me, talking to a dog: you’re soft. are you even aware of your mortality? of course ur not. u pure, wholesome and sentient unselfish being. do u feel that? that’s my heart. i love you. look at those ears. here take my wallet
Ooooh good question! In IWTV, Louis says that he did visit Lestat (and it was in the movie).
We actually don’t know if it happened :-
book!IWTV has Louis following a young vampire to Lestat’s door.
In the Tale of the Body Thief, Lestat says it never happened.
We have discrepancy in canon. Your headcanon may be that it happened, and someone else’s may be that it didn’t. With Louis’ book, was he telling his tale to try to call out Lestat? Maybe he knew that inventing a scene like this might provoke Lestat to respond. If so, it worked, Lestat wrote TVL as a response to IWTV. Also, Louis told his story to Daniel, who then had to send it to his editor(s), so maybe it was invented by someone other than Louis for whatever reason.
So who do I believe? Umm, I don’t think Louis is a liar, and I don’t think anyone invented it. Lestat has said, “I never lie, at least not to those I don’t love.” which means that he DOES lie to those he loves.
I’m going w/ Louis on this and saying that it happened as Louis described it.
1. Book!IWTV:
“Because shortly after that I saw a vampire in New Orleans, a sleek white-faced young man walking alone on the broad sidewalks of St. Charles Avenue…” (this mystery vampire kills a woman and takes her baby to a shabby old house where he meets up with another vampire) “My eyes widened as I studied this stooped and shivering vampire whose rich blond hair hung down in loose waves covering his face… I saw clearly, unmistakably, the profile of Lestat, that smooth skin now devoid of even the faintest trace of his old scars.”
BTW, it’s implied that that young vampire was one of Lestat’s own fledglings (another mystery fledgling?!):
“ `You all leave me!’ he whined now in a thin, high-pitched voice.“
(Louis taps at the window)
…” `It’s Louis! Louis!’ he said. `Let him in’ And he gestured frantically, like an invalid, for the young `nurse’ to obey. … and I could see the tears welling in his eyes…How baffling and awful it was, this smoothfaced, shimmering immortal man bent and rattled and whining like a crone.”
2. HOWEVER…
In Tale of the Body Thief, Lestat calls Louis a liar, and I think he’s referring to the whole visit scene:
“Ah, that makes you out to be a perfect liar,” I said furiously. “You described my weeping in your miserable memoir in a scene which we both know did not take place!”
“I’m Lestat,” I said in a low voice. “Your Lestat. I’m the same Lestat you’ve always known, and no matter how I’m changed, I’m still that same being.”
“I know,” he said warmly.
I kissed him. I pressed my lips to his and I held this kiss for a long silent moment. And then I gave in to a silent wave of feeling, and I took him in my arms. I held him tight against me. I felt his unmistakable silken skin, his soft shining black hair. I heard the blood throbbing in him, and time dissolved, and it seemed I was in some old and secret place, some warm tropical grotto we’d once shared, ours alone in some way, with the scent of sweet olive blossoms and the whisper of moist breeze. “I love you,” I whispered.
In a low intimate voice, he answered: “My heart is yours.”(Lestat and Louis in Prince Lestat, by
You are asking if I would have loved him if he’d been mortal when I’d met him, I am assuming?
It would be strange to think of such a scenario. At the time in which he came to me, I’d become bitter and cynical about life in itself. I loathed myself with a fierce absoluteness, and I loathed all those that surrounded me because it was easier many nights to experience a sorrow-tinged-fury than it was to just become despondent. I hated those cowards around me that would not put me down and sweep me away from the misery I could not remove myself from. I did not traverse the worst venues in New Orleans because I wanted camaraderie. I wanted to die.
I didn’t have lengthy conversations with many. I cheated and brought on fights. What would Lestat have done, if he’d not been a vampire? Would he have visited me as I drank an ocean of liquor? Would he have met me outside the door? Regardless, I can only fathom that I would have initially ignored him. He wouldn’t have seemed the kind that I wanted. I would not have looked at him and seen my own demise reflected in his eyes.
I’m sure he would have struck a conversation with me, and I would have become angry and ranted in my drunkenness. But then, there presents the question of whether he would have found me interesting enough to keep badgering, if he had not been a vampire? Because it is who he is to not rid himself of the presence of someone he’s become fascinated with. And if that had been the case, I’m sure he would have continued presenting himself as an irritation, day after day, night after night. He would have flirted about in the way only Lestat can. Speaking hypothetically, of course.
It would have infuriated me that he’d felt enough of an attraction to me to not let me be. It would have challenged me, I suppose, to make him hate me, as so many did. I have an immense amount of pride, and even in my darkest moments, that’s never vanished. He would have revived a strange sort of competitiveness in me that I’d not experienced in months. He’d become my norm. I’d find enjoyment in bantering with him, rather than the misery I felt in the bars. He’d be kind to me, and I would think I’d give up my fight eventually, and we would somehow come together. Most likely in a night of high emotion, because that is how the two of us have operated in immortality.
And that’s that. In this strange scenario where we’d both be mortals, I’m sure he would have refueled a fire in me, and I can only imagine that I’d be unable to avoid him. Lestat is inevitable. A reality in which I’d meet him and not love him seems incomprehensible. If there are alternate universes as portrayed in science fiction, I’m positive that I love him in every one of them.
I-want-my-IWTV 