. And now I need to thread the needle between harmless and worth listening to.

[ it's stupid to say any of this, but at least casey's less interested in fucking with his head than he is calling out his shit. ]

But you're right about the coffee and my looks.