But the important question is, why did Louis memorize this passage?
Idk there’s some discussion whether “poised” meant “boner” and I never interpreted that way, bc how awkward would it be for them to all be walking around w/ tents pitched in their pants? I THINK IT WOULDA BEEN MENTIONED BEFORE. Like in IWTV when Lestat first appears to Louis. Pretty sure Louis would have run screaming.
I think “poised” meant “waiting in normal default resting position,” which sounds alot less poetic, and I think his point in mentioning it was bc he woke up alot whiter, and it was bizarre to see that change all over his body. Plus all these women were coming into the room and they were barely able to keep from pouncing on his joysitck, bc, y’know, LESTAT.
“She turned her head ever so slightly; it seemed a miracle when she closed her eyes; because then the visible life went out of her altogether. A dead and perfect thing, fine black eyelashes curling exquisitely. I looked down at her throat; at the pale blue of the artery beneath the flesh, suddenly visible as if she meant for me to see it. The lust I felt was unsupportable. The goddess, mine! I took her roughly with a strength that would have hurt a mortal woman. The icy skin seemed absolutely impenetrable and then my teeth broke through it and the hot fount was roaring into me again.”
There’s no shame in asking for a refresher on a canon thing ;] While I can’t give you the full history (check out the Vampire Companion for that), in brief:
Night Island was built by the vampire Armand as a gift to his mortal lover Daniel Molloy, to share w/ Daniel, and it is vividly described in Queen of the Damned. I gather that it is in fact a complex built on a man-made island (which does not exist IRL sorries) off the shore of Miami, Florida, USA. Daniel describes it as such:
“And Armand, he was probably roaming the dimly lighted rooms of the villa, steps away from the tourists and the shoppers, yet utterly cut off by steel doors and white walls – a sprawling palace of floor-length windows and broad balconies, perched over white sand. Solitary, yet near to the endless commotion, its vast living room facing the twinkling lights of the Miami shore.”
“… the Night Island, Armand’s own personal creation with its five dazzling glass stories of theaters, restaurants, and shops.”
[^This will be yer face if you visit there]
It’s meant to be a kind of universe of funtimes, where mortals can enjoy all kinds of entertainment, so it’s a big source of revenue for Armand, but more importantly, it’s where the coven gather and bond over a short period of time after a really harrowing shared adventure.
I know you’re super busy, but could you draw that one scene in Queen of the Damned where Armand is holding Louis and Daniel because they pass out after Mekare rips Akasha’s head off and eats her heart and brain? C: No rush or anything. Thank you ❤
That’s not fair, you know how difficult it is for me to say “no” to VC related requests?!
“They were all coming to life again, the others. Armand was holding Daniel and Louis, who were both groggy and unable yet to stand; and Khayman had come forward with Jesse beside him, and the others were all right too.” – QOTD
Marius appreciates Louis for his human tenderness, his empathy, and Louis comes to Marius for paternal support. When they play strategy games like cards or chess, they’re among the best-matched opponents in the coven. Pandora’s at their level, too. All three have excellent poker faces.
Marius finds Louis aesthetically appealing but doesn’t have any romantic intentions towards him, but even so, he can’t help but be curious about “upgrading” Louis. For how it might enhance Louis, but also possibly bc the act itself, the intimacy involved, is kind of tantalizing to think about ;]
There’s fic out there that Louis has occasionally modeled in the nude for Marius’ paintings ;}
Canon quote under the cut.
Marius re: Louis, when he’s consoling him that Lestat is still alive, in Queen of the Damned:
“He smiled at Louis. Something in the manner of this one made Marius happy, though he wasn’t sure why. He beckoned for Louis to come to him and they met at the foot of the table and walked together out of the room. Marius put his arm around Louis’s shoulder and they went down the iron stairs together, through the damp earth, Marius walking slowly and heavily, exactly like a human being might walk.
“ ‘And you’re sure of it?’ ” Louis asked respectfully.
Marius stopped. “ ‘Oh, yes, quite sure.’ ” They looked at one another for a moment, and again Marius smiled. This one was so gifted yet not gifted at the same time; he wondered if the human light would go out of Louis’s eyes if he ever gained more power, if he ever had, for instance, a little of the blood of Marius in his veins.
…Then he embraced Louis again warmly. Just a little blood, and Louis might be stronger, true, but then he might lose the human tenderness, the human wisdom that no one could give another; the gift of knowing others’ suffering with which Louis had probably been born.”
Louis – @merciful-death’s Louis has a black cat named Harriet (#headcanon accepted!). She leaves him dead mice often, and according to Lestat (@devilsfool): “She hunts them to try to feed you. She’s convinced that you are a terrible hunter.”
I also see Louis as being visited frequently by a big stray tomcat, and Lestat doesn’t approve of this one either bc MORE CAT HAIR ON VELVET FURNITURE. Velvet is very cat-hair-ophillic. This cat doesn’t have a name but Louis calls him by a lot of baby names (”Mon chou,” “Sir Fluff,” “Kitten,”) and Lestat calls him by a lot of rude names (”Hairball,” “Trashface,” “Loaf”). This cat actually followed Harriet to their home one night, and he likes to nap with her when she allows it.
Lestat – I know you didn’t ask about Lestat but I have to include him a little more! According to @annabellioncourt, “Lestat was also a canon dog person, and while there are people who love both (hi) I think with Lestat’s constant need for validation he’d be a total dog person.
Like no cats at all.
He hissed back at Louis’s cat once.
Lestat almost always has a dog, and he has meticulous memory of all the dogs he ever had.“
^#headcanon accepted.
Daniel – Lizards! Frogs! Snakes! Reptiles in general. Also insects. He has a big pinned collection, featuring gorgeous butterflies and buprestidae. Lestat loves this collection and goes to reptile houses with Daniel on occasion. They both love cobras.
Armand – I can’t find the canon evidence but I’m pretty sure he had big fancy aquariums on Night Island.
[X] Armand is truly fascinated with owls, owls are totes his spirit animal, deceptively powerful in their small size. Their symbolism for intelligence and careful planning. And y’know, they’re basically "flying pillows filled with seething hatred.” like Armand!
Hit the jump for a bit more.
Marius had taxidermied animals:“giant stuffed beasts mounted in lifelike attitudes – the brown bear, the lion, the tiger, even the elephant standing in his own immense chamber, lizards as big as dragons, birds of prey clutching dried branches made to look like the limbs of real trees.” -TVL
Marius also had a “giant aquarium, the great room-sized tank” filled w/ “rare and beautiful tropical fish” and caged birds. – QOTD
Claudia loved birds, especially small ones. She likes songbirds especially. She also loved rabbits but more for their fur than their personality.
The short answer is: Yes, there are PoC vampires in VC (”VoC,” right? Vampires of Color?). There aren’t many in the recurring character cast but they’re in the series! Here’s one in
Queen of the Damned:
“Davis was a black Dead guy and one damned good-looking black Dead guy,… His skin had a gold glow to it, the Dead glow which in the case of white Dead guys made them look like they were standing in a fluorescent light all the time.”
Have I ever imagined what they looked like? I think that was a pretty good description, because other than the “gold glow,” I would describe a PoC vampire like I would a PoC person, with the features that they have!
[^X] Akasha is an Egyptian VoC, described in the novels as having porcelain white skin, and this is a point of contention in the VC fandom, that AR has whitewashed her. I don’t have a stand on this but I very much like the way that it was handled in movie!QOTD.
It’s worth noting that there is a debate as to what color the Ancient Egyptians’ skin really was, and I added a bit from 2 articles under the cut which might be of interest to you.
Akasha is also very old, and Ricean vampire physiology involves the lightening of the skin over time. This is another point of contention in the VC fandom, again, it appears on the surface to be AR whitewashing a PoC.
I would suggest that the draining of pigmentation is due to the lack of exposure to sunlight, as we can see in examples in nature of subterranean animals who have evolved over time to be light-colored.
Subterranean fauna are animals that have adapted to live underground… troglofauna are associated with caves and spaces above the water table … Adaptations to the subterranean environment include a heightened sense of hearing, touch and smell[1]… and loss of under-used or unnecessary senses, apparent in the lack of pigmentation and eyesight of most subterranean fauna.
^So maybe AR drew a little from there. Why a lack of pigmentation? I found an interesting study/article (In the Light of Evolution: Volume IV: The Human Condition) on that, too, which points to the lack of sunlight as the cause:
Observers beginning with Hippocrates in the fifth century associated human traits and temperament with the environment and recognized that skin color was part of this package (Isaac, 2004). The association of dark skin pigmentation with intense sunshine and heat was further developed by Aristotle and his followers as part of a comprehensive “climatic theory,” which related human features, dispositions, and cultures to the environment.
…The evolution of light pigmentation at high latitudes has long been related to the significance of production of vitamin D in the skin under conditions of reduced sunlight (Murray, 1934; Loomis, 1967).
^I would suggest that the vampiric parasite is always working on converting its host into a better vampire (and less of a mortal) cell by cell, and the process is accelerated too much by the UV rays in sunlight, which causes their skin to burn. Being unable to tolerate the discomfort, the vampire skin gradually drains of color due to lack of exposure to sunlight.
The rate at which they lose pigmentation and how much pigment is lost varies by individual. It’s also possible that some vampires retain a skin color that is similar to their mortal skin color. It’s not an exact science.
There are also examples of vampire skin becoming darker after surviving exposure to sunlight.
Hope that helped! Hit the jump for stuff about Egyptian skin color.
…ancient Egyptians didn’t really perceive themselves as either “black” or “white.” Just look at the above painting from Pharaoh Seti I’s tomb. The top right group, with the palest skin are Libyans (Berbers), the next one over to the left are Nubians, followed by “Asiatics” (Mesopotamians). The bottom central group are Egyptians. By their own perception Egyptians were neither particularly dark nor particularly pale, and given their xenophobic attitude towards outside cultures (which was fairly common for most ancient peoples) they would probably resent being sorted into either “race.”
So why does this matter? Why is it important that we acknowledge the Egyptians don’t fit into our constructed dichotomy of black vs. white, of European or African?Well, for one thing many modern Egyptians find it kind of offensive. Despite their modern self-identification as Arabs, most Egyptians still feel a strong claim to the historical legacy of their ancient forebears and find it pretty annoying when American scholars (and, black or white, it is mostly Americans) try to pigeonhole the pharaohs into one racial category or another for political purposes.
The race and skin color of Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of the Greek Ptolomaic dynasty of Egypt, established in 323 BCE, has also caused frequent debate.[46] For example, the article Was Cleopatra Black? was published in Ebony magazine in 2012,[47] and an article about Afrocentrism from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch mentions the question, too.[48] Scholars generally identify Cleopatra as of Greek and Persian ancestry, based on fact that her Greek Macedonian family had intermingled with the Persian aristocracy of the time. However, her mother’s identity is uncertain,[49] and that of her paternal grandmother is also not known for certain.[50]
I-want-my-IWTV 