#kingmakercastle

Smash or Pass

"Tricky, because from what I've heard you probably could handle me- but could you shut up long enough for me to want to fuck you?"

"I inferred as much long ago." Tristan's study remained fixed on the view from Lucien's penthouse. "Do you ever wake up at night, terrified at the grotesque feeling that you never changed professions?" Slowly, inhabiting a sort of pensive leisure, he finally turned to face him. "You have taken from this world a fair bite of the superficiality it has to offer. You accumulated wealth and reputation while labouring to claim a place in the literal incarnation of one of those ivory towers you always claimed to so vehemently despise when talking about others. Still, there is more to the accomplishments of a man than plain appearances. The devil inhabits the details. And I do have to wonder…How many masters rule you these days?" A meaningful look accompanied the question. "The men bellow who held your fortune and success in such high regard…Can you truly say they are the ones beneath you if your heart so longs for their praise? Does it not corrupt all your work into the efforts of a trained seal performing tricks for their approval? A puppet, given a toy crown and throne, is not any less of a puppet, Lucien. The strings on your shoulders are endless. Even mortals hold your leash as you silently scream your pleas. Like me. Respect me. Fear me. Love me." Steps given in peculiar respite began cutting the talking distance between them. "Can you say that my sister is no longer your master as you desperately pretend not to see the ways in which she makes use of you? Can you say that I'm no longer your master? Which competing fantasy recurs more frequently? The one where you violently murder me after our shared project is over? Or the one where I realize in shame that I was wrong about you?" He stood in front of the other vampire. Impassive. "There is a force marking our path far greater than what even the most gifted seers can see. Your Alexis. My Ariane. Our essence, Lucien. Our essence, our character is fate. No one should understand that better than us given our shared past. Among our few and far between points of similarity lays a shared belief in the power to reinvent ourselves, stronger than we were. But we are blacksmiths, not alchemists. It is imperative to take into account the quality of the primordial material we are working with. At the end of the day, regardless of circumstance, Tristan de Martel will remain Tristan de Martel. I know well how to gain power from that, even under the most grievous hardship. At the end of the day Lucien Castle will remain Lucien Castle. And I suspect that for all your cretinous narcissism and megalomania…A part of you has always been afraid of discovering what that will mean in the end." The visit from his hand was sudden, brief and calm. A couple of fingers tracing both sides of Lucien's lips. Drawing a bloody smile that was no longer there. And yet it remained. Tristan watched him still for a brief second. Serene and unreadable. Indifferent. He walked past him.

Name your price for Liz Biz. I’ll pay up for my princess of chaos.

Take if you can, give if you must, there’s nobody but yourself to trust. What’re you gonna do when the chips are down?

I can't promise you fair sky above, can't promise you kind road below, but I'll walk beside you, love, any way the wind blows.

"The poet that never rests"

Freya smiled as Lucien spoke. She'd been unsure for a while now on how she felt about him. Her family was telling her one thing but the beating in her chest somehow told her another. A conflict she hadn't wished to come across so soon to reuniting with her family, putting herself at stake to lose them all over again if she admitted her fondness.

"Lucien-!?"

His name caught in her throat at the sight of him. There was a brief moment of joy at seeing her friend arrive before forest green eyes took in his frame now slumped against a wall, his eyes feverish and countenance fallen. Immediately she dropped the bridle in hand and rushed over to him, her hands brushing over his forehead to feel his temperature as she questioned his state.