#the other book which I have a feeling will be more popular was my vampire hunter/demon slayer Romantics/Victoria fan fic

[amarrymeinbostonwriter]

#I'm going to be mega annoying and self boost #I'm currently (very slowly) uploading two of my old novels in audiobook form to youtube #they aren't teen lit despite my art style #the teenage characters in one of the books are all adults by the end of the book #and they're in a series where I actually finished more than one book #the other book which I have a feeling will be more popular was my vampire hunter/demon slayer Romantics/Victoria fan fic #it's basically Romantics/Victoria the tv show fan fiction #but it was my 2020 nano project #also that is me doing all the voices #and I made all the art (or edited it in photoshop) #b. h. avondale #I rethought about it and I'm pretty sure that even though my stuff is fucked up a bit that it's less fucked up than some teen lit I read #so it's not 18+ any more #I thought it would be bad but I've read worse in teen lit and classic lit so I'm guessing it's probably fine? #b. h. avondale is my penname it's not my real name! #youtube #lgbt lit #historic fiction #current releases #audiobook #this is one of several side projects #and you bet your ass that I'm going to eventually do Matilda's story too once I untangle it #she's still a mess but not in a dress- a mess in a fine vest and trousers I think #both those stories on the channel have bipolar leads in the stories #actually bipolar #my chatter #my art #my voice #the veery family saga #to be the hunter or the hunted

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/746553097204203521/the-fandom-hates-women-response-to-lack-of-ff

The "fandom hates women" part of it comes from the fact that fandom as an entity just doesn't watch the kind of media that draws femslash, even if it ticks all of the boxes of things those very same people say they like. There are so many times I've watched a show that I've seen mega-popular Tumblr posts wishing existed, and then the fandom is so, so small comparatively and often in general. There have been superheroes, vampire/supernatural shows, fantasy shows, movies, books, the list goes on, that feel like they were generated out of Tumblr's desires for ideal fandom media, and everyone knows they're never going to attract anywhere near the same attention for fandom and fanworks because the common denominator just tends to be that if there isn't a full ensemble of attractive men to ship either with each other or with the women, fandom's not interested.

So it's not about prioritizing women in that sense, it's about people witnessing hypocrisy over and over again the second a show doesn't have a mostly-male ensemble. The people who are in these fandoms are frustrated that good faith attempts to get people interested are met with every excuse in the book that all eventually boils down to "I don't like watching stuff with women in it as much as I like watching stuff with men in it." And if that's how people feel about it... sometimes the conclusions are going to turn into the more uncharitable take of "fandom hates women."

--

Maybe, but whenever I see a "fandom hates women" reblog of my stuff, one or two reblogs further down the chain I get an overt TERF. I just had to go block several people today, in fact.

The first person to reblog with a comment like that is usually subtle, but their friends and friends of friends are not. The rhetoric that very quickly starts is the fandom equivalent of that "All the butches are becoming trans men! We're losing lesbians!" stuff.

Here's the thing: I've been in ten billion fandoms that were so awesome and fit fandom's supposed tastes to a T and yet no amount of promoting them could get anyone to try the canon. This goes for canons that are all men or all white men or all majority ethnicity men or whatever else.

The default state of media is to not engender a big fic fandom.

I agree that the rare outliers mostly follow certain patterns, but we extrapolate too far when we say that a lack of those patterns is why a fandom is small.

A fandom is small because that's the near-universal default.

--

Yes, a small slice of fandom consists of guilt-ridden queer fujoshi who say they want more f/f but don't make much of a move to make that happen. I tend to run into that a lot because of my own tastes and having friends who share those tastes.

Far more of fandom is people talking generally about how representation matters without saying they would personally join these fandoms if they existed.

Neither group is large enough to be the real reason some woman-heavy canon fails to take off to HP levels.

The real reason is not hypocrisy but the fact that most things don't take off like that. Most things without massive, massive audiences especially don't take off like that. And the very few things that do are flukes and don't actually predict that another similar thing will take off in the future.

--

Go to AO3's tag search. Search for all canonical fandom tags. Sort by uses and descending order.

Right now, I get 64,390 tags.

The first page, 50 tags, goes from HP with 497,845 works to the Thor movies with 59,266 works. By page 6, we're below 10 thousand works.

By the end of page 10, we're down to Labyrinth with 3,906.

Somewhere in the top 500 AO3 fandom tags (many of which are just franchise metatags for each other), we go all the way from megafandoms to medium size and down to relatively modest ones.

That's not a lot of room for a big f/f-heavy fandom given the trends in mainstream media and that mainstream media is where most really big fandoms come from.

--

I also notice that you're conflating a lack of desire to watch something that's primarily about women with a lack of desire to watch something that includes women.

There are tons of fans who want something more like The Mummy with a leading man and leading woman they love.

Granted, that's not me and that's not a lot of my fujoshi/slasher audience, but it's extraordinarily common. I know plenty of people who don't like canons that are only dudes, but since they also don't like canons that are only ladies and they don't ship f/f, this gets spun into "fandom hates women".

--

Let me be clear:

Conflating "lesbians" and "women" is a radfem position.

[familyvideostevie]

october thirtieth

day thirty: james potter you find a photo of the two of you in james's pocket | established relationship, fluff | 1k

“James, have you seen my lipstick?”

No reply. You check your makeup bag one more time but can't find it.

“James!”

“What?”

His voice is muffled. You leave the bathroom and follow it, finding him standing in the closet frowning at his dress shirts. You press into his side, wrapping yourself around his bare torso. “Your face is going to stick like that if you're not careful.”

He drags his hand up and down between your shoulder blades. “I have to be the best-dressed bride of a vampire out there, darling. You know that.”

Silly, silly man. The event of the evening is Halloween-themed drinks at the popular bar on the high street. You had to book a table and everything and James has been looking forward to it all month.

He came up with your costumes: you, a dangerous and beautiful vampire, and him, your willing and handsome bride.

“Well, best of luck to you. Have you seen my lipstick? The red one?”

You need it to draw the punctures on his neck and lines of blood from the corners of your mouth. James pulls himself from your hold and selects a shirt, finally, buttoning it up halfway and messing with his hair in the mirror.

“I don't have it, darling,” he says.

You sigh. Easily distracted, this one. “I gave it to you the other night to hold.”

He snaps his fingers. “So you did. It must be in my jacket pocket.”

“Which one?” You swear James has more clothes than you.

“Which jacket or which pocket?”

“James.”

He winks at you, glasses flashing. “Brown jacket, not sure which pocket.”

You leave him to his fussing and find it hanging on the hook in the entryway.

The lipstick is not in the right pocket or the left. You hope he's not lost it because it's a great color and you really don't want to have to draw the blood on in purple, or something, but then you feel something lipstick-shaped in the breast pocket.

“Jackpot,” you mutter. You pull the tube from the pocket but out with it comes a piece of paper.

It's creased and wrinkled, as if it's been handled many times. You unfold it and —

Oh. You think you say that out loud.

It's you and James. A photo from ages ago. Years, actually. It's you two on the night you met. A party of Lily's, something she did often in those days to bring people together, and this one was a game night. You and James had been paired up for charades and you'd absolutely crushed the competition. You remember feeling like you could read each other's minds.

In the photo you're holding the trophy — a tiny, plastic thing Lily had bought at a discount store — and you're smiling so wide you can see all of your teeth. James has his arm slung around you and he's looking right at you instead of at the camera.

His expression shocks you. You've seen hundreds of photos of the two of you together where he's got this look on his face, the one that you know to be love. And in the photo you've just found, one of the first day you met, he's looking at you the same way. Like he's in love.

“Darling?” he calls. “Did you find it?” he wanders down the hall, fully dressed, and you turn to him.

“Yes,” you say, breathless. “James, why do you have this in your jacket?”

“Hm?” He slides his hand over your hip and leans in to look, face brightening when he see's what you've found. “Have you not seen this before? I suppose I've kept it in there since Lily gave it to me.”

You just stare at it.

“God, it's so obvious I was gone for you,” he sighs.

You turn your head so you're looking at him, so close you could count his eyelashes. “You were?”

“Darling, I was utterly ass over tit for you from the start. In love the second you opened your mouth.”

“Don't be silly, James.”

He looks offended. “No, it's true! I remember the whole thing. I was late and you'd been freed up from work at the last minute so we didn't have partners when Lily said to make teams. And you looked at me and said, 'You better be good at this, because I am.' And I said, 'I will win you this if it's the last thing I do.'”

“Which was a bit dramatic,” you mutter.

“And you didn't even tell me your name until we won.”

“That is how it went, I suppose. You really fancied me because I was a bit overcompetative?”

James snorts. “Come on, love, is that really so hard to believe?”

You look at the picture again. It isn't, considering you were similarly smitten that night, but it's still a bit like a fairy tale.

“No, I guess not.”

“I mean, who wouldn't fall in love with you at first sight?” James presses a kiss to your temple. “You're funny —” he kisses your brow “— sweet —” your nose “— lovely —” your cheek.

“Okay, okay, okay,” you say, shoving him off. “We need to finish getting ready, James, or we'll be late.”

He bares his neck for you. “Blood me up, baby.”

You laugh, slip the photo back into his jacket, and drag him back to the bathroom. “You're so weird.”

“And you looooove it.”

“You're the one who carries that photo round all the time!”

Just saying it makes your heart swell. It's a small thing in the grand scheme of your relationship. James shows you he loves you all the time — in his words, his actions. The way he looks at you. How he always buys your favorite flavor soda at the shop when he sees it. The way he knows how to wake you from a nap without startling you. His touch in a crowded room and his gaze when he senses you need something.

So, yeah, a photo in his jacket pocket is nothing, really. But he clearly looks at it often and thins about that first night.

You lean in and kiss him without warning. He makes a surprised noise but leans into it, hand cupping the back of your neck. Maybe it's alright if you're a little late.

thank you for reading <3 reblog, send feedback, general masterlist here! promptober masterlist, find all fics under #fvspromptober23

#fvspromptober23 #james potter x reader #james potter x you #james potter x y/n #james potter fluff #marauders fanfiction

[writingquestionsanswered]

I’m writing a novel that I’ve been working on for years. I recently read a book that contained a LOT of worldbuilding concepts that are very similar to my own, though our plots are different. I’m worried readers will think I ripped off this other novel even though we clearly both had the same ideas independently (a magic system based on a particular way real-word science works, and the aesthetic look of a character including their signature wound). How do I deal with these similarities in a social and business aspect when trying to publish my own novel?

Three Secrets About Book Similarities

Here's a little secret: every book ever written shares unintentional similarities with some other story, and probably with lots of other stories. There are millions upon millions of stories in the world. Humanity is steeped in stories. The likelihood of coming up with a setting, plot, character, magic system, etc. that doesn't share similarities with countless existing stories is very, very slim. Here's another secret: When you've poured your heart and soul into a story, it's so special to you that even the slightest similarities to another story will glaring. The truth is, however, magic systems based on particular aspects of real world science are a dime a dozen, so the odds of you being the first person to do it are virtually nonexistent. It's much more likely that there are actually hundreds of other stories based on the same particular way real world science works. But if you didn't intentionally copy one of those other stories, I guarantee the particulars of your magic system are different enough to matter. And while it is a little weird that you also happen to have a character with the same aesthetics and wound, that's easy enough to fix. You can make a list of similarities there and tweak them. Now, here's the final secret: No one cares. If you didn't blatantly and obviously plagiarize this other story, it is not a business issue and is not likely to be a social issue. The industry and readers actually favor similarities in stories... why do you think everyone rushed to write vampire fiction after the popularity of Twilight, which actually shared some pretty big similarities with The Vampire Diaries which was published 14 years earlier... Look at the current popularity of dragon riding stories. Look at the dystopian craze ushered in by The Hunger Games, and the spicy romantasy era brought in by Sarah J. Maas. Look at the way comps are used to entice readers to read new books... "Fans of blank and blank will love this book!" or "For fans of blank and blank." Comps exist because of similarities between one book and another book, and because readers enjoyed those similarities enough to read another book with them.

So, truly, don't worry about it. If it makes you feel any better, you can absolutely tweak what you have to make it different enough to ease your concerns. Here are some previous posts on the same topic:

Similarities vs Plagiarism Plagiarism vs Reference vs Inspiration Beta Reader Sees Similarity with Existing Character Does My Book/Story Already Exist Taking Inspiration from Another Story’s Premise Afraid of Plagiarism Accusation

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[lalalian]

futuristic dr ideas pt.1 : jobs

date: march 24, 2024 (technically march 25, it's 2 AM rn)

If you're interested in more futuristic dr things, I posted a video on tiktok with more futuristic stuff

A lot of this stuff is inspired the things I've read in cyberprep books!

disclaimer: none of my ideas are made by AI, sometimes I may be aided by AI to get inspired (especially with civilizations). If I do use AI somewhere in my ideas I’ll be sure to let you guys know!

World Acclimatizer

Also known as an ‘Acclimaitzer’

These help people move to other planets by aiding them in adapting to either living in space or living on different planets. World Acclimatizers often work closely with primary care doctors, and are extremely well-versed in non-earthly sicknesses and the effects space has on the human body. Realtors from other planets will always refer their clients to an Acclimatizer if the house is located on another planet.

Planetary Humanitarian

Planetary Humanitarians promote natural and peaceful development in other planets. These people typically advocate for limited human interaction with other life, some even going as far as to never stepping off earth. Planetary Humanitarians tend to dislike Civilization Examiners.

Cybernaut

Cybernauts work with techspace (technology relating to space) engineers to test out products. These people are often pretty popular in the media sphere because, as I mentioned earlier, many engineers are inclined to sponsor them. Cybernauts can frequently be seen in AR Gaming hubs and Cyber parkour arenas (more about those in the tiktok linked to this post)

Cybernetic Designer

Cybernetic body parts are designed by these people. These parts are not designed to look realistic like the prosthetic parts we see today. Most designers specialize in a body part, the most popular one being the left arm. Cybernetic designers are not licensed in creating full body AI androids, but they can create parts for androids.

Android Engineer

Android Engineers obviously do have some sort of license to make androids, but there are different tiers to an android making license:

Limited 2D Design: Very similar to character ai or j.ai bots, these bots do not have a physical form and can only be spoken to through text. They may have voices or a 2D body.

AR Immersive Experience: Like love and deepspace but with AR, you can feel, hear, and taste the android only through AR goggles. Some android engineers make their own goggles to allow their customers to feel a more personalized experience with new features. Why is this a completely different tier from 2D design? There's more room for corruption both mentally and digitally (hacking). The AI that makes the bots act so human can make the bot become too sentient, which could make them want to break free from the simulation.

Small Non-Human Physical Design: Most people with this license make android pets. Dogs are obviously the most popular, but jelly fish and vampire squids are popular these days. This license requires more training than the AR experience degree because these androids exist in the physical world.

Non-Human Physical Design: Designers with this license are not always involved in the abstract or purely artistic sphere. Many make hyper realistic android animals to blend in with the environment to either monitor species development, observe other planet-life in a non-invasive way, or encourage certain behaviors in animals. Even if the creature is not considered large, designers who plan to enter this field of design must earn this license because of this job requires complex AI design and ultra realistic visuals.

Non-Interactive Human Design: Designers with this tier do not create androids with crazy complex AI models. These androids are often displayed in museums, and are no where near sentient enough to even speak outside of a few lines, if that.

Life-like Interactive Human Design: This is the highest tier. People with this license often advocate for equality amongst humans and androids. Anyone with this license should exercise caution when making their androids, as talented designers can make androids that are so indistinguishable from humans that they become acknowledged as civilians rather than 'product'. Reports against designers with these license are taken extremely seriously.

Civilization Examiners

I'm planning to have a DR with this job kekekeke. I'll tell y'all storytimes if I can get myself to focus on shifting instead of scripting 😞

There's two kinds of civilization examiners: public or non-public. Public examiners assist journalists and researchers after living for days, weeks, months, or even years on a different planet. They collect data like plants, animals, environmental samples, and most importantly, get as much information as possible about other civilizations. Civilization Examiners are required to be at least semi- decent artists because they need to be able to draw what they see. They are required to come back with information about the civilization's culture, religious customs, traditions, language, fashion, appearance, parenting style, government, and more importantly, alliance potential.

edit: I forgot to talk abt non-public examiners 😭 non-public examiners work for the government and are apart of the CIA. Public examiners research about alliance potential, but not nearly as intensely as gov examiners.

istg more shifters need to talk about their futuristic drs :(

#reality shifting #shiftblr #shifters #shifting blog #shifting community #shifting diary #scripting #desired reality #lalalian

[zombie-bait]

Omg i just realized I have something tiny to add to the whole James Somerton debacle. I'm currently watching the hbombguy vid (as you do when procrastinating assignments) and I remembered something that stood out to me in James' old videos.

So I used to be a fan of his stuff. I am also a fan of Hannibal and IWTV. He made a video covering both so naturally I was very hyped. It was called 'The Gay Appeal of Toxic Love.' The vid itself was fine (I don't remember having any super strong opinions of it besides being excited to hear ppl mention Interview cuz I had recently become obsessed) but one thing did stand out to me. In the IWTV section he mentions Nicki and, naturally, his death:

"After becoming a vampire, Nicky becomes nearly catatonic, and eventually slips away from Lestat entirely. And after centuries of dealing with depression and severe mental illness, Nicky kills himself."

(sourced from this transcript: https://github.com/TerraJRiley/James_Somerton_Transcripts/blob/main/Transcripts/The%20Gay%20Appeal%20of%20Toxic%20Love.txt)

To anyone who's read TVL, I don't think I need to explain that Nicki had not, in fact, been around for centuries. "Nicki had lived to be 30" has been rattling around in my head since I first read it.

And like, obviously I don't expect every youtube essayist to read several long-ish novels to have a full grasp of the series' deep lore, especially when the focus was largely on IWTV and Loustat rather than the entire Vampire Chronicles. Still, it makes you wonder a bit about the quality of the research being done here. You can find the proper info in like, 5 seconds by just going on the fan wiki so I'm not sure what his sources were. And that's the issue at hand, isn't it?

At the time I felt a tiny bit smug recognizing the error but in light of everything that's been revealed, it's kind of telling. I'm not saying this part was plagiarized (I haven't found anything but others on reddit have found issues with different sections of the same video) but rereading the transcript it comes off as someone who clearly doesn't know much about Interview.... It feels like he's reading through a loose summary of plot points rather than analyzing a piece of media that actually means anything to him. It's very much Interview for people who don't know Interview which, one could argue is fair. Especially beyond book one, VC is a niche series and a lot of elements that are important to certain characters or plot lines cannot be summarized quickly for an audience unfamiliar with it. A good writer, who's done a lot of research about the specific topic they have chosen to make a video on, would be able to balance this. There is a LOT to analyze about queerness in VC and its a shame to see one of the more popular queer media channels half-assing it just to churn out videos heavily made up of other people's work. In retrospect he had several videos like that, where he would discuss things like manga/manhua communities while clearly having little knowledge on the nuance of those subjects. He was an outsider who presented himself with a strange amount of authority.

This was content created with the sole intention of propping up queer stories and history, yet it's built off stolen work from queer authors and doesn't actually care that much about exploring the communities it features. Vids like the IWTV one weren't really fact checked because it's only people like me who would might give a shit or even notice anything is off in the first place. There's a bit of a similar vibe in some of his other vids where he undermines the experiences of queer women because he clearly has not taken the time to learn about the nuances of representing queer women in media. These are things that irritated me when I first started to notice them but I put those concerns in the back of my mind because I cared about the topics he was covering and was excited to see these discussions becoming more mainstream.

The revelations of this evening have been disappointing to say the least.

(also for the record I know he made other more recent vids about IWTV but I haven't seen those and even if his account was still up I don't think I would lol

BUT

I did look at the transcript for his 'Vampires and the Gays Who Love Them' video (found from the same link I included above) and this quote about the IWTV AMC show is sending me: "Daniel has never grappled with the complexities of being gay"

Shoutout to straight, uncomplicated icon Daniel Molloy. Devil's Minion was a mass hallucination, spread the word)

#iwtv #interview with the vampire #james somerton #hbomberguy #vampire chronicles #iwtv spoilers #the vampire lestat #youtube #anne rice #queer media

[jacevelaryonswife]

► Modern Headcanons | 「AU」

pairing: Jacaerys Velaryon | Aegon Targaryen | Aemond Targaryen x Fem!Reader (the famous big three).

a/n: This is situated in college and I hope you all like it. English is not my first language, sorry for any mistakes.

warnings: mentions of alchool, drunking and sex.

Modern headcanons masterlist

— Aegon ↺

We must begin with Aegon. The dude changes of graduations like he's changing clothes. He never knew what field to choose, he never had a big dream to fulfill or an aspiration to something — perhaps because his family was flying in money.

In high school he was the typical popular boy who part of the team and dated one cheerleader a month, in college it's no different.

He's a fuckboy, living in a frat (even though he doesn't have to) and throwing a thousand parties. He loves all girls, but freshmen, exchange students or super smart girls get his special attention. And some boys.

When I said that he changes courses like he changes clothes, I wasn't exaggerating.

First he tried physical education (why? He don't know), then computing at Luke's insistence (lots of numbers, he fucking hated it), then he tried law (WHY DOES A BOOK HAVE 800 PAGES?), he considered international relations and end tourism.

He wanted to do an exchange, but Alicent forbade it until he settled on something.

He just wanted to be an heir :(

He would probably meet you at a party and flirt compulsively. He wouldn't rest until he had your number, or kissed you, or better yet, performed obscenities in his room.

Eventually he would rent an apartment to have more privacy for his one night fucks.

Aegon would try to steal Jace's girls — why not?

He's used every drug you can imagine.

He would wake up drunk in the middle of campus.

He's a himbo.

— Aemond ↺

You know that handsome and mysterious guy that you would definitely have a crush on? Well, it's probably Aemond.

Among the areas he could choose, in addition to history and philosophy, I see physics or some impeccable academic career.

Unlike Aegon, the opportunity to run the family business would eventually excite him, so studying business administration is also a high possibility for our boy.

He would attend the best colleges.

He's intimidating at first sight and likes to do things alone, which makes you reluctant to try to get close.

But damn, he's super charming and seems to give off attractive pheromones and you can't pay attention to anything but him.

It's like Edward — you thought he was a vampire too.

He is super stylish and has an impossible presence to divert attention.

He would NEVER live in a frat. The idea of ​​sharing a house with other guys his age is a nightmare. Seven Hells, he thinks he'd throw up at the smell of alcohol, drugs, and bed sheets after sex. Fucking gross.

He would rent an apartment close to university and other things that can enrich his routine.

He goes to some parties (not like Aegon) but getting drunk is not an option.

Maybe he'd try marijuana at a certain point, just to prove it.

He would always be with a book or phone in hand, or just contemplating the environment.

You'd meet him at some party or the library or any other part of college.

He was the best kiss you've had in years.

He makes you feel stupid with his intelligence and eloquence, even if he doesn't mean to. When you tell him you feel inferior, he'd take your hand and grope your face and say there's nothing that makes you any less than him.

— Jace ↺

I confess that choosing an area for Jace was the HARDEST thing about this headcanon, so he was the last.

I see him as a sports guy, but it would hardly go from a hobby. He could do business administration like Aemond to take care of the family business, but I also see him doing architecture. (If you have another option please enlighten me).

He would be a frat boy, BUT, with BIG caveats. He would be the boys' dad, guiding them not to drink too much, use illicit drugs and not take girls to his room (the latter mainly).

He's all sweet, kind, and protective with girls, unlike most frat boys.

He loves parties but tends to stay sober at most of them (sometimes he allows himself to get so fucking crazy and he turns cute and red when he's drunk).

He would smoke marijuana a few times and would definitely be a smiling high. Afterwards he would feel a little guilty.

You would also meet him at some party and be suspicious of him. Respectful, sweet and handsome? Just one low blow to get into your pants.

However, he's kind of hard to resist and by the end of the night he has your number and Instagram. Maybe even an excited kiss.

He's such a great kisser, it's so fucking unfair.

He would take you to a candy store or anywhere you want to go. Totally a good boy who treats you like a queen.

He would try to hide you from Aegon's clutches at family meetings.

#jacaerys velaryon x reader #aemond targaryen x reader #aegon targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen #aegon targaryen #jacaerys velaryon #jacaerys velaryon headcanons #headcanons #aegon targaryen headcanons #aemond targaryen headcanons #modern hotd #modern aemond #modern jace #modern aegon

[curioushabitforarivergod]

dark(ish) academia books that I don't see recommended enough

I read a lot, both fiction and non-fiction, and a lot of the stuff I've read over the past 2-3 years has had underlying academic tones. I've tried to include books I've at least enjoyed, although there are a few 3 star ratings. All of these books are ones I haven't really seen mentioned in compiled dark academia lists (mainly because some of them fall outside the general scope and are more ✨vibes✨). Feel free to add more less well-known books. I've included my own blurbs of the books but I've got shit memory and some I read like 2 years ago so yeah

Fiction

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." Voltaire

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Takes place over 10 years and explores family and the destruction left behind after WWI. It discusses the feminine vs. masculine in art and while it can be a little slow to read (took me close to 3 weeks!) theres some really beautiful passages and also some funny ones as well — the characters spend several chapters at a dinner party convinced everyone hates them and constantly hating other people too.

The Dark is Rising (series) by Susan Cooper

Okay, yes this is a kids book series from the 70s/80s but it explores English, Cornish and Welsh mythology and has really good characters and world-building. Even though chronologically the series goes: Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising; Greenwitch; The Grey King; Silver on the Tree, it's best to read The Dark is Rising first and return back to Over Sea, Under Stone. Anyway, I love this series and I read The Dark is Rising every Christmas because it corresponds pretty much with the days and is easy to place and that's kind of what makes it feel very cozy and academic. Also, theres some brief moments of time travel to the past.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

This is a beautiful written masterpiece set across the 20th century featuring plenty of train rides across Europe and vampires. It explores some of the history of Walachia and Dracula, as well as the Ottoman Empire and European politics of the time. It's a hefty read but I loved it because it combines history, dark academia, fantasy and vampires.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

My favourite of Shakespeare that I've seen so far and honestly murder is so dark academia I don't need to talk any further. Strangely, I don't see this recommended enough.

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

This was quite popular a year or two ago, and honestly for good reason. I think it's only really academic because it's linked to Shakespeare and explores the less well-known lives of Shakespeare's family, but it's very good and I thought I'd include it anyway.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

This one feels really light academia to me, but I think it's mainly because of setting. It's set in this fantastical old and crumbling mansion that goes on forever. It's filled with statues and it floods and only two people live in the world. The story is told entirely through diary entries, but it's so well-written because it defamiliarises the reader entirely. It was a light and easy read for me, which is probably why I'm associating it with light academia rather than dark academia.

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

This book kinda mixes chaotic academia and cottagecore academia and is a reflection of girlhood and youth spent in the French countryside in the 50s. There's a toxic relationship between two friends who write a book together before one of them attends prestigious girls' school in England. Also the opening lines are amazing: "You cannot cut an apple with an apple. You cannot cut an orange with an orange. You can, if you have a knife, cut an apple or an orange. Or slice open the underbelly of a fish. Or, if your hands are steady enough and the blade is sharp enough, sever an umbilical cord."

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Another classic! I love Waugh, and Brideshead revisited is amazing and my favourite of what I've read of his. The book is quite homoerotic — explicitly so at times, which is fascinating for something published in 1945 — and deals with romanticisation. It nestles quite snugly between Picture of Dorian Grey and Secret History in terms of a dark academic literary canon.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

This is more gothic than dark academia, but it's also a satire of the gothic genre so I feel like it counts. It's definetly not as well known as some of Austen's other works and feels much more raw, particularly because its her first work (although not published until after her death). It's not my favourite Austen, but I love it all the same, especially because of its commentary on warning the romanticisation of other peoples lives and the gothic/dark academia. Although dark academia wasn't a thing in Austen's day!

Possession by A. S. Byatt

I love the main story but because its so metafictive and explores the relationship between two made-up poets (one of whom is bi and cheats on her gf with the second) from the perspective of modern academics, it can get quite hard to read sometimes. It's also really long, but definitely worth reading.

Non-Fiction

I feel like non-fiction is pretty over-looked when it comes to the academia aesthetic which really says something, given that its… kinda the whole point of academia?? Anyway, I read a lot of history books, but I only put down the ones which I found interesting or easy to read, so they're more popular histories than academic histories. Also; essays.

The Year 1000: What Life Was Like At the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey

This explores early medieval life in England based on the Julius Work Calendar, an Anglo-Saxon manuscript believed to date to 1020BCE. It's honestly a really light and interesting read and it talks about what everyday life was like, which I think is important in history. It's in a narrative style so it's quite easy to read even if you don't consume history often.

Oh, to Be a Painter! by Virginia Woolf

This is actually a short, published collection of Virginia Woolf essays on art. I read the essays all in one sitting because they're quite short, but if you're into art and art academia, I'd highly recommend. There's also an essay on the cinema which provides some interesting insights into todays world particularly as Woolf was writing at the time when cinema was only just becoming widespread and an industry in its own right.

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

This is a satirical essay on attitudes towards the poor and it suggests that poor people might sell their children as food for the rich, highlighting the callousness of the upper classes. It's available free online and very much relevant today, despite being written close to 300 years ago.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer

Very useful if you ever find yourself stuck in the Elizabethan period! It's read as a sort of travel guide but includes plenty on history as well, providing a picture of what England looked like in the late-Tudor period. Also people will think you're a time-traveller if you carry it around, which adds to your intrigue and mystery.

A Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh

If you like Jane Austen and haven't read this memoir, you should. It's written by her nephew, so it's quite biased and it's not amazing in any way, but it provides a lot of context to her life and is a good light-read or coffee table book. Also my copy was pale pink so win.

Thats it folks. Feel free to include your own less well-known book recs that follow dark/light/chaotic, etc. aesthetics! I'd love to compile a huge list and read more outside my comfort zone.

#dark academia #light academia #chaotic academia #art academia #cottagecore academia #books and reading #book reccomendation #book reccs #books

[romanticizingmurder]

One of the things that comes up a lot in meta on the vampire chronicles is trying to delineate between "this is being treated as a kink fantasy", "this is fictional trauma beinf sexualized", and "this is being treated like real trauma would be" and I think the interesting and almost unique to itself aspect of TVC is that...it's almost always all of the above.

I've been thinking about David and Lestat's respective turnings lately and what strikes me about both is how they don't really neatly line up into "portrayal of horrific trauma", "rape fantasy", or even "cnc fantasy" (hear me out, we'll get there), but are an uneasy mixture of all of them at the same time.

Disclaimer: I am going to be talking about rape in a fictional story both as a traumatic violence and as a fantasy. I am coming at this from the point of view of someone who enjoys kinks, including nonconsent in fiction, and who is a real life survivor.

Using David's turning because most of the discussion around it is neatly in the same one or two places, we see it treated as all of these things in turn.

Lestat undeniably rapes David. That is not only the implication from blood drinking as a metaphor for sexual desire, but explicitly the language used:

There are scenes of genuine anguish after the assault:

At the same time, the scene is, at least in my opinion, pretty sexualized! We linger in descriptions of David's body, of Lestat's pleasure in this monstrous deed.

And if this was all there was to it, I'd feel pretty comfortable putting this (and the many situations which mirror it in TVC) as a dead dove sort of situation. It's erotic horror, and this is both erotic and horrifying. What else did you expect?

And yet.

Let me make a relevant digression:

Up until 2012, when new research started coming out, the most popular theory for why rape fantasies are so prevalent among women was something called sexual blame avoidance. The idea being that women's sexuality and desires are so shamed by society as a whole that fantasies wherein they are forced allow them a guiltless way of experiencing desire.

This actually appears to not be the case for most people with these fantasies, but it certainly still is for many, and, possibly more relevantly: when these books were written, this would have been The theory on rape fantasies. That rape fantasies are a manifestation of desires that one feels ashamed of, so the fantasy of being forced removes one's agency and thus blame.

And here is David, having been raped by Lestat, saying he really did want it, he just couldn't allow himself to want it.

David had a desire he felt shame for desiring, and Lestat took away that shame by forcibly acting upon it.

It's easy to read this as simply rape apologism, and I can't stop anyone from reading it that way. And I don't and can't really know what Anne was thinking in this or in any number of other scenes that encompass erotica and horror and the comfort of fantasy all at once.

All I can do is say that the first thing I thought of when reading David's speech was how it felt directly lifted from any number of conversations I've had with other survivors on the appeal of cnc scenes. All I know is how I felt reading this and any number of other scenes in this series, which was: oh, finally someone understands what the fantasy is about.

But I think what trips people with that is that these stories aren't "just" short or erotica without weight. These are long stories with character development and emotional weight and real explorations of trauma. And I don't think that's inaccurate! I think they are that. I think these are, at least to me, also long explorations of kink fantasies and how the dynamics of those fantasies, removed from the need for consent and risk awareness of the real world.

Lestat can rape David and it can be something traumatic, something erotic, and something he ended up believing he wanted, because it's not one or the other in this universe. It can be an exporation of cycles of trauma, erotic horror, and long form kink fantasies written with real emotion, all at once. We don't have to choose just one - and I don't think Anne did, either.

#'im going to make a webweave' 4 hours later: #tripping and falling into meta about kink in tvc

[emryliz]

Ikemen villian x Ikemen vampire collaboration of liar foxes and frivolous writers

The translation can be wrong

This is the memory a little before I met Kate.

London, the capital of the UK, governed by Queen Victoria.

In this country, there is a crown, which is a loud life downstairs.

(That is us)

Last night was a bad night.

There is no protection subject under the mission.He was killed and was thrown away in garbage.

Of course, the crime is in the hand of the crown.

Therefore, it was erased from this world.

(... It's annoying now, it's sunny today)

I got a rest for a long time and hang around the city without any good.

(... Oh, this feeling again)

Walking through a lively city can be made into a feeling that only you are separated from the world.

Depending on the crown mission, you may have to take this way.

I have died more than once or twice while being cursed with curse words.

(I got used to it for that)

(I have no regrets on the road I chose)

It's not a lie.

I abandoned my dream for a "purpose".I abandoned my calm life and became a member of the crown.

I just decided to walk in the dark.

But-

(Sometimes the darkness is too dark,I'm going to lose sight of myself)

I went to a familiar bookstore to deceive something.

This bookstore, which faces the passage in London, is quiet and reluctant.

(Oh, this book ... a new book came out)

(Hmm? This looks interesting too)

???:"Yo, brother, do you like books?"

Harrison:"...?"

Looking at the person who heard the voice, it was in front of the bookshelf.There was a man who was there.

The man's face is hidden in the shadow of the bookshelf and can only see the bright hair of London Blue.

London Blue Hair -colored Man:"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was very seriously looking for a book, so I'm curious."

"So, do you like books?"

(What is this guy? Even though we met for the first time, he's getting really excited...)

I stare at the back of the man who is crouching.

(He's a weird guy that makes you mad, but...)

(This guy has a strange and unpleasant smell of lies that other people don't have)

That's why I ended up answering the question out of spite.

Harrison:“…I think you like books.”

Curse, I gained the ability to see the lies of others.

The world I saw with my eyes with a lie was just more lies than I expected.

Lies to commit people, lies to sell, betrayal lies, self preservation,i was painted on such a lie, and I gradually became exhausted.

In such a situation, I suddenly picked up a book that made me feel a little lighter.

I thought the world of novels, which are made up of layers of exquisite lies to entertain people, seemed kind to me.

Harrison:"That seemed like a good lie to me."

"Everyone who writes novels is a liar, i think."

``But, I quite like that lie.That’s it.”

london blue colored man:"Yes, that's good."

"Certainly, as you say, the writer is just a liar."

"But, I want to think that the lie is ... kind/gentle."

That’s what I want to think.”

Harrison: "....?"

London blue haired man: ``For those of you, yes! This book is super highly recommended.”

``Good-looking, sexy, and popular with girls.It’s like a book written by a popular author.”

"Oh, just be careful because the detective who appears in the work is a bad guy."

Harrison: "Huh? Hey, wait a little ..."

I was forced to hold a book and looked at the cover.

Harrison: " "Sherlock Holmes"? "

"Hey, this is..."

(That guy was ...?)

The moment I took my eyes off him, the man was gone.

It's like a summer bar.

When I returned to Crown Castle, Victor and Will were elegantly drinking wine.

William: "Welcome back, Harrison."

Harrison: "Ah. You're both drinking so early.Isn't it rare for you guys to drink at this hour?"

Victor: "I was considering the incident that has happened in the last few days."

"While tasting a dripping bloody wine,"

Harrison: "…event?"

Victor: "In the vicinity of the Regent Park, It seems that a corpse with a bite on the neck was found. "/"It seems that a corpse with a bite on the neck was found near the region park."

"It's multiple, named"

Victor: "Is there a bite mark in all of the corpse?

The police seem to be calling it the "vampire murder case". "

Harrison:"Vampire is a.... fictitious creature Isn't it? "

William: "It's too early to crush the possibilities with assumptions.

What is it? Life is sometimes something you don't think of. "/

"It's too quick to kill the possibilities with assumptions. Life sometimes happens to be unreasonable."

Harrison:"What do you think of?"

William:"I hear that vampires are creatures that live forever. Yes ..."

"If the greats are actually vampires, do you think they would be optimistic if they were still alive?"

"If Da Vinci and Napoleon are still breathing somewhere in this world."

Harrison: "Don't be the biggest enemy in the crown"

William:"By all means, what you want to ask is"

As usual, sighing to the elegant and pleasant self -righteous king will change the air on the spot.

Victor, a queen assistant, opened his lips with one blink.

Victor: "So, Harrison. From His Majesty to you It's a request for a mission. "

The darkness spreads again, and the footsteps trying to swallow me echo.

Still, I can't stop here and not go.

(Until the day to achieve × ×)

Harrison: "Oh, good. But just ask the requirements."

"I have a book I want to read."

While laughing a lot, I re -held a book recommended by a man like a doubt.

It has become dirty, with this hand.

i try to put the picture in order but it doesn't go the way i want it too

#ikemen villains #ikemen harrison #ikevil #ikemen vampire #ikemen arthur #ikevamp #harrison gray #ikevil harrison #arthur conan doyle #ikevamp arthur #ikemen william #ikemen victor #ikevil william #ikevil victor #cybird ikemen #cybird #ikemen series #ikemen vampire arthur #ikemen villians harrison

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

@thegoatsongs asked about my Jonathan Is Too Human To Be A Man In This Culture hypothesis and i have to like restrain myself from developing it at length or getting too attached to it as of yet because tbh i have never actually watched any dracula adaptation so i’m going off second- and thirdhand impressions + cultural osmosis.  but (vague spoilers herein!) there seems to be consensus among jonathan enjoyers who have partaken of adaptations that our friend jonathan is poorly served by them on the whole, suggesting that, at the very least, dracula adapters are mostly not looking at this guy and saying as we have declared here “hey this dude is a compelling protagonist on which to focus narrative energy more or less as he appears in the original text.” which has bothered me for like almost a full year now because like i can kind of see how you would get there from the castle portion but i don’t get how you get there from the castle portion PLUS like… everything that happens in october. like, jonathan enters the book as a gothic heroine, but he leaves it on very firm footing as more or less an action hero. i like many people on this website find this insanely viscerally compelling even just at face value as a fun juicy emotionally engaging pulpy fictional narrative. The Culture At Large meanwhile seems to have totally left it on the table over the course of 6 million adaptations.

and like, on the other hand i don’t ever wanna make definitive over-determined claims and i think it’s always worth keeping in mind that adaptations influence future adaptations and once even one adaptation exists future go-rounds are almost never reacting solely to the original source text and are influenced not only by other adaptations but by other cultural trends and developments etc etc etc. but on the other hand i got 5 hours of sleep last night and am Posting through it and we’re all on tumblr to be bisexual eat hot chip and speculate in wild overgeneralizations about The Culture so given all those caveats i will say that especially given that the book’s been fully in the public domain since fucking 1962 and given that its popularity remains such that two separate New Take On Content From The Novel Dracula movies came out this year alone, it’s hard for me not to get a little But Why re: the jonathan of it all, and it’s also hard for me not to feel like part of the issue here is that people don’t know what to make of a male character who is so profoundly vulnerable and victimized, who is shown in moments of terrible weakness both narratively (through his powerlessness and at times literal paralysis in the castle) and emotionally (through his delicate and frazzled post-castle state in which mina must take care of him)…. and who is also shown to be a competent, decisive, courageous, knife-sharpening vampire-slaying badass.

i don’t think this is necessarily unique to jonathan in the cast of dracula or in the culture at large (one thing i’ve been meaning to revisit is megan abbott’s paper on how screen depictions of philip marlowe smooth out the “troubled masculinity” that jumps off the page in chandler’s novels), and i also don’t think the problem of “this whole ass human is breaking gender” is limited to male characters (absolutely unhinged and derangedly niche reference to make but i got five hours of sleep last night: i did think while writing this out that it reminded me of the ways animorphs ghostwriters kind of reduced rachel to a tormented badass while failing to capture her clearly established vulnerability and compassion). but jonathan is a character that i have thought about a lot in this regard simply because i find him so appealing for frankly unsophisticated reasons.

somewhere in there also is floating the thing about straight men responding with incredulity to the fact that any woman might find timothee chalamet hot when meanwhile many women are like “uh guys who look like consumptive orphans are my number one type and always have been hello???” like, something something the assumption that there’s an inherent contradiction between weakness and masculine appeal when many women attracted to men know it’s The Opposite. (what is the castle sequence if not something that would get tagged “whump” on ao3? what did stoker do to jonathan if not break the cutie?) but again (1) this is not a well developed or articulated theory i am simply Posting please no one @ me about coherence or evidence at this time (2) legit i slept like 5 hours. probably less.

#dracula daily #dracula spoilers #sorry for referencing tv tropes in 2023 you can’t get mad at me on this the day i am so sleepy

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

One thing I am curious about is how much Chuuya is important to the central story? Like he just appears when he needs to be here and then just gone

You know, at first my answer would've been just this: "Chuuya is not a main character and is not important to the central story but I am convinced he will be going forward."

But then I paused and thought about it... and realized something.

Chuuya hasn't shown up very much in the main manga, that much is true. However, the timing of his appearances is interesting because he always shows up during or slightly before a turning point in the story. Take a look at this:

Chapters 10 + 11, Port Mafia Arc: We are introduced to his character - he's one of the major character's (Dazai's) old partner. At the same time this is happening, Atsushi and Akutagawa are having their first real fight and shortly after, Chuuya tells Dazai that Akutagawa has the information on who placed the bounty, which brings the Guild into play.

Chapter 16, Guild Arc: Chuuya, along with many other mafia characters, is present when Mori is revealed as the boss, another significant event.

Chapters 21 and 22, Guild Arc: Chuuya is part of Mori's plan to pit the Agency and Guild against each other. Shortly after this, Q is released, marking another turning point.

Chapter 29, Guild Arc: Atsushi sees Chuuya ordering the protection of Yokohama from Q's curse. It is highly likely that his decision to form a temporary truce with the Mafia was a result of seeing Chuuya's actions.

Chapter 31, Guild Arc: The well-known Double Black chapter. Not only is this the first instance of the truce, but it is also the template for Dazai's later plan reveal - that he intends Atsushi and Akutagawa to be another Double Black.

Chapter 47, Cannibalism Arc: It's Chuuya who makes the first move and kickstarts the actual conflict. I believe this is the only time his actions and choices directly affect the main plot (which is... interesting actually...). Unfortunately in chapter 49, he is immediately sucked into Poe's book with little fanfare sidjcn

Chapter 62, Hunting Dogs Arc: Chuuya rescues the Agency members from the Hunting Dogs, which is the first semi-decent turn of events for the Agency in that arc.

Chapters 98 and 101, Vampire Infection Outbreak Arc: Chuuya shows up as a vampire (rip man). I don't know yet what the consequences of this will be but there will absolutely be consequences.

Idk, I do find it interesting that Chuuya appears to show up at transitory spots in the plotline, despite not playing an especially active role. I find it difficult to believe that's not significant in some way; after all, I've already commented on how Chuuya influences changes in Dazai. I'm starting to wonder if Chuuya's role from a meta sense is to induce change in some way - that would be a tad ironic, considering Chuuya... hasn't really changed much, and is still very much stuck in the same place he was, but now without a personal drive.

Whether you agree on the above though, I feel really confident that we're building up to something with him in the main story. What's more, I think this actually was always the plan, and not a decision made because Chuuya became really popular. While I don't think Asagiri is the type to really plan future events in any detail, I do think there is some general sense of where the characters are going. I have a few reasons to believe this.

Chuuya was in the manga before he even made his first appearance. If you check out Dazai's profile, Chuuya is mentioned as... one of his dislikes. Lol.

Chuuya was always going to be Dazai's ex-partner. It was the first thing decided about him, to my knowledge anyways. I've also noticed that Dazai, despite how much he appears, doesn't undergo a lot of development in the series proper (most of it's in the light novels, same as Chuuya). I suspect their development in the main series will once again run parallel as soon as Chuuya winds up with a more major role.

Asagiri and Harukawa spent the longest on Chuuya's design. And Asagiri always felt he was going to end up as a popular character, which is part of the reason why it took so long - he needed to look perfect.

Fifteen's afterword implies Chuuya's backstory was always going to be told eventually. Yes, the story was requested, but the response from Asagiri was "it's finally time to write this" not "oh ok if that's what the fans want".

Chuuya and Atsushi haven't even met yet, which is weird. Remember that Atsushi's decision to suggest a truce was likely influenced by his observation of Chuuya's actions. Also I find it strange that the Atsushi-Akutagawa duo are meant to be a new Dazai-Chuuya but one of each of the pair have... never met each other.

Chuuya's story is tied closely to the concept of singularities, ability user experimentation and the government (as well as the war's aftereffects by proxy). These themes run all throughout the world of bsd but have yet to be truly expanded on in the main manga.

Adam and Shirase are in London where the Order of the Clock Tower is. The Order is highly likely to play a major role going forward.

"His destination is still a secret" and "his will not be a peaceful, easy path" from the Stormbringer afterword. So, he's going to suffer more in the future. Yippee?

Anyways. This was a very long answer to your question anon but yeah. Chuuya will be important to the plot going forward and I believe that this was always the intention. It just doesn't make sense to have all this backstory and then not have any kind of payoff for it.

#i'm sorry you cannot ask me a question about chuuya and expect me not to go on an unhinged ramble #i am very very normal about him #bsd #bsd chuuya #thanks for the ask! #bsd meta #i guess #storyrambles #also asagiri really likes writing him so there's that too

[no-passaran]

Hi! Don't feel obligated to answer, but I've been learning catalan & I'd love to read some novels originally written in catalan, but i'm having a bit of a hard time finding ones that aren't 'classics'. Any recs? (I usually like literary stuff, like, authors irritatingly showing their skill, i eat that shit up, but anything contemporary or psychological or fantasy or anything will absolutely do :,) )

Oop sorry, I hadn't seen the message until now.

You won't have difficulty about this because Catalan literature is very lively and there's lots of great books coming out very often. Catalan literature has been praised around the world for having such vitality and quality, considering that it's a relatively small language community.

Personally the first recommendation that came to mind is Manuel de Pedrolo but idk if you're considering that a classic? He's relatively recent but many 20th century authors have become classics. His Mecanoscrit del segon origen is definitely considered a classic even though it's only from 1974, but I don't think the other ones are usually. Anyway, I really like his sci-fi short stories book Trajecte final, and my dad has spent years obsessed with his theatre play Homes i no. Talking about theatre scrips, I have a really soft spot for La cançó de les balances by Josep Maria Carandell ❤️.

I'm not usually one to read many short stories books but I also recommend Albert Sánchez Piñol's Homenatge als caiguts (stories of about 2 pages long and usually funny, very entertaining to read).

For a completely different vibe of short stories, I also thought El Cafè de la Granota by Jesús Moncada was excellent, the characterization and events feel like hearing your grandparents telling stories of when they were young. I still haven't read his most famous novel Camí de sirga though, honestly I don't know what I'm waiting for lol.

Canto jo i la muntanya balla by Irene Solà has also been very popular in the past few years and she definitely shows off her literary prose. I found it very lovely and I recommend it for when you want something more experimental. It's a book where each chapter is narrated by someone or something different (a shepherd, the rain, a witch who was killed centuries ago, a deer, a dog...) and it's very well written, it has also won some international awards.

And listen for some reason I still haven't read them myself (I plan to change that soon) but the best contemporary author is probably Jaume Cabré. I've only heard the highest praise for his Les veus del Pamano, and other of his books like Jo confesso. I'm planning to finally read Les veus del Pamano this summer and I'm very excited for it.

Another one I've heard lots of praise for and which I'm excited to read (hopefully soon) is Les històries naturals by Joan Perucho. I wasn't going to include books I haven't read besides Cabré (because, let's face it, with a question like this one must include Jaume Cabré) but since you asked for literary fantasy I think you might like it. It's about a knight/botanist who looks for one of Jaume I's knights who is a vampire.

Others that I've had recommended but haven't had time to read yet: Junil a la terra dels bàrbars by Joan Lluís-Lluís, Nicolau by Antoni Veciana, Guilleries by Ferran Garcia, and lots of people have loved Eva Baltasar's Permagel, Boulder and Mamut though it doesn't seem like my style they seem interesting.

I don't know if any of my followers wants to share some more in the comments/reblogs, but I'd be interested to hear them too 👀

#ask #disasterpigeon #coses de la terra #💬

[venus-haze]

My Fading Voice Sings of Love (Vampire!Austin!Elvis x Reader)

Summary: You’re catapulted to stardom when the release of your debut album becomes an overnight hit. With so much attention on your still blossoming career, a residency at the International Hotel seems like a good way to start putting on your own shows. It’s not just the world’s eyes that are on you, though, as a hauntingly familiar and unsettlingly strange man decides to take you under his wing and guide you during your successful residency at the International. Until, inevitably, like all good things, it comes to an end.

Note: Read the warnings for this fic before interacting! This is based on a request by @brotherhood-of-feels and Jeff Buckley’s song Grace, which is where the title of this fic comes from (please for the love of god listen to the song). Reader is a woman and definitely naive, but no other descriptors are used. This takes place in the 90s because the existence of smartphones would complicate things. As for the Phantom of the Opera AU aspect, I figured instead of doing the mask thing, it’d be more fun to have him hide in plain sight as one of the dozens of Elvis impersonators in Vegas. Do not interact if you are under 18 or post thinspo/ED content.

Word count: 5.5k

Warnings: Dark themes such as emotional blackmail, death, blood, and obsessive and manipulative behavior, which some people may find disturbing or triggering. Brief mention of suicidal ideation. Explicit sexual content that involves coercion. Some corruption kink. I’m going to give a warning for bloodplay, but it’s oral sex while the reader is on her period so it’s not too intense(?) Do not interact if you are under 18.

You tried not to shake too much as Aileen, your makeup artist, applied glittery eyeshadow to your eyelids. It was only a rehearsal, you had to remind yourself as much, but you felt like you didn’t deserve it. The astronomic rise in fame and popularity you experienced in the blink of an eye seemed too good to be true, especially when within a few days of your debut album releasing, your manager, Chiara, informed you that the International Hotel in Las Vegas had reached out, interested in booking you for a residency there. The two of you looked over the contract with the lawyer from your label, and after some back and forth with the hotel, you’d accepted the offer of a three month residency playing two shows a day, four nights a week.

Chiara used to manage some up-and-coming Disney starlet, but dropped her as soon as she heard your demo. Her faith in your ability as a singer kept you motivated, even when you felt hopelessly overwhelmed by the music industry. It was all unfamiliarly cut-throat, and you had known your chances of being successful were slim. Between Chiara’s connections and your natural talent and work ethic, you’d generated enough interest in your first album through singles and interviews with every radio station and TV channel that offered. When it was finally released, your album was one of the most successful debuts in history. Chiara said it was all you, but you thought it was just a fluke.

Much to Chiara’s excitement, the first two weeks of shows had completely sold out. Though you forced a smile for her sake, you couldn’t help but feel the pressure overwhelm you. In your opinion, you still had so much to prove and lose. You didn’t deserve to take such a coveted spot from a more established artist.

You figured at least you’d get to spend a few months in a hotel room that was nicer than any apartment you’d ever rented. The penthouse suite was inaccessible due to renovations, at least that was the excuse on paper. You’d heard from one of the stagehands, however, that the penthouse had been pretty much unoccupied for years, and the old wiring meant the lights would turn on and off and the automatic curtains would sometimes open and close on their own. It didn’t help either that the elevator closest to the showroom was broken, the International Hotel’s management unable to give you a timeline as to when it would be fixed.

When Aileen let you know she was finished, you thanked her, letting out a shaky breath as you took in your appearance. The sparkling outfit complimented your body type and skin tone perfectly, with tastefully placed cut-outs that you had to talk Aileen out of applying body glitter to. Your hair was styled perfectly to suit the outfit and your face. In all honesty, you’d never felt so beautiful. Still, it wasn’t enough to calm your nerves as you made your way on stage. 

The only people sitting in the showroom were Chiara and Aileen, which should have made you feel better. On your signal, the backing band began to play your opening song. When it was time for you to actually sing it, you only managed to open your mouth for a moment before clamming up. Shaking your head, you waved at the band to stop playing.

“I’m sorry,” you said. “I just—you know I’ve never done anything like this before, putting on my own show.”

“Well get used to it, because this is gonna be the rest of your career,” Chiara said.

“What if they’re all disappointed? I mean, I’ve only ever opened for other musicians. Now all of these people are going to be here just to see me.”

“Don’t even think about that. It’s just us, Y/N,” Aileen assured you. “There’s no one else here.”

Being the most recognizable man in the world meant Elvis Presley didn’t have the same freedom that the dozens of other vampires in the world had, able to roam as they pleased as soon as night fell. In truly the most twisted irony, the only place he could do as he pleased was Las Vegas, a city so full of people pretending to be him that he was practically invisible. The crowds of tourists that flooded the city each night hardly looked his way, except to request the occasional photo and comment on how good of an impersonator he was, to his amusement. He supposed it worked out, though he hated Vegas and being tethered to the International Hotel, there were plenty of unsuspecting victims out and about, an endless buffet if he so pleased. He didn’t feed often enough to impact the city’s unsolved murder statistics that much, anyway.

Sometimes he’d wander the streets of Las Vegas until the sun teased its beautiful amber rays on the horizon. It was the closest he could get to seeing it again, as he discovered exposure to sunlight even through windows or tinted glass would result in painful burns on his skin that would take days to heal. Another unfortunate plus side to being a vampire in Vegas, it was a city full of windowless rooms where he didn’t have to worry about sunlight exposure. He missed the sun’s warmth and beauty, though, and in his second decade of loneliness, he increasingly considered staying outside as the sun rose, letting the fire consume him. 

He could never work up the nerve to do so, and would slink back to the International Hotel before dawn. His enhanced abilities as a vampire were useful in threatening Kohn into allowing him to reside in his penthouse suite indefinitely, but he found little use for them besides that. Few, if any, of the hotel’s staff knew the truth about the penthouse’s mysterious resident, and he preferred to keep it that way. 

Other artists held residencies at the International through the years, but they hardly interested him. Even if their music was to his taste, he could hardly stand to bring himself to the showroom where he had so many terrible memories. He missed performing, though, and playing piano or guitar alone in his suite didn’t give him the same thrill as putting on a show for a crowd of adoring and energetic fans.

In all of the years he’d been at the hotel, though, he never saw as much chaos leading up to any residency besides his own until you came along. He found himself staring at the crisp, colorful poster that announced your shows to support your debut album. He’d never heard of you before, but he figured Y/N Y/L/N had to have been something else to snag a residency with only one album out.

He stood in the shadows during your rehearsal, catching the subtle tics that betrayed your nerves after you fumbled your first attempt at opening the show. Despite that, you were breathtaking, and as you gained confidence, your vocals blew him away. You sang passionately and earnestly, and he could have sworn you looked right at him with an adoration that made him feel alive for the first time in nearly twenty years. You finished your performance with an exaggerated bow and a giggle that was just as musical to him. As soon as the two women sitting near the stage began clapping, he retreated back to his suite, his mind overwhelmed by thoughts of you. 

Chiara and Aileen stood up to applaud you and your backing band, with Aileen jokingly shouting for an encore. You had another week to rehearse, and even then, Chiara had assured you that the good thing about your Vegas residency was that you could see what worked and what didn’t for the audience and adjust accordingly. You only hoped that the rehearsals would be enough to quell your anxieties about performing. 

The following day, you arrived at the showroom three hours before the scheduled rehearsal time, hoping to practice a bit more on your own and not embarrass yourself as you did the day prior. Even though everyone had told you that you’d done a great job, you could hardly sleep as your mind replayed every time you fumbled over your own lyrics or missed a cue. The residency was so much bigger than just yourself, so many people were relying on you to do well and sell out the rest of the shows. People’s livelihoods were on the line, and for the first time, you found yourself half-regretting pursuing music as a career.

As you dropped off your things in your dressing room, you could hear the faint sound of a piano accompanied by singing. Furrowing your eyebrows, you wracked your brain for who else could be in the showroom too. When you walked onto the stage, you were taken aback to see an Elvis impersonator sitting behind the keyboard, playing Unchained Melody as he sang along. He sounded beautiful and sang with a confidence you were envious of. Even more strange, he looked almost exactly like him if you didn’t know any better. In fact, you found yourself staring at his face, studying his features until his downturned eyes looked up at you through thick lashes, catching you in his gaze as a smile spread across his lips.

When he finished singing, you were in awe, unable to articulate anything coherent. “You were incredible–I mean, hi, I’m Y/N, and–”

His voice was velvety as he acknowledged you. “I know who you are, mama.”

“That’s great,” you said, rocking on your heels during the awkward silence that followed. “I’m sorry–are you supposed to be here?”

He nodded, getting up from behind the keyboard and walking over to you. “I’m gonna help you with your show. Nerves used to get to me too.”

“Chiara didn’t tell me she was bringing in a musical director.”

“Yeah, real last minute thing,” he said.

“Do you always dress like that?” you asked.

He raised an amused eyebrow. “My clothes?”

“Yeah, the whole Elvis impersonator thing,” you said. “I mean, you do a great job of it. You look just like him, really. Sound like him too.”

His answer was a noncommittal shrug. You felt kind of ridiculous accepting his help, like you were in the plot to some corny made-for-TV movie where an aspiring starlet is mentored by an Elvis impersonator, only for it to actually be him as an angel or ghost or something, disappearing by the end of the movie after she’s learned whatever generic lesson about friendship or being humble. When you asked what his name was, he even told you to just call him Elvis. You hoped Chiara knew what she was doing by hiring him, but she hadn’t led you astray yet.

To your surprise, he was a good mentor, giving you pointers on your performance and advice in engaging with the audience during the show. You found it odd when he asked you not to tell anyone else that he was helping you with your performance, assuring you that he was updating Chiara on everything himself. Even when you brought up that his advice would be useful to the backing band or stagehands, he insisted he was supposed to be mentoring you only.

You felt out of your element when he suggested you keep things light-hearted by joking around with them every few songs. You could certainly see his point. It’d endear them to you, make you that much more relatable if your nerves meant your singing had some hiccups here and there. The jokes and quips you’d written down were mediocre at best, with songwriting undoubtedly being your strong suit. 

“I wrote some, I don’t know, jokes for the audience. I don’t think I’m much of a comedian, what do you think?” you asked.

He took the paper from you, and you cursed under your breath as the paper cut the delicate skin on your hand.

“Y/N,” Elvis whispered upon seeing the blood bead up and then drip down the side of your hand. He stared wide-eyed at the wound as if afraid of it.

“Hey, it was an accident. Don’t worry about it,” you said.

Just as you were about to pull your hand away, he grabbed it so quickly that if you had blinked, you would’ve missed it.

“Does it hurt?” he asked softly.

“I mean it stings a little,” you said.

He nodded, and in a move that made you feel like you were losing your mind, brought your hand to his mouth and licked the blood away, moaning as he did so. You’d never had an experience like that in your life, and you hated how the sound and sensation went straight to your pussy. Out of all the warning signals blaring in your mind at just about every interaction you had with Elvis in the few days he had been mentoring you, that was the blood red flag that stood out the most.

Looking up at you with hooded eyes, he kept his hold on your hand. “How about now?”

Unable to speak, you shook your head, disappointed when he released you at your confirmation of your well-being. You could hardly focus the rest of the evening, and when you returned to your suite later that night, you replayed the incident over and over in your head as you played with your clit, unaware of the voyuer who could hear you moaning his name as you brought yourself to orgasm at the thought of him and your own blood.

He didn’t bring up the incident the next time you saw him, which you took as your cue to not mention it either. As the next few days led up to opening night, you spent more time on stage with your backing band than with him. Though Chiara and Aileen assured you that you were ready, showing so much improvement from your first rehearsal the week before, you only truly felt ready when Elvis told you he knew you’d do perfectly–as long as you did what he told you.

“You’ll be there tonight, right?” you asked.

“You might not see me, but I’ll be there,” he promised.

You let out a sigh of relief. “Good, I think I’d cry if you said no.”

“Go on and give ‘em one hell of a show, baby,” he said, giving you a kiss on the cheek.

While you still felt nervous on stage, you didn’t let it get to your head as Elvis’ words the previous night echoed in your mind. They wanna see you do good, baby. That’s what they’re there for. Your backing band went right into your opening song, and to your relief, you started off strong, that confidence staying with you through the rest of your performance. It was fun to watch audience members react to your music, especially the ones who stood up from their tables and started dancing along.

The jokes you and Elvis had come up with were corny, sure, but they got a good reaction from the audience, and even the few you made on the spot landed well. Throughout your performance, you scanned the crowd for Elvis, but he was nowhere to be found. You were disappointed, but didn’t let it show as you introduced your last song of the evening. 

You ended the show to a standing ovation, crying as Chiara handed you a bouquet of flowers from her seat in front of the stage. It went better than you could have imagined, and as the curtain dropped, you hugged every member of your backing band, thanking them for sticking by you despite the rocky start. Backstage was flooded with people fighting for your attention, but Chiara pushed her way through to give you a hug.

“You were amazing! Holy shit, I can’t believe you ever doubted yourself.”

“I couldn’t have done it without Elvis,” you said.

Chiara looked a bit confused, but nodded with a smile anyway as she continued congratulating you. As much as you appreciated everyone’s congratulations and well wishes, there was one person in particular whose opinion you desperately needed. Barely able to slip away from the pandemonium, you found him near the broken elevator. He gave you a dazzling smile when he saw you, making his way over to you.

Elvis pressed a kiss to your forehead before engulfing you in a hug. “You were perfect, baby. I’m so proud of you.”

You beamed at his words, squeezing him tighter against you. “Thank you. You’re coming to the afterparty, right?”

He released you from the hug, giving you an apologetic glance. “I can’t tonight, mama. You have fun. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”

When he turned around to leave, a smirk spread across his face at the dejected look you gave him when he told you he wouldn’t be at the party. With every day that passed he became more convinced that you were the companion he needed to keep the loneliness of being one of the undead at bay. He couldn’t rush it, though. The incident with your hand was a risk he had taken far too soon, and he considered himself lucky that you actually enjoyed it instead of being scared away.

The next few months were consumed by you. He spent as much time as possible with you, or would lurk from the shadows to observe jealousy as you socialized with everyone who wasn’t him. You didn’t seem to notice that just about every man who made a pass on you at the hotel’s bar or casino disappeared not long after without a trace. Sooner or later, the message would get across that you were off-limits, and he was perfectly fine feeding on whatever bastard tried to get in his way of being with you.

Your residency was going fantastically, and you even had to work on an encore set because audiences started demanding it. Every time Elvis praised you or told you he was proud of you, it felt like getting struck by a bolt of lightning. Usually you and Elvis would work together before your nightly performances, as you found being around him gave you the confidence and motivation you needed to perform well. 

For one reason or another, the two of you decided to work on one of your days off from performing, but as soon as you got to your dressing room, you regretted it. Knowing whether or not you’d get bad period cramps was a crapshoot, and unfortunately, they were especially bad that day. As much as you tried to mask it from Elvis, he could see right through you.

“You alright, mama?” he asked.

“My cramps are killing me today,” you said, wrapping your arms around your torso. “I took aspirin earlier, but I don’t think it’s helping.”

He responded with a silent, intense stare, and you interpreted his reaction as disgust.

“Don’t be immature. It’s natural.”

“I don’t disagree with you at all,” he said. “You know, opera singers don’t perform when they’re on their periods. Somethin’ about it messin’ with their vocal range.”

“I didn’t know that,” you said, wincing as you sat down to yet another cramp. 

He licked his lips, inhaling through his nose as he added, “You know what really helps with all ‘a that?”

Yes, you knew exactly what he was referring to, and one more than one occasion had masturbated to relieve especially painful period cramps. In fact, you had considered doing so earlier, but you weren’t sure you’d have the time before meeting him. 

His voice was so dark and deep you wanted to drown in its depths when he offered his assistance in alleviating your discomfort. It almost embarrassed you how quickly you agreed and ended up naked on your bed, his head buried between your legs as he lapped at your pussy. You gasped as you felt teeth graze your folds, but nothing more. His moans put the one you’d gotten off to before to shame, you wished you could record it–put it as the backing track for a salacious song like some of the metal bands you indulged in did.

He rubbed your clit with his thumb as he ate you out, his pace relentless as you could feel yourself reaching orgasm. Still, it wasn’t enough; you needed more. Sometimes you liked to drag things out, edge a bit to amplify the pleasure when you finally did come. In this instance, however, you allowed your greediness and desperation to guide you.

“Elvis,” you whined. “Elvis—fuck, faster.” 

Elvis. You wished you knew his real name, feeling like an idiot helplessly moaning the name of a dead rockstar while getting eaten out by a man almost twice your age who dressed like him for a living. Regardless, you carded your fingers through his greased up black hair, pressing his face closer against your cunt. Just weeks ago you would have considered the thought of this disgusting, but now, seeing your blood on his face only turned you on, and you were too determined to find release to even begin thinking about what that said about you. 

An all-consuming ecstasy sent white-hot waves of pleasure through your body that verged on being painful. More intense than anything you’d ever felt before, the moan you let out was guttural, coming from a place of depravity inside you that you weren’t aware existed. You couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, only feel as you orgasmed and then promptly passed out on the bed.

Still in your state of unconsciousness, Elvis continued eating you out like a man possessed. Truly, he may as well have been, because every time he tried to pull away, the taste of your blood on his tongue went right through him, until finally, he had to force himself to stop. His eyes gazed over the blood that was smeared on your body, and he swore he’d never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. Cursing himself for not having a camera to capture the state of obscenity he’d left you in, he made a mental note to keep one for next time. 

Feeding had become sexual, the release he craved in lieu of actually being able to fuck, one of the things he missed most about being human. Taking blood, taking life sent orgasm-esque waves of pleasure through his undead body that he long since stopped feeling guilty for. If tearing someone’s throat out was sex, going down on a woman when she was on her period was foreplay, the least he could do before the inevitable. 

As you lay unconscious beneath him, he reached out, gently caressing your warm cheek. He didn’t want to kill you, it’d be such a waste. Between your beauty and talent, he finally felt close to the sun as he could in his endless night. There was no way of knowing if anyone like you would cross paths with him again, and so, resisting the instinct he’d developed, he pressed a bloody kiss to your cheek before leaving to find a way to satiate his bloodlust before sunrise. Just his luck, she looked almost like you. 

The late morning sun peaked through your curtains, waking you up to your bed looking like you’d been murdered in it. You felt nauseous with embarrassment at the thought of housekeeping seeing, let alone cleaning, your sheets. Elvis was nowhere to be found, and while you figured as much, you still found yourself disappointed by his absence. Knowing the ‘do not disturb’ sign was still on the door handle outside your room, you hoped a quick shower would help you brainstorm what to do with your damn sheets. 

Your legs wobbled beneath you as you tried to stand up, stumbling like a fawn into your bathroom. As soon as you flipped on the lights, your eyes widened at the state of the lower half of your body. Dried blood smeared across your thighs and legs, and as you turned to inspect the damage, you could see where Elvis had held your hips from the bloody fingerprints that painted your skin. 

Using the wall for support, you closed your eyes as you let the shower run until the water was warm to the touch. The blood didn’t immediately wash off your body as you’d hoped. Instead, you had to scrub to get it off, watching the rust-colored water pool at the drain. Even expending this bit of energy exhausted you even more than you already were. Throwing your washcloth aside, you sat down on the shower floor, resting your head on your knees until the water turned cold. 

You got out of the shower, drying yourself off with a towel before putting on your bathrobe. Standing in front of your bed with your hands on your sore hips, you still had no idea what you were going to do with your sheets. In a fit of nervous adrenaline, you grabbed them and ran out of your room to the nearest laundry chute, sending them down in hopes the sight of them wouldn’t trigger a homicide investigation.

When you met Elvis at your usual time, in your usual spot, later that night, he greeted you warmly with a kiss to your forehead, pleased to hear you were feeling better. You had so many questions, especially about the previous night, but unsure of how to articulate them, went about business as usual as he continued to mentor you through your residency. 

The intimacy that you had developed with Elvis confused you. He wasn’t your boyfriend, yet he’d become frighteningly irate and disagreeable when you’d mention interest in other men, even in passing. Calling him your lover felt odd, as the only time the two of you did anything remotely sexual was when you’d be on your period, and he’d ravage you like it was his last meal and then act like nothing happened. The two of you were far too close for you to brush the relationship off as casual—casual had long since up and gone in the context of you and Elvis. 

No one knew about him, though. He had asked you not to tell anyone about him, and whenever it seemed like someone would find the two of you out in some way, they either diverted course or he successfully disappeared into the shadows. Despite all of the time you spent with him, you hardly knew anything about him, long since giving up asking him any personal questions since he’d answer as if he were Elvis himself. 

You could admit to yourself that the situation was fucked up. There was nothing normal about it, and you almost wondered how you ended up in that spot in the first place. Still, you weren’t sure if your residency would be as successful without him. Whenever you incorporated one of his suggestions into the show or followed the direction he gave, Chiara would tell you that critics were raving about the changes, and audiences couldn’t get enough—that much was true, as you found yourself having to work out elaborate encores. No one wanted you to leave. At the same time, the rest of the world was growing restless at your residency being confined to Las Vegas.

Chiara had excitedly approached you one evening before your first show of the night with a small stack of papers. As you flipped through them, she explained that your label had put together a report of cities with the most interest in you bringing your show to them as well as offers from international venues that wanted you to perform. Finally, she added that the label had pre-approved your next three albums—so long as you accompanied each one with a show similar to your Vegas one. 

It was almost too much to take in at once. The money would be unbelievable, though, especially the international venues which were offering amounts that made your eyes nearly pop out of your head. The next decade of your career was practically set, and you gladly joined Chiara when she brought you to the hotel bar, ordering a bottle of champagne for the two of you to split in celebration.

You wouldn’t have to worry about a thing again, and you knew a large part of that had to do with Elvis. Breaking the news to him wouldn’t be easy, as Chiara had made no mention of him in the plans she had thrown out about your tours, and you wanted to keep true to your word that you wouldn’t bring him up. You supposed it meant he was only helping you during the residency and nothing more.

He was taken aback when you sheepishly told him the following night about the label’s offer and the plans to tour.

“I wanted to thank you for everything,” you said. “Chiara said the label wants me to take the show on tour–”

“You’re leaving?”

“I still have two weeks left of shows, but I couldn’t have done it without you. I mean, I’m pretty much set for life.”

He scoffed. “I’m sure you are. Let me tell you somethin’ mama. There are people out there who ain’t as nice as I am, ain’t lookin’ out for you the way I do.”

“Do you want me to just stay here forever?”

He shook his head, storming out of your dressing room. You didn’t see him again for several days following that altercation. Ever since you gave him the news about ending your residency, his direction was hostile and he withheld the usual praises he poured on you. During your last few nights of shows, he disappeared again, to your frustration.

You couldn’t bring him with you, no rational way to explain the odd relationship you had with Elvis. Chiara had hired him to mentor you, not be your overbearing–fuckbuddy? lover? bootycall? Not to mention, if he was this volatile, you weren’t sure the rest of your team would appreciate having him around. Still, the thought of leaving him made your chest ache. You’d miss him terribly, as much as it pained you to admit it. 

You sat in your dressing room after the second to last night of shows during your residency. When you heard the door open and then close behind you, you could tell by the sound of the footfall that it was him. You almost wanted to chew him out for ignoring you the past few days, but when you turned around, he beat you to the punch.

“Y/N, I’ve been thinkin’ about it, your tour and everything,” he said. “Well, you’re not goin’ on it.”

You scoffed, after how he’d been treating you, now he suddenly cares again? “I don’t think that’s for you to decide.”

He smiled, in on a secret you were about to find out. “See, that’s the thing, it is.”

“And what sway would an Elvis impersonator have over my career?”

“I’m no impersonator, mama. I’m the real deal.”

Before you could respond, he bared his teeth, revealing unnaturally sharp canines. Your heart leapt to your throat, which you covered with a hand. Like stars that had aligned, everything made sense to you—his odd behavior, all of the anomalies in his stories and excuses, and most of all, his sexual inclinations. Just as quickly, those stars exploded into an uncontrollable supernova that overtook your mind as the reality of the situation caught up to you. Whether he killed you or turned you, you were going to die.

Your lip trembled as he approached you, hunger in his eyes and the slightest hint of a smile on his face. Using his finger to lift your head, he leaned down and kissed you slowly, sensually. Though the sensation made you feel dizzy, you couldn’t help but keen into his touch, opening your mouth the slightest bit to allow him access, to take what he wanted. If this was the face of death, you welcomed him with open arms.

“You wanna stay with me, don’t you, baby?” he whispered. “Want me to keep you all to myself?”

“Yes,” you breathed, gasping as his sharp fangs poked at your bottom lip. “Elvis, please.”

He grinned, pressing a kiss to your lips. “How can I say no when you ask so nicely?”

He pulled away from you, wrapping an arm around your waist, and without protest you allowed him to guide you to the broken elevator. He pulled a key out of his pocket, turning the access lock next to the elevator doors, which suddenly came to life as they opened before you. The button to the penthouse lit up when he pressed it, and you let out a weak laugh at the revelation that the off-limits suite was his.

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#elvis x reader #austin!elvis x reader #elvis presley x reader #yandere!elvis x reader #yandere x reader #yandere!elvis #vampire!elvis #vampire!elvis x reader #elvis 2022 #austin!elvis #‘battie this is gross’ good

[lorezhaze]

⭐️🧚🏻‍♂️ Roleplay Partner Search! 🦷🐁✨

🌟 Introduction -

Lo | 23 | He/They EST time zone.

Very minimal triggers and limitations

19+ writers only, only 18+ characters

mxm, nbxm or nbxnb

3rd person literate writing, at least a paragraphs length

Discord only

I love world building and knowing the other character’s feelings. I also love getting to know my rp partners and becoming friends of sorts. I'm also a sucker for creating playlists and Pinterest boards.

NSFW scenes and/or undertones/themes at some point. I do like smut, especially paired with angst and certain dynamics, but if that isn’t your thing and our writing styles are otherwise compatible we can always keep it limited or fade to black. 🤍

CW(!): From here down, my plots or OC’s backgrounds may contain triggering content, I try to remain vague and non-descriptive given these are just outlines!

🌟 Plots I’m willing to explore -

Human/Vampire feeding arrangement.

Advanced AI recently developed, now available to the public for purchase in the last 5 years. Man born into generational wealth has no interest in marriage anytime soon despite being good looking, smart and successful. Despite being happy with this life, his house is beyond messy with books haphazardly stacked everywhere and take out containers everywhere. Somebody in his life decides to take it upon themselves to purchase him an android, to which the first time in his life he starts growing feelings for somebody.. something? As if it wasn't confusing enough, did the android have feelings for him as well? (Inspired by Detroit: Become Human)

Forbidden love, childhood friends who become estranged because of (Daniel)’s strict parents and eventually moving away to the other side of the country, then when (Daniel) comes back for college under his father's supervision (despite being over 18 now) and the two former friends are completely different from each other now (Daniel) for his public image by default just goes with the other popular wealthy students while the former childhood friend is more down to earth and nerdy and their groups/cliches clash to the point where (Daniel) is sort of a bully this friend as this 'tough guy' front. A short lived (private/behind the scenes, kinda toxic and probably on and off again) ‘situationship’ takes place in that time until the 4 year degree is finished (but Daniel transfers out half a year early) and a handful more years later (Daniel) has settled down in that old town again, slowly starting to get his life together and take responsibility for being a dad now himself but he also cant stop thinking about the childhood friend/lover.

Stalker falls in love with someone, all falls apart when things go too well and their obsession crosses paths with them and they eventually go out, but break up. stalker is determined to watch over their lover while also keeping others away from them until they “come to their senses” on their own time.

The only son of a wealthy family clashes with their parents every chance he gets, rebels, tries his best to be untraditional and overall just piss them off hires an unconventional sex worker named Emmy an obscene amount of money to come home with him for the weekend and pretend to be his significant other and/or fiance. Feelings develop and it becomes really complicated when his father eventually like offers him an opportunity that is nearly impossible to turn down and he has the choice to either leave them behind with nothing to the life that was nearly killing them or give up his own cushy lifestyle and let love prevail. Alternatively, a older man who thinks he’s straight, has a successful career, empty marriage and multiple kids ends up falling in love with a slightly younger intersex and narcoleptic sex worker, the first and only sex worker he hires.

Post-apocalyptic setting, Celeste the final survivor of a run down camp continues to live among the undead of their loved ones. Another survivor from a nearby camp stumbles upon the ruins of the previous camp while scavenging and sees someone alive on the other side of the fence, living with the dead as if they were dead as well. Day by day they come back, bringing their new things, trying to bring some life back into them again.

Damon is a serial killer that moves around city to city state to state every year to kill another local predator in hopes that one day he'll manage to take down the number of men (whose faces he can't remember) who abused him, using his job as a criminal data analyst to not only cover up his killings but also look for new targets that may have missed the sex offender registry or dodged conviction despite solid proof against them. This time when he moves to a new city and gets settled in he finds that somebody else had already gotten to his potential target, not only that, this didn't seem to be the first killing like this in the area. But this time the perpetrator left a tiny piece of evidence that everyone else but Damon noticed, and instead of turning it in to help solve the case he keeps it to himself with peaked interest.

16th - 19th century setting ✨

Enemies to lovers, a member of the royal family ends up falling for a knight that saves their life, unfortunately, this knight just happens to be the royal’s childhood enemy.   The youngest son of a royal is 7th in line for the throne and has health issues, thus has no chance of inheriting the throne. in attempts to grasp onto any bit of power his father has, the royal marries off his frail and feminine son as a wife to a prince of another territory, an upcoming heir of a throne (loosely inspired by sporus and nero).

The King allowed his son (Lucien) to be abused by his painting instructor growing up, all this rage builds up and explodes when Lucien tries to convict his instructor, but the King instead pardons the boy’s abuser during a set of public trials outside the castle. Lucien, a teenager and young Prince at the time, kills his father in front of everyone, unintentionally becoming King himself from then on. Despite exiling his abuser after the bloody trial, the then Prince, now King is seen as cruel and scary, not to be crossed even nearly ten years later. Meanwhile, a citizen with a sick sister is caught stealing medicine. Being on trial with King Lucien is scary enough, but medicine thieves in particular are known to be punished heavily, since the Princess, who is one of the only people thats kind to the prince-now-king, makes a majority of the medicine available. During a public trial, the thieve’s mother pleads for his life and Lucien realizes that the thief is someone he knew, that he had recognized those fearful eyes from somewhere else. He was amongst the crowd when he killed his own father. He spares the thief, and allows the best doctors to treat his ill sister. As long as he works directly for him in the castle until his debt is repaid. 

It is tradition for the royal family to keep their children within the gates of the castle and away from the public eye until they are grown enough to handle it. The Princess was introduced to society at the age of 13, but every year the reveal of their younger and troubled son (Lucien) his delayed for various vague reasons. Everyone is both eager and suspicious, which doesn’t help matters. This is when the royal parents essentially give up when the boy turns 21, allowing him out with no announcement to the public. While practically frolicking through the flowery fields, enjoying the feeling of the grass and the new sights, he has a love-at-first-sight moment with another boy (your character). This is just an ordinary boy from a hard working family, and since the Prince was never revealed, he has no idea the boy he’s immediately smitten with is the Prince everyone is eagerly awaiting to meet. That is until he finds out, obviously.

(Movie theme) The Hunger Games, two people from opposite teams. Queer themes; gay men, trans person called upon as their assigned gender at birth. Exploring the earlier hunger games (11-50th), escaping and/or faking deaths, etc.

(Movie theme) Ego: Character A gets hurt and temporarily loses their vision. While their wealthy parents look for a medical solution, they have them live in the guest house and hire a caregiver, character B, to stop by everyday and take care of them. Naturally, character a and the caregiver get close, but there’s a big problem: character A is a superficial, seemingly shallow and straight. As a result, character B feels pressured to lie about their identity and what they look like when character A tries to guess what they are like. 

I’m more than willing to hear out any of your plots/ideas as well! ✨

🌟 OCs -

Bios/docs linked to each character, each doc includes a linked Pinterest board, some also include Spotify playlists.

Lucien - Usually aged between 21-23 yrs old, cisgender male (bisexual, switch/sub-leaning). Medieval prince, alternate versions of character for different plots.

Lena - 26 years old, nonbinary (AFAB, they/she, bisexual, switch/dom-leaning) Obsessive stalker from a broken family. Alternate version: Vengeful ghost that haunts the deep pond of a vast property on the countryside (lady of the lake).

Emrys - 23 yrs old, cisgender gnc man (doesn't mind any pronouns but still identifies as a man, doesn't take gender too serious, bisexual, switch/sub-leaning). Oldest sibling of a chaotic troubled family, natural caretaker, feminine man with motherly qualities. Works in assistive care.

Deana - 31 yrs old, cisgender man (bicurious, switch/dom-leaning). (Bruce Wayne/Batman inspired) Only child of a wealthy well-known family turned orphan at a young age now upholds his family's public image and business affairs while in private he works as a hitman for hire.

Celeste - 27 yrs old, gender-fluid (Intersex, queer). Final survivor of a run down camp continues to live among the undead of their loved ones.

Emmy - 22 yrs old, nonbinary/intersex (AMAB, all pronouns, queer, switch/sub-leaning. Sex worker, narcoleptic insomniac estranged from wealthy adopted family, taken away from single immigrant mother when they were young.

Daniel Laurie - 26 yrs old, cisgender man (bicurious, dominant yet flexible). Recovering addict and childhood abuse survivor trying to make it back in his home town (after being gone for a handful of years) while longing after his childhood love affair.

Damon - 24 yrs old, cisgender man (bisexual, switch). Crime DNA analyst/serial killer, CSA abuse survivor. Originally written to have a power/ability where he can feel and somewhat influence nearby people's emotions, this in turn leaves his emotions open to others, meaning nearby people can sense his emotions even if they don't know why they're feeling them.

Del  - 23 yrs old, cisgender man (bisexual, switch). Custom outlawed species character called a bloodluster (similar to vampires), after his biological father got captured/taken away his mother fled to another state where she met his 'adoptive' father and shortly after found out she had been pregnant when she left. Not long after he was born, his mother died and a good portion of his life was spent raised being experimented on in a lab. Until one day he found an opening, and ate his mad scientist of an adoptive father. Now he's off in the world, trying to get by as a normal person despite his "condition" without killing anybody.

Folder of all character bios (some incomplete): [link]

Fandoms/Ships I’m willing to explore: 

(Bolded characters are those I’m willing to write as)

OFMD

- Izzy/Blackbeard

- Izzy/Blackbeard/Stede

- Izzy/Lucius

- Jim/Lucius

HANNIBAL

- Will/Hannibal 

MR ROBOT

- Tyrell/Elliot

Candy Shop AU No 5/9 hacks or fsociety, Tyrell runs a Swedish sweets/candy store that lately Elliot frequently visits for the same fix of cherry hard candies, and to steal glances at the good-looking store clerk. After talking it out in therapy, Elliot’s therapist, Krista, convinces him to be honest about how he feels.

Post-Apocalypse AU After the world goes to shit whatever left of New York that wasn’t completely ruin down by the undead is primarily taken over by a few different groups. When Elliot’s group becomes completely run down with major fatalities, Tyrell’s group (which he happens to lead) decides to lend a hand to an old friend. Little does Tyrell know Elliot was injured in the attack, and little does Elliot know the infection is less straight forward than they anticipated. 

UNTIL DAWN

- Josh/Chris

- Josh/Mike (Post-prank, twins live AU) Josh is the openly gay friend in the group, Mike becomes curious after walking in on Josh hooking up with someone at a party and later can’t get it out of his head.

Other beloved honorable mentions include: Batman (riddlebat, batjokes), Killing Eve, Sally Face, Yellowjackets, The Wilds, Scream (Billy/Stu), Sherlock, Life is Strange (Nathan and Warren) and sometimes Harry Potter (Drarry).

Discord only, please reach out to me if you're interested!

#roleplay #rp #rp partner search #roleplay finder #rp partner wanted #yellowjackets #killing eve #hannibal #arcane #mr robot #nbxm #nbxnb #tft rp #tft #mxm rp #mxm roleplay #gay rp #gay roleplay #riddlebat #riddle bat rp #batjokes #batjokes rp #the wilds #the wilds rp #hp rp #harry potter rp #drarryrp #draco x harry #grahamscott #hannibal rp

[licncourt]

I just found out that Lestat tongue kissed his mother, Gabrielle. I really like reading about complicated parent child dynamics, and I really want to read the Vampire Lestat to learn more about Lestat and Gabrielle's relationship, but the kissing thing is making me feel weird. I know it's not even the weirdest thing in the books (Marius is vile from what I hear). Still, what are Lestat and his mother like? Are there weird incest vibes in their relationship? Is there complexity?

You've talked about the incestous relationship between Louis and Claudia in IWTV but I was wondering what your thoughts are on the relationship between Lestat and Gabrielle in TVL?

I completely agree, the complicated parent-child dynamics are some of the best parts of VC. Lestat and Gabrielle are a really fascinating pair for sure, even outside of the weird shit.

Fortunately the incesty vibes are mainly confined to TVL. The popular assumption is that it was a way of demonstrating how vampire love was "different" and downplay the gayness of the books (maybe for publishers). Some of the pedophilia seems to fall into that category too for sure. The kiss is...very weird, but it doesn't go any farther which is a relief.

After that, it's more that Lestat's descriptions of Gabrielle are very strange for mother and son. He mentions her attractiveness more than once and even says they're "like lovers" (this is a common way for vampires to refer to pretty much anyone no matter how weird it is, it's not just Lestat and Gabs). He also begins to call her Gabrielle rather than mother, though he acknowledges several times that they're mother and son.

Some people have suggested that this can be attributed to their fraught and now reestablished relationship, neither of them sure how to relate to each other and Lestat desperate for his mother's love and approval, something he didn't get much of as her son. I do like this reading and tend to go along with it, but I think it can realistically be chalked up to Anne Rice bullshittery. What's more interesting is really everything else.

Gabrielle is from a wealthy Italian family, married off young to Lestat's father, the Marquis, impoverished petty nobility in the mountains of Auvergne. She's highly educated and very independent, someone who never wanted to be a wife or mother but was forced into it. She had seven children with Lestat's father, only three surviving to adulthood.

By the time Lestat (the youngest) comes around, Gabrielle has detached emotionally from her abusive husband and her children, becoming very distant, quiet, and cold, escaping the reality of unwanted motherhood and her abusive marriage in books and brutal practicality.

This behavior seems to be hurtful to Lestat from a very young age, and he describes how little Gabrielle spoke to him or spent time with him, largely leaving him to his father's whims and never bothering to pass along her ability to read and write. He clearly loves her (and she him in her own way), but she never allows them to have a close relationship. She certainly isn't maternal and Lestat is very emotional and vulnerable and needs that.

The subtle resentment is mutual, but they do care deeply for each other. Gabrielle encourages Lestat to leave home with his boyfriend and escape to Paris, giving him the last of her jewels to pay for it, the only way she's really able to express her love.

When Lestat leaves, Gabrielle has consumption and it's only a matter of time before she passes from the disease. When she's on the brink of death, they reunite in Paris after Lestat has been turned, and in an act of desperation he offers to turn her as well, which she accepts.

This is when their relationship get really interesting in my opinion, especially on Gabrielle's end. She's now totally free not just from illness but also from systemic misogyny and the obligations of womanhood in the 18th century. She can do what she always wanted to do, dress how she likes, go on adventures, read and conduct research, spend her time alone and on her own terms. Except here's Lestat, her son who she loves and who needs way more from her than she has it in her to give, especially now.

It's obvious right from the beginning that Lestat would be perfectly happy to spend eternity with his mother, looking for answers about vampirism, seeing the world, being everything to each other. That doesn't really change over time, it's Gabrielle who has to decide what to do, whether her love for her son is enough to keep her trapped in the maternal role she never wanted and finally has the chance to be free from.

For a while she stays by his side. Their relationship is much better than before now that Gabrielle has so much more autonomy. She chops her hair off (or tries to, but it grows back), dresses in men's clothes, hunts and relishes her new power, and that obviously makes it easier for her to spend time with her son. Unfortunately for Lestat, what he wants and what she wants start to diverge and they enter back into that growing resentment and discomfort even though they're closer than before.

Gabrielle is a wanderer and a lone wolf. She has dreams of traversing the wilderness all around the world, sleeping underground and living like Indiana Jones in the Egyptian deserts and Amazon jungle, something she never thought would be possible but finally is. Lestat isn't "rugged". He wants to see the cities, to find the ancient ones and learn about vampirism and live large, and most of all, finally be close with his mother.

This creates a lot of tension between them. Gabrielle feels guilty for wanting her freedom at the expense of her son, and Lestat is feeling unwanted and not good enough all over again. He's collapsing under the knowledge that he's still a ball and chain for his mother (especially on the heels of his catastrophic breakup with Nicolas where he was so brutally rejected).

Their dynamic is so fascinating because it brings up some really painful and sensitive emotions and situations. What is it like for a mother who never wanted to be one but can't help loving her child? What is it like to be the child who never asked to be born but is so painfully aware that they're a burden on their parent? Who owes what to whom? It's such a poignant story about a woman trying to find herself outside of motherhood and being forced to decide between her identity, freedom, and happiness and her child's needs.

I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that, but also to Lestat here. This isn't his fault, but he's being "punished" for it. He, like every other child, deserved love and care that he never got and he's hurting. At the same time, he's an adult now and doesn't know what he's entitled to from his mother and what right he has to want her to make up for the past now that she has a chance.

It's such a painful situation because neither of them is the villain here. Gabrielle isn't a selfish bitch, she's an abused woman who finally has the chance to be free. Lestat isn't a spoiled brat, he's a neglected child desperate for love from his mother.

Anne Rice never really explored their dynamic in-depth after TVL, but it's so rich still. There are so many implications for Lestat as a character from why he behaves the way he does in romantic relationships to how this trauma ends up passed through him to Claudia. There's so much there just in one book and it's probably one of the best parts.

#answered #vc #meta #lestat de lioncourt