this is rough and old but i've been thinking about them again today
“Hard pass, kid.” The man answers with a smile. God above, are eyes allowed to be that blue? “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
Anthony catches Jesse’s eye as he heads out, looking relieved that he’s found something else to occupy him for the night. “Why not?” Jesse asks, ignoring the question in favor of his own.
“Because I’m twice your age, and you’re far enough gone as it is.”
“More accurate than you know,” Jesse mumbles. “First half is bullshit though.”
Maybe Jesse imagines the moment of hesitation, but the look he’s fixed with is oddly calculating. “I’ve aged well.”
“And? Last I checked half of forty is still twenty—”
“—And last I checked, punk ass college kid wasn’t my type.” the man shoots back, grinning outright now. There's something sharp in it that Jesse can't place. A low level warning of watch it.
“Fine, for the sake of manners then, Jesse Addison.”
“Daniel Arden— and if you’re still buying, I’ll take that drink now.”
"I’m supposed to want you dead.” Isaac mumbles, “I can’t fucking wrap my head around why I don’t. I don’t know if it’s guilt or some fucked up sense that I owe you for saving my life or—”
“—you paid that debt, Isaac.”
Relief.
“Thank you.”
That doesn't make it better. Or easier. Or harder either frankly.
i'm torn between two/technically three questions for the red asks so asking all of them feel free to ignore some if you want
For Vee (your choice for When): CRIMSON - What would it take for them to kill someone they know?
For Daniel and/or Alex: STRAWBERRY - What part of them is most like you? Was this intentional?
Vee - Depends entirely upon the person, Vee's killed people he's known before, not always on purpose, not always a bad thing, but not often a good one.
A couple Notables from the Past include: Lysander Aloria, who was his first kill and near completely unintentional. Enea, the head of the People's Church of Final Dawn, who you could technically argue Rin killed but Vee definitely finished it.
Present day is probably lower in likelihood as far as potential for murdering those he knows, he's had to kill patrons before on account of them breaking Damask's no-kill rule, he definitely bare minimum threatened to kill Cassidy's brother when he came looking for her--but none of those are strictly known.
For someone like Hen or Cassidy or even Adrian it would take a significant action or betrayal of some kind, and even then, when it comes to people like that, Vee is more of a second-third-fourth chances kind of person.
~*~
Daniel - You know for someone who started out as the main antagonist we share a lot. I know I always harp on about how Jesse and I are likely the most similar, but there is very little you will find in Daniel that you will not also find in me.
However, the biggest offender is likely his tendency towards putting everyone else he cares about and their well-being before his own. He takes care of himself only in so much as it is required to care for those around him. He never really grows away from this, it's the reason he is so afraid of Amalthea coming back, it's the reason he didn't tell Jesse and Moira about his past for the longest time, it's the reason he has so much guilt about what Eric did to Alex.
Everyone else relies on him, so he has to be stable and solid and there. He cannot manage that when memory rears its ugly head.
anyways i'm very normal and well adjusted and so is he.
objectively the best part of that poll is the fact that Daniel objects to half the answers on it. and that he has spent the better part of two decades now wearing away a lot of Jesse's self destructive i-am-only-good-when-i-am-useful tendencies.
ignoring the fact that Jesse has done the same for him
He’s confined to his bedroom because the rest of the apartment has not been sun-proofed like this room has. And he’s stuck here, awake, thinking he’s made possibly one of the worst promises of his life. Because there is one thing he is very sure of at this point:
Killing Jesse Addison is going to be the biggest mistake he ever makes.
Daniel is pretty sure Jesse hasn’t noticed, there have been a handful of times the terms of the agreement have changed. Slowly Jesse’s visit to say goodbye to his little sister got pushed farther and farther out. Now winter is starting to threaten in the near future, and yes, Jesse is in Ohio, visiting his sister, racing towards the end date, but—
—and it’s there again. Like the night Daniel was supposed to kill him. It’s there again and Jesse wants to rip the words out of his throat but all he can do is laugh and rest his forehead against Daniel’s and mumble something that might be I am such an idiot. But none of the sounds are coming out quite right.
It doesn’t matter. As usual it doesn't matter that the words don't make it past his tongue.
“Just a bit.” Daniel replies, “Maybe more than a bit if you thought you were ever getting rid of me after dragging me halfway across the goddamn country twice.”
“And—” He tries to stop, because what he is about to say is stupid, it comes out anyway “—you’re not, getting rid of me either, right?”
All they can do is shake their head, “I—I didn’t—” Why won’t their stupid tongue cooperate. They feel like they’re going to be sick.
“C’mon, lets get you inside—a shower might do you some good.”
Hot water.
Hot water and steam would be good.
Though the idea is an unpleasant reminder that there is blood dried to their face, to their hands where they had tried to wipe it away, staining the front of their jacket—
“Alex.”
They nod, following Daniel inside and upstairs.
“Don’t leave.”
“I’ll be right here.”
And that’s how they stay for a while. Alex scrubs their skin raw, watches the runoff going down the drain fade from pink to clear. Then sits on the floor of the tub, water at their back, and heaves. Nothing comes up. They swear they can hear liquid sloshing around in their stomach but it stays firmly and stubbornly in place. Maybe that’s better. Maybe seeing more evidence would be worse.
They settle back against the spray.
“I might have killed him.” it’s quiet and broken
“You didn’t,” Daniel’s voice comes from the other side of the curtain. They can vaguely see his outline where he’s sitting on the bathroom floor, back to the wall. “you’d know.”
“That’s the last part, isn’t it.” It’s not a question, they aren’t even sure why they’re saying it, he’s right, they know. They don’t really know how they know. But the understanding is there.
“That’s the last part.” Daniel is quiet for a moment, “Why didn’t you wait for one of us?”
What?
“I—your friend didn’t explain?”
“Friend?” That word is sharper than Alex expected it to be.
“Eric. He was here when I woke up—he—he said there was really no point in thinking it over—” they pause, tip their head back into the water a moment. “—I guess I believed him.”
Except it hadn’t really felt like believing. Something about the moment feels off.
spoopy asks! for whatever story you feel like blorbin about
🎃 Pumpkin: What character continues to light up your mind and inspire you to write more?
👻 Ghost: Do you have a character or a scene that continues to haunt you? Something or someone you wish you had done differently or just can’t stop thinking about?
(hard mode: 👻 cannot include That Part from SiTD)
@flyingbananasaur
🎃 - Isaac. While this answer changes frequently and without notice, Isaac is one we pop back to again and again because his choices tend to change my writing the most drastically. He's the catalyst. He's the one everything hinges on for no good reason. I love him.
👻 - For the uninitiated: "That Part" = The Massacre = the night Eric abducts Alex
However, we need not even call this hard mode, because while The Massacre TM takes up a decent chunk of my brainspace, there is another scene that I am constantly haunted by and changing forever in bits and pieces, and is the scene itself that re-sparked my work on Safe in the Dark back in, I dunno, 2016?
The death of Jack and Corrine/Alex's first kill.
This scene refuses to leave me alone.
I have written and rewritten it a half dozen times in 2023 alone, and I haven't touched it since JUNE.
I think the reason it won't leave me be is because it's such an important scene to the whole story itself. It's important for Alex so they can move forward, it's important for their understanding of their own power and worth, it's fucking important for them to realize exactly how far the entire vamp!house but especially Daniel are willing to go for them. It's the point at which the story used to end. It's the culmination of months of hunger and suffering and fear-based procrastination. It's the final nail in the coffin, the acceptance that this is what they want.
And in the beginning Alex killed both their parents.
Then just Jack.
Then just Corrine.
Sometimes Daniel kills the other.
Sometimes he kills them both because Alex can't do it.
Around and around it goes like a fucked up circle of made and unmade decisions.
Sometimes they die without Alex taking their blood.
Sometimes Alex lets go completely and while they are unconscious afterward, Daniel has some serious fucking cleanup to do.
It comes back and it comes back and it keeps biting at my heels and saying fix it, change it, you're not done here.
