Blackwood Farm Chapter 38
Nov. 24th, 2017 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratI started this year with eight rats. I am now down to one. Despite countless vet visits and medications, these guys have just kept dropping dead on me. I don't plan to have rats again for some time, I just can't handle this heartbreak.
I have, however, come into some new mice. A woman at work who kept them to feed her snake tried to breed them herself, and it got out of control because she didn't know how to sex them or when the separate the males from females. So they kept having babies, and the babies had babies with each other and so on.
I've sent her some links on how to sex them and when to separate them, and she gave me four females. I might take more when the babies get older. Hopefully this will get the situation under control.
Also here is a neat link on the matters of perspective in Interview versus its sequel Lestat (I agree, I think the real reason for the change is Rice got attached to him)
http://morethanprinceofcats.tumblr.com/post/167327617844/rainbow-femme-my-favorite-part-of-the-vampire
Oh, and I'm sorry these updates take so long. I just have so little enthusiasm now than I did with the Anita sporks. But I'm determined to complete this thing. SO ON WE SLOG!
CHAPTER 38
Quinn wakes up in a house. He can tell by Mount Vesuvius in the distance it's on the coast of Italy. Two girls and a guy drug him, clean him up, shave him. The girls are mean, the guy is nice. The guy gets lots of description and a hint of backstory, the girls are simply called pretty and fashionable but apparently Petronia has been "teasing" them since they were children. Teasing how? Well, they're mad that they've been serving and waiting so long and now Petronia has chosen Quinn and how she keeps saying she'll do it for them but she doesn't and everything is a whim with her. They never actually SAY what they're talking about, but obviously they're talking about Petronia making them/Quinn into vampires. The guy has no such interest, or at least never expresses any, and instead simply gives Quinn sympathetic advice on how to survive and how Petronia will test him as she does all candidates. The girls also snicker about how they should kill Quinn and tell Petronia he died, but she would be angry, whereas the boy laments how there's a special place in Hell for all of them for how they assist Petronia with disposing bodies.
He then falls asleep from having been drugged again.
He wakes up on a couch surrounded by a golden cage. Seriously, a golden cage. Two people come in, dressed in black tuxes/dinner suits over glossy-looking white turtlenecks. One is a black guy. Literally black. Like, he looks like he's made of onyx. The other is an old man, but his flesh has a strangely waxy, firm look. Quinn is quite sure neither of these "creatures" is human.
I don't think it's ever explained why the black guy (we find out later his name is Arion) is black, but here's my guess. For those new to Rice lore, Akasha was the first vampire. She and her husband, Enkil, are called the Mother and Father, and are so old they have basically become sleeping statues, worshiped and tended to by other vampires. At one point they were put into the sun, which caused the Great Fire. They were fine, but other vampires around the world burst into flames and died. Those who survived suffered various degrees of injury, from which recovery was slow. I'm thinking maybe Arion was a victim of the great fire who charred and then healed in such a way that he now looks like polished onyx rather than white marble like the usual ancient vampire in Rice books.
Of course, this assumes he must have been a white guy to begin with, which I realize is a very iffy assumption, but we've never had an elder (as we find out Arion is) vampire in the Rice books who wasn't white, excluding Akasha, Enkil, and Khayman, who come from Ancient Egypt (though Akasha originally came for Uruk, actually) but they're so old they've become literally white.
So yeah, this is my best assumption. But for all I know, maybe black vampires who get super old turn literally black. I wouldn't put that past Rice, frankly.
Anyway, the old man thinks Quinn must be "the evil-doer in some guise" or Petronia wouldn't have him here, but Quinn professes his innocence. The still-unnamed-at-this-point black man believes Quinn is indeed innocent, saying Quinn has done no wrong to anyone, and that Petronia is being cruel for bloodsport, lamenting aloud to the absent Petronia "Why always the cruelty?" and why his "beautiful pupil" will never learn, that "she does as she pleases and it's never enough for her". Because he believes Quinn and praises him as innocent, he is a good guy, and therefore is good-looking despite not being to Anne Rice's usual standards of paleness; according to Quinn, he has kind, chiseled features. "Sublimely chiseled" in fact.
Quinn begs to be let go but alas, the black man, for all his sublime chiseled-ness, says he cannot. I guess Petronia is running the show. Good for her. Quinn complains about how he comes from somewhere where every life is precious and why isn't it the same for them?
Quinn realizes that the old man is none other than Manfred Blackwood. This realization causes him to exclaim that "You're demons, all of you. God, this is Hell." He then explains to Manfred, who has no idea who Quinn is, that he is Tarquinn Blackwood, who would be his descendent "if not for Julien Mayfair" and that Petronia took him from the Hermitage, and that Manfred's granddaughter Lorraine (Aunt Queen) is still alive to tear her hair out in grief for Quinn if he disappears and didn't Petronia tell you what she was up to?
Nope, she didn't.
Manfred goes into a "fury" and asks who told Quinn about Julien, to which Quinn says that Julien himself did since Quinn is a "seer of spirits". I feel like this is kinda low-priority at this point.
Petronia herself now comes in, wearing a black velvet tunic with matching pants and a belt of cameos. Manfred attacks her, trying to grab her by the throat, but she throws him into the wall with force that would kill a normal human. The black one embraces her and asks her "why always the rage?" He's a bit taller than Petronia; Quinn estimates him to be around Quinn's own height.
Manfred weeps that Petronia's "bond to me is worthless" but Petronia says she's kept her pledges to him by giving him immortality and wealth, that the boy is nothing but something sentimental to him "like the photographs you keep of your precious Virginia Lee and your son William and your daughter Camille"
Thank you, Petronia, for so awkwardly and inorganicly reminding us all specifically of who is who and their exact relation to Manfred, just in case we had forgotten at this point (admittedly a possibility, with all the NOTHING that's been dragging this book on and on since they were first mentioned). That sure didn't sound like unnaturally forced exposition at all! Especially not since Manfred and Quinn and you all know this already! Eh, maybe Manfred is just senile and forgets who these people are himself?
Anyway Petronia says they're nothing but dust, Manfred sobs more, and begs "Arion" to "Don't let her go on. Stop her." Petronia says he's a wretched miserable old man, old forever, that she despises him. Quinn asks Petronia if that's why she's doing this to him. She smiles at Quinn, and is "lovely" Arion, now named in the text at last, continues to stroke her hair, and Quinn says the way he is holding her is "loving" and that Arion seems to adore her. Also that her breasts are against Arion. Thanks for that, Quinn. Trust you to notice that detail at a time like this and relay it to us.
Petronia asks him "Don't you want to live forever, Quinn?" and slips out of Arion's embrace. She then unlocks the golden cage, yanks him out of it, and slams him against the bars. Manfred has taken a little picture out from his coat and looks at it "piteously" whilst whispering to himself "insanely". Quinn wonders if it's of Virginia Lee.
I notice no mention ever of Rebecca. I guess she was really only good as a sacrifice to Petronia, not a treasured memory. Maybe Petronia should have had him kill someone he actually loved instead, like William or Camille, then THAT would be a real sacrifice. If she's so cruel, I think that's what she should have gone with. Just me there.
Petronia asks if Quinn is prepared to fight for immortality, Quinn says not against a bully like her, she thinks that's rich for him to call her given what he had Goblin do to her, and Quinn makes the legitimate point that Goblin was protecting him. Petronia asks why he's not here now, Quinn says she knows he can't be here, and that he's no match for her on his own, that she plays an unfair game and always has.
Petronia calls him stubborn, and says his sin is pride. I agree with her, I just fail to see how it relates here.
Arion takes Quinn's face in his hands, with his "soft, silky thumbs against my cheeks", and says "Why don't you let him go? He's innocent."
I mean, I guess he is. He's a douchebag, but he's never really done anything TERRIBLE. Yet I can't bring myself to give a shit what happens to him. And it's not even because he's a douchebag; if he was an enjoyable douchebag, I might still root for him, or at least root for Petronia to do something awful for him, or SOMETHING. But as it is, he's just a bland douchebag that I don't have any investment in, not even negatively at this point.
Also: Becoming a vampire isn't even bad in the context of these books, not really. You may get some existential angst and all, but you are guaranteed the focus and spotlight, because the vampires are the main characters of these books, and all of Rice's favorites inevitably end up as such for that reason, often with the best and biggest powers even among vampirekind. Meta-wise, it's really a reward more than anything else. And not one I at all understand Petronia bestowing on Quinn. She clearly doesn't see it as a punishment but a reward, given how she talked earlier about wanting to rescue Quinn from death and all that, and how she spoke of giving immortality to Manfred as a positive thing she did for him, and she wants Quinn to earn it from her in a fight as a prize, and we learn later, from her backstory it was the best thing that ever happened to her... but then if it's a reward to her, why do it to Quinn of all people?
Nothing makes sense and I don't even care. Admittedly, I'm also in a shitty mood right now because of aforementioned rat problems, so that could be it.
Anyway, Petronia knocks him around, the men don't help, Arion just says this isn't how this should be done to which she replies we all choose our own way and "let me have what I need" and Arion asks why she needs it. They then lapse into Italian and Quinn gets the sense they're talking about "the passage of time and how she had once been different" and meanwhile Manfred is crying. Quinn tries to move, Petronia steps on his throat, he's on the couch, she bites him and drinks his blood. He feels some "intimacy" in this, as though his entire life is fleeing from him, not simply physically but as though she's actually sucking memories out (which, as readers of previous Ricean vampires will know, she is, as vampires see the past and personality of those they feed from )
He has an out of body experience, and sees the wonderful golden white light where Pops and Lynelle and Sweetheart all are, and he wants to join them but some "hideous fascination" with Petronia and Manfred and Arion won't let him, some "putrid ambition", and though "I had made no decision" the vision vanishes, and he returns to his aching bruised body on the marble floor.
Petronia says he is now dying, but she won't let that happen, now that she knows "Tarquin Blackwood" from his blood. Arion says to ask him what he wills, so Petronia does that. Quinn doesn't answer, and Petronia demands again, he tries to attack her, and "I struck at her private parts" and she's like oh so you want to see what they all laughed and "Come, pay me homage"
Long story short, she forces her cock in his mouth. It's erect, which is weird because if I recall correctly Ricean vampires are actually incapable of that, but it wouldn't shock me if Rice forgot her own lore at this point, especially for the sake of a rape scene with such a fetishized character.
He bites her cock, swallowing her "blood that was not blood" and from it he gets her life and memories.
Yes, he gets her memories from her penis blood. I'm not making this up.
She was born in Ancient Pompeii, her mother was an actress and her father was a gladiator under Caesar. "A freakish child, half male, half female, to be destroyed by ordinary parents, but kept by hers for the theatre" meaning that gladiator ring, in which she grew to be a gladiator of great strength. Before that, however, she was pimped out "a thousand times", presumably also by her parents, never knowing love or owning a scrap of clothing that wasn't for show.
While still a girl, she was so accomplished as a gladiator that her parents were able to sell her to a new master "for a fortune" and he made her fight against wild beasts but "even these could not defeat her". But she was tired of this life, of combat and lovelessness and misery, and though the crowd was her lover, it was not there in the dark of night when she slept chained to her bed.
Then Arion came, and paid to be with her as others had, but then bought her, given her money, and freed her. Not wanting to return to the gladiatorial ring nor become an independent prostitute ( at least I think that's what's meant by " was she to be pimp and whore at the same time") she tags along after him, weeping and loving him, and he at last takes her under his wing.
...I know he's framed as her savior here and all but I think it's pretty gross that before doing that, he still bought a night from her in which she had no say.
He brings her to Pompeii with him, where he has three shops that make cameos, hence how she learns this craft. She has a passion for it because she's no longer fighting to please the crowds, but to please Arion. She studies with the masters and after two years becomes one herself, impressing Arion immensely with her work.
Then came the eruption of Vesuvius. Arion sensed it before it happened and had fled the night before, leaving Petronia with the task of evacuating the slaves from the shops. Alas, only a few would listen to her. Which is...kinda odd? I mean, they're slaves, they can't say no, right? I know Roman slavery worked differently than the American form of chattel slavery that I'm most familiar with, but I feel like if the master's apprentice, on the master's orders, tells you to leave, you leave.
But they don't, and after the disaster, she weeps to him that she failed, but he says she saved his greatest treasure, which is herself, and in time he rewards her by making her a vampire.
"She let me go. My lips stroked her cock as I withdrew."
Yeah, there's no way Anne Rice didn't write this as a fetish scene.
Arion picks up the still-weak Quinn from the floor and offers Quinn his own blood. Quinn asks to wait, to let him savor what Petronia showed him of herself. Though he "meant it reverently" it enrages Petronia, who knocks him to the floor again and kicks him in the ribs. She calls him trash and says "You dare answer that way to the Master, and who are you to savor what you know of me!"
Arion tells her that's enough, picks Quinn up again, and once more offers his blood, saying it will give Quinn strength, that it is older than Petronia's and so Quinn won't be bound to her so much. Interesting, I didn't know that the blood of a vampire could bind another vampire in Ricean lore; reminds me of the Blood Bond in Vampire the Masquerade.
"I could have cried at her savagery. I had so loved her in the Blood, and I had been a fool for it, such a fool, but as he said now to drink" and Quinn "kissed" Arion's throat, presumably also biting him with his newfound fangs, and he does get some images but he says he doesn't remember much of them. Quinn believes that through some power or skill, Arion can prevent his memories and personality being shown to another person via his blood, "but what he did give me was inexpressibly glorious and it filled my hurt soul after her rebuff."
Quinn does see Athens, and Agora, and the Acropolis through Arion (is there an A-theme going?) and "priceless visions" which are not described, but we learn nothing of Arion's past which is really fine with me because I don't give a shit about him beyond his connection to Petronia and curiosity about his color.
Arion strokes Quinn's hair and instructs Quinn to feed only on the Evil Doer unless he is taking the Little Drink, even though the innocent beckon unwittingly. Which sounds so fucking creepy. Interestingly, Arion's rationale for not drinking from innocents isn't so much it's wrong so much as it will lead to "madness" because you'll come to "love them and to despise yourself". He says this is "the tragedy of Petronia. For her there is no innocence and therefore no conscience and therefore no happiness. And so in misery she goes on."
Wait, so feeding on the innocent is bad because it makes you hate yourself. And he says that's the case with Petronia. But then says there is no innocence for her? So does she...not feed on the innocent? Or not perceive innocence? I don't understand, it doesn't sound like what he just said her her problem is is feeding on the innocent. Petronia proclaims she follows Arion's rules, Arion says she didn't with Quinn. Even though really she did, since her intent was to turn him, not kill him. Manfred adds that Quinn is his grandson and calls her a blaspheming witch (what, who is she blaspheming?) to which Petronia says Quinn will live forever, what more can she give?
Quinn turns to look at her and "with these precious eyes I saw her harsh loveliness as if it were a miracle." For those wondering, he's not complimenting his own eyes, he's referring to the enhanced senses of Ricean vampires, which includes vision. A big part of becoming a vampire in her other books has been getting used to these senses and going nuts over things like carpet patterns, I think, which is actually a great excuse for her to utilize her strength for describing beautiful surroundings. I think I remember the phrase "vampire eyes" a lot from her earlier books.
Quinn thinks now about how he is immortal and "I knew it but I couldn't grasp it. Where was God? Where was my faith? Had the whole edifice collapsed in this monstrosity?"
He suddenly feels a "wrenching pain" which Arion informs him is human death. Huh. So he still has yet to die even though he's a vampire now. Interesting.
Arion says it will be over "in a few short moments" and to go to the attendants into the bath, that they will dress him after and then he'll learn how to hunt.
Quinn finally says the V-word: "So we are vampires. We are the legend."
...that sounds a little too much like a movie script line for my tastes, but what do I expect, it's Anne Rice.
"Blood Hunters" Arion corrects him, a phrase that's been used often before by vampires in the VC books. "Defer to me with these words, and I'll love you all the more."
Quinn asks the very reasonable question of why Arion loves him at all, to which Arion replies with the final words of the chapter: "How could I not?"
Well, that gives me my first actual real reaction to anything in this whole chapter: RAGE. Why must everyone love Quinn? WHY?! And more specifically, everyone GOOD must love Quinn. Only the bad evil people can dislike him, like Petronia and Patsy, and even Petronia has for NO FUCKING APPARENT REASON decided he's the most worthy person she can find to make immortal.
And seriously, Arion doesn't even KNOW Quinn. He didn't drink Quinn's blood! Maybe he's using telepathy, but either way, it's just another stupid Ricean "insta love" thing, and whether there's a supernatural explanation for it or not, it's STILL stupid. No matter how profound an instantaneous magical emotional bond may be in-universe for people, the fact there's no work or development or chemistry or even interaction means it will always be boring and unbelievable for a reader. Maybe there's someone who's done it well, but I haven't seen it yet, and frankly I hate it. Also, again, I'm being GENEROUS by even assuming this much; there's no mention whatsoever that Arion *did* use telepathy. He could just as easily TOTALLY RANDOMLY LOVE QUINN. That makes sense in a Rice book!
...as much sense as anything, anyway.
I have, however, come into some new mice. A woman at work who kept them to feed her snake tried to breed them herself, and it got out of control because she didn't know how to sex them or when the separate the males from females. So they kept having babies, and the babies had babies with each other and so on.
I've sent her some links on how to sex them and when to separate them, and she gave me four females. I might take more when the babies get older. Hopefully this will get the situation under control.
Also here is a neat link on the matters of perspective in Interview versus its sequel Lestat (I agree, I think the real reason for the change is Rice got attached to him)
http://morethanprinceofcats.tumblr.com/post/167327617844/rainbow-femme-my-favorite-part-of-the-vampire
Oh, and I'm sorry these updates take so long. I just have so little enthusiasm now than I did with the Anita sporks. But I'm determined to complete this thing. SO ON WE SLOG!
CHAPTER 38
Quinn wakes up in a house. He can tell by Mount Vesuvius in the distance it's on the coast of Italy. Two girls and a guy drug him, clean him up, shave him. The girls are mean, the guy is nice. The guy gets lots of description and a hint of backstory, the girls are simply called pretty and fashionable but apparently Petronia has been "teasing" them since they were children. Teasing how? Well, they're mad that they've been serving and waiting so long and now Petronia has chosen Quinn and how she keeps saying she'll do it for them but she doesn't and everything is a whim with her. They never actually SAY what they're talking about, but obviously they're talking about Petronia making them/Quinn into vampires. The guy has no such interest, or at least never expresses any, and instead simply gives Quinn sympathetic advice on how to survive and how Petronia will test him as she does all candidates. The girls also snicker about how they should kill Quinn and tell Petronia he died, but she would be angry, whereas the boy laments how there's a special place in Hell for all of them for how they assist Petronia with disposing bodies.
He then falls asleep from having been drugged again.
He wakes up on a couch surrounded by a golden cage. Seriously, a golden cage. Two people come in, dressed in black tuxes/dinner suits over glossy-looking white turtlenecks. One is a black guy. Literally black. Like, he looks like he's made of onyx. The other is an old man, but his flesh has a strangely waxy, firm look. Quinn is quite sure neither of these "creatures" is human.
I don't think it's ever explained why the black guy (we find out later his name is Arion) is black, but here's my guess. For those new to Rice lore, Akasha was the first vampire. She and her husband, Enkil, are called the Mother and Father, and are so old they have basically become sleeping statues, worshiped and tended to by other vampires. At one point they were put into the sun, which caused the Great Fire. They were fine, but other vampires around the world burst into flames and died. Those who survived suffered various degrees of injury, from which recovery was slow. I'm thinking maybe Arion was a victim of the great fire who charred and then healed in such a way that he now looks like polished onyx rather than white marble like the usual ancient vampire in Rice books.
Of course, this assumes he must have been a white guy to begin with, which I realize is a very iffy assumption, but we've never had an elder (as we find out Arion is) vampire in the Rice books who wasn't white, excluding Akasha, Enkil, and Khayman, who come from Ancient Egypt (though Akasha originally came for Uruk, actually) but they're so old they've become literally white.
So yeah, this is my best assumption. But for all I know, maybe black vampires who get super old turn literally black. I wouldn't put that past Rice, frankly.
Anyway, the old man thinks Quinn must be "the evil-doer in some guise" or Petronia wouldn't have him here, but Quinn professes his innocence. The still-unnamed-at-this-point black man believes Quinn is indeed innocent, saying Quinn has done no wrong to anyone, and that Petronia is being cruel for bloodsport, lamenting aloud to the absent Petronia "Why always the cruelty?" and why his "beautiful pupil" will never learn, that "she does as she pleases and it's never enough for her". Because he believes Quinn and praises him as innocent, he is a good guy, and therefore is good-looking despite not being to Anne Rice's usual standards of paleness; according to Quinn, he has kind, chiseled features. "Sublimely chiseled" in fact.
Quinn begs to be let go but alas, the black man, for all his sublime chiseled-ness, says he cannot. I guess Petronia is running the show. Good for her. Quinn complains about how he comes from somewhere where every life is precious and why isn't it the same for them?
Quinn realizes that the old man is none other than Manfred Blackwood. This realization causes him to exclaim that "You're demons, all of you. God, this is Hell." He then explains to Manfred, who has no idea who Quinn is, that he is Tarquinn Blackwood, who would be his descendent "if not for Julien Mayfair" and that Petronia took him from the Hermitage, and that Manfred's granddaughter Lorraine (Aunt Queen) is still alive to tear her hair out in grief for Quinn if he disappears and didn't Petronia tell you what she was up to?
Nope, she didn't.
Manfred goes into a "fury" and asks who told Quinn about Julien, to which Quinn says that Julien himself did since Quinn is a "seer of spirits". I feel like this is kinda low-priority at this point.
Petronia herself now comes in, wearing a black velvet tunic with matching pants and a belt of cameos. Manfred attacks her, trying to grab her by the throat, but she throws him into the wall with force that would kill a normal human. The black one embraces her and asks her "why always the rage?" He's a bit taller than Petronia; Quinn estimates him to be around Quinn's own height.
Manfred weeps that Petronia's "bond to me is worthless" but Petronia says she's kept her pledges to him by giving him immortality and wealth, that the boy is nothing but something sentimental to him "like the photographs you keep of your precious Virginia Lee and your son William and your daughter Camille"
Thank you, Petronia, for so awkwardly and inorganicly reminding us all specifically of who is who and their exact relation to Manfred, just in case we had forgotten at this point (admittedly a possibility, with all the NOTHING that's been dragging this book on and on since they were first mentioned). That sure didn't sound like unnaturally forced exposition at all! Especially not since Manfred and Quinn and you all know this already! Eh, maybe Manfred is just senile and forgets who these people are himself?
Anyway Petronia says they're nothing but dust, Manfred sobs more, and begs "Arion" to "Don't let her go on. Stop her." Petronia says he's a wretched miserable old man, old forever, that she despises him. Quinn asks Petronia if that's why she's doing this to him. She smiles at Quinn, and is "lovely" Arion, now named in the text at last, continues to stroke her hair, and Quinn says the way he is holding her is "loving" and that Arion seems to adore her. Also that her breasts are against Arion. Thanks for that, Quinn. Trust you to notice that detail at a time like this and relay it to us.
Petronia asks him "Don't you want to live forever, Quinn?" and slips out of Arion's embrace. She then unlocks the golden cage, yanks him out of it, and slams him against the bars. Manfred has taken a little picture out from his coat and looks at it "piteously" whilst whispering to himself "insanely". Quinn wonders if it's of Virginia Lee.
I notice no mention ever of Rebecca. I guess she was really only good as a sacrifice to Petronia, not a treasured memory. Maybe Petronia should have had him kill someone he actually loved instead, like William or Camille, then THAT would be a real sacrifice. If she's so cruel, I think that's what she should have gone with. Just me there.
Petronia asks if Quinn is prepared to fight for immortality, Quinn says not against a bully like her, she thinks that's rich for him to call her given what he had Goblin do to her, and Quinn makes the legitimate point that Goblin was protecting him. Petronia asks why he's not here now, Quinn says she knows he can't be here, and that he's no match for her on his own, that she plays an unfair game and always has.
Petronia calls him stubborn, and says his sin is pride. I agree with her, I just fail to see how it relates here.
Arion takes Quinn's face in his hands, with his "soft, silky thumbs against my cheeks", and says "Why don't you let him go? He's innocent."
I mean, I guess he is. He's a douchebag, but he's never really done anything TERRIBLE. Yet I can't bring myself to give a shit what happens to him. And it's not even because he's a douchebag; if he was an enjoyable douchebag, I might still root for him, or at least root for Petronia to do something awful for him, or SOMETHING. But as it is, he's just a bland douchebag that I don't have any investment in, not even negatively at this point.
Also: Becoming a vampire isn't even bad in the context of these books, not really. You may get some existential angst and all, but you are guaranteed the focus and spotlight, because the vampires are the main characters of these books, and all of Rice's favorites inevitably end up as such for that reason, often with the best and biggest powers even among vampirekind. Meta-wise, it's really a reward more than anything else. And not one I at all understand Petronia bestowing on Quinn. She clearly doesn't see it as a punishment but a reward, given how she talked earlier about wanting to rescue Quinn from death and all that, and how she spoke of giving immortality to Manfred as a positive thing she did for him, and she wants Quinn to earn it from her in a fight as a prize, and we learn later, from her backstory it was the best thing that ever happened to her... but then if it's a reward to her, why do it to Quinn of all people?
Nothing makes sense and I don't even care. Admittedly, I'm also in a shitty mood right now because of aforementioned rat problems, so that could be it.
Anyway, Petronia knocks him around, the men don't help, Arion just says this isn't how this should be done to which she replies we all choose our own way and "let me have what I need" and Arion asks why she needs it. They then lapse into Italian and Quinn gets the sense they're talking about "the passage of time and how she had once been different" and meanwhile Manfred is crying. Quinn tries to move, Petronia steps on his throat, he's on the couch, she bites him and drinks his blood. He feels some "intimacy" in this, as though his entire life is fleeing from him, not simply physically but as though she's actually sucking memories out (which, as readers of previous Ricean vampires will know, she is, as vampires see the past and personality of those they feed from )
He has an out of body experience, and sees the wonderful golden white light where Pops and Lynelle and Sweetheart all are, and he wants to join them but some "hideous fascination" with Petronia and Manfred and Arion won't let him, some "putrid ambition", and though "I had made no decision" the vision vanishes, and he returns to his aching bruised body on the marble floor.
Petronia says he is now dying, but she won't let that happen, now that she knows "Tarquin Blackwood" from his blood. Arion says to ask him what he wills, so Petronia does that. Quinn doesn't answer, and Petronia demands again, he tries to attack her, and "I struck at her private parts" and she's like oh so you want to see what they all laughed and "Come, pay me homage"
Long story short, she forces her cock in his mouth. It's erect, which is weird because if I recall correctly Ricean vampires are actually incapable of that, but it wouldn't shock me if Rice forgot her own lore at this point, especially for the sake of a rape scene with such a fetishized character.
He bites her cock, swallowing her "blood that was not blood" and from it he gets her life and memories.
Yes, he gets her memories from her penis blood. I'm not making this up.
She was born in Ancient Pompeii, her mother was an actress and her father was a gladiator under Caesar. "A freakish child, half male, half female, to be destroyed by ordinary parents, but kept by hers for the theatre" meaning that gladiator ring, in which she grew to be a gladiator of great strength. Before that, however, she was pimped out "a thousand times", presumably also by her parents, never knowing love or owning a scrap of clothing that wasn't for show.
While still a girl, she was so accomplished as a gladiator that her parents were able to sell her to a new master "for a fortune" and he made her fight against wild beasts but "even these could not defeat her". But she was tired of this life, of combat and lovelessness and misery, and though the crowd was her lover, it was not there in the dark of night when she slept chained to her bed.
Then Arion came, and paid to be with her as others had, but then bought her, given her money, and freed her. Not wanting to return to the gladiatorial ring nor become an independent prostitute ( at least I think that's what's meant by " was she to be pimp and whore at the same time") she tags along after him, weeping and loving him, and he at last takes her under his wing.
...I know he's framed as her savior here and all but I think it's pretty gross that before doing that, he still bought a night from her in which she had no say.
He brings her to Pompeii with him, where he has three shops that make cameos, hence how she learns this craft. She has a passion for it because she's no longer fighting to please the crowds, but to please Arion. She studies with the masters and after two years becomes one herself, impressing Arion immensely with her work.
Then came the eruption of Vesuvius. Arion sensed it before it happened and had fled the night before, leaving Petronia with the task of evacuating the slaves from the shops. Alas, only a few would listen to her. Which is...kinda odd? I mean, they're slaves, they can't say no, right? I know Roman slavery worked differently than the American form of chattel slavery that I'm most familiar with, but I feel like if the master's apprentice, on the master's orders, tells you to leave, you leave.
But they don't, and after the disaster, she weeps to him that she failed, but he says she saved his greatest treasure, which is herself, and in time he rewards her by making her a vampire.
"She let me go. My lips stroked her cock as I withdrew."
Yeah, there's no way Anne Rice didn't write this as a fetish scene.
Arion picks up the still-weak Quinn from the floor and offers Quinn his own blood. Quinn asks to wait, to let him savor what Petronia showed him of herself. Though he "meant it reverently" it enrages Petronia, who knocks him to the floor again and kicks him in the ribs. She calls him trash and says "You dare answer that way to the Master, and who are you to savor what you know of me!"
Arion tells her that's enough, picks Quinn up again, and once more offers his blood, saying it will give Quinn strength, that it is older than Petronia's and so Quinn won't be bound to her so much. Interesting, I didn't know that the blood of a vampire could bind another vampire in Ricean lore; reminds me of the Blood Bond in Vampire the Masquerade.
"I could have cried at her savagery. I had so loved her in the Blood, and I had been a fool for it, such a fool, but as he said now to drink" and Quinn "kissed" Arion's throat, presumably also biting him with his newfound fangs, and he does get some images but he says he doesn't remember much of them. Quinn believes that through some power or skill, Arion can prevent his memories and personality being shown to another person via his blood, "but what he did give me was inexpressibly glorious and it filled my hurt soul after her rebuff."
Quinn does see Athens, and Agora, and the Acropolis through Arion (is there an A-theme going?) and "priceless visions" which are not described, but we learn nothing of Arion's past which is really fine with me because I don't give a shit about him beyond his connection to Petronia and curiosity about his color.
Arion strokes Quinn's hair and instructs Quinn to feed only on the Evil Doer unless he is taking the Little Drink, even though the innocent beckon unwittingly. Which sounds so fucking creepy. Interestingly, Arion's rationale for not drinking from innocents isn't so much it's wrong so much as it will lead to "madness" because you'll come to "love them and to despise yourself". He says this is "the tragedy of Petronia. For her there is no innocence and therefore no conscience and therefore no happiness. And so in misery she goes on."
Wait, so feeding on the innocent is bad because it makes you hate yourself. And he says that's the case with Petronia. But then says there is no innocence for her? So does she...not feed on the innocent? Or not perceive innocence? I don't understand, it doesn't sound like what he just said her her problem is is feeding on the innocent. Petronia proclaims she follows Arion's rules, Arion says she didn't with Quinn. Even though really she did, since her intent was to turn him, not kill him. Manfred adds that Quinn is his grandson and calls her a blaspheming witch (what, who is she blaspheming?) to which Petronia says Quinn will live forever, what more can she give?
Quinn turns to look at her and "with these precious eyes I saw her harsh loveliness as if it were a miracle." For those wondering, he's not complimenting his own eyes, he's referring to the enhanced senses of Ricean vampires, which includes vision. A big part of becoming a vampire in her other books has been getting used to these senses and going nuts over things like carpet patterns, I think, which is actually a great excuse for her to utilize her strength for describing beautiful surroundings. I think I remember the phrase "vampire eyes" a lot from her earlier books.
Quinn thinks now about how he is immortal and "I knew it but I couldn't grasp it. Where was God? Where was my faith? Had the whole edifice collapsed in this monstrosity?"
He suddenly feels a "wrenching pain" which Arion informs him is human death. Huh. So he still has yet to die even though he's a vampire now. Interesting.
Arion says it will be over "in a few short moments" and to go to the attendants into the bath, that they will dress him after and then he'll learn how to hunt.
Quinn finally says the V-word: "So we are vampires. We are the legend."
...that sounds a little too much like a movie script line for my tastes, but what do I expect, it's Anne Rice.
"Blood Hunters" Arion corrects him, a phrase that's been used often before by vampires in the VC books. "Defer to me with these words, and I'll love you all the more."
Quinn asks the very reasonable question of why Arion loves him at all, to which Arion replies with the final words of the chapter: "How could I not?"
Well, that gives me my first actual real reaction to anything in this whole chapter: RAGE. Why must everyone love Quinn? WHY?! And more specifically, everyone GOOD must love Quinn. Only the bad evil people can dislike him, like Petronia and Patsy, and even Petronia has for NO FUCKING APPARENT REASON decided he's the most worthy person she can find to make immortal.
And seriously, Arion doesn't even KNOW Quinn. He didn't drink Quinn's blood! Maybe he's using telepathy, but either way, it's just another stupid Ricean "insta love" thing, and whether there's a supernatural explanation for it or not, it's STILL stupid. No matter how profound an instantaneous magical emotional bond may be in-universe for people, the fact there's no work or development or chemistry or even interaction means it will always be boring and unbelievable for a reader. Maybe there's someone who's done it well, but I haven't seen it yet, and frankly I hate it. Also, again, I'm being GENEROUS by even assuming this much; there's no mention whatsoever that Arion *did* use telepathy. He could just as easily TOTALLY RANDOMLY LOVE QUINN. That makes sense in a Rice book!
...as much sense as anything, anyway.
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Date: 2017-11-25 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-26 12:00 am (UTC)Also I'm...not sure, hmm.
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Date: 2017-11-26 09:03 pm (UTC)I feel like there are a few chapters missing on how Quinn founded the town library, joined the Peace Corps, and set up stable liberal democracies in the Middle East. Nothing else explains this adoration. Also where's Goblin through all this?
This chapter feels like it was the first thing Anne Rice wrote from the book. Maybe it was intended to be a short story at first. Because none of the endless faffing up to this point matters in the slightest.
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Date: 2017-11-26 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-02 02:38 am (UTC)I am so sorry about your ratties, I haven't been able to keep rats for years because of those viciously short lifespans. :(