Some Marius/Pandora content from the Pandora draft at Tulane:

He set me down in the middle of this library, amid its couches and racks of scrolls. He stared at me. Beautiful Marius. I realized he was looking right at my nipples, at how pink they were, and then shamelessly he let his eyes wander over my entire form. I didn't realize yet that all wrinkles of age had been smoothed away. I knew only that I intoxicated with my new vision and that he desired me so much his heart was quivering in him. I reached over and pulled at his tunic. I pulled at the buckle he wore on his shoulder. "What are you doing." "I want to see you as well," I said. "I want to see this marvelous Osirian phallus, that is now no more than an ornament." He rebuckled his tunic. "Why do you cause me pain like this? Why?" "Because you treat me badly," I said. He stepped forward and clasped my face. He meant to kiss me. I wouldn't have it. "Look, master magician. Conjure up a tunic for me. It's not my habit to launch into religious debates while stark naked." He was poisoned by my words. It broke my heart to see how I had hurt him. I did not want to see the blood film rise in his eyes. But I knew his pain as if it had tentacles and they could surround me and draw me deeper and deeper to the core.

I fucking can't get over the concept of Marius as a fledgling trying to make sense of desire and thirst and sexuality. Pandora is so much more open about wanting to poke at it and figure it out and yet he's so burdened and traumatized already, so unable to be vulnerable. I wish we got more canon about this time phase of vampirism from other characters aside from David in the beginning of Merrick, it's really so underexplored!

Something something about how Pandora is so passionate about the Temple of Isis and loves her goddess, and how Armand is also devout and religious.

Right after Pandora is turned, she's happy to believe Akasha is a goddess and rambles about how she will restore her worship across the lands, while Marius is aghast that she can believe such a thing.

After Armand is turned, he's kidnapped and taken into the Children of Darkness, where he becomes a fearsome cult leader, a true believer, who will subdue any immortal who doesn't fall in line.

Both of them are so ready to believe in something bigger than themselves, to throw themselves into the passionate worship of something greater, to be the acolyte of something that they believe is true.

Marius has a type, that's what I'm saying.

vampire chronicles ask game, part deux!

*askers please don't forget to specify a character/ship when the question calls for it! 🥹

🔍 quick, what's a random vc fact that you think fandom doesn't talk about enough?

❤️‍🔥 describe your favorite ship using only 5 emojis!

📝 please give me a silly, serious, or smutty headcanon for [insert character/ship]

🧅 title of your favorite vc book but make it sound like a headline from The Onion

🗺️ a location or time period you would have loved to see the main characters in that wasn't featured in canon?

🦇 fic rec time! link me to one of your favorite vc fics + tell me why you enjoyed it!

💫 genderswap [insert character]! what changes? what stays the same?

👓 aside from daniel's glasses and long-hair louis, what's something you forget is fanon and not actual canon?

🪞is there anything about your favorite character that reminds you of yourself? if so, what?

🎨 a favorite fan art of your OTP

🚨 what do you think is the best and worst thing [insert character] ever did?

🗿 give us the rundown on how you got here! which was the first vc book you ever read? what made you decide to seek out vc fandom on tumblr?

🎸 a song that reminds you of [insert character/ship]

✅ in your humble opinion, what's something anne rice got absolutely right?

Pandora x Flavius | Marius NC17 19K Words

“I…thank you.” Had it not only been five minutes ago when he was contemplating taking Pandora over the very lecti this man was now sitting on? Had Flavius not started this night feeling better than he had in many months? He sighs, suddenly feeling very tired. “So what happens now?” “How do you mean?”  “You must be here for a reason? I don’t mean to be rude, of course not, but…my wife and I did not invite you here for dinner. And so you must have some business here with us.”  “Yes. Of course.” He pulls a sheath of paper from his toga and unrolls it. From where Flavius stands he can see it is the same paper the censualis cum censitor had filled out just three nights before. “Because the censualis had no right to take these figures himself, I have been tasked with checking his work.” “So we must take the census again?”  “I’m afraid so, yes.” The censor clears his throat and takes up the wine, pouring himself another healthy measure. “My apologies for the hassle.”  “Oh, of course not.” Flavius sighs again, pouring himself some wine. He holds the bottle up to Pandora, offering. Hastily, she thrusts her glass towards him. He notices a slight tremor in her hand.  “Now,” says the censor, “Do you promise to give an accurate account of yourself, your family and your property?” 

Flavius--a slave being sold in ancient Antioch--is bought by a mysterious woman named Pandora. Pulled into a life built of Pandora's lies and forced to pose as her husband, the two begin to be harassed by a Roman Censor who takes a special interest in the couple. But as this strange man further insinuates himself into their lives, secrets are revealed begging more questions than Flavius has answers to. But the real question is just how much danger are they in?

READ HERE

Marius asking Armand to be his child forever and telling Pandora he could take care of every detail of her life like she was his daughter rewrote my brain in ways I can't adequately describe I love that man so much

#VCKinkWeek begins on Monday, 7/24!

Get ready to post your fic, art, headcanons or meta- anything goes! Repromoting older works that fit the prompts is totally fine too. And don't forget, kink doesn't just mean smut. Some kink play isn't sexual in nature, and since we're dealing with vampires there's a lot of room to play with these concepts (and how these characters might play with them themselves). Canon, post-canon, AU, all are welcome. So get creative as you can ♥

Just make sure to tag your post #VCKinkWeek and I'll be reblogging as much as possible. Hope to see you there!

Maybe it’s just because my gay ass goes bug nuts for a strong nose, but I’ve always head cannoned that Pandora has typically Roman features and it plays a heavy hand into why Marius is so initially attracted to her. He mentions his own Gaelic mother and how he takes after her and since he fetishizes Rome so goddamn hard his whole life, I can’t help but think it’s something he would be drawn to.

Pssst, @uncivilcivilservice, weren't you the one who said you wanted Marius/Pandora for one of those posts a while back? Well,

Not perfect, but I tried. Dramatic lighting included, pffft.

I'm unreasonably obsessed with this bit I found in one of the Pandora drafts at Tulane.

"Comb my hair."

He did as I told him.

The way Marius reacts to Pandora turning Flavius is so funny but it's also so telling. He loves Flavius deeply, this man has basically run his household for years, and they clearly have a relationship of mutual respect, if nothing else. And when he's dying, Marius knows Flavius doesn't want him to see him in pain and miserable or watch him die, so he leaves.

Once he's gone, Pandora immediately makes him a vampire. No hesitation (I love her):

Marius had long ago laid down the rule that no other blood drinker was ever to be made. I didn't bother to question him on this. As soon as he was gone, I made Flavius into a vampire.

And Marius comes back and his reaction is so over the top. He demands Flavius leave, shouting at him to get out of his home and the city, no, out of the country! And Pandora is sure that Marius is pissed she turned someone else and is going to hate her for eternity due to her transgression. Whoops!

But no. Well, not entirely. Marius is so insecure and uncertain of her love that he assumed she was going to leave with Flavius. Like, my man. My dude! What a conclusion to jump to!

I discovered Marius was grieving, and when he looked up, I realized that he had been utterly convinced that I meant to go off with Flavius. When I saw this, I took him in my arms. He was full of quiet relief and love; he forgave me at once for my "absolute rashness."

It's fascinating to me because Marius is so much like Lestat in a lot of ways but one way that's not talked about a lot is his insecurity and self-doubt. Marius knows he's been a bit hard-nosed with Pandora in laying down rules, and he knows she's not one to be constrained. He holds people he loves close, sometimes too close, and they resist his iron grip. And so he assumes she will leave him the first chance she gets.

So anyhow, I just thought this was an interesting bit of insight into Marius and who he is as a person, and how he is absolutely kind of a mess just like the rest of them.

thinking about how as far as we know canonically marius only ever put his dick inside of pandora 🥹

𝖜𝖎𝖕 𝖜𝖊𝖉𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖉𝖆𝖞

I was out of commission yesterday, so I missed it. Oh well. Time is illusory, have a slice of this Pandora/Marius fic I'm working on:

“What folly.” She sighs, eyeing him from the low bench in his quarters. From her perspective, he’s backlit–standing at the open doors leading out to the balcony, the light of the moon etching a livid silver halo around the outline of his head.  She can’t know for certain, but she’d be willing to bet he’s watching the light glint off the crystals of ice coating the grass below. She’d been entranced by the sight herself just an hour earlier.  “And what are you raving about now, my love?” His tone is familiar to her ear, though she’s not heard it since Antioch–airy, yet undercut with a wicked playfulness. He is being sly, spoiling for a lively fight, a flirtatious tiff. If she wished, she could stoke that fire until it grew into a blaze that would consume them both–greeting the dawn blood-drunk and sated.  But that is not what she’s after tonight.  This is the third year in a row she’s been met with the same sight and the thought of going through this year after year for the rest of eternity is so loathsome to her that she’s made peace with herself for the fall out that will inevitably happen from her pressing the issue.   “Will this carry on forever?” She asks.  “I don’t know what you’re referring to.” He sniffs, puffing his chest out and clasping his hands behind his back. She knows he thinks this stance makes him look big and important. She thinks it makes him appear as though he’s wearing invisible shackles.  “You seem rather…pensive–” “Yes, tragically I am one of a handful of creatures under the Heavens that has been plagued by deep thought my whole life and–” “--to the point where you look like…” What was that phrase she had heard Benji use? Ah, yes, “...a slapped ass–” “Animalian or anatomical?” Sadly, Pandora wasn’t certain herself though she had her suspicions. 

By the way very important to me that anyone who hasn't read Pandora knows that this line is before Pandora has ever seen his dick, she's just desperately trying to get into his tunic (who can blame her).

Between this and demanding they consumate with penetration I really admire Pandora for her sheer Marius thirst.

Armand/Daniel/Marius

He rested his head easily, laying down curled up. Soft sweet, Marius envied this moment, envied the easy intimacy he hadn't had, the tenderness in his half closed eyes.

He rested his head easily, laying down curled up. Soft, sweet. Marius envied this moment, envied the easy intimacy he hadn't had, the tenderness in his half closed eyes. Armand cleaved to Daniel, curled around him before the fire like a vine curled around the trunk of a tree; clinging to it and then, with time, becoming one living being.

"You're staring, Marius," Pandora murmured.

He shrugged her hand off his shoulder. Folded his arms over his chest and refused to meet her eyes, for he knew what he would find there; the mirth that made him feel so very much like a child.

"It's not my fault they flaunt themselves all over the chateau," Marius replied. "Am I to be held accountable for looking at what's in front of me?"

"Flaunt!" Pandora's laugh rang out like a bell. "You're so ridiculous when you're jealous, do you know that?"

"I never said I was jealous."

The entry to the great common room was a wide arch, with enough space for Pandora to lean against the opposite side of the door frame, not touching him but close enough to feel the heat of her. A sidelong glance told Marius she was mimicking his posture, arms folded beneath her breasts, head cocked as she took in the domestic scene taking place on the opposite end of the room. She did that at times. At first he had thought it was ridicule, some irritating posturing on her part. But he'd come to realize it was a subconscious thing; an attempt to see things exactly as he did, and in doing so understand him in some way.

As though he would be understood. He'd built walls that had repelled Armand and Daniel both and sent them back into each other's arms. Pandora, though- she was the only one who had ever seen the fortress around him and tunneled beneath it; attempted to dig her way to those things that lay closest to his heart.

An effective method. A ruthless and sometimes painful one as well.

"Come, now. You know you wouldn't have either of them as lovers, not in the way they have each other," Pandora said quietly. "You would have them collared and yoked, made into beasts of burden. You've always preferred to have people as pets."

The accuracy of her words stung like a dart to the chest. Marius remained stone faced and unmoving under the onslaught.

"And is that how you feel? As though you are my pet?" he asked, finally turning his full attention on her.

Pretty Pandora, with her long, dark hair and wide eyes. Immediately Marius regretted asking. He felt as though he'd unintentionally handed her a knife. All she needed to do was open her mouth and say yes and she would cut him with it.

She pushed off the door frame and drew herself up to her full height as she approached him. Her forehead barely reached his chin and yet when she stood before him and gazed up into his eyes she towered over him. With long, pale fingers Pandora reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind Marius's ear.

"No," she said, her full mouth curling into a grin as he fought the temptation to lean into her touch. "I feel the situation is quite the opposite, in fact. If anyone holds the leash it is me."

On the sofa Armand curled his fingers around Daniel's bicep and pushed him down onto the cushions, prepared to curl up in front of the fire for a midnight nap. It was a soft and easy intimacy, where no words needed to be spoken. Marius envied it, yes. He had a covetous nature. Was full of the desire to have and to own.

When Pandora turned and walked away he felt her loss in the way one feels a tug at a chain around their neck. Nearly impossible to ignore, to not give in to the urge to turn away from this domestic scene and follow her down the hall.

Perhaps he did not have this easy way with Armand or with Daniel, perhaps he would never find himself so effortlessly tangled with either of them.

But then Marius had never been a vine. He'd always been the lone pine tree, tall and proud and entirely separate from the rest of the garden. How fortunate he was that after millennia Pandora was still determined to dig down into his roots, pluck him from the ground and make him her own.

He turned his back on the common room. Tucked his hands into his pockets and made his way down the hall.

QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (2002) Dir. Michael Rymer

𝖁𝖆𝖒𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖒𝖇𝖊𝖗 𝕻𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖘...

Join us in celebrating the many wives, mothers, lovers, and daughters of The Vampire Chronicles!

In honor of International Women’s Day, Vamptember will be hosting a 3-day mini event taking place the weekend of March 8th to shine a spotlight on Anne Rice's beloved female characters and/or the female versions of your favorite male characters! 🥰

Create fic, art, playlists, moodboards, headcanons, meta, and anything else you can think of that centers the beautiful, brilliant, dynamic ladies of TVC! Base it on the books, the movie, the show, the musical, or even that other movie! Canon or AU!

𝕽𝖚𝖑𝖊𝖘 & 𝕲𝖚𝖎𝖉𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖘

Each day has FIVE PROMPTS in case one doesn’t speak to you! There's SFW and NSFW options to chose from but be as creative as you want! Pick one or combine them or rearrange them, it's up to you!

Genderswapped and trans versions of canonically male characters are welcome!

The event isn’t femslash exclusive with regards to NSFW content but it is highly encouraged!

As of March 6, our ao3 collection is live!

Tag your posts #vamptember so that we can reblog! If your post isn’t showing in the tag please don’t hesitate to DM it to us!

𝕿𝖊𝖑𝖑 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖋𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖘𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖉! 𝕯𝖆𝖎𝖑𝖞 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖕𝖙𝖘 𝖇𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖜 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖚𝖙!

[prompts & graphics by @lovevamp 💕]