( pick a quote + a feeling + a trope ! let’s see what fic you end up with. )

author's addition: this lil build-a-fic is inspired by @scealaiscoite ’ s adorable idea ! her prompt lists are literal perfection. go stalk her blog pls she’s the best ever 🧸 you’re welcome to tweak phrasing as needed, but please don’t add to or rewrite the original post. give credits to @fawndrip / @suprclark if using.

— QUOTE

❛ stop smiling like that. it’s distracting. ❜ ❛ you make it really hard to stay just friends. ❜ ❛ why does it feel like a goodbye? ❜ ❛ you’re blushing. ❜ — ❛ no i’m not. ❜ ❛ just friends don’t look at each other like that. ❜ ❛ i missed you. that’s all. ❜ ❛ you remember the little things. that’s what gets me. ❜ ❛ tell me to stay. and i will. ❜ ❛ my hand fits so perfectly in yours. it's like i'm made for you. ❜ ❛ do you want me to leave? ❜ — ❛ no. i want you to stay forever. ❜ ❛ i think i knew it was you. even back then. ❜ — ❛ then stay. ❜ — ❛ but that's the thing. i don't know if i know you anymore. ❜ ❛ i don’t know how to stop wanting you. ❜ ❛ this means something. don’t pretend it doesn’t. ❜ ❛ you’re not just anyone. you’re you. ❜ ❛ if we kiss now, everything changes. ❜ — ❛ i know but that's a risk i'm willing to take. ❜ ❛ i’ve been in love with you since the night we met. ❜ ❛ tell me it meant nothing. lie if you have to. ❜ ❛ i was easy to leave, wasn’t i? ❜ ❛ you don’t get to miss me now. you lost that right when we broke up. ❜ ❛ say something. anything. please. ❜ ❛ i loved you. that should’ve been enough. ❜ ❛ i wish i didn’t remember everything. ❜ ❛ don’t look at me like you still care. ❜ ❛ i’m tired of pretending this doesn’t hurt. ❜ ❛ you said forever. i believed you. ❜ ❛ if you didn’t mean it, why did you say it? ❜ ❛ you chose them. you always do. ❜ ❛ i don’t hate you. i just wish i’d never met you. ❜ ❛ you let me go like i was nothing. ❜ ❛ please don’t make this harder than it already is. ❜ ❛ are you sure? cause whatever this is it doesn’t feel like love. ❜ ❛ it’s always been you. i just didn’t know how to say it. ❜ ❛ say that again. i dare you. ❜ ❛ you really don’t see it, do you? ❜ ❛ i think i like you. like, like like you. ❜ ❛ do you always look at people like that? ❜ ❛ you make it really hard to think straight. ❜ ❛ oh my god. you’re blushing. ❜ ❛ this means something. don’t pretend it doesn’t. ❜ ❛ i should’ve kissed you when i had the chance. ❜ ❛ you’re not helping. you’re being pretty. it's distracting. ❜ ❛ you make me nervous in the best way. ❜ ❛ every time you look at me, i forget what i was saying. ❜ ❛ just admit it. you like me. ❜ ❛ if you don’t kiss me right now, i might explode. ❜ ❛ you’re dangerously good at that smile. ❜

how to describe a loving gaze

⇸ eyes darting all over your face, trying to figure out which part of you they want to set their eyes on the most (it's impossible)

⇸ gazing at you like you're miles away only when you're a few feet away, standing with another person. their stare is hard, intense, but also melting and blank.

⇸ a featherlight touch to your arm with their eyes softly peering up at you. they can't believe that you're allowing them to touch you like this—so innocent, so softly.

⇸ late nights where its just the two of you in a car. they turn over to look at you but immediately turn. for the safety of the both of you, they can't stare at you any longer

⇸ when you're teasing them, they have to bite down extra hard to not release that smile from their lips. their eyes are squinted more tightly than usual. still, they're glued onto you.

⇸ meeting their eyes from across the room, and the two of you have the exact same thought. you turn away first to hold back your laughter, but their eyes are pinned onto you.

⇸ a softened gaze in a random moment. there's no reason for them to be looking at you like that—with slightly hooded eyes and parted lips—except for the fact that they just love seeing you

⇸ you're twirling around in your new outfit, showing the 360 angle. their pupils look like they're completely taking over the iris of their eye. suddenly, breathing becomes a lot more faster than they remember.

Lestat was Louis’s antagonist in the first season, and now he’s our protagonist. Armand was the antagonist in season 2, so people are primed to just view him in the same way.

But Gabriella is actually Lestat’s antagonist. That’s why Rolin talked about her as the second most important character this season. She’s the one pushing Lestat into a role he doesn’t want and preventing him from making peace with his muses. She’s the one bringing on the end of the world and using sex to manipulate and abuse him.

Louis is the B plot protagonist this season; his plot with Bruce, Regina, and Claudia is its own separate little track. But the fact that he and Lestat are finally not each other’s antagonists is what is allowing them to slowly but surely come back together this season.

Armand is actually the protagonist of the C plot of the series. They’ve chosen to completely mask the where’s and the whys of that c plot from view of the audience. They’re using it to generate suspense, and to show that we’re still firmly rooted in a limited point of view even in this new season. When Lestat doesn’t know what Armand is doing, neither do we.

They’re going to reveal at least part of what Armand has been up to in his own little side plot in the finale, at least enough for his actions to make sense and to understand how they impact Lestat. They’re trying to convince us he’s the villain now because it will make the reveal of his real motives, which I guarantee are more complicated than “being evil” more of a subversion and a surprise. Armand has been that last minute twist (Volta, if you will) in every season so far, and I don’t think this one is going to be any different.

The only thing I’m sure about what they’re setting up is that whatever Armand is doing is going to be the opposite of what is “expected” (by general audiences I have to say, not real Armand understanders). Instead of standing by helplessly, he is trying very hard to prevent something. Instead of destruction, he’s protecting something (while still being willing to break a few Larry shaped eggs to make an omelette 😂). I think he is doing it with a real sense of brokenness and bitterness that Louis and Lestat have rejected him so thoroughly, but he’s still showing up. What were effectively going to see in ep 7 is the end point (or maybe the midpoint really) of Armand’s arc. He’s been changing behind the scenes, but we don’t know how. That character shift is part of the reveal.

Lincoln Michel Dec 12, 2024

I’m using “TV” as a shorthand for any visual narrative art from feature length films to video games. A lot of fiction these days reads as if—as I saw Peter Raleigh put it the other day, and as I’ve discussed it before—the author is trying to describe a video playing in their mind. Often there is little or no interiority. Scenes play out in “real time” without summary. First-person POV stories describe things the character can’t see, but a distant camera could. There’s an overemphasis on characters’ outfits and facial expressions, including my personal pet peeve: the “reaction shot round-up” in which we get a description of every character’s reaction to something as if a camera was cutting between sitcom actors.

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My theory is that we live in the age of visual narratives and that increasingly warps how we write. Film, TV, TikToks, and video games are culturally dominant. Most of us learn how stories work through visual mediums. This is how our brains have been taught to think about story. And so, this is how we write. I’m not suggesting there is any problem in being influenced by these artforms. I certainly am. The problem is that if you’re “thinking in TV” while writing prose, you abandon the advantages of prose without getting the advantages of TV.

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