#businessman Louis

[daisiesonafield-blog]

Link

[sunshineandlyrics]

5 and 11 April 2024 x x

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[feedingicetothedog]

has enough time passed where i can say that the super tradcath/tradwife fanon version of louis who’s only desire is to be barefoot and pregnant is annoying as fuck and horrifically out of character?

[indelicateink]

if louis’s going to be a supportive rockstar boyfriend i need him so badass and distracted by his day job he is on the phone to Christie’s about the Tracey Emin, he is managing his shell accounts—“it’s fine we have a roster of PAs call Patricia”—he needs his penthouse bathroom redesigned in time for Art Basel Miami 2025—“Lestat doesn’t stop crying, D’Shawn, all you can do is distract him”—no, louis is firm that the Charles White is not for sale, but he’s offloading that unfortunate Koons christmas gift—“look, that just means it’s a day that ends in a y. tell him louis said we talked about the tantrums, and that if his ass isn’t showered and dressed in five minutes i’m leaving, and he’ll be lucky to see me in portla—D’Shawn, imma need you to be so serious right now and tell me i did not just see groupies walk into that dressing room—”

i know it's v popular to headcanon louis being a supportive rockstar boyfriend, and believe me I'm part of the problem, but i just can't imagine a world where louis has the energy after that season.

the sheer fact that daniel molloy is going to be brain-dialing louis at the drop of the hat when lestat loses his shit to the sixteenth round of mania. "louis help your boyfriend ate the PA" "louis how do i get him to stop crying" "louis he's covered in glitter and guts and sobbing your name, HELP ME MY MAN"

louis is gonna turn his vampire hearing aid off and knit a fucking sweater. he is so tired, and he needs a goddamn nap.

[fluentisonus]

imagining les mis from louis xviii's pov. really funny. napoleon is defeated & you are restored to the throne. fast forward four years & they tell you a successful businessman has come into public eye in montreuil-sur-mer so you have him appointed mayor. the guy refuses it. that same year you try to appoint a winner (?) of the industrial exhibition a chevalier of the legion of honor but he turns it down. it's the same guy. you have him appointed mayor again & he finally accepts. fast forward another four years. they tell you the same guy again confessed to being a former convict & a recidivist & has been sentenced to death. well okay you're a merciful king so you get out your pen or whatever & commute his sentence. less than a year later he's reported drowned & you're in your carriage in paris feeling sick & miserable & they point out to you a guy on the street in a horrible yellow coat. little do you know it's the same guy. you die before the rest of the book

[napiersmirk]

“This primitive country has picked you clean. It has shackled you in permanent exile.

Every room you enter, every hat you’re forced to wear. The stern landlord, the deferential businessman, the loyal son - all these roles you conform to and none of them your true nature.

What rage you must feel as you choke on your sorrow.

The first time I laid eyes on you, your beautiful face, I saw that sorrow. I did not know how it got there or why it was so voluminous. I can take away that sorrow, Louis. I can give you that death you begged your feeble, blind, degenerate, nonexistent god for.

But I can do it… joyfully.

I can swap this life of shame, swap it out for a dark gift and a power you can’t begin to imagine.

You just have to ask me for it. You just have to nod your beautiful head… and say yes.

I love you, Louis.

You are loved. I send my love to you, and you send it back round to me. And this circle, this home we barely had a glimpse of… know it frightens me as much as it does you.

Be my companion, Louis. Be all the beautiful things you are, and be them without apology.

For all eternity.”

Never not thinking about them, about this.

[madly-empirical]

he was definitely also touching up marius' paintings back in the day

Why did armand put the steins in. just love of the game? What the hell man

[allwaswell16]

A fic rec of soft One Direction fics with omega Harry as requested in this ask. If you enjoy the fics, please leave kudos and comments! You can find my other fic recs here. Happy reading!

- Louis/Harry -

🌸 Little by Little by nonsensedarling / @absoloutenonsense

(E, 65k, o/o) Harry Styles is an omega who works at the London Planetarium, has lived in the same flat for ages, and is happy enough on his own. When he gets home from his first (horrible) attempt at dating in years, a new pregnant neighbor knocks on his door after smelling his cooking. 

🌸 You're Not My Type (still I fall) by Imogenlee / @imogenleewriter

(E, 38k, farm) Harry is only twenty-four and has no inclination to settle down at all, especially not at the behest of an Alpha. But, as his mum would point out, that was the same stubborn attitude that got him here: in his car, in a thunderstorm, on the side of a forsaken lane of some little countryside town in Yorkshire.

🌸 dream about a summer night by fearsparks / @onlythebravest

(T, 33k, summer camp) Working alongside each other as camp counsellors, Harry and Louis grow closer than they’ve ever been before. That’s not a problem, but now they have these newfound feelings for each other to deal with.

🌸 findin' pieces that can fit by lsforever / @kingonafiftymetreroad

(E, 31k, o/o) an Omega/Omega Established Relationship AU where they’re figuring it out as they go along. There’s a road trip in there, lots of cuddling, some cats and dogs, and, of course, the best first time Harry could ever ask for.

🌸 Is it a sign? by bluegreenish / @greenblueish

(E, 25k, deaf Harry)  the one where Harry meets a certain handsome alpha at his sister's wedding and learns that speaking verbally doesn't have to be the only means of communication.

🌸 love so soft, you ain’t had nothing softer (series) by @neondiamond

(E, 15k, strangers to lovers) Louis is an Alpha with an odd obsession for gummy bears. Harry is an Omega who makes friends a little too easily. They meet on the bus.

🌸 Stars Will Align For Us by @2tiedships2

(NR, 15k, pining) the one where Harry is an omega at a loss of how to get past his pining and gain the attention of Louis...especially considering the alpha is always in a relationship.

🌸 balance between you and me by beckywritesthings / @beckydoesthings

(T, 15k, coworkers) As a successful businessman, Louis is used to the long hours, never-ending work, and constant exhaustion. What hits the hardest, even though he'd never admit it, is the empty apartment he comes home to every day.

🌸 Come In and Change My Life by lightswoodmagic / @lightwoodsmagic

(E, 12k, neighbors) Harry and Louis become friends when Harry looks after Louis' cat during away games, until one night at a party changes everything between them. It's just a shame Louis' going to be away for the FIFA World Cup for three months.

🌸 I Can't Hear You by kikikryslee / @flamboyantommo

(E, 9k, established relationship)  the one where Harry is self-conscious about his body because it's not the 'typical omega body' and Louis shows him why he loves that.

🌸 you give me feelings that i adore by @alwaysxlarrie

(T, 7k, uni) 5 times Louis scents Harry's things and the 1 time Harry returns the gesture.

🌸 Court Wine by @enchantedlandcoffee , red_panda28 / @red-pandaaa

(T, 7k, friends to lovers) after a misunderstanding during a scrabble game, Alpha Louis starts courting Omega Harry without the latter being aware of it.

🌸 All at once, this is enough by @lunarheslwt

(G, 7k, o/o) Harry, overcome with burn out, wants to nest but he has never nested before, doesn’t know how to. Louis, his best friend, is only happy to help him make a nest and be there for him. Along the way, they find something more.

🌸 young hearts on the chase by homemotif / @polaroidlouis

(G, 7k, meet cute) harry’s a hopeless romantic, louis’ oblivious, and it’s going to be Valentine’s Day.

🌸 I Want You to Linger by @insightfulinsomniac

(E, 6k, friends to lovers) A friends-to-lovers fic in which oblivious alpha Louis courts his best friend, nests with the gifts he gets him, and is faced with the reality that sometimes telling someone you love them doesn’t go to plan (but turns out better in the end anyway).

🌸 As one we are everything/We are everything we need by louloubaby92 / @louloubabys1992

(M, 5k, established relationship) Harry finally marries the love of his life. He's got the mating mark, he's got Louis' ring on his finger.

🌸 In the Heat Where You Lay by @marchessa

(T, 5k, mpreg) the one where Louis tries to balance work life and his marriage while he also has to protect Harry from himself since the omega is danger walking on two marvellously long legs at the best of times.

🌸 Oh Christmas Three by @tommokat

(M, 1k, mpreg) A birthday surprise goes awry. Louis doesn’t understand. Harry blames the oven.

- Rare Pairs -

🌸 in the hope of open hands (series) by @justanothershadeofblue

(T, 21k, OT5) Five times the pack is protective of omega Harry, and one time Harry protects them. Featuring Louis and Liam as alphas, Zayn and Niall as betas, and Harry’s as the band's lone omega.

🌸 That Don't Define Who You Are by @lululawrence

(NR, 7k, Harry/Louis/Nick Grimshaw)  the one where Harry is a licking omega with a broken bond who helps heal a fairly hapless beta with a folding bicycle. When Harry also meets the beta's alpha, things start to get... interesting.

[winterhalters]

the bonaparte siblings (requested by anon)

"They were not worried about seeming out of place, they did not fear making mistakes or doing something silly; they had no concern for responsibilities; they had a self-confidence that was not even accompanied by a sense of the duties high position entailed. And this self-confidence sustained them despite everything, and so long as their luck held, it made easy for them things that to others seemed simply impossible. […] The audacity to attempt everything, the certainty of succeeding everywhere— in short, all the attributes of genius, except for genius." — Frédéric Masson

J O S E P H's close bond with the Emperor was often tested throughout their political careers, but never broken. He was without question his closest companion but proved to be more successful as a businessman before and after the Empire.

L U C I E N was never offered a crown or a throne, and broke off from the rest of the family as early as the 1800s. He frequently opposed his brothers' views and notably refused to divorce his wife in favor of a diplomatic alliance. Unlike his siblings, his title was bestowed by the Pope.

E L I S A, contrary to her sisters who primarily held consort roles or acted as strawmen, is believed to be the only Bonaparte sister, and only woman, with actual political powers bestowed by the Emperor. She's the only one of the adult siblings to die before him.

L O U I S' frequent conflicts with the Emperor led Napoléon to annex the Kingdom of Holland in 1810, driving him and his family into exile. Louis would go on to become the father of Napoléon III.

Despite a tumultuous relationship, P A U L I N E was considered Napoléon's favorite sister, and proved to be the most loyal of the imperial siblings, liquidating her assets and visiting him in Elba.

Often regarded as the most influential of the Bonaparte sisters, C A R O L I N E was constantly caught in-between her husband and her brother. She was instrumental in the divorce and remarriage of the Emperor. Her political legacy not only didn't survive the fall of the Empire, but effectively predated it through a series of conflicts with her brother.

J E R O M E was the last sibling standing by 1860, and out of them all was the only one to support the Emperor at Waterloo. He would also be the only one to see the re-creation of the Empire and his nephew on the throne.

[fatehbaz]

"The most fashionable bathing station in all Europe". British industrialists and American mining investors plotting the colonization of the Congo, while mingling at Ostend's seaside vacation resorts. Extracting African life to build European railways, hotels, palaces, suburbs, and other modern(ist) infrastructure. "Towards infinity!"

---

In 1885, King Leopold II achieved an astonishing and improbable goal: he claimed a vast new realm of his own devising, a conjury on a map called [...] the Congo Free State. [...] [A] fictional state owned by the king, ruled by decree, and run from Brussels from 1885 to 1908. [...] This was [...] a private entrepreneurial venture [for the king]. The abundance of ivory, timber, and wild rubber found in this enormous territory brought sudden and spectacular profits to Belgium, the king, and a web of interlocking concession companies. The frenzy to amass these precious resources unleashed a regime of forced labor, violence [millions of deaths], and unchecked atrocities for Congolese people. These same two and a half decades of contact with the Congo Free State remade Belgium [...] into a global powerhouse, vitalized by an economic boom, architectural burst, and imperial surge.

Congo profits supplied King Leopold II with funds for a series of monumental building projects [...]. Indeed, Belgian Art Nouveau exploded after 1895, created from Congolese raw materials and inspired by Congolese motifs. Contemporaries called it “Style Congo,” [...]. The inventory of this royal architecture is astonishing [...]. [H]istorical research [...] recovers Leopold’s formative ideas of architecture as power, his unrelenting efforts to implement them [...]. King Leopold II harbored lifelong ambitions to “embellish” and beautify the nation [...]. [W]ith his personal treasury flush with Congo revenue, [...] Leopold - now the Roi Batisseur ("Builder King") he long aimed to be - planned renovations explicitly designed to outdo Louis XIV's Versailles. Enormous greenhouses contained flora from every corner of the globe, with a dedicated soaring structure completed specifically to house the oversize palms of the Congolese jungles. [...]

---

The Tervuren Congo palace [...]. Electric tramways were built and a wide swath of avenue emerged. [...] [In and around Brussels] real estate developers began to break up lots [...] for suburban mansions and gardens. Between 1902 and 1910, new neighborhoods with luxury homes appeared along the Avenue [...]. By 1892, Antwerp was not only the port of call for trade but also the headquarters of the most profitable of an interlinking set of banks and Congo investment companies [...]. As Antwerp in the 1890s became once again the “Queen of the Scheldt,” the city was also the home of what was referred to as the “Queen of Congo companies.” This was the ABIR, or Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company, founded in 1892 with funds from British businessman “Colonel” John Thomas North [...].

Set on the seaside coast, Belgium’s Ostend was the third imperial cityscape to be remade by King Leopold [...] [in a] transformation [that] was concentrated between 1899 and 1905 [...]. Ostend encompassed a boomtown not of harbor and trade, like Antwerp, but of beachfront and leisure [...] [developed] as a "British-style" seaside resort. [...] Leopold [...] [w]as said to spend "as much time in Ostend as he did in Brussels," [...]. Ostend underwent a dramatic population expansion in a short period, tripling its inhabitants from 1870–1900. [...] Networks of steamers, trams, and railway lines coordinated to bring seasonal visitors in, and hotels and paved walkways were completed. [...] [A]nd Leopold’s favorite spot, the 1883 state-of-the-art racetracks, the Wellington Hippodrome. Referred to with an eye-wink as “the king incognito” (generating an entire genre of photography), visitors to the seaside could often see Leopold in his top hat and summer suit [...], riding his customized three-wheeled bicycle [...]. By 1900, Ostend’s expansion and enhancement made it known as “the Queen of the Belgian seaside resorts” and “the most fashionable bathing station in all Europe.” Opulence, convenience, and spectacle brought the Shah of Persia, American tycoons, European aristocrats, and Belgian elites, among others, to Ostend.

---

Leopold’s interventions and the Congo Free State personnel and proceeds played three pivotal and understudied roles in this transformation, all of which involved ABIR [British industrialists].

First, it was at Ostend that an early and decisive action was taken to structure the “red rubber” regime and set it in motion. In 1892, jurists such as [E.P.] had ruled, contravening [...] trade laws, that the king was entitled to claim the Congo as his domanial property [...]. Leopold [...] devised one part of that royal domain as a zone for private company concessions [...] to extract and export wild rubber.

Soon after, in 1892, King Leopold happened to meet the British “Colonel” John Thomas North at the Ostend Hippodrome. North, a Leeds-born mechanic [...] had made a fortune speculating on Chilean nitrates in the 1880s. He owned monopoly shares in nitrate mines and quickly expanded to acquire monopolies in Chilean freight railways, water supplies, and iron and coal mines. By 1890 North was a high-society socialite worth millions [...]. Leopold approached North at the Ostend racecourse to provide the initial investments to set up the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (ABIR). [...]

---

One visible sign of Ostend’s little-known character as Congo boomtown was the Royal Palace Hotel, a lavish property next to the king’s Royal Domain, which opened in 1899. With hundreds of rooms and a broad sweep of acreage along the beachfront, the palace “occupied the largest space of any hotel in Europe.” [...]

King Leopold met American mining magnate Thomas Walsh there, and as with North, the meeting proved beneficial for his Congo enterprise: Leopold enlisted Walsh to provide assessments of some of his own Congo mining prospects. The hotel was part of [...] [a major European association of leisure profiteers] founded in 1894, that began to bundle luxury tourism and dedicated railway travel, and whose major investors were King Leopold, Colonel North [...].

At the height of Congo expansionism, fin-de-siècle Antwerp embodied an exhilarated launch point [...]. Explorers and expeditioners set sail for Matadi after 1887 with the rallying call “Vers l’infini!” (“towards infinity!”) [...].

---

Text above by: Debora Silverman. "Empire as Architecture: Monumental Cities the Congo Built in Belgium". e-flux Architecture (Appropriations series). May 2024. At: e-flux.com/architecture/appropriations/608151/empire-as-architecture-monumental-cities-the-congo-built-in-belgium/ [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized first paragraph/heading in this post was added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[nalyra-dreaming]

i still can't believe they gave us that single glimpse of dreamstat in dubai!! (and louis just looking at him with a hint of a sad smile, even while recalling one of the darkest moments in their shared history.) it was such a low-key reveal, but it hinted at so much!!

i mean, they made a big deal of louis 'saying goodbye' to dreamstat, burying himself in the businessman persona, during eps 4-6. and from his tale you'd think he'd permanently closed the door on his visions from then. but if that were true, it's weird he didn't react at all to dreamstat suddenly appearing before his eyes for the first time in 80 yrs or so.

do you think he ever really stopped seeing dreamstat? going by his reaction, i think he at least indulged in these visions every once in a while (he has some control over them after all) & never stopped feeling the presence of lestat even when he couldn't 'see' him.

I think... I think Louis probably started "inviting" Dreamstat again some time after San Francisco. After that "door" had been opened again, with the call to Lestat.

After, over the years, he came more and more to the realization that some things did not match up. After he knew he need council outside of Armand's reach. And the only one he trusted... was Lestat after all.

And so he turned to Lestat once more.

[pynkhues]

Speaking of Louis, Lestat and masculinity, I think a point that people always ignore is that Louis' masculinity is important to him and he's attached to gender roles/preconceptions far more than Lestat/the way Lestat is not. I think it's communicated in the show pretty well. It's why he feels comfortable in the role of the successful businessman to Lestat's supporting spouse, but not when the power dynamic is flipped, and why Lestat feels comfortable to be the supporting spouse as well. Your recent post reminded me of the "Come to me" lyrics, and I think Lestat placing himself in the feminine role of Mélisande is another example of that. Plus the Marie Antoinette dress (note Louis being kind of uncomfortable with the camp of it all lol).

I totally agree, anon. I think the show's pretty deliberate with the fact that Louis' at his most comfortable in his relationships with both Lestat and Armand when he's acting as the businessman / breadwinner and they're acting as the supportive spouse. I mention it in the post I think you're replying to, but Lestat playing host at The Azaelia and helping to manage the staff - presumably without being paid - very much plays into that sort of dynamic, and it's one Louis seems to be repeating with Armand in Dubai given Armand's helping to effectively administrate the sales of Louis' art investments. It's a form of unpaid domestic labour which in a loving relationship, can be completely fine, but does often come with (perceived or real) connotations of roles and a certain power dynamic.

A huge part of that I think is tied to Louis' sense of masculinity and the role he wants to take in his relationships, but I also think it comes from a genuine place of wanting to be the provider, which has likely been borne out of the role he took with his mother and siblings as a young man. I talk about that more here, but I do think he needs to feel like he can look after those he cares about, and I actually do think it comes from a pure place even though it can be and is often corrupted by the fact that he's capable of real cruelty and vindictiveness when he feels scorned (i.e. he wants to provide for Grace because he loves her, and he buys her that holiday for her honeymoon, and he wants her to have the house to raise her family in, but when she disowns him, he doubles down on that out of spite not because he's letting her go and moving on, but because he's holding her to it. He knows she and Levi could never afford it without him, and he really rubs that in her face at their mother's wake. She'll always be living in his house, and that once meant something pure and good and loving, albeit paternalistic, and now it fundamentally does not).

I didn't really go into it in that last post, but I also think Louis being a voracious reader is something that gets misread a bit sometimes. Like these days, it can feel like being well-read is more common with women, particularly in online spaces, but I absolutely see the connotations on the show of it being partially a performance of class and masculinity. That's not to say I don't think he genuinely loves reading - I really think he does, and I love that about him - but this is the 1910s through 1930s when hypermasculinity and wealth was very much tied to being well-read, and a lot of contemporary authors from William Faulkner to Ernest Hemingway to Joseph Conrad, were both depicting and exploring manhood in ways that were pretty formative for a generation of men.

On top of that, reading was a symbol of class because the only people who had the time or capacity to do it were people who were both educated and had money. Louis sitting on a park bench in a three piece suit reading Charles Darwin of all people is absolutely a show of class and masculinity, and the fact that it dovetails into a conversation about diet, again, is a broadcast of wealth and status. Sure, we're talking about eating people, but if you're looking at it as a metaphor, it's symbolic of Louis having' choices about what he eats when, which is inherently about having the means and status to do so.

Plus I feel it's pretty important context for Louis and Lestat's bickering in 1.05 when Louis' reading Madame Bovary - Lestat calls Louis a snob, and Louis goes in by basically calling Lestat shallow and uncultured, which is a) very funny to me, personally, I love it when they're mean to each other, haha, but also b) I think very much evident of Louis' feelings of masculinity, particularly given it happens directly after he cites Claudia calling him the unhappy housewife. Again, Louis' rejecting that role - the house is a mess (so they've either fired their staff, or they've quit), Louis' not going to do it and neither is Lestat, and Louis' sprawled on the couch reading from his husband's library and dragging him for being too frivolous to read them.

Again, I think Louis genuinely loves reading, but I also do think for him it's fundamentally a part of his identity as a Cultured, Intellectual Man. It's why he doesn't take to the campiness of the Theatres des Vampires, or as you said, get involved in lestat's Mardi Gras performance (I'm always sooo fascinated by the fact that we don't get a reaction shot of Louis to that sequence at all - again! It feels loaded!) I think his sense of masculinity is, well, pretty traditionally masculine, and I think it's pretty vital to his self-image.

[speckled-jim]

It’s been bothering me for days that Louis wouldn’t let Dreamstat finish his sentence before the rain washed him away, and I think I finally understood why: Louis is all heart, always has been. His greatest wish and desire is to be loved as he is, for who he is, and on his own terms. His greatest tragedy is that he spent a lifetime being denied such love, whether because of his social status, because of his race, because of his sexuality… or sometimes simply because his love wasn’t enough. Lestat, for all his many, many, many faults, was the first man to love Louis with all the passion, all the tenderness, and all the adoration he deserved. Dreamstat was the last vestige of that great and terrible love, of all the precious, intimate moments, the silent gestures, but magnified tenfold until every bad memory was lost. Until all that remained was the Lestat who told Louis what he wanted to hear. And then, Louis let him vanish into thin air, let Armand take his spot… and you could see his face start to shift as they talked, you could hear his tone harden as the practiced businessman took over. I think something died in Louis that day: all the softness, the vulnerability, the humanity. He became less so he could become more, for himself and for the sake of others. And now in 2022, he has clear come to regret it. May he find his way back.

[indelicateink]

lmao. i'm having a crisis imagining that lestat's operatic serial killer OTT proposal of marriage as told to daniel is in fact a victim of fallible memory

(alternate theory, he mindwiped some unsuspecting parishioner wandering by into cleaning up the lake of blood, the busted confessional, the broken/smoking pews, the brains and blood off the gates, the-- okay, it's a stretch)

Louis, a Catholic, watching lestat eat one priest and literally punch the brains out of another: “oh I can’t not fuck him”

[hotvintagepoll]

who is your favorite scrungly performer that didn't get nominated for this tournament?

Not all of these guys are strictly scrungly, but I have a soft spot for all types of character actors and would probably have included them, just because I enjoy their performances:

Albert Finney (Scrooge)

Scatman Crothers (wasn't really aware of him before this tournament, then someone submitted propaganda for Marie Bryant w him that was DELIGHTFUL)

Cecil Parker (not truly scrungly but in everything as stiff english man)

Edward Arnold (not truly scrungly but also in everything as stiff american businessman)

Louis Armstrong (he's an adorable trumpeting devil in Cabin in the Sky!)

Guy Kibbee….a small creature

Ethel Merman

[msphine]

When he says “I love you” but the vampire Lestat said “This primitive country has picked you clean. It has shackled you in permanent exile. Every room you enter, every hat you are forced to wear—the stern landlord, the deferential businessman, the loyal son! All these roles you conform to, and none of them your true nature! What rage you must feel as you choke on your sorrow. The first time I laid eyes on you—your beautiful face—I saw that sorrow. I did not know how it got there or why it was so voluminous. I can take away that sorrow, Louis. I can give you that death you begged your feeble, blind, degenerate, nonexistent God for. But I can do it joyfully. I can swap this life of shame. Swap it out for a dark gift and a power you can’t begin to imagine. You just have to ask me for it. You just have to nod your beautiful head and say yes. I love you, Louis. You are loved. I send my love to you, and you send it back round to me, and this circle, this home we barely had a glimpse of—know it frightens me as much as it does you. Be my companion, Louis. Be all the beautiful things you are, and be them without apology. For all eternity.