#like i think lestat would love their art quite a bit

[theresthespark]

too many halsey songs reming of iwtv. I think it's the intensity and histrionics

[covenofthearticulate]

hiii idk if you’ve ever discussed this before but i’ve been thinking about louis and marius interacting all day and so i’d LOVE to hear your take on what you think their dynamic would be like! what do you think it would take to get louis to engage with him on a more intimate level?

NO KENZIE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I ADORE MARIUS AND LOUIS!!!!!

literally all my favorite quotes about Louis in canon come from that little bit in QOTD from Marius' POV! Like!!! I will never get over how IMMEDIATELY smitten they are with each other!!!

Like on the one hand we have: "Louis stood quite still looking at [Marius] as he had earlier, as though he were seeing a myth made real."

and then we see that the feeling is absolutely mutual with Marius: "He smiled at Louis. Something in the manner of this one made Marius happy, though he wasn't sure why."

I think their dynamic is just so especially interesting because they have so many connecting threads re: Lestat and Armand, so up until QOTD they really have this mythologized version of one another— to Louis, Marius is this grand figure with all the answers Louis had always been searching for, and someone who both deeply loved and deeply hurt some of Louis' closest companions. For Marius, Louis is this strange fledgling who had the audacity to expose these secrets he's kept hidden at his own expense for literal centuries. By all accounts there should be some tension there, or at the very least some awkwardness!

But just as Armand and Louis are sort of two sides of the same coin in a lot of ways, I think Louis is one of the only vampires who has an innate understanding of Marius' worldview. Louis is not the artist or philosopher or politician that Marius is, but he holds a lot of the same values. I mean— Louis is a textbook Libra for god's sake— he NEEDS order and balance in his life, and lord knows Marius is the only other person who prioritizes that as well!

So anyway this is all to say that I really don't think it would take much for Louis to want to engage with Marius on a more intimate level!

And like, I was talking to a friend about this the other day as well but I'd like to think that in their contemporary era, Louis could really be the pupil that Marius needs. Yes, Daniel's relationship with Marius is bittersweet and interesting and fun to play with, but I've always wanted to see who Marius is outside of being a caretaker, and I think Louis is just like the perfect middle ground where he doesn't need or want anyone doting on him or worrying over him, but he's still coming into his own in the new era, he's still finding himself, he needs a kind hand, someone to talk with about books and music and art and culture.

And on Marius' end, I think it would do him good to spend time with someone who is just so genuine. As much as Marius needs and wants his pupils to challenge him, I think he would really benefit from having someone who is willing to just listen and appreciate his philosophy (that's not to say that he and Louis wouldn't have disagreements— but even then I'm sure they hash it out Socratic Style and end up with enough intellectual stimulation to get them all giddy).

ANYWAY TL;DR: WE NEED MORE MARIUS & LOUIS CONTENT PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

[kaelio]

DECEPTIVE MOVIE TRAILERS FOR DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES IF THEY WERE A CINEMATIC SERIES:

I love imagining misleading movie trailers, it's just a thing I do. If I had infinite money and time and a time machine and the rights to adapt the Anne Rice vampire novels, these are examples of extremely dishonest trailers for those movies I would enjoy:

Devil's Minion: Have it appear to be some kind of psychological thriller, either about a guy who is perceiving his stalker as a literal monster, or a guy who feels some Presence stalking him and envisions it as a mysterious, beautiful young man. He's not really my favorite but we need Christopher Nolan directing, like really hitting that Memento tone. What's real?? What's not real?? Daniel appears to be using drugs and the audience is like ohhh is this about addiction? And then it totally seems like a dark addiction metaphor, like Oscar bait maybe. Even when Daniel gets a handjob it isn't clear because Requiem for a Dream got a lot of awards.

(*Don't try to smoosh in with Queen of the Damned, you have enough going on here.)

Tale of The Body Thief: A romantic drama that doesn't seem to realize its intensely worrisome undercurrents (a la "Passengers"). We see a woman of the cloth ministering to a homeless man who, following a severe medical crisis that lands him in her care, seems to be having spiritual delusions. She connects with him over their shared faith... and their desire for meaningful intimacy. We get a swell of orchestral music... some sort of scene of them kissing in the rain... another scene from which we can infer they're in bed together, but the camera is centered on a crucifix on her wall. "I will find the power to come back to you..." he says.

Tale of The Body Thief (Part 2): Wham! Actually a lot of the audience doesn't realize that last trailer never gave you a title! Maybe they think it's a gimmick! It takes them a moment to realize this old man (Indiana Jones??) racing around the cruise ship is accompanied by the same actor as the homeless man described above. "GET THAT MAN!" David shouts as Raglan does some sort of parkour that isn't quite extreme enough to cue in the audience that he's supposed to be inhuman. We see Lestat-in-body pushing through people in a rave taking place on the cruise ship dance floor. It seems like a cynical tie-in because everyone is young and hot there (not really the primary demographic for cruises). Camera pans over some sort of jacuzzi tub with a bunch of women in bikinis in it. "Excuse me, ladies!" someone says as they jump over the tub and since he has a ripped shirt and he's hot the girls in the tub go "ooooooh!" And maybe they have cocktails so it's supposed to be funny. But really sell it as an action-comedy and then WHANG! "Tale of the Body Thief" appears in huge text onscreen like "COMING THIS SPRING" and Mojo's little head pops up from the bottom of the screen and barks.

The Vampire Lestat: Oh you just shoot it like The Favorite, like the exact same cinematography, or maybe Chevalier, but it's about a sensitive stage actor in pre-Revolutionary France, trying to focus on his art as the world becomes more fraught around him. It invites you into his sensitive artistic soul.... Is there time for gentleness, for optimism, for art, in an era of nascent conflict? What will social forces have in store for him, or for his troubled companion? And then maybe you do give away the game where at the last second you see the window explode and the big evil Nosferatu-Magnus bursts through the door with his big gummy mouth with the two fangs like "Rrrrraarrhg!!"

Memnoch the Devil: Starts with some overplayed song for 45-50 year old men in the background of a scene of Lestat and David stealing the artifacts from the dead Roger. Inter-cut with bits of Lestat dismembering Roger's body. They get into a car (no rooftops, Anne, it would look silly on screen! We can't!) and smirk at each other—apparent heist film. Lestat turns the knob for the radio and then another song for loser guys starts to play. "Dora's gonna get mad," David says, as if we're taking precious seconds of this trailer to no-homo the whole thing and establish regressive attitudes about women all at once. Lestat probably says something like "Chicks, man." The movie promises no actual content or any reason to be interested in it, as with most heist movies.

Memnoch the Devil: Hey? Is that the same guy? They're using the same guy for... what is this, a remake of It's A Wonderful Life? God this is worse than when Chris Pratt started voicing both Mario and Garfield. Find another actor!

Blood & Gold: We see a clawed hand sticking out of a glacier and suddenly... it moves!! Ice cracks around the hand! A huge, mysterious, looming figure bursts out of the ice, covered in rags and holding a giant battle axe!! Thunder and lightening appear in the background suddenly for no reason, and a song from Iron Maiden kicks in. Implies heavily that it's some sort of dark action film that may or may not be trying to lean on the popularity of Marvel's "Thor" movies. Like that Winnie the Pooh movie where he kills people. "THE OLDEST STORY..." the trailer narrator guy says, "... IS REVENGE"

The Vampire Armand: You start off with all of the boys sitting around, having a good time, talking about their futures, all the places they're planning to go, the things they want—like, highschool yearbook signing energy. And then there's this one kid who seems kind of smug and suddenly he's like, "pft, you guys, you think so small. You're focused about what the master can get you with his power... but I want the power 😏". And then you'd cut to him on his way up a big fancy marble staircase and you'd see him puffing himself up, excited, maybe even telling the narrator about the amazing situation he's in, but how since he's totally the favorite he's going to do what his peers are either too humble or doltish to consider: ask to learn the magic itself. And it's building tension and he's just-just-just about to ask and then you hear "No." Or "You're not ready. The magic isn't for you." Gives you this great set-up, like a Sorcerer's Apprentice thing. You're already in this kid's corner. How come he doesn't get the magic? Why would anyone try to keep someone from self-actualizing?? Not very cool. Anyway this would be almost exactly the same energy as the trailer for that new Disney movie Wish.

[nightcolorz]

Hiii. I love your acc and the analyses you've made of TVC characters; reading your posts has expanded and helped me articulate the ideas I already had. Anne Rice as an author was very revealing, I mean, by reading her books and analyzing the characters and their dynamics, you get a lot of information about her as a person. That's very interesting. I think all authors put a bit of themselves into their works, but with Anne Rice it feels more personal, maybe because there are quite a few books following the same characters. What do you think?

omg thank you so much 🥹❤️ the makes me so happy. I agree wholeheartedly with ur take on Anne rice. The books are suuuper personal, sometimes to the point where I almost feel like I shouldn’t have access to them 😭 like I’m reading someone’s weird diary. I think this was because her writing functioned as her only outlet. like iwtv was so visceral and sad bcus it was such a raw unfiltered expression of her grief, and the rest of the books all follow the same format (to varying degrees of quality lol).

When it comes to the characters, she was open about how every character is in some way representative of a part of her (especially Lestat and Louis). U can analyze for days how Louis and lestats evolutions r akin to witnessing evolutions of Anne rices mental health, Louis her former self insert created during probably the darkest time in her life later becoming a representation of what she considers the worst parts of herself that she is ashamed of and being basically cut from the series, and Lestat going from an embodiment of her fraught relationship with her husband in iwtv to in tvl a power fantasy who she wishes she was like to at the same time a mouth piece for her existential dread and loneliness and anxieties

The way that lestats religious crisis and manic breakdown from Memnoch to blood canticle aligns perfectly with Anne rice’s own religious crisis and sudden shift in her work is so crazy to me😭 and then there’s Anne rice literally using Lestat as a blatant mouth piece to scream at the audience in the iconic blood canticle opening monologue of course, how could we forget. A lot of the time the personal nature of these books makes the technical quality of them worse, but even still it is one of the major reasons why I love them so much. Part of it is that reading something so personal and unfiltered, where u get the impression that the author wasn’t thinking at all about how it would come off to people while writing it, makes it feel almost more real to me? Or more authentic? Reading tvc sometimes makes me feel like I’m reading actual history or personal accounts from real people. And the bad writing and offensiveness and heaps of bullshit and the pages of unrelated tangents adds to this in a way 😭. Like yeah this is exactly what reading a biography by a hundreds of years old vampire would be like lmao.

I love interpreting themes in these books so much because I often feel like Anne rice didn’t place them there on purpose. She had a very “I’ll just write whatever is in my mind and the themes will happen on there own” approach, and they did! and for someone like me analyzing it is super rewarding. Figuring stuff out that the author wasn’t even aware of, basically. Tvc are rich with meaning in a way that only these books are, and the personal nature and the lack of thought into meaning or themes is I think majorly responsible. For me when it comes to fiction, I like to do the work. And Anne rice throwing her personal as hell freak sex vampire yaoi with the most agonizing portrayals of trauma and mental illness ever no editing no forethought out into the world definitely gives me room to do the work 😭

Also, I tend to really only enjoy art if I feel like it is a messy reflection of the creator. I’m not sure why but I can never really get into something unless I can see some of the creators flaws or baggage reflected in the work 😭 I feel like art isn’t rlly art to me if I don’t feel like a know the person who made it a little too well after seeing it. There’s something really special about finding out the worst parts of someone in a book, honestly. I love reading these and being like there is so much wrong with this woman and I know way too much about it 😭 she’s horrible but I’ve lived in her mind and I don’t wanna leave.

I admire in a way Anne rices unhinged abandon with how blatantly vent-like and unfiltered her books were (literally unedited 😭). She got extremely lucky making a career from it, typing out all her insane thoughts and feelings into gay vampires and becoming rich and famous. A girl can only dream for that life, I do that shit for free on a03. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anything published that has the same energy as tvc in this way. The only thing that comes close would be like, a quotev fan fiction I read for laughs written by a ten year old in 2010 who is unintentionally revealing way too much to me about their semi concerning home life 😭. It’s wonderful! Thank u Anne rice for ur beautiful scary lack of shame u have given me so many things to write about on tumblr

[pynkhues]

your fic ideas for the kinktober are so delicious. can you elaborate a bit on the Week 2 fic? 👀 also Week 3, because i'm intrigued with "Lestat gets Real Weird About It" line.

(x)

Sure, haha.

Mmm, so both are just kind of areas I've been thinking about in terms of character generally right now, not even just in terms of fic, so sorry if this also sounds a bit meta-y, haha.

I've been thinking a lot lately about Louis having multiple forms of investment, and we tend to focus a lot on the art for obvious reasons, but we know he's in real estate too and he tells Daniel in 2.05 that he likes predicting what overlooked product will flourish in time. I'm kind of interested in the way investment has changed over the last fifty years in the context of the show, and how Louis' approach to it all might have evolved, which in many ways has been bolstered too by watching Industry and getting a bit of a sense of that high-end, high-value, high-stakes investment banking and where Louis might fit in that sort of context in 2024.

The thing that really stands out to me is that there's this detachment and clinicalness to that sort of investment / capitalism that feels really different to the Louis who both genuinely connected to art and obviously got off on the hunt for it and commodifying it, which in turn made me think about the Louis of '73 who was, again, more clinical perhaps professionally, but then like - - indulging his more carnal and passionate needs through drugs and boys in San Francisco.

This fic was kind of inspired by having read an article recently that cruising is on the rise again internationally, and I kind of love that we know that Louis did cruise across the decades given the implications of the Bayou as a cruising site in New Orleans, the parks in Paris, and of course, those San Francisco bars, especially because it really seems to be a distinction between him and Lestat. In the show, we've seen Lestat's really way more of a relationship hopper, even in his adultery, between Louis, Nicki, Armand and Antoinette, whereas Louis hits-and-quits, at least with his own adultery (although y'know, he tried to hit-and-quit both Lestat and Armand too lol).

So yeah, the fic's basically contextualising Louis in this sort of finance world, and him and Lestat being half-together, half-not-together and kind of orchestrating a role play in a local cruising park that gets just. Wildly out of hand, lmao, because they're both insane, but also because Louis' feeling maybe a little bored with modern investment and Lestat's' feeling creatively constrained when working on his album. Drugs may have been imbibed, and they might get a little bit (a lot) feral, haha. Witnesses will be eaten!

As for the week 3 fic:

I'm still really percolating on this one, so it's not quite as developed, but I've been thinking about how different Armand and Louis' relationship is to Lestat and Louis' in general, particularly with the BDSM-element, and wondering what the response would be to that? I really loved Marbleflan's The Things We Did and Didn't Do which captured a discomfort Lestat might have with it in the period where they have to get to know each other again, and Louis' need for it as a means of controlling not anyone else, but himself.

I also - - mmm. I've been thinking a LOT recently too about the fact that the Lestat prior to Paris is pretty naive and cut-off from schools of thought which I think would include different types of sexuality? When he arrives in Paris in the late 1700s, it would actually be right around the time Marquis De Sade was starting to publish, and given his writing literally gave birth to the BDSM movement, it's kind of interesting to think what impact that may have had on Lestat. He wouldn't have read any of it, of course, he's illiterate in that part of his life, but it's interesting to think of the conversations that were happening when he was still a young and naive mortal man.

The fact that Lestat's traumatised in that period by Magnus assaulting him and turning him, and then by Nicki's kidnapping then suicide, that he then sleeps through the French Revolution only to be woken up presumably sometime in the early 1900s by Marius before heading to America where he meets Louis, then is seemingly in his hovel from the late 1940s to, well, now, means that Lestat's lost huge chapters of time where social understandings of sex and sexuality and, well, sex toys have really changed. Louis was fucking his way through all of this, both Armand and other men, and it just kind of makes me curious as to what that actually means when they're back together.

I'm still figuring it out, I just think it's an interesting area to explore that Lestat might have some baggage around all of that (and that that baggage might be in regards to a lot of different things).

[licncourt]

What do you think about Nicki? On the one hand I don’t like how he and Louis are often conflated as ‘twins’ (although that’s largely due to AR) since both are uniquely their own person despite their similarities and Lestat definitely having a type. I also believe Lestat genuinely loved Nicki and even though that relationship was probably never one built to last, I also think Lestat never wanted him to die and felt real remorse over it (the trauma of that relationship clearly spilled into his ‘marriage’ with Louis) and would always love him as his first love. It just makes me sad they couldn’t amicably part or have any sort of closure. Sorry I just get sad over Nicki lol

(Okay this is my second time writing this after the hellsite ate it so it's probably not going to be quite as insanely long, but here you go! Maybe that was Tumblr nerfing me for talking too damn much)

God NICKI. I am always crying in the club over Nicki.

First of all, like you said, I absolutely do not see Nicki and Louis as interchangeable. They are both clearly Lestat's infamous Type (sad, rich, intellectual brunette with a drinking problem), but I think Lestat sums up the difference between them pretty well in TVL and IWTV, which I'll get to later.

To start off, Lestat is clearly drawn to men who are a foil to himself, and he seems to seek out partners who will need him (Nicki touches on this a bit when he talks about how much he needs Lestat's "light", his joy and optimism) and I don't think that's a coincidence. Lestat has a deep need to BE needed, and I think Nicki filled that niche for him. He also has what I would diagnose as I Can Fix Him Syndrome and it's terminal, so again, sad, morbid, angry Nicki was the perfect person for baby Lestat to fall for.

Nicki was absolutely Lestat's first love and I think it was mutual too. There are so many heartbreakingly romantic moments between them, and the chapters of TVL with the two of them as mortals is one of my favorite parts of VC. It's so lovely and bittersweet, the perfect portrait of starry-eyed young love. They were both robbed of their innocence by inside and outside forces, and that's heartbreaking to witness as a reader. They deserved better.

I think what was truly devastating for Lestat was not that it ended, but HOW it ended. We can see their relationship beginning to sour even before Magnus, but it's only after that Lestat (and the reader) really gets why. During the turning, Lestat sees the darkness that Nicki had always described to him and finally understands that the problem is not that Nicki doesn't see his own light, but that he doesn't have it. It's not part of his worldview, he doesn't even have a frame of reference for understanding Lestat. They are fundamentally, essentially, different creatures who, for whatever reason, don't have the common ground necessary to support a relationship.

Nicki is propelled through life by the chip on his shoulder. He wants to get back at his family either by being the best violinist to rub it in their face or to crash and burn to give his father the middle finger. It's his bitterness and anger that moves him forward and it's the lens through which he understands the world. At best, he looks for "good art and bad art" and wants to claw his way up out of spite, whereas Lestat measures his own creation not by quantifiable objectives but by how much happiness it brings, the good it does. That illustrates the larger rift between them pretty well, and I don't think they ever had the ability to truly empathize with or relate to each other. There was love there, but that's not enough.

It's not really Nicki's fault for being the way he is, and I don't think he's a bad person. A lot of his behavior and thought patterns just feel like untreated mental illness and that's simply part of what makes him tragic. Maybe in another time, his story would've ended differently and he could've had a life with Lestat. As it was though, love wasn't sufficent to hold them together through that disconnect, especially after the turning. I feel like becoming a vampire makes these characters more of what they are, the good and the bad. Any possible chance Lestat and Nicki had at making it work as humans was destroyed by Magnus.

As you said, so many of the problems Louis and Lestat face in their relationship stem, at least in part, from Nicki. Lestat's controlling behavior feels like a manifestation of his abandonment issues. His desire for Louis to be dependent on him reads like a response to Nicki's rejection of him once he was no longer needed. Even Lestat's aggressive insistence that Louis stop sulking, enjoy vampire life and stop being miserable seem like a desperate attempt to stop history from repeating itself, especially since we know Lestat was very aware of their similarities.

Where I think Louis and Nicki diverge, and what makes Lestat compatible with Louis in a way he wasn't with Nicki, is that worldview I mentioned. I'll refer to this post I made about Louis as an optimist for more of what I think about him specifically, but for now I'll just say that Louis, despite surface similarities, is actually much more similar to Lestat than Nicki when it comes to their outlook on life. In TVL, Lestat describes Louis as having a softness to him, a kind of love for the human experience and a reverence for the world that Nicki lacked. We can see that in Lestat too right from the beginning and it's a huge part of his character, but it runs deeper than just personality. It informs his actions, his beliefs, how he interacts with the world.

It's the same for Louis. All of his sadness and existential angst aside, it's still those same ideas that drive him, the hope for goodness and for happiness in whatever form it takes. Surface personality traits aside, he and Lestat can very much understand each other on that level once they give it a chance. Louis is different from Nicki in the way that really counts, and that softness, that optimism, that Lestat-like worldview, is why Nicki went into the fire within a year or two and Louis survived two centuries without even going underground. It's also why he can understand Lestat and Lestat can understand him in spite of their other differences.

I'm going to put a pin in discussing Nicki's death because I have a whole meta post planned. I'll say for now that I don't think it's suggested in any explicit way in the narrative that he wanted Nicki dead, but I still have some reasons why I think that's a possible reading, at least for Lestat subconsciously. I also totally agree that Lestat loved Nicki and genuinely grieved for him. That was still his first love and the one he thought he'd share his life with, the one who was there for the best and some of the worst times of his life. I think Lestat will always have love for Nicki.

(Not to plug my own shit, but I talk in-depth about literally all of this Nicki stuff as well as Louis and Lestat's personal outlooks on life and philosophy in chapters 8 & 9 respectively of my current fic, so if anyone is interested in that, there you go! 18k of this discussion in prose form.)

[maidenvault]

Favorite gothic horror novels? Just finished rereading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Finished reading Rebecca about a month ago after not being able to concentrate on books for awhile and it brought me back to the gothic genre

Hey! 😁 So I don’t have a more recent memory of many books in this category and I don’t trust my own taste from 8+ years ago lol, but these are some novels you didn’t already mention (+ some short stories and other stuff) that I’ve loved enough to read more than once and know pretty well.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” This one is so effective in how it very gradually turns into horror, opening with lush descriptions of the beauty of a garden in the first scene and then, as Dorian moves toward becoming so evil over the course of the story, taking you to darker and darker places, to depravity and decay. Basically a scathing criticism of English aristocracy and a defense of problematic art in which Wilde was also deprecating himself a bit, which seems to suggest that total innocence is the greatest sin because Dorian's inability to think for himself makes him so easily corrupted by challenging ideas.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 

“Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within.” I'm a bit of a hater of the Netflix Hill House, mostly because even taking it on its own terms it's just not that good, but also because it erases the real horror at the center of the novel, which is the harm the traditional family can do and the reality that one can never completely escape where they came from. The ending feels horrifyingly inevitable because of how incredibly well the protagonist and her weaknesses are fleshed out throughout the book. Few pieces of horror media have truly gotten to me and spoken to some of my own personal fears like this.

Interview With the Vampire / The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

“Do you know what it means to be loved by Death? Do you know what it means to have Death know your name?” These aren't all-time favorite books of mine or anything, and I wouldn't quite call myself a TVC fan, but so much about these first two books in the series are exactly what I want when I feel like reading something moody and gothic in a historical setting. When I finally got around to reading these after a life of being exposed to stuff like True Blood and TVD, it felt like running my hands through bolts of authentic silk and velvet after only encountering synthetic imitations of those before. Somehow they still hold up as something special in the vampire genre and aren’t just laughable after angsty vampires and other things in them have become cliché. Knowing Anne Rice was, in a way, dealing with the death of her daughter by writing the first one certainly helps to still give it some real power.

Swamp Thing by Alan Moore (Saga of the Swamp Thing #20-61)

“There grows yet in Hell a flower that’s named for her.” In this run, Moore famously retconned aspects of Swampy's origin story and put him in a very Frankenstein-like state of questioning the nature and meaning of his existence as a monster. It's beautifully atmospheric and you can practically hear the insects in the Louisiana bayou in the more still and quiet nighttime moments. You get a mad scientist villain, a beauty-and-the-beast love story, truly terrifying vampires, truly terrifying occult magic stuff, and an unforgettable portrayal of Hell that Neil Gaiman would later build on in The Sandman.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving

“Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.” If you're not the kind of reader who can enjoy, in and of itself, being immersed in a setting through lengthy descriptions, this may not be your thing, but I just love the picture it paints of historical New England. It’s the ultimate spooky autumn vibes story, in a sort of wholesome and cozy way. I think of certain passages every year when the leaves start to turn and I start seeing pumpkins everywhere.

"The Masque of the Red Death" / "The Tell-Tale Heart" / "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe

I mean, it's Poe. WYD if you haven't started with some of these.

"Goblin Market" by Christina Rosetti

If you were exposed to this as a kid like I was, it’s worth revisiting! A favorite poem of mine which tells a very moving and dark fairy tale.

“The Rats In the Walls” / “The Call of Cthulhu” / “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” by H.P. Lovecraft

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” The problems with Lovecraft are well known and you can absolutely live without reading his work if you don't want to take the gross stuff with the stuff that works, but the stuff that works no one else can really do quite like he did. It's not that his prose was even that great, but....his imagination. 🤯 He was consciously taking a lot from Poe, and I think his work seems to partly fit right in with gothic works of the classic canon because it was dealing with the anxieties of an increasingly secular world, perhaps during the last gasp of a time when that could still feel like a relevant theme in horror, but obviously in a very new way that was uniquely his own and came to define cosmic horror.

[manie-sans-delire-x]

Who’s YOUR favorite vc vamp and why?

Sorry this took a week, I was on vacation and wanted to actually give a decent answer since you gave such a good one.

Armand as well!! Or my favorite name of his- Amadeo. I haven't actually read TVA yet, so once I do I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say, but basically I find him to be the most tragically beautiful and endearing, and I relate to him the most.

I love that Armand essentially “lost his god” three, four times. (Nice tragedy bro.) First being raised devoutly Christian as a child- “all he knew was [I forgot the full quote] and God”- then having that ripped away from him by the abduction, being sold to the brothel and sexually abused, being severely beaten and left for dead when he refused. Then Marius appearing to him like a god, saving him and whisking him away and teaching him all this fine art and education and giving him everything- (the cruelty and Marius’s narcissism in naming him Amadeo- “Loved by God”?)- then losing Marius, again in a traumatic kidnapping fashion. Then the Children introducing him to Satanism and brainwashing him- he gained a new God, getting that whole belief system, understanding of reality, and way of life (for 300 yrs!!) shattered to bits in one day by Lestat. He then basically wants Lestat to be his new god and show him a new way of life/give him a new identity. And for the first time in his long life, he’s left without one when Lestat calls him out on this and denies him (one of my favorite parts and, I think, possibly one of Lestat’s kindest and most selfless moments, even if Armand resented him for it.)

His Amadeo in Venice days and relationship with Marius also remind me of one of my OC’s- Kina Sintav from the Elder Scrolls universe. I made her before I ever read VC, but they have quite a few similarities. Namely, being in a dark, murderous cult and their almost childlike reliance and dependence on (due to childhood trauma), extreme loyalty and attachment to, sexual seduction of, submissiveness to, and genuine love, respect, and admiration of an older, occasionally abusive master, who is also their savior from a terrible situation and gave them much more than they ever knew before in their lives, who ends up being traumatically ripped away from them. Also the whole weird, kinda creepy sexual religious vibe and power dynamic going on. (She is an adult in her late twenties/early thirties though, and I want the relationship to be much more of a partnership and dark tragic romance than an abusive or predatory one. She’s also a lot less innocent than 17 yr old human Armand was.)

I don't want to write a whole essay so I'm just gunna list out the things I relate to him about:

1- Physical appearance- auburn hair, pale skin, big brown eyes

2- (seemingly) Eternally youthful appearance-we both look younger than our age (I also relate to Claudia because of this because I sometimes resent it lol)

3- Sexual trauma, although luckily to much different extents

4- Acting seductive to older men, general seductive behavior

5- Enjoying bdsm lmao and relationship control dynamics (in different ways too- Marius, Daniel)

6- Flat affect

7- Using people (Daniel) and items around him, general impulsive careless nature- devouring then throwing aside- his cult members, Lestat’s books

8- Having to be given an identity, lack of own identity

9- Becoming obsessed with certain people/things 

10- Need for control and previously having a lack of it

11- Childlike curiosity, strange innocence

12- Violence, sadism (at least emotionally)

13- Night Island!! If I were incredibly rich that's absolutely something I would create, I've thought about it before.

14- Style- I would definitely lure suicidal people if I were a vamp, just for the poetic beauty of it all. I actually thought about this before when I thought about if vamps had psychic power. Would kill them in a lot of other ways too though, try it all. I would also find a victim like Daniel, I adore that dynamic.

[aion-rsa]

Midnight Mass: It’s Time to Talk About That Monstrous Twist

https://ift.tt/39I2zkp

This article contains huge spoilers for Midnight Mass. So help me God if you read this without watching the series first…

The version of Midnight Mass that Netflix advertised still would have made for a compelling horror series. 

An isolated, insular island community? Great. A young, charismatic preacher suddenly coming to town to shake things up? Perfect. That preacher proving capable of performing minor miracles? Love it, no notes! 

Of course, as viewers who have watched at least four episodes of the seven-episode series now know, Midnight Mass has one extra supernatural twist in mind that elevates an already interesting story to true mind-blowing status. Critics were understandably asked to keep this aspect of the show a secret before it premiered. So please indulge me as I finally slay these embargo demons and get it off my chest.

Vampires. Vampires! V-A-M-P-I-R-E-S. VAMPIRES! VAMPIRES VAMPIRES VAMPIRES! Literally like Dracula. And Nosferatu. Anne Rice’s Lestat. Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot. Vampires. VAMPIRES, BRO, VAMPIRES.

For creator Mike Flanagan, a filmmaker influenced by all manner of classic horror, bringing the fanged bloodsuckers to life was a long time coming.

“My favorite vampire movie is (Werner) Herzog’s Nosferatu,” Flanagan told Den of Geek and other outlets prior to the premiere of Midnight Mass. “That film is the vampire story as high art. I also adore From Dusk Till Dawn. I read Dracula young enough for it to really burrow in for me. And I read ‘Salem’s Lot early enough to color an enormous amount of work that I’ll do for the rest of my life.”

Midnight Mass’s depiction of the mythological undead beast and how it can neatly fit into Christian dogma is one of the most satisfying horror twists in years. Now that the truth is out, let’s discuss Midnight Mass and how it conflates vampires and biblical angels. 

Mistaking a Vampire for an Angel

The interesting thing about Midnight Mass is that it clearly takes place in a universe where the average person has no knowledge of what a vampire is. Even Sarah Gunning (Annabeth Gish), arguably the most well-read person on Crockett Island, has to do some research into “porphyria cutanea tarda” (a.k.a. the real life “vampire disease”). This is similar to The Walking Dead’s approach to zombies, in which the “z” word and George A. Romero’s name are never spoken. This strategy in Midnight Mass allows for a truly fascinating case of mistaken identity.

While viewers immediately know that the creature Monsignor John Pruitt (Hamish Linklater) encounters is a vampire, he believes it to be an angel. Given how studied Pruitt is in the Bible and Cathloic theology, it’s entirely understandable why he would think a tall, muscular, bald-headed beast with fangs and leathery wings is an angel. As it turns out, the angels of the Old Testament can be truly terrifying. 

Not all angels are soft-featured human-like creatures with fluffy white bird wings. Some, like Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones are designed to intimidate God’s enemies. In the New Testament’s Book of Luke, an angel visits Zechariah and immediately asks him to “be not afraid” because the angel can see the poor guy absolutely shaking in his boots upon his arrival. Angels being terrifying is even something of an Internet meme, with users contrasting the phrase “be not afraid” with images of truly monstrous beasts. 

Not only does Pruitt’s vampire have the vague appearance of an angel, it also apparently holds the secrets to eternal life as promised in the Bible. By merely drinking some of the “angel’s” blood, a good Christian can live forever just like God says. Does that blood-drinking sacrament sound familiar? It did to Mike Flanagan.

“In Bible school I used to say ‘if the wine turns into Jesus’s blood literally and we’re drinking it so that we can live forever … that seems like a short leap to vampiric myth.’”

Of course, drinking the angel’s fluids in the case of Midnight Mass also leads to some unwanted side effects like a thirst for blood and extreme sensitivity to sunlight. Thankfully, good ol’ Bev Keane always has a Bible quote ready to go for that. When read through the proper perspective, the Holy Bible may as well be the original vampire story. 

The Rules of Vampirism

“The thing that I love about the vampire as a cinematic tool is how malleable it is,” Flanagan says. “We all agree that there is no canon. There are no rules. In fact, part of the joy is seeing what rules people cherry pick as they approach a vampire story.”

All depictions of vampires are indeed quite different. Vampires can range from the classic Stoker-ian monster to Twilight’s nigh-invulnerable sparkle bois. Midnight Mass’s version of the vampire leans towards the classic, albeit with some tweaks. In terms of appearance, The Angel (as we will be calling Midnight Mass’s O.G. vampire for simplicity’s sake) has a more bestial look like Nosferatu rather than an aristocratic one like Count Dracula or Anne Rice’s creations. 

“We winked at (Nosferatu the Vampyr actor) Klaus Kinski a few times when we designed our guy,” Flanagan says.

Though the Angel resembles Nosferatu in appearance, its vulnerabilities owe more to Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. Religious iconography does not appear to hurt the Angel nor its thralls. Traditional human weapons like bullets or blades also do no harm (at least not mortally). These vampires are, however, tremendously susceptible to both fire and sunlight. Exposure to the latter for even a few seconds is enough to kill the Angel and his many acolytes. 

Read more

TV

Why Midnight Mass is Mike Flanagan’s Most Personal Work

By Alec Bojalad

TV

Midnight Mass Cast: Previous Credits From Hill House to Bly Manor, Legion & Sherlock

By Louisa Mellor

Like in Rice’s works as well, the path to creating a new vampire is quite simple. Step 1: Drink its blood. Step 2: Die. In Dracula and ‘Salem’s Lot, the method of vampire creation is merely being bit by one, zombie-style. Rice and Flanagan’s approach is quite a bit more intentional and interesting. It also opens the door for perhaps Midnight Mass’s most ingenious storytelling quirk: communion. John Pruitt is able to get nearly the entirety of Crockett Island to become a vampire by spiking the communion wine with his buddy’s blood. Then, all that remains is for them to poison themselves to death, Jonestown-style. 

The mass “resurrection” scene in which the congregation awakes as their new vampire selves also provides some insight to just how hard it is to contain the vampire’s overwhelming hunger. Riley Flynn was able to resist it when he turned because John Pruitt babysat him like a psychedelic mushroom guide. The plan for the rest of the congregation was to have their babysitters as well but that didn’t quite work out. Still, Riley’s dad Ed makes it clear to his wife Annie, that even if it’s hard to resist the call for blood, it’s not impossible. 

“When I saw them at the church, I thought it was something they really couldn’t help. Like something impossible not to do. But it isn’t, Annie,” he says.

Maybe if more vampires were like Ed Flynn, a whole island full of vampires wouldn’t be too bad of a thing in the first place. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

How to Defeat a Vampire

While every vampire story presents its own unique take on the creature, the answer on how to defeat a vampire is usually the same: by doing it together.

“We poor humans only have so much that we can give,” Flanagan says. “We’re ill-equipped as individuals to make any kind of meaningful stand. The only way evil in the world can be brought down is through collective effort. That’s something Stoker understands inherently. It’s clearly something King understands.”

Alongside the aforementioned Bram Stoker and Stephen King, Flanagan presents a small team of humans at story’s end who will do what it takes to defeat evil, even if it means dying in the process. Erin Greene (Kate Siegel), Dr. Sarah Gunning, Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), Annie Flynn (Kristin Lehman), Warren Flynn (Igby Rigney), and Leeza Scarborough (Annarah Cymone) are the six residents of Crockett Island brave enough to try to take down the Angel. All but two (Warren and Leeza) die. They do succeed in eliminating the immediate threat on Crockett Island but it’s possible the Angel made it away to suck blood another day, damaged wings and all.

What’s interesting about Midnight Mass’s “final crew” is that six appears to be the magic number when it comes to taking down a vampire. Stoker’s Dracula has six heroes: Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker nèe Murray, Arthur Holmwood (Lord Godalming), John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Abraham Van Helsing (of which, only poor American cowboy Quincey Morris dies). King’s ‘Salem’s Lot also has six: Ben Mears, Matt Burke, Susan Norton, Mark Petrie, Jimmy Cody, and Father Callahan (of which, decidedly more than one of them die). This strange bit of arithmancy is something we asked Flanagan about.

“The number was certainly not intentional,” he says. “Once it was clear that Riley was not going to be carrying the torch to the end it really was about asking ‘who are the characters who seem in the very beginning to be at a disadvantage and how do we empower them in the end?’ This was gonna be played out by Sarah Gunning, Sheriff Hassan, and everyone else who would get to just give a little piece.”

Considering that Erin and company were outnumbered about 117 to six, it was a pretty good showing for Crockett Island’s last humans standing.

All seven episodes of Midnight Mass are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Midnight Mass: It’s Time to Talk About That Monstrous Twist appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3CPaitL

[pastelbatfandoms]

Get to know My Character

Taking this for My AHS Apocalypse Character. 

01. What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded? Her name is Helena and yeah I suppose I picked it for the symbolism. Her name does have the word HEL in it after all.  02. What is one of your character’s biggest insecurities? Are they able to hide it easily or can others easily exploit this weakness? Her Boyfriend/Future Husband Michael Langdon would definitely be a weakness other’s could use against her.  Also Michael unintentionally does use her love for him to his advantage. Also fear of dying and becoming a Spirit again,to Haunt and nothing more.  03. What would be their favorite physical trait about themselves? Her Red hair,her figure that she definitely uses to her advantage.   04. What are their favorite traits about their lover? (one psychological and one physical) Just ONE?! ok...

Mentally Helena loves not only Michael’s Deviousness but his Innocence as well that few people,save for herself and Ms Mead,get to see or even understand.

Physically? I mean he is The Anti Christ he’s meant to be Beautiful. While he was younger he had an almost Angelic Beauty to him as he got older he exuded Charm and Sexuality. 

05. Are they sexually confident or more of the shy type? Helena has never been particularly Shy,though she used to let Michael take the lead,once he was comfortable,often until she came back from Hell.  06. Do they have any hobbies that their lover finds unusual, odd, or otherwise annoying? lol No hobbies but,I suppose being Bratty or Obstinate when he’s trying to be Authoritative to others in The Santaury,or in general,peeves him a bit. And does not go unnoticed,usually resulting in a Punishment once they are alone.  07. Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)? Not that she knows.  08. What is, perhaps, their biggest flaw? Are they aware of this or oblivious to it? Is falling for The Anti Christ a flaw? I suppose that’s a matter of opinion. Falling for Serial Killers on the other hand... 09. Do they have a favorite season? What about a favorite holiday? Christmas? lol probably Samhain tbh. But they don’t Celebrate in Traditional ways. Being a Spirit for so long Helena doesn’t really notice the changing of the seasons until she becomes Human again and even then she doesn’t care to notice it much,though she does like The Sun,something She misses after The Apocalypse. 

10. Is your character more feminine or masculine? Feminine all the way but she can still kick your ass or kill you. 11. What is something that would make your character fly into a rage? Losing Michael,Michael being hurt,also she is the Jealous type,as is Michael,so him flirting with someone else,whether it’s to Manipulate them or not,does rub her the wrong way. Usually resulting in Angry late night Sex. Which isn’t always a bad thing...

12. Is there some particular talent, skill, or attribute that they simply could not give up? I mean being able to talk to the living and have them see her while a Ghost was a perk. (and vice versa) As well as Generally being a Witch and The Demonic Powers she received while in Hell. 

13. What are your character’s sleeping habits? Heavy or light sleeper? Blanket stealer? One that always rolls onto the floor? Pushes their lover onto the floor? Sleep talker or walker? They are both Light sleepers. Helena is not used to sleeping much since she didn’t have to while dead. Also who can sleep with all those Do Gooders and White Witches trying to kill you. 14. Do they live alone or with family? How do they feel about their family/roommates? Helena lived in The “Murder House” as it was coined years ago,so she’s always been around a lot of people,though I suppose LIVING isn’t the right word. When Michael brought her back Helena moved in with him and Ms Mead.  15. Is there a certain person in this world that they cannot stand? The very mention of this person’s name makes them tremble with anger or fear. Her Ex,Dandy Mott. But when that someone is responsible for your Murder you tend to hold a grudge. Helena used to be scared off him especially when she descended into Hell,the first time,and had to relive her Murder over and over again. Until Michael came to get her and Disintegrated Dandy for good. 

16. Is your character the athletic type or more of a couch potato? What are some sports/games that they like? lol Neither. She keeps fit on The Hearts of her Enemies ;) 17. Does your character have dreams of getting married and/or having children? Yes and Maybe. Though I think Michael is more keen on Adopting. We’ll name her Sabrina... 18. What kind of home would they want to live in? Where would they place this abode? Somewhere Regal like a Mansion,A Castle or a Sanctuary.  19. Would your character be the kind to get into fights? (physical or verbal) Would they be a good fighter or cave in rather easily? Only if she were standing up for Michael,Lucifer ect.. or if someone said something she didn’t like and she was in a mood. Helena is an excellent Fighter now. 

20. Does your character like animals? What are some of their favorite animals? Would they want pets? What about mythological creatures? Not be stereotypical but she really likes Snakes and Crows,as well as Raven’s. Her favorite Mythological Creature is The Cerberus. 

21. What is one of your character’s biggest fears? How would they react when dealing with this fear? Helena has pretty much faced her fears. They’ve both Loved and Lost and Loved and Lost again. 

22. What kind of tattoos, piercings, birthmarks, freckles, and other such unique physical features do they have? Helena’s features are quite normal,though she does have an Otherwordly Aura around her that only Magnifies once she Descends into Hell the last time. Also The powers that Lucifer Bestows on her can make her eyes glow and turn more Demonic.  Helena is also more seductive and alluring once her and Michael reach adult hood,or Michael does anyway.

23. What is your character like when it comes to school? What subjects are they good/bad at? Do they get in trouble a lot or are well behaved? lol School they are well past that. She was very good in school and well behaved until she met Dandy,though she was still Book Smart. Dandy wouldn’t have it any other way.  24. In their own words, how would your character describe what their lover is like? What isn’t he like?... I will be making a A-Z Head-canons for what Michael is like Sexually,so stay tuned for that! 25. Is there something traumatic from your character’s past that greatly affects them even to this day? Her Death (Both when Dandy killed her and when The Coven did) The things that happened to her in Hell.  26. What is their lover like sexually? How do they feel about their lover’s quirks, needs, etc? ^^ See above. 27. If your character was going to get arrested, what would be the most likely reason for it? Killing Someone.... 28. If your character became a celebrity, what would they be famous for? A Model or a Famous Psychic/Tarot Reader.  29. What is one of the most courageous things your character has ever done for a loved one? Died for them.  30. When it comes to the arts (music, film, theater, etc), what does your character like? Anything Retro or Vintage (like from The 1920′s to 80′s) Classical Music or anything with a Dark Ambiance. After discovering TV again Helena recently fell in love with The Craft,Interview With a Vampire, (because Lestat reminds her of Michael),Dusk Till Dawn and AMC’s Freakshow (it reminds her of simpler times) She also has a weakness for Slasher Films.  31. Would your character be the kind capable of killing? Would they enjoy killing or only use it when necessary or, perhaps, refuse to kill no matter what? Yes and Both.  32. If your character’s lover offered to take them out on a dream date, what would they want to do? Just alone in there room,the two of them,or taking a stroll talking about anything & everything,including The end of the world. Michael is very curious. Followed by Ritualistic Sex that evening.  33. If your character wanted to be alone, where would they go? Helena rarely likes being alone as she was alone for far too long as a Ghost. But when she does need her down time she prefers practicing her Spells in The Woods alone at night or in her Darkened room with a glass of Wine while reading an Erotic or Historical Romance Series.  34. Does your character have favorite foods? (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, etc) Not really. She prefers a good Home cooked Meal like Ms Mead or Constance used to make but she isn’t picky.  35. Is your character afraid of death? If they got to choose how to die, how would they want to go? pffft been there,done that. Twice.  36. Does your character have any medical conditions? Are they serious or minor? Do they affect their day to day life? No

37. What are some of your character’s pet peeves? What are some things that annoy them or disgust them? Being Disrespected,being made Jealous. 

38. What kind of weather does your character like? Cloudy skies, rainy days, sunshine, etc? Again no Preference. 

39. When people look at your character, is there some assumption they might make about them just by appearance? Is that assumption correct? Anything anyone assumes about her now is absolutely Correct. Except she is not being coerced into anything she says or does. 

40. Does your OC have any guilty pleasures they enjoy? Hobbies, past times, music, etc that they wouldn’t want known by others? Already kind of answered this one. read Question 30. 41. Does your character’s family affect your character in any way? Her real Family are all dead. Her Surrogate Family mean the world to her though. Dead and Living.  42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change? being taken advantage of by Dandy. Killing without a purpose or end game.  43. Does your character have a switch that changes aspects of their personality whether they are around friends, family, etc. Is there someone who gets to see their true self? Michael,Constance and even Lucifer always get to see her True Self. Though she can be a bit more on around Lucifer.  44. Is there a particular event that would emotionally devastate your character? Having Michael die in her arms would be traumatic,the way she died in his.  45. Is your character the kind to hide their true emotions or do they wear their heart on their sleeve? Depends on who it is.

46. What is some random affectionate thing that your character always does to their lover? They are not one’s for PDA but if Helena can tell Michael is getting worked up she’ll go over and gently squeeze his hand or put a hand on his shoulder,calming him with Magic.  47. Is your character outgoing? Would they be the leader of the friend group, or the quiet one that gets dragged along? Outgoing now for sure. Helena’s done being told what to do. Which doesn’t go over very well with Cordelia or Lucifer. She’s very much a leader,but will share the spotlight.  48. Is there anything in particular that would ignite your character’s jealousy? Or does your character not get envious? Um Obviously Michael being Flirty with someone else,especially a Follower.  49. What is something that your character has nightmares about? Are these frequent? Do they heavily affect your character’s mood? ^See Dandy.  50. If your character confessed love to their crush, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc, what would they say? She has or rather Michael just sensed it and told her he loved her too. Followed by a Passionate Kiss. It didn’t take long,they are destined after all. And have always been together in one form or another.

[great-pan-is-dead]

Saw @bi-astrial do this and I’m gonna do it now bc I have nothing better to do (ty for this opportunity on shameless self babble) and there’s never much personal on my blog (why would anyone wanna know let’s be real)

Rules: answer these questions, and tag 20 followers that you would like to get to know better. (no ty if you wanna do it do it my friends I wanna know about yous)

Name: Emmeline

Nickname: Emmie gets used a lot, Eline a bit less but no one ever hears my actual name right the first time so most variations of E starting with ns and ms name imaginable

Zodiac sign: Aries

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw

Height: 5′3″ or there abouts. not quite formidable enough

Orientation: haha I’d say lesbian but everything is everywhere right now. I’m allowed a confusion period ok ok so some have it at 14 but I’m 18 and I don’t have crisises anymore. Crisises have me. I know what I want to want but do I really know but nothing is simple idc

Ethnicity: White (whiter than sinner’s tea) British before the Scots cut themselves off this damn island

Favourite fruit: I’m more a vegetables (so many) gal but I quite like clementines? or sultanas til I die if dried counts

Favourite season: All of them?? spring always feels good tho 

Favourite book series: I don’t even have one anymore because I don’t read series but I was blown damn away by Phillip Pullman’s  His Dark Materials trilogy and every bugger likes Harry Potter let’s face it

Favourite fictional characters: ?????? Spock maybe bc science! logic! guy! big inspiration but let’s face it don’t make me choose. Vince Noir from The Mighty Boosh maybe comes after that

Favourite flower: Every flower how dare you. But I dig bluebells a lot.

Favourite scents: Baking bread is on there. Love warm damp spring scent and all. That balmy warm scent of the Mediterranean. When it’s soaked and muddy and in the highlands. Cinnamon. Chilled ground coffee. Tea leaves of all kinds. I’d be here all day.  

Favourite colour: Most shades of purple and blue. Red. The entire bloody visible light spectrum and the infa red and ultraviolet  if they want to feel included okay don’t make me discriminate

Favourite animal: Animals aren’t really me because I have a lot of fur allergies and I’m heartless but I’ve always liked owls and birds are cool if a bit intimidating with all the sharp bits

Favourite artist/band: I’d write a freaking book but in a vague order, New Order, A Flock Of Seagulls, Fleetwood Mac, The Human League, ELO, Kasabian, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Panic At The Disco, My Chemical Romance, OMD and that’s not including composers,,,

Coffee, tea, or hot cocoa?: Aggressively tea

Average sleep hours: About between 7 to 9 or I’ll die

Number of blankets I sleep with: A duvet with maybe an extra blanket if it’s extra cold because Britain doesn’t mess around

Dream trip: I don’t really have one? Never really have. Anywhere, everywhere, I’m easily pleased. I love just about everything.

Last thing you googled: Serials of the second Doctor because I was having an emotional rant on The War Games and Jamie. I need those at occasional intervals. If there’s any volunteers, I’m always down for some Two & Jamie dynamic screeching

Blog created: Two years ago? I think? Maybe three. back when the username was good old lestat-has-the-mjonir or whatever shitposty sounding thing that was

How many blogs do I follow:  174. Not enough

Number of followers:  249. smol humble bean with an inconsistent amount of posting, humour and interaction. Love all of yous. I don’t really. I hate you all, please delete this hellsite.

What do I usually post about: I’ve been considering splitting to two blogs of one “Trash Grandma by Day” and one “Glamour Nanna by Night” side, but usually classical art, period dresses, aestheticy things, pretty photography, The Vampire Chronicles and Oscar Wilde and whatever books I’m reading, and then space and some science stuff, Star Trek and bits of Doctor Who and Noel Fielding’s face when so compelled.

Do I get asks regularly:  Never in my life so if anyone wants to start I will talk about literally anything because I always have too much to say for myself and I wanna interact with all three and a half of you out there

What is your aesthetic: *sweats nervously* Technicolour sparkly soft space and science vibes, labcoats and hubble space telescope pics and lots of things about planets, neat n sharp written pages of maths and physics equations, 18th/19th century French/European, most things found in any given Oscar Wilde story, just seem to have a thing for those damn crossdressing boys, boys in make up bc the daring British pop trends of 1985 need to make a comeback, good hair, curly hair, long haired boys, renaissance aesthetic  girls, tea and flowers and candles and girls of many descriptions and terrible caterpillar pathetic moustaches and old books and velvet, cathedrals and old synthesiser music that sounds like older religions, orchestral music that makes me want to pick up myself and dance, and I’m sure you see how endless this can get Mutuals/followers who wanna do this DO IT but tag me so I can nosey all about you love y’all here’s more drivel about me than you ever needed SORRY THIS IS SO LONG

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Hi, I'm doing this project thing for class on IWTV and basically I have to analyze and write essays about themes, characterization, symbols, etc. on a bunch of different passages from our chosen book. I've done a lot but I still have some left to do and kinda have run out of ideas for the last of them. Do you have any favorite scenes/lines/moments/passages/excerpts from the book or any that stand out/you find particularly deep and meaningful? Thanks for the help (:

Hmmm, this is a tough one! There are so many. I’m curious to know which you chose already!

It changes over time, but just skimming IWTV, these are some consistently favorite moments of mine. I think some of them are deep and meaningful, but what’s deep and meaningful to me may not be to you. We all sort of have a conversation with books, you bring your own experiences and tastes and see what matches up with the story you’re reading. Sometimes the story can expand your intellectual palette! It’s done that for me.

What makes a moment (scenes/lines/moments/passages/excerpts/etc.) a fave for me is the mixture of comedy and tragedy, so I’m drawn to parts where Lestat is insulting Louis, or they’re fighting with exquisite tension and clever dialogue, or bits of vampire physiology, or heartwrenching stuff. 

While I’m less interested in things like artful descriptions or didactic lessons from the author, each VC book is a mixture of many things, and I obviously love the series as a whole and in parts. Fave moments, for me, are like amazing desserts in which you can’t always figure out what the ingredients were, it’s just DELICIOUS and you gotta have MORE.

I was going through IWTV and selecting passages but I’m doing too many! Here’s the first few that come to mind, in no particular order, which is a very small fraction of all my fave moments:

Lestat telling Louis that he needs to grow up and quit pining for his mortal life: “’You do not know your vampire nature. You are like an adult who, looking back on his childhood, realizes that he never appreciated it. You cannot, as a man, go back to the nursery and play with your toys, asking for the love and care to be showered on you again simply because now you know their worth.’”

Louis grappling with Lestat over Lestat wanting to kill Freneire. Wrestling in the mud and the cold!

Louis appreciating Daniel’s tape recorder (“Marvelous contraption, really”) and doing/saying other little things that make him seem anachronistic (” “That is, how would you say today … bullshit?” “)

When Louis discovers mortal Claudia, he mentions that he hears a dog that he could take instead (”But there were alternatives: rats abounded in the streets, and somewhere very near a dog was howling hopelessly. I might have fled the room had I chosen and fed and gotten back easily.”), but he’s drawn to her. He’s been malnourished for some 4 yrs, the inner demon pulling him to a human victim is sick and tired of junk food, it wants AN ENTRÉE ffs!

Louis finding Lestat post-trial under TDV clutching Claudia’s yellow dress! ;A; Heartwrenching!

Armand showing Louis he really can climb a tower, just try it! So motivational.

Lestat’s blind dad in general, how they had to pretend to eat dinner to humor him, how Louis was so nice and gentle with him and put him out of his misery when the time came ;A;

Louis telling Lestat he had to leave the plantation bc there was going to be an uprising, and Lestat responds with such a perfect slew of insults that are actually surprisingly accurate: “ `You want me gone! You,’ he sneered. He was building a card palace on the dining room table with a pack of very fine French cards. `You whining coward of a vampire who prowls the night killing alley cats and rats and staring for hours at candles as if they were people and standing in the rain like a zombie until your clothes are drenched and you smell like old wardrobe trunks in attics and have the look of a baffled idiot at the zoo.‘” 

A few more under the cut* 

Anyone is welcome to reblog/comment with their own fave moments ;]

*From when I was starting at the beginning of the book and pulling faves but only got to p. 13 and had 4 already, so I had to stop doing that or I’d have more many than too many.

After Paul dies, Louis talking about his sister, how she felt like she had to act a certain way bc society expected it. This was one of the first things cluing me into the whole idea of disregarding societal expectations, bc what good did it do her to pretend?

“People in society asked my sister offensive questions about the whole incident, and she became an hysteric. She wasn’t really an hysteric. She simply thought she ought to react that way, so she did.”  

The first time Louis really describes Lestat:

He came in from the courtyard, opening the French doors without a sound, a tall fair-skinned man with a mass of blond hair and a graceful, almost feline quality to his movements. And gently, he draped a shawl over my sister’s eyes and lowered the wick of the lamp… His gray eyes burned with an incandescence, and the long white hands which hung by his sides were not those of a human being… the moment I saw him, saw his extraordinary aura and knew him to be no creature I’d ever known, I was reduced to nothing. 

When Lestat is about to turn Louis, it’s so endearing, and there’s comedy in here, as well as some dubious consent, it’s just excellent.

But there was no time for courage. Or shall I say, there was no time in Lestat’s plan for anything but his plan. `Now listen to me, Louis,’ he said, and he lay down beside me now on the steps, his movement so graceful and so personal that at once it made me think of a lover. I recoiled… 

…I wanted to struggle, but he pressed so hard with his fingers that he held my entire prone body in check; and as soon as I stopped my abortive attempt at rebellion, he sank his teeth into my neck.”

Omg, Lestat telling his dad to get off his back about his lifestyle is priceless:

“[Lestat] was in his father’s bedroom meantime, telling the old man good-bye, that he would return in the morning. ‘But where do you go, why must you live by such a schedule!’ the old man demanded, and Lestat became impatient.

… `I take care of you, don’t I? I’ve put a better roof over your head than you ever put over mine! If I want to sleep all day and drink all night, I’ll do it, damn you!’ The old man started to whine.”

[licncourt]

I'm sending all the love and blessings for your wonderful head canons, I have a ball each time I see one ❤️

Do you think you could do some head canons for Daniel and Armand that are like super duper cute and adorable? Also do you think they go on double dates with Lestat and Louis, and what's that like?

Any Armand and Daniel headcanons?

Your stuff just keeps getting better and better !

You guys are way too nice to me oh my God 🥺

So one of the biggest points of contention for Daniel and Armand is interior design. Armand likes full baroque revival. Daniel just wants to his lava lamp in the living room. As a result, they kind of end up living in a weird mish-mash of their tastes, one constantly trying to overtake the other. Star Wars posters in rococo frames, an elegant Louis XIV armchair with a denim IKEA ottoman, it's a mess. They're both jealous of Loustat's very chic, cohesive art nouveau townhouse but neither of them are willing to back down

Once they're settled into a relationship, Daniel talks Armand into a dog. He goes kicking and screaming but by day four Armand is walking around the house holding a golden retriever as big as he is like a baby. Her name is Sophia Tolstoy and Armand would kill anyone who even looked at her weird. The unconditional love is good for him

They were pretty involved in the 70s and 80s nightlife scene when they were uh...dating, so sometimes for old times sake they find a club or rave and feed on some molly and coke riddled mortals. Sometimes Marius has to come collect them if things are getting too out of hand though. Daniel was about five minutes away from accidentally revealing his vampire superpowers the last time he was on LSD and Armand was totally egging him on

After bonding so much over films when they first met, movie nights are still a very regular date activity. Sometimes they go to theaters, but usually it's pajamas and a night in. Daniel in particular is especially fond of this tradition because their movie dates are where he really fell in love, watching Armand experience the world in brand new ways and knowing he was helping to create that for him

One of Daniel's favorite activities when he's stressed or anxious is painting. Armand taught him when he noticed how Daniel was struggling with his sudden sobriety and now they paint together quite a bit, everything from the cityscape to potted plants to each other. Sometimes they talk and sometimes they don't, but it's a very special time for them both

Double dates are totally a thing and they have varying levels of success. Sometimes it goes super well and everyone wonders why they don't do it more often. Other times Daniel and Lestat accidentally feed on a couple hammered frat boys and make a very public scene over Louis helping Armand with his jacket ("What the fuck, babe, why is he doing that?? Lestat, Louis and Armand are touching each other!!" "What?? Louis, are you still into him??" "Lestat, I'm not-" "It's him or me!!!")

At some point Louis and Daniel have to join forces to deny sex if Lestat and Armand keeping fighting in public and it's the most effective deterrent they've found. It's not perfect though and sometimes they join forces to cause problems. Unfortunately Lestat and Armand have no concept of shame and have absolutely no problem being Karens or threatening annoying pedestrians. Louis and Daniel would let someone pour soup in their lap and apologize to them, so it's a point of conflict. Half the double dates end with Louis and Daniel chatting on a bench while Lestat and Armand yell at either each other or someone else

One of the best double dates they've had was to the Met, each of them taking turns showing the others art and artifacts from their human lifetime. Eastern Orthodox icons and Italian Renaissance inventions for Armand, Southern colonial portraits and Federalist documents for Louis, Warhol and Cold War memorabilia for Daniel, and French rococo paintings and robes à la française for Lestat. So many pieces bring back specific memories to share