#Marya/Lili

[lollywoolf]

Dracula's Daughter (1936) dir. Lambert Hillyer, Universal Pictures "Dearest, your little heart is wounded; think me not cruel because I obey the irresistible law of my strength and weakness; if your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours. In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die - die, sweetly die - into mine" - Carmilla (1872), Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

[gruesella]

you know what would be hysterical? You know those adorable Pocket Princesses comics by Amy Mebberson where the official Disney Princesses all live together and feature cameos from other characters?

What if the spooky ladies (Lily, Elvira, Morticia, the Bride, Marya, Vampira, Luna Mora, etc) all lived together and other horror/horror comedy icons made appearances too in the Spookyverse?

[shinehalley]

You can't stop me from making Masayuki be friends with every immortal or supernatural woman I love

[isabelleadjani]

GLORIA HOLDEN as Marya Zaleska & NAN GREY as Lili DRACULA'S DAUGHTER dir. Lambert Hillyer, 1936

[darklinaforever]

I ship Daemyra, Jonerys, Persades, Lucesare / Borgiacest, Yume (Yuki & Kaname), Valerio & Lucrecia, Dracmina, Snowbaird, Warnette (Warner & Juliette), Jurdan, Addie & Luc, Lamen, Corien & Rielle, Marya Morevna & Koschei, Catradora, Charleimy, Phole (Phoebe & Cole), Heathcliff & Catherine, Jane Eyre & Mr Rochester, Erikstine, Raistlin & Crysania, Reylo, Darklina / Alarkling, Nina & Matthias, Mareven, Zutara, Taang, Azulaang, Rayaari, Dramione, Snily, Rumbelle, Zelena & Hades, Hans & Anna, Charlastor / Radiobelle, Aragorn & Eowyn, Wyler / Weyler, Sylki, Sareth, Saurondriel, Namuri / Nashuri, Mergana, Glenya, Elizabeth & Maximilian, Xiao Yao & Xiang Liu, Jo & Laurie, Hannigram, Clannibal, Villaneve, Spuffy, Nabrina, Sessrin, Kishigo, Darkness & Lily, Beetlejuice & Lydia, BatJokes, Jarley, Rhett & Scarlett, Chair, Bonkai, Delena, Steferine, Klaroline, Haylijah, Bamon (books), Clarke & Hope, Loustat, Lestat & Jesse, Tentoorose, Chise & Elias, Livius / Livi & Nike, Akigure (Akito & Shigure), Chocola & Pierre, Nygmobblepot, Ed & Lee, Whoufflé / Whouffald, Carlos & Lidia / Alba, Thomas & Edith, Dani & Pelle, Nuala & Nuada, Charlie & India, Billy & Dinah, Billy & Krista, Ruby & Clancy, Veronica & Jason, Jessigrave / Kiljones, Jack & Sandie !

Only ships that can cause controversy.

And you know what ? I don't really give a damn.

[dykekingofhell]

I’ve been working on a comprehensive list of all films with references or allusions to in the vampire chronicles books, films, show, and related promotional materials, along with films that anne rice and rolin jones have listed as inspirations!

Here’s some highlights:

Louis’ favorite films during the Tale of The Body Thief era:

The Company of Wolves (1984) (directed by neil jordan who also made interview with the vampire 1994)

Beauty and the Beast (1946) (i just know he was kinning Belle to a sickening degree)

The Dead (1987)

Armand’s favorite films during the devil’s minon era:

Bladerunner (1982)

Time Bandits (1981)

The film Anne Rice has credited with heavily informing her views on vampirism:

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

AR: "I always saw vampires as romantic and abstract. In Dracula they’re presented as closer to animals—feral, hairy, foul-smelling. But I always saw them as angels going in another direction—not toward goodness necessarily, but they had become finely tuned imitations of human beings imbued with this evil spirit. Since the spirit is not material, what actually happens is that they become refined and abstract rather than animalistic and materialistic. This idea probably stuck with me from childhood, when I saw the movie
Dracula’s Daughter. I loved the tragic figure of Dracula’s daughter—the
regretful creature who didn’t want to kill but was driven to it. It had that tragic dimension. The vampire myth is at its fullest, most eloquent, and most articulate in this movie because the vampire herself was articulate and eloquent. I never forgot that film. It has the best seduction scenes I’ve ever seen—very subtle. You don’t see her come into contact. She lifts the ring and hypnotizes the victim." (Ramsland, Katherine. “Let the Flesh Instruct the Mind A QUADRANT INTERVIEW WITH ANNE RICE .” The Anne Rice Reader, 1997. )

This is also notable because of the film’s queerness and overt lesbian subtext. As the Countess Marya Zaleska struggles with her vampire nature it functions as an oblique metaphor for lesbian sexuality, and she also seduces a young woman named Lili. (crazy louis parallels over here)

some of the promotional posters for season 2 took clear inspiration from the poster for the 1944 film Gaslight (shout out armand):

episode 2x03 makes major visual allusions to the noir film The Third Man (1949):

for more about this read @dorianbluee ‘s great meta: link

I have longer list with citations and quotes linked at the top of this post on letterboxd if anyone wants to check it out! also let me know if i’m missing anything major over there!

[choicesoctober]

WEEK FOUR+ MASTERLIST || WK 3 || WK 2 || WK 1 || WELCOME || RULES || PROMPTS || HOST

This week will also include the final half week. I’ll add to it as people contribute.

If I missed your’s please let me know and I will get it on the list. Same, if I missed reblogging your contribution. I have stumbled upon some by chance so please do let me know. Tumblr is tumblring.

@aallotarenunelma

Fic: Indigo Blood (ID, Cas x MC)

@cariantha

Fic: Hunger Pains pg-13 (OPH, Ethan x MC)

@gaiuskamilah

Art & HC: Marya Moonglory (Blades, OC)

@jerzwriter

Fic: Pumpkin Love (OPH, Tobias x MC)

Fic: Tricks and Treats (COP, Trystan x MC)

Edit: Better Luck Next Year (OPH, Tobias x MC)

@ladylamrian

HC: Halloweeen Costumes (Multi)

Fic: Duty & Pleasure (NB, Nik x MC)

Fic: Toward the Future (NB, Nik x MC)

@lilyoffandoms

Art: Conner x Tenebris (ILITW, Conner x MC)

Fic: Crimes Drabble (COP, Trystan x MC)

Fic: Blades Drabble (Blades, Nia x MC)

Art: Troy x Saeed (WTD, Troy x MC)

@noesapphic

Intro: Neera Rose (COP, MC)

@peonyblossom

Edit: Meet My MC - Reese O’Malley (ID, MC)

Edit: Bianca & Co. as Choices Characters (HWU, Multi)

Edit: Meet My MC - Issac Vance (ILB, MC)

Edit: Lisa Valentine & Aria Sheridan (HWU, Multi)

Edit: Ethan Ramsey in my HC (OPH, Ethan)

Edit: More Jackie Redesigns!! (RCD, MC)

@petiteboheme

Fic & Art: Birthday (TRR, Drake x MC, OC)

@potionsprefect

Edit: Too Many Clothes (OPH, Ethan x MC)

@rosepetals1

Intro: Meet My MC - Arielle Park (PM, MC)

Edit: Lily Spencer (BB, Lily)

@starsarewithinme

Fic: A Day Off (COP, Trystan x MC)

@storyofmychoices

Art: Love & Respect (Blades, Mal x OC)

Edit: Nyx (Baldes, OC)

Edit: Nyx (Blades, OC)

Intro: Nyx Selenastra (Blades OC)

Fic: Nyx x Aerin (Blades, Aerin x OC)

Edit: Aerin Redesign (Blades, Aerin)

[smolhoneybat]

hi! i've been a fan for quite a while. i really admire how you seem to articulate, i found myself becoming more introspective with every video. also it's really nice to see someone talking about games and series i really love. aside from that, i wanted to ask if you had any recommendations like games, books, shows, movies?

hi hi!! thank you so much, pinning the words down is hard but worth it haha 💛

Ooh I have so many... obviously there's the games and shows I've talked about on my channel but standouts would have to be Darkwood, Nier Automata and Arcane but ALSO

Games: -A Space for the Unbound: chill fetch quests in a small town in rural Indonesia, finish your summer bucket list with your gf, pet cats, dive into the subconsciousnesses of your neighbours!

-Ender Lilies: metroidvania platformer with some tight controls like Hollow Knight, gorgeous artwork and music, you play as Lily, a young amnesiac priestess trying to purify the spirits of the dead and stop the plague ridden rain that won't stop falling, you're small and weak but you recruit different spirits to fight with you but it never feels overwhelming or bloated, really enjoyed it

-Signalis: survival horror as an android looking for her gf, she made a promise and she's going. to. fulfil. it. Dystopian future in space with lots of good old rusty machine body horror, strange senses of time and memory and there's some puzzles in there too.

-Sunless Sea: Victorian London was moved underground by bats. Don't worry about it. Go sail the seas and try and turn a profit without losing your mind from the Horrors ^.^ (deceptively a lot of reading in this, plays like a management sim meets VN)

-Omori: 4 years ago Something happened. Omori dreams his days away in his room, carefully not thinking about that Something. Some of the game is in his colourful dream worlds and some out in the real world. Fights are always tinged with emotional rock paper scissors as how you, your friends and enemies feel will affect the fight! He's about to move house and an old friend comes knocking on the door...

(-alsoPathologicisgoodyesI'moneofthoseyoutubers)

Books: -Va11-Hall-A: I...don't know whether to put a VN under games or books so I'm putting it between the two. You're a barista in a cyberpunk kinda world, you listen to patrons while making them drinks and chat. (It's chill but sometimes gets pretty heavy and has a lot of mature topics in it for the record.) -Deathless by Cathrynne M. Valente: an alternate history book that has one foot in the Russian Revolution and the other in fairytale. Marya Morevna marries Koschei the Deathless, and goes back to his kingdom. She makes friends with various folklore creatures, checks in on her sisters who all married birds and her old and new lives begin to collide.

-The Locked Tomb trilogy by Tamsyn Muir: sci-fi necromancers vie to become the next right bony hand of God, first book is a murder mystery, second is a grim tale by a survivor of the first but something is Wrong and you know it is, third is an oddly domestic political tragedy and I loved them all so much, cannot recommend the audiobooks in particular enough (as the first is a murder mystery, all the voices the narrator does are both incredibly well done but let me pinpoint exactly who was speaking even when I couldn't remember their names, also she voiced Daniella in Haunting Ground!)

-The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch: small orphan becomes a conman in fantasy Italy. Ends up being drawn into some political intrigue and fucks around finds out, frequently!

-Children of Time: Spiders! Once upon a time an arrogant scientist decided to infect monkey with a virus that would encourage rapid evolution within cooperative species but...it reaches jumping spiders. They have their own form of sign language with vibrational tappy patterns against the ground and wiggling their palps! Scientist's consciousness has melded with an AI and is waiting for her monkeys to become intelligent enough to contact her

Misc: -Dungeon Meshi: do you want to learn about the ecosystem of a dungeon while also figuring out how to cook the creatures inside and watch a guy with a monster special interest live his absolute best life? Yeah you do! (I'm really enjoying this rn so ye)

-Mabel: podcast about a home health carer for an old lady who's only living relative, Mabel, is missing. Anna, the nurse, starts leaving her voicemails like a diary and slowly gets drawn into family secrets, fairy logic and goes exploring places she shouldn't (this one does not shy away from heavy topics including serious child abuse and its effects so if that's not for you then leave this one be)

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Somehow, Through the Storm

Summary:

Living in the slums of the Warehouse District, Kaz and Inej are struggling to cling on to life through a seemingly unending winter. Wrapped up in a stranger's overcomplicated marriage contract that he is convinced is key to solving the merciless weather, Kaz remains busy and distracted for days on end, putting everything else at risk. So when a storm ravages the city and sweeps Inej into danger, the offer of safety, food, and a place to stay is an overwhelming one - no matter the cost. Terrified of mounting threats, Inej signs a contract - not knowing she would land herself trapped at the Menagerie. Kaz signs a contract that states if he can walk all the way through the city and back to the Warehouse District with Inej behind him, never looking back at her, they will both go free. But this is the Barrel, the darkest part of the city where the rules of physics can change with the stroke of a pen; the journey back will not be the same as journey there…

This is a Hadestown-inspired reimagining of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, casting Kaz and Inej as our main characters and heavily featuring our beloved Crows, set in an alternate version of the Grishaverse with a different magic system based entirely on contracts.

Tags: @lunarthecorvus @marielaure @multi-fandom-bi @igotthisaccountunderduress @thelibraryofalexandriastillburns @devoted-people-hater @spraypaintstainonawhitewall

If anyone else would like to be added to the tag list let me know <3

Warnings for this chapter: ***RAPE/NON-CON***, ***MARITAL RAPE***, non-consensual touching, non-consensual drug use, slavery references (similar to Kerch indenture contracts), abuse, fear of violence, fear of sa, mistreatment of mental health conditions, implied child abuse, child death references, grief and mourning, loss of children, gore/anatomy description

AO3 link:

“Lily white and poppy red, I trembled when he laid me out. You won’t feel a thing, he said, when you go down. Nothing gonna wake you now”

- Flowers, Hadestown

Marya had almost finished packing when her husband walked in. She was due to leave in three days to travel to her mother’s lakehouse, and six months was perhaps a longer time to prepare bags for than she’d initially anticipated. She should have started sooner, but she’d underestimated how long it would all take. It had been a long time since she’d travelled anywhere for long. Or travelled anywhere at all, really - and definitely not alone. But in three days she would step onto a boat, Penelope her only company, and she would not see this house again for six entire months. 

She was a little worried about her plants, which would almost definitely go untended during that time, but so long as she went out and checked that everything was healthy this week, they ought to hold on just fine. She hoped so, anyway. 

It was mid-morning, but Marya was yet to even leave her room for how completely her task had consumed her and the only person there to see her was Penelope, so she was dressed simply and had not bothered to pin up her hair. She wore her hair down so rarely these days, it was almost strange to rediscover the way the curls might fall over her shoulder as she moved, or drop into her face when she leaned forwards. She did not dislike it. 

“You’re from Ketterdam, aren’t you?” she asked, looking up from her bag to see Penelope, “Originally?”

A long moment hung in the air between them. One of Marya’s skirts hung limp between Penelope’s hands. 

“I think so,” 

Marya nodded. 

“Have you ever left the city?”

“Maybe,” came the slow, deliberate reply, after another pause, “When I was very young,”

Marya wasn’t actually sure how old Penelope was, but she would have guessed somewhere around her mid or early twenties. How long had she been in the Geldin District? She’d had a contract somewhere else, before she came here, but no-one had ever told Marya where and even if Penelope knew it didn’t seem like a very polite thing to simply ask. 

“Not when you could remember it then,”

Penelope smiled, shook her head, then fixed her gaze on the fabric of the skirt as she began to fold it. 

The door flew open, hard enough to create a loud, reverberating bang as the handle made contact with the wall, and Marya’s gaze flinched upwards to see her husband - who else? - crossing the room. He spared Penelope a short, severe glance before snarling: 

“Out,”

Marya knew what that meant. Penelope scarpered, pulling the door closed behind her, and silence fell until Marya could bear no longer without breaking it. 

“I think I’m almost done,” she said, smiling, as she took a seat at the vanity. 

“Packing?” he asked, his voice low. 

Marya nodded. She watched him in the mirror as she began to fix her makeup, or rather pretend to, with shaking fingers. 

“Are you sure that you feel well enough to go?” he asked, as their eyes met in the glass, “I don’t want you to push yourself too far,”

“I’m fine,” she promised, “Other than that I shall miss you,” 

He smiled, then, and leaned over her shoulder to produce a black rose from his sleeve and lay it on the table. 

“I’ve brought you something,”

“More than my rose?”

“Do you not want anything more than the rose?”

Marya smiled the fake, playful smile that her husband seemed to consume so readily into the mirror as she teased: 

“Well that might depend on what you’ve brought me,”

He laughed, just softly, then pulled a velvet-covered case from his pocket and held it out to her as he clicked it open. Inside lay a necklace; three interlocking chains of gold that, at the front point where they crossed over each other, were set with a shimmering diamond. 

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” she grabbed his arm and rested her head briefly against him, “What’s the occasion?”

“Do I need an occasion to dote upon my wife?” His voice was low, but there was no malice in it. Not yet, at least. “May I?”

Marya lifted her hair to oblige him as he carefully wrapped the chain around her throat and clicked the little clasp into its proper place. 

“Perfect,” 

She smiled at the word, hoping it would somehow satisfy him, but of course he had more to say. 

“All these nice things I do for you. And still you’re going to abandon me for an entire six months,” 

“Jan, please…”

“Couldn’t you delay?”

His hand drifted through the hair at the back of her head, just loosely, and she resisted the need to pull away.

“Jan-”

“Just a week or two. I can’t stand the thought of being away from you for so long,”

“I can hardly stand it either,” she breathed, leaning up so his palm was cupping the top of her head, “I-”

“Then don’t go,” he was like a petulant child. His hand left her head, “Stay with me,”

“Oh, you know I would stay in a minute,” she breathed, feeding him false promises, of course, “But I worry about my mother, alone in that big house. The time will fly by, and I will be back before you even notice that I’m gone,”

He didn’t say anything, but Marya had the strong sense that the conversation was not over. She watched their reflections as he reached to touch the diamond in its setting on her necklace, and then his hand moved up into her hair. His other palm laid against her lower back as he leaned over her, taking a curl in between his fingers. For a moment she imagined that he might pull it, that he might force her downwards so her forehead slammed against the vanity, but he only lifted it gently and tucked it behind her ear. 

“I like seeing your hair down,” he murmured, studying her reflection in the mirror. 

Marya never wore her hair down. She wasn’t supposed to. 

His hand was moving now, slowly tracing from the small of her back, light touches along the circumference of her waist, until it found a place to settle in the slight crook above her hip. It perched there like a bird on a branch, surveying the world below it, or a tiger crouching in the grasses as it watched its prey, laying in wait to pounce. 

There was not any stopping him now. Not now that he was slowly guiding her onto her feet, now that his hands were moving to pin her body against his own, now that they were moving like one creature and the bed was bumping up against the back of Marya’s knees. There was no stopping him but still she shook her head, tried to gently move away, searched for words, any words at all, that would draw him away. But then she was tilting backwards and she had hit the mattress beneath her, and when she parted her lips to try again his own were pressed against them, like he was swallowing her voice and it was lost somewhere she could never find it again. 

Sometimes, afterwards, he left her alone. She would spend a long time, she was never sure quite how long it was, curled on her side with her knees pulled close up to her chest before she could bring herself to move. Not this time though. This time he stayed.

His hands crept over her as they both fell onto the top of the quilt, one undoing the buttons of her dress and the other wrapping round her waist to lift her, just slightly, off the mattress. She wondered if it was intentional, that this felt as though he needed to remind her how much stronger he was than her, how easy it would be to make it hurt. Her dress, loosened around her shoulders, was slipping off her now and his hands were on her chemise, then underneath it. His hands were cold. 

She was dressed only in her chemise and her gloves, now, and then he was peeling the gloves away as well. The right one first, not careless but inconsequential. The left one he did slowly, as though the motion of it, the slow revealing of the black inked leaves stretching across her skin was the most tantalising thing he could imagine. It was not fitting of her station, of course, to have such a large and obvious tattoo - that was why he liked it, she was sure. The gloves kept it hidden for propriety, perhaps, but it had many times crossed her mind that he might like that this part of her, this rebellion, was private. It was his alone, to see and to enjoy, and he was greedy for it. Maybe it meant, as well, that no matter how rebellious Marya had once been, she was here now, pinned beneath him, quiet at his word. There was power, she thought, in his enjoyment of it. A victory, in controlling someone who has given up on rebellion. 

Her husband pressed his lips against her neck and she responded the way she was supposed to, because he wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t. Marya sighed, leaning upwards and into the curve of his neck, and in the back of her mind began to pray. She prayed to every god whose name she could remember, but it didn’t seem that any of them were listening. 

Afterwards they lay on their backs, the ceiling flat and harsh above them and the clouded window a distant dream when Marya slowly turned to drop her right cheek into her pillow. Lay like this she could see her husband’s chest as it rose and fell, the movement of his shoulders as he settled, the slight parting of his lips as he released a small sigh. What she didn’t see, what she wouldn’t have seen without tilting her gaze or sitting up, was his hand creeping back across the top of the duvet. She didn’t realise he was moving until his fingers had laid against her own, until they were closed around her hand to suffocate it, until they were touching once again. Marya breathed as her husband adjusted himself at her side, moving closer until she was forced to lift her head or have her hair caught and trapped beneath him. She lifted herself obligingly, letting him run a hand along the back of her neck to brush her hair away. It lay as limp as the skin of a dead animal against her left shoulder as she forced a small, contented sigh from the back of her throat and rested her head against her husband’s shoulder. His skin was warm. 

He didn’t seem to want anything else. Marya breathed into the silence, not so much listening to his heart as she was feeling it reverberate through him. She reached over herself and lay her free hand, the one that did not belong to the arm trapped in between their two bodies, against his chest. With one of her many stolen books, Marya had taught herself a lot about anatomy. And what was a lonely woman with an overactive imagination to do with all that information, if not this? Somewhere deep inside her head, her hand broke through his skin, his muscle. It dug unimpeded through superficial fascia and fat, ran a thumb along the grain of a serratus anterior muscle until it felt the ribs beneath it. The ribs cracked beneath its touch, just a bear glance was all it took, and now her hand could feel the intercostals beneath its skin, could feel arteries and veins and nerves squished between its fingers, push its way through endothoracic fascia, rip through every layer searching, searching, searching. Her fingers ran themselves over his lungs, around his bronchus and then lower, lower, until they gripped his heat in a cold, slippering grasp. She imagined that his heart would feel cold, even whilst the blood was pumping. Her hand would be wet with it, her entire arm deep within him turned slick and red and dripping, and she would carve the thing straight out of him with her nails alone - a proper creature with proper claws. And he would be quiet, through all of it. It would just be her hand and his heart, as the only things that existed in the world. And one of them would break. 

Her husband murmured something, a light edge of laughter that she did not entirely trust touching his words, about how cold her fingers were and Marya was shaken from her thoughts to realise only milliseconds had passed. She moved to lift her hand away, but he tilted to catch it in the air. Marya followed him upwards, slightly, and propped herself up on her newly freed arm as he leant over her to press the other to his lips. 

“So pretty,” he murmured, tracing a light finger over her tattoo. 

Marya shifted her gaze away from him and onto herself, to where the black laurel leaves grew. They were planted, if you want to think of it like that, around the circumference of her ring finger and from there they grew in high, branching sets that stretched over the back of her hand, then twisted around her wrist and up her forearm, as though they were gently drifting in an easy breeze. Her husband’s fingertip moved across her, following one of the young plants all the way from its root, curling next to her wedding ring, around her wrists and rising up towards her elbow. 

“You tend your garden well, my love,” his voice was low, his breath hot against her skin.

Was there an edge to the words? Was he mocking her? Marya had a garden, or a patch of earth she generously thought of as a garden, that she’d dedicated to her son. In her recovery the doctors had suggested a hobby to give her focus; she used to hem curtains and mend clothes, servicing Ghezen with tasks that benefited the household, but now they told her she needed something that was singularly her own. When she tried to embroider her fingers shook and she lost the needle, which went unfound until she stepped on it days later and her husband, in response to the tiny dot of blood on the sole of her foot that she assured him didn’t even hurt after a minute or so, banned her from sewing again. For fear she’d hurt herself, he said.

Marya wondered, sometimes, where all her sewing materials had gone. Would he have kept them? Locked up somewhere just on the off chance that she would one day be able to take them up again. Or had he sold them? Or sent them upstairs, perhaps, to be made proper use of by the servants. There was no use to be found in a half-finished embroidery of a chrysanthemum though, was there? Hours and hours it had taken her, just to reach halfway through the pattern with shaky fingers that had never, since her illness, listened to her like they used to. She used to be able to sew with such care, with neat and organised stitches. Her chrysanthemum had consumed her focus for days on end, for over a week. Minutes fell to a single stitch. Where was her flower now? Her unfinished project. Her half grown child. Maybe he had burned it. 

When embroidery was no longer an option, she had turned to her garden. Hardy winter plants sprouted from the cold earth, evergreens to shroud her from the crying sky. When the storms came to ravage Ketterdam her heart would clench inside her chest until she could once more go to her plants and make sure they had all survived. The smallest she caged with little domes to try and protect them from the howling wind. Nothing could be left to the mercy of this city. This world. 

“Always,” she whispered, watching as her husband continued to trace the laurels of her tattoo. 

She thought about his love of the ink beneath her skin, the sense of power she was sure it gave him to stamp out her defiance. That would make sense if Marya had taken it on for the purpose of defiance, to stick out from her position, to rebel against something. But she wasn’t sure that’s why she’d done it. She couldn’t remember why she’d done it, actually. She couldn’t remember it at all. 

Marya didn’t remember getting a tattoo.

The realisation hit her suddenly, unexpectedly. Like the air had been knocked out of her lungs. She had lived alongside this thing, these leaves growing their way across her skin, for… she didn’t even know how long. They were simply there. She had simply accepted them. Her brow furrowed as she pulled her arm slowly closer to her, her husband gently retracting his hand and letting it find a comfortable placement along her middle instead, and studied the little black laurel leaves. 

“Do you think it hurt?” she asked, quietly, without lifting her eyes from the pattern. 

“Did what hurt, my love?” 

He wasn’t looking at her. She was almost surprised that he could hear her, as he pressed his body closer to her own. Marya didn’t respond to the motion as he moved himself over her, as his fingers traced her hips and grappled lightly for her thighs through the fabric of her chemise, but continued to study her arm in bemused wonder. 

“Getting the tattoo,” she murmured, “Do you think it hurt?”

“I don’t know,” he breathed, pushing her arm out of the way so their eyes met as she stared up from her pillow, “Did it?”

Marya had no response to give. Her focus switched to the pattern of a paint swirl on the ceiling, just past her husband’s head. His hands were moving again and she was drifting into her mind to hide her secrets from him.

“I don’t know,” came the soft response drifting from between her lips, dancing in the air between them like music notes that would soon be swallowed by the sun, “I don’t remember getting it,”

He froze. 

“What?”

His hands had stiffened where he held her and Marya’s skin twisted hard enough for her to release a surprised little gasp. Her husband glanced down at his hand before quickly drawing it away, but his movements were now cold and tight and his voice was stilted. 

“I don’t remember,” Marya said again, “I was just thinking it looked like it might have hurt, around my finger. Do you think it did?”

He was sitting up now, and then he’d taken her hand in his and he was pulling her upright. 

“What do you mean you don’t remember?” for a moment, she almost thought that he looked as though he might have been afraid, “You don’t remember if it hurt? Or you don’t remember getting it at all?”

Marya frowned, watching him. She almost felt amused, but something scared was growing in the pit of her chest. 

“I don’t… When…?” her voice died, but she didn’t know what she would have said anyway. 

“Marya, did you take your tablets this morning?”

Surely she had done. She always did. Three tablets in the morning, one at midday, one with her tonic before she went to sleep. So many to keep track of, but Marya never didn’t take them… didn’t she? 

“I…” 

She had a clear memory of Penelope setting the little dish of them on the vanity, bringing her a glass of water to chase them down. But what if that was yesterday? She couldn’t grasp the shape of it with any certainty. 

“I think…”

She was sitting up properly now, her husband kneeling on the crumpled sheets in front of her. He took her hands in his, pulling them close into his chest. 

“Marya, do you know where we are?”

“Of course I do,” she almost laughed, but she was too sensible for that, “We’re at home, Jan… Please, I’m okay. I’m… Everything’s okay,”

His grip on her wrists did not loosen. 

“Marya tell me when we got married,”

“When we-?”

“How many years ago? Tell me,”

Marya cocked her head to one side, studying his eyes - she spent seventy five percent of her time in his company, but rarely had she truly stopped to study them in true detail. Not in recent times, anyway. His eyes were a cacophony of colour, shades fighting one another for dominance, thrashing at the barriers of his lenses as though they might break free in a tidal wave, running from this body like race horses made from mist and rain. 

“Marya,”

She looked up. 

Marya did know when they’d got married. She was sure she did. But her brain was refusing to give up the information, or refusing to tell her tongue which way to move so that it could form the shape. She parted her lips, but no sound came. 

“Marya,” did he hesitate? Just for the briefest moment? Or did she just want him to have hesitated before he said so plainly, so matter-of-fact: “You know what happened to Wylan, don’t you?”

Wylan? Marya blinked. Where was Wylan? 

“What do you mean?” she whispered, trying to smile.

She meant what have you done? but she knew she could not ask that. 

“He…” she searched her mind, glancing at the clock on the wall. Midday was drawing near, “He has his music lesson now, doesn’t he?”

That sounded right, didn’t it? Yes, yes that made sense. Wylan was in his music lesson, and when he was finished lunch would be prepared and they would sit to eat together, pretending they were fine.. Usually she would have stayed downstairs to hear Wylan play his flute, but the only thing in this house allowed to break their routines was her husband and her husband had wanted her upstairs. That was all. That was normal. So why was he looking at her like that? She almost wanted to laugh, but she was too sensible for that. 

Her husband was on his feet now, pulling his shirt back over his shoulders, his fingers flying down the buttons faster than she could track them before he grabbed her discarded left glove and forced it up her arm with a roughness that caught her off guard.

“Jan?” she asked, shuffling to the edge of the mattress and following him with her eyes as he marched towards the door. 

She’d taken hold of a blanket edge and now clutched it to her chest as he flung the door wide, shouting into the corridor. Again she tried to find his attention, but again her voice fell into empty, unlistened air. Was she even saying it out loud? Sometimes she wondered. She would say something and no-one would respond, and she was left unconvinced if she’d even said it in the first place. 

A shape appeared by the door, and then the shape turned into a girl whose name Marya was sure she was supposed to know. Marya knelt where she’d been left, teetering on the edge of the bed, disturbingly aware of her unkempt hair frizzing at the back of her head, of her single gloved hand, of having pulled her chemise back down over her legs so recently. Why was she wearing one glove? 

Marya couldn’t tell if her husband and the girl were speaking quietly or if her ears had stopped paying attention to her brain, but the seemed to skip several paces forward and fall underwater, headfirst, before she found that she was perching on the edge of the mattress, her bare feet planted on the rug, with her husband’s arm around her shoulders, a glass of water resting in her hand and a small collection of pills sitting snugly in her palm. Where had they come from? 

“I don’t understand,” she whispered, “I was…”

“I know,” he soothed, moving a hand up and down her shoulder, “Just take the medicine now, and it will all be alright,”

“But what-? We were…”

His grip on her shoulder tightened, just the tiniest bit, and Marya slipped the tablets onto her tongue. 

“Get some rest,” he murmured, easing her back towards her pillows as he lifted the glass of water out of her hand, “It will be okay,”

Marya wasn’t sure she understood. But she was falling back into the pillows and her mind was drifting far away into soft dreams and floating spaces. She closed her eyes. It will be okay. 

The world only returned to her when a new morning had broken, and her husband pressed his lips against her forehead before he told her, gently, kindly, calmly, that he thought it best to delay her trip out of the city, just by a week or two. Just to be safe, he told her, to make sure she would be alright when she left. Marya agreed, more in a nod than in words aloud. What was a week? What were two? It will be okay.  

[free-for-all-fics]

Obscure Characters List - Female Edition (A-M)

Obscure Characters I love for some reason - Female Edition (A-M). (By obscure I mean characters that have little to no fanfic written about them. Not necessarily characters nobody’s ever heard of.) Don’t ask me to explain why. UPDATED: I had to split these up into separate posts because tumblr is being a butt about post length or something and won’t let me add more to either list idk.

A

Abigail Bishop/Emily (Let’s Scare Jessica to Death)

Agnes (Downfall Redux)

Agony Symbiote (Marvel Comics)

Alice (Apsulov: End of Gods)

Amanda Ripley (Alien Isolation)

Amelia (Underworld)

Anastasie “Tasi” Trianon (Amnesia Rebirth)

Annalise, Queen of the Vilebloods (Bloodborne)

Anna Valerious (Van Helsing 2004)

B

Baroness Clarimonde Catani (The Vampire Happening)

Belle (A Christmas Carol)

Black Canary/Dinah Drake/Dinah Laurel Lance (DC Comics)

Blackfire/Princess Komand'r (DC comics/Teen Titans)

Blind Mag/Magdalene DeFoe (Repo! The Genetic Opera)

Brides of Dracula (any version)

C

Cala Maria (Cuphead)

Calendar Girl/Page Munroe (DC Comics/The New Batman Adventures)

Catherine Chun (SOMA)

Charlotte Elbourne (Vampire Hunter D)

Charlotte Thornton (Nancy Drew, Ghost of Thornton Hall)

Chrissy/Mildred Pratt (Deadstream)

Constance Blackwood (We Have Always Lived in the Castle)

Cora (Devil’s Carnival 2)

Countess Marya Zaleska (Dracula's Daughter)

D

Dana Newman/The Angry Princess (Thirteen Ghosts remake)

Dolirra (Fariwalk: The Prelude)

Doll Face (The Strangers)

Dollisa (Fariwalk: The Prelude)

E

Edith Finch (What Remains of Edith Finch)

Elisabeth Williams (Maid of Sker)

Elizabeth Eilander (Rusty Lake Paradise)

Elizabeth Shelley (Frankenhooker)

Empress Tihana (Amnesia Rebirth)

Erin (You’re Next)

Estella (Great Expectations)

Esther/Leena Klammer (Orphan 1 and 2)

Evelyn “Evie” Carnahan O' Connnell  (The Mummy series)

F

Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

G

Ginger Fitzgerald (Ginger Snaps)

Glorificus “Glory” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Goody (Vampires)

Grace Le Domas (Ready Or Not)

Gwendolyn “Gwen” Grayson/Royal Pain (Sky High)

H

Harper Thornton (Nancy Drew, Ghost of Thornton Hall)

Hel (Apsulov: End of Gods)

Hero (Much Ado About Nothing)

I

Imogen “Idgie” Threadgoode (Green Fried Tomatoes)

Iris (30 Days of Night)

Isabelle/The Bride (Spookies)

J

Jane Doe (Autopsy of Jane Doe)

Jayme/Red (Blood Fest)

Jennet Humfrye/The Woman in Black (The Woman in Black)

Julia/Subject Three (TAU)

Juliette Waters (Sylvio)

Justine Florbelle (Amnesia the Dark Descent)

K

Kate Drew (Nancy Drew, The Silent Spy)

Kathy Rain (Kathy Rain)

Katrina Van Tassel (Sleepy Hollow)

Kissin’ Kate Barlow (Holes)

L

Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower (Bloodborne)

Lady Sybil Crawley/Branson (Downton Abbey)

Lamia (Stardust)

Laura "Lorelai" Wood (Lorelai)

Laure Richis (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Laurie (Trick ‘r Treat)

Leech Woman (Puppetmaster series)

Lena (Underworld: Blood Wars)

Lily (V/H/S Amateur Night/SiREN)

Lily Munster (The Munsters)

Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree (Elden Ring)

Lucille Sharpe (Crimson Peak)

Lucy Billington (The Invitation)

Lunar Princess Ranni (Elden Ring)

M

Malenia the Severed (Elden Ring)

Marni Wallace (Repo! The Genetic Opera)

Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood (We Have Always Lived in the Castle)

Mel (Nancy Drew, Warnings at Waverly Academy)

Melanie Ravenswood (Phantom Manor)

Melina (Elden Ring)

Millicent (Elden Ring)

Milk Maiden (2001 Maniacs)

Mirror Queen (The Brothers Grimm)

Miss Brixil (Level 16)

Moder (The Ritual)

[theatricswithkoda]

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

Review: Dracula’s Daughter was a very intriguing watch, a beautiful cast of actors and actresses. Countess Zaleska played by (Gloria Holdon) gave a very hypnotic and gothic performance in this movie. She lures you in with her rather reserved personality. It’s safe to say she steals the spotlight and rightfully so. Moving onto the scenery and cast I have to say the scenery is rather limited as most of the movie is shot indoors and in offices and studios, there isn’t much to look at artistry wise with the set design of the movie. But what lacks in the scenery is made up in the beautiful and elegant dresses that our main character Countess Zaleska wears throughout the movie. Let’s not forget the wonderful performance of Doctor Garth played by (Otto Kruger) he gives an amazing on stage presence and plays his character very well along with Janet played by (Marguerite Churchill) the two seemed to have an instant chemistry as soon as you lay eyes on them and their scenes together proved this.

My Summary: The movie starts with a slight comedic and not so serious tone, you get a feel for certain characters and their complicated but obvious attraction to each other especially with Doctor Otto and Janet. Soon the movies tone seems to shift into a more serious and interesting style as Countess Marya Zaleska appears and finds herself trying to rid her body of the disease known as vampirism. She finds herself enamored with the doctor, hoping he could cure her need for human blood. The Countess goes on to lure women and men with the help of her servant Sandor played by (Irving Pichel). The vampire finds herself unleashing her secret with the deaths of her victims, Doctor Otto is suspicious as one of her victims relayed enough information on who had attacked her, giving away Zaleskas whereabouts before the victim died. The doctor finds The Countess and persuades her to tell the truth. Towards the end of the movie we find Countess Zaleska has kidnapped Janet where soon Doctor Otto finds them and pleads for the Countess to take his life instead of Janet’s. Before Countess Zaleska is able to transform the man she is shot in the heart by her servant Sandor and is declared dead. Doctor Otto and Janet share a moment with each other as they soon realize that they care and love each other more then they had let on earlier. The movie ends with a shot of a dead Countess Marya Zaleska with the last words of Van Helsing. “She was beautiful when she died, a hundred years ago.”

Queer Thoughts: Moving on I would like to discuss some things I noticed while watching Dracula’s Daughter. The coded Queerness between Countess Zaleska, Janet and a character with little screen time Ms. Lili played by (Nan Grey). There are two small scenes in which these three women have interesting encounters with one another. In one scene the Countess lures Ms. Lili into her private studios, requesting for Lili to pose for a new painting the Countess wants to paint. You watch as the girl slips her blouse down a bit, the Countess gazes upon the woman almost longing for her. It holds a tone of yearning and to add to this the way the camera captures the longing emotions of the Countess. The last scene is towards the ending where Zaleska has captured Janet in her fathers castle. Janet lays unconsciously, Countess Zaleska leans in gently and the camera captures a very tender moment we’re it seems as though the Countess is leaning down to kiss a sleeping Janet. It’s very evident what the movie was going for with the queer representation even though it was meant to portray Queer people as impure, perverted and monstrous it most certainly failed and would most likely fail with the generation of this time as the characters displayed nothing but human emotion such as loneliness and the need to be loved.

[epilogueafterepilogue]

Was this the production with Kennedy Caughell as Sonya? What did you think of her, especially compared to her Helene/Marya, if you ever saw that?

Yup! This was seriously such an amazing cast all around, other standouts include Jamari Johnson Williams as Balaga and Lili Thomas as Hélène.

I sadly never saw Kennedy as Hélène nor Marya, but I have some audios! She's great in both those roles, of course, but I think I like her most as Sonya - she's on par with Brittain, tbh. Her Sonya Alone was so heartbreaking in the best way - i loved it. I especially loved her interactions with Natasha, I could tell how protective this Sonya was of this Natasha and I loved it.

the whole cast was great really, tbh. My only complaint is there will be no cast recording.

[isabelleadjani]

GLORIA HOLDEN as Marya Zaleska & NAN GREY as Lili DRACULA'S DAUGHTER dir. Lambert Hillyer, 1936

[thechaosmuses]

Below the cut you'll find a list of my MCU muses along with their face claims (more info about each oc muse will be up soon but if you have any questions in the meantime don't be afraid to pm me, I have info on Google Docs for all of them.)

Total Muses; 39 Newest Member; Celeste LivingstonAdded; 5/15/23

Sterling Atlas Ward... portrayed by Ian Somerhalder Kailee Elizabeth Holtz... portrayed by Megan Fox (villain and hero verse) Joaquin Miguel Torres... portrayed by Danny Ramirez Peter Django Maximoff... portrayed by Evan Peters Pietro Django Maximoff... portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson Wanda Marya Maximoff... portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen Camelia Waverly Maximoff... portrayed by Danielle Rose Russell James Buchanan Barnes... portrayed by Sebastian Stan Kaleb Jonas Barnes... portrayed by Logan Lerman Steven Grant Rogers... portrayed by Chris Evans (note: i have both pre-serum and super soldier steve) Maxine Josephine Rogers... portrayed by Kathyrn Newton Michelle Julia Jones-Watson... portrayed by Zendaya Coleman Peter Benjamin Parker... portrayed by Tom Holland Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy... portrayed by Emma Stone Peter Benjamin Parker... portrayed by Andrew Garfield Jonathan Spencer Storm... portrayed by Chris Evans Melody Elizabeth Young... portrayed by Sabrina Carpenter Kate Bishop... portrayed by Hailee Steinfeld Natalia Alianovna Romanova... portrayed by Scarlett Johansson Yelena Fyodorovna Belova... portrayed by Florence Pugh Anastasia Sloane Lenkov... portrayed by Holland Roden Wren Nika Volkov... portrayed by Josephine Langford Wynter Nadia Volkov... portrayed by Lili Reinhart Brunnhilde Valkyrie... portrayed by Tessa Thompson Loki Laufeyson... portrayed by Tom Hiddleston Cordelia Ara Odinsdottir... portrayed by Ashley Benson Amora Delphine Brantley... portrayed by Leighton Meester Celeste Juliet Livingston... portrayed by Brenda Song

Crossover/Genderbent Muses

Nikolai Nathaniel Novak... portrayed by Daniel Sharman (tvdu to mcu) Charmeine Ayla Hanlon... portrayed by Zendaya Coleman (spn to mcu) Kaiden Edward Holtz... portrayed by Ian Somerhalder (genderbent kailee) Petria Delilah Maximoff... portrayed by Alexandra Daddario (genderbent pietro) Stephanie Grace Rogers... portrayed by Dove Cameron (genderbent steve) Jamie Belladonna Barnes... portrayed by Kaya Scodelario (genderbent bucky) Samantha Trinity Wilson... portrayed by Gabrielle Union (genderbent sam) Theodosia Audra Odinsdottir... portrayed by Rachel Taylor (genderbent thor) Lady Loki Laufeyson... portrayed by Katie McGrath (genderbent loki) Calder Ace Odinson... portrayed by Chad Micheal Murray (genderbent cordelia)

[themerchliing]

Wylan loves flowers and would spend hours in the Van Eck grounds playing around them when he was a child. He'd pick flowers for his mother, delighting in the way she lit up every time. She would return the favor by placing fresh flowers in his windowsill vase every few days to brighten his room.

His preferences are yellow and orange ones, particularly orange lilies and yellow roses. However, he is absolutely in love with the bird of paradise flower — he thinks it's the prettiest flower he's ever seen. It is native to Novyi Zem, but he always lights up (much like Marya did) whenever he sees them on sale somewhere within Ketterdam. Wylan never buys flowers for himself despite thinking that his room at the Slat could definitely do with a windowsill vase and a lovely bunch of flowers to brighten it up.