#laudanum and arsenic

[laudanum-and-arsenic]

you havent heard the full story...

drawn: 13/11/24

[kittyoperas]

laudanum and arsenic.

[shesnake]

Armand drinking mixtures of laudanum and arsenic and asking Louis every other financial quarter if he could please please please slit his throat because murder is the highest form of domination and he wants to be Killed by Louis so badly!!!!! and he hates that the fantasy can never be fulfilled because he can't die

[loo-nuh-tik]

Tag yourself (I'm laudanum and arsenic in Tom Anderson's glass)

[pynkhues]

I'm curious about your thoughts on something. I saw some people talking about how the show might revisit Lestat's death next season since there's definitely parts of it we didn't see, and they were saying that we also don't know for sure if Lestat was trying to kill Claudia there. He says "She should never have been made, Louis. Look what she did to us. She's corrupted everything. Antoinette will be much more agreeable to our life together" as Antoinette seems to be forcing her to drink the poisoned blood. Louis is looking back at this through the lens of thinking that Lestat DID later kill Claudia, so it's obviously possible that if we do revisit the scene, we'll see that this happened a little differently than what we initially saw (as the flashbacks in 2.7 added information or differed slightly from what we saw). But just going by what we did see, since that's what we have for now--what do you think? I feel like it's totally possible that Lestat had gotten to a point in that kind of feverish nightmare they were all in where he really was trying to kill her--that he was angry at her AND maybe genuinely thought she couldn't survive/be happy ever. He'd have to be pretty crazy to think that Louis would be okay with him killing Claudia in front of him, but "Antoinette will be joining us" is a pretty crazy thing to think Louis would ever be okay with, so, yeah, he was a little crazy there. And once the fever broke, which it seems to have done while he was recovering in the coffin, I can absolutely see him regretting that horribly and wanting to save Claudia at the trial if it had been possible (since I think he clearly seemed very distressed by what was happening to her from the beginning of the trial). I think the show is telling us that he always loved her underneath the anger, and we'll probably see more of that next season, and that fits with the trial, whether or not he wanted to kill her in 1.7.

But WAS he trying to kill her in 1.7? Would making her drink poisoned blood kill her? That's never listed as a way to kill a vampire. It just seems odd -- if he wanted to kill her, is there not a better way to do it? It would certainly make her very very sick, so is he trying to weaken her and then kill her, like she intends to do to him? I guess that's possible, though he's a LOT stronger than she is, so would that be necessary? Is he possibly trying to weaken her so that he can take Louis and leave without her following them? Or even weaken her so he can take her with them without a struggle?

Anyway, whether or not he was trying to kill her, I assume he'll talk about what he was thinking then and how his thinking changed by the time of the trial. But I'm just curious if you have any thoughts on all this?

Oh, I definitely think it's going to be revisited, anon. I think Rolin's mentioned a few times now that we haven't seen the last of the murder ball, but even putting that aside, I think the effective confirmation of them bringing ghost!Claudia into next season at SDCC is more or less confirmation of that.

One of the things I've been thinking a bit about lately is the specific cocktail that Claudia makes for Lestat, which is a combination of laudanum and arsenic, and kind of feels like one of the few things corroborated narratively in the episode, as we get it both through Claudia's mouth / her diary:

And then, a beat later, as Louis narrates the plan:

Laudanum and arsenic are two very, very specific drugs, the former of which was actually out of mainstream use by the 1930s when Claudia and Louis were plotting Lestat's murder. They're also very loaded for the show in a number of ways.

Arsenic as a chemical was first isolated by the famous alchemist, Albertus Magnus, which in itself feels like a nod to Lestat's first death at the hands of another alchemist named Magnus - and also was widely known as a domestic killer in the 17 and 1800s for its high use as a pigment dyes. It was used in wallpaper, fabric, art, with a number of tragic cases of babies dying from arsenic poisoning from simply sleeping in nurseries with arsenic dyed wallpaper. The risks were better known by the 1900s, but arsenic was still used as an insecticide through the 1940s and even today is used in small doses to kill some types of cancer cells. In the 1930s though, when Claudia used it, it was used for a string of working-class spousal poisonings, which, y'know! Makes a lot of sense, haha!

The choice of laudanum I think though is especially interesting, because laudanum was highly restricted and pretty uncommon by 1914, two decades before Claudia buys it. If it was just about sedating Lestat, the show would've used any sort of barbiturate which were wide spread and easy to get at that point in history, instead of a Victorian-era drug that had been heavily restricted by that point in history.

So why laudanum specifically? I think because it was a sedative targeted specifically at women (although men did take it too) in the treatment of pain and female hysteria. To me, it puts this scene specifically in conversation with this one from back in 1.04:

I think there are a lot of ways that you can interpret this choice on a narrative level (I personally think it means a lot of things, and could talk about it all day, haha, but I do think the main takeaway is that it's a delightfully petty move on Claudia's part to effectively emasculate Lestat by treating him for hysteria in the way he suggested she should be, right before she kills him).

But yes, haha, sorry, this has taken a bit of a tangent - - my point is that I think you're right. The poisoned blood alone was never going to kill any of them, and Claudia making Lestat take it was specifically about weakening him enough to kill him, but the reverse of Lestat having Antoinette force Claudia to take it? I don't know. I think it could've gone a lot of ways? They were all in such a heightened state of emotion that I can see Lestat thinking that if he can just incapacitate her enough to talk Louis around, he might be able to pull this together, I can see him in that moment of it feeling so consumed with Claudia as a romantic rival instead of his daughter that he wants her dead, I can see him thinking Louis might finally actually kill Antoinette and become the monster he wants him to be if he thinks Claudia's under threat, I can see him like you said thinking that if he weakens her enough, he and Louis can runaway together with or without her, gosh, depending on how next season goes, I can even see him having thought if he could sedate her enough to tell her about Gabrielle he could send her off to travel with grandma, haha.

I generally do lean towards the thought that he wasn't planning on killing her though. Lestat's never killed a fledgling, and I totally agree with what you said about Louis' recollection of that night being coloured by the fact that he thinks Lestat did kill Claudia, which we know that he didn't, and I expect that to be explored next season. Either way though, he certainly wanted her incapacitated.

[seriously-nobody]

The Ghost In My Heart

Pt.4

Warnings: romance, angst, death, canon character death, suicide, grief, and sad vibes again, sorry broskis

Preface: I'm sure you know what's about to go down, I just hope you're prepared for it. At the end of this part there are 2 links, 1 to a good ending that messes with the canon timeline, and 1 to a bad ending that keeps up the canon timeline, but at a cost. So choose as you wish, and I hope you enjoy part 5 and the end of The Ghost In My Heart.

You sleep dreamlessly all through the night. Until dawn breaks and your eyelids are greeted by the morning sun. You open your eyes and pick your head up off the pillow, your neck and back ache from the position you slept in. As the events of the night come rushing back to you, your head throbs with the pain of the after effects of the laudanum and you hold your head and try to stand. You rush out into the hall, “William! Madame Leota!” you yell down the hallway, but no one answers, and the servants and maids are nowhere to be found. Fearing for the worst you sprint as fast your legs can take you down the stairs and into the foyer. “William!” you shout into the foyer, still begging, hoping, pleading, for an answer. “Y/n? What is it? What are you shouting about?” You hear William say stepping out of the living room. “Oh William, I'm so glad to see you.” You say relieved, walking over to him. “Are you alright, my dear?” He says, concerned. William hadn’t called anyone a pet name since Eleanor, so you became suspicious of him. “I am for now. Where is Madame Leota?” you ask. “She’s in the garden, why?” He questions back. “Oh nothing, just a bad dream I suppose.” You say. “Well I’m glad to see you’re back in good health, darling.” He beams like you haven’t seen him do in a while and he hooks his arm under yours and guides you down the hall. “In a merry mood today, William?” You ask, still keeping up a smiling facade. “Why of course! Why wouldn’t I be? I’m with my love!” He says cheerily looking down at you. You stop dead in your tracks and you drop your facade. “I knew it.” you pull away and glare daggers at him. “Y/n? What’s wrong?” He says tilting his head. You pull out your safety dagger from your boot and point it right between his eyes. “Get. Out. Now.” You demand. The fake William laughs maniacally, his voice down pitches and becomes a mist. You hold your dagger true as the hatbox ghost materializes out of the mist, clapping. “My what a performance from both the lead and love interest. What gave it away? Oh, I know what it was, it’s that William never loved you.” He taunts. “What did you do to William and Madame Leota?” you demand. “Nothing they didn’t ask for.” He scoffs. “Where are they?” you keep your sternness. “Well where did you last leave them?” He questions back. You think for a moment and realize he’s too stubborn to tell you directly. So you start with his clue and head for the seance room. “Call for me when you need me.” He says, dematerializing.

You open the portrait to the seance room and see no one there but Madame Leota’s crystal ball, but it’s all clouded over. You hope that she got out like it seems the maids and servants did. You walked out to the living room, but no one was there. Getting frustrated, you walk to the dining room. Low and behold, on the floor, there William lays. “No, no, no, William.” You begin to cry, rushing to his side. You see the arsenic bottle on the floor and then pick up the letter that was beside him. It reads that he spoke with Eleanor and that they’ll be reunited in death if they could not be in life. “Aww what a sad sight to behold.” You hear the hatbox ghost’s voice sound beside you. You look over and whip out your dagger again at him. “I don’t think that dagger can help you now.” He says bemused. Your arm goes limp, and you cry over William’s body. “You know, I could help you.” He says, stepping closer to you. “How?” You sniffle. “I can trade your souls. He gets to come back to life, and you get to die knowing he’s alive again.” He says cunningly. You think about it for a moment. “You could really do that?” You ask. “Well of course. Quite simple, really. Maybe he’ll finally realize you loved him.” He says, trying to sweeten the deal. “Then I’ll do it. Not for my own sake. But so that he can live and have a happy life. It doesn’t matter if he knows I loved him. I would do anything for him so that he may be happy.” You say gently, running a hand over his arm. "It's quite a dangerous process I must warn." He says. "Danger has never stopped me before, and it won't be stopping me now." You say still watching over William's lifeless body in your arms. “Then I just need one thing from you.” the ghost says, and you look over to him. “Drink the arsenic, and once you have crossed over, I can put his soul back in his body. I'll be waiting for you on the other side.” He says confidently and dematerializes. You reach for the arsenic, looking down at William’s body once more. “I hope you can live to see better days than I could have ever hoped to make for you. But for me, it's on to the next great adventure. In the great beyond. ” You say shedding one final tear and downing the rest of the arsenic. You lay down beside William and fall asleep, letting the arsenic take hold of your mortality.

For Better: https://www.tumblr.com/seriously-nobody/728906125773307904/for-better?source=share

Or

For Worse: https://www.tumblr.com/seriously-nobody/728906131563479040/for-worse?source=share

[talesfromthecrypts]

Tagged by @meduseld (HI HELLO)

Rules: shuffle your on repeat playlist and list 10 songs that show up.

Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana

Delirious - Prince

Jailhouse Rock - The Blues Brothers

Laudanum and Arsenic - Daniel Hart (IWTV Score)

Rocking the Boat - Ice Nine Kills

Points of Authority - Linkin Park

I Feel Love - Kinga Preis (The Lure Soundtrack version)

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked - Cage the Elephant

Faust - Paul Williams (Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack)

Dela - Johnny Clegg & Savuka

tagging: @aethelreds, @mysteriums, @andtwelfth, @jennathearcher, @losthavenmine, @hellboys

[fr3sh-c0rn]

🌻 [for the rb thing] !!!! ^_^

Currently thinking about how in some point in time you could have either gotten straight crack cocaine, laudanum, or arsenic to treat an illness, or ketchup. Like it was either rat poison or tomato soup if it let itself go.

[laudanum-and-arsenic]

do you want to hear my story~

drawn: 11/11/24

[murfeelee]

IWTV 2022 INSP - You Must Think Me An Idiot!

Lestat: Ah. Quite drunk, this one. Rosemary…and something else. What is it, my love? Louis: I-I think it's the gin. Lestat: I wasn't talking to you. ???: Laudanum. Arsenic. *Antoinette unmasks herself* Lestat: *smugly* She was at the ball tonight! Like one of those girls on the telephone switchboard, eavesdropping in on things that she shouldn't. Antoinette: *mockingly quoting* "Too late, I've done it already.... One of the twins. He'll be dead on his feet in an hour." You miserable dogs! All: *angry vampire hissing* *Lestat grabs Louis, Antoinette grabs Claudia* Antoinette: DRINK! Louis: No! Lestat: Claudia should never have been made, Louis. Look what she did to us--she's corrupted everything! Antoinette will be MUCH more agreeable to our life together-- *nausea, vomits poisoned blood!* All: !?!?! Claudia: *fights Antoinette off, stabs her with fire-irons* Antoinette: *dying gasp* Claudia: *smugly* Lestat, you must think me an idiot!

-- Interview with the Vampire, S01E07

MY THOUGHTS (turnt up at Queen Claudia's Coronation 🍻🥳🥂)

CLAUDIA IS THE FRIKKIN GOAT! ^0^

It's deliciously sad that no matter in what iteration or adaptation, this little girl will ALWAYS get the drop on Lestat, like...dang, dude. 🤣

Claudia's murder plot played out in the movie like a frikkin jumpscare--WOAH, she's a savage, queen, SLAY! 👸🏼🔪 But on the tv show she's a stone cold tactician EXTRAORDINAIRE. It is outright told to us that Claudia has all of these chess moves she's laid out. But the real suspense comes from how she'll pull it off; when it'll happen.

Then out of nowhere effing Antoinette pops up like a herpes flareup, and this grown effing adult is bigger & stronger than "built-like-a-bird" Claudia, grabbing Claudia by her hair and tryna force her to drink the twin's poisoned blood. And you might think oh no, all is lost! But YE OF LITTLE FAITH!

That's what happens to homewrecking side-chicks who put their 9-fingered hands on someone else's CHILD. THOU 👏 SHALT 👏 NOT 👏 COVET 👏 LOUIS' 👏 MAN--it never ends well, just watch Fatal Attraction! 👀 Now look at you--curb-stomped! Look at Lestat--poisoned! And Lestat, this is all YOUR fault, for cheating & beating on your husband, clown!

Ahhhh, Claudia's the best. (^_^)

"Antoinette will be MUCH more agreeable to our life together--" are you HIGH!? The copium must've been hitting HARD, for him to think LOUIS--let alone that jealous nasty Antoinette--would be happy living comfy frikkin cozy in his Brides of Dracula harem, meanwhile Louis' daughter was dead. Antoinette's death was Lestat's fault from the start, dragging her into his mess.

In the book, Lestat's male sidepiece Antoine also got burned a bit after Louis set Lestat on fire, but Antoine got away & survived, even though he was hella messed up for like, years. But I'm glad AMC put all that crap to bed, and made sure Antoinette's butt was cooked, once and for all.

Cuz Claudia takes ZERO prisoners. 👸🏽👑

Unfortunately for her, however, LOUIS certainly does.... >_>

Louis, my love...get help. U_U

Like I always say: Lestat got off LIGHT. AMC didn't even let Lestat get set on fire & nommed on by alligators. 😩 You can't win 'em all, I guess, but at least Claudia got Antoinette the heck on outta here, at least~! 👌

[indelicateink]

things that probably happened after the laudanum and arsenic kicked in

maybe

[somebody attacks lestat, something something memory is a monster]

Per Claudia's hobby of recording the dying words of her victims, lestat's final words are, "Mets-moi dans mon cercueil, Louis, Louis."

[something something louis changes out of bloody fancy dress clothes to put on new clothes to get blood on while disposing of bodies]

also over here in justfuckmeupsville i'm noticing louis folded lestat's left arm in to cradle lestat in his lap (lestat's arms had fallen out to the sides when he was on the floor)

something something somebody puts lestat in his coffin. somebody puts him out with the trash.

IWTV: ["'Claudia had wrapped Lestat's body in a sheet before I would even touch it, and then, to my horror, she had sprinkled it over with the long-stemmed chrysanthemums.'"]

In Louis's initial fantastical retelling, he drove them to the boat, but I mean he is not looking super together there, was he too distraught to be the one doing the driving, who knows

[glitterymumfriend]

Spoilers for season 2 of Good Omens, none of my friends have finished watching it yet and I need to Word Vomit

I’m so glad Neil has confirmed a s3 is planned bc it’s one of the only things getting me through the heartache (aside from the millions of fix-it fics appearing in the aftermath

BUT

But but but

I know loads of people have been jumping on the “something was UP with the coffee” theory and I also am 100% behind it, and maybe have an adjusted theory that I haven’t seen anyone else talking about so-

The bit that got me with the coffee ordered was less the oat milk, but the almond flavour added to it. Some people have talked about there being lore somewhere about almonds having an Effect on angels, but my thoughts went a different direction.

In one of the earlier episodes, we see Crowley down some laudanum and begin to act very strange and out-of-control. Now I know it’s at least partly an act, a way for him to deny that he was willingly helping Do Good, but what if it wasn’t totally an act? What if poisons have an impact on angels/demons, in a similar way to alcohol?

One of the most famous poisons used in media, arsenic, is often described as having the taste of bitter almonds.

What is Metatron laced the coffee with arsenic, knowing it would mess with Aziraphale’s judgement, and used the almond syrup to hide the taste???

I just had to post this somewhere because it’s driving me insane, so yeah here we go lads enjoy my take on the ever-growing conspiracy theory

[the-heaminator]

Alfred Alisdair Jack and Gilbert's science shenanigans>>Fulminating metals sound so chaotic lmao

That's because it is, because Alfred , as we know, it batshit insane and 100 percent has a science youtube channel that has like 12k subscribers max, is in his shed, and Alisdair, jack and Gilbert are practically co-creators.

Bc Gilbert and Alisdair are both old and crusty a lot of the times they're synthesising or fucking around with banned chemicals that they found in their basement/attic, ie arsenic paint, radium makeup, they synthesize laudanum that one time, available on Alfred's patreon, or are doing how to fix a car.

But in this one specifically, they are synthesising fulminating metals, the first high explosives, bc alfred is curious and he wants to know how the OG high explosives were made.

"Right is this recording?" "Yep!" Jack sidled onto the camera and was immediately shoved off by Alisdair which left Gilbert to introduce "We were asked about the first high explosives, so we are making high explosives." After finishing shoving Jack off set and yelling something that was probably English but no one could be particularly sure "Alfred over there asked about explosives, and because he is by all means a child he didn't know about the history of explosives despite literally having been part of the team that built the goddamn nuclear weapons in the cold war. Gunpowder, black powder do not count, they are primary explosives, for something to be a high explosive it must have a detonation speed of 2500 to 10000 meters a second, they're also awfully touch sensitive some of them. Today we will be making the first few that were ever made in any amount." "The first primary explosives such as gunpowder, shit was made in China in the 800s, go ask him about it, I'm sure he would be happy to enlighten you, but the first high explosives were created in 1590, which seems like a long time ago but then  you think that Henry the eighth could not have conceived a high explosive, made by a cunt called basil who may or may not have actually existed but was well known at the time, fulminating gold." Gilbert interjected "Fulminating means explosive in latin, ie mercury fulminate means explosive mercury, they weren't very creative."

[pynkhues]

I hope in a good way!

In a great way! I didn't know that about arsenic and laudanum, and now I'm even more eager for them to revisit his death and fill in some of the blanks for us. Everything on this show is so well thought out.

Ah! Good! Yeah, it’s pretty fascinating. I said it in my tags, but the laudanum just pinged for me because I wrote an essay on hysteria treatments back in university (one of my electives for my history major was the treatment of women’s maladies throughout history - it was an interesting course!)

The explicit double mention of it in the one scene felt really pointed to me too, so I’m very curious to see where they go with it.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Just been thinking, if Lestat could tell there was something wrong with the blood of that guy with cancer, surely he could tell there was arsenic and laudanum in Tom's blood. (Not read the books, sorry so I'm not 100% clued into the evershifting lore.)

Agreed.

(They changed the lore here a bit.)

However, I think it boils down to Claudia knowing him here, very well. She knew he would go for Anderson first, and in full hunger... he probably dismissed the taste in the feeding frenzy.

No matter how it happened, this happened. She poisoned him somehow... if it really was this poison? Not sure. Especially since she knew Antoinette was watching.

But... ultimately that doesn't quite matter, because the end effect is the same...

[crazykuroneko]

I just realized the score when Louis killing Lestat is not "Laudanum and Arsenic". That one only covers the scene where the plotting is unfolding. It's actually "Vicious", but it's also not. It's like the softer version of "Vicious", the ending melody is different.

There are also other several outstanding scores that don't get included in the album, like the variation of "Viens A Moi" with slightly different melody in the piano and more drum during Louis' voice over of his letter to Daniel in Ep 1

So, can't we have an extended version of the score album please? @ Mr. Hart 🥹👉👈