If he was aware he was being watched, he gave no indication as he searched the well stocked shelves filled with classics and pulp junk alike. While he often humored Lestat by wearing the finery bought for him, he still preferred worn sweaters and tattered trousers. The cuffs of his sleeves were frayed and his pants were baggy and soft, something he must have stashed away and wore when alone.
Lestat couldn’t help the smile as he watched Louis pluck a thin paperback from the shelf and toss himself into a plush armchair. A picture perfect moment of thought and calm.
“I’ve been praying for you.” Louis said, not looking up from his book, startling Lestat from his place in the door way.
“Oh? Since when do you pray?”
“Occasionally, when there is something of significance to be concerned about.”
Lestat walked to the other armchair and plopped across from his lover.
“And what,” he rested his elbow on the arm of the chair and chin in palm, “are you concerned about?” He almost laughed at Louis’ raised eyebrow.
“What don’t I have to be concerned about with you?” he allowed a small smirk over the top of his book.
Curbing his giggles, Lestat rested his head in his palm and asked, “who do you pray to?”
Louis idly flipped a page, “no one. I just,” he struggled to put it into words and flipped another page, “talk to the universe. A basic plea to whatever there may be for peace.”
Lestat pondered, “does it ever talk back?”
Louis shrugged, “no. I just like to do it. Like when a person repeats please when playing a game of chance. They aren’t really talking to someone and no one is listening, but they do it anyway.”
“And you do this for me?” Lestat pulled himself out of his chair and slid over to Louis, kneeling at his feet, crossed his arms and rested them on the other’s lap. Louis pretended not to notice Lestat though he did smile.
“Occasionally,” he let one hand fall off the book and into Lestat’s hair, “especially when you refuse to behave.”
Lestat snorted, and tilted his head to get more of Louis’ fingers against his scalp.
“I know, I can be just awful sometimes.”
He could feel Louis sigh and made a point to exaggerate a pout when Louis finally looked down, earning a laugh and a tug to his hair.
“Yes, you can be an outright bastard sometimes.” Louis regarded him before cupping his cheek, “but you try.” He bent at the waist and place a tender kiss to Lestat’s forehead.
“Ah, beautiful one, thank you for loving me anyway.”
You sweet thing, thank u! Since I’m sort of clawing my way back up to the real world from being sick, this was especially good timing ❤
*~5 things that make me happy~*… in no special order…
1. Retail therapy – not necessarily buying anything, sometimes just the hunt is plenty. But of course, if you find that one amazing jacket/dress/top, you gotta buy it, bc when you’re looking for an amazing jacket/dress/top for a specific event, suddenly no one makes good things anymore!!!
2. 80s and 90s music – mostly the hits, one-hit wonders, and also other songs by artists from that time period that didn’t get as much radio play. I think I love it bc it reminds me of when I was riding the bus to/from school, the idea of being in that liminal space, no seatbelts, dappled sunlight, kids chattering around, the smell of the sunshine cooking the green faux-leather seats, being in transit, clutching a book in my hands, and these songs being so optimistic, even when they were angry (Nine Inch Nails) and/or miserable (Smashing Pumpkins). There was always a sparkle of hope that things could be learned from the darkness. Or maybe that was just my own interpretation.
Among which: I love Duncan Sheik, apparently? Good writing music. I had a friend who was obsessed with his music in high school and kept looking for secret messages in the first letters of the track names, and kept trying to get me to listen to his non-hit stuff, and I just… I think I was refusing to do it, just to keep the game of it up with her. That push-pull. I have to reach out to her and admit that I might be as big a fan now as she was then!
3. My oil lamp – I used to buy candles and that gets so expensive and messy, and it’s wasteful, bc I end up unable to burn through all the wax (unless it’s tealights but those burn so fast), and I hate putting so much trash in the landfills. This is much more efficient bc I can have that friendly little flame and the clear kerosene isn’t too expensive. I like the historical feeling of it, and that ppl had to clean the glass just like I’m doing. I like the smell of the kerosene but some ppl don’t like it.
4. Comfy shoes – I used to have giant pumpkin-shaped slippers and I wore them to their destruction… I wear slippers around the house. I have 3 pairs of slippers now! Not slippers but: my fave black leather boots are comfy, too, and they make me feel like a BAMF. I’ll have to take pics. They fit my calf muscles perfectly, like a hug. Which is special bc my calf muscles are pretty big.
5. Short film viewings/art gallery crawls – I like going to gatherings and meeting new ppl, watch short films, see a bunch of art for a few hours. The variety of it all. I like picking out faves, and meeting the artists and asking them about their process and inspiration.
^I think this last one also applies to my role in fandom, I really love encouraging fanartists and writers, even in other fandoms. I’m not rich by any means, but I scrape together money for commissions now and then. Fanworks are the lifeblood of a fandom and I like to add my applause to the mix. Sometimes I feel like the one in the audience who starts the applause, and that’s fine, too!
I feel like a lot of tumblr culture, especially the particularly ineffective brand of Tumblr Social Justice™, has somewhere along the line lost track of the difference between something having the potential to be bad, and being innately bad.
For instance, a white author writing a character of another race absolutely has the heightened potential for problematic portrayal, since that author lacks lived experience as a member of marginalized racial/ethnic group to draw on, and has a heightened chance to misrepresent that group. However, if they do their research, talk with individuals from that racial/ethnic group, consult with sensitivity readers, etc., they may still tell a very honest, sympathetic, good story with good representation. It is not innately bad, simply because of the author’s race; though I’ve seen arguments on tumblr insisting this is the case.
Another example is relationship dynamics; couples who have an age gap or a power imbalance (such as one individual being lower on a professional chain of command from the other) might have an increased potential for an abusive dynamic to form. The couple with the age gap has to be more conscious of differences in lived experience, and the couple with a power differential in the professional side of their relationship needs to overcome more hurdles to equalize things in the context of their personal dynamic. But neither of these things is impossible. These dynamics are not innately abusive; they might make abuse easier, or more common, but they don’t guarantee it. Just as avoiding these dynamics doesn’t guarantee a lack of abusive behavior.
Some situations/dynamics/endeavors have a heightened potential for things to go wrong. And we should be conscious of that potential and keep an eye out for problems – not to destroy the thing, but to encourage course correction (an edit to a manuscript; couples’ therapy; etc.). Many of these things, however, tumblr culture has labelled as innately bad, rejecting any possibility of the thing being done well and thus shutting down that encouraged course correction in favor of flat-out condemnation, without nuance, thought, or consideration. And by drawing clear lines of what is ‘innately bad’ and ‘innately good’ we also avoid giving due criticism of problematic things that have been assigned as ‘innately good.’
This hellsite is allergic to nuance, but damn, do I wish we could all be better at it and recognize that few things are as black & white and simple as we’d like them to be. Shit is messy. Everything is problematic. But not everything that can be bad is, and not everything that’s less likely to be bad is perfect.
You can ship characters for happily ever afters, sure, you can ship them for tragically-then-happily, you can ship two or three or four or more, you can ship endless combinations of personality types and relationship dynamics
but you can also ship characters under very specific circumstances, or for a certain period of their life but not for all of it, or only in a certain universe. You might say “I ship these characters” and what you mean is you think they are fascinating together and could have a story together. That story could be any kind of story.
Sometimes it means you want them together for the rest of their lives. Sometimes it means something different than that.
I don’t know about you, but for me, “I ship it” means “There is a story in this ship and I am interested in that story.”
for me, “I ship it” means “There is a story in this ship and I am interested in that story.”
Also for those of us who write or consume fanfiction, shipping can mean “I need to fix this thing that bothered me in canon, let me tell you my version of it where it’s not so gross and where I criticize it in a way that the creator did not.” I don’t understand people who can’t grasp this. Black & white thinking is not a good look.
Or I mean. Maybe it’s still gross lol. We wouldn’t have a horror genre if dark and awful shit didn’t intrigue people on a base level. Just because it’s not for you doesn’t mean there’s no value in it for people who like to look hard at things that frighten them.
When I say I try to be the RPer I want others to be, I absolutely don’t mean replying to threads with ninja speed and being on top of your RP tumblr like being Lestat, etc, is your job. (Unless you have managed to make into a job in which case please explain how.) Everyone is busy and has obligations outside of tumblr. If you want to and can reply to things quickly, power to you! If you can’t, it’s not a big deal and anyone who doesn’t think your replies are worth waiting for you is probably not an RP buddy you want.
What I mean is that I try to follow the Golden Rule: treat others as you want to be treated. Which means, essentially, put stuff out there, sending things out, foster interaction, and be open to being sending things to you.
You’ve probably heard about reblog karma. This is a good thing, where if you reblog a meme, you send an ask to the person you reblogged from. Great. But how about instead of reblog karma, you think of it like RP Karma. This is a game that falls apart if everyone sits still and waits for things to come to them.
So for example, if 6 people on my dash post a meme and I have time, whether or not I reblog it, I try to send everyone an ask. Sometimes the memes require thought and I can’t think of a question or ask for everyone and that’s fine. Sometimes I’m busy or on mobile and just can’t get to it. But if I can and and I have time, I make an effort. Especially if it’s a “send a symbol for a headcanon” type meme, just send some out! You can copy and paste the same one into everyone’s box if you want.
Beyond memes, if you think of a question you want to ask, say, Louis. Send it to a Louis you follow. Hell, send it to ALL OF THE LOUIS RPERS! Why not.
Or if someone posts an ask answer or a one liner* your muse has a reaction to, comment on it! React IC! That’s the point. If, say, Armand posts a line like “Banzai trees are hideous!” Lestat can reply that he’s making Banzai the official Coven Tree, Louis can argue that his banzai in Trinity Gate is quite lovely thanks, and Daniel can complain that he has no sense of cultivating something and watching it flourish.
I’m also a fan of reblogging replies you really love or sending people messages to tell them how much you appreciate their work. RP seems to be a hobby where everyone has days they doubt themselves, so a little positivity goes a long way!
TL;DR: Basically, when you have time, energy, and inspiration, put things out there. Reply to other muses’ IC asks & posts, send asks (anon or IC), reblog replies you like, comment on posts, send kudos out through VC Positivity or just in general. Be the RPer you wish everyone else was in terms of what you put out there. Because if you don’t send things out and interact and make RPland a happy place, no one is going to do it for you.
(*Obviously check RPer’s rules and if they don’t want people responding to things IC, heed their wishes.)
^THIS.
Same goes for interaction with fanartist, cosplayers, general fandom ppl, etc. Don’t wait from someone to drop into your inbox, reach out to them! Be the blog you wish to see *u*
I-want-my-IWTV 