#it's interesting to think about what he thinks about being a vampire

[yanderes-galore]

Can I ask for a Moonknight romantic concept (Marvel Rivals)?

Tried my best, sorry if I butchered it, he only really shows himself as Marc in Rivals.

Yandere! MR! Moon Knight Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Overprotective behavior, Stalking, Violence, Blood, Murder, D.I.D (Moon Knight canonically has it), Jealousy, Kidnapping, Forced/Dubious relationship.

Something interesting about Moon Knight in Rivals is we never hear much from Steven or Jake?

All of Moon Knight's voice lines are either Marc or occasionally Khonshu.

So I'm going to write Rivals Moon Knight differently from how I plan to write MCU Moon Knight.

In the MCU HCs I plan to do, all of the 'moon boys' interact with you in some way.

Rivals Moon Knight, however, won't interact with you as anyone but Marc.

So despite Moon Knight mentioning other voices in his head or mentioning he can hear Khonshu... Marc is the main identity who interacts with you.

He's also the main identity who gets attached to you... But the others either feel similarly or just want to aid Marc.

My explanation for this would be Marc not wanting you too involved with the entirety of his mind or Khonshu.

In terms of what type of yandere Rivals Moon Knight is...

I'd have to say protectiveness is his main nature.

Since being given a second chance at life by Khonshu, Marc has dedicated himself to being a protector of some sorts for night travelers.

So Marc is protective of you when he sees you from afar.

Steven would be more of a gentleman presumably, occasionally shining through when Moon Knight wants to appeal to you.

Then there's Jake who I'm assuming is the one more likely to kill than Marc, or just comes off as cold?

Marc is used to killing but tries to keep it less lethal... but it's up in the air if Jake's in control at times.

To keep it simple for Rivals Moon Knight, You're mostly dealing with Marc.

Unlike most other 'heroes', Moon Knight doesn't mind killing.

Or if he can't kill, maim works.

Moon Knight is rather passive about his obsession at first.

He's got enough to deal with and probably doesn't want to get top involved in another person.

He has the whole timeline entanglement issue like everyone else... also vampires due to Dracula.

Khonshu wants Moon Knight to find answers on how to remove vampires from the night for good.

It's an... irritating task.

So that's what Moon Knight is primarily traveling for, to steal a spellbook from Strange to look up how to get rid of vampires.

Also get his money back from Dracula.

However, just his luck, he ends up having to save someone from said vampires due to Dracula taking over a version of New York.

He's reluctant at first, watching you from a distance.

Yet you count as a traveler in the night... So when you're being attacked, Moon Knight swoops in.

You're shaking, back pressed against an ally wall as you watch blood splatter across the floor.

Once you manage to look around, you're greeted by a man dressed completely in white... except for the blood now staining the pristine white cloak.

"You okay? Geez... Didn't think there were still any civilians here...."

To him, this is a simple little favor.

Khonshu would've wanted him to do this... probably.

Or was that Steven...?

Either way... Moon Knight quickly pulls you up, holding you close in a defensive gesture.

"What's your name?" He hears you ask quietly, still shaken.

"I go by many names... Best you just call me Moon Knight, it covers everything."

That's one way you could meet Moon Knight, you don't even need to entirely be a civilian.

You could be a scientist working on researching the vampires... or even another hero who just bit off more than you could chew while trying to get to Avengers Tower.

Either way, you definitely meet Moon Knight during the whole Dracula issue.

It's the main reason he's getting involved with this whole timeline entanglement issue according to his lore.

He doesn't expect this incident to matter so much to him...

He just saved you, it's what he was meant to do.

Yet he keeps hearing Steven coo about you being cute or something... or Jake nagging at him to not get distracted.

Marc finds himself heaving a heavy sigh, realizing that he might be thinking of you more than he'd like.

Moon Knight's behavior starts as something simple.

He watches you from afar on rooftops or hidden in alleys.

He's scolding himself the entire time, telling himself he's getting distracted.

He needs to find Strange, not watch and fantasize about some person he saved.

Khonshu is no doubt either amused or scolding him... Making Moon Knight more frustrated as he argues with his own mind.

It would not surprise me if Moon Knight caved and swooped in, claiming you need to come with him.

He's clearly not going to get anything done if he can't stop watching you....

So, congrats, you're following him around.

Essentially, Moon Knight becomes your bodyguard throughout New York's Blood Moon.

He can't seem to leave you alone, so you won't leave him.

The Fist of Vengeance seems oddly... domestic in the situation for a mercenary.

You're both roaming the streets of New York, the man beside you occasionally putting his cape over you to shield you from sight.

Marc's trying to treat this as professionally as he can.

He's just escorting you to safety... That's all....

He can barely listen to the conversations he's having with you.

This should be professional...

So why does he keep feeling oddly... drawn to you?

He feels like he needs to protect you... Which for this situation, makes sense.

But why does he feel against the idea of letting you go after all of this?

Why does he feel like something is wrong if he isn't with you?

If Moon Knight isn't feeling complicated already due to his own mind... He feels even worse when you manage to worm your way into his thoughts.

Moon Knight is conflicted towards the thoughts he has about you.

He knows he shouldn't get too close to you.

You'll make his role problematic and he can't be worrying about some random person.

Yet as he speaks to you on the streets when he does listen... He's oddly enraptured.

He wants to know more about you... at first to learn why you're in this situation.

Then he wants to learn more just to... well... know more?

He needs to stop thinking you're attractive... He hates it when he screws up and calls you "Doll" or "Sweetheart" due to Jake or Steven's influence.

Marc needs control... He needs to focus....

But you make said control shatter without trying too hard.

Moon Knight feels both relieved and anxious when he gets you to Avengers Tower, now able to meet Tony, Reed, and Strange.

But Steven won't stop worrying about you and Jake keeps telling Marc about the vampire issue.

He KNOWS. By Khonshu, HE ALREADY KNOWS.

You no doubt pick up on Moon Knight having his internal battles.

Hesitantly you reach out to your savior, concerned.

"Hey, Moon Knight, you alright... You keep mumbling...?"

It snaps Marc back into focus for a moment, his mask looking towards you.

You look so concerned... for someone like him....

For a moment his mind is soothed as he looks you over before forcing himself to respond.

"Yeah, look, it's complicated, so if you want answers... sit down."

This would no doubt be where Moon Knight tries to explain his goal and... mental state.

Y'know, minus all the weird obsessive behavior he suddenly developed over you.

He'd rather you don't know about that... yet.

Essentially, Moon Knight hides a lot of his feelings towards you.

You're helping deal with vampires, meanwhile Moon Knight is having yet another argument with himself

He doesn't act too much on his desires since he's a bit overwhelmed at times.

But overall, Moon Knight is protective, occasionally charming, or downright violent.

There's times he seems to forget things... but if he explained his mental state, you probably understand why.

Even Moon Knight's peers don't particularly enjoy his violent displays.

Yet to him, that's how he gets things done.

You flinch each time Moon Knight brutally kills a vampire, the blood making his normally pristine white cloak a messy splattered mess.

Yet he shrugs it off, the first thing he does is check in on you.

"You good? Not bitten? Not hurt? Great, try not to stray."

There's times he's actually quite authoritative or stern when looking out for you.

Other times he's surprisingly caring, keeping you close when he isn't sent into a violent spree upon seeing a vampire.

Tony or the others might comment on this, but aren't met with clear answers on why he's coddling you.

You end up following him wherever he goes, Khonshu even commenting that he expected his champion to leave you somewhere safe ages ago.

This usually leads to Moon Knight telling the god to shove off.

Moon Knight isn't used to affection, he prefers watching from a distance to be a protector.

Yet other times, usually as Steven, you find Moon Knight checking in on you or even hugging you.

Moon Knight obviously struggles with his sudden romantic attraction to you.

He wants to scold himself... He really does.

But eventually he's just going to give up.

Fine, he likes you, he wants to protect you...

Now he has to find ways to do that while serving Khonshu.

By the time the Dracula situation is done with help from Squirrel Girl, Moon Knight can barely focus on the twenty bucks in his hand.

He keeps thinking of you... wondering how the rest of this timeline issue is going to affect you.

The thought... disturbs him.

Imagine Moon Knight becoming your personal protector after dealing with Dracula, claiming he can't leave you alone now.

He's a hostile person surprisingly often.

As Steven he expresses some minor jealousy when others decide to interact with you.

With Marc he's protective, warning others not to get too close as he pulls his cape over you.

As Jake... straight up threats if not outright violence.

Moon Knight probably knows dragging you through split dimensions is still dangerous...

But he can't find your actual home or timeline due to the split realities.

Part of him really hopes you were originally part of his New York....

To him, the safest thing to do is take you with him everywhere.

Then if anyone proves to be a problem... He'll bash them.

Easy, right?

Actually confronting you with how he feels is the difficult part.

He planned on just keeping it hidden the entire time, that would be the most reasonable thing to do even if Steven voices his grievances about it.

Or maybe it just comes out by accident?

Moon Knight gets so worked up over something, like maybe you're being flirted with by Loki, Black Panther, or Human Torch to give examples...

Only for him to snap.

"Look, back off, bud. This one's mine, saw them first, they're my responsibility."

The sentence is... strange....

You may ask about it, only to hear a heavy sigh from Moon Knight.

"I... we? We like you, alright? As in... You're pleasing to look at and I feel the need to look after you. You get what I'm saying? It's hard to explain, damn it...."

That's the confession, it's like he's struggling and irritated that now he has to explain himself because he couldn't control his emotions.

You may accept those emotions to make him feel better or because you feel similarly.

You just struggle on making it official since you don't know if you'll see him when the timelines fix.

Moon Knight appreciates the thought and feeds off it....

You accepting his strange feelings, regardless of your motive, deludes him more.

Now your new 'protector' is even more assertive and threatening towards people.

He wants people to both fear him and know you're involved with him.

That way they'll stay away, right?

That way he'll be your only hero.

Honestly, he never expected to be so jealous.

He's one of the few people okay with murder, too.

You often get worried for other people, warning them that while Moon Knight was always crazy... is even more so now.

You get anxious when you see blood on his cloak, unsure if you'd prefer it was his or not.

It's scary to think he may have killed others for just looking at you.

Part of you is thankful that your little "relationship" is temporary.

Yet with how intense he feels, his behavior even surprising his patron, he may not just let you go.

When the timelines are restored, whenever that may be...

What's stopping him from just snagging you?

New York is New York, right?

He'll continue to be your protector by just taking you to his universe.

Could it cause problems? Yeah...

But he could care less at this point.

For once, Moon Knight can feel all of him agree on one thing...

Once everything is done and over with and he can go back to his universe...

He'll just take you with him, then he never has to let you go (Even better if you were FROM his universe.)

"Sorry sweetheart, I'm sure this won't be much different from home, right...? Just come with me... Not a soul will touch you now."

[red-riot-unbreakable-heart]

Fifty Shades of Todoroki. Shoto x Y/N One Shot.

It's late when you stumble into Todoroki's college dorm room.

He looks up at you in surprise. He's tucked into bed, hair slightly ruffled. It's 2am and he's fucking reading beneath a small hot pink Ikea book light thats clipped to the headboard of his university-issued four post dorm bed. He's got wiry glasses on and he looks so cute and goddamn scholarly you can't stand it.

"You gotta stop leaving your door unlocked." You say as you throw yourself down on his twin bed. He quickly pulls his feet out from under you. You bounce a few times on the mattress as you curl into a comfortable position and turn to face him. He ignores your statement about his dorm room being unlocked.

"Were you at a party?" His eyes roam your body - and you can't help but strike a quick pose for your best friend because you know you look hot. You're wearing a tight black body suit that makes your boobs bulge in a Bridgerton-regency-era-hoity-toity-smokin-hot kinda way that you love. The body suit is sleekly tucked into a pair of dark wash high waisted jeans that hug the curves of your ass and thighs sweetly. You get comfortable on top of the comforter, kicking your heels off onto the floor. You wonder if Shoto notices your outfit and how sinfully sexy you look tonight...in fact, you've been dying for him to notice you *ahem* sexually for years now, but to seemingly no avail.

"Yes, I was at a party. But it was lameee and you weren't there so obviously it was a total waste of a night."

He smiles when you imply that not spending the evening together pushes an evening into "lame" territory.

"You look nice." He says in that flat, serious tone of his. Your heart soars.

"I try." You say, trying not to show how much his compliment has affected you. "What ya readin' that's got you up so late on a Saturday night, Sho?" You crane your neck to see the cover of his book, but he shields it from view.

"Nothing interesting." He says, but you can hear the lightest waver in his voice. You cock an eyebrow, hoping he'll elaborate.

He doesn't.

He marks his page and closes his book neatly. He reaches to quickly place it upside down his bedside table, but not before you catch a glimpse of the cover.

"Sho is that - "

"It's nothing."

"-is that Fifty Shades of Grey?" You all but shout. He shushes you, eyes wide with worry.

"Y/N, it's two in the morning. You'll wake someone."

"Who cares! This is an insane life moment and I may need witnesses to corroborate my story when I wake up tomorrow and remember that Shoto Todoroki is reading a smutty vampire fanfic inspired novel!"

"I'm reading it for the plot."

"Bull. Shit."

He huffs in frustration, his breath sending his bangs flying up for a moment before falling gracefully across his aristocratic forehead once more.

"I'm just...doing some research."

"On BDSM? Because I can promise you that book is not an accurate representation of healthy sexual dynamics. I'm sure we can find you some better BDSM literature and - "

"It's not about the BDSM." He interjects. "Not necessarily."

"Oh. Then what are you researching?"

He refuses to meet your gaze, shifting uncomfortably under the covers.

"I'm trying to make a list of things that turn me on. I'm trying to figure out what kinds of...sexual things...that I'm interested in."

There's a pause in which neither of you says a thing. Shoto avoids eye contact.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

You take a beat, suddenly abashed. "Sho...I'm sorry for barging in like that and demanding to know what you're up to. It's really none of my business why you're reading that book." You slide your hand along the comforter and find his foot. You squeeze it softly through the thick fabric. "Sorry if I made you feel embarrassed or ashamed for exploring your sexuality. You shouldn't be."

"I'm not." He says too quickly, his face covered in a red blush that says otherwise. You flash him what you hope is a reassuring smile.

"It's perfectly natural. And I think this is a great way for you to see what piques your interest in a sexual context. In fact, I have a few romance novels I can lend you that might help with this process. We're talking majorly sexy texts here."

"Really?" He says hopefully, his wide eyes darting between you and the smutty novel laying facedown on his nightstand.

"Yeah, there's some really great books out there. And have you ever read fan fiction? I bet that would blow your mind!" You laugh and he looks at you in awe like you're the queen of smutty literature.

"There's so much I don't know. I feel almost like...like everyone took a class on sexuality and forgot to tell me about it. There's just so much I haven't really thought through yet. What I like. What I want. It's confusing." He sighs in a way that for any other guy would be considered melodramatic. But since it's Shoto, you recognize it as true frustration and angst.

"Sho, everyone figures things out at their own pace. It's alright to be moving at a different speed with sex. I promise." You say kindly, and he nods appreciatively. You continue, "You should be figuring out what you like - researching, experimenting."

Suddenly, your struck with a genius, but wildly improbable idea. You can't help the way the offer comes tumbling out of your mouth like a fast river down rocks. "Actually, if you're interested in some hands on learning...I'm your gal."

Shoto blinks, confused. He seems to think he didn't hear you right.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is..." You've got him in the palm of your hand, now. He's staring at you with such concentration, you feel you might catch on fire (or maybe that's just the spark of arousal that's ignited between your legs at the longing way he's staring at your mouth). "If there's anything you'd like to try...um...physically with a partner...well, what I mean to say is...we can do it together."

Shoto just stares at you.

"Only if you're comfortable, of course." You amend, blush rising and flushing your cheeks. "I just think you're hot, Sho. And I think we could have a lot of fun exploring what you're into...uh...together."

"Hm." Shoto looks at you thoughtfully, his eyes roaming across your face, your mouth, your boobs, your face again. "I think you're hot, too."

You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding. "Oh, well that's a relief."

"I mean it." He says, mouth spreading into an uncertain grin. "I've always found you attractive."

"Wow, you sure know how to compliment a lady." You say sarcastically, flashing him a thumbs up.

"Don't do that." He says flatly, shaking his head.

"Don't do what?"

"Deflect my genuine thoughts with sarcasm. I know I'm not the best when it comes to being social, but I promise I'm being serious right now. I've always found you attractive. I don't need to read a romance novel or fanfiction to figure that out. I just look at you and...I know. I'm almost always turned on at some base level when you're around." He says matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Now you're speechless. "I'm sorry if my sarcasm felt dismissive." You add in.

"Apology accepted." He smiles that quiet Shoto smile once again. "I'd be interested in your approach to...um...hands on learning. But..."

"You do have a nice butt."

He ignores your quip.

"But I think it's important that you know that I...well. I've never been with anyone before. Physically. Romantically."

"Ah. I see." This is a crazy bomb he's dropping on you - Shoto is the envy of the college. Classmates regularly throw themselves at him, flirt with him, try to get him to take them home. He's so effortlessly gorgeous, he could probably have his pick of the school. You're surprised that he hasn't already plowed through half of your year.

"That's alright. It won't be hard to catch you up on the basics." You say confidently, moving past the massive update that your best friend is a virgin. Untouched by wanton co-ed hands.

"I'm fine to start now if you are." Shoto says patiently, sliding his legs out from under the comforter. "What's step one?"

Oh. Someone's eager. There's no way you could have anticipated this chain of events when you casually burst through Shoto's dorm door just twenty minutes earlier. Your brain is reeling at the suddenly sensual situation you've gotten yourself into. Meanwhile, your pussy is pulsing and conveying something along the lines of: Mm Mama like.

"Well...there's kissing to start. I think you'd want to master that before raw dogging me with your magnum dong."

"I don't understand half of the words you just said." Shoto says, a tinge of upset in his voice. "Am I missing key hookup vocab here?"

"Ha. Ha." You say as you roll your eyes. "Raw dogging means fuckin' without a condom. A magnum is a type of condom. Your dong is...well, it's your dick."

"I knew that last part." Shoto says in a surprisingly cheeky voice, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and scootches over next to you so that your legs are touching.

"Well you said you needed education on the basics - I'm covering my bases here! Did you also know the term "lay pipe." That's another way to say you're gonna fuck someone good." Oh, shit. You're nervous. You're nervous and babbling. You must seem like a sex-crazed raving idiot right now.

Shoto's brow furrows. "So if I say 'I'm going to lay pipe on you,' that refers to...sex?"

"Um. No you'd more say it like 'I can lay pipe all night long.' Like the pipe is your dick."

"I see." Shoto says, with the tone of someone who really isn't seeing. "And this is related to kissing because...?"

"Forget all that." You say, waving away the conversation with your hands. "Are you telling me you've never kissed anyone before!?"

"I told you I didn't have experience."

"I know, but...you know what, never mind. Let's just get to it." You turn to him and steel your nerves. He's looking at you with eyes so wide, so open. You're screaming in your mind at the thought of giving Shoto Todoroki his first ever smooch.

You lean forward, eyes focused on his perfectly soft cupid's bow. You keep the kiss light, sweet and chaste. His mouth is soft, unsure. You press your lips against his briefly, letting the plush of your mouth press into his own in a way that's best described as polite. It's his first kiss, after all. You don't want to go shoving your tongue down his throat for his first little smoochy experience.

You pull apart after only a moment of your mouth on his. Your face feels hot, your body excited. You want to keep going, you need to keep going.

You pull back and look up at his face. He's...well, there's not another way to say this, he's glowing. The guy is radiating happiness the likes of which you've never seen on him. His mouth has broken into a big, goofy grin that you didn't think his face was capable of making. His eyes are fuckin' sparkling.

Shoto Todoroki just kissed a girl and he liked it.

"Wow." He says, bringing his fingers to touch his lips. His face red, lashes thick over his eyes. "Is it like that every time?"

"Not always. But sometimes it's really good, yeah." You say as your own heart beats double time. "I'd say you have potential to be a really good kisser. But I'd need to collect more data."

"Maybe we should...do it again?" He asks, still grinning as his eyes openly stare at your lips.

"Yeah." You say breathlessly, leaning up for another kiss. "We can do this as many times as you want, Sho."

You press your lips against his again and again and again.

The two of you don't stop kissing until the light of dawn breaks through the crack in Shoto's black out curtains. Your lips are swollen, his hair is a dreadful mess.

"Better than reading Fifty Shades of Grey?" You ask him slyly, your right hand drifting up to fix his collar.

"Oh yeah." He breathes, face still flushed, eyes a little glassy. "This is the best research project I've ever taken on by far."

"And this is only our first night of research." You say, giggling. "Shoto...you're in for a wild ride."

[alvie-pines]

okay, i really don't think you understand what i'm saying here. yes, its nasty and awful and straight up WRONG to believe that being assaulted by a gay man makes someone gay. but its still something people believe, and those people write stories.

its not about whether its something that really happens in real life; its about how its portrayed in the story.

what im getting at here is that to me, the elements of ONS as a story advance a homophobic narrative. whether that's intentional on the part of the author or not, i don't really care. but the point is that this narrative exists in ONS, and its a homophobic narrative. even if kagami is just lifting tropes and themes from other vampire works without understanding them, the tropes and themes are still there and still say something. they're not right and they don't reflect reality. but many stories don't. a story is always told through the lens of the author's beliefs.

i also agree that its not fair to portray a traumatized 16 year old as predatory. but that has no bearing on whether it happens. and again, this could be totally unintentional on kagami's part. like i said, the queer-coded vampire trope is rife with homophobic subtext, which can easily be imported to a work without the author realizing what they're implying.

as for queer coded vampires... what don't you agree with? the idea that the queer-coded vampire has historically been a homophobic representation (albeit one that many of us, myself included, choose to reclaim)?

i can speak pretty authoritatively on dracula, since its a special interest of mine. i've been obsessed with it since high school and have like three copies of the book. while i believe it highly likely that bram stoker was attracted to men, i also believe he was battling a lot of internalized AND external homophobia at the time, and those homophobic ideas are deeply baked into the book. the queer subtext between jonathan and dracula is steeped in fear, coercion, the fracturing of a heterosexual marriage, and unholiness. however... it also contains tenderness, protection, and a stark moment of humanity for dracula. indeed, the only moment he feels human is when he looks to jonathan and says "i, too, can love". with the context that stoker was friends with oscar wilde, and dracula was published soon after oscar wilde's extremely public trials for homosexuality, it is clear to me that stoker was negotiating the public's truth—homosexuality as predatory—with his own truth, which may have contained more softness, yearning, and desire. yet, it is the narrative of the predatory homosexual [vampire] that dominates the book. i find this very sad, and i dearly hope that stoker came to accept whatever it was that he was feeling before he died.

i have not read carmilla, but it is my understanding that she is not a positive portrayal of lesbianism. she is a predatory antagonist whom the reader is not meant to sympathize with (though of course, many in the modern day do, just by virtue of her sexuality which we now understand as marginalized).

it is pretty clear to me that historical portrayals of vampirism, while perhaps containing shuttered queer desire, ultimately depict an unfavorable view of queer sexuality. i think its very important to acknowledge this when writing any serious text about queer or queer-coded vampires.

see if i actually do a serious analysis of ONS, the only conclusion i can come to is that its wildly homophobic. i personally believe that yeah, mikayuu is canon, but only in the sense that mika is meant to be a "temptation" that yuu must ultimately resist...

i mean. its the vampirism-as-homosexuality. its the implication--nay, outright fact--that mika is inappropriately obsessed with yuu because of the vampires' abuses of him as a child, including both sexual abuse and conversion to homosexuality vampirism. its mika inheriting the vampires' tendency to inappropriately obsess, in this context a metaphor for inheriting predatory homosexual tendencies. its the framing of mika and shinoa as competing love interests. its yuu's desire to "save" mika and mika's desire to "have" yuu.

either that or the author is stupid. like catastrophically so, and did this by accident (???)

[rackartyg]

hmm i don't think the nuances of astarion's reaction to araj is to do with him finding romanticisation of his vampirism specifically to be distasteful so much as, like, she's objectifying him and that's what he doesn't like (but instead of sex, it's based on his vampirism). something something there's a difference between strangers and someone you trust something

[dxxtruction]

Louis' "You're boring!" Could mean so many things, but I think what's most apparent about that line is that Armand takes no initiative just for himself. He's not really anybody, because he never goes out and finds himself or gets attached to anyone but Louis. Without Louis as his guide he's literally just sitting on a couch picking lint! That's the thing.

He orbits constantly around what would make Louis happy, and never really fully going what would make me happy? Ultimately that drive to please Louis is what drives him to torturing Daniel, not so much that he'd care to just do it. Ultimately, not giving proper care to Louis is just a way to make sure Louis knows he has to orbit around him as well, with shoving Lestat onto him just that other nail on the coffin. So, even if he fails to figure out how to make Louis happy with him, he still knows what Armand is good for, and better than.

That dependency is what drives Armand's abuse. It really just comes down to that. Armand doesn't even realize how suffocated he is by his own dependency. This is just how life is to him. (It shouldn't be lost either that dependency is a theme considering this episode also deals with addiction).

Daniel's fascinating because he's just so driven to be somebody. He's largely independent, he seeks things because he wants them. It's his drug to poke and prod at all the things that he shouldn't. Daniel's exciting because he lets Louis in to something different, lets him in to all this potential in another person that he can also do the same with for himself. It's a real connection. A two way street. It's easy to tell how Armand can be smothering then because he's never introducing him to anything really new, and most the ways both of them connect are all painful and traumatic. It's never just fun because there's always that layer of that pain. Fun died with Claudia.

50 years on they've gotten to a lot better place, both of them, but it's still that same shit. No seriously, "How is this any different from last time, Louis?"

Well... Because Armand's going to be, at the very least, making one [1] decision only for himself - and that's to hold power over Daniel's life. Fucking sick foreshadowing.

They aren't driving each other to the brink anymore but "The vampire is bored" STILL. Maybe it's even worse, despite being in better places, because Louis' sort of just been defeated by it. (I mean, can he even really leave this either?). He's accepting the dependancy cause he kind of has to. He'd literally ended up letting all the enjoyment be up where he can't reach [The book shelves]. Armand so desperately wants Louis happiness but what really ends up happening is that Louis ends up having to give Armand all his own. He's got no one or anything else to get it from. But like an iPad and an over the top eating ritual. Two extremes of what's just more lint picking.

This whole relationship is one I find just tragic inside and out. You have to just pity it, really. There's ways in which you can find yourself feeling bad for both of them. But you can only really be mad at Armand for any of it. Armand, who isn't even 'free' in any sense, having so little concept of his own independence, but is at the same time so controlling over other's. It's a tragic cycle. It's an infuriating one.

Louis at least has the mind to know when enough is enough. If just needing that extra push to get there. Armand's too scared of it being over to even try.

[autistic-echo]

do yall like vampires

here's my emo ass Altmer/Maormer vampire OC fourth era design

lore dump + close ups under the cut

Ecis and his sister Aestle were raised on Summerset which was. Not Fun because hes half Maormer, and his sister is half Bosmer. Their mom was weird and found thrill in having relationships or one night stands with non Altmer races, the more "forbidden" the more fun it was, which eventually resulted in Aestle, and later Ecis. She doesn't really stop to think how this is going to impact her mixed children, and was not only neglectful of them, but did very little to protect her children from Altmer prejudices.

So from a very young age Ecis realized he'd have to be the one that protected himself and his sister, which resulted in him being dubbed the "problem child". He was very angry at the world for the way he and his sister were treated during their childhood, even more so at their mother for her neglect, and his cynical view of the world and his assumption that no one will ever accept him only grew over the years. He ends up falling into less savory crowds and learning necromancy, and eventually swept into the Worm Cult. He doesn't even really question what they're really trying to achieve until Aestle ends up getting kidnapped and put in the line of sacrifices.

With that as a wake up call, he immediately helps his sister escape, and a faulty and sabotaged portal winds up with Aestle falling into the sea near Khenarthi's Roost, and Ecis stranded in Coldharbour. While there hes infected with Vampirism, which is technically the only reason he survives the several months he spends there.

Ecis is reunited with Aestle several months later when she joins the Mages and Fighters Guilds assault on Coldharbour, They meet my other ESO era OCs, Reedys [Ebonheart Pact] and Daridres [Daggerfall Covenant, Vestige] and all are instrumental in the success of the Coldharbour assault.

Even in his aid to the success of the Coldharbour Assault, Ecis still feels he needs to do more to deserve redemption, and so Daridres tells him to seek out House Ravenwatch. Joins up and eventually decides to abandon his family names (that he honestly barely used anyways) and take the name of Ravenwatch.

he ends up outliving his sister and closest friends but lets ignore that for now. Hes also connected to several different OCs throughout the 3rd and 4th era but thats a whole other can of worms. If youve read this far thank u so much for reading ur so cool :3

[lmaster37]

hmmmm "i will" by mitski as a loumand song.... armand both pre- and post-SF trying to convince himself he's doing the right thing, he's doing this for louis, he's doing this for them......

armand who considers himself fundamentally unlovable outside of his utility to a partner...... for whom love and servitude and ownership and debt are all mixed up in ways informed by centuries of abuse

who is applying what little he has received in the way of love (both real and perceived) to his current relationships, but who has never felt loved without being owned, who has never once even considered that Respecting Boundaries is an important part of loving somebody, who is used to his lover being his owner being his maker being his god, and who applies all that to his relationship with louis because it's the first time he is suddenly in the dominant position in a relationship and he is Not equipped to handle that in any way even approaching a healthy relationship

"i will see your body bare and still i will live here" considering that the highest form of devotion because surely only somebody who truly loves him could stomach to see him undone, to see him brought low, even if they were the one to undo him. is it not the most honest expression of his adoration for louis to see him brought low and rebuild him ?

"and all the quiet nights you bear, seal them up with care / no one needs to know they're there, for i will hold them for you" armand who is intimately familiar with the ways that memory can hurt you, who is desperately trying to pretend that forgetting is the same as moving on, who is taking on all the burden of this relationship and still louis is so ungrateful, how dare he accuse armand of doing this for his own benefit when it was all for louis, when armand has stayed awake a thousand days to soothe his nightmares, smooth over the edges of every hurtful recollection, when armand bears louis's traumas for him, how dare he—

"there's no need to be brave / while you sleep, i'll be scared / so by the time you wake, i'll be brave" armand who is building up an increasingly fragile house of cards, who is layering lies and adjustments and changes and more lies over each other, knowing that it's not sustainable, knowing that with every passing day it becomes harder to tell the truth, knowing that this will collapse eventually and the fallout is only growing. and then louis wakes up and everything is fine, darling, don't you even worry about it

(can you tell him that i'm so normal about him)

[hanzajesthanza]

should i change my headcanons based upon “i saw it in a dream”

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I absolutely love the recs you've given (you've introduced me to tomione, and I love it!) and I was wondering if it's possible to give you some recs in return? There are some books and fics that definitely have dramione / got vibes, and I was wondering if I could share them with you!

So glad you've enjoyed them! Feel free to rec me anything you want. I've read most of the classic recs in terms of fic and adjacent content (Cruel Prince et al), but I'll try anything that's well-written. My tastes run towards weird and/or audaciously creative stuff, and I can forgive a lot of weaknesses in plot on the grounds of (1) ambition or (2) character work. My turnoffs are instalove, protagonists who can't fail, and most Y/A (I'm not a hater, I swear, I just need characters who can say "fuck" when their leg gets chopped off.)

I'm also a fan of weird and fucked-up dynamics.(Wuthering Heights was my favorite book for a while, and as a teenager I wrote an AU in which the book ends on a long sex scene where Heathcliff fucks Cathy's ghost and then immediately gets murdered by Catherine 2.) Obviously, I am very normal.

[camellcat]

it confuses me when people say they like willow or xander and then get all uncomfortable and condemning about, like... major parts about them. you don't like that they're wildly possessive of which often leads them to acting irrational and awful...... which is like one of their biggest traits? oh, and you hate that they're not fantastic friends to buffy............. which is also like. how they are. pretty much the entire time we know them. okay!

wow, you find xander to be annoying bc he's a dumb dude who seriously needs to unlearn some ideals and really outta treat his girlfriends nicer. I'm dismayed at his typical guy-ness. bummer, we don't enjoy that willow is like totally abusive when it comes to exerting whatever power can get over people. that sure is a bad thing she does.

I just. I like them BECAUSE of these things idk how the hell you could possibly separate these things from them and still enjoy these characters it boggles my mind

[pynkhues]

There is soooo much in this beat, from the literal lampshading going on between the lamp and Lestat's tie being the same colour (incredible mise en scene), to Louis trying to downplay the fact that he went to an opera and enjoyed it, to Lestat's look of betrayal at that downplaying, to Paul immediately seeing that as leverage around Louis' sexuality and Louis and Lestat's relationship, and just !! Mess! I love it!

[imitor]

did someone say vanitas in castlevania

[jaggedjot]

Though it is all said in good humour, there is a subtle distinction between the way that Louis takes a moment to compliment the artistry involved in the theatre (“The effect was wondrous.”) before he grumbles about its subject matter (“They were weird! And always ended in death or some kind of cruel, barely motivated violence.”), and the manner in which Armand scoffs at the concept of Louis being interested in photography (“Vampires with hobbies! Insanity!”), dismissing it as a human foible (“It's a human perspective of time.”) that Louis has since outgrown.

[papercutsunset]

Worldbuilding Wednesday! What are the stages that take you through visualizing the world of your story?

so, since most of what i write takes place in Lake Wonder these days, or in a version of earth that's very much like our own, i usually end up asking myself one of two things to start:

if it's in lake wonder, does the thing i want to include make sense in the canon of the universe? (i.e., does it conflict with our known cosmology? is there a way this can work within the set and established rules of how the world works?)

if it's not in lake wonder, how does the thing i want to include make sense within the context of the story i want to tell? how does this contribute to the plot while keeping the story grounded?

in the case of 1, things are pretty easy for me. i collect things nigh religiously (the same way i collect facts about bones and facts about my local cemetery, honestly) and that means i can (1) figure out whether i can slot that in neatly (as is the case with establishing the realmar hemiplane and resurrecting bloodsaw-- a massive undertaking that has worked really well so far) or (2) figure out whether or not i have to slightly-retcon it into existence (such as with ghost rules, which get tweaked every so often-- tammy formerly having been a ghost allows her to see ghosts now, when that wasn't necessarily on the table before, but there wasn't really a rule against it? it just makes things more complicated and could potentially go against previous canon).

in the case of 2, it's way simpler in theory, but im intimidated by too many unknowns (because, uh... there's something wrong with me. it's the same thing making me way too aware of my toe seam. in fact, i have to take off my sock. it's that or my face. one second). it's easier to write out notes about what i want to exist in the world in broad strokes, figure out more details as i write, and then cement them in subsequent drafts. i remember that being true about Impish and the way the demons worked; and that was for sure true about APU9, which i never actually finished (the building they all lived in was an addition to like... draft 3, i think?).

fun stuff. unfortunately, i have brain worms, so lake wonder shit is easier for me.

[huginsmemory]

My focus is shit in my astronomy lab section when we're going through the PowerPoint because my ta is after a second glance clearly into vamp play and I'm totally not distracted by how his canines are like. Actually rather sharp. 👀😳

[cream-and-tea]

how do werewolves work in lmd (plus anything else like that)

OK SO.

(this got very very long)

(just as a warning)

(also i’m going to tag @transmasc-wizard bc i remember you asked about this a while ago and a lot of this response comes from what i had typed up to respond to YOU lol)

(okay here we go)

there are (putting it very very basically) two main kinds of magic in the Ghost Story Universe: mortem (Death Juice) and vita (Life Juice). they draw from the same source (God Juice) (which is also the source of the apocalypse but that’s another post entirely) and are kind of different aspects of one thing, but still act as opposing forces. equals and opposites, can’t have one without the other, etc etc. the point is that even though they’re two different types of magic they share the same set of rules and operate under the same basic facts. one of the most basic being that magic is physically taxing to use. no magic comes without a cost

so this is pretty straightforward. and generally it isn’t anything too debilitating, but the more powerful the magic and the more magic used, the more damaging the physical effects become (for example: early on agnes’s chitchats with the ghosts she sees don’t really wear on her because it’s a very passive form of her power, but as the plot progresses and she actively draws on it more and more she starts to develop chronic headaches). the more active magic bullshit you do in succession —> the worse you’ll be feeling the next morning. people would usually need to rest for upwards of a few days after performing a major act of magic and the reason The Library focuses so much on endurance and repetition is to prevent that from happening. it’s to the point that some majorly powerful stuff is possible but the benefit of it is almost completely outweighed by the potential damage it would cause.

rambly worbuilding aside, this is really just a preface so it makes sense when i say: vampires and werewolves are what happen when people push their magic to far.

they’re basically the most extreme end of the spectrum for either kind of magic. vamps are a result of overusing vita (blood life stuff), and wolfs are a result of overusing mortem (spooky death stuff). this happens to people when they’re drawing on so much magic that their body literally cannot support it anymore and starts canabilizing itself in order to support the magic and prevent the person from just. coming apart at the seams. a Regular Person body is just incapable of handling that amount of power, so in turn they have to draw their sustenance from a different non-human source. the comparatively small piece-of-magic-apocalypse-juice in them mutates and co-opts the functions of their body in order to save that body from collapse. both vamps and wolves have to feed CONSTANTLY or they risk their bodies giving in and all their organs straight-up failing. it’s a slow transformation process and sort of representative of how much Whatever Caused The Apocalypse has become so deeply ingrained in every part of the new world. again: it presents differently but it’s all the same stuff in the end.

the world is full of monsters and weirdness and general spooky bullshit but vampires and werewolves especially have an ENORMOUS amount of stigma surrounding them because of the fact that most people still see regular magic users as recognizably human, and view the transformation as a transition from Human Person With Emotions Who I Should View As Such Despite This One Weird Thing to Inhuman Monster. most magical creatures aren’t seen as sentient in nature and many of them are actively dangerous to humans, so if someone pushes their abilities to far and ends up undergoing the transformation then it’s seen as a shift from being one of Us (normal people just trying to survive this crazy broken down to world) to being one of Them (unnatural monsters that came about as a result of the evil forest and apocalypse and want to destroy humanity), except that obviously the people who are turned are the same people they were before, just with an extra set of challenges and probably more bloodlust (which i can see being a bit of concern but c’mon. are u really going to let a little killer instinct get in the way of a lasting and meaningful relationship. weak).

They’re also used as an excuse when it comes to hatred of people born with magic at all. bc sure it SEEMS harmless when you kid is learning from their dead grandma or healing a little bit faster than normal, but with ONE WRONG MOVE they could become A VISCOUS BEAST or a BLOODSUCKING MONSTER and do you really want to take that risk?? wouldn’t it be better to stamp that out now before someone gets hurt??? even in places like The Library, which usually serves as a safe-haven for people born w magic, vamps and wolfs are seen as somehow Lesser. The Library toutes them as cautionary tales and failures of magic, basically a warning of what not to do to their students.

to get into the more specific abilities and effects and What Being A Vampire Or Werewolf Means i’ve made some handy little lists (ft. calliope and luca macnamara, a book 2-3 character that nobody knows about lol) (please click tumblr absolutely wrecked the quality):

so. yeah.