Louis "I almost ate my nephew" de Pointe du Lac (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
interviewee) wrote2024-11-23 01:36 pm
interviewee) wrote2024-11-23 01:36 pm
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This is Louis de Pointe du Lac. Leave a message.
This is Louis de Pointe du Lac. Leave a message.
Good. Good.
[If there is frustration there still, then he knows it will dissipate so long as Louis stays. It can be worked past. They've managed through much worse than this before.
Lestat lets out a long exhale, face still buried into Louis' neck, hands still curled against him.]
I just want you to be happy, Louis.
[Whatever form that takes. If it means whoring himself out, fucking who he's told, then fair enough. If it means the gallery, the house, if it means keeping quiet when the city makes demands meant to shame him, then that's what he will do.]
[If there is frustration there still, then he knows it will dissipate so long as Louis stays. It can be worked past. They've managed through much worse than this before.
Lestat lets out a long exhale, face still buried into Louis' neck, hands still curled against him.]
I just want you to be happy, Louis.
[Whatever form that takes. If it means whoring himself out, fucking who he's told, then fair enough. If it means the gallery, the house, if it means keeping quiet when the city makes demands meant to shame him, then that's what he will do.]
I know, Lestat.
[Louis leans in to press a kiss to Lestat’s forehead and lingers there.]
I know.
[He still doesn’t want Lestat to whore himself out or put himself at risk for Louis’s happiness, but he doesn’t want to broach that subject again now.]
I love you.
[Louis leans in to press a kiss to Lestat’s forehead and lingers there.]
I know.
[He still doesn’t want Lestat to whore himself out or put himself at risk for Louis’s happiness, but he doesn’t want to broach that subject again now.]
I love you.
I love you, too, cher.
[He feels entirely drained and tired, bloody tears still rimming his eyes. But he loves Louis more than anything else across the centuries, and to have him there in his arms is a warmth that he can hold onto. It's enough to blot out any lingering anger, enough that he knows it will die down given time.]
[He feels entirely drained and tired, bloody tears still rimming his eyes. But he loves Louis more than anything else across the centuries, and to have him there in his arms is a warmth that he can hold onto. It's enough to blot out any lingering anger, enough that he knows it will die down given time.]
Let's go upstairs, lay down. You're probably exhausted.
[And Louis will join him, but he's not sure how much sleep he might get.]
[And Louis will join him, but he's not sure how much sleep he might get.]
[Lestat nods at that, the emotion winding down through him. He smiles faintly, nestling into Louis' neck once more before pulling back.]
All right. Let us go upstairs, then.
All right. Let us go upstairs, then.
[Hey Louis you're gonna get this voice memo entirely devoid of context, while Lestat is actively spinning out in horrified realization.]
She was FIVE. FIVE?!
She was FIVE. FIVE?!
[Louis has no idea what this is about, so Louis calls back without a moment's hesitation.]
What?
What?
[Lestat is still spiraling a bit even when he answers, but he can focus enough to clarify a little bit.]
Claudia! Claudia was five years old! FIVE?!
Claudia! Claudia was five years old! FIVE?!
No she wasn't. [Louis is shaking his head on his end.] She was fourteen.
[Which is honestly on them, on Louis's desperation, but he's not saying that out loud right now.]
[Which is honestly on them, on Louis's desperation, but he's not saying that out loud right now.]
No, not -- not your Claudia.
[Your Claudia, our Claudia. That clarification sobers him up a little bit, even while his thoughts are still whirling.]
The Claudia here. The one in this city.
[Your Claudia, our Claudia. That clarification sobers him up a little bit, even while his thoughts are still whirling.]
The Claudia here. The one in this city.
[Louis tries to follow the train of thought but can't quite figure out what's being said.]
What about the Claudia here?
[And then he realizes,] She was five?
What about the Claudia here?
[And then he realizes,] She was five?
She was! She was five years old!
[He's sincerely trying to make sense, but this has truly frazzled him in a way that most things can't. It's all the guilt and regret and wistfulness of his knowledge of Claudia with a sledgehammer hit thrown in.]
On her Finder, she said it. There's an image of her there.
[He's sincerely trying to make sense, but this has truly frazzled him in a way that most things can't. It's all the guilt and regret and wistfulness of his knowledge of Claudia with a sledgehammer hit thrown in.]
On her Finder, she said it. There's an image of her there.
Fuck, I don't want to see that.
[This can't be real, this can't be happening. This is all just something too weird for him to embrace.]
Five?
[This can't be real, this can't be happening. This is all just something too weird for him to embrace.]
Five?
Five! She seemed surprised that I didn't know.
[And he has no reason to think she'd lie, no motive she'd have to deceive. There were already plenty of subtle differences between her life and the one his Claudia had known, but this one was something he truly hadn't anticipated.]
Don't look at it, then. She was not happy that it was there.
[And he has no reason to think she'd lie, no motive she'd have to deceive. There were already plenty of subtle differences between her life and the one his Claudia had known, but this one was something he truly hadn't anticipated.]
Don't look at it, then. She was not happy that it was there.
I can't-- it was me and you that-- five?
[Louis just sputters into the phone.]
[Louis just sputters into the phone.]
Exactly!
[See he's so glad Louis is on the same page because he is whirling with absolute bafflement and distress. Louis is the only other creature who could grasp it.]
How? I don't -- mon Dieu, she was already so small!
[See he's so glad Louis is on the same page because he is whirling with absolute bafflement and distress. Louis is the only other creature who could grasp it.]
How? I don't -- mon Dieu, she was already so small!
Five? [Louis just might be sick. How could he have brought a five year old into their twisted family as a remedy for marital discord. A five year old.]
Five!
[Honestly if this conversation is just them stating the number over and over, that's fine with him, he needs to share in this horror.]
What were we doing?
[Honestly if this conversation is just them stating the number over and over, that's fine with him, he needs to share in this horror.]
What were we doing?
I remember what we were doing, but even that was--
[Louis simply cannot believe that a version of him could be so reckless.]
Five.
[Louis simply cannot believe that a version of him could be so reckless.]
Five.
Five.
[Lestat is in a similar headspace. He'd known the consequences better than Louis when he'd turned their Claudia, had done it with a growing sense of all the ways it could go wrong but oh my god at least she had been a teenager.]
I do not understand it. I don't.
[Lestat is in a similar headspace. He'd known the consequences better than Louis when he'd turned their Claudia, had done it with a growing sense of all the ways it could go wrong but oh my god at least she had been a teenager.]
I do not understand it. I don't.
She's been trapped in a five year old's body for forty plus years?
[Which is even more horrifying.]
We kept a coffin that small in--
[Infant death is still a very real thing in Louis's time. Cemeteries were full of graves of the smallest lives. To have a child-sized coffin in their home? What lunacy.]
[Which is even more horrifying.]
We kept a coffin that small in--
[Infant death is still a very real thing in Louis's time. Cemeteries were full of graves of the smallest lives. To have a child-sized coffin in their home? What lunacy.]
I -- I suppose so, yes.
[Which is just so, so much. At least their Claudia could walk about on her own without causing alarm. At least she was of a height that didn't make looking after herself impossible. Not for forty years.
He hadn't thought much about the coffin, but in his mind, it makes sense. A child-sized casket would be no difficult thing so long ago.]
I'm not sure. I imagine so. I did not think to ask.
[Which is just so, so much. At least their Claudia could walk about on her own without causing alarm. At least she was of a height that didn't make looking after herself impossible. Not for forty years.
He hadn't thought much about the coffin, but in his mind, it makes sense. A child-sized casket would be no difficult thing so long ago.]
I'm not sure. I imagine so. I did not think to ask.
Fuck.
[Louis isn't sure how much more of this he can take.]
Five years old. I took a five year old into the battlefields of the European Theatre? What is wrong with me?
[Louis isn't sure how much more of this he can take.]
Five years old. I took a five year old into the battlefields of the European Theatre? What is wrong with me?
I don't know. I -- the dress, it did not look like our era.
[Lestat's seen the outfit in the image, and it did not look like a dress of the 1940s. It looked like something of the 19th century, the frills and puffed skirts of the Second Empire or of Reconstruction times.]
I think she might be of an older time. Or perhaps all of us are.
[So hey maybe you didn't make that mistake at least.]
[Lestat's seen the outfit in the image, and it did not look like a dress of the 1940s. It looked like something of the 19th century, the frills and puffed skirts of the Second Empire or of Reconstruction times.]
I think she might be of an older time. Or perhaps all of us are.
[So hey maybe you didn't make that mistake at least.]
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