#before reccing IWTV to them

[crazykuroneko]

Tbh I think a lot casual viewers / non book fans are probably going to not continue the show after s2 unless it diverges quite drastically on louis's storyline? iwtv is very bleak and I genuinely think they underestimated how much show viewers ended up hating lestat after s1 (and they may end up in a similar situation with armand in s2) and then you're asking the audience to watch an entire season of this guy's whole backstory. plus you're killing off one of the two likable characters by the end of s2 and shifting louis into more a side character.

a big red flag to me was the lady who hosts the podcast who doesn't have a book background saying a lot of the same stuff as show-only people. like she clearly does not like lestat or loustat at all lmao and its literally her job to promote the show.

First, I want to address the "shifting louis into more a side character" because no I don't agree with that. Contrary to fans believe, Hollywood-standard wise (from the number of episodes they are in, how integral their characters are to the story), both Jacob and Sam have been considered as lead actors/cast of IWTV. You can see industry news outlets calling them both as such. But because IWTV is about Louis' past specifically and AMC knew IWTV still has some hope in Emmys even though it's small, they put them in different categories to not split the votes between them (they even only submit one actor in each category for it). So, look at what we have now, Louis is the narrator yet we still get Lestat in all episodes, and he's leading the NOLA narrative forward together with Louis despite not existing in the Dubai narrative. I bet we'll still get Lestat in most, if not all episodes, in S2, because Rolin has said many many times, the show is about both of them. And I expect they'll do the same in TVL season(s); Lestat is telling the story while Louis is leading whatever will be going on in the modern time. (No, i don't believe they'll make Louis stuck on a couch the whole season to listen to Lestat's story even though it sounds tasty. He'd definitely have a way to know what Lestat's saying, but I don't see anything good writing-wise from sticking your well-developed character in one place for such a long time)

About whether the audience will be willing to listen to Lestat's past, I'll see how S2 goes first before judging that. A lot of people don't like him, but there are a lot of them who are like, "I will miss him if he dies, he's an interesting character".

And IWTV is a niche show, its genre is gothic horror/romance. Who the hell is doing gothic romance for a series in this decade? (Hannibal doesn't count, it's not gothic and still about will/won't they). Like, what AMC is doing with IWTV now is extremely daring. And with a niche show, it's always the same: you can't please everyone. There will always be part of the general audience who will leave because either it's simply not their cup of tea or they can't stomach it. Especially now when there's this purity sentiment going so strongly in general (apparently now we shouldn't ship fictional characters, every sex scene has to have a grand purpose, and you shouldn't watch any portrayal of abuse even though it's produced by the victim herself). God forbid IWTV would ever want to please those people yikes. So, IWTV won't ever get as "mainstream" as what, Succession, Ted Lasso, Better Call Saul. But IWTV would still appeal to people who appreciate good writing, people who are "idc how bad the characters are as long as they're exciting!", and people who really love horror (not that "comfort horror" BS) - there's this review of IWTV from an horror website who is like "I wish they gave us more gore and horror of vampires", oh these people would love S2.

So, tl;dr you could say it's a natural selection (hell yes Darwinism), it's inevitable. I'd rather have that audience leave than stay and ruin fans' experience by whining about the plot that won't ever satisfy them. And I'd always applaud writers who don't give a shit to what people say and stick to what they're meant to do. They slay!

EDIT: ah I forgot about this. but don't underestimate the number of old fans who will probably check the show again when the TVL season(s) come. Because no matter how big their hatred for AMC is, it will be the first time ever for TVL to be adapted on screen. First time in 38 years (yes no one considers QotD movie ever existed). That's too big a temptation!

[loumandivorce]

@vampirejournalist started iwtv fanfic friday and i'm here to participate totally on time and not an hour before saturday begins with some LOUMAND FIC RECS as demanded by my url. here are some bangers.

Bloodletting, explicit, series

Even though we've had our ups and downs.

[“I love you,” Armand whispers. Louis swallows against a painful throat. “Sure, honey,” he says. “I love you.” Like saying it again will make it stick. “I know,” Louis says. Armand whispers it a third time, and Louis closes his eyes so he won’t have to look at him when he says, “I’m not gonna say it back, honey.”]

this is a series and it's number one on the rec list because it's truly The loumand series of all time there is nothing that gets them better. chances are you've read one or two of these but the entire series is absolutely insane. hot and disgusting and vulnerable and heartbreaking and makes me feel crazy.

A Chill That Follows, explicit

He leans down to kiss Armand, cradling the back of his neck in his hand. He smiles when he feels rather than hears Armand sigh against his lips, pleased—as if he’s receiving a gift. It’s almost absurd, to think that he was threatening to kill him less than half an hour ago. “What’s absurd is that threatening to kill you was what finally got you to put out for him,” a dismissive, familiar voice says behind him. Shit.

armand is fighting for his LIFE. delicious read

Triptych (Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion), teen

The five of them— Louis, Armand, the figures at the crucifixion— sit together, far too much alike, deformed creatures with teeth that shine in the dark. They all come apart in pieces.

[Why they bought the Bacon triptych, and why Armand sold it.]

really interesting character study on the trifecta in relation to armand

The Cord That Goes Winding Out The Door, teen

There had never been a time proper in his life where Louis wasn’t surrounded by others, but this was the first time that he had felt permanently connected; eternally un-alone. Another being tied to him, a constant brushing of shoulders against his being.

birthing imagery as horror 😊

1,001 nights, mature

The last time Louis saw the ocean up close was—1998. An island off of Miami. Flat, breezeless night.

Or: shards of the past seventy-seven years.

loumand failmarriage through the decades.

dirges, explicit

They fell into a holding pattern for a while in the seventies, in the years before Daniel. Perhaps it was not so long as years, but time dilated, as it was, in Armand’s experience, sometimes wont to do, and it stretched into a small eternity, syrupy and neon-lit, of Louis throwing himself onto swords, chasing and chasing, Armand trailing after with the end of the leash.

practically a loumand heritage fic. written pre s2 but managed to predict so many key parts of their dynamic.

Alexandria, explicit

Louis, glitteringly modern as Armand has always found him, is an excellent tourist, throwing himself into the wholehearted pursuit of the city with an almost manic zeal. Thunderingly alive in Paris, thunderingly alive in Alexandria, thunderingly alive for the rest of their lives, wherever they might be.

loumand in egypt! almost feels like a slice of life in a way, reading this makes you feel like this is really how they spent those 77 years together. the perfect undercurrent of tragedy and bitterness and, of course, love.

acts of collision, explicit

Armand misses Louis like a man about town misses his favourite whore. He misses what only one person is horrid enough to do to him. And Daniel wouldn't even suggest it, if he couldn't feel how Louis misses Armand in the exact same way.

this one is sort of cheating because its a loumandiel fic from daniel's pov, but it's so so good. set in a nebulous post s2 future where daniel invites louis to do a bdsm scene with armand because they both miss each other but armand quite literally Doesn't Talk to louis the whole time. rlly fascinating

the crowning evil, explicit

Armand stood, back to the window, unblinking, tension carrying itself in his frame. Liar, Louis thought. All he could think. Centuries old monster playing at being a boy. A boy pretending to be a man. Unworthy in both roles. Something akin to revulsion clawed up his throat, but it couldn't be, not really, he was too burnt to a husk to muster it in its completeness.

“Come here,” Louis said, his voice dropping.

Armand stepped forward, eyes going wide and hopeful and hungry in half a second. “Yes, Maître.”

“You’re still on that?” Louis asked.

this is just self promo im ngl 💗 but i'm confident enough that my own fic is good so. loumand having despair sex before going to meet lestat in paris in 2.08

this ended up being pretty long but loumand writers when they get it right write such beautiful fics 💗 thank you wonderful iwtc writers. happy fanfic friday/saturday!

[avelera]

I think there's 2 things that have kept me from reading IWTV show fanfic and/or QotD-informed Devil's Minion fic, despite the fact I'm really excited to see where the show takes that ship and the fact the Vampire Chronicles used to be my entire personality growing up:

Adjusting to a prose voice for IWTV characters that's not Anne Rice. Thing is, I used to read Vampire Chronicles fic back before it was banned on FFN! But it's been so long, and it's been so forbidden for so long that it feels weird even thinking to go looking for it and, honestly, Anne Rice's prose style is very accessible to fic readers, that it's a little like having your favorite fic writer in a fandom and then it's just :-/ not all that interesting to try to go read the same characters in someone else's voice, let alone sifting through anything less that NYT Bestseller-adjacent levels of prose. Basically, wherever am I going to find either someone who perfectly captures the show voices OR perfectly captures the actual author's fanfic-adjacent voice?

How to say this gently.... fanfic has a tendency to soften certain characters and polish off the rough edges? In particular with Daniel/Armand, I'm really not all that interested in fluff or soft fic or even get together fic at this point since that's nowhere near where they're at in the show. I kinda just want to see them hashing out all the decades of drama between them more than I actually want to see them hook up just yet? Like, I think there's some hints, if you squint, that Old Daniel is attracted to Armand, but if they did have a relationship, hooo boy, holy shit that means Armand (probably) non-consensually wiped Daniel's mind of what might have been one of the most significant relationships and most significant periods in his life. It means he's been living a lie since the goddamn 70s. Like... that's still lightyears away from a "romance" just yet, that's goddamn knock-down, drag-out, screaming fight that needs to happen before Daniel would begin to worry about things like, "Do I find this person attractive? Do I want to be on the same continent with them, let alone in the same room?"

And the thing is, that is the kind of fic I'd be interested in reading for show-version Daniel/Armand! If anyone has a rec for a much rougher, sharper, more conflict-driven taken on Daniel learning that 70's Devil's Minion happened (all except for him getting turned) that actually includes Eric Bogosian's trademark tough talk with Armand and his take-no-shit attitude, I'd love to read it.

But at this point I'm almost afraid to even go look because so much of the fandom stuff I've seen on Tumblr around Daniel/Armand is (understandably! fandom tends to write what is missing from canon!) more established relationship or fluffy or even flirty but like I don't even see them as flirty at this point? Except in the most hostile hate-fucking of manners from Daniel and the most otherworldly disconnected way from Armand where even he can't articulate what he wants (honestly, what does Armand want? Does Armand know what Armand wants?? I think the most appealing thing about Devil's Minion is that Armand seems like he can be his own weird self around Daniel, especially in QotD but it feels almost like baby steps in terms of his actual sense of self??).

Anyway, this has gotten away from me, but tl;dr if anyone has like really really tonally show or book aligned IWTV fanfic they'd like to rec I'm all ears! Even as I'm still immensely, fundamentally weirded out at being able to read Vampire Chronicles fanfic again after 20 years ^^;;

[o0anapher0o]

I've never done a fic rec list before but A Meal to Remember seemed like a good opportunity to start. In no particular order.

One of our reportes is missing by angstosaur. IWTV crossover with The Newsreader. Rated M. Louis/Lestat/Armand, Helen/Dale, Dale/Tim, Helen&Tim.

Louis sees Dale Jennings on the News and travels all the way to Australia to figure out what the hell Lestat is up to now. Obviously the logical way to go about this is break into the guys appartment and kidnap him.

This is just the best thing I've read in ages. The epic clash of firmly rooted in reality Newsreader and 'consequences aren't real if you're immortal' vampire world should not work as well as it does and it's a real joy to read. I particularly loved how beutifully the relationship between Tim and Helen was handled, as well as Louis getting to know Dale and seeing a lot of similarities between them I didn't expect to be there vs the chaos thrupple at peak insanity being generally horny and incompetent. It also has one of the greatest entrances of a character I've come across in a long time.

Renaissance by siahatha. Post canon. Rated M; Louis/Lestat

Louis and Lestat trying to make their relationship work in the modern day after Lestat spend a few decades in therapy. Louis still has some ways to go in that regard.

Deals a lot with Lestat's mania and Louis eating disorder. Also involves some genderfuckery.

Something about this one just really grabbed me. There are a lot of really cute moments that just show really well why Loustat are so great when they work and the heavy moments scatch that itch of 'why can't they just talk to each other' by putting them in a place where they can do that while still being true to their characters.

Practical Ethics by @prouvaireafterdark. Human AU. Rated E; Armand/Daniel, Louis/Lestat.

The famous Ethics Professor Louis fic. I tend to think of it as the Philosophy Student Armand fic but, eh, semantics.

So much fun to read and such a great set up. Strikes the perfect balance of keeping the characters who they are, especially with regards to Armand and his trauma, while toning the insanity to levels that wouldn't get them institutionalised in the real world.

And what I thought was gone by @nalyra-dreaming. Reunion fic. Rated E; Louis/Lestat.

Basically the part of TVL between Lestat putting out Rock videos and Louis coming to him from Louis perspective, set the amc universe. And then the reunion.

Nalyra has such a great way of getting into these character's heads. The journey from Louis thinking Lestat is still dead to realising he isn't to getting his hands on the videos and the book to finding him to them talking things out is so beautiful and emotional.

The Human Perspective by @bandedbulbussnarfblat. Part 1 of The Human Condition series. Rated T; Daniel/Armand.

Armand talks to Daniel about a mortal he once loved, whose memories he had to take so he could live a life.

Another one that hit me right in the feels. The longing! The dramatic irony! Having Daniel comment as an outsider on his own relationship is such a clever thing to do and very well executed.

Reformation by verseau.

Human AU. Rated E. Louis/Lestat.

Just Louis and Lestat being Louis and Lestat really. And Claudia. But make it human.

That is really the best compliment I can give: If those two were modern day humans this is what their relationship would be like: chaotic, toxic, destructive, co-dependent, full of issues, hang ups, addictions and love bordering on insanity. And brilliantly done, too. Pretty much all the trauma is acounted for and makes sense (in a human context), we get differnt POVs all perfectly in character and each giving interesting insights into their family and the different issues they run into over the course of their relationship.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Looking at the trailer and the Amel theories, I think we should look at Lestat and Louis’ eyes during the fight. It could just be the lighting, but I think Lestat’s eyes have a slight green tint to them in the new bleeding image. And it’s harder to tell with Louis because his eyes are already emeraldine. Friendly reminder that Amel’s eyes are green. What if Amel in IWTV verse, Like in Cygnaut’s Courts Of Love (find it on A03), secretly wants to break Louis. Very terrifying. Hopefully not the case and just Amel trying to help by making things worse. He is kind of a dick though, imho. 😬

It would definitely be interesting.

Given his inability to go into Louis later on (in the books) that could become an interesting twist to it all, and as theorized before is something they could play with to keep Louis more heavily involved in the narrative of the later books.

We know they are already drawing from them, so the "seeds" (as Assad called it) will likely bloom only in a little while.

I haven't (yet) read the fic, but thank you for the rec!

One thing for sure, it's going to hugely interesting^^.

[cosmicrhetoric]

tagged by the incomparable @briarhips to post nine book recs <3 sorry so many of these are classics im going thru smth

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen: This is MY Austen of choice. I'm doing a reread atm and it's very Emma in it's social commentary but this is THEE eldest daughter book of all time. Maybe I just like when characters are super repressed but if you want to see a woman (who has spent 200 pages being soooo hinged) have the most cathartic breakdown about it......

Identitti, Mithu Sanyal: For fans of Kuang's Yellowface who want a bit more of an academic lens! Our main character, a 2nd gen Indian-German woman, spends years of her life in the trenches of postcolonial study under a seemingly Indian woman who is then exposed as white. It doesn't give you any easy answers but it provides a lot of scholarly resources and leaves a lot of space to come to your own conclusions. Read it on a plane. Kinda fire.

Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson: We all know Carson. But I'm picking a nonfiction essay instead of Autobiography of Red or her translations mostly because this one takes you behind the curtain of a lot of her famous translations when it comes to the aspect of love. I'm not really nonfiction girl in general but this was worth it

Chain Gang All Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: Speculative abolitionist fiction! Set in a near future where prisoners can compete in death matches to try and win their freedom. I've honestly read nothing like this...ever, like it's in a league of it's own but if you're a fan of the way footnotes were used in something like Babel you're gonna wanna check this out. Multiple povs (really interesting pov switching from a craft perspective actually) overlap to paint a stark and realistic depiction of American prisons.

The Devourers, Indrapramit Das: This was described to me as "IWTV but with werewolves and in Mughal India and actually really good" and while that's a pretty comprehensive plot summary it does not even begin to cover the shit this novel goes through. This is a book about transformation and stories and what letting a story live in you can do for you. The werewolves are kinda obviously a genderqueer allegory as well (as they often are in sff lmao) but when the interviewer himself starts talking about gender in his experiences you can see how that changes the story he's transcribing and it's just very cool. Heavy trigger warnings on this one though. Don't read if you can't handle a bit of piss (they are wolves). Writing style wise feels very similar to the magical realism of The Hungry Tide if that's ur bag

The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot: In the way that s&s is my Austen, this is MY Eliot. A classic story about women of this era who cannot fit into the boxes society lays out for them. A failed romance brands the main character an outcast in their town in a way that is. Hear me out. Fucking Utenaesque. Follow for some classic tragedy and themes of water....I would compare this more with like Dickens Bleak House than Austen though.

Villette, Charlotte Bronte: Once again. MY Bronte. Maybe it's just cause I read this before Jane Eyre but literally I do not understand why Miss Eyre gets so much more love than my girl Lucy. In broad strokes the story is about an English girl who ends up having to support herself by moving to France and becoming an English teacher at a girls boarding school. She's also plagued by a terrifying apparition of a nun, because this is Charlotte we're talking about and there's a bit of Catholic v Protestant thing going on. I read this during the very early pandemic and let me tell you some of the descriptions of isolation and loneliness are soooooo. yeah.

Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett: Listen. Like, listen. It's that good. I wouldn't put a discworld novel up against fucking chain gang all stars unless it was THAT good. This is a classic 'girl dresses up as a boy and goes to war to find her brother' story. It definitely started as a commentary on folk songs/stories but it is at it's heart a novel long criticism of imperialism, nationalism, and organized religion (there's jokes though it's funny). Also not to be that guy when it comes to LGBTQ book recs but the thing came out in 2002 and it's surprisingly thoughtful when it comes to both gender and sexuality. You do not have to be a fantasy fan or a discworld fan to read this. If you gave Pratchett a try and didn't like it i STILL insist you give MR a shot. It is in a league of it's own.

Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell: Do not be scared off by the sheer length of this one. It's fucking silly. This is one of my faaaaaaaave 1800s novels about class. We have juxtaposition between Molly's family (her father is a gentleman but a working doctor) and the landed gentry but also this divide between the uneducated Squire and his Cambridge bound sons and another one with the 'new money' gentry. There's also quite a lot of early science and anthropology documented in this (Gaskell and Darwin were besties) if that's interesting to you. WARNING: SHE DIED BEFORE SHE FINISHED THIS. ITS LIKE 99% DONE THOUGH

This was a hard list to narrow down but I have to include (at least as honorable mentions): Ling Ma's Severance/Bliss Orange, Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem and the SFF POC anthology New Suns

tagging: @weltonreject @bronskibeet @gaymersrights @orchidreign @brechtian + any and all mutuals i know ive forgotten <3

[autisticbokutoenthusiast]

fandom get to know me better

was tagged by @nozunhinged AND @jeffsatyr so i had too

3 ships you like:

ok 3 that im into lately

villaineve- they make me turn into the joker <3

aobpuen - like i feel lik if you get it you get it like... i dont have words for them if i think about them too hard i need to bite something

sakuatsu - ride or dies the great fan artists and fic writers of the world have done such wonderful work

the three that im obsessed with currently (like fundamentally changed me

sandray - if you follow me on here you know. literally the last thing i think about before going to sleep and the first thing i think about when i wake up. they were manufactured in a lab to make me periodically lose my mind actually like, id never watched a thai series or heard of them and the only reason i chose to watch only friends was a ray edit someone made right after episode ONE that felt like it was bat signalling me and here i am 7?? months later a fully changed person..... like they will forever be a part of me now i think ill never be the same

vegaspete - similar to sandray in that i watched kinnporsche because of the vegaspete gifsets on the dash and was surprised to find out the series was not about them having bdsm sex in front of the corpse of a hedgehog like i was led to believe, not that i didnt end enjoying kp anyway. they alone would have been enough to make me obsessed but the things people create about them have changed me, thoroughly, like i am unrecognisable to myself after certain fics and fanart....

bokuaka - they are essential to my lore actually, like i dont post about them or engage with them as much as i used to because they are like my eyelashes like they are just a part of me now. bokuaka fanfic was what got me through high school tbh.

First ship ever: idk because ive wrote fic about characters since i was like 8..... actually im gonna be cringe and say chad and ryan from high school musical cause they were real to me when i was in elementary school <3

Last song you heard: good for what by little simz cause it will always get my pumped no matter what

Favorite childhood book: i read like a book a day when i was a kid but i think my favorite was the box car children even tho it traumatized me...

Currently reading: im always in a state of rereading my poetry collection and its recently been claude mckay but i need good novel recs PLEASE SEND THEM TO ME

Currently watching: at the peak of covid fever i started pit babe and im around halfway? thru now, also 23.5 the series as it comes out, and abbott elementary, and tsukutabe, also want to rewatch iwtv 2022... then theres all the shows my mutuals i posting about that i want to watch (im looking at you dead friends forever and moonlight chicken)

Currently consuming: hamantaschen that are supposed to be for tm but there raspberry jam flavored so im celebrating early 🫡

Currently craving: for food: i havent had cheesecake in like 5 years but i think about her everyday. in life: to try to get into the drag scene

ill tag @le-trash-prince @lilleeboi @jenyifer @kitas-cleaning-supplies @luminouschaotic @bokuto-my-beloved

and whoever wants to!!!

[coffincoitus]

Saw u read a fic where lestat cried a lot 🤲 any iwtv fic recs?

ofc bestie anything for you bestie

(disclaimer: there might be weird things here. you know me)

put on your records and regret meeting me

lestat being a sadist and louis being a masochist. all is well on planet earth. loved this line particularly: "The red thread of fate that connected them was a cord; a rope; a chain."

summary: Lestat considered breaking his wrist, shattering those tiny, fragile bones; would Louis finally feel something then?

“Have you forgotten that you are mine?” Lestat asked him.

Louis laughed without humor. “You’d never let me.”

la dorure en reste aux mains

I love how the sex here illustrates the power imbalance in their relationship! the very fact that they both get off on louis taking control in bed is a testament to how lestat is in control in every other aspect. sexy!!

summary: And possibly I like the thrill, of under me you quite so new

Set after 1x02, Louis trying to regain some equilibrium after the opera and the fiasco with the tenor.

and you were never cruel

this one is a bit of an "and find out" for lestat. what I like about it is that it has lestat going bonkers catshit bananas murder mode over louis being hurt by another. also pyromaniac louis

summary: Lestat and Antoinette succeed in killing Claudia and kidnapping Louis, just like Lestat wanted. Lestat comes to regret it.

Cruel Intentions

louis being a male manipulator and lestat being enamored with it. except louis goes meaner than you'd expect. the ending put an evil smile on my face. there's a cat named louis II

summary: “You’ve never been cruel, Louis.”

and back to the river

pure and endearing vampire fluff

summary: Fucking hell, Louis thinks.

In Feverish Need

sickfic set before lestat turned louis. he feeds louis his blood without louis' knowledge while louis is still human, which felt so intimate to me. phantom thread vibes but like. in opposite direction.

summary: On the night before Grace's wedding, Louis found himself suddenly overcome with a terrible fever; fortunately, as he recounts here, Lestat was there to take care of him.

fear death by water (what the thunder said)

it's a deviation from the finale, but the author didn't avoid the poisoning which I love! louis caring for lestat's catatonic body and nursing him back to health. phantom thread vibes...

An Aching Pulse in Search of a Home

this is the crybaby lestat fic I was talking about!

summary: Louis has a special talent for this kind of thing. Louis the patient one, the gentleman, with his steady hands and an unyielding gaze; Louis, who for so long walked this earth fueled solely by the aching, perverted gratification of his own denial. Oh, he is a master of this exquisite hunger that exists on the precipice of unravelment and Lestat, at his mercy, is as they say in the modern parlance: totally fucked.

[uozlulu]

Uozlulu's 2023 Year in Writing Fanfiction

For my post about my faves and recs, go here

This year I wrote 12 fics but I also transferred all my old fics from FF.net that were worth keeping before closing that account. Since I backdated the old fics, the 2023 fics and stats are fics I wrote in 2023.

Overall AO3 stats (and 2023 stats)

Works - 148 (12)

User Subscriptions - 34 (4)

Kudos - 5,212 (312)

Comment Threads - 268 (29)

Bookmarks - 1,126 (67)

Subscriptions - 194 (3)

Word Count - 740,203 (59,061)

Hits - 88,642 (3,720)

Under the cut are the twelve fics I wrote in 2023 plus links to them on both AO3 and Tumblr, my top 5 fics sorted by hits, kudos,  comment threads, bookmarks, subscriptions, and word count

2023 Fanfics

The Mortal and the Vampires - Interview with the Vampire (AMC) - A mortal met two vampires in a gay bar in San Francisco one night fifty years ago. If they were kind, the vampires would have screwed him and left him be, but Armand and Louis chose Daniel, and that was at times as much of a curse as the dark gift Daniel once sought. A kind of modern fairytale set within the universe of the AMC show. - PG-13 - 11,315 words (oneshot) - Fairytale/Fantasy/Slash/Vampire - Armand/Louis/Daniel, Armand/Daniel, Armand/Louis, Louis/Daniel (Tumblr read more link)

And There He Was as He Always Was - ACD Sherlock Holmes - Written for the first line prompt, “[Watson] shrugged off a pang of worry as he slipped into Baker Street that night.” - PG - 291 words (oneshot) - Gen - Sherlock Holmes & John Watson (Tumblr read more link)

May You Get What You Desire Is a Curse upon the Dead - IwtV (AMC) - Daniel wants the creature with the glowing eyes and sharp fangs. Armand wants the mortal shaped by life. Mortality forces their hands. - PG-13 - 9,615 words (oneshot) - Drama/Horror/Romance/Slash/Vampire - Armand/Daniel (Tumblr read more link)

We Have Thieves - IwtV (AMC) - In which thieves come to Night Island and Armand makes the most of it. - PG-13 - 3,447 words (oneshot) - Crack/Heist/Horror/Slash/Supernatural - Armand/Daniel (Tumblr read more link)

Weakness - Black Clover - An exploration of Asta’s fear as seen through six nightmares at different points in his life. - PG-13 - 2,931 words (oneshot) - Gen/Horror/Nightmare (Tumblr read more link)

The Gifts We Give - IwtV (AMC) - Claudia arrives in Paris and finds herself drawn to the doll maker living across the street. The feeling is mutual. - PG-13 - 1,956 words (oneshot) - Femslash/Horror/Romance/Vampire - Claudia/Madeleine (Tumblr read more link)

Trapped in a Meme - Supernatural - Dean and Castiel are trapped in a meme. The consequences for breaking it are dire. - PG (not counting language) - 685 words (oneshot) - Crack/Meme/Slash - Destiel (Tumblr read more link)

The Grief We Face - IwtV (AMC) - In 1950’s Paris, Louis finds an apparition waiting for him in a courtyard behind Théâtre des Vampires. In modern Dubai, a similar apparition still haunts him. - PG-13 - 1,605 words (oneshot) - Drama/Horror/Slash/Vampire - Armand/Louis, Louis/Lestat (Tumblr read more link)

The Roles We Act - IwtV (AMC) - Daniel explores the Théâtre des Vampires album and learns new details. - R - 2,348 words (oneshot) - Dark/Horror/Slash/Vampire - Armand/Daniel (Tumblr read more link)

The Connection We Share - IwtV (AMC) - Louis and Lestat reunite in modern Dubai. - PG - 1,130 words (oneshot) - Romance/Slash/Vampire - Louis/Lestat (Tumblr read more link)

Swallow My Fang at Night Island - IwtV (AMC) - Human AU. It's the dawn of a new millennium. Daniel is newly divorced, almost fifty, and dealing with his daughters' troubles at school. Armand is one of his daughter's teachers. The instant they meet, Armand decides Daniel will be his and Daniel finds himself equally intrigued despite his better judgement. - E - 12,318 words (oneshot) - AU/Drama/Romance/Slash - Armand/Daniel (main), Louis/Lestat (background) - (Tumblr read more link)

The Vibration of Unraveling Strings - IwtV (AMC)/The Queen of the Damned (The Vampire Chronicles) - Throughout time and space, multiple universes coexist, vibrating beside each other. Sometimes through reflections, nearby universes glimpse one another. Armand and Daniel head towards Daniel’s transformation in two separate universes coexisting through their own reflections. - R - 11,147 words (7 chapters) - AU/Crossover/Drama/Fantasy/Prompt/Romance/Slash/Vampire - Armand/Daniel (Tumblr read more link)

Top 5 Fics by Hit Count

Our Soulmate Academia - Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) - Soulmate AU that spans pre-series to post-series- PG-13 (maybe pushing R because of violence), - 199,381 words (17 chapters) - TodoBaku (main), IzuOchaIida (secondary), plus other tertiary pairings - 13,310 hits

Best Laid Plans - Banana Fish - Ash ends up on the plane to Japan with Eiji and Ibe, thus beginning an AU manga ending where Ash adjusts to life in Japan and Ash and Eiji adjust to life with each other without constant threat - R - 90,409 words (11 chapters) - Ash/Eiji (main) - 5,935 hits

Crush - Supernatural/Teen Wolf (MTV) - Stiles runs into Dean, who he has a one-sided crush on ever since Sam and Dean saved him from a ghost a few years ago. Meanwhile Dean is dealing with plot points from season seven of SPN - PG-13 - 2,218 words (oneshot) - one=sided crush, other background pairings mentioned - 5,763 hits

Pain - Banana Fish - Eiji finds the plane ticket before Ash can tell him about it (prompt fic AU, mangaverse) - PG-13 - 5,500~ words (oneshot) - Ash/Eiji (main) - 2,838 hits

The Bridge - BBC Sherlock - AU in which John meets Jim first because Sherlock never became a consulting detective - PG-13 - 6,784 words (oneshot) - Joh/Jim (Johniarty (main)) - 2,832 hits

Top 5 Fics by Kudos

Our Soulmate Academia - 357 kudos

Pain - 281 kudos

Crush - 258 kudos

A Gift - Daredevil (Netflix)/Avengers (MCU) - Matt runs into Clint and receives something he left behind - PG - 825 words (oneshot) - Gen - 220 kudos

Best Laid Plans - 203 kudos

Top 5 Fics by Comment Threads

Our Soulmate Academia - 57 comment threads (116 comments)

Best Laid Plans - 50 comment threads (106 comments)

Pain - 10 comment threads (25 comments)

The Land Across the Sea - Black Clover/Boruto - While the Black Bulls and Golden Dawn are recovering from an AU ending to the war with Spade (because I wrote this before the arc ended), Boruto washes ashore during a tsunami. This prompts Julius to send portions of both squads back to the Land of Fire to escort Boruto home and establish diplomatic ties - PG - 44,655 words (7 chapters) - mostly gen (it’d have been weird if I left Finesse out of things) - 10 comment threads (21 comments)

The World Would Be Empty Without You - Black Clover - Yami and Vangeance keep bringing each other back from the dead - PG - 5,276 words (oneshot) Yami/Vangeance (main) - 8 comment threads (17 comments)

Top 5 Fics by Bookmarks 

Our Soulmate Academia - 206 bookmarks

Best Laid Plans - 114 bookmarks

Pain - 48 bookmarks

Promises and Oaths - Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi (Kakuriyo Bed and Breakfast) - Prequel fic exploring how Oodanna handled Shirou’s request the night Shirou made it - PG - 2,254  (oneshot) - Gen - 41 bookmarks

Names and Promises - Black Clover - Soulmate mark AU where Asta and Yuno are soulmates with their names on their wrists - G - 2,353 (oneshot) - Gen - 34 bookmarks

Top 5 Fics by Subscriptions

Our Hero Academia - 71 subsscriptions

Best Laid Plans - 21 subscriptions

The Land Across the Sea - 10 subscriptions

Pain - 9 subscriptions

…save… - Boku no Hero Academia  (My Hero Academia) - Shirakumo slowly but surely gains consciousness and makes a request of Aizawa that some of Aizawa’s students also intend to pursue - PG-13 - 12,016 words (oneshot) - Aizawa/Yamada (EraserMic (main)) - 8 subscriptions

Top 5 Fics by Word Count

Our Soulmate Academia - 199,381 words

Best Laid Plans - 90,409 words

The Land Across the Sea - 44, 655

Displacement - Naruto - When Hell is full, Gaara must prove himself in the mortal world to gain a spot in Heaven - PG-13 - 22,000~ words (6 chapters) - Gaara/Hinata - 22,000~ words

Her Ninja Way - Naruto - Hinata is betrothed to Gaara - PG - 21,000~ words (6 chapters) - Gaara/Hinta - 21,000~ words

[loumandivorce]

iwtv fanfic friday, danlou

happy iwtv fanfic friday! last week i did loumand fic recs, this week is a bunch of really good danlou! he (daniel) is going to fuck that old man (louis).

See What Happens by shavir_light, e

So this is happening. This extremely stupid, thrilling professional and personal mistake that he’s making with the 100-year-old serial killer he’s supposed to be interviewing. Daniel steels himself – it’s happening, and he’s in it, and there’s no point in turning back now. He has to see where it goes. Daniel stumbles into a game he doesn't understand.

mindfuck by flowerplots, weathermood, e

Daniel’s fantasizing about Louis takes an unexpected turn.

sweet words and fevers by glasslilies, m

Daniel and Louis catch up after Dubai. “In the interest of complete transparency,” Louis said, “I’m not really sure what I’m getting myself into here.” “It’s just a tape, man,” Daniel said. “No tricks, I promise. I’ve even canned the middle guy—we’re doing it without all the complicated tech this time. Think of it as a last hurrah. The book’s gone to print. There’s no catch.”

culture bound, m

"So, yeah," Daniel had said, before when he presented the idea to Louis a few nights prior, "it's basically shotgunning. I drink from some poor human's carotid and then you drink from me while I'm still feeding from them. Easy enough?" He grins even then, for maximum impact. Newly turned Daniel convinces Louis to try human drugs again and then makes it better.

Or an angel by malicewithheld, e

He had woken, disorientated and ravenous, to Louis standing silently at the end of the bed. “Hello Danny,” he’d smiled, and Daniel’s heart had kicked like a fucking drum. Two good nights in Dubai.

when i arrive at my pre-ordained place by skvadern, e

"Oh, my poor boy." The voice comes from far above him, and Daniel can't even spit on him for a condescending bastard; the pain in those words is too clear. "My poor, poor boy." This time, Louis cleans up after Armand.

happy friday!

[keithal]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favourite five fics that you've written :)

oh hello! beloved enterprisery this is my fave game to do of all time, so thank u for this :D three things before we get into it: (1) out of respect for u, the first two will be iwtv fics, (2) most of these are my least popular works LMAO and (3) this got pretty long. sorry abt that.

hell and you: modern day devils minion w old man daniel and armand. sometimes i forget how much i like this fic and then i'll remember "i wrote a fic abt armand being daniel's sugar daddy, LOL." it's very funny to me personally. i especially love this bit i threw in:

He fills the apartment with the smell of his cologne and something underneath that it can’t quite mask. A smell like water left to stand too long or flowers left too long in a vase.

i like the idea of vampires smelling like death. i can forgive this tho bc i think in the later installments of the vc anne rice said vampires smell like mayo? which is ... well. at least much more attention-grabbing than what i did.

damn these vampires: an armandaniel fic that takes place immediately after the season finale. this fic was majorly inspired by a thought that woke me up from deep sleep. armand and daniel have history. armand (i'm guessing) blocked daniel's memories. but didn't wipe them. daniel can't access them, but they're still there. so how funny would it be if daniel was jealous of louis being w armand but has no fucking idea why.

He smokes one on his walk back to the penthouse, thinking of how he had stood there in the aftermath, staring at Rashid—Armand—hovering over them like fucking Mary Poppins, his hand interlocked with Louis’s, and—instead of doing what a Pulitzer-winning, seasoned journalist of his caliber should’ve been doing in the face of being this royally fucked over—absurdly, inexplicably, Daniel noted the position of Armand’s thumb: on top.

i make myself laugh.

keep on keeping on, dean winchester: deancas s13 au where jack is a baby. i can't actually think of a part of it that stands out without any context (which, in my opinion, is a good sign), but i can say that i enjoy this part quite a bit:

Friday morning, as they’re making their way through the sticks toward the interstate, Sam says, “Hey, guess what I bought,” and holds up a dusty Sing-A-Long CD. “Fuck no,” Dean says. “We are not listening to Metallica all the way to Sioux Falls with a baby in the back.” “He likes it! Right, Jack?” he calls over his shoulder. Jack makes an incandescent gurgling sound. “See? Kid knows any music made after 1979 sucks ass.” “Singing in early childhood is important, Dean. It helps kids with language development, memory, and emotional regulation, and it entrains their social visual behavior.” “Thanks, Spock. You’re the pride of the Federation.” “Dean.” “Dude, I’m just saying, we can entrain his social visual behavior with the classics. We don’t need that baby crap. It’s the 21st century. All we need is Zep, Cash, some AC/DC—”

i worked really hard to capture dean's voice--like, harder than i've ever worked to scrub my own voice from a piece of writing. the amount of references and sayings in this bitch? sheesh.

i'm also very happy with how the relationship btwn jack and dean developed. one person who commented made a very intelligent observation that even i hadn't realized: i made dean see himself in jack. and it makes sense, doesn't it? jack's mom died bc of the supernatural; he wasn't allowed to process this loss at all; and he was left in the care of a father who'd lost a spouse. a father whose grief made him mean and treated his son like an object (hence the "it" pronouns used in the beginning).

anyway! very happy w how it turned out :)

long live the kingslayer: an elriel mission fic. i've spoken abt it like. a million times by now. and i still love it <3 there's just so much real estate to work w when it comes to elain. she's so underdeveloped that anything u say abt her is almost always pure conjecture. it was so much fun to take a character i loved so dearly and write a story where she was never punished for being who she is.

i'm still very fond of this part in particular:

“Wait,” he said before she could leave. His voice was nearly as hesitant as his expression, flickering between uncertainty and a strange, boyish shyness that was captivating on him. He reached into his leathers—where, she couldn’t know—and pulled out a small container. “Here,” he said, placing it in her hands. She opened it. Inside was a smelly, yellow ointment. “A salve,” he explained, “for your hands.” An unnameable feeling seized her. She hadn’t thought he noticed, never dared mention it out of fear of what he’d think, and this whole time he’d been carrying this salve with him. A salve for her hands. It was a terrible idea. She knew it as soon as it came to her, but she grabbed Azriel by the ears anyway, drew him down to her height, and kissed his cheek. She felt his skin go warm, and she imagined how surprised he must look, how shy. When she pulled back, she saw that his face was indeed dark with color, avoiding her gaze. Simultaneously pleased at her reaction and embarrassed by it. He was magical, she thought, and she loved him dearly. Loved him so much that it broke her heart. “Thank you,” she said. “This will be invaluable.” Finally, a smile from him. Unable to resist it, she brushed the back of her hand over his cheek, fond, and said, “I’ll leave you to rest.”

a lot of acotar fans hate it when ppl write azriel to be soft and shy and not particularly dark at all. me, personally? i think that’s boring. azriel was born into an abusive and violent home and suffered unimaginable torture at a very young age. he developed powers meant to protect him from the horror of his daily life, and those powers made him a great spymaster/torturerer. but it's so obvious that azriel hates his position within the court. he's starved of intimacy and tenderness. he has an extremely reserved and kind nature. it's a much more meaningful to have a character like that find someone who recognizes his gentleness and desire for gentleness in him and offers it to him. those characteristics don't make him any less of a man.

god never wrote a good play in his life: a god/chuck character study written in second person. i genuinely don't know how the toxic sibling relationship btwn amara and chuck doesn't make more people absolutely fucking insane. this story is chuck-centered, obviously, but i don't think anyone realizes WHY i did that. i don't like chuck! i didn't like writing from his perspective! i did it bc all of supernatural is chuck-centered. even when it isn't quote-unquote "his" story, it's still his. the point of the whole thing is for the reader to do what chuck/the show doesn't: break out of what's being told to u! look at the other characters! namely, look at amara.

chuck tries to scrub her from the story completely. the fic is 3k long, yet chuck doesn't mention amara at ALL unless she's onscreen. and even when she is onscreen, we can't trust a fucking thing he says! as exemplified here:

Maybe that wasn’t how it happened. Maybe you and your Sister were perfectly capable of creation. It would be absurd if you weren’t. Surely it wasn’t possible that you couldn’t create anything together. If you were in harmony, that should have implied you, together, would excel at it. She was an eccentric mind, designing balls of gas and entire solar systems that resembled you, right where all your rings met. (The most terrifying thing She came up with was the collapse of a star, where it became a gaping black mouth that swallowed everything in sight. You and I, She explained, perfectly in balance.) You were far less excitable, putting all your focus into the one planet you’d claimed as your own, but as you watched Her in those moments, you privately invented jealousy. Maybe you were lying about the lying. Perhaps They did give you counsel in a lapse of generosity, and your essence catapulted as you realized you would have to choose. Or possibly that day went like every other. Maybe She never met Them, and you only met Them much later, once you had shoehorned Them into part of your story. So instead of revelations and sacrifices, your Sister told you about centripetal force as you floated, listening, your rings spinning in slow, lazy circles, and you told Her about how little you cared for all this science and math She liked so much. Where is the pathos? you asked, and She sighed much as an exasperated older Sister should, and you realized that you loved Her very much. Or maybe you didn’t.

WHY? why is that? it's because the longer she's in the story, the worse chuck looks.

amara loved chuck from beginning to fucking end. she was born loving him. she chose him, always, over and over again. and chuck knew this! he used it! he would dangle the possibility of him finally loving her back to get her to do what he wanted. and what does chuck do abt this? abt his story, the first to ever exist? he recreates it. michael & lucifer; cain & abel; dean and sam (all men, curiously). to ... what? prove that he isn't the only brother to have not loved his sibling back? that in his position, u would've done the same?

i could talk abt that fic all day. best thing i've ever written.

[theroseandthebeast]

I posted 30,185 times in 2022

That's 7,520 more posts than 2021!

29 posts created (0%)

30,156 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fraddit

@bratpidd

@liminal-zone

@pearwaldorf

@dollsome-does-tumblr

I tagged 29,798 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#0 - 675 posts

#interview with the vampire - 2,136 posts

#iwtv amc - 2,028 posts

#art - 1,736 posts

#our flag means death - 1,654 posts

#fashion - 887 posts

#critical role - 885 posts

#design - 550 posts

#what we do in the shadows - 488 posts

#words - 477 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#your boughts of bad luck eventually come back around as bonuses to you and what you protect as miraculous coincidences of earned convenience

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Blackbeard:

18 notes - Posted March 24, 2022

#4

umm hello, "vaxgrog???" 👀👀👀

also affectionately known as the Vax/Grog spanking fic! because spanking reasons.

which is to say, playfighting that sometimes involves getting Vax smacked around. i got lost somewhere in the eventual blowjob, idk.

--

It only takes a few minutes for Vax to become sweaty, and tired, and irritated, and when Grog delivers a beautiful, solid smack across his backside he swears hard enough to actually use up the rest of the air in his lungs. 

Grog stops. Vax realizes he’s gone still. His face is mashed into the training floor - one hand digging into the ground, the other pulled up behind his back. His knees are tucked up under him, barely, and one of Grog’s legs is shoved between them. 

"Again?" Vax asks, and the world is barely out before Grog's blisteringly large hand slams through the air. 

Vax swears again, before he can bite it back, and then Grog is off top of him, yanking Vax’s pants down around his knees as quick as Grog has ever done anything, Vax is sure, and he gets to bury his face in his arms when the spanking begins in earnest.

“What's that?” Grog asks, sharp and teasing but not unkind.

“Please,” Vax says, “please, you big dumb motherfucker,”

19 notes - Posted August 24, 2022

#3

"Catholicism continues to be hilarious" oh so now the PROTESTANT is going to preach to us now?

idk if this is a friend being funny or a serious anon but please know this IS the funniest ask I've ever received

21 notes - Posted February 22, 2022

#2

clock symbolism this, ice pick that, why is no one talking about how Katya and Sofia were the inspiration for Emma Frost and Jean Grey

23 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Nope (2022) fic recs

11 recs -- mostly OJ/Angel, OJ & Emerald & Angel, some Jupe + Mary Jo

dreamin’ with the lights on., by mr_charles

OJ is there to take care of Angel after he gets out of the hospital.

or--?

save a horse, ride a cowboy.

where’s the love you’re after? by judypoovey

"So what, you want an Oprah shot for a first kiss? We gonna meet at the gulch during golden hour? Should I call that photographer Em was fucking for a photoshoot like we're getting engaged?"

choke on the memory now., by mr_charles

the best way to keep Angel Torres' mouth shut is to put something else in it.

or:

"yeah no, this is kinkier than I planned"-- an actual text sent to judypoovey

got to know that i’ve been calling you home, by judypoovey

After Jean Jacket, OJ can't figure out what it is Angel even wants from them.

He's not obsessing over it.

broken glass sparkling, by kocasoda

“Not in the mood for VR anymore?”

“Nope,” Angel had said, nervous, almost apologetic. “I just can’t anymore. I need— I gotta be able to see what’s actually going on around me or I get all weird, y'know, ‘cause what if something happens and I’m not as fast as I was last time? If I was a second off with that barbed wire fence, Jean Jacket would've— I mean, it got me, it fuckin' had me in its mouth, I was in it—“ and then he inhaled hard and had a panic attack.

Every Animal Has Rules, by sublightsleeper

OJ is good at patterns. He's good at routines. He's not so good at reading the room.

aka: Five times Angel kissed OJ and one time OJ kissed Angel.

shining sugars, by inaspic

The road trip, all day and a half of it, is less about getting a new horse and (definitely) more about breaking away from the noise.

The Show Goes On, by draculard

In 1999, eight months after Gordy's birthday party, a cameraman lugs his RCA into Mary Jo's hospital room.

reaching the serene., by mr_charles

"don't be a brat."

Angel's a brat. A lot.

in holy orders, by watercupx

"Mm-"

See the full post

23 notes - Posted September 10, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[dashboarddiaries]

HELLO DASHERS!!!!

we are very sad we weren't able to do a final EOY review show for y'all (a reminder again to get your flu shots!) but we still have sO MANY recommendations to share with you from our year. this is probably going to get long so

our favorite things we watched this year under the cut!

first up, @chero recs!!!

TV

Feel Good (Netflix) - Ended in 2021 but is way underrated!!

Ghosts (UK) (BBC)

Ghosts (US) (CBS)

Heartstopper (Netflix)

Mozart in the Jungle (Prime Video) - Cancelled years ago but also so underrated

Our Flag Means Death (HBO)

Reboot (Hulu)

Reservation Dogs (FX/Hulu)

Search Party (HBO)

Severance (AppleTV+)

Succession (HBO)

Taskmaster (PlutoTV in the US - also Taskmaster's official YouTube channel has most seasons!)

The Bear (FX/Hulu)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)

The Midnight Club (Netflix)

The Other Two (HBO)

The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)

The White Lotus (HBO)

Yellowjackets (Showtime)

FILM

Bodies Bodies Bodies

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Fire Island

Spirited

The Menu

Thor: Love & Thunder

Triangle of Sadness

Wendell & Wild

and @thelaurenshippen's recs!!

(first off, cherokee did such a nice job putting these all in a spreadsheet for me and putting them in alphabetical order and y'all are just gonna get my stream of consciousness as I go through my 2022 journal watchlist and pull out my favorites okay here we go)

(oh wait, also, it should be said I whole-heartedly endorse cherokee's whole tv list (I've seen, like, 2 movies this year) - the only stuff I haven't watched is feel good, mozart in the jungle, the white lotus, and ghosts (though it's been on my list) so everything else would have been on my list, but I'm not gonna repeat them. okay, NOW here we go)

Station Eleven (HBO) - oh my god I CRIED AND CRIED

Abbot Elementary (ABC/HBOMax/Hulu)

Deadwood (HBO) - decades old at this point but so good

Justified (FX/Hulu) - ditto, also it's coming back in '23

The Dropout (Hulu)

Starstruck (HBO)

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)

Hacks (HBO)

Barry (HBO)

The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO)

The Wilds (Amazon Prime) - cancelled before its time!

A League of Their Own (Amazon Prime)

Interview With The Vampire (AMC)

Avenue 5 (HBO)

She-Hulk (Disney+)

Andor (Disney+) - this, Severance, LOTR, IWTV and Barry were probably my favorites from the whole year

Dead to Me

and for video games, I HIGHLY recommend:

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Horizon Forbidden West

Outer Wilds

Inscryption (now on console and hOLY SHIT)

God of War Ragnarok

what were YOUR favorites from the year?

[bsideheart]

^^ general setting playlist i will say a good portion is from other peoples’ emo playlists and i cut it down to only music released before/during ‘09 and some songs around the end might get cut out bc i don’t feel they fit it all that well but the first half or so is THE soundtrack for this story

^^ jay playlist; with the actual character playlists i’m not concerning myself with period accurate music it’s more about the themes and motifs; this playlist is supposed to be more like despairing music/desperation etc

^^ aaron playlist this was more inspired by not only his character but the kind of music he would like/play; bro’s an asshole like the whole vibe of falling in reverse was a big inspiration for his character like what if he just sucked a lot

specifically the words best friends become redefined (i think thats the title) by chiodos is jay’s song (WE’LL FLOAT LIKE ANGELS) it has this whole energy of desperately holding onto something slipping from your grasp; makedamnsure taking back sunday is aaron’s song, i could be totally wrong about the song’s meaning but its all like knowing your relationship is falling apart but you depend so much on this person you can’t let them go

i’m still trying to put a nick playlist together bc his ass is not emo so it would have to be normal people music (i might load it w the killers and interpol and radiohead idk)

i do have another character i’m putting together right now to be a vampire jay meets later who’s more into that like electronic/crunkcore area of scene and his relationship with fame is very different from aaron, they’re like parallels but also foils??? like i think he’d have a connection w jay where they can understand each other as vampires and that shared experience but there’s also these barriers they build between them

if you have any song recs PLEAAASSEEEEEEEEE

and then for references:

jay steller - steller’s jay; blue jays are a symbol of hope and the steller’s jay looks like an inversion of the blue jay, inherent irony

nick lewis - nicolas de lenfent from the vampire lestat; not to spoil too much if you ever get into iwtv but he’s a first love who never really works out and he’s pretty much doomed from the start something something it was always going to end badly but the love was there

aaron alighieri - (his real last name is rodney btw) already explained aaron but i chose dante alighieri’s last name bc i feel like his edgy ass would pick it to sound cool

the town jay and nick are from is called edennair - very loosely inspired by the symbolism of the city of edinburgh in the movie trainspotting; it symbolizes stagnation similarly to how jay feels like he’ll never get anywhere in life

order of the gash - the cenobites from hellraiser; partially bc it just sounds cool but also the themes in the overall story of repression and all that

I WILL GET A DEFINITIVE OUTLINE WRITTEN OUT

holy moly soup this is all AMAZING i'm definitely gonna be listening to those playlists and OH MY GOD THE SYMBOLISM?? also the energy and like. the vibes of this story is fabulous i'm a huge fan of emo vampire musicians. BIG BIG fan. and aaron just being a guy who sucks terribly is awesome characters like that are the BEST!!!! i would so listen to order of the gash if they were real

[therossgarden]

Hi, I’m Ross! <3

(I will link my Ao3 account here when I’ll start posting there.)

A little more about me

I’m 19

I’m Italian

I’m a straight demisexual

I dream of being a published fantasy author

My tags

Ross rants — my tag for rants of all sorts

Ross writes — my little drabbles of writing

Ross writing — all the author memes/considerations I’ve ever reposted and commented on

Asks — asks of all sorts

Ross reading — book recs or reviews, fic recs or “advertisement” (I don’t like to call that, but I don’t know how else to say it😭)

Ross’ personal life ig — the tag where things end up in when I’m over sharing about my life

​tgfgwtw4palestine — stands for TheGirlFromGoneWithTheWind4Palestine. Every request for aid by Palestinian families in need of money and all fundraisers are there, if you wish to donate or spread the posts and boost them. I try to always verify if the accounts are shams or not, but if you want to be sure before donating or sharing, it’s at your own discretion. If you find out any of the accounts I’ve shared is a fake, contact me immediately and I will remove it.

Some fandoms I’m part of (I mostly post about IWTV and Marvel tho)

Interview with the vampire

Marvel

ATLA

Bridgerton

Percy Jackson

Disney classics

Brooklyn 99

Jane Austen verse (mostly Pride and Prejudice)

Mamma Mia, Hamilton, Heathers (yes I’m a theatre kid)

Taylor Swift

Barbie

And more!

My fav characters

Lestat de Lioncourt (IWTV)

Louis de pointe du lac (IWTV)

Steve Rogers (MCU)

Bucky Barnes (MCU)

Mai (ATLA)

Zuko (ATLA)

Azula (ATLA)

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)

Raymond Holt (B99)

Kate Sharma (Bridgerton)

My OTPs/ships I like

Loustat (IWTV) {number one OTP of all time, OTP of IWTV}

Stucky (MCU) {number two OTP of all time, OTP of MCU}

Maiko (ATLA) {number three OTP of all time, OTP of ATLA}

Kataang (ATLA)

Kanthony (Bridgerton) {OTP of Bridgerton}

Rapunzel x Flynn Rider (Disney)

Mulan x Li Shang (Disney)

Percabeth (PJO)

Sokkla (ATLA) {yes it is a crackship. I am a Sukka fan but Sokkla has completely taken over my brain so there it is}

Bonus: Tayvis {I like the couple itself, but I’m not actively shipping them because I do not feel comfortable with shipping real people farther than commenting on how cute they look}

Characters/ships I don’t like

Tony Stark (MCU)

Peggy Carter (MCU)

Kei lo (ATLA)

Steggy (MCU, Steve x Peggy)

Stony (MCU, Steve x Tony)

Zutara (ATLA, Zuko x Katara)

Jinko (ATLA, Jin x Zuko)

Mai Lo (ATLA, Mai x Kei lo)

Incest ships from any fandom that isn’t GoT or HoTD

Please DNI if

You are racist, homophobic, xenophobic, transphobic, a Zionist, promote animal cruelty and genocide, a pedophile, a rapist, a TERF, an Andrew Tate/Elon Musk/Donald Trump fan or a bully

You are under 18. While I do not post overly sexual stuff, I occasionally use colorful language, and advise you to not interact with me if you can’t handle it. If you still choose to visit my profile, it might be at your own risk.

You can’t ignore the difference in taste regarding characters or ships. If you like Tony or Zutara, that I do not like, or any other thing I listed above you are still welcome here, just know that I am not responsible of your contempt if you choose to stick around and end up stumbling upon a negative rant about your favs. If you are conscious to lack the needed restraint, please feel free to block me. I’d rather not have hostility under my posts.

You support genocide. I already said this, but I feel like repeating it is important.

You don’t like Multi fandom blogs

You are a troll of any kind

You don’t like rants/long posts, I tend to write a lot of those

A little warning about my boundaries

Although I try to be polite with everyone I interact with, I do not take any form of disrespect towards my posts, my time or my analysis lightly.

I will not be nice in any way if you are hostile or rude towards me unprovoked, If I don’t like your attitude, I will block you.

I am very open in regards of my takes. Im not afraid of sharing them or discuss them when it’s appropriate. But if you are arrogant in your analysis or rant, I will block you. Your argument isn’t with me just because I posted someone else’s take. It’s not that deep either.

I will NOT be kind or polite when the precise general public I am addressing is fundamentally an asshole with no morals, and the reason to address them is to criticize them. If you are a group of ignorant fat shamers (example), I will treat you with the same courtesy you gave to those you fiercely insult, because you do not deserve my respect. I AM petty and I believe in treating people how they deserve to be treated. If you don’t like my take on this, I kindly ask you to get out of my blog and block me.

If you don’t like what I say or how I say it, feel free to block me. If whatever bothers you is not directed to you, then feel free to ignore or block me. I am not willing to put up with your agendas and tantrums because you don’t like a choice of words I’ve used.

If these terms aren’t ok with you then I’m sorry to see you go, if not, stick around on this blog of crazy girlies <3

[updated: 9/11/2024]

[hey-its-sybarite]

Oh god, strap in. I apologise in advance for this. But I saw a lot of this go down and you did ask so here goes.

1. Yes, most people stopped writing and/or deleted their work/had their work purged because of Anne Rice’s litigation.

2. It also had a dampening effect on the ways that fandoms held together and grew back then: fan fiction awards, very small privately hosted “archives,” and public forum discussions. If you can’t even discuss the media it’s hard to keep the fandom going.

3. People were nervy in general at this time because there was US legislation tabled that would have resulted in the kind of censorship that could affect all fan works online. People were resisting it but we had no tested legal clout. We didn’t even have bloody Change.org. And anyway many people that enjoyed fanfiction also knew it had existed “just fine” in print medium, via fan zines, so some people who could return to those lacked the same sense of urgency to protect the online fan space. (Shoutout to the much appreciated Save Our Specs campaign.) But yeah, free speech online was not guaranteed and people thought it was bonkers you might want it just so you could smoosh other people’s intellectual property together like Barbie dolls. I mean, most adults didn’t have email, most of the world had never been online, so caring about artistic expression on the internet? Minuscule issue.

4. Around the same time the Vampire Chronicles fans specifically were Going Through It because it felt like everyone and their mother loathed Memnoch the Devil, to the point where it was basically RWRed/EWEed (ignored as canon) with the joke being “oh none of that happened, Lestat fed on someone with acid in their system.” The other common joke about reading the book was having to retrieve it from across the room after finishing it. Because of throwing. Because of throwing it as far away from you as you could. You can imagine that fans and creator fighting to maintain their own version of truth did not make for a great time! Then, while Pandora was well received and TVA was at least regarded as well written in the tradition of IWtV, the fandom had to endure the turning of yet another child in it. It’s not fun when a writer breaks their own in-universe rules and the payoff isn’t even regarded as worthwhile. I read the book in 1998 and I’m still upset about Benji (and Sybelle.) Lastly, the godawful QotD film came out and many many fans hated it. Some people warmed to it much later because the two main musical celebrities involved died, but frankly Aaliyah was getting death threats for daring to play Akasha before she died for real, so I don’t think the revisionism would heal all the vitriol there. So the fandom endured a lot of very public legal issues, spats and splintering, and the hostility made it difficult to grow the fandom too. It lost people but couldn’t get them back, or attract new people. Worse, a bunch of people now thought Lestat was brunette.

5. Around this time larger multifandom fan sites were becoming a thing and allowed for a lot of cross pollination to grow fandoms. Also, just more and more people were coming online for recreation. This meant that multifandom archives and multifandom recommendation sites had more traffic and engagement. But because Anne had been litigious previously some archive sites (even after she’d calmed down) were not willing to host writers in that fandom, so goodbye to fun, long WIPs getting everyone talking over time, which you really need in a book fandom with zero weekly TV episodes. Also, because all the fan works had been removed, it meant that rec sites weren’t promoting anything in the fandom either. A real missed opportunity at what should have been a time of organic fandom growth.

6. Meanwhile there was A LOT of other vampire media out that scratched an itch for folks. Films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Dusk Til Dawn films, Dracula 2000, the Blade films etc. TV had Dracula the Series, Forever Knight, Kindred the Embraced, Buffy and Angel and later stuff like The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. The Vampire Diaries was a popular novel series, and so were the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse novels. To a lesser extent Anita Blake and the later Dresden Files put vamps in rotation, as did comics like Preacher. There was even a new Vampire The Masquerade PC game to play! There were of course more comics, and anime, (and films and books and rpg) but I don’t know them. In fact there was a lot of second tier content that kept people fed with its churn too. This list is a teaser trailer, not a Wikipedia article! It’s by no means exhaustive.

7. By the time AO3 rolled around as a genuinely safe place to host, I had long lost my fic in the fandom. And it had been years, if I anything I was so young when I wrote them I’m frankly glad they’re gone. But sadly a bunch of others had also lost much much better stories than mine, or didn’t see the point of uploading outdated fanworks when they’d grown as writers AND they considered the fandom dead.

8. That was the final nail in the coffin, actually. By the time that we had a legally safe place to post it was oh… 2008. It had been FIVE YEARS since Anne Rice had written about any vampires, and seeing as she was off publishing (admittedly good) books about Jesus Christ, everyone thought the fandom was dead. Like, properly so. When she started writing conventional supernatural novels again it was new stuff about angels and werewolves! I mean, good for her for experimenting with new species, especially at her age, but there was a bloodlust for her beloved vampires that was going unquenched amount erstwhile fans. It would be ELEVEN YEARS before she would return to writing The Vampire Chronicles. What were you doing eleven years ago? Are you still consuming the same media in the same way? It’s a long time for many die hard fans - even if you love the media, you may interact quite differently as you age. In the decade plus many people had either left The Vampire Chronicles fandom and fandom in general or had moved into other fandoms where there was more recent media. Media where the creator hadn’t just tried to kill off a favourite character before herself finding God and being a little off putting about queers for a bit.

There you have it: the backstory as I remember it. My memory is imperfect and I joined the fandom when I was 12 so there’s also that sticky wicket. The last thing I want to say is that Christopher Rice has not been litigious and is very fan friendly. Anne had cooled her jets too, so it’s safe to write now and was when she was still alive. You don’t even have to put a disclaimer up top :)

can i ask a really dumb question. why do we have so little iwtv fics? is it bc she used to sue? do they still sue? (her son and stuff?)