Darlington's always been fascinated by people's first reactions to Black Elm--not out of snobbishness or ego, but something a little harder to define. It shows him what they're really like, or solidifies what impression he's already formed; suggests what they value and what they don't. Michelle's near-instantaneous How much do you think it's worth? had been just as revealing as Sandow's studied non-reaction, or the brief moment where Alex's eyes had gone wide before her tough Van Nuys mask slipped back down.
In a way, it's a different version of that moment he'd been looking forward to for three years with Lethe, the chance to reveal something beautiful and extraordinary to an unsuspecting soul. As Palamedes sits and stares through the windshield at the house, Darlington can't help but smile as he undoes his seatbelt and slides out from behind the wheel. There's an academic curiosity in that look along with the surprise, a desire to know more not out of acquisitiveness but as a chance to understand Black Elm's bricks and trees and the beams of its roof a little better. It's exactly what he might have expected--exactly, he thinks, what he'd hoped to see from the other man.
"Out of nowhere just like the rest of us," he says. "I'm honestly not sure what was here before, but we see enough wildlife on the edges of the property that it's safe to assume it was just woods. Not unlike where the house was situated back home, come to think." Westville had expanded considerably since the first Daniel Tabor Arlington began work on Black Elm, the lot itself sold off in bits and pieces as time went on, but there was enough there still for it to feel utterly different from the regimented lines of downtown New Haven.
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In a way, it's a different version of that moment he'd been looking forward to for three years with Lethe, the chance to reveal something beautiful and extraordinary to an unsuspecting soul. As Palamedes sits and stares through the windshield at the house, Darlington can't help but smile as he undoes his seatbelt and slides out from behind the wheel. There's an academic curiosity in that look along with the surprise, a desire to know more not out of acquisitiveness but as a chance to understand Black Elm's bricks and trees and the beams of its roof a little better. It's exactly what he might have expected--exactly, he thinks, what he'd hoped to see from the other man.
"Out of nowhere just like the rest of us," he says. "I'm honestly not sure what was here before, but we see enough wildlife on the edges of the property that it's safe to assume it was just woods. Not unlike where the house was situated back home, come to think." Westville had expanded considerably since the first Daniel Tabor Arlington began work on Black Elm, the lot itself sold off in bits and pieces as time went on, but there was enough there still for it to feel utterly different from the regimented lines of downtown New Haven.