Always keep your fangs sparkly clean! I commissioned this from the fabulous @lousysharkbutt as a gift for @gairid/ @vampchronfic, one of my fave fic writers in the VC fandom, for her birthday today! It’s
Gairid’s OC Brian Callahan, with Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac.
I headcanon that the vampires don’t always bother with this sort of thing but when it’s been a really messy evening, as they get ready for bed, they might want to brush their fangs, too. Brian is a very close mortal friend of theirs, and he lives with them sometimes, and even though he knows what they are, seeing those fangs is always a little unnerving.
A++ to @lousysharkbutt for including in all these little details I asked for, including Brian’s Night Island tourist tank, Louis’ ripped up nightshirt, and his mom-style showercap, and Lestat wearing nothing bc reasons ❤ Their expressions are perfection and this is a wonderful artist to work with, fast turnaround and delivers more than requested, can’t recommend them highly enough ^______^
As always, I can only answer re: Ricean vampires, I’m not aware of any other vampires in other media having tatts… maybe in Twilight they can/do?
Definitively, it’s not addressed in VC canon, I don’t remember any of the vampires having tatts (whether they got them before or after they were turned) so it’s open to interpretation, #Your headcanon may vary.Personally, I have a bunch of thoughts on this mixed into my #tattoo tag, so check that out.
My headcanon is that vampires can get a tatt (and it will look permanent) but it will fade during the deathsleep, which is what @frankenlandinformed us that Anne Rice thinks about it, too:
If we accept the author’s words as canon, we can say definitively:
1) Tattoos that the vampire tries to get AFTER they have been turned: Will vanish in 24 hrs.
2) Tattoos that the vampire has BEFORE they have been turned: Will fade/lighten/change (see comment from @monstersinthecosmos on my post about this, below)
i remember Anne said on FB once that someone’s tattoos would probably go really light and lacey/elegant looking after they’re turned, but remain in a way that looks ~ethereal~ lolol
^I’d have to find the post but I would imagine that AR means that the tattoo will “go really light and lacey/elegant looking” over time, not at the moment of turning, but it could be interpreted either way.
@thebibliosphere added to one of my posts: “I treat vampires as just very long living humans, which means even tattoos fade over time as the skin cells regenerate.” [X] I’m inclined to agree. I also think a tattoo could be removed from vampire flesh “by scraping/cutting/etc. off the tattooed skin and letting it regenerate to its natural state).” as @skeletalroses put it [X].
♛Silk boxers, usually, in bright colors and wine red. Briefs, among certain company, too. Neutrals, black, grays, pastels. They can emphasize the natural features in a very appealing way. I like the feel of taut cotton. I like the sound it makes when it’s ripped. Some nights, I prefer nothing at all.
…And who says lingerie isn’t an option? Because it very much is.
THIS. And please guys please just read the descriptions of Louis properly in the books. HE DOES NOT HAVE LONG HAIR. His hair is relatively short, and wavy. Pleeeeease can we have more canon Louis and less Pitt!Louis and his bizarre hair.
I am 100% supportive of #in other words plz don’t cast the same damn guy. That “twin” comment from TVL was more about their personalities than physical resemblance:
I fell fatally in love with Louis, a young dark-haired bourgeois planter, graceful of speech and fastidious of manner, who seemed in his cynicism and self destructiveness the very twin of Nicolas.
Although, I’d say canon Nicki has dark and curly hair… the first time Lestat describes Nicki in TVL:
Only his hair was what it used to be, dark and very curly, and boyish looking for some reason though it was tied back with a fine bit of silk ribbon.
Re: Louis: I gotta say, I do love me some closer-to-canon depictions of Louis! All fanart of Louis is good, but yes, @wicked-felina and I have discussed this privately for longer than I’d want to admit and I am convinced that Louis has short, wavy/curly hair as shown above.
Brad’s Louis will always have a place in my heart, long and Barbie-like, almost chestnut color (I think Brad himself called it “Lion King” hair”)! I don’t remember if Louis actually has long enough hair in canon to tie back in a ribbon, and if he doesn’t, then really, shorter like this fanart here, is more canon-compliant, at least in my reading of canon.
BUT ANYWAY I wouldn’t trample on anyone’s depictions of Louis, #Your Headcanon May Vary, and all that, but it is true that we have more of Brad!Louis than not, so I encourage everyone to try their hand at a Louis with shorter hair (it will also serve the dual purpose of pissing off Lestat, so, y’know, there’s that).
♛He doesn’t scare as easily now as he once did, that’s for sure. It takes serious planning, so I would say 3. If I have someone in league with me I have more of a chance at it, as he’s less suspicious of others, so maybe a 4.
//ooc: the mun struggled with this, bc it is something Lestat has done, and frightening Louis can be comical in canon! So one would think it would be easy to come up with a humorous answer, but it sat for a month in my inbox bc I’m torn on it… Yes, it can be comical, but currently, I don’t think Lestat likes to frighten Louis purposely, I feel like they have reached a kind of mutual respect that wasn’t there in early canon. In earlier canon, I think that some of Lestat’s frightening Louis was about asserting dominance, or he was exasperated from every other attempt to get Louis on board with whatever he wanted.
So while I don’t think Lestat intentionally tries to frighten Louis these days, it’s more like when he suggests some wild or
dangerous
trip or activity that’s ignited his imagination, Lestat really just wants Louis to validate him, go along with him, and be part of it. Louis knows not to underestimate what can happen but he also doesn’t leap to conclusions, he sits at his desk and thinks about it before reacting, if he feels fear, he doesn’t immediately show it.
When Lestat has moments of crippling stillness, which I think he still gets now and then, that’s frightening because Louis can’t always draw him out of it, and he worries that Lestat may slip into that state for nights/months/years ;A; Louis can also be frightened by Lestat’s rage at Louis or others, bc Louis knows that Lestat is capable of enormous destruction, and he has a short fuse. I don’t think that Lestat would be all that comfortable talking about any of that.
I think Louis is too calm and collected these days to be easily frightened by Lestat or anyone else when it comes to pranks. I think the news, the current state of the world, is upsetting and frightening to him. I think Louis was very afraid of Akasha and her plan, but he was still able to speak up in front of her and risk her wrath.
Some thoughts on this under the cut, cut for length.
It is, admittedly, always fun to deride Lestat for this
screwup
decision when Marius (for all his own f*cked-upedness, he does have a little decent advice to give at various points) specifically told him: DO. NOT. TURN CHILDREN. INTO VAMPIRES. EXCEEDINGLY NOT COOL.
In TVL, Lestat says he wanted to do it just because he wanted to see what would happen:
^I don’t think this is the reason (or at least not the MAIN reason), I think this is Lestat’s bravado, and knowing that he’s writing the book FOR LOUIS, really, knowing Louis is going to be reading it, and this is the answer he’s putting out there to make himself look that much more callous, bc the real answer is too painful to share.
Someone (she’s not on tumblr, I’d tag her if she was) once suggested that Lestat made Claudia to keep Louis’ conscience clear; after all, Lestat is essentially ‘saving’ her from death. The line in the movie is, “Your conscience is clear.” If Louis had actually killed a child (a Holy Innocent!) that night, it would have been the worst crime he’d committed in vampiring, and Lestat didn’t want Louis to bear that burden of guilt. Louis might have even felt guilty enough to kill himself over it, also something Lestat did not want to happen.
So I think Lestat would prefer that Louis think of this as just another gross, horrible act to add to the list of gross, horrible things Lestat has done, and he’d prefer that we write him off as an antagonist, which is easier than being confronted with what he does and why he does it.
I know it’s a bit of a reach, but I feel like Lestat admitting that he made a child into a vampire, knowing it was a crime against nature, and condemning her to the body she was turned in, was a sacrifice he made to prevent Louis from bearing the guilt of her death, it’s all too painful, and could invite questions about it, and he just can’t let anyone in that close.
I understand that it’s a very problematic book, but this is also why I can’t throw the entirety of TOBT out, because Claudia comes back to haunt Lestat to confront him with the decision of turning her. He reflects on it off and on throughout the book and finally admits that even knowing what he knows now, he would still do it all over again, and that’s taking into account the joy they all experienced as a little family, but also the pain and suffering she felt as she became aware of the trap of her own body.
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.
Louis does get stimulated by fire, and unusual or gorgeous things in nature, just the immersive quality of those things. When he looks at these things, he’s mesmerized by the interplay of colors and shapes, the movement even in a still painting or photograph, it’s an immersive experience for him. So I’m very picky about what I put in that tag, only things that I feel like he would want to watch for a good long while as if he could enter the work itself, bodyless, just mentally engaging with the composition. That’s very stimulating for him.
In my mind, Lestat’s porn is usually more related to fashion, I’m thinking of it as like, adjacent to his need for retail therapy. The idea of wearing something and what it projects out to the world about you, the tactile nature of wearing it and being touched whilst wearing it, the interplay of the lighting, space, and environment in which you wear the thing. Dazzling a crowd of people without needing to say a word. The storyteller/actor/sensualist in him loves the idea of drenching oneself in shimmering dream skins, so it’s another type of immersive experience.
^Now I’ve sort of convinced myself that their porn, altho dissimilar on the surface, actually sort of brings them to a similar state of mind. Something immersive, some level of deeper appreciation for nature/art. Some level of changing reality, and for creatures that cannot themselves change, maybe that’s what is stimulating.
Being turned into a vampire is an act of metamorphosis, it’s the greatest intimacy they can experience. I would think that things that remind of them of transformation and complete immersion like that would be stimulating in what we might consider a sexual way.
Lestat would probably also love watching the sillier porn tropes like the pizza delivery guy thing, but more bc of the comedy than it being sexually stimulating. Probably also likes to watch vintage or vampiry ones with Daniel and/or Armand, like Intercourse with the Vampire, they’re all rolling on the couch, giggling at it like 7 yr olds.
Although, Lestat can also be somewhat deviant and cruel, to his loved ones but usually to his victims, so I would imagine he has trawled the internet and video stores for… more legit porn to watch alone. Even so, I would hope that he wouldn’t be into any really gross kinks, nothing really degrading to anyone involved. But I can’t say for sure bc he is highly Problematic :[
Hmm. Louis would probably believe criticism of his looks (I like the headcanon of various people, including @gairid) that he felt different and weird because of his androgynous beauty as a mortal. But he would protest that he doesn’t care about his looks
There was also a headcanon (@gairid‘s?) that his mother found his eye color strange and ruthlessly criticized him over that and other things about his appearance. Maybe that’s why Louis retreated into art and fiction for his aesthetic tastes, that the ideal of beauty captured by artists and writers was superior to what reality could offer, including his own appearance. The fact that he ran the family business and provided for his mother despite her attitude towards him taught him that actions, things you can change, have more weight than something you’re born with and cannot change, like your eye color.
I headcanon that Claudia playfully called him ugly on more than one occasion, and called him ugly on some not-so-playful occasions later on, too. Only someone he loved that much could wound him like she did about that subject.
Louis probably still has a lingering feeling from his mortal days about his looks, but if confronted about it, would probably roll his eyes and change the subject.
I-want-my-IWTV 