#can i have a round of applause?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Culinary appreciation

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[coquelicoq]

"save him and his bestie from your sister's evil minion" wasn't even part of the five-year plan. that one was a freebie

[hana-bobo-finch]

erm…..posting about an OC via a rushed shitpost was not on my 2025 bingo card!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂get it??? 😂😂😂because his name is bingo??(GETS SHOT)

these are all things he has done or has attempted to do so consider this the full intro post for that freak for now. he’s still too undercooked to fully introduce but damn I love him

[historicallyaccuratecheese]

I think it’s especially telling that Starkid not only managed to get me to start and continue theatre to this day via a single musical of theirs, and have my love for the craft only deepen as I watch more and more of them, but that they’ve also started dragging me back into doing music after nearly 4 years of having barely touched an instrument, all because of a single concert.

It’s just. Wow. These people are fucking powerful, aren’t they?

[sunstream7]

Bite Mark in the Shape of the Sunflower State- 2

>1000 words

Stars, stars, stars.

Who would've thought that in the modern era, no store sold glow in the dark stars?  Bookstores, department stores, even the local hobby shop. Absolutely nothing. Maybe the weird little fortune shop? If nothing else, a grifter might be selling knick knacks. 

The storefront was surprisingly bright and open, a far cry from the usual snake oil shops. And surprisingly few rocks. But most importantly, fully unattended. Wandering the aisles, Chiara took in the various Tchotchkes, trinkets, and occasional self help book (50% off, nice! Not that she’d buy it)

“Do you wanna change your luck?”

What.

The.

Fuck.

Chiara whipped around, and scanned the store, her eyes landed on the front counter, and on the, no longer empty, chair. Instead, there sat a child. For a few seconds, she thought it could be Del. They had the same pigtails and vaguely remembered yellow hair ties. Not enough freckles though. 

“Excuse me?”

“Do you wanna change your luck?”

The grin on the kid’s face was slightly endearing. Where were her parents though. Or any adult supervision? Chiara recalled spending many an afternoon when she and Cy would sit behind the counter of that bookstore, working on homework or people watching through the front windows. Cypress’ mom was always in a back room or somewhere in the aisles. That was probably the case here.

She had never been a spiritual type of gal. It just never really attracted her. She could understand the novelty of a palm reading or the allure of fate, but nothing ever seemed worth putting any thought into.

Then again, It had been a pretty shitty two months. And maybe a little stroke of luck would get her those glow in the dark stars. 

“Mm- Sure, kid. I would.”

The girl shot up in her seat, beaming as she leaned over the counter.

“Okay, five dollars please.”

Ah. About what she expected. It’s whatever. Rummaging through her wallet, Chiara finally asked the question that every storefront in a three block radius had heard that day.

“Do you guys have the little plastic glow stars?”

The girl pointed towards a shelf near the front- stickers, decals, and various other stationary. Not to imply that correlation equals causation, but that was pretty lucky. Leaving the five dollar bill on the counter, Chiara crossed the store and grabbed a pack. Perfect. 150 pieces! Even better!

As the kid finished ringing her up, Chiara turned to leave, only to be stopped by another question.

“You go to Saint Sara Belle.”

Was she about to get murdered? She wasn't in uniform, and had been in this city for eight whole days! How did this kid know who she was?!

“I do?”

“Cool! My name’s Cala”

If she answered, would her soul be bound in a pact with an archfey? Eh. Whatever. 

“Chiara. Nice to meet you”

A second attempt at leaving, once again thwarted.

“You’re nicer than the other girl that came in here, in your group. She’s mean.”

What, And she could not stress this enough, the fuck. That didn't narrow it down at all! There's two others! And they both seemed… alright. Well, as alright as someone in the problem child club could be, but still! How did she know about her?! Which of those cretins has been going around talking about her?!

“...Thanks? I think?”

And no reply. Slowly turning around, Chiara wasn’t interrupted again, and did her best to wave off the ‘see you again soon!’ as she slipped out the door, stars in hand.

What a weird kid. She knew of normal kid weirdness, having spent the greater part of a decade wrestling things out of Del’s mouth and hosing her off after tumbles in mud or dirt or any other thing she could get into, and she herself had been an awfully weird kid, but, to her knowledge, there were no psychic abilities in her family.

Yknow. If Cala could actually play with the strings of fate, more power to her. And if she couldn't, that was a REMARKABLY impressive grift.

Chiara opted to finish her little loop, exploring a whole new row of shops. The usual corner stores, an accessory shop, and most notably, a bakery. Pausing outside for a moment, she settled on heading inside. It had been the first school week of the year, at a brand new school in a brand new city. Del deserved a treat. She’d been taking this whole thing remarkably well- much better than expected. But a chocolate chip cookie wouldn't hurt.

What would hurt though, is seeing the bastard standing at the front counter, glaring like the painting he was looking at had personally killed his dog. 

Maybe she had changed her luck! and used it all up on some stars! Because how the fuck else was she supposed to explain being face to face with Pran?! Of all people?! You weren't even supposed to HAVE a job!! Can a bitch not just buy a chocolate chip cookie in peace?! 

No greeting, no customer service smile- which arguably would have been worse. The only reason she could tell her presence had been acknowledged was that his scowl wasn’t towards the painting, but her.

“Hi- uh… can i get a chocolate chip cookie?”

Nothing. At least he was consistent.

If the group meeting was bad, this was awful. Absolutely shooting daggers at her for an uncomfortably long time until someone else stepped in, and Pran all but sprinted into the back.

At least she got that godforsaken cookie. 

And she also got a request for another, because apparently, these were some of the best cookies Delilah had ever had. And could Chiara please take her to the bakery some time so they could try something else. 

Her luck definitely had changed. But somehow, in some near impossible way, it had gotten worse. 

At least the stars were up now, and she could have some nice scenery as she stewed on how much she hated this.

[acaciapines]

making lots of real fun progress on the drk au outline!! haven’t started writing it at all yet (probably gonna try to start after xmas cause like. that last week is entirely empty space lol) but I’m figuring out lore and themes and how i want everything to connect! I’ve also got a real solid idea now for the very first chapter and how im introducing noelle, her changed family situation, Susie, and the first dark world so THATS all been a thrill lol. this au has been living in my brain for like, two years now! and so so so soon im gonna get to write it for real :333

[bardnuts]

Chapter Time

CHAPTER 28: TWILL BUILDS A FIRE

Woman Regrets Embarking on Trip with Two Horny Freaks • Camping in Style: 1001 Things to do with Squirrels • Asshole Without Darkvision Contributing to Light Pollution • Single Man Desperate Enough to Consider Cannibal: “I already like biting in a nonsexual context"

IN WHICH Astarion has a proposition

[icewindandboringhorror]

Various images of things

[yourbasicqueerie]

Hope youre doing okay<3

tysm doll, im doing way better now

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

yknow what minor transient detail abt s4 is fun to me? prior to john's reveal, noel apparently assumes the KIY to be a totally unfamiliar character to them both. he pauses his story to give background info on him ("he rules the dreamlands, he's a master manipulator, etc") in a way he doesn't with other stuff. he points out yellow like "that's the bitch btw. if you were curious." which is. like he knows they were in the dreamlands. i think he knows or at least assumes they were in the pits for a while given they ran into lorick. what does he think they were doing there. just. passing through??

[cometnoodle]

that reaction when your partner in destiny tries to chuck themselves of the cliff

[faerywhimsy]

TL;DR

Nobody: ....

Me: So Benji Mahmoud could have been an incredibly important and dynamic character, with relevant ties to multiple themes Prince Lestat did a good job pulling on. I would have been real happy to have seen more of his character and, since I didn't, I guess I'll settle for writing about it here.

Hyperlinks go to the posts I thought of as I wrote this.

I've been feeling pulled to post a lot of head canons that involve Benji lately and I think I'm starting to kinda stumble across why it all of a sudden feels important to me.

Like a lot of things in this fandom, it actually starts with Daniel.

Daniel is the only character we see in the original TVC trilogy, in real time, being human and then being brought into the blood. He's just Some Guy who happens to start all this shit that blows out 13 books. And that's relatable. Most series have that character through which the reader comes into the world of the story. It's an established narrative technique.

And then we get the final TVC trilogy, the three books we never thought we'd get because Anne kinda finished the series a decade before and went on to bigger and better things.

*cough* not *cough*

So we get the final trilogy. In which we are introduced to a blond, male character, human when we meet him but, oh no, he gets involved with vampires and ultimately ends up begging to be turned, then spends the rest of the series as a vampire.

Stop me if you've heard this story before.

Now I've got nothing against Viktor. His romance with Rose seems sweet, and he's always going to have a bit of the centre stage just because he's the literal genetic clone of our main protagonist, Lestat. It's a bit hokey but, you know, so is a lot of what we ended up with in the later books. We're just grateful it didn't all end with Blood Canticle and now weed out the things we like.

It's just... I can't help thinking an existing youthful vampire from TVC would have given deeper resonance to the story than introducing a new character with a similar trajectory did.

What might the last trilogy might have been like if Benji—the third human-turned-vampire we meet between these two characters—had been just a little bit more utilised. Not as a love interest, or a plot point, but for himself. Cause just his placement in time and circumstance offers a lot of narrative potential.

We first meet Benji Mahmoud as an important character in Armand's recovery after he attempts suicide. He asks to be made into a vampire, but isn't obsessed by it, pretty much accepts it and moves on when Armand tells him it can't be done. ("Oh, never. I don't have such a power. It's never done." "Then who made you?" "I was born out of a black egg." - TVA)

There's a lot of a sense that he and his companion Sybelle are replacements to a writer who no longer wished to write about Daniel in Armand's emotional trajectory, and I know that put me off both these characters for years. But the side effect is, we get a continuity to show Armand doesn't just stop after Daniel walks out on him, and can choose to read that Armand was hurting and traumatised when recounting these events to David.

Back to Benji. When Benji is turned, he is 12 years old and it's the end of 1998. There's a reason I like both of these things: 12 years old is just about the youngest I've heard any us fans picking up the TVC series of books (omg that's way too young for this content, my friends, I mourn all our brain chemistry), and the birth year of 1986 makes Benji not just a millennial, but lot closer in age and experience to a lot of us than the far off birth year of 1952 for Daniel-the-Baby-Boomer. I also think it would have been a lot easier to remember to read Daniel as not a millennial had there been another character front and centre who was.

The way I see it, Benji could have added so much nuance as a character of TVC if he'd been fleshed out. Most of the time if I remember to think of Benji in canon, he seems like the faded middle child, a plot point with a name in Prince Lestat, nothing resembling a fully fleshed out character.

And that makes me sad. Sad for his character, and sad for us. I'm not saying get rid of Viktor, don't get me wrong, I'm just saying that in a cast of 183282 vampires, there was surely enough room to do more with Benji than give him a radio show recorded within the walls of Trinity Gate.

Like, just off the top of my head: Did he ever leave those walls? Was he still as much of a smart ass with a commentary on everything after 20 years in the blood? What did he figure out that he liked to do with his time when he wasn't recording? Did he remain close to Sybelle? How did he feel about forever holding the visage of a 12 year old? What kind of evil doers did he hunt? What was his relationship with Armand? What did he think of Daniel? Was it a bit awkward coming face to face with his maker, Marius, after so long? Was he included with the guys whenever Armand, Lestat and Louis caught up? Is he more like Daniel at court, really fitting in more amongst the more ancient characters, or does he prefer coming across as one of the wiser young ones when he visits Auvergne?

Hell, if Viktor is basically Lestat's son and Benji is kinda Armand's son, what do the interactions of that Next Generation look like??

Conversely, what were Armand's thoughts beyond the immediate aftermath of Benji and Sybelle having been brought into the blood? Did he lose interest in Benji after Marius turned him? Was he protective of him? Were there times when he looked at Benji and felt woefully guilty about Claudia who died for the offence of being a child vampire? Was Benji a way for Armand to heal the mistakes he had made with both Claudia and Daniel in different ways before him? Louis and Benji live in the same house for at least 10 years together; what were their interactions like and did Armand have any thoughts on those?

[infizero]

the amount of sonic and shadow working together as a pair in these teasers and clips is making me insane oh i just know this season's gonna drive me batty

[bitegore]

maybe you guys were onto something with the betaing

[ourhouseishaunted]

desperately hoping my life amounts to anything soon :)

[blue-mood-blue]

Are they mxtx guys? Cos if so, don’t you threaten me with a good time!

They are mxtx guys!! And there are so many possibilities for these specific guys! I have considered:

1.) putting them together into a box like two feral cats and hoping they both survive,

2.) handing a kitten to the first feral cat like “here, take this, don’t break him,” or,

3.) taking the second feral cat away and getting my arms scratched to hell for the offense