lanselos_du_lac: (Default)
lanselos_du_lac ([personal profile] lanselos_du_lac) wrote2024-07-04 03:44 pm

[Open Post] ..hell yes i mind..

It's been a long while since Lancelot felt this way: angry and adrift, too overwhelmed and in his own head to determine how best to manage it. (If Susan were here, it would be simple -- but the fact that his Susan is gone is part of the problem.) His anger is a hot stone at his center, a roiling mess, a weapon without a target. He still feels that he would like to smash something, start a fight, find some way to externalize everything all the things he could not bring himself to say to the Galahad who is far older than he ought to be, the quiet king of a quiet kingdom.

A fulfilled purpose. A completed quest. A long chain of manipulation and events that dragged Lancelot along in its wake, and that (in this other time, he has to acknowledge, not his time and not now) led only to the ruin of everything Lancelot had cared for. And for what? It makes him furious to think that the price of the Grail was Galahad's joy, Galahad's self, and that that price was somehow being paid long before Galahad was even born.

That's just the start of it; there is more, much more, and it feels like it will keep spooling out without ceasing.

His impulse, as ever, is to stalk off to his room and stay there until he feels he can manage himself. (He thinks, not for the first time, of himself ten years older and outwardly angry, angry enough that everyone sees it, fears him or dreads his company. A man who lashes out. He does not want that future, but this possibility has always been somewhere just under the surface; he's always known it. Sometimes it has worked for him, with him, but he knows that it is dangerous and there is no one in this place that he would want to bear witness to it.) If this were Camelot, that is what he would do.

Since he can't figure what to do, he settles for a middle ground. It's been a long while since he felt like getting very deliberately drunk, but that appeals just now, and so he heads for one of the smaller bars, just off the main corridor.

[Note: All are welcome! Those who care for Lancelot and/or those who also wish to fistfight God are particularly welcome.]
ninth_cavalier: art by cutetanuki-chan on tumblr (dubious)

[personal profile] ninth_cavalier 2024-08-24 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"Nah, I'm good." She's not gonna be addressing the Laertes thing. "I should try to sleep, though, probably."
ninth_cavalier: art by cutetanuki-chan on tumblr (perplexed)

[personal profile] ninth_cavalier 2024-08-24 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
"I—yeah. You too." Gideon rubs the back of her neck, shooting him a sideways smile. "Thanks for the drink."
ninth_cavalier: art by cutetanuki-chan on tumblr (dubious)

[personal profile] ninth_cavalier 2024-08-24 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Gideon wobbles into it, a little, surprised but pleased, and squeezes him back.
vineleaves: (Waterfront)

[personal profile] vineleaves 2024-08-25 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
"Causes even more stress than if you'd just let yourself feel the emotion in the first place. If you don't let the feelings run their course, it's going to just -- y'know, fester up in there." He taps the side of his head. "And then all that stress can cause heart problems too."
vineleaves: (Gentle smile)

[personal profile] vineleaves 2024-08-26 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
Dionysus pats Lancelot's chest. "We gotta keep that sweet heart of yours in good condition."
vineleaves: (Well that's what I said)

[personal profile] vineleaves 2024-08-26 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
"Do you disagree? You've always been nothing but nice and precious to me."
wickedwit: (mm really?)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-08-26 03:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's easier to see when you've made a study of people and power, which I don't recommend everyone does." He sighs, tilting his whiskey glass to watch the golden light through it. "I judged you a little for it. For not noticing when and why I gave you the cut direct, for example. But you must know I'm making judgments all the time, and revising them all the time, too. People are mysteries, something always left to uncover in them, even the people we love best."
vineleaves: (Well that's what I said)

[personal profile] vineleaves 2024-08-27 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, people clearly didn't know you very well before, if that's the case."
wickedwit: (mm really?)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-08-31 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm so glad you asked," Claudius says, whether or not that technically counts as a question. It's very close to a question, for Lancelot. "Listen. Let me tell you a secret. Eye contact is not a natural skill for me. I'm excellent at it, of course." He looks Lancelot directly in the eye, charming and approachable, if perhaps too approachable. "But that's all practice. The cut direct is rather advanced in that it requires denying eye contact when it would otherwise be expected. You go to greet the host of a dance you're attending -- for example -- and instead of meeting your eyes and acknowledging you, he looks away. It's not that he didn't hear you. It's that you're beneath acknowledgement. He may consider the sky instead, which is the cut sublime, or the ground beneath, which is the cut infernal." With some annoyance, he says, "Now, a host should never cut a guest, if he controls the guest list. But if you weren't at that dance ... I suppose Gertrude's dancing lessons would've gone to waste. And Laertes adores thee. Sagramore adores thee, but in an arch, confrontational sort of way, which I frankly envy."
vineleaves: (Waterfront)

[personal profile] vineleaves 2024-09-01 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
"Did you not have as many close friends before, as you do now?"
vineleaves: (Are you serious)

[personal profile] vineleaves 2024-09-02 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Dionysus thinks that every single fact he learns about Camelot just proves that it's, actually, the worst spot for 'happily-ever-aftering', no matter what the song says. "You're such a likeable guy though. I'm sorry only three people could see that before."
wickedwit: (mm really?)

[personal profile] wickedwit 2024-09-03 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
It makes sense -- Claudius could understand only half of Lancelot's prideful reputation by Laertes's insistence that he was aloof from shyness. The other half was avoiding those who already disliked them, which Claudius himself found infuriating. As if there were no need to concern himself with the likes of Claudius, as if his opinion held no weight, as if Claudius had no reason to be invested. He can imagine the people of Camelot seeing a man who never seems to stoop to their level, and calling him arrogant.

So perhaps there are things Claudius can't learn simply asking other people what they make of Lancelot. "Sagramore has a natural charm," Claudius says, in answer to his question. "He works at it, of course. People seldom understand how much work it takes to be liked, particularly if they never try at it. But he's still a natural at some things I'm not. There are cues he can read without trying, which means he can a bit more daring, if only a bit. That friendship you have, very boyish and bullying, is something I never had myself as a youth." Claudius does bully his friends now, to be fair. But they're friends who help him navigate the missteps of a missed cue, when his teasing goes too far or he becomes too focused and prodding. They don't collectively decide to shun him until he understands what he's done wrong. "I follow exacting rules at times. Spend a great deal time thinking about the done thing. In your case, perhaps I could have spoken plainly and resolved matters, before it came to giving you the cut direct. But that's not the done thing, you know. Not in Elsinore, where resolving a single spat takes campaigns of intricate subterfuge, people hiding behind arrases. It's rather foolish. And I'm also sorry, as it happens. Cutting asides aren't really honest confrontation."
vineleaves: (Default)

[personal profile] vineleaves 2024-09-03 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm glad you've been able to come out of your shell here."

Page 32 of 34