Modern 63'd F del' O. BECAUSE REASONS.

[lesyeuxsansvisage]

Mme,

If you're looking to play at vicarious adventure through the textual exploits of a fictional character, you'd do better to pick one with at least a vague interest in playing along with you.

I'm through with exploits, AS YOU WELL KNOW. With me, you'll find only the vagaries of QUIET APARTMENT LIVING.

Undoubtedly you mean to protest my retirement. After all, if "Love Never Dies", why should I be so audacious as to expect to catch a little rest? Well, perhaps you're right! Perhaps, like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees or any other putrescent Nietzschean parody, love gives only the appearance of death, but inevitably hops right back up again to shuffle through the same old motions in eternal recurrence. HOW FITTING IT WOULD BE TO DRAG LE MORT VIVANT THROUGH THAT MACABRE FOLLY! Unfortunately for you, while love may carry on ad nauseum despite all odds and preferences to the contrary, FANDOM IS MORTAL, AND THIS ONE IS DEAD!

Anyway, more to the point, what's a story of abject ugliness and unrequited desire sans the requisite valorization of the pain of The Jilted Male™? A joke, my dear. It's a CRUEL JOKE, and I suggest you AVOID MAKING ME THE BUTT OF IT.

That said, I hope you'll accept my kind regards and my warm, contingent wishes as to your continued good health and fortune,

O. P.

Comments

[vocalization]

So you mean that a woman's story about the same things can't be as important? What's that reasoning?

[lesyeuxsansvisage]

No, no, no.

I mean that a woman's story about the same things won't be received in the same way by its audience, regardless of its author's intent. Clearly, there's more to the 'importance' of a story than its reception, sweet Christine. But audiences can be vulgar and cruel, AND I WON'T BE MADE INTO A SPECTACLE.

[daroga]

Hardly dead. Though some of us fare better than others, it must be said.

[lesyeuxsansvisage]

Dying, then. Giving one last inordinately long and annoying death rattle.

And some of us would fare a bit better if they could just be LEFT ALONE.

[vocalization]

I understand, so don't shout. [a smile plays at her mouth.] But some stories can endure. Regardless of how they're told.

[lesyeuxsansvisage]

You shouldn't say such things, little love. I don't think you realize the sort of effect you have on me.

[vocalization]

So you don't want me to tell the truth? At least, if I'm disagreeing.

[lesyeuxsansvisage]

You're not disagreeing! That some stories CAN ENDURE BUT SHOULDN'T was my ORIGINAL POINT! Only when you say 'endure', it sounds like a good thing ...

But then, most anything from your lips sounds good and sweet and true ... [Creeper stare directed at said lips is a go. Just for a few second though, ahem.]

YOU SHOULD BE ON MY SIDE, HERE! Have you forgotten that this story wasn't a pleasant one, even in its original form? Fickle girl!

[daroga]

Regardless of what you might think about my own actions, Madame, most of them were in the service of keeping you and those like you unharmed. I grant that the actions may, in certain lights, be seen as ambiguous. Which is likely why they are excised from most subsequent texts.

[lesyeuxsansvisage]

Frankly, daroga, I think very little about your actions - except by way of noting how ineptly executed and futile the bulk of them were. Maybe it's just that this is the general consensus?

[W/e, you know she'd be lost without her Boswell, D.]

You should count yourself lucky! If only we were all so fortunate as to be forgotten!

[vocalization]

I haven't forgotten anything. [she glares and straightens her shoulders.] But maybe you have a second chance being given to you. Don't mourn before anything happens.

[lesyeuxsansvisage]

FICKLE GIRL!