louis gets to be black and desired, cherished and wanted with his whole personhood. louis gets to fuck up, be fucked up, forgive and be forgiven; he gets to be black and a whole person. claudia is disabled into helplessness by her little girl body that seems to keep signalling people to treat her like a boxed doll. its not a coincidence that she gets louis to plot against lestat by telling him he’s a kept thing, telling him he is all the things she experiences. the anger in her voice when she calls louis a slave, it feels situated against the incessant inertia she was always running on because she had no other choice.

in nola, its claudia micromanaging with an eye and ear on everyone. she nurses louis after the drop, she maintains the thread of their plotting. in europe, its claudia learning the languages, claudia keeping up the story, claudia maintaining hypervigillance. she notices the bombs about to blow while louis’ being woeful and hallucinating lestat. louis gets to be lost in lestats eyes; louis gets to dance with humans in romania; louis gets to run around paris ‘out on the streets’ while shrugging off armands warnings. louis gets to be careless, gets to be oblivious, gets to drown in his pain and still be protected and unconditionally loved. what louis couldnt even give her

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 3.05 | THE LITTLE MERMAID (1989)

And the world is better for it. The world benefits from me Not Being On Mount Everest, particularly the environment of Mount Everest benefits from my absence (and the absence of so many others). I will keep my trend of Never Ever Going There, to prevent me from contributing to likely-irreversible environmental and social impacts on Mount Everest and surrounds.

SHEILA ATIM as Akasha