#marius/flavius

[0junemeatcleaver0]

Pandora x Flavius | Marius NC17 19K Words

“I…thank you.” Had it not only been five minutes ago when he was contemplating taking Pandora over the very lecti this man was now sitting on? Had Flavius not started this night feeling better than he had in many months? He sighs, suddenly feeling very tired. “So what happens now?” “How do you mean?”  “You must be here for a reason? I don’t mean to be rude, of course not, but…my wife and I did not invite you here for dinner. And so you must have some business here with us.”  “Yes. Of course.” He pulls a sheath of paper from his toga and unrolls it. From where Flavius stands he can see it is the same paper the censualis cum censitor had filled out just three nights before. “Because the censualis had no right to take these figures himself, I have been tasked with checking his work.” “So we must take the census again?”  “I’m afraid so, yes.” The censor clears his throat and takes up the wine, pouring himself another healthy measure. “My apologies for the hassle.”  “Oh, of course not.” Flavius sighs again, pouring himself some wine. He holds the bottle up to Pandora, offering. Hastily, she thrusts her glass towards him. He notices a slight tremor in her hand.  “Now,” says the censor, “Do you promise to give an accurate account of yourself, your family and your property?” 

Flavius--a slave being sold in ancient Antioch--is bought by a mysterious woman named Pandora. Pulled into a life built of Pandora's lies and forced to pose as her husband, the two begin to be harassed by a Roman Censor who takes a special interest in the couple. But as this strange man further insinuates himself into their lives, secrets are revealed begging more questions than Flavius has answers to. But the real question is just how much danger are they in?

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[kaelio]

i think about choices that got made

[sonostatacostrettasulserio]

i'm currently reading Pandora and she's so smart and horny i love her

[inexplicablepeas]

Pandora Thoughts

So I finally read Pandora for the first time (first new to me book in the series since I started re-reading). I'm just gonna ignore that whole "New Tales of the Vampires" thing as it fully just seems like one of the Vampire Chronicles.

Thoughts below the cut!

From the off I liked Pandora's voice, she's sardonic and playful as well as having a commanding and in control presence. She's a good character to spend some time with and I was veeery interested to get her perspective on things. She's quite romantic and poetic like Armand but she doesn't take herself quite so seriously and there's some humor and light moments to enjoy as well, which was kind of a surprise, with her only previous POV chapter being her searching for Marius in QOTD at Azim's temple and fairly serious and angsty, given the circumstances.

One thing I noticed is that she seems a lot less vain that a lot of Anne Rice's other POV vampires, she seems to be quite happy to give us unflattering details, like when she has to dress herself without any help as a Roman upper-class woman for the first time in Antioch and she picks clothes that are awkward and unintentionally revealing and makes a total mess of her hair and makeup. She could have just as easily left that out but she'd rather poke fun at herself. You get the feeling that she'd be fun to hang out with (when she's not catatonic)!

Her early life is interesting and entertainingly told. We zoom through her account of her childhood through two divorces (she has nothing to say about her mortal husbands lol), by her 30s she's living as kind of a weird spinster with her beloved old dad. In the early sections there's few little moments of Marius here and there (and they're great, pretending to be bear like a total dork etc.) but nothing substantial until we get to the real action in the second half of the book, after her father's death and her fleeing Rome for Antioch where she finds Marius again. Even though I'm always dying to get-to-the-vampires-already in these life-story style chronicles the details of her early life do add a lot to her characterization. You get the impression of a sharp and passionate young woman who chafes under the patriarchal Roman social strictures but who tries her best to live up to cultural expectations for her dad's sake. After her dad dies, despite her considerable grief, she knows freedom for the first time in her life and she's just coming to fully embrace that when vampires happen.

When we do get into the proper plot of the book (her being lured by Akasha into a perilous situation that will culminate in Marius turning her to prevent her death) it does feel a little rushed. When we finally get to the bit we're interested in (her life as a vampire with Marius for 200 years and what she did after he left) there's only 3 chapters left, and it's a short book, so these are short chapters! I did absolutely love getting more details on her life with Marius, chapter 10 in particular gets into the nitty-gritty of how they both came to terms with and understood her turning and as well as being juicy in those terms it's also quite a love letter to Marius at times. It's good to get the details that Marius will never tell you and to get her perspective on what went wrong in their relationship, which is a bit more in depth and revealing than the version we get in Blood and Gold (well I did read them out of order so I suppose you're meant to have those details already). We get a bit more specific on things that Marius only hints at in his account (how extreme Marius' fear of emotion was, how overbearing and insulting he was to Pandora and the role that fundamentally different perspectives on religion played in their disagreements) and things that he omits entirely (like Flavius' existence and turning).

There are things I had hoped would be covered but that we get little to no new details on, I'm realizing that expecting something in particular when you start an Anne Rice novel is a fools game. In this case I was really curious to learn more about her relationship with Arjun, it seems to be very complicated in Blood and Gold, and well… OK, so in one of the last chapters (I think the last one) Pandora does briefly address their relationship. She doesn't refer to him by name (only as 'the Asian' =/, yeah, it's gross) and simply says she never cared about him. A bit disappointing, I suppose Anne likely had character-based reasons for this (maybe they had a nasty break up) but I would have liked to have known more about how they met and that period they spent traveling around Europe in a Disney villain ostentatious black carriage that carried their sleeping forms by day. I'm kinda curious! I'm also suspicious of her account of their relationship, that he almost held her captive, because she's an extremely strong and (as we come to know in her account) willful vampire and I wonder if she's giving the version of their relationship that she's knows Marius would prefer, with her as a damsel in distress. On the other hand I also wonder if being abandoned by Marius all those years ago had a lasting effect of making her less willing to assert herself in romantic relationships, feeling that her assertiveness was the quality she was abandoned for… I want answers damnit!

Anyway, getting back to the point, the ending did feel a little rushed for me, and guys, I can't help but roll my eyes when we get "I must go to Lestat" - practically mandatory for a non-Lestat POV character to end their narrative with something like that, right? 😅 I like Lestat but not half as much as Anne Rice or her vampires. I'd like to see them ignore what he's up to and just get on with their own lives sometimes. Behind her plan to go to Lestat though is her desire to reunite with Marius, evidently in recalling past events she's become nostalgic for what they had and wants to give it another go maybe! I guess they have a lot of arguing to do about the nature of Lestat's religious experiences! So it does tie in with her narrative but I can't help but have that "give me a break" reaction when she says that. Overall it's a great, zippy little read (could be longer!) that fleshes out Pandora's character and gives some great insight on Marius and their relationship.

I've got Tale of the Body Thief next (because I will insist in reading these books in a stupid order) which is also new for me! Exciting!

[geekygirlexperience]

So I’m reading Pandora for the first time...

[dorindameddler]

Kind of obsessed with pandora and her gbf slave

[adamnablelittledevil]

Only Blood Communion and Interview With the Vampire to go now. I'll make more elaborated posts about my thoughts once I'm done with everything, but here are some of my opinions:

TVA is absolutely my favorite (I've said it before and will say it again: the most purifying cry I had in my life, it destroyed and restored me in the best possible way), TVL, TQOTD and Prince Lestat are also on my top 4, though I don't know where to place the latter on my personal ranking. The others are sort of tied and the order changes according to specific aspects. Like, Blood and Gold covers a lot of eras and places of the world, has multiple interesting characters, so it's fun in the sense there's a lot of stuff to see, even if I'm not a Marius's fan and he isn't the best narrator imo. On the other hand, something like Merrick is more packed, just her, Louis and David (and some Lestat), but I just love her as a character and the whole story of her family. I can't really choose.

Memnoch would be the last because it was the one I struggled with (tho I loved Armand on it), I thought the concept was great and I could've loved it with a more active, intense and eventful execution. Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis is second-to-last because most of the plot was dumb to me, the part that made sense was solved in an unconvincing way, I had to do a lot of suspending disbelief even for a supernatural/sci-fi story... But it was nice to have so many characters I love reunited, even if some didn't have lines, it's nice to know they're around and I enjoy the vampires having sort of a healthy little community.

Favorite character is definitely Armand, then Lestat, then Pandora, Maharet, Mekare, Flavius, Merrick, Bianca, Gabrielle, Mona, Benji, Avicus and Petronia (they didn't appear much and did awful brutal stuff, yes, but having an intersex/gender-fluid character was great and they had so much baggage I could empathize with them). Most after Armand and Lestat are tied. I don't know if I'd call Benedict a fave, but I'm somewhat attached to him (and I KNOW about those spoilers). I LOVE Vittorio and Ursula too and I hope they can appear in some shape or form on the show. I don't looooove Antoine, but he's alright to me. He just seems to be a poor/broke dude who wants to live, have friends and dedicate his existence to his hyperfixations and I can relate because same lol. I get him.

Favorite pairings (either as an OTP or brotp): Lesmand (👑👑👑), Pandora and Flavius (👑👑), Maharet and Mekare (👑, they just don't get more crowns because they don't appear as much as I wanted 😔), Armand and Benji and Sybelle (as duos and a trio), Armand and Riccardo, Armand and Bianca (pretty much Armand and everyone that isn't Marius lol), Lestat and Mona (their childish siblings-coded beef entertains me), Maharet and Jesse and Vittorio and Ursula (👑👑). I wish I had seen more of some characters/dynamics, tho.

MAYBE I could tolerate Marius and even love Magnus (he seems to have a sad and interesting story) if all I'd seen of them had been the content of the last trilogy, but given the previous books, I'm not sure I can enjoy Anne's decisions. I have a lot of mixed feelings about Magnus apologizing and Marius's behavior not even being seen as something to apologize for in the first place, but that's for another post.

Some of the books I would've been able to read and love with or without the show, some I only read to get information, but I'm mostly glad I'm equipped with so much of the lore now. That's not to say there aren't problematic things even for the genre that I need to compartmentalize and ignore (to some extent and not completely) for my enjoyment, because there is a lot of that, but it hasn't been a waste of time. And I'm glad I know what can happen in the future, make silly little fancasts and have events to look forward to seeing on the series. Obviously, opinions can change with the next books, when I re-read the novels or even with conversations and discussions... And that makes me excited as well.

[desertfangs]

The way Marius reacts to Pandora turning Flavius is so funny but it's also so telling. He loves Flavius deeply, this man has basically run his household for years, and they clearly have a relationship of mutual respect, if nothing else. And when he's dying, Marius knows Flavius doesn't want him to see him in pain and miserable or watch him die, so he leaves.

Once he's gone, Pandora immediately makes him a vampire. No hesitation (I love her):

Marius had long ago laid down the rule that no other blood drinker was ever to be made. I didn't bother to question him on this. As soon as he was gone, I made Flavius into a vampire.

And Marius comes back and his reaction is so over the top. He demands Flavius leave, shouting at him to get out of his home and the city, no, out of the country! And Pandora is sure that Marius is pissed she turned someone else and is going to hate her for eternity due to her transgression. Whoops!

But no. Well, not entirely. Marius is so insecure and uncertain of her love that he assumed she was going to leave with Flavius. Like, my man. My dude! What a conclusion to jump to!

I discovered Marius was grieving, and when he looked up, I realized that he had been utterly convinced that I meant to go off with Flavius. When I saw this, I took him in my arms. He was full of quiet relief and love; he forgave me at once for my "absolute rashness."

It's fascinating to me because Marius is so much like Lestat in a lot of ways but one way that's not talked about a lot is his insecurity and self-doubt. Marius knows he's been a bit hard-nosed with Pandora in laying down rules, and he knows she's not one to be constrained. He holds people he loves close, sometimes too close, and they resist his iron grip. And so he assumes she will leave him the first chance she gets.

So anyhow, I just thought this was an interesting bit of insight into Marius and who he is as a person, and how he is absolutely kind of a mess just like the rest of them.

[0junemeatcleaver0]

𝖜𝖎𝖕 𝖜𝖊𝖉𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖉𝖆𝖞 𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝖋𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖆𝖞

wrote 3k+ words on that pandora/flavius+marius fic today so have this very nsfw snippet:

“Did you give it up like this?” Flavius grumbles, forcing his subligaculum further down his legs, kicking the useless underwear off. “To your husbands? Did you beg them to be fucked like this?” 

“Make good on your threat from earlier, or I’ll sell you back to the trader.” 

“You wouldn’t.” He smirks, continuing his exploration with his fingers. The last time they’d lain together, he didn’t have the opportunity to learn her body like this and was quickly learning to enjoy his study. 

“I never demanded my husbands fuck me like this,” she looks over her shoulder at him, something hard glimmering in her eyes, “Was it your custom to take your time like this when fucking boys?” 

“I won’t allow you to get a rise out of me.” He murmurs. 

“Then what is this?” She teases, reaching back between her legs to run her fingers over his erection. “I meant it–fuck me hard. I’m fully grown, I can take it better than any soft young thing you’ve ever been with.” 

Gritting his teeth against the aggravation filling his chest, he lines up and pushes in, filling her in two rough strokes. Pandora issues forth a guttural sound, her upper body melting into the bed. 

“That’s it,” she hums, pushing back against him. He can see the smirk forming on her face when she breathes, “Earn your keep.” 

[billowingangel]

I'm writing my fanfic for amecan week and Romania makes a little appearance, what name should I use for him?

[renaissancefailmarriage]

random name thoughts+headcanons

"françois bonnefoy" is something that he came up with when he was the nation equivalent of 10-12, because it really sounds more like a medievalbrained Cool Title than a real name.....hello i am a frenchman of the good faith. d'accord jeunehomme! people might have already been calling him something like The Frank or the frankish child (in their various dialects) so he really just....took this to the logical conclusion. (side note: i like the idea of his roman cognomen having been flavius/flaviulus, "yellow" for his hair)

"veneziano" is pretty self-explanatory, just a place-of-origin name, in fact iirc there were some people historically who having no last name, just used this one, like the painter bartolomeo veneziano. "feliciano" is apparently not a real italian name(?correct me if this is wrong?) but could have come through any number of vulgar latin takes on "felix" ("happy") i'm very attached to feliciano as a name of his even though its linguistically questionable, because i think it makes so much sense for this name to have stuck with him...sometimes it's happily accurate and sometimes its darkly ironic.

"romano" is another one that probably rose from a nickname given to him by others. i'm not sure if the italybros ever even met their "father" and romano's primary childhood memories would probably be of east rome/byzantium (who imo is a separate character from rome) and an aging mama graecia, if she's still around. (southern italy had been greek-influenced for awhile and was controlled by east rome for a time after the fall of west rome) but these older nations would have known who this new nation-child is, and perhaps called him romulus ("little roman" basically) in remembrance of his father.

"antonio" is a pretty obvious descendent of "antonius" or "antoninus" in latin. i hc antonio to be one of the characters who remembers rome the best, so it makes sense his name would be relatively unchanged. ive toyed with the idea that "fernandez" is from one of his kings (there were a LOT of iberian kings called fernando) but its just as likely thats a story he tells to justify the name after picking it up randomly.

for my florence OC i was considering something like simonetta or clarice after famous florentine women, but eventually i was like....why fight it. her name is fiora/flora, depending on inconsistent medieval spelling. fiorella if she's being babied or teased. i think it would have grown naturally out of the name of her city, with people calling her "the florentine girl" or "the little florentine" before it slowly became less of a title and more of a name.

imo rome is lucius (taken from @absolvtely-barbaric who is so so smart) but he could have any number of cognomen (in roman naming conventions, thats the name you're more likely to be identified by) from the ever popular romulus (little roman. little rome man. little guy from rome. lmao) to marius (for mars, his patron god/probably dad) to my favorite, crispinus ("curly-top", basically, which is funny and also connects him to the italies with their special curls)

[jurassic-cunt]

they should've asked akasha for an annulment

you can talk about loustat and loumand fail marriage all you want but neither compare with marius and pandora. their marriage was arranged but they always loved each other but they can't agree on anything. they start fighting as soon as the wedding is over and then they never stop

[milfzatannaz]

One fucking thing about Anne’s vampires is all of them have pretentious names. Sybelle, Benji, Marius, Flavius, etc….why the hell can’t there be a vampire named Bob

[agendercryptidlev]

Pandora is pretty short and an easy read. Took me 4 days and that's because I was busy. She's very charismatic. Reminds me of Armand and Lestat in a way. The characters on the book are basically her, Marius (this is the closest to enjoyable he ever was) and Flavius (he's not as big, but I loved his personality and his whole vibe with Pandora hehe).

mmmm I'm very interested to read it! I'll just have to find a copy online.

[kaelio]

11. Faceclaim for the role (if you have one)

32. Something guaranteed to make them smile/laugh

For Thorne ^^

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

27. Their guilty pleasure

^^ For Marius

11. Sadly I don't really! I don't tend to use references when I draw. This is a bad habit, not a good one.

32. Any novelty tiny version of a normal object. Like a tiny dollhouse coffee cup, or a teeny weenie basket. Eeny-meeny eraser shaped like a turtle.

2. I wrote DGT in part to suggest a possible aspect of Marius' backstory, but I don't necessarily think it's true; it's making a point that an certain argument can be made for him and/or Pandora using the text of the books. The one thing I do think is literally true as a headcanon is that he was not happy as a mortal and slavery, as a convention, is something he's keenly aware of. Remember--he bought and freed Riccardo, too (and is ultimately the one who freed Flavius even though he belonged to Pandora), and let Bianca go because she argued she was beholden. If we go by the TVL account as being true, he was a freedman and I do think that's likely the case, but he's straight-up lying to Thorne about his social role and past service at the beginning of B&G, and I do not at all think that's a retcon; he is lying. He is lying on purpose and Anne Rice wrote him knowing he was lying. Vampirism freed Marius of limitations the same way it liberated Gabrielle, just in slightly different respects, and that's why he, like her, views it differently than some other characters, but also why he--like Gabrielle--doesn't seem to linger on his mortal past very much. He's peeved at having lost his life more in the abstract than the exact life it was he lost. But he doesn't want to talk about that life in too much detail because that would undercut one of the benefits of getting his new life, that it is uncorrupted by what he perceives as a stain.

27. I think we mostly get to know them! But I think his big one is he likes to be in situations where he is the "good" one and the "nurturing" one. E.g., Armand is his favorite as opposed to, say, Riccardo, because Armand is a handful and always causing problems and was basically a turbo-freak from the get-go. Marius likes to serve people but wants plausible deniability about assuming a role that could be seen as lowly or inferior. Lestat also leverages this at the end and sticks him where he'll be happy: doing all the work but with the appearance of prestige.

[rainbowcarousels]

I don't know if it's just that the information isn't there or if I didn't pick up on it (probably both) but this is what I've ended up with and the major common eras seem to be roughly the first century bc, ancient egypt, early middle ages and the 17th/18th century. Which seems like it would be a buck wild set of habitats to fill with flowers and foods and other recreated cultural things.

Today I'm imagining Trinity Gate throwing a Come As You Were party for people with different 'habitats' within it for the eras a lot of people are from with foods and plants and music from it.

Imagine the outfits. Imagine people trying to explain jokes that only make sense in a language that's not spoken that way anymore. Imagine the grand romantics of the the 18th century mixed with the Roman empire and modern day. Imagine the sourcing of materials and accessories.

They'd have so much fun.