Blackwood Farm: Chapter 13
Feb. 22nd, 2016 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratI'm working twice as many hours at work now, but somehow I got a hankering to return to Blackwood Farm nonetheless today, and do a quick summary. Not so snarky, but then, there wasn't much to snark in this particuliar chapter.
More importantly, I have new rats! I wanted to get rats from someone who needed to rehome them, or get them from a rescue, but nothing came up, so I broke down and bought three boys from the pet store this Saturday.
On Sunday, I got a message from a friend on Facebook saying they knew someone who needed to rehome their rat.
SERIOUSLY
THE DAY AFTER
I said yes, of course. And it's a girl so she'll need a friend, she can't live with the boys! So it'll be five rats. Five rats and...an unknown number of mice, because the store only sells male small animals to avoid accidental breeding, and while I was talking to the salesgirl (who also liked rats!) I was like oh that mouse is so pretty and she was like yeah the gold and I was like I love mice but ugh the boys stink so bad
and she said they got a girl by mistake and she’s in the back and of course she was super pregnant but she’s had her babies and they’re almost ready to be weaned so if I come back on Friday I can have her plus any females in the litter FUCK YES
And I don't remember if I got him before or after my last update so, just in case you didn't know...after Boz passed, I got Mac, a hamster of the same breed who is EVEN ANGRIER OMFG
CHAPTER 13
Quinn writes a letter to whoever is squatting in the Hermitage that his family owns this house and they are to leave. I think this is rather ridiculous given that no one used that house, or believe it existed, for decades, and Quinn only just rediscovered it yet doesn't want anyone on it because HIS PROPERTY. For all he knows it's some poor homeless person, good lord. And he's so determined they not live there, he makes the pirogue journey all the way back to the island. Along the way, he hears Rebecca crying and screaming, begging someone to let her go, begging them not to do it, that they said they'd go to Naples...guess it must be Manfred, he promised her Naples.
He gets to the island, pokes around a bit from the mausoleum from last time, sees that it depicts the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii, and can make out the words for "sleep" and "death" as well as the name Petronia. Spoiler, Petronia is the reason I am reading this book. She is a vampire, is the one who turns Quinn, and doesn't show up till the end of the book, alas.
Jasmine packed a cooler for him to take for lunch, and he's shocked when he opens it to find she included a 6-pack of beer. This makes Quinn, who was "feeling an awareness of her as a woman" before he left wonder aloud if a boy of 18 can find love with a woman of 35. This wouldn't seem too silly to me for a teen boy to think about just because a woman gave him some beer, except that this is in a house where he's just taken photos of human remains. I don't think that's what would be on his mind. Also pff, love? Keep in mind, he is her EMPLOYER and last chapter he was PRESSURING HER FOR SEX WHILE CALLING HER "MILK CHOCOLATE" OK like I guess maybe from his point of view that's love (I'm sure plenty of men like him think their victims "love" them) but god I hope against hope it won't be written as being such in truth.
He hears Rebecca sobbing again, so he goes into the house and back into the room where he found the chains and the gross moldering remains of bones and hair. He takes photographs, and then he experiences BEING Rebecca, and how she was hung up from one of those chains by a hook through her chest/ribs by two people, one of whom could be Manfred.
Then the ghost of Rebecca appeared, and she's so happy he came and "didn't let me down" and they have sex. She asks him to tell the world what happened to her and to "be my vengeance" as well. He asks what he can do, since he assumes the people who hurt her are dead, and asks what he can do to ease her spirit. She "looked urgent" but doesn't tell him. He asks if Manfred was one of the two people who did it, she doesn't say anything. He explains to her that "you're gone too" but she says no she's not, she's always here.
Between Jasmine and Rebecca versus Lestat, his tutor, etc., I notice that Quinn's romantic/sexual interactions with women are very sexual, whereas his ones with men are more about gushing over them in his head. He seems to respect men a lot more and have more affection for them. He just fucks women.
Rebecca goes away and Quinn falls asleep. It's night when he wakes up and he's furious with himself for having been "tricked by her" because he knew "the evil thing that she was." Ok, I know she tried to burn the manor down but like...given what Manfred did to her, I get it. I mean, she's a ghost. A lot of ghosts in media are sort of...static, in their vengeance. Like trying to kill their murderer decades after he's dead.
Quinn's piss-terrified to be in this place at night so he runs down to the island's edge where he's tied his pirogue. Goblin is waiting there for him and he points into the distance. He's pointing at a man in a pirogue out in the swamp, who dumps a body into the water. Despite him being at a distance, Quinn can tell he does this "with inconceivable dexterity and strength." The "he" pronouns are used by Quinn too, though at this distance I also don't see how he's so sure it's a man...or so sure what it is he's dumping overboard. But according to Quinn, it's a body, and he dumps a second one to boot. Then he laughs.
I know this is supposed to be scary, but the guy LAUGHING turned it ridiculous to me. It's just trying too hard. No one actually cackles while disposing of bodies out in the night alone.
Goblin leads Quinn out of the dark swamp, he gets home to find the entire place in uproar over him being out so late, even the sheriff and his deputy (who is named "Ugly Henderson") are there and all the Shed Men are like OMG HE'S OK
this is an 18 year old boy who stayed out late
and by late I mean that "it was only nine o'clock by my watch"
good fucking lord is this supposed to be OTT ridiculous or does Anne Rice think this is normal?
Quinn's reaction to the fuss, by the way? "Immediately I fired off at Jasmine, "How come you put beer in the cooler!"
Quinn is not a believable teenager. Even a creepy sheltered stunted one.
He orders the Shed Men to get his pictures developed at the all night drug store, and tells everyone, including the Sherriff, to stay and listen to what he has to say. He then realizes Goblin isn't there and asks, in the crowded kitchen, which will totally make him look sane and credible to the police, where Goblin is as Big Ramona gives him a wet washrag. Quinn realizes that after all Goblin had done, which I guess means the effort of staying visible long enough to lead him out of the swamp, that he no longer has the power to make Quinn see or feel him.
"And so mercifully, and gratefully, and with a new respect for him, and a new love, I let him alone."
...Quinn may be grateful, but personally, I wish Goblin had left him in the swamp.
More importantly, I have new rats! I wanted to get rats from someone who needed to rehome them, or get them from a rescue, but nothing came up, so I broke down and bought three boys from the pet store this Saturday.
On Sunday, I got a message from a friend on Facebook saying they knew someone who needed to rehome their rat.
SERIOUSLY
THE DAY AFTER
I said yes, of course. And it's a girl so she'll need a friend, she can't live with the boys! So it'll be five rats. Five rats and...an unknown number of mice, because the store only sells male small animals to avoid accidental breeding, and while I was talking to the salesgirl (who also liked rats!) I was like oh that mouse is so pretty and she was like yeah the gold and I was like I love mice but ugh the boys stink so bad
and she said they got a girl by mistake and she’s in the back and of course she was super pregnant but she’s had her babies and they’re almost ready to be weaned so if I come back on Friday I can have her plus any females in the litter FUCK YES
And I don't remember if I got him before or after my last update so, just in case you didn't know...after Boz passed, I got Mac, a hamster of the same breed who is EVEN ANGRIER OMFG
CHAPTER 13
Quinn writes a letter to whoever is squatting in the Hermitage that his family owns this house and they are to leave. I think this is rather ridiculous given that no one used that house, or believe it existed, for decades, and Quinn only just rediscovered it yet doesn't want anyone on it because HIS PROPERTY. For all he knows it's some poor homeless person, good lord. And he's so determined they not live there, he makes the pirogue journey all the way back to the island. Along the way, he hears Rebecca crying and screaming, begging someone to let her go, begging them not to do it, that they said they'd go to Naples...guess it must be Manfred, he promised her Naples.
He gets to the island, pokes around a bit from the mausoleum from last time, sees that it depicts the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii, and can make out the words for "sleep" and "death" as well as the name Petronia. Spoiler, Petronia is the reason I am reading this book. She is a vampire, is the one who turns Quinn, and doesn't show up till the end of the book, alas.
Jasmine packed a cooler for him to take for lunch, and he's shocked when he opens it to find she included a 6-pack of beer. This makes Quinn, who was "feeling an awareness of her as a woman" before he left wonder aloud if a boy of 18 can find love with a woman of 35. This wouldn't seem too silly to me for a teen boy to think about just because a woman gave him some beer, except that this is in a house where he's just taken photos of human remains. I don't think that's what would be on his mind. Also pff, love? Keep in mind, he is her EMPLOYER and last chapter he was PRESSURING HER FOR SEX WHILE CALLING HER "MILK CHOCOLATE" OK like I guess maybe from his point of view that's love (I'm sure plenty of men like him think their victims "love" them) but god I hope against hope it won't be written as being such in truth.
He hears Rebecca sobbing again, so he goes into the house and back into the room where he found the chains and the gross moldering remains of bones and hair. He takes photographs, and then he experiences BEING Rebecca, and how she was hung up from one of those chains by a hook through her chest/ribs by two people, one of whom could be Manfred.
Then the ghost of Rebecca appeared, and she's so happy he came and "didn't let me down" and they have sex. She asks him to tell the world what happened to her and to "be my vengeance" as well. He asks what he can do, since he assumes the people who hurt her are dead, and asks what he can do to ease her spirit. She "looked urgent" but doesn't tell him. He asks if Manfred was one of the two people who did it, she doesn't say anything. He explains to her that "you're gone too" but she says no she's not, she's always here.
Between Jasmine and Rebecca versus Lestat, his tutor, etc., I notice that Quinn's romantic/sexual interactions with women are very sexual, whereas his ones with men are more about gushing over them in his head. He seems to respect men a lot more and have more affection for them. He just fucks women.
Rebecca goes away and Quinn falls asleep. It's night when he wakes up and he's furious with himself for having been "tricked by her" because he knew "the evil thing that she was." Ok, I know she tried to burn the manor down but like...given what Manfred did to her, I get it. I mean, she's a ghost. A lot of ghosts in media are sort of...static, in their vengeance. Like trying to kill their murderer decades after he's dead.
Quinn's piss-terrified to be in this place at night so he runs down to the island's edge where he's tied his pirogue. Goblin is waiting there for him and he points into the distance. He's pointing at a man in a pirogue out in the swamp, who dumps a body into the water. Despite him being at a distance, Quinn can tell he does this "with inconceivable dexterity and strength." The "he" pronouns are used by Quinn too, though at this distance I also don't see how he's so sure it's a man...or so sure what it is he's dumping overboard. But according to Quinn, it's a body, and he dumps a second one to boot. Then he laughs.
I know this is supposed to be scary, but the guy LAUGHING turned it ridiculous to me. It's just trying too hard. No one actually cackles while disposing of bodies out in the night alone.
Goblin leads Quinn out of the dark swamp, he gets home to find the entire place in uproar over him being out so late, even the sheriff and his deputy (who is named "Ugly Henderson") are there and all the Shed Men are like OMG HE'S OK
this is an 18 year old boy who stayed out late
and by late I mean that "it was only nine o'clock by my watch"
good fucking lord is this supposed to be OTT ridiculous or does Anne Rice think this is normal?
Quinn's reaction to the fuss, by the way? "Immediately I fired off at Jasmine, "How come you put beer in the cooler!"
Quinn is not a believable teenager. Even a creepy sheltered stunted one.
He orders the Shed Men to get his pictures developed at the all night drug store, and tells everyone, including the Sherriff, to stay and listen to what he has to say. He then realizes Goblin isn't there and asks, in the crowded kitchen, which will totally make him look sane and credible to the police, where Goblin is as Big Ramona gives him a wet washrag. Quinn realizes that after all Goblin had done, which I guess means the effort of staying visible long enough to lead him out of the swamp, that he no longer has the power to make Quinn see or feel him.
"And so mercifully, and gratefully, and with a new respect for him, and a new love, I let him alone."
...Quinn may be grateful, but personally, I wish Goblin had left him in the swamp.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-25 08:04 am (UTC)PRESSURING HER FOR SEX WHILE CALLING HER "MILK CHOCOLATE" OK
I FORGOT THAT. Rice can't think Quinn is good, can she? Except Lestat seems to like him, so... ugh.
Also freaking out over an 18-year old staying out until 9 PM. Um. Again, I would like to think Rice is showing how creepy weird this family is, but...
Quinn may be grateful, but personally, I wish Goblin had left him in the swamp.
And taken over his body. Then everyone starts wondering why Quinn wants to go to college, and what's with his treating the servants like they're people, and why doesn't he need constant cuddles any longer? And Goblin becomes an accountant while Quinn eternally wanders the cursed swamp whining. It's not like that would be a change for Quinn.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-25 04:06 pm (UTC)RIGHT?! I thought it must be sometime in the really early AM for the fuss being made and THE COPS BEING CALLED but it's....9 PM? The fuck? I can certainly see them being concerned if it was UNUSUAL for him, which it surely is since he doesn't live near any friends he could be with or anything, but...for real?
HAHA RIGHT? I've always loved the idea of a "spooky replacement" setup where it turns out everyone likes the spooky replacement better because THE ORIGINAL PERSON WAS SUCH A DOUCHE