“Now, listen to me, beautiful one,” she said. “I love you. You’ve awakened me from my long sleep and to my great purpose; it gives me joy merely to look at you, to see the light in your blue eyes, and to hear the sound of your voice. It would wound me beyond your understanding of pain to see you die. But as the stars are my witness, you will aid me in my mission. Or you will be no more than the instrument for the commencement, as Judas was to Christ. And I shall destroy you as Christ destroyed Judas once your usefulness is past.” – Akasha, Queen of the Damned.
And I’ll know people like you, people who have thoughts in their heads and quick tongues with which to voice them, and we’ll sit in cafes and we’ll drink together and we’ll clash with each other violently in words, and we’ll talk for the rest of our lives in divine excitement.
You mean this painting? The source doesn’t say it’s intended to be Lestat, but I can see where you might have turned left at Albuquerque bc I did reblog it from a Lestat RPer, monsieur-lestat, and yes, it does work! Goes well with the TVL quote:
“I have… a mouth that is well shaped but just a little too big for my face. It can look very mean, or extremely generous, my mouth. It always looks sensual.”
#Lestat talks about himself #we all bask in his glory #As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
I am actually a terrible resource for this question bc I… *gasp* do not really ‘get’ a lot of poetry! I only really like a few poets… like Shel Silverstein (he can be very adult and subversive, btw), Dr. Seuss (who tucked the richness of political/other messages into his works), and other “children’s” authors
yes don’t even think of mocking me on that ok i like what i like, and tbh I headcanon that Lestat has a passion for these, too, since he never got bedtime stories with illustrations as a child (and it’s why he read bedtime stories/poetry to Claudia well beyond the time when she could read to herself bc he loved impressing her with acting out the voices).
HOWEVER. I do love me some Shakespeare, and I think that counts as poetry, and Lestat loves him some Shakespeare, too. That’s canon. He mentions Keats in TOBT as he’s refurbishing the Rue Royale “Ah, wasn’t it the ode by Keats which had inspired that long-ago purchase? Where had the urn gone?” He also mentions Milton in that book. IDK if he read them but he came into possession of a collection of poetry by Wynken de Wilde in MtD.
Book-IWTV!Lestat is not wild about books of poetry, ditching Louis one night with a cruel little snap: “Read your damn poems, then! Rot!”
Lestat also considers music lyrics to “count” as poetry and might get all excited about a new track by Kanye West, Eminem or Macklemore. I think he’d be especially drawn to freestyle rap battles.
Louis quotes from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, so I would assume he liked (at least at that time) that kind of story/poetry: macabre, dealing with religion v. nature undertones.
I see Marius as liking the quirky poetry in the New Yorker, and Stan Rice’s free-form style, as he likes to study emerging trends in thoughts.
DavidTalbot likes Blake, the Tyger features in his… trajectory, shall we say.
Louis blatantly likes bewbs. That’s practically canon. Look he has his hand on her cleavage here – altho it is pretty far above the boobs – but that is no accident!
Obsessed with? Idk if I’d use that word. But yes, he does describe bewbs often (although in Merrick, it’s David telling that story, and it seems that HE is the one obsessed with her bewbs in particular).
Madeleine knew she had phenomenal boobs and wielded their seductive power like a pro:
Louis was partially under Armand’s spell here, but Madeleine totally used her bazongas to completely bewitch Louis into giving her what she wanted (IWTV):
“’ `If you were a mortal man; man and monster!’ she said angrily. `If I could only show you my power…’ and she smiled malignantly, defiantly at me `… I could make you want me, desire me! But you’re unnatural!”
Ooooh burn! She basically just called him NOT A MAN. That her powers only worked on men with working man parts. Claudia might have told her about that.
“’… What can I give you! What can I do to make you give me what you have!’ Her hand hovered over her breasts, seeming to caress them like a man’s hand.”
^I think they teach strippers to do that to excite their audience.
“It was strange, that moment; strange because I could never have predicted the feeling her words incited in me, the way that I saw her now with that small enticing waist, saw the round, plump curve of her breasts and those delicate, pouting lips. She never dreamed what the mortal man in me was, how tormented I was by the blood I’d only just drunk. Desire her I did, more than she knew;….”
“I’m The Vampire Lestat. Remember me? The vampire who became a super rock star, the one who wrote the autobiography? The one with the blond hair and the gray eyes, and the insatiable desire for visibility and fame? You remember.”
“I’m getting into the coffin and you will lie down on top of me if you know what’s good for you.” Now, I’m quoting directly from Louis’ insipid novel in which he provides the barest skeleton of how this scene actually played out. It was really quite romantic on my part, while he on the other hand was being a prissy baby.
’“I want to know, for example, why beauty exists,” she said, “why nature continues to contrive it, and what is the link between the life of a tree and its beauty, and what connects the mere existence of the sea or a lightning storm with the feeling these things inspire in us? If God does not exist, if these things are not unified into one metaphorical system, then why do they retain for us such symbolic power? Lestat calls it the Savage Garden, but for me that is not enough. And I must confess that this, this maniacal curiosity or call it what you will, leads me away from my human victims. It leads me into the open countryside, away from human creation. And maybe it will lead me away from my son, who is under the spell of all things human.“’ -Gabrielle de Lioncourt, The Vampire Lestat
I assume you wanted a fluffy answer (and I answered something similar here in a fluffy way) I mean I have an OTP tag that is dominated with Lestat/Louis and I was all well and prepared to answer you as such, but when I really thought about it… and was talking about it with thelionscrimsonclaws…
I remembered this quote:
“I don’t like myself, you know. I love myself, of course, I’m committed to myself till my dying day. But I don’t like myself.“ – Lestat de Lioncourt, Memnoch the Devil.
And I feel like I doubt whether canon!Lestat can truly trust any of all his lovers to be the ONE TRUE LOVE. I think his one true love is himself, and his mission to find the answers he needs, so really, LIFE ITSELF.
Lestat/Life = OTP!
No one is better than he is at beating himself up and then healing from it; he’s had to rely on himself and his own judgment for most of the big decisions in his life. For better or worse.
Also, I think Lestat requires a lot of different interactions with different lovers, no one individual seems able (or willing) to satisfy all these myriad needs. Everyone who loves Lestat intimately seems to accept that they will have to share him, but he has an enormous amount of love to give, there seems to be a limitless supply for all of them ❤
Spoilers ahead…
Of the ones you mentioned, each one was a unique relationship. He’s never the same exact person, he behaves differently in different pairings.
Louis: If there were a One True Love, it would be Louis. Their relationship, while volatile, even lethal at times, is something they both cleave to. Louis has learned from Lestat’s example and has become stronger over time, emotionally and physically (although he was always somewhat of a BAMF). Lestat has gained the skills of inner peace and patience from Louis’ example. Their chemistry has been the best of any pairing; they’re not two halves of one whole, but two individuals who challenge each other, who strive to surprise each other still, and in my opinion,that’s what the best relationships do.
However,
Louis tried to check out of the series w/out permission at one point, and well… that can’t be ignored.
Nicolas was Lestat’s first real long-term relationship at a time when Lestat desperately needed love and nurturing and wanted to give it back, too. Nicolas is the first person who really listened to him and they both helped each other immensely… but I don’t think that relationship could ever really work, because deep down Nicolas and Lestat always wanted different things out of life.
Akasha used Lestat. She held him in captivity and drugged him on her blood and her mental illusions, keeping him in a disoriented state by screwing with his Deathsleep patterns. She made him believe it was love, but it was really more a form of addiction. She needed him as a pawn in her grand scheme, both bc he’s a total studmuffin and also to win over the vampires that were loyal to him. She said to him that he would be her “instrument:”
“You are my only true companion, my finest instrument…. But as the stars are my witness, you will aid me in my mission. Or you will be no more than the instrument for the commencement, as Judas was to Christ. And I shall destroy you as Christ destroyed Judas once your usefulness is past.” – Akasha, Queen of the Damned.
So I wouldn’t call Lestat/Akasha a loving relationship, but hey, if you like it, that’s fine, too, I’m a #Ship and let ship girl!
Rowan Mayfair – to be honest, I can’t remember much of this pairing except that Lestat seemed captivated by her for no apparent reason other than that she was a strong woman and had a kind of tortured soul, which he recognized as being like his own. He promises her the Dark Gift:
“And the night will come when we’ll share the Blood. I promise you. The Dark Gift will be yours.” – Lestat, Blood Canticle
But AR diverted from canon with Prince Lestat, essentially rendering the Rowan/Lestat ship null and void. AR decided to sink that ship. I couldn’t really envision Rowan as being part of the coven, and it would be painful to see Louis shoved aside YET AGAIN to make way for YET ANOTHER fledgling.
…Fortunately David Talbot hasn’t minded being relegated to the background, and only getting brief moments of (dubcon) intimacy from Lestat. David knows he has to share.