#Don’t Leave Me In The Dark

[lunanovakat]

Update on WIPs

So currently ‘Immortal by Design’ chapter 2 is almost finished, as is chapter 4 for ‘More than Meets the Eye’.

‘One Hale of Time’ has another chapter about to be out too, since it’s mostly just editing.

‘Shadow of Myself’ and ‘If I try to Find You’ both are undergoing a chapter rewrite since it didn’t like how tot turned out so it’ll take longer for them to be updated.

‘Don’t leave me in the Dark’ currently has the smallest amount of work done but it’ll be done sometime in the next month or so.

Overall it’s been a lot of work but also not a whole lot, it’s just been hectic over here irl and I haven’t really had the energy to sit down and crank out a 10k chapter in one sitting anymore.

Funnily enough, I have a lot of drafts I kinda want to work on so I might get distracted with them but it’ll be a long while before they’re posted in any way.

I might post some chapter snippets - just little things - or some ore-edited stuff if anyone’s interested.

(And for those who are interested in my BNHA stuff, sorry, I’m currently not fixated on it so my interested in writing for it is on hold. It’ll come back eventually when things calm down but not right now.)

(I am sort of stuck with Cult of the Lamb brain rot right now, though.)

[slrmagazine]

RICKY WARWICK Announces New Solo Album 'Blood Ties' Out March 14th 2025

RICKY WARWICK Announces New Solo Album 'Blood Ties' Out March 14th 2025. #rickywarwick @rickywarwick

Ricky Warwick has announced the release of his new solo album Blood Ties, which will be out on March 14th via Earache Records. You can pre-order the album here. To coincide with the announcement, Ricky Warwick will release his new single ‘Don’t Leave Me In The Dark’ which sees legendary The Runaways guitarist & famed solo artist Lita Ford joining on vocals duties. About the…

[pluvio-floret]

Ah, tragedy au (said like Dungeon Meshi. Winged Lion voice.)

Original post

[monstersinthecosmos]

I read your answer, where did you say "Pandora is his actual type and Armand was his pet"

But how could Armand be just a pet for him? He is one of only three of his turned children. Marius speaks of him as the greatest love (along with Pandora). Although I see some hypocrisy in this. Marius loves no one as much as Pandora. But certainly more than just a pet

Well !

Babe the thing is that, I said what I said and it’s okay if you don’t agree!!! And I’m gonna take this opportunity to double down. (Assuming that you’re asking in good faith and not to pick on me for my analysis lmao please this fandom has traumatized me too much.)

(((TLDR the text never treats Armand like he’s Marius’s equal but also I never said that being a pet was a bad thing.)))

I want to start by talking about the concept of MAKER in VC and how canon tells us that vampires exist outside of human social constructs, including traditional family roles right? Like for example, the moment Gabrielle is turned, she ceases to be Lestat’s mother. 

But with Marius I think a lot about how he’s crafted a persona for himself, and tries to operate in a very rigid set of rules. And part of this is like, how determined he is to live by stoicism even when he’s a mess on the inside, but I also think about in TVL when he says that thing about how it’s easier to just knock a glass on the floor, and how he goes out of his way to appear more human and retain human gestures. 

So like, in the way a MAKER is kinda like, a parent/lover/companion/something too big for our tiny human minds to comprehend. We still get a Marius who is determined to be a father & mentor, and I think a lot about how his need for stoicism and humanity is probably also expressed with his need to be the paterfamilias. 

I’ve been also thinking a lot lately about Bad Fathers in Media—specifically people like Tony Soprano, Logan Roy, Roderick Usher—and how the toxic patriarchy affects their relationships with their sons. Tony Soprano in particular is one who resonates with me a lot when I think about Marius—Tony often indulges in anger because he enjoys being feared (he thinks it’s respect but it’s usually fear), and that’s a bit different on a material level from Marius “anger is too pathetic” de Romanus but they’re both sort of obsessed with the idea of stoicism and trying to be a ~ strong silent type ~ on the outside, even when they’re actually quite messy and emotional underneath.

But wait — put a pin in this for a second. We’ll come back to this, and the concept of fathers and sons. I want to pause real quick to swerve to clarify:

Armand being a pet isn’t a bad thing.

It wasn’t “pet (derogatory) 😒” —  it’s “pet (adorable creature that I care for) 🥰”.

Here’s the thing about MARIMAND if you will (I hate all the VC ship names oh my god theyre all hideous lmao) but like OKAY OKAY. THE THING IS. WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR IF WE’RE NOT INTO THE FUCKEDUPEDNESS ? 

Like I’m not telling anyone how to enjoy a ship, please have fun ! Do you! But to ME? That inter-species friction and 1,517 year age gap is like WHAT THE DYNAMIC IS ABOUT, THAT’S THE FLAVOR BABY!!! Anne Rice herself even said the book was about “a boy’s love for a monster” !!

WHAT’S THE POINT OF MONSTERFUCKER EROTICA IF HE’S NOT A MONSTER LOL

And YEAH I get that not everyone wants to read TVA as a monsterfucker story. That’s okay! It also reads as a savior fantasy. But I enjoy the messiness of it—I LIKE that Marius is an apex predator & ghoulish ancient thing. I like that it’s problematic. I LOVE that Marius really does love him, though, amidst all these other themes. I find it SO compelling.

But I never once said that Marius doesn’t love him. Of course Marius loves him. What I said is that he loves Armand the way we love a pet. I would fucking die for my cats. I regularly burst into tears looking at my cats because I love them so much. But they’re fucking cats lmao.

I never for one minute forget that Marius isn’t human. He’s operating on a whole different wavelength with different points of references and ethics and life experiences. Like, people get so hung up on Armand being 17 and IT WOULD BE JUST AS BAD IF HE WAS 18 OR 25 OR 30 LOL. A frail little human cannot comprehend !!!!!

What’s interesting with Marius’s fledglings though is that he tends not to treat them as equals. Like I think you could read TVA thinking: Once Marius turns him, they’ll be real partners. But no, they stick to their mentor/mentee, dom/sub, father/son roles. We don’t have tons of examples in canon of other maker/fledgling relationships but it’s not a coincidence that Roman Patriarch Marius maintains status over his fledglings. Even once Armand is a vampire, he’s still not Marius’s equal, and Marius’s age and power are still held over him. 

BUT LIKE.

That’s weird, right?

I MEAN THE DARK GIFT IS DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE but it’s interesting to me that Lestat & Gabrielle’s relationship completely dissolves once she’s a vampire, but Marius & Armand’s doesn’t.

(Sidebar that like, I think there’s also ways to acknowledge that if we think their relationship is good that it’s OKAY for them to maintain these roles because Armand WANTS to be his sub but let me focus on my point here. We should also make time to talk about diegetic BDSM and whether or not it’s appropriate to use a D/s framework for this discussion if the roles are baked into the text and not a choice for the characters and not a game they are agreeing to but that’s for another post.)

So back to the thing about fathers.

I’ve been thinking a lot about bad father characters, specifically Logan Roy and Tony Soprano (also bad mother Margaret Chenowith) and the impossible standards they give their children. Logan and Tony are both men who are disappointed in their sons for being soft, because they were able to provide better lives for their children. They both spoil their sons with all the material wealth that they did not have in their own lives. For Logan we see how badly he resents his kids—Kendall even accuses him of being jealous of what they have—and for Tony he seems to be at a loss on how to parse his feelings. Part of him literally hates AJ for being such a whimsical little fuckup, and at the same time he wants to protect that part of AJ and doesn’t even WANT AJ to follow in his footsteps. Still, he hates to see that AJ is spoiled with no work ethic, and doesn’t know how to set an example for him.

Everything in Venice is designed to spoil Armand with all the things Marius didn’t get—it’s such a specific & deliberate opposite of how Marius was turned. And I think him seeing Armand as a pet puts a little bit of distance between the hurt he’d feel if he thought of Armand as a true son, or even an equal. He doesn’t have to resent Armand for having it easier than he did, but also doesn’t have to feel extremely betrayed by Armand fitting in with the cult. Like, let’s never 4get that by the time Marius catches up with Armand, Armand is right at home and thriving with them. A CULT? THE THING THAT KILLED ME????? Marius has no idea what the fuck they did to him, he just knows that Armand settled in just fine and has discarded everything that Marius tried to teach him. 

I think these roles are appropriately all muddled because it’s VC—like we said, the No Social Constructs series—so like, how do we compare the words SON and PET and FLEDGLING and SUB, I’m not sure. But my point is that he’s never seen or treated Armand as an equal, and perhaps never even a full adult person. 

ARE THESE IDEAS CONFLICTING? A little. But that’s okay. Am I incoherent and ill-equipped to tackle this analysis or is it because Marius is not a consistent person and never quite lives up to the ideal he’s trying to be? Does he want Armand to be his pet but secretly has feelings? Does he fail at being a father figure? Is he brushing off his Big Big Emotions so that he doesn’t have to admit how wrecked and destroyed he is and how badly his feelings were hurt? Idk man. I’m sure you can send me another anon to tell me I’m wrong. 

I wonder sometimes if like, keeping Armand at this lower status (like a pet) actually protects Armand from Marius’s ire and disappointment. Marius is sort of a father, but sort of not. He’s crafted a role for himself that is never all the way sincere, and it allows him some space to protect his own feelings of betrayal and disappointment when it comes to Armand. Marius is also classically bad at following his own rules, and never quite sticks the landing on the people he’s trying to be. 

I can imagine a version of events where Armand does gain some ground with Marius, maybe pays his dues and matures into someone that Marius trusts and respects, but that’s not the version of events we get in canon. Marius turns Armand, Armand remains his pupil, they visit Kiev and Marius is jealous of Armand’s father, they make it all the way to the raid without Marius ever confiding about The Parents. Even in the present day, during a dispute, Marius tells Armand he has the savage & ignorant soul of a child. Even in the present day, Marius won’t stop calling him Amadeo!!!! 

And like!!!!! It feels like Marius is more upset about Santino wronging him by ruining his home and taking his toys than he is about what Santino did to ARMAND. It’s more about Marius’s own feelings and possessions than it is about Armand’s own feelings and experience of what happened. AN ARMAND FRIDGING, IF YOU WILL. 

Anyway.

By never seeing Armand as a complete person, Marius never has to feel threatened by him. We see this in toxic parents a lot. Like, I want you to be good, but I’m insecure if you’re better than me. Or I can never fully respect your feelings because I always see you as a child and not a fully grown adult. And the truth is that Marius is actually quite threatened by Armand, on the inside. He is very hurt. He cares what Armand thinks of him. He’s relieved at the end of BCtu when he assumes that Armand wants to open his heart again. 

So idk like. I think the books end with a little bit of a hope for them; we see a lot of growth and self-acceptance from Marius in the last book and it’s reasonable to assume that he and Armand might have a long chat and nice long cry and work it out. I don’t think it’s completely set in stone, but it’s nice to think about! A nice happy ending. And I wonder if this is when Marius finally takes Armand seriously and listens to what he has to say without demeaning him! 

Am I gonna add 2000 more words to this point by tying it what the whole like “I fear him because I could love him again” thing in TVA means? No I’m not. But like. Again! It’s okay to be a pet, I think Armand liked being his pet. :) 

[banditblvd]

I draw grian ONE (1) time and I start another project

Anyway rough DL!desert duo designs anyone?

[koushuwu]

now let’s do ivan too

[the-scooby-gang]

Wait scrappy is bonded to one of the gang right?

Which one is it? Or is it all of them. Personally I hoping it's Fred.

This is a fun story actually!

Back before the gang were all romantically together the entire Rogers clan was keeping an eye on Scrapy to see who he would bond with. There were no Rogers of bonding age for him to pair with so they all thought he was destined to be a Doo by adoption (when someone gains a Doo by being adopted into the Rogers clan) or a Doo by Marriage (where a Doo bonds with a non-Roger that is destined to marry into the family).

When I tell you Shaggy was Struggling™ because it looked like he was going to bond with Fred (he even started coping his speech patterns and saying “treasure” like that) only to turn around and attach his tiny puppy self to Daphne for months only to turn around again and go with Velma to her NASA internship as emotional support…

Let’s say Shaggy was very confused and just a bit frustrated.

But it turned out to be just the curiosity and friendliness of young puppies. Scrappy has found his Rogers not that long ago in 2011 when they found Cousin Steve on that iceberg.

[eye-of-yelough]

oh and on the subject of johanna hezenkoss i think she would’ve been SO MUCH FUN as a campy comic relief villain if the other veilguard villains weren’t also ridiculously shallow and impossible to take seriously

[ahalliance]

how do i turn qantoine’s spontaneous marriage proposal to qetoiles into evidence of his early-days fear of qfrench drifing away and keeping secrets from one another

[edens-reject]

A wrinkle in time

Take what is left of my life

Before you go

Show me what it's like to finally know

The face behind the silhouette

In this world I made to be infinite

But within the expanse, I finally see

A world without you isn't meant for me

Where do you go when I close my eyes?

What do you see looking back at me?

Am I just a ghost just like you?

Caught between the seams of two intertwining melodies

[canichangemyblogname]

I’m just… I’m tired.

A group of men making a joke skit about “casting couches” isn’t just tacky, but tone deaf.

Just because something wasn’t done maliciously doesn’t mean it doesn’t do harm.

[goldensunset]

i do not like thanksgiving (week)

[leverage-ot3]

"I'm old. And I'm satisfied. And you were my purpose" is such an eliot spencer after growing old line

look me in the eyes and tell me eliot spencer will outlive his partners

look me in the eye and tell me that eliot doesn’t plan to follow them into death as soon as he loses them

look me in the eye and tell me that after a lifetime of following them and protecting them and loving them he wouldn’t follow them one last time

look me in the eye and tell me that’s true

[stillcaptivating]

.

..

[herleaf]

@drtwat and @techiko hop in Clara’s diner TARDIS RIGHT NOW

[calamitoustide]

Who Are You?

James hasn’t talked to his dad in years. He never thought he’d say that. Never thought he’d ever manage to. Ever since childhood he’s orbited his parents like a planet to its sun. He crawled into their bed much later than he should have. Always trying to cling to the comfort it brought him. He’d rest easy under the sheets and their gentle breaths.

When he was a child his mother used to hold him close and whisper promises that she’d love him no matter what. Nothing could scare her away. In his anxieties he’d whisper question after question. Would she still love him if he told her he hated her? Would she still love him if he screamed and screamed even if she begged him to stop? Would she still love him if he turned towards evil? Would she still love him if he didn’t love her anymore? No matter what he asked she’d always say the same thing. She’d love him until every single star in the sky collapsed. She’d love him until universe went dark. That’s how they ended up here. Instead of Effie and her forgiving gaze James is left with his father staring back at him instead. Effie loved him too much to show up here. She would’ve asked him to come home. His Dad refuses to have her be hurt any more than she is. So they meet alone.

“James,” Monty mumbles as he slides in the seat. They’re meeting at a muggle place. Far away from all the talk of the war. It’s easier here.

When he was younger he used to go to places like this. He’d sit in this old diner watching the little toy trains move across the tracks that covered the walls. Wide eyed with a childlike wonder he can’t remember when exactly he misplaced.

“Dad,” James says back, pulling down his sleeve.

“How are you doing?” Monty asks. It’s so stiff. It shouldn’t be like this.

“Okay,” James mumbles. “A lot has been happening.”

“Yeah,” Monty says. “On both sides.”

“Dad,” James sighs. “I didn’t come here to talk about that.”

Monty nods, “You can’t expect us to just sit here and ignore it.”

“How’s mum?” James asks instead.

Monty shakes his head a sudden disgust rolling over him. James feels like a little kid again. He wants to crawl into their grasp and never free himself. “We’re not talking about your mother.”

“I miss her,” James says. He misses a lot of things.

“You can’t talk to her,” Monty shuts him down. “It would kill her.”

His dad never exaggerates. James knows he’s telling the truth. “I need to tell her—“

“Tell her what?” Monty cuts him off, “How will you explain this to her, James? How do you explain yourself? How can you…” his voice drops off he can’t even say the words.

He fell in love. That’s his first thought. It makes you do crazy things. His mum was the one to teach him that.

“I’m not proud—“

“You’re not proud?” Monty snaps, “Is that all you have to say for yourself? You think this can all just be undone.” His Dad never really showed anger. It wasn’t like him. Now he holds it in his throat. James sees it sitting in front of his eyes.

“Dad please—“

“We gave you every opportunity. You shut us out.”

James grits his teeth, “I understand why I do things.”

“Do you?” Monty tests.

James closes his eyes around his anger. He knew this was a bad idea. His old weakness came to bite. Regulus told him to stay home. He tried to prevent this. “This doesn’t make me any different.”

“You’re not the same son I knew,” Monty says flinching at his own words as they leave his mouth.

James scoffs he feels it in his throat, it burns. “You’re just embarrassed because I was like this amazing thing like your special creation or something and you don’t like who I am now!”

“Yeah?” Monty exclaims, “Who are you James?”

“This is me, Dad, this is me. This is who I am,” James croaks laying out his hand over the table.

Monty sighs settling back in his seat, “I can’t do this.”

James looks away. He can’t bear the sight. He wants to tell him he misses him, misses her. He wants to ask him to hold his hand through the pain. He wants to ask for his guiding light back. He doesn’t. “Fine,” he mutters instead.

Monty gets out of his seat, as quickly as he came, “Your hearts always been too big to fit in your chest, James.” That’s all he says. He doesn’t need to say anymore.

James manages to find his gaze just as he’s leaving. He feels it in his chest the feeling of being known so badly it devours him. He feels its teeth tearing into his flesh. It hurts. It eats him whole.

He looks down at his covered sleeve, and there’s really nothing left to say.