♛I would say that the resemblance is uncanny… in more ways than one. Yes, budding youth, handsome, blue eyes and blond hair. Even the expression in the painted portrait we see of Prince Adam is a familiar expression of mine *winks*
I relate deeply to that story. If I’m the Beast, and I’m constantly swooning over Louis’s slightest glance at me, does that make him Beauty? Probably.
As much as I do praise myself (and others do, as well!) to the high heavens for my looks… Being at home in my own body has been, and still is, a constant a struggle. It’s a love-hate relationship with the mirror. As often as I say it, the impact remains the same: my reflection has startled me on more than one occasion, it’s depressed me, it’s made me almost lose the will to live. There were times that I couldn’t look in a mirror. I wouldn’t wish that feeling on my worst enemy.
There is a real horror in what we are, hosts to a vampiric parasite. That moment of awakening, that first breath after the change. Beautiful and monstrous all in one. And each time I survive something and my reflection shows me something close to what I was before all this happened, that’s a small comfort.
OMFG no really can we talk about parallels between these stories.
HELLO WOLFKILLER LOL
Let’s talk about how Belle and Louis are both pretty brunette book nerds.
Lestat experiences horrific changes to himself (his soul and his body both) throughout his life that turn him into a literal monster and he’s often terrified by his own body.
Belle basically winds up with Stockholm Syndrome, HI LOUIS. Like, the Beast keeps her captive for selfish reasons, eventually he grows on her. Louis entered this relationship with his eyes a little more open, and he was enthralled by Lestat in the very beginning, but Lestat did trap him there by withholding Important Vampire Information AND ALSO trapping him with a kid. Claudia is basically the library in this analogy.
//ooc: Very good addition from @monstersinthecosmos! I’m sure essays could be written on this. Lots of comparison could be made.
The story of Beauty and the Beast is far older than the Disney movie (1991) and has been adapted many times over, I wouldn’t be surprised if AR had drawn on some of that story – or any of the various adaptations – for inspiration as TVL was published in 1985. Still, it’s worth comparing this Disney version (or the story itself) with TVL, being made within the same decade. Maybe the Disney ppl were influenced by AR ;]
♛Merciiiii, glorious and magnificent, oui, but king of the night? There’s Jareth the Goblin King, but he is in another realm, after all… and anyway I’m sure he’d share his throne with me *smirks*
♛Grazie mio caro, I’ve had to deal with far worse trolls in reality, but these internet creatures are a different breed altogether… I’m sure they taste terrible, of basement mold, insects, dusty fedora hats, unwashed skin, hair, and clothing… *shudders* I’d rather eat rats. Rats can’t really help being so repugnant.
But anyway, yes, my birthday was celebrated to perfection, I may have to share the details of it with you all… we’ll see.
That depends of course on what sort of vampire we’re aiming for. Infectious vampirism would require an infectious agents of course and there I would tend more towards viruses because they do muck around with DNA and protein construction so for physical changes that’d be neat.
At the same time, parasitic infectious a la The Strain are also really tempting, especially because it drifts over into ‘behavioural changes caused by parasites’ which is just hella cool, though I figure that those vampires would be sitting halfway between what we tend to think of as vampires and Umbrella Corp zombies.
If we’re going with non-infectious vampirism, the field of genetics is wiiiiide open, though personally I’m not a huge fan of the whole ‘super predator’ thing because again, evolution the straight C student. You wouldn’t get twilight-style ‘super attractive/fast/strong’ because frankly one of those would be perfectly sufficient and as we all know, the concept of evolution is to get a ‘good enough’ and that’s it. Look at cheetahs. They’re incredibly speedy, but like sighthounds they’re not terribly strong. They don’t need to be. If you can run your intended prey down and strangle-bite the exhausted gazelle, there’s no need for you to be able to rip it into two parts as well.
So like, you’re vampires are fabulously hot, chances are it’s a prey lure tactic and they’re not very fast. If you make them poisonous they might not even be very strong. On the other hands, if they’re ugly as sin you’re most likely looking at something that’s doesn’t need to make humans come close it so it probably *is* really speedy and/or strong enough to kill you before you can get away.
So uh yeah basically first you gotta settle on what sort of vampirism you want and then you gotta consider how you’d arrive at that particular kind through evolutionary sensible means (meaning with the last amount of effort). Thankfully nature provides for a lot of inspiration already if you want to wrangle out specific details.
Now I’ll frighten them away w/ my overly excited reaction here, I tried not to do it for two whole days and I just can’t stop myself!
Thanks for the follow @danyanddany <3! I am so touched bc I have loved your art ever since I was a smaller fanged little trash kitten ^,….,^ I have a few of your gorgeously drawn books, you are a major fandom treasure.
To the People Off the Page (or whatever we’re calling ourselves these days): If you can afford one or two of Dany&Dany’s books, The Lily & the Rose and Wishing for the Moon are VC must-haves [X], check them out.
I-want-my-IWTV 