#hekateinhell

[butchybats]

hi i'm here for butch!armand headcanons please if you have some to spare 🥹🫶🏼

OF COURSE <33 I love her so much thank you for asking!!!

Okay so my thoughts for her start in venice, and I can see it going differently depending on what version of Marius this is. Either way, this is when Armand realizes she’s a lesbian

If this is canon Marius then I think it’d be really weird for Armand because it’s not like she’d know about sexual orientation, so anything he’d try she’d either be uninterested in or try to make herself enjoy it, especially if she was promised the blood (when she first sleeps with Bianca is when she connects the dots that oh hey she is attracted to women!)

Or you could go the less angsty route with fem!marius, which I think would play out a lot closer to canon with Armand being more confident in her sexuality and learning earlier on about lesbianism

Whatever version you choose, Marius is going to dress Armand in men’s clothes when they go out. In canon he does it with both Zenobia and Bianca, he’s for sure going to do it with Armand. Only, she finds that she’s more comfortable dressing like this and takes to doing it in the palazzo and cuts her hair short

Fast forward to Lady Harlech attacking Armand, Armand is turned, fast forward to children of darkness! Armand’s focus is solely on surviving and running the paris coven, and along with the rules it’s not like she can do much of anything with her presentation

Until Lestat comes along!!! Extravagant wolfkiller Lestat who disbands the cult and teaches them to live among mortals (also I think that lesmand hate fuck in Nicki’s house which would probably change the entirety of vc but let’s pretend it doesn’t lol)

Armand’s go to outfit for a long time after this is suits that she steals off her victims (big moments of course like the palais ball, date with louis in the tower, locking daniel in the cellar HGHG but even in the in between moments. Just casually wearing a suit)

I’m skipping forward so much but devil’s minion time aka the dyke’s minion: butch Daniel!!!! Armand watches this woman play Louis’ story who looks like her!!!! I think it would be one of the first times that she’s seen a masculine woman that like wasn’t just in passing and she’d be so fascinated (likewise for Daniel who sees this short butch wearing a suit who fucking locked her in a cellar and she’s instantly down so bad)

I’ve said it over and over and I will continue to say it: gender and sexuality talks during the chase years <3 Armand finds Daniel at a lesbian bar and wants to know everything about it and why Daniel went there, they talk about how their gender presentation and what it means to them, and their experiences being lesbian especially when it felt like they both were the only one and it’s really something they bond over even though Armand’s answers are always more brief and cryptic than Daniel’s

They share clothes which works out great with Armand being short and fat and Daniel being tall and skinny so they fit even though they fill them out in different ways and this is just me setting it up so that everyone can imagine Armand in Daniel’s wife beater and rolled up blue jeans <3

[rainbowcarousels]

remembering when you said nicki was more of a proto-daniel to armand rather an proto-louis and now i'm upset because it makes sense like lestat never saw nicki at his worst but armand did!! lestat doesn't know what a mentally ill vampire looks like when he meets louis 😭 (and oh boy is that an oxymoron because they're all fucked up but there's degrees)

and now i'm sad <3

So I tried to be thoughtful about this and make it detailed but...then I ended up writing you a fic in response instead. You played with my emotions and now this is what you get. I hope that's okay!

Whatever Louis said, Lestat was not stalking Armand. If anything, historically speaking, Armand had the tendency to stalk him! Even as far back as Paris, before they’d been formally introduced, Armand had stalked him through the theatre and watched his every step.

So if anyone was going to be prone to such an action, surely Louis should be aiming his accusations at their sometimes resident/occasional antagonist/often lover and not at Lestat. Lestat was out here minding his own business and his own business was everything that went on here, so him taking a casual stroll or three through the streets was not considered entirely unusual.

It was more unusual for Armand. 

If anyone was acting in a way that you could call peculiar, look no further than his wanderings lately.

Was Louis rubbing off on him? Was he about to meandering about his eternal life now instead of building his fortresses in an illusion of safety? It’s not as if Lestat could say much about that now either. This place, this – what had Daniel called it, a Disney with fangs meets Colonial Williamsburg, this was supposed to be a place to make decisions, to keep safe the core of their ongoing immortality and it was supposed to mean something. A place to come to that felt safe.

Lestat huffed to himself.

In the end, that was all any of them really did, this building of safe havens and places to escape to. 

Maybe for Armand, this was not unlike him watching Lestat at that theatre or ransacking the apartment. If he was out here gathering information, filing it away behind those intense eyes as if he were trying to make a mental folder all about him. Lestat wasn’t ruling it out. Lots of people had folders about him.

That was what happened when you ended up as the sparkling example of modern vampirism, fall apart and then try to put your pieces back together as if you’re collecting puzzle pieces. People watched you. People wondered about your decisions and considered the choices you made, even if Lestat often felt more like an oversized mascot than a Prince.

And secretly, or perhaps not so secretly by this point, that was how he’d prefer it. To be loud and wild and without the heaviness of a crown he took for the greater good but knowing it was being handled by people he could trust. As much as you could trust anyone with that kind of thing. As long as Armand and Louis never got up in arms at him at the same time, as long as Gabrielle didn’t join the rant, it was probably all running as best it can with egos larger than even his all stuffed into a little ruling party.

So if Lestat came out for a constitutional now and then, mostly now, then it was not out of character for him. It didn't mean he was stalking anyone, thank you very much.

“You’ve also established it isn’t odd for me either.” 

Of course Armand was aware of him. Lestat hadn’t been trying to hide. They didn’t hide from each other, not anymore. Why should they?

“You don’t wander aimlessly.” They’d come to a stop outside the Inn, but the streets were quiet. Everything was stunningly quiet. “Since you don’t grant me access to your mind often, I must resort to more mundane methods to sniff out the mystery.”

“Louis doesn’t walk aimlessly either,” Armand deflected. “He enjoys it. That is the aim.”

“Louis doing something simply for the joy of doing it,” Lestat said, looking away from Armand and back around the streets. Doubtless people were watching him from somewhere, but he couldn’t tell exactly where from at this moment. “Will wonders never cease?”

“Joy is not spontaneous to everyone,” Armand replied evenly. “Even for you, sometimes you have to reach for it.”

“Are you reaching for it?” Lestat asked.

“I hope so,” Armand said, his expression changing from the impassive to something a little softer, something that suited those little cherubic cheeks a lot better.

This was closer to how he’d looked when he’d arrived, fledgling in tow, well over a week ago now. Something burning in veins far more potent than blood, anticipation for a reunion of their little family, perhaps? 

It had only been a few nights ago that this melancholy wandering had set in. Lestat had wracked his mind to find the cause of it. 

There were the complications of their relationship, but they’d embraced as lovers long apart do and he’d felt the warmth of him in his heart. No, Armand had been as happy to see him as he’d been to have him there.

Louis had been quiet, but Louis was often quiet and the court was very social. Armand of all people knew that Louis liked his little corners to disappear in so he didn’t think being ignored was the issue.

There was Marius and the inevitable difficulties of their relationship, but he’d greeted him with more warmth than usual.

There was also Daniel, but he’d arrived with Daniel in good spirits and whatever they had been working out together, it seemed to be a source of something beautiful and not something that would cause him to wander about like a lost child.

Who else was there that could cause such a response in him?

It was embarrassing that it took more than another few nights before Lestat realised where Armand tended to end up. It was a route he walked himself on occasion, when he was longing for someone else, someone that they’d shared a very long time ago without ever truly sharing him. Eleni had once told him that Armand had taken Nicolas’s death almost as well as Lestat had – so was this why he wandered by the places he had to know clung to his spirit?

Not literally, Nicolas had never shown up as others had in ghostly form, but there was an imprint of him at the places they wandered past - his fathers shop with the open window, the inn, the square, even Lestat’s rooms.

Had Lestat simply not realised that Armand had found some way to grieve another old loss, not unlike Lestat himself had been trying to do?

Eventually, he found Armand in one of the larger rooms that had been turned into something of a crafting studio by the more creative of among them. Armand had sat himself in the corner, letting two dead former lovers talk wildly about plans for some project with such an intense passion that suddenly, in his mind, something clicked into place. 

When he had left Nicolas with Armand, it had been because he thought that Armand needed a guide to the then modern world. Daniel had been the same thing two centuries later. Both were sarcastic, brash, passionate about their respective arts and both had fallen into an obsessive madness before their very eyes.

“Before my eyes.” Armand’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Be thankful you didn’t see the worst of it.”

Lestat met his eye and couldn’t help but grimace. “I still wish I had,” he said.It didn’t matter that all logic said he was making things worse by staying, that their relationship had been destroyed the moment he was pulled through that window and it had been cruel to keep hanging on after that.  “If only for more time. He had always wanted more time to become whoever he was supposed to be.”

“Instead, the infinity of time was the problem.” Armand wasn’t looking at him at all. Maybe it was too hard to do so. “Did you really think it would end any other way?”

Lestat could think of no rebuttal to that. Maybe before he’d drank so deeply, seen such desolation and misery, then yes, he believed they could get past it. It may have taken a while, but there would be time. It was all Nicolas had ever wanted, the time to study, the time to become the musician he wanted to be and maybe it was Lestat’s own foolishness to think that may have made him happy.

“Giving someone what they think want can cause more problems than it solves,” Armand said. 

It was only then that Lestat understood, that the reason he wasn’t looking at Lestat wasn’t because he was overcome with some old emotion but rather that he was looking at another child that should never have to pass: his own.

Daniel had been exactly what Lestat had hoped Nicolas would be for Armand, his link to the world, a teacher of how to be a person from the most self possessed person he knew and yet, shortly after coming into the blood, their relationship had been ripped to shreds too. Daniel had slipped into obsession while Armand had slipped into despair.

But they had recovered. Armand had founded Trinity Gate with Louis, he had kept the children safe and he had begun to connect with old lovers and lovers that should have been. From his understanding, Daniel had slowly found his way back to the world under Marius’ care and his patience, something Armand confessed he didn’t know he could give another of his blood.  They had found new life in themselves before finding each other again.

If Nicolas had the time, if they had all known what they know now, could he have recovered from his fevered mind?

Could he have found himself in the rubble and as stubbornly as he had cursed him out, as creatively as he had written his music, as persistently as he had practiced his craft, begun to see the world as something that could be beautiful? No, not beautiful, beautiful wouldn’t have been enough, but as something interesting, something thought provoking, something that could have kept his mind from slipping down into the wailing waves of his own internal agonies? 

“I did what I thought would help.” Armand’s voice was tight now. “Clearly Marius knows something I don’t.”

“And if you’re not careful, he’ll give you an extensive yet largely uninformative lecture on what it is.” Lestat reached for his hands, cupping them in his own. They were fever hot and it warmed something within him to do it. “I am not casting blame on you. I know that you did everything you could, and you always do. I’m not blind to what you did for Louis. I’m not blind to what you do for me either. I’m just a little sad to think of what we could have had.”

“He would have liked that,” Armand said, eyes flickering to Lestat’s own. There was the briefest hint of an affectionate smile, but if it was for how Nicolas seemed to make despair and darkness into something to be loved or for Lestat then or Lestat now, who knows? “Any idiot can make you smile, but this deep sense of grief, a sweet misery, I think he would have liked to be remembered as having caused that.”

“You’re right,” Lestat agreed. Any idiot could be happy, he’d often said, in fact idiots were often happier because they didn’t know any differently. This mix of grief, nostalgia, pain and pleasure tied into a memory, it would be how his Nicki would want to be remembered. “And things didn’t turn out so badly in the end, did they?”

“He was right about one thing,” Armand said, rolling his eyes. “You are irrepressibly optimistic.”

“It’s part of my charm,” Lestat said, bringing Armand’s hands to his lips and kissing them, taking care to brush a fang over the skin just to feel the reaction. “And I am terribly charming, aren’t I?”

“You’re definitely terrible.” 

It lost some of its heat by the way his face could still go the softest shade of red, but Lestat would take it.

[desertfangs]

I humbly request an itemized list of present day Daniel Molloy's favorite movies/TV shows... for reasons 🥹

Listen, this is a short answer game and I am failing so bad at that but I cannot provide you with a complete itemized list because I do not have all day so...

In terms of shows Daniel loves, I'm going to share a few from each era

Pre-Interview, I think he grew up watching Gilligan's Island (I hc him making Marius watch it in Rio when he finds a channel that plays reruns dubbed in Portuguese). Also Bewitched because he liked the idea of having magic powers. When he was living in SF, The Streets of San Francisco started airing so I'm sure he watched that on occasion and probably enjoyed things like the Carol Burnett Show.

With Armand, I think they both really liked MASH. Also Kolchak the Night Stalker which is, get this, a show about a reporter who investigates the paranormal! Like that's right up his alley! Imagine him and Armand watching that together! There is a vampire episode!

I also think he and Armand loved game shows: Monty Hall, Jeopardy!, Password. Anything where they could yell at the TV and argue about it.

They also watched Miami Vice because it was filmed in their backyard. (Shame they never had a Night Island episode, apparently the contracts mysteriously kept getting lost.)

In the modern era, I think he and Armand absolutely love Taskmaster. It's just the right amount of ridiculous and unhinged and they'd love arguing about how they would do the tasks and who should get the most points. And I think Daniel appreciates a good sci-fi show, bonus points if it has a cool spaceship he can build models of.

Okay this was too long! Thank you for the ask! What shows do y'all think Daniel loves?

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Vampire Chronicles Series - Anne Rice Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Lestat de Lioncourt, Armand (Vampire Chronicles), Louis de Pointe du Lac Additional Tags: Face Slapping Summary: Lestat wrecks Armand's car, how can he compensate for this crime? Is he willing to make amends with Armand? Louis thinks he should...

Drabble fill and the start of a gift fic 🎁 in progress for @hekateinhell! Thanks to @wicked-felina for helping me get this one posted, with her edits & improvements 🙏💕 Tags may change as I update... 🔥

[monstersinthecosmos]

A cat bit me outside Anne Rice's old house 🫢

[johaerys-writes]

Pleassssseeeee tell us about your VC ship preferences so far 🙏

Aaahh gosh I really don't know 🙈 Like whatever I say now will probably change once I've read the actual books, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to love whatever Lestat is involved in LOL. Loustat from what I understand is the obvious choice (?), and if the TV show is anything to go by then I know I'm going to like them. HOWEVER there's something about Louis/Armand from what I've seen in the show that is tickling my brain in a very particular way too..... the sort of extremely unhealthy obsession + one of the people in the relationship still being obsessed with their ex or something is sooo appealing to me haha. So many opportunities for delicious angst 👀

These are the ships I have personal experience with from watching the show, as far as I've seen (haven't finished s2 yet oops), but from friends here I've also seen a lot of Lestat/Armand which also seems like it would be right up my alley for different reasons, and also Marius/Armand. Love me a troubled (and also somewhat pathetic?) Daddy 😩

Once again, this is my extremely uninformed opinion so if you're a hardcore VC fan don't come at me okay LMAO. Also just putting it out there that I'm a huge fan of dark themes and problematiqueTM content, so there's very little chance that I'll be put off by stuff in the books that aren't "wholesome" or that are even downright evil haha. But still, I'm excited to read the books and revisit this ask and see if I ended up shipping something completely random 😅

[butchybats]

I GOT YOU

lesbian DM thoughts

armand taking care of daniel during her period every month 🥹 letting daniel drink a little more of her blood than she usually does for strength and to help with her cramps orgasms also help with cramps

daniel isn't very feminine but armand is and she loves to look dolled up especially because she spent so many years wasting away underground. so sometimes when armand gets a bit sad and listless, daniel will bathe her, do her hair for her in either a pretty bun or a french braid, do her makeup very carefully (daniel never cared about this stuff before but she taught herself just for armand okay!)

idk if you know her but the very first supermodel was a woman named gia carangi in the 70s and 80s and her and her girlfriend are my reference for lesbian!devil's minion LOL I CAN'T LINK IN HERE BUT THIS IS THEM ESPECIALLY THE LAST TWO PICS https://reddit.com/r/actuallesbians/s/jeEgrXjLPC

hope your day/night gets better friend 💖

TYSM FOR THE ASK <33

• caretaking is one of my favorite tropes ever idc what universe it is in I will always be thinking about them taking care of each other especially in terms of illness/injury (which really would only be armand helping daniel but we can get funky with the rules <3)

okay back to periods though, I am so so convinced that Armand would coddle the hell out of Daniel!!! She is wrapped up in blankets on the couch with a big bottle of midol and her choice of drink on the side table and Armand is more than happy to give her the blood and rub her back and cuddle her and give her girl whatever she needs 🥹

And as you said orgasms are great painkillers!!! Listen literally the first prompt I ever saw on priapus was r63 devil’s minion period sex. Which I have tried writing something for like four times but am never happy with it anyway the possibilities are endless for that oh my goddd you just know that Armand would be insatiable acting like she hasn’t fed in weeks <3

• I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU!!!!!!! They are so butch/femme to me!!!!! Going to sob over the idea of Daniel bathing Armand, she’d bust out all the especially fancy expensive products and be so painstakingly thorough in washing her and then drying her off and massaging her with lotion… wailing 😭🥹. Genuinely I think there is so much romance/love in doing something for your partner particularly if it’s not your thing so I think Daniel taking the time to learn hairstyles and makeup to pamper Armand would really hit her right in the heart! They have a very sappy and emotional night over Armand’s spa treatment

• I DID NOT KNOW THIS THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME <3 Gia… wow I can see why she was the first supermodel! I’m. Jgvjgvhg yeah I’m very onboard for this LMAO but like omg it’s literally them that’s such a great face claim!!!

Thank you for the dm content and the kind wishes!! 💜🫂

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Ahhh my heart, you're so right! I think he ended up making a home for himself after a lot of failed attempts 😭, and in late canon he for sure has it 💗 Thank u. Reminds me of this fanart:

[^Source unknown, even reverse-image searched. Tell me the source if anyone knows it!]

OOH OOH I'LL ASK ONE: give us 💌 a lesser-known quote/passage from canon that you think best describes your favorite character... or, if you already got this ask, a passage that describes your /second/ favorite ;)

I just did Armand here so I'll do Lestat for this one! ♥️

"You know it was the damnedest luck!" I whispered suddenly. "I am an unwilling devil. I cry like some vagrant child. I want to go home." ~ Lestat to Armand, TVL

I just think this little quote highlights so much of Lestat's personality, and really, his character at the core. He was a lost, wandering child! He is a devil! He spent over two hundred years trying to get back home! (I mean that as a metaphor, "home" in the sense of having that feeling of safety, acceptance, and belonging; something he never really had).

[rainbowcarousels]

*slams through your door*

you've got me tethered and chained PLEASE THAT SOUNDS JUICY

You already know what this is so you can have a little snippet. It's still very rough though!

To look at him, you'd think Armand was an marionette, some terracotta doll leftover from the ancient world. A stage piece, something to be picked up and used for the uproarious reaction of a clueless audience then discarded until he was needed again. Something simple, uncomplicated and beautiful without all that messy emotion that comes with being a person. All bullshit, of course. It didn't take much to feel the storm within leaking out of him with every movement. It was as if he was overflowing from everywhere, too much contained in such a small frame so he spilled with every attempt to walk forwards. With every hesitant step, he seemed to see his heart spilling to the floor a little more and stopped himself. No, and denied himself. And not in a fun, anticipatory way either. Here he was, the pinnacle of the unnatural, a monstrous beast parading around a ridiculously human soul, and he sat in their dressing room for fear of - what, experiencing something? For love, for hate, for fear or anger or - just anything! Paralysed by what - being aroused by Lestat? Obsessed with him? Wanting to rip out his organs and replace them with his? "Is that a declaration of love or malice?" Oh, of course, he was never alone in his own mind these days. "Love is a declaration of malice," Nicolas replied. "Particularly when that love is for a monstrous personification of a sunbeam." "A sunbeam," Armand echoed. "Bringing hope and warmth and precious light in the darkness!" It was all Nicolas could do not to shudder. Maybe he did shudder, this body was not quite something he had a handle on yet. "Compared with the darkness that's filled every step, I thought he understood that - but no matter, he's leaving and you want to crawl for him to bring you along. What's stopping you? It can't be pride, you don't have enough left."

[desertfangs]

2. Share a snippet of an old wip that you never posted.

Sent in an meme ask by @hekateinhell but this is probably too long of a snippet (1100 words) so I wanted to share it on its own. Last year, I was trying really hard to write some serious post-QotD conversations and interactions (STILL AM! Just finished a fic from this era that I can't wait to edit and share!) but this is the only one I wrote with Armand and Louis. I wasn't happy with all of Louis' dialogue and it didn't really have an ending so I gave up on and set it aside.

So here is a big ol' chunk of a time I attempted to write something for Armand/Louis post-QotD on Night Island. It opens with Armand watching Daniel and Marius taking a speedboat to the mainland to hunt in Miami and he's pensive, and then Louis comes in the room and they start talking. The book in question is Interview with the Vampire, which is probably obvious:

--------

“It was just a book,” Armand said. “Do you wish I’d stopped it?” 

“No.” Louis’ answer was firm and immediate. “I only thought perhaps you’d tracked Daniel down because of the book and I was surprised to learn otherwise.” 

“He came to me as a gift from you.”

Louis smiled faintly. “I didn’t send him to you intentionally, but I am glad that you found him. He seems to love you.”

Armand’s heart constricted again. He loved him, yes, but how long until the resentment and hatred took hold? He’d taken Daniel’s life from him. He stopped himself, taking a steadying breath. No, he wouldn’t think of some dark uncertain future. He would think of Daniel happy for now, giddy with immortality. Daniel, who would return from hunting still buzzing from the kill and hot from the blood, and put his arm over Armand’s shoulders and laugh as he recounted whatever misadventures he and Marius got up to on the mainland. Daniel, who would nuzzle against him and let him drink some of that hot blood from his throat. 

“You must love him.” Louis stepped closer, seeming to see Armand’s internal struggle. He could not hear his thoughts but surely his fear had played out on his face. 

“Of course I love him,” Armand said, the way he’d said it to Daniel himself so many times, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I built this island for him.” 

He wasn’t sure why he said that. Perhaps because Louis was looking at him with those penetrating green eyes, a little furrow on his brow between them. Perhaps because Louis was standing close to him and he could breathe in the smell of him again and he realized now how much he’d missed it. 

“He’s lucky he met you and not someone with more nefarious intentions.” 

Armand laughed. “He must not have told you of how things began, then.” 

“He did mention something about global hide and seek, but he was talking quite fast. His love for you is plain enough though.” 

Armand nodded. He had no doubt Daniel loved him. He’d always been able to see it in Daniel’s mind, his blood. He never would have given him the blood otherwise. But Daniel didn’t know—couldn’t truly know—the price he would pay for immortality as a mortal, and even now, it was too new, too fresh, for him to truly understand the gravity of it. Daniel wanted to be with him forever but it was an easy thing to want when forever was an abstract. 

“Yes,” Armand agreed.

“Yet you seem pensive.” Louis stepped closer, as if he might put an arm around him or otherwise reach out to comfort him but Armand moved backward, only slightly, just out of his reach. 

“There are a lot of vampires in my house,” Armand said.

“And that bothers you?” Louis asked, in a way that suggested he knew it didn’t. From his thoughts, Armand could tell he had a question on the tip of his mind but Armand would not answer it if he refused to speak it aloud. This was the Louis he remembered, such curiosity and passion, but so afraid to indulge it, even over something so small.

“No. I quite enjoy it.” Armand met his eyes, daring him to ask the question he really wanted to ask. “But it is different. It’s been only Daniel and myself here since the Villa was built. And Daniel was mortal.” It was odd having so many vampires in such a small radius, let alone in his home. He had to be careful to tune out their thoughts and still their presences burned in his awareness. But really, now they were all there, it felt almost as if the Night Island had always been intended for the purpose. 

Louis nodded, as if he felt similarly. Certainly it was strange for Louis, who had so desperately sought out others once upon a time, and who later could no longer tolerate them. Not even Armand. 

Silence filled the air between them like a tangible thing. Louis put his hands in his pockets and cast about the room for something else to say. Something about his posture and expression pulled Armand back in time, to when he’d struggled so haplessly to pull anything out of Louis at all. The frustration and the pain of being with him while he was so distant, and the elation whenever he could get anything from him. 

A wicked urge overcame him. He stepped closer, into Louis’ personal space. He brushed his fingers down Louis’ arm, his skin cold even through the knit of his sweater. Louis turned to him, startled. 

“Ask me,” Armand said. 

Louis frowned. Pretended not to know what he meant. He pulled his hands from his pockets but did not move away from Armand. 

Armand kept his gaze level and steady, silently demanding.

Louis coughed softly, as if vampires could need to cough, such a mortal affectation. He broke from Armand’s gaze, turning to study the unused fireplace. “When you learned I was in San Francisco, did you ever consider coming to find me?” 

Ah, there it was.

“Why would I come find you? You made it perfectly clear you had no want or need of me.” He wasn’t sure what he hoped for in Louis’ reaction: some fire or spark maybe. An angry retort about how he was the one who’d left. He’d spent too many years sparring with Daniel, who shot back. But instead, disappointment etched itself in Louis’ beautiful face and Armand’s chest felt heavy. 

“That was a long time ago,” Louis said softly. 

“So it’s changed?” Armand asked, almost inaudibly. He stood rigid, waiting for the answer.

Louis, so human, so gentle, looked faintly surprised. “Yes.” 

The tension in Armand’s body eased and his shoulders relaxed. He reached up and caressed Louis’ cheek with the backs of his fingers. Louis closed his eyes, almost reverent. Armand stepped closer still until they were only inches away. 

The front door banged open and voices filled the foyer. Jesse, Eric, and Santino, having some animated discussion that echoed through the parlor’s open doors. Louis’ eyes snapped open and he stepped backward as if caught out at something he shouldn’t have been doing. 

Ridiculous, of course. No one would begrudge them this reunion so long in the making. Well, maybe Lestat, and only because he hated not being the center of attention. But if he cared so much about what Louis was doing, he was welcome to come out of that room he’d holed up in and do something about it.

[killer-laurent]

“Lestat & Armand as Endymion & Selene” Commission for @hekateinhell

[queerquaintrelle]

Good to Embrace, Good to Love (Armandshipfest): devil's minion

@hekateinhell

[half-as-big-as-life]

Based on the post under the cut @hekateinhell

[rainbowcarousels]

@apoptoses could do this professionally.

you know those tropes where you come across them and are like Hard No Thank You but then you see the author’s name and are like… 😒 i will read this FOR YOU 😒…

[monstersinthecosmos]

As a fellow Marius lover, I always find it kind of disheartening how most of the content/fandom talk about him (meta, fic, fanart, etc.) revolves around m/m ships (Marius/Armand in particular but I’d even go as far to include Marius/Daniel here) when, in my opinion, Marius is like the one male character in the VC universe whose relationships with women are far more interesting than his relationships with other men (the only other character might be Lestat but even then it’s pretty 50/50). They’re so monumental and so full of complexities and pain and so much love and they define him and inform his character in ways that I think, his relationships with men simply do not. Interesting/hot under the right circumstances? Sure but like ARE YOU GUYS SEEING THIS MAN??? AND HOW HE RELATES TO WOMEN??? It’s one of the best things Anne ever wrote and I can never get enough of it and it makes me sad how little content there is of it and I feel I can never say this out loud because I would never want to make people feel bad about what they ship (truly not my intention here) but ugh SO MUCH potential there for life changing discourse and meta about Marius and the women he’s loved and lost and have shaped who he is and there’s like… nothing.

Tl;dr the reason I’m sending this ask is because I’m a firm believer that you must be the change you want to see in this world and because YOU get it! And every time you post or write about Marius/Pandora (or Marius/Akasha! Or talk about Marius/Bianca) an angel gets its (black) wings. You are seen, you are loved and appreciated tysm <3

OKAY FIRST OF ALL THIS WAS SUCH A DELIGHT TO GET IN MY INBOX, SECOND IM GOING TO BE COMPLETELY HONEST AND ADMIT I FEEL TOO INCOHERENT TO TACKLE THIS TOPIC HAHA. I don’t feel articulate enough to do it justice. And I don’t say that to be obnoxious and self deprecating but like in all honesty idk how to synthesize it neatly but I think you’re sharing some GREAT IDEAS. 

I have to say this in bullet points because I don’t feel equipped to string this into a cohesive post:

Marius was based on Anne’s husband, and Marius/Pandora was based on their marriage!!!!! And I think it explains a lot about why their relationship feels so fuckin POTENT to me, like it’s so genuine!!!!!!! And like knowing that I think it makes sense why she wrote him so HOT lol. Like she’s just writing thirsty stuff about her husband right? LOL

Also like insofar as there’s a lot of genderfluidity in VC there’s also something vaguely misogynist about it at times. And Anne Rice was a mega feminist and her work had so much womens lib in it!!!!! So I don’t think it’s intended as misogyny at all vs. Anne having conversations about gender and maybe her own relationship to gender. I think enough characters have said vaguely misogynist stuff that it makes me think it’s an Anne Problem vs being Watsonian. (This is also a historical/time period issue and we can discuss another time if and when vampires are supposed to break out of that when they transcend humanity and social constructs even when they’re still saying weird sexist shit at their big ages.) But I say that to say all VC characters are a tad sexist, even if perhaps she was writing with the intention of her own male power fantasy/male superiority/penis envy. AND THAT MAKES MARIUS VERY INTERESTING. 

Cause like really the three main ladies in his life (Akasha, Pandora, Bianca) DO define him so much! And we don’t see him pine for Armand the way he did for any of them! Why!!!

Like there’s that aspect of sexism where women can be infantilized by men who don’t think they’re being unkind and it makes me wonder, especially when the author is a boomer, like where is that line between condescension and respect? I don’t have an answer here, this is too big-brained for me LOL but like he is SO devoted to the women in his life and I just wonder like if he sees them as creatures unlike himself, you know? 

This is headcanon territory but I bet he’s such a fucking sub to Pandora lol and it just thrills me that he spent 2000 years begging Akasha for affection and she ignored him the whole damn time wow. And he continued to simp!

AND ALSO LIKE, I think people DO NOT DISCUSS THIS OFTEN ENOUGH, but did we forget that he chose Armand because he needed a Bianca rebound? He was absolutely TORTURED by his love for Bianca and picked Armand because he didn’t want to kill her oh my god. Oh my god!!! HE KEPT HER LETTER IN HIS POCKET OVER HIS HEART OKAY??? HE DIDN’T WANT TO DRAG HER INTO HIS COLD AND FATAL DOMAIN????? Fuck lol

It’s so fucked up that he didn’t go after Armand but spent like actual fucking millennia trying to find Pandora. HE KNEW EXACTLY WHERE ARMAND WAS AND LEFT HIM THERE LOL BUT PANDORA HAUNTED HIM EVERY NIGHT OF HIS LIFE FOR CENTURIES.

After everything he wound up spending like 200 years with Bianca or something and ?????? CORRECT because Bianca was the fledgling he actually wanted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it’s odd, I know I’ve said this 337589235 times, but Marius like. Has an idea of the person he wants to be and he tries SO HARD to live by logic & reason and he just can’t reconcile with the fact that he has EMOTIONS. And so like part of the person he wants to be like, open/empathetic/wise and he begs his lovers/students/fledglings to CHALLENGE HIM when he’s not actually healed enough to be challenged? And to me there’s something kinda like, extra spicy about it when you’re in Rice World and you’re a lil sexist; how much that burns EXTRA when it’s Pandora or Bianca sticking up to you or AKASHA FUCKIN IGNORING YOU. 

Just really incredible that this person who is like the epitome of a patriarch has such fucked up relationships with all the women in his life. And like he underestimates these women, like the way he tries to manipulate Bianca and she leaves him! PANDORA AND AKASHA ARE UNAVAILABLE TO HIM AND BIANCA FUCKIN LEAVES.

akasSHA JUST IGNROING HIM!! JUST STRAIGHT UP FUCKIN IGNORING HIM FOR 2,000 YEARS!!!! HE'S OBSESSED WITH HER!

Anyway Enkil is ignoring him too but he doesn’t give a shit about that guy tbh lol 

Also the amount of space he gives Eudoxia and Zenobia in his book like there’s more here too but tbh it’s midnight and I can’t start unpacking. I just think like, in 2000 years it’s interesting how Eudoxia wound up having such a lasting impact on his life. 

I did just peek at the Eudoxia part and I’m dying, he goes “Her face was small, oval, and as close to perfection as anything I've ever beheld, even though she bore no resemblance to Pandora who was for me perfection itself.” CERTIFIED WIFE GUY.

What kinda mommy issues are we dealing with here? HIS MOTHER WAS A SLAVE THAT DIED IN CHILDBIRTH AND HE INHERITED HER GENES AND LOOKED LIKE HER AND DIDN’T LOOK LIKE HIS FATHER & BROTHERS? AND HE’S SORT OF AN OUTCAST AS A HUMAN LIKE ? THE STIGMA HERE? AND THEN HE SPENDS 2000 YEARS WORSHIPPING HIS NEW MOTHER??? PERHAPS YOU COULD SAY ENSLAVED TO HER? IDK MAN. 

IS THIS ALSO WHY HE WAS SO OBSESSED WITH LOSING PANDORA?

The irony too, and something I think a lot of people miss, is that he DIDN’T WANT TO MARRY PANDORA LOL. He wanted to be betrothed to a child so that he could FUCK OFF and NOT get married because she wasn’t old enough to get married! He fucked off! He went exploring! He said this is not for me! 

AND TO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND BE MURDERED BY HIS MOTHERS PEOPLE???? IDK. 

I’m not sure how these last two points tie into anything but I just wanted to mention his complicated relationship with Pandora and his own heritage lol. And then Akasha like DELIVERS Pandora to him because she’s like “wow this guy needs somebody lol and I am not emotionally available” — Akasha who was famously a violent genocidal radfem and who would not approve of his relationship with Armand but explicitly allowed him to have Pandora and Bianca. IDK WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN! 

Did Akasha approve of these women because she knew Marius was completely pussywhipped and would worship them and she wanted to see someone mommydom the fuck out of him and she knew that Armand would never be that person? 🫢

And again I want to say like, taking the author into consideration!! Anne Rice had a HORRIFIC relationship with her mom so you see these themes pop up occasionally in her work. DESPITE ALL OF THAT SHE IS STILL A FEMINIST AND WRITES ABOUT MATRILINEAR FAMILIES like The Great Family or the Mayfairs. But thinking about Mothers in Anne Rice Works makes me think a lot about this like, the damage they can do and the voids they can leave even when you’re a feminist and love women! You see a TON of this with Gabrielle and I always think that Lestat & Marius are such similar characters that you can do a lot of extrapolating or backwards engineering to ask questions about them and how they work, since we get SO MUCH Lestat POV in this series to work with and how we can zoom out sometimes and ask like, what is common across her entire body of work and what is more specifically common between Lestat & Marius and WHAT EVEN MORE INTERESTINGLY is a result that they were both based on her husband in their inceptions. 

Like how much of this has to do with Marius’s actual feelings towards men vs women on purpose, or how much was subconscious author bias, how much was simply that Anne Rice based him on her husband and she was THIRSTY, idk. It’s always hard to say in VC because Anne was such an intuitive and self-indulgent author and the stories are so weird!!! So your mileage may vary!

But I agree with you that these are FASCINATING relationships!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I like Marius/Armand too (I recently made a post about how I didn’t “””””ship”””” them but then I spent 2 months working on a M/A fic every day and now I think I’ve corrupted and converted myself LMAO) but yeah like. There’s such a lack of substance between them in the end. He treats Armand like he’s temporary, fucks up and moves on, and it’s such a departure from how DEVOTED he was with all his other partners. 

Wow I didn’t think I had a lot to say, sorry about that. !!! EVERY TIME I BROUGHT A POINT UP I THOUGHT OF 5 MORE POINTS GOSH I COULD TALK ABOUT MARIUS ALL DAY.

[johaerys-writes]

Thank you for the tag @spineless-lobster!! I decided to make a new post for it bc the other one was getting too long 😊

Last song: Familiar by Agnes Obel

Fav colour: it changes constantly but right now I'm really into red and black tbh! 

Last book: Persuasion by Jane Austen (also I just finished my Farseer Trilogy reread and I'm NOT OKAY 😭)

Last movie: Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World by Radu Jude (amazing! Incredible! Show stopping! One of the funniest/cleverest/most interesting things I've seen in a long while!! Everyone should be watching Jude's work, the man's a genius, European cinema at its finest) 

Last show: Finished Arcane only a few days ago! And I'm watching Castlevania Nocturne now. I missed my boy Alucard so much 😭😭

Sweet/savoury/spicy: lately I've been more into sweet snacks but I usually prefer savoury 

Last thing I searched up: "classics podcasts" because I'm looking for, well, classics podcasts 😅 if anyone has any recommendations I'd love to check them out!

Current obsession: I've recently started playing Pyre and I LOVE it it's so cool!!! I'm kind of bad at it lmao but it's very cool!! SGG never disappoint

Looking forward to: Updating Fates later tonight FINALLY 😩 it's been too long

Tagging forth to: @elveny @calciumyum @hekateinhell @monstersinthecosmos @gloriesunsung @vimlos @annalyia @emotionalspitfire @tender-wolf @maxdurden @rowanisawriter @aymayzing anyone else who'd like to do it!