PASS THE HAPPY! šŸ’œšŸ’œšŸ’œ When you see this, reply with 5 things that make you happy and send this to the last 10 people in your notifications :)

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 ā¤

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*~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!!!Ā 

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.Ā 

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!Ā 

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.Ā 

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.Ā 

^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!Ā 

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Following the rules, I’ll tag the last 10 ppl in my notifications: @loveofmonstersandroses, @good-evening-kiss, @sunjawlow, @rosalogy, @ktcadabra, @siddiction, @callmeela, @ohsobluecamaro, @destielhoneybee, @carpe-noctem-vitae

who is your favorite short term character? I personally adore baby jenks for reasons I can’t quite explain

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Mojo.Ā Lestat’s real son, protective of his dad and loyal, a heart of gold, and basically a living security blanket. Lestat re: Mojo, TOBT:

And before this story moves any further, let me say something about this dog. He isn’t going to do anything in this book.Ā 

He won’t save a drowning baby, or rush into a burning building to rouse the inhabitants from near-fatal sleep. He isn’t possessed by an evil spirit; he isn’t a vampire dog. He’s in this narrative simply because I found him in the snow behind that town house in Georgetown, and I loved him, and from that first moment, he seemed somehow to love me. It was all too true to the blind and merciless laws I believe in – the laws of nature, as men say; or the laws of the Savage Garden, as I call them myself. Mojo loved my strength; I loved his beauty. And nothing else ever really mattered at all.Ā 

^He’s at least a little wrong, Mojo did alot in this book. He was quietly supportive when Lestat needed it most. He saw through to Lestat’s soul, bc he recognized Lestat even though the physical appearance changed drastically ā¤ So many feels for Mojo!

Runners up, or, If I Had to Choose A People: (in no special order)

  • Yvette from movie!IWTV – I headcanon her as having been raised with Louis, close to his age, and treated like a sister to him. That he was more fond of her than of his own biological sister.
  • Celeste and Estelle – Stunning vampiresses at the Theatre des Vampires who seemed to think they could paw at Claudia w/o consequences.
  • Santiago – I headcanon that he had a thing for/with Armand, maybe an unrequited crush on Armand, and then lashed out horribly when Louis came into the picture and stole Armand’s heart. Santiago has a wicked little serenade for Claudia in one of my fave fics of all time, @wicked-felinaā€‹ā€˜s First Light. #Headcanon Accepted.
  • Gretchen the nun – I just felt very inspired by the way she handled things and was saddened by the way she had to leave the story. It made sense, though.
  • Khayman – Most of his action is in QOTD so I’d consider him a short term character for that. He was a BAMF, and then later, had a real presence, and his awkwardness was so charming.
  • Tough Cookie – I mean c’mon. She’s in Lestat’s band. Or is he in her band? More about her would have been awesome.
  • Baby Jenks – Yeah I liked her alot, too! The way her narrative was written was refreshing, unlike any canon before it. Concisely stated but rich and believable backstory. She deserved to have more screentime.
  • Morgan – from IWTV, the dude who lost his wife on their honeymoon to the European vampire and ended up not lasting much longer. I really loved Louis and Claudia’s interactions with him.
  • Nicolas de LenfentĀ – bc of reasons, and yet, with all the love for him of late, he doesn’t feel like as much of a short term character. He can’t be described in one or two sentences so easily as the others on this list. Suffice it to say that just his name brings up my headcanons about him, and I struggle to choose one over any others, it feels like it would cheapen him to do that.

…There are more but those are the main ones that come to mind, and it’s a long enough list, so I’ll end it there.

Hi, I’m doing this project thing for class on IWTV and basically I have to analyze and write essays about themes, characterization, symbols, etc. on a bunch of different passages from our chosen book. I’ve done a lot but I still have some left to do and kinda have run out of ideas for the last of them. Do you have any favorite scenes/lines/moments/passages/excerpts from the book or any that stand out/you find particularly deep and meaningful? Thanks for the help (:

Hmmm, this is a tough one!Ā There are so many. I’m curious to know which you chose already!

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It changes over time, but just skimming IWTV, these are some consistently favorite moments of mine. I think some of them are deep and meaningful, but what’s deep and meaningful to me may not be to you. We all sort of have a conversation with books, you bring your own experiences and tastes and see what matches up with the story you’re reading. Sometimes the story can expand your intellectual palette! It’s done that for me.

What makes a moment (scenes/lines/moments/passages/excerpts/etc.) a fave for me is the mixture of comedy and tragedy, so I’m drawn to parts where Lestat is insulting Louis, or they’re fighting with exquisite tension and clever dialogue, or bits of vampire physiology, or heartwrenching stuff.Ā 

While I’m less interested in things like artful descriptions or didactic lessons from the author, each VC book is a mixture of many things, and I obviously love the series as a whole and in parts. Fave moments, for me, are like amazing desserts in which you can’t always figure out what the ingredients were, it’s just DELICIOUS and you gotta have MORE.

I was going through IWTV and selecting passages but I’m doing too many! Here’s the first few that come to mind, in no particular order, which is a very small fraction of all my fave moments:

  • Lestat telling Louis that he needs to grow up and quit pining for his mortal life: ā€œā€™You do not know your vampire nature. You are like an adult who, looking back on his childhood, realizes that he never appreciated it. You cannot, as a man, go back to the nursery and play with your toys, asking for the love and care to be showered on you again simplyĀ because now you know their worth.ā€™ā€
  • Louis grappling with Lestat over Lestat wanting to kill Freneire. Wrestling in the mud and the cold!
  • Louis appreciating Daniel’s tape recorder (ā€œMarvelous contraption, reallyā€) and doing/saying other little things that make him seem

    anachronistic

    (ā€ ā€œThat is, how would you say today … bullshit?ā€ ā€œ)

  • When Louis discovers mortal Claudia, he mentions that he hears a dog that he could take instead (ā€But there were alternatives: rats abounded in the streets, and somewhere very near a dog was howling hopelessly.Ā I might have fled the room had I chosen and fed and gotten back easily.ā€), but he’s drawn to her. He’s been malnourished for some 4 yrs, the inner demon pulling him to a human victim is sick and tired of junk food, it wants AN ENTRƉE ffs!
  • Louis finding Lestat post-trial under TDV clutching Claudia’s yellow dress! ;A; Heartwrenching!
  • Armand showing Louis he really can climb a tower, just try it! So motivational.
  • Lestat’s blind dad in general, how they had to pretend to eat dinner to humor him, how Louis was so nice and gentle with him and put him out of his misery when the time came ;A;
  • Louis telling Lestat he had to leave the plantation bc there was going to be an uprising, and Lestat responds with such a perfect slew of insults that are actually surprisingly accurate:Ā ā€œ `You want me gone! You,’ he sneered. He was building a card palace on the dining room table with a pack of very fine French cards. `You whining coward of a vampire who prowls the night killing alley cats and rats and staring for hours at candles as if they were people and standing in the rain like a zombie until your clothes are drenched and you smell like old wardrobe trunks in attics and have the look of a baffled idiot at the zoo.ā€˜ā€Ā 

A few more under the cut*Ā 

Anyone is welcome to reblog/comment with their own fave moments ;]


*From when I was starting at the beginning of the book and pulling faves but only got to p. 13 and had 4 already, so I had to stop doing that or I’d have more many than too many.

After Paul dies, Louis talking about his sister, how she felt like she had to act a certain way bc society expected it. This was one of the first things cluing me into the whole idea of disregarding societal expectations, bc what good did it do her to pretend?

ā€œPeople in society asked my sister offensive questions about the whole incident, and she became an hysteric. She wasn’t really an hysteric. She simply thought she ought to react that way, so she did.ā€ Ā 

The first time Louis really describes Lestat:

He came in from the courtyard, opening the French doors without a sound,
a tall fair-skinned man with a mass of blond hair and a graceful, almost feline quality to his movements. And gently, he draped a shawl over my sister’s eyes and lowered the wick of the lamp… His gray eyes burned with an incandescence, and the long white hands which hung by his sides were not those of a human being… the moment I saw him, saw his extraordinary aura and knew him to be no creature I’d ever known, I was reduced to nothing.Ā 

When Lestat is about to turn Louis, it’s so endearing, and there’s comedy in here, as well as some dubious consent, it’s just excellent.

But there was no time for courage. Or shall I say, there was no time in Lestat’s plan for anything but his plan. `Now listen to me, Louis,’ he said, and he lay down beside me now on the steps, his movement so graceful and so personal that at once it made me think of a lover. I recoiled… 

…I wanted to struggle, but he pressed so hard with his fingers that he held
my entire prone body in check; and as soon as I stopped my abortive attempt at rebellion, he sank his teeth into my neck.ā€

Omg, Lestat telling his dad to get off his back about his lifestyle is priceless:

ā€œ[Lestat] was in his father’s bedroom meantime, telling the old man good-bye, that he would return in the morning. ā€˜But where do you go, why must you live by such a schedule!’ the old man demanded, and Lestat became impatient.

… `I take care of you, don’t I? I’ve put a better roof over your head
than you ever put over mine! If I want to sleep all day and drink all night, I’ll do it, damn you!’ The old man started to whine.ā€

So, I don’t normally do these bc do you really care? Do you really want to be reminded of the fact that I have limited media faves, thatĀ I’m pretty religiously committed to the one fandomĀ like let’s be real it’s somewhat embarrassing that the only series I want to maintain a focused blog on is this trashpile of dysfunctional vampires wtf is wrong with me….

I’m taking this as an opportunity to reach out to ppl by tagging them, since I don’t do ā€œFollow Forever’sā€ or ā€œFollower Appreciationā€ posts/giveaways. I’m tagging first, putting my answers under a cut. To be fair, I can’t tag all of my followers, I would get such carpal tunnel syndrome, so I’m tagging some of the most recent ppl in my Activity feed who I’ve seen there often, and a bunch extra ;D


Tagged by @lady-of-greenwood

Rules: Repost this and tag 10 people to answer.

Tag people: @annabellioncourt,Ā @claudiaindarkness, Ā @whiningforcenturies, @luthi69, @waterxgodess, @fairytalesgoneawry, @helloitsfeffsagain, @theasgoodaslove, @queenofthesavagegarden, @obsessional-ram, @antoineandthepiano, @eibhlis97, @the-gentleman-chronicler, @elisepolo, @b-juned-91, @krist0pher, @mymillenniumpuzzle, @romanchronicles, @remember-me-you-clever-boy, @page537, @fearthelioness, @woolabumboomalackaway, @unwaveringband0flight, @baileyshouse, @ohhdarkstoned111, @kellylugosisdead, @horrorinthegraveyard, @whynotmyblog, @coldinhumanity, @jamalexlee, @hecateknight, @musicislifeme, @00halle, @vozdelanoche, @my-tatteredwingsof-freedom, @andwefaeries, @lestatdelight, @fraise-du-mal, @headfrst4halos, @maledictum10, @damnedtobeadoll, @livingdollclaudia, @celiplier, @korastus, @ourbotticelliangel, @takemetocoffin-or-losemeforever, @soapamine, @megshezzastardis

Favorite…

Fictional Characters: LESTAAAAAAT OBVIOUSLY, Louis de Pointe du Laaaaaaac, Claudiaaaaaa, Armaaaaand, y’know, all the VC usual suspects so I’ll move on, Thor, Loki, Tony Stark, Ethan Hunt, the Torrance family, Joan Crawford (well she was fictionalized in Mommie Dearest sorta), Ursula (the Little Mermaid), Dracula (pretty much all versions), the vampires in What We Do in the Shadows, the vampires in the Lost Boys, The Walking Dead characters (I like them all!).Ā 

Books: VC (obviously), The Shining, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Firestarter, I like nonfiction books, like autobiographies, I liked the Marilyn Manson one (The Long Hard Road Out of Hell).Ā 

Anime/Animated: I’m doing shows and movies in no special order: Spirited Away, Beauty and the Beast, Fantasia (the original), The Amazing World of Gumball, Bob’s Burgers, Robot Chicken, some older ones none of y’all will know so I’m leaving them out!

Favorite TV Shows: The Walking Dead, Oz, Married w/ Children, the Office, Arrested Development, Portlandia

Favorite Beverages: Diet Pepsi (altho I think Coca-Cola has always had better graphic design), Arizona Iced Tea (Green Tea), hot cocoa, cafe au lait, Iced Americano

Favorite Foods: PIZZA, Ethiopian (if you haven’t tried injeraĀ with all the yummy things on it you MUST), Chef Boyardee (I think I just lost my Foodie credibility with that one), cheesecake, mint choc. chip icecream, milkyway midnight, Kix cereal!

Last Movie I’ve Seen In the Cinema:Ā Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Dream Holiday: Kinda want to go on set with Tom Cruise for at least 3 weeks to whatever he’s filming and basically be allowed all access to his process with his craft.Ā 

Dream Wedding: Everyone in bathing suits because the vows would immediately culminate in a cake fight on the beach.

Dream Job: Official VC Fandom coordinator specializing in MERCHANDISE.