Stage 1

[have_your_lives]

[Schuldig is currently sitting in - yes, in - his most recent regain, something entirely unlooked for but thoroughly welcome. He hadn't actually tried to recreate the Space Room since he'd come to Mayfield, but apparently he wouldn't have been able to until today even if he had. Of course, the effects of the Space Room are entirely a telepathic construct of his own design, one he's able to recreate now in his house in Mayfield as easily as he'd been able to in their headquarters in Tokyo. It just involves a little mental tweaking of perception...well, that and a telepathic connection to anyone else he wanted to share the projection with.

And, as it did in Tokyo, the Space Room serves a dual purpose - part vanity, in providing a setting as stunning and dramatic as he feels he deserves, and part practicality. Even if the swirling stars and galaxies didn't induce an almost meditative effect, it brings a sense of comforting familiarity even to one of the rooms of this domestic hellhole he's trapped in. He could almost believe he was back in Japan.

It also helps him feel cut off from the rest of the world, which is exactly what he wants right now. He's aware of the confessions and the truth-telling compulsions going on right now, and he's not particularly pleased. For one thing, he likes knowing everyone's secrets as a telepath, but if everyone gives those secrets away, what fun is it for him? And, of course, he wants nothing to do with any confessions himself.

...that may explain why the house phone has been ripped from the wall and is lying out in the yard. He's taking no chances. Anyone who wants to talk to him - an understandably small number of people - is going to have to come to him.

Or they could catch him when he's prowling around Mayfield later in the day. That could work, too.]

Comments

[1-21jigawatts.livejournal.com]

[Oh going by the living room? Misaka is glaring daggers at him while he goes by.]

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

[Schuldig's patience - never a well-stocked item - has been in especially short supply recently, so the smirk he gives Misaka is a little more sinister than usual, and his tone has more of an edge when he speaks.] I haven't even done anything yet.

[In anyone else, that tone and expression would be accompanied by a phrase like "don't push me". Here, Misaka will have to infer it for herself.]

[1-21jigawatts.livejournal.com]

It's about what you've been doing while I've been gone.

[She's always wary around the guy and that wariness leads up to her keeping up an electro-magnetic field. Misaka doesn't know much about any mind powers he has but the same power has kept her from being read or controlled by a telepath. Not that that's her point but it's a lucky side effect.]

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

And what is that, exactly?

[1-21jigawatts.livejournal.com]

I don't have to answer that at all.

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

Then I'll just keep doing as I like, and you can keep glowering and staying out of my way. That suits me just fine.

[1-21jigawatts.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not. Not until you promise to leave Ema alone. Sure, you can go around her but don't ask her or imply you need anything done at all.

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

Whatever you say. [It's not necessary anymore, anyway - he's got her trained to the point where she gives him a share of her money and makes coffee for him without even being prompted. But there's no need to inform Misaka of that, is there?]

[1-21jigawatts.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to stop watching you. One slip up and you're a goner.

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

It's cute how you think your threatening me for any hint of misbehavior is any different from what I do with Ema.

Or that you genuinely believe I'd consider it some sort of deterrent. I've faced down far more dangerous than you, and I've died a handful of times here already. There's nothing you could threaten me with that'd actually bother me enough to give me pause, if I had a mind to do what I liked.

[glowing-science.livejournal.com]

[Ema enters the room unannounced.]

Is there any reason why our phone...?

[What is with this room?]

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

[Schuldig makes the telepathic connection to likewise alter Ema's perception of the room even before she enters it, of course; anyone who enters the Space Room while he's maintaining it ought to see it the way he does. And the look on her face is well worth it, drawing a smirk from him.]

You were saying...?

[glowing-science.livejournal.com]

[It takes a few moments for Ema to shake herself away out of her stunned silence in order to answer his question.]

Why is our phone in the yard?

And what is this room? When did you get it?

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

Consider it temptation removed. I haven't felt the desire to use it yet, but why wait until I might?

It's the study, can't you tell? [He's clearly enjoying this.] But I received the...alterations this morning.

[glowing-science.livejournal.com]

Point taken. People have been really blabby over the phones lately. [Or in person. Surely, Schuldig is aware of everything that Ema and Edward confessed to each other.] It can stay outside until this all blows over.

[Ema looks again at her surroundings, frowning deeply.] What's the point of this? You've changed the study into a bad science fiction movie.

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

[A direct question. Schuldig couldn't lie if he wanted to.] I used to make our headquarters look like this, back in Tokyo. They weren't much to look at otherwise. There's no point other than that it reminds me of being with Schwarz. [He stops after having said all this, looking...less than pleased at what just came out of his mouth.]

What do you care, anyway? You can't possibly claim to like the old decor better.