[ usually louis swims in the lake but today, with all the excitement around the manor, he’s enjoying an afternoon by the pool. it's a welcome change to a party with silly costumes or in the darkness of the club. dressed in short, low rising yellow swim shorts, he turns with one of the tubs of body paint to the person nearest, offering a charming smile. ]

Can help get your back done up if you need it.

[ he's wearing a green bracelet given to him when he plucked up a drink to pretend to sip at, long abandoned by one of the lounge chairs. he's feeling energized, optimistic, daniel's successful turning fueling his mood. ]

Someone said it might glow in the dark later. Wanna test that theory?

[ if not at the pool, he'll be out in twinkling gardens, enjoying the cool summer air. he's plucked one of the glowing flowers, turning it in his hand and he might offer it to a passerby. ]

[ funny, how roaming a table and picking at food that tastes like it did when he was a mortal can be distracting enough that he's selected for whatever party trick the balfours have come up with now. he's licking sticky cheese and honey from a finger when he's ushered up, tied off to someone, and left with them. he makes a sound of protest, but the partygoer is long gone and he looks up dumbly at the poor soul tied off to him.

he gives the knot a tug, but it doesn't budge.

his belly full of food and wine, he tilts his head. ]

This place is always up to something - I don't like it. Guess we gotta get creative. Any ideas?

cw: blood, blood drinking, vampirism, cannibalism, others noted in subject lines

[ everything about the dining area smells like blood, like decay, and even as the house staff twist flowers into the natural kink and curl of his hair, teasing it out and wild, he feels on edge. he notes that other attendees aren't crowned or adorned, but thinks nothing of it until he feels the shift on the air. he takes the seat he's guided to, just off to one side of armand who is adorned even more elegantly than anyone else, and only then he realizes.

the vampires on one side, drowned in flowers. mortals and others opposite. he'd been a fool to miss breakfast, and only with armand's cool resolve bolstering him does he manage to keep a straight, serious face. ]

a - the dinner | open to vampires

[ as the offered mortals climb up onto the banquet table and sprawl out across the ornately decorated surfaces, louis squirms in his seat. their hearts pump loudly in his ears, the fruits and foods they offer sumptuous the moment one touches his lips - a honey soaked piece of melon that tastes sharp and rich and sweet. it makes the green of his eyes blow out, makes his own heart beat ratchet high in his chest.

he turns to someone sitting beside him, leaning into their space and stopping one of the mortal hands, brow creased. the woman pouts, turns prettily on her side so that the fruit perched between the vee of her legs and on her stomach rolls off and she purposefully pricks her finger on one of louis' nails, sprouting blood to pour down her wrist and she shoves it at him. out of habit, he turns his face away. ]

You can have it. Something's not right here. [ never mind he licks his fingers clean of her blood when he pulls his hand away. ]

b - the hallucinations | open to all

[ maybe it's the iron-rich fruit, maybe it's the calm he's lulled into by the presence of other vampires (and his companions' seeming acceptance of the state they're in), but louis finds himself unperturbed by the way the bodies seem to flicker and change for those around them.

it's easy to dip into the minds of those around them, easy to hear their panic and fears and wants. feel the eyes on them as they revel in the decadence of bodies and food and liquor. but it's the eyes on him in particular that he feels like an itch you can't reach, and whoever it is - stranger or not - they'll hear a hungry, deep voice in their mind: ]

You gonna stare all night or come say hello?

[ southern, voice rich of louisiana drawl, louis almost wholly unmasked by the sick freedom of it all. the fear will set in later, but there's safety in numbers, and the flower-crowned circle around him gives him a little more courage than he would normally have. ]

I ain't gonna bite. Unless you ask.