#thaddeus vandernact

[nevermoreconfessions]

Hey there, buddy. I hope you're having a good day by the time you read this.

Okay, here's the thing, my brain occasionally chooses to remember little details that come back to haunt me and hit me in the skull like a fucking boomerang. And due to the last chapter of the free pass, I come to leave here the one that has bothered me the most lately for you to suffer with me.

Why on earth would Thaddeus want anyone to talk to Lenore and why would Ira consent to that?

No. Seriously. When Annabel tries to ask about Lenore, Thaddeus even denies having a daughter, why would he want to alleviate Lenore's loneliness by asking a young woman about her own age to visit her for company? On Ira's side, yes, the man wants Thaddeus to like him, but the guy seems like someone pretty obsessed with appearances, why would he want his precious daughter to be related to a potentially dangerous lunatic who is locked in the attic?

That makes me think the fact that they asked Annabel was a lie. But then, how did Annabel find out about Lenore? What were her intentions in wanting to meet her?

I have more. But this one has been eating me alive now that we had another flashback.

Oh, my favorite blog sent me a submission. Yes, buddy, we're suffering together. Have been for a little while, considering how I feel about the topic.

I think about Thaddeus and his actions quite a lot (when I'm reminded of his existence), actually, because he's an enigma. He's my version of a walking paradox.

Let's say he did contact Annabel Lee to be, as she had quoted, "A good influence for his hysterical daughter." He had done so with the knowledge that Annabel Lee was a temporary friend, that Lenore was forever going to be a spinster, and after that?

Nothing. No husband, no friends, no life outside of the Vandernact estate. Just a good, influenced "lady" in a house on her own.

Why?

One can only assume that in some sickening way, Thaddeus cared. He cared as much as a misogynistic Victorian man mourning his son, the only heir to the estate and wealth, can possibly be.

I can somewhat back this train of thought up with episode 65: he did seem shocked at the news of his daughter's possible death. That was the face of a man with fear in his heart. Then, after denying that he had a daughter in the first place, he looked...guilty. Truly and utterly guilty. For a moment, I pitied him.

Just for a single moment.

That then begs the question (isn't this a complicated topic?) — why did he then deny Lenore's existence?

Well, I have a theory or two.

1. He was not alone. There were servants in that room, and we all know that Thaddeus had intented to keep Lenore's existence a secret between himself and Annabel Lee.

2. Stay with me on this one, because its held together by bubblegum and a bent paperclip. Are we all aware of the stages of grief? First came the shock. We've seen that on Thaddeus's face. Then, there's denial.

Onto Ira.

Well, I can see this one. Annabel Lee did say that this was an arrangement made by their fathers — so, what did Ira, a man obsessed with appearances, get in return for his saught-after daughter to chill out with a mad woman?

I'm not sure if this has been noticed, but the Whitlocks are staying in the Vandernact's estate in New York for the social season. That's a pretty big favor.

There's no downside on Ira's side if all goes according to plan. Annabel Lee makes a friend with a girl whose existence is to be kept secret, all while Ira finally finds her a eligible husband in New York.

I suppose neither Thaddeus nor Ira considered the fact that their daughters might be achingly sapphic and fall for each other in the process, subsequently leading Lenore to burn an entire house to the ground for the slim chance of Annabel Lee's hand in marriage.

Isn't this a complicated situation?

[ghostselkie]

White raven Dracula au

So that first post I made about a White raven Dracula au was partly a joke, but then I started thinking about it more, and well this is the result of that brain worm.

Warning: this is a bit ramble-y.

Lenore is in the role of dracula, and annabel, at first, is in the roal of jonothan harker.

Lenore being a vampire is a secret that has been kept by the Vandernacht family for generations. Also they live in the Netherlands in this au.

Like in cannon the Vandernacts are ludicrously wealthy, and they using that money to help keep Lenore's vamp-ness a secret. Also cause vampire immortality, and a lack of male heirs when she was a human, she still has the money that existed when she was alive. Now Dutch families can be big, so only the main line knows about her.

As for why they keep her a secret, and not kill her for being an unholy creature of the night is because she is useful. She is probably at least a hundred years old at this point and has accumulated a vast amount of knowledge over the years, she knows more about the families wealth and how to handle it than anyone else. Also her vamp powers make getting info on competitors easier. They have a deal, as long as she does stuff to help them they wont murder her in her sleep.

Now this relationship has kind of soured in reascent years. There is no longer any one who remembers Lenore when she was alive, and no one who remembers hearing stories from people who knew her when she was alive. To the current Vandernachts she is a mysterious and potentially dangerous entity. So Thaddeus comes up with a convoluted plan to get rid of her.

He can't just reveal the secret, cause that would cause Lenore to retaliate. So he comes up with an idea for some one to discover Lenore, and say if they die, there would be enough rage to get people to investigate. This results in Thaddeus getting in contact with Ira, and therefore Annabel getting to stay at castle Lenore.

Now the intended result was that Annabel would either discover that Lenore was a vampire, or she would become one of her victims, as Lenore kind of has a taste for the blood of young women (she doesn't kill them though). What ends up happening is gay as fuck.

Lenore is not nearly as evil as book Dracula. She's more of a nuisance than any thing else, sucking just enough blood to satisfy her, but not leave the human with any lasting damage. She is unholy though, and therefore people are still scared of her, they just can't really do anything cause of the Vandernachts.

Now, Lenore has been a vampire for a long time now. There is no way she is still acting or dressing like a normal victorian woman. Shortly after she became a vampire she realized "wait, I'm an unholy creature of the night. I don't have to be straight," and started cutting her hair short and wearing pants. Current Lenore often wears things akin to her dreamland outfit now, or just men's clothing. So yeah, Annabel will defiantly be gay panicking over Lenore in her dreamland outfit.

It's going to start similar to Dracula, sans the racism (old stories are like that unfortunately), and the fear Jonathan Harker had felt in the original story with Annabel's horny. So this, isn't going to be a horror story, at least not from Annabel's perspective.

Now, as for why they fall in love with each other. For Annabel, the reasons are similar as in cannon. For Lenore though, the reasons are also similar, but with the add on that, Annabel is the first person who is not immediately scared of her, and who doesn't become scared of her once she sees all the spooky vampire shit.

Gayness ensues. The social season happens in the Netherlands, but Annabel and Lenore do stay in touch cause Lenore kinda had to act as her translator, since Annabel didn't end up learning much Dutch. So they get to be together, but Lenore has to watch Annabel meet with other suitors, all while their inevitable separation is looming. Unlike in cannon, however, they both know of a way to be together, but neither of them want to talk about it cause it would involve Annabel being turned in to a vampire. Annabel does end up going back to London to be engaged to her child hood friend, and Lenore, in good old Dracula fashion, fallows her home. Now this is when Annabel transitions from the role of Jonathan to Lucy, except the whole being turned in to a vampire is a lot more consensual.

Vampire lore for this au

[nevermoreconfessions]

I'm slightly obsessed with thaddeus' potential to be a character. I want to put him in a blender. I know he'll likely never be a main focus for rnf because he's only around in flashbacks, and obviously, rnf can't go into every little character's psyche. But I wanna see into his sad little shitty dad head for a minute. He obviously grieves for Theo, but does he feel sad about what he did to lenore? did he love her at all? I WANNA KNOWWWW

I hadn't put much thought into it until you appeared in my inbox, but you're right. He's got unspoken potential (great for fanfiction, if you ask me).

He cares as much as a Victorian man can, I guess... He grieves for Theo, but he turned to Annabel and said, "I don't have a daughter." He denies her existence.

However.

In some unconventional way, he cares. I truly believe he does, albeit in a shitty type of way. He enlisted Annabel to befriend Lenore, gave his daughter maids to care for her, and it looked the attic was... as nice as a prison can be, I guess?

Commenter, I might write a one-shot about Thaddeus's grief and complex emotions, thanks to you.