Adrien Baillon (known as Our Lady of the Flowers)A pleasant night, but for the bird-man - Adrien meets, and takes interest in, Erin Harper, in his bird form at the time. This was before I had caved into my incessant desire to write him as "Adrien" instead of "Notre-Dame des Fleurs". (Wait, I realized, I lied. We do three threads in this thing, and by the time I'm in the third one I'm calling him Adrien.)
A bird in the hand... - Awkward in drag, Adrien shows up at the circus to badger Erin. Erin is not easily badgered.
A bird in the hand... - Maggie and I throw them at each other again. Adrien shifts to his usual casual wear, but I still haven't dropped the name.
Social...izing. - Adrien Baillon, now being written by his birth name, gets sucked into a Meganplot.
Wait, wait. I can't just say that. You have to hear the backstory.
First of all, Megan made Adrian Veidt, then Sarrin read Watchmen and wanted. But even though she had sixty something characters, she could think of no one, and mooned about wanting futilely. Then Megan announced she was giving in and blessing the Verse with Veidtsex. Sarrin was happy. She offered several rentboys of hers, but Adrien's name won him the coveted position. As Megan said so cleverly, "I feel like I work for Veidt and you run an escort service."
It was only later, after this thread was underway, that we realized he wasn't just suitable, he was bloody perfect. The ways Adrien Baillon unexpectedly mirrors Adrian Veidt are numerous and sometimes astounding. They have led his suethor to much hoshitwhydidn'tIseethatbefore?! But they have led to happiness, too.
So! Adrien Baillon, slowly coaxed out of his newspaper phobia by articles on Adrian Veidt, decides to crash his ward Micaela's 18th birthday party, and gets hit on by the smartest man on the planet. He is starstruck. I am amused.
The Party (hasn't actually started yet) - Veidt surreptitiously motions Adrien away, and the cat watches Megan and I slash them. Then Veidt gives him a big stack of money, Adrien balks, and Veidt decides to hire him as Micaela's personal assistant. He suggests Adrien think of him as his guardian angel. You know. One that you bang like a screen door. (It was during this thread that I changed Adrien's location to: "Veidt Industries (oh, baby)".)
Montage - Megan, Micaela and I do a little montage. We all have rather different motives. Megan and Micaela are developing a father-daughter-ish relationship that will go to hell, but Megan and
I are in it for the sex. Occasionally, the montage scenes are given their own threads, such as...
And you just have to read this too because it's cute and gets across the Veidt version of this relationship:
Late-night phone call - Adrian leaves a sleeping Adrien in his room to call up Dan Dreiberg.
A bird in the hand - Adrien, now working at Veidt Enterprises, goes to visit Erin again.
In Veidt's office. Waiting for Veidt. - Adrien answers the phone in Veidt's office. It is a fangirl.
Y Kant Adrien Read - Adrian discovers Adrien pretends he can't read, and also the reason he dropped out of school.
The toy people - Adrian is almost shot. This leads to development, like first-name usage.
After the arrival - After they arrive at Karnak, and Adrian's hand is repaired, Adrien tells him he loves him.
Congrats, you're having a family experience. - The next day, over vegetarian breakfast, Adrian relents and tells the kids he'll go snowromping with them.
SNOW! - Before they go out, Adrien tells Micaela what it
really is his job to do.
You can just call him Susan. - Kane, that is. He is bored and doing jigsaw puzzles. This leads to confessing to Adrian that he has killed a man. Because...er. Jigsaw puzzles produce tension. Stfu.
The morning after - But all is well, because the next morning Veidt is more affectionate than ever.
Manchmal in der Nacht~ - Interesting blow jobs.
Another arrival - Megan and Dan show up in Karnak.
OH SNAP IT'S DINNERTIME - Dinner that night, in which Micaela and Adrian fight and Megan sees Adrian and Adrien being couple-y under the table. God, that sounded wrong.
The Kitchen - Adrien seeks Micaela out afterwards and tries to bond a little.
Looking Around - Adrien meets also-bored Megan in Karnak and they talk. Adrien apparently can't keep his mouth shut; almost every single one of these threads is summarized with the word "confess" or something. Oh, yeah, he and Mr. Secrecy should get along well.
AAAAADRIAN D'YOU WANNA GO TO THE MOOOVIES? :3 - Adrien gets Adrian to go home with him for tea, oblivious to Adrian's obvious dislike of the idea. Adrian learns the boy does drag and decides he is an hysteric, but asks him to the movies anyway. Nice first date, guys.
The Movie Theater - Even though Adrien's idea of the movies includes trying to go down on your date during the film, Adrian hates smoking, and that someone tries to mug them (and Adrian breaks his nose in consequence), apparently it was a good date, because Adrian invites Adrien to his penthouse for the whole weekend!
DOMESTICITY YO. - They drink wine. One glass gets Adrian drunk. Drunken, Adrian confesses love. There is sex. It involves improper usage of the word "daddy". Then Adrien confesses that he had once been involved with drug lord Roger Marchetti. They both realize that this has been one of the best nights in either of their lives. THE FUCK.
Operation Apron - The next morning, Adrien makes breakfast, it's domestic, Adrian has a hangover, they shower together. This is the good life.
THIS THREAD CANNOT BE IGNORED - After the shower, they fix their hair. Neither of them ends up with a hairstyle that resembles the hairstyle this thread is named for.
The Coffee Shop - Pathetically using the college student/professor thing for an excuse - no one's falling for it, boys - they go to a cafe and open up. A bit.
Returning - When they get back from the cafe, they look at Adrian's photo album, and Adrien is prompted to ask if he can take pictures of Adrian. This leads, of course, to kinky sex, which is followed by piano-playing.
The Marketplace at St. Denis - Then, naturally, they go out for lunch, and Adrian buys the kid a scarf. (Unfinished)
But Other Than That, Yes, My Day Was Uneventful - Next Wednesday, Adrien does drag in Adrian's office.
Recovery - After locking the sobbing teenaged boy in the purple dress into his office bathroom for two hours, Adrian feels remarkably apologetic and brings Adrien back to his penthouse. The words "I want to take care of you for the rest of your life" are like a marriage proposal to Adrien (who's never been spoken to so tenderly before), although rather more ominous for Adrian.
Kittytruce - Bubastis and Adrien make up. Adrien is sick. Adrian makes him some tea with poison in it (I'm not making this up) and last-minute smashes the cup, realizing he cannot kill the boy, even though, logically speaking, he can't be allowed to live, either.
Friday - The day after that, Adrian brings Adrien a consolatory present: girl's shoes.
On s'aimera toute la nuit - Saturday, they go out to a shady nightclub. Adrien is mistaken for a girl, which is the plan; Adrian is mistaken for his pimp, which isn't; they dance, and Adrien gets adorably drunk.
The lady is a drunk - So drunk, in fact, that Adrian will not sleep with him. Because he has MORALS.
A business thing in Romania...for some reason - Bliss of such nature can't last. Micaela goes missing under suspicious circumstances, and life takes a turn for the worse. While in Romania, getting himself drunk at the hotel bar, Adrien reflects.
The bitter and the sweet - Halloween in Romania finds Adrien in drag as Lola Lola from
The Blue Angel, a he is a blue one indeed, especially after seeing Adrian waltzing with Magda. Luckily, fallen angel Crowley is there to cheat on Adrian with, I mean comfort him. Yeah.
The bittersweet aftermath - Crowley sums up the previous to Sam Caffey, then runs into Adrian. That's called luck.Still Romania, the next morning - Bubble baths and talking about marriage. This is a good place to pick up from.
Demon Hunting - Afterwards, Adrien tries to find Crowley and fails.
Penultimate night in Brasov - ...followed by dinner and promises of pearls... and then leaving Adrian to go to Paris alone.
Last night in Brasov - Jon visits Adrian...
Life on Mars - ...and takes him to Mars, where Adrian begs him for assistance.
End of the Jonversation - Poor Jon. Adrian is not a good anchor to mankind.Railway station - Adrien meets Meg Giry as soon as he gets back to Paris.
So it's come to this. - Adrian is officially addicted to a French boy named Adrien.
First night of living together - They move in together!
Two weeks later - Domestic bliss! Only haunted a
little by ghosts of the past, or future. Really. We swear.
Boy with a Pearl Earring. - Adrien gets his ear pierced and Adrian doesn't like it. There is also a confrontation over the prospect of them not being able to sleep together daily, which terrifies Adrien.
Way too early by SOMEONE'S standards - It is early morning for an Adrien and they must get up at five. Adrien is sleepy and therefore there is mutual irritability, mitigated with car kisses on the drive over.
New coffee boy - He goes back to sleep at work and then tries his hand at secretarial work as well as coffee-bringing... and Adrian has hallucinations of Edward Blake.
The Coffee Shop - Alas, it will never be, but I fucking ship it, man. Adrien meets Crowley again. MY GOD HE LIKES CROWLEY. HE LIKES HIM A LOT.
MORNING HUMANS >:3 - Adrian tells Adrien about his childhood and learns about Adrien's... and then tells him he's actually in 1985, and about a little thing known as the Holocaust. Later, Adrien gets a haircut, and discovers Adrian has a serious hard-on for him when he's being butch. This leads to memorable sex and then lunch.
Going out for lunch - But lunch doesn't last too long, and they head back home for desert.
Blackberry Pie - It's a little bit bumpy, but they hang in and watch
Bride of Frankenstein, then decide to become engaged for real.
Returning From Dinner - Adrien goes out to dinner in drag with Adrian and then they return and have wildly wonderful sex, thoroughly confusing Adrien as to what Adrian likes him to be, genderwise.
Next Day - Adrian brings Adrien an engagement ring and Adrien finds him hot when he's at the gym.
Monday - Adrian goes in to work the next Monday cheerily, only to discover that photos were taken of his dinner out with Adrien and the entire office is congratulating him on his relationship. Adrian looks Adrien up and discovers disconcertingly that he was guillotined in 1939. Then he receives a disturbing phone call.
Monday, continued - Adrien, having looked up the details of the Holocaust, is hysterical. Adrian chloroforms him and then comforts him when in the early morning he wakes up, telling him that if he had died in 1939, he wouldn't be with Adrian now.
Thanksgiving - Dan and Megan join Adrian for Thanksgiving. Adrian conspicuously doesn't invite Adrien, but Dan knows their relationship anyway.[/i]
ALSO THANKSGIVING - Megan goes out into the lobby, where there is an Adrien with an engagement ring.
Whose idea was this again? - Adrian attends a drag ball with Adrien (who is the one in drag, of course) and meets Divine, with whom he bonds over bitterness at aging and Adrien's tendency to be overly friendly with everyone he meets. A series of drag queens hits on him, which is bad enough, but then Adrian commits the faux pas of intervening violently after someone slaps his queen girlfriend, and they leave, leading to a fight between Adrian and Adrien.
First aid - Adrian fixes Adrien's face after he's tripped and hurt it outside, but the argument that ensues leads to Adrien's sleeping on the couch, at least at the onset of the night. Afterwards Adrien apologizes and takes all the blame for the fight, which Adrian protests lazily at first, but only then. Then he asks about Roger Marchetti.
Breakfast - The next morning, Adrien is apologetic and Adrian has vowed to take care of him, and makes him breakfast. They haven't resolved their issues, though, and continue bickering until Adrian decides to take him out to London for the rest of the weekend.
Plane to London - Adrien is a pretty thing on the plane.
London - They go to London to watch a play, but this doesn't bandage the relationship as Adrian hopes it will. It only seems to make things worse. After they've fought and made up, furthermore, hotel staff discovers Adrien's sex, and it makes papers worldwide.
Eugene ummmm is here to see Mr. Veidt? - A scriptwriter comes to discuss the film with Adrian and Adrien shows up.
Visiting his maman - Shortly before they go to New York, they visit Lucie, who tells Adrian more or less the whole story of Adrien's childhood.
After the rain - They wind down afterwards.
Plane to New York - Flying to New York.
Arriving in New York! - Adrian shows him where they'll be living.
New York - A little summary of how Adrien deals with the sudden fame.
Adrian Veidt just can't deal with this shit - Adrian, still in society's bad books, rants to Adrien about everything.
The flagship - Doug Roth interviews Adrian... and an Adrien into the bargain.
Letters, Adrien & Crowley Set sometime during the next thread and past, Adrien and Crowley's correspondence.
An unexpected announcement - Adrien doesn't realize what an intercom is and broadcasts to the whole building that Adrian takes the healthy eating thing to extremes. That evening, Adrian tells him he had almost poisoned him months earlier.
The next morning - Adrien starts the morning with a nightmare. Then, he tells Adrian there is nothing to forgive - that he trusts Adrian's judgment such that whatever he does
must be right. Therefore, if he'd poisoned Adrien, he'd have been doing the right thing.
Parading a bunny - Adrian takes Adrien out and ignores the paparazzi until they get to Times Square, where he dips Adrien in a very public kiss. At home Adrien begins to have a bit of a breakdown over the information he's just learned, and as Adrian comforts him they talk about marriage again... then decide to get it done as soon as possible.
The embassy - They marry.
Newlyweds~ - They do some post-marriage swimming, which turns into post-marriage sex, twice. At the end of the night, however, massively spoiling it, Adrien shows Adrian a photograph of Darling and Adrian reveals that Darling - a former lover - was Adrien's father. (Hallie called me a bitch over this. It's all right, I so deserve it.)
Sunday morning - I don't even know what happens in this one it's so dull. THEY ARE NOTHING BUT HAPPY. FOR OVER FORTY PAGES.
Then there's Jawnstuff?
Returning to the homeplanet - Adrien perceives they're close to WWIII but Adrian will not tell him his plan.
waking up all drowsy-like - Adrien wakes from his nap.
after the concert - Adrien's birthday.
December 31, 1985. 1:15 AM. - They must wake very early to leave for Karnak.
...and despair. - They arrive at Karnak. Adrian convinces Adrien to stay in his room, then gives a speech about his motives to his staff, poisoning them in the vivarium. Micaela, whose powers have been spazzing, flickers into being at a terrible moment. Adrian confesses his plan to her and her shock and horror cause her to flicker right back to the 'real' world with one final shriek. Hearing it and imagination conjuring the worst, Adrien rushes out to find Adrian, who tells him his plan. Adrien's fright and firm belief that one should not play God comes up in strong opposition to this, and he throws his wedding ring to the floor and leaves... only to return with a gun. He is unable to kill him and can only wait for the others to arrive.
Dan, Megan and Rorschach arrive in
Archie and confront Adrian. Jon arrives after what he has done, but even Adrian is shocked by the gore he sees, shaking Dan and Megan's faith in his villainy. Rorschach alone remains unconvinced of the goodness of Veidt's plan, and Jon kills him in the snow. Dan and Megan leave, taking Adrien with them, leaving Adrian to one final confrontation with Jon.... and afterwards, alone, with the shattered remains of his hand and an entire world to rebuild.
In Archie, Megan numbly gives Dan Rorschach's mask, the one thing that remains of him.