Send me a number and I’ll write you a drabble about my muse’s past. 3. (childhood) A harsh lesson is learned.
The slap came suddenly, without warning, flat across his cheeks. He felt the blood rush to his face before the stinging pain, which shot through his skin, heightened by the humiliation which accompanied it.
“Never again, do you hear?”
Though many years down the line this action would become as regular as saying “Good morning,” this time it was fresh; shocking and frightening.
The tears came too fast, adding to his embarrassment, as the hiccuped assent slipped past his lips.
It had been innocent enough: he’d been playing in a dirt in the patches of grass outside the chateau, pushing rocks about with sticks, when another boy had come up over the hill and approached him.
They began to play together without much preamble, as children were wont to do, the other boy taking up a stick as well and the two of them creating a game out of the sticks and rocks. The boy was nice: shaggy, light brown hair, freckles, not well dressed but then, neither was Lestat. They laughed as they played, arguing amicably as they sat, side by side, in the dirt.
It was Lestat who grasped the other boy’s hand, and the boy held his back as they continued to babble back and forth, toes dusty in the dirt, shoulders pressed close, each child enjoying the other’s company.
But it was the other boy who turned his head and pressed his lips to Lestat’s, pulling back almost as suddenly as he’d done it.
Lestat had paused, as bemused as a child might be capable of, before kissing the other boy back.
The boy smiled as Lestat pulled away. “It’s what the grown-ups do, you know. When they want to make babies.”
Lestat laughed sweetly. “Do you want to make babies?”
“My sister says it feels good, to kiss boys. To make babies.”
Lestat had nodded, sagely. It did feel good, the kissing. “Then we should do it again, don’t you think?”
And they did.
But too soon, Lestat heard a cry from behind him, and was swept up into the arms of his nurse. He was far too big to be held, of course, but she was in a fury, dragging him up towards the chateau as she cursed and chastised, quickly swatting at the other boy until he ran away.
Inside, presented to his father, the slap was administered. He was called a disappointment. He was sent to his room without supper.
It was then he understood: kisses may feel good, but that didn’t make them right.
That is an awful legacy of names! Lestat and also Alucard aka that name low budget horror films would use when they couldn’t buy the rights to dracula/subtly foreshadow the fact that their character was a vampire shhh secret though. I want a fucking reality tv series of #vampireboy
It must be strange growing up with a fictional character’s name, especially as a “Lestat” baby. Whenever I mention the series there’s a chance I’ll get negativity bc there’s still homophobia out there, etc. I actually do try to bring it up relatively soon when deciding on making a new friend, bc if they reveal themselves to be homophobic or otherwise treat the VC like it’s shameful in any regard, then I don’t really want to waste my time with that person.
But I don’t think I could name a future son of mine "Lestat.“ Maybe I’d choose one of the more normal names, and there are plenty! I’ve seen alot of cat and dog (and apparently there’s a mule in NOLA?) Lestats, and a few young boys named Lestat on the interwebs. Kids will tease anyone for any reason, having a strange name won’t help this "Lestat-Armon Alucard.”
Noteworthy: I met a little Akasha (2 yrs old!) at a booksigning. She definitely lived up to the name, throwing such a tantrum that she had to be removed from the building by her father, she never got to meet her maker AR.
(^This is not her mom in the pic. Just a fan thrilled to hold Akasha in her arms!)
duendology asked: “Delfe, help me, help us! 😉 I’ve been trying to establish which parts of the France southern region (usually administratively now having different names) belonged to the historic “Auvergne”? Is there, perhaps a historic map with this region marked? So I could see this territory in its full historical context?”
First I’ve to confess I’m pretty
much ignorant of Southern France and Auvergne geography (even if I’m currently living “not-so-far” from there – shame on me), so I did learn a lot of things about the history of Auvergne.
Before speaking more specifically of
Auvergne, a “tiny” point; France has two important
administrative divisions: “région” (created in 1955) and “département” (created
in 1790). The 27 régions are subdivided into 101 départements (the
région of Auvergne, for
example, has 4 départements). Therefore, the number of régions is going to be
reduced to 18 in
2016, and Auvergne
will be merged with the
région of Rhône-Alpes. Lyon will most certainly become the administrative
center, so Clermont-Ferrand will lose its
official title of Auvergne’s
capital.
Now, back to the main topic!
Current Auvergne is basically a combination of historic Auvergne and the provinces of Bourbonnais and Velay. The name Auvergne come from gallic tribes of Arvernes, one of
the most famous and powerful confederation of Gaul.
I’m not going to trace the whole history of Auvergne
(I don’t want you to fall asleep and Wikipedia does that 1000 times better than me here anyway) but the “city of Arvernes”, in fact,
covers more or less the territory of 18th century Auvergne. With the Revolution, France is divided in départements, and the province of Auvergne
is split between Puy-de-Dome, Cantal, Haute-Loire and Allier in 1790. A entity similar of
historic Auvergne
is finally brought back in 1955 with the creation of administrative régions.
18th century Auvergne
on a map of current France (with départements divisions) ;
today’s Auvergne
is in red (I made a map combining this map to another one I found on Wikipedia; it’s not a
perfect match, but it makes things easier to visualize)
A map of the provinces of Marche, Bourbonnais, Limousin and Auvergne (in red), dating apparently from 1763. [source]
And a map of the “cité des Arvernes” with actual Auvergne limits. [source]
Voilà !
its also
ridiculously,
incredibly,
gorgeous and
can’t you just
see little baby
mortal Lestat,
hunting and galavanting around this place?
Also, its famous for its rustic wines, hot springs (due to all the dormant volcanoes, such that the Puy-de-Dome that gives it name to the larger region. For all its fields and valleys it also has large areas of thick forest once ridden with wolves and all sorts of other beasties. I did a lot of research on the area for an art project I did in high school, and it shot Auvergne near the top of my “Things to see in France” list.
…see little baby mortal Lestat, hunting and galavanting around this place
I-want-my-IWTV 
