#blackwood farm

[inkyblotposts]

"Lestat smiled suddenly and he looked as if he couldn’t hurt anyone for the world. He was too attractive, too friendly, too young. But the smile vanished as quickly as it had come." ~ Quinn, Blackwood Farm

[theseshipsshallsail]

"I am in love with you," I responded. He laughed the most beguiling and gentle laugh. "Of course you are," he replied. "I understand perfectly because I'm in love with myself. The fact that I'm not transfixed in front of the nearest mirror takes a great deal of self-control." - Lestat de Lioncourt.

Shoutout to this sassy bitch for making me crease up laughing in the queue at Tesco. It's been 20 years, but after slogging my way through so much David Talbot lately, I'd forgotten how much I liked this one.

[greedandenby]

"You could call me a Goth, I think." - Lestat, Blackwood Farm.

Don't mind me, just imagining our Goth girlie Samothy reading this whilst giggling twirling his hair kicking his footsies.

[you-get-me-closer-to-god]

I love how in Blackwood Farm when Lestat is meeting Aunt Queen with Quinn, he purposely introduces himself with a heavier French accent, pronouncing his name “Les-dot”. This motherfucker hasn’t been in France for decades probably and he’s flirting with your grandmother

[nalyra-dreaming]

I know many people think Lestat woke up when louis geart stopped beating but that wasn’t confirmed right? Cuz how would he know that?

Okay, so...

This is one of those things that is "in-between the lines", where many things between Louis and Lestat are. Lestat tells the reader that they must read between the lines in TVL, so that is something to be kept in mind as intentional.

There are a few things that must be considered here, imho:

In "Blackwood Farm" Lestat tells Quinn that the "angels" took his soul with them:

"They left my body there for my friends to watch over," he explained, and for the first time since I'd seen him, he looked troubled, indecisive, even faintly confused. "But my spirit they took with them," he went on. "And in a realm as palpable as this very room they set me down to do their bidding, always threatening to snatch back this right eye, to take it forever if I didn't do what they bid me to do." [...] "I don't even know which of my bodies was the true one — the body that lay on the floor of the chapel of St. Elizabeth's, or the body that roamed with the so-called angels. I was an unwilling trafficker in knowledge and illusions."

Now... Lestat is at the mercy of these "angels" in spiritual realms for years. Years.

He wakes once from a more dreamlike state (as the unpublished book details) to help Armand and the others hunt down the riff raff in New Orleans.

But that is not the same state he is afterwards, because there he was commenting on what was going on around him... and later in Merrick, David notes that Lestat's soul does not seem to actually be there.

"Once again, I had the distinct impression that his soul was not in his body, not in the way that we believed it to be."

This later state is what Lestat is telling us of in "Blackwood Farm."

Now, David sits down and warns Lestat that Louis will attempt suicide.

Louis sits down to say goodbye to Lestat.

Lestat does not wake from neither plea nor goodbye.

So what does wake him?

It could not have been an outward change, because he was alone at St. Elizabeth's when Louis put himself into his coven in the courtyard of Rue Royale.

It could not have been David, who was also at Rue Royale, nor could it have been Merrick.

The show has picked up on what Louis said about their heartbeats, and elevated it, and I do think it is important.

"[...]the drum was my heart, and the second drum had been his."

Louis notes in the book that even after the turning he hears Lestat's heart:

"His heart I still heard like the beating of a drum."

(For vampires, their hearts also sync up with the heartbeats of their victims when they feed, but then that victim's heart stops, of course.)

In "Prince Lestat" Lestat makes note that he also recognizes vampires by heartbeat, or at least certain ones.

Now, in "Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis", we get to Louis' account of the Merrick event, which is an important aspect of it all. Because he narrows it down:

"But the etheric body, the Amel body, was still in you,” said Fareed. “It had to be or you couldn’t have been revived.” “That’s true,” Louis said. “It was there inside me and it would have remained there until the ashes were scattered. It would have remained suspended, waiting, waiting for how long we don’t know. Remember the old admonition from Magnus, Lestat? Scatter the ashes? Well, no one scattered my ashes and I was brought back—by your blood, and David’s blood, and Merrick’s blood too." [...] “My heart had stopped,” said Louis. “There was no blood pumping in me. All circulation had stopped when my heart stopped. That is how I was dead.”

I was speechless. Then slowly it dawned on me. It came back to me what Kapetria had said...something about the invisible tentacles—or the cord—being the only part of us that was not filled with blood.

And here it all comes together, imho.

The cord. The heartbeat. The heart that stopped.

"We are joined by a cord, a cord you cannot see, but it is real."

Louis and Lestat "share a heart", they hear each other's heartbeat. They are also joined by a cord, not just then when the events in PLotRoA are reached, but also because Louis is Lestat's fledgling, and Amel's "tendrils" reached/were given from Lestat in/to Louis.

When Louis' heart stopped that tendril of the spirit Amel snapped.

Lestat, in the spiritual realm at the time, must have been able to feel it.

When Louis' heartbeat stopped the cord snapped.

And Lestat immediately woke up.

(Since they already introduced the cord... I'm quite sure that will be the same in the show if and when they go there.)

[cuntyvampires]

Mona Mayfair and life goals. - Blackwood Farm

[sheisraging]

Still early in my Blackwood Farm read, but this book is so hilarious. Like my name is Tarquin Anthony Blackwood and this is the story of my life and this goblin that haunts me but also did you guys know that Lestat is hot.

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

Petronia warning Quinn about not crossing Lestat’s way:

More than once, even:

And then Lestat, literally five minutes after meeting Quinn:

[vamp4rebatscave]

Quinn Blackwood & Goblin

[bubblegum-blackwood]

And I drew some of the characters in Blackwood Farm! Even though only me and like three other people care about this book lol

I'll consider it a birthday present to myself

From left to right: Goblin, Quinn, Mona, Jasmine, Aunt Queen, Petronia

[you-get-me-closer-to-god]

[greedandenby]

My GOD he's so fucking vain.

But hey, you do you, babygirl.

Lestat, Blackwood Farm.

[cuntyvampires]

- Tarquin Blackwood, introducing himself to someone for the first time having never spoken a single word to her before this and having only first seen her one paragraph ago.

[sheisraging]

Less than 2 chapters into Blackwood Farm and Tarquin Blackwood is steadily climbing my faves list. He’s been describing how hot Lestat is for like 3 pages and I’m living for it.