Tag: Trolls

Death’s Mistress ch 1-2

pritkinsprettydick:

– Hugo Vleck is a nasty creep and definitely deserved getting loved to pieces by dory
– why is it that the vamps working for mircea insist on being shitty to dory? Are they stupid? If they hurt her, mircea will fuck them up. If dory hasn’t torn them apart first. Idiots.
– “I’m tired, I’m hungry and I have a head in a bag. Do not fuck with me.” Probs the most iconic line in the series
– marlowe hate-crushing on dory is
– watching him try to puzzle out what dory’s secret is (how she’s able to escape after killing a master) is pretty great. Not being in on a secret is absolute torture for him.
– mircea: “radu mentioned that the two of you had grown…close.” Mircea: *aggressively avoids thinking about his daughter and a member of his vamp family doing the do*
– okay but I am wondering now how radu brought this up to mircea. Did he straight up tell him he walked in on LC teasing a naked and tied up dory? Probably not, right? He’d want to protect LC I assume. In any case, I’m sure the conversation was hysterical and I wish I could read it.
– I know LC had good reason to bail on dory but it’s still sad to see her feeling all rejected. Especially considering she’s not exactly one to get emotional about a love interest. ESPECIALLY a vampire.
– ah, Claire is back and she’s a motherfuckin dragon. Other than that, chapter two doesn’t do much. You find out dory has pretty officially adopted stinky as her own, and that she’s got a house full of trolls, but other than that…we’re basically just going to spend the next chapter or so catching up with Claire.

I SOOOO Love Dory!  I love her kick ass no apologies style! I find the mind stuff to be a pretty big foreshadowing, but that’s just me!  I love Radu…I love the way he blithely blunders along and somehow makes it all ok.  It would suck to have this series without Radu’s kinda quirky super intelligent “director’s cut” explanations.  I know that Mircea needs Louis Cesare and has taken advantage of the fact he’s family although that has also led to the isolation.  I think that the reason Mircea put Louis Cesare and Dory together was to connect the two “red-headed stepchildren” and give them the support they wouldn’t take otherwise.  I know how hard it must be for Mircea-to whom EVERYTHING revolves around family to stay out of Louis Cesare’s life so it follows the way it would have before Rasputin came along…

One of my favorite things about Dory is that we keep getting to see Marlowe ride the crazy train! And all the other underworld of vampires.  It allows us to see the not so powerful and the fae…And it makes it so that we can really appreciate how far into the deep end Cassie plays!  I mean shes surrounded by the Super old masters and the elite of the war mages and the Damn demon council.

I hate the fact that Claire isn’t recognizable at first…and I hate that we get to see Louis Cesare and Dory at odds.  I hate that Louis Cesare has disappeared on Dory, but I love the fact that Dory puts the head on the letter opener…

Ok, thats it for now

Curse the Dawn ch24-25

windsurfingthroughhell:

Time to cry over CtD some more! It’s funny this is one of those books I don’t reread all that much (unlike htm which I can nearly recite by heart) so I’ve forgotten how really really good it is. I’m just enjoying it so much:

-chapter 24 – where do I start with this one? Rosier siccing the rakshasas on his kid and then wondering why he’s a great father, ummmm, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?? Pritkin, once again trying to sacrifice himself for Cassie, that boy has a complex  (side note: I love how KC follows through on things – she makes it very clear that Pritkin has something of a saviour complex, where Cassie is concerned anyway and it ultimately gets him killed. His sacrifice in HtM was actually super predictable and we really ought to have seen something like it coming. I mean, “It was the only reasonable course of action,” FOR REAL, who says that after almost getting themselves killed??). Plus, we have sudden, out of nowhere Casskin making out, which is essentially what I live for. Like most of the body swap stuff it’s simultaneously weird and sexy. Cassie is essentially getting to see the effect she normally has on Pritkin, and well, it’s hot. The ley line car chase is KC’s usual brand of breakneck pace, humour and adrenaline. I love how even Pritkin is freaked out by the whole thing.

– chapter 25 – I’m gonna have a stroke, there’s so much going on here. Marsden’s dog trying to attack Mircea. Mircea hugging Pritkin-in-Cassie’s-body. Cassie-in-Pritkin’s-body accidentally swearing at Mircea and pissing him off. Mircea pulling Pritkin-in-Cassie’s-body out of the room, presumably for some relieved reunion cuddles and from the sounds of things, gets slapped or kneed in the nuts or sth. Marlowe, dressed up and ready to party, wandering around offering everyone booze. Cassie talking shit  in front of everyone: “What? You like wearing a bra?” Serious note – hasn’t Saunders turned up early? Cassie’s been saying all day that her meeting with Saunders is ‘tomorrow’ but this is still today right?? I’m confused. Less serious note – Marlowe trying to provoke Pritkin is one of the many many joys in these books, they should wrestle it out again. There could be some kind of oil involved … Uh, moving on. “Renegotiate this!” Epically silly line, 10/10, would put in trailer for movie adaptation which is sadly never gonna happen. Mircea kissing Cassie-in-Pritkin’s-body – either he’s very relieved that Cassie’s okay or he’s always secretly wanted to make out with Pritkin a little bit. I mean, who hasn’t?

So, Fist I have to say thank you to @windsurfingthroughhell for posting these awesome summaries on the reread.  I suck at writing summaries.  I discovered this when I tried to do a timeline for the Anita Blake series cause I kept getting confused.  The software i used https://www.tiki-toki.com/ is amazingly awesome, But the free account only allows a certain number of entries.  And by the time I got to the 4 or 5 Anita Blake books, I had hit the max.  Which was totally insane.  And those of you who saw my attempts for the  Cassandra Palmer series, know I get lost in all the stuff.

I am hoping someone will make a  Cassandra Palmer timeline for us all to share at https://www.tiki-toki.com/ since I already used my freebie, and that thing took weeks of work, so I don’t care if its incomplete, I ain’t deleting it.

SO, my original point is that I keep responding to these posts, cause it keeps me from dancing merrily along to my tangential brains music…So, I am not arguing points or tearing anyone down, OK?  Just adding my two cents, and if I get a little vehement, it’s only because all of these characters mean something to me, even FRED for god’s sake…

From the beginning, Rossier confuses the shit out of me.  So, the fact that Rossier, who hates Artemis and Cassie with a vehemence, is the vehicle through which Apollo is taken down is just Fucking Priceless.  I think the fact that Rossier has antipathy towards Cassie and always jumps to “let’s kill her” is odd.  I mean, theoretically he has been waiting all these years for SOMEONE to break through Pritkin’s self hatred and walls.  But from the moment Cassie shows up, well its weird.  It keeps getting weirder.

These chapters are my favorite part.  We see so much stuff.  It hard to even begin listing it or really digest it.  I love Cassie, and its hysterical to see the vampires out of their element, the mages out of theirs and god so much more. I mean, theoretically they are all supposed to be working together but no one knows anyone else’s plan, they don’t even know who is who!

And seeing Kit Marlowe, spy extraordinaire still fucking lost-it just makes me giggle.  I mean they are fighting gods, with Cleopatra and Jack the Ripper and all Marlowe can do is hand out drinks.  He’s the stewardess on this flight to Ragnorak…And he keeps hitting his goddamned head, which is so fucking unfair. And he knows something is up with Pritkin, cause he isn’t responding right, but in his defense who’s first thought would be “That must be the pythia’s soul in the war mages body because of a chaos loving buddhist type god”? (Since we are on a reread, I will also say that I love it when Cassie and Mircea end up arguing in Marlowe’s office later, and he’s all “there is a god and he loves me”)  As a second aside, does anyone else want to know how Marlowe’s ties to the witches just up and disappeared?

And then you add in the triple D’s and Apollo and running up how many goddamned floors with Prtikin in a dress?

And yeah I REALLY want Karen to write the Pritkin Pov of what happens in that bedroom between Cassie’s body, Pritkin’s Soul, and Mircea!  Damnit, maybe there will be another event or opportunity to bring that up at some point when Karen has contracts for more books, and is looking for an idea…Sigh, who am I kidding?  I don’t have the money to buy a swag bag, let alone…oh well, I digress

And when Mircea kisses Cassie in Pritkin, just WOW.  I mean I know sexuality is probably mutable but still, to love someone’s soul so much that it transcends the physical…sigh again!

Anyways, I could go on forever, but who wants to read that?  SO, thank you for giving me talking points and tell me where I’m wrong.  I keep trying to do reread posts, but I read too fast and even though I am rereading the same stuff, each time i get a little bit different stuff.

Curse the Dawn Book Cover Curse the Dawn
Karen Chance
Fiction
Penguin UK
April 2, 2009
400

Cassie Palmer, the world's chief clairvoyant, just can't seem to stay away from trouble. After trying to come to an agreement with the Silver Circle - the magical organisation that's been trying to kill her for years - she finds herself kidnapped by one of its members and swept away in the ley line system, a series of magical currents that occupies the space between worlds. Cassie manages to escape but, fearing for her safety, she decides to invest in a magical device for protection. However, all she can afford is a statue that grants wishes ...But what Cassie doesn't realize is that the statue doesn't always grant wishes the way the wisher would like. And when she wishes for the strength to shift herself and companion Pritkin away from a dangerous fight, the statue grants the wish by switching her into Pritkin's body and him into hers. And that's when the real trouble starts ...

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CtD, ch18-20

windsurfingthroughhell:

Time for another cvgr speed commentary, body swap edition. The body swap is definitely my favourite part of this book and possibly one of my all time favourite sequences in the entire series. I’d pay big money for Pritkin’s POV while he was in Cassie’s body (if only Karen was on Patreon or something …) because this whole thing is just so funny, so messed up and touching and weirdly sexy at times. Pretty much typical Cassie Palmer right?

– chapter eighteen – Cassie’s initial reaction to Pritkin in her body is pretty hysterical. “I sounded like a very pissed off little girl.” Pritkin’s reaction to being in the wrong body is probably close to what mine would be like – shocked, appalled etc. His accent staying more or less the same makes sense I guess? Accents aren’t necessarily ingrained at a muscle memory level, we can change them very easily. Him keeping any metaphysical abilities he has, like good shields etc also makes sense because we know they’re a mental manipulation of the body’s magic.

– chapter nineteen – much and all as I love that Pritkin kicks ass even when in Cassie’s body – why is it so hot when he shoots people?? I definitely have issues – I would question the fact that his hand-eye coordination seems to have transferred along with his spirit. Cassie’s aim is far to bad to take that many people out with that kind of precision, right? I guess they were in close enough quarters that it didn’t matter. Anyway, I like our introduction to Jonas Marsden. It’s appropriately off key. I also like the way KC prepares the way for important introductions like this long before they ever happen – in Jonas’ case, we’ve already heard about him back in CbS. This is why I never trust what seems like random rambling, or irrelevant details in these books because they always, always come back in some way. This chapter also features the usual top Casskin banter – their arguments about the coffee and the training sessions are so fricking married, like for real, get a room.

– chapter twenty – more Casskin marriedness, their every interaction kills me. Cassie rubbing Pritkin’s back while he gets sick is just so weirdly cute? I mean I know it’s a pretty gross situation, but that’s what makes it so couple-y, that rather than being grossed out at all by Pritkin throwing up, Cassie’s instinct is to take care of him. Everything they do HURTS ME. ALSO ALSO I am not the only one who thinks they’re acting like a couple because Jonas very obviously thinks they’re together, see how surprised he is when Cassie doesn’t want to share a bed with Pritkin. More reasons to love the body swap – the classic line, “No Miss Palmer, what is bizarre is that I currently have a vagina.” I’ve been laughing at that comment since 2009. But great and all as that moment is, nothing but NOTHING will ever top Cassie waking up in Pritkin’s body with a hard on. Her panic at the whole situation is so completely believable and entirely hilarious, but at that the same time, it’s a weirdly erotic scene. She’s just so aware of his body, it brings out her latent attraction to him: “He’d be strong” is so hot I might evaporate. Also, we should start doing a group read drinking game – take a sip every time Cassie describes Pritkin’s hands, take a shot every time she talks about how green his eyes are and finish your drink if she mentions his hair being soft and/or terrible. Or maybe we should not play that game, because it sounds like a quick route to alcohol poisoning. For real though, Cassie has SUCH a crush, it’s killing me. And to top it all off, Pritkin knows exactly what she’s suffering and he thinks it’s hilarious. What a little bastard, I love him.

Ok, SO I know you are in love with Pritkin.  I get that.  I’m all for anyone who connects with the story in any way.  But I have a little bit of a different read on all this.  SO rather than assume that everyone knows whats going on in my head, I’m gonna spell it out.

Cassie is a young woman.  And despite the fact that she is pretty kick ass even from the beginning she hasn’t had a lot of experience with men.  Remember, that her very first sexual experience is IN Louis-Caesar.  and he was already, um, well very engaged in the sex act.  The geis has made sure that she’s married and has to have a three way with two people- I just said that sentence three times and it still doesn’t sound right, before she has had a chance to find her sexual feet.  

And Cassie didn’t start off in the “easy” dating pool-oh no she had to go for the biggest, baddest, most combustible men- First there’s Tomas, although he is pretty tame by comparison to the later love interests, he is a first level vamp, who was strong enough to play human for Cassie for 6 months and challenge the CONSUL of THE LATIN AMERICAN SENATE.  And he is her first sexual partner, although its rushed and co-opted by Apollo.  Then, there’s Mircea Basarab who has been the right arm of the Consul for a very long time-and it goes back to when he was a Prince in Romania.  And if you read Masks, he trained to become a great lover of vampires.

And, John Pritkin is half incubus too.  And he has had lots of experience before Rossier got his hands on her.  SO for Cassie, this body swap is in many ways a revelation.  It’s the first time that she has a sexual experience that is free of the heavyweights that are in her bed.  She doesn’t even get to masturbate without participation with Mircea via his mind skills.  And suddenly, shes in a male body.  And she gets to explore it, without anyone else rushing her,  

But even that gets ruined by Pritkin’s knowing smile and interruption.  SO I look at it as more about Cassie.  And damn does she deserve the time to learn about pleasure- although from inside one of the men is a little bit weird but hey it’s a pythia thing!  And what I loved most about the whole body swap was the whole thing AFTER they got back to Dante’s.  When Mircea kisses Cassie in Pritkin’s body….and the whole battle confusion and the run through the wild west and the way the body swap fucks Saunders up…

So that’s my two cents.  Sorry if you don’t like it.  Tell me where I’m wrong, ok?

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New Karen Chance News!!!!

The Cassandra Palmer Series by Karen Chance

·

So, I’m supposed to be finishing up “Lover’s Knot”, a freebie Dory novella, only Penguin needs the fourth Dory novel in earlier than expected, and you know, I have to eat. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d do a couple of things to keep you guys busy. First, about the next Dory book, tentatively entitled Shadow’s Bane. That title hasn’t been approved yet, by the way, so may end up changing. Call it a working title for now. Anyway, you can find the first few chapters on the Books page, under the not-a-cover I’ve got there as a placeholder until the real one is finished. Enjoy!

Secondly, since I have a lot of “Lover’s Knot” already written, I thought I’d post a chapter a week of the finished stuff (unedited) for anybody who wants it now. The first post will go up late today. It’ll be on the Freebies page as usual. For those of you who’d prefer to wait and read the whole, edited, spit and polished version, just avoid the weekly posts. I’ll make a note on the blog and FB etc. when the finished novella is up on Amazon and Smashwords, and you can download the whole thing then. Okay? Okay. I gotta go write; you guys have a nice week. 🙂

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Experiencing a dilemma

cookie0021:

I’ve never faced before. Frankly I’m tired of love triangles. Mostly because there’s an obvious choice of who the main character’s gonna choose; mostly the reason there’s even a hint of competition is because the girl doesn’t want to hurt the non-chosen guy:

Jace or Simon—duh, Jace wins

Edward or Jacob–duh, Edward wins

Dimitri or Adrian–duh, Dimitri wins

Adam or Samuel–duh, Adam wins

Peeta or Gale–duh, Peeta wins

Barrons or V’laine–duh, Barrons wins

Bones or Tate–duh, Bones wins

Vlad or Maximus–duh, Vlad wins

And countless other I can’t even remember right now. Granted The Infernal Devices took a novel approach and has the main character get to be with both the men she loved (even though it was obvious she really really loved Will–and if forced to choose I think she would have chosen him in the end, but she got both)

My problem is: the Cassandra Palmer series.

One the one hand there’s Mircea who I admitted wasn’t in love with to begin with, but now…after everything I’ve read (including the Dorina Basarab series) I like him. I want him to be happy. I want him to be Cassie because he wants to be with her and she wants to be with him. I like him. Although I’m not too happy about where we were left with him in Tempt the Stars. I hope he’s not going to just abandon her. That doesn’t seem like the kind of man he is.

On the other hand, there’s Pritkin who I’ve kinda adored since book two, Claimed by Shadows. And my adoration for him has only gotten worse as the series has progressed. I absolutely love him. And I do think he’s gonna be the endgame. But I’m not sure.

And I’m torn.

Therein lies the problem.

I’ve never liked both of the guys for a single girl in a series. I may like a guy like say for instance Simon, but I never liked him for Clary. For Izzy, he’ll yeah, but never for Clary.

I want both Mircea and Pritkin for Cassie and I don’t know what to think.

Aaaggghh.

SO, I keep rereading this post.  And I get the overall point, even those of us that “like” both the men in Cassie’s life equally have favorites.  Sometimes, those favorites change from scene to scene but we have favorites.  So, who do we root for?   How do we want it to end…Well, I’m just gonna root for Cassie and however messily it ends up, as long as she’s happy I’ll be good…

But for the list at the beginning, I gotta say something.  I am very happy for this writer that all choices seem crystal clear.  For the rest of us, sometimes we don’t know who we are going to pick until after it has happened.    Or, if you are me, it sometimes was one person on one read but the next time its someone else…

So, maybe, its mutable.  Maybe, for some like Cat and Bones I didn’t even remember there was someone else.  But for each one of those, I have  an Anita Blake, or a Merry or a Corinne Carol-Anne Kirkpatrick.   And there are messy crazy solutions.  

And I don’t see Cassie going the way of the many loved.  At least I don’t think so.  But I’ll just keep reminding myself that I’m rooting for Cassie…and being mutable

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Some Thoughts on Cassie

So, I got two of my friends who read the same kind of stuff that I do to start the Karen Chance books.  And they, of course love them…But, they are working their way slowly though them.  They have almost caught up to the reread. They obviously don’t compulsively read like I do.  I swear to g-d text to speech was an evil invention.  I used to have to put the book down to do things like brush my teeth, wash my hair, or cook.  Now, I have headphones or a stupid bluetooth speaker.  Although it does allow my children to get more regular meals that DO NOT revolve around Laurell K Hamilton or Karen Chance’s publishing schedule…

So, I keep getting these hysterical texts as things happen in the Cassie Palmer world.  From random questions to OMG.  And of late, I’ve been getting a lot of the OMG variety.  They have gotten to the geis and the trip to Fairie.  And then to the final duel with Dracula.  And I found myself laughing last night at the following text:

OMG Bram Stoker was a Human Servant! WTF! Then, awww so the incubus waited all that time for Dracula? How sweet

My response to the last was Have you ever read Dracula? OK, not sure where I was going with all that…Just chalk it up to my random tangent

But back to my original message, or at least thought.  Cassie is not a victim. Sometimes, we forget that she ran away at 14 and returned, of her own volition, to make Tony pay.  And then lived in a house with Vampires while she worked tirelessly to destroy what Tony loved most: his money.  And hid it.  And then ran with government protection.  She survived the death of her governess.  and then ran successfully for three years.  I gotta say, she’s got some chops.  That’s at the beginning.

She’s got a voice and she learns to use it.  Everyone wants control of her, but somehow, she ends up with a family that includes everyone from the crazy incubus Cassanova to Marco to Pritkin to, yes, Mircea!  She takes the guards who come to her and makes them HERS.  Cassie is never going to be Agnes.  Agnes was raised in the system and a part of it.  And her life was compartmentalized, even though she fell in love with her body guard, Jonas.  and oh what a love that must have been-  Ley line racing and trips though time.  But when we see Agnes in other times, she’s alone.  And a secret pregnancy to boot!  Cassie knows how to hide.  She knows how to run.  She knows how to win. 

Yes, she sometimes gets buffeted by the strong winds of the personalities around her.  And remember, we are in her head.  And sometimes we get her insecurities bleeding through.  But no matter what comes, she copes as best she can.  And that’s better than 99% of the population!  She learns, she quietly assimilates.  She fucking conquers!  Her life is messy.  I can’t see her making her life fit in boxes.  I can’t see her without Mircea’s family, which is becoming hers.  I have this image in my head of some of the mansions in Vegas.  The really awesome ones that have every possible luxury and themed bedrooms.  Almost like an MTV tricked out house for Real World.  But I can’t see Cassie, Tami and the kids from the schools living quietly in the suburbs with a mixed security force of vamps and mages.  I don’t know where I see her, but…

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exinaart:

Daily Quotes #1082

Masks by Karen Chance

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Dory and Dorina – what happens when you’ve been cut off from half of yourself for 500 years

redorblue:

(Not sure
whether it’s right to write about Dorina and Dory as two different characters
when we still know so little about Dorina, but anyway, here goes)

When
reading Fury’s Kiss for the first time, there were these passages that
frustrated me immensely. I can see why Dory naturally assumed that it was
Dorina attacking her in her own mind – she’s only ever “seen” Dorina that one
time at Radu’s estate, plus some jumbled memories from before the divide – and then
there’s the waking up surrounded by bodies thing… But I didn’t wanna believe
Dory. Because those few glimpses we get from Dorina’s POV just don’t fit the
picture of the bloodthirsty maniac that Dory has of her other half. Sure, she’s
good at what she’s doing, which in the situations we see her in is mainly
fighting, and also killing when necessary (no one to mourn there, though). But
so is Dory herself, and Louis-Césare, and loads of other characters.

Dory fears
Dorina based on very little actual proof, namely on her surroundings when
waking up and on what’s probably nothing more than hearsay. I doubt that Dory
has ever talked to anyone who met Dorina and lived to tell her about it except
for Mircea, and of course Dorina doesn’t react all too well to him as he is the
one who imprisoned her in her own head (with good cause, insists my inner
Mircea fan, but does Dorina know that?). And even given his, and later
Louis-Césares, scant experiences with Dorina under very stressful
circumstances, they don’t think she’s irrational, or cruel, or bloodthirsty, or
any of the things Dory assumes about Dorina. Just… good at what she’s doing…
So I wonder, as Dory was so spectacularly wrong about Dorina based on little
evidence, what was/is Dorina’s take on Dory based on pretty much nothing at
all?

Dory
speculates on this at some point, but given the situation she was in at that
point and her generally skewed perspective on this, I doubt that her views are
all that accurate. This is going into speculation territory fast, so let’s see
what Dory thinks are Dorina’s feelings about the person she shares a mind with:

“Maybe she
hated my weakness, my humanness, as much as I hated her vampire-ness […]
Maybe instead of a crawling bug, she viewed me as a more insidious kind – a leech,
taking her strength, her energy, her prowess, and squandering them.”

First of
all, Dorina doesn’t seem as preoccupied with Dory as vice versa. She doesn’t
think at all about her alter ego, which for me is something that contradicts
Dory’s assumption that Dorina has nothing but contempt for her. When Dorina
takes over their body for her nightly trips in search of the angel child, she
shows no sign of hate or anger at Dory for being handed a damaged body. She
just… rolls with it, I guess. Which she’s certainly capable of. So that
speaks against Dory’s theory that Dorina views her as something “usurping” her
body and then giving it back broken because she’s so utterly incapable. I’m not
sure how aware Dorina is while Dory is in control (although I think there must
be something subconscious going on because she fights harder to get out when
they are in danger?), but it doesn’t seem to be enough to always know what Dory’s
up to and why, so she can’t know what Dory does with their body while she’s
absent. She doesn’t seem to be too interested, either, never makes an effort to
get an explanation for the situation she’s been put in. So I think indifference
would be a better description for Dorina’s attitude toward Dory than contempt
or hate. And then there’s the fact that in Fury’s Kiss, Dorina always brings
back their body before the night is over, although she’s not technically forced
to, not being bound by the sun cycle and all. So maybe I’m over-interpreting
this, but I think it shows that Dorina tries not to mess up Dory’s life too
much and sees Dory’s goals as important, too.

“Living a life
no master vampire would have considered for so much as a moment, with no
family, no servants, no respect.”

We know
that Dorina does want a family, which is why she tried so hard to rescue the angel
child she found at the beginning of Fury’s Kiss. We also know that she tends to
look down on others, regardless of their race, and that she’s especially
suspicious and to a degree contemptuous towards vampires. But I think Dory gets
it wrong here. Dorina wants a family not/less for the prestige and power that
it brings, but because she’s lonely. Those times she comes out, she never has
the opportunity to form bonds with anyone, and most of the time she’s locked up
inside her head, so no chance at finding someone to belong with. I don’t know
what kind of power the child might have had, but it’s obvious that she doesn’t
try to find it because of what it might do to improve her status. She does it
because she feels protective, and because she hopes there might finally be
someone who doesn’t freeze in terror at the sight of her (and is therefore weak
and unattractive to her), treats her with contempt or threatens her with
imprisonment or worse.

“I wondered how
she’d felt about [dhampirs not having status]. How she’d liked having even baby
vampires look down on us, watching them insult us, denigrate us […] knowing
that we – that she – were perfectly capable of destroying the lot of them.”

Here’s
something that Dory might have gotten right because it’s something that they
share. Dorina surfaces when she senses Louis-Césare acting disrespectfully and treating
her as if she was weak, and is placated by his apology and gesture of
subordinance. Dory gets angry, too, when vampires don’t treat her as the very
capable and potentially dangerous person she is, like when she went to see
Mircea and slammed that arrogant guard through a wall. They both hate it that
they’re treated the way they are by vampire society, and they both react
accordingly, although Dory naturally assumes that Dorina’s reaction is way
worse than her own. So, the starting point for this assumption is probably correct,
but her conclusion is not. Again, I’m guessing, but as is evident from the end
of Fury’s Kiss, Dorina not only doesn’t seem to hate Dory, but develop some
kind of tentative… respect, maybe? for her other half. They cooperate when
fighting Lawrence (which is a survival necessity, yes, being of one body and
also mind, more or less) and instead of trying to subdue Dory, or in any other
way even making contact with her, Dorina vanishes after the fight, maybe
mourning her own losses. There’s no hate or contempt there, just a profound
feeling of being estranged. Which, considering the last five hundred years,
seems like a good starting point to try and move toward each other again after
being cut off from half their selves for so long.

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babyfairybaekhyun:

Favorite OTP Aesthetic: Dorina Basarab/Louis-Cesare de Bourbon

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