𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑘𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑠 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
corporeity) wrote2024-11-12 12:45 pm
corporeity) wrote2024-11-12 12:45 pm
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WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK
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@WATERDEEP
text 🔮 audio 🔮 video
WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK
USERNAME
@WATERDEEP
text 🔮 audio 🔮 video
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[ softer, then. ]
Call me if you need further assistance — or company, as your brother recovers.
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Shadowheart confirms she can help, which is his first priority. She does. And he doesn't know how to ask for - anything. He doesn't check in. He waits. )
text — a half hour or so later.
I’ve gone looking for a bottle of something strong. Perhaps not for the patient.
[ but for him and Stefan. ]
text — action
Bourbon?
( Should he come to find him (and his brother,) Stefan is sat at Damon's desk, ontop, feet dangling. His phone sits beside him, from the myriad of messages he's been sending and fielding.
He just couldn't sit in that chair by his bedside any longer.
He will again, just not yet. )
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[ and he does find some, in the recesses of Jonty’s cellar (thinking of how he found another vampire there, not so long ago). Gale knocks lightly before easing open the door, button down partly undone, his tattoo almost glowing in the low light.
No glasses, in his haste, but with a flourish, he conjures two on the desk beside Stefan. After the spell, lavender lingers in the air. ]
Don’t tell Giles [ the butler. ] that I’ve helped myself. I think I’m close to winning him over.
[ after attempting to befriend him for months. ]
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he's thoroughly impressed that something can be conjured out of thin air, nodding. )
You should call him Rupert. I hear he loves that.
( Gale gets no holds barred sardonic Stefan. )
The patient is still asleep.
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[ between the gileses. they have a similar bearing, after all.
gale fills and passes stefan a glass. ]
Forgive my potential rudeness — but does it taste of anything to you?
[ the bourbon. it varies, for the vampires he knows. ]
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( He's met Giles. Good guy. A little in over his head but aren't they all.
He takes the glass, holding it in both hands, head dipped down. You've joined the pity party. He did what he did. Now he lives with it. He reacts, turning to look at Gale, eyes the glass and then tastes it - a bit reluctantly.
It burns well. )
There are notes of vanilla. Probably barrel cask. It's good. Thank you.
( is that the right answer? )
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Oh. [ mouth and eyes rounding. it’s certainly an answer. ] You’re the first vampire I’ve met who can enjoy such things. [ he taps his finger against the glass. ] Astarion insists anything but blood tastes like swill.
[ which takes away a positive he was going to offer about damon’s condition — a world of food and drink! gale glances at him, then, undeniably curious about the nature of this so-called cure. too good to be true, he would think. ]
Would it help to discuss your unlucky start in the manor — or, ah, would you prefer we speak of just about anything else?
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( Coffee warms their bodies. Alcohol helps curb cravings, especially for young vampires. A lot of vampires are lushes, Gale. )
My unlucky start? ( that's a way of putting it. ) I guess that depends on what you'd call unlucky. Damon being here and alive. Albeit, from after Tyler bit him. ( he slips. only subtly. damon wasn't back there. he disappeared into oblivion when the other side collapsed.
Bonnie, too. ) We're from different times in our lives, apparently. Is that common?
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[ damon here and alive. any pretence of neutrality softens into sympathy. he doesn’t have siblings, but he’s always been close with the family he does possess. ]
I don’t know. It’s understandably something individuals often prefer not to disclose — I was once behind Astarion, but I’ve since caught up, and now Shadowheart is from our past as well. It’s not unusual, I suppose.
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( He supposes it's easier for him to be here, than Damon. Klaus' ritual "killed" Elena, thanks to her uncle John. Her father, John. But, he has a lot to catch Damon up to, if he even wants to be. )
He's from a much more tumultuous time. A breakneck pace of events that didn't let up.
( And then this month dragged on, and other than the wedding neither of them attended or the burning down of the chapel -- they were focused on - well, Damon. )
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There’s no easy way to navigate these…misalignments. [ measured, in this as in all things. ] I myself stood at a precipice, two radically divergent paths before me. Astarion did not reveal all he knew to me, back then — and I think I’m grateful for that.
[ for allowing his agency to remain intact, for not trying to sway him one way or the other. it isn’t a universal experience, surely, but it’s one example for stefan to consider. ]
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( unless he asks. but, he doesn't expect him to want much from stefan for a while. he'll live with the burden of everything else. of his own actions, of klaus, of silas. whittemore. and the Travelers. )
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[ it’s possibly the only reassurance he can offer. it was better, that astarion didn’t taint his perspective. it will be better, for him not to force shadowheart’s future upon her. knowledge is a burden. ]
It’s — a lonely path, though, isn’t it?
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( Isolated himself. Changed jobs. Lives. This is no different. And what he's done, his brother may not forgive him. )
There are some things I can't hide. I won't. But nothing unnecessary.
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Well, you’re not alone at this precise moment, now are you.
[ a statement of intent. gale has also trudged that narrow, winding path, and he’d do most anything to keep others from it (overstepping, drowning, anything). ]
[ lighter, ] The manor makes isolation difficult, besides.
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Does it. Because of the musical rooms?
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Certainly. And events seem to throw us together at regular intervals. Parties. [ a beat. ] Horrors. We were all made human, rendered without magic or augmentation, during the last great trouble — and we faced it together, for the most part.
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( He's not going to be the Stefan he was. Can't even isolate himself if he wanted. Needs to push away the guilt he feels for making the choice for Damon. Damon is alive. Not a monster. Not buried. Not worse. He's alive. )
It won't be long before it happens again, and this time Damon will be just as defenseless.
( But alive. )
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[ a thought shared. ]
And not wholly defenceless, when he has you. [ finger tapping the glass. ] I can help as well, at least to an extent. I’ve warded Astarion and I’s rooms against intruders already.
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( living. breathing. )
Really. Intruders not including vampires. How so.
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[ another drink. ]
I was once the most accomplished wizard of my generation. Of the past several, in fact.
[ spoken with more truth than ego, though there’s a glimmer of the latter in his crooked smile, to be sure. and a little wistfulness, in his faraway look. ]
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I mean, how does your magic distinguish between intruders. Does it require everyone to have an invitation? Or, does it work each time someone tries. Just inquiring into the logistics. I'm not against it. Damon probably won't be. But, I need to know how it works. And, maybe I might want one, too.
( But, at least if he has knowledge, he knows how it works. he believes Gale. he comes off as a scholar. and a good person. and real help.
he hopes it doesn't bie them in the ass. )
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[ as for the aforementioned technicalities, he waves a hand. ]
It can be otherwise tailored, of course. To allow specific individuals, respond to a code-phrase, punish offenders. If you can imagine it, it can be done.
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