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As time went on, Tenn's curiosity over what was beneath Purple's mask intensified until it became an unbearable thought like a constant buzzing in her brain. She had heard the stories and whispers about the Phantom's horrible face and the rumors that he was 'death personified'. Eventually, her curiosity started getting the better of her. She just had to know how he looked and who was holding her captive. But she had learned that he'd never willingly show her; Purple's expression and demeanor had darkened the one time she tried to remove his mask.
It can't be that terrible, can it? I mean, that mask only covers half of his face. Perhaps it's just an exaggeration, nobody's actually seen him unmasked. She thought.
Her opportunity came that evening: she found him working on a composition with the organ. Purple always concentrated to the fullest whenever he worked on his music, so he didn't notice her tip-toeing towards a deep breath, Tenn silently crept towards the Phantom. Purple was so focused on his music that he didn't hear his beloved coming from behind, her hand reaching out for his mask.
For a brief moment she hesitated. She had not forgotten how serious Purple got when she first tried to remove his mask. There must be a reason for that; exaggeration or not, he really doesn't seem to want anyone to see his real face. But unfortunately for her, curiosity outruled caution.
Tenn's fingers swiftly tore off the mask from Purple's face.
She stepped back, lekku flat against her head and eyes wide as her hand covered her mouth. The formerly hidden part of his face was severely malformed, almost looking like he had a severe burn that left sequels. His wrinkled skin was burned down pink, with hollowed gashes and a warped cheek.
But the sight was nothing compared to the phantom's wrath. Purple let out an unIrken shriek, covering the left side of his face with a hand as he stomped his way towards her.
"YOU LITTLE VIPER!" Purple roared right in her face, hissing incoherent words and curses. "WERE YOU SO CURIOUS AS TO WHOM IT WAS THAT LOVES YOU SO DEARLY?! DO NOT LOOK AWAY!" Tenn tried to close her eyes shut and turn her head away, but he seized her by the shoulders with an iron grip and forced her to look at his horrible face. "YOU WANTED TO KNOW WHAT I LOOK LIKE?! FEAST YOUR EYES AND GLUT YOUR SOUL IN MY CURSED UGLINESS !"
Tenn cried out in pain as the Phantom dragged her by the lekku to her room, where he grabbed her by the shoulders once again.
"Ah, I frighten you, do I?! I dare say! You think I have another mask?! Well, tear it off as you did with the other!" Tenn almost shrieked as Purple dug her claws into the deformed half of his face; that skin felt cold and hard, almost like a kryvtor's scaly hide. "Come along, I insist! Know that it is a monster that loves and adores you and will never leave you! Now that you've seen me, you can never leave me again!"
Purple finally tore away from her, embracing himself, closing his eyes shut as the tears trickled down his cheeks. Tenn fearfully stepped back from him, trembling.
"Are you satisfied?" He whispered without looking at his beloved. "I'm certainly good-looking, am I not?" Purple chuckled bitterly. " A long time ago, I once thought that I had to hide this face in order to be loved… but I was wrong! Any woman that sees my face becomes mine! From the moment they see it, my face will consume their very thoughts and see it in their dreams for the rest of their lives! I'm a kind of Don Juan!"
As his rage cooled down into grief, Purple collapsed unto his knees, trying to hide his deformed side. "This face is my life, my pain and my own personal hell."
The door was slammed shut. Tenn just stood there, frozen and with her limbs trembling. Her heart was beating so fast that she swore it was going to burst out of her chest.
The image was still fresh inside her brain. She had heard the rumors, alright, but it was nothing compared to watching it in flesh.
Tenn jumped as she heard the organ being played. It wasn't like those other times, though. The notes were fast and the tone was far darker than all of purple's previous melodies. It wasn't just… passion, it was grief. Pain, misery, all the bad things he must have felt in his life.
For the first time in years ever since she was a smeet, Tenn began to weep.
Red groggily made his way into the Opera House, cursing Purple under his breath for making him come all the way here at fucking three A.M. Ilk's been rather feisty these past few nights and he was exhausted. Whatever he wanted couldn't wait until morning?
Red slammed the door to Box Five open. "Purple, I swear, this better be important-!"
He was abruptly interrupted as a pair of arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him into a tight, desperate embrace. It took him a few seconds to assimilate what was going on. Purple was hanging from his neck, and he was sobbing. This wasn't good; he'd never seen the infamous Phantom weeping, not even at his lowest.
"Purple?"
"S-She's seen me…!"
"What?"
"Tenn's seen my face! She removed my mask before I could stop her and…" Purple stuttered in-between sobs, tears trickling down his cheeks. "It's all over, Red! She'll never love me now that she knows what I look like!"
"Okay, calm down, calm down!" Red said, raising his voice and pulling his friend back by the shoulders. "Take deep breaths in and out… That's right, in and out, slowly…" He followed his own instructions and gestured his companion to follow his lead. Slowly, very slowly, Purple managed to calm down a bit. Red had him sit down in the nearby chair. "Okay, now tell me what happened."
Purple was silent for a few moments, gaze absent, until he related what had happened not long ago. How Tenn had sneaked up on him, removed his mask and seen his face, and his rather scary reaction to that. Red sat in the chair to the right, expression serious.
"Pur, I hate to say 'I told you so', but I told you so. It was bound to happen with the forced interaction, no matter how nice you were to her."
"I still remember the way she looked at me… It's how everyone's looked at me my entire life." Purple said in an almost-inaudible whisper as he found himself hugging his knees. "I'm used to it by now, but when it came from Tenn…"
"What are you going to do now? Will you let her go and-?"
"No."
Red raised his lekku. "What do you mean with 'no'?"
"I won't let her leave; she'd run away for good and I'd never see her again."
"Purple, we had an agreement! You'd only take her down for a few days and then she'd be back as if nothing happened!"
"That was before she saw my face."
"Oh, really? And what am I supposed to tell Spork when he questions me as to Tenn's whereabouts?! I can't keep telling him that she's gone home to take a break, for Tallest's sake, he'll call to her house and realize that I've been lying to him!"
"I will take care of that, you just keep acting like normal."
Red pinched the area between his eyes, muttering under his breath. "And what do you plan to do? Keep Tenn down there for the rest of her life?"
"If I must so that she won't leave me, then yes." Purple retorted coldly.
"Are you even listening to yourself, Purple?! That's completely irrational! Keeping her against her will is only going to drive her further away! You can't just-!" Purple chuckled bitterly. Red felt a shiver down his spine; he knew that kind of laugh.
"Oh, Red. I'm not asking for your permission, I'm informing you of what's going to happen. Miss Sakhak will be my guest indefinitely."
"You cannot make her love you! She will not! Not like this!"
Red froze as the words unintentionally came out of his mouth out of the heat of the moment. Every muscle in Purple's body had pulled tout, his gloved claws dug into his arms. His breathing had stilled and stopped as his lekku pressed against his head, gaze fixed forward.
Then slowly, deliberately, Purple turned with an almost seething menace. For a brief instant, the hostility in his gaze flared with godlike vivacity. No Irken on the receiving end of that gaze had ever lived to describe it. Yet as quickly and as vividly as that fury had appeared, it suddenly flickered and sank like the sun hiding behind the horizon. And the darkness it left in its wake was infinitely barren.
More than afraid, Red felt regretful; he hadn't meant to tell him that. It must have sounded like all the people who told Purple that nobody would ever love him.
"P-Pur, I…"
"Get out." Purple said quietly.
"Pur, I didn't mean-"
"Get out," he repeated, his voice attaining mild hostility, "I don't want to make Miyuki a widow."
Red knew better than to keep insisting after messing up so disastrously, especially when Purple used that one.