"In an effort to save the story from Interview and to save Claudia," [Anne Rice] said, "I suggested we make Louis a woman [in a proposed film version] It works. It's all the same passivity, the same philosophical ideas, the same inability to fight Lestat's domination. It's fine for Louis to be a woman because he is a woman - he's really me." With Cher or Meryl Streep in mind, she set about creating a transvestite, trans-gender female [sic], whose husband and daughter had died on the way to Louisiana from the Islands. Since women could not inherit plantations, the character steps on shore in her husband's clothes and challenges anyone to say she's not a man. Everyone knows she's a woman and she gets into brawls. "She was a good swordsman," said Anne, "and a good gunfighter, and she kept her plantation, which everyone wanted, by fighting people off. So it was an interesting story. And there were very famous transvestites in this era. It was a common motif."

Katherine Ramsland, Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice

the signs the foreshadowing

One of my favorite things in The Vampire Lestat (and maybe the VC) is when Lestat has his extensional crisis with Nicki, where he realizes that he believes there's nothing after death but oblivion and it freaks him out so much he can't stop saying "Oh! Oh!" over and over.

He's just overwhelmed by the realization that life may be meaningless, that there's no guiding hand, and that when you die no secrets are revealed, no truths, only nothing:

I realized aloud in the midst of saying it that even when we die we probably don't find out the answer as to why we were ever alive. Even the avowed atheist probably thinks that in death he'll get some answer. I mean God will be there, or there won't be anything at all.

"But that's just it, " I said, "we don't make any discovery at that moment! We merely stop! We pass into nonexistence without ever knowing a thing. " I saw the universe, a vision of the sun, the planets, the stars, black night going on forever. And I began to laugh.

"Do you realize that! We'll never know why the hell any of it happened, not even when it's over! " I shouted at Nicolas, who was sitting back on the bed, nodding and drinking his wine out of a flagon. "We're going to die and not even know. We'll never know, and all this meaninglessness will just go on and on and on. And we won't any longer be witnesses to it. We won't have even that little bit of power to give meaning to it in our minds. We'll just be gone, dead, dead, dead, without ever knowing! " But I had stopped laughing. I stood still and I understood perfectly what I was saying!

There was no judgment day, no final explanation, no luminous moment in which all terrible wrongs would be made right, all horrors redeemed. The witches burnt at the stake would never be avenged. No one was ever going to tell us anything! No, I didn't understand it at this moment. I saw it!

And I began to make the single sound: "Oh! " I said it again "Oh! " and then I said it louder and louder and louder, and I dropped the wine bottle on the floor. I put my hands to my head and I kept saying it, and I could see my mouth opened in that perfect circle that I had described to my mother and I kept saying, "Oh, oh, oh! " I said it like a great hiccupping that I couldn't stop.

Lestat at this point knows his mother is dying (she told him she likely won't last through winter) and he's been getting drunk and listening to Nicki play violin and having these deep, philosophical discussions about life, the universe, and everything, and then it just hits him suddenly.

And he's so overtaken by the idea that death is this finite end, and there's no meaning to anything, that it just kind of breaks him and his brain keeps skipping and all he can do is repeat 'Oh! Oh!' over and over while Nicki tries to get him to stop, probably worried that he'll be locked away as a madman if he doesn't.

It's just such a poignant scene. Lestat realizes the universe is cold and uncaring, and it kind of breaks him. Baby's first extensional crisis. He will have more of them, of course. And it's such a great dichotomy with Armand, who is so deeply enthralled in the Children of Darkness, and it explains so much about why Lestat reacts to becoming a vampire in the way that he does, reveling in it and almost immediately turning his mother. And it's just such a well-written scene, I love it.

could you talk about. Autistic victor frankenstein. If you like. (reading 1818 and have brainworms)

it is my genuine opinion victor as a low empathy autistic person is a lot more sensible reading of victor's character then just "selfish dick" because a lot of his other behavior fits it. obviously, a disclaimer that I am fully aware autism did not exist as a disorder in the time the novel was written and mary shelley certainly didnt say "my protagonist will be autistic", but also autistic people always existed, etc. anyways!

special interests: this one's a given. victor's obsessive interest in alchemy in his later teens is the most obvious, and then later on in chemistry in university, but also victor states a lot that since he was very very young he wasfascinated by the workings of the world itself. admittedly this is made more apparent in 1831 with the "it was the secrets of heaven and earth that i desired to learn" and "the world was a secret which I desired to discover" and other lines, but it's also made quite plainly obvious by him talking about how excited he was just to watch a thunderstorm

low empathy: he can't pick up on the extent of the feelings of others, and paired with his own very strong emotions, is why i think we often see victor talk about how he's the world's most miserable human creature. it also leads to him saying some pretty rude things, like that he feels worse then justine who's on death row and telling ernest to stop crying over william so he doesnt get more upset

literalism: "i will be with you on your wedding night", very plainly did not catch what the creature was threatening bc he took his words at face value. he genuinely thought the creature would be with HIM on his wedding night. because that is what he said

volatile emotions: victor on repeated occasions goes from calm to very upset or vice versa very quickly. walton mentions it when talking about victor's tone: Sometimes he commanded his countenance and tones, and related the most horrible incidents with a tranquil voice, suppressing every mark of agitation; then, like a volcano bursting forth, his face would suddenly change to an expression of the wildest rage, as he shrieked out imprecations on his persecutor.

repetitive speech: this comes up multiple times in the book in victor's dialogue, where when he gets agitated or upset he tends to repeat words and phrases. i cannot thing of examples off the top of my head but they are definitely there

repetitive body motions: victor repeatedly gnashes his teeth was agitated or irritated, the creature also does this once as I recall but I believe victor does it about three times

pov you are daniel interviewing the vampire

i usually don't care for swap aus but this one is turning in my brain like a little microwave

[ 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 ] : sender has harmed someone who threatened the receiver. ( prime minister bernadetta stand back im about to drop fodlans greatest hit. its called Meteor )

* for you i would.

mother says there are locked rooms inside all women. sometimes, the men—they come with keys; and sometimes, the men—they come with hammers.

the stack of reports drops to the floor in a flood of loose leaf. bernadetta, hands still suspended mid-clutch, gawks at the woman in the doorway whose figure cuts a perfect picture from every possible angle.

and the both of them already know.

"dorothea, you didn't!"

but dorothea, she did. and some years ago bernadetta would have been petrified—in some small form, the gnaw of anxiety might always haunt her. old habits die hard. she has learned since, however, that sometimes it is the men who die far harder...

a meteor, from dorothea? and grégoire lives still? if bernadetta weren't shaking she might have fussed up a storm for the both of them to go hide right now. bar the doors and the windows with all the furniture in the room. she is shaking at the shoulders, soundlessly at first—with her head having lowered, trimmed fringe veiling her eyes.

"...p...pfft..."

a meteor to the head. isn't that something?

"pfft—" bernadetta lets out a noise—a sob?—before her head throws backward, in fact, with an unmistakable bubble of laughter. "h-hah! ahaha!"

there are times she may be an absolute whirlwind, a string of shrieks or a seemingly impossible case. but dorothea knows all of this, all of her, already. dorothea learned everything and still never ran—never let bernadetta run from her friendship, either. bernadetta laughs and giggles until her lungs might give out. what she wouldn't give to see the look on his face!

dorothea, who wouldn't give up on her despite everything. where countless others had lost their patience, concurred with bernadetta that she was a lost cause, dorothea had stayed. proved she was strong enough to fight off bernadetta's fears. proved it again, just now.

(watched while bernadetta eventually grew strong enough, too.)

bernadetta abandons her reports and dives fearlessly into dorothea arnault's embrace. they grin, they talk, and they laugh, over and over until the scarlet sun sets.

spinning him

"Lestat killed humans all the time, sometimes two or three a night, sometimes more. He would drink from one just enough to satisfy a momentary thirst, and then go on to another. The better the human, as he would say in his vulgar way, the more he liked it. A fresh young girl, that was his favorite food the rest of the evening; but the triumphant kill for Lestat was a young man. A young man around your age would have appealed to him in particular.” “Me?” the boy whispered. He had leaned forward on his elbows to peer into the vampire’s eyes, and now he drew up. “Yes,” the vampire went on, as if he hadn’t observed the boy’s change of expression. “You see, they represented the greatest loss to Lestat, because they stood on the threshold of the maximum possibility of life. Of course, Lestat didn’t understand this himself. I came to understand it. Lestat understood nothing."

Geeee Louis. 🙄

You were so close. Sooooooo close.

#VCKinkWeek, Day 5: Play Party

I was scrolling through my ao3 to see if I had any older stuff to repromote that might fit today's theme of "voyeurism, exhibitionism, threesomes, and orgies" and it looks like I do — for each one of those! (Shocking, right?)

Human AUs

🖤 I Feel You - Armand/Lestat/Louis/Daniel | E | 2.8k

Trans!Armand just wants to be loved by all of his boyfriends on his birthday, at any cost.

[READ ON AO3]

♥️ Exposed - Lestat/Armand/Louis | E | 5k

Teenage delinquents Lestat and Armand are dating Louis together while navigating their own situationship.

[READ ON AO3]

🖤 After Party - Lestat/Armand/Daniel | E | 1.2k

Armand overdoes it after a wild night out with Daniel and Lestat, and he needs just a bit of help to settle down.

[READ ON AO3]

Canon Compliant

♥️ The Language of Flowers - Lestat/Armand/Daniel | E | 9k

Lestat pays a visit to Trinity Gate where Armand has something interesting planned for him. Daniel gets to indulge his voyeuristic side when he gets a front row seat to the entire show.

[READ ON AO3]

Although [Anne Rice] viewed herself as having a bisexual mind, originating in a universally bisexual imagination, she seem to have more trouble identifying herself other than physically as a woman. "I'd be a man in a minute," she admitted, "I would cheerfully be a six-foot, blond-haired man wearing a size thirty-eight."

Katherine Ramsland, Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice.

@chicago-geniza

[Bleach 080]

All that hype about the fancy radioactive danger rocks, and Kuukaku has something that can beat it.

The Seireitei can't know about this, right? Because otherwise they certainly would not have banished the Shiba without making sure that info did not leave with them. *I* wouldn't. Though now that I think about it. Do you need these balls to go up to the Royal Realm in the cannon? Now I can't remember. I know a bunch of Team Shinigami were charging their Royal Realm elevator or whatever, but was that for the thrust or the "don't dissolve on contact with the barrier"? I'd look it up but I guess I'm not feeling super compelled to; searching through TYBW is too hard lol. And I guess it's not like Kuukaku got banished FROM SOUL SOCIETY (or from the Seireitei), unlike some people. Just from being a noble, which would be separate from dealing with the Gotei and their dumb wall and their dumb Zero Division and what-have-you, anyway. But given that the Shiba have beef with shinigami, too, maybe it doesn't matter.

After the dust has settled on the ryoka invasion and Aizen's betrayal, is everyone mostly just focused on Aizen's betrayal (and Ichigo existing at all). Or, in the late aftermath, as the reports get filed and the assessments get written, does it occur to someone to wonder how the ryoka got in? Even if it's not the first question anyone remembers to ask at that point, surely, eventually, someone does. Which means this was a huge risk on Kuukaku's part, in which case! She has to love and trust Yoruichi (and Urahara) a lot, or believe that whatever's brewing in the Seireitei is worthwhile enough to make this secret visible, right at this moment.

In an earlier post, I mentioned Kuukaku's line about doing this because "if Urahara's involved, how can I refuse?" Given Urahara's 2nd Division posting with the Maggot's Nest and therefore general jailiness, it would make sense that he would have some dealing with sekki-seki. Knowing Urahara, that probably also means figuring out how to counter it--which is perhaps where Kuukaku comes in, since the Shiba were already in charge of the "let's go to the Royal Realm!" cannon. Did she have to know this already? If not, maybe she invented it after her banishment just, you know, for insurance, using sekki-seki notes left by Urahara, and that's where her sense of responsibility to him comes from. Either way, in enlisting her help with their invasion, Yoruichi had to have known about both the cannon (obvious) and the cannonball (secret), since she's aware of how the sekki-seki dome works.

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.

fuck me i will be 33 tomorrow.

@cruori:ㅤㅤ“I don't think I've ever met anyone as vexing as you." / cal :]

ㅤㅤA sneer in the form of a kiss from a thorn.ㅤIt was too quiet,ㅤthe femme was not so vicious in her acts and doings,ㅤif anything her own presence was still kept amidst these noxious mundane talks because there was still use or in another case either too small to dismiss, ㅤeven taken care of.ㅤLynx irises kept focused while the body remained comfortable seated into an unknown point,ㅤlegs above the armrest as the light of the windows bleed through the curtains leaving a cascade of dark velvets to fall through. ㅤ

ㅤFor a single moment, ㅤshe could hear steps of high heels outside the halls that made almost obligated the peripheral vision to focus on the man.ㅤA simple inhalation from nostrils,ㅤthe steady rhythm trapped within the chaotic mess inside the marrow of the ribcage as fingertips danced with a single butterfly following the trails of unseen air left by the edges.ㅤIt is as she got up to live by such repercussion that the effect of such words intricate the efforts to do it even more.ㅤDisgusting.ㅤㅤ❛❛ㅤㅤMy,ㅤmy.ㅤA demanding,ㅤdivine creature has chosen to grace my small presence.ㅤㅤ❜❜ ㅤ ㅤLittle mattered whatever could escape the fangs of the serpentine, ㅤto bite more than she could chew was something that could endanger anything in this crude world.ㅤStill,ㅤthere was no sign of faltering in the presence of the mighty Caladbolgㅤ…ㅤor whoever he was,ㅤthere was no need to despite the warning signs carved in the whole selfㅤ—ㅤshe felt and knew that much.ㅤThere was no damsel in distress in sight,ㅤat least not one that feared becoming something much worse.ㅤTo witness whatever unfolded in these lands was amusing,ㅤthe paths that could be walked;ㅤin the end it would be far funnier than anything Chaos could bring itself with the last peaceful truces of the last years since the Regis came to be.

ㅤㅤ❛❛ㅤㅤThat’s a shame.ㅤI’ve met a few ones that could outshine me in that field with merely breathingㅤ!ㅤㅤShall I lead the way to themㅤ?ㅤㅤYou'll have more amusing times with them than with little old me.ㅤㅤ❜❜ㅤ ㅤ

just finished reading delilah's statement, there was a lot of things in it that was either only tangentially related to the allegations or straight up unnecessary to put (in particular: putting in media references and cc metrics several times as flavor text, detailing the don turnt situation with no claims of whether or not permission was granted by the affected party, namedropping certain ccs who had nothing to do with the allegations, and putting the tweet and yearbook photo of one of the ppl who put forward that zam was a bully with no claims of whether or not permission was granted) which contributed a lot to the 47-page length

honestly so far what im getting is that there was a Lot of toxicity on multiple sides like not even just between zam and delilah