( open and closed starters )

[wrists]

WHO: laurent & friends (questionable).
WHERE: here and there in stygia.
WHEN: december.
WHAT: catch-all for monthly tidings. plotting comment is here.
WARNINGS: mentions of csa and the ongoing trauma surrounding it, bloody violence, angst and general unpleasant fuckery.

Comments

[damnpire]

Neither will stop the inevitable birth of children.

[Not preparedness, not cold, and not the lack of bed. The kittens will come, and Laurent will have to witness it.

For the time being, he watches Laurent make an attempt with the cat, remaining as quiet as usual. He regards Laurent back at the fire for a time, and then he reaches up beneath the pauldrons to unclasp the long cape. Likewise, he carries it to Laurent’s cloak where he settles it on too, the lacquered outside facing up. It’ll be easier to clean.

To keep the cat from being skittish, he leaves the makeshift bedding and joins Laurent by the useless fire. The pauldrons and collar he unhooks from his shoulders, and when he places them on the ground, they thud much heavier than they seem.

He sits beside Laurent on the floor like he has never considered being any higher than that, separating them both by a bit of polite space. His long arms drape around the knees he has drawn slightly up.

Apparently, he is not allergic to fire.]

There are rooms in Sooyoung’s building if you would rather have one for yourself. But she charges rent.

[wrists]

[ and here they are. stuck in a room with a cat about to give birth, all of because of laurent's soft heart. he stares into the fire while trying to come up with a solution as to how to extract himself from this situation. he could demand that D leave, but doesn't want to. he could throw the cat into the cold, but wants that even less. he could wander out into the snow and die. this, he contemplates.

his eyes shift to the abandoned armor, his pale brows rising just slightly at the weight of them as they settle on the floor. D is abnormally strong; he knows this. he knows D is simply abnormal in general. but now, sitting beside him uncloaked and unarmed, he looks far younger, far more boyish than he ever has. laurent tries to imagine him as a child, tries to infantalize his enchanting face and the silken fall of his hair. he would have been wildly popular in vere, would have ended up as someone's royal pet, would have been plucked young and ruined early just like him. ]

I have a room here. [ getting the cat to come inside ten paces from the alley had already taken nearly two weeks; he sincerely doubts she would not object to being moved to another building altogether. ] And if I leave, there's a little boy down the street who won't eat. I pay him to do my laundry.

[ then, his arms crossed over his chest — ] How old are you?

[damnpire]

I will pay him on your behalf.

[There isn't any implication here the boy would need to do a service for him in exchange. Simply, he will pay the boy money not to starve. But he had offered Laurent a place in the building, thus taking away the boy's means, so...

His face doesn't turn to look at Laurent. He's quiet; his eyes watch the fire from beneath the lowered lashes. And he doesn't answer for a long time. The answer to the question is complicated by what he is. A young man sits beside Laurent, impossibly beautiful, immortalized somehow right at the cusp of adulthood. D, without the long cape, without the pauldrons, without the hat, can't be much older than eighteen. Physically.

There is something old in his eyes.

He may have been a pet in Vere, but on the Frontier, if his path had been different, he would have been the one with the pet. The experimental son of a god-king, the improved and triumphant succession. Like Laurent's brother, perhaps, and yet, like Laurent a little as well. Not wanting the title, the association. A kingdom of vampires he could care the least about.]

I have seen ten millennium pass.

[wrists]

You don't even know him. [ laurent's eyes glitter with scorn, regarding D with something between suspicion and detachment. ] And I don't know your friend with the building with many rooms. Is there some reason you want me there so badly?

[ and then, the answer startles him, though he does little in the way of showing it. he just sits and keeps his gaze on D, now appraising. ten millennium is more than a mind can fathom. entire lifetimes of kings come and gone. kingdoms come and gone. and yet he sits a single pace away, looking hardly any different in age from laurent himself.

laurent allows some of the stiffness to leave his limbs, settling cross-legged, his profile illuminated by the dance of the flames. his yellow hair shifts to the spun threads of burnished gold. his fingers clutch idly at one ankle, his entire body taking up very little space in the room. ]

How does someone like you die? [ he looks into the fire, his expression unreadable. ] Does your cock still work?

[damnpire]

It’s a more reliable place to stay. Yoo Joonghyuk will cook the meals.

[He doesn’t bother arguing about the boy. Even not knowing the kid, D would still pay, but he’s sure Laurent may chide him sassily for it. Or continue to refuse regardless.

The fire is reflected in the muddy color of his eyes; he hasn’t looked at Laurent still. They really do look like opposites parted in some strange mirror: one warmly pale and golden, the other ashy porcelain and black. Both princes of some kind against their will, both tormented as children in their own terrible ways.] I die when someone or something strong enough can kill me. [A lot of people might taunt Laurent for the second, crass question by asking if he wants them to show him.

But all D says, matter-of-factly, is:]

Frontier Nobles can biologically reproduce.

[Which probably explains how D came to be. Maybe.

The plumbing, weirdly, somehow works.]

I have a question for you in return. What is something you enjoy doing no one else knows?