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Thinkin about a vampire au

Translations

- damned bastard

- do you understand?

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Tremblay: And here is where I keep my wall of inspirational figures.

Lawrence: These are pictures of you.

Tremblay: I’m big enough to admit I’m often inspired by myself.

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Oh shit. Oh shit though. Tremblay ENCOURAGING Wozniak's addiction in the lead up to the Conclave so if he did blab, then he would have a plausible excuse for his accusations? Oh shit???

Poor Janusz, it's my treat today. Drink as much as you like.

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Reading a post about Janusz and thinking of that (really intense, so early in the movie) scene where he's removing the ring from the late Holy Father's finger and - shaking. And suddenly thought oh god - and then he has to give the ring to Tremblay. So that it can be destroyed. And this is after Tremblay threatened him.

...oh god, and also after he knows that the late Holy Father's demanded Tremblay's resignation - if I'm currently understanding correctly what that means, Tremblay shouldn't, isn't supposed to even be there. (Isn't supposed to be touching the ring like that, taking it from Janusz's hands.)

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So. It's Vincent Benitez. And like. Yes he could probably beat me. But what sort of m o n s t e r would I be to fight him in the first place?

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Carlos and his blue shirt :) 💙

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oh, oh, ok, Vincent whump idea.

Instead of deciding to come to the conclave, Vincent doesn’t. It would be dangerous, to others not just him, and he doesn’t see what good he would be doing there - he’s just one person and this is a voting process needing a two thirds majority, he (as he observes in the novel) doesn’t know any of the candidates, and surely he’s not somehow better at listening to the Holy Spirit than all the other Cardinals. Many of whom have done this before. And he has work to do here, and this is where his work lies.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him somebody has found out about his appointment. (…He does say that he’s being watched. And he did receive documents.) And they have a different idea.

Cue Vincent going missing from his post (some of the members of his archdiocese are worried, but it’s not even uncommon for him to run into something that needs to be done and get involved doing it. And the Church has a most important time and situation to be handling right now. And there’s a less clear line of authority than usual. And they’re not exactly a well known or important diocese. And getting attention is not necessarily something they want to do. (And of course they also don’t know that he’s a cardinal). So anyway, they haven’t actually notified anyone in higher positions or that might generally be notified, that something might be wrong.)

And cue Vincent, bloody and beaten, dumped on the metaphorical and possibly literal doorstep of the Vatican, just when all the cardinals are arriving and the conclave is going to begin.

With a more traditional written kind of message, saying, I noticed you’d forgotten one of your cardinals. Gotta be careful to keep track of those, you know. Thought I’d help you out with that :)

(Bloody and beaten and clearly tortured and in a very large amount of pain - and very notably alive, and very notably, and observably once they get a medical examination, in the sort of state that one can recover from, and also the sort of state where it’s obvious to the point of an overt message that it would have been very easy to cause this not to be the case, and possibly harder to have averted it.)

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Thinking about when I was talking about pride month and my classmate told me he didn't approve because he thought I was talking about the deadly sin. Somehow this is Lawrence to me

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Stranger: excuse me are you the pope

Benítez, in disguise: what's a pope

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Okay I caved in here's a quick sketch (close up under the cut)

As a little gift for @senorarelojes, have a great trip!!

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wokepope icon 4 pride month

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I know what simony is, thank you

The line just cracks me up in the movie because it works on multiple levels. From the Doylist perspective, it's the writers winking at the audience—of course the priests know what this particular jargon means but the audience does not so they put the definition into Thomas's dialogue and then hung a lantern on how silly it was for him to say it in the first place.

But then it actually also completely works on a Watsonian perspective because, of course, Thomas was a Professor of Canon Law and has had. A very long, very stressful day. On top of like three very very stressful weeks. So, of course, he reverts to Professor Mode (TM) and then Aldo—who is also stressed AF and was the Rector of the damn university—snaps at him for it.

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Lawrence: You read my diary? 

Tedesco: At first I did not know it was your diary, I thought it was a very sad handwritten book.

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Clerical outfits in Vanheems' catalogue, May 1966

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How much do yall wanna bet that Vincent keeps falling asleep in random spots and situations??

Vincent has lived more than half of his life in active war zones. He has learned to sleep in uncomfortable places, in loud spaces, surrounded by others. He can fall asleep anywhere as long as he feels safe enough, normally whenever surrounded by people he can trust would wake him if something happens.

It begins quite unremarkable. The pope falling asleep on the couch in his apartment while having tea with Thomas. Vincent dozing off during long car rides or flights. A guard nervously shaking a sleeping Vincent awake after watching him fall asleep next to the turtle pond.

The events are shrugged off. No one can expect the new pope to be energetic constantly, especially after long days spent working without breaks.

But as the months pass and Vincent starts getting even closer to his staff, his body starts betraying him. After a night full of nightmares, Vincent falls asleep at breakfast, in front of everyone in the Santa Martha dining hall. No one mentions it, but the concerned looks he gets make him blush in embarrassment.

After a particularly tough week, the Holy Father dozes off in the middle of a meeting. He awakes to six pair of eyes staring at him. Aldo reschedules the rest of the meeting and sends Vincent to bed, where he lays awake until dinner.

Aldo and Thomas bully Vincent into seeing a doctor. They think the pope might have some kind of medical issue. Vincent reluctantly agrees to the appointment. The doctor finds nothing that can cause the fatigue, but he does note down a suspicion of PTSD and chronic pain in Vincent’s medical records.

Vincent starts finding ways to keep himself awake. He finds that copious amounts of coffee help a bit, and so does the pain of digging his fingernails into his skin whenever he notices his eyelids getting heavier.

None of them realize what is actually happening until over a year later.

Vincent gets sick. It’s nothing serious, a case of the flu that’s been going around the Vatican. He’s ordered to rest, and sent to bed.

The fever makes him confused, and he’s not sure exactly where he is. He does know, however, that it’s not safe to sleep. He’s alone, and that’s dangerous.

Thomas comes to check on him, and finds the Holy Father curled up in a corner. His feverish eyes scanning the room for threats. Luckily, some part of Vincent seems to recognize Thomas as a friend.

After showing Vincent that there’s no threats in the apartment - by opening the closets and looking under the bed, as if calming a scared child - Vincent finally agrees to return to bed.

Once the pope is tucked in, Thomas starts to make his way to the door, but Vincent grabs his arm.

Thomas is confused at first, but what the Holy Father tells him next makes him understand the past year for the first time.

“Don’t go alone, it’s not safe.”

Thomas spends the night on a chair next to Vincent’s bed, and Vincent sleeps through the night for the first time since he left his flock.

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