With the dead roaming free and a band of armed humans out to put an end to his eternal life, the vampire Dorian creates a sanctuary far from town. With human captives, fresh blood is always available.
At the very end of the episode 5 of season 6 of The Walking Dead, a growing blood trail is shown going from the middle of a wall section. It doesn't look like someone died up above because there are other horizontal bars above it that would block the flow. What is going on?
In the first episode of the season, we see something quite similar happen when the herd is being led around the bend in the road, at the point where a temporary wall was erected to direct the zombies in the desired direction. The mass of the herd squashes the zombies who are unlucky enough to be between their colleagues and the wall, and when the herd passes, the walls are smeared with gore.
Although there are 30 human blood group systems, the two main ones we worry about for blood donations are the ABO and Rh systems. In the ABO system, each individual has two versions of the ABO gene. These versions can express either an A antigen, a B antigen, or no antigen at all (O). This gives rise to the four possible ABO types in which the individual expresses only A antigen (A), only B antigen (B), both A and B antigens (AB), or no antigen (O). The Rh system actually considers many different antigens, but we focus only on the D antigen, which is important for predicting certain risks like hemolytic disease of the newborn. If an individual expresses this antigen, they are considered Rh+ for blood donation purposes. If they do not, they are Rh-.
Which is a long way of saying that Carl could only receive a direct blood transfusion from an A+ or an A- donor. So, how likely is it that there would be no other compatible donors in the group?
I also modeled how the number of people in the group that we know are aware of their blood type affects the odds. Both these analyses show that at relatively low frequencies of general blood type awareness, it becomes quite likely that the group would contain another compatible donor.
In the already unlikely world overrun by zombies of The Walking Dead, this situation does not eliminate credibility, but it does strain it. Could they have chosen a better blood type for their storyline?
In which Items of Interest and Curiosities of Nature are discussed employing the latest techniques in Logic and The Scientific Method for the furtherance of Human Erudition and the promotion of Critical Thought.
I got out a few minutes later and noticed that instead of the sand being covered with shells, like last year, it was covered with dead fish. As I climbed the steps to the condo, I spotted the housekeeping staff wearing surgical masks. Back upstairs, John pointed out that the neighbors, one balcony over, were wearing them too. A quick internet search revealed the problem: red tide.
We wondered if we should we spend our vacation indoors, hugging the air conditioner. Should we pack up and head home? We stayed. We swam in the pool instead of the ocean. We bought surgical masks and tried not to inhale.
Why, just last night, I dreamt of emerald moss beneath my bare back and grey-gold sunlight on my still youthful belly. The land spirits were breathing with me, and I willed myself to stay, to become a milk stain on the ground where the Fae might gather, to gift my bones to ground as a final and eternal currency valued much more than my pagan poetry would ever be.
For just a moment, scarcely as long as that anxious and fleeting space between the last exhale and next inhale, I was a holy nothing. Even so, it seemed I spent an eternity in that warm pink-gold place between death and birth. The just-dead grandmothers bade me laugh more often and stop taking my witchcraft so seriously, but the oldest ancestors handed me fine-pointed blades and marched me to the sacrificial groves where I spilled much blood in the name of healing and hope, where I slashed the throats of the soulless to the rhythm of primitive bodhrans played by vengeful women seething with the same inherited righteous rage that gives shape to my heathen verses.
The sun began to warm me again, and my hair sprouted straight from my fleshless skull. My wet tongue grew heavy behind my teeth, and I began humming hymns to the Morrigan while my heart sparked to life. The forest was a newborn once more, and I knew I had to put apathy to death.
I'm not sure what happened. There had obviously been a fight-- maybe with a cat? But the flesh of the bird's neck and chest was gone. [See next photo in my photostream.] Nearby was a big blood stain and lots of feathers-- seen in this photo. I've seen dead, mangled birds before... but not like this.
But SURPRISE! The punch bowl is empty, and our lovable trio of vampires start murdering everyone! It is a full-on chaotic bloodbath, and they just get blood all over their conveniently white costumes, which, if I know anything about Anne Rice, is 100% against basic vampire etiquette.
It\u2019s Grande Finale time, treasured subscribers! First: apologies, as I am sending this week\u2019s final Interview With the Vampire recap a day late due to being GRAVELY ILL with COVID. Don\u2019t worry about me, tho! I\u2019m getting hot blood infusions from my sexy manservant who might be fully gaslighting me and holding me hostage???
Ok, we pick back up probably I guess the next day after aged GRAVELY ILL has-been journalist (we have so much in common!) Danielle Mallory had that dream where he remembered that Louis\u2019s snooty manservant and blood-donor Rashid was actually there at the San Francisco homogay saloon where he first met Louis in 1970-whatever. So, now he\u2019s even more suspicioso of that Rashid.
Over\u2026dinner, or some meal, Daniel is asking all about how Louis and Claudia planned to kill Lestat. Apparently the ways to kill vampires are: 1) starve; 2) fire; 3) off-with-their-head; and also 4) drink \u201Cblood from the dead.\u201D Which I guess is the same as drink dead blood? I don\u2019t know! This rule is so confusing! Like, clearly vampires don\u2019t have to eat blood directly out of a living person because Louis is literally slurping hemoglobins out of a bowl. So, like, does that mean whoever \u201Cdonated\u201D that blood has to still be alive somewhere and also WHY DOES THAT MATTER??? Ugh. This is such a weird dumb rule that isn\u2019t even really consistent in the actual books so\u2026shrug??
Anyway, in the past (which is maybe the early 1940s at this point?), Lestat is basically holding Louis and Claudia hostage, and they are all miserable. But like, why tho? Why is he even doing this? Is it even fun for Lestat anymore? Doesn\u2019t seem like it!
Then one night, all three of them are not really at all enjoying an evening at home, slowly bleeding this random dude to death and hating each other, when there\u2019s a knock at the door . It\u2019s some other random guy who is dying of cancer and thinks they know the secret to eternal life or something. Apparently, these three are so bad at being discreet with their murders and eternal youth that the whole town pretty much fully believes they\u2019ve made a pact with the devil.
So, they start planning their big move. Louis suggests Greece, and Lestat is like, \u201COoooh, no, we can\u2019t go to there because that\u2019s where Those Must be Kept arrrrr\u2026I mean the King and Queen of all Vampiiiii\u2026 I mean the source of all the undeaaaaaaa\u2026 I mean NEVER MIND we just can\u2019t go there!\u201D (Is Lestat the Easter Bunny? Because he just laid an EGG!)
Meanwhile, Claudia is still plotting and scheming to do a murder on Lestat. But she can\u2019t tell Louis her whole plan, because she thinks Lestat will just kiss and bone it right out of him. So, he\u2019s mostly in the dark at this point, just going along with it like, \u201CSure, ok, I guess we\u2019re murdering my boyfriend who I kinda love with my whole heart and soul? I\u2019m fine with all this and definitely not way too influenced and constantly manipulated by basically all of my loved ones.\u201D
But ok, here\u2019s what we know about Claudia\u2019s Master Plan to Murder Lestat: Step 1, convince him to throw a big huge going away Mardi Gras party where they will murder all of New Orleans society. \u201CIt\u2019s Mardi Gras!\u201D Claudia says. \u201CNo one will possibly notice us loudly and obviously murdering all these very prominent rich people who were very notably at a party at our suspicious devil murder house!\u201D
So, they spend much of the episode planning their big bonanza bloodbath ball. Which involves\u2014jeezus fucking christ\u2014bribing the last of those awful boring Business Moustaches (who has shaved his moustache!!!) to make Lestat the Mardi Gras queen?
Meanwhile, Claudia is doing Step 2 of her plan: buy poison to poison one of Lestat\u2019s victims to death so that he also will die due to the very clear and understandable rules about \u201Cdead blood.\u201D
So, he\u2019s having a blast. Their ball is a huge success, and all the important people are there, which is great because part of the plan is convince all the\u2026worst society people to stick around for the after party, where they will supposedly learn the secret of eternal youth or something. Claudia has even earmarked some hot twins for Lestat\u2014but, she telepathically tells Louis, really she\u2019s going to poison one of them (see above re: dead blood, ugh).
While all this is happening, Louis thinks he telepathologically hears another vampire at the party. But Claudia is like, \u201CWhat? Shut up, you\u2019re just hungry.\u201D Oh, because they\u2019ve been starving themselves all week to prepare for eating so many people.
In addition to being v. hungry, Louis is also super horny for Lestat again all of a sudden, and they have a nice sweet chat on the terrace. Then they have a big romantic dance together and kiss right in front of everyone. They\u2019re like, \u201CYes! We are super gay just like you all already thought!\u201D
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