To my knowledge, we don’t really have a name, like the Potterheads for HP or the Hiddlestoners for Tom Hiddleston 😦
We’re just “VC fans.” If I’m differentiating between different vampire media, I’ll say “Ricean vampires” or “VC vampires.”
It’s an old fandom, so old that I’m pretty sure it predates fandom being the recognized thing it is today. We were also strongly discouraged from creating fanfic, so maybe that’s why we don’t have a name. VC fanfic was underground, the fandom was in hiding, we didn’t want to draw unwanted attention by having a name. The Talamasca slogan might as well be our fandom’s slogan, too: We watch and we are always here.
Sometimes I refer to us as “People Off the Page,” to differentiate us from the VC Facebook fans who Anne Rice calls her “People of the Page.” More on that here. They used to be a formidable army she could sic on other fans/reviewers/etc., but things have been peaceful for awhile now, thankfully.
I used to refer to us tumblr fans as “fanged little trash kittens” or “fanged little trash monsters” more frequently than I do now. Probably had to do with the fandom trend at one point of saying “I’m such X-trash!/I’m trash for X!” meaning that you loved X thing/character. Seemed only natural that we would be fanged trash creatures. And it’s gender-neutral.
Any variation on the words Vampire and Chronicles doesn’t wholly work for us, since there are so many other Vampire series and Chronicles series.
Indeed, we have Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (PLROA). It’s the most recent book. We’re expecting at least one more installment after this one, no date has been given yet.
@bluestockingcouture — Ok I can’t phrase this very well, but tumblr won’t let me tag them, so I made a link to my reblog of their post in which they share that they wrote a 1,800 word review of PLROA that quotes Rousseau, so you might want to check that out on goodreads. (spoiler cut is there)
Here’s another by Kirkus Reviews2016-10-19. (spoilers in full view)
To be honest, near the end of PLROA I had to put it down bc it was about to launch into a monologue from a new character who I don’t really feel much affection for, and so I still haven’t finished it, but I am thoroughly spoiled as to what happens bc I love being spoiled.
There were many moments where I smiled bc it reminded me of the way the characters behaved in earlier books, there’s some development as to their current status, there’s some great little moments between them, and I think it’s worth reading for those gems.
I’ve always been able to read VC and cherry pick the things that I like (a good chunk of dialogue here or there, or something that seems to give more clarification to the established world/characters, etc.) and I have a flexible headcanon, so I can accept or not accept things based on the fanfic I’m reading, too, depending on what canon it relies on.
Having said that, PLROA feels very much like what would happen if one novel you were working on needed life support and you added your much more popular character(s) into it as a means of rescuing it.
“I was working on a novel called Born for Atlantis, and I just couldn’t get it to work. I thought, “What if I could somehow combine this with Lestat and the vampires?” And it was like, everything worked. Something happens to me when I write from Lestat’s point of view. There’s no question about it. By the time I was done, it felt inevitable, like it always had been…. It was a rare experience.”
^Anne Rice, Entertainment Weekly (August 5, 2016) [X] I’m glad that she shared that with us, because it explains why she brought these things together. Even if she hadn’t admitted as such, I think we would have been able to piece that together.
Some things are good on their own, some ideas can be brought together and the result is wonderful alchemy! But I think in this case, it felt like someone had dumped a river of ketchup on an icecream sundae. PLROA might count as what the fandom used to lovingly call the Vampire Crackicles.
Back then, we could have a good time, even when canon was wild. We could make fun of Lestat being a huge baby about his foot size in Blood Canticle:
Seldom did I see my feet in black socks. I knew almost nothing personally about my feet. They looked rather small for the twenty-first century. Bad luck. But six feet was still a good height.
Or, also in Blood Canticle, Lestat fixated by ice cubes:
…the sparkle in the ice cubes, the Miracle of the Ice Cubes.
^Our old familiar canon Rice Caps! Why can’t these things be funny anymore?
Or are the wacky things in PLROA too wacky to even find endearing? We do tentatively joke about PLROA, but not as robustly as we did over those older Vampire Crackicles. Maybe in a few years we’ll be more vocal about it, bc there will be even crazier canon. Lestat goes to Mars! Lestat ages backwards like Benjamin Button! Lestat accidentally destroys Alaska!
So IDK, I always recommend that ppl read the books before they judge them, but I think it’s easier to enjoy the wackiness if you can take it less seriously.
Awww, thank you! That’s very kind of you. (I was hoarding this ask for a few days, sorry for the delay in reply.)
It warms my heart to see the fandom active, too! It’s always been waves of more or less engagement, but recently there does seem to be something of a renaissance. If the VCTV series happens, we’ll probably have even more engagement!
#InktoberVC and the @vcsecretgifts exchange both stimulated great fanworks, I’m planning on setting aside a chunk of time to go through and reblog those Dec. gifts here (I haven’t had a chance to read all the fics yet!) ❤ I’m hoping that more calls for fanworks get rolling in 2018, too, and I’ll make an effort to promote them. We can’t wait 9 months until the next #InktoberVC ;D
In this world in a time when we’re on the brink of nuclear war bc of reasons I can’t attempt to tackle on a blog for entertainment and there are people in power tirelessly dedicated to stripping away our rights one by one, people
determined to widen the class divide, people dehumanizing other real life people, and there is unpunished crime on a daily basis, I come here for an escape and to offer the same to anyone who likes this blog.
I hope 2018 is a better year for all of us, online and offline, Anon. *hugs*
Armands are hard for me to stumble upon in real life, bc the whole ~Botticelli angel~ thing makes my headcanon of him so illustrational that few humans can achieve the look! I’m sort of married to Bjorn Andresen, who is not a Botticelli angel. WHY DID HE HAVE TO AGE it’s so unfair.
I also really like Matthew Clavane, who is a model but looks like someone you might just see on the street:
@sheepskeleton likes Clavane as Armand. Check out their archive to see more models and other non-model ppl that have an Armand feel ;D
You might also try my Armand+cosplay search, and you’ll see some human ppl cosplaying as him mixed into that search, does that count?
Just out on the street, it’s easier for me to find Claudias, bc there are plenty of young girls with excellent blonde hair with the perfect amount of curls, I live near Alvin Ailey, a famous dance school, so especially in the spring/summer there are girls of all ages in that area. I like to consider what kind of backpack she’d wear, what outfits. I saw a kid with a backpack covered with sharks today, I think Claudia would love that.
Lestat lookalikes are easy to find, too. 6 foot tall blond guys, especially with an arm slung around another guy, since I live near Hell’s Kitchen in NYC, a LGBT+ friendly neighborhood. I love seeing them in the summer sitting at outdoor tables, their hair in manbuns or half-buzzed looks, tank tops showing off their biceps *u* Shades and wolfy smiles.
Who else? Um, idk, I almost always feel like I’m VC casting. There’s one homeless guy that I pass on a regular basis that always makes me think he’d be great as Lestat’s father. Ornery-looking. But great silver hair.
Some years they stay together, if they’ve gathered for the holidays leading up to New Year’s Eve, I would think at someone’s home that can accommodate a large group or they rent a house somewhere. Whoever is hosting sends out the fanciest invitations, each year the current host tries to one-up the previous year’s card 😉
I’d imagine a gathering would look smtg like this, black-tie affair at times (but they’d bring casual clothes, too):
And they do the stuff they normally do when they gather:
Coven Game Night where some fool challenges Louis to cards and gets their ass handed back to them, even if/when they attempt to cheat
exchanging gifts – Daniel and Lestat compete in giving the best gag gifts.
there’s teasing each other about all the VC books, from the oldest to the most recent “So that ghostwriter of yours-” “DON’T YOU START WITH ME, ARMAND.”
Sharing pics they’ve taken from their year’s travels
Watching movies together in fancy screening rooms with couches, blankets, and pillows
improvised jam sessions for the musicians in the group
artsy sessions for the artistic ones in the group, although they do invite everyone, and Gabrielle has done a few gorgeous fingerpaintings that Lestat treasures
dancing to the improvised music or someone DJ’ing recorded music
BONFIRE and/or FIREWORKS (outside tho!)
Inviting very special mortal friends over for “drinks,” wherein the mortals are aware and consent to get drunk and then share 😉
marriage counseling (come on, cabin fever sets in and at least one pairing gets into a fight every time).
shameless flirting (sometimes causes the fighting that needs marriage counseling)
Other years, they go their separate ways and celebrate NYE on their home territory, or in smaller groupings.
I’m sorry, Anon, I’m not familiar enough with Alice Cooper to know what Lestat’s opinion would be 😛 you might ask @workin-them-clockwork-angels, I got an ask from them awhile back, I think they’re a fan of both!
BTW I think Alice Cooper played a vampire?? In a movie called “Suck” (2009) ?! You might like that 😉
There are a bunch of other musicians in it too?? These are the ppl whose names I recognize:
I don’t think I’ve seen any specifically “yandere” Lestat fanfic, I’m not all that familiar with that word, but, as a fandom, we thirst for all VC fanfic, so send it!
Submit it as a link if you want, like this: www(.)website(.)com, bc tumblr doesn’t like it when you try to send
(If you have it but it’s not posted anywhere, come to me off-anon and I will give you an email address you can send it to if you only want me to read it.)
I can’t find it rn and so I can’t remember if it was an ask directly sent to me or just a post I reblogged… 😛 sorries… but someone had reported that they and their friend (significant other maybe?) were in a funeral parlor, owned by a relative I think, and were allowed to climb into a few coffins to test that question, and YES, two full-grown adults were able to fit comfortably in a standard-size coffin. Louis and Lestat are both 6 ft tall with Lestat being slightly taller, so yeah, that’s a lot of person when doubled. It was also unnaturally tall for that time period.
^IDK if the coffins in the movie were accurate to the time period, probably yes. That one looked plenty big enough for them to both get in and why didn’t they!!! but I didn’t see any cushions at all, that might have made the fit a little tighter.
Currently, ppl can have custom coffins made, it would be easy enough to order one of any size 😉
I-want-my-IWTV 