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Hi, can I request armando in some traditional Ukrainian clothing 👉👈 maybe a lil Amadeo before he was taken 🥺

Here you go ;)

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What y'all know about book Claudia

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Experimenting with cartoon styles feat. Mael and Marius

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Truth in Taverns

Daniel/Marius - 1002 words

Short fic for the @vcmicroficmay Prompt "Parallel." Crossed posted to AO3 but the whole fic is under the cut here.

I think a lot about the parallels between Daniel and Marius, and the fact that they were on a quest for meaning in bars when they met the person who introduced them to immortality (albeit in very different ways) always gets me.

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Daniel feels uneasy in the crowded tavern, even though he’s seated in a dark corner at the back. The cacophony of voices laughing and talking, the music blaring from unseen speakers, and the clinking of glassware makes it hard to think. 

He clenches his fists and forces himself to take a deep breath, filling his vampire lungs with oxygen they don’t need. He lets it out slowly. He tries to remain grounded, present. This is a test and one he’s determined not to fail. 

This tavern is in a small coastal town, slowly expanding in the modern era as new development springs up around the old city center, where the tavern resides. Inside, it’s like a thousand other bars Daniel has been to. The smell of sweat, hairspray, and stale beer permeate the air. He can endure this: the noise, the aroma, the constant movement that keeps catching his eye despite his best attempts to stare straight ahead.

Marius arrives back at the table with two pints of beer in glass steins with handles, frosted to keep the beer cold. The smell of hops and barley make Daniel so nostalgic his stomach roils. Or maybe that’s just his vampiric senses reacting to the beer. 

Marius watches him carefully, gauging his expression. Daniel feels a soft pressure in his mind, Marius reading his thoughts. 

“I’m fine,” he mutters. He doesn’t feel fine but he wants to be true. He wants to know that he can trust himself in a crowd without becoming disoriented or confused. And Marius wants the same.

Hence this little test.

“Experiment,” Marius corrects his thoughts. 

Daniel gives him a dubious look. 

“You enjoy experiments,” Marius says, as if to remind Daniel of that fact. “You used to experiment with all kinds of things, did you not?” 

He doesn’t say Armand’s name but he doesn’t need to. Daniel knows that’s what he’s referring to. The stories both he and Armand told him about their time together, when Armand would push things like vacuums and blenders to their absolute limits, filling them with wet concrete and pennies. 

Experimentation, mad science. Same thing. 

He laughs at the thought. 

Marius quirks an eyebrow, his gaze steady on Daniel’s face. Daniel clears his throat. 

A new song comes on and someone shouts to turn it up. The bartender obliges and the decibels rise. Daniel can feel the noise of this place vibrating in his bones. There’s an itch in his veins. They ache for blood even though he already fed. Perhaps part of him thinks more blood might soothe the agitation of being in a loud, crowded space. Perhaps he’s just greedy. 

He focuses on the table in front of him, picking out patterns in the wood grain. Focusing on that helps quiet the oppressive energy around him. He looks up. Marius is still watching him. 

So Daniel studies the people around them. A couple fighting at a booth nearby. A man slumped over his cocktail alone. A woman drinking a martini and reading a book on the sofa across the way. People arguing over the pool table in the next room, just visible from his vantage point. So many different people with different stories and lives, all ending up in the same bar on the same night. If fate exists, it draws people to places like this where their lives can change.

“You used to frequent places like this as a mortal, didn’t you?” Daniel asks. “Hoping to find some deeper meaning?”

Marius smiles. “As did you.” 

Daniel snorts, almost bitterly. But he’s not bitter, not really. How can he be? Meeting Louis altered the course of his life. He might have spent a mortal lifetime in taverns and bars, seeking out stories from strangers hoping to find a deeper truth. And he did! He discovered a secret world, one where he could live forever! 

“And you will,” Marius says firmly. 

Some of the self-help books Daniel’s read recently in an attempt to mitigate the lingering symptoms of his madness would call that a positive affirmation. The idea makes him laugh again. Suddenly the loud music and acrid smell of alcohol don’t seem to weigh as heavily. 

“If you were still doing your interview, whom would you speak to?” Marius asks, gesturing at the room.

Daniel sits back against the booth and considers. The fighting couple are sniping at each other over the bar bill. The sad man is wallowing and empty, his thoughts a fog of whiskey and loneliness. The woman with the martini is just unwinding from a busy work week. He closes his mind to their thoughts and just watches. One of the guys playing darts is carrying himself with a seriousness the game doesn’t warrant. There’s something in his posture, in his soft, sad smile that intrigues Daniel. He watches as the man gracefully loses to his friend and then walks to the bar to get another round of drinks. 

“Him,” Daniel said, pointing surreptitiously while the man has his back to them. 

Another quirk of a blond eyebrow. “Why him?” Marius asks.

“Because he has a story to tell,” Daniel says. 

“What story?” 

“I’d have to interview him to find out,” Daniel says, smirking. 

Marius laughs now, the sound rich and reassuring. “So you would.” 

Of course he could use the Mind Gift to delve in and see what he could learn, but the way to get the whole story would be to sit down with the guy and have him tell it. 

“What about you?” Daniel asks. He remembers to pretend to take a swig of his beer while Marius scans the room and picks out the woman who keeps coming out of the kitchen. She wears an apron. Probably the cook. 

“She has a world-weary look about her,” Marius says. “And deep brown eyes.” 

“You have a type,” Daniel teases. 

Marius laughs. “I suppose I do. But it’s the soul I see in the eyes, not the color.” He takes Daniel’s hand and squeezes it reassuringly.  

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Art Request: Daniel and Marius playing video games together

Daniel thought this was going to be an easy win, seeing that Marius is older than Jesus, but he heavily underestimated Marius' devotion to the little italian man who wears red and bears the modern version of his name.

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first time🥺

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Going to the party ✨️✨️

Tarquin Blackwood - Lestat de Lioncourt - Mona Mayfair

From a scene in Blood Canticle.

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My poor guy just wants to make some friends 😭

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Human Lestat with his two dogs 🐶 - illustration inspired by The Vampire Lestat book

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"I really see vampires as transcending gender. If you make them absolutely straight or absolutely gay, you limit the material. They can be either one. They have a polymorphous sexuality. They see everything as beautiful." - Anne Rice

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Lestat: How long are you going to wander like a ghost? Your home isn't here! Come back with me, Louis, let’s go home! *wipes the dirt off Louis's face*

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For the art requests: Marius in dad shorts and socks with sandals

TVL abridged but make it a human AU

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“Someone is done with painting miniature trains for the night?”

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Could you please show Daniel and Benji recording a radio play together? Or do a podcast, or voice act or something like that. (Thank you for opening requests again! Excited to see your art)

After realising Benji (and Sybelle) aren't to blame for the fallout of his and Armand's relationship, Daniel decides to grow closer to them by doing what he does best: interviewing.

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What have you guys done to me

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romanus