I think that’s definitely possible, in the context of the movie version of the story.* “[Lestat] knew me, he knew I would love her more than the waking world.” Very poetic *u*
Expecting a child doesn’t necessarily mean you love kids, BUT, Lestat could read minds, and perhaps he knew just how much being a father meant to Louis. Louis doesn’t speak much of his own father, when he died, Louis had to take over the family business at a relatively young age, so maybe Louis was really looking forward to being a better and more loving a father than the one he had grown up with ;A;
PLUS, it seems like it would have been Louis’s first child, making him a father for the first time. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, expecting to have your wife back in your arms, and a new baby to love and raise, and then get neither back, knowing your wife died in pain?? ;A;
Even if Louis wasn’t a kid person, I mean, how can you not love a super cute 5 yr old angel like Claudia was originally? Scooped out of abject poverty and sickness, someone you could lavish with gifts and who would be grateful for it, having known only the barest no-frills of a life before? Lestat knew Louis would feel protective of her, she could be something to inspire him to learn to live again. You can experience the world anew with them as they learn about it ❤
*In the book version, it’s a younger brother that Louis had lost recently, Paul, a brother Louis was very close to. The death sends Louis spiraling into guilt and depression bc he feels responsible for it (and others, including his own family, blame him for it directly).
When Paul died, Louis says: “my mother told everyone in the parish that something horrible had happened in my room which I would not reveal; and even the police questioned me, on the word of my own mother.”
That feeling of blame in the situation is part of what made that loss so devastating to him, the death was preventable, if only he had had more patience with his brother ;A;
But with the loss of a child and wife in childbirth, I can imagine the husband feeling responsible for that, too. After all, if not for him, well, she wouldn’t have been pregnant (we’re assuming it was definitely his baby!) 😛
♛ “Oui, many of her admirers would praise her beauty, and, noting our similar coloring and personalities, would assume she was my own biological daughter. On closer inspection, her hair had more of a natural curl than mine, and the color was just a touch darker, like honey, and her eyes were also a touch more sapphire. But such minor differences do happen with children.” *sigh*
[^X] “What we told these people was that she was in fact my niece, and that Louis was her biological father; tragically widowed when his wife
Mireille
(my younger sister) died in childbirth. It was a narrative that threaded the three of us together naturally; in being a part of their lives, I was also honoring my ‘sister.’”
“We believed in this ardently, Claudia would tell it herself, adding her own embellishments.“
[^Portrait of moi by the amazingly talented @vaciel, it’s a WIP, I hope they finish it someday]
(Let’s assume I don’t get to choose or stay w/ my maker, and I don’t get to choose to be w/ the VC characters bc then this answer would be impossibly long. I’ll respond to those aspects in separate posts if anyone is interested.)
What would I do with my immortality? SO MANY. Vampiring: I would probably be the slayer of the evildoer, cheesy as it sounds it’s pretty reasonable, following in Lestat’s footsteps, but I’d also want to try wild animals like his mom does… I would write all about it, for sure. Every power and every limitation. The killing part of it would probably be tedious some nights and I would complain about having to go to those seedy places for my victims, and I would probably get into situations that would be somewhat out of my control and get shot in the back and I’d come home and complain about it even louder while my mom extracts the bullet fragments and stitches me back up and says “I told you so,” in so many words. “What, what did you tell me, Mom?” “Be careful what you wish for, obviously.” idk if I would turn my parents but it would be hard not to bc I love them.
We’re assuming I figure out the financial aspect bc currently I do not spend enough time and energy on that… I would need a good cash flow to support my adventures and artistic pursuits. I’d commission artists of all kinds, I’d maybe put together a studio collective, let ppl work at night with me or they could work during the day, I don’t really mind, as long as their work gets done. Probably have multiple projects of different kinds going on at any given time.
I wish I could say I would work on social justice causes, and maybe I would. I wouldn’t want the kind of exposure that might make me a target though, so if I did try to make the world a better place, it would be through my studio’s works, or financial support, or some other private way.
Companions? Idk… I’d like to think I could find someone to spend eternity with but that’s hard, ppl do change. I’d probably be better off as Armand has advised, finding another pre-fabricated vampire, rather than making my own companion.
I really want to try Lestat! I don’t have a wig (well…I do have a white-blonde Viserys wig, but it’s not the yellow blonde I’d need…), but it’s on my makeup test list!
Not sure if you saw it on my Instagram but I did transform my buddy @aegiskitty into Lestat for a fun thing we’re working on and oh, my LAWD, she killed it.
“Just so, one loop over the other, then under and through…” he said, the laces of Claudia’s shoes forming into a bow under his nimble fingers. “And pull tight, ma chérie. Simple as that.” Without a moment’s hesitation, her little fingers tugged the laces back open and tried now, for the very first time, to tie them on her own.
They sat on the carpet, her body curled forward in concentration, whispering the directions again to herself as he smiled down above her. He reached out and tucked a stray golden curl behind her ear and she spared him not one bit of attention.
In the warm light of the lamps, I watched them from across the room. We had been together now for some four years, Lestat and I. In that time, I had rarely seen this expression on his face. When he seduced his victims it was with rapt attention, his tongue flicking at his fangs imperceptibly to them, so vulgar to me. He would slink towards me catlike after killing and it was similarly intoxicating. I would let him take what he wanted, and there was lust for him, his wandering hands and whispered praise, but was that love? It left me satisfied, guilty, confused.
This was new, he was patient with the child, embraced her not to consume but with compassion. Their laughter lent a sparkle to the space I had shared with him alone. Together they brought things out of me I assumed I did not have.
“I did it!” said Claudia, her face upturned to him brightly. “Bravo!” he applauded with polite clapping as if at an opera. She shifted position, undid her bow and busied herself with tying it again.
It was in that moment that he glanced at me, his smile still tender and gentle, I felt my heart trip and stop for an instant. He waved me over and I came, entranced. He gestured for my foot. “Oh no, it looks as if,” in one fluid motion he hooked a finger in and opened my shoelaces. “Papa Noir’s laces need tying, whatever shall we-”
“Me,” said Claudia, starting already for the laces. “I’ll fix them for you.” I felt Lestat’s hand on my ankle, his nail lightly stroking my skin, then move up, squeezing my calf as we watched her together. That was the moment I fell in love with him.
(I received this ask and chose to censor the person’s name to protect their privacy, but I wanted to respond publicly bc I felt like it was a good thing to discuss out in the open, bc I have seen similar issues come up before, so I will refer to the asker as Anon.)
Anon, while I do try to reblog cosplays here on my blog, it’s not a main focus. We both know that I have reblogged several of yours in the past, I’m so impressed with your skill and resemblance to the characters you cosplay! I can definitely understand why you feel salty about putting so much effort in and not getting the attention when someone who seems not to put in any effort gets the credit for cosplay with the #cosplay tag.
And may it is also just a salty moment just for me salty cosplayer. I am sorry.
It’s okay, I’m sorry that you were hurt. It was not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings. Please accept this hug from me ❤
I feel like there are several ways of answering this, one way would be to remove that tag from the reblog of that post, and another would be to offer an explanation of my thought process on that tag. Since I really want to keep that tag on it, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, hopefully my explanation below will reduce some of your salt by offering more perspective on it. If you’re still feeling hurt after this explanation, I am sorry. We all come to fandom as a safe space to be creative and have a good time, and unfortunately we sometimes have different and incompatible definitions of how that works 😛
Again, it was not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings, it was my intention to compliment the OP of that post, and sadly, when someone is complimented, it can make others feel hurt and/or envy. Maybe this explanation will address those feelings.
So why tag a post #cosplay if OP didn’t tag it #cosplay??
Anyone can tag a post with anything at all, I can tag it #lobsterface, if I have some kind of inside joke with that person, even if no one else understands it! I can tag it with #WOW AMAZING, and other people would probably disagree. One’s tags are one’s own creative expression in that way.
I want to talk about cosplayers, bc that is part of the issue here, that some appear to make “more of an effort” than others in their cosplay.
A) Keep in mind that some cosplayers have considerable advantages over others:
Some cosplayers are skilled at being able to sew/make their own costumes,
Some choose to buy their costumes,
Some choose to cosplay a more modern-era time period and do not need to sew or buy difficult pieces,
Some are skilled at photoshop and can change their hair color/style or create fangs or alter the scene digitally,
Some have access to cool locations like cemeteries or fancy architecture,
Some have
photographer friends who can stage the lighting/scene really well,
etc…
^All of these are great and can add to the quality of a cosplay post 😀
B) On the other hand, some cosplayers do not have these advantages, or choose not to do elaborate cosplay for their own reasons.
Some people might feel that they resemble the characters enough that they choose not to add anything to what they already have naturally,
Some people lack some/all of the skills mentioned above,
Some cannot afford to buy costume pieces, but still wish to cosplay their favorite characters.
^This group (B) are no less qualified to cosplay than the people who have the advantages mentioned above, and they have every right to make cosplay posts of their own.
EDIT: I decided to remove the part of this post that addressed a specific other blogger. I don’t think it’s appropriate to drag them into this when I am protecting the anonymity of the person who raised the issue.
But my advice still stands as follows:
It’s a reasonable compliment that we do give to people who happen to look like the fictional characters, unfairly or not.
So why reblog a selfie that’s not tagged as a cosplay and tag it with #cosplay? Well, it’s a compliment to the person.
Hey dear, in honour for cosplay it makes me (i do not speak for all so just my no-one-actually-ask-for-opinion) sad that ppl got tagged as cosplay just because they have a kind of simillarities for fictional characters.
So unfortunately, this does happen, and it is a compliment.
It is a kind of hurtful for those who bring a lot of effort for the actually costume.
I can understand that. I’m sorry you were hurt by this. The other difficult thing about tumblr is that the tags are there to advertise as well as organize, and for my own blog, I wanted that post above to be in my cosplay tag so that in the future, if anyone asked me about X character cosplay examples, it would be included. And I think it is a good example to have because, as I mentioned above, some people do not have the advantages you might have to create/buy costume pieces, and/or some people choose not to do those in cosplay for their own reasons.
I think you did the right thing coming to me to ask about it, and hopefully my answer will reduce some of the hurt. In this case, I don’t want to remove the #cosplay tag from that post because of the reasons I stated above, I’m sorry about that.
And… if I would dye my hair more red would civil photos also be a cosplay-tagged post? 🙁 I am confused.
I wouldn’t recommend that you dye your hair just to have your selfies reblogged as cosplay, in my experience, reblogs are VERY subjective. Reblogging someone else’s selfies especially is something every blogger has to decide for themselves, as selfies can be very personal. Everyone has their own reasons for reblogging a post, and in my case, I reblog things to have them in my personal collection to refer to later if I want, and again, sometimes it’s also a compliment for someone.
Even with the very elaborate cosplays, you can’t predict what will be reblogged. I might put a lot of effort into a post, fic, fanvideo, and it will get very few notes. I might put very little effort in and it gets 5k notes.
I would suggest that if you want more attention, give other people attention, that’s how this blog became so popular! It is like real life, you get out what you put into it. People tend to give attention to people who have given attention to them *hugs*
Hello! I’m sorry that this has left you disappointed. If you are interested in an explanation (you might not be, which is fine) then here is one:
When I began sharing my work online years ago I was unemployed and couldn’t work due to my illness. Posting drawings and writing on my blog played a huge part in my survival during this time, and I am lucky that I had such a positive response from people like yourself, it was what kept me going and motivated to hold it together. (Side note: The main reason I deleted the Head Burp blog wasn’t about monetising words, but because there was information/writing that I no longer felt comfortable being in the public forum.)
As the years have gone on I am able to manage my illnesses better and now have longer periods of stability that allow me to work. I am trying to support myself as a freelance artist/illustrator/whatever you’d like to call it. Working freelance in a creative profession is not easy or particularly well-paid a lot of the time. It is very hard to earn a consistent income. I have chosen to make this my job, so yes it is on me to try and make it work, but I don’t believe this is a choice that I or anyone else should feel guilty for.
I am on a learning curve with everything at the moment when it comes to being an adult, including work. I might not be getting it all right, but I am doing my best to find a balance. I still love being able to share work on social media; It is important to me that people can continue to see as much of it as possible for free. I also want to be able to support myself financially. Just as other people who get up and do a job each day, I would like to be paid for my time, my energy, and my work.
If you really feel that artists putting monetary value on a skill is selling-out then I can’t argue with that, but I would urge you to consider that we face the same rent/food prices/living costs as everyone else. The reason why so many artists have fallen into what you call this ‘shitty fame pit’ of Patreon is simply because we want to live independently, buy food to eat, have money to pay bills and just exist in the world. As romantic an idea as it is, we can’t live off exposure, reblogs and likes alone.
Personally speaking, setting up a Patreon was actually quite a difficult decision that I put a lot of thought into and have tried to make it a fun and fair addition to what I will continue to post online. I am fully aware that this is not something everyone will be interested in, and I am not forcing anyone to sign up to it, at all. Besides, I haven’t moved all my work behind a paywall or anything, I am still very much here/on instagram etc posting drawings frequently.
Anyway… that’s my bit.
Thank you for supporting my work thus far. I’m not too worried about changing your mind on this one if it’s made up, but I hope this gives you some food for thought when considering the way I and other artists whose work you enjoy operate.
I-want-my-IWTV 