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lestat de lioncourt. ([personal profile] damnedest) wrote2024-07-27 03:00 pm
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-23 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
'Yeah that checks out, he likes arguing.'

Easy acceptance, in the face of that probing. They'd gored each other multiple times during the interview, and guilt and blame aside, there's a kind of unspoken stalemate concerning Daniel publishing the book vs Louis having left him there with Armand. This affection has edges. But it was always going to; Louis is hard to hold on to, Daniel is hard to care for.

'Does it worry you?'

Getting a kick out of suicidal ideation doesn't mean it's not suicidal ideation.
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-23 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
Daniel isn't surprised that Louis feels profoundly inspired by violence, now that he's fled the psychic sedatives Armand was doping him with for decades. He's heard about his life, his one-man gang origins, his strife with Lestat, his brutal execution of an entire coven. He's experienced an outburst, one that nearly killed him. (Affectionate jokes about scary vampires. The scars he carries aren't from Armand.)

It's just that Louis is also fucking suicidal sometimes, and so, it does Daniel's head in.

A delay.

Eventually,

'He's said that, yeah.'

Still not sure if he believes it. Strange, to know that Louis told Lestat. He doesn't know why.
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-24 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
A flash—

Not from the camera, wouldn't that be nice. (Door slams. Footsteps. Metal door. The splintered panic of Armand shouting Louis' name, his own blood on the floor. Metal door again.)

Decides not to argue with Lestat, because it would be too fucking dismal. He doesn't want to. It's easier to be pissed off at Louis for this immediate thing, and just be pissed off for a day and then get on with things. What's he going to do, hold it against him? He doesn't think there's anything they could do to each other to get to that point.

'It's all technically fine. I'm just handling it gracelessly, but if I handled shit well all the time, I probably wouldn't be here.'

Does anybody become a vampire after making GOOD life choices??

'I got you something. And him something. Well. Mostly him. But I think you were looking for it.'

They can change subjects. Daniel grated out the apology. Dwelling on the whole thing sucks.
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-24 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)
The last time they cried at each other it was when they realized they'd been tortured by Armand for a week, alright, they have stages to go through. And does Lestat really want to witness that kind of emotional intimacy from the other corners of the love triangle he's hallucinating??

So.

Magic words.

'It's a camera.'

Which Daniel is putting back into its box now that he's satisfied that it functions as well as can be expected. Batteries in, film pack loaded. No excuses.

'Not a good one. A good one would be the wrong move.'
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-26 06:15 am (UTC)(link)
'No, it's a great gift. He might hate it, but still.'

Work with him.

It's this or cocaine, and he thinks Louis has for real quit, unlike Daniel, who 'quit'.

'This has no settings. It's not even the full size ones, it's the significantly worse rectangle exposures. He can't overthink it, just point, shoot, stare at it, and it's stylishly Polaroid-y or it's got an in-camera development error.'

Are you seeing his vision, Lestat.
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-26 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
'No way, it was your idea. You can just blame me for all the parts that suck. I'm a notoriously bad gifter anyway.'

See. Easy.

A long drive, though—

Lestat might be able to sense a brief hint towards reluctance. Should he go with them? Give them space? (Deal with Armand, on his own? He can't imagine the lurking ancient wants to be left behind.) He might have to end up being on the phone the whole fucking drive anyway, forcing Lestat and Louis to sit in bored silence as he gets work done, and potentially pulls over halfway through in some bed and breakfast town to have dinner with fucking Raglan. Hm.
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-27 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
The camera settled, at least. The other half of the thing he wants to give them still sits in a folder tucked into the shopping bag that he's putting the camera box back into—

Maybe not yet. He and Louis might argue still. He doesn't want to appear to be trying quite that hard to get out of a conversation, he doesn't want to add another emotional weight to a bad week. The timing is strange. Once they get to their next location, he decides. Satisfied enough to have had it printed out now, in civilization with appropriate facilities. Vermont? What the fuck is in Vermont? Hopefully electricity, at least.

'Not in earnest,' is wry. 'But I have shit to juggle, still.'

Work. Secret agents. Eldritch horrors with big amber eyes.

'Just trying to work out a schedule in my head that doesn't make anyone insane.'
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[personal profile] followups 2024-10-30 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
'Louis hasn't been trapped in a car for hours listening to me argue with people who aren't him.'

But there's a note of humor to his (mental) tone. Daniel resolves not to try and find a way to weasel out of it, self-aware at least partially that he's just avoiding emotional significance like an asshole. And of course the very real element of anxiety concerning what, exactly, the fuck, he's going to do about the prospect of Armand tagging along from the shadows.

'I'll let you go. Be back soon.'

Camera in tow.
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contribution delayed by Fashion.

[personal profile] divorcing 2024-10-31 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
A mark against all Louis' assertions of fine and nothing to worry about that he sleeps so late. Rises with bruises not yet faded. (The perils of forgoing the restorative properties of human blood taken hot from the vein and relying on donations, collected, sealed, and reheated in a cup.)

He wakes alone. Lays in coffin and weathers the complex feelings that turn provokes, before emerging.

Sitting up in his coffin, he can hear Lestat moving in his room. Can see the sticky note on Daniel's coffin, an immediate herald of his absence. Feels something complicated about all this as well, and chooses to set these things aside.

The lid of his coffin thunks audibly closed, followed by footsteps, the softer click of a bedroom door swinging shut. In the privacy of his own rooms, Louis can observe the faded shadows of bruising at his throat. Let himself be annoyed by it. Fall into familiar rituals, early evening ablutions that are unchanged in spite of the last night's skirmish.

Louis takes his time. (Louis is uncertain what waits for him when he emerges.) But eventually, returns to the main room to summon Rachida. Today's fashion: a mid-weight, high-necked sweater of mossy green, slightly oversized. He'd bent to roll back the hem of deep gold corduroy trousers to accommodate heavier boots, dropped a leather jacket of rich, creamy brown onto the back of the couch as he passes.

Intends to go out, maybe. Attend to last minute errands of his own. Stubbornly refuses to be cowed by the potential for any repetition of last night's trainwreck. He intends on continuing to be difficult to kill.

He bends to collect the post-it from the lid of Daniel's coffin.

It's fine. All things, fine.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2024-11-01 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
Sticky note slipped into a pocket as he turns, takes in Lestat in all his splendor. Maybe smiles a little over the choice in glasses. Curbs the impulse to reach for him, mindful that he woke alone. That Lestat is entitled to space, that Louis had requested separation in the distance. They've been skirting the edges of what had been agreed upon, but that's no reason to push further.

"I've a few last threads to tie off before we go," Louis confirms. "Thought I'd handle it this evening."

Innocuous allowed to pass without commentary, taking it on its face.

"You look nice."
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[personal profile] divorcing 2024-11-02 11:16 pm (UTC)(link)
There is no confusion as to what Lestat means. Louis understands the offer perfectly, is only taken aback by its unexpectedness. Caught entirely off-guard by the ease with which Lestat extends something so intimate.

It can be nothing other than intimate. (The memory of dinners ending with Armand, crossing to occupy the vacant seat alongside Louis, bare his neck, tip into Louis' hands without any hesitation.)

Louis hesitates now. The offer tugs something tender and raw in his chest, and he knows less what to do with it than he does the bruises, vestiges of their near miss the night before.

"No one is squeamish," he confirms, feeling his way through his own uncertainty, the uneven beat of his heart. Wanting. Apprehensive anyway. "But you ain't obligated that way. I'll be just fine in a day or two."

Is this the right thing? Louis is guided only by his sense of boundary, how careful they are with each other, the sense that he would be transgressing. He woke alone. What else does that signal but a return to the status quo?
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[personal profile] divorcing 2024-11-03 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
Teasing.

Unbearable.

The hesitation doesn't abate. It maintains, this restraint in Louis, as he looks into Lestat's face. All the things that he is, Lestat. The deep affection that Louis holds for him, regardless of what they are to each other in the moment.

Affection. Love. Things maybe better left untouched. Things Lestat may have left behind. Louis said so many things, in the book. They have been apart for so long. Lestat woke early, left Louis to wake alone.

Is it so easy to offer this? Is it obligation?

Louis can glean nothing from Lestat's face. He's smiling, teasing, and Louis is alone with his hesitations.

"You that worried for me?" Louis murmurs, which isn't a no. Not yet.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2024-11-03 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
A thing Louis could point out: It's hardly helping you to weaken yourself for me.

But it is much the same, Louis thinks, as the reason for their coffins dragged into one room. For Lestat in his coffin last night. They were attacked. This will ease some of what lingers.

Maybe it is nothing else. Maybe it is this simple.

Louis reaches out to take his hand. Squeeze his fingers a little in his own.

"It ain't as bad as it looks."

Stipulating.

But then—

"Show me where."

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bow territory i think

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