#tobt

louis on lestat

lestat on lestat. help.

I love videos like that that show that animals have compassion for other animals (including humans), too, even putting their own lives in danger.

Well, canonically, his vampire nature itself repels animals, sadly. Lestat mentions something about this re: horses. It's especially hard on Lestat re: dogs, here's when he meets Mojo:

I'd caught its scent as soon as it approached, but I did not see the animal until I came over the roof to the back of the house. I'd expected to hear from it before this time, for surely it would pick up my scent, know instinctively that I wasn't human, and then begin to sound its natural alarm of growls and barks. Dogs had done that enough to me over the centuries, though they don't always. Sometimes I can entrance them and command them. But I feared the instinctive rejection and it always sent a pain through my heart. This dog had not barked or given any clue that he knew I was there. He was staring intently at the rear door of the house and the butter-yellow squares of light falling from the window of the door onto the deep snow. - TOBT

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Louis seems like that guy who fosters love and loyalty in unexpected places.

Yes, I love that!

There is fanon from a popular Louis roleplayer from years ago ( @merciful-death) that Louis did adopt a black cat (or she adopted him, really) named Harriet. She leaves him dead mice often, and according to Lestat roleplayer @devilsfool: “She hunts them to try to feed you. She’s convinced that you are a terrible hunter.” I love that! 🐁🐁🐁

(...I also see Louis as being visited frequently by a big stray tomcat, and Lestat doesn’t approve of this one either bc MORE CAT HAIR ON VELVET FURNITURE. Velvet is very cat-hair-ophillic. This cat doesn’t have a name but Louis calls him by a lot of baby names (”Mon chou,” “Sir Fluff,” “Kitten,”) and Lestat calls him by a lot of rude names (”Hairball,” “Trashface,” “Loaf”). This cat actually followed Harriet to their home one night, and he likes to nap with her when she allows it.)

As far as big cats, I think Louis would be fascinated with them as he is with most natural beauty, including plants, constellations/space (the new pics from NASA's Webb!), the simplicity and complexity of a crackling fire... I like to think they go to the zoo at night and admire the animals from afar.

As far as owning a big cat, that might be a danger to his towers of books and other collections! But I also like to think Gabrielle has taken him out to hunt in far off places and they've gotten close to sit among mountain lions and tigers.

TOBT is AMAZING. I'm just so delighted with it.

I started reading VC when I was literally so young that I do not remember what my first VC book was. BUT I have a strong suspicion that it was TOBT, because I strongly remember the cover that had the sculpture of the rape of the Sabine women on it, and I also remember being baffled over how one character insisted that the other character had lied about some big incident that must have been elucidated in a previous book. I also remember Lestat going on about weeping but I was so confused as to what weeping was (like, I was maybe maybe 12 - I didn't know what the difference between "cry" and "weep" was).

But TOBT! The quality of the writing! The depravity and the indulgence in that depravity. I'm loving it, OMG. It shocks me that even as an 11 or 12 year old, one who had never read IWTV and therefore for whom all scenes with Claudia completely flew over my head, the voice of Lestat in this book was so instantly addictive that it compelled me to seek out the other prequel and sequel books. Anne Rice got her claws into me young. And I am still compelled by it.

I recently went back to visit my parents and found an old copy of TOBT that I had left a bookmark in. The bookmarked scene? THE WEEPING ONE.

I started reading... and reading. And you guys!! It's so good.

SUMMARY:

Everyone knows that Tom Riddle is the perfect Avatar. An effortless diplomat and prodigious bender, he’s the Fire Nation’s pride and joy.

Strangely, though, Riddle has never been able to access the Avatar State. To that end, Hermione Granger—a Northern waterbending master—has been invited to the Fire Nation’s Royal Palace, in hopes that her qi-therapy techniques will unlock Riddle’s full Avatar power.

No one knows that Hermione Granger is part of a society that has been tracking Riddle’s actions meticulously for years. Hermione knows full well that Riddle isn’t what he seems. She knows what he’s planning to do if he unlocks the Avatar State.

She’s going to make sure that never happens.

Find Chapter Two on FFNet and AO3:

Tom Riddle arrived early to the training yard, as always. Being first to a scene was a small gesture of supremacy. When the others came, they would stand upon territory that felt like his own.