perfectdevil | catch all open post

[ At that comment, Lestat gives him a different kind of look, one that says You might be onto something there. Even though Lestat talks a big game with all his fancy words, he is no genius and is nowhere near so set in his ways that he can't appreciate a good theory even if he has no way of moulding it into something that can be easily explained. Louis was always so much better at theorising than him. ]

A fairy curse? [ He quirks his eyebrow again, a bemused smile lingering at his lips. ] The little creatures in storybooks for children? You do say some strange things.

[ Vampires, totally normal. But fairies? Get outta here. ]

As for what I cannot do, let me think.. [ He taps a finger to his mouth, stretching out his legs as if getting comfortable for a long story. ] I cannot eat human food. It tastes awful and bland and makes me feel ill. I cannot go out in the day time, the light from the sun burns my skin. I cannot have sex in the mortal manner any more. I can't ever age, die of natural causes, or change the way I look. If I cut my hair, it will be the same again after I wake the next night. The same with my nails; you know, they were a little too long when I died, and now I file them every night before I go out? It was maddening at first, now it's something like muscle memory.

[Did he actually say something right for a change? Now there's a shocker. Maybe he's got a point, after all; it had certainly felt as though he'd died, at the time. Or at least..... the part of him that had made him truly him had.]

What? Fairies are bad news, man. You don't want to mess with that. Giving people power at a terrible price sounds like exactly the sort of thing Maleficent would do..... or Ursula, I guess? She's not a fairy, though.....

Whatever. Anyway, even if it wasn't, it still kinda sounds like you guys got ripped off.

[Kind of like how he did, to be honest. Controlling the Darkness has tempted plenty of mortals. Losing your heart is certainly an effective way of ensuring that power is at your fingertips, but in exchange.....]

I suppose we did. There are plenty of upsides to the Dark Gift -- our preternatural senses, our mind abilities, the ability to fly or cast fire with just our thoughts... the ability to see beauty in the mundane, in things we previously had no time for.. But its downsides are just as numerous. You won't find a single vampire who doesn't crave the human existence like a wound in their side.

[ Lestat's mouth twists like he's trying to keep a laugh bottled up. This is the first time he's ever divulged what he is to a human and had a negative reaction to it, and it's as bemusing as it is strange. Normally mortals are begging to be turned; he can think of at least two he's witnessed himself even if he didn't do the turning. ]

I don't know these names, but I suppose you're right. The fairies in Shakespeare are all quite tricky. La Belle Dame Sans Merci springs to mind more than all.

[ But then he looks at Demyx and leans in, almost conspiratorially. ]

Do you mean to tell me you know of fairies personally?

Sounds great..... except for the part where you lose all the other stuff that made you happy before you got the cool powers, y'know? It'd take a pretty miserable life not to miss what you can't have anymore.

[Everyone thinks they can have their cake and eat it, too, don't they? But seeing the beauty in the mundane probably makes them realize the beauty in everything they gave up. Flying probably makes them realize they'll never be able to watch the sunrise from those dizzying heights. Those potent senses and mind reading powers probably reminds them that they'll never taste food the way it's meant to be tasted again, never share a lover's touch again. Food and sex are awesome.

It's not hard to imagine that longing, that craving Lestat describes--he feels it himself every day, after all. As much as he knows he'd have been thrilled by the magic he has now as a human, none of it was worth losing his heart. Not even close.]

Oh! Uh, Ursula is a sea witch. She grants wishes for a steep price, but you're pretty screwed if you can't pay up when she comes to collect. She's not too much to worry about, as long as you don't sign any fishy contracts. Maleficent, though..... she's a Dark fairy queen. I've never actually met her, but we keep tabs on her, just in case. I don't know why the other guys aren't scared of her.

[Is he babbling? He kind of feels like he's babbling. But just recognizing the influence over him doesn't mean he can stop. If anything, he looks about as intimidated now just thinking about her as he had when the sheer force of Lestat's presence had been bearing down on him.]

I mean, come on! The Darkness doesn't even seem to touch her. She can control basically everything about it without any ill effect, even lesser Nobodies and Heartless--I heard she even commands demons and hellfire, and her curses are basically unbreakable unless you're playing by her rules. She's destroyed hundreds of worlds. She even totally reshaped one just to suit her. The Keybearer managed to like Capital K Kill her, somehow, and you know what it took for her to come back? A few people remembering her. That's it! How isn't that terrifying?

[ Lestat listens as attentively as he can, but it's very difficult to be an engaged and responsive conversation partner when you are distracted so thoroughly by your companion's ability to just... speak, to ramble, to let everything he's feeling out to the point where Lestat wonders if there's really any need to try and get into his mind and fish out the finer details. Thinking of it brings him back to what he'd seen when he'd bitten Demyx, the torment and the heart-wrenching scene of something precious to him being stolen.

Demyx is right, it is impressively like his own situation in some ways, but he can't help but wonder if it isn't reversible for him. A vampire can never be reborn as a human - to his knowledge - but someone without a heart can surely regain it through the right set of circumstances, right? Is it foolish to have hope that such a thing might be possible? Is it strange that Lestat feels strangely protective of the idea, this dream?

He tilts his head in consideration at what he caught of the description of this dark fairy queen, and makes a soft sound of thought. ]

I can see why you might feel that way, it's quite an impressive roster of achievements, but I don't make a habit of feeling fear very often. I should like to meet her some day.

[He would probably laugh it off, if Lestat brought the thought up. They've been working towards the idea for a decade now, after all--and to what end? Now that Roxas and Xion are with them, it should in theory be possible. But it hasn't happened yet, has it? If Kingdom Hearts is completed now, then what are they even waiting for? Why haven't they already started executing the finale of this grand master plan Xemnas is so enamored by?

He bets Xemnas doesn't even know how to do what he's been planning for so long, or just doesn't want to admit that it didn't work when he tried. Lestat may have hope for him, but he doesn't--wouldn't even if he was capable of it, in fact. It's one of the few things he doesn't so readily prattle on about, in fact; nobody expects a guy like him to be cynical, do they? It just doesn't fit his image. Besides, more importantly, he doesn't want to harsh anyone's vibe. Just because he could make it rain doesn't mean he wants to rain on people's parades!]

I don't know..... You probably don't if you want your world to stay intact. There's no way you'd be able to miss her if you ever do meet her, though. Green skin, yellow eyes, black robes, horns.....

[She doesn't exactly sound like the little fairies in children's stories, does she? Swirls of smoky darkness curl around his hands, and Demyx's sitar materializes. For a moment, the air feels heavy and humid around them as he starts strumming, the tune soft and menacing. The drops hanging in the air gather to give shape to a water clone; soon enough, Maleficent's figure is looming over them where they sit, regal and imposing, sceptre in hand and raven perched on her shoulder. She (it?) smiles down at Lestat, sinister and smugly superior.]

[ Lestat listens to the warning with a slightly tilted head, caught in consideration for a long, long moment while Demyx continues to speak. She certainly doesn't sound like a typical fairy - green skin, whoever heard of a fairy with green skin? - but the description of her prowess and the fact that whole worlds aren't safe with her around... It reminds him all too much of Akasha, and with a slight uptake in his pulse due to either fear or exhilaration or both, he wonders what kind of presence she might command.

He doesn't have to wonder for much longer, as soon enough Demyx is conjuring up an instrument Lestat doesn't recognise and begins plucking some foreboding sound from it, producing an image of her lit faintly by the light of their fire.

Lestat raises to his feet as though in a trance, his eyes wide and drinking in her horrifying beauty and wicked smile. She's much taller than even his impressive height, and he finds it entirely impossible to even consider looking away.

He understands that this is magic, some sort of apparition from Demyx's power, but even so he still reaches out a reverent hand to touch her. ]

[Enchanting, isn't she? And this figure he's called forth with his song is merely a pale shadow of her beauty, of the sheer, overwhelming power of her presence. A fairy queen is beyond such things as good and evil, as awe-inspiring and implacable as a force of nature; she even seems to be beyond such a simple dichotomy as life and death. He can't help but wonder what Maleficent would think of meeting a vampire like Lestat, another creature who transcends death. Would they be peers? Would she find him a worthy servant, like Pete? (How the hell did a guy like Pete ever manage to keep company with Maleficent, of all people, anyway?) Would he be a rival to be crushed?

The figure inclines her head graciously and extends a hand to Lestat in return, a queen ready to receive her due devotion. A rippling cascade of notes, and water bubbles around Lestat's feet, glistening tendrils shaping themselves into a facsimile of thorned vines to climb and twine around him. Were they actually Maleficent's, perhaps he might be ensnared and rooted in place, plunged into a cursed magical slumber from the very first prick. She had reshaped the whole of Hollow Bastion with them, after all, hadn't she?

But Demyx's imitations have always been fragile, as easily dispersed as they are created. Lestat hardly needs to move to shake off the vines' cool embrace; even Maleficent's figure would disintegrate after being dealt a few blows, no matter how imposing she may look.]

[ He takes her hand, lifts it to his mouth to kiss the back of it, and the chill of the water seems to make sense - how could such a foreboding and powerful otherworldly creature be anything but cold as the grave, as marble?

This interaction, perhaps more than anything else, makes it all too clear how easily swept up Lestat's soul can be by the might of a powerful being, by a creature that commands respect, by someone looking at him like they know what kind of things he is capable of and not being afraid of it.

Akasha had stolen him away at night, kept him as her own, her prince, made of him her accomplice in the ending of his world and the rebirth of her own. She might have been successful too, if Lestat had stayed caught up in her thrall. How lucky he is that it dissipated when it did, that her disdain for innocent life bucked so violently against his own desperation to make something good of his evil existence.

It's that thought that has him staggering backwards suddenly, the vines he hadn't even noticed splashing around his feet, his hand lashing out as if intending to push her away from him, or push himself away from her-- but she falls in a cascade of water around his feet, and Lestat stares at the place she had been with a strange amount of sadness considering he always knew she wasn't real. ]

[It's a good question, isn't it? Would her touch be as cold and inhuman it seems it should be? Passionate and alive as the blazing hellfire she commands? Tingling and otherworldly like the strange green lightning that so often accompanies her power? He's never approached her closely enough to find out, and with any luck, he never will. Where Lestat is enthralled, he's more liable to simply cower--not unlike he had in the face of Lestat's superior vampiric might. Someone who carries themselves with such utter confidence, like they have the entire world at their command..... odds are good they have the strength to back up their bravado. Far smarter to retreat before they ensnare you, if there's any opportunity. Better a living coward than a cocky corpse who gambled with their life and lost, yeah?]

.....Uh. Are you okay, dude? You seem kinda..... y'know.

[Out of it? Weird? Off? Freaking out? ~~Tripping balls?~~ Lestat is clearly having some kind of Capital-M-Moment over this little puppet of his, at any rate. Maleficent's figure dissolves into a floating music note, then breaks apart entirely under the force of his shove. The music stops abruptly, leaving the puddles to lay where they fall; the idea that he should probably be concerned about Lestat feels kind of..... backwards, to be honest? But to be fair, it is kiiiiiind of his fault, too. Sort of. Maybe.

Too bad he's no more sure about what he did wrong than how to help fix it. Nobody could possibly mistake a water clone for the real thing, right? So what's even the problem? Lestat has no possible reason to be upset over just a little visual aid. They may as well have been listening to a CD while playing pretend with dolls, for Light's sake.]

[ He thinks of the sight of the Queen falling to dust, her head severed, her thick blood running out across the marble floor. He thinks about the look in her eyes when she'd approached him with the intent to kill him for disobeying her. He thinks about the taste of her blood on his tongue, the fact that he could taste the undeniable proof that she thought he could be useful, that she had in her hands the purpose that he'd always been looking for... that she loved him.

Looking at the pools of water, it's very difficult to mistake them for blood, and so he slips easily from his reverie and back to the present. Back to this strange world that neither of them can call home, and back to the fire that forces them to be honest. ]

... It brought back.. memories. Of a time when I met the Goddess of the Vampires, the Queen of the Damned.

[ He doesn't think he has it in him to say her name, so instead he takes a step back and then another, until he can sit himself back down beside Demyx and push out a long, hollow exhalation from lungs that no longer need breath. ]

I didn't expect it to feel that way. For my heart to... ache, this much.

You met a goddess? It sounds like you two were..... close?

[That's..... kind of impressive, actually. In his admittedly limited experience, the gods tend to be dicks, to be honest. They're hardly ever interested in mortals unless it directly involves their own self-interest, or they could use them as pawns in whatever divine game of chess they're playing with each other..... Yes, he's looking at you, Hades. He's probably also considered the ruler of the damned, and when has he ever inspired that kind of devotion?

He can't imagine anyone staring at Hades with the same sort of mournful yearning Lestat had stared at the water with. What kind of person was this goddess-queen? And what had happened to her, to make Lestat so sad? Is an entity like that really able to die? Have an awkward arm pat, Lestat; even if he did have a heart, he probably still wouldn't be sure how to be comforting, here. This is waaaaay above his paygrade. ~~Read as: he doesn't get paid at all. Help.~~ Hell, it probably still would be even if he was allowed to spout some falsely comforting nonsense.]

[ Lestat can't help but let out a snort at Demyx's comment, but also at his own ridiculous behaviour; he's acting like some pitiful and heartbroken fool in front of him, and isn't that just embarrassing? He isn't even certain how he feels about her in retrospect, given everything that happened to him when he was at her side, and yet here he is looking miserable at being reminded of her?

What happened to the unflappable Vampire Lestat - the one who had lured Demyx into a sense of security so perfect that he could feed from him, the one handsome and confident enough to be an appealing consort to that Goddess in the first place?

We were lovers, is what he means to say, but what comes out is: ] She stole me away in the middle of the night to be her Prince in a new world of her own making.

[ He can feel himself saying the wrong thing, but somehow he can't stop; all he can do is inhale the scent of the fire. Cursed thing. He groans as though frustrated with himself, running a hand back and through his hair. ]

She is gone now, either way. No use mourning what is no more.

Uh.....

[~~Bro, what the fuck.~~ That. That's just called kidnapping, Lestat. Kidnapping and Stockholm Syndrome. It doesn't matter what kind of crazy romantic promises she made you to try and keep you complacent, Demyx is pretty sure that's just straight up a hostage situation. He's gonna go out on a limb here and say Lestat definitely isn't okay? Yikes.

At least it explains how weirdly compelled Lestat seems by the idea of Maleficent, someone on nearly the same level, able to all but make a world of her own. Were he a year or two older, Demyx might even actually be able to sympathize, to a degree--when Xehanort puts his final plan into motion, and revives him to become one of his vessels in his bid to remake the multiverse to his own liking..... Well, it isn't as though he'll exactly be able to say no, when the time comes. But that's a lifetime away, and hardly so romanticized as it sounds like Lestat's gilded cage must have been.

He may feel compelled to tell the truth, but that doesn't mean he can't tactfully keep his mouth shut so he doesn't cram his foot in there. Even he can manage a little restraint, sometimes. But what else can you even say about something like that? "Sorry for your loss"? He's really not, though. If anything, that was probably a lucky break for Lestat. "Bummer, dude"? Tell Lestat something he doesn't already know. How much worse would this be if he could actually feel how awkward it is?]

I..... guess not? You'll always have the memories, though.

[Unless Lestat's world has a Naminé equivalent of their own, of course. Then it's probably possible to break that chain, for better or worse. Whether those memories are actually worth having or not, though, that's on Lestat to decide.]

[ Lestat's sigh is a weirdly forced sounding thing, as though he's forcing all bad energy from his body with such an exhalation. Demyx isn't wrong in his first impression, that it's kidnapping and that Lestat is deluding himself if he tries to say that his position at Akasha's side was anything other than a power play on her part as she'd used him to connect to the modern world. He's sure he loved her once, but that love soon turned to revulsion as he realised she was everything he was so deathly afraid of becoming.

The last shred of goodness in him had sung out like a dying star, and for his troubles all he got was her looking at him with disappointment and fury, ready to destroy him just for denying her what she decided was rightfully hers.

But admitting to all that makes him a victim, doesn't it? And a victim is the last thing Lestat will ever allow himself to be. He settles on the log a little more, his eyes pinched and focusing in on the fire. He deliberates his answer for a long while, and then the fire seems to pick it for him. ]

Yes, mon ami, her memory will always haunt me.

Edited 2023-10-18 19:04 (UTC)

[Silence is fine, if Lestat needs it after his little..... episode. Remembering all that has obviously shaken him up; they don't have to talk, if he's not up for it. But Demyx's fingers do move in the space left by Lestat's musing, improvising a meandering melody that builds on itself as it goes. Gotta do something with himself while the guy has his war flashbacks, huh?

In the end, he only really has one piece of advice to give. How's he coped with his own situation? ~~Denial. It's not just a river in Egypt!~~]

Yeah, I bet. But hey, hakuna matata, right? She's gone, now; try not to let her get to you too much.

[ Lestat listens to the melody and lets it take him away from here for a moment, to let Demyx's words sink in and to follow the instruction wilfully. As if it's that easy.

Yes, she is gone, and yes Lestat no longer has to worry about the haunted Queen scooping him out of his resting place and spiriting him away to some unknown location to trick him into committing genocide at her side. But she is still with him every day; her blood has changed him so much that sometimes he doesn't recognise himself, and that is something he can't simply forget about.

Akasha had been the first of their kind, the Queen of their race, and her closed mind and cold heart is all that awaits those of his kind who live to reach her age. His soft and diffused beauty will one day fade into something hardened and sharpened by time, and his mind will lose its wonder to the ennui of immortality. It's inevitable, it's inescapable, it's--

Lestat pauses, opening eyes he doesn't remember closing, and frowning slightly. He turns that frown on Demyx. ]

Haku-- What? What did you just say?

Hakuna matata! It's a little something I picked up on one of my scouting trips.

[Spying trips. Reconnaissance trips. Whatever. It's not specifically spying if he's supposed to just look around and learn whatever he can however he can, right? "Infiltrating" an entire world is a pretty grandiose way to put it, really--just a plausibly deniable way of saying that he's expendable enough to lose in unknown territory, if it comes to that. At least it doesn't have to involve fighting, if he's good enough at it.

The melody turns lighter and brighter, almost bouncy. Now that he thinks about it, this place and the Pridelands are both beautiful, untouched expanses of wilderness, aren't they? The Pridelands just..... didn't prevent him from escaping like this one does. Weird, huh? He wonders what's causing it. Too bad he's not smart enough to figure this sort of thing out on his own.]

It means no worries! The past is in the past, the future is in the future. Let 'em stay where they belong. You can only live right now, dude. That's where you belong.

[ Lestat hasn't heard the phrase before, and he doesn't recognise it in any language he's familiar with - but then his experience is predominantly European languages, and he's pretty certain by now that the lands that make up the world he comes from and the ones that exist in Demyx's world have very little cross over. ]

No worries... [ Lestat muses, tilting his head a little in consideration, easily letting this more light-hearted song wash over him. ] Is that so...

[ He is always so easily taken by music, being an almost rock star himself and having been very recently summoned from death sleep by music it's no surprise that he feels like it speaks to him in a way, so he closes his eyes in the midst of this one. He can feel the notes soothing his twisted soul, reinforcing Demyx's words somewhat, and even if Lestat can't fully let go of what troubles him enough to believe them completely.. he does feel comforted. That much is undeniably true.

He looks to the fire, the flames reflecting back in his eyes, the scent of its strange power still thick in his senses but.. strangely familiar now. He smiles, just a bit. ]

Maybe you're right.

catch all open post

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the gifs you posted... i'm dead

:3c

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I couldn't resist >.> /dumps a bucket of Disney over his head

what a wonderful phrase....

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