playingclaude:
A matte black town car turned at the roundabout, smooth as the silk of it’s passenger’s tie and cruised down the boulevard toward the famed Chaney Hotel. At the sight of a familiarly garish awning, Claude waved his hand wordlessly at the driver and handed him fifty as the car rolled to a stop, telling Marcel to buy his daughter that doll she had seen in a store window and “some friends while he was at it” because, well, they don’t call him Bachelor Benefactor Babin Hood for nothing. But that wasn’t his only claim to fame – oh no – he may have been bred a Babin, but the people of Paris knew better than to address him as anything less than an honorary Chaney and Annabella’s third, and final son.
– And in that respect, Chateau de Chaney was also his home, silhouetted by stars, shadows, street lights and …
“Sistine?”
He turned up a wiry smile at his childhood friend, the closest thing he had to a sibling besides Raoul. “A minute? Cherie, you sway more than the hula girl on Marcel’s dash -- you’ve been gone for a while.” Claude laughed lightly at the sight of her, a china doll against a brick wall, basically a fish out of water. He breathed a quiet sigh. “Alright, come on,” Leaning down, he extended to her the same chivalrous offer that always stood when they were children. “Get on my back; you’re not walking back in those shoes. Under no circumstances will I let you break a leg b e f o r e opening night. Oui?”
"Who's Marcel?" she mumbles blearily, now rubbing at her eyes, blissfully unaware for the moment of just how much eye makeup is smudging off onto her hand as she does so. "SISTINE. That nickname is so --" She cuts herself off with a big yawn. "Funny. I'm not a church." How CLEVER it is is lost on her at the moment. Hands paw at her face, from the yawn, trying to rub the sleep right out of herself. Only she has the strength of a mouse on Vicodin at the moment, so it's more just a very drunken angelic looking creature dragging the tips of her own fingers down her face over and over again while Claude looks on, laughing.
"I could break my whole EVERYTHING and no one would care," she informs him sadly, still unceasingly sliding her hands across her face, though now she's slipping further and further down the wall towards the pavement, "I don't do ANYTHING in this stupid dumb show, Claude. Did you know that?" Suddenly she stops what she's doing, holds herself into a squat, and jerks her head towards him, a comical expression of exaggerated melancholy splayed across her features. "Did you know that I don't do anything?"
As much as she did just want to sit on the sidewalk and complain to Claude, the offer of a late night piggyback ride through the streets of Paris was awfully tempting, she had to admit. But before the thought can take root, one hand raises to brush her hair back away from her face, and she finally sees all the makeup she's smudged onto it. Horrified, even more so than usual in her current state, Christine all but SCREECHES, tears welling in her eyes as she looks back to Claude, searching for validation in his features. "Am I hideous?" she whispers, voice trembling.














