#n!f

Thomas and Vincent get into a relationship, and Aldo is - trying not to be jealous and grudging and pettily bitter, and not really trying not to have the self-loathing flares, and ‘trying not to be lonely’ isn’t really a thing someone can do. And then all that more so when he realizes he’s also developing a crush on *Vincent*. As though that could ever happen or be anything but even more impossible and doomed.

Everyone who showed up is there for completely different reasons. One person was genuinely looking for wizard hook-ups; one person is bad at detecting scams and got taken in; one person is good at detecting scams and wants to take revenge on scammers; one person is from the wizard irs and thinks this guy hasn't been filing his taxes properly; one person had a translation artifact glitch and thought this was 'hot lizards in your area', a vendor of heating stones for cold-blooded customers.

Mo Ran realizes with horror that with him and Chu Wanning living separately, yes they can talk, but he won't be able to *touch* Chu Wanning. There is no way he's going to live with that!!

Mo Ran wants to move in with Chu Wanning immediately. Chu Wanning, who canon amounts of struggles with housekeeping etc, is very self conscious about this, and given his issues worried about what will happen if Mo Ran has to see him *all the time*, and asks Mo Ran if he's really sure he wants to deal with all that.

Mo Ran is so sure.

Lawrence: take me, my life is finished anyway, you have so much to still do, it should be me, I should be the one to do the most dangerous and painful task, the Church needs you, I can't stand to see you hurt. It would be the greatest privilege of my life to suffer for you.

Vincent: the Church needs you, I've always known the risks I was taking on and I took them on willingly, I know how to handle this, I'm well suited to do the most dangerous and painful task and I have a duty to do it. It would pain me so so much to see you hurt and it would be my privilege to stand in the way and do what it takes so that you aren't.

Both of them: I'll gladly suffer to know that you're well and can go on, the world and Church will be better if you are still in them, I'd rather suffer than know you're suffering.

Instead of deciding to come to the conclave, Vincent doesn’t. It would be dangerous, to others not just him, and he doesn’t see what good he would be doing there - he’s just one person and this is a voting process needing a two thirds majority, he (as he observes in the novel) doesn’t know any of the candidates, and surely he’s not somehow better at listening to the Holy Spirit than all the other Cardinals. Many of whom have done this before. And he has work to do here, and this is where his work lies.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him somebody has found out about his appointment. (…He does say that he’s being watched. And he did receive documents.) And they have a different idea.

Cue Vincent going missing from his post (some of the members of his archdiocese are worried, but it’s not even uncommon for him to run into something that needs to be done and get involved doing it. And the Church has a most important time and situation to be handling right now. And there’s a less clear line of authority than usual. And they’re not exactly a well known or important diocese. And getting attention is not necessarily something they want to do. (And of course they also don’t know that he’s a cardinal). So anyway, they haven’t actually notified anyone in higher positions or that might generally be notified, that something might be wrong.)

And cue Vincent, bloody and beaten, dumped on the metaphorical and possibly literal doorstep of the Vatican, just when all the cardinals are arriving and the conclave is going to begin.

With a more traditional written kind of message, saying, I noticed you’d forgotten one of your cardinals. Gotta be careful to keep track of those, you know. Thought I’d help you out with that :)

Not, in this one, the evil sort of incubus. He's a redeemed incubus. He has his same history - he went to seminary, he became a priest, he confronted gangs, he built hospitals, he was made an archbishop and then a cardinal. He's committed to people, to loving everyone, to his flock, to helping anywhere he can, to the redemption and the grace that is, that can be possible for everyone (if it could be for him, for a demon, certainly it can be, is, for every person).

One thing that didn't change when so much did is his nutritional needs. He still feeds on the desire and satisfaction of people who are having intercourse with him.

Generally he's found ways to make it work. (It helps when you have a sense for desire that people feel for you.) He's gone to bars and gotten himself picked up at them; he's done sex work sometimes; he's been there for some lonely people; sometimes he's noticed some people who do not make good partners and don't let that stop them and diverted them out of bothering or preying on anyone else.

(If he's explaining this to someone, he'll them them - his partner's desire is a requirement, for him to feed (not that he would ever, now, do anything with anyone who didn't want it), but in fact his is not.)

It's been better sometimes than other times, but - it's been fine.

And then he got elected pope. And now there are some problems.

Vincent was turned by the doctor who helped him after the car bomb, in order to save his life - he had otherwise not been going to survive. However, in this version turning is a slow rather than more immediate process - it's started, its happening, it was able to save his life (-well, depending on if one considers vampires to be living, but), but it's going to happen over time, and it'll be a while before it gets to the point of obvious or evident.

But, the rest of their interaction proceeds as in canon - the doctor does tell Vincent about what he's found, and doesn't tell him about what else he's also done. (He does this for two reasons: first, given he's already throwing this one thing at a man who also already just nearly died, he doesn't want to add yet another thing right then. Second, he doesn't really know Vincent so well, and wants to be able to get a better idea of him before he reveals a secret with such ramifications.)

So Vincent - has his dark time, and goes to Rome, and tries to resign, and has his conversation(s) with the Holy Father, and makes plans, and thinks, and prays, and changes some plans, and is starting to come to this greater understanding and acceptance of himself.

And then, when he is back at his home, the doctor comes to talk to him. (Or possibly even he's starting to notice things, starting to not really be able to ignore noticing things, and then the doctor comes to talk to him.) And he has a whole new thing to deal with, and he's going to need to talk to the Holy Father again.