Maybe they're alright. Never mind that Armand is practically across the street, and can see no other alternative for himself but to monitor the building once the sun rises. He doesn't offer to do so, he just will do it, and then extract further details of Daniel's itinerary from the relevant humans who have it, and consider how best to continue to trail them all.
He expects there will be a narrow window of time between now and their departure from the city, so he texts,
Were any of her spawn left alive that you know of?
He won't be shocked to know that the other two salted the earth, but if one managed an escape, that might be a fun way to wile away the evening.
'Spawn' is such a horrible word in this context. But Armand finds it disgusting, he reminds himself. What they did the other night—
just the bond fucking with them, and they'll be alright, they just have to not act too weird. Remember that you disgust him, that you ruined his life, that you hate him.
Just the one whose death I couldn't confirm. Hold on.
A couple minutes as he takes some screenshots of the seemingly mile-long list of the Irish vampire's known fledglings. It's sorted by who Talamasca thinks have stayed with her, who they think broke from her permanently, and Daniel has made notes about who he thinks died tonight.
It is disgusting, and spawn is the correct word. Disgusting to turn so many, to dilute the blood in this way. Worse than weeds in a garden. An infestation.
If it lives, I can extract whatever information she decided it needed to know.
Nothing, for a minute, but the silence suggests something more is coming— unlike Daniel to not finish a thought, and this is clearly unfinished. Bitterly wondering at himself that the language concerning fledglings is not actually killing off the instinct to articulate the following sentiment.
I don't want to be insulting.
Uh-oh.
Blame my fucking ignorance. It's not dangerous for you to do any of that, is it?
He's soooooo fine about everything that happened tonight by the way, it's all fine.
Armand writes a message. Deletes it. Writes another. Deletes this one too. He knows he is overthinking it, a determined pursuit for the clearest and most succinct answer that at the same time assumes nothing of Daniel's motivations, and finally lands on,
They will find it very difficult to do me harm that matters.
Fine. Great. That works for Daniel. For a few minutes, anyway, as the rollercoaster not-conversation with Louis clunks around. Contending with the reality that he's going to spend the next eleven fucking hours locked in a tiny box, and there is no possible way he's ever falling asleep.
I have another line of questioning, if you have a minute. Impersonal hypothetical stuff.
Vampires are more susceptible to burning than humans, but in practice, it is a matter of will more than science. It would take a powerful vampire against a substantially weaker one to cause combustion directly.
A delay in response. Daniel considers whether or not to confirm. He doesn't know for sure what happened, so not mentioning it to Louis hasn't been a lie, not even by omission. He's simply decided nothing happened to him.
She made a threat, and I felt something warm in my chest. It was brief and I'm not sure if it was real or my imagination because it scared me. I tried to 'push' the sensation away, and it stopped. But she also moved on not long after anyway.
Why is Daniel talking to Armand? Why did he text him? He has no obligation to. Agreeing to see him sometimes is not the same as agreeing to keep him fully in the loop. Why did he tell him about this at all? Louis can make fire, maybe he'd know better. Surely getting over his current sadness-anxiety-anger about Louis would be a thousand, a million times more sensible than exposing this to Armand, even though everything about him as already been exposed to Armand, so it might not really matter.
Demonstrate it, like he's demonstrated all else he can do, to Daniel, on Daniel, chthonic psychic tentacles in his brain sifting every cruel thought and revolting teenage scam, controlling his body, controlling his mind, transforming him, feeding him to repair him like a fucking broken car who needed an oil change, and Daniel is going to say, what, yeah, sure, test this on me, I trust you not to go all the way, I trust you to stop, even without Louis there to demand you let up before it's too late? I trust you, and the ringing in my ears right now has nothing to do with terror?
He drafts a text, something like: and you can practice repelling my focus, if such an attack were ever to manifest again.
Make it useful. Point out its virtues. But Daniel has already said, Sure, and Armand toys with his own as he considers through extrasensory perception the movement of bodies in the building that the three of them have made their home. He deletes this message. If Daniel needs virtues, he can come up with them himself.
Depends on how quickly they can get things together. If it were just him, whatever, but it's three vampires and Louis' staff. He's pretty sure the soft plan a week ago was that they were going up, household would stay behind, but now?
No idea.
And Armand? Daniel stares at his phone, and thinks about burning.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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He expects there will be a narrow window of time between now and their departure from the city, so he texts,
Were any of her spawn left alive that you know of?
He won't be shocked to know that the other two salted the earth, but if one managed an escape, that might be a fun way to wile away the evening.
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just the bond fucking with them, and they'll be alright, they just have to not act too weird. Remember that you disgust him, that you ruined his life, that you hate him.
Just the one whose death I couldn't confirm. Hold on.
A couple minutes as he takes some screenshots of the seemingly mile-long list of the Irish vampire's known fledglings. It's sorted by who Talamasca thinks have stayed with her, who they think broke from her permanently, and Daniel has made notes about who he thinks died tonight.
no subject
If it lives, I can extract whatever information she decided it needed to know.
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Hell of a way to spend an afternoon.
Nothing, for a minute, but the silence suggests something more is coming— unlike Daniel to not finish a thought, and this is clearly unfinished. Bitterly wondering at himself that the language concerning fledglings is not actually killing off the instinct to articulate the following sentiment.
I don't want to be insulting.
Uh-oh.
Blame my fucking ignorance. It's not dangerous for you to do any of that, is it?
He's soooooo fine about everything that happened tonight by the way, it's all fine.
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Stares at this message a moment, the two sentences worth of run up, the query itself.
In what respect?
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Don't... like, don't make him admit he has the capacity to be worried about Armand, man. Come on.
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They will find it very difficult to do me harm that matters.
Terrible. He sends it anyway.
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Fine. Great. That works for Daniel. For a few minutes, anyway, as the rollercoaster not-conversation with Louis clunks around. Contending with the reality that he's going to spend the next eleven fucking hours locked in a tiny box, and there is no possible way he's ever falling asleep.
I have another line of questioning, if you have a minute. Impersonal hypothetical stuff.
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?
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Most people are either mostly blood or mostly water. So. What was that sensation, he still wonders.
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Vampires are more susceptible to burning than humans, but in practice, it is a matter of will more than science. It would take a powerful vampire against a substantially weaker one to cause combustion directly.
The function of this hypothetical is ?
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Is there a reliable method to counter it? Just breaking the concentration, or will, of whoever's thinking maliciously toasty thoughts?
Interesting use of question marks. Daniel notes it.
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Eimear made this attempt?
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Because it hadn't, in the end.
I'm not sure.
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She made a threat, and I felt something warm in my chest. It was brief and I'm not sure if it was real or my imagination because it scared me. I tried to 'push' the sensation away, and it stopped. But she also moved on not long after anyway.
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and Armand stops and looks at this half-written message, and has to wonder at himself, but completes it anyway,
I could demonstrate the feeling, next time you can get away.
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Demonstrate it, like he's demonstrated all else he can do, to Daniel, on Daniel, chthonic psychic tentacles in his brain sifting every cruel thought and revolting teenage scam, controlling his body, controlling his mind, transforming him, feeding him to repair him like a fucking broken car who needed an oil change, and Daniel is going to say, what, yeah, sure, test this on me, I trust you not to go all the way, I trust you to stop, even without Louis there to demand you let up before it's too late? I trust you, and the ringing in my ears right now has nothing to do with terror?
Sure.
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Make it useful. Point out its virtues. But Daniel has already said, Sure, and Armand toys with his own as he considers through extrasensory perception the movement of bodies in the building that the three of them have made their home. He deletes this message. If Daniel needs virtues, he can come up with them himself.
When are you leaving?
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Depends on how quickly they can get things together. If it were just him, whatever, but it's three vampires and Louis' staff. He's pretty sure the soft plan a week ago was that they were going up, household would stay behind, but now?
No idea.
And Armand? Daniel stares at his phone, and thinks about burning.