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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-05-18 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
Distracted by the immediacy with which his partner is disarmed, the young man beside her is startled by Louis' fingers closing around his elbow.

"Don't," he advises. Don't pull out another little light. Don't push any buttons. Just don't.

A glint of fang is his mouth is convincing. The man is steered backwards. His partner is watching, her hands opening and closing into fists. Deciding how foolish she wants to be.

Into Daniel's head, Louis asks, How much time do you need?
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-05-18 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
Interesting, to be feared so specifically.

Louis has a finger pressed down at the edge of their minds, monitoring the flow of thought. Tasting the quality of their fear. Louis turns it over in his mind, this patter of memory of all his worst acts.

What Louis will make of it is anyone's guess. In the moment, Daniel is at work and Louis has this young man by the arm, sweeps his eyes around the room and—

Bad luck, for this intrepid young woman.

Louis sees her.

He moves so, so quickly. One moment he is scraping a thumbnail down the inside of this young man's elbow, the next he is hauling the young woman up off her feet. It's a graceful movement, terrifyingly so. The promise of violence is contained in it.

"He said, let's chill," Louis reminds her, lightly scolding tone. Confides, casually, "He's still very human. He wants to keep you alive."

The implication: Louis doesn't.

How true it is doesn't matter. It only matters that Louis says it aloud, and scares her enough that she believes him.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-05-18 10:36 am (UTC)(link)
Things that stick: the litany of thoughts unspooling in this young man's mind.

The worst of Louis' habits, unfettered. Twenty years ago, give or take, but still his. Still observed and collected and scrutinized. This boy is terrified, but this boy is not the only one who has seen them. This boy is not the only one who knows Louis' name.

Rashid was in his home for such a long time. They had thought, a controlled sort of breach. But then Louis had stopped listening and Armand had been meant to control the flow.

Louis is looking into this girl's face. She is thinking of autopsy photos. She is thinking something accusatory. She's embarrassed. Louis could tell her there's no reason to be. It's very human, to wish to live a few hours longer. No one needs to die in this vault.

"Have your souvenirs?" Louis enquires, gaze coming around to watch Daniel put the drive into his pocket.

Considers their two young hosts. The man hasn't moved. The woman has backed away.

It's in her mind. She'll push that button the moment their backs are turned. Louis offers this to Daniel, a brief little touch between their minds to convey the impression, like passing a note he found in her pocket.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-05-19 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
Louis, who is so volatile. Dangerous. Lacking control, thankfully tended to for years by Armand. This is perhaps what has been noted in his file, an explanation for the dwindling incidents, the tapering and then end of autopsy photos and recordings. Maybe there is some other notation, marking the dissolution of their companionship. Maybe someone is waiting again for the incidents to begin.

Touching the minds of these young agents, Louis is aware that they are wondering if they will mark the start of a new spree.

But no, not today.

They are trapped into a closet, where they will surely be found. Door closed. Unable to push the button, alert anyone to what Daniel and Louis have done.

Good enough, for now.

Louis adjusts his jacket, brushes some nonexistent lint from the fabric. Yes, they're pushing their luck if they linger.

Back the way we came? Louis questions. Some real enjoyment in the idea of walking out the front door, if they can. We might meet some opposition.

No alarms raised, but the Talamasca hasn't survived this long without some healthy suspicion.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-05-19 10:32 am (UTC)(link)
"They're on to us," Louis deadpans, spoken aloud even as his amusement glows in Daniel's head.

We can climb, is the more practical suggestion. Elevator shafts are made to be traversed, to some extent. It would be challenging to a human. It is not impossible for a vampire.

Louis ducks beneath Daniel's arm to look up, send his focus upwards to feel the absence of power. Find an absence of cameras. One advantage. An elevator shaft not truly equipped to monitor a pair of vampires scaling the walls.

We can pick any floor is more or less true. Amends, Maybe skip the lobby.

Vague impressions in Louis' mind. Dropping from high windows, landing in the street. Not discreet, but that's the Talamasca's problem to solve.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-05-20 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
A good moment for stray thoughts: Louis' attention occupied with mapping out the movements above, focus split away from Daniel, catching only the tail end of a thought, more impression than anything else. Enough to inspire some warm feeling in return, reassuring, a brush of fingers across knuckles. A minor acknowledgement, complicated feelings or no, of Daniel's care. Gratitude that Daniel cares at all for Louis' well being, given all that's happened. All Louis has permitted to happen.

"Stay close," is what Louis says aloud. Flashes a grin over his shoulder, and steps into the shaft. Begins to climb.

It's a pleasant enough exertion. Easy going, up and up and up, Louis' mind open to the buzz of Talamasca agent minds. Most shielded, but some cracks here and there. Enough to guide Louis' decision when he swings out from the handholds to begin levering open a door.

Third floor. Not abandoned, but not packed with opposition. A handful of agents rushing, chattering, occupied with their daily tasks.

No one immediately notices the elevator door pulling open, no ding of arrival heralding the occasion.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-06-06 09:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes."

Louis doesn't sound very concerned but he suspects Daniel might want to avoid tripping an alarm.

It's a curious thing, these inner workings of the Talamasca. All these human precautions, and they are nothing for two vampires. A minor inconvenience. They'd be less of one if Daniel and Louis were different vampires.

"Are you worried about the alarm system?"

Direct.

They're in each others heads. Louis asks him this aloud anyway.

Does he understand the way Daniel cares for him? Yes. No.

It's complicated. Louis is many things. Depressive and guilty and angry. He failed Daniel. He is aware of it. It shifts his perception of who could feel what, of what Daniel could forgive and Daniel could feel for him, the person responsible for so much of what's befallen him.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-06-08 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
A bullet isn't going to kill Louis, but a headshot would lay him up for long months to heal. Louis knows this. His fingers tighten in Daniel's jacket, a brief squeeze of gratitude, before Louis' attention shifts and his lips peel back off his teeth to bare fangs at the agent in the doorway.

To her credit, she holds her ground even as he face goes pale.

There's more coming, Louis cautions, words blooming in Daniel's head fully detached from the savagery of the expression on Louis' face. We should break the glass.

Fuck the alarm, more or less.

Louis blurs from Daniel. The agent gets another shot off, bullet hitting a wall, and then screams as Louis breaks her arm. The gun clatters to the floor.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-06-09 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
It can be attributed to Louis, all of this. All of the violence, all of the brutality. Daniel can be spared responsibility. Louis, volatile and dangerous. Louis, who should be feared.

And they do fear him. He can feel it. He can hear it in the cacophony of their thoughts.

Louis grips this mortal by the throat, and flings her bodily across the room, through the door where agents are gathering. Their shouts and her scream carry, are barely stifled by the door Louis closes.

"Let's go," he says, crossing the room. Touches Daniel's cheek, gentle, something meant to be grounding. "I have a car on the corner. Run to your right."

Louis takes him by the hand, turning to shattered windw. They can jump, and land without any injury. The sidewalk cracks under impact. It doesn't matter.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-06-10 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah," Louis reassures, warm even as he hustles Daniel. Rushing because the Talamasca's unwillingness to shoot out the broken window might not hold and Louis doesn't want Daniel to experience being shot or for him to watch Louis experience being shot.

The door slams. They break several traffic laws instantly.

Louis still has hold of Daniel's hand. Touches his mind, a gentle pressure drawing Daniel closer.

"We were moving too fast for them," Louis tells him. "And they didn't want to hurt you."

The asset. It's fortunate enough.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-06-10 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm not afraid of getting shot."

Hm. Maybe not the kind of statement Daniel finds comforting.

"Daniel," he appeals. A little squeeze in return, the pressure of his thumb over Daniel's knuckles. "Daniel, I'm not doing anything I don't want to do these days."

Flexing autonomy. Chasing idle desires. Some of this manifests in decor. Some of it manifests in a heist. Louis is pleasing himself these days. He isn't averse to the messiness and danger of what they'd just done.

"I wanted to get you out. I wanted you to have your information. I don't care about the rest."

Maybe in a few days Louis can tell him it was fun, in a way.
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[personal profile] divorcing 2025-06-11 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you when you needed it before."

Can't ask, Why didn't you call me? though it weighs on him. It weighs on him as his own choice to give Daniel space weighs on him.

Hesitates.

Curls his grip a little tighter.

"Where do you want to go?"