#the inherent suggestiveness of vampires

[skumhuu]

🩸💜🍏 Nightmare feeds his fledgling 🍎💛🩸

[muckyschmuck]

oh deer

[jack-o-rabbit]

GAY MONTH = GAY VAMPIRES LETS GOOOOOO

[rallamajoop]

So why are there so many gay vampires?

From the time of Carmilla all the way up to the works of Anne Rice (a universe that seems to get only less subtle as the years go on), gay vampires have been a thing basically as long as anyone was writing about vampires. Lesbian vampires have been a genre all their own for decades. Bram Stoker, author of the most famous vampire novel ever written, was gay himself. So why vampires specifically?

I’ve seen people attempt to answer this one before, and there are all sorts of contributing factors I could point to here, from the genres’ beginnings with Lord Byron (infamous bisexual disaster fuckboy), to modern discourse about why queer folks so often find themselves identifying with the monsters and outcasts of fiction. Few other monsters besides vampires can so easily pass for ‘normal’, or are nearly so well known for their snappy dress sense and ‘unnatural cravings’ for human flesh. And that’s without even getting into all those skeezy outdated stereotypes casting queer people as predators, or the idea that even one ‘gay experience’ could somehow ‘convert’ you into being one yourself.

But to my mind, there’s just one really important thing that makes vampires so gay, and it’s the same thing that makes them sexy in the first place: plausible deniability.

You see, a vampire’s bite is simultaneously a) ridiculously sexual, and b) not even a little bit sexual at all.

You don’t have to look far for vampire canons where there’s nothing sexy about being bitten by a vampire. Bloody, violent, painful, sure ‒or just clinically miserable, human bodies torn open or hung up to drain like a human blood bag. What’s sexy about getting bitten by a mosquito, or a fecking leech? The diet of the actual vampire bat requires it to process so much water that it apparently spends mealtimes busily pissing out the difference, and the anti-coagulants in its saliva leave the wound bleeding messily long after it’s gone. The basic act of feeding is no more inherently sexual for a vampire than it is for a zombie.

Vampires are even a surprisingly acceptable monster to market to children. There’s a vampire muppet, a cartoon about a vampire duck, and a whole series of books about a vampire rabbit. You can put a vampire on the side of a cereal box without undue outrage. Vampires do not have to be R-rated for sex or violence.

So of course vampires will go after victims of the same sex. Do you stop to inquire whether the cow you’re eating was male or female? It’s all just predator and prey!

Until it’s everything but.

Do not let the ‘vampires aren’t supposed to be sexy!’-purists fool you. The tradition of sexy vampires goes all the way back to the oldest folklore, where the first victim of a newly-risen vampire was often their still-living spouse. Vampires were even occasionally known to get women pregnant (a convenient excuse for any widow who might turn up pregnant slightly too many months after their husband's death). The ‘original’ Nosferatu sounds more like an incubus than the naked mole-rat creature they made that movie about. The demon lover aspect of the vampire has been there all along.

And it’s not hard to imagine why. If someone is biting and sucking on your neck, then either they’re a vampire, or they’re well on the way to second base (other folklore has its vampires feed directly from their victim’s heart, which is scarcely less suggestive). The implications of an exchange of bodily fluids were never subtle, even in Stoker’s day (I'm looking at you, Lucy-with-the-three-husbands), and the vampire as a sexual predator was a popular literary device well before Stoker's time. Beautiful vampire women would seduce men to their demise, and the males of the species might visit the bedroom of some innocent maiden time and again. The Victorian obsession with mesmerism, meanwhile, provided the perfect explanation for how victims might be hypnotised into eager compliance, and perhaps not even remember being fed upon at all. Vampires have been the ultimate guilt-free sexual fantasy since way back in the day, compatible with all your awkward Victorian mores! (Not quite ready to admit they're sexual fantasies? No problem: he's just here to, y'know, suck on your neck a bit. No subtext here!)

The whole act of biting is so suggestive that in the early years of vampire cinema, it wasn’t shown at all, not even between opposite-sex participants. The camera of 1922’s Nosferatu maintains a demure distance during the climactic scene where the heroine is finally bitten and slowly drained of blood, and Universal’s Dracula conveniently fades to black or cuts away whenever it’s about to take place. But even if the biting has to take place off screen, who’s to say a vampire isn’t going to pick victims of both sexes?

The stately tradition of the lesbian vampire has cinematic examples going all the way back to 1936, with Universal’s Dracula’s Daughter. Though the titular vampire has a nominal male love interest – a psychologist who naively advises her to confront her temptations without fear – the result of his advice is a famous sequence where she picks up a young woman under the premise of wanting an artist's model, and convinces her to remove her top. No actual biting or nudity is shown (it was only 1936), but her fate is left in little doubt.

By the era of 70’s sexploitation, all such subtlety had been abandoned. If we’re all good with naked boobs, who’s going to be offended by a little biting?

In fact, when it comes to men rather than women, a vampire bite was, for many years, far too sexy to be shown, or even alluded to. Nosferatu clearly feeds on that film’s Jonathan-expy, but our only evidence is the bitemarks on his neck in the morning, and the final sacrifice to defeat the evil monster must naturally be female. Universal’s Dracula had to ignore explicit studio mandate that only the brides should be allowed to feed on their own Jonathan-equivalent, as to even imply that Dracula himself had fed upon a man was obviously far too homoerotic to contemplate (never mind that it’s Dracula who must be established as the threat in this opening sequence, or that it’s Dracula his victim will spend the rest of the film obsessed with).

But in that unspeakable land of male-on-male homoeroticism, you might be surprised how much homo we can squeeze in even without resorting to fangs-in-necks. The Lost Boys is surely one of the most homoerotic vampire films ever made, but there, the one big blood-drinking scene is rendered in a bloody massacre of slasher-movie violence. And though Anne Rice certainly describes the scene where Lestat drains Louis of blood in lurid detail (and even has them spend their first sunrise together sharing a coffin), Louis is already thoroughly seduced before he ever reaches this point.

You see, the lore of the pop-cultural vampire conveniently comes with a second and equally-compelling target for plausible deniability: the act of making a new vampire.

Obviously, to work, this has to be deliberate. A world where anyone bitten by a vampire becomes one hasn’t much to offer us, and the relationship between maker and fledgling can just as easily be framed as parental, as recruitment into a cult, or purely transactional. But whichever way you twist it, the implications of choosing another to share in your own eternal youth and immortality… like, I don’t have to spell this one out for you, do I? Did I mention how that thing where a vampire’s traditional first victim tended to be their own mortal widow goes all the way back?

But if we’re not ready to be completely obvious with our mainstream audience, some alternative explanation can always be provided for cover. Lestat doesn’t really want Louis, he just wants Louis’ money! (He also really wants Louis.) The Lost Boys just want Michael to join their gang! (Their very, very pretty gang, who swan around in mesh shirts, tank tops and assless chaps.)

The two sides of the vampire-deniability coin aren’t mutually exclusive, either. Carmilla drinks her new paramour’s blood, but also gazes into her eyes while promising her you will be mine. Drinking blood is a key part of making a new vampire in so many vampire stories, after all.

Carmilla isn’t even the only gay vampire story of the Victorian era. I recently posted about two other fascinating examples, both featuring male/male pairings: one being pretty much just a gender-flipped version of Carmilla, and the other a tragic love story filled with significant "vampire = gay lover" metaphors (why oh why must the townsfolk keep us apart, when we’ll only ever be happy once we’re united once more?) This stuff goes surprisingly far back.

In fact, you can find queer subtext in vampire fiction that predates even Byron and Polidori. 1819's The Vampyre was the first published vampire story, yes, but the first known work of vampire-fiction in the English language is a poem published by John Stagg in 1810, also called The Vampyre (look, the genre didn’t exist yet, you didn’t have to be creative with your titles).

In brief, Stagg’s poem recounts a conversation between a wife (Gertrude) and her dying husband (Herman), whose dear friend Sigismund, lately deceased and deeply mourned, has returned as a vampire. Night after night, he crawls into Herman’s room to drain his blood. Herman’s fate is already sealed, but unless Gertrude takes action, it will surely be she that Herman will take as his own first victim when he rises from the grave.

There may be nothing intentional about the queer subtext of this tale. A vampire’s victims often include friends he knew in life, as Stagg himself cites in his introduction. But if Herman’s first victim will be his wife, what are we to read about the fact Sigismund’s first victim is Herman? Especially given how long he’s kept secret from poor Gertrude that his dear ‘friend’ has been climbing into his bedroom each night, lying beside him in bed and sucking and draining "the fountain of my heart!" while Herman moans and tosses (in pain, obviously!), always leaving him "exhausted, spent." Ultimately, Gertrude is saved only when both Herman and Sigismund are staked through the heart, and we close on the image of them slumbering together in the tomb.

It is, however you turn it, pretty gay.

I reiterate: this is the very first known work of vampire fiction written in the English language. The second was the one that was kind-of-written-by, kind-of-stolen-from, and unambiguously based on bisexual-disaster-fuckboy Lord Byron. And the two most influential works of vampire fiction of the next hundred years would be Carmilla, the very lesbian vampire story written by a… presumably straight man? And Dracula, the not-completely-convincingly-hetero story written by #1 Walt Whitman fanboy Bram Stoker. Vampires have always been very equal-opportunity kind of monsters.

There are, of course, plenty of influential heterosexual vampire tales to fill out the roster too. Varney the Vampire, a penny dreadful from the 1840s, was so successful it ran for over 200 chapters. The 1960s had their own wildly successful Varney-equivalent in the soap opera Dark Shadows. Love it or hate it, we really can't ignore Twilight either. My own introduction to the genre was Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire series, which came out alongside the original Vampire Diaries novels. So there's plenty of material around to keep the straights entertained – and honestly, that’s only as it should be, because the very thing that makes vampires so queer-friendly is that the sex of their victims doesn’t matter. And it’s so easy to make vampires sexy (let alone a full vampire-proposal!) that even the Victorians could do it.

Now, if your reaction to all this theorising is to tell me "but the LGBTQ’s shouldn’t have to hide behind plausible deniability!" I can only counter, "well sure, but why should the straights have all the fun?" Because playing with all the ambiguity of "is this monster really just after my blood or is this going somewhere?" can be all sorts of fun, regardless of the genders involved. And as long as they’re up for exchanging bodily fluids with persons-and-or-victims of either gender equally, why not have some fun with it?

So, okay, maybe the real title of this post should have been "why are there so many pansexual vampires?" But the answer doesn’t change. Vampires have been the bisexual disaster fuckmonsters for as long as anyone’s been writing about vampires, and have been a metaphor allowing people publish barely-coded gay attraction since 1872. And much like the queer community, they’ve only become more complex, more sympathetic, and all the more popular as romantic paramours as the years have gone by.

[cogneartive]

its just that, with the loss and destruction of his family, he literally does not have anyone in the world. filling in the gaps with my mind powers slightly but ill try focusing on whats actually given in the game. his own birth is regarded as unnatural though not because there wasnt any love - far from it - but because vampires generally do not get together with humans. from this we can suppose that dhampirs in the castlevania world are probably quite rare . which like opens a whole bag of worms for me personally.

i mean, like from like a biological standpoint first of all, how would that impact him? in my head lisa and dracula probably struggled taking care of this thing just from the probable lack of information like when is he sleeping, what is he eating. they might have not known whether or not the sun would blow that stupid baby up. honestly quite stressful.

anyways back to game canon. the info from the manual says he does struggle with the whole bloodlust thing (or maybe its like its metaphorical for how he shares the same rage and violent tendencies of his father???????) vs his the kindness and compassion that he got from his mother. and also now im thinking abt That Now because how often does he actually get to be kind and compassionate he sleeps most of the time because he thinks hes like evil and the rest of the time hes committing patricide. When Does he get to be kind konami fuckinf anyways. even if the manual might have liberties i find it quite interesting that he says his mothers last words were “do not hate humans. if you cannot live with them, then at least do them no harm.” WHAT THE FUCK DO YIU MEAN BY IF like as in he cannot live with the anger of his mother being killed or like the vampire blood thang (unclear rn for me whether he actually wants/needs to do the bloodsucking tbh). but either ways. his own mother expected him to not be able to live with other humans. but he sure cant live with dad. who is the big evil guy. also another question while im still here, did he used to live among humans with his mother at some point? supposedly he witnessed lisa’s death and dad lives in the evil castlevania so i guess maybe he did???

anyways like fuck what WAS he supposed to do? abandon all of society seeing that he is neither with the other vampires nor other humans?? sleep for fucking forever? if maria was not there to catch him when she did, hed probably genuinely just stop living as a person altogether….alucardddddddddddd

be honest do u want me to… no i shant say

[yanderefarm]

would silvan like being put in a collar and walked around on a leash?

silvan collared

cw; pet play, dehumanization, suggestive, choking, abuse

the funny thing is that I've already started writing a story where silvan gets dragged around by a leash a little bit. all his collars have to have ribbons on them how else will he look cute :(

i didn't know where to put this in but if you've read the "in the doghouse" manhwa; imagine a scene where you throw silvan's leash and make him go fetch it for you like in that. silvan would be so happy

silvan would love it especially if you made him get on all fours and crawl around like that. just give him one shot to show you he's a good pet!!

walking around the manor whether on his knees or simply being led behind you by his collar feels so intimate. it's like your bedroom activities brought out of the bedroom. you aren't parading him around like a show dog. you want to treat him like a dog. it's all for your own pleasure. when you tug his leash too harshly and he stumbles over his feet that's because you wanted to watch him embarrass himself. making him sit on his knees with his leash in his mouth looking up at you expectantly its for your amusement. just putting the collar on him will make him excited immediately.

being led around a party feels different but not in a bad way. it's less intimate so he doesn't get nearly as excited but that's probably for the best. he's a human show dog and he's proud of that fact. he revels in being led around behind you, everyone staring at the leash in your hand and knowing that he's yours. if he's on his hands and knees he might end up kicked or stepped on but he won't mind. he especially won't mind if he makes a pathetic whimper and you glare daggers into whoever hurt him. he won't want anyone else to touch his leash it's only yours. they can all look at and admire him but no one else can claim him.

in the middle of personally playing with him wrap the leash around your hands a few times and tug him wherever you want him. use your strength to make him dangle off the ground by it. choke him with it. make his collar leave marks in his neck. use the collar to claim him.

silvan would be so happy to be collared because in the end it's so degrading. he loves when you remind him that he's inherently lesser than you. someone strong like a vampire would never be collared and pulled around like an animal, its only because he's weak and less than you that you have the right to own him. that makes him happy.

[aahorrorfest]

Welcome to Ace Attorney Horror Fest 2024!

Welcome, and thank you for participating in this special Halloween mini-event for Ace Attorney Fandom! We’re inviting fans to create all things spooky, scary and judiciary featuring characters from the mainline Ace Attorney Games and/or the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

Whether you are an artist, writer or other fan creator, you are invited to submit to our AO3 collection. Works will be highlighted and promoted on the last week of October, but you can submit anytime from September 1 to November 15. There will be a suggested prompt list for each day (in the last week of october) based on different subgenres of horror.

Submit to the collection here: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/AAHorrorFest24.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of work are allowed for this event?

Written works (ficlet, fic, drabble) and visual art are accepted for this event.

Is there a required length for written works in this collection?

This is a low-stakes (insert vampire joke) event, and we want people to be able to participate even if they are feeling low-energy or don’t have a ton of time to write! Any work will be accepted. Very short, bite-sized drabbles will be just as welcome as sweeping epics! Poems are also welcome.

What topics and themes can I write about?

You can write about any themes, topics, or characters you like, as long as there are some horror themes involved. Genres like horror romance and horror comedy are totally fine, but there should be some evil force/monster/existential threat/killer. An example of a work that’s allowed: Two characters have witty banter while they fight zombies. An example of a work that’s not allowed: Two characters have a normal conversation in a coffee shop. No zombies are present. In general, please make sure you are tagging your works appropriately. However, if there is some reason you want to keep an element of a fic a secret (e.g. not wanting to tag “bad ending” because you want that to be a surprise), you can use the "Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings" tag.

Can my work contain ships?

Yes, content featuring ships is allowed.

Can I submit works anonymously?

Yes!

We have a Discord server for event participants to chat, get to know each other, and share ideas and inspiration. This server is 18+ due to the mature themes inherent to horror. Please reach out if you'd like to join.

[just-castlevania-imagines]

Hi there, I wonder if you wouldn't mind writing about how Dracula handles drinking from human reader S/O? How it makes him feel, how you taste to him, anything else you want to add. Feel free to write for any other vampires too!

Dracula drinking from a human S/O Headcanons:

He's very familiar with drinking from his lovers.

It's all part of the moment. It enhances it like an extra little something; an appetizer, aphrodisiac, an aftertaste.

With you it's different.

With you, he cares.

There's an inherent frailty to you that makes him cautious. And thus you become like a forbidden fruit.

He only allows himself a taste, lest he harms you beyond return.

That said, he only bit you the first time because you suggested it.

Again, he cared about you too much to suggest it himself.

Were he younger, he knows he wouldn't be able to stop himself from bleeding you dry.

But now, he can. It's a little difficult.

But he enjoys a nice challenge.

- Mod Medusa.

[o-solemioo]

HIHIHIII 😼!! hru?

anway, idk if you write hc’s or not, but can you do one with feminine male reader x cullen family? like r dresses feminine (biker shorts, crop-tops, skirts, bb belts, dresses, his style is like coquette , etc,,), he’s a vampire, and he is close with the family (a haram for him maybe.)

if not a haram, a platonic setting where they see him as family and sees him as a son/little brother,,

hi anon,

i'm good, thanks! and thank you for your ask. i'm a bit out of practice writing headcanons, so forgive me if this is a little rough around the edges, and maybe a little cringey. (also again this might be a bit short as i'm still getting back into the hang of writing.)

you are loved,

๏siris ☾ ⋆･ﾟ:⋆･ﾟ

— headcanons; feminine male reader

☾ pairing: cullen family x effeminate!male!reader

☾ summary: just some headcanons

☾ warnings: 2nd person (you), polyamorous relationship(?), implied bi/pan reader, bimbo-adjacent reader, very flamboyant reader, reader gets hatecrimed(?), nothing inherently sexual but some slightly suggestive themes, not proofread.

☾ w๏rd c๏unt: 846

—

☾ You moved to Forks when you were quite young, as your family needed to get away from "big city" life.

☾ You were actually able to express yourself very freely for such a small town.

☾ Even as a little kid, there was something just a little bit more feminine about you.

☾ And when you were finally able to understand yourself and your taste, that's when it began.

☾ The women's section was your favourite area of any store, and to you, it was just so much nicer than men's clothes.

☾ By the time the Cullens rolled into town in your sophmore year, you were regularly wearing skirts to school. You got teased for it, sure, but it all seemed to roll off of you. You were just so sure of yourself; so confident. And it drew the Cullens in like moths to a flame.

☾ Alice noticed you first; your style was so cute, and she needed to ask where you got that adorable purple top from. She started sitting next to you in class more and you could tell she started developing a small crush on you.

☾ You didn't mind her company, she was so kind that it didn't even matter. You studied and hung out at your house often. When she invited you to *her* house, though, that's when everything turned real for you.

☾ Esme and Carlisle just adored you, and while Rosalie and Edward seemed to show a bit of disdain, Alice assured you that they just needed to warm up to you.

☾ Jasper and Emmet loved to tease you, asking you whether you were a boy or a girl. not that they cared, they "just wanted to know".

☾ Life couldn't be better. You had a nice group of friends, good grades at school, and an impeccable sense of style, at least for 2003.

☾ Some boys visiting from the town over for a volleyball game found you, and they weren't as accepting as your nice little group. Everything happened so quickly that by the time you awoke, you were surrounded by the Cullens.

☾ It had already been a week. They were scared you "weren't going to make it", whatever that meant. You were still just waking up when Carlisle announced that he had no choice, and that you had been turned.

☾ Of course you were devastated. Your family, friends, everything, stripped away from you in almost an instant. For weeks, Alice was your only source of comfort.

☾ When you were finally feeling more comfortable, you moved in with the Cullens under the guise of simple roommates.

☾ Things began happening at random. Items of clothing started appearing in your closet when you hadn't bought anything. Your favourite music and movies would be playing whenever you were home. Eventually, you realized it was everyone trying to make you feel more comfortable.

☾ And soon enough, you were comfortable again. Your style as well as you became more effeminate than it already was with the knowledge of how easy it was to defend yourself.

☾ Rosalie was actually the first person to make a romantic move toward you. She enjoyed your confidence with your cotton candy pinks and your bows and pearl necklaces, and flamboyant personality. She couldn't resist and asked you out on a date.

☾ It ended up being more of a vacation to Seattle, with Emmett and Jasper tagging along. When they saw how Rosalie was treating you, they immediately knew it would be a one-up contest from that point on.

☾ When Alice and Edward finally caught on, it seemed like there was a new clothing item or accessory in your wardrobe every day.

☾ Luckily, it wasn't just that. Edward often bought you CD's and Alice bought you books. Emmett bought you whatever was available, usually bags and pins that he thought you would like. Jasper usually found the best jewelry for you, and Rosalie took care of the clothes, as your style let her experiment a little more with fashion design.

☾ You were one of the very few people who's mind Edward doesn't mind reading. Sometimes this can get a bit carried away...

☾ Jasper also enjoys messing with your emotions every so often, which has led to a few interesting encounters. But, when you're feeling down, he's immediately there to make you feel better.

☾ Carlisle and Esme mostly stay off to the sidelines. However, Esme loves to bake with you; not to eat, obviously, but fundraisers are all the rage, and who doesn't love a good bake sale? She's a kinesthetic learner, so it doesn't surprise you when her hands start to wander a bit.

☾ Carlisle can be a bit of a bore sometimes with all of his technical talk, but you always listen when he tells you about his day. He's willing to do whatever you want, too; and when he eyes you up and down every so often, you smile and pretend not to notice.

☾ All in all, you've found your place easily with the Cullens, and while it's definitely unconventional, all you care about is that you're happy. After a long time, you finally are.

—

sorry for the long wait ! i got a bit caught up in life :/ but there should be a bit more of an influx in posts soon :D

[elysianholly]

This fucking guy

My villain origin story is people claiming that Riley's biggest crime in the series was being boring. He wasn't just boring. He was a passive-aggressive chauvinist who the show bent over backward to defend. A while back on Reddit, I made a list of reasons why Riley sucks. This is that list, and I'm adding to it.

The only reason he punches Parker is because Parker is mouthing off about a girl Riley likes. Everything about this interaction suggests that Riley has heard him say similar before, and hasn't cared until the woman in question was someone he had a vested interest in.

He calls Buffy stupid for not wanting to date him (if this guy slid into your DMs and called you stupid for turning him down, lbr, this would not lead into a healthy, lasting romance)

He immediately puts himself in competition with Buffy. Even at his most inoffensive, he says things like "I don't even know if I could take you."

He has an inherently chauvinistic view of the world (established in The Initiative)

He is upset that Buffy had a significant relationship before she knew him and assumes Buffy boinked Angel in The Yoko Factor

He uses abuser language to excuse his shitty behavior like, "I love you so much I can't think straight."

He decides that Buffy doesn't love him all by himself

When he decides that Buffy doesn't love him, he confides in Xander and doesn't communicate his relationship issues with Buffy

He wants to help Buffy but only in jobs that are "manly." In No Place Like Home, for instance, he nopes out when Buffy suggests he help with the spell to identify what might be wrong with Joyce. Even if there wasn't a lot for him to do, he could, idk, stick around to be moral support for his partner who is trying to figure out what might be attacking her mother. That seems like a pretty standard partner thing to do.

He gets upset that Buffy "doesn't get all worked up over him" the way she did with Angel when "getting all worked up" in CONTEXT means "isn't constantly miserable."

He is sad boi at Buffy in OoMM for also prioritizing her mother's health after she believes Riley is healed rather than sticking around to play nursemaid

He wants Buffy to show emotion over Joyce at a time when Buffy literally cannot (if you've never had a parent in the hospital with a life-threatening illness, maybe you don't know that there are times/places to break down and "in the hospital" where you're supposed to be strong isn't one of them)

He doesn't care that his girlfriend's mother is sick, possibly with something life-threatening; he cares that he got to be the hero of the piece, the shoulder for Buffy to cry on. His only reaction to any of that was to be hurt that Buffy didn't respond the way he thought she should; no concern for her well-being or Joyce's, just Riley getting his feelings hurt because he wasn't the center of Buffy's universe or the rock for her to lean on when all went to pieces

This is further confirmed by the way he just doesn't mention Joyce's absence at all in As You Were. When he leaves Sunnydale, it's after Joyce has had a successful operation. He returns and she's not there and no questions? No condolences? It's because he doesn't care.

He doesn't ask about Buffy's death when she lets him know she died.

He starts separating himself from the Scoobies and then gets mad for not being included

He literally cheats on Buffy with vampire sex workers (there are people who say they were not sex workers, but in a show where monsters are metaphors, you have to be especially dense or willfully obtuse to not realize this is what they are)

Riley intentionally puts himself in a position where he might be killed or turned specifically to SPITE BUFFY, which demonstrates his lack of consideration for what she might have to do later if things go bad

Riley blames Buffy for being roofied by Dracula (again, monsters as metaphor)

He never apologizes or owns that he was unfaithful

He blames his infidelity on Buffy, actually

The first time Buffy learns Riley isn't happy, she's told she should've seen it, which is classic victim blaming and happens from Xander AND Riley (and a good amount of fans who want to excuse that behavior)

He is fine with torturing sentient creatures, and in fact had a stake made specifically so he could torture vampires without killing them

He goes behind Buffy's back all the time

Riley was not boring. If he were boring, he would be inoffensive. Dull to watch but not rage-inducing. But he is rage-inducing because, despite all the passive-aggressive gaslighting bullshit he gets away with, people in this fandom still believe he was "Buffy's best boyfriend." That she was to blame for the deterioration of this relationship. That he was the healthiest of the Buffyverse men. The show does, too. That's why Xander (Wh*don's mouthpiece) gives that sanctimonious little speech to Buffy (the audience in this case) in Into the Woods to scold us for not treating Riley better. Then they double down in As You Were to make Buffy fawn all over herself to let this gaslighting asshole off the hook for everything he put her through.

Riley's sin is not being boring. It's that he was actually awful. Wh*don himself once called Riley a "healthy relationship" for Buffy, and if that doesn't tell you something, there's no talking to you.

[skumhuu]

💜💛 Vampire/Werewolf Cream being protective of one another 💛💜

[serpentarius]

I've been thinking about some of the phrasing Armand uses when he's talking about vampiric life.

For example, when Daniel remarks, "He was a natural," about Lestat's performance at Renaud's, Armand corrects him by saying, "Decidedly unnatural."

Or when Armand is describing life in the coven after the trial, he says things had "returned to abnormal."

To me, these subtle yet distinct linguistic choices suggest that he's trying to make a point about vampire life being fundamentally distinct from human existence. That vampirism is not simply a deviation from human nature, but an entirely separate state of being that utterly defies human norms and expectations.

I feel like there's also some element of cynicism on Armand's part here. And that's likely because of how old he is and how unhappy he's been for most of his undead existence. So he chooses these little moments to highlight the inherent strangeness, the otherness of being a vampire; that unlike characters who might romanticize or normalize vampiric life, Armand is here emphasizing its divergence from what is considered natural or normal.

Ultimately, I think he chooses these words to challenge Daniel (and Daniel's inevitable readers) to view vampiric life not as a heightened version of human life, but as something altogether alien, unsettling, and perhaps even wholly undesirable.

[rustingways]

I’m hesitant to wade into the potential discourse here, but I’ve seen a lot of talk about abusers and abuse and excusing abusers and who is enacting the worst violence against whom.

Here’s my thing. Anne Rice does a lot of work (in my opinion) in her novels to show how far removed vampires are from humanity and human morals. I think some of that is shown in relationships like Louis and Claudia’s relationship (post vampirism), or Lestat and Gabrielle’s relationship (post vampirism). I think some of that is shown in great acts of violence (Armand’s proclivity for dungeons, Lestat in That One Scene, Akasha…as a whole). There’s pages and pages and pages of Tale of the Body Thief where Lestat complains about how much being human again sucks ass.

These are beings who, more often than not, murder at least ONE thinking, feeling, sentient person each night to sustain their preternatural bodies. I’m not going to split hairs about their morality towards each other. They’re all mass murdering, blood sucking fiends. They were each conscripted into an inherently violent existence. And not ONLY is their existence inherently violent, the greatest pleasure they experience is intrinsically linked to literal murder. Their joy and their lives are explicitly sustained by death. And they propagate from loneliness and desire, which is frequently suggested to be of greater depths and intensity than the breadth of human experience. And they frequently commit abhorrent acts against each other for those same reasons.

I guess what I’m getting at is, I don’t know if it’s fair to use “who’s your favorite monster” as a litmus test for someone’s morality. Rolin literally described us as “beautifully unwell” like yesterday.*

And I’m not saying we shouldn’t discuss or explore these themes; I think fiction is (generally) a low stakes place to contemplate and analyze these themes. I think it can be a way for victims to explore their trauma in a safe and controlled environment. I think it can be a great opportunity for introspection. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to assume someone is an abuse apologist or something because they enjoy a character who did an awful thing or are a fan of a specific ship.

*((He also described us as “rabid” and I definitely recognize some people are using “I like this character” to condone, vehemently excuse, or deny wrong doings, which isn’t really what I’m talking about here. If you have a favorite vampire, your fave is problematic.))

[vickyvicarious]

When a couple of hours had passed I heard something stirring in the Count's room, something like a sharp wail quickly suppressed; and then there was silence, deep, awful silence, which chilled me. With a beating heart, I tried the door; but I was locked in my prison, and could do nothing. I sat down and simply cried.

This is heartbreaking, of course.

But all the more so because it implies that Dracula didn't just come straight in through a window and hand over the child to be eaten. This time is different from before in several ways, all of which seem designed to taunt Jonathan with his own powerlessness even more.

The feeding itself appears to be happening in the Count's room, right by Jonathan's. Or at the very least, he came in through his own window, and then silenced the child and carried it away to be eaten elsewhere. Previously, he seems to have come back in through his own window and then walked through the castle to deliver the baby to the vampire women, but I don't think they were actually supposed to be in that room either. I suspect they're meant to eat down where they sleep usually, because then it's easy for Dracula to come in his own window and go down the stairs to deliver their meals more in the chapel area. There's also a ready place to dispose of a body there if I recall correctly. So Dracula coming in through his own window isn't necessarily any kind of taunt so much as his own standard procedure. But the children being so quiet while they are carried in the bag suggests some kind of hypnotic control to me, or at least gagging/smothering them somehow - they'd be wailing or screaming for help on the trip over too otherwise, instead of only making any noise when the bag is opened. So the fact that Jonathan hears a cry, even if it is quickly silenced, suggests to me that some amount of feeding or at least 'unwrapping' is happening right next door to him. Where he can hear (and then hear the even more horrifying absence of sound) but not reach, thanks to his locked door.

But Jonathan's door was not locked when Dracula left. I suppose it's possible that Dracula ordered the vampire ladies to ensure he was closed up in his bedroom before he returned, and the hypnosis scare was just their way of doing so. I don't really believe that though, because a) Jonathan's breaking free seemed genuine, and b) Dracula doesn't seem to trust them to get that close to him as a rule. I suspect their little dust dancing was not quite allowed, any more than they were supposed to look at or touch him even when he went out of bounds before.

So that means that Dracula probably came back and then locked Jonathan in afterward, right? In which case, he would likely be carrying the child right up to Jonathan's door with him, right up to the very threshold where Jonathan could try to intervene - and then locking him in so he couldn't.

And this is all on top of the mindfuck inherent in Dracula dressing up in Jonathan's clothes to go out and do this. Not only did Dracula ruin any local credibility as a human Jonathan may have had left after months imprisoned in his castle, not only did he potentially create 'eyewitnesses' to Jonathan posting his letters, not only did he potentially convince a mother that Jonathan was the one who kidnapped and killed her child... on top of all that, he did all this in Jonathan's own clothes. He did all this just - but only just - out of reach.

Jonathan sits down and simply cries. Because there is nothing at all he can do, and he has been made brutally aware of this again and again and again. And all this happens even before the mother chases after. Imagine how aware of both their helplessness he was. He knew her child was already dead before she even arrived. He knew she wouldn't believe him if he tried to tell her anything, he knew he couldn't save her either. He couldn't do a single thing, and she blamed him for that, and despite being forced into this inactivity on some level perhaps he blames himself too. Perhaps he is jealous of her - the bravery to act despite certain death being the result of acting; and the release that death brings. But he still wants to live, even if he has no hope he will. And he also surely is aware that Dracula would take personal care of his death or at least give him to the vampire ladies, that his fate would be the same as her child, and his soul would be forfeit as well as his life.

Meanwhile, Dracula didn't even care enough to go down and kill her himself. She was utterly disposable to him, not even of interest as sustenance. It's so deeply utterly cruel - but perhaps Jonathan is a bit jealous of that as well.

[deepdisireslonging]

No Cum November Part 1: The Proposition

A rough case with a fulfilling ending….

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader x Sam Winchester

Warnings/Promises: canon-level mentions of violence, cw blood, needy shower SMUT, dirty talk

Word Count: 1270

Note: Here’s my next series! Feel free to participate with the reader in November, if you’d like a challenge. But here’s a freeby chapter to get us all started. As the chapters/ficlets come out, two a week, let me know how you’re enjoying the series with comments and reblogs. Happy reading!

It had been a rough case.

When the Impala finally pulled into the bunker, you were all bruised, bloody, and in desperate need of sleep.

One small family of vampires had turned into a nest. You understood the inherent need to defend their home, and the need to survive with their way of life. But not the torturing of victims before feeding. According to their alpha, it made the blood sweeter and more nutrient. It would have been your fate. Your bait set-up was before the boys knew about the other families. Before they knew about the “process.” But your “host” knew you were a hunter right off the bat. There wasn’t even a conversation on whether to turn you or not.

You shuddered as Sam gently took your wrist and led you out of the car. For a second, his gentle grip was an iron shackle. You took several deep breaths while you followed him into the bunker.

You were home. You were safe.

***

The boys made sure you had first dibs on the shower while they unloaded the car. It made you relax to know they’d join you soon. It made your body ache to remove your shredded clothes. Then came the hard decision: hot water to wash away the pain, or cold water to freeze away the memories.

Dean answered it for you. He reached past your paused shoulder for the red knob. Steam filled the bathroom while he and Sam shed their clothes and joined you under the stream. With them on either side, the memories were pushed out by the overwhelming feeling of safety. They took turns lathering soap over your body. Massaging soap into your hair. Their large, warm hands guided the flow of water over your bumps and cuts. You returned the favor, despite their hums of disagreement.

Despite the wear of the case, and despite the exhaustion in all your bodies, hands eventually began to wander.

Sam’s hands spread wide over your chest and stomach, his strong torso pressing into your back. Dean’s lips kissed from one side of your face to the other, over each purpling bruise, and gently across each scratch. With your eyes closed, you could deeply experience their care for you and your body. They took turns massaging out your aches. You did the same, even when they switched positions. Your fingertips drifting over Sam’s cock made him grunt. Arching back into Dean’s chest pressed your ass into his growing length. Sam drew a long finger through your slick, sharing a look with his brother. Dean helped your stance to widen. He whispered encouraging words while he speared you.

The hot water continued to flow. With the steam in the air and the boys on either side, you panted for air. Dean worked deeply into you, even as you held onto Sam to stay on your feet. He kissed your forehead, gripping your shoulders. That grip tightened when your hands wrapped around his cock, stroking and twirling your thumb around the tip.

This was all you needed right now. Them. Holding you. You holding them.

Sam shared another look with Dean. “Does this feel good, Baby?”

You whimpered into his chest as a reply.

“How would you like to have this all month. Just this? Just the high. Without the sleepiness that follows, or the-”

Dean reached past you to smack his brother’s shoulder. “Not now. Can she have a few hours to recover before we suggest all that?”

With a shrug, Sam slid two of his fingers into your mouth. “But look how much she needs us. She doesn’t need to cum, do you, Baby? You just want our cocks, don’t you?” Enraptured, he watched as your mouth desperate sucked his fingers. In your hand, his cock jumped.

“Need to feel her cum first.” Dean started to thrust faster.

Your grip faltered on Sam. Reaching back, you grasped Dean’s hip, urging him on. You were so close. The bright spots were already dancing behind your eyelids. Filled with pleasure, you barely heard what they were suggesting. Sam laid it out, guiding your hand on his length while his other hand kneaded your breasts. They wanted you to try not cumming for a month. No Cum November is what Dean called it. You could say no. But the things they murmured into your skin and into your hair, the acts they promised… it sounded wonderful. They would get to cum, of course. Wouldn’t be a challenge for you, Sam said, if they had to hold off too. None of you would make it if they participated the whole time. They would join you at the end.

Dean reached forward for your clit. “Does that sound like something you’d like to try, sweetheart?”

Everything sparking in your system reached a crescendo. You came hard, gripping his cock tight. With a grunt, he leaned into the back wall of the shower to keep from filling you.

“Sounds like she’s interested.” Sam stroked your eyes until they opened. He watched you try to recover while still impaled on Dean.

“You’ve got a choice, Sweetheart.” Dean nuzzled his nose behind your ear. “Give us three more, and then you can have a good long break. Or, if you don’t want to, or just want to think about it, just the one and we’ll really take care of you tomorrow.”

Tomorrow sounded good. But you were floating. Needy. Just like Sam said. You wanted more. Now. And it wasn’t like they wouldn’t touch you for a month. The high and the passion would still be there. You’d just have to wait for one thing. Maybe it was the hot steam. Maybe it was the human walls on either side.

You accepted the challenge.

The three orgasms followed in rapid succession. Dean took advantage of your sensitivity, moving at a brutal pace until you went rigid in their arms. Dean filled you, pressing his open mouth to your shoulder as he groaned your name. He gently pulled you back into his chest, gripping your forearms with a slight tug that made you arch your chest towards Sam. The taller brother looked down at you with heat simmering in his eyes. He re-guided his fingers into your mouth for a moment, before bringing them down to your sex. The curling and scissoring worked in several ways: gently working up your arousal again, readying your channel for his cock, and moving his brother’s cum out of the way.

When you shuddered with the release that took your breath away, Sam quickly stepped forward. He slowly filled you, reveling in the way your stomach contracted, and your breath came out in sharp bursts. Behind you, Dean sucked hickies into your shoulder blades. He reached around for your breasts, kneading them as Sam filled you to the hilt. Neither of you needed much. You surrendered to the pleasure as Sam filled you and Dean caught you.

You three were finally sated. Guiding the water over your body, the boys gave you one more rinse before turning off the water. They dried you off. And dressed you in your pajamas, which consisted of a pair of Sam’s boxers and one of Dean’s t-shirts. There were so many rooms in the bunker. You’d each chosen one. But they took you to the fourth, the one with the largest bed. They placed you in the middle. Then slid into the bed on either side of you, pulling up the sheets. You began to drift off. Their voices followed into your dreams.

“We’re gonna rest for a few days.”

“And then… the fun can begin.”

***

Part 2: Study Session Number 1

[brawlingdiscontent]

TV is ultimately a visual medium and it often relies on visual metaphor to convey complex ideas to viewers. Black Sails and Interview with the Vampire both use the form of painting to further their thematic explorations of meaning-making via narrative. What I mean, essentially, by this fancy language is that the shows use painting to explore how the stories we tell ourselves and others shape our experiences of reality (and reality itself). 

Spoilers for Black Sails season 1 (mild), both seasons of Interview with the Vampire below.

My first target is Black Sails’ iconic “Fruit, fruit; tits, tits” scene in season 1, episode 2. Below its surface-level general hilarity, it taps into some of the show’s key themes. In the scene, we see a pirate captain and an appraiser looking at two paintings with identical subjects but painted at vastly different skill levels. One is ‘unmistakably�� a ‘masterwork’ by the painter Adriaen Hanneman. The other is an amateur knockoff. The appraiser says, “To suggest that the value of one has any bearing on the other simply strains the very bounds of reason.” However the captain starts the scene off by highlighting their similarities, pointing back and forth between the two paintings (if you haven’t seen it, try to imagine these lines in a thick Scottish accent):  “Fruit, fruit; tits, tits; plant, plant – it’s the fucking same.”

This exchange reveals that value is constructed, not inherent. To accept the claim that the Hanneman painting is worth more than the knockoff requires one to buy into a pre-existing value system regarding what makes for “good” art. The local pirate’s refusal of this system signals the potential of Nassau to generate collective meaning outside of the central authorizing force of England (here represented by the appraiser). The question at hand in this short scene—who ultimately decides and how do they define the relative worth of the paintings?—is what Black Sails is asking on a grand scale. In this brief exchange we find the central conflict of the show which sees Black Sails' characters battle England and each other for control of the narratives that shape their existence. 

In contrast to Black Sails’ look at grand narrative, Interview with the Vampire explores narrative on a smaller, more personal scale. While Black Sails is primarily about struggle, marginalization, and how narratives sway the balance of power, Interview with the Vampire ponders the role that narrative plays in defining the highs and lows of a meaningless existence. The show considers how the stories that give us meaning are generated (particularly via memory) and where they may be flawed. Most obviously/prominently are the many narratives that Louis constructs (and that Daniel challenges) through the titular interview, but the theme pops up in a number of other places, from Claudia’s diaries, to the coven’s ritualistic stagings of what it means to be a vampire—and this is particularly evident in season 2. 

Armand struggles with an absent self-narrative. Lacking a strong concept of who he is, he instead relies on others’ understandings of him, and the show uses painting to help convey this. When Armand takes Louis to see the portrait of him commissioned by his maker, he asks: “Who am I, Louis? Am I my history I have endured? Am I the job I do not want? I do not know anymore. No one has painted me in 400 years,” revealing how deeply he depends on external narratives for his own meaning-making processes.

Painting and its analogue photography are also significant to Louis’ grappling with meaning-making both inside and outside the context of the interview. One way the show makes this connection is through a subtle use of set design. Louis has strewn the walls of the Paris apartment with paintings and photographs—portraits, specifically—that can be read to represent various selves he’s trying on in a cluttered meaning-making process while he’s “out here finding [him]self.” Louis jokes to Armand that the portraits “hide the cracks in the walls,” but they arguably metaphorically hide the cracks in Louis’ sense of self. 

The writers/set designers also use painting to signal Louis’ missing memory. In the 1973 scenes in 2.5 (the big ‘missing memory’ episode), above the coffin in Louis’ townhouse are empty spaces on the wall where paintings once hung. They visually echo Louis’ reference to, “Pieces of myself, missing. I knew who I was without those pieces,” later in the episode. 

The ‘Bacon triptych’ is another key point. Armand keeps Louis in the dark about the status of the painting hanging in their living room. When he announces that he’s found a buyer, Louis says, “I didn’t know we made it available.” Later when Rashid comes in to notify them that the buyer’s lawyer is ready for the teleconference, Louis asks ‘Lawyer?’ and Armand responds, “It’s about the painting, the Bacon triptych.” Louis’ ignorance here maps onto his ignorance about his missing memories, and signals Armand’s control of the narrative. Meanwhile questions about the painting’s authenticity that arise in the call with the buyer’s lawyer subtly foreshadow later questions about the authenticity of Louis’ memories of the first interview—as do the act of Louis’ photographs being replaced with Fred Stein’s in Louis and Armand's album.

Louis and Armand’s disagreement about what to put on the wall to replace the triptych signals a breakdown in their collective meaning-making as a couple, which culminates when Louis slams Armand into the empty space, cracking the wall in the process. 

For pretty much all of his and Armand’s relationship, Louis has sought meaning through external value in a way that is distinct from but not dissimilar to Armand—through his bankable skills rather than his relationships with others, the more objective benchmarks defined by capital and financial value. The paintings and other objects he collects are not necessarily about his own enjoyment of them, but about what will generate the greatest profit (as we see in the 2.6 scene when he barges into Armand’s office with a new purchase).

After the removal of the triptych, the blank spot on the wall represents the space for Louis to write his own, individual narrative one not tied to Lestat or Armand, or a cold figuration of external value. The blank wall at first represents loss and the absence of meaning—which seems to terrify Louis at the start of the season when he’s talking about dreams—but in having the courage to face his pain and loss and move forward, Louis is able to replace it with a painting that’s meaningful to him, and arguably more important, Paul’s portrait and Claudia’s dress, which map his loves and his grief, writing their meaning and their memory forever into his narrative.

Thank you for reading!