#i tend to think he likes what lestat took him to because lestat was very selective about what he took him to

[pynkhues]

There is soooo much in this beat, from the literal lampshading going on between the lamp and Lestat's tie being the same colour (incredible mise en scene), to Louis trying to downplay the fact that he went to an opera and enjoyed it, to Lestat's look of betrayal at that downplaying, to Paul immediately seeing that as leverage around Louis' sexuality and Louis and Lestat's relationship, and just !! Mess! I love it!

[nightcolorz]

i like your meta about armand in the finale but i have a question. if lestat saved louis from being exposed to the sun, i don't think he was also the one who got him out of the vault (or maybe he was) but i am convinced that armand was the one who poured his blood on the rocks to wake louis. if it had been lestat's blood, louis would have recognized the smell (? why would armand help louis if it means danger for the coven? I just want to fully understand armand's actions 💀

hiii anon thank u!! I’m glad u like my meta and want to hear my thoughts ❤️

I think it’s possible that lestat saved Louis with his blood (it stood out to me while watching how they don’t show the face or even the arm of Armand when he’s sharing his blood during that scene, which makes me think either it was lestat who actually did it or they want us to speculate over whether it was him or not. Either way, I have a feeling it will come up in the next season). But I think it’s more likely that Armand saved Louis out of guilt and possibly empathy. I tried to re-contextualize the episode from the perspective that lestat saved Louis with his blood and Armand took credit for it, but it left too many gaps. It makes more sense to me that while Armand was taking the low servitude role in the coven (which i do think he was telling the truth about), hearing the screams of Louis starving to death horrifically brought him back to how he experienced the same thing (was kidnapped by the Satan cult and imprisoned as he starved until he lost his mind), and he had a Rare Empathy Moment that worked with his primary goal of self preservation, and Armand realized that 1. he has already lost this battle, lestat saved Louis and he’s been defeated (a more vindictive or competent villain would not see this as a defeat and find a work around, but armand has his learned helplessness due to his repeated victimhood and he tends to accept defeat very easily). And 2. Armand has failed to preserve his own safety, because listening to Louis scream and die as he plays the servitude role he was originally subject to when he was first indoctrinated into the Satan cult, is super triggering and definitely not giving him the reassurance and security he is looking for. his coven don’t trust or like him so he has no security in his new role, and his lover who he relied on for an alternate purpose if the coven went sour is dying. so armand probably reasoned that freeing louis and then committing to being his partner again was more in his best interest then watching painfully as he died. Also, weirdly enough lol 😭 Armand is capable of love and emotion sometimes, and he didn’t want Louis to die bcus he doesn’t care about him, only bcus he saw it as inevitable and in his best interest, so I imagine that listening for days on end as Louis painfully dies in a way that connects to Armand’s own trauma would upset him enough to move him to do smth that doesn’t rlly make sense considering any of the actions he has taken 😭. Even Armand makes irrational decisions out of emotion that don’t rlly make sense, tho very very rarely haha.

still, I think it’s possible that Lestat did the blood thing, and amc will use that reveal as a haphazard sort of cop out red herring explanation to support a possibly bigger plot line or twist, and just say Louis didn’t recognize the smell cuz Armand messed with his memories or whatever (a dumb red herring ie “what is the sun to a 514 yr old vampire”, I’m never gonna be over how dumb that was 💀💀). But regardless, I think they could find a way to make either explanation make sense for the characters

thank u for the ask!!

[ca-suffit]

i agree when it comes to female characters whatever their origins, I think the showrunners did the best they could. I did find weird that anne rice never wrote any queer female characters, it's all subtext. the books are really filled with sexism and while anne rice wrote the mayfair's witches, with a main female characters it's still full of incestuous rape and I couldn't believe amc took the decision to make an adaptation of those books. Just the whole stuff with 13 years old mona mayfair... I really never understand why anne rice wasn't comfortable with her female characters. anyway we could still have merrick in iwtv. they could change some elements of her plot.

tw csa

Anne Rice included a lot of themes that are popular and common still in modern stories and ppl tend to not understand the main difference of why ppl take offense to Anne's writing and not others. Case in point, this thread I responded to the other day on twt:

Here is the source (from her official website) for what OwlsGoldberg was referencing (thnx to them for sharing this link in the thread too) "O.K. I just read a book I recommend. It's called THE DEADLY FEAST by Richard Rhodes. The book centers around a man named Carleton Gajdusek. Carleton Gajdusek is a Nobel Prize winner and he's in prison--apparently for fondling a 14 year old in a shower. I have not seen the court record and I'm not in any way qualified to judge what goes on. All I want to say is that I highly recommend that you get the book. That the contribution of Carleton Gajdusek to medicine and to science has been fantastic and that I personally am looking into the whole question of child molestation, children's rights, because it concerns me. I remember being a young adult, and I remember being real angry that I wasn't allowed to do things that other adults were doing. I was working full time and I was living in a rooming house and I didn't like being classified as a teenager, because somebody wanted to sell me something expensive. I know I sound angry--I am. I am angry. But we've got to revise our concept of teenagers in this country. If we want to stop the crime in this country we've just got to realize that 14 and 15 year old people are adults, they are not children. And leading them to believe that there is a fundamental difference between play killing and real killing."

That's not even all of it for that twt thread, but u get the point. Nobody can ever criticize anything with Anne Rice without ppl saying it's just misogyny or ....whatever that accusation of queerphobia for a cast member is about (there was no clarification who that's referencing but I'm guessing it's Sam Reid bcuz this fandom rides hard for white queerness in him / Lestat at any chance, especially in order to silence other issues). It's always easy for these ppl to erase everything about anything else except "victimization" of a rich white woman. This only happens within the fandom too, as most ppl outside it don't respect Anne Rice at all for her behavior or writing....and that's without even knowing the depths of this kind of stuff. U couldn't pull this crap on any person on the street, they'd rightfully think ur terminally online and fucking weird.

Anyway, back to the point about themes. Anne Rice had repetitive themes that ppl will argue are for "the genre." The thing is tho....it has to still serve a purpose to the story to be any good. Most of the time (at least for my knowledge of TVC books), there isn't a reason to have these things present. She simply has a fixation on them and a lot of them are things that hurt women just for the sake of doing it. The reader is also uncomfortably made to feel like this is all supposed to be ok too, which is the main issue ppl have. It's not critical or intentionally envoking horror and dread....it's just saying "this is what being a girl/woman is" and giving the message to love ur abuser (most often a very old white man in TVC), which many survivors of a lot of things find triggering af.

Mentioning Merrick too, that's a character I rly liked and yet was wasted all over. The book with her name is narrated by David Talbot, this elderly, white, British pedophile, and we spend more time hearing his gross thoughts about her as a child and other similar shit in his life (always with underage poc) instead of spending time with her in her own head as an adult. Or Louis, for that matter, who is also more who the book is about than David, yet Davis is our narrator.

There's a lot more I could write but I'd never stop tbh. It's clear to most everyone who isn't finding excuses that Anne Rice just wasn't a good writer and had so many issues with misogyny and a lot of other things. I've never seen any other author excused so much from criticism, especially one who was so obviously known in life as being a rly unlikeable person, particularly to her own fanbase. If it weren't for other ppl, there wouldn't even be a fandom for her work. She v much almost destroyed it by herself.....but she's dead now, so ppl have been quick to start rewriting history and accusing others of anything they can think of to avoid criticism. Just like she always did.

[alpaca-clouds]

The Question For Queer Representation

2024 surprises me in so far, that we finally seem to have reached the point where we can talk a bit more clearly about the question of queer representation.

Now, this seems to be a topic where we still very much see the difference between younger people within the community and older ones. Because the conversation is mostly driven by millenial and Gen X queers - while some of Gen Z and younger will still often insist on needing "Good Representation".

But I thought towards the end of this year's strange Pride Month, in which there was so little pinkwashing, I want to talk about this a bit. Even though I have spoken about this before.

Finally Some Toxic Gays

During those laIst two years something has happened. Not only did we see a sharp increase of queer representation in media, but we also got a lot more diverse queer representation. There is still a lot of cute and fluffy stuff, but also a lot of shitty and toxic gays with tons of bad habbits, that never the less are allowed to be the protagonists or otherwise important characters in their stories.

I took some characters I could think off in the picture above. And yes, I will admit, that I am mostly watching animated stuff, which shows above. Mostly because the more fantasy-oriented stuff tends to be animated. And yes, also because animated stuff is somehow a lot more openly queer.

But we got quite a lot either toxic, unhealthy or otherwise "problematic" gay characters. Be it those who betray their partners, or those who are abusive (Lestat in IWTV, Malcolm in Captain Laserhawk). Be it people who gaslight and manipulate (like both Carmilla and Olrox from Castlevania). Or be it those survivors of abuse, who have developed a lot of toxic coping mechanism (like Angel Dust or Astarion).

And I really got to say: This is good. It is actually good. At least in the context that it appears in now.

Gays Don't Need To Be Perfect

Now, it should be noted that of course - especially here on tumblr - quite a lot of people have complained about this. Like there are several blogs about each of the characters above and how they are horrible and the worst thing to happen to queer representation ever and such. As well as people who ignored several trigger warnings at the beginnings of episodes, only to then complain about being triggered. (This showed so very much with Hazbin Hotel Episode 4. Because that episode had a Trigger Warning.)

The one I found most interesting in terms of the anti-discourse was Astarion, though, probably. Because a lot of the discourse about him - outside being a toxic queer man - was also very much about how he was not a perfect victim. Sure, they did also complain about the other stuff and did not use the words "perfect victim", but it was surely implied in some blogs I saw. Basically using both the entire story with the Gur and his learned toxic behaviors to say: "He is not only bad queer representation, but also bad for sexual abuse/sex trafficking survivors." Which... is of course ironic, given that especially in terms of the latter he is a lot closer to reality than any innocent honey-bu would be.

And this is a big thing. See, here is the thing: In the real world, a lot of queer folks are messy. Because a lot of us are traumatized from the queerphobia that is so very present in society. So many of us have been abused for our queerness by parents, classmates and teachers. A lot of us do have mental health issues - and statistically we are also more likely to be neurodivergent to begin with. So many of us have learned quite a few bad coping mechanisms.

So, yes... This is just something that is fair to depict as well. Because the world is not that easy, if we are honest.

The Numbers Game

Now, if those shows and games had come out 10 years ago, I might have well deriled them as well. Not just because I was a lot younger then and had a very different idea of what made for good representation, but also because the numbers out there were different.

10 years ago, we barely had any queer representation. And back then, yes, it was very, very noticable to a lot of folks that most queer characters we got to say, were either shown to be shitty people, or would simply die or have a very miserable storyline with a lot of death and such things.

I will remind you: The Korrasami reveal, that was so important for studios/channels/services realizing that actually they could get away with a lot more than they had previously thought, happened in December 2014. The finale of the first season Steven Universe, where we got the Ruby/Sapphire reveal, happened a bit later in 2015.

Again, yes, those are animated examples, but... Well, it did not look better in terms of live action shows. While those (due to having older audiences) might have had their token queer character, this character often was either a stereotype, died, or was living a miserable life with no resolution.

And now? Well, now we can have the toxic gay vampires - be they named Lestat, Olrox, or Astarion - and we also can have sweet, fluffy queer representation in other shows, like Heartstopper. And it is good to have both of them. We deserve both.

The Missing Rep

I wrote an essay last year about this, but because tumblr's search is shit, I cannot find it again. So I will just put this out here again. Because I noticed an issue here - and you should notice the same issue if you look at the picture above.

The toxic queer characters right now are very much mostly men. Partly, because gay and bi/pan men make up a very large part of queer representation, especially in adult media. While I can name you quite a few fluffy, kidfriendly shows with lesbian or bi/pan female characters, the adult media often focuses more on queer men. And even if there are queer women, those are often a lot more wholesome, compared the men.

I mean, I think that Euphoria (which I don't watch) focuses more on queer young women, who are kinda shitty, but... Yeah, exceptions to the rule.

Now, we can speculate why this is. I personally still think that part of it has to do that sapphic women are seen as more innocent for several reasons. For one, we tend to portray women as more passive and innocent either way than men. But also, there is the fact that especially sapphic women are seen as a lot more innocent in total, because "they don't have real sex" (according to some people). As there is still the stigma that sex needs to involve at least one cock to be real sex.

And yeah, it should be noted that of course all the other types of queer representation are still lacking especially in Western media. We have little in terms of trans representation (especially trans men are super underrepresented), basically no intersex representation, and aroace representation is also quite lacking.

Conclusion

I think right now, we are making really good strides when it comes to at least certain types of representation. We get to see queer charactres in so many shows, movies, and games right now. Not to speak of books and comics. And this is good. No, not all the representation is perfect, but given that we get quite a lot it does not need to be.

No, having characters be toxic, depressed or otherwise not perfect does not make them bad representation. Because there are a lot of toxic, depressed and otherwise not perfect queer people in reality. And that deserves to be represented as well.

Yes, we need more representation of certain groups of queer people. Again: Trans folks, especially trans men, intersex people and aroaces do deserve more representation. Both the fluffy kind and the dramatic bitch type.

But... I really think folks need to stop complaining when queer characters in media are not perfect. It is okay for them to not be perfect. Real queer people are not either.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hey! Enjoyed your deep dive into Antoinette. You mentioned two interesting topics I’m curious to know about, the selected make up and your doubts that the hotel scene actually happened the way it did. Would you mind expanding on those two topics? Thank you!

Hey!

Glad you liked!

Soooo while Antoinette is mortal she looks alluring (or is told to be alluring), and unchanged. This is an expression of the vampires finding all mortals beautiful, which is book canon. She is "The Mistress™", so she is this beautiful thing that draws Lestat away (albeit with a flat ass, as Claudia denotes^^).

However, as soon as she's actually turned (and loses her "mortal" appeal)... that changes:

Very strong wrinkles at the eyes suddenly. If you zoom in in the show you can see the applied texture.

I always found this detail very interesting, because this is explicitly applied makeup. It means that either Louis' view of her completely changed... or Louis did not quite witness the years that went by as changes in her body.

I tend to lean towards a mix of these possibilities, not only because it is book canon, but also because this happened with Grace as well:

No wrinkles, she looks a bit older maybe, but she looks beautiful. This is about 30 years later, but time did not really touch her. Because she looked beautiful to Louis.

Now, in Antoinette's case I also think that... maybe the hotel scene did not happen, actually.

There's a lot that ties into this speculation, so please bear with me:

The finger

Antoinette's hand is bloody after the fight, and the glove is off. Someone, Claudia, likely, has taken her finger - maybe again.

Episode 6, hotel:

Episode 7, pre incinerator:

Like... they are not the same. That's not the same wound. (For a show with these kind of details I do not think this is an accident.) I theorized for my fanfic and in the ask here that maybe Lestat had replaced it (he's older, and he knows that limbs etc can be replaced), and that Claudia took it off again because she was (rightfully) furious at the deception, but...

Claudia likes souvenirs. She takes a lot of souvenirs. Body parts. Fingers. Jewelry. That is not the same wound. I think by now, and I align with @virginiaisforvampires here, who wrote about this just earlier, that Lestat maybe never cut off Antoinette's finger, but decided to (maybe) deceive Louis and Claudia instead. When Claudia noticed during "murder night", that obviously must have made her angry, and she took what she thought was hers (and again, she likes taking souvenirs in any case).

2. Ponchatoula

Supposedly Antoinette is "stashed away in a hotel in Ponchatoula".

Now, Ponchatoula...

1h minimum with a car. More so then. Claudia and Louis cannot fly.

Which obviously does not make this impossible, don't get me wrong here. But another thing about cars comes into play then, if Claudia and Louis really went and drove to Ponchatoula, to stand outside of Lestat's hotel room, without him knowing, and them seeing somehow inside, without Lestat and Antoinette noticing. And they are both shown not to have been able to look inside from their viewpoint, which means they could not have been able to see the finger! (Or the neck wounds for that matter.) All they would have been able to witness are the sounds.

Here is the "car post". In very short, there is no way that a powerful vampire like Lestat would not have known that Claudia and Louis would draw near. No way.

Which means... either he gave a performance there (knowing they were there), or... that scene never happened.

I think Claudia told Louis, and Louis... extrapolated in his tale to Daniel. OR he believes it happened, or was made to believe it happened. I shared an interview with Jacob just yesterday where he said that Louis... "Louis believes that a lot of this is the truth. There are other things that he knows deep down are not true. He has to tell himself a version of it in order to cope."

Now, we know they said "all of it" would be revisited.

I'm not sure they will revisit this scene explicitly, but even if they do not... *shrugs*

3. The walk

Now, this is of course circumstantial.

But Louis and Claudia walking, in NOLA, and Claudia apologizing to Louis for showing him? If this is supposed to be right after, why didn't they talk in Ponchatoula? Why didn't they talk on the drive back? They went back to Rue Royale, parked the car, and then went out for a walk and then talked about it, approx. 90 minutes later?

It just doesn't make sense to me the way it is presented.

However, it does make sense if you remember that Louis wants to protect Claudia, wants to protect her image. He wants to keep her in mind as his daughter, and not as the vicious killer, the serial killing vampire who took souvenirs and liked to collect last words. Liked to kill indiscriminately, children, dogs, whoever. Adding to that the way this show is set up, and the way Louis seems to have been influenced...

I think that Claudia told him, and Louis knew Antoinette was somewhere in a hotel (given the hate-sex scene was at her house that in and by itself is interesting, too!). I think that walk happened in a similar fashion as shown, but not the same.

But I don't think Louis ever saw that finger (stump). He expected it to be there though, because Lestat had brought them a burnt finger.

And so all of this is shown to us as he tells it. Probably as he remembers it, right now.

"Let the tale seduce you", right?

We'll see how it will fit together after season 2^^.

[leslutdepointedulac]

How many of Destroyer's kittens do you think took a shine to Armand? Do you think Armand named any of them? Pretended to be irritated but was secretly thrilled when one of them would sit on his lap?

Oh I think at least three of her kittens took one look at Armand and instantly thought 'yes! We love you!' The last kitten is a bit shy and is wary of his in-human-ness, so he takes a bit more time to warm up to Armand. But once he does, he's all over him and won't leave him alone.

Because Armand isn't thrilled over them to begin with (or so he claims anyway lmao), they tend to gravitate towards him the most. Although Louis is the kitten's favourite person, they love nothing more than to climb all over Armand, biting at his fingers and curling up on his lap so he can't move.

Armand totally names them but they're his own names for them. Benji, Sybelle and Louis give the kittens their actual names, but Armand likes to call them things like 'Ankle Biter', 'Menace', 'Terror' and 'Nightmare'. These names start out somewhat genuine but over time Armand calls them this in the most affectionate way possible. But if anyone else refers to them by these names, Armand will glare at them and tell them not to be so rude to the babies.

And he's totally pretending to be annoyed by the kittens. At first it is a bit more genuine because "Louis they're chewing up my trousers and leaving holes in them." And when they make themselves at home on his lap, Armand doesn't really know what to do with them, so it comes out as irritation towards them for that reason too. However, the longer he's around them for, the more he gets used to the kittens and loves having them curled up on him.

If they settle on his lap, he does what every good person does which is not move a muscle until they do. If he's needed somewhere, Armand will tell them it'll have to wait because nothing is more important than these kittens getting their rest. No one's allowed to tell them off for misbehaving because Armand will be in their defence and say something like "Well if you didn't want the new table getting clawed up, maybe you should have put it in one of the rooms they can't get into."

One kitten in particular is very fond of Armand, and likes to sit on his shoulder, which he lets her do. Even when she's grown up, she still perches on Armand's shoulder, and he just leaves her to it while he goes about whatever it is he's doing.

Years down the line, when it's Destroyer's kitten's descendants, Armand likes to form an alliance with them and they gang up on Lestat when he visits. They're usually rewarded with some kind of treat after lmao.

[rainbowcarousels]

Lestat/Nicki: "The room was dark and he had passed out on the floor near the fireplace, which had burned down to smoldering ashes."

The room was dark and he had passed out on the floor near the fireplace, which had burned down to smoldering ashes.

Hair spun out like the halo of Botticelli's Madonna, or a lion's mane crowning him as something regal even as a little bit of drool hit the floor. The image was ludicrous as all things related to Lestat tended to become, his runaway lord flat out on the floor in his best velvet coat despite the fact Lestat had already used his new earnings to buy a coat of his own. A more maddening nor exhilerating creature you could never meet.

It was tempting to leave him there, let him awake shivering and contorting in the increasingly cold air and find his way to their bed on his own. Nicki chose not to, and not because this entire business of dreams coming true or success or whatever else had begun to infect everyone at Renaud's but because he didn't want to let his coat potentially go up in flames and his lover with it.

It was a very good coat.

(It was an intoxicating lover.)

As soon as Nicolas pulled at him, Lestat gave the most pathetic whimper and said it was time for sleep. At least, that was what those slurred words sounded like. They'd long since learned each others drunken voices but Nicki had to stat sober enough for a lesson when he could squeeze it in, morning, noon or night.

"Why do you think I'm trying to get you to bed?" Nicki grumbled, pulling him over to the sheeted palette. They used the wolf cloak more than the sheets, a reminder of when they had nothing else in that little inn or when they first arrived, but it was still a little warm for it. That meant he had to undress him and Lestat had turned into the most ridiculous floppy ragdoll. "Are you going to help me?"

Lestat responded by laying a wet, sloppy kiss on his mouth and it took a moment for Nicki's mind to figure out why. "Not that sort of into bed," Nicolas said. "You're barely conscious."

"I'd enjoy it anyway," Lestat insisted, his voice still obfuscated by sleep. "You can just come in me and I can enjoy that."

"In your sleep?" Nicki managed to wrestle the coat and shoes off and deemed it good enough. "Yes, if anyone would manage to enjoy sex while asleep, I imagine it would be you."

His eyes were barely open, blinking as if fighting to hang on to consciousness but Nicolas took pity upon it. He wasn't quite that much of an asshole. "Go to sleep," he said, putting the cloak around them both and curling him close enough that he could smell the embers from the fire, the staleness of the alcohol on his breath and the leftover lavender in his hair. "I promise to debauch you thoroughly in the morning."

[rozsapalota]

The Most Random Questions About Your Muse.

*Copy and paste. Do not reblog*

Name: Gábor Szilvás.

1. Do they believe in true love? Absolutely. His attention span is generally rather short and he will drift from one infatuation to another, however when he loves he always does so truly, and has never been dishonest about his feelings. He holds some terribly poetic ideas about love, any kind of love be it platonic or romantic; and if he feels it, if he really feels affection for someone, then that is all he needs to know it is true.

2. Do they believe that their life has meaning? In a personal and emotional sense, most definitely. Not in the grand scheme of things. He values the simplicity of there being no greater meaning, no real divine plan other than for this world to be here, and for us to have the means to experience it. He really doesn’t regard himself as important, and would be quite honestly overwhelmed if he were. Probably in line to some extent with Lestat’s Savage Garden ramblings.

3. What first impression do they give when they first meet someone? He looks and feels quite frail, gentle. Long-limbed, fresh-faced, a graceful and sensitive youth of alluring innocence and girlish beauty. Now more than ever he might appear a bit removed from time, perhaps due to his choice of clothing which often reflects his own era in one way or another. He is very well-mannered and soft-spoken, carries himself like a noble and most certainly gives the vibe of old money, silver spoon in his mouth.

4. Do they believe in Heaven/Hell? By default, yes, or at least he used to. For a long time now he’s been thinking that there might be nothing, and he doesn’t really know what to make of it. You tend to contemplate death a lot, when you’re a vampire.

5. FIVE things that irritate them:

   1 )  low quality materials    2 )  poorly translated poetry    3 )  rudeness    4 )  any form of animal cruelty    5 )  out of tune instruments

6. First Kiss? He used to have the cutest crush on one of his older sister's friends back when he was maybe 7, and it was painfully obvious to everyone who spent any amount of time around the two. He couldn’t look her in the eye for longer than a couple seconds, and so of course when they all played charades and later on truth or dare, he was immediately dared to give her a kiss. Fortunately she was endeared or else he wouldn’t have had the courage, and she came to cradle his face in her hands and give him a kiss herself.

7. What do they find funny that other’s usually don’t? Hungarian puns can be too hard to explain sometimes ( say “Nagy Árpi” quickly and repeatedly, and don’t ask why he’s struggling to hold his laughter ). Blame Lotti for having taught him that.

8. Biggest Regret? That he was so naive as to fully trust his sire. That he never thought or had the nerve to press for answers before the irreversible took place.

9. THREE words that best describe them:

   1 )  graceful    2 )  affectionate    3 )  gullible

10. Their most attractive feature. It would have to be either his eyes, or his hands. There is at times a truly disarming expressiveness to his gaze, those long lashes of his, the colour an uncertain middle ground between light hazel and green. The eyes really are a mirror to his soul.

11. The feature that they find most attractive? It’s still the eyes. They’re one of the first traits he notices and nothing works him up quite like intense eye-contact.

12. Favorite Song Lyric: He’s more into instrumentals honestly.

13. Best advice they’ve ever received: “Do not become so perverted that you would disobey your own nature. Therein lies the path to ruin.” ( you know who you are, mystery advisor. )

14. Worst advice they’ve ever received: Nothing deep or meaningful here, but he was once told that eggs would make a great ingredient for a homemade hair mask. And they are. Except he went to rinse with warm water and somehow it never occurred to him the egg would begin to cook as a consequence. Sometimes I swear there's only white noise in his head.

15. What makes them cry? It really doesn’t take a lot to make this boy cry. Try raising your voice at him and you’ll see what I mean, generally however he will get emotional over anything from films to poetry, music, sad pet adoption or life insurance commercials on TV.

16. Hardest decision they ever had to make? Permanently leaving his family home. He’d killed a stable boy the night after his birth to darkness, entirely without meaning to or really knowing what he was doing. A maid would soon share the same fate. He realised at once, of course, that staying was out of the question; but that never made the decision any easier.

17. What makes them fond of someone? Kindness, kindness has its way of ensnaring him without fail. Joie de vivre, rather like his dear Lotti, hearty and contagious laughter. Generosity, honesty. Just being nice to him or having a sense of humour. Believe me when I tell you it is very easy to get him to like you.

18. Do they believe in forgiveness? He most certainly does, though he struggles even now, to some extent, to really understand or forgive his maker.

19. Biggest TURN ON. A dominant partner, that’s what does it for him. He has a very strong preference for men in this department and likes nothing more than being courted, the spicy back-and-forth of flirting where you can sense an underlying intent. He likes to play coy after all, and baby if you’re charming and a little bit intimidating, he might as well do anything you ask him to.

20. Biggest TURN OFF. Bad manners, rudeness, callousness. Ostentatious vulgarity in general.

21. Any fetishes/kinks? Power imbalance probably tops the list. Being someone’s submissive, being told what to do. A bit of hair pulling / biting / manhandling when it gets intense, but nothing extreme. Orgasm denial / edging is another big one, and also lots and lots of praise. Otherwise he’s reasonably vanilla, except maybe for blood sharing on occasion?

22. Do they have a perception of God? Vaguely so. He was raised Christian, but he is one only at surface level. Nobody in his family was a devout believer and the existence of God was rather passively accepted as the conventional truth. He doesn’t question it, and yet religion has never plagued him or caused him any great turmoil, as it was not a very significant part of his life save for the obligatory Sunday masses. If he were to pick a label he would probably call himself something of a deist.

23. A memory from their childhood that shaped them. He was a very pampered child growing up, always complimented left and right for being pretty as his sisters, often mistaken for a girl himself. It’s a dreamy place of his past to revisit, and he’s still young for a vampire; the memories feel fresh to him, recent to his preternatural mind. He remembers well the evenings of those long gone times when the house was alive and full of music, his mother putting on her pearl earrings before the mirror of her bedroom wall. He remembers leaning against the wooden balcony railing when he wanted to trace constellations, long before they’d ever left for Budapest. He remembers hearing the wolves there, and feeling safe where he stood.

24. Birthday and zodiac sign: October 1st, he’s a Libra.

25. Do they agree with said zodiac sign? He thinks zodiacs are a lot of fun and does relate to many of the traits associated with his sign, but he refuses to believe that he is superficial. :(

26. What is ONE thing that they wish they could change about themselves? He’s pretty comfortable in his skin, as well as comfortable with his own personality. That said, he would tone down the sensitivity if he could, he genuinely cannot participate in an argument without being on the verge of tears.

27. A dream that they have never told anyone. He won’t tell this to anyone because he realises how pathetic it is of him, a product of his heartbreak. It makes him feel miserable to even think about it. He just wishes there could have been some way to be happy alongside his maker, some way to have made him realise that bringing him into this immortality would ruin everything, everything they had. Maybe what he truly needs in order to forgive, is an apology.

28. Do they believe in fate? Not really, but there’s definitely a romantic appeal to the idea.

29. Favourite season: Spring.

30. FIVE favourite singers/bands/performers: Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, and more recently ABBA and Lana del Rey.

TAGGED BY: @desanctii ( thank you ! ) TAGGING: once you see this I’m sorry but you’re it, no takebacks

[just-some-fools]

1. Parogenic thoughtform sys

2. *Mostly* just the two in headspace (though there is A Guy who occasionally shows up)

3. I've known my headmate (Mina) existed for about four years but wasn't sure what to call him until this year

4. In a few group chats with various systems but mostly on Tumblr for A Certain Fandom

5. We heard of DID shortly after becoming plural but not OSDD/DDNOS until this year, didn't want to ID as a system for a while cause we thought DID was the only valid experience

6. Honestly not really? Sometimes we'll meet together at a cafe based off one in our hometown, there's also, like, a box to go into if you don't want to be in the headspace

7. Headmates, sysmates, or host/thoughtform

8. We use system because it's convenient 🤷

9. Having a friend to tell me when I'm on my bullshit again, building each other up, exploring the meaning of selfhood

10. Not being able to tell anyone about it, feeling invisible, identity crises, endophobia

11. 100% psychological haha

12. Switching, it's usually pretty easy and quick for us, learned how to do it this year just because we didn't realize it was possible before, it took about ten seconds to figure out 😂

13. Friends but way closer than non-sysmate friends could ever be

14. We're only out to one person IRL but only after they came out to us as a system

15. So I (Vem) basically just take the form of the body (though sometimes with different hair) while Mina has a few different forms ce takes (usually slightly taller than me with long red hair, sometimes with multiple eyes, sometimes a sort of spider like form, or just a shadow)

16. Uh, lots of things, I'm into linguistics, Tolkien, and musicals and Mina is a huge vampire nerd (hence the pseudonym lol) and likes opera and fashion, but we tend to be interested in each other's hyperfixations too

17. Studying abroad right now! It's super fun

18. Music: showtunes and Soviet rock, Lord of the Rings (Vem), red and gold (Mina), snails and wasps and ofc dogs and cats, favorite musicals are Lestat, The Last Trial, and Lay of Leithian (last two are Russian)

19. I'm (Vem) the host, basically just because I'm usually fronting and deal with change and other people a bit better, also cause I'm the original I'm a bit more accustomed to existing in the world

20. I mean we have friends and family and all like you do, Mina does have a silly nickname that people on discord call him which he's very proud of

21. Can't really remember life before plurality (like I remember but I don't know what I did in my head if there was nobody to talk to), I think I was lonely though

22. Chose to be plural because I was lonely and bored, we didn't treat each other super well at first but after both the external validation of having real friends and just growing as people I think we're a lot more comfortable with each other

23. To endophobes: we exist. To disordered systems that are pro endo your support means so fucking much to us, and to endo systems y'all are great, I love the diversity if our community and learning about everyone's different experiences.

24. If any singlets take the time to read this and are respectful that's great, thank you! Uh personal identity is SUPER WEIRD if you ever wanna just grapple with what makes your personality you then uh, go for it. Also like, we exist in the real world just aren't super open about it.

Sysmeds should not get to write the narrative about us on this platform!

Scrolling through the tags, it seems like a great deal of what's said about us on tumblr is either sysmeds trying to make us look bad or all-encompassing plural blogs that just say everyone is valid (which is great! and these blogs should keep doing what they're doing! but it would be nice to have some more frequent endo (and other) representation on here too!)

Either my tumblr algorithm just sucks major balls, or most endos, tulpas, spiritual systems and other non-sysmed-approved systems get scared off of this platform because of how many loud hateful voices there are compared to how few people there are who we can relate to. (like most of the cool-looking accounts i can relate to that i find are dead and so is my blog for the same reason lol).

SO! Let's do a thing. If you are endogenic, parogenic, a tulpamancy system, a spiritual system, a daemien, or any other kind of system that sysmeds try to silence, reblog this post with answers to these questions to tell tumblr what our lived experiences as plurals are REALLY like!

(Feel free to pick and choose which questions you want to answer, or just come up with your own and tag them under #endovoices or substitute endo for whatever kind of system you are! Also, feel free to just reblog with one answer at a time, or to just answer the questions in a standalone post; no need to credit me, I just want more systems sharing their experiences!)

1. What kind of system are you? (Describe this in any way you like. No need to use -genic or popular terms if you don't want to)

2. How many of you are there?

3. How long have you known about your plurality?

4. What kind of spaces/communities do you/did you hang out in? (Both plural-relevant and non-plural-relevant spaces are valid answers, past and present)

5. Had you heard of DID/OSDD/DDNOS before you became plural/discovered your plurality?

6. Do you have a wonderland/innerworld? If so, what do you call it, and what are some things that you and your system members do there?

7. What do you call your system members?

8. If you're plural but don't use the word "system" to describe you&, what word do you use?

9. What are some of the best things about being plural?

10. What are some of the not-so-great things about being plural? (Any answer is valid- nothing is too minor or too major to be an answer to this question.)

11. Do you have a spiritual or psychological view of your plurality?

12. Do you ever experience "switching" or "posession" or any sort of change in who controls the body? If so, what do you call it, how easy/difficult is it, and what is it like? Were you always able to do this, or did you have to learn how over time?

13. How do you and your system mates relate to each other? (Are you friends, family, romantically involved, caretakers, etc.)

14. Have you come out to anybody in real life/in a singlet space about your plurality? How did it go?

15. What kinds of forms and appearances do your system members take on?

16. What are you and your system members interested in?

17. What is your life like in the meatworld?

18. What are your music tastes? Movies? Favorite colors? Animals? List any other favorites as well

19. Does your system have a host/original? If so, what do you call them? Explain what role they play in your system

20. Do any system members have notable relationships outside of the system? Explain them!

21. If you haven't been plural for your entire life/haven't known about your plurality until later in life: what was life like before plurality compared to life now?

22. If you chose to become plural: why? What has changed since then?

23. Is there anything you'd like to say to the plural community at large?

24. Is there anything you'd like to say to any singlets reading this post?

That is all I've got for now, but feel free to add any more you want to share! Please remember to be respectful to all system types if you post, I do not support bashing or invalidating of any system types. I will also reblog with my own answers soon.

(Note: these questions are not in order of priority or importance, I just wrote them down as I came up with them. Feel free to answer out of order and skip or add whatever you want!)

Also this should go without saying but making any rude sysmeddy responses to this will just result in being blocked and totally ignored, so don't even start, there's no point. The block button is right there.

Have fun everyone!

[allthecoolboysaredead]

Larry Ezekiel Goodman Bio + Tags + Headcanons

Name: Larry Ezekiel Goodman Nicknames: Darkheart, Larebear Age: 21; Can Change Birthday: February 27th Sign: Pisces Gender: Cis Male Pronouns: He/Him Sexuality: Homosexual Homoromantic Polygamous; Nonsexual unless introduced to sex by outside source (then highly sexual) Hair: Naturally Brown, dyes tips blue Eyes: Dodger Blue Skin: Pale White Height: 5′0″ Weight: 110 lbs Faceclaim: Gerhard Freidl Piercings: Horizontal Brow Piercings (Left Side), Angel Bites, Labret, Both Ears Gauged (Size 0g) Tattoos: None Scars: Nothing real noticeable

Alignment: Lawful Good Religion: Raised Roman Catholic, Aetheist Allegiance: South Park Vampire Society, Mike Makowski, Ryan Ellis

Family: Zachary Fetter (Father, Alive, Out Of The Picture); Mariah Goodman (Mother, Alive); Martin “Big M” Goodman (Uncle, Alive); Mary Goodman (Grandmother, Deceased); Ezekiel Goodman (Grandfather, Alive)

Pets: Lestat (White German Shepherd)

Personality: Adaptable, anxious, artistic, attention-seeking, caring, compassionate, compliant, desires an escape of reality, emotionally intelligent, empathetic, extroverted, forgiving, friendly, generous, gentle, gullible, impulsive, intuitive, loyal, overly trusting, passive, patient, protective, prudish, responsible, self deprecating, selfless, sensitive, shy, submissive, sullen, tolerant, worrisome

Likes: Sleeping, music, romance, visual media, swimming, the spiritual side of vampirism, comaraderie, his friends, clamato juice, deviled egg potato salad, sweets, animals, helping others, rainy/snowy weather

Dislikes: Confrontation, cruelty of any kind, thinking too much, being criticized, know-it-alls, being taken advantage of, being left out, touching fish, Swedish meatballs, bitter things, plain water, hot weather

Can Do: Drive, make telephone calls, organize events, drop everything when a friend needs him, offer advice, play instruments (Cello, piano, clarinet, a little bit of violin, kazoo), write fiction

Can’t Do: Actually kill things, relax easily, cook, math, abandon his friends, most magic, handle confrontation, get too warm, resist singing to songs he likes/knows

Mental Health Diagnosis:

PTSD: Larry was treated rather poorly up until he started school, often locked out of his mother’s room at night and left with nobody to help him through things but his uncle. His uncle was and still is a drunk piggybacking off of his mother’s paychecks, and Larry suffered a lot of physical and sexual abuse from him. To this day he dislikes being alone with the man.

Dependant Personality Disorder: Larry will pour himself into other things in order to escape his actual reality. Because of this, he takes on the brunt of handling most Vampire Society affairs, including but not limited to booking events and venues, securing timetables and even setting up the occasional bake sale. The busier he can stay, the happier he is.

Physical Health Diagnosis:

Flat Feet: Larry has to wear special inserts in his shoes because his feet have no arches in them. It occasionally makes running hard.

Fears: Being forgotten, aliens, being eaten alive, earthquakes

Positive Traits: Loyal, trustworthy, tolerant

Negative Traits: Self-deprecating, anxious, worrisome

Quirks: Listens to such a wide variety of music it’s hard to pinpoint his tastes; Likes peanut butter and cheese sandwiches; Has an interest in all occult/supernatural things but vampires are his number 1

Tends To: Busy himself to the point of forgetting himself; Become nonverbal during conflict; Cling to his dog when scared

History: The timing couldn’t have been worse for Larry to have been a shine in his parents’ eyes. Zach Fetter was content to be the guy Mariah Goodman’s parents couldn’t stand, and she was content to know she was breaking rules, until Larry came into the picture. The minute it turned from rebellion into the possibility of a family, all parties tried to run. Mariah, sadly, was a little stuck. She couldn’t get an abortion, and had to temporarily move back in with her parents until Larry was born. He spent the beginning of his life mostly with his grandparents, while his mother got back on her feet with a job.

When he was three, his uncle was released from prison and his mother moved out of her parents’ house to move in with her brother. The initial idea was for him to get a job and help out, but something always got in the way. He spent a lot of time babysitting Larry, who began to behave differently. Quiet, more sullen, he flinched a lot in the presence of his uncle and refused to talk about it. By kindergarten, he was reluctant to do much on his own, and immediately clung to an older kid by the name of Mike Makowski.

They became fast friends, and Larry was ever loyal to any of Mike’s causes, even if he was a year younger than him. When they became the South Park Vampire Society in fourth grade (fifth for Mike), Larry was a dutiful second in command that spent as much time as he could with his friends. They were all a very close-knit group, and even as they grew and everyone else changed, Larry didn’t see a whole lot of it.

He let himself be so enveloped in his work for his friends, in spending time with them and helping them with problems, that he never thought of much else. Most things that regular teenage boys did escaped him, barring his schoolwork, and he was always probably the least sexual of the vampire kids. Not to say that he didn’t like people that way, or that he didn’t have the thoughts on occasion, but he was always so tired when he got home, and it took a lot to get him to open up about things like that.

———————————————————————————————————–

Tags List - Personal

Not A Ghost Nor A Demon (Larry) This Is What I Do I Spit On You (Larry’s IC Posts) Stripes Are Always In (Larry’s Closet) A Vampire’s Lair (Larry’s Stuff) I’ve Got A Notion (Larry’s Desires) Fake Fangs And Clamato Juice (Larry’s Aesthetic) The Vampire Lestat (Lestat Tag) Like Fog Lights In The Rain (Larry’s Music) Things Are Different When You’re Dead (Larry Musings) Here It’s December Every Day (Larry Headcanons)

Tags List - With X - Canon

We Are But Shepherding Wolves (Larry And Allison Mertz)

The Different Need Us As Well (Larry And Amanda Harrison)

Please No Grieving (Larry And Annie Barlett)

Blondes Have More Fun (Larry And Bebe Stevens)

I Don’t Know Him (Larry And Billy Harris)

Sister In Darkness (Larry And Bloodrayne)

Where Oh Where Has He Gone? (Larry And Bradley Biggle)

It’s The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life (Larry And Butters Stotch)

I Don’t Like Dirt (Larry And Christophe “The Mole” DeLorne)

He’s Cool Enough To Hang Out With Us (Larry And Clyde Donovan)

If He Had Wheels He’d Be A Wagon (Larry And Craig Tucker)

Party Till It’s 666 In The Morning (Larry And Damien Thorn)

Nothing Is Ever Perfect (Larry And David Harrison)

He Rode Cthulhu Like A Pony! (Larry And Eric Cartman)

A Sweet Kid (Larry And Filmore Anderson)

Sharp And Scathing With Shipping Included (Larry And Firkle Smith)

The More The Merrier (Larry And Flora)

Brothers In Vampirism (Larry And Gangsta Vamp)

It’s Not Right To Tell Someone They’re Wrong (Larry And Gary Harrison)

What’s Up Drunkie? (Larry And Gregory)

She Wears A Dress Like A Body Bag Every Day (Larry And Heidi Turner)

Fire Bad! (Larry And Henriette Biggle)

Under Our Wings You Could Flourish (Larry And Ike Broflovski)

Don’t Let The Losers Win (Larry And Jennifer Harrison)Could She Be One Of Us? (Larry And Jenny)

Humor Is The Lifeblood Of Society (Larry And Jimmy Valmer)

One Of Us (Larry And Karen McCormick)

Why Does He Hate Us So Much? (Larry And Kenny McCormick)

Help Yourself To Guns And Ammo (Larry And Kevin McCormick)

Millennials Against Canada (Larry And Kyle Broflovski)

Everyone Is Welcome (Larry And Leslie Meyers)

I Believe (Larry And Mark Harrison)

Anywhere But Scottsdale (Larry And Michael)

They Worry You With All The Talk Of How You’re Not Their Kind (Larry And Mike Makowski

A Little Extra Help (Larry And Mimsy)

Always Scheming (Larry And Nathan)

The Sun It Withers In Comparison (Larry And Nichole Daniels)

Ugh You Spit On Me Larry (Larry And Pete)

He’s Not Like The Others (Larry And Quaid)

Leader Of The Pack (Larry And Red Tucker)

We’re Cool Huh? (Larry And Ryan Ellis)

Not Everyone Is On Our Level (Larry And Sally Bands)

You Poor Guy (Larry And Scott Tenorman)

Dogs Are Life (Larry And Stan Marsh)

Fanastic Wounds (Larry And Timmy Burch)

Is He On The List? (Larry And Token Black)

Tally Marks (Larry And Trent Boyett)

Too Young To Drink Caffeine (Larry And Tweek Tweak)

Class President (Larry And Wendy Testaburger)

Tags List - With X - OC

For What It’s Worth (With Hershy) - @brokenxdelinquentsx

It Was An Honest Mistake (With Nikolai Robins) - @sub-nikolai

Tags List - With X - Crossover

Daddy Daddy Get Me Out Of Here I’m Underground (With Jareth)

A Little Crazy Is OK As Long As Nobody Says Any Dirty Words (With Jerome Valeska)

———————————————————————————————————–

Verses - In-World

Second Best Friend Ever (Larry’s Elementary Verse)

It didn’t take long for Larry to be swept up in Mike Makowski. Someone that was so confident and cool actually paying him attention was the biggest, nicest thing anyone had ever done for him. He would have followed Mike to the ends of the Earth and back, and usually helped retrieve him from Scottsdale, at least by tattling to his parents.

Growing Into Oneself (Larry’s Middle School Verse)

In middle school, being the vice president and treasurer of the Vampire Society became his life. He would make sure that everyone had their tickets for dances and things, that everyone was going to parties or zoo excursions. Mike’s birthdays became a big-ticket item and he did a lot of work with Mike’s stepdad to get the parties to be just right for his best friend.

Workaholic (Larry’s High School Verse)

In high school, Larry got a job as a clerk at the Photo Dojo. If he wasn’t doing that or school work, he was almost always with his friends doing something. If they weren’t together, he was planning things, or taking dictation from Mike. He spent as little time at home as he could leading up to his 18th birthday, and after it he tried to spend even less time there.

We Are The Fortunate All The Time (Larry’s College Verse)

The second Larry graduated high school, he was already out the door. The soonest he could get to his college life and away from his family, the better. Sure, he missed his friends, but they all talked on group chats and Discord, so things were still close. Living outside of Colorado was odd for him, however, hard to really put into place. Outside of his friend group, which apparently sheltered him a lot, he didn’t know how to function.

———————————————————————————————————–

AU Verses

I Can’t Wait To Show You My Love (Larry’s ABO AU)

Born a male Omega, Larry was always looked down upon by his mother, and his uncle saw him as a target. His grandparents took him in when he started to smell too much like his uncle, and have full custody of him. He lives with them in Middle Park, but still goes to school and hangs out with his friends in South Park.

His Only Fault Was His Trust (Demon!Larry AU)

Larry had never been much of a bad person. In fact, his only real flaw was that he trusted others so thoroughly that whatever they said or told him to do made him dangerous. A loyal friend, he became a majordomo to the royal family of hell when he died.

Creatures Of The Deep (Mer!Larry AU)

Larry is a Demasoni Cichlid, one of the least aggressive of his species. He tries to be a kind of vegetarian, but his species cannot survive without meat for long. He eats fish more than anything, though he goes into a frenzy on occasion. When he’s on land, he loses his ability to speak.

Apprenticed (Larry’s Repo! The Genetic Opera AU)

It started off innocently enough; Larry had been hoping to get some good, interesting work for his stories. Vampires were still a hit, even if it was more organ-themed now-a-days. But working as an apprentice to a Graverobber wasn’t always the easier thing to deal with, especially when squeamish.

Warn Your Warmth To Turn Away (Vampire!Larry AU)

It made sense, at some point, for Larry to obsess over vampires to the point of following ‘real’ ones. When he’d left South Park for college, he never once thought he’d find anyone that fit his aesthetic. Here he was, though, in a club called The Den, a bartender that didn’t realize just what he was getting himself into. Three days into his employment, he found out the dirty underbelly of the city operated there, and that most of them were not human. To keep him from running, he was slowly being poisoned, turned into a vampire that could still provide blood to others until the night of his full shift. Which just so happened to be his twenty-second birthday.

I Don’t Want To Be Team Jacob (Werewolf!Larry AU)

Larry had always loved dogs. He had enjoyed seeing wolves in the forest, thinking of them as vampiric familiars. The one time he stepped over his boundaries and pet an unfamiliar dog, though, turned out to be the worst night of his life. Trying to hide his new side from his friends and relatives was proving to be too hard, to boot.

———————————————————————————————————–  

Shipping

None At This Time

———————————————————————————————————–

Open Starters

None At This Time

———————————————————————————————————–

Headcanon Posts

* ( positive personality   traits!

Physical Traits Of Your Muse

Detailed Profile Tag

Bold Your Muse’s Aesthetic (Spooky Edition)

———————————————————————————————————–

Faceclaim - Gerhard Freidl

———————————————————————————————————–

Art By Me

———————————————————————————————————–

Pets

Lestat is Larry’s loyal White German Shepherd. The pair are mostly inseparable, and he will take Lestat with him to occasional Vampire Society meetings. Lestat protects Larry from his uncle, who is the only person that Lestat doesn’t like.

[pynkhues]

hey i wanted to ask, do you have opinions or hcs on how knowledgeable is louis aabout BDSM? Do you think he read on subject or he just goes with a heart? How proper do you think his BDSM dynamic would potentially be? I mean, would it involve discussions, safe words, aftercare etc. Or would it be more on the spur of the moment?

It's just my brain was plagued by thoughts what would louis do if lestat accidentally sub dropped during scene. NGL I can't imagine louis handling it very gracefully (sorry, louis)

Also, ideas of louis experiencing domdrop are very delicious too. I doubt he actually feels guilt or shame for being dom, but domdrop would make him irrational. And lestat would be very alarmed and confused what's happening with louis.

Sorry for long ask😶 love your work!

Don't apologise, anon! It's actually been something I've been thinking about too, both as I've been writing this fic, but also just in general because I'm kind of fascinated about how the eras / times they live through both interact with and inform these parts of the their characters.

Because here's the thing: BDSM wasn't actually a term in the 1940s when Louis and Armand decided to explore it. That's not to say that people didn't engage in BDSM (there are plenty of examples of fetish artwork dating back thousands of years, and as I mentioned in this post, Marquis de Sade was writing in the 1700s prettty obscene and deplorable sado-masochistic work), but there really wasn't a shared language then in the way that we have now.

In fact, Louis and Armand entering that relationship in the 1940s in the aftermath of WWII almost feels pretty specific, given it was that post-WWII era that gave birth to the leather movement which in turn provided the soil for BDSM to grow into what we know it as today. The result is that that specific time period marked the shift of BDSM from a counterculture to a part of culture; however, it took a little longer to come back to Paris, which had a booming fetish industry in the pre-war period, but was traumatised from Nazi occupation and as a result wouldn't bounce back really until the sexual revolution in the 1960s.

Louis' hardly sexually naive given his past career as a pimp, but I do think it's worth noting that he became a Dom in a period where there wasn't the same degree of understanding there is now about the psychology of it all, nor a universal sense of what might be 'best practice', and he did it with someone he felt both a disconnect to and a resentment of (which 2.05 makes very clear), which - - y'know! Isn't the healthiest way to engage in that sort of dynamic at the best of times.

But in answering your questions more specifically - - do I think he read up on the topic? Yeah, a bit, but I think it'd be more likely he read older texts that probably....wouldn't be giving a healthy perspective on it by modern standards. Given his reading list in New Orleans featured books like Origin of the Species, Marriage in a Free Society and Madame Bovary - all books published in the 1800s despite it being between 1910 and 1940 - I do think he tends to lean towards older books that form part of cultural canons (it's the snob in him, haha). In which case I think he probably would've read some of Marquis de Sade's work (which, yikes) and probably Venus in Furs and The Romance of Lust.

Given most of the more classic modern BDSM books by today's standards were published really in the 60s and 70s, I kinda feel like Louis and Armand were probably too embedded into their dynamic to change it or be overly interested in reading about it? Which is all a round about way of saying that I don't think Louis would have great etiquette as a dom at all, no, haha, and I think he'd probably more just be getting a read of the situation and following his own instincts and perhaps Armand's too. I can see them buying things - the whips, floggers and cast iron dog bowl (the latter of which always gives me pause!) we can see in their bedroom, for instance - and leaving them out for each other to see as a means of discussion over, y'know, actual discussion.

I do wonder too in terms of the role Louis and Armand being able to read each other's minds plays too. If they can get a sense of what might get the other off that way which feels like its own type of discussion or consent (even if its not actually an articulated discussion or consent). It's interesting to contemplate what that might mean in terms of dom or sub drops like you said, and especially as a comparison point to it happening with Lestat and Louis who don't have the same capacity to know what's going on in the other's head.

I do think if Lestat and Louis were to explore that together, it would be in scenes as opposed to a lifestyle like it was with Armand and Louis though, which is a different dynamic in and of itself, and yes! Okay, your ask was long, but my reply has been way longer, haha, so I'll leave it there for now. It's a really interesting space to think about though.

[alliswell21]

I wish you would write a fic where... vampire!Finnick and vampire!Peeta try to understand human's modern-day social media! :P

Hi @thelettersfromnoone!!! Sorry it took me so long to answer your ask… I have to admit, when I first read the prompt I laughed, I envisioned it as a cheerful piece of comedy, but when I started writing it, it pretty much beat my hiney. I just couldn’t get the voices right, and the tone was all wrong, I think I rewrote it 3 times… it’s still not exactly what I set out to do, but it’s close enough… I hope this is ok.

Rated G

Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt meet Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield in this Peenick fic. Enjoy. (Most of the dialogue are actual rants I’ve heard from my husband’s grandfather, plus a few debates between my husband and his best friend from high school)

KPKPKPKPKPKPKPKP

Daylight Savings Time is finally at an end. All the clocks have been set back an hour, and sunsets come earlier each day… too bad I can’t see the glorious colors painting the sky with my own eyes tracking the sun’s slow descent into the horizon while the scattered clouds turn gold, orange and intense pink. It’s the thing I miss the most about being alive. The good news is that cinema is there to provide glimpses of my beloved sunsets, even if they are a flat replica.

I take a look at the clock on the wall, and then eye the sun setting charter taped directly under it. Fall is our favorite time of year, with its longer, darker nights. We are free to leave our den and roam the town, we can even walk into any establishment while it’s still regular business hours like normal people, because while the clock says it’s 17:00, it’s inky black outside, and no trace of the cheerful sun can be felt.

Today is special, though. “We are renewing our wardrobes!” Announced Finnick earlier, so as soon as the sun goes down, and it’s safe to leave our place,1 we’re heading to the mall on a business call errand.

“Is it time yet?” Asks Finnick entering the room, wearing a different outfit than the one I saw him in 10 minutes ago. He’s anxious. We haven’t been out in a while, and I know he’s both looking forward to this and nervous at the same time.

“Two more minutes, then we can go.” I tell him.

He makes a face that’s full of annoyance. We just heard the weather report, and it’s supposed to be a gorgeous evening. He hates going out on nice evenings to run errands when he could be luring beautiful, warm-blooded gals into the darkness of his bedroom. He considers it a waste, if he’s isn’t hunting, but he was the one to call for a day of shopping, I could care less about clothing.

“You know most everything can be acquired online nowadays. There’s very little instances your physical presence is required for a transaction to be made.” I offer softly. His glare is immediate and expected, but there’s mirth behind it as well.

He wrinkles his nose in disgust, but smiles nonetheless. “So impersonal, Peeta. Not at all how a gentleman should conduct business.” He says in his usual debonair tone, “It’s almost as if you don’t know me at all!” He flashes me that smile he uses to enchant his victims before his fangs graze along smooth, pulsating, bare necks, like a deadly caress.

I simply avert my eyes. Finnick is not my creator, but he was made 50 years before I was even born, and that makes him my elder, but sometimes, he can be such a brat! Is hard not to think of him as a child at times. His smile doesn’t have quite the same effect on me, though. I’m not a living woman, so I drawl out a response.

“With all the technological advances of the time, why bother going out, for something you can get from the safety and comfort of your lair?” I shrug, then smirk, “I’m sure you can find other, more suited pursuits for a night such as this.” I fan out a hand.

Finnick’s devious smile widens, a dangerous glint takes over his eyes.

I was told once, that Finnick used to have a lovely set of eyes, the color of the sea; that his gaze held the warmth of the tropics and the light of the sun. But when I look into his eyes now, all I see is a washed down shade of green, with pupils as dark and empty as the abyss and a danger that thrills as it pulls you in the darkened recesses of his penetrating stare, where natural light is nonexistent.

“Humanity has made the current time a very convenient era for our kind, hasn’t it?” He says taking a sit and crossing his leg over his opposite knee. “But first impressions do matter, my friend. You can’t just buy clothing from stock. Tailors exist for a very, good reason!”

This is just a variant of his many sayings of ‘the suit makes the man’ sentiment. I check the clock again, nodding in agreement, “But the internet is so much safer, what with all the ways you can interact with others, without really doing it.” I say more to myself than him.

“Why yes, one only needs to fiddle a smart phone apparatus, and everything’s there at your fingertips… what’s the fun on that?” He sounds partially angry.

“It’s convenient.” My voice is soft and monotonous. “Efficient and saves you the hassle of having to interact with vendors that may be irritating.” But for me, is more than that.

I’m not really into eating humans all that much, I rather take a stroll to the blood bank and peruse through the samples until I find something I want. I hate looking at the lifeless eyes of my feed providers after. So gruesome, ugh!

“It’s boring,” He states. “How much longer?” He asks impatiently.

“Take your coat and we may go.”

The drive to the mall is uneventful and quiet, but as soon as we step into the building, we both wince at the brightly lit entrance, artificial light bathes everything the eye reaches, but at the end of 10 seconds, we grow used to the glare. Our instinct is to flee the light, but our reason tells us it’s harmless so we walk right in. While we could smell the whole town since leaving our house, the scent of fresh blood assault our senses like a tide wave; I inhale deeply and allow a satisfied smile take over my features, but next to me, Finnick hisses in displeasure at the throng of people meandering about, as if he just walked into a fresh meat market, after pledging to be a vegetarian under duress. I wished I could say I was sorry to find enjoyment in his pain, but it’s actually kind of funny.

We make a left turn after passing the hubbub of the food court, and then we see them: people meandering around with their cellphones aloft, heads bowed towards the luminous screens, while ignoring anything and everyone else around them. Is one thing to see someone checking their email while sitting and consuming a tray of food court bourbon chicken and a 32 ounce Diet Coke, but another one to see an almost accurate representation of a zombie apocalypse, where the undead only respond to pings and blips. I know in my frozen heart, there will be no shutting him up until we get to the menswear store.

“Why do they do that?” Finnick asks under breath. “They look like sheep. Silly ones at that.”

I observe the few people so absorbed in their phones that narrowly avoid crashing into things along the way by sheer good luck with mild interest while we take the escalators in the middle of the first floor, then shrug.

The whole ride up, Finnick rambles, watching the hypnotized humans with contempt. “Why do they insist on developing this, so called, ‘virtual community’ nonsense? It keeps them from real life interactions, everyone so enthralled with their media devices?”

We climb off the escalator and fall into step side by side.

“It keeps them informed, connected with people they don’t normally see.” I tell him as we pass a kitchen and baking supply store, my head turns to look at a handsome set of measuring cups… you can take the corpse out of the bakery, but can’t take the bakery out of the corpse. “It expands their horizons even from the confines of their homes.” I say calmly, like I’m speaking to an overexcited child. “It’s in their nature to network and exchange opinions. Man was not created to be isolated, Finnick. Humans have a driving need to belong, and social media satisfies the void.”

“They abuse it, Peeta.” He says easily as we take a right turn, “Give a person an internet capable device, Twitter, Facebook… hell! Give them a comment box on a news article! humans can’t shut up! People behave poorly and opts to ignoring their sense of decorum. Is like they lack a filter, they become rude and attack one another when their ideologies don’t match completely.”

“Humans depend on social media now, there’s nothing else to it. It’s not a perfect development, it has its drawbacks, but it also has many pros and benefits. There’s no need to write it off entirely because humans are naturally imperfect and they tend to use their tools inappropriately at times. It happens.”

Finnick stops and sighs exaggeratedly. We really don’t need to breathe, but we still need air to pass through our bodies just the same, he just does it out of habit. He glowers at a passerby that makes the mistake of looking up when he feels someone staring, and judging by the way he trips while rushing to get away, he’s scared witless. I shake my head.

“I hate it when humans lie online!” Finnick mutters sullenly.

‘Ah! the truth at last’, I think to myself, understanding dawning on me. Finnick continues, ignoring my knowing half smile.

“You try to make acquaintances online, you find people that pique your interest and their life story at your fingertips, you could’ve very well just st found your next conquest, but if the information on them is false, further interaction gets hindered.”

“And if they decide no to meet in person?” I propose, taking a step forward.

“It’s truly inconvenient, not to mention disappointing especially when you need to feed.” He smiles, flashing his fully extended fangs, and then retracting them back into his skull.

“How romantic.” I deadpan. “You sound like one of those desperate types that uses date sites… wait, you are one of those.” I say in fake surprise.

Finnick discovered one questionable such site, and had one extremely bad online entanglement with what he thought was a living women; it turned out, he’d been chatting and enchanting an overweight, greasy hair, foul looking fellow that posed as a girl looking to befriend other girls for his own nefarious agenda. Of course, Finnick really wasn’t there innocently trying to make friends either, but he never pretended to be an oversharing teenage girl to lure anyone to him. Somehow Greasy Hair Fellow- I like to think of it as providence- crossed paths with Finnick, and when finally the truth came to light… let’s say, a number of unsuspecting girls got spared both Finnick and Greasy Fellow for good. At the end, Greasy Fellows remains. were a real messy business no one likes to reminisce about.

Finnick values my partial humanity warring with my undead nature most of the times, it’s what called to him when we met, but sometimes he hates the fact that I still have morals.

“I know how you feel, about it Peet!” he defends. “Social media may suit you as it is, but not me, I see it as the biggest pest the world has seen, and I’ve seen pests in my time roaming Earth.” He ‘dusts’ himself, as if merely talking about it has made him sooty. “Facebook will be the demise of mankind, mark my words.” He enunciates each word for emphasis.

“Now you’re just being dramatic.” I tell him, bored. “You make it sound like it’s impossible to find people out in the streets. Plus, there are a great deal of amazing things online. For example, Wikipedia is possibly the crowning achievement of humanity. People of all backgrounds have come together to record an amalgamation and collection of knowledge, that can be expanded, corrected and consulted when needed. That’s a good part of social media.” My tone is monotonous, because I really cannot muster the energy to be excited. Finnick says it’s a side effect of my dietary restrictions, that if I fed from a fresh live donor, I’d be healthier and livelier. I cannot dispute him on it, but I won’t go tempting myself with someone’s life, just to feel peppier.

“People can get facts wrong on Wikipedia.”

”That’s why there’s other people scouring over it at all times.”

“If you enjoy it so much, then donate to its maintenance.” He sneers childishly. “People hide behind their anonymity shield, and act and talk as nasty as they can. There’s no respect or consideration anymore.

“Back when I was a child, no one even had a telephone! If a person wanted to chat with another, they met face to face. People used to visit one another. Letters where the way to communicate with long distance acquaintances. None of this nonsense!”

“Finnick, you truly sound your age.” I drawl annoyedly.

This causes him to snap his eyes at me scandalized. “Take it back,” he hisses lowly.

Then, give. It. A. Rest! Social media is a useful tool.”

“A tool? Social media is not merely a tool anymore, Peeta, it’s part of their culture, they need it, they crave it, they can’t go a moment without it… why it’s like they’re addicted to it!”

”That may be, but the same can be said about food, oxygen and sleep. Social media aids as the ability to reach others. Now shut up and shop!”

I arch an eyebrow at him and he finally grunts in displeasure but walks purposely ahead. I just watch him as he rattles the door to the store open and steps inside smiling a beatific grin.

“Ah! Wonderful! Colorful display. That should cheer you up, Peeta!”

I suppress the urge to roll my eyes, since he’s making it sound like I was the one raving and raging our whole commute about social media and it’s dangers. He’s finally changed the subject, there’s no need to rile him up again, which still does not change the fact that he’s insufferable.

“Absolutely gorgeous,” I whisper relieved and step inside.

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Do you think any members of the VC Cast have any irrational fears (canon or non canon)? If so, what do you think they are?

Oooh that’s a good question! Idk if phobias count as “irrational,” per se, bc you can have an irrational fear of anything, but phobias at least have categories that are common? Right? 

These stories are open enough that you could make an argument for more than one irrational fear or phobia for each character, but for the sake of brevity I’m going to focus on one or a few for each, and keep my support brief. 

(TBH I started drafting this and just one character got really lengthy, so I’ll do a series of them.)

1) Louis 

A) Claustrophobia - The fear of small spaces like elevators, small rooms and other enclosed spaces.

Canonically, the first one that comes to mind is Louis’ claustrophobia. Idk if Brad was aware of that character trait, but I see it in his face when Lestat closes him up for his first night in a coffin. He has his hand on the lid at first, and then lets it go kind of reluctantly I don’t have that giffed out so you’ll have to believe me on that.

“All my life I’d feared closed places. Born and bred in French houses with lofty ceilings and floorlength windows, I had a dread of being enclosed. I felt uncomfortable even in the confessional in church. It was a normal enough fear. And now I realized as I protested to Lestat, I did not actually feel this anymore. I was simply remembering it. Hanging on to it from habit, from a deficiency of ability to recognize my present and exhilarating freedom.” - Louis, IWTV

^And then post-trial at the Theatre des Vampires, he gets nailed into a coffin and walled up, UPSIDE-DOWN. It’s a bad time. It’s a pretty bad punishment on its own, probably a standard one for the TdV, but I can’t help but think they had some idea that this was one of Louis’ fears specifically that they read in his thoughts and capitalized on.

B) Atychiphobia - fear of failure, specifically re: a fear of confrontation/decisions, because it so often ends in the death or pain of those he loves, particularly Paul and Claudia.

There is a more elaborate meta post out there about this, and I can’t find it, anyone can reblog this and add the link. @wicked-felina​ and I were discussing Louis and his fear of confrontation/decisions last night, here’s what we came up with:

Louis tends to refuse to engage, except when he physically has to fight people to save Lestat in TVL

Re: Paul, imagine you having a fight with a family member and mocking them (being confrontational) and then they die right in the middle of your argument, and you’re blamed for it, and you blame yourself for it ;A;

Claudia wanted him to choose between her and Lestat, “Now’s time to end it, Louis.” And Lestat ends up dead ;A;

And he has to stand by and watch Lestat (debatable, but I consider Lestat to be his lover at the time) be hurt, lay there suffering as he appears to die on the carpet, then Louis has to help Claudia finish him off. 

“The numbness which had protected me since the carriage left the Rue Royale threatened to lift and leave me flayed suddenly, staring, thinking: This is Lestat. This is all of transformation and mystery, dead, gone into eternal darkness.”

^This suggests to me, plus the pull he felt to go down with Lestat, that he absolutely cared for Lestat, more than just for what secrets he took with him in death ;A;

Armand wanted him to choose between him and Claudia for him, and Claudia ends up dead ;A;

People really put Louis in terrible situations and he’s frozen with indecision. Anne Rice has compared him to Hamlet, there’s so much weight on whatever he chooses.

“ …`That passivity in me has been the core of it all, the real evil. That weakness, that refusal to compromise a fractured and stupid morality, that awful pride! For that, I let myself become the thing I am, when I knew it was wrong. For that, I let Claudia become the vampire she became, when I knew it was wrong. For that, I stood by and let her kill Lestat, when I knew that was wrong, the very thing that was her undoing. I lifted not a finger to prevent it. And Madeleine, Madeleine, I let her come to that, when I should never have made her a creature like ourselves. I knew that was wrong! Well, I tell you I am no longer that passive, weak creature that has spun evil from evil till the web is vast and thick while I remain its stultified victim. It’s over! I know now what I must do. And I warn you, for whatever mercy you’ve shown me in digging me out of that grave tonight where I would have died: Do not seek your cell in the Theatre des Vampires again. Do not go near it.’ ” - Louis, IWTV

C) Autophobia - fear of one’s self - Not sure if this is the right type of fear, but I would add that Louis’ fear of his own vampiric nature in IWTV was a thing, too. 

I never revealed to him half my powers, and with reason, because he shrank in guilt and self-loathing from using even half of his own. - Lestat, TVL

^It has to do with wanting to remain human, and exerting his vampiry gifts was a glaring reminder that he’s not; having grown up a Christian, he felt that being a vampire was monstrous and evil. This was something he struggled with more during IWTV-era than later, as we see in much later canon he uses his powers without explicit canon complaints about it. 

Louis has grown in canon, and he doesn’t seem to have these fears any longer, but we seldom know what’s going on with him as we don’t revisit his POV until the most recent books, and he doesn’t mention these things specifically. There’s probably still traces of them, though.