#th: santiago

[aquamanandfriends]

Costume Party [Santiago/Maeve]

@velvetandlavenders continued from [x]

Santiago smirked at her then nudge Maeve with his shoulder gently, "Good, that's all that matters." Honestly, as long as she thought he looked good it was worth it. "Though you look really hot in this look, I do love the puns." He was always, to his friends chagrin, was making puns and dad jokes.

[whileurmine]

@th-angelical liked this for some random shit i don't know what i'm doing.

"No, yeah, so when I was drunk last night and I sent you you are so hot please step on me, that was autocorrect. That was, hm, my friend took my phone."

[aquamanandfriends]

Santiago smirked and ducked his head, "I-- I mean, do you have it for a day or did you get it for longer?" Part of him wanted to stay somewhere else for the night, to be away from everything but her, and see what happened, but another part wanted to keep her close.

"Ooo. I'm going to need to see them in a room together. We'll be able to tell. They were always a good pair; you can't help but root for them." She smiled and ate her dolmas, then bread and hummus, eating around the meat. "I'm sure it'll be fine. A sweet, little old lady rented me the room. You can just flash her a smile and I'm sure she'll melt for you, much as all the girls back home did."

[dorabellingham]

El classico

warning: none

characters: jude x reader

summary: when after a bad game, he seeks comfort in you

may contain spelling and translation errors!

The night after El Clásico seemed to have been tinged with a weight too heavy to bear. The Santiago Bernabéu, which had previously been vibrating with the expectation of a victory, was now silent under the crushing defeat of 4-0. Jude could barely lift his face; the score was like a punch that had hit him straight in the heart, a mixture of humiliation and helplessness that he had not expected to feel so intensely.

The stadium corridors were quiet, the haggard faces of the players mingled with those of the few remaining staff. Jude walked with heavy steps, ignoring the greetings of his colleagues and the murmur of the journalists who tried to capture some reaction. He just wanted to get out of there, to escape the shadow of that defeat.

As soon as he reached the parking lot, he took out his cell phone and, without thinking much, called you. Your voice was the first thing he thought of; he didn't want to talk to anyone other than his girlfriend. Deep down, he knew that you were the only person who could understand without judging, without demanding anything.

—Hey, Jude!

You answered with that welcoming tone that made him breathe a little slower, even in the most tense situations.

Jude let out a heavy sigh before saying something, feeling tiredness mix with frustration.

—Babe... it was a disaster. A complete disaster.

His voice sounded tired, almost exhausted, and there was a vulnerability there that he rarely let show.

You, on the other end of the line, could feel every emotion through his tone, as if you were right there by his side.

—I saw it, babe. —You answered softly, trying not to let him feel like he was being judged. —Do you want to come over to my house? We can talk, or just... be quiet, if you prefer.

He nodded, even though you couldn’t see it.

—I need you now, Y/n... I don’t want to talk to anyone. Just you.

In less than half an hour, Bellingham arrived home. As soon as you opened the door, he walked in slowly, his shoulders still slumped, his eyes downcast, and his face marked by tension. You approached and wrapped him in a hug, a gesture that he returned with a grip so firm that it almost seemed desperate.

—I can’t believe what happened. —He murmured, hiding his face in your shoulder. —So many people were counting on me, you know? It’s not just a game, darling... it’s not just a defeat. It’s... it’s like I failed everyone, the club, the fans. They trusted me.

You stroked his back, feeling how shaken he was. Jude was always strong, a leader on and off the field, but moments like these showed his more human side.

—Honey, you’re an incredible player. One defeat doesn’t change that. Everyone who understands football knows that the sport is like that, sometimes, even the best player has bad days. But you’re an essential part of the team, and they know it.

He shook his head, still not convinced.

—I know it sounds easy to say this, but... I don’t feel that way. Today was humiliating. The pressure from the fans, the disapproving looks... it’s too much.

You held his face between your hands, looking him in the eyes tenderly.

—Jude, you’ve overcome so much. Remember when you were just a little boy who dreamed of playing professional soccer? Look how far you’ve come. And you know how capable you are. This game was just a stumbling block, but you’re much stronger than that.

For a moment, he remained silent, absorbing your words. Then he closed his eyes and nodded slowly. You were his anchor, and just having you there made him feel a lightness he couldn’t find in anyone else.

You smiled at him, pulling him to the couch.

—Sit down. I’ll get us some tea, and you can tell me what else is on your mind, if you want.

As you went to the kitchen, Jude threw himself on the couch, letting his body sink into the cushions. Anger still burned inside him, but the warmth of the house and your affection helped ease the weight.

You came back with a steaming mug of chamomile tea in your hands and sat down next to him, offering the mug. He held your hand before taking the tea, as if he needed that contact to steady himself. After a sip, he sighed deeply and began to talk, telling you every detail that bothered him –the plays that didn't work out, the pressure from the fans, the feeling of helplessness.

—I know it's weird to say this... —He confessed. —But even after everything, I feel like I owe them something. I don't know how I'm going to go back there and face all of this again.

You squeezed his hand and shook your head.

—It's not weird, Jude. It shows how much you care, how much you respect what you do. That feeling is what makes you a special player.

He smiled sideways, a slight smile, still without much conviction, but a little more hopeful.

—I’m lucky to have you, Y/n. Seriously. You have no idea how much this means.

You rested your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes, feeling grateful for being there for him.

—And I’m lucky to have you. Now, you’re going to rest, recharge your batteries, and tomorrow is a new day. You’re going back to the field, babe. Stronger than ever.

Jude looked at you, with deep gratitude in his eyes. He knew there would still be challenges, but with you by his side, he was sure he would be able to face anything.

[adrienneleclerc]

Book Boyfriend Challenge

Pairing: Charles Leclerc x Hispanic/Latina! Reader

Summary: where Y/N has her fiancé reciting lines from her 3 book boyfriends.

Warning: 18+ lines used, spelling and grammatical errors

A/N: I’m also working on an alternative version where Y/N has no idea Charles has read her books and decides to recite the same lines to see how she reacts, let me know of you want that posted. This takes place in the same universe as The Drive Thru Test

Y/N has seen TikToks of couples doing this challenge so he has picked out three books, Throttled by Lauren Asher, Eleven Eleven by Micaela Smeltzer, and Camera Shy by Kay Cove.

“Charles, muñeco, Can you come here for a second?” Y/N called from their living room, the books lined up on the coffee table. Charles comes in from the kitchen.

“Yes, Mon ange?” Charles asked.

“I have another TikTok challenge for us to try.” Y/N said. Charles playfully rolled his eyes and sat besides her on the couch.

“What is the challenge, Mon ange?” Charles asked. Y/N smiled.

“Okay so I have 3 books here, they are my favorite book boyfriends, there’s Noah Slade, Finn Harvey, and Reid Astor Crawford, I personally love these books, but I want you to choose whatever lines from these 3 books and recite them.” Y/N asked. Charles picked up the Throttled book.

“You’ve read an F1 romance book?” Charles asked, flipping through the pages. “Is bandini supposed to be Ferrari? Have you read this thinking about me?” Charles kept asking questions.

“Okay so I’m not the only one who fan casts you as Noah Slade, I’ve seen people make TikToks casting you as Noah, Lewis Hamilton is Jax, Carlos Sainz is Santiago, I’ve seen very mixed opinions about Liam, sometimes is Sebastian Vettel, others it’s Max Verstappen…” Y/N was explaining but Charles cut her off.

“You actually like this Noah guy?!? He’s such an asshole in the beginning.” Charles said as he was reading the first few pages of the book. “I can’t believe people imagine me as Noah.” Charles mumbled. “I’m a nice guy!”

“Muñeco, just pick a line, I’ll let you read the book after we’re done.” Y/N said,

“Fine.” Charles said. It took Charles a few seconds to pick a perfect line. “Okay, I got it.” Charles cleared his throat. “I’m not like any of the guys you’ve been with before. I May not be your first fuck, but I might as well be.” Charles said and Y/N started giggling. “What’s so funny, ma Belle?”

“Nothing, it’s just you’re so cute, I can’t imagine you saying this. But I must admit, your accent makes it hot.” Y/N confessed, kissing Charles. They broke away and Charles said the other line he has chosen.

“You’re a naughty little thing.” Charles tried to say in a seductive matter and Y/N covered her face with her hands.

“Okay that was hot.” Y/N confessed and now it was Charles’s turn to giggle.

“Okay this line is so stupid. ‘But I fuck like an A-list porno.’ I don’t know what more shocking, that the author thought it was a good line, or that you actually like that, I see you blushing, Mon ange.” Charles said and Y/N just shook her head.

“I like the book! Also, lines like this work because it is fictional, if a real man tried to say this to me, I would laugh in their face. But again, I think your accent makes it acceptable.” Y/N said and Charles kissed her.

“Okay I’m keeping this book, I need to know what people imagine me act like.” Charles said, getting off the couch to place Throttled in their bedroom on his side of the dresser. He came back, sitting next to Y/N, and chose the next book, Eleven Eleven. He was skimming until… “HE JUST TURNED 21?!?” Charles asked yelling. “She’s 32, that feels illegal, Mon ange, come on.”

“If you forget about the age, the way he is considerate, sweet, yet kinda cocky is such a turn on for me.” Y/N said.

“Am I competing with your book boyfriends?” Charles asked,

“If you really had to ask…” Y/N muttered. Charles found the line he wanted to refute but first he wanted to have a heavy make out session so Y/N would have full effect of the line. He leaned in to kiss her, he slightly bites her lower lip to insert his tongue in her mouth, both tongues fighting for dominance, Y/N had her hands in his hair but Charles was the one to light pull on her hair, making her moan. They pulled away and Y/N was panting/breathing heavily. Charles had his hand on Y/N’s inner thigh, rubbing lightly.

“Don’t get shy on me now, not when my tongue has been all over this sweet pussy.” Charles said and Y/N just stared at him incredulously.

“I can’t believe you got me hot and bothered just to say that line.” Y/N pouted and Charles laughed. “But that line worked on me, can’t lie.” Charles then cupped Y/N’s face in his hands.

“No man is ever going to make you feel this good. Not the way I can.” Charles said, ending the sentence in a cute little smirk.

“I thought I was going to cringe at some of the lines, but so far so good. You’re doing great, mi vida.” Y/N said, giving Charles a quick peck before he picks up the last book. “I know a lot of people on GoodReads are not a fan but I really liked it, I related to Avery so much.” Y/N said with a pout and Charles faintly smiled while reading the first few pages.

“This Mason guy is an asshole.” Charles said.

“I know! Like who dumps someone in their birthday?” Y/N said. Charles nods in agreement and starts skimming a few pages.

“He’s a boudoir photographer?” Charles asked and Y/N nodded. “You wanna do a photo shoot like that for me?” Charles asked suggestively.

“Sure thing, muñeco, but you’re buying what you want me to wear for this photo shoot.” Y/N said and Charles kissed her temple, still skimming until he found the line.

“Okay, this is kinda long.” Charles cleared his throat and tried to make his voice sound a little deeper and raspy, and looks into Y/N’s eyes. “You’re not going to speak. I’m going to talk to you. I’m going to strip you down and point out all the things I love about your body. For 5 minutes, Lu are going to enjoy a man who you think fucks like a porn star, worshipping you.” Charles recited, not breaking eye contact. Y/N blushed and looked away.

“How the hell did Avery not melt at that. It is official, you can make all these book lines sexy as fuck.” Y/N said and Charles chuckled.

“Well I’m glad this is turning you one, Mon ange.” Charles said, he skimmed until he found another one. “I’m going to make you vocal during sex, I’m going to have you screaming when you come, trust me.” He recited.

“Mm, not as hot.” Y/N said.

“Yeah, I agree, you’re already vocal during sex.” Charles commented and Y/N swatted his shoulder. “What? You’re acting as if that’s not the truth.”

“Just pick the next line, muñeco.” Y/N said.

“I bet you’re so fucking wet for me right now my tongue could go swimming, sweet girl.” Charles said in a raspy voice and Y/N covered her face.

“You did not pick that.” Y/N said.

“But I did. Mon ange, do you real,y enjoy ready these smutty books?” Charles asked.

“Yes I do, I like a modern romance, the smut is a bonus. I find them entertaining though.” Y/N said.

“Mm, should I buy you more books like this then?” Charles asked, pulling Y/N onto his lap so she’s straddling him.

“If you want to, of course.” Y/N said. Charles smiled before kissing her.

“I’m going to read Throttled when I’m on the plane for my next race.” Charles said.

“Okay, let me know what you think.” Y/N said.

Liked by pierregasly and 3,562,924 others

charlesleclerc I discovered that Throttled by Lauren Asher is one of my fiancé’s favorite books so I’ve been reading it and I have a few questions. 1, if I’m Noah Slade despite actually being monegasque, does that mean Y/N is Maya even if she’s Latina and not a Spaniard 🤔? 2, I know I am flirty but I am definitely not as flirty, forward, and cocky as Noah. And 3, I’m a nice guys, a relationship guy, and a family guy, Noah was nothing like that in the beginning! Anyway, not finished yet but so far so good!

View all 10,352 comments

user29 OMG HE’S READING IT!!!!!

user31 Y/N is my favorite WAG and now I have another reason

yourusername muñeco, you were supposed to call me with your thoughts on the book,

charlesleclerc well I’m currently thinking we should recreate that scene in Milano, you want me to choose the restaurant.

yourusername 😳🫣

user35 LORD PERCEVAL!

pierregasly I think you broke the internet, mate

use56 PETITION TO CAST CHARLES AND Y/N AS NOAH AND MAYA FOR A THROTTLE MOVIE!

user23 yes!! They’re perfect

lewishamilton am i supposed to be this Jax guy?

carlossainz55 and me Santiago?

yourusername yes and yes, that’s what TikTok says 🤭

[whileurmine]

He could say his place was near the studio, that the drive from one to the other was fifteen minutes max when traffic was high, that she could just sleep there if she wanted. But that was no. And begging never really got him what he wanted when it came to Cecilia. So Santiago opened his mouth and let her put the cigarette back between his lips. Trying to act like the way she treated him wasn't simultaneously humiliating and hot enough to get him ready to go again right away. "You leaving?" The drag he took of his cigarette was as long as he could possibly make it. Santiago forced his voice to sound distant, uncaring, "It's not that late yet, we could do another round." He could have anyone he wanted, but he had to want her. "Or not, I don't know." Reaching for his phone so he could look through his contacts in search of someone, anyone who would come over and take his call at this hour. There were about fifteen different messages from girls he was ignoring. He clicked on the prettiest, asked her if she was up. "What's the movie about? The one with your director boy."

Ceci was almost unable to hold in the roll of her eyes that Santiago's words caused. It always ended in that: an invitation to extend their meeting for an undefined amount of time. She was sure that if she asked him to get married again, he would agree. For a moment, she was tempted, just to see how he would react. But then... "There aren't any good hotels near your studio, though." With a last kiss, she offered his cigarette back with a smirk. "Open now."

[writefightandflightclub]

Something to prove: Frankie Morales x fem!reader blurb

Read the warnings.

Summary: you’re wrong. And Frankie wants to prove it.

Genre: steam / implied smut. Teasing / sexual tension. Brat /brat tamer or Dom / sub vibes.

A/n: okay, look. Frankie is cool, calm and collected. Expect when he’s not. And I just love finding the things that flip that switch on his composure and create, specifically, a Frankie of the u n h i n g e d and f e r a l variety. (That was my initial concept and then… this defo grew somewhat darker than I’d intended, so please do read the warnings! I dunno what happened but I guess I went a bit feral too don’t look at me 🙈)

Spoilery Warnings: there are definite dub-con elements here. Frankie is not checking-in thoroughly for consent and there’s one point where his thought-process /actions outright disregards consent (it’s Frankie’s POV). In my head, reader is enthusiastically on-board for everything which happens during the fic and for what is implied off-screen, but that’s definitely not made explicit in the text or even the internal monologue as it usually would be, and Frankie doesn’t know that for sure all the time. Consider yourself warned. As well, some dumbification here, reader called “stupid girl” etc. So… it’s a slightly darker!Frankie than I would usually write or characterise rather than aiming for canon so much! Also, implied threesome (or similar) off-screen, so a smidge of Santiago x reader which I opted not to tag as it isn’t the main focus. Some dub-con from Santi too. Daddy kink warning (once). (Light) Choking. Spitting (once). Dom / Sun, Brat / brat tamer vibes. Fingering. Definite theme in the language of “it’s for your own good / I know what’s best for you” which could be triggering, and could count as coercion. Explicit.

MINORS DNI. 18+ ONLY

Gif by @santigarcia

No, the voice in Frankie’s head blares, the word defeaning - although no sound passes his lips. No. No. No!

You’re wrong.

Even as Santiago smiles smugly. Says “you got that right, sweetie.”

No.

Frankie’s jaw writhes, his hand clawing into his own thigh even as a gentle titter spreads throughout the room, passed amiably from mirth-crinkled eye to slanted mouth.

He’s not angry at you. Not exactly.

When Benny had asked, as the juvenile truth or dare game progressed, who you thought would be best in the sack, you’d had to pick someone.

It’s just that you’re wrong.

It’s him.

In his head it’s him. In his head, no-one else can give it to you the way he’s imagined making you come undone. No-one else could have you unfurling the way he’s plotted so meticulously; late at night, as he’s bucked his straining length into his own fist, wishing it was the warm, enclosing wetness of you.

You’re wrong.

He feels his pulse drum in his throat. Feels his face pinch into something angular and hard.

He rips an abrupt swig of beer from the mouth of his bottle. Abrupt like the way he wants to tear a kiss from your mouth. Sudden and harsh, showing you your mistake.

He’s not angry at you. He’s not.

He’s angry at himself; for not showing you; that you’re wrong.

He stands. “Excuse me,” he mutters gruffly, pacing to the kitchen. Opening the fridge to give some passing pretence to his exit. His broad shoulders curl in towards the cold, seeking to calm his suddenly heat-pricked skin. His shirt pulls taut over the writhing muscles in his back.

You find him like this a moment later when you enter, your sweet voice preceding the sight of you. And fuck. The contrast of your softness to the way he’s growing rigid in his jeans has his eyes fluttering closed, lashes fanning to his cheek. Has the circle of his plush lips dropping open as a pulse of need zips along his aching shaft.

No. No. No.

You’re so wrong.

And, for some reason, the thought of correcting your mistake, by setting the record straight himself? It has him coming undone.

“The boys are so easy to please, huh?” you breeze, apparently completely unaware of his predicament. Of the blood rushing in his ears so hard he can barely even hear your voice. Unless… did he imagine that teasing, provocative edge in your tone?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Frankie is fixed in place now. Rigid and imposing. Breaths mildly ragged; frayed at the edges. He hears you hop your ass up onto the counter with a breathy little - and seemingly deliberate - mmhmph. Knows that’s where you’re at, because that’s where you usually sit. That’s your spot when Santiago is cooking, all of the squad gathered around the kitchen island. That’s when Frankie usually leans his long frame against the wall right by you. Drinks in the way your thighs swell - full and soft- as they press into the counter. Imagines slipping his broad hands on to your knees. Sliding the flat of his palms up to part your warm, supple thighs. Slipping his fingers beneath the hem of your tantalising dress until they can spear your heat.

“Santiago’s” -Frankie juts his chin and curls his lip as you say his name- “so fucking needy.”

The word needy falling from your lips does something to him. Sends a throb of heat and dull ache to his length.

You have no idea how needy he is.

How needy he has been for you.

So… No.

Not Santiago’s name in your mouth instead of his. Not fantasies of Santiago fucking you bleeding into your dreams, keeping you up at night, making you slick between your legs.

You’re wrong.

In his head you’re wrong. In his head he’s had you coming apart on his cock a thousand different times. A thousand different ways. He never leaves you anything less than sated, breathless, boneless. He’s good for you. He’s the best. He’s what you need.

You’re wrong.

A low grunt rises in his throat.

Then, finally, with effort, Frankie delicately snaps the fridge closed. Turns towards you, his usually soft gaze intense and hard. Tongue curling around his plush upper lip. It makes the tentative smile you offer drop from your face.

Frankie watches your eyes skim down his taut, long body. Imagines that he sees your pupils blowing-out. A swallow sinking in your neck as he approach you like this. Harsh. Dominant. Maybe how he should have been with you all along. Maybe you would’ve liked that better.

At least, if he had, that way you’d already know.

His pulse beats a drum in his chest. Fuck. Those thighs of yours make his arousal swell painfully in his jeans.

“You believe it?” he grits, abrupt and forceful. Something dark in him activating. Something he isn’t proud of. Something that feels primal. Hungry, after so long caged away.

Your eyes widen like prey. “Believe what?”

Frankie looks at your mouth. You don’t even know. Don’t even know what’s good for you, do you? That he’s good for you. He’s going to show you. “Don’t play dumb. You know ‘what’.”

He crosses to you. Slots his hips between your thighs. Stands over you, muscles taut and rigid. Primed; yet contained. Reaches his thumb and forefinger out to grip and lift the point of your chin; deceptively soft.

Your mouth falls open. There is a sharp intake of breath, as though his touch is electricity on your skin. You writhe yourself into the counter. Arch your chest towards him, even as your eyes widen with slight apprehension. He’s never spoken to you like that before. Has only ever been soft with you. And look where that’s gotten him. Not buried balls-deep into your cunt, that’s for sure. “F-Frankie… I…”

No. No excuses.

“He was the obvious answer.”

No.

“I had to say someone.”

No.

“I couldn’t say… I c-couldn’t say you, could I?”

“Why not?” He shoves the pad of his thumb past your lips and into your mouth before you can even answer, sliding it over your tongue. Doesn’t even care in that moment if you want it. He wants it. Needs it. But he loves how instantly you pucker your lips to suck. Loves that the hot, wet glide of your tongue obediently greets him.

An awed smile drags over his mouth as you hum around him, already becoming putty. He imagines the wet spot he could make you leave on the counter, your slit all shined for him.

“Stupid girl,” he purrs, tone dripping with condescension, his voice honey over gravel. You moan as he withdraws from your mouth. Shifts his hands to clamp down on your thighs, snaking up. “I could give it to you so much better.”

You bat your eyes at him. Toying with him, like you always do - he sees it now. “H-How am I supposed to know that? I’ve…” you bite down on your pillowy lower lip. Looks like a nice place to rest his cock while he shoves into your warm throat, he thinks. “I’ve never fucked either of you.”

Still. You should already know. You should know it’s him.

You should know you’re wrong.

Frankie’s nostrils flare. He drags the pad of his thumb along the seam of his lips. Contains the anger pulsing in him. Has half a mind to unzip his pants right here. To shove you down on the floor and to fill up that pretty mouth of yours right here. Wants to.

“But you want it, don’t you, kitten?” He’s almost certain now. Certain that he hasn’t been imagining it, all these months. The teasing. The glances. The comments. These silly little outfits you wear around him. You’ve been trying to drive him to distraction, haven’t you? Playing him and Santiago off of one another. Riling them both up. Waiting for one of them - or maybe even both of them - to snap.

He drags you to him then, abrupt, your hands flying out to steady yourself against the counter. Your heat coming to rest over the clothed, straining mass of him as he bucks his hips up, grinding up against you. You yelp and it’s a pretty, pathetic little sound. “Don’t you?” he bites off, impatient for an answer now.

You want that. You want him to take it, don’t you?

All you can respond with is a loose, breathy affirmative as Frankie clamps his hand around your jaw and throat. He feels your heartbeat fluttering in your neck. It feels - to him - like want thrumming beneath your skin. Raw and red.

He dips his mouth towards the shell of your ear next, the scent of your perfume sending him into even more of a frenzy. “Did anyone ever tell you you should be careful what you wish for?”

He grips you harder, and your eyes flash with momentary apprehension as his grip closes over your throat. In the next moment however, your gaze is muddied by a glassy, blooming contentedness. A rising hunger. He jostles your head and you move with it, already pliant for him. It’s almost as though this is what you’ve been waiting for. Baiting him to snap. Baiting him to show you what he’s capable of.

Stupid girl.

How have you managed without him all this time? You need him. Need him just like he needs you. Need him to show you.

“Open your mouth.”

“What?”

“Open it.”

You oblige, showing him your pretty pink tongue, and a groan unspools from his chest at how pretty you look like this. Then, without warning, Frankie spits into your mouth.

You jump slightly from the suddenness of it, though once you realise what’s happened, you appear to relish it. Swallow it down and look at him with an altogether wolfish grin.

“Mmm. Thank you, Daddy.”

Such a fucking tease. His cock is so hard in his pants now, his arousal throbbing against the thick, constricting seam. In need of release. In need of that little wet cunt of yours, like he’s imagined a thousand times.

Well, thanks to your little games, he’s done imagining.

“Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

Frankie grabs your hand. Tugs you down from the counter and back through the house.

“We’re leaving,” he announces to the remaining squad, paying their confused and concerned enquiries little mind. Then, he directs his next words only to Santiago. “You are too.”

The other man blinks in confusion. “Whu-“

When he responds, Frankie’s tone and his demeanour leave zero room for argument - he makes sure of it, the sounds carved sharp on the knife edge of his clenched teeth. “-Now.”

Santiago obliges rightaway. “Uh huh.”

“Hey. Big fella. What are we doing?” he asks as Frankie leads you hurriedly towards his truck, stalking down the gravel drive.

“Her.”

Frankie glances at Santiago in time to catch his thick eyebrows raise in surprise; but to his credit he only skips one pace before falling right back in step with him. “Oh. We are, huh?” Santiago looks to you. He looks hungry too. “Did you know about this, Princess?”

Frankie answers for you. “She knows exactly what she’s doing. And now, thanks to her, I’ve got something to prove.”

“Oh oh, Princesa,” Santiago purrs, a smug smirk claiming his mouth.

“Oh oh?” you ask with trepidation, as Frankie bundles you into the passenger seat of the car, clipping your seatbelt for you like you can’t do it for yourself. His eyes are consumed with fire as they meet yours, his tongue darting out along his lips. God, he could have you right here. Certainly doesn’t relish the waiting.

“Yeah,” Santiago breezes, slotting into the back. Frankie exchanges a dark, conspiratorial glance with Santiago in the wing mirror, before watching his buddy lean around the shoulder of your seat. “Honey. You’ve got no idea what you’re in for, do you?”

You’re wrong.

You’re so wrong. And Frankie’s gonna show you. Over and over.

“Get her ready, would you?” Frankie pipes up, not even dragging his eyes away from the road for a second. Even so, he hears you gasp and then moan in pleasure as Santiago’s nimble fingers peel the hem of your dress away from your thighs.

“It’s for your own good, Princess. You’re gonna need it,” Santiago explains as his fingers travel, finding the wet spot between your legs. “Frankie’s big.”

“Hmm. Sure. I’ve heard that before,” you punch out, in between abortive moans of pleasure as Santiago’s fingers work their way inside you.

“Oh, it’s not a brag, honey,” Santiago snickers. Frankie joins him in laughter, like the two of them share a joke that you’re just not in on. He slides his mouth up your throat. “Trust me. It’s a kindness.”

Frankie smiles. Clamps his hands down tighter on the wheel. Can’t wait to get you home.

You’re wrong.

You’re so wrong. And he’s going to show you.

You shouldn’t push someone with a dark side if you can’t handle the consequences, he thinks.

He risks a glance as you throw your head back, mouth dropping open in a silent moan of pleasure.

You’re wrong; but he’s going to have a lot of fun proving it.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV Musings - LDPDL & Nosferatu 2024 (Pt9: Subverting Gothic Gender in Femme-Coded Gay Black Men)

Since S1 aired, a large portion of AMC's Interview with the Vampire 2022 fandom has resisted the notion of Louis de Pointe du Lac, a Black gay male vampire living during Jim Crow, as a female-coded character. Viewers (esp. cis straight white women--the antithesis of the gay Black man) have expressed how they either cannot or will not see Black!LDPDL aligning with feminine tropes, archetypes, aesthetics, sentiments, roles, norms, or social positions. Many cis straight white fans have made in depth analyses of IWTV's Gothic/Horror genre(s), and Gothic hero/heroine tropes through white male/female lenses, but I've yet to see any substantial analysis (or even acknowledgement) from this contingency about Black Horror, let alone the intersection of Black LGBT+ Horror and Gothic Horror. Meanwhile, their main defense/offense against Black & Bipoc fans has consistently been to either throw TERF accusations & media literacy snobbery at anyone who criticizes or counters their white-centric gender analyses of Black!LDPDL's place in Gothic Horror (others' experiences: x x x | my own experiences: x x x). And interestingly, a lot of IWTV Gothic aficionados have avoided engaging with the most recent iteration of the vampire in Gothic Horror that loosely inspired Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series: Dracula, a la Nosferatu 2024.

So this post is largely in reponse to several of @pynkhues' anti-GothicHeroine!Lou etc analyses of Gothic characters, but I'm still sticking to the Louis/Ellen theme when relevant, just walk with me.

Louis as the Byronic Hero? 🤔

First let's look at @pynkhues' analysis of Gothic characters here:

YES, Louis is a Byronic hero. However, AR's own Alphabettery acknowledges that all Byronic heroes are NOT created equally.

Lestat is "THE embodiment a Byronic hero," while Louis SUBVERTS the archetype by regretting/rejecting his bad tendencies, rather than EMBRACING them, unlike Byron/Lestat/Lord Ruthven/etc.

Cuz going by the definition Pynkhues provided, when you actually break their characteristics down, you can easily see which one fits more than the other.

Louis has far LESS in common with the Byronic hero than Lestat. Lou's similarities to Byronic heroes are largely skin-deep (LOL). He's a tortured emo pretty boy, sure, but the points where he differs are what BREAKS the Byronic mold, not AFFIRMS it:

3) Louis does NOT rebel against "all fundamental values and moral codes of the society"--the whole point is that he CONFORMS to societal expectations, to the detriment of his own happiness!

5) often shows a GREAT DEAL of disrespect for ANY figure of authority. | 8a) arrogant

I've addressed this b4, cuz LouisAntis keep pointing to the RACIST Alderman Fenwick calling Lou arrogant, and Lou sassing him saying "MAYBE I am arrogant!" as CONFIRMATION BIAS for all the things these horrible white men said about that uppity Black N****r who dared to rise above his "PLACE in the world...flying too close to the sun." And we see the exact same nasty sentiments with Santiago & Lestat & Sam's script in 2x7 (written by three more white men to insult & vilify Louis). Cuz yes, Louis IS prideful/haughty, esp. in the context of the classic tragic hero where pride comes b4 a fall. But it is in direct response to his attempts to break FREE of the societal constrictions tryna keep him DOWN. The white racists in NOLA are busy tryna steal his property right under him with the Ordinances segregating Storyville; and the coven's busy tryna convert him into their satanic death cult where he'll never be allowed to have his own autonomy/independence again; a SLAVE; "you'll be our little birdie for the next 50 years~!" The point is that GAY Black men & women in general were both at very the bottom of the social pyramid (maligned in a patriarchal society that equated femininity with everything negative & weak & exploitable). LDPDL & Ellen Hutter resist the UNFAIR TREATMENT they received. That resistance is treated as disrespect to KEEP them in "their place;" abused & dehumanized.

Louis shows TOO MUCH respect to awful racist homophobes, from his hateful AF mother, who he deferred to until her dying effing day; to his racist white bosses Tom Anderson & Alderman Fenwick & Fenwick's lawyer; to the white cops who busted in his house threatening to put him in JAIL for being gay. Louis' monologue in 1x2 about "No, Sir; Yes, Sir" flew CLEAR over y'all heads; y'all have the nerve to take Louis STANDING UP FOR HIMSELF against insults & blatant racism as a sign of "disrespect," and then wonder why Black fans call y'all out as racists, I swear. 😂

6a) Neither Louis not Lestat stand against the dehumanized system of labor, as they both indulge in the benefits of human exploitation, from slavery to prostitution.

6b) WHERE does THE Catholic Guilt LDPDL stand against traditionally repressive religious??? 🤨 Jacob's most iconic scene is of Louis crying out to God in a confession booth! 🤣 Yes, in WWII he started losing his religion, scared that God didn't exist cuz of everything he saw during the war, but Armand pointed out that Lou was STILL holding onto Christian notions of good & evil. Yes, in Dubai he says he doesn't read the Bible much anymore because of it, but he STILL wondered if his mom was right that his nature was that of the Devil, and he tried to prove everyone wrong by not killing since 2000.

6c) WHERE does Domestic Thy Name Is LDPDL stand against social & familial institutions & traditional family values? 🤨 Lestat & Armand didn't even WANT any kids--Louis was the one constantly pushing to start a family with them; only for Lestat to tell him to his face that "I am your family, Louis;" eff them kids, eff Benni, we don't need sons or daughters to be a family so long as we have each other!

8d) WHERE is Louis "unrepentant for his faults"? 🤨 All he does is blame himself for ish that ain't even his fault! All he does is repent--he's eating human food every week that tastes like PASTE! CHALK! SOAP! as a form of self-mortification, to remind himself that he IS human, that he doesn't WANT to be a damned & undead killer.

Louis =/= Gothic Heroine? 🤔

From CLAUDIA'S POV, yes 100%, Loustat are BOTH the patriarchs from hell, her "taught to kill by her demon fathers," etc. She indeed follows the typical Gothic Heroine arc (putting aside her being a child, ofc), esp. since yes, Louis doesn't really rescue himself from his bad situations--Claudia is "my light, my salvation" who saves him in S1, and Daniel saves him in S2. But AMC!Louis has far more agency than book!Louis, in that he IS aware of the Murder Plot, and actively (albeit reluctantly) takes part in it; unlike book!Louis, totally blindsided by Claudia. He never wanted to leave Lestat--who represented FREEDOM & PASSION for him; "I was seen!" And just like Ellen/Mina, in the end Louis musters the willpower to slit Lestat's throat & "kill" his soulmate--not for his own sake, but for the sake of HIS DAUGHTER. He sacrifices his happiness for her, but still chooses Death, when he refuses to burn Lestat. He WANTS to hold hands with death, BUT ALSO sees purpose/worth in how he can weaponize his bond to Lestat to distract Les long enough to axe him.

The biggest difference with Louis & Mina/Ellen isn't GENDER, it's SPECIES--the other protags DIE, while he lives on as a vampire. (Ofc there's some iterations of Mina Harker AND Jonathan Harker/Thomas Hutter where they're permanently turned into vamps, too.)

Louis 100% wanted to leave Armand--how on earth was Louis able to leave "easily and definitively"?! 🤨 He tried to KILL HIMSELF in SanFran to get away from his boring AF life with Armand, but Armand wouldn't LET him die. He tries to do the interview in 1973 and Armand INTERRUPTS. He does the interview in 2022 and Armand INTERRUPTS. Over & over, Louis is trying to GET OUT, and he can't. This is what I mean by BLACK HORROR, cuz unlike y'all Gothic experts in the fandom, I actually have analyzed similarities between Black!Louis in IWTV, and THE Black Horror film, Get Out.

Rolin Jones constantly stresses the (over)emphasis he puts on psychological horror in IWTV, AND the effects of gaslighting and manipulation in abusive & traumatic relationships, particularly when there's already a power imbalance stemming from race & sexuality, and the withholding or resistance of knowledge in a teacher/student dynamic. The whole point is about POWER & CONTROL. It's not that one has all the power/control & the other one has none. It's about who has MORE than their FAIR share. That's what IMBALANCE means. 🤦🤦🤦 Yes, Louis allows Armand control over his life, and Armand takes ADVANTAGE of that trust and goes behind Louis' back & lies & schemes in ways that are a VIOLATION.

Just because Louis gains (temporary) socio-economic status/power as Lestat's lover does NOT mean that he is EQUAL to Lestat, and just because he loves Lestat & WANTS to be with him doesn't mean he NEVER recognizes the ways that he IS under Lestat's thrall--

"in the well with no bottom" | "We're not slaves. Maybe mindless accomplices." | "We were compelled to sleep in the same chamber together again. He would have it no other way. We would spend our hours enduring, with little pretense of getting along, locked together in hatred. He would have it no other way."

--and Daniel constantly called BS whenever Lou tried denying it:

"White master, Black student, but equal in the quiet dark." | "It's the abused-abuser psychological relationship I'm talking about. I mean, usually when you're a little too close to it, the abused still loves the abuser, but you flipped it completely on its head! Years later, you talk like he was your soul mate, like you were locked in some f**ked up gothic romance!" | "'He only beat me the one time, Officer. It's not his fault!' Classic Stockholm, eh, Doc?"

Here @pynkhues says they're not racist cuz they started reading two (2) papers on Black gender & sexuality--congrats. Thousands more to go, but you'll get there! ��� Good news though: you don't have to read ANYTHING to see with your own 2 eyes what the show itself is messaging. The very fact that Black!Louis moves into LESTAT'S HOUSE the entire time they were together is a glaring red GAY flag. book!/film!Loustat lived in LOUIS' house, until Lou burned the plantation down and they purchased a home in NOLA together (with Lou's money). AMC!Louis doesn't TRULY embody Black masculinity, cuz it's a facade; he has a target on his back the entire time he's with Lestat; EVERYONE has something homophobic to say about Lou even associating with that flaming "queer, half queer" WHITE man (x x).

You know good & dang well that WOMEN were supposed to marry in & move in--NOT the men. Louis already had a mansion in his name--wtf is he doing moving into Lestat's townhouse on the white side of town like a WIFE? You know the whole DPDL family dynamic's further screwed up, cuz Levi's a mooch who ALSO MOVES IN, rather than doing what the man was expected to do and providing his bride with a home of HIS own.

I laughed up a storm when we found out Lestat gave Louis the deed--because it's ODD: interracial gay relationships were illegal, and Black people weren't allowed to own prime real estate in the segregated French Quarter where 1132 is. Lestat bought the house FOR Louis, but the Black people in Louis' life KNOW Louis' not embodying Black masculinity and TELL him so to his face: "Your white Daddy | The Housewife | etc." Louis tells Florence "it's half a mile BOTH ways, Mamawn," but Florence won't even set FOOT in 1132, which even the white folk know has "weird goings-on in that sodomite townhouse." The Alderman even tells Louis to put Lestat as "the public face of your operations" cuz he's white and he's the only one anyone's gonna listen to & respect, even though Louis allegedly gained REAL social status. 🙄

Lestat is the honeytrap BECAUSE white men listen to white men and are more receptive to them--on top of the fact that Lou'd already explained that the Azalea worked as a "revolving door of prey" so Loustat could EAT the Johns (mostly Lestat, cuz Lou'd already started hating killing people)--TOURISTS like the white man who asked them directions for the Fairplay. Les takes the man cuz he's going to EAT HIM. He asks him how long he's in town, to confirm if anyone would NOTICE when he goes MISSING. Pynkhues' post also conflates/ignores the timeline of events, as if Lou's a housewife DURING the time he owns the Azalea, which....NO. Claudia's housewife quote in 1x5 (c. 1925) and Louis owning the Azalea PRE-Claudia in 1x2-1x3 (c. 1910-1917) are 2 radically different contexts. 🤦 Yes, Lou IS revelling in his newfound high social status, and yes, he insists on paying Lestat back specifically so no one can throw the fact that he had to borrow the money to buy the Fairplay in his face. But this is NOT about Lestat as the "placating partner while Lou's king of the castle"--in front of all the most important white businessmen in the city, Lestat DISMISSES the Azalea as "Louis' HOBBY," just like rich husbands who keep their wives busy & happy buying them silly little nail salons & florist shops & dog grooming salons & fashion shops to run! (x x) 💀 Back then, male pimps/gangsters like IRL Tom Anderson owned brothels, but they sure AF didn't RUN them--that was the MADAME'S job, for women like IRL Bricktop Jackson. Louis was doing WOMEN'S WORK. By marrying Lestat, Louis' "civil death" was in full swing, it just took Storyville burning as the final nail in the coffin. After that, Lou's thoroughly domesticated and doesn't interact with businessmen like Tom Anderson for YEARS.

This applies not just to AMC!Loustat, but to book/film Loustat, too:

Louis is NOT the dominant one in Loustat's relationship--he's patently submissive, as he either willingly/reluctantly capitulates to the whims & demands of everyone around him--from society at large, to his biological family--to even his Blood family, yanked around by Lestat AND Claudia for his eating habits to his leaving NOLA. From Louis' conception by AR, the theme of SLAVERY was a main point--not just book!Lou's status as a slaveowner(par for the course for moneyed French white colonists in the 19th century American South), but also the power imbalance between Loustat that manifested as "need and control, with one vampire dominating another for companionship or slavery."

Lestat represents the man Anne wanted to be, as she was sick & tired of how victimized & depressed & submissive & CONTROLLED she (Louis) felt under her husband Stan (Lestat). Just because Louis mouths off does NOT mean he's the one in control--the stalemate at 1132 existed because Louis REFUSED TO ACT. His INACTION in the face of Lestat's domineering behavior was because he was afraid of the consequences of what would happen if he DID defend himself & stand up & exert kinetic resistance (a la the Alderman) or action (a la Grace's door): his power was in his submission, like I've said 1000x.

Mouthy Black people getting put in their place is the whole point of another Black Horror/psychological thriller with interracial dynamics, Antebellum (2020). Not giving away too much of the movie, cuz it has a major plot twist, but the visual motifs are all about covering/opening the mouth, cuz the story's about a bunch of people known for being vocal for Black empowerment, who're rounded up & sold into slavery to be tortured, raped & killed by their white masters. The mater of main character Eve (played by the GOAT Janelle Monae) claims to "love" her even as he rapes & beats her; traumatizing her so badly that she goes silent & is too scared to help the other slaves run away to freedom, for fear that she'll be BURNED again--her master burned an an iron brand on her, marking her as his property. The monsters are the white slaveowners. The film can be hard to watch cuz they don't shy away from graphic scenes; it's horrific.

Just like Louis all throughout S1, and Lou & Claudia at the Trial, they're forced into silence & punished for speaking up to defend themselves or exert any autonomy--which RACISTS see as "disrespect." 🙄😒 And Claudia's burned alive, her own words used against her to damn her to death. And Louis' memories are used against him, everyone from Lestat to Armand to even Daniel contradicting his words, till he can't be sure what's true or not, and just goes with whatever the white man says, he's been worn down so badly. UNLIKE Claudia, he CANNOT run away from Dubai--Armand wiped that impulse from him after his final "eff off and find me later" in 1973 SanFran. And we're just left with Armand's word that he was telling the truth about Louis "asking" him to.

Louis ENCOURAGES Claudia to leave & be free THRICE OVER:

1x5 when she runs away and Loustat BOTH let her leave--(Louis begs her not to go, but never actually STOPS her, cuz he KNOWS she's right to be mad at him. He spends the next 7 years sending out telepathic apologies, letting her know that he still loves & misses her and that she has a home to come back to--but that return is always on HER terms, NEVER his.)

1x6 when SHE asks him to come to Europe with her and HE tells her: "You don't need me. You think you do, but you don't. You're smarter now. You see trouble coming a mile away." LESTAT was the one who dragged her back home like a runaway slave!

ALL OF S2: "New Orleans, unhappy. Vampire homeland, unhappy. Paris, unhappy. Comes the coven, you're beaming like the whole world went technicolor. I didn't want to wreck that for you. You picked the coven! You left me! Go sit in your choice, Sister!" HE asks HER if they can go back home in 2x1; he follows HER lead, as he does from 1x6 all the way to 2x6 when he makes Madeleine for her so they can LEAVE Paris together--without him. ARMAND is the one who uses her family reunion with Louis as a trap to have them all hamstrung through the BONE so they cant escape when he puts them on Trial & kills Claudia, then spends the next 77 years covering up the details.

Coercing Emotionally leveraging her rebirth in 1x4 & physically assaulting her in 1x7 - Yes, agreed.

Lou's less concerned with "influencing Claudia's DIET" as he is about her SADISM/"extravagance" that LESTAT kept enabling/encouraging. His whole point about killing is that "you don't have to humiliate them;" then WHAT happens in 2x7? He outright tells Claudia when she's grossed out by him drinking fish blood that "it's not just what you eat. You can kill quick and painless." His open disgust over THEIR diet is no better or worse than THEIR open disgust for HIS. And they BOTH ganged up on him in 1x6 to force him to agree to Lestat rule about "when he hunt, we hunt HUMAN," rather than going by what Lou said: "I eat what I eat, she eats what she eats, we RESPECT our differences." But as soon as Lestat was back in the house & exerting more & more authority, the balance between Louis & Claudia evaporated. And even in 2x2 Paris, Armand noticed that "the male hunted to please HER."

WHEN does Louis guilt Claudia into staying? 🤨 LESTAT guilts Claudia into staying in his threats on the train.

Louis threw Lestat out of LOUIS' house; he got the deed baby! And Lestat had already BEEN gone--Lou just confirmed that Les could STAY that way--but NOTHING lil ole Claudia & crippled Lou could've done would've ACTUALLY stopped Les from waltzing back into that house, be serious. (As for Antoinette, who CARES?! 🤣 That's what that skank gets for sleeping with a married man!)

What does Louis being a former pimp have to do with how he treated Claudia? Did he pimp Claudia out to the public for money and have her walking the streets to promote his businesses and punish her when she refused? NO. But you know who DID treat her that way? ARMAND. And you know who told Armand that he didn't like it? LOUIS. (Please miss me with any & all pimp arguments.)

Louis definitely threatened Grace at the funeral, yes, but when did he strong arm his mother? 🤨 She was the one who refused to let him in his own house to see his sister & nieces (whom SHE was busy badmouthing to so they'd be afraid of him). Levi literally tried to FIGHT Louis to keep Louis off his own property, when LEVI'S useless arse never contributed one red cent to LOUIS' house! The door getting kicked in was an accident, but OH FRIKKIN WELL, it's HIS door. (Miss me with any & all talk about Florence & Levi, omg.)

Yes, Miss Lily was expendable. But her death was all wrapped up in Lestat's relentless barrage of Come to Me, leading to Lou's drunken suicidal death spiral running to the confession booth screaming about how he wanted to die cuz he was a dirty gay sinning pimp whose family hated him. He had no time to mourn Lily. He BARELY had time to mourn Paul. And once he was a newlywed getting his back blown out to the rings of Saturn every night, sorrynotsorry but chile ain't nobody thinking about the woman he paid to sit in a room and talk to him! 😅

If Louis had been literally any other pimp, and if the Alderman wasn't suffering from chronic Jungle Fever smitten with her, Bricktop would've been DEAD. It was illegal during Jim Crow for Black people to even look white folk in the eye without their permission--"get your hand off me, N****r!," let alone bash their skull in and cuss them out "You put a SIR on the end of that!" Be serious, and understand the gravity of the situation in that scene, and how remarkable it was that Bricktop was NOT tossed to the wolves, where the Alderman would've been able to do WAY worse than sodomize her. It's wild AF how modern white folk are more ignorant about the history of racism than Black people, like wtf.

Yes, Louis helped curse her into damnation as a vampire--in the book/film he drains her & almost kills her, and Lestat brings her back as a vamp; while AMC!Lou's actions killing the Alderman was the catalyst sparking the racist white people burning Storyville down--and Claudia's house with it. 😡 The "monstrousness" Pynkhues nastily accuses Louis of is willfully misdirected to absolve the white racists of blame in order to damn Louis. His killing that p.o.s. Alderman is NOT a Byronic act, its VIGILANTISM due to the RACISM he experienced at the Aldermand's hands, that he stood up against by killing him and then IMMEDIATELY REGRETTING IT as he saw the devastation that happened to Storyville--the Bryonic hero does not REGRET/REPENT his misdeeds--as you cited above! 🤦 Claudia is indeed "trapped in the body of a little girl," but Louis does NOT "imprison/trap" Claudia in that house--just like Paul, he was the one encouraging her to be free & LEAVE when he knew he wouldn't.

As such, misreadings like this totally miss the mark of Louis' character arc, and I'm mind boggled. "Defiance" had NOTHING to do with Louis leaving NOLA--he regretted leaving Lestat the entire time, and was constantly hallucinating Lestat cuz he just wanted to go back home--and the SECOND he got free of Armand's shenanigans, he was back on a plane and in a car driving WHERE? To NOLA. And WHY? "I came to see you," LESTAT. And any "defiance" against Armand would've amounted to EFF ALL if Daniel hadn't gotten the real script from the Talamasca.

Gothic Heroines - Female Gothic vs Male Gothic

And guess what? Queer Gothic sits in the middle of this venn diagram--or rather, it creates a brand new paradigm where vampiric Gothic Horror stories written by a white woman in the 1970s about a white bisexual man can now be adapted in the 2020s by a white male showrunner and his MULTICULTURAL TEAM of male AND female writers about a Black gay man who represents male AND female social anxieties & struggles alike.

Westengard, Laura. "Queer Gothic Literature and Culture." Twentieth Century Gothic (2022): 259-272.

Claudia & Louis often SHARE/SPLIT the role of the Gothic Heroine--deuteragonists are a thing after all. It does NOT "diminish Claudia's arc;" instead, it lends her a more nuanced characterization, BECAUSE there are ways that she CANNOT fulfill certain Gothic Heroine tropes on her own--she's A CHILD, ffs. Louis is Claudia's surrogate adult male/female the way Lestat is Gabrielle's surrogate adult male/female.

As I've said b4 (x x), Louis is the Mina Harker/Ellen Hutter to Lestat's Dracula/Orlock--there's no way on god's green earth that anyone can seriously claim that Lestat's the female-coded character in the Dracula/Nosferatu framework of vampiric gothic horror--or any of its incarnations, from Twilight to True Blood; Louis is the Bella/Sookie, NOT Lestat (or Armand). But Lou is ALSO the Jonathan Harker/Thomas Hutter--and SO IS CLAUDIA, who does double duty as the Lucy Westenra/Anna Harding, too.

In S1 Claudia assumes the "masculine" agency Louis is expected to have as the male protagonist, but fails to live up to due to all of those character traits (typically perceived as weak & "feminine"). He's not the damsel in distress, but CLAUDIA thinks he is ("the housewife;" "we're his slaves, and I will free us both!"), and acts accordingly. Claudia/Thomas/Jonathan has consulted the scholarly experts on vampires (her vampire books | Dr. Van Helsing/Prof. Von Franz) and returns from a long period of absence (ran away from home | traveled to Dracula/Orlok's castle) to warn her companion (Louis/Ellen/Mina) about the dangers of the Big Bad Vampire corrupting them ("His love is a small box he keeps you in, don't stay in it!" | "He seeks after Ellen, I know it!" | "I know where the bastard sleeps!"). C/T/J struggles to reconcile their desperation to save their loved one with the realization that said loved one is connected to the vampire by a bond stronger than they can understand or meddle with (Loustat's cord you cannot see | DracuMina's crossing oceans of time | Orllen's dream-possession). She's not the main heroine, but C/T/J still wins a significant victory by purging the world of the other threat/impediment lurking (Antoinette/Herr Knock/Renfield).

But S2!Claudia ultimately reifies the Gothic heroine format; "victimized, virginal and powerless while being pursued by villainous men." This isn't a return to the format, since she never left it--in S1 she also represents the Lucy/Anna; the main character's closest friend & confidante, who's viciously targeted by The Vampire--either as the bait to lure his primary love interest under his influence, or to demonstrate just how much control he has over everyone's lives. Bruce, Lestat, Santiago, Armand, and even Sam all participate in her murder; but LOUIS is also a victim of the Trial, powerless to help himself or either of his daughters--a la Anna/Friedrich Harding.

Anne Rice & Self-Inserts

Last part, cuz I've hit Tumblr's image limit, grrr! Something I almost never see anyone talk about wrt Anne Rice & LDPDL is how much alcoholism was a major inspo for her vampires. Sure, on the surface one can easily say: Lord Byron was an alcoholic bisexual depressed pretty boy drug addict etc etc too. But for AR, vamps are the Embodiment of Thirst (famously levied against book!Armand), and a large part of Louis' morose depression stems from his fighting his cravings for drink--alcohol as a human & blood as a vampire; following AR's experiences with her own alcoholic mother, whose "helplessness and need [for alcohol] echoed in Louis' mannerisms: guilt, insecurity, helplessness, a sense of isolation and secrecy, low self-esteem over-reaction to criticism, and intense sadness."

Everyone on the anti-Femme!Louis side is always quick to dismiss the AR evidence as irrelevant cuz Lestat was AR's self-insert, too~~! Sure, ALL characters that authors write are to some degree a self-insert, or based on different facets of themselves. But Louis is THE Titular Vampire, and the one she originally framed TVC's narrative around, to focus on Claudia's relationship/impact on him. His depression is HERS for losing her child and resenting her husband, and her MOTHER'S for her alcoholism. And I already discussed gendered Gothic Victorian depression/melancholy/mental illness wrt Louis/Ellen here.

Evidence has been provided from Jacob Anderson, the showrunners, and even Anne Rice herself about the femme-coded dynamics, motifs & influences used to create Black!LDPDL as AMC's racebent gay Black take on Anne Rice's originally bisexual Caucasian 19th century book/film character; but this is usually conveniently downplayed or outright dismissed by those who insist on seeing Louis as a perpetuation of the racist Black stereotype of the hyper-aggressive sexually dominant hyper-masculine threat to white/female innocence--a la his portrayal in the Theatre of Vampires' smear campaign of a Trial in 2x7, which was specifically designed to sentence him and his Black daughter Claudia to death for their "crimes" against the white male co-lead Lestat de Lioncourt.

As a femme!Louis Truther, I've been increasingly agitated by the gross inequity of the fandom's ready & willing acceptance of all the parts of Lestat that are femme-coded, and the otherwise blatant & willful ignorance of Louis' in kind. Lestat, the campy fan-favorite, is more popularly accepted in the feminine role, largely on account of his being their Maker, his aesthetic appeal to white feminine norms: his long-haired blondeness, and especially his exaggerated mannerisms; which are seen as feminine by modern audiences, but are actually a gender subversion in and of itself, as a hallmark of masculine ideals in 18th/19th century Europe--a historical fact that somehow never factors into how Lestat is analyzed by his fans (even the ones who hold media literacy and nuances about 19th century Gothic contexts oh-so-sacred). Instead, they fail to see past his epidermal layers to get to the substrata of his character/behavioral dynamics vis a vis that of his Black counterpart Louis.

It ticks me off something fierce, cuz I see it for what it is: RACISM--the inability of white people to see Black!Louis as a vehicle by which he can be related to on a (white)feminine level, let alone in classically heteronormative predominately white Gothic Horror or Gothic Romance that demonizes The Other: monsters, gays & Black people alike. AMC!Louis never stood a chance with y'all bigots; but y'all hide behind media literacy & white!feminism rather than just speaking your biases with your whole chest.

[gadriezmannsgirl]

Other Language -Pedri González

Summary: Your boyfriend has already met your family, but his nervous increases mostly when he's about to met your younger brother

"C'mon Pepi" You said entering your shared backyard where you found your boyfriend, doing some tricks with the ball on his feet. You sighed

Pedri was absolutely nervous to meet your younger brother, even though, he had already met your parents and has been dating you for a whole year and a half, he wanted to like him.

Why the so delayed meeting?

Easy, your brother had level autism, which meant he had problems making new friends, didn't exactly knew how to communicate, didn't liked hugs and most of the time he didn't held eye contact.

The two friends he had on his school was thanks to you, you had sat down when you went to pick him up at school and noticed that the boys were playing football, something your younger brother loved even if he didn't knew how to play it very well.

You made a light conversation with the little kids asking who was who's favorite player, when one of them answered with a "Cristiano Ronaldo is the best", and when your brother listened to that, he swiftly made the not-very-nice-toned comment that "The best is Pelé and he will always be. If you are making a second choice then Cristiano and Messi could be very good. Both of them are great"

And instead of the kids taking offense, they joined your brothers argument and invited him to play as you sat there for a while as you waited for the kids parents to pick them up, Santiago, your brother excited and made them promise to play next day.

But the thing was, he never dared to play with you claiming it was a bit weird and prefered to do other stuffs, something that always left you a bit down since you loved your baby brother but couldn't exactly know a good source to spend a good time with him not making him uncomfortable

Now, after a year and half you thought it was a good idea for him to know your boyfriend. You couldn't forever keep them apart. Pedri had been asking to meet your baby bro and Santiago wanted to know who Pedri was and why his parents and you were always talking about him when you reunited.

"Are you even sure he will like me?" Pedri asked stopping, his hands going at his hips already dressed seeing as your parents could be here at any moment. He had a basic black pants, a maroon hoodie on and still rocked it.

You walked towards him passing your arms around his shoulders, one of his hands instantly went at your waist

"Yes, he will" Hopefully, you thought.

Pedri didn't know about the fact your brother had a little condition. You didn't wanted to scare him even more than he already was. Pedri could see a little doubt in you and he sighed

"Bonita" He started speaking but you shook your head

"He will like you, he does gets a little uncomfortable around new people tho" You admited "So, he may be a little... raw with you at the beggining but I swear once he sees you more and more, he'll give in"

"That doesn't help me at all, Y/N" You groan flushing your face into his neck

"Don't be nervous, he'll like you" You admited kissing his neck a few times, Pedri opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the bell "Those are my parents, I'll go" Pedri let out a little high pitched scream as you walked back inside the house to open your parents

You greeted them with a smile on your face, you loved when they visited you and they loved visiting you, after hugging your parents you looked down at your six year old brother, they let you alone with him going on their way to find your boyfriend

"Hi bud" You greeted softly

"Hi" He didn't looked at you but rather at the floor

"How's everything going on?"

"How's everything going on?" He repeated looking up at the ceiling "Everything's going well" He nods "You?"

"Everything's goign well too" You smiled "Wanna come in?"

"Can I take off my shoes but not my socks?"

"Of course" He undid every lace in his shoe, folded it in neatly before doing the same with the other, when he was done he put them together in the corner "Can I hold your hand? I want to introduce you to someone very important to me" You let your hand out softly

"I don't like strangers"

"I know you don't. But it'll make me very happy if you meet him, he's important for me and I want my boys to know each other"

"Who?"

"He's my boyfriend"

"Your boyfriend... Okay" He said pushing his hand lightly into yours as you made your way towards the kitchen where you could hear your dad's jokes, your mom's laugh and Pedri's comebacks

"Hello" You say announcing your arrival with your brother

"Hey" They all answered back, your eyes travelled to Pedri's smiling at him

"Santi... This is Pedro, my boyfriend. We all call him Pedri tho"

"Why?"

"It's a nickname" You answered with a smile "Pedri, this is my younger brother, Santiago but we call him Santi"

"Only my relatives can call me that"

"That's okay, bud" Pedri said nodding a bit with a tight smile on

“I’m not your bud”

“SANTIAGO!” Your mom, your dad and you yelled a bit

“Don’t worry” Pedri said with the same smile on, but you recognized it, it was a sad smile

“It was nice to meet you, Santiago” Pedri straightened up “Are we hungry?” He didn’t waited for your answer “I’ll go to the back to start the grill” Without waiting for anything, Pedri left leaving you with your family

“Santiago!” You exclaimed “I asked you one thing, just one!” You said feeling a bit mad towards your younger brother, you let go of his hand and went towards the backyard, watching Pedri stood in front of the grill You walked towards him and hugged him from the back “Pepi” You felt him stiff

“He doesn’t like me” He said immediately shaking his head

“I’m sorry” You say feeling at the verge of tears, this is why you didn’t wanted Santiago to meet Pedri.

He never controlled how he felt, what he thought or what he said.

“You don’t have to be sorry for, bonita” He sighed turning around “It’s not your fault I’m not for his liking”

“No, Pedro. I swear he’ll like you, he’s just like that with everyone he meets at first time” Pedri shook his head

“Leave it, Y/N” You sighed once more, your head on his chest as you silently cried.

It wasn’t your fault, but you hated what had happened; you hated the way Pedri must feel right now, you hated the way your brother unconsciously broke your boyfriend’s heart and you were also afraid what this could meant for the two of you.

“Está bien” Pedri said softly into your ear as you felt him hug you tighter

“No, it isn’t fine” You shook your head “You were too excited to meet him, I was excited for both of you meeting. Pepi, I swear-”

“Don’t, Y/N” You shut up getting his harsh tone “I’ll just have to live with it” You hugged your boyfriend crying as he kissed your cheek repeatedly

“Honey” You heard your mom’s voice “Don’t worry about cooking tonight, how about we order in”

“You don’t have to worry about that, miss Y/L/N” Pedri said

“I’m not” Your mom said “And I wasn’t asking, son. I was letting you guys know, your dad and I will head towards the Pizzeria and bring something back” Your mom walked towards the two of you “And I’m sorry, he’ll eventually open up to you”

“I don’t think so, miss” Pedri said shaking his head as my mom patted his shoulder“You stop crying, baby” Your mom said caressing your hair “We’ll be going” And with that your mother left you guys alone

“Your mom has a point in there, bonita. You should stop crying” You shook your head “I know you’re sad but there’s nothing we can do about it. Go, wash your pretty face and then we can watch TV or something with your brother until your parents arrive. ‘Kay?” You nod lifting your head up and connecting your eyes with his. Pedri smiled at you lightly and connected his lips with yours “Te quiero” He said as he wiped your tears away, you smiled lightly hugging yourself into him

“I’ll go inside then”

“I’ll wait for you at the couch, then” You smiled as he leaned down to kiss your lips again Both of you walked in hand in hand inside the house, your brother was sat on one of the kitchen stools

“Mom and dad left to go for Pizza” You nod

“Yes, mom told me that” You spoke a bit serious, you were still mad at him

“Are you sad?” Your head perked up at that, you shook your head

“You were crying”

“I wasn’t”

“Are you hurt?”

“No”

“Why are you lying?”

“Can you be quiet? I’m alright” You said feeling your boyfriend tighten his grip on your hand, you calmed down a bit “I’m alright, Santiago. Do you want to watch a movie?” He shook his head

“Can I be in the backyard?” You nod

“Just don’t do anything crazy, okay?” You pleaded opening the door for him and closing it after he left.

Meanwhile Pedri sat in the couch you went to the bath, to fresh up, looking yourself in the mirror you could imagine how bad Pedri was feeling and the only thought of it made you want to cry again.

You knew about your brothers condition but you thought he would control himself and act a bit better, than he did a few moments ago.

You went to the kitchen and poured three vases, two with Coca-Cola and the other with apple juice, it was your brothers favorite.

You gave Pedri his vase leaving a kiss on his lips making him smile, you left yours in the table and went to give your brothers his.

"Santi" You called him "Here"

"Is it apple juice?" You nod with a light smile "Thanks" He didn't looked at you in the eye but you nodded "Are you mad?" You sighed

"Dissapointed" You clarified

"Is it because of me?" You sighed not answering his question "Is that ball yours? Can I play with it?" Your eyes followed his hand pointing to the ball pulled in the corner

"Pointing is bad" You pull his hand down a bit "That's Pedri's ball. He also plays football. In fact he's a football player"

"Is he?" You hum nodding "Can I play with it?"

"I don't know, it's not my ball to tell" You watched your younger brother look down at his shoes

"Pedri was really excited to meet you"

"Was he?" You nod

"I'm sorry"

"Thank you" You leaned down a bit and kissed his hair quickly "I'll be inside with him watching a movie, you can join if you want"

"What are you watching?"

"I think he choosed Harry Potter" Your brother nodded

"I don't like the Cáliz de Fuego"

"Neither do I" You said smiling "I'll be going, you know where to find us" He nodded once more as you went inside

"Ready?" You flop down next to him, cuddling him, he was serious and not the usually joking and smiling self he was.

"Yes" You said kissing his cheek watching as his cheeks turned crisom and he left a little smile out.

Probably fifteen minutes had passed when your parents came in with the pizza and headed outside along with you and Pedri to eat, the four of you laughed as Santiago was like usual, in his own world.

If it would be the four of us only he would join the convo but seeing as Pedri was present, he was anxious and probably a bit uncomfortable. At the end of dinner you and Pedri went to wash the dishes but your mom and dad already were on it

"You guys are the hosts" Your mom said

"And that's exactly why the invited shouldn't be doing things the hosts should do" Pedri said with a smile winning a cloth whip from my mom, your dad and you laughing about it.

"Go. You wouldn't like seeing your mom's rage when she gets angry-OW!" Mom cloth-whipped your dad too, this time Pedri and you laughing about it

"You want one too?" Your mom offered with a smile as you shook your head

"We'll be going" You replied pushing Pedri out of the kitchen "Outside?" You ask seeing as your brother was watching now his favorite TV Show Pedri grabbed his ball and started playing with you, softly both because of his injury and also because you sucked at the game but you always tried your best.

When your phone started going on and off you stopped playing going inside to attend your phone as Pedri kept on playing by himself. Minutes later, Pedri felt the door being open as he was focused on the ball at his feet

"Bonita?"

"No" He stopped playing when he heard your brothers voice "Where's she?"

"She's inside the house, on a phone call" Pedri said with a light smile on. Your brother nodded

"Ball"

"What?"

"Ball" Your brother repeated pointing to the ball at Pedri's feet

"You like playing football?" He nods not looking at him "You want to play with me?"

"Can I?" Pedri nods passing the ball to your brother Time had passed and Santiago had opened up to Pedri.

Both of your parents and you stood in the kitchen watching through the glass window how Santiago started a high five with him, smiled and laughed like crazy, held eye contact and most importantly how he hugged Pedri.

You smiled watching the carefree nature of your baby brother and the happiness of your boyfriend came back. Both of them goofing around

"He already has Santi on his hand" Your dad commented as your mom nodded meanwhile only you could see the image with a smile on

"We'll watch something on the TV, you coming with us?" You shook your head at your dad comment

"I'll stay here" You smiled not for once taking your eyes off of them.

They smiled and went to the couch as you stood there with a smile on, suddenly your brother stopped playing and came back

"Is there any Pizza left?" You nodded "Can I have a slice of it?" You grabbed a plate and put a slice in it watching him eat it. You walked back to where Pedri was, instead of playing he was sat in one of the chairs

"You've him on your hand. Told you he was going to open up eventually" Pedri smiled letting you sit on his lap

"You were also worried" You nod

"I was" You fell silent "My brother has level autism" You confessed taking Pedri by surprise "That's why he's how he is" You shrugged off your shoulders a bit "He has problems meeting new people and also on how to communicate, he doesn't like to touch people nor be touched, he doesn't hold eye contact and to see him doing all those things with you it was simply beautiful. He doesn't even do it with me" You smiled a little

"He doesn't hug you?" You shook your head

"He doesn't even play football with me because he says it's weird, I don't do a lot of things with him because of the same thing"

"Well, for being my girlfriend you really don't know how to play football" You fake laughed

"You aren't funny" He smiled "I'm truly happy seeing him this happy with you. My boys" Pedri smiled

"When was the last time you hugged him?"

"When he was two. He started feeling a bit sensitive whenever we had him in arms and he just started pushing me and my dad away. He only truly hugs mom and that happens once every four months or something like that" You smile "I steal some kisses from him, like when he leasts expect I peck his nose or cheek but he always get angry so..." You shrug your shoulders a bit "I try not doing it that much"

Santiago suddenly appears his face full of pizza souce, you smile

"You have" You point all across his mouth watching him clean it up by himself

"Thank you" He looks back down at the floor as you try to stand up from your boyfriends lap

"Santi" Pedri says "Playing football is cool, right?" He nods "How about we teach your sister how to play?" He nods excited once more "Also, one more thing... You wanna know something us players do before coming out?"

"Sure, what do you do?"

"We have a grupal hug" Santiago looked at you and then to Pedri and nestled himself in between the two of you while sitting himself on your lap

You hugged your brother tightly, feeling his tiny arms around your neck, you held in his coconut scent and the lavender of his clothes something you haven't done in a few years.

When your brother hummed in discomfort you let him go, holding back the tears

"C'mon, we're ready to play" You said standing up from Pedri's lap as your brother went to pick the ball up, you hugged Pedri tightly

"Thank you, thank you, thank you" You mumbled into his ear

"I'm sorry if-" You shook your head

"That was perfect" You smiled kissing his lips "Te quiero"

"Are we playing?" Your brother asked as you separated from Pedri

"Hey" He called you making you turn around "Y yo a ti"

°°° °°° °°° °°°

Tag list: @gaviypedrisbride

[aquamanandfriends]

🧛‍♂️ go to a costume party - Santiago

"I'm Greek," he explained the costumes and paused. "So I dressed like an ancient Greek-- It's funny, punny." Santiago smirked, shrugged then spun his fake sword. "Should'a just gone with Superman huh? Why does everyone keep saying that?" he mumbled in French to himself. "I get to show off my calves," he teased.

[whileurmine]

@th-angelical liked this for starters with dramatic brazilian lyrics

"You don't answer my messages, you treat me like fucking trash, you wouldn't fucking know if I was fucking dead for like a week." He counted it out on his fingers, too drunk to know better than not to say his thoughts out loud. "You know what? If you don't want me, I don't even want to fuck you anymore. I give the fuck up." Hands thrown in the air in surrender. Santiago grabbed the bottle this time instead of his glass. "You fucking suck, no one is your fucking friend. Loneliness is gonna be your reward for all this shit actually."

[aquamanandfriends]

"Tell me about it," Santiago sighed. He hadn't been his usual carefree comedic self in about a week. He leaned on the bar and nodded a small thank you for the drink that was placed in his hands. "You are fantastic at relaxin' me," Santiago smiled softly. "I'm just in my head, not even sure why," he admitted.

Relax Unwind [Nox/Santiago]

@aquamanandfriends

"You're spending too much time managing the restaurant and not enough time enjoying life, mate." Nox placed a cocktail into Santiago's hand. The bar was empty, the back doors open to reveal the canal, boats passing by every few minutes. It was quite the view. "And here I thought I was getting good at relaxing ya."

[arminreindl]

"Paleontology can be really petty and stupid"

In 1898 Santiago Roth discovered the armored tail of a large turtle in Patagonia, which he showed to British paleontologist A.S. Woodward. Recognizing it as the remains of a meiolaniid, Roth was told to go on an expedition to find more material, which he did. This material, which included an almost fully preserved skull, was initially published on in a brief communication in 1899.

Strangely, also in 1899, Florentino Ameghino published his own communication claiming that his brother Carlos had found the almost fully preserved skull of that same kind of turtle, a meiolaniid he dubbed Niolamia argentina.

It is curious how both Ameghino and Roth seem to have found the exact same material of a meiolaniid in different localities at the same time, but weirder things have happened. Tho it is further pretty weird how Ameghino rushed to get a name out, but didn't bother describing what defined the animal nor designated a holotype. Hell he didn't even illustrate his skull. But lets give him some time.

Two years pass, its 1901 now. Woodward publishes a proper description of Roth's skull, illustrating the animal in detail. Having heard that Ameghino found a remarkably similar fossil, Woodward assigns the Roth skull to the same species as the Ameghino skull. Although he doesn't carry over the genus Niolamia, instead placing the fossils in Miolania (a misspelling of Meiolania, described a few years prior from Australia). Ameghino didn't seem to mind or disagree, tho he still hadn't properly described nor figured his skull.

1938: Ameghino is dead at this point and weirdly, his Niolamia skull is still nowhere to be found. Since his initial description was wholy insufficient, George Gaylord Simpson (yes thats his actual name) decides to declare the Roth skull the type specimen for Niolamia (the neoptype). Meaning that the genus is now defined on this skull rather than the one Ameghino had when coining the name.

Fast forward to 2011. It is now generally accepted that Roth's skull is the fossil that defines what Niolamia is. Of course Ameghino still gets credit, after all he described the first remains, even tho nobody has ever seen those...ever really. Over a 100 years passed and far as anyone could tell, the last person to have seen those bones were Ameghino and his brother, after which they just disappeared. But we still got the Roth skull, and Juliana Sterli and Marcelo de la Fuente could readily redescribe Niolamia based on that.

But Sterli seems to suspect that something very fishy is going on. Remember, Ameghino just happened to find a perfectly preserved skull at the same time as Roth did. Ameghino made sure to get a name out before Woodward got around to fully describe it. Ameghino only vaguely compared the skull to Meiolania, but didn't specify its unique features nor did he actually illustrate his material. So Sterli said out loud what I'm sure many people must have been thinking. "Did Ameghino just make it all up?"

In 2015 Sterli comments on the matter by noting how awfully convenient the whole situation was. Although no concrete evidence exists, Sterli suggests that Ameghino may have found out about Roth's skull, lied about having found a similar one, and named Niolamia not on a fossil he actually had but based on what little he knew about Roth's discovery.

This is just a basic summary of a rabbit hole I recently went into and my god its so frustrating on so many levels. Again we don't have concrete evidence that Ameghino's skull didn't actually exist, but the way the timing lined up and the fact that he was in a feude with Francisco Moreno, which has been likened to an Argentinian Bone War, means that this suggestion isn't that out there. It really doesn't help that his supposed skull was only ever mentioned by him in 1899 and never again. Ameghino never claimed it was destroyed or stolen, hell, far as I could find he even agreed with Woodwards research.

What's also fascinating is that seemingly, for over a hundred years, nothing was written in scientific literature casting doubt over his claim. I'm sure some people must have called bullshit on him in private, but the only resource I could find that actually goes as far as to say "Hey isn't his weird that the Ameghino skull is basically a phantom" came out in 2015. Everything in-between seemed content with just assuming that Ameghino and Roth both had skulls and just never followed up on whatever happened to the former. Then again I could just as much understand if people just didn't want to deal with this nightmare of a backstory.

[moonisneveralone]

Y'all I'm saying this with the biggest love for y'all, but do not bond too hard with a fictional character over your trauma. Especially not in this fucking series. Maybe if it's a closed medium like a movie where similar themes are explored in a way that cathartic to you that can work, but you don't know where they're taking this character and what they will have him do. So keep a layer of seperation.

I'm saying this cause I kept seeing people say things like there was hesitation in Armands eyes when Louis told him to get in the coffin.

I think the confusion has multiple levels. It is ambiguous.

People want to be protective of Armand, especially because of his history with slavery and sexual violence. That is absolutely fair. While for honesty sake I'm still in the I don't trust Armand camp, I still feel like much would be lost in my enjoyment of Assads acting ability and the series overall if I just thought of him as cartoonishly evil. To me he's a dangerous being that finds a way, while insisting on being a mercyful being. Mercy and willfulness will bring forth a specific kind of cruelty. That's what I think. So feel free to take my opinions with a grain of salt if you believe Armand completely.

But there are two things that people assume about the dynamic Louis and Armand have in Paris that I take issue with.

First is that it was solely Louis who basically forced Armand into the role of a submissive. I do not think so. The scene where Armand tells Louis about himself works twofold. On one hand Louis is supposed to understand it as an inivitation. Armand is showing himself to vulnerable to gain Louis trust. He's also showing Louis that their relationship will be different from the one he had with Lestat. But I think the ground work for the d/s dynamic is Armand asking Louis who he is. Remember that is what Armand says he does. He finds the vulnerability. That is what convinced Louis to chose Armand, which is what Armand wanted. However Armand is still clearly the one in power (which is how a dynamic like that should work). Louis can't make him do what he doesn't want to do. Armand has denied Louis when he wants to. Another clue to the fact that their dynamic definitely has rules in Paris is the Paris version of "Are you asking me or making me?" that Armand immediately apologized for. Opinions may differ, but I think he's well aware that Louis asked him and did not want to play in that moment. So Louis definitely also has boundaries. They've not talked about it like I imagine a well adjusted couple would do nowadays, but they have shown each other what lines not to cross.

Okay the get in the coffin scene. A lot of people have said there was a hesitation on Armands part. I did not see it personally. I would love to know where that idea comes from.

One thing seems to be that it was around the coven. Armand himself said he has fucked most of them and some at the theater. Santiago was getting head mid conversation some episodes ago. Supposedly Armand and Lestat fucked in the Opera with Nicki watching. I doubt that he seriously had an issue with the idea in genral.

What I saw in that scene was the equivalent to "Come to bed love" "I still have work to do" "I am wearing the thing you like" cue pushing the Laptop of the table running. The look that Armand gave Louis after he said face down in the coffin read as horny contemplation to me if anything. Working his jaw that way and looking Louis up and down just a moment shy of licking his lips and letting his tongue cartoonishly roll out his mouth. That's what I saw. Even if we were a little squeaked out by Armand not immediately consenting,

I think it's very normal to deny yourself pleasure you're generally open to in the face of responsibilities. To me it was a very "You're right it can wait." or "You know what? That's more fun." type of energy.

I have a lot of things on my mind as to why that didn't translate. Some people have openly talked about relating to Armands trauma and therefore being uncomfortable. I think to people with certain traumas this type of play can be very triggering and therefore should be approached with caution. It is still important that you know when your perception of things is bleeding into how you're picking up on cues in a fictional story though. That's why I said it's a little dangerous to get too attached.

Louis and Armand are toxic for multiple reasons, but to me personally the kink aspect is the least toxic aspect. To be honest if it were a healthy relationship and that was what both of them needed to feel safe and secure in the relationship I would be down for that. Truely go of kings. But I can't say that, because that's not what's going on and it's not that kind of show.

People have also said that Armand is retraumatising himself with the dom/sub dynamic. I think if anything him trying to keep a crushing hold on Louis is the more traumatising aspect. Fully knowing he is mot loved as he should be, but chosing to stay with Louis. Slowly draining Louis of everything that fascinated Armand about him, everything that Armand seems to like in a man until Louis is just as grey as the walls of that Penthouse is doing worse things to his psyche than any play ever could. That's my honest opinion. Because again sexually or not Armand will still do what he wants. Either himself if he can uphold his powerful benovelence or through a distructive force of his choosing. There is a moment where the relationship stopped being a relationship and became a job to him. Someone said that Armand never moves on without something new in mind. Maybe that's what it is. That he wouldn't know what to do with himself yet. He's waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.

Also one of the writers DEFINITELY did this nad wanted us to know it was an option. Girlies who like their writing and wanna spice things up this is your time.

TDLR I have nuanced reasons to believe Armand definitely wanted to get backshots in that codfin while he read.

[peterbythewayi]

Being human

What if the team of guys on a mission had a sixth person - a female Marine from intelligence?

Part IV

Frankie was racing along the highway in pitch darkness - he decided to take over from his friend, who was tired behind the wheel. Benny, again sitting in the back, lay on the back of William's seat in front and stared blankly at the road; Santiago and Anna, sitting near the Millers, silently looked out the windows, thoughtful - even their eyes synchronously followed the rarely passing cars, while their hands were folded on their chests and clenched into fists.

"So, are we doing this?" William was the first to break the silence.

“How the fuck I supposed to know,” Tom snapped sitting in the passenger seat, turning his head to the side barely noticeably, “This guy doesn't come through with the one key piece of intel we need to make this decision. For all we know, she could be setting us up to get her brother back."

At these words, everyone turned to Santiago, who was fidgeting with nerves. Anna, noticing this, leaned forward, also joining in the conversation.

“We’ll know tomorrow,” he said hoarsely, “she should have been recording that whole thing today.”

The team fell silent for a moment and Anna barely perceptibly squeezed his shoulder, reassuring him.

"All right, if it does come back clean,” Miller Sr. leaned forward, leaning his elbows on his knees, “how would you do the Sunday morning version?”

“I haven’t thought about it,” Tom said reluctantly and turned to the window.

"Bullshit, you can't help yourself,” Frankie said sarcastically, which made William smile too. He looked from him to Tom, looking at him expectantly.

"All right,” he finally gave in under invisible pressure from the guys, “in the first pop, you'd have forty minutes to get in, do the job done and get out before the family comes home from church. That's a hard out. We need to breach the fence, sweep the premises, find and subdue the guards, scrub the hard drives in the security room, get rid of Lorea, find the money, pack the money into 18 hundred-pound bags and then hoof in half a mile to the nearest vehicle. There is only two ways out: the fence in the front or over the mountain we came down, but I’m too old for that."

“Then let’s take their own van,” Anna said, leaning her hands on the seat in front and resting her chin on them.

Everyone, even Frankie through the rearview mirror, turned in her direction and she shrugged, saying that the idea was nonsense, but William, glancing with a smile at the rather grinning Santiago, said:

"We need a third van. Can your girl work that out?"

“I can ask her,” he answered and slightly turned his head back, whispering “well done” with his lips, which confused her.

"Still got your aviation guy down here?" - Tom said, turning to Miller Sr. “Cause we would need a heavy-lift helicopter in thirty-two hours to get us over the Andes and to the ocean.”

“I don't know, but I'll give him a call,” he nodded in response.

“In addition to this, we need a boat,” Tom continued, looking at Anna through the rearview mirror, “can you organize it?”

“Yeah, I’ll try to arrange it,” Anna answered after a couple of moments.

“Oh yeah, Big Dog is back,” Benny exclaimed loudly with a laugh, “Redfly's gonna to be rich, guys! Now we're talkin'.”

His infectious laughter was picked up by Anna, who turned to him and slightly shook her head, resting her cheek on her fist.

The guys just smiled. A damn crazy adventure awaited them, which everyone signed up for voluntarily.

* * *

A few hours later.

At the port, after driving through hundreds of containers, the team finally found Santiago, who, noticing them, raised his hand up. Frankie turned off the engine and they got out of the car, stretching their stiff muscles.

“Hey guys,” Garcia nodded and walked up to the container, “Take a look at this."

He deftly opened the doors and the guys, to put it mildly, were shocked.

"What the hell were you planning here?" - Benny said, looking around at the whole warehouse of weapons collected by his friend.

“Exactly this,” he responds, “Every single gun, bullet and fucking toothpicks here's been soursed in-country. The idea is to pin this on local rival gang.”

After waiting a couple of moments, Santiago continued:

"Now, who was it that didn’t trust this lady?" - He glanced at Frankie and Benny couldn't help but chuckle, - "Cause not only is she going to get us that extra van, but she got us this."

The man opened an old flip phone and showed the video to the team. They moved closer and Anna squinted to see the silhouette of a man on the scratched screen. “There's man, our Lorea,” Garcia explained and, after a pause, continued theatrically: “And, oh, what’s that behind him?”

“Looks like money to ne,” Benny whispered and, turning to Anna standing next to him, continued, “There's gotta be about thirty-five million.”

“We don't know this,” Frankie said tensely, looking intently at the screen.

“Whatever it us, it's a lot,” William noted with a smile.

A wide smile graced Santiago's lips as he saw the light flash in the team's eyes. Now he was sure that he would definitely not go through this alone. Kushing licked her dry lips, running her hand over her burning cheeks. She couldn't believe she was actually participating in this.

"What will you do with your share?" - Benny turned to the girl, but before she could even open her mouth, Frankie interrupted her:

"Never spend your money until it's in your pocket, Benjamin!"

“Well, I just sayin', I'm gonna get that Ferrari, man” the guy shrugged, walking deeper into the container.

The man just snorted at this, and Anna laughed. Her attention was drawn to the brand new, perfectly polished pistols on the table and she stepped closer, deftly picking up the "deagle".

"Easy, easy, Anna!" - Benny exclaimed, noticing a pistol in the girl’s hands. He seemed... a little scared?

“Mark 19, barrel 10 inches long,” said Anna, beginning to skillfully twirl it in her hand, “I used something similar on missions.”

“Wow,” was all the guy could say, raising his eyebrows in surprise. Looking back, he picked up another pistol with his finger and looked at the girl: “What about this baby?”

Putting the gun back in place, she looked up at Ben, and then, turning his gaze to the gun, smiled faintly.

“Jericho 941,” she stepped a little closer, “or popularly simply “Baby Eagle.”

Benny grinned, putting the gun aside and leaning his butt against the table, after which, looking back and not seeing Santiago, he shouted to his brother:

"Hey, where's Pope?"

“He came out to talk to Tom,” responded William, who was examining the rifles. - "It seems Cap is not happy with the idea."

At the mention of this word, Anna shuddered unconsciously, raising her worried gaze to the elder Miller. A shiver ran down her spine, causing her to shudder and hug herself with her arms, slowly moving away from the guys. The brothers immediately noticed the change in her mood, but, looking at each other, did not comment on it out loud.

[thepro-lifemovement]

Pro-abortion activists fight for abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason—no exceptions. Their fundamental argument centers on women’s health.

But stunning research shows this concern is all smoke and mirrors.

Pro-abortion activists have long tried to claim that abortion is safer than childbirth. For years they’ve touted manipulated numbers, trying in vain to bolster this myth. We’ve always known those statistics were bogus, and a study by Dr. Priscilla Coleman and Dr. David Reardon reveals abortion is much more dangerous to women than giving birth. And the results are sadly even more devastating to women’s health than even I had anticipated.

First, let me vouch for the authors of this research. I know them both to be solid individuals with a reputation for thoroughness. I met Dr. Coleman in Santiago, Chile where we lectured at their largest university. We again shared an academic podium in Quito, Ecuador the following year.

Second, allow me to explain why this study is so important. It’s compelling because of its unmatched scope:

The study includes a large number of women—nearly one-half-million—experiencing first-time pregnancies.

The medical records are profoundly reliable because the data was compiled from Danish government sources including fertility records of births and stillbirths, the national abortion registry and cause of death registry.

The study covers an extensive ten-year time period, providing comprehensive long-term data.

It analyzes both early and late-term abortion compared to childbirth.

In other words, this isn’t a biased study with a relatively small sample size produced to cater to pro-abortion activists—or any side for that matter. This research was conducted at the national level, over the course of a decade, providing substantial credibility, a comprehensive level of detail, as well as earning publication in respected medical journals. The reliability has been substantiated, which is why the results are even more troubling.

When it comes to which is safer—abortion or childbirth—the results speak loudly and clearly:

During the first six months after an early abortion (12 weeks or less), a woman has double the risk of death compared to giving birth.

During the first year following a late abortion (after 12 weeks) a woman has over three times the risk of death compared to giving birth.

Here’s a link to the entire study if you’d like to read it.

Pro-abortion activists prey on the fear of Americans by perpetuating the myth that if Roe v. Wade is reversed, women will suffer horrific back-alley abortions and tragic deaths. The reality is that under legalized abortion, women are being killed on a much larger scale.

Remember when we heard the news that Planned Parenthood is responsible for 24-year-old Tonya Reaves’ death following a botched abortion. Reports showed that a devastating five-and-a-half hours passed between the time of her abortion and her transport to a local hospital.

There’s no record that a 911 call was placed by Planned Parenthood. The autopsy report indicated that her injuries were survivable if she had received proper emergency care in a timely manner. The only difference between her death and a back-alley abortion death is that Ms. Reaves’ abortion was sanctioned by the US Supreme Court, giving her a false sense of security that the procedure was safe.

Now Tonya’s one-year-old son will grow up without a mother. Sadly, there have been additional victims after Tonya’s death. And don’t forget the Gosnell “house of horrors.”

Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities continue to lure young women under the false premise that they perform “women’s healthcare services.” Abortion isn’t healthcare. It’s killing. In fact, they’re an industry of death—killing unborn babies and exposing their mothers to a staggering increased risk of death. Let’s not let this grave injustice continue. Share this with those you know and take a stand.

You now have compelling proof that abortion is not safer than childbirth