It’s a touchy subject, recommending blogs, as inevitably I’ll leave someone out and then they may feel, well, LEFT OUT :-
I don’t follow as many RP blogs as I used to, it was too much to keep up with the various threads, some have gone inactive, new ones have started up… All attempts to make VC directories usually fail.
However, and that said, so you know I’m not playing favorites, there are some I remember by name, and so I tagged them below, but this is an incomplete list. Let’s make this an Ask Armand and Armand RPer roundup! People Off The Page, reblog/comment with any Ask Armand and Armand RPer blog I left out 😉
(in no special order, active-status not guaranteed):
Kapetria’s Tale and the saga of the Replimoids are simultaneously the most boring and the most cracky sections of the book. I cackled over the Space Birb aliens that created the Replimoids, but I don’t think I’ll ever reread those sections.
The sections about the hijinks of Lestat and his vampire court? Those are more like what I want/expect from a Vampire Chronicles book. For example, I am terribly fond of Prince Lestat, and have reread it a couple of times. Is it as good as the original Vampire Chronicles trilogy? No.
Finally, Anne Rice has stated herself (not that I can find links to the interviews where she said it) that she had been working on a stand-alone Atlantis book for over a decade, but couldn’t get it to where she was happy with it, and decided that it should be combined with a Vampire Chronicles book. I … do not agree with her authorial choices about this.
TL;DR: No one should feel they have to slog through Kapetria’s Tale in RoA. Yes, it ends up changing the whole mythology and backstory of the vampires, but … I reject those changes.
Thanks for your addition, @gothiccharmschool! Very much appreciated, and I am with you 100% on wanting more hijinks of Lestat and his vampire court! Good reminder about reading your liveblog of PLROA, I’m sure your liveblog can help me get through it.
Re: Finally, Anne Rice has stated herself (not that I can find links to the interviews where she said it) that she had been working on a stand-alone Atlantis book for over a decade, but couldn’t get it to where she was happy with it, and decided that it should be combined with a Vampire Chronicles book. I … do not agree with her authorial choices about this.
I, too, do not agree with her authorial choices about this. Here’s her quote about doing her specialty VC-mashup funtimes for PLROA:
… i, too, am unable to finish PLROA for MONTHS bc of Kapetria’s Tale! FOR THE SAME REASONS. I mean maybe it’s not boring to some ppl? But for me, I’m just… I was weirded out before by the Replimoids and getting to her tale I just didn’t want to buy more of what was being sold.
So I have been really struggling to pick it up again EVEN THO IT IS RIGHT ON MY DESK IN PLAIN VIEW, mocking me every day that I don’t just CRACK IT OPEN AND TAKE MY MEDICINE like I should if I really cared about this series (which I clearly do).
I went and asked around & skimmed ahead bc I very much like to be spoiled, and I won’t spoil you here, but from what I skimmed and from what I’ve been told, I don’t think you need to know Kapetria’s Tale to understand the rest of the book. It goes back to our vampires and their shenanigans and SCIENCE, and in the old days we might have called this all very “cracky” stuff, but the ending might even have been written before the Atlantis portion was added in, it seems to depend so little on it, but again, that’s from my spoilage.
…But currently? What are ppl’s thoughts on how PLROA ends? I would like ppl to speak freely, so there may be spoilers in comments/reblogs.
Message me privately, if you prefer, and I’ll add it to this post under a cut if it’s spoilery.
“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.”
Yes, if you buy this post right here, (which I do, and I’m also going to rebagel it bc why haven’t I yet? Maybe it’s buried in the queue…), in which @gojiro informs us that:
“…mirrors used to be backed with a reflective layer of silver — which, as the metal of purity, would not ‘interact’ with Vampires, who are the Devil’s work. However, modern mirrors have used aluminum as their reflective backing for many years now — and aluminum is not a ‘picky’ metal at all…”
So yes you may headcanon Armand as winning the Ugly Sweater Contest by standing in front of Lestat w/ a mirror as shown above by @superhiki!
…but I also really like the “hair dying parties with other vampires cause they can’t see what they’re doing in the mirror.” which still works for the vampires of What We Do in the Shadows, who live in the modern era, and can’t see their reflection in mirrors (but they can see it in photographs, IDK I JUST REALLY LIKE THE DYE PARTY IDEA so as Tim Gunn would say, “Make it work.”)
For Ricean vampires (idk the rules with others), I don’t think dye would last forever bc they can cut their hair, and the dye would be effectively removed.
Dye is a color treatment on material that’s basically dead and outside their bodies. Even though their hair does not grow longer than the length it was when they were turned, it can be cut off and will grow back their natural color. I don’t think the dye would vanish during turning, either, like nailpolish wouldn’t vanish during turning. The nail underneath would change to that vampiry glassiness, but not be visible. The hair would change in texture inside the dye.
With something like a tattoo, I would think that it could be permanent, if the mortal had them before being turned, because the ink is under the skin, but maybe the vampiric parasite would reject the ink as being unnecessary. I don’t think we have any tattooed vampires in canon to know for sure.
… i, too, am unable to finish PLROA for MONTHS bc of Kapetria’s Tale! FOR THE SAME REASONS. I mean maybe it’s not boring to some ppl? But for me, I’m just… I was weirded out before by the Replimoids and getting to her tale I just didn’t want to buy more of what was being sold.
So I have been really struggling to pick it up again EVEN THO IT IS RIGHT ON MY DESK IN PLAIN VIEW, mocking me every day that I don’t just CRACK IT OPEN AND TAKE MY MEDICINE like I should if I really cared about this series (which I clearly do).
I went and asked around & skimmed ahead bc I very much like to be spoiled, and I won’t spoil you here, but from what I skimmed and from what I’ve been told, I don’t think you need to know Kapetria’s Tale to understand the rest of the book. It goes back to our vampires and their shenanigans and SCIENCE, and in the old days we might have called this all very “cracky” stuff, but the ending might even have been written before the Atlantis portion was added in, it seems to depend so little on it, but again, that’s from my spoilage.
…But currently? What are ppl’s thoughts on how PLROA ends? I would like ppl to speak freely, so there may be spoilers in comments/reblogs.
Message me privately, if you prefer, and I’ll add it to this post under a cut if it’s spoilery.
This isn’t all that random, I’ve had far more random questions than this!
^So much love for Brad that as miserable as he may have been WAS, this was perfect, capturing that kind of orgasmic quality while being fed on ❤
In the vampire chronicles mythos, are there any benefits/positive reinforcements for humans that are fed on?
Not sure what “benefits/positive reinforcements for humans that are fed on” means… but I do get the impression that it’s a deeply intimate act, that the vampire doing the feeding is doing their best to keep their victim calm and complacent, ecstasy is a pretty good state to shoot for and that would be beneficial? I mean, if the vampire’s intent is to finish off their victim then there’s no real benefit for the human, lol, but if not an intent to kill, ecstasy is a pretty positive reinforcement! There is some fanon that the vampire can make it a really painful and negative experience if they want to, with the speed that they draw the blood, etc.
I know the vampire itself experiences a sort of euphoria when feeding, but is this also true for the human?
I don’t have my books w/ me either, but I distinctly remember the ecstasy they describe experiencing when they’re being fed on as mortals. Daniel goes into a state of being almost addicted to the feeling (and to the drops of blood Armand gives him in measured amounts).
This is intensified when they’re being given the Dark Gift, the part when they’re almost completely drained. It’s an immersive sensory experience for both the vampire and the mortal.
There’s fanon that a mortal does experience certain physical enhancement in their senses from drinking vampire blood, but just being fed on would probably not enhance them, as Louis dragged his sorry butt back to Pointe du Lac after Lestat fed on him the first night. He seemed pretty bent out of shape.
It’s a handy resource. I ought to reread it. (Y’all can get it on Amazon.)
It was probably intended to be the answers to questions AR gets alot about VC, plus some behind-the-scenes info and headcanons she had at the time. I’m not sure if it lines up with canon, but a good resource to have with your other VC books anyway!
♛Only Louis and I have access to this account, and he would tell me not to kiss and tell. Should I? Do either?
I would say we’re more polyamorous than polygamous. Our idea of fidelity is different than for mortals. Or my own idea of fidelity is different than others in the coven.
One could call us a coven, with smaller, fluid groupings within it. Tribe. Collective. Coven. I’ve always found the word “coven” as more applicable to those who perform rituals and religious rites together, which we do, occasionally, but not in any kind of Sunday School regularity. We don’t crawl around in filth under a cemetery and worship Satan, that’s for sure.
More than that I leave to your imagination *winks*
Louis still hasn’t told you about the tattoo prank? I’ll remind him. I’ll leave notes all over his coffin, that always gets his attention whether or not he plans to sleep in it.
//ooc; This sat in my inbox for 3 weeks and I was stumped, but from my research, it’s unlikely that Lestat would have eaten pizza in the Auvergne, as it might have been difficult to make tomatoes grow there at that time. I don’t know when pizza first came to Paris, he might have had it there.
@takemetocoffin-or-losemeforever, my French resource, informs me Lestat might have had tourte aux pommes de terre, which is Auvergne potato pie. It tastes like potatoes and cream, mostly. There might be other pizza-adjacent foods he might have had.
Is there a foodie in the house?
What foods does he miss, though? What foods would he have liked to try that didn’t exist during his time or were prohibitively expensive? Reblog/comment what you think, or message him about specifics.
♛Merci for the love from France, I can always use a few extra kisses from that country *smiles*
Viktor sent a card. I should be grateful. But it was most likely from Rose, and he merely signed it along with her, as it had an inside joke between Rose and I. Best father in the world? I think my second – fourth fledglings would beg to differ.
//ooc; mun doesn’t entirely accept PL as canon, but was willing to accept it for this ask 😉
For headcanons and to talk to a Viktor RPer, go to @viktor-de-lioncourt (who uses Jordan Sörbom as a FC) or @roselioncourt, both of whom care quite a lot more than I do about this character.
I-want-my-IWTV 