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[weboftime]

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[weboftime]

He looks up to him with a very lazy smile, closing the copy of The Trial He had been reading.

"I want my powers. I want spiders that the girl can't touch."

He gives him a smile.

[brushoff]

Dorian gives Henry a little smile of his own.

"I can ask the Admiral about the spiders. But again, things I can't do? Read your file. Tell me what your powers are and we'll start from there."

It's not a no.

[weboftime]

"I can show you, if you consent," he says with a cruel sort of smile. "That's how Jon found out. Tim was - less willing, but I didn't need permission on the Brig."

[brushoff]

This is a bad idea.

"I consent."

Fortunately, Dorian is made entirely of bad ideas.

[weboftime]

He moves over. "Sit down," he says. "Wouldn't want you to fall over."

He doesn't actually care, but it is nice to pretend sometimes.

A shade of Toby replaces Henry on the chair, leaning forward and staring out to the abyss. It isn't Henry projecting outward, but rather him causing the hallucinations.

Henry's voice speaks, somewhere close to Dorian's ear, though he's nowhere to be found.

"Who is this?"

[brushoff]

Dorian does sit down. And then, not even a few seconds later, he sees Toby. Tobias Matthews. Love of his life, very much dead, someone who Dorian still has a lot of issues about.

"Toby," he quietly says, trying very hard to keep his voice still. This isn't real, after all. But it still hurts. "The love of my life."

[weboftime]

"Tobias Matthews," he recites slowly.

And Toby turns to Dorian, giving him a very long look.

"You watched me die. And come back," the Toby shade says.

Henry's tempted to push that issue, but he isn't here to fool Dorian. And he wants his powers back, which means he has to play nice.

The other man disappears, leaving Henry in his place. And then they're in Dorian's mansion.

"This is part of what I can do."

[brushoff]

Dorian is trying very hard to keep his expression neutral. But he can't help but flinch as he sees the Toby shade speak. It's him. It's his voice. God, how he wants to see that man again, to be with him, even though he knows it isn't possible.

But he vanishes. And they're in Dorian's house. It takes Dorian a moment to catch his breath, steeling himself as he watches Toby vanish. He looks over at Henry to ask,

"What's the other part?"

[weboftime]

"I can make anything in your mind real. And I know what's there. I can move objects, manipulate electricity."

He looks down. "And I can find anyone I want."

Watch them. See them.

[brushoff]

Dorian's already coming up with a proposed list of what to not ask the Admiral for. Finding people is right out, moving objects and manipulating electricity maybe he can beef it up a little bit? Making anything in your mind real, nope.

"Let's give it a try," Dorian grins. And then he immediately starts thinking very hard about a shirtless James Dean, closing his eyes and squinching up his face in a picture of concentration. This is mostly him just being a shit for the sake of being a shit, a little bit of nonsense to get his head back in gear. And if it turns out that Henry can't do that much here, then it'll at least be nice to hear him admit it.

[weboftime]

Henry huffs out a sigh.

"I can but I won't," he says to that, because ew. What even is that?

[brushoff]

"Are you into girls instead?"

Dorian is now thinking about Ursula Andress in her Dr. No bikini.

Cw: fire, child harm, gore

[weboftime]

There's a sudden, angry onslaught of hallucinations. A baby cradle on fire with a screaming child inside. Bugs pouring from every crevice of the walls. Spiders creeping along the floor.

Henry's voice is angry, even as his form disappears.

"You are so much better than this. You are so much better than humanity. Why do you insist on lowering yourself to their level?"

And there's a vision of Toby as the sun rises.

"This makes you weak."

1/2

[brushoff]

And then everything suddenly goes to shit. The onslaught of images is so overwhelming in it's horror and it's anger that Dorian has to take a few steps backwards. It's all disgusting and horrifying and even someone like Dorian feels like he has to suppress the urge to vomit.

And then there's Toby. Wonderful Toby. The two of them sitting, watching the sun rise, where the man died. He knows that if the vision lingers then he'll have to sit and watch Toby crumble before his eyes all over again.

So he pauses, takes a deep breath...

2/2

[brushoff]

...and then very deliberately thinks about Diana Rigg circa 1960 in her Avengers catsuit.

At his core, Dorian is a petty bitch. He might be shaken but now that he knows how the game works, he is not going to give up. Weak? Fuck you, kid. "I am exactly the sort of man I want to be," he says through gritted teeth, taking particular effort to think about how amazing Diana Rigg's thighs look.

[weboftime]

It isn't Dorian's imagery that finally tanks Henry; it's his own exhaustion after that very epic tantrum.

The images fade and Henry sits back on the chair, eyes half open, blood pouring from his nose.

[brushoff]

Dorian himself takes a moment to catch his breath. He pants, closing his eyes to try and steady himself. Once he feels calm enough (though his eyes are a little red and teary, the point where it's obvious that if this went on a bit longer, he might have started crying), he stands up, reaches into his pocket and offers Henry a handkerchief.

It's monogrammed because of course it is.

"You could have chosen any image in the world," he muses, exhaustion in his voice. "And you chose something that would hurt. What a child."

[weboftime]

He refuses the handkerchief and brushes his hand across his face, unconcerned.

"You are short sighted. You shouldn't have anything that hurts. You're weak, like the rest of humanity."

[brushoff]

"Dramatic talk from the man who also has something that hurts," Dorian muses, as he puts the handkerchief back in his pocket. "You just do a better job hiding it behind your shell as Little Mr. Ubermensch."

[weboftime]

He opens his eyes, exhausted, and stares at Dorian with teeth clenched.

"You're simply a temporary warden."

[brushoff]

"True," Dorian admits. And he give Henry a nasty little smirk as he points out, "But unfortunately for you, you're interesting. I'm going to keep an eye on you even after we're not paired, Henry."

[weboftime]

Henry sits up, wiping the rest of the blood from his face. He's absolutely exhausted and angry, but he doesn't want to show weakness. He doesn't want to pass out in front of him.

"I suppose I can do the same to you, but you're just a person."

But if Dorian continues his consent, Henry will absolutely be spying on him as much as he can.

[brushoff]

"Exactly. I insist on lowering myself to humanity's level, after all—and that's before my horrible tendency towards thinking about boobs."

He doesn't take away his consent, though. Mostly because he completely forgot that he needs to do that. Things might change with the next round of trauma.

"Any particular type of spider, by the way?"

[weboftime]

The prospect of getting what he wants outweighs his arguments against the former.

"Black widow," he answers. "That cannot be controlled by that girl."

He pauses.

"I don't hurt people with them. I simply like them around."

With what energy he has left, he shows Dorian an attic room in a stately home. A small boy with jars of spiders, studying them. Writing about them. Drawing them.

[brushoff]

Dorian blinks a little as the image hits his head. And that's...sad. A kid, sitting by himself, surrounded by jars of spiders. It's sad and lonely in a way that Dorian wasn't expecting.

"I believe you won't hurt anybody with them. But give me a backup choice in case the Admiral vetoes black widows anyway," Dorian points out. Because it doesn't take a genius to point out that a dangerous spider might be denied.