#tomb of the collinses

[whatithinkaboutdarkshadows]

Episode 598: I thought you might be looking for Adam

Occult expert Timothy Eliot Stokes is searching the room in the long-deserted west wing of the great house of Collinwood where heiress Carolyn has been hiding Frankenstein’s monster Adam since #539 in July. Strange and troubled boy David Collins saunters into the room and greets him with a casual “Hello, professor.” When a flustered Stokes makes up a story about Carolyn sending him to the room to…

[widowshill]

(via @dying-suffering-french-stalkers)

 "gone, I'm gone," hadestown. r/v/b au ft. @tortoisesshells.

[widowshill]

VAMP ROGER AU QUESTION! how would he and barnabas interact together (if they ever interact)? :3 💜

tagging @tortoisesshells because she's my co-conspirator <3

excellent question! this family and their sharp-toothed men will be the death of ... well, several community members of Collinsport, i suppose.

to start — Barnabas gets out of the box slightly differently than in canon, which colors his relationship to Roger and the rest of the household. Roger kills Willie after his attempted assault on Carolyn and Vicki (who is, by that point, his wife); Willie's mysterious disappearance and Roger's suspected involvement makes Jason that much more panicked, desperate, and correspondingly aggressive. Liz goes searching for the lost family jewels in a last-ditch attempt to buy Jason off, and, inadvertently, lets their ancient family sin out of the tomb.

ergo she's made Barnabas' thrall instead of Willie, but this goes unnoticed for a while — even though her brother would, in theory, recognize the signs, and his suspicions are raised, but she's already acting so much unlike herself with Jason around that he doesn't suspect anyone else of doing her harm. yet.

at the start, he and Barnabas get along very well, even before they discover their shared affliction: they're both relatively sophisticated, well-traveled, intelligent people, and for all that Roger decries Liz's emphasis on the Collins name, he leans towards familial connections instinctively (Roger hasn't got much in the way of friends outside of the house even in canon, and he's even more isolated as a vampire).

after he finds out Barnabas is also a vampire, things get a little more complicated, but overall, they're still friendly. Roger doesn't have much sympathy for Barnabas' relentless self-pity and decrying his doomed fate to live as a monster, because Roger on the whole enjoys his vampirism and has made a decent un-life for himself out of it (thanks in no small part to Vicki). but having someone like him around is a comfort in ways he wouldn't have expected, he's no longer solitary or uniquely monstrous out of the Collins family, he has someone else around through the night, and someone who understands the sufferings of bloodthirst and being shut out of the sun.

furthermore, Roger's very much interested in his family history and stories of the past, the building of Collinwood, Jeremiah's ships – and Barnabas was there. there's potential for some very interesting conversations about the past, and the arc of the Collins family history to the present, not to mention literature, travel, fashion, politics and the rest. Roger's his cousin's mirror in modernity in many ways, and that's something potentially interesting to explore: the world changes around them, but Collinses do not.

as an aside, they both have a funny sort of relationship to Burke. Barnabas hates him for his resemblance to Jeremiah and envies his friendship with Vicki and thinks he's crude, and Roger ... well. it's complicated. it's closer to antagonism than not, and Burke has tried to kill him once in this au, and Roger resents his flirting with Vicki, but then there's everything else with their past. so I don't think Barnabas' treatment of him would sit particularly well with Roger, he'd take the attitude of hey, only I can be a dick to Burke >:(

the definite fracture point is Barnabas imprinting on Vicki. Roger's already jealous and possessive by nature, and it's amplified by the supernatural nature of his relationship to Vicki (being closer, bodily and mentally; being necessary to each other; being, quite literally, sustenance) so he's already a little on edge when Barnabas starts paying attention to her, giving her presents, and appreciating the scenery — Barnabas doesn't, exactly, tend to have much in the way of moral inclination to leaving women alone when they have prior engagements, but it's fair to point out the irony of everything Roger was doing with his bloodbag governess when he was still very much a married man.

anyway: Roger finds foreign bite marks on his wife's neck, and he's understandably immensely upset by this. partially out of territorial sentiment, but he also knows Vicki, and he knows that she wouldn't have invited another vampire willingly — which means that she was forced, or hypnotized, or attacked in secret, and there's only the one potential suspect. this is already enough to lose his good will, but he might have been willing to let Barnabas go with a "hands off," had this discovery not lead to finding out what he'd also been doing to Liz. the combination of the two is unforgivable, and it's Barnabas' error to have made an enemy who is very personally aware of all his vampiric weaknesses, and Burke's already carved a stake.

[tortoisesshells]

#love is contained in the convo across the banister where i tell you to leave my house <3 muah.

&

#okay. a)#the parallels between vicki and burke as the dark-headed poor kid that finds themself subject to collinses & Collins-ness & everything that#it represents. vicki who follows in his footsteps as imprisoned – endangered – almost *ran over* for the sake of the family.#who; perhaps despite their better judgment; *do* enjoy the charm; the noblesse oblige; the aura of...#call it doom. around the collins siblings.#(and as we know. ''devlin has a tremendous range.'' in terms of torch-carrying)#but the romance isn't precisely my point even if i'm more than willing to believe in b/e and r/v#but an older collins – one who is perhaps not directly involved in their ruination but a participant in it.#b)#while i was looking at the scene of burke on the stairs i was struck by a feeling of ''hey you shouldn't be up there''#and immediately was like. no let's unpack that.#the stairs are one of the most-traveled parts of the scenography other than perhaps the drawing room window or the sofa BUT it's excluded#to the in-group – the family; their intimates. you don't (or shouldn't) be ascending the stairs as a stranger; an enemy.#because it traverses the boundary between the public and the private – where the drawing room is already host to secrets; intimacy; scandal#the upstairs is a different realm entirely. upstairs is bedrooms; bathrooms; the tower room. sleep – intimacy – privacy – death.#burke is already trespassing in enemy territory by being in the foyer – to go on or up the stairs peels back another layer of skin.#(and worth noting that liz successfully stops him from doing so)#there's so many good r/v scenes that involve the stairs precisely because it represents that boundary between the intimate and public;#between the idea of the house as a home and house as monument.#... which is a key contention between both b&e and r&v. burke who wants collinwood as conqueror wants the castle; a monument to victory.#elizabeth who sees collinwood as her home – as the place of her childhood – as the bricks and blood of her ancestors.#vicki who is desperate to find her home there past and present. roger who sees it as monument to collins misery –#to ancestors that look down on him with undisguised hatred – to his own inadequacy – to imprisonment – to the tomb. (tags via @widowshill)

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[tortoisesshells]

(via @widowshill)

 "gone, I'm gone," hadestown. r/v/b au ft. @tortoisesshells.