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mikaverleth · 6 months ago

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Here’s the full spoiler summary of Bloodline and beyond for those who like the idea of the AU and want to read the spinoffs but don’t have the interest or capacity to consume 400k words of MikaKurda slowburn. Fair, honestly. I wanted to make this available on AO3 somewhere but the word count was too much for the series notes field. Imagine that.

My empire of brainrot under the cut:

Rewind 30 years. Mika and Kurda accidentally acquire an orphaned human baby whomst we know as Gracie. Her family was slaughtered by a vampaneze gone astray from his clan. Mika and Kurda fall in hopelessly love against their better judgement. First with the baby, then with each other. Gracie becomes a semi-permanent resident of Vampire Mountain but attends boarding school for much of her life. For timeline reference, Gracie and Darren are roughly the same age. The canon events leading up to the Vampire Mountain arc cause tension between Mika and Kurda. Enter Darren & co. Books 4-6 play out as we know them, except Kurda is exiled rather than executed due to Mika’s unwillingness to live with his daughter’s father’s blood on his hands.

Bloodline opens where the War of the Scars begins. Mika and Kurda nurse their gaping emotional wounds far away from each other. Kurda secures a small seaside cabin for himself and distracts himself with volunteer work in the community. After falling into what us humans would recognize as severe depression, Mika finds grim fulfillment fighting in the war and serving as a reluctant mentor figure for the young vampires travelling with him. Mika visits Gracie as much as he can during this period. Having grown from a bitter teenager to a young adult — a lawyer, no less — Gracie asks Mika to deliver a letter to Kurda from her as he once promised he would. The ensuing reuinion between Mika and Kurda is both cathartic and excruciating for both of them. They do not part ways on good terms, but each manages to gain a better understanding of the mutual damage they’ve inflicted upon each other.

With that shift in perspective, Mika begins to realize how futile the war is and ultimately accepts Kurda acted in the clan’s best interest. The catalyst is the death of a young vampire who fell taking a vampet’s bullet for Mika. The deceased vampire leaves behind a grieving prospective mate — Jakob Wiles. Remember that name. Shortly after, Mika’s group returns to the mountain and we return to canon. Des Tiny shows up as in book 7 and the conversation unfolds the same; except for the addendum where Tiny admits Kurda’s survival was a surprise but insists the prophecy remains valid because Kurda is still dead in the eyes of the clan. The Hunters leave the mountain the same as in canon.

Back in his old mountain routine, Mika grows restless and finds distraction by way of hooking up with a charismatic General named Renley Azerion. Renley ultimately falls for Mika. While Mika enjoys Renley’s company, he is crippled by trust issues and unable to reciprocate. Meanwhile Kurda continues to struggle with isolation from the clan and inability to fully bond with the humans that surround him; because that would mean lying to them. Des Tiny pays him a visit and cryptically congratulates him for throwing a wrench into the scheme.

Not long after, Paris Skyle’s funeral results in a reunion between Mika, Arrow, and Vancha. War-related tensions run high and a fight breaks out between the three of them. They patch things up but the fight is a wake up call for all three of them as they realize firsthand how the war is tearing the clans apart. Not even the Princes are safe.

We fully diverge from canon during the book 9 era. A calculated vampaneze attack on Gracie (we find out later it was on Steve’s orders) draws Mika out of Vampire Mountain and Kurda out of exile. They save her, but her boyfriend is slaughtered and her human life is over as she knows it. Mika takes Gracie back to the mountain for safety. Before Mika and Kurda part ways, Kurda tells Mika the location of a sealed letter back in Vampire Mountain and urges him to read it.

Back in the mountain, Gracie is unable to see a way back to a normal human life and decides she wants to become a vampire. Mika rejects the idea at first but relents after reading Kurda’s letter which reveals that Kurda never planned to kill Mika during his betrayal in book 6. He’d set aside a separate poison for Mika to induce a temporary coma thus giving him a chance to escape the mountain and keep Gracie safe while Kurda was presumably executed after merging the clans. Mika is stunned by the revelation after seven years of believing Kurda’s intention was to kill him along with Arrow and Paris.

Meanwhile Kurda winds up in Evanna’s cave where he learns she’s been using Gracie as a pawn to work against Des Tiny since the beginning. Truth is the entire prophecy was derailed when Kurda walked away with his life after betraying the clan in book 6. Tiny simply never accounted for a timeline where Kurda didn’t kill Mika or Mika didn’t kill Kurda. Evanna wants the war to end. His spark rekindled, Kurda intervenes in the Cavern of Retribution.

Things in the Cavern play out mostly the same as canon at first, before going off the rails once and for all. Larten is spared but gravely injured. The fake Lord is killed, but Steve (also gravely injured) manipulates Darren into sparing him by revealing he had a child with Annie. Gannen strikes a deal with Vancha, promising to join the peace movement in exchange for the Vampire Mountain medics saving Steve’s life. So Steve is brought back to the mountain along with Larten, Kurda, Harkat, and Darren. (In a police helicopter stolen by Alice. No, that’s not a reach. This is Alice Fucking Burgess). Meanwhile Vancha and Gannen get to work spreading the news that the war is over. Vancha also promises to check in on Darius to ease Darren’s concerns.

So we’ve arrived back at the mountain. Mika and Kurda cautiously reconnect. Gracie is blooded as a vampire. Larten recovers from his injuries. Steve is moved from the infirmary to the dungeons once medically stable. The rationality behind Gannen’s investment in Steve’s life remains suspicious to Darren & co, but all are eager to end the war. Steve begins to pull strings from within his cell via manipulating Jakob Wiles who’s been assigned to guard his cell. Jakob rejects the notion of peace and has begun to despise his former mentor, Mika. Jakob is not the only vampire to stand against the forthcoming peace treaty. He begins working with Steve behind the Princes’ backs.

Vancha returns to Vampire Mountain with Gannen and Darius, having determined that Darius (a fresh half-blooded vampaneze) was posing a danger to himself and the humans around him. Darius is angry and confused. Darren struggles to reason with him. Kurda stands trial once again, and is reinstated into the clan (not pardoned) by a 49/51 vote. While everyone is distracted with the trial, Jakob sneaks Darius to the dungeons at Steve’s bidding. Steve plans to break out and forcibly reblood Darius as a Vampire Prince so he may control the Stone & Hall via his son. Jakob also coordinates a handful of other anti-peace vampires to flit from the mountain to A) round up Steve’s loyalest followers, B) seize guns from the vampets and smuggle them back into the mountain for a hostile takeover, and C) blame all of it on Kurda. Jakob tries and fails to murder Renley Azerion after mistakenly thinking he can convince him to turn on the Princes. Ren survives, but is unable to remember who attacked him.

The takeover plan comes to fruition the very day the peace treaty is to be signed into law. It has been agreed upon by both clans that the vampaneze will introduce their equivalent of Princes, although without the same level of authority. They’ll call them Elders and their role will be to serve as guides rather than leaders. Four are appointed — Gannen Harst, Shane Astor, Evin Ochoa, and Lars Slater. Ochoa and Slater are killed by Jakob’s men upon arriving at the mountain. Chaos breaks out. The Princes are captured and held prisoner in their own Hall by gun-wielding guards who’ve turned on the clan.

The truths of Steve’s true identity and Jakob’s treachery come out, and the Hall of Princes becomes a battle ground. Evanna appears before Kurda as a quasi-hallucination and shows him what would’ve been Darren’s nightmare in Lord of the Shadows. As in canon, the role of Lord of the Shadows will fall to whichever of them survives; Steve or Darren. Unlike with canon, there’s a third option. If Kurda kills one of them, he will become the Lord — but will have the moral character to hold all that power without letting it destroy anything or anyone. Kurda kills Steve seconds before Darren would’ve, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Both Mika and Kurda are almost killed in the battle — Mika by taking a bullet for Kurda, and Kurda by transferring his blood into Mika. Both survive, because otherwise what was the fucking point of all that? They acknowledge love that remains between them while accepting neither of them are ready to pick up where they left off. Meanwhile, Darren grapples with complicated grief after witnessing Steve’s death and rekindled resentment for Larten for blooding him all those years ago and starting the chain of events that caused his entire family so much pain. Nevertheless, peace between the clans can truly begin.

Vancha and Darren spearhead a five-year mission in which they travel the world and meet with vampires and vampaneze to spread the word and gain an understanding of what both sides will and won’t compromise on. With them goes Kurda, Gracie, Gannen, and Shane. Darius leaves the mountain with the group as well; Darren reunites him with Annie as soon as he can. After some deliberation Darren ends up reuniting with his parents as well. After a lot of tears and confusion, they are proud of him. Even better, they adore their newly-discovered grandson and couldn’t care less he’s the son of the late Vampaneze Lord.

Five years later, the group treks back to the mountain minus Darius and Darren. Having fulfilled the duties of Princehood (at least for now) Darren steps back to focus on being present in Darius’s life. Due to the coercive nature and the vulnerable age in which they were both blooded, Darren accepts that he’s the only person in the world equipped to fill the void in the young boy’s life. Back at the mountain, the Festival is about to start. Spirits are high. There’s even some vampaneze joining the party. They have invitations this time. Vancha & co return to great fanfare. A new Vampaneze Elder has been appointed thanks to Kurda’s negotiations; Tycho Otazu. The clan is far more accepting to Kurda now, and most are on board with the new era of peace. The Princes and Elders have reached a mutual decision: the Elders will begin a movement to phase out their clan’s ritual killing of humans and the Princes will no longer use the Stone of Blood.

Mika and Kurda have taken time to heal apart, both secretly hoping they can start over someday. It’s remained very apparent through all this that the love between them has endured. Sure enough they rekindle their romance almost immediately. After an honest and emotional discussion they enjoy the best sex of their lives and fall asleep together in Mika’s coffin.

The next day Mika reports to the Hall with every intention of disclosing his personal news to the other Princes, due to his and Kurda’s tangled history with each other and politics. Before he can get that far, Mika finds out Kurda has been re-nominated for investiture, by Darren. The matter is voted upon immediately, a unanimous yes. In a split-second decision, Mika chooses not to disclose his relationship after all, due to concerns that the others will change their mind about Kurda’s nomination. Instead Mika writes a resignation letter and leaves it for the others to find later. Kurda is called to the Hall where the Princes (minus Mika) tell him the good news. He is shocked but accepts. What Kurda doesn’t know is that Mika attempted to resign, and that the other Princes unanimously rejected it as they feel Mika and Kurda have earned their titles and their right to start over, and they trust them to not let their relationship interfere with their duties. Mika ultimately anticipated this, but was wholly prepared for them to accept his resignation. Kurda is both horrified and enamoured when he finds out how far Mika was willing to go to ensure Kurda finally got his throne.

The Festival of the Undead commences. The clan is overall supportive of Kurda’s re-nomination. Mika and Kurda are openly and officially together. Gracie is eager to befriend others her age and start properly training. Vancha and Gannen are thrilled to be back in each others lives. At glacial speed, Arrow continues exploring his long-standing feelings for a General named Kaden Hale. Renley Azerion has gotten over Mika by getting on top of Vampaneze Elder Shane Astor. Far away from Vampire Mountain, Darren and Darius (now a sullen teenager unsure of his place in the world) have arrived at the Cirque Du Freak to reunite with old friends and enjoy a change of pace.

Council ends with Kurda’s (successful and uneventful) investiture. There’s a final time jump to six months after that where we meet back up with Mika and Kurda who have retreated to the seaside cabin to take something of a vacation together. There’s one last order of business to attend to. Arrow, Vancha, and Darren rendezvous with Mika and Kurda at the cabin where they launch a small boat into the ocean. When they can no longer see the shoreline, Vancha opens the bag he brought to reveal the Stone of Blood. There’s a callback to Kurda’s iconic canon line from The Vampire Prince — “throw the damn thing down a volcano, or toss it in the deepest sea”.

Having unanimously learned the hard way that the Stone puts them in more danger than it prevents, all five current Princes watch it finally sink beneath the waves.

And you’re never gonna fucking believe this, they literally all lived happily ever after.

#dirty chai au

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cre8tivereviews · 1 year ago

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Cirque Du Freak Movie compared to the book

I love the Cirque Du Freak/ Darren Shan Saga. I've recently been rereading it. However I've been wanting to watch the movie, so I bought it. As a stand alone movie it's fine. If you go off the books, its horrible. It crams a bit of almost every book in to one. So here are the differences I saw. Let me know if you saw more, or what you think of the movie compared to the books.

*side note, I did read something about them making a series out of the books, and I really hope that it's real, I'd be so happy.*

Differences between The Vampires Assistant Cirque Du Freak the movie to the book/books

Darren is older.

Darren is popular.

Darren says he has cool friends.

Darren sneaks out of his own house to go to the Cirque.

Mr. Tall’s head and shoulders are at an angel.

The Wolfman bites off another performer’s limb, instead of an audience member.

Evra is more confident and wants to be a performer.

Turska can speak good English. She also can see the future.

Larten has 3 scars on his left cheek. He also isn’t as stern, or serious.

Steve tells Darren that Larten is a vampire.

Darren steals Madame Octa at the show.

What is the book of souls?

It says Larten had a human love named Missy when he was going by Vur Horsten.

Mr. Tiny picks up Darren after he steals Octa.

Murlough, who’s killed in book 3, is possibly a main character?

Darren takes Octa to school.

Octa bites Steve at school, for everyone to see.

After being blooded Darren can heal his fingers with his spit.

Darren tries to drink from Annie in her room, not the bathroom.

Larten sneaks in to Darrens room and finds Darren, not Darren going to find Larten.

Larten says he was 20 in 1803, but I believe he was born around that time.

Steve gives Darren a cell phone at the funeral.

Mr. Tiny is at Darrens funeral.

Darren plays video games while he’s buried.

Murlough attacks Larten while he’s filling in the dirt at the cemetery, and that he gave Larten the scars. (I thought it was odd that Larten has Vampeneze scars).

Murlough refers to Darren as being one of his kind and kidnaps him.

Larten runs to the Cirque Du Freak for safety.

Mr. Talls talks about being neutral in the Vampire, Vampeneze war.

Rebeka.

They know Harket’s name, yet he doesn’t talk.

Larten and Turska are a couple.

Steve tries to jump off the school roof, and Mr. Tiny stops him. Then talks Steve in to joining the Vampeneze.

Darren learns to flit.

Evra says he joined the Cirque at 2 days off, Mr. Tall found him in a dumpster.

Darren calls Steve on the cell phone.

Mr. Tiny comes to Cirque.

Steve attacks and kills a teacher.

Larten, Gavner, and Vincent (a vampire we don’t even know) were the ones to come up with the way of feeding that the Vampires use.

Larten says that if Darren drinks blood, he’d get the knockout gas vampires have.

A Cirque member lets the Wolfman out to fight the Vampeneze who show up looking for Darren.

The Freaks fight the Vampaneze until Mr. Tall tells them to stop, how dare they come to neutral area.

A Vampaneze takes Rebecka.

Steve tries to get Darrens family to adopt him,

Darren goes home (while Annie, his sister, is still young).

In the theater Murlough gives Darren an ultimatum. Rebeka for his family.

Mr. Tiny plays a huge part, out in the open.

Larten kills Murlough and as he’s dying tells Larten that the 100-year truth is over. War now begins.

Mr. Tiny calls Darren his prodigy son and says that he’s the blood thirsty one between him and Steve.

Mr. Tiny turns Murlough into a Little Person.

Larten hypnotizes Darrens family, so they’ll forget he’s alive.

Darren gets a coffin from Larten and actually sleeps in it.

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tangentiallly · 18 days ago

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don’t know how many of my detco mutuals have read the saga of darren shan (cirque du freak) series but when people talk about the cousin reveal i often think back to my first experience in what could maybe be called “sudden incest out of nowhere” from a book series. spoilers below though I’m not sure if people need spoiler warnings for a series that ended in early 2000s.

ok so the incest out of nowhere thing from the cdf series is kind of like this. it’s not with a canon ship but rather closer to “most popular ship in fandom for a long time” “the main m/m ship”, and for good reason. the ship is protagonist x his best friend turned enemy.

the protagonist is a guy called darren and he had a best friend called steve, they have a friend group of 4 guys but steve and darren were the best of friends. and one day some circumstances happened (there were vampires and spiders involved) and steve’s life was in danger and in order to save him, darren had to agree to become the assistant to a vampire and also become a vampire himself (well technically half-vampire at this stage). but this led to steve thinking darren stole his dream and betrayed him (because steve has always wanted to become a vampire) and so steve vowed revenge, even though darren tried to explain the situation to him. fast forward to years later steve cooked up this elaborate and intricate revenge plan and joined the vampires’ enemies instead (called vampaneze, they were originally vampires but separated out from them due to reasons i shall not get into here).

steve’s life after that day he thought darren betrayed him has been centered around taking revenge against darren. it is his One Obsession. literally everything he did was because of darren. at the same time the vampires and the vampaneze go to war For Reasons and steve and darren both played very major roles on each side of the war, so major that how the war goes would be heavily affected by the outcome of their fated eventual showdown.

even though steve was hellbent on revenge, he’s also stated, wistfully, that once he kills darren he thinks the it won’t be the same without him around and that he’s gonna miss this, this chase. he says that everything he’s done he’s done for him and he’s enjoyed this and a part of him doesn’t want this to end.

the Fated Eventual Showdown happens, they duel each other (technically not just them, there are two others with them on scene) and eventually stabbed each other (im glossing over details but that’s the rough outline) died together and fell into the river together wrapped around each other’s arms. they had one final heart to heart talk while bleeding out. anyway i went into all these details mostly to explain you can see why they were the most popular ship in the fandom. childhood best friends to enemies focused on each other does kind of hit.

in this series there’s this guy called desmond tiny, people call him mr tiny, and he’s ……. more than human less than god, or something like that. he can meddle with time and other people’s fate and he thrives on chaos. can see the future and can travel through time. etc. both vampires and vampaneze listen to what he has to say.

it’s revealed in the final book of the series, during the Fated Final Showdown Duel between darren and steve - that in fact mr tiny is both of their fathers. that their fathers are not who they originally assumed. but even their mothers did not know this, no one knows this, it’s more like this More Than Human Less Than God Most Powerful Guy In The Series person, with his own agenda (to create chaos and war because he loves chaos and destruction), sort of ….. Did Something to ensure that both of them have his blood flowing through them and then he used them as chess pieces in this larger game of his. so that makes them technically half-brothers. but only because they’re both sons of this super powerful guy who can meddle with time, amongst other things.

the original plan of mr tiny was for one of them to win the duel and their side to win this war and then further down the road for the winner to (maybe it’s putting it a little crudely) rule the world together with mr tiny. weed out the loser, the weaker son. the winner survives. this was the path that their “dad” planned for them. so the plan was for one winner to emerge - except darren ruined the plan. after darren stabbed steve, mr tiny revealed that in fact they’re both his sons, and he also revealed the plans he has for the winner between them. and then darren, in order to ruin this plan and save the world from plunging into chaos like mr tiny’s vision, goaded steve into stabbing him so they both ended up dying. falling into the river together.

(it doesn’t quite end there. lmao. but at that point our main protagonist and his childhood best friend turned enemy were both dead.)

so like, it was a very last minute half brother reveal (both sons to some Overly Powerful Almost Godlike Person Who Somehow Gotten His Genes Into Each Of Them Using Some Mysterious Way), and about within 5 minutes of the revelation they both died. Falling into a river together. two enemies who were once the bestest of friends, almost codependent, and then one of them thought the other betrayed him.)

i have been reading fanfiction for this series on and off since the early 2000s. across multiple platforms, in more than one language. and in general starren had almost always been the most popular ship for as far as i remembered, and definitely always the most popular ship by a landslide for either of the character, both before and after the half brother reveal. admittedly partly because there frankly just aren’t a lot of other characters to ship each of them with. they are, and have always been, very very centered on each other. all the important choices in their lives they made because of the other person.

anyway. that’s the story. i have encountered other surprise relatives reveals in media after that but i gotta say this one is something else. talk about out of nowhere ………

#v.txt

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aubreve-art · 10 days ago

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Steve is just too much fun to write, I’m sorry.

Next update will take a little longer than usual - I’m having a week off for a self-inflicted artist boot camp (consisting of staying at home grinding out portraits) so I can hopefully learn how to draw faces that do our guys a bit more justice, and post pages more quickly!

Disclaimer: All characters depicted in this artwork belong to or are inspired by the works of Darren Shan. This is a piece of fan art created for personal enjoyment only.

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puppymortem · 2 years ago

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It does upset me how Mr.Crepsley is just ready to die as long as he kills the vampaneze lord and Steve.

Like, is he just grunge to leave Darren behind like that?

#cdf

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dominaxnoctis · 2 years ago

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what do you think would have happened if crepsley would have blooded steve anyways and taken him on as a vampire assistant / @mariiposas unprompted questions status: always accepting !

Okay so- If Crepsley would have blooded Steve we know that is basically a HUGE violation. The vampires have a set of rules that distinguish them from the vampaneze for a reason. They try not to just go around blooding people for no reason and they actually respect life rather than take it for the sake of food nor do they turn others simply because someone wants it. They have their own ways of feeding without harming and ensure that they aren't changing people for funsies so on so forth yeah?

Turning a child simply because he asked would be not a good idea because it's against the set of rules they have. It goes against the terms of 'respecting life' too. Because without a proper reason of turning him- for example Darren due to needing the antidote and the entire mess that created, it would be irrationally taking a whole possible future and life from a child who can't rationally make the decision of becoming a vampire. The decision to be changed is something extremely delicate because there is no going back. At least that's likely how the princes would look at it. When he said the generals would tear him a part he wasn't entirely wrong, although I doubt any of them especially Lydia and Gavner would do so without hesitation.

It's also hard to think of how much different it could be considering the entire thing was orchestrated by Desmond. Destiny himself is incredibly hard to defy and I think either way somehow eventually Darren would still be on the side of the vampires while Steve was a vampaneze because Darren doesn't have the same mindset for killing and bloodshed as Steve does. Desmond had done what he did for a reason because they both perfectly fit their roles. He KNEW Darren would be tempted by the spider, he ensured the flier got to them and that they received tickets, he made sure it was Steve and Darren. Not Darren and Alan, not Steven and Tommy, etc. Those two.

All in all I think no matter what, even if he blooded Steve and even if Crepsley somehow got out of the consequences, Steve would never truly be his apprentice. Not for long at least. At some point their roles would have settled into their places as long as Desmond could help it/make sure of it happening.

I genuinely can't see any universe where they have reverses roles due to their personalities being so different but also just because Destiny would have been like "oop nope don't like that" LMAO. It's not impossible if Desmond actually allowed the role reversal, but it would take Steve becoming more level-headed and less into war and bloodshed while Darren would have to be a lot less kind, caring, and considerate because he definitely isn't the type to hurt anyone unless he has to. I also feel like both of their different upbringings played a big role in all of that.

TLDR: I think no matter what happened, Desmond still would have gotten his way just like he always does.

#🕸ᴡɪᴛʜᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴘᴀʀᴄʜᴍᴇɴᴛ / asks #mariiposas #// thinking about this was whew because it's really hard to picture that happening with all of the factors of the story considered #// I do think it would be interesting to see the role reversal though. Strange but interesting.

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