Always fun to be reminded that he's locked in a cage with a tiger (aha), hearing him process Louis this way. Oh, well, I suppose I loved the idea of him, in the end. In hindsight, after writing, Daniel has been able to go through his own processing, and accept that Armand was not the only person making bad, harmful choices in that relationship. But Armand's disproportionate, devastating choices remain the standouts, far beyond the pale even for centuries old supernatural creatures who have lost touch with humanity.

And yet. He finds himself curious about the psychology behind Armand's ability to frame things, sitting directly across the table from someone he once spent a week torture, as wistful look back. Jesus fucking Christ.

"Keeping up with the times. And seeing how our first, parent species is holding together the world we live on. Maybe getting some cool stuff out of it."

Semi-relatable. Daniel no longer lugs around a typewriter. Why weasel away from the topic, though? We're here. We're looking forward. We're in a shitty diner and there are only so many hours left to work with before Daniel has to go back to his extremely medium hotel and draw the curtains as densely as he can.

"I told my second wife 'of course I can stand you' in an argument, once. In the moment, I thought I was making a great point. It seemed kinder than what she was accusing me of. I'm not sure I'd classify that setup as 'bearable', in retrospect. We had this awful therapist who kept making us do team building hypotheticals, where our mission was to stay together to set a standard of family mettle, and we had to strategize like a spy team. It was excruciating. That therapist is the closest I came to murder in my life life. ... Bearable? I dunno. I think I'll just have to keep writing."