#maridan

Marius/Daniel Week 2025 (10—16 November)

Welcome to our fan event celebrating again this year the romantic relationship between Marius de Romanus and Daniel Molloy, from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles novels. Those who enjoy this book-only couple are welcome to join in creating any type of fanwork, or share and comment on them. Please use the appropriate tags for your creations and also tag with #maridaniweek2025 or #maridaniweek25.

[AO3 collection]

Prompts are listed below the cut:

Microfic May is back, babycakes!

This is a yearly fandom event to inspire short works of fiction in the month of May! The goal is to use these prompts to create short works aiming to be between 100 to 1000 words. (Though no one is going to be mad if you go a little over.)

You can post your work on Tumblr, AO3, anywhere you post fic. There will be a collection on AO3 as well if you wish to add your work there. Please tag @vcmicroficmay and use the hashtag #vcmicroficmay to help us find your work so we can share it, and feel free to message us if you think we missed your entry!

We also have a collection on AO3 you can add your work to!

This even opens May 1 (though technically Week 1 starts on May 4, we're not picky!) See our other post for event rules. Late entries allowed! And special thanks to @rebelrevenant for coming up with many of these delicious prompts!

Happy Writing!

Prompts In Text Below the Cut

Reunion - 448 words - Marius/Daniel

This was written for the @valenfangs VamPride event but it's like 2 weeks late (life has been lifeing and also I had to go out of town last weekend to celebrate Pride at the closest event to me, hazards of living in a small mountain town.) Anyhow sorry for the belated entry, it's just a little ficlet featuring Marius and Daniel during the events of Prince Lestat.

_______

Marius packs Daniel’s suitcase. Daniel is perfectly capable of packing it himself—though admittedly he’d probably take more t-shirts than Marius seems to deem necessary—but Marius is moving at a frenetic pace. He’s worried. About the new round of burnings, about what might happen this time all the immortals convene, about this new threat they’re facing.

Old threat. 

Round and round. Same old dance.

Daniel laughs and Marius tenses, hand hovering over the suitcase, long pale fingers squeezing the pair of folded socks in his hand. He glances at Daniel, worried. Laughing at nothing is something madmen do. Daniel is better now, and has been for long enough that a single laugh should not even raise concern, but Daniel sees the fear in his eyes. Not just for Daniel. For Armand, for Lestat, for Pandora, for all of them. For what might happen this time.

We’ve survived worse, Daniel thinks, remembering Akasha, a terrifying goddess, glaring at them as she ranted and raved about her new world, admonishing all of them. Except Daniel.

She’d barely noticed Daniel or Jesse, just two new vampires loosely connected to the ones Lestat knew and loved. But for a moment her cold eyes had landed on him and he’d been entranced by her, the way her ancient limbs moved with impossible grace. The way she glowed with inhuman light so radiant it was far beyond anything that surrounded Armand or even Marius.  

Marius drops the socks into the suitcase. “We don’t know what’s in store,” he says, but gently. He doesn’t want to scare Daniel, but he wants him to take this seriously. 

But Daniel always has. He laughed the first time because he was giddy with the blood newly coursing in his veins, finally the creature of the night he’d longed to be, with Armand at his side. He laughs now because he’s giddy with the prospect of seeing Armand and the others again, of all of them gathering together once more. It’s hard to be afraid when you’re surrounded by powerful immortals who’ve seen the world turn over hundreds of times, who’ve faced down worse and survived. 

Marius closes the sock drawer with force, shaking the dresser. A pile of rocks that had been perched on the edge fall to the ground. Marius stares at them, faintly surprised. Daniel bends to pick them up.

“Do you know the meteor that killed the dinosaurs left a line of iridium buried in the earth’s crust all across the planet?” he asks.  “Did it?” Marius asked, watching Daniel rearrange the rocks on his dresser. 

“Big events leave their mark,” Daniel says.  

Marius sighs. He sits on the bed next to the suitcase and examines the contents, as if worried he’s forgotten something. 

Daniel leans against the dresser and smiles at him, hoping he looks reassuring instead of like an unhinged mad man gleefully facing down another apocalypse. 

Tagged by @monstersinthecosmos. Thank you!

I'm gonna be so honest guys, I've been so ass in terms of writing since I finished Akathist, there's really not much to show. 😭

But have some maridan

It was pretend before, the playful helplessness to heighten the feeling of being at his lover’s mercy. But he wasn’t so sure now. Daniel’s arms felt weak, weaker than his mortal arms ever did, it seemed. And each sweet shudder running through his frame, each feeble struggle against the restraints only instilled a more potent sense of his inability to escape. No release, physical or otherwise. His only salvation was in the luscious lips trailing over his body, in strong arms pinning him to the bed and in sharp eyeteeth seeking more of his blood.

I don't think you're crazy, no. I do think both sides have the potential to be let down, though.

Marius & Lestat: this is a relationship I've been wanting to revisit. When I read TVL, I was grieving the recent back-to losses of my mother & my dog, so I came to Marius in a similar state as Lestat lol. I remember taking his words to heart and them truly helping me through the darkest time of my life, when I'd given up on the world and any beliefs I thought I had. (For the record, I was also engaged in an extremely Lestat-centric reading as Armand didn't win me over until QotD, and I took a lot of the philosophy of mortality & existence personally. still do.).

I feel as if Marius's show "introductions" paint him in a different light so far. He has an ominous presence for non-book readers; they only know him from his creepy painting in Dubai & Armand's somber reflection to Louis. It's not exactly laying the groundwork TVL did where Marius's presence & appearance are (to my recollection) comforting, something Lestat seeks out to ground himself and find answers. Season 3 has a lot of work to do in that regard and I think that's where part of my displeasure with the "donations" stems from. They've already done Armand's backstory dirty by having his parents seemingly sell him off -- even going so far as deceiving him about it? to my understanding -- as opposed to the family from the books that loves and misses him! That's already woobifying Armand territory imo. It's also why I have to raise an eyebrow at the "donations" angle -- how much is true? How much is purposeful mis- or redirection, whether from a character or the writers? How much is the new (show) canon? I look forward to what answers we'll get. It's a stretch, but Daniel could dig these facts up (for Armand?) in research, perhaps? I have no idea but I feel it's important Armand knows his family both loved and longed for him. Reconciliation with Ivan & Armand's return to Kiev is one of my highlights of TVA.

However, I do [my best to] understand this approach, and it rings true to the show adaptation's theme of highlighting memory as a monster, how reflection paints our present perspectives, how trauma is foundational, etc.

Exactly as you say: these characters are all more than their flaws & darkest moments, same as they're more than their kindest. Neither side outshines or overshadows the other -- that's the whole point.

Eric & Assad's takes on Marius also lead me to believe what you do. I'm desperate for show!Daniel to tear into Marius though, it's going to be good. fucking. food.

I hope they include, at the very least, some aspect of Daniel & Marius's relationship from Blood and Gold. I'm hoping Daniel's hedonism with Lestat in s3!TVL reflects his own madness from the book, that his indulgences turn him a little vampy coo-coo-cachoo. Maybe Marius can be a grounding figure at the end of that?