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somevagrantchild · 5 months

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Missing Loustat scene discovered in Anne Rice's diaries

I HAVE SOMETHING AMAZING TO SHARE WITH YOU!!

As I was reading Anne Rice's diaries in the special collection library at Tulane University while I was in New Orleans for the Vampire Ball, I discovered this intensely sexy scene she wrote between Louis and Lestat that never made it into her books. This is Anne Rice's original writing, never before shared anywhere online.

Anne Rice wrote this scene by hand in her diary dated November 6, 2015 (which she mentions is the day before Stan's birthday. He would have been 73😭). I have deduced that it is her very first (and very rough) draft of the scene that eventually became chapter 4 in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, aka the scene where Louis agrees to move into the chateau and be Lestat's partner/companion again. The final version of the scene in the book reads like wedding vows, serving as the beginning of their marriage in the modern era. As you'll see, the first draft was rather different.

In Prince Lestat, Louis and Lestat's interactions are extremely brief, and they aren't able to talk beyond one stolen moment to reassure each other of their love. It would seem that in the six months between the end of Prince Lestat (when Louis thinks to himself that he will be with Lestat very soon), and the beginning of Atlantis (when that finally ends up happening), Louis and Lestat do not have any intimate conversation. They may have talked somewhat, but only briefly about superficial matters, or they may have not even spoken to each other once over those six months until Lestat asks Louis to meet him in New Orleans for chapter 4.

In an earlier diary entry, I found a note where Anne said she wanted their first reunion conversation to begin by finally addressing Louis dumping Lestat's body in the swamp after Claudia tried to kill him—something they have never once discussed. So when I came across this scene in a later diary, I could tell it was a direct follow-through on that idea.

The scene begins with Lestat speaking to Louis, and it seems they are outside on the streets of New Orleans, but someplace private where they aren't being observed by mortals. This is different from the final book version with them sitting at a sticky table at the Café Du Monde (though it is similar to how Lestat tells us they walked around the city streets together for hours after the reunion scene was over).

Anne headed this part of the diary entry with: Early on: L+L quarrel—

“I can forgive her for what she did. She was never a human being. She went from being an infant to a monster. But you—you stood there and watched. You carried my body into the swamps and dumped me there as if I were trash—you were the one I hated! How could you do that to me? Decades we’d been together!”

He stared at me for the longest time—not defensive, not angry.

“I could do it because I was afraid,” he said. “I didn’t know how I was going to live without you.”

“I don’t believe you. You were fine without me. You were preparing to sail to Europe. You were making plans.”

A torrent of words.

“Stop!” he said. “I’m here now. I love you! I thought you wanted me here! I thought you’d forgiven me. I thought we had a second chance, now, you and I. And miles to travel together!”

I nodded.

“A second chance!”

I nodded.

Then I took hold of him as if I was going to kill him. I threw him up against the wall and bit into his neck for the first time in two hundred years—the first time since the first time—and when the blood gushed into my mouth, I saw again—for the first time in two hundred years—his soul, his heart.

I was lost in his mind, his thoughts, his dreams, flashes…

I drew back—I’d drunk too much. He was being held there by me, his head bowed. I slapped him hard and when he opened his eyes, I pushed his open mouth against my neck. I forced his fangs into me.

And we were together, wrapped in one another’s arms…

Finally I pushed him back.

He was sitting on the paving stones, hair in his face, back to the wall. I took his hand and helped him up.

“Kiss me,” I said. “No, really kiss me.”

Finally I let him go.

“I can’t live without you! “ he said. “I swear, you wander off on me again, I…”

“I won’t. I won’t ever.”

We walked along in silence.

“He loves you too,” he said.

“Who?”

“The silent one, the one who’s never spoken to me, the one inside you.”

It was time. I could have lingered a half hour more in the old times, but the time was now.

The End

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Above is the clean version, which I have corrected for missing punctuation, missing letters/words, and necessary dialogue tags.

Below is the original rough version as I have transcribed exactly from Anne Rice's handwritten diary.

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“I can forgive her for what she did. She was never a human being. She went from being an infant to a monster. But you—you stood there & watched. You carried my body in the swamps & dumped me there as if I were trash—you were the one I hated! How could you do that to me? Decades we’d been together!

He stared at me for the longest time—not defensive, not angry.

I could do it because I was afraid, he said. “I didn’t know how I was going to live without you.”

“I don’t believe. You were fine without me. You were preparing to sail to Europe. You were making plans.”

—A torrent of words.

“Stop! I’m here now. I love you! I thought you ’d wanted me here! I thought you’d forgive me. I thought we had a second chance, now, you & I. And miles to travel together!”

I nodded—

“A second chance!”

I nodded—

Then I took hold of him as if I was going to kill him. I threw him up against the wall & bit into his neck for the first time in 200 years—the first time since the first time—and when the blood gushed into my mouth I saw again—for the first time in 200 years—his soul, his heart—

I was lost in his mind, his thoughts, his dreams, flashes — (more)

I drew back—I’d drunk too much He was being held there by me, his head bowed. I slapped him hard & when he opened his eyes I pushed his open mouth against my neck. I forced his fangs into me.

And we were together, wrapped in one another arms — (more)

Finally I pushed him back.

He was sitting on the paving stones, hair in his face, back to the wall. I took his hand & helped him up.

Kiss me. No really kiss me.

Finally I let him go.

I can’t live without you! I swear, you wander off on me again, I … I ”

“I won’t. I won’t ever.”

We walked along in silence —

He loves you too

Who

The silent one, the one who’s never spoken to me, the one inside you.

It was time. I could have linger a half hour more in the old times, but was now —

The End

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The spots where she wrote (more) are clearly areas where she intended to expound upon all Lestat was seeing and feeling in Louis's mind, soul, and blood, and then what he felt and saw as Louis was drinking from him. How I wish we could know what she would have written there! Also the lines that start or end with a — make me wonder if she intended to add more to those bits as well. Would she have actually written out Lestat's torrent of words?

Lestat's line "Kiss me. No really kiss me." isn't in quotation marks in Anne's diary. I chose to add them, because there were many other obviously spoken-aloud dialogue lines also without quotes. But it is possible that Lestat only thinks these words as he and Louis are kissing each other. It reminds me of in Queen of the Damned, when Daniel thinks, "I like kissing. And suggling with dead things, yes, hold me." The narration doesn't tell us Armand actually starts holding him, but Anne's style of using internal monologue makes it clear that's what happens in the action. So the "Kiss me." could be similar in this instance as well. And in that case it might mean Louis is the one who initiates the kiss, and this is Lestat’s internal “yes, yes!!” reaction to it. But I do suspect he is actually meant to be saying it aloud.

With the em dash at the end of it, the very last line could have been meant to continue: "but was now ______" was now...something. But considering she wrote "The End" after it, it seems like it was meant to be a final statement, so that is why I added the missing words I chose in my edited clean version.

Although this conversation is very different from the one we get in the final version of Atlantis, I do still see elements of it in the book's scene:

Louis's line "I can’t live without you! I swear, you wander off on me again, I …" became "so I'll come. And when you tire of me and want me gone, I'll hate you of course."

They still kiss, really kiss. In the book, it is moved to before their conversation, when Lestat first sees Louis in their Rue Royal flat, wearing the new clothes he ordered for him and Louis says, "This is what you wanted, isn't it?" and Lestat is so shocked, he's unable to respond.

They do still discuss Amel in the book version, in much more depth than he is mentioned here. Louis having never heard Amel's voice in his own head remains consistent.

They do still go walking around the streets of the Garden District, though it happens after the conversation, not during it. Lestat does say they talked for hours during that walk, but about Amel and what's been happening to Lestat as Prince. Not about themselves or their past.

MY THOUGHTS!

The confirmation here that Lestat never tasted Louis's blood before their new marriage begins in Atlantis is one of the most amazing parts to me, when combined with the offhand way that Lestat mentions what Louis's vampire blood tastes like in Blood Communion. Even though the final version of Atlantis never shows us Lestat drinking Louis's blood (either forcefully like this scene, or consensually in other ways), the mention in Blood Communion does confirm that it DOES happen off the page at some point during the years between Atlantis chapter 4 and the beginning of Blood Communion.

We know that Louis drank much of Lestat's blood at the end of Merrick, and this was his first time doing it because we were told in previous books how much he resisted his powers being increased by drinking ANY other vampire's blood. It is nice to have it confirmed that Lestat never bit Louis or drank any of his blood in return either before or after Merrick. But now, after Lestat becomes Prince, this is now a new element to their relationship. It makes me consider more strongly that Anne perhaps meant to imply that they then for the first time began to engage in blood sharing the same romantic way Lestat did with Akasha in Queen of the Damned, and then in the even more explicit way she shows us with Rhoshamandes and Benedict in Prince Lestat.

I don't take all Anne wrote in her diaries as canon. It is clear that much of what she wrote there were spitball ideas that she later chose to absolutely reject (as opposed to deciding they were true but she just didn't mention them in the books). But I do not see anything in this scene that the final versions of the books contradict. So even though this scene didn't actually happen in canon, we can believe that the feelings and emotions that drive this scene are still canon. And I love that for us 🥰

I have cross-posted this on ao3 to give us a good place to talk back and forth to each other about it in the comments section there. Reblog and reply to this post as much as you like, but if you want to have some conversations and share your own thoughts on what she wrote, ao3 will give us a much more organized place to do it, where other people will be able to easily find and read your meta as well.

#anne rice #anne rice diaries #tulane #vampire chronicles #interview with the vampire #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #loustat #louis/lestat #lestat de lioncourt #louis de pointe du lac

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kaelio · 3 months

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Marius: "Lestat was no thinker. Marius realized that if this moment were to yield a true transformation, Marius himself had to crystallize his belief in some sort of document to which all vampires could appeal not only in a court of vampire justice but in the court of his own heart. And he realized something else too. This document, this declaration, could not be specific to blood drinkers. On the contrary—to be effect[ive?] to be long lasting, to be transcendent, it had to be a declaration for all creatures, calling into question the idea of any exclusion, any outsider, any soul. In sum it had to be a Declaration of Value for all conscious & sentient beings—be they human, vampire, ghost, or alien from another world."

okay so. I'm aware most people don't like Marius the way I like Marius (that is to say, extraordinarily, but in a way with a lot of Dimensions). however. this is hysterical. to me.

can. you. imagine. the ramifications of being brought in front of a nigh-definitionally kafkaesque court of the Undead over some sort of crime you weren't aware was a thing, BUT some dude out there somewhere wrote some stuff about in a manic episode of truly undeserved self-importance. i love you marius never change

(Anne Rice journals - Tulane University)

#tvc #the vampire chronicles #anne rice #marius de romanus #blood communion #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #taggin both #tulane university

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nalyra-dreaming · 11 months

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Oh another spicy question if you don’t mind. Do you think Lestat and Louis bite one another during sex at the same time, during the sex but different times, or maybe one day one does it and the other day the other does it?

I hope you don’t mind me answering these in one:

This is probably one of their main problems, actually.

Yes, I do think they bit each other during sex, if the scenes we got to see are any indication. Likely around the time of orgasm, when the need is strongest (or building up) would be my gut feeling.

And the intimacy of that bite, that shared blood, is also something they crave.

When that biting each other stopped (or at least lessened), when Louis decided to not drink human anymore, it set off a rather fatal chain reaction. (That is not a try at blame, I do not think that was his intention! But he is a vampire, and that comes with some repercussions.🤷🏽‍♀️)

First, as he himself notes at the beginning of the Antoinette fiasco:

No human blood -> decreased libido

Decreased libido -> less sex.

For humans… so far so bad.

For vampires though, and especially these vampires…

Less sex -> no biting (each other) during sex.

No biting each other -> less blood sharing.

Less blood sharing -> less intimacy.

Less intimacy -> less understanding.

Less understanding -> more temper/anger.

More temper/anger -> less sex.

Rinse. Repeat.

It is, unfortunately, a vicious circle.

There’s a few main (other) points here to note additionally though, imho.

1) Louis canonically wants to keep the option of suicide-by-sun so he refuses the offer of stronger blood several times. Since Armand can stand the sun and Louis cannot, it is safe to say (imho) that he and Armand do not drink from each other aaaallll the time (or the show changed that lore completely, though why… with Akasha later etc?! Wouldn’t make sense to me 🤷🏽‍♀️)

2) The maker-fledgling barrier can be bridged by sharing blood - therefore the not-sharing weighs much heavier than it does between Armand and Louis, for example, since they can just share thoughts and emotions telepathically.

3) Louis glosses over the intimacy of the kill (and therefore the blood-sharing) almost completely. The closest we get to what the books tell is the scene with the tenor, and, again, I think the visualizations they gave us actually tell of a different story. So Louis deprived himself that sensuality, that pleasure and that must have been extremely taxing on him, too, imho.

4) The actual proof that they both need and want that, and desperately, is something we get to see in the aftermath of the "fight", and the "hate sex", namely the evidence that both Lestat and Louis went and bit the other, respectively, when agitated/aroused/desperate. They want that intimacy, both of them. Badly.

I think the whole "Louis not saying I love you" probably weighed next to nothing during their happy years, when Lestat could read it in the blood during sex.

When that dropped away though the doubts came back, because Lestat is incredibly insecure at his core, especially in regards to Louis' love.

And the rest... is history.

And when they are finally happy and on equal footing at the court, finally almost similar in strength - then...

Louis knew what I couldn’t confide, and he was respectful of it, and comforting and patient.

... they are sharing blood again, regularly.

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v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e · 1 year

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Louis and his constant worry over Lestat in the books

"Lestat, don't go on the stage tomorrow night," he said. "Let the films and the book do what you want. But protect yourself. Let us come together and let us talk together. Let us have each other in this century the way we never did in the past. And I do mean all of us." - The Vampire Lestat

Louis, the watcher, the patient one, was there on account of love pure and simple. The two had found each other only last night, and theirs had been an extraordinary reunion. Louis would go where Lestat led him. Louis would perish if Lestat perished. But their fears and hopes for this night were heartbreakingly human. - The Queen of the Damned

“Now we can go home,” he said.

Home. I smiled. I reached out and touched the graves on either side of me; I looked up again at the soft glow of the city lights against the ruffled clouds.

“You’re not going to leave us, are you?” he asked suddenly, voice sharpened with distress. - The Queen of the Damned

For a moment, I couldn't understand the expression of horror on his face as he stared at me, or why he suddenly rose and came towards me and bent down and touched my face. Then I remembered. My sun-darkened skin.

"What have you done?" he whispered. He knelt down and looked up at me, resting his hand lightly on my shoulder. Lovely intimacy, but I wasn't going to admit it. I remained composed in the chair.

"It's nothing," I said, "it's finished. I went into a desert place, I wanted to see what would happen..."

"You wanted to see what would happen?" He stood up, took a step back, and glared at me. "You meant to destroy yourself, didn't you?" - The Tale of the Body Thief

I came towards him, planted my hands on his desk and looked into his face. "I was so sure you would understand this. And by the way, I wasn't born a monster! I was a born a mortal child, the same as you. Stronger than you! More will to live than you! That was cruel of you to say."

"I know. It was wrong. Sometimes you frighten me so badly I hurl sticks and stones at you. It's foolish. I'm glad to see you, though I dread admitting it. I shiver at the thought that you might have really brought an end to yourself in the desert! I can't bear the thought of existence now without you! You infuriate me! Why don't you laugh at me? You've done it before." - The Tale of the Body Thief

Dimly I thought I heard Louis’s gentle voice, protesting, pleading, arguing. I heard locks thrown, I heard nails going through wood. I heard Louis begging.

“For a while, just a little while.…” she said. “He is too powerful for us to do anything else. It is either that, or we do away with him.”

“No,” Louis cried. - Memnoch the Devil

I don't live like our friend Louis, wandering from dusty corner to dusty corner, and then back to his flat in the Rue Royale when he's convinced himself once more and for the thousandth time that no one can harm Lestat. - The Vampire Armand

All the faces were soon there, except for Louis and Rose and Viktor. But how could that be? I turned around. They stood only two feet away from me, huddled together, and down the pure whiteness of Louis’s face were two thin lines of blood tears. - Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

Louis had been gravely hurt that Lestat had gone off to meet Rhoshamandes alone. So Lestat had promised never to do such a thing again. - Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

#i'm sure i'm forgetting some moments #Vampire Chronicles #the vampire chronicles #Louis de Pointe du Lac #Lestat de Lioncourt #loustat #Lestat x Louis #The Vampire Lestat #the queen of the damned #the tale of the body thief #memnoch #the vampire armand #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis

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brian-kinney-apologist · 3 months

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reading tvc and thinking…………

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #loustat #lestat de lioncourt #louis de pointe du lac #claudia #claudia de pointe du lac #claudia de lioncourt #tvc #the vampire chronicles #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #mine #does this make sense??#has anyone done this before???#am I going crazy because of this??#well yes

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rijinks · 10 months

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[Based on Realms of Atlantis]

heart's desire: details on what Daniel is up to

#marius/daniel #the vampire chronicles #marius de romanus #daniel molloy #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #comic #relationship status: it's complicated #book spoilers #drew this to amuse myself after reading

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lasciviousl · 2 months

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I was just rereading the Witching Hour and I read this part, I remembered when pple used to criticize Anne's latest books, saying she changed her writing and tone on account of the unreliable #science stuff she was writing, specially in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis. So i just wanted to quote this and show you guys she's been writing that shit since 1990. Her writing and tone had not changed. You just haven't read enough of her books. :)

#anne rice #vampire chronicles #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #the witching hour #witching hour #the mayfair witches #mayfair witches #unreliable science #science #rowan mayfair

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chicalepidoptera · 1 year

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Peaches and haystacks

For @les-fleurs-du-mal22 ❤🧡💛💚💙🤎

#interview with the vampire #nickistat #nicolas de lenfent #lestat de lioncourt #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #vc fanart #art requests #les fleurs du mal22

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somevagrantchild · 6 months

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"I know what you need," he said. "You need one person who is always on your side. Well, I'm ready to be that one now. I don't know why I tormented you, made you pay for asking, made you come all this way. I always knew I was going to come. Maybe I thought you'd lose interest because I never really understood why you wanted me in the first place. But you're not losing interest, not even with the whole Court, and so I'll come. And when you tire of me and want me gone, I'll hate you, of course."

--Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis by Anne Rice

Featuring me and @asssamuraikoujaku Photo by @cup-of-lixx

#vampire chronicles #interview with the vampire #prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #loustat #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #louis/lestat #cosplay #cafe du monde #new orleans #favorite quotes

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kaelio · 3 months

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At last, it makes perfect sense!

(Tulane special collections)

#Anne rice #Amel #tvc #the vampire chronicles #the silver cord #Prince Lestat #Prince Lestat and the realms of Atlantis

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nalyra-dreaming · 23 days

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I know many people think Lestat woke up when louis geart stopped beating but that wasn’t confirmed right? Cuz how would he know that?

Okay, so...

This is one of those things that is "in-between the lines", where many things between Louis and Lestat are. Lestat tells the reader that they must read between the lines in TVL, so that is something to be kept in mind as intentional.

There are a few things that must be considered here, imho:

In "Blackwood Farm" Lestat tells Quinn that the "angels" took his soul with them:

"They left my body there for my friends to watch over," he explained, and for the first time since I'd seen him, he looked troubled, indecisive, even faintly confused. "But my spirit they took with them," he went on. "And in a realm as palpable as this very room they set me down to do their bidding, always threatening to snatch back this right eye, to take it forever if I didn't do what they bid me to do." [...] "I don't even know which of my bodies was the true one — the body that lay on the floor of the chapel of St. Elizabeth's, or the body that roamed with the so-called angels. I was an unwilling trafficker in knowledge and illusions."

Now... Lestat is at the mercy of these "angels" in spiritual realms for years. Years.

He wakes once from a more dreamlike state (as the unpublished book details) to help Armand and the others hunt down the riff raff in New Orleans.

But that is not the same state he is afterwards, because there he was commenting on what was going on around him... and later in Merrick, David notes that Lestat's soul does not seem to actually be there.

"Once again, I had the distinct impression that his soul was not in his body, not in the way that we believed it to be."

This later state is what Lestat is telling us of in "Blackwood Farm."

Now, David sits down and warns Lestat that Louis will attempt suicide.

Louis sits down to say goodbye to Lestat.

Lestat does not wake from neither plea nor goodbye.

So what does wake him?

It could not have been an outward change, because he was alone at St. Elizabeth's when Louis put himself into his coven in the courtyard of Rue Royale.

It could not have been David, who was also at Rue Royale, nor could it have been Merrick.

The show has picked up on what Louis said about their heartbeats, and elevated it, and I do think it is important.

"[...]the drum was my heart, and the second drum had been his."

Louis notes in the book that even after the turning he hears Lestat's heart:

"His heart I still heard like the beating of a drum."

(For vampires, their hearts also sync up with the heartbeats of their victims when they feed, but then that victim's heart stops, of course.)

In "Prince Lestat" Lestat makes note that he also recognizes vampires by heartbeat, or at least certain ones.

Now, in "Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis", we get to Louis' account of the Merrick event, which is an important aspect of it all. Because he narrows it down:

"But the etheric body, the Amel body, was still in you,” said Fareed. “It had to be or you couldn’t have been revived.” “That’s true,” Louis said. “It was there inside me and it would have remained there until the ashes were scattered. It would have remained suspended, waiting, waiting for how long we don’t know. Remember the old admonition from Magnus, Lestat? Scatter the ashes? Well, no one scattered my ashes and I was brought back—by your blood, and David’s blood, and Merrick’s blood too." [...] “My heart had stopped,” said Louis. “There was no blood pumping in me. All circulation had stopped when my heart stopped. That is how I was dead.”

I was speechless. Then slowly it dawned on me. It came back to me what Kapetria had said...something about the invisible tentacles—or the cord—being the only part of us that was not filled with blood.

And here it all comes together, imho.

The cord. The heartbeat. The heart that stopped.

"We are joined by a cord, a cord you cannot see, but it is real."

Louis and Lestat "share a heart", they hear each other's heartbeat. They are also joined by a cord, not just then when the events in PLotRoA are reached, but also because Louis is Lestat's fledgling, and Amel's "tendrils" reached/were given from Lestat in/to Louis.

When Louis' heart stopped that tendril of the spirit Amel snapped.

Lestat, in the spiritual realm at the time, must have been able to feel it.

When Louis' heartbeat stopped the cord snapped.

And Lestat immediately woke up.

(Since they already introduced the cord... I'm quite sure that will be the same in the show if and when they go there.)