//ooc; I doubt she responds to any nicknames, only her full name, and only allows Lestat to call her “Mother” under extreme circumstances or in the heat of an argument.
IMO, “Gabe” (pronounced “GAYB”) would be the nickname for “Gabriel,” (bc it’s pronounced “GAY-Bree-uhl”) which is the masculine form of “Gabrielle.” It’s also the name of the angel Gabriel, which I don’t think is an accident.
If Gabrielle were to have a nickname, it would probably be “Gabs” (pronouced “Gahbz”) as “Gabrielle” is pronounced “Gahb-ree-ehl.”
♛You may say so. He has no idea how delicious he is. No matter how many times he’s told. Probably for the best.
He’s actually very sensitive about being objectified like this, so I try to keep my appreciation of him to my physical expression of love, rather than verbal praise *winks*
What you’re interpreting as his “sexy” eyes, or that he’s capable of looking into people’s souls, that’s usually his ability to spellbind others, and he does it without even consciously trying to do so. It’s not just his physical attributes, it’s one of his vampiric gifts he hasn’t really needed to consciously hone. I wish that he would, though *dreamy sigh*
♛Guilty of being anaemic? That’s not necessarily under your control. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t study blood like our scientific brethren do… I know what I like to drink, though, and for me, the physicality of the blood is merely the carrier for the moment that I’m locked to my victim, to take what I really require, which is their essence, their soul. I don’t discriminate based on taste; I would just prefer it to be living! (Dead blood is not poisonous, but it’s so so distasteful.)
I’m sure that I have tasted this already, apparently anaemia affects a quarter of the population. One of the causes of it is blood loss, so I’m sure I’ve been the cause of it for some of my Little Drink victims *grins* Oh well…
Other causes of anaemia are dietery, genetic or infections, and as far as I know, whatever the engine is that makes me what I am defends me perfectly from all of these. I’ve never had an illness in that sense. It’s physical food and drink that I can’t handle, but that just comes back the way it came. Very unattractive when that has happened. I can take little sips of real drinks, yes, but none of it has ever had much taste to me.
I won’t lie, I love trying new flavors of blood, Little Drinks from partygoers, and I have a taste for bourbon by proxy now. Drugs? Not as much, as I’m wary of allowing myself into that far of an altered state of mind. Potheads, yes, when I’m in the mood for a gentle kind of high.
As for your question though, I do notice variation in the taste and texture of different blood types, but I usually don’t know the reason. Something a little flatter about blood with less red blood cells or smaller red blood cells, perhaps the closest comparison would be champagne that has gone a little flat, but all mortal blood is still preferable to animal blood. There’s more in it that we need than the physical substance; we need the soul as well.
Although I have met many animals with much more soul than some of the evildoers I have to get involved with, human souls are just more nutritious for us, for whatever reason. Even Gabrielle has confessed to me that she ends up needing to hunt indigenous tribes every so often on her travels, to supplement her usual non-human intake.
♛Merci, Armand. It is magnificent, isn’t it? It is genetic and unattainable.
*laughs* ok, you’re probably not Armand. I don’t know what your hair type is, and I’m not a specialist in this. My hair is naturally easy to maintain and style. My only rule is to learn how to bleach your hair very carefully or leave it to the professionals, it tends to be harsh on mortal hair. Poor Tough Cookie bleached hers too powerfully and too many times and it all fell out!
♛Don’t think I don’t know a gold-digger when I see one, anonyme. Louis has never wanted gold or power, in fact, these things are repulsive to him personally; I have to take off my crown when we make love! And that’s all I’m telling you about that.
He can be a real b* sometimes, but to be fair, I bring that out in him. I LIKE IT.
♛I hadn’t heard of him before your mentioning him to me, I must say… while I don’t eat meat this man is making me salivate for it. His knifework is very impressive.
♛Merci, my hair is magnificent, is it not? No real routine, just rinse the blood and dirt out after a kill, if there is any to be rid of… Louis doesn’t like scented products. Perhaps the blood and the dirt are good for one’s hair? Hmmm…
I can’t speak for Daniel’s transition, but from what he told me, what made it into the record that I compiled as the novel Queen of the Damned… he originally wanted the Dark Gift because he fell in love with Louis’ story, and wanted a seat at our table, so to speak. When he met Armand, it became about wanting to be with Armand, made so much more frustrating because of Armand’s struggle to accept Daniel, whether to bring him over.
Then, when that had been overcome, there was Daniel as a fledgling; there are so many physical and emotional changes that happen to a vampire during that time that few of us really experience it as a very “graceful” time. I famously vomited up my own blood and then, in a state of delirium, licked it off the stone floor of a filthy cell full of rotten corpses! Among many other grotesque things that happened in those first nights.* Two exceptions to the awkward fledgling phase: Gabrielle and Claudia, who both bloomed in their own ways, very gracefully, as fledgling vampiresses.
Advice…
One thing is for sure, satisfaction is not guaranteed, ma petite. In every sense of the phrase.
The process itself is dangerous. It’s called the Dark “Trick” for a reason. Your maker has to kill you first. It’s extremely erotic, but extremely painful. They have to actually forcibly pull your life away entirely – and you’ll fight them through it if you want to survive – and then feed a demon, a kind of cancer, into your body and soul. We still don’t know if it’s contamination or evolution. And it doesn’t always work.
There are worse things than death.
//ooc: *@gairid/@vampchronfic has such a beautiful and tragic story about another thing Lestat did in those first nights, that you really should read it, We Are Our Own Saviors (Chapters 15-16). #Damn you and your perfect headcanon perfection ;A;
Lestat continues after the jump, cut for length.
♛The other aspect of being a vampire: Killing. Few people seem to realize how customer-service oriented this lifestyle really is. You’ll have to kill people, or practice the Little Drink (most fledglings have difficulty stopping mid-kill). If you are able to master it, you’ll spend even more nightly time pursuing more victims than just the few that would satisfy you if you killed them. Killing means you have to find fewer, but still, victims. Louis refused to choose, feeling unworthy of making that choice. Could you do it? Really? Or, you can not choose. As he later was able to embrace. Could you do that?
Louis’ practice of drinking animal blood as a substitute for human blood for his first few years, I’m convinced that’s one of the reasons he was so weak for so long. And so cranky! For whatever reason, animal blood is just not as satisfying for us as human blood is, and I would speculate that it has something to do with the difference in souls. Not to say animal souls are lesser; Mojo had more soul than so many humans I’ve met. But there is a difference. So the animal solution is the vampire equivalent of eating fast food, and it takes its toll.
Those are the main concerns, that young naive mortals should consider seriously before they agree to become one of us. There are many more, but these seem to be required for everyone. Should you be offered the choice to take the Dark Gift, your maker would be having these conversations with you, specific to you, and to them, about other considerations.
(ooc; Not sure how serious you are, but, Reminder: if you have already taken something or done something to harm yourself please call 911. If you haven’t done anything and if you’re thinking about suicide, please talk to the suicide hotline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) in the U.S., to find a suicide helpline outside the U.S., visit IASP or Suicide.org. Please read Suicide Help.)
♛My dear, I’m so sorry to read this message. My heart aches for you.
There are times when yes, the loneliness overtakes me. I do feel emptiness at times, moreso in those times I was betrayed by the ones closest to me. Not to revisit that… but the emptiness you are describing seems to be a deeper one than what I experienced. Again, my heart aches for you.
Sometimes solitude is needed, just to get to know myself once again, so that I can return to my loved ones.
Because that’s really the answer, at least for me, time spent with your loved ones has healing properties. Do you have any pets? Or know anyone who does? I’ve found that rolling around with a sizable dog (or several!) can also cure me of many of these gutwrenching feelings, those insidious negative voices that creep in. The healing power of dog cuddles may not be complete but it is still substantial.
If you don’t have anyone you can go to, there are professionals out there who can help. One group is called the
Samaritans.
The Dark Gift is not, generally, a quick fix. You bring yourself with you, and all your own experiences, all your own baggage. It enhances who you already are, for better or worse. I found that out with my beloved Nicki. Knowing what I know now about him, would I still give him the Dark Gift? I desperately want to say yes, but I don’t think it “fixed” him. Not by a long shot. It made him into another version of himself. Purified him. It seemed to release him from his life-long act of being a civilized person, which he detested.
In the absence of everything else I’ve suggested, one other cure: Stories. Read. Watch movies. Listen to music. Eat your favorite foods. Read my first book again, and see how I dealt with obstacle after obstacle, take inspiration from my example. Or, and I can’t believe I’m suggesting this: read Louis’ book. Know that he experienced similar feelings to yours. He survived it.
You are not alone. Get the help you need, or cure yourself, or both! Validate yourself if no one else will. Care for yourself as if you were your own best friend. There were so many times when that’s all I could do for myself, for years. Decades, even. If I had given up, at any of those times, I would not be here to offer you this: I survived. So can you.
I-want-my-IWTV 