The Devil's Promenade

[ladyofpride]

A/N: I felt bad for poor Alfred after writing ‘Appetence of the Dead’, so I decided to put together something milder... The bad guys still win, though. Surprise, surprise...

Title: The Devil’s Promenade
Fandom: Tanz der Vampire
Pairing: Herbert/Alfred
Rating: Pg-13
Disclaimer: The Germans (Austrians?) are credited with making the beautiful musical,

Comments

[valancystar]

Oh, I like this one lots, too. Your portrayals of the characters are great, Alfred feels as he should and Herbert has that charming combination of being kind of adorable and also seriously bad and dangerous. In this time where sparkly softie vampires are everywhere, it's delightful to read proper vampire fic where the vampires are the bad and dangerous guys, yet attractive and seductive.

If you plan to write more Tanz fic / Alfred/Herbert fic / Alfred fic / something along these lines, you'll have an eager reader here!

[ladyofpride]

I love Alfred --- and I absolutely adore Herbert. Like you say so yourself, I prefer Herbert in the charming-and-giddy but dastardly dangerous mode, the way vampires are supposed to be (*coughcough* I'm not intentionally judging the Twilight series (after all, I haven't read the books or seen the movies, so it's hardly fair if I do) but seeing a plethora of teenagers (and not-so-teenage-people) swoon over the apparently pure romance behind vampirism has made me somewhat depressed... Whatever happened to the shear horror? You can't have love without hate, people...). He's such a flamboyant character, but he was constructed in such a way that it doesn't take away from his darker nature. That's the Herbert I've come to love and adore, and he's the one I want to write more about

[valancystar]

I so agree with you on the vampire romance thing. Sorry, but there's no thrill on the attraction of the darkness if it isn't truly dark. There's no point in vampire stories if the vampires aren't dangerous and scary. And I have read the first Twilight book (and hated it more than anything ever) so I can criticise it. :-D

[ladyofpride]

You know, I was watching one clip of Steve Barton's last night as Krolock (God bless his soul), and the poster kept referring to an "inside joke". I wasn't entirely sure what it was about, but I did notice that dream "Alfred" was yanked off the bed and bitten by the dark vampire instead of the dream "Sarah" at the end of Carpe Noctem. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? I'm supposing that the cast was referring to the fact that Alfred is Krolock's true victim despite the fact that he's after Sarah. Too far off the mark, maybe?

Sorry---I know that's pretty random. If I'm right, though, it'll feed another fic idea that I have for the fandom.

[valancystar]

Yeah, it's Dream!Alfred in Dream!Sarah's place in the end that is the inside joke. I don't know if it was anything more than "Heh, let's switch them, that'd be fun" but it is an interesting point you make about Alfred being Krolock's true victim. I find the Alfred/Krolock relationship (not necessarily in a slashy way, though it can be done that way as well) very, very interesting. It's made much less of than the Krolock/Sarah stuff, but I find it more fascinating because Alfred is on the surface horrified by vampires, definitely not all ready to go and willingly offer himself for them like Sarah, yet there's a certain fascination, and Krolock sees that fascination and wants to corrupt Alfred as well.

[ladyofpride]

Oh, I know what you mean about the dark fascination. I think that's why some of the productions make another inside joke about whether or not Alfred really doesn't enjoy Herbert's advances (one of clips had the Professor pointing out that, judging by the bulge he saw below Alfred's belt, he doesn't exactly believe Herbert's misbehavior was entirely one-sided. Lol...). Depending on who's playing Alfred, he just looks too naive to understand his own desire for the darkness or he's just too frightened.

[valancystar]

Haha, yeah, they do that in Budapest, where I've mostly seen the show - and usually Alfred totally freaks out and puts the bag in front of his crotch, which begs the question, what does he need to hide...?

But yeah, it's interesting to see how different actors play out that fascination with the darkness, if he's just too naive to understand it or if he's more conscious and torn about it. It's also interesting to see how they react to Krolock's words in the end of the first act - some just stare, kind of mesmerized and scared, others react more visibly to show that they're also interested and frightened not perhaps only of Krolock, but also of the fascination he raises in them.

[ladyofpride]

I never really get to see Alfred's expression at the end of Act 1, but it sometimes baffles me that he's still willing to dash into the castle (to save Sarah) even after Krolock gives him the whole 'join the dark side' speech. If I were him, I would seriously reconsider my attack route... although, that's part of what I like about him. As sweet and innocent as he is, he still tries to do the goody-two-shoe thing by saving his beloved.

And that's an interesting point you brought up---that Alfred's not only frightened of Krolock, but also of the fascination he raises in him. I wonder how Alfred would've reacted to meeting von Krolock if there had been no Sarah?