Anne Rice's Email With A Vampire with Mike Rugnetta

Mike Rugnetta graciously accepted our invitation to a vampire ball in New Orleans. Follow Mike on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/mikerugnetta/?hl=en. Listen to his podcast Never Post here https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/never-post. And here's that collab with ICYMI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/icymi-x-np-how-kate-middletons-disappearance-redefined/id1719307150?i=1000654957470&l=zh-Hant-TW. Subscribe to our newsletter for writing from Rachelle, Se'era, Jae, Alex, and Kelsey, plus blog recommendations and secrets! https://defector.com/normal-gossip-podcast You can support Normal Gossip directly by buying merch https://defectorstore.com/collections/normal-gossip or becoming a Friend or a Friend-of-Friend at supportnormalgossip.com https://defector.com/products/normalgossip. Our merch shop is run by Dan McQuade. You can also find all kinds of info about us and how to submit gossip on our Komi page:https://normalgossip.komi.io/ Episode transcript here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L1DznW9T7-0_LfbP2Z0_IL0p03ADNnwbKU7N5JTdVeY/edit?usp=sharing. Follow the show on Instagram@normalgossip https://www.instagram.com/normalgossip/, and if you have gossip, email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 26-79-GOSSIP. Normal Gossip is hosted by Rachelle Hampton (@heyydnae https://www.instagram.com/heyydnae/?hl=en) and produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks (@seera_sharae https://www.instagram.com/seera_sharae/?hl=en) and Jae Towle Vieira (@jaetowlevieira https://instagram.com/jaetowlevieira?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==). Alex Sujong Laughlin (@alexlaughs https://www.instagram.com/alexlaughs/) is our Supervising Producer. Justin Ellis is Defector's projects editor. Show art by Tara Jacoby. Normal Gossip is a proud member ofRadiotopia https://www.radiotopia.fm/. Support Radiotopia's fall fundraiser here http://radiotopia.fm/donate. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

• 0:07Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to Normal Gossip. I'm your host, Rachel Hampton, and in each episode of this podcast, we're gonna bring you an anonymous morsel of gossip from the real world. I hope y'all enjoyed last week's episode with none other than the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala herself. If you haven't listened yet, then what are you waiting for? And if you have listened and find yourself wanting to know who Malala considers to be a better gossip, her friends, or like, uh, Justin Trudeau, well, then have I got a treat for you. Last season, Ciara and I realized that we had so much tape we had to leave on the cutting room floor because these episodes simply cannot be two hours long. I know you guys

• 0:51Speaker 00

  asked for that. You don't actually want it. So, in our subscriber exclusive feed, we are publishing some of our favorite behind the scenes clips, including some from our episode Malala, like she tells us about her first and only experience with bead. Tell me you don't want to hear that. You can't. The further away I get from that recording, the more I'm like, damn, how am I gonna top that? But don't worry. I've got at least a few more years of normal gossip left in me, and both Ciara and I love to compete with ourselves, so who knows what the universe has in store? Well, we're waiting to find that out. I have got an incredible story for y'all today. Like, this is one of my favorite scripts I've gotten to work on, and today's guest is a familiar face for those of y'all who listen to the

• 1:33Speaker 00

  show I hosted over at Slate called In Case You Missed It, or Icy YMI. Back in May 2024, we collaborated with a show called Never Post, which is a podcast about and for the internet. We talked about what we called monocultural moments, which are these moments on the internet that break outside their niche and end up being all anyone can talk about. Think like those couple of months where we thought Kate Middleton was missing, or the Titanic's submersible story from 2023. Yeah, that was two years ago. We'll link that collab in the show notes. I have a feeling y'all might want to listen to it after you hear how fun today's guest is. Today, I am joined by Mike Rugnetta, a writer, producer, and host of the podcast Never Post, which joined the Radiotopia

• 2:17Speaker 00

  network earlier this year. So technically, our shows are like cousins or sisters, or whatever you want to call it. Mike, hello. Thank you for joining me.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  Rachel, hello. It is, um, it's an honor to be here. I am beyond thrilled. And I'm gonna be honest, a little scared, but we'll talk about that soon.

• 2:38Speaker 00

  That is the exact overlap I want. That is the Venn diagram space that I want all of our guests to exist in, is excited and a little bit scared.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  You know, I'm a rule follower at heart, so here I am. I'm just, uh, I'm doing what I'm supposed to.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  Perfect, perfect. I will ask you to kill the rule-following part of yourself once we get into the gossip, because I'm gonna need you to be judgmental.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Okay, okay.

• 3:02Speaker 00

  But before we get into that, I wanted to ask you the question that we ask all of our guests, which is, what is your relationship to gossip?

• 3:09Speaker 01

  I love, love, love a good story. And I especially love stories about like, people trying to figure it out. Like, people just having challenges, interpersonal difficulties, even if it's remote, like a shared, common goal. I really, really love it. But like, there's like a certain aspect, I think, to a lot of gossip that's like, about people's deep, personal experiences. And like, I think for me, that's like a sort of glass house thing. Like, I'm pretty private. Uh, you know, like, I don't really share a lot of my business publicly. And so sometimes I hear someone else's personal business, and I'm like, I shouldn't know this. I shouldn't know.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  This is like, uh, this is not for me. And so it makes my skin crawl a little bit. For like, most of my life, I've been an artist. Like, I worked in theater for a while. Now I work in media. And so I'm surrounded by just like, energy is high, emotions run high. People talk about other people because it's important that you understand who you're working with, and that you know you're gonna be on the same emotional wavelength. And so that I think involves some amount of almost professional gossiping.

• 4:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  So I think that maybe like I know how to gossip in like a really narrow register. Like maybe even professional arts related gossiping is something that I think I can do a little bit.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  But no, I'm not like a interpersonal friends gossip. People don't really bring me gossip. When my wife was pregnant with our kid, I remember, you know, she would be like, you don't have to bring me food. I want gossip. I just, I want you to go into the world and get me gossip. Because that's what I'm not getting right now, being out in the world and I need. So I learned a little bit about how to gossip in that moment.

• 4:57Speaker 00

  I love that your wife was like, I cannot go out into the world and gather this for myself. So I'm sending you all out, my hunter gatherers to get me the good shit.

• 5:08Speaker 01

  She is, I would say, a world class eavesdropper.

• 5:13Speaker 00

  Oh, that's such a good skill to have.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  We will leave a restaurant and she'll be like, did you hear that conversation that was happening five tables over? And I'll be like, what? How were you talking to me? And also?

• 5:27Speaker 00

  You're like, I was focusing on the chicken. The chicken was really good. What did you think about the chicken? And she's like, well, they were breaking up, so I don't know if you want to lock the fuck in or not.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:38Speaker 00

  Me and your wife, I think, would get along.

• 5:40Speaker 01

  I think you would. I think you would. She will absolutely be listening to this and like giving me tips about how to gossip better.

• 5:46Speaker 00

  Oh, please let us know what tips she gives you. Let us know her rating on your performance over the course of this show. I mean, you've told me now that you don't consider yourself a natural at gossip, which makes me very, very excited to hear the gossip that I've heard you have for me.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  I do. I have some. I do. I do have some. I can't explain why I'm so nervous about this.

• 6:12Speaker 00

  I can tell.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  I've been doing things in front of people for so long. Like people are like, do you get nervous? I'm like, no, I never get, like, I get excited. Like, right now, nervous.

• 6:23Speaker 00

  I'm honored.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  I would say this story, I think it's a really good, kind of like, character study.

• 6:27Speaker 00

  Oh, I like that.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  And this is one of the few bits of gossip that like I am directly involved in. Like this happened to me. I was there. Like this is an experience that I had. When it wrapped, I was like, huh, that was wild.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  Uh, this is over a decade ago, maybe about a decade ago. Some friends of mine and I rent a house in the woods, like in the middle of nowhere, for another friend's birthday weekend, just like hanging out in a big house together. And one day, we all decide that what we're gonna do is we're gonna cook a big Italian dinner all together. So everybody has their little, their job and like, we're gonna just spend the day vaguely working on those things until we all get together at the end of the day and eat all together. I end up being, as the person of Sicilian descent,

• 7:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  I'm in charge of the sauce. And I mention this only because like, it's context for the fact that there's a point in this story where the details get hazy because I have spent all day cooking sauce and drinking red wine.

• 7:29Speaker 00

  I'm already loving where this is going.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Great, good. So anyways, we're all hanging out in this house and there's like, there's seven of us, I think, including a couple, let's call them Scott and Annie. So they are here, right, for the birthday celebrations. They're part of celebrating my pal's birthday, but they have their own Airbnb. They're staying at a completely different house. And Scott is the heir to the fortune of a very old international company. And Annie, who was his girlfriend at the time, works in finance. I'm gonna be honest, I think that maybe she worked in finance in the way that like, people who work in crypto now say that they work in finance. You know, like, I don't know what she did. I get the sense that it was like, on the fringes.

• 8:15Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm. Yes, I have a clear picture in my head of Scott and Annie. Okay.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. The only way really I can describe how they are, besides these details, is that they're rich. These are people who are rich. They conduct themselves in the way that rich people do. They're at this Airbnb, you know, we're all making this big dinner, and they're both kind of doing their own thing while everybody's working on their dinner tasks. After a while, Scott gets a phone call from the owner of his Airbnb, who like, lives in the other part of the Airbnb. So Scott has two dogs, and the Airbnb, no dogs allowed.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  The owner is calling and they're like, dog, you've got to get these dogs.

• 8:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  Like this is against the rules. So he and Annie fight about this, you know, there's a pointing and a shouting and a whatever. He leaves, gets the dogs, comes back with the dogs to this Airbnb that is also no dogs allowed.

• 9:10Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  As a, as a rule follower, as previously established, this is, I'm about to go insane.

• 9:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:17Speaker 01

  I didn't bring my dog on this weekend getaway for this reason. Eventually dinner is done. Five of the seven of us have spent huge amount of time all day on this like big, beautiful spread pasta sauce, like bread, salad, chicken, like the whole nine yards. Multiple tables have been gathered and like put together. Uh, one of my friends spent all this time like putting up beautiful place settings, uh, and everybody lines up, uh, to get food. Who do you think is first in line? Scott is first and Annie is second.

• 9:48Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  And do you want to guess the size of the portions that they serve themselves?

• 9:54Speaker 00

  Massive. Of course.

• 9:56Speaker 01

  Exorbitant.

• 9:58Speaker 00

  They were like, this is a family style meal. I'm eating for a family.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  And I'm the family.

• 10:02Speaker 00

  I'm the family. Yeah. You cooked for me. Thank you so much.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  This to me is like the emotional climax of the story. Like, I didn't say anything. I had been sort of in orbit the whole day being like, wow, this is weird. And like, this is just such a way to behave. Um, I'm at the end of the line and I remember turning to my wife and being like, these people have never, ever worried that they have maybe too much. Narratively, the story keeps going, but it's just gets like weirder and weirder, like odious rich people details, like they fight more. There was a moment where like he had to go back to his Airbnb. And by the time he had returned, like some of us or most of us had gone to bed, the door was locked. So instead of like ringing the doorbell,

• 10:49Speaker 01

  he tries to break in through a window. And one of my friends thinks that someone's trying to burglar the house. So he's goes down and he's like, ready to beat the shit out of this guy. And he turns on the light and it's Scott. And like they get in a shouting match because of course my friend is like, dude, what the fuck are you? Like, what are you doing? But really it's the spaghetti that sticks with me.

• 11:12Speaker 00

  I love that you're like, this story hinges on this pivotal moment where this sauce that I spent all day slaving over was taken. And you're doing the hand gesture.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  Was not, was not distributed fairly.

• 11:27Speaker 00

  Was not distributed evenly. And then you're like, and then later in the story, he did try to break into the house, but like, that's actually not really that important. It's the fact that he

• 11:38Speaker 00

  ate too much of the sauce that I made.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  For everybody.

• 11:42Speaker 00

  No, it's true. I do think it says a lot. I feel like it's so true. Those people, they never think they have too much. In fact, they're always thinking they don't have enough, even as they have the most. Like, they're always like, how do I get more?

• 11:54Speaker 01

  How do I get more?

• 11:55Speaker 00

  Babe, when does the more run out? Have you thought about that?

• 11:59Speaker 01

  It seems like you're unhappy. And maybe the constant search and desire for more is part of that.

• 12:09Speaker 00

  Who could say? I'm not rich, though, but I do have suspicions.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  The theory of mind here, you know?

• 12:15Speaker 00

  Yes, yes. Wow, that is beautiful. I feel like there's never a weekend trip in an Airbnb that does not have some kind of story like this. Because once you get, I think, more than four adults together.

• 12:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:33Speaker 00

  Something's gonna happen. Something's gonna happen. And then dogs, dogs that aren't supposed to be there, that's, that's a lot.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  I'm like, I'm scanning through my available memory of like, friend's weekends. And yeah, there's a story for every single one of them. Yeah.

• 12:49Speaker 00

  I mean, I'm gonna be honest, that's at least 30% of why I go. Because I know I'm gonna have a story once I leave. I'm like, okay, beautiful scenery, and someone's probably gonna do something crazy, and it's not gonna be me, because I'm gonna be high. So I'm just gonna be watching.

• 13:04Speaker 01

  You're gonna be on the couch?

• 13:05Speaker 00

  I'm gonna be on the couch with my vape pen and a glass of wine, watching what's going on. It's dinner and a show.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  Ready for the evening entertainment.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  No, literally, I'm like, whatever y'all want to do, good with me. I'll be on the phone with my bestie once we get back, though, telling them what just happened.

• 13:20Speaker 01

  Shut up a camera, just whatever you do, just make sure it's in this general area.

• 13:24Speaker 00

  No, exactly. It's like, can you guys stay in the right frame? Like, you're kind of going off screen. This isn't helpful.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  I missed that. Say it one more time.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  Yeah. That was great gossip, and now I'm looking forward to my next weekend trip with four to five adults for this very reason, because I'm gonna come out with some crazy shit.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  Make sure to get one really rich guy.

• 13:44Speaker 00

  And that rich guy will not be staying in a separate Airbnb. He will be renting the Airbnb that we're in.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  See, you're smart. You've thought about this.

• 13:51Speaker 00

  You got a scam.

• 13:56Speaker 00

  Thank you for that beautiful gossip, Mike. Now I have some for you. Are you ready?

• 14:01Speaker 01

  I had like a wave of relief having finished telling that story, and now it's like I'm back up to 10. Yes, I'm so, I'm ready and I'm excited.

• 14:12Speaker 00

  I'm gonna admit something embarrassing. I know, shocker. I have not had a bedside lamp for an undisclosed amount of months, long enough that I basically haven't read before bed for a really long time. And I only realized this because I'm hosting a friend and I was like, wow, they deserve to have a light by their bed at night. I don't. But this finally inspired me to find the perfect bedside lamp, and I had a vision in mind. Wayfair, they had exactly what I need, which is one of those library-style lights with like the green lampshade and little pull cord. I have been having this image in my mind of having one, and now I have one because of course Wayfair had it.

• 14:55Speaker 00

  For all things hosting, Wayfair delivers high-quality, customer-trusted products for your home so you can host and celebrate without distress. When refreshing your home this holiday season, Wayfair delivers exactly what you need. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com.

• 15:17Speaker 00

  We've been cooking up a fun, special holiday project for y'all over here at Normal Gossip. And usually when work gets crazy, I kind of just try to continue my life like nothing's happening. But recently, thanks to therapy, this time around, I was like, what if I did not try to pour from an empty cup? And that is what growing feels like. If you've been thinking about starting therapy, then I think you should check out today's sponsor, Growth Therapy. Growth Therapy is built for therapy that actually feels like care. You can find therapy based on what matters most to you, like insurance taken, mental health specialties, identity, or night and weekend availability if you're working a lot.

• 16:02Speaker 00

  Book your first session in minutes and you can start in as little as two days. Sessions average $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0, depending on your insurance plan. Prepare for holiday glimmers instead of holiday stress. Visit growtherapy.com/gossip to get started today. That is growtherapy.com/gossip. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

• 16:29Speaker 02

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• 17:04Speaker 00

  There are two important things to know about today's story. The first is that it takes place in New Orleans in the late 90s. And the second is that it involves vampires.

• 17:15Speaker 01

  Of course it does. Of course. Is there any story that takes place in New Orleans in the late 90s that does not involve a vampire?

• 17:25Speaker 00

  I couldn't say.

• 17:28Speaker 01

  Uh, okay. I'm so excited.

• 17:31Speaker 00

  I wanted to ask, do you have any prior history with vampires?

• 17:35Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, only a couple thousand years, having been one for a while.

• 17:40Speaker 01

  I mean, I love vampire stories. Uh, I am a self-described mall Goth. When I was in high school, was really obsessed with a tabletop role playing game called Vampire The Masquerade, that, uh, my friends and I, we never played it, ever. But I think I read the rulebook for it maybe a hundred times.

• 18:07Speaker 00

  Mike, what?

• 18:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's just an old tabletop role playing game, very Goth in nature, very 1990s.

• 18:14Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. A lot of the memories of like, what goes on in it have been papered over by just time.

• 18:20Speaker 00

  Oh, I'm sure.

• 18:22Speaker 01

  But I can picture myself sitting in my friend Sean's basement, holding the book, like flipping through it. So, you know, yeah, there was probably a period of my teens where I wanted to be a vampire, either literally or metaphorically around the table with some friends.

• 18:37Speaker 00

  I mean, I don't know if I can personally relate to anyone who didn't at some point in their teenager years want to be a vampire.

• 18:45Speaker 01

  Who doesn't want to be sexy and immortal?

• 18:47Speaker 00

  Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So we're in a good space. I think you were perfectly placed to get the vibes of this story. So, our friend of a friend today is named Thomas, and Thomas has just moved to New Orleans to get his master's in historic preservation at Tulane. His girlfriend Lydia is moving with him. They had met sophomore year in a student theater club. Thomas had played Hamlet while Lydia had played Ophelia, and they had been inseparable ever since.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Okay. So just immediately, I love both of them. I wanna, I wanna protect them, and I want nothing bad to happen to them.

• 19:24Speaker 00

  Both Thomas and Lydia are super excited to be moving to New Orleans. They both identify as a big Goth, like, they're not drinking each other's blood. On a regular basis.

• 19:35Speaker 01

  Okay, an interesting clarification. My opinion of these two is not changing, but shifting.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. Yeah, 75% of the clothes they own are black. The other 25% is like ox blood red or like midnight blue. So Thomas and Lydia are stoked about all the potential goth activities that New Orleans has to offer. Like, I don't think it's crazy to say that there's like real, actual spooky shit in New Orleans. Like, if you want to find a ghost in America, I think New Orleans is a great place to start.

• 20:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, that aligns with my understanding of New Orleans, that, yeah, if, if you want to find spooky stuff, it's one of the places you can go.

• 20:12Speaker 00

  Do you believe in spooky stuff? Are you like agnostic? Are you just like, I don't touch it. My vibe is, I don't think about it and it doesn't think about me.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't, I don't think about it and I hope it doesn't think about me. When I was younger, I was definitely really into spooky stuff. And was like really into the idea of ghosts and spirits and haunting and poltergeists and stuff like that. That's a pretty common fascination, or at least it was when I was growing up. Now I think I'm, yeah, I'm pretty agnostic about it.

• 20:43Speaker 00

  Well, unfortunately for Thomas and Lydia, they don't really get into any spooky shit in their first couple of months in New Orleans. Thomas's grad program is actually super intense and he doesn't really fit in with his grad cohort. His classmates all seem intimidated by his bridge piercing, which is the one like between the eyes through the bridge of the nose. Apparently not a lot of aspiring historic preservationists have bridge piercings. Who could have guessed? Not me. Meanwhile, Lydia is having a really hard time nailing down a full-time job. Her undergrad degree was in art history and, uh, turns out her parents had been right about the career prospects associated with that. So it gets desperate enough that Lydia even applies to wait tables, but turns out even restaurants want their waitresses to have experience. Who could have guessed?

• 21:28Speaker 01

  Who could have thought? Who could have thought?

• 21:29Speaker 00

  Who could have thought? Not Thomas or Lydia. How long do you think it takes to settle into a new city?

• 21:36Speaker 01

  Like, fully settle in? Like, you've got a job and like, you know, your house sort of feels like yours? I'm gonna say, if you're really fast, three months. Normal, like, average time? Like, a year?

• 21:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, it takes a couple of months before things start to trend upwards for Thomas and Lydia. At the advice of one of his professors, Thomas does take out his bridge piercing and that does help. His classmates get used to him. Uh, plus, Lydia finds a job!

• 22:03Speaker 01

  Yay, good job.

• 22:04Speaker 00

  Technically, it isn't a print-ship, but the florist promised he would start paying her once Lydia was no longer a hazard with the pruning shears.

• 22:12Speaker 01

  Oh no.

• 22:15Speaker 00

  So vibes are trending upward. And they start looking even better when one day at the flower shop Lydia hears about this Goth bar in the city from a customer who had ordered a dozen black roses. So, the next night, Thomas and Lydia dress in their finest black clothing and they head to this Goth bar, which is called Louis', as in the protagonist of Interview with the Vampire. Because this bar isn't just Goth-themed, it's Anne Rice-themed. How familiar are you with Anne Rice?

• 22:43Speaker 01

  I have watched Interview with the Vampire.

• 22:45Speaker 00

  Which Interview with the Vampire adaptation have you seen?

• 22:48Speaker 01

  The first one, with Tom Cruise.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  Perfect. Thomas and Lydia had both seen the 1994 movie with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. But that was about it. So they're in a similar place. So they feel a little bit out of their depth, but the vibes of Louis' are exactly what they're looking for. Like, the wallpaper is red velvet. There's not a single overhead light to be found. And the bar serves not one, not two, but three different kinds of absinthe.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  That's about, you gotta have variety in your life. You know what I mean? It's important to have choices, uh, and why not start with absinthe?

• 23:27Speaker 00

  Have you ever tried absinthe?

• 23:29Speaker 01

  I have, yeah, a bunch. I've had a, I've had a fair amount of absinthe in my life.

• 23:33Speaker 00

  What do you think of it? I'm so curious. I wanna try it so bad.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  I think it rules. It's great. It's, I mean, you know, it tastes like that kind of liquor. Like, it tastes like, sort of, um... Anise, licorice, you know, and it's extremely strong, so you don't drink a lot of it.

• 23:50Speaker 00

  Thomas and Lydia are planning to take a cab home, so they immediately get an absinthe infused cocktail before finding a table. And it's not long before they're approached by another couple. And this couple is giving Morticia and Gomez Adams, like, the man is even wearing a black and gray pinstripe blazer. His name is Marcus. His wife, Michelle, has like the thickest, darkest hair that Lydia has ever seen in her entire life. And Marcus and Michelle are regulars here at Louis'. In fact, they tell Lydia and Thomas that the main reason they had moved to New Orleans a decade back is because of how much they loved Anne Rice. So when they find out that Thomas and Lydia have only seen the 1994 movie, Marcus and

• 24:32Speaker 00

  Michelle immediately light up, like kids at Christmas, or like kids at the nightmare before Christmas, if you want to be aesthetically accurate.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  They light up like a black light.

• 24:44Speaker 00

  Exactly. Marcus and Michelle are like, oh, my God, you're in for such a treat. Do you prefer hardback or paperback? We have signed copies. Are you free on Friday at 7:00 PM so we can hand off these books? And before Thomas and Lydia can even say thank you, they have Friday evening plans to get these books.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  Whoa. I would be a little scared. I would definitely be scared.

• 25:03Speaker 00

  Well, Thomas and Lydia are desperate for friends, and they're non-denominational goths, so they don't have anything against Anne Rice. And once they start reading Interview with the Vampire, they're both like, hold up, this is great. But also, this is way gayer than the movie, which both Thomas and Lydia consider to be a plus. One of the things they had bonded over during that college production of Hamlet is that they both believe that there is textual evidence that Hamlet is, at the very least, bisexual, which is a thing that Shakespeare nerds apparently care a lot about. I say that because my best friend is a Shakespeare nerd. So finding out that Anne Rice's vampires are like explicitly

• 25:44Speaker 00

  gay only made Thomas and Lydia more excited to keep meeting up with Marcus and Michelle.

• 25:49Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 25:50Speaker 00

  And it turns out Marcus and Michelle aren't just fans of Anne Rice. They consider themselves followers of Anne Rice. Like, a huge portion of their social life is dedicated to this fandom. And if there is one place in the world where you can fill your calendar year round with Anne Rice-themed events, it's New Orleans in the 90s.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  Much like the existence of an Anne Rice bar, this detail is almost unfathomable in 2025.

• 26:20Speaker 00

  Well, the most important event in the Anne Rice social calendar is the Anne Rice Ball, which is a real thing, by the way. Have you heard of it?

• 26:29Speaker 01

  No, I haven't. And I am excited to learn more.

• 26:33Speaker 00

  I had not before this story, but apparently the Anne Rice Ball is thrown every fall by the vampire Lestat Fan Club in New Orleans. This year, as in 2025, marks the 37th Anne Rice Ball, so it's been around since before the Brad Pitt movie. The movie did not hurt ticket sales, plus Anne Rice was known to attend when she was alive. The dress code for the Anne Rice Ball is extremely strict, like the website says, quote, "If you are not in attire appropriate to the aesthetic and extravagance of our event, you will be turned away at the gate and no refund will be given." Tickets this year in 2025 start at $393.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  Good for them. Will I be paying $390? Probably not. Will I be dressing up in accordance with the rules anyways, just in my house? Maybe.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  I mean, listen, I love extravagance.

• 27:34Speaker 00

  So back to the late 90s, when Thomas and Lydia first hear about the Anne Rice Ball, it's still about a month out for them, but tickets are already sold out, which is fine, because Thomas and Lydia are enjoying hanging out with Marcus and Michelle. All the events they've been invited to have been cool. There's obviously a lot of costuming in this community, so Thomas and Lydia get to tap into their theater kid roots, which is fun and exciting, but they're a long way from paying whatever the 1990s equivalent of $393 is. All of that starts to change, though, when they first hear about Gabriel. Mike, have you ever had, like, a self-destructive crush? Like, not enough to require, like, medical intervention, but certainly enough that when you look back, you're like, ooh. Now my finest hour.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. Hundred percent. Hundred, hundred thousand percent. Yes.

• 28:23Speaker 00

  So Gabriel is apparently infamous in the circles that Marcus and Michelle run in. He has allegedly been anointed by Anne Rice herself. He leads tours in a New Orleans cemetery and rumor has it that his canines are so sharp because he's had them filed down to look like actual things. Other people say he was born that way, or reborn that way.

• 28:48Speaker 01

  Wap, wap, wap, wap.

• 28:50Speaker 00

  Because of course, this group of people is like half convinced that Gabriel is an actual vampire.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  Okay, everybody. All right. Chill out.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  As Marcus and Michelle are telling Thomas and Lydia about Gabriel, it is so clear that Marcus and Michelle are trying to play it off like they're not that impressed. Except it just ends up giving that scene in Mean Girls, you know, where it's like, I saw Regina George wearing army pants and flip flops, so I bought army pants and flip flops. Marcus is like, I've heard Gabriel speak Romanian. And Michelle is like, Gabriel's actually fluent in 20 languages, including Old English, Welsh, and Bavarian.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  All the vampire languages.

• 29:35Speaker 00

  Thomas and Lydia are a little skeptical, but when Marcus and Michelle invite them to a Halloween party that is exclusive enough that Gabriel is rumored to be in attendance, it does not take Thomas and Lydia long to say yes. Thomas and Lydia, super into costuming, super into Halloween, so they spend their whole week constructing their costumes and they decide to go back to their roots. So Thomas is dressed as a period accurate hamlet, while Lydia is Ophelia, specifically Ophelia in that famous Jean Everett Millais painting.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.

• 30:06Speaker 00

  Where she's like singing and drowning in the river.

• 30:09Speaker 01

  I was gonna say the like, hamlet, you could be Gothor. It's not not Goth, but like you could be Gothor. That Ophelia in particular nailed it.

• 30:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, like Lydia's got flowers twined through her hair. She somehow managed to make her dress look like it's wet. So they fit right into this Halloween party because there's not a single dollar store costume in the place. Like, it is clear from the quality of some of these costumes that real money has gone into them. The room is full of velvet and brocade and swords that low key look like they could maybe actually do some real damage.

• 30:42Speaker 01

  This is not a party of florists apprentices is what you're telling me.

• 30:46Speaker 00

  No, no, it's not.

• 30:49Speaker 00

  But still, even among all this finery, it is immediately clear who Gabriel is. It's not even his costume, though it is quite impressive. He's dressed as the Count of Monte Cristo. It's just Gabriel's entire vibe.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  This is the first room that they've been in in months with a single down light and he's standing directly underneath it glowing.

• 31:10Speaker 00

  Exactly. The best way I can describe Gabriel's vibe is, have you seen the second Lord of the Rings movie?

• 31:18Speaker 01

  Yes, but like when it came out, so.

• 31:21Speaker 00

  Okay, there's this part in the second Lord of the Rings movie and I've got a visual cue here to jog your memory, but it's when Aragorn opens this huge, heavy door and it is a peak sexual awakening moment for a lot of people.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  Oh, I get it.

• 31:41Speaker 00

  Okay, you said, oh, I get it. Tell me what you get.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  I get it. Like the backlit silhouette of the attractive guy just shrouded in leathers with a sword and nice hair. The smokey air, the authority with which he does it. The heaviness of the door is apparent from the sound design. Like it's sort of, it's like one of those things where it's like, it's, you know, 25 frames or something, but there's a lot in those 25 frames.

• 32:12Speaker 00

  Thank you so much for describing that perfectly because that is the exact vibe that Gabriel brings into this party.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're like, this guy could open a door. Let me tell you, and he is opening one right now.

• 32:25Speaker 00

  A door to my heart, exactly.

• 32:29Speaker 00

  Gabriel looks to be in his late 30s to early 40s. He's got like dark shoulder length hair that he clearly goes to great lengths to take care of. Like Lydia's a little bit like, drop the blowout.

• 32:41Speaker 00

  He's tall, like over six foot two, and he's got these piercing green eyes that immediately hone in on Thomas and Lydia. Marcus and Michelle even notice as the night goes on that Gabriel's gaze keeps returning to Thomas and Lydia. Like Marcus is clearly trying not to sound jealous when he's like. Looks like you two might be the lucky ones this year. Lydia is like, what does that mean?

• 33:07Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 33:08Speaker 00

  And this is when Michelle reveals that every year Gabriel buys three tickets to the Anne Rice Ball, which if you remember in 2025, cost $393. And he selects a couple to accompany him as his personal guest. And what happens after the ball? No one's ever really sad, but no one's ever been disappointed.

• 33:32Speaker 01

  Uh huh. Well, subtext.

• 33:34Speaker 00

  Lydia is immediately like, hell, yeah. She's clearly trying and failing to play it cool. Like, her posture is suddenly incredible and she's like artfully twirling some of the flowers in her hair. And she keeps looking at Thomas, trying to like gauge how he's processing this information. And this isn't Thomas's first bisexual rodeo. He's read about this before.

• 34:12Speaker 00

  Thomas is admittedly kind of nervous when Gabriel finally approaches them. The night is winding down. The candles have burned down low. At this point, almost everyone has dispensed with whatever character they were playing. Not Gabriel. To introduce himself, he bows low over Lydia's hand. Enchanté, he says.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  No, absolutely not. Milady ass Gabriel.

• 34:41Speaker 00

  Lydia's taken like a semester and a half of French, so she's like, mm hmm, oui oui, ditto.

• 34:50Speaker 00

  Thomas can tell there are already stars in Lydia's eyes. Gabriel tells Lydia and Thomas that they're the best Ophelia and Hamlet he's seen since the original production at the Globe Theater.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah, I mean, like laying it on really thick.

• 35:02Speaker 00

  Lydia asks Gabriel how old he is. And Gabriel's like, you never ask a vampire's age.

• 35:07Speaker 01

  I was gonna say, he's gonna, he's gonna say you can't ask, or he's gonna say, you know, older than you think, older than I look. Yeah. Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh.

• 35:17Speaker 00

  How long would you play along with this bit? Keep in mind, Gabriel is like objectively really hot.

• 35:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm gonna really take my cues from Lydia. That like the moment that she seems even remotely like uncomfortable or not into it. I'm gonna try to break the like the kayfabe or whatever.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  But I think I'm gonna be really looking for that moment. If I'm me, not very long at all, probably, probably like a few sentences.

• 35:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  And then I'm like, so like, where are you, where are you from? What's your, just give me your real name?

• 35:52Speaker 00

  Yeah. Not Gabriel.

• 35:54Speaker 01

  What do your parents, what do your parents do?

• 36:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, nothing Thomas has read has prepared him for this moment. Luckily though, Gabriel clearly has many years of experience, maybe even centuries. Who's to say?

• 36:15Speaker 01

  Me, I'm to say.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  This particular kind of character I think is bothersome to me like as a person in the world. But like, I want to make sure that I'm being clear that I cast no aspersions on Thomas. And that if he's like, actually this fucking rules, like sure, dog. That's all like awesome, great.

• 36:34Speaker 00

  Well, the business card Gabriel hands them is straight out of the last century. Like it's on really fancy substantial card stock and it's embossed with gold. And on the front is Gabriel's name, just his first name, like Cher. And on the back is an email address.

• 36:52Speaker 01

  No, uh-uh, nope.

• 36:56Speaker 00

  Thomas kind of has a similar reaction. He's like, what? He like raises an eyebrow and Gabriel sighs and is like, I know, but one must stay current. And with that, Gabriel sweeps out of the room, leaving nothing behind but the smell of lavender and old leather books.

• 37:12Speaker 00

  So you get home, do you send Gabriel an email?

• 37:15Speaker 01

  I don't think I'm doing it that night.

• 37:17Speaker 00

  Oh, make him wait.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, he's been around for thousands of years. He can wait.

• 37:21Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  What's another evening?

• 37:23Speaker 00

  Literally.

• 37:24Speaker 01

  But yeah, I'm probably sending an email if I'm one of the two of them. Yeah, absolutely.

• 37:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, as soon as Thomas and Lydia get home, they sit down at their iMac, like the one with the big box on the back because it's the 90s and they compose an email to Gabriel, who responds in 10 minutes.

• 37:41Speaker 01

  He was waiting.

• 37:43Speaker 00

  Red flag or green flag?

• 37:44Speaker 01

  Green flag. Honestly, that is the most human thing that he's done so far.

• 37:51Speaker 01

  He maybe, if we sort of imagine what he's thinking, wants to make an impression. Maybe he does really actually find these people somewhat impressive, wants to hang out with them, maybe wants to sleep with both of them, who knows, who can say. And he gives them his card, you know, wanting to be contacted. It's very human of him to be like, yes, you know, like,

• 38:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  they emailed me and to be excited about it and to email back. I also think like email etiquette has gotten more complex and weirder over the last 30 years.

• 38:18Speaker 00

  100%.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  And I think that that probably didn't have as big of stigma associated with it back then. Like now, it's like you respond to an email immediately and you're like, whoa, okay, hold on.

• 38:29Speaker 00

  No, literally, it's like, do you have a life?

• 38:31Speaker 01

  So I think like responding immediately, you know, at this time, it didn't suggest as much as it does now. Yeah, I like it. I think it's good. Yeah.

• 38:41Speaker 00

  Gabriel's email is filled with all sorts of rhetorical flourishes from other times. He writes of how dazzled he had been by them at the party. "Not in my long, lonely life," he writes, "have I beheld such beauty." He compliments the shapeliness of Thomas's calves, the slenderness of Lydia's neck.

• 39:02Speaker 01

  Very period appropriate compliments. Yes.

• 39:06Speaker 00

  Like, say what you want about him, but Gabriel can write an email, you know? Thomas and Lydia are both immediately infatuated with Gabriel after reading this email. For two weeks, they're trading emails with Gabriel. Every single one of Gabriel's emails is like 900 words minimum. He is always referencing like the War of 1812 or the French Revolution.

• 39:27Speaker 01

  High effort email. Okay.

• 39:29Speaker 00

  A week and a half in, Lydia and Thomas are both like, this is getting a little ridiculous. But also their sex life has gotten so much better since they met Gabriel. It's like they're in Hamlet all over again.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  I'm assuming that it does not involve him. It is just his presence has sort of awakened something in them.

• 39:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  Okay. An 800 word email is a red flag. Like responding immediately, great, but like writing a novel, I don't know about that. But I'm supportive of his presence generally. Even being in his orbit is good for them.

• 40:06Speaker 00

  Yeah. How far would you take this?

• 40:09Speaker 01

  Listen.

• 40:12Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. I'm listening.

• 40:14Speaker 01

  Maybe I don't like Gabriel, but I want to go to the party.

• 40:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's a great answer.

• 40:19Speaker 01

  Would current version of me hook up with an irritated guy?

• 40:26Speaker 01

  If I knew that it meant access to the party? No. But I'm in my 40s and like, you know, I know who I am and I know what a party's worth.

• 40:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 40:37Speaker 01

  Would like 20 year old me do that?

• 40:41Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 40:41Speaker 01

  There's so much for you to experience and you should.

• 40:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  I think that that version of me is like really giving it a thought. I'm going to say it's likely.

• 40:52Speaker 00

  After two weeks of increasingly lurid emails, Gabriel formally extends an invitation for them to join him as his guest of honor at the upcoming Anne Rice Ball.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  Do you think they celebrated by like doing a waltz?

• 41:11Speaker 00

  Well, Lydia's like, do you know how many people want to fuck a vampire? Thomas is like, babe, you don't actually believe he's a vampire, right?

• 41:21Speaker 01

  Lydia?

• 41:22Speaker 00

  Lydia's like, of course not. That would be crazy. But then she's like, how do so many cultures have stories of vampires? If there isn't some sort of truth to it, you know, like Lydia's just asking questions.

• 41:35Speaker 01

  Lydia, it's, I mean, what did we replace vampires with? I guess banking executives.

• 41:41Speaker 00

  I'd rather have vampires.

• 41:45Speaker 00

  But Lydia's also like, Thomas, I won't do anything you're not comfortable with. So if you don't want to go, we don't go. So you're Thomas. What do you do?

• 41:53Speaker 01

  I think a lot of this is wrapped up in like, how do I feel about my relationship with Lydia? Like, is it good? Is it strong? Do I want to spend a significant portion of what I can imagine of the future of my life with this person?

• 42:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:06Speaker 01

  And if the answer to that is yes, like, I'm gonna do it. Yeah, absolutely.

• 42:11Speaker 00

  Thomas is like, pretty much in the same place. He decides it's time to put theory into practice with the understanding that they can always go home if they want. So our friends of a friend say yes to Gabriel, who promises to come fetch them on the evening of the ball, which comes sooner than either Tom or so Lydia are really prepared for. Like, their costumes literally still have pins in some places, but nowhere visible. And that's all that matters.

• 42:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:35Speaker 00

  So Gabriel fetches them, as promised, in a vintage convertible. And the night only goes up from there. Anne Rice herself is at the Anne Rice Ball. Thomas and Lydia never see her talk to Gabriel, but towards the end of the night, Gabriel's like, oh, we ran into each other outside the bathroom. She's just as enchanted with you as I am. And Gabriel is clearly enchanted. Like, there's obviously the usual flirty arm touches throughout the night. But also, when Lydia orders a glass of champagne, Gabriel, like, delicately lifts the glass to her lips so she can take a sip. And he's like, making eye contact the whole time.

• 43:12Speaker 01

  Okay, but like, what about Thomas, dog?

• 43:15Speaker 00

  Well, then there's this moment when the live music gets a little loud. So Gabriel leans in close to Thomas's ears. So Thomas can hear him better, obviously, because it's loud.

• 43:24Speaker 01

  Obviously.

• 43:25Speaker 00

  Gabriel's hand is on the small of Thomas's back. And right before he leans away, Gabriel kisses Thomas's neck. Thomas is like, wow, this is so much better than I read about.

• 43:40Speaker 01

  Good for you, Thomas.

• 43:42Speaker 00

  And there's an open bar at the Anne Rice Ball. So everything's coming up Thomas and Lydia.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  Okay, all right, that's a blessing and a curse. Let's, let's everybody be careful.

• 43:54Speaker 00

  Gabriel drives them home. They invite him up for a nightcap. And literally no one in the history of the world has ever had just a nightcap. So I'm sure we cannot guess what happens next. You all can use your imaginations. This is not that kind of podcast. They do exist, so go find them, but this is not it.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  If you do end up using your imagination a lot, just write it down. You can go put it on Archive of Our Own and then we'll go, we'll read it.

• 44:21Speaker 00

  Please do. Please write fanfiction about normal gossip, not about me, but about the characters.

• 44:26Speaker 01

  About the characters. We can come back, we can do a staged reading. I can wear a blonde wig.

• 44:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, we'll take your theater background. I'll be there. Um, what would you expect the morning after a night like this to be like?

• 44:41Speaker 01

  If I were writing this, uh, like as a story and not as a recounting of actual events that happened, you would wake up in the next morning and Gabriel would finally admit to being like, Tom Sullivan, you know? Like the next morning, he's a normal guy and he's like, so you guys gonna, you wanna get bagels or?

• 45:04Speaker 00

  You like cream cheese?

• 45:07Speaker 01

  You guys like, uh, you wanna get coffee or are you tea people? Like the spell has been broken. You know, you've spent, um, two weeks of lurid emails. Uh, you know, like, where do you go after that? Uh, if, you know, if you've already done it, like, there's gotta be a baseline reset. That's like the funniest result, I think. What actually happened is, I bet he's pretty normal. My guess is that it's like exactly the kind of slightly awkward, but like not horrible.

• 45:41Speaker 01

  Like morning after.

• 45:43Speaker 00

  Lydia and Thomas wake up just before noon the next day. And it doesn't take them long to realize that Gabriel is gone.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  Oh, of course he is. I should have, I should, I should have known.

• 45:55Speaker 00

  For a hot minute, Thomas is like, did last night really happen? But he and Lydia are both covered in bite marks. And there's a white handkerchief on their nightstand that certainly does not belong to either one of them. Lydia's like, oh my God, the sunlight, it's hurting my eyes.

• 46:17Speaker 01

  She's not hungover. She's a vampire now.

• 46:21Speaker 00

  Thomas is like, babe, I'm pretty sure you're just hungover. But Lydia is not to be deterred. She runs to check her reflection in the bathroom mirror. And she's like, oh my God, you can barely see me. My reflection, it's fading. Except the bathroom light isn't on.

• 46:41Speaker 00

  And once Thomas turns it on, it is immediately clear that Lydia's reflection is unchanged. Thomas is like, don't you think we should talk about what last night means for our relationship? And Lydia says, don't worry about that. We have centuries to talk about that.

• 46:55Speaker 01

  Lydia.

• 46:57Speaker 00

  We are almost at the end of our story. In an ideal world, how would this end?

• 47:03Speaker 01

  In an ideal world, how would this end? Uh, nobody regrets what they did. And Lydia and Thomas figure out that this is a thing that both of them are into. They both enjoy this sort of thing. And they are in a community of people who can provide that for them. And they both find great jobs.

• 47:25Speaker 01

  And they both get a healthcare in the 1990s in the United States somehow. And, you know, like Gabriel continues to be a figure sort of on the periphery of their lives. He opened that proverbial door. And, uh, yeah, does not represent any amount of regret or shame.

• 47:44Speaker 00

  That's a great ending. This is normal gossip, though.

• 47:46Speaker 01

  Yes, I imagine.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:50Speaker 00

  So later that day, Lydia sends a breathless email to Gabriel. Like, last night was a dream. We hope it's the first of many. Is this the beginning of our eternal night? Meanwhile, Thomas is like, can you ask him, like, what are we?

• 48:07Speaker 01

  Could we put a label on this like as soon as possible?

• 48:09Speaker 00

  I need to know. I need to prepare myself.

• 48:13Speaker 00

  They receive a reply within 10 minutes, which, again, not abnormal for Gabriel. And the email certainly sounds like Gabriel. It is unnecessarily long and flowery. But as Thomas and Lydia read the email, they quickly realized that it's from someone alleging to be Gabriel's wife.

• 48:33Speaker 00

  Beth, who informs them that Gabriel's real name is Ron.

• 48:42Speaker 01

  That's almost the opposite of Gabriel.

• 48:47Speaker 01

  I mean, we knew the whole time, right? There was no way this guy's name was actually Gabriel.

• 48:51Speaker 00

  Beth is like, Ron and I have an agreement. He can go to the city and do whatever he wants, because apparently Ron doesn't even live in New Orleans. He and Beth live in a suburb of New Orleans called Metairie. So Beth is like, we have an agreement. I don't care what or who he does in New Orleans. But what I didn't know about is all this vampire shit. Beth is like, whatever you're involved in is unnatural. What God-fearing man owns this much velvet?

• 49:19Speaker 00

  I don't know what satanic nonsense you're involved in, but I suggest you find the Lord, as Ron will be doing going forward.

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Right, because this was like, I mean, depending upon when in the 90s, this would have been maybe smack dab in the middle of one of the satanic panics. Fascinating. Open marriage-ish, maybe, it sounds like.

• 49:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:39Speaker 01

  But the other stuff, affront to the Lord.

• 49:43Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 49:46Speaker 00

  You can fuck who you want, but not wearing a cape?

• 49:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. As soon as you stand under a downlight, it's over, it's done. It's no more. You're cut off.

• 49:58Speaker 01

  You look at one piece of leather and I swear to God.

• 50:02Speaker 00

  So I do have some final updates for you, but before I get to them, I want to ask, do you believe this email is actually from Gabriel's wife? Or is this possibly some ruse?

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Like, could it be him being like, here's how I get out of any level of commitment?

• 50:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:20Speaker 01

  My impulse is to say that that is not the case because he is a fixture in this community, from what I understand. And if he understands that these people are also present and around, and especially if they are friends with Marcus and Michelle, right, who are around, then there would be reason for him to believe that he's like, gonna see them around a lot. If he's not gonna completely, like, cut himself out and be gone now. He's gonna give up his, what was he, like a cemetery tour guide?

• 50:48Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 50:50Speaker 01

  If this represents a total shift in his lifestyle, like, maybe it's him. But it would be strange to send this if you think it's likely that you will run into them perhaps over and over again.

• 51:02Speaker 00

  It's true.

• 51:03Speaker 01

  So I'm gonna say it'd be likely, possible, that it's actually, that Beth is real.

• 51:08Speaker 00

  Well, do you share this email from Beth with the rest of the Anne Rice community who have been watching Gabriel for years now?

• 51:17Speaker 01

  Are you kidding me? Absolutely. Absolutely. I am printing it out on my dot matrix printer.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  And I am bringing it to Louis. And I am saying, hey, what do you guys know about this, sis?

• 51:36Speaker 00

  Well, Thomas and Lydia decide not to share it with them because they decide if it's real, they kind of feel bad for Ron slash Gabriel.

• 51:47Speaker 00

  And going to the Anne Rice Ball with Gabriel had gotten them so much street cred in the Anne Rice community that Thomas and Lydia, they don't want to give that up. So they're like, we'll keep your secret, Ron,

• 52:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:00Speaker 00

  Gabriel, whoever you are. The next time Thomas and Lydia see Marcus and Michelle, they just say they've been sworn to secrecy and that it's a night they'll never forget, which isn't wrong.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  It's a very, very vampire thing to say. Yeah.

• 52:17Speaker 00

  It'll live in their memories forever. Thomas and Lydia do eventually break up. It is an amicable split. It has nothing to do with Gabriel, but they both end up leaving New Orleans. They're still friendly enough, though, that when Thomas goes back to New Orleans in 2005 to help out after Katrina, he sends an email to Lydia and he tells her that he went back to Louis', which had miraculously survived. And that at the end of the night, out of the corner of his eye, Thomas could have sworn, he saw a beautiful man with piercing green eyes who didn't look he had aged a day in the past seven years. But when Thomas turns back around, the man is gone. And that's the end of our story.

• 53:01Speaker 00

  Do you believe in vampires any more than you did before we started?

• 53:05Speaker 01

  I believe in precisely one vampire now, and his name is Ron, and he works as a mechanic on the outskirts of New Orleans.

• 53:14Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 53:16Speaker 01

  That ruled. That was great. I, I still don't like Gabriel, but I am supportive of his existence.

• 53:26Speaker 00

  I support your lifestyle choices, Gabriel.

• 53:28Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 53:38Speaker 00

  Thank you for listening to Normal Gossip. If you have a gossip story to share with us, email us at [email protected], or you can leave us a voicemail at 2679 gossip. If you love this podcast and want to support us, become a friend or a friend of a friend at supportnormalgossip.com. You can follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Normal Gossip. You can follow me on all social media at HeyDnA, H-E-Y-Y-D-N-A-E. This podcast was produced by Ciara Spragley-Ritz and Jay Tolbierra. Our audio engineer is Samantha Gatzick. The co-creators and Dowager queens of Normal Gossip are Kelsey McKinney and Defector's supervising producer Alex

• 54:19Speaker 00

  Hujan-Locklin. Justin Ellis is Defector's projects editor. Jasper Wang and Sean Kuhn are Defector's business guys. Tom Lay is our editor in chief. Dan McLeod runs our merch store, which you can find at normalgossip.store. Tara Jacoby designed our show art. Thank you to Brandy Jensen, David Roth, Catherine Shu, Serena Imbler, Chris Thompson, Dave McKenna, Patrick Redford, and Ray Rado for your help on this season. Thank you to the rest of the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned subscriber-based media company. Normal Gossip is a proud member of Radiotopia. I'm your host, Rachel Hampton, and remember, you didn't hear this from me.