Hello. Nice of you to stop by and throw a few words my way when insomnia plagues you. Genia, now you… it seems to be getting common, that tendency, but I do not mind. I'll take you all, sleepy, wired, or otherwise.

Hm, have I ever wanted to do something, and not done it? Funny, that as I prepare to answer that I think there are some who would say, not Lestat, but yes, even I have encountered situations like that. There is a fine, often invisible distinction between being impassioned and curious, and stepping over the line of what people think you should do, or even what you believe you should do. I know all too well just what you mean about wondering how far you could walk. There are times, wistful and mindful of my past antics, when I will stare off into nothingness, and wonder if there is anything I could do now that would raise and eyebrow. Of course, I'm sure there is, and you should know me by now, I'm not nearly through with crossing over the line that I alone seem to lay down as a measure of what is too far. Hell, I've even stepped over my own lines! Even as I write this I know that soon, there will be something… indefinable, coming, and it will perhaps not raise eyebrows so much as I hope it will allow some strange enlightenment and peace, finally. I can't go into that more, but I'm not trying to be deliberately elusive for once. You'll just have to trust me.

Stay curious, dear girl. Keep that wonderment and that fire. You will find it often to be the only thing that sustains you when darkness falls, and to be the light and soft empowerment when nothing around you makes sense. Take this bit of advice from me, the contradictory one.

Thank you for that poem. Others have left it for me before, perhaps knowing how I would like the references to my beloved Nicolas and that long ago, other lifetime that I now think of with painful, bittersweet fondness.

You think half the people here that say they're psychic, are actually gifted in that right? Non! They do the same as you say you do, listen and pick things up. There are those that have a higher power, of course. One in particular knows me very, very well and I find that I treasure her with the way she will know I'm coming up the walkway behind her in the night. She will turn her head ever so slightly and say, "I know you dere ye ol charming devil, you." Her clear glass beaded necklace glitters in the lights and I will then come beside her and take her hand and give it a gentlemanly kiss. Often I've sat and spoken with her through the darkness, and never once has she seemed to fear me, though she knows exactly what I am. I will miss the old bird when she's gone, which I've seen will not be too many years from now, but then, she has told me things about my own future and read my past enough that it has given me cause to wonder.

Oh, I highly recommend going on a vacation alone! I'd recommend that to anyone! How wonderful it is to walk the streets free of the obligations of company. There is no need to "go here, and see this", or such silliness. You can take time all for yourself, and I will stand on the soapbox and say it's not merely selfish and indulgent, but it is damn well necessary! For now though, just keep those "come and get me" veins covered up dear girl, or it might not be your storybook lover that comes to get them, but a blond demon like me!

Yes. Your country and the time of war, it all makes me very contemplative. Soldier dolls indeed, my friend. But as I've said, it is all in some strange way, if you can look at it abstractly enough, you know what I am saying, from outside of it all? It has it's own flow, dark and beautiful in the scheme of things.

-smiles- What a very sentient sentiment.

Do you like the band U2? You should listen to some of their lyrics if you haven't. mart and sexy. I like their Greatest Hits 80-90 I think it is called. It's very good music I think for political times like these. I'm rather seeing it as a chess game, though one that isn't very amusing if various outcomes come to pass. Anyhow, listen to their music, it's good. There. That's a freebie.

Stand well you two, and be well. I wish it for you - and all your people.

Well, that certainly could represent many things, dreaming boy. Let me think for a minute. The most obvious answer would be a reference to Louis' eyes. Shall I indulge you with images of them? They're quite mesmerizing of course, like some deranged, absinthe dream. Then there is the green fire that burned in Merrick's emerald eyes. Times I swore I could look into them and see her very heart beating, and I wanted to taste it. A temptation greater than myself. It could be the softly rolling green of the French countryside in my mortal youth, the green of a ripened apple as it met Nicolas' lips so full and generous.

Ah, but such thoughts that brings that I will not indulge in just now. Like another famous Southerner, I will think about that tomorrow. I've got to get the rest of this thread done. Shame you can't have all of my attentions, yes?

Having no fun is worse than being put in a box made by others. It's a box of your own creation.

Bravissimo, bravissimo darling. What wonderful sentiments. You needn't worry about saying the right thing. You have reached that validation with these words. I would write more and it isn't for lack of things to say that I don't. My old hands are getting tired of all this typing and besides, I am in a private conversation with someone I've been missing for weeks. -smiles-

My friend, sometimes those ships passing in the night promise more enjoyment for their passengers when at last they meet up, oui?

Of course, me in your dreams would be a treat. My responses are shorter, but not the sentiments. Dream on superheroine.

The period of time I have to say that I like best was probably the duration of years I lived with Louis in the infamous first movie about the two of us. To me it seems that then, though there was certainly a great deal of pretension, there was also a more readable quality to mankind in general. Things weren't so commercial and superficial. Then, it seemed easier to tell who was a scoundrel and who was a saint, though finding surprises was always a sweet pleasure. The modern age with the plastic coverings and technological flair serves me well, don't get me wrong, but those years so long ago were somehow more pure and so it is to those times my mind wanders whenever I am asked if I have a favorite period.

You are so over analytical, darling. Can you never just see the meaning in my words without disecting them? Mortals desire and need companionship. Immortals need it as well, if we are truthful about the matter. "I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft. We've constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping.." I won't elaborate more than that. I'm not up for further time on the couch.

are we as a world, as the race of mankind, getting better, worse, the same... does it all just seem worse due to the basic fact that there are more of us on this planet now, the constant hype by the news media...? Are we really evolving into a more humane society? And as to the ills of modern life... what do you feel these to be... our concrete jungle existence... our need for bigger & better NOW!, . what have we lost along the way and why..?

A provacative question, and as such one that is not easily, if ever, answered. I think that the media and the voracious public it feeds are indeed modern monsters that make the ills of the world seem often worse than they are. Look at how something as simple as a weather event can get blown up into worthwhile, terrifying, must stay home at all cost to see this important update -news-, non? That being the case, when war on the international front seems closer than ever, what better to do than pick it apart until we're perhaps desensitized to it all? There are more people on the planet, yes, and those people hunger and thirst for drama and truth and by God, EVENTS in their existence, and the media moguls love every eager eye and ear. Do I think that things are as bad as the media makes them out to be? No. What I think is that like the little boy crying wolf, one day something is going to be important, and America will say, "Hmph, I have heard all of this before, be done with it already." That sad fact is in addition to the sadness that there are legitimate journalists in the world who try to bring light to real, gritty, hope-filled stories, and they, the truth seeking underdogs are usually overshadowed by the big brother likes of CNN and its corporate bedfellows.

-laughs- Not like I'm opinionated on the matter or anything.

As for being a more humane society? From where I sit, it's there and it's not. Things happen to cause awareness in the ocean of humanity, to make people look up and say, yes, hello my brother, there you are, I'd forgotten you beside me. I have to say though that it then seems, with all of the other complications and demands of mortal life, that it isn't long before that notice, that awareness becomes something of a treasure or a gift, sat on the shelf perhaps appreciated but not caressed and cherished as it once was. Do I think humaneness exists more than it once did in America? Yes, I do. I think that particularly now, given my recent "enlightenment" for lack of a better word, I see it like an entity in its own right. Like something… How can I describe it, a wash, you know, over people, and they don't even know it. It isn't so much a thing I see, like someone helping their neighbor or caring for a sick friend, it's something far more abstract, and I haven't found the words to accurately depict what it is I mean, so for that I apologize.

The ills of modern life… well, we'll always have those, won't we, whether the 'modern' life is being led a century ago or in the present time. I think television, for all it's entertainment value is something the world would be better off without. For the most part it has well earned the name idiot box. More personally, I think that while there is certainly nothing wrong with the desire and drive to get ahead, mortals must, must, must stop to look around and not only smell the proverbial roses, but to see each other and at the risk of sounding like a broken record here I will say, look and see the beauty of the world, breathe it in, and find some sort of simple, soul-deep peace in it, if only for a minute in their overly hurried lives.

No, I expected really, that you'd be more readily running to what I'd offered, but that's all right. After all, I have an indeterminate amount of time to wait, don't I? My hours have been well spent recently with our mutual acquaintance, and it is good. My own frame of mind as you may have gathered, while not delicate, is certainly different somehow, but it is perhaps a sort of unconscious forshadowing of an unseen revolution, who can know? At any rate, that my meager intimacy as you so word it, caused such a reaction in you, you have to know that I sit, that hint of a smile coming to my lips and say, "good, good…" And you know? It is.

*PS: What did you mean in the other little post "I understand the words you wrote me." ??

You're beautiful. You know it, and I know you know it, but your beauty keeps amazing me. So here I sit wishing I had the power to make _you_ bleed for me.

But I do, don't you see it? Can't you taste it with your painted, lovely lips dear girl? Come closer, crawl for me and lick it up in the darkness, feeling it and smelling it blindly and relishing the burning, crimson of this treasure when at last it finds your tongue.

I bleed for those who are brave and intelligent enough.

How does it taste?

It has been some time, where have you been hiding? Have you been around and merely watching with some vague amusement or perplexed expression as I fill these pages? At any rate here is my voice, typed out nice and concise at times, and other times, cruel and random. I'm here to be heard.

I'm feeling benevolent tonight, so I decided to answer your posts instead of overlooking them as I have been. Now, forgive my pointed cruelty, if it seems such, but didn't you at one point say you were or wanted to be a writer? Dear, you are from Quebec, aren't you? It isn't such a world away that I can overlook your… -sighs- the overwhelming challenges you seem to have with English grammar and spelling. Unfortunately that is a little pet peeve of mine. I think there is nothing better than a fine command of linguistics. Well, some things maybe but overall it is a trait I must admire. The ability to craft words, to be able to roll them effortlessly off the lips, ah, yes, it give me an indefinable pleasure. The art of conversation doesn't have to be lost, and so I might suggest to you, gently, dear new friend, that should you wish long and insightful posts from me, you must endeavor to do better with your language so that I can get all you mean to say, for I'm sure there is much to be heard from you.

The way those letters yell at me. It makes me want to make up something facetious, some what is it called, anagram of them? You're a finder-outer too, you say. Interesting. -sniffs for Talamasca scent- Hmm. Welcome to Minuo, Mad. I'll be watching you.

Then I look forward to hearing from more of you. It pleases me to hear so many of you saying that you are finding my expressiveness to be meaningful and flowing, because when I type it, or try to say it, it seems to come out so jumbled, but I'm glad you're "getting it," if at least on some level.

I'm sure you have plenty to say, and I await your insights, Cherie.

Is that reply still redeemable? *raises eyebrow* Or am I to ignore your promise and assume the dark prince has read it and be satisfied thus? *gives Lestat a hug and walks out once more*

I don't precisely recall what I said in describing Louis, but I am pleased to hear that my words hit their mark. I'm also glad you're breathing again. Was that just a clever ploy to get me to come and do mouth to mouth?

Get that sleep, girl. You need it. Insomnia I think eventually leads to some strange mental condition. Not that I'd know. I sleep like the dead.

See, I get to cheat. I can answer two at once. Yes, Nymph was correct. Read that book, and you'll know. I think I should hire Nymph for my PR Representative?

My darling, do you break my simple rules with such splendid seduction and sparkle that it makes it hard for me to discipline you? What a bad woman you are. Then again, that's all right. I never had a taste for the good girls. Please, my lady.. Let others see what you are writing and ne pas en Francais, oui? You wouldn't want me to stop speaking with you would you? I have too many posts to do to give you a real… feeling translation, so please, please… ne pas.

Trust though that I've kept what you've said, locked up like a secret paper treasure, just for me.

First of all, you'd better come to care if I'm mad at you. Believe me, it's not something you want.

You're right though. It is sort of a policy I've had since the beginning. I mean, while it's true that in some sense French, and other languages do express themselves more fluently, more, I prefer to have all the posts in English, foremost because I can keep my flow of thought, and just get out what I have to say. Just as what is said to me IN French is in some ways interpreted differently, what I say back takes some different crafting, so I prefer instead to keep it going along, you know. Secondly, I don't have the time nor the inclination to keep doing that OR to say to someone, "Oh this ****, means this ***," you know?

I think I'm going to make my own guidelines. -nods- That's a good idea and I appreciate your efforts toward assisting but maybe if I post that you can just say see Lestat's guidelines.

Oooh, you know I hate riddles! I hate them for the way they can drive me into a fit. Seriously there I can be, pacing and thinking obsessively. Don't leave me riddles! Seriously.

Welcome to this place. I hope you will come to find warmth in both new friends and what we all share.

According to your own version of what is good and what is evil...which of the two do you consider yourself? And...what traits about yourself do you consider to be your best ones, the ones you take the most pride in?

I consider myself, and my 'kind', to be a practical and comparable evil. When I think of the atrocities man has committed against one another, I do not find what we do to be objectionable, nor do I classify it * as * evil, when considering its relevance to such things we see in the past and in our everyday.

What traits about myself do I consider to be the best?

Hm, I would say my ability to listen and to care. My ability to love deeply, almost dangerously. My ability to make you feel. My memory and the ability to describe things I see there to someone like a painting. I like those things in myself. I like my strength, and my vulnerability, (though others seem to see that more than I do for some reason), my humor and the ability to go from one mood to another in quick fashion.

Now I could go on I'm sure, but then there are those I'm sure, who would only too freely tell me that I'm being over the top with my arrogance, or my ego. To them I say, hmph. If you have nothing notable to say about yourself that you're proud of, oh well that's your problem, not mine. There's a difference between narcissism and knowledge of yourself.

Thank you for your comments and your compliments, Lynn.