Vincent
- Ingenious Pilot -
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air%\0\%
Posts: 245
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Post by Vincent on Dec 7, 2008 14:34:34 GMT -5
The night was dark, darker than most nights. Vincent was hungry, tired, and most of all, lost. He had no clue of where he was - partly because of his thirst that almost drove him mad.
He spotted a tower and thought to himself that this place was unfamiliar. He had never been here before. Hopefully there would be a silly human that would let him in, that he could feed on. Or someone that could help him.
Too desperate to care whom or what might be inside, he knocked on a large wooden door, wishing someone would open it.
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Post by Armand on Dec 7, 2008 19:23:23 GMT -5
The door was opened, after a period of several minutes, by a boy; auburn-haired, with the face of a choirboy, dressed in dark dusty velvet of antique cut. Another vampire. Armand leaned heavily on the door, head tilted, lips parted, and then asked, "Who are you?"
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Vincent
- Ingenious Pilot -
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air%\0\%
Posts: 245
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Post by Vincent on Dec 9, 2008 6:57:19 GMT -5
Vincent stared at the beautiful boy in aw for a second, before he could speak. He felt slightly lucky it wasn't a human - he didn't feel like killing someone as pretty as him. Before he spoke, the thought struck him that he might be much much older than his face gave him credit for. Vincent could feel it. This boy was rather powerful.
"I am Vincent Chevalier. I'm lost... " he didn't know what to say. It suddenly felt pathetic to ask him for help - but he had no choice. He took a deep breath and continued: "I haven't fed for a long time, and I need somewhere to rest for a while."
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Post by Armand on Dec 9, 2008 20:28:23 GMT -5
Armand stared at him. After a long minute, he smiled, and stepped aside. "Come in. I apologize for my lack of hospitality; I haven't any servants to offer you, but you're welcome to stay a while."
Armand was not some vicious, vengeful, bitter demon. At least not all the time. Vincent seemed just as he said he was; lost. There was no reason not to be polite, especially if Armand could learn anything from him. After all- Armand smiled again, a little wryly, to himself, barely a twitch of the lips- they all had to help one another, hadn't they, yes, it was time to be a sociable vampire.
"If you're hungry, Paris is full of mortals. Where did you come from, that you didn't eat first?"
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Vincent
- Ingenious Pilot -
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air%\0\%
Posts: 245
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Post by Vincent on Dec 10, 2008 14:42:24 GMT -5
Vincent gave Armand a thankful smile and stepped inside. "I have been... well, I haven't been in town for a while", he said and looked away, his deep blue eyes troubled. "There were several things that happened and I felt I had to go away from Paris for a while. I have just returned actually. And for the matter of food - I can be rather picky. Where I used to stay, I was used to have food being served as well." He looked a little embarrased as he understood how spoiled he must sound. He smiled apologeticly.
Vincent looked around, taking in the room they were in. He suddenly felt dizzy, but tried to ignore it. He turned to Armand, his face a little too pale, even for a vampire. "How long have you been in Paris?"
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Post by Armand on Dec 10, 2008 18:09:01 GMT -5
Armand didn't so much as blink at the admission of served "food." Instead he absorbed it silently, without any outward reaction, although he wondered- had this vampire had servants of his own to chose from? Armand had never had the time or inclination for a kept meal, but he supposed it was sensible if one didn't feel like going out to feed.
But Armand could tell, at least, that this was no poor straggler. If he was so used to being served...well, that had all sorts of connotations to it.
"A while," the auburn-haired vampire said softly, closing the door. He came to Vincent's elbow, a hand resting lightly on his arm. Armand's brow creased as if in concern, and with the gentlest pressure he tugged Vincent forward, towards the door to another room. "Come, you need to sit down. You are too pale."
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Vincent
- Ingenious Pilot -
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air%\0\%
Posts: 245
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Post by Vincent on Dec 11, 2008 15:02:55 GMT -5
Vincent nodded quietly and let himself be led by Armand into the other room. If he didn't feel so bad, he would probably thought of taking in his surroundings more. But at the moment, there was no possibility for him to do that. So he stared straight ahead, really wishing to sit down, or even lie down.
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Post by Armand on Dec 12, 2008 16:48:00 GMT -5
The room Armand had led him into was sparse, and usually untouched. There were a few tables and chairs and even, in one corner, the bare slats of a bed without a mattress or straw-pallet on it. The room was big enough to have been intended as a parlor, but Armand never used it. He kept to the upper floors of the tower, as though the groundfloor wasn't meant for him, and the disuse was evident. The stone fireplace was large but hadn't appeared to have been lit in a while, and it had an empty, abandoned feel to it. Beyond that room there was another room, the doorway at the far end of the parlor, and beyond that room another, and then another, all increasingly disused. And somewhere in that morass of empty rooms there were stairs to the dungeons, long since emptied of their gruesome collection of corpses discarded by the original owner of the tower. The stink had nearly disappated, but Armand could not stand to go there. Nevertheless, below the floor in the empty dungeon there was a row of simply wooden coffins, five in all, that Armand had brought there.
In the meantime, he'd had released Vincent's arm. Armand stood, face upturned, watching Vincent as though waiting for him to take a seat or indeed, make any move at all that indicated something besides a dull stupor.
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Vincent
- Ingenious Pilot -
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air%\0\%
Posts: 245
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Post by Vincent on Dec 13, 2008 11:45:00 GMT -5
Vincent slowly started to take in his surroundings, noticing how the room didn't look like it's been used for years. He breathed deeply and felt better when he sat down on a chair, continuing his deep breaths. Once the feeling he might faint had disappeared, he dared to speak again.
"Thank you, it's very kind of you to help me out like this. I don't think I'd last much longer out there" he said, with a weak, but bautiful smile playing on his lips. His blue eyes studied Armand's face, and he tried to figure out how old Armand might have been when he was turned into a vampire. Maybe it was too rude to ask, but he was truly curious. "May I ask how old you were when you-" he paused "became a vampire? I apologize if I sound rude."
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Post by Armand on Dec 13, 2008 12:36:17 GMT -5
Armand smiled, a little bitter satisfaction stirring. He understood the implications of his form and how it looked on the first impression, the second study, always and forever. While it was never surprising to be asked or wondered at, nor was it particularly something Armand enjoyed. But it was predictable, and that led him to think that maybe Vincent was too. If both nature and his maker had condemned him to this, then Armand would use it, and use it well.
"I was 17." Whether or not he looked younger than that, Armand would not be able to say, only that as each century passed a boy of 17 came to mean something more. Pampered and kept as he'd been at the time of his mortal death, he hadn't the years to show for it as a peasant boy his age might have. Now boys of his age, here in the 19th century, were not boys but young men, ready to fight for their cause or die for their cause, reckless, stupid, but just as easily made into family men, sent off to work or courting. The idea of the boy he'd been once having a family at his age made Armand scoff. He'd been too foolish for any of that, and too utterly enchanted with his vampire master.
"And what of yourself?" Vincent was young and beautiful himself, and would be forever, not as young Armand looked but in the cusp of what would have been his mortal prime. And Armand could not help but ask, as Vincent had asked him, a gently-spoken but faintly malicious turnabout. Armand wanted to see if Vincent would tell him anything.
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Vincent
- Ingenious Pilot -
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air%\0\%
Posts: 245
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Post by Vincent on Dec 14, 2008 6:02:27 GMT -5
Vincent did actually thought Armand would be younger than 17, but didn't say anything about it. "I was 20 years old", he answered instead. He would never forget how he had become a vampire. "It was about ninety years ago, back in London", he continued - unsure if he still spoke to Armand or just talked to himself. "I was attacked by some men, later I found out they were werewolves, and there was a vampire who saved me. Lord Aurel. I was badly injured and he saved me. I wanted to be strong, I said to him. I told him I wanted to be able to fend for my self. Aurel didn't say a thing before he turned me into what I am, but afterwards he was there for me and helped me get through some tough years. I hated him, yet I loved him for what he had done to me." His blue eyes fixed on Armand. "But I have never regretted becoming this. I guess it may be because I wasn't alone." But I am now... Vincent looked sad for a short moment staring into space, but then looked up at Armand from where he sat on his chair.
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Post by Armand on Dec 14, 2008 23:35:52 GMT -5
(( Sooo Anne Rice actually contradicts herself fifteen hundred dozen times. Armand's described at various points from probably being anywhere from 14-17. I'm thinking he'd want to go with 17 though- the older the better for him. ))
Werewolves. Well. There might be stranger things in the world, and between the hordes of suspiciously convenient supernatural beings in Paris Armand was rapidly having to come to grips with that.
But he was surprised. Hating his maker for who he was, but loving him for turning him into a vampire? It seemed so completely the opposite of anything Armand had ever experienced or seen. Armand was not usually bothered by his nature- that is, of having to kill to survive. It was the relentless passage of time that bothered and chilled him, and the blankness of death, the uncertainty, the condemnation of God- but not, for some reason, the death of the victim in his arms. Maybe it was that with each death he knew he was releasing them from this, that each life snuffed out was a life ended of pain or fear or suffering. No, that sounded too humanitarian of him. Maybe it was that he'd been so young when he was turned, and numbed from those things by his master's presence and what he had thought was inherent goodness; Marius was dazzling and beautiful, and so when he killed it was dazzling and beautiful, the trick of it that reddened his cheeks and made him ruddy and warm as magical as he was. Perhaps it was the years in the covens, hardened against such emotions, made impassive and untouched by the death.
Or, more likely, it was the sheer intensity of it, the almost joy, that completion Armand thought all vampires knew as they bit and drowned in the ecstasy of the kill. Surely no one could really regret that, even if they regretted the inevitable outcome.
"I know what it is to be alone," Armand said, gliding forward to stand near Vincent's chair, head tilted down at him. His brown eyes were large and seemingly endless, patient and entrancing as he approached. Armand needed this. It was what had made him try to seduce Lestat, to bully and to charm him and Gabrielle, other vampires, his covens, endlessly, repeatedly. He couldn't stand to be alone, and his choices now were a extravagent and spoiled semi-mortal, the ever scornful Nicolas, or the master returned, the most terrifying and conflicted option of them all. Or Vincent, who seemed, for his one hundred and ten years, gentle and sweet and easily manipulated. "Surrounded by our kind, but I'm an orphan now again. If you're not off to look for your lord, stay a while with me." And unspoken were the words, coaxing and sweet, I can understand you as no one else understands you. Let me be your leader, and I'll be yours forever. Lies, but pretty ones, and not entirely untruthful. Armand had not yet leanred his lesson, not completely, nearly a century after he'd tried this on Lestat, but he knew no other way to get what he wanted than this skillful and tricky persuasion. He never had.
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Vincent
- Ingenious Pilot -
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air%\0\%
Posts: 245
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Post by Vincent on Dec 18, 2008 14:39:02 GMT -5
Vincent stared at Armand in wonder. He was truly beautiful. He could feel himself being drawn to him, his large eyes were dangerously deep. Vincent found himself drowning in them. Why would he ever leave this beautiful enchanting creature? How could he? His unspoken words were clear to him, it was nearly impossible for him to resist. Vincent's hand reached out and softly touched Armand's soft hair. He could feel his skin tingle when his fingers reached the hair.
Lune...
The name popped out of nowhere. Vincent stopped in the middle of his movement as he heard her name in his mind. Lune. Lune Ciel. His beloved, beautiful Lune.
Now, as he had recalled her, all of their memories together suddenly began to flash through his mind. The first time they met, when she was only a child at fourteen. The first time they kissed, and how outrageous Aurel, Lune's father, had been when he found out. How he had loved her, he had fought so hard for her, but their love was never given a chance. But was it too late? He had eternity on his side. He had all the time in the world to make her his.
Vincent never really noticed that he had gotten up from his chair, but now he stood up straight, his handsome face looking down at Armand, his deep blue eyes staring into Armand's brown. Vincent's hand once more reached out to him, and he gently stroke Armand's cheek.
"I will stay with you." he finally said, leaving the rest of his thoughts to himself. He knew Armand wasn't serious when he declared he actually wanted him. He seemed like a spoiled child, not much unlike Lord Aurel when he was in one of his foul moods. He also knew that this young boy was too dangerous to say no to. And Vincent was at this moment not strong enough to fight if if that situation would appear. He smiled down at Armand, his hand still on his cheek, once more noticing the dazzling beauty of the boy in front of him.
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