#(even if he didn't actually give a fuck about getting armand specifically out)

[thelioncourts]

+

[mutsukiss]

Reading the first book is actually insightful on the last episode because without it the whole "you're so boring!!!!" rant comes very out of the blue. In the show Louis is SUPER tame about himself as a vampire and vampires in general because he reduces himself to this weird self flagellation cycle of "oooh I'm so bad and evil I kill people how will I ever live with myself *becomes a serial killer*" and he doesn't have much,, care? Love? Appreciation? For himself and his life. He's just stumbling around and being a victim of the narrative. Things happen to him and sometimes he's an active participant, and that's it.

In the book Louis is SO eager to go and learn to be a vampire and do vampire things and explore what being a vampire is. He makes references constantly about how his first experiences were rushed and messy and got him this extreme high he searches for everywhere, and is immensely frustrated because Lestat is instead reduced to someone who is solely focused on his own damaging cycle and has no desire to enjoy the trip, just to chase the high. Show!Louis engages in hobbies and has his own opinions and boundaries and makes them know but he also doesn't ask or suggest or even demand a lot of times, specially/specifically with Armand. He says "this is how I'm going to go through this thing, you are free to take it or not but I'm not following after if you decide to not agree" and it puts people in a position. He's paradoxically giving others the freedom to follow their own rules, but by creating a punishing situation. Don't come to see me if you want me to join the coven, we don't need to put a name to our relationship, ignore that I imagine Lestat when I'm with you. These are mostly understandable requests knowing his background and context that still put Armand in a difficult position and he's not really given any wiggle room around them. Armand attempts to get into Louis' world and enter him in Armand's, but Louis isn't really interested in anything outside of what he finds comfortable or familiar and doesn't have a lot of drive to go and pursue new things about him nor others around him unless he's accompanied or pushed by another character, the being exception the interview in the present.

The overzealous, identity-missing, heartstruck Armand; in all of his own manipulative and calculating skills and habits, agrees to Louis roaming around to cruise and drug, fuck, kill and get high from 128 !! persons in the 70's only, cleaning after him, and we are given the image that he has never complained about this ever, not ONCE. We see Armand giving in to whatever Louis says, having kind gestures to him, spending time with him, having what I believe is infinite patience. I dont think these are difficult or unpleasant tasks for him, i dont think they are tasks at all. He is courting and ¿dating? someone and these interactions are obviously pleasurable to him. Armand says if Louis wanted for him to go away he just had to ask, and even after we are made aware of him tampering with Louis' and Daniel's memories, i believe that had Louis asked him that he would have complied. So WHAT is Louis looking for that he couldn't ask Armand for and have him agree to. If what he is expecting or wanting is resistance, HOW does that make Armand boring. How can Armand refuse Louis when that implies a complete negative, a total refusal of future positive interactions. What more was there for Armand to do in that situation?

Ultimately I think Louis is coping as best as he can and he has realized he is resorting to harmful behaviors and attempting to recreate past toxic dynamics, and that it won't make him happy because it didn't make him happy in the past, but that he is equally unhappy now even when things are supposed to be "fine", whatever his defintion of fine is. And this is something that would have been incredibly more clear if Show!Louis had been given Book!Louis' wanderlust and eagerness to learn and do new things, because with that in context, the conversation in the flat makes complete sense to me, even if it's still unfair for both parties, but it's something that may feel so sudden and out of the blue for show only viewers.

[avalonia320]

'...I fucked up two daughters...'

Switching a chapter to Daniel's POV is doing wonders for my writing motivation, plus playing with canon is always fun. I didn't expect a storyline from The Vampire Armand to show up in my head but here we go. I'm hoping to have the chapter up in a day or two; here's a scene with Daniel and his daughter, Kate.

***

“A few messages before I go,” Maia handed him his iPad. “Your daughter called again. Kate said to tell you specifically that if you keep avoiding her she’s going to give a tell all interview to Megyn Kelly. She wants to hear from you tonight;  she doesn’t care how late,” she grinned at his look of undisguised horror.

“Megyn Kelly?” He didn't try to hide his disgust. God, Kate was absolutely diabolical.

“I’d do it if I were you. She said she had one finger on speed dial. Also Dan Rather called again. Said you need to stop fucking around and schedule a sit down with him. He wants me to remind you that -”

“I owe him. Yeah. Not wrong, I’m working on it,” he reached out for the printout she had lying on the counter. “Is this my schedule for tomorrow evening?”

“Yep. Pretty jam packed. Too bad we can’t shift some things to daytime hours,” Maia smiled a little too brightly.

“I told you. I gotta match Lestat’s schedule when the tour kicks into gear, or I’m never going to get any footage for the documentary. Might as well try to change my sleeping schedule now, right?”

“Of course,” Maia’s placid smile wasn’t fooling him at all.

After Maia left, Daniel sat down on the counter to drink his coffee. Before he perused his schedule, he picked up the phone and with a deep breath, dialed Kate’s number.

“Dad!”

“Hey sweetheart!  How are you?”

“Absolutely pissed that you’ve been ducking my calls for the past year, that’s how I’ve been,” Kate was never one to beat around the bush. It was one of his favorite qualities about his eldest.

“I know. I’ve been busy with the books and the media blitz has been crazy. I’m sorry, kid. I was thinking of you though. Have you been getting the deliveries and the-”

“Yes, Dad. We got the new SUV. The vacation packages. The college accounts and trust funds you’ve set up for the kids, not to mention their Christmas shopping spree to Harrod’s. And I don’t know if it’s your new assistant’s doing or not, but I’ve been quite impressed with that fact that you’ve remembered the girls’ names for the first time ever and actually seem to know how old they are and what hobbies they’re into. It’s nice. But what I really need is for you to show the fuck up. You owe me a hell of a lot of explanation about what's going on with you.”

“OK, look, I’ll talk to Maia about scheduling-”

“Whatever,” Kate sounded more resigned than angry. “We’ll circle back to that. Right now, we need to talk about Sybelle.”

“Sybelle,” Daniel said the name of his youngest daughter quietly. “I just spoke to her doctor yesterday. He said she’s doing as well as can be expected, considering her condition, but no real improvement.”

“Yeah, same thing he tells us every month. Fox isn’t letting us see her anymore.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ryan and I haven’t been able to visit Sybelle for two months now. Fox won’t let us any more. He says the visits are making her worse. That’s absolute bullshit. She loves seeing the kids. I don’t trust him, Dad. And I think he’s paying off Dr. Reeves. That guy says the most generic bullshit whenever I talk to him. He just parrots whatever Fox wants in therapy speak. Can’t answer a specific question, it’s like he’s never actually been to see her. I finally threatened to call the cops and since then Fox has let me talk to her on the phone sometimes but she sounds out of it.”

“Well, honey, this is Sybelle we’re talking about.”

“Shut the fuck up!” he was not prepared for the near scream from his normally tightly controlled daughter. “I’m telling you something is wrong! I’m telling you we need you! Are you going to listen for once? Because I swear to God, if you put me and Sybelle on the bottom of your to-do stack again, this is it. You’ll be dead to me from here on out.”

**

(yes, for the Vampire Chronicles readers, Sybelle is exactly who you think she is. 😉)