strxgxi

[strxgxi]

You guys ever think about how Daniel Molloy is Armand's one and only fledgling?

[strxgxi]

Daniel knew he loved him for decades, but he only learned this information when he was turned. It was then that the bond was sealed, and memories were exchanged. He saw himself propose to Armand, not Alice. Was Alice even real, he had wondered, or was she real, and the vampire cleverly mixed the memories.

There had been such love between them. Daniel learned then he had participated in killing before, the hunt, as Armand would call it. He remembered following the vampire around like a lost puppy, wanting nothing but his love and favor. But he kept asking for the one thing Armand refused to give. Daniel only wanted to be with him forever. He wanted to sleep with him, kill with him, and if the dreadful day ever happened, die with him. It was no wonder he realized later that he had such strange feelings in the interview about Armand. He was staring at his long lost lover with another man.

He’d spotted the red in his maker’s eyes before his head dropped, but now Daniel felt the way he had when he came to; alone. He hugged himself tighter. He wasn’t sure if those words of reassurance made him happy or furious, perhaps both at the same time. And his reasoning?! This was when he lifted his head and the spark returned in the fledgling.

“ Are you fucking kidding me, Armand? Do you just.. believe everything people say? “ He threw his hands up in frustration, rolling his eyes. Here was his mouthy, well seasoned boy. He saw the fresh flow of crimson, and hunger wafted over him. That wasn’t just any blood. That was his maker’s blood, and he felt as if he was salivating at the thought of tasting it again, even if they were tears.

But he had always been one to call out someone on their bullshit and just because he was a vampire, that wasn’t about to stop. “ Yeah, you’ll regret it all right. You know why? Because I’m still so stupid in love with you I’ll forgive you. “ He grabbed at his own angelic silver curls, tugging at them in frustration and maybe hoping he’d feel a dose of endorphins.

Even with his anger, his tears had started to overflow again, his voice choked as he stared now right into his eyes. “ You’re a fucking coward, Armand. “ But as soon as the brutal words were spoken, he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around his maker desperately, needily. He needed this touch, this embrace… his embrace. He sniffled a bit as one hand found its way into his long hair, hand holding the back of his head just then as he sniffed.

He buried his face into his throat now, nuzzling at it almost like a child would, wanting assurance. “ But I still fucking love you.. “ He mumbled into his toffee tinted neck. “ ..and want you in my life. “ He bared his fangs then and tenderly, intimately sank them in his flesh, a devil’s minion renewed.

(@strxgxi from here)

There is silence from Armand as his fledgling's emotions overwhelm, overstimulate. Regret pierces through to the heart of him and bleeds, viscous and bitter, into his veins. He does not require delving within his fledgling's thoughts in order to be able to read them, as they are quite plainly written in the man's behaviors. Armand almost recoils from the onslaught of questions as he realizes that no answer he can give Daniel will satisfy. Nothing he says, no explanation or story or apology will erase or remove what he had done, even if what he says is the truth. It may assuage temporarily, but the seed of resentment had been sewn by Armand's own hands. When Daniel hastens toward him he nearly winces, though not from the assumption that his fledgling will do him harm. It is from the agony that sinks into him, dissolving beneath the flesh and muscle and sinew, making his slender fingers twitch at his sides where they rest. Those fingertips long to capture Daniel's face betwixt his soft palms, to mutter reassurances, to... But as a coward would he stands as still as the trembling within himself will allow. The only animation is his expression which is slowly sinking, creasing, pinching as crimson builds along his own waterlines, quivering and threatening to slip down his cherubesque cheeks. He allows the crimson tears to escape with a singular blink as Daniel's head hangs, feeling them trail thickly down his features to drip from his chin to stain his shirtcloth. He feels as if he could vomit, though there is nothing within him to expel. "There is no disgust. There is no aversion. Daniel, I... Tu hantes mon cœur et mon esprit depuis des décennies." Oh. As it turns out, parlance can come out much like vomit would, and he finds he cannot prevent the words from spilling betwixt them. "I was taught that every fledgling grows to resent and despise their Maker, and upon sharing the Gift with you in Dubai I came to the realization that I would not survive it should you grow to resent and despise me. Not unless I was the one to dictate when..." He trails off, the words said in a trembling voice as crimson begins to build rapidly at his waterlines once more. "I should not have abandoned you, Daniel. There is no excuse, and I will carry that regret with me always."

[strxgxi]

“Are you a real vampire?” For Armand, unprompted

The question came out of nowhere from a small, sweet little voice. “ What a question to pose to a stranger, petit. “ And yet the 509 year old vampire found such interest in her youthful boldness. He also wondered where her parents might be at such a late hour. Even her appearance was sweet, even for a child. Armand had often grown more aggravated with children as years went on and then there was.. that one. He held back a sneer in thought of Claudia.

He smiled down at her. “ And just what makes you certain I am a vampire, mon enfant? “ Oh he was dying to hear her reasoning. Imagine, Armand actually intrigued by a little girl.

@phoebelcsts

[strxgxi]

Two freaks at the club: the dry-humping prequel~*

And a close-up <3

Also on Bsky!

[strxgxi]

As soon as he’d heard his boisterous laughter, Armand had halted his steps and grimaced. At least Lestat couldn’t see that since his back was to him. He’d been set up. This was the game all along, and not a very fun one at his expense he would argue. Arguments at times tended to be their foreplay, and they both knew it, as angry or upset as the other got.

“ Pardon? “ Armand asked, finally turning, cigarette betwixt his slender fingers. Now his eyes met Lestat’s, looking up at him through those glamorous and dramatic eyelashes. “ This is our living space, bien-aimé. “ He corrected simply, and because he just had to be right. All the while the human’s body rise and fell.

It was only when Lestat mentioned the ceiling that he scoffed with an eyeroll, flicking his hand as if brushing it off, but he did agree. Enough was enough. The body fell for the final time with a groan. He was still alive. Armand was sick of the sound, but the smell of the man’s blood had now permeated their sitting room. Being older, Armand didn’t need to feed as often as his younger lover. However, Lestat often drove him to want it, just like right now, which he also assumed was the end game as those kitten like fangs protruded beyond control.

Armand lowered his arm and walked past him, deliberately knocking into him, looking over his shoulder and up at him again through those lashes. It was a seduction trick he’d learned hundreds of years ago. “ Bâtard..” He playfully spat at him as he passed, now moving over to the human’s body slowly with that effeminate walk.

A great deal of his face had been disfigured by the constant assault of the floor. His nose was broken and bleeding, and it caused his lips to part with the salivation of hunger. He tilted his head as crouched to him, taking a look, seeing his skull cracked from the hits to the ceiling. He could see bits of his brain, so he plopped the cigarette in his mouth and reached out, softly poking at it with interest which of course made the dying man cry out.

“ Oh, chut maintenant, ça ne sera plus très long. “ Armand assured the tough son of a bitch, but then smirked to himself. He took one final, delicious pull of his cigarette before putting it out on the man’s barely there cheek, causing him to scream in agony, and Armand? Well, the cruel little monster that he was had started to laugh. He knew how Lestat enjoyed cruelty in a way, or at least, he enjoyed his. First it was an argument, then a cruel trick, and now.. foreplay? This was a striptease now for a vampire.

Ever so slowly he lifted his eyes again to Lestat. “ You’ve made me hungry, bien-aimé. “ For more than just blood, by the look in his eye.

(@strxgxi from here)

Si beau… It is a rare and anomalous moment, when Lestat can fluster Armand so thoroughly and so quickly that there is little time for temperance or patience, clemency or leniency, things which he knows the elder vampire covets and seeks to make his own. But the indignation, the resentment, the sheer bitterness within the elder vampire's initial outburst, it stained that beautiful cherubesque face with a shadowed acrimony that only Armand's true age and nature could exemplify. The face of a nursling nip, the smoothness of false innocence, and what lay deeper still, underneath... Une bête sanguinaire. Lestat felt very much in those moments how he had felt the first time he had ever seen Armand. He wanted to bathe him in perfumed oils and wrap his body in crushed velvet embroideries, to worship him, to break him, and to be broken by him all the same. He felt in control, a conductor surrounded by a loyal orchestra, and that control made him feel safe. As did, of course, the familiar stirrings of chaos and savagery that he had been born into, both in mortal life and when Magnus had brought him unwillingly into the Blood. Ashen eyes glistened, the pale colors undulating as they captured bits of light from the fire and the various blues and violets of their surroundings as they followed every step that the elder vampire took. When Armand gave that ominous little peal of laughter and approached the mortal sitting on the plush sofa there was a fluttering of excitement in Lestat's abdomen, a warmth that only came from the oncoming violent evidence of his lover's returned affections. He knew what was about to happen. After all, he'd practically orchestrated it line for line, just like his beloved playwright. A script carved out of mortal flesh and bone, fragile and destined for ruin. The moment the mortal soars up into the air and impacts the ceiling with a dull thud Lestat lets out a sound of jovial amusement that quickly transforms into deep laughter, particularly as the mortal gives a shout and falls back to the floorboards. "HahahaHAHAAAAAAA!" The sound is followed by the clapping together of Lestat's palms, twice, his face the very picture of entertained. "Ohhhhh, mon amour, tu m'amuses!..." He reached into his breast pocket to retrieve his own cigarette box with another little chuckle of amusement, though he used a match to light the end of his cigarette. The scent of mortal blood began to perfume the air as the man's face impacted the floor directly, giving a lovely crunching sound. "You say I am childish for wanting to have my evening meal in the comfort of my own living space, and yet... here you are, tossing that poor wretch about... comme un enfant détruisant ses propres biens parce que ses parents l'ont contrarié. C'est comme si je rentrais à la maison..." He paused a moment to take a long drag of the cigarette, filling his lungs with smoke that coiled from between his lips as he finished speaking. "Tu vas abîmer le plafond, mon amour…"

[strxgxi]

My beautiful boys 💜🧡

[strxgxi]

"Did you two have a nice chat?" - (monbellemonstre - for Daniel from Armand)

Daniel actually laughed just then, the mirth in him bringing out those gorgeous mothertuskers of his, those enormous fangs that mimicked what was hidden in his jeans. So much had changed since Armand made him. His disease was gone. He felt young and reborn, a god made anew. He’d finally gotten what he’d always wanted.. except Armand, his maker, had left for some time.

But now he was back and in his vampiric life. Again they could trade hyper sexual glances at each other, but oh there was still so much tension between them, things that had gone unsaid, the utter abandonment he’d felt when Armand simply left him in Dubai. He was going to make a witty retort, but that memory suddenly burst into his mind as the sight of his maker appeared on the scene. “ You cried when you made me. “

Yes, he remembered that. Daniel had taken a nasty fall in the shower after a violent seizure and smashed his head. Armand had been there like Superman to rescue him, to do the one thing he said disgusted him during the interview, but he’d done it then. Hed saved his life by murdering him and ending his human misery, but then he was gone. Was he so disgusted? — no. No, don’t go down that line of thinking.

He rubbed his nose, sniffed momentarily in an utterly human way, as he was still so new to all of this, and unlike most vampires he would keep many of his human ways. He let out a choked laugh, looking away and then back, changing the subject. “ Does Lestat just always flirt with any human or human like creature with an orifice he could violate? “ He let out another petty laugh, but got choked up.

God damnit!!! He screamed in his mind, but his gesture showed his sudden rage, slamming his fist hard into the table of his apartment, and of course still not quite used to his own strength, he shattered it. “ FUCK!” Now came the cursing. Poor Daniel was being hit by every emotion all at once at the sight of his maker here before him, finally.

He charged over to him, his cold hands touching Armand’s face, eyes filled with pain and sorrow, because now Daniel Molloy understood vampire loneliness. “ Do you know how many nights I cried out for you? Begged, pleaded for you to come and only now you do with jokes? “ Oh his newborn broken heart.

He dropped his hands, blood tears refusing to stay within his eyes, overflowing onto his alabaster cheeks. He was a perfect portrait now, with every wrinkle in the right place, every curl an inhuman, unnatural silver, and then there were those stunning lavender eyes. His head hung. His body shrunk within itself. Here was the Daniel of 1973, the fascinating, lovely boy. He spoke softly, below even what a human could hear bit of course, Armand could. “ Was I so revolting for you to look at? Frankenstein’s monster made vampire? “

He felt himself crumble within. “ .. why didn’t you want to keep me, m— “ He wanted to say something else on instinct. My father. My maker. My creator.. but it just wouldn’t come out. He already sounded stupid enough, he thought, crossing his arms protectively infront of himself.

@monbellemonstre

[strxgxi]

"Wait a moment. Are you jealous?" (from Armand to Daniel)

It was practically another fucking interview. Daniel Molloy, vampire magnet. He’d broken up a marriage, escaped from the crazy love hate nest of Dubai and found himself a hotel. It was just his luck his flight had been delayed and somehow.. somehow he knew that the caramel skinned boy sitting across from him was the reason it was delayed; The Vampire Armand.

Yes, the vampire he spent most of the interview playing mind games with of who could outsmart who, who was ten steps ahead of who. It had all been so fucking thrilling for him half the time he had a boner and no one had said a word about it. And the way those sunset eyes would stare so deeply into him that it felt like he was seeing so deeply, right into the blackness of his heart. It sent shivers even now as he asked the question. 

Armand sat with his human victim in his arms. Great, he was going to be witness to another murder. Why was that hot? He crossed his legs and sat up a bit, clearing his throat. He tilted his head, eyeing the victim’s throat, just where one of those beautiful claws were extended ever so dangerously. Armand was fucking beautiful and he knew it. He used that fact against others, like Daniel just now. His lips parted in a soft pant. Was it getting hot in here? 

Wait, shouldn’t I be pissed at this motherfucker still for keeping me captive and torturing me for days? 

Daniel countered his question with a question. “ Why are you even here, Armand?  Mad I broke up your sham of a marriage? “ He scoffed, but swallowed hard, eyes drifting to those perfect lips, then back to amber eyes. “ Do you just enjoy playing with your food? “ Like Lestat? He thought.

@starlightintheirwake

[strxgxi]

Muse Asks Reminder!!

Hey guys, please remember to specify when you send asks for Daniel if it’s for hot older who’s your daddy Daniel or young fuckboy Daniel. XD Just younger or older is all I need to know! It helps speed the process up of replying to you! I’m grateful so many seem to appreciate my Molloy. 🖤🩸

[strxgxi]

daniel molloy

[strxgxi]

"Ah! Mon dramaturge chéri, you said you weren't the jealous type..." - (monbellemonstre - from Lestat to Armand with a very large grin hahaehehe)

“ Absolutelument vulgaire, Lestat!! “ Armand snapped at him like a viper. One never knew what they would get with the young vampire, made practically too young but only just so. Found too young by Marius and nurtured, sexually molested however? Tonight it seemed Lestat would get the wrath of the cherub that he himself had pulled out of the dark depths below Paris. 

French. Ah, French. Armand spoke it so well now, and it had been so long since he’d spoke his true language or even Italian that he wondered if he’d forgotten it. Yet he continued to rage, pacing for a few moments until he stopped. No. No, you daft fool that’s what he wants you to do. Armand buried his thoughts so deep Lestat couldn’t find them, and with his great age and excess skill than the younger vampire, it was easy enough. 

He stopped raging all together, he smiled, laughed eerily even which somehow made it even worse. “ I give you a few simple rules for our home and you break them .. comme l'enfant que tu es. “ He smiled again to the human he’d brought home, their home. Unless it was a consensual thing, he didn’t want humans anywhere in their private quarters. It was a simple ask really, but Lestat was testing boundaries and this he would not allow. Armand may look a cherub, a kitten with his sweet fangs, but he was in truth a demon. 

He opened his arms with a soft little laugh, glancing to Lestat as he crossed the room to place his hands on the human’s face, taking in his features. He placed an arm around his shoulder and eyed Lestat. “ I’m not jealous at all! “ Liar. You’re so good at lying, but bad at it with him. “ You have your fun. “ He patted the human’s chest and started to walk away. As soon as he did, the poor wretch flew into the air, slamming hard into the ceiling, then he was thrown just as violently into the floor. Rinse, repeat. 

“ Avec ce qu'il reste de lui. “ All joy and mirth was gone from his face as the human continued screaming and Armand simply reached into a pocket to snatch up a cigarette from a box, lighting it on fire with his gift and taking the most satisfying of drags as he walked away from him. 

@monbellemonstre

[strxgxi]

Rotating these two fucking idiots in my head like a rotisserie chicken tonight

[strxgxi]

was doing some study of Assad's face, but somehow I ended up making it into a DM art again

[strxgxi]

ASSAD ZAMAN as ARMAND in Interview with the Vampire ↳ 2.01, What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned

[strxgxi]

Daniel had seen trauma and torment in those eyes. Maybe it was why he’d been so drawn to them. He always was a sucker for a sad story trope. Hell, he was a walking sad story himself. Twice divorced, kids that hated him. Bisexual — well. He held doubt even in that.

You see Daniel had been quite the beautiful, very sexually active boy in the seventies and eighties and then.. all his friends started to die. It was a horrific tragedy. He’d wrote, he’d protested, and yet the government just didn’t care. In perhaps a moment of cowardice he started dating women, and well the rest was history. 

Ah shit. He’d fucked up, hadn’t he? He called him attractive — no. He’d called him hot. Daniel’s eyes slid over him slowly then, again thinking of filthy things. Armand was stunning. He could imagine him in his lap, bouncing on his cock and ever beautiful. Oh but then he could also picture being on his arthritic knees, wearing a collar, having his hair pulled and being brutally face fucked. He practically drooled at the thought of it, but then realized he needed to actually answer his damn question.

He swallowed hard, but then tried desperately to play it cool, turning a bit in his chair to offer more of his body to the vampire’s eyes. “ You.. look. You know you’re beautiful, all right? You can make anyone weak in the knees with a fucking glance and you know it. Nothing, no human or vampire holds a candle to you. “ Here Daniel was throwing out compliments like candy. And it was true that Daniel found him to be the most beautiful being he’d ever laid eyes on. 

Suddenly, shyly, he averted his eyes. “ Maybe I do like it when you watch me.” He mumbled. 

(@strxgxi - cont. from here)

The miniscule glimmer of dominion in Armand's amber-brown eyes was amplified by the slight widening of the already-present smirk on the vampire's lips as the mortal's eyes met his own, the attention he had sought successfully captured. The sensation was a dually bladed victory, however, and it caused a quivering within, a trembling division. Triumph at the success of having captured Daniel's attention and shame over how much he had desired the attention in the first place.

A waif knelt along the streetside in front of a pleasure house, slender hands upturned, reverent palms facing Heaven as forbearance is sought. The sky opening. A demon dressed as a savior, approaching in the rain...

The memory flickered like film reels behind sovereign eyes and left the back of his throat aching. His flesh stung with the ghosts of the past. Amber-brown eyes remained fixated on Daniel as he let amusement and flirtation cover the true emotions roiling within. It was incredibly helpful that the mortal chose that precise moment to engage in the delightfully adolescent expression of sticking his tongue out.

Armand drew in a slow, unnecessary breath to capture Daniel's scent on his own tongue, lips parting just so as the smirk faded, replaced by a sweltering expression. The glimmer in his eyes intensified, pupils dilating subtly. Ever since the 'interview' the vampire had found himself... intrigued by Daniel Molloy. Fixated, almost. Tracking him from the moment he had left the destroyed apartment, observing him, studying him. How could a mere mortal possess the ability to uproot decades of trust and intimacy between Louis and himself?

Twice?

It was a labyrinth of questions and answers, and though none of them were in the correct order he fully intended to sort them out properly. Several images flickered behind Armand's amber-brown eyes but they were not memories of days long since past. Rather, they were obscene little situations between himself and Daniel in various states of undress, and it caused a fiery squirming sensation in the pit of his stomach when he realized that he couldn't be certain which one of them was producing the imagery.

"Is that why you're flushing, Daniel? Because you find me attractive? Because you enjoy the feeling of me... watching?"

[strxgxi]

Damnit. It was always hard to concentrate on anything when Armand was around. Hell, he’d barely made it through the interview with he and Louis. Their stares back and forth had been downright sexual tension. They had been challenging, come at me bro stares. They had been mentally stripping each layer of clothes off stares. Louis would continuously talk and all the while, Daniel and Armand were playing a game of wits. 

He’d managed to escape alive that night and was still in Dubai, in the hotel he’d managed to get last minute away from the vampire chaos. He needed to gather his thoughts from the whole crazy fucking break up a marriage ordeal, and yet here was Armand, still toying with him, playing with him like he was a toy. Only in Dubai would there be an indigo chaise he could so rightly and perfectly perch his perfect body on like that, which indeed had his blue eyes wandering away from his paper. 

He was sitting at one of those generic hotel desks, transformed into his own little writing station. The laptop was open, but he was messing around with a yellow notepad. He’d always preferred the old school way of things. Digital be damned. 

He’d tried to ignore him, attempted to keep on writing in his old school way, praying his hand wouldn’t tremble from the dreadful disease, but then he just had to make that comment about being bashful. It was out of his control when his cheeks flushed a sudden pink, his face a tad flustered as he tried to gather himself, a half amused, half annoyed expression rousing to his mouth in a soft scoff as he turned his head to finally look right at him. “ I’ll have you know in my younger days I liked it when hot guys watched. “ 

“ So nyehh. “ He stuck out his tongue. Fuck, where did that come from? Being playful, Daniel? With him of all people.. creatures, rather.

“You’re distracting me, you know." To Armand from a sorta playful Daniel

(@strxgxi)

At last.

At last the statuesque, silver-haired visage of Daniel Molloy was reanimated, even if the only portion of him that seemed to be inspired into action was that mouth. Armand had spent the majority of the past hour endeavoring to garner the other man's attention, to be the singular point of focus in the room.

As such he had, gracefully yet without ceremony or an utterance spoken, draped himself across the very strategically positioned indigo chaise, poised just so as to remain within Daniel's periphery. Then he had fixated his amber-brown gaze on the other man and waited, rounded chin resting against the flat of his palm.

The satisfied reverberation that escaped Armand's smirking lips at those nectareous words conveyed precisely the amount of arrogance and joviality that rippled through him when they were spoken. He takes a moment to observe the subtle shift in the other man's expression before he speaks.

"Am I?" He asked, with all of the false innocence of his own youthful appearance. There was an undercurrent to it, a swift and barbarous, playful yet provocative and all the while his gaze remained fixated. "Do you get bashful when someone is watching you, Daniel?"

[strxgxi]

Mon cher had transformed into mon amour. Lestat now addressed him as his love and it filled the newborn vampire with a warmth he thought he’d forgotten. Someone loved and cared about him. Daniel was now connected to someone in a way that in mortal terms mimicked parenthood, but it was so much more than that. Lestat had made him, he had murdered him. He had cured him of all his human ails and gave him what he’d always dreamed of, and by the chemistry the two seemed to have, they were sure to become lovers. 

Especially by the way they were holding each other now, and the primal feeling Daniel had inside of him now. Blood and sex simply went together. Even as a human he’d liked it a little rough, a little kinky. He could only imagine how that might expand as a vampire. But right now he was so hungry, starved even for more blood. 

When he bumped his head against his, Daniel practically ally giggled. He felt like he was twenty something again! Like he was that unstoppable fuckboy from the seventies that wasn’t afraid of anything, even with the appearance of an elderly man. However, an absolute vision of one.. an ethereal thing, an angelic vision of some grand sorcerer being one might see from a human fantasy movie, every curl just so, every wrinkle in perfect position, and of course his extremely unique eyes of near lavender hue, that held both him and Lestat within them.

“ I’m fucking starved..” He playfully whined, and again eyed some blood leftover on his maker’s face from his joyous tears. Without even asking again he shifted his head and started to lap at it, but this time his own moan was so much more gutteral, so much louder and the growl that came from his gullet was animalistic. That was the primal need of the vampire coming through. His face twisted into something utterly orgasmic, and he was licking his lips ever so, eyes fluttering as he felt his groin harden. The blood even tasted different now to him. It was still sweet, but there was something else to it. Mother’s milk, perhaps.  Fuck, he was high, he was horny, he was everything. 

“ We.. we should clean up.. “ He barely managed to utter in his euphoria, looking up through his lashes in such a Monroe and tempting move. “ At this point I’m so hungry I could fill a tub with blood and bathe in it.. “ He practically moaned at the thought of it. What a sadistic idea! There had always been a darkness in Daniel and now he could explore it freely with a maker that would surely encourage and nurture it. 

Lestat's determination did not waver.

Despite the elder vampire's coquettish habitudes which drew him into the gravitational orbit of the vivid, provocative and exquisite, his determination to complete the process properly persisted as his new fledgling expelled the remnants of his mortal self onto the floorboards. He remained, knelt beside his fledgling and bringing him comfort in the only way that he could in those moments.

Sympathetic fingers, long and pale, combing through pristine silvery curls. Benevolent and compassionate murmurings and utterances surrounded by sputtering sickness. Within several more violent expulsions of the vile liquid the transformation was completed. The monarch, no longer pupae, having quivered free of its chrysalis at last, abandoning the remnants of a former life that no longer serves it.

Ashen blue eyes gain a near reverent gleam as he watched the spark within his fledgling become a blazing wildfire of ecstasy, and for several long moments he could do nothing more than kneel, and observe in wonderment. Lestat had never imagined something could be so primitive in its simplicity, so feral in its clemency. His fledgling, his Mangum Opus, his companion, his Daniel Molloy... was absolute perfection. A canvas of pleasurable experiences and hardships conquered made flesh and bone.

A walking masterpiece.

And Lestat de Lioncourt; the thespian, the artisan, the avant-gardist Maître de transformations extraordinaires. He is astounded by his own creation.

The elder vampire had only just begun to rise from his knelt position of near-worship by the time his fledgling begun rushing over with a sheet of paper in hand. Lestat's grin was immediate upon seeing the flawless lines of script on the paper, a melodic chuckle escaping at his fledgling's pure celebratory elation.

"The Dark Gift has healed you, mon amour... Those beautiful hands could compose a million volumes and never tire." The words were spoken with almost the same reverence as the elder vampire's eyes still retained, though another melodic sound of amusement passed his lips as Daniel tossed the paper aside. There was an odd sensation that blossomed within at the sight as well, a twisting sensation in his abdomen that sent warmth throughout. It took Lestat a moment to recognize the sensation as affectionate pride.

His arms encircled his fledgling's waist without hesitation, the alluring request for the hunt causing a much different rush of heat within. He pushed it away, sequestered it into a corner where he might retrieve it at a later time. Perhaps after the hunt. All that mattered to him in that moment was making sure his brand new fledgling was fed and cared for. He was beginning to enjoy the idea of mercy and compassion, of guidance and nurturing during such a feral time. It was certainly more exhilarating than pain and misery, and he had always been a firm believer that grief is momentary.

"Out for a bite on the town, hmm? What poetry you speak, mon amour..." His voice was low and teasing, resting at such an octave that Daniel's mortal ears would have been incapable of picking it up. His arms tightened around his fledgling's waist as he pulled him closer, the elder vampire's expression matching that of his tone of voice. "I know the perfect spot, down by the water's edge. Rife with lonely tourists and lost little lambs wandering from the safety of their sheepcotes..." A brief pause wherein he bunts his forehead against Daniel's, and then, "We will start at the Piers. Go over the fundamentals of the hunt, see how easily you are able to maintain control of your thirst for blood around the mortals and... go from there."