#surprised marius

[knownoshamc]

Do you want to hear my story?

[ormymarius]

— who am I?

[platoapproved]

As the resident TVC expert, do the books ever address the fact that Armand has a substance abuse problem? I knew he had a familial history of alcoholism through his father but I’m reading TVA for the first time and I feel like I should have been keeping track of how many times he’s mentioned being intoxicated while in Venice. I’ve seen parts of the battle-ax sequence out of context but I never realized until now that Armand explicitly states that he’s also drunk while all THAT™️ is happening

😭 I am so flattered and happy to answer as well as I can, but I promise I really am NOT an expert. I've still only read up through TVA! 💚 I can't tell you if the question of Armand and substance abuse ever comes up in later books, though my suspicion is it won't.

(Also good luck on your reading of TVA! It's... a lot!)

It really is interesting to me that a lot of discussion especially around Daniel/Armand talks about Daniel's addiction but (and it's probably just because people are going based solely on the show which is so fair!!!) doesn't mention Amadeo getting drunk all the time in Venice. That includes the breaking-down-Marius'-door-with-an-axe scene and everything that follows. But the one that really kills me, and to me makes it clearest that Amadeo is turning to alcohol as a coping mechanism, comes earlier:

He was particularly horrified that I'd fallen drunk into the Grand Canal, necessitating a clumsy and hysterical rescue. I could have sworn he went pale at the account, that I saw the color dance back from his whitening cheeks. He whipped Riccardo for it. I was full of shame. Riccardo took it like a soldier without cries or comment, standing still at a large fireplace in the library, his back turned to receive the blows on his legs. Afterwards, he knelt and kissed the Master's ring. I vowed I'd never get drunk again. I got drunk the next day, but I had the sense to stagger into Bianca's house and climb under her bed, where I could fall asleep without risk. Before midnight the Master pulled me out. I thought, Now I'll get it. But he only put me to bed, where I fell asleep before I could apologize.

It's just got so many layers of awfulness - Amadeo falling in the canal comes up a bunch as a fun shenanigan in fic/discussion, which I love, but I also can never forget what follows after it. Marius whipping Riccardo rather than Amadeo but making him watch. Amadeo promising himself he won't get drunk again but then getting drunk again the next day. :/ Running to Bianca's house and hiding under her bed because it is 'without risk' in a way that the palazzo isn't. :\

TVA doesn't ever address it explicitly but I think it's pretty easy and justified to read Amadeo as having a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol, even without taking into account a family history of addiction with his father.

I feel like I've read a handful of devil's minion fics where there are explicit parallels drawn between Amadeo's addiction to Marius' blood and Daniel's addiction to Armand's blood, but I would LOVE to read a fic where like... Daniel and Armand talk about the fact that as an abused teen he was getting drunk every day in a way that was clearly not just 'people drank a lot of wine back in the 16th century'. If anyone has any recs like that I'd love to read them!

[desertfangs]

Let's talk some more about Daniel's madness as seen in B&G (which is the only book we see it in, though it is mentioned in PL that he has recovered).

Marius has brought Thorne to his home and introduced him to Daniel the night before. This is Thorne's POV:

As he came to the door to the chamber where Daniel made his wondrous cities and towns, he paused, and very reticently glanced inside to see the boyish blond-haired Daniel at his work as though he had never retired for the day at all.

Daniel looked up, and quite unexpectedly, gave Thorne an open smile as he greeted him. "Thorne, our guest," he said. It had a faint tone of mockery, but Thorne sensed it was a weaker emotion.

"Daniel, my friend," said Thorne, glancing again over the tiny mountains and valleys, over the fast running little trains with their lighted windows, over the thick forest of trees which seemed Daniel's present obsession.

Daniel turned his eyes back to his work as though they hadn't spoken.It was green paint now that he dabbed onto the small tree.

Quietly, Thorne moved to go but as he did so, Daniel spoke: "Marius says it's a craft, not an art that I do." He held up the tiny tree.

Thorne didn't know what to say.

"I make the mountains with my own hands," said Daniel. "Marius says I should make the houses as well."

Again Thorne found himself unable to answer.

Daniel went on talking."I like the houses that come in the packages. It's difficult to assemble them, even for me. Besides, I would never think of so many different types of houses. I don't know why Marius has to say such disparaging things."

Thorne was perplexed. Finally he said simply, "I have no answer."

Daniel went quiet. Thorne waited for a respectful interval and then he went into the great room. This whole scene fascinates me. We get so little of Daniel in this book, and this exchange with Thorne is so interesting. He’s focused on his models, yes, but he also seems so dejected that Marius calls his art "a craft" and admonishes him for using kits for some of the houses and buildings, even though he’s doing a wild of amount of work to put these little worlds together. And the weaker emotion Thorne mentions? I suspect that’s sarcasm. Marius had introduced him as “our guest” and I wonder if this is a sardonic, almost self-deprecating response to that. As in, “I am mad creature who builds models, I am not hosting anyone” sort of thing. What really gets me is that Marius tells Thorne Daniel is wholly obsessed with his models, to the extent that he passes out on the floor in front of his work tables unless Marius intervenes. But he asks Daniel if he’s fed in an earlier scene, presuming Daniel is at a stage where he can leave the house by himself if he chooses, and he’s not unaware that Marius is less than impressed with his model worlds. I tend to think of Daniel’s madness as being overwhelming and all encompassing, and we don’t know at this point how long Daniel has been mad. I assume it’s been worse but that’s only an assumption. And we know he gets better and he and Marius become very close by Prince Lestat (they seem close now but very much in a caretaker/person in need of care sort of way). We just get this strange little window in what is years of madness Daniel suffers.

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this and how you picture Daniel's madness and the arc of it if anyone wants to share! And just as a sidebar, I love that apparently Throne is impressed by his models. I think that sets the stage for them being friends later, if nothing else.

[kissmetwicekissmedeadly]

I dreamed about Marius being my boyfriend 🥺 we had this soft teasing innocent kind of love and I remember chasing each other in the garden of my old home. We cuddled a little when I found him hiding in some kind of shack and he whipped out his phone for a second and it was this expensive latest model phone (i was looking at phones the other day)

And I think we rode on a bike together? And then he had to take a business call...

[apoptoses]

Armand lived in Venice during the absolute sluttiest period for mens’ clothes and I gotta talk about it.

Anne constantly used Botticelli as a reference for clothes (who was at his peak in the 1470s/1480s) but Armand was in Florence when Savonarola died, which puts him in Venice the late 1490′s. Fashion was moving fast, there was a big moral panic over society falling apart and becoming too secular, and in Venice it was time to let your inner ho out.

The look: Short. Tight. Made of as many expensive scraps as possible.

Let’s get into it.

The words used to describe clothes in TVA have zero basis in reality but were probably chosen because the average reader can picture a tunic easier than they can suss out what a cioppa was. So for quick reference:

Shift: a shirt (made out of linen, unless you want Armand to be the stinkiest boy in Italy. Shirts needed to be white, which meant they were bleached with piss, and ammonia eats away silk. So he could not have worn a silk shirt unless it was never going to be washed and he was happy to run around with pit stains, which would have been horrible). Considered an underwear layer.

Doublet: the renaissance equivalent of your shirt. Wool or silk, either is fine.

Cioppa: a pleated ‘tunic’ worn over your doublet, always sleeveless. Wool or silk.

Gamurra: your coat. Wool or silk.

Hose: pants, always made of wool flannel

So most folks reading probably picture Armand in something like this, ala Botticelli’s time:

Long cioppa, down mid thigh or to the knee, puffy sleeved doublet, not too risque. But this is like 25 years out of date by Armand’s time, and when he goes shopping it’s with a bunch of teenage boys with Daddy’s credit card. Marius, with his ever present Botticelli hard on, might have had them wear this stuff sometimes but this is not what a fashionable boy at the time would go out and buy himself.

Now the dude on the right here:

This is the look.

Doublet? Tight

Cioppa? Short

Ass? Out.

The entire point of the style was to show off your snatched waist and manly thighs and boy did the Venetians do just that.

Also doublets by this period were basically scraps of fabric tied together to show as much shirt as possible. Which was scandalous because your shirt is your underwear, so running around like this was the renaissance equivalent of wearing a sheer shirt with your bright pink bra exposed.

As a little rich boy and Master’s favorite, Armand would have been able to afford the finest linen, so sheer it would have been nearly see-through. Which makes a helluva statement when your doublet was split down the front like this:

His hose would be bias cut wool flannel for maximum stretch and maximum ass sculpting. Until the later 15th century hose were just thigh high stockings, and your doublet had to be long enough to cover your underwear. Now that doublets were being worn cut off at the waist hose had to be joined like modern pants. But how did you keep your junk safely in the trunk?

Enter the pre-cursor to the codpiece, which I mentally refer to as The Dick Flap:

This was a little triangle of fabric, shaped to hold your goods. It tied to the waist at each upper corner. Hose were so tight you couldn’t wear underwear (!) so you just had to tie your flap tight and go about your day. Like the modern zipper, it made for easy access (do with that info what you will)

This was the first time in European history that men just ran around with their full crotch emphasized and on display, so having your doublet so short it just all hangs out was both sexy and shocking to people.

But how did these pants stay up, you wonder?

Your pants would be tied to the hem of your doublet. Which meant that every day, Armand had to have someone lace him into his super tight clothes. I personally headcanon that he and Riccardo helped each other get dressed every day while he was mortal but you can feel your own fantasy on that one.

Another fun trend during the period was having your family emblem or a symbol of your trade embroidered on the sleeve of your gamurra:

Which Marius would have taken full advantage of, and put his fleur de lis in pure gold thread on every gamurra Armand had.

Here’s some more fashion fit pics just for fun:

Fleur de lis branding on the gamurra and the hose? Marius would have been into it.

The tied on sleeves! The shift pulled out of every seam! The renaissance man ass everywhere!

A plump and juicy young man indeed.

Anyways I hope this was useful or inspirational, or at least makes your next reread of the Vampire Armand more fun. Because the clothing descriptions in there don’t even begin to touch the painted on fashion fantasy that was going on in 1490s Venice.

(also if anyone really, really wants to see details on what Armand would have seen when he put on his clothes, I’m making a 1490s fit with all historically correct methods right now and I can post some of that if there’s interest)

[oswaldide]

The past few chapters of Les Miserables featured a history lesson on the sewers of Paris and the monetary value of shit

Nobody:

Victor Hugo after killing off many beloved characters in the name of the revolution and putting Valjean and Marius in a dangerous situation: Lemme get these sewer facts to the people real quick

[actualbird]

im curious.

bonus: explain in the tags explain what YOU think your answer says/reveals about you

for example, i fully relate to and kin luke. yes i have immense self loathing and internalized guilt problems, was it obvious orrrrr

[dykesynthezoid]

“People only hate Marius bc they’re being selective about how they judge vampire morality, they’re all monsters” well if it makes you feel any better I still wouldn’t like him even without the grooming thing. Hope this helps

[ihaventcomeupwthanameforaheroyet]

Sorry I disappeared for a while, I was working on a little something. The little something in question was supposed to be my Saturnalia gift for Marius, but I finished earlier than expected, and here it is!

(No, I can't wait until the proper date, I have no patience.)

All the nonsense below is loosely based on the sock meme by @fofoqueirah, and honestly, I had neither the energy nor the courage to work on the little something until I saw this meme and felt an irresistible urge to put a little something into a sock. Now you know who should be thanked for the existence of this doll, and it's not me!

(If you hate this little something, I am the one to blame, OK?)

Despite his millennial wisdom, Marius could not guess...

(See below?)

... until his present spoke up...

Alright! Present revealed!!!

And cherished by the owner!

... and rescued from the terrible, terrible sock... (at this point Thorne decided he'd better take the Prince away, just in case...)

... and cherished and loved even more...

... and carried to bed...

... and given a warm sweater and a hug...

... and maybe even a Prince to bite (respectfully)?

And everyone lived happily ever after)))) The end!

[sharowolet]

crying

[ID: digital icon drawings of chibi luke and marius holding a sparkling credit card; they both have ;D winky smiley faces as if encouraging you to throw your money at them. ]

[knownoshamc]

what makes me so sad about that whitewashed painting (as in all the paintings Armand posed for, I am sure) it's that Armand was always abused because he was beautiful... and yet even that beauty was not good enough to be portrayed in the paintings that could be displayed in people's houses, in museums centuries later. His beauty always came with a price and he can never be admired without having to pay it. Even those damn paintings he paid for and he still looked like they wanted him to, not like he was.

[ormymarius]

so many of people’s faves have to have fanart of them being chained up with a collar but james wan just gave it to us orm stans canonically for free and I thank him every day

[shatteredzydrateteacup]

Sooo… I did edit a version of the live recording of UDAD together with the higher-quality audio from the Dropbox. Enjoy!

[lunalikestowriteanddraw]

I love that Marius, Lethica, and Farryn are basically the parents of the group at this point. Especially towards Briggsy. The amount of times the three of them had to scold Briggsy for doing something within the past 12 episodes is astonishing

[soapdi-spencer]

Pov: Marius von Raum gives you a hand job but rips your Thang clean off