#verse; tvc

[infinitusvoces]

Open Starter (IWTV series)

Katherine Pierce lounged in a shadowy corner of the bar, her eyes scanning the room with purpose. The lighting was dim, creating deep shadows that served her purposes well. She paid no mind to the person in the corner of the space who was spouting poetry to a few other bar patrons. The air smelled of faint cigarette smoke, alcohol, and what she deemed as some of the worst cologne. She sipped on her drink, incredibly disappointed in its taste. It tasted cheap to her, but she was not entirely here for the drinks.

She continued to observe, waiting as she drank the whiskey. Her sips were slow, considering the quality of the drink. Had it been any other drink, it would be different. Her dark eyes, sharp and predatory looked from face to face, noting the subtlety in the body language of various patrons. There were so, so many options. One at the bar, one listening to the poetry, she was not quite sure which to choose. She continued to ponder as she drank. There was still time, the night was still young after all.

[paintaboveyourbones]

Them : Book Louis is boring! He’s so bland! Match Armand and Lestat’s freak? He could never!!

Meanwhile, Book Louis :

[lesbians4armand]

this monologue would have changed amadeo’s life i can tell u that much

[blueiight]

Coming slowly to know his evil, or being catapulted into it ... was all the same. I wanted none of it finally. And, deserving nothing better, I closed up like a spider in the flame of a match. And even Armand who was my constant companion, and my only companion, existed at a great distance from me, beyond that veil which separated me from all living things, a veil which was a form of shroud. (IWTV, 1976)

[nklsdttr]

* no but seriously gimme all the reasons to use hope's tb verse

[dragutvampiri]

TLDR; Armand essentially kidnaps a baby vampire and treats him like a science experiment when he learns that said baby vampire is different in many regards to any of the vampires he knows already. Eventually adopts him like the baby vampire was a stray cat.

Armand doesn't truly understand what exactly compelled himself to practically adopt Nico like he were a stray kitten in need of guidance, but he definitely did it.

Watching Nico performing in a musical, Armand was highly intrigued. Observed him from afar several days afterwards. Watched how he fed (improperly), watched how he spent his nights (helping feed stray animals and make sure they have safe homes), and watched who he interacted with (no one the kid had no friends). He was a strange vampire to be sure.

At first Nico was just a pet project to Armand. Help a (to him) struggling vampire learn the ways of how to be one felt like a good deed to him. However, he learned over time that Nico wasn't struggling so much as just...being different. He didn't need to feed from the source, blood bags were sufficient enough for him for one. It was a strange phenomenon and Armand had frankly never seen it before. Usually blood from something dead wasn't healthy for them in the slightest, but maybe it was different when it came to bagged blood?

The strange young vampire fascinated him in a way he hadn't felt since he met Daniel. Could there be other types of vampires? Vampires with different pros and cons. Different strengths and weaknesses.

[brittlefcrged]

these things are always a contest of wills -- hers versus her agent's, most specifically. she preferred to avoid the public's eye whenever possible, and while yes, mystery did have a selling point in and of itself, stephen liked to remind her that it was a hint of mystery that was required, not anonymity itself.

it wasn't stage fright, per se. she knew what that felt like, all too well, the way her bones would freeze and her joints would lock, the way her heart would leap erratic like a rabbit chased by wolves, the way her throat would tighten and the world would spin, fingers frozen around the bow and neck of the treasured instrument nestled beneath her chin. no. this was not stage fright. the performance, as it were, was already done. her dreams, her nightmares, already bared, paint to canvas, for the world to see.

this was simply the anxiety that came with questions that she did not know how to answer, prying eyes, and greedy tongues that wanted parts of her that were not for public display --

she'd managed to tuck herself away, into a corner, blissfully free of prying eyes, her fingers pinned, white knuckled around the glass of champagne that she'd barely touched. she hadn't trusted herself to start, and not stop without finishing the entire pyramid of bubbly liquid perched at the front of the gallery.

a shiver. a dance of ice along her spine, and blue-grey eyes tilt upwards, flickering over the agile, languid movements of the stranger that approached. a smile, practiced, but not exactly false, glazes over her lips for a moment as she offers a duck of the chin, appreciation offered, though her eyes don't move from his. magnetic. "i ...." there's too long of a delay, her words lost in the whirlwind of thoughts, and images, bordering on lurid, that traipse through her head, and her head tilts to the side, gaze sliding away as she tried to pretend she doesn't feel the flush rising in her cheeks.

"i hope it is a good one," she settles on, after taking a sip of her drink, finally, as an excuse for the pause. "and if it is, that what you see here lives up to it." she wants him to speak again -- the caress of a multitude of accents touch his words, and she finds herself needing to hear more, to catch them all.

armand peruses silently, pausing at each piece, like a student of art, wide-eyed and full of intrigue. the language of art had always been one easy for him to understand. he once spoke it better than any other. both as an observer and a lost, creative mind. he’d believed once that life’s mysteries were not held in old philosophy, but in art itself. he could understand everything about the human condition if only through the work of their hands.

but reese’s work speaks to him differently than most. it speaks to immortality in ways that he’s not known immortals to be very successful at portraying.

perhaps this is why she held the reputation she did. after all, he’d first heard of the artist behind the work through other blood drinkers. and now, here he was, seeing it for himself. armand attempts to blend in with the human crowd, dressed in black, dark contact lenses covering the unnatural hue of his eyes. he turns from the piece he’d been scrutinizing and instead lets his gaze seek the artist herself, approaching calmly.

❝ you have quite the reputation, ❞ he greets, complimenting, as he comes alongside of her.

@brittlefcrged liked for a starter !!

[eidetictelekinetic]

So I have this theory that in the books, the vampire blood was slowly changing Daniel even if it wasn't enough to turn him, bc causing ongoing change is literally what vampire blood does when ingested, I've never seen vampire blood that is so constantly transformative as it is in TVC

So basically if Daniel hadn't fallen apart so thoroughly, eventually he might have ended up some kind of hybrid

Which led me to a show-verse thought: Armand wipes Daniel's memories to save him, but the blood's already doing all it can do... leading to a Daniel who is barely aging over time and has no idea why*

(*This is not an excuse to avoid old!Daniel; it is an excuse to play with Luke's Daniel in one modern-day scenario while happily playing with Eric's elsewhere, and also it's just me and my dhampir fascination + my curiosity about vampire blood being so transformative + "oh wait this could get trippy")

[halofcrged]

"It's funny you should say that," John conceded, finally pulling his attention from the trinkets surrounding them, to focus on the woman in front of him. His posture was far from relaxed, but to be fair, he didn't exactly look like the relaxing type. "The ... future part," he added, for clarity. He had more than a little skepticism about the authenticity of any of the abilities and powers and sights that people claimed to have, but he'd seen enough in the last weeks of his life in his own time, with the artifacts, the Halo, the visions he'd seen of things that he should've never known, but somehow did ... and not to discount the fact that he was alive and breathing in a time several hundred years before he'd even be born, to exclude it all in entirety. Finding one that wasn't just running a scam on people, though, that was the needle in the stack of other needles. "I'm looking for someone who can tell me about mine."

"No, I don't do Voodoo. You want singing and saints, you go down to Mama Laveaux's at the end of the street. Can't miss the sign with all the X's. You want tarot, you can get it cheaper three doors up at Lil Devils."

Tarot the tourists can stand, more like. People tend to get upset with Candel's brand, the way the past tends to prick and pry around them as their cards are drawn and played. Still, of the Mystic's Alley, the best readings come from the shop girl at Silver and Sickle. That one's got a natural talent. Cuts the cards just like the Greek Fates with thread.

"I deal with the dead and the spoken word. Look into the fire and divine your future, if you like, but nothing like what you want." Placing another vial back on the shelf, she turns to finally regard present company.

"Unless there's something else on your mind." // open. CANDEL SILVERIO.

[infinitusvoces]

@starlightintheirwake (Daniel)

Katherine sat in the corner of the dimly lit bar, her gaze fixed on him from across the room. The clinking of glasses and hushed conversations faded as she watched him, her eyes narrowing somewhat. She had made eye contact with him once or twice, making sure to get a good look at her prey. Her gaze fixed as he drank. There were a few others in the bar that caught her eye, but he was the one she wanted that night. Once he finally stood up, her lips curled into a sly smile. She waited a few minutes before slipping from where she sat, following him out of the bar.

She was lying in wait until she saw her opportunity. He was getting out his keys, meaning he was close to his destination. Using her speed, she quickly moved in front of him, tilting her head as she looked at him up close. Although she nearly knocked him over, she put a hand on his back to pull him back up to her. Her hand gripped tightly. "You're going to invite me in, okay?" she spoke firmly, yet her voice smooth as silk, weaving her compulsion through his mind like a thread. Sure, she could drink out here, but inside there would be fewer witnesses. Not that she would care to kill those witnessing as well.

[paintaboveyourbones]

So, one of the great pleasures of TVC verse, for me, is analyzing each book chronologically. And what I mean by that is there's this temptation to want to look at the series as a whole and say "oh! this is cool because this is a precursor to this moment 5 books from now". But I think it's important to keep in mind that Anne wasn't some master planner. She was very much someone who let herself indulge in whatever was engaging to her at the time, and you can see this in the way that her canon was malleable and contradictory at times.

One of my favorite reminders of this is right at the beginning of interview

Yes, Anne would go on to write these incredibly baroque, leather-clad-wearing characters. But it's important to remember that when it was just her in her apartment in San Fransisco waiting for Stan to get back from work, the image she was drawing on, the trope she was interested in exploring, was the classic movie vampire. This was the vision of Louis she was initially playing with :

This is so interesting to keep in perspective because it explains a lot of the framework laid down in the interview. It explains the origins of so much of the vampire lore—even when Anne explicitly rebels against parts of it—like her being bothered by the lack of a reflection because it implies the soul is in hell, and she didn't want that—it's a rebellion against this specific incarnation of the vampire image.

[bitter-limelight]

Hello. So uh. I recently read The Vampire Armand, I've read a bunch of books after that, but there's this one thing in it I haven't been able to get out of my head and need to talk to someone about.

There's this one scene, before Armand becomes a vamp and he's with Marius. And Marius wants him to study or whatever, and Armand doesn't want that, and Marius like wips him. And it's described in great detail and Armand both dislikes it but also seems to enjoy it on some level.

And oh my god, it's obviously (BD)SM, right? And I don't think I've ever before read actual kink in an actual book. It was soo good.

And I felt so strongly that like this is written knowing that this is BDSM. It's written as someone intimately familiar with how impact play feels. And it made me feel seen.

And I also want to know if others also felt so strongly about this scene. If people thought about it like this when the book came out.

Anyway, thanks for being a target of my rant.

Hello!

You're in good company; many of us have a similair reaction to this scene and for good reason. Anne Rice wrote...a lot of kink. I haven't read her Sleeping Beauty books myself, or her Witching Hour books, but I know enough about what's in them, plus having read almost all of TVC, to know it's obvious that Anne is a kinky mofo at least on the page. And that's a good thing! Because books and art are a safe way to explore even the most taboo aspects of kink and sexuality.

Imo, Marius and Armand go through the dance of a recognizable romance novel BDSM or D/s dynamic. What I mean by this is a power exchange relationship run through the filter of a fantasy love story. People who was well versed in real life BDSM know all about consent, safe words, SSC, all that, but when it comes to fiction, we have a space where we can bend and play with those rules.

Marius is master, this is certain. He purchased Amadeo, he literally bought him. IRL we know this isn't an aspect of real BDSM but it plays well to represent the power imbalance on the page, same as Harlequin romance novels with Fabio on the cover as the pillaging Viking bringing back an unwilling war bride. This variety of forced marriage/relationship is a very old and common trope.

And we see that Amadeo takes to it well. He loves Marius. He welcomes the love Marius gives him. He loves him even as he's being disciplined. And that includes being whipped and punished. Punishment is a common aspect of a PE relationship, and this mirrors that concept in, again, the fantasy romance unfolding on the page. Antis like to point out that Amadeo isn't consenting to this and he's a victim, but once again that's why I'm reiterating that this is a *fantasy romance*, a historical one at that, and our real world ideas of what proper consent looks like don't apply here. This book is written for adults as an escapist fantasy, a rescue fantasy, just like people have been reading for decades.

As somebody who is in a type of PE relationship, who has always desired such a dynamic and who has been reading about practice and the community for 15+ years, I'm with you. M/A speaks to me, and it's kinky elements are a feature, not a bug.

INb4 someone tells me I'm promoting abuse, throws around the P word, insinuates I'm toxic and don't know what I'm talking about.

[foreverrhapsody]

Top 5: Scents. Childhood books/movies/shows. TVC moments you would love to see make it to the show someday, regardless of how likely it actually is.

oh snap

top five

SCENTS

rose baked goods fresh out of the oven chocolate the Adirondacks, especially the pine trees jasmine

CHILDHOOD BOOKS/MOVIES/TV SHOWS (Imma just do books 'cause I was and still am a Book Girl)

The Secret Garden The Little House on the Prairie series Black Beauty The Blue Sword Pride and Prejudice

TVC MOMENTS etc etc i want to see the entirety of tale of the body thief can that count as all five moments because it's just such a cinematic story - ugh i need it to be on camera i mean obvs adapted to fit the tv-verse but like c'mon i need this

[hekateinhell]

DA here, making the rounds tonight 🫡 Sapphic Devil’s Minion one-shot is what (wet) dreams are made of! My whole kingdom for more genderbent vamps (partic curious about your take on genderbent Lestat!). The fact that mermaid!Armand, genderbent!Armand, scrappy teen!Armand (my love) and perhaps even cat!Armand? (always thinking about that one shapeshifter prompt 👀) are now all part of your repertoire is such a serve, the talent that you are 🥹

DA! ♥️

I'm so glad you enjoyed my little lesbian one-shot! I'm working on being less apprehensive about putting new stuff out there — like I'll do it anyway, I always do what I want! — but I also always wonder how fandom is going to receive something that's both new to me and that isn't often done in TVC fic (i.e., genderswaps, mermaids, human AUs, etc). But so far people seem to enjoy me stepping outside of the box and they (and you) are so supportive, it makes me want to do more of whatever it is! I'm Lestat, I have a praise kink, what can I say?

Speaking of Lestat, yeah I have so many ideas (canon verse and human AUs) that play around with his gender and sense of identity! I think he's the character that lends himself most to this in a lot of ways (listen, it always stuck with me that he referred to himself as a mother in IWTV, amongst other things). Also thinking again about what Anne said about gender in TVC (here and here) and I want to do something with that!

Obviously it'll be smutty, most likely with Armand because that's my standard comfort zone these days. Maybe something for #VCKinkWeek if I'm brave and quick enough. As always, let me know if there's anything particularly filthy you would like to see, it motivates me! 🥰

And yeah... I collect Armands like Pokémon cards. I live for putting my blorbos in different environments and just seeing what happens, I am a clinical researcher lmao and as long as I feel that the meta translates, it's all good.

P.S. re: Twitter: SAME you're just like me, loving the mess at a distance fr I love it 🥹 I don't do much on Twitter except retweet NSFW art and caption random tweets "L/A coded" (I'm @hekateinhell there as well, occasionally I say something funny)

[vampyrebond]

since i'm redoing my tags anyway, let's establish some verses (NOT SPOILER FREE)

a note - if we're plotting a ship and you write a non TVC character, it'll probably exist somewhere in its own version of modern and will get its own tag! these are my canon/canon adjacent and established au verses

a second note - if lestat is mentioned it is @complicitsacrilege-rp. nick and i have just gone too hard over the last few months.

( v. executor in charge. )

pre 1910

anything that takes place before louis meets lestat. he is a creole, closeted black man. he is able to be a child as a child, with two present parents. despite being the grandchild of ex slaves, his grandfather took over the sugar plantation in the reconstruction period, therefore establishing the du lac wealth. just after louis' 28th birthday, his father drank himself to death and left louis as the executor in charge of the family's fortune. to keep their family afloat, louis opens multiple brothels in storyville.

( v. is my very nature that of the devil? )

1910-1939

takes place in new orleans from the moment lestat de lioncourt arrives in new orleans, until louis and claudia leave for europe. note: while most canon events do take place in one way or another, louis suffers from unreliable narrator syndrome. whether on purpose or not, his memory can't be trusted. because of this, moments will absolutely come up when writing in this time frame that look different to what we saw on tv.

( v. théâtre des vampires. )

1939-1945

claudia and louis arrive in europe in 1939. they explore for a few years, feeding off the lost souls of world war two. they are tortured yet again by lestat, this time burning him down with the home they purchased. they end up in paris, and louis turns a woman named madeline to make another companion for claudia. they meet a vampire who belongs to the théâtre des vampires. they are brought the theatre, and meet the vampire armand and the rest of the coven. there is an immediate connection between armand and louis, so strong that it is only louis who will eventually leave the underground theatre. armand has claudia (and madeline) killed, and louis burns down the building with all of the other vampires in it in retaliation. much like the rest of his story, louis and the walking red flag he's falling for run off together.

( v. i'm sleeping with a ghost. ) - most undecided threads take place here.

1945-2022

armand and louis travel all over the world together. they fall in love. it wasn't love at first sight. it was a love that blossomed from shared trauma and understanding. and it was REALLY good for a long time. in the 70s they end up in san francisco. in 1976 the first interview takes place. that's the beginning of the end for armand and louis, not because daniel comes between them ( no one ships devil's minion more than louis tbh ) but because louis' memory would always be their downfall one day. they end up in dubai during the pandemic, and settle in a penthouse. in 2022 they invite daniel to dubai to conduct the second interview. this interview is more of a suicide note for louis than anything else. if the book got published, there's no way he'd survive it.

( v. the prince's companion. )

ship exclusive: @complicitsacrilege-rp's lestat

the book is in fact not published, but louis and armand part ways. louis finds lestat who had been in the ground since the fire. the events of queen on the damned on CAN take place here, but not all will. as i read i'll let you know what we keep. the endgame here is lestat and louis back together in modern times.

( v. professor du lac. )

after the first interview, louis realizes he wants more with his life and enrolls in university. he works his way through school, eventually getting a phd in american creole history. he teaches french and american history classes at the university he gets a job at. all night classes of course.

( v. true blood. )

louis, as a human in modern times, owns the azalea -- a vampire bar in the quarter. there's a reason most vampire bars are owned by vampires, but louis can more than hold his own. he has a daughter, claudia, who was the daughter of one of the girls at the club who was killed by a vampire ( louis swiftly cut the head off that vampire in retaliation ). lestat, having been the reason for vampires becoming public, lives under the radar until he shows up at the azalea one day.

alternate w/o shipping with lestat - louis is a vampire who owns the vampire bar the azalea in the quarter with claudia as his companion.

( v. the witcher. )

louis is a higher vampire who lives in novigraad with claudia. he is trying to keep a low profile and earn a living by owning a brothel in town.

[devourcr]

i went back & forth about writing something up for these headcanons and tbh it took me a while to gather my thoughts and to decide how much i wanted to say about how i view armand's relationship to and with m.arius.

this is kind of a mashed up headcanon, applying to both my novel & show verse.

note: i'm not an apologist and i don't romanticize or condone harmful relationships. but this also isn't me analyzing marius as a character or how a 2000 year old vampire might engage with humans.

tvc is full of monsters. that's the part of the point. i'm not anti-marius (he's a fictional vampire), but i'm not an apologist either.

END OF DISCLAIMER HERE.

armand's feelings towards marius are complex. he loves him still, entirely, and remembers his devotion like second nature.

he perceives the relationship as one of love, but he's also not unaware of the power dynamic between them or the objectification. armand's awareness of these things, however, comes in physical and emotional reaction, rather than analytical thought. there were times he felt used, but it's really not until he finds out that marius lived that it really hits him.

armand feels abandoned by him. he's resentful bc where the years spent in his house were half of his human life almost, their time together was still extremely short. he's angry bc he feels judged by the person who created him, that made him the vampire he ultimately became.

while santino had a hand, a lot was set in motion before him and that's a post for another day.

basically, armand is conflicted, resentful, hurt, but also still feels love.

this. this is where it hurts for him. it's that armand can easily slide back into the role he had before, he can love him the same, but it feels almost unrequited now. all the dedication and all the devotion for what? and he's terrified of feeling abandoned again or used.

i wanted to write this mostly bc i wanted it to be clear that any romanticization comes from armand's perspective. and i tend not to put many disclaimers in my writing.