#and Armand is really REALLY not a nice person

[avelera]

What if Louis/Armand in AMC IWTV is meant to be torture... for Lestat?

Basically... what if the whole relationship between Louis and Armand, going back to when Armand first encountered him, is a deliberate "fuck you" to Lestat by Armand, and that is his chief motive for having the relationship at all? For keeping Louis in a gilded prison, for making Louis his love at all, for allowing the interview, and for little things like telling Lestat that Louis was injured, but not telling him where or how to help or passing on the "I love you" to Louis, and perhaps effectively keeping Louis away from Lestat ever since in a game of keep-away, as the most effective way to torture Lestat that Armand has in his possession.

I want to preface this theory by saying it's probably a bridge too far. That's a lot of premeditated malice to ascribe to Armand. I do think there was and is love there between Armand and Louis as seen in the show.

But at the same time... this might surprise some show watchers, but book Armand is an ancient creature of malice who uses his boyish looks to appear soft and gentle when he is anything but. He's over 500 years old and he spent 200 of those years running the Paris Children of Darkness, a Satanic organization that gave his life meaning and purpose during those years.

And even with show Armand, we've seen him capable of playing the long game, pretending to be someone else in Season 1 as he played Fake Rashid, with motives for doing so that are still inscrutable.

We've already seen as of ep 2.6 that Lestat broke up Armand's Paris Coven, the Children of Darkness. But I want to get into why Armand might have been lying about how he was fine with it, that he saw it coming for years, that Lestat was just the instrument of his own desire to move on from that squalid situation.

What if he wasn't fine with it? What if he still isn't fine with it? What if the long game, ever since, is to take everything away from Lestat that Armand can get his hands on, including Claudia, but especially Louis?

Well, to give my evidence for this I'll have to delve into the books a bit, so proceed at your own risk for spoilers.

Here's an excerpt from The Vampire Lestat, with Armand speaking to Lestat after the events in Paris, when he forced Lestat to testify in the trial against Louis and Claudia, because it was always Armand's plan to put Claudia on trial so he could get rid of her and have Louis for himself. For Louis to be buried alive in punishment so that Armand could save him and they could depart together:

"[Armand] leaned forward, and his face transformed itself as it had done years and years ago, as if his rage were melting it from within. 

“You, who destroyed all of us, you who took everything. Whatever made you think that I would help you!” He came closer, the face all but collapsed upon itself. “You who put us on the lurid posters in the boulevard du Temple, you who made us the subject of cheap stories and drawing room talk!” ...

...“We had our Eden under that ancient cemetery,” he hissed. “We had our faith and our purpose. And it was you who drove us out of it with a flaming sword. What do we have now! Answer me! Nothing but the love of each other and what can that mean to creatures like us!”"

Armand plays the long game. Armand is a creature of spite and malice, at least through Lestat's eyes in his own autobiography.

Armand was not fine with the Paris Coven being dispelled. He was not fine with Lestat's generosity or the new purpose given to him by Lestat by establishing the Theatre des Vampires. He loathed it.

And after this above exchange with Lestat, Armand picked up Lestat and flew him up high above Paris and dropped him. Armand did that to Lestat in the books, it wasn't Lestat to Louis (though that could simply be a change for the show, or perhaps even reinvented as a deliberate act of revenge on Louis' behalf for what Lestat did to him, and not some sort of mind alteration by Armand but... we'll see.)

It would be a hell of a twist to end the season on. Arguably, a twist akin to the reveal of Rashid-is-actually-Armand at the end of the first season. That this has all, all of it, since the 1940s been one long revenge play against Lestat.

Again, I think it's probably a bridge too far, too cartoonishly evil, but...man, there is that but lingering in my mind. Because this is the sort of thing Armand would do. He's done it before in the books with the trial of Louis and Claudia being one elaborate pantomime to punish Lestat and Claudia and get Louis to himself.

And it's been bothering me ever since the reveal at the end of S1 that we're in an AU where Louis/Armand stayed together instead of breaking up right after Paris like they did in the book. And if I was writing this canon divergence AU, it would be a hell of a thing to make the pivot point be, "No, Louis and Armand didn't break up because Armand wouldn't let Louis go because all of this has been one long elaborate fuck you to Lestat for destroying the Children of Darkness and robbing Armand of the purpose he'd had in life for over 200 years." 70 years of revenge by comparison? That's nothing.

[toastsnaffler]

iwtv is rly getting to me 😭 I feel sooo bad for claudia no one tell me anything bc idk the book lore + I dont want spoilers but istg she's gonna kill herself in that theatre fire...

[gallierhouse]

how do you think armand will react to the realization that his godhusbandfather marius is still alive and presumably never bothered to seek armand out in about 500 years?

In my opinion, this is the greatest betrayal of Armand’s life. The abuse was one thing, the trafficking another, but not seeking him out trumps it all. Fundamentally, I think Armand sees love as a contract between two people. You tolerate pain, you even learn to love pain, you learn to love whatever they tell you to love and you love to surrender, and that’s love. In return for that, they choose you. Maybe they also treat you with kindness, or provide you for materially, or stroke your hair gently and hold you, but fundamentally, it’s about being chosen. It’s about sacrificing all these parts of yourself as duty and love and devotion and accepting abuse and mistreatment as self-sacrifice service as the price for devotion from someone else. It’s all “I do this for you, I let you do this to me, and in return, you have to love me.” In Armand’s mind, Marius owes to him to love him. Marius put him through so much. He saved him, he abused him, he turned him. Armand has tolerated? accepted? all of it. And Marius still didn’t go back for him? It’s salt in the wound. How could Marius let him go so easily? How could Marius not love him? How could Marius do all those things and still not love him? How could he do all those things and still not choose him? I don’t really think Armand is psychologically capable of differentiating between love and abuse, because the person he uses as his model of love abused him. Possession, control, punishment, violation, abuse, it’s all part of the shape love takes to him. If someone didn’t love you they wouldn’t bother to cage or hurt you; they’d simply let you go or kill you. You wouldn’t be worth the time or effort to torture or punish or abuse. The love is in the attention, even if it hurts. So Marius not going to look for him is the worst possible betrayal. It’s not love, it’s not abuse, it’s not even hate, it’s indifference. It’s nothing. It would be really painful for him, pain on a level he’s very rarely experienced, despite how much he’s been through.

I think he’d try to rationalize it first. Maybe Marius lost his memory, maybe he was prevented from looking for Armand somehow, maybe he was weakened. Maybe he didn’t look because he thought Armand was better off without him, maybe it was a twisted act of kindness, maybe he was setting him free? No, that can’t be true, because if Marius fucking loved him he would’ve stopped at nothing to retrieve him. He would’ve tried, at least. He would’ve tried. Then it moves to heartbreak, deep, stabbing pain, disappointment and grief and betrayal and hurt and how could you? How could you not? How could you let me go so easily? How could you not love me? How could I mean nothing to you? Then it turns into icy, apocalyptic anger. If Marius doesn’t want him, Marius doesn’t want him. He’ll never see Marius again. Marius is nothing. If it’s done it’s done. This is the end. It’d be a little like that moment of disappointing, crushing clarity all children experience when they realize their parents are pathetic and fallible and not all-knowing or all-forgiving gods. Only broken people who can’t even practice what they preach. It would turn glacial. He’d miss Marius more than life itself, and he always has and I suppose he always will, but that feeling will never again resurface. It’ll be there, somewhere, inside, in private moments, in negative space, but he won’t show it ever again. He’ll be cordial. He’ll be civil. This is his maker. It’s nice to see him. Sure. It’s nice. How’s the weather?

It’s one thing to leave, and another thing entirely to not come back. If he found out firsthand it might actually be possible to see his sanity split like the sky during a thunderstorm as it gets ripped up by lightning. I don’t think he’d react violently. It’d be quiet and terrifying. So much underneath the surface, so much he’s holding back, so much he’s struggling to understand. If he found out firsthand and in private (as in, alone with Marius) I think he’d let Marius explain. He’d still feel all the conflict, but I think he’d look at Marius and wait. Wait for the explanation that’s going to make all of this understandable. Wait for the explanation that’s going to make things go back to how they were. Wait for the explanation that’s going to make him sure Marius loves him. Wait for safety, the comfort, the familiarity. Wait for something that’ll never come and will only ever be a hollow imitation and insult to the real thing that died 5 centuries ago.

[verysmolnerd]

Dating post NWH Otto

Been wanting to do a hc collection of Otto related stuff if you’ve seen my previous headcanons. But they’re really not HCs as they are more story oriented. :p

First of all, dating him appeared to be off the table. In his mind at a least… Even thought he was no longer seen as an enemy of the public, there is so much suspicion that he’s still evil. Like all reformed criminals are.

Not to mention that since he’s a supervillain, he doesn’t get privacy from the daily bugle. Not to mention finding a job that’s willing to hire him. The robotic arms welded to his back and his criminal record is enough evidence of what his previous experiments did to him.

He can only work for Oscorp which also has a reputation of cranking out scientific orientated supervillains. He’s making a living, but the judgement of others becomes more prominent.

It’s hard to tell at some point. Which is harder? Reforming and reconvening into society or fighting off the actuators and Spider-Man at the same time.

He’s pitied by the public eye or alienated entirely. Nobody takes him seriously, even if he’s never killed a person, nor attempted to. He only wanted to finish his work under the influence of his own work.

Then along came you with a company merger when Oscorp was bought by a larger company.

You never interacted with him, you were in a different department and were far too busy to talk to any of the newer Oscorp employees, which includes a lot of the supervillains.

It’s not like you wanted to talk to them. They’re still people, not zoo animals like your colleagues assume they are. So the best way of showing respect in your eyes is to give them the space they needed. If they want to talk to you, then they’d find you.

However, neither of you expected to meet outside of work.

Of all places you’d meet…. a public library. Informal, tired, and bags under your eyes. It’s almost like a college love story, while one partner sacrifices their grades in order to help another graduate with honors.

He was holding a book by Neil deGrasse Tyson and you were holding a three pines book. (Honestly, you though he was Armand with the level of exhaustion you had)

You just stared at each other, Otto even dropped his book. He apologized and then you commented on the book.

So now you’re both sitting in a lounge talking about the type of books you had. Which buds into conversation.

There’s almost a relief in his eyes that you were holding a normal conversation, as if he’s a normal person. He felt seen and purely human only for a moment.

So it’s natural for him to gravitate to you. AKA you see him near your office during work. Whether he needed something, he’d get it from your side of the building just to see you.

You’ve caught him gazing at you from your door window. For a man with four additional arms and eyes, he seemed pretty blind sighted by you and would walk into a water cooler.

So he also starts messaging you via faxes or other mundane office supplies. You’re shocked that he’s using them to lure you into his clutches.

One fax you got was just his phone number. Like that’s anything subtle. Smooth one, Otto. There was also one just asking you out for dinner… you faxed him back.

“Ask me in person and then we’ll talk.” He read aloud. The fact that you’re going to play his silly games is promising on his end. The last person he’s done that to was.. well.. it’s best not to bring up the past… for now.

So when you have him ducking under your door to get in your office with a paper rose (that he folded himself) he’s nervous, and the actuators are giving that away very well. Other than that, he’s very good at hiding emotions.

And now you find yourself sitting across from him at a nice restaurant.

Now that the professionalism line has completely evaporated, you both open up. Otto seems to loosen quite a bit the longer you two were talking.

You ended up closing down the place, and the wait staff were kind enough to remind you that they need to leave.

Then, he ended up spending the night with you. Not wanting to part with you. And you are you to deny that. He intrigues you as you do him.

Then one thing led to another and now you both are sitting on the couch, sharing a bottle of wine.

He trusts you with information that no other human being could have ever known.

Of course he tells you about Rosie. He hesitated at first, but you were quick to reassure him that he could. It was therapeutic almost. To hear about the previous light in his life.

“Oh, you’d love her. She thinks outside of the box. And she always had riddles to tell, never the same ones. She was so smart.”

He’s more vulnerable around you! He trusts you with his life, even though he’s probably protect you more than you can him.

That being, you both move into an apartment and now you’re with him almost every waking moment.

His actuators do a lot of work for him that he doesn’t like doing. The menial tasks that are just awful to him.

He carries you to rooftops to get a view of New York or any other surprise date he’d come up with.

The actuators wrap around you to show his subconscious form of admiration. Sometimes the actuator claws would clamp on your body as a form of kisses or long hugs.

He loves to cook. He knows recipes and often makes the same dinners that Rosie would make him.

You know that woman is happy to see that he’s moved on, the shadows of his past are able to be forgiven.

You also pet his actuators and sometimes use them as an extension to his hands, so you hold hands with his actuators.

He also uses the arms to pick you up for a proper kiss. He’s super affectionate if you haven’t picked that up already.

He loves to read books to you. Sitting on his lap, snuggled up against him as he reads TS Eliot.

You wear his glasses sometimes, you have no idea how he can see. He’s blind pretty much.

He’s wearing his heart on his sleeve around you, and he loves with all his being.

Treat him nicely, he’s already lost someone before and he’ll go to wits end to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

[allbark-no-bite]

This is Real Life || Rafe Cameron x reader

summary: the kook princess comes home from college with a new boyfriend and Rafe isn’t happy about it. unfortunately, he isn’t in the position to tell her what to do

warnings: 18+ smut, foul language, unprotected sex, slight mention of underage sex

word count: 3.8k

author’s note: this contains NO SPOILERS for season 3! y’all i have had this in the drafts for a year and couldn’t finish it. i was quickly motivated by the release of season three. i actually have some more OBX stuff on wattpad that i hope to transfer over if this gets some attention :)

It was feral really, their relationship. What else was to be expected of Ward Cameron's only son and the kook princess? But for the record, she preferred the term bastard. Born the illegitimate child of the second wealthiest man in the Outer Banks, she could go by whatever she wanted and people would still be besotted—albeit wary—by the name.

She was exactly the type of drug Rafe Cameron couldn't resist time and time again. Better than anything Barry could ever try to sell him. One taste and now he gets an itch for her worse than cocaine. Midsummers made this temptation all the more unbearable. Liable to her father's heavy name, she'd be inclined for the occasion to put on some kind of obscenely form fitting dress that left little to the imagination and Rafe intoxicated by the sight all night.

It's a toxic green color, and by toxic he means the dark teal accents her sun kissed skin and dark hair perfectly. She'd dyed it black two summers ago before leaving for college, and it had yet to return to its natural fair brown. He's sure she did it just to spite him. Rafe had always preferred blondes. But damn did it look good on her.  Shamelessly, his eyes drink her in as she flashes a pearly smile at the bartender taking her order.

Unfortunately, he also then catches sight of the guy standing next to her. He's a tall, brute of a man with large shoulders, a perfect nose, and sickening puppy dog like eyes. From the looks of him, he's undoubtedly one too many years her senior. Despite that, it's obvious that he's not the one in charge. Rafe watches as the older man hovers around her. He's confident in the way he carries himself, but Rafe can see how he moves around her with an air of caution, like he knows she's going to bite him if he gets too close. This observation leads him to his next point; the guy is not her type and Rafe knows it.

She met Armand nearly a year ago through a friend of a friend. He had returned to university from Europe to continue his studies with the leisure that his comfortable home life in a wealthy, two parent household provided him. While the six year age gap certainly raised eyebrows —specifically those of friends of her father's— it's not the reason she was uninterested in him.

Armand was the product of fine European breeding and the maturity that came with age. He spoke astutely and with confidence. He also had an unlimited amount of patience. And while it was nice to be indulged by his attentiveness every so often, it became quite boring if she was being honest. Armand was the type of guy one would bring home to meet their family, a quality that she had very little interest in.

Her eyes catch Rafe's from across the country club bar, and she immediately looks away. Instead she sweetly asks Armie, as she calls him, to get her another glass of champagne — her current one had gone warm. She pretends that she doesn't see him sidling up to her until he's standing right behind her.

Rafe has to hide his smile, licking his lips to wet them. After all these years, he's quite used to the games she plays. She makes him wait a few more seconds before she turns around, her exposed back pressing against the bar as she faces him. Her eyes first travel slowly down his body, coming about as close as one can to undressing a person without actually touching them, and only then returning to his face.

"What are you doing here, Cameron?"

They both know what she means is 'what are you doing in my face' and not 'what are you doing at Midsummers'.

Catching the message that she's not in the mood for any sort of shit answer he could give her about his required attendance at Midsummers, Rafe shrugs casually, rolling his expensive suit clad shoulders. His thumb drags across the smooth plane of his jawline, moving downwards and catching along his bottom lip.

"Heard you looked good in a sundress," he suggests, still trying to maintain an air of nonchalant indifference. He wants to know if her golden skin still tastes how he remembers it.

She rolls her eyes as a lazy, taunting smirk appears on his face. Before she can reply, Rafe saunters closer, practically eliminating the distance between them and blocking her against the bar. His face is close enough to her cheek that she can feel his hot breath as he wets his lips.

"Heard you looked good undressed."

Her expression remains unchanged, not bothered by his forwardness. "Would you let my brother hear those words come out your mouth?" She eyes him knowingly, feigning concern. "Wouldn't want to mess up your pretty face again."

The word 'brother' is synonymous to a warning to Rafe and immediately he glances sideways. Around them, residents of Figure Eight chatter and happily sip champagne. No one is paying the pair at the bar any mind. It is likely that no one has noticed them yet. Usually just the sight of the pair together is enough to draw a couple of stares.

When Malcolm Coors doesn't materialize from the crowd, Rafe's sharp blue eyes settle back on her. “Real funny," he sneers.

She has no shame in admitting she gets a little kick out of Rafe's fear of her brother. The two boys had graduated together a year before her, and she still remembers the pair of them being intentionally separated despite alphabetical order as they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. Malcolm had been sporting a broken nose at the time and Rafe his own nasty looking black eye.

She smiles, enjoying his irritation. While she would like to bask in the fact that it looks like he's still licking his wounds after the past couple years, they need to get to the point before Malcolm does find them.

Rafe nods his chin over towards the unsuspecting back of her European rendezvous as he chatters amiably with the bartender. Rafe wants to swing a golf club through his perfect teeth. "How do you know this guy?"

She shrugs, playing at indifference. "Your inconsistency introduced us."

They haven't talked since before she blocked his number, which was over a year ago. The interaction wasn't exactly civil either. He specifically remembers screaming through the phone at some ungodly hour of the night and ending the call when she finally hung up on him by hurling his phone against the wall. Thankfully his parents had overheard the conversation and already assumed what all the noise was.

Biting back the urge to argue that he's not the one playing the hot and cold game, he persists "A bit old for you, don't you think?"

Her eyes don't follow Rafe's, which she knows are staring daggers at Armand. "You missed me," she points out.

Rafe sucks his tongue across the front of his teeth as an act of stalling, his expression becoming fed up and annoyed. Getting answers out of her has always been like pulling teeth. She doesn't want to play nice? Fine.

"Daddy doesn't have some billionaire's trust fund baby lined up for you?"

Her black lined eyes narrow. He levels his cool gaze with her. Oh he went there.

"Unlike you, my father has no say in my personal life." She's never referred to the man who sired her as anything other than her 'father'. It's the socially acceptable way of saying 'he's a bastard and I hate him'. "Besides, old money doesn't entice me, Cameron."

"Yeah?" he scoffs. Rafe leans in, murmuring softly into her ear. "That's not what you said what I was inside of you."

Her face flashes hot, and it's the first chip in her armor he has seen all night.

"I was seventeen. A minor, Rafe. You could go to jail for that," she snaps.

He smiles, cocking his head in a manner that says he isn't all that worried about his chances of going to jail. "You always act like I took advantage of you. Sweetheart, even if you hadn't begged me to screw you, we both know there's nothing you could have done to stop me."

It's her turn to scoff. "Am I suppose to thank you? You don't get an award for not being a fucking predator." She spits out the last part, and it causes a few heads to turn in their direction.

Among those heads, Rafe notices the blonde one of Malcolm; aka his sign that he needs to excuse himself. "Bitch," he mutters as he shoves past her.

She catches his arm before he can get too far. "Bathroom. Ten minutes.”

It is actually a grand total of twenty minutes before she finds Rafe in the small guest bathroom. Armie had remained glue to her side for another fifteen minutes and even after she managed to escape him, she was stopped by multiple friends of her father’s, asking how college was going and whatnot.

Nevertheless, Rafe waits for her. Each minute after ten, he promised himself he wouldn’t wait another, but the truth is he would have waited all night.

“Fuck. I’ve been thinking about this dress all damn night,” Rafe groans, grabbing a handful of her green velvet covered ass. His other hand is around her chin, guiding her mouth so that he can kiss her against the wall. Their mouths collide so bruisingly that for a moment he considers if he’s just broken his nose. Rafe doesn’t dwell on the possibility for too long because he’s been achingly hard for over twenty minute now and he won’t make it one more without coming in his pants. There’s only one place he’s coming tonight and it’s inside of her.

“I knew you were always a perv, Cameron,” she huffs out as he pulls away from the kiss to unbuckle his slacks and pull down his boxers. The length of him springs out against his stomach. Just looking at the size of him makes her legs shake. Much to her disappointment, he’s forcing her around, hips pressed against the counter before she can ogle at the sight of him for long.

Rafe slips into her as though it were a well practiced move and not something he hasn’t done in over a year. He still knows his way around her body.

She nearly yelps in surprise at the sudden intrusion. “Jesus—”

“Shut up,” he snaps, breathing hard. Just the feeling of her around him is enough to make him spill right now and he’s trying to hold on a while longer. Stomach burning with the effort of not coming, he bucks, just once to satiate himself, into her. The feeling is overwhelming.

Not pleased with his sudden lack of performance, she consciously clenches around him. “Are you going to fuck me or what because I’m sure Armie—”

Rafe cuts her off by drilling his hips back into her once more, this time much more forcefully, and her pelvis hits the counter. That is going to bruise. Rafe grabs a fist full of her dark hair. “I’m going to fuck you so good you forget his goddamn name. I don’t want to hear it again. You hear me?”

Eyes locked with his in the mirror, she nods quickly, desperate to let him have his way with her. “Fuck. Yeah, Rafe. Please just fuck me.”

Without wasting anymore time adjusting to the feel of her, Rafe begins thrusting his hips rhythmically at a ridiculous pace. The hot heat of her seems to suck him back in each time and he wonders if she’s like this for him. Armand. By the way she’s panting, moaning against the counter, he would say no.

As weird of a thing that it is to say, there are people who are good at sex, and then there are people who are great at sex. Rafe is one of those people. She’s never been with another guy who fucks her like Rafe does. It’s raw and filthy and animalistic.

Just when she think he’s as deep as he can be, he shuffles a bit, readjusting himself to get a better angle and hit a spot inside of her that tears a cry from her throat.

“Oh fuck— Please, Rafe. That’s it. That’s enough. I can’t—” When she starts begging for him to stop is when he knows she’s close. She’s always been too prideful to tell him when she’s close and it pisses him off to no end. He slows his pounding to get in a few more drawn out thrusts. The head of him catches inside of her and she cries at the sensation.

“There you go, there you go,” he groans, finding the breath to encourage her to finish as he struggles to control himself. “Feel me? Atta girl, you’re right there. Right there, baby.”

Crying out a moan, her head falls back as she orgasms, her walls fluttering in protest around him. The shock last for several long seconds throughout her entire body, and she contemplates if she’s ever going to be satisfied by another orgasm ever again. Even after, the electric buzzing sensation remains, and she remembers that Rafe is still throbbing inside of her.

Without warning, he thrusts into her a couple more times before finding his own orgasm. With his nose pressed into her hair, mouth right next to her ear, Rafe moans as he releases inside of her, and he hears her breath hitch at the sound. As if he needed proof of the fiery ball that had been pent up in his stomach all evening, he spills and spills and spill inside of her. It leaves him trembling by the time he’s done.

“Fuck,” he groans.

“Fuck,” she repeats, humoring him. He almost laughs but he doesn’t think he had the energy left for it.

Slowly moving again, the noise that his dick makes fucking into her, his cum dripping out is obscene, but he wants to savor the hot mess of her around him for as long as he can.

Smugly, he catches her gaze in the mirror, watching himself move in and out of her. The mascara under her eyes is smudged, making her searing gaze all that much darker. Rafe thinks she always looks perfect no matter what. He does have a bias towards ‘freshly fucked’ though.

As much as he would like to remain pressed against her —and in her— he knows she’ll only tolerate him for so long. So with a final sigh, he presses a prolonged and affectionate kiss to her hair and pulls out of her. As she fixes her dress, he tucks his still-leaking dick back into his boxers, pulls up his pants and watches her walk out the bathroom without a word. Rafe waits a respectful few minutes after her to make his exit.

Feeling truly fucked out, no pun intended, he heads over to the bar, where he spots her with her boyfriend, his arm wrapped low around her waist as he kisses her cheek. He needs a fucking drink, he thinks. And then, probably something stronger.

—

There are very few things that can rouse her from the dead sleep that she gets in her childhood bedroom. Coming home to the plush baby blue comforter that covers her perfectly made bed is like downing a handful of melatonin gummies after sleeping on a crummy twin mattress for nine months. Despite this usually holding true, Armie is the only one dead asleep beside her.

'I’m going to fuck you so good you forget his goddamn name.'  The memory keeps replaying in her head. The perfect infliction of his voice down to the scent of him as he leaned in is marred into her memory. He still wears the same cologne.

Without warning, her phone on the bedside table blares to life, ringing loudly, and the bright screen illuminates the mostly dark bedroom. Scrambling to shut it off before the commotion wakes Armie up, her immediate response is to swipe the answer button.

"Hello?" she asks, her voice hushed, into the phone.

"I need you, (y/n)."

Rafe's voice transfers crystal clear through the receiver, like he's not even trying to be quiet.

"Rafe?" Cupping her hand over the speaker and pressing the device closer to her ear, her eyebrows furrow as she hurriedly swings her legs over the side of the bed and quickly tiptoes out into the hall."Rafe?" she asks, this time louder now that Armie can't hear her. "Are you fucking cra—"

"I—I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I— fuck, (y/n). I just—" He's rambling, his smooth as honey voice much thicker than usual and notably less precise. He sniffs, loudly.

She sighs as he tries to collect himself over the line, mumbling and stuttering. "Why do you only call me when you're high, Cameron? I mean, seriously?" This is not the first time he's phoned her in the middle of the night, high out of his mind.

Rubbing her hand over her eyes, she checks the clock on the wall. It's well past 3 am. There's a slim chance she will even get any sleep at this point.

"Listen, (y/n). I–I just—"

"No, you listen," she snaps, cutting him off. "You'd better be at your house when I get there or else. Got it?"

She can hear him swallow over the phone and something crashes to the floor. "Yeah— I— yeah, I will. I will."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye."

It helps that the Cameron's live only a few houses down. In reality, no one lives very far from anyone in the Outer Banks. Figure Eight is only a bike ride away from the Cut.

With the majority of the Cameron household likely asleep, and not caring to wake up Ward, she walks in without knocking. She'd never knocked before and wasn't about to make a habit of it now. Creeping slowly through the entryway, her sneakers echo loudly on the pristine tile floor. She knows this house like the back of her hand and therefore has no difficulty in navigating it in the dark. Around her, the house is still.

"Ra—" A hand clamps around her mouth from behind, effectively cutting of her startled shriek. Shoving his heavy body off of her, she whirls around to face him. "What are you doing?" she whispers loudly, shoving his hands away.

"I didn't want to scare you," Rafe defends, his blue eyes shining even in the darkness.

Shoving him once more in the chest, hard for good measure, she moves past him into the kitchen and flips the light on. Now that she can actually see, she steps back to take him in.

His pupils are blown, leaving very little of the blue of his eyes distinguishable. The suit jacket from earlier in the evening is gone, but everything else, from his dress shoes to the the white button up shirt underneath remain. Half of the top buttons of his shirt are open, revealing the golden skin of his chest. Nervously, he rubs at the back of his neck, where the short crop of his buzz cut fades.

"(y/n), I—," Rafe begins, stepping towards her.

"Shut up, Rafe."

His head fogged with the determination to get her to just listen to him, he ignores her instruction. "C'mon, baby. I just—"

"Shut up, Rafe," she repeats, sterner this time. She knows his head is not in the right place at the moment, and he needs to get it together if they're going to have this conversation.

"I need—"

"I said shut up!"

Finally something must reach the inside of that thick skull of his and Rafe immediately clamps his jaw shut. Now silent other than his heavy breathing, his big doe eyes watch her attentively.

She stares at him for a moment, using the quiet to gather her thoughts. Seeing him like this tears her up a little inside and it’s hard to find the right words to say to him. Sure, she treats him like shit most of the time, but that’s because it’s like second nature to the two of them. Fucking is the only thing they’re both good at.

She knows somewhere behind his drug induced haze, he’s really just a scared little kid. Most people take one look at Rafe and assume he’s just another screw up, destined to end up mooching off the Cameron family inheritance for the rest of his life. But she knows deep down that he has it in him to be better.

“You gotta stop, Rafe.” That’s the most honest and genuine sentence she’s spoken to him in a year. “This is not some prodigal son fairytale where you just get to walk away from it all when you decide to get your shit together. This is real life.” Her voice has risen towards the end and his already glossy eyes look wet.

Rafe can count on one hand the number of times he’s cried in his life, especially in front of someone else. His emotions tend to teeter from slightly cocksure to overwhelming rage without much of a grey area. But right now his throat feels tight and his eyes burn and he’s coming pretty damn close. And maybe it’s from the coke he snorted earlier but even that’s starting to wear off. He knows because his head isn’t swimming anymore and his eyeballs don’t feel like they’re rolling around in their sockets.

Fighting the swell of emotion that is threatening to erupt out of his chest, he looks up, tongue pressed into the inside of his cheek, suddenly not wanting to look in her eyes. Rafe finally nods, sniffing hard while he gathers himself. “I know,” he whispers, the noise barley even audible.

Still nodding to himself, he settles his gaze back on her. “And I know you think that this is the cocaine talking, but I promise you it’s not. I mean it when I say I need you.” Timidly, he paces towards her from across the kitchen. “I—I need your help. I need you. I—”

While he continues to ramble, she hushes him as he rests his chin in the crook of her neck. One hand cups the back of his head while the other rubs his shoulder through the soft cotton of his shirt. “Okay. You’re okay,” she murmurs into his ear, still holding onto him as he sinks to his knees on the kitchen floor. He’s tall enough that his head meets the middle of her stomach even on the floor.

Rafe can’t recall the last time anyone has held him so carefully before. But he does know that it feels wildly more intimate than any sort of sex they’ve ever had. Drowsy with relief and crashing from his high, he almost asks her if she loves him. It would be so easy to breathe the words, but instead he closes his eyes and lets her hold him a while longer.

[andrea-lyn]

Master Rec Post - Interview with the Vampire

well, it was inevitable, wasn't it? fourteen recs below for IWTV, primarily Armand/Daniel (any additions will be marked *NEW* in the future)

rock me like the rock of ages by exastris_scientia

The bathroom is the nastiest place Daniel has ever set foot in. Nothing but the word derelict comes to mind when he shuts the door, but not all the way because the hinges are sticky and squeak like hell when he moves the door, and he doesn’t want to get trapped in here and need Louis to come rescue him. Two of Daniel's personal interludes with Louis and Armand during the first interview, 1973. Any conclusions he reaches, he keeps to himself.

no devils evict themselves to the point of permanence by JanuaryWonder

Armand vowed not to listen in on Daniel's thoughts when he came to Dubai, but some still seep through the crevices in the wall he's erected around his mind. Or, the one in which Daniel remembers bits and pieces of a Devil's Minon-esque history with Armand and decisions need to be made, written from Armand's POV.

Bumblebee Mouth by Voidfavors

The rising sun bestowed him with a halo, and Daniel had to wonder about Armand’s flair for the dramatic. The spectacle he created was enough to make Daniel’s heart skip a beat. An attempt to bridge the gap between Devil's Minion and the AMC canon.

platform double suede by inthebelltower

Armand and Daniel pick up a third.

Garbage Island Utopia. by sunshineramblings

Daniel & Armand buy a house on Staten Island after leaving Dubai. Based off that commercial. You know the one.

Old Pains by EllaStorm

"It wasn’t a conscious decision, really, why would he make the conscious decision to move back towards the danger, the wounded, enraged, clawed, fanged danger, it wasn’t reasonable, it wasn’t cautious, it was – genuinely, just as fucking stupid as putting a needle in his vein and shooting himself to the moon for the first time in 1970 after that fucking Rolling Stones concert." In the aftermath of Louis’ swift departure to New Orleans, Daniel is left alone in the Dubai penthouse in Armand’s presence.

so ascends the flame by MountainsToRivers

Three scenes in Dubai, from Louis' departure to Daniel's turning. Armand had watched Louis leave. He was still on the floor, covered in dust, where Louis had thrown him—shape twisted at an almost unnatural angle, staring through the doorway, into the light. "You just had to keep pushing." He said it softly, amber eyes still unnervingly bright as they flicked to Daniel at last.

in the detail(s) by infinitevariety

A turning point. Immediately post-s2.

wake up missing me by dustyloves

"Yeah, congratulations," Daniel says. "You tortured me and my dick liked it, and I have to live with that forever. Are you proud?" "A little," Armand acknowledges.

bloodlust by mechup

Daniel hadn’t realized killing would be so exhilarating.

gibson girl by flowermasters

“Dark hair, slim build,” Armand said, feeling as if speaking might be the only thing keeping him from falling back asleep, from letting the boy go, from plunging into the blackened despair in the other room. “Small breasts, given her frame.” “Clinical,” the boy said. “Nice.”

care and keeping by katplanet (Currently a WIP, but def already worth the read!)

Louis shakes his head. “And now he's got you stepping on him.” Daniel picks his drink up and necks the last half of it. “I have not,” he says, “stepped on him, as of yet.” “But you want to.” “I think so?” Daniel puts the empty glass back on the table and scoots it out of their immediate limb radius. “I think I could want to. I want to want to.” “There you go,” Louis says, “tell him that. That'll set the mood.”

give the dog a treat before you take him out back and shoot him by shrek2enjoyer

Later, Daniel will struggle to remember what he sees in this moment. He might recall the vampire lunging at him, aiming for his neck with teeth ready to bite. In the late hazy nights where his mind holds less inhibition, he may think that the vampire was reaching for his shoulders, trying to find something to grab hold of so that he wouldn’t fall. On exactly one occasion he’ll contemplate the idea that the vampire was leaning in for a kiss. He will immediately discard the thought as proof that he needs to lower his dopamine prescription.

i'm old enough to face the dawn by exastris_scientia

The living room is dark and silent behind him, so he feels relatively secure in fishing the half-empty pack of cigarettes and lighter out of the pocket of his jeans. He doesn’t like to smoke in front of people as a general rule, since he almost never feels like explaining that technically he hasn’t been a smoker since 2005, he just keeps them around for especially stressful occasions. And this week has been the most stressful one he’s experienced since he got his Parkinson’s diagnosis. “I can’t say I’d recommend that,” Armand says smoothly from the space beside his elbow. Daniel jumps. “Jesus Christ. How long have you been lurking there like Nosferatu?”

[serpentarius]

humbled and excited to see that the very first Armand/Daniel fic I wrote, time is a mouth as bloody as any other, has received 10,000 hits!

I know AO3 stats are not necessarily an indication of anything, really, but I do want to thank everyone who’s read my silly little fic. ♥️ It’s a nice lil’ personal milestone to have reached, and I felt it was worth celebrating. None of you owe us fic writers anything so just know that I appreciate y’all so much! And I’m SO happy to see the surge in folks who are discovering and loving this pairing. DM nation unite 🙏🏽

Now, to be a little more overtly self-promotional… I thought I’d take the opportunity to plug some of my other Armand/Daniel fics! 😄

🩸 as long as I find you interesting (I won't kill you) [4/4]

🩸 the talisman [1/1]

🩸 he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good [1/1]

🩸 faultlines [1/1]

… & feel free to drop your fave Armandaniel fics in the comments! 😄💕

[nightcolorz]

Can I ask what was Armand 's time like with the original coven/cult? I haven't read the books but I have heard how he was forced into him and it seems like a terrible time. I get how it started but he seems to have spent centuries working for the cult, if you can call it that and I was wondering how was it like? Did he really spent all that time in a cemetery? The coven seems to form the largest part of his life and I have really been wondering what those years have been like to him.

omg good question!! Thank u for the ask!!

the cult backstory part of the vampire Armand is actually relatively short considering how much time he spent there, but we r given a lot of details that give us an idea of what it was like. U said u know how it started but imma talk about that anyway for comprehension sake lol. So when he’s seventeen (in the book of course lol, in the show he’d be much older when this happens) and he had been turned into a vampire maybe within the last month or so, very very young vampire, the “children of darkness” storm Marius’s palazzo with intent to kill him. The children of darkness are a vampire coven (that most ppl in the fandom call a cult bcus they r by definition a religious cult lol) that has existed for a long time, has multiple covens throughout multiple parts of Europe. and believes that vampires are part of gods plan as demon like servants who r put on earth to serve him by spreading evil that god can fight. They believe that goodness can only exist if evil exists to combat it, and by spreading evil they r working for gods plan. So the children of darkness think that vampires, as servants of evil, should live in cemeteries with the rats, bcus they are meant to be low lives, and to refuse any indulgences such as living in houses or having mortal friends. The logic is that bcus they r like devils, they must create their own personal hell, bcus Devils arent worthy of having nice things and shouldn’t be nice to humans. So that’s why they live in cemeteries lol, and don’t have clean clothes.

so Marius is not catholic lmao (all children of darkness members are), he literally is Roman and was born before the Christian god was created. And he lives in a giant palace and has a team of mortal servants and, yknow a prostitute child who he turned into a vampire recklessly. So the Children of darkness r a very big cult, and so they believe that they r the ultimate authority that every vampire should follow, and vampires who don’t follow them r heretics (basically like Christianity historically). So to punish Marius they kill him with fire, kill all his mortal residents and the children who r living with him as his painting apprentices. They obviously can tell Armand is a vampire lol, and for being a breaking of the laws in his very existence (a vampire who was made without authority from the coven and was made as a child, also a vampire who has severe mental illness that Marius acknowledges as a disability that will make him unable to function as a vampire), they plan to kill him, sort of for the same logic Armand kills Claudia and Madeline, bcus he will die soon anyway. They line all the children (who Armand considers his brothers) up in front of a huge bonfire and throw them in as Armand is being held back screaming and trying to fight them. They are about to throw Armand in the fire with them, but the leader of the coven Santino, who is an Italian catholic who u can tell is sort of resigned and non violent, believes in the coven but doesn’t take any joy in the cruelty, sees that Armand has a history of being very very catholic and sees that he has a learned servitude and learned helplessness that would make him a very willing part of a catholic cult. He knows that Armand’s devotion to god and willingness to debase himself to honor god (he used to be a monk as a kid) would make him a good cult member, but he also can see that living with Marius has buried those tendencies in him, and he’s much more secular now. So he decides to let Armand live and indoctrinate him into the coven, aiming to beat the cult member tendencies back into him.

Santino takes armand into the catacombs and Armand is very resistant lol, he’s like why do u think I would join u I hate u u killed my master and u killed my brothers. He’s being mocked by the coven members, one guy throws his brothers ashes on his face 😭 and Armand in retaliation violently kills the guy and rips his head off and throws it into the skulls lined on the wall. Santino is Like wow. This kid is strong, he has like genuine potential. So he becomes dead set on making sure Armand becomes a part of their cult.

Santino talks to Armand to a while and explains their beliefs, hoping to convince Armand to be complaint that way. He tells him he’ll kill him if he doesn’t join them, which still doesn’t get Armand to want to comply. Santino introduces Armand to a vampire named Allessandra, who becomes sort of a maternal and mentor figure for Armand while he joins the coven. To force Armand to comply Santino then locks him in a cage and starves him of blood for weeks and weeks on end. Since Armand is a very young vampire, and young vampires need to eat multiple times a night, he’s been reduced to an animal because of how hungry he is. It’s basically like when Louis is trapped in the coffin in iwtv s2. It’s described that he’s yowling and throwing himself at the bars, biting into his arms and drinking his own blood, going completely insane, hallucinating. (Alessandra sometimes comes to sooth him while he’s loosing his shit in the cage and calls him a poor boy, pleads with Santino to let him out, stuff like that, which I think is sweet lol). Eventually the coven vampires feed Armand, and they release a teenaged boy into his cage. Armand instantly attacks and kills the boy without thinking or seeing him, and after he’s already dead Armand realizes that he just killed his closest friend and brother Riccardo, who was kept from being killed in the fire for this purpose. Armand desperately tries to turn Riccardo so he won’t die, but he’s long gone.

This absolutely pushes Armand over the edge, and he’s forced to share his containment now with the corpse of his best friend who he just killed. He tears his corpse apart so he doesn’t have to look at his face, starts throwing his limbs outside the bars, insane stuff like that. Armand is then starved again for several more weeks, and when he is eventually fed he is given a scared orphan child. Armand kills the child in his starvation and then starts to hallucinate guilty visions of the dead child in containment with him. It’s implied that this goes on in similar fashion for a long time.

when Armand is eventually released the indoctrination has worked. The intent of the torture was to teach Armand that he was a monster who deserved to live in catacombs, and that he wasn’t meant to live a life of indulgence like his master. The torture was also intended to drain him of any fight he had and to drain any hope he had of escaping. Armand is so defeated and devastated that he doesn’t care about escaping, he just goes through the motions, he’s lost everything. The coven decides that Armand’s name can not remain Amadeo, bcus of what it represents, since Marius named him Amadeo and means it “beloved of god”. Alessandra renames Armand to well, Armand lol. Armand means warrior.

after this Armand’s time in the coven isn’t described in depth, but we r told that the daily routine of the coven includes going out and tormenting and violently killing humans, indoctrinating and kidnapping vampires, and sleeping in coffins and doing rituals in the catacombs. Pretty quickly into his time as a coven member Santino sends Armand to go rule a coven in Paris, which has been abandoned by its master and needs a new one. Armand is given this opportunity bcus of how strong he is from Marius’s blood, and bcus of how uniquely dedicated and obedient he is. Santino knows that Armand is strong and resilient enough to be a leader, while also being obedient and compliant enough to not abandon his position. Armand asks to bring Alessandra with him bcus he needs someone to guide him in this position he’s never had before, and Santino allows him to.

Armand falls into the role of leader easily, just going through the motions passionlessly. He’s never been a leader before, but he’s able to fall into it with the mindset of obedience he has taken when being a part of the cult. Armand is in charge as coven master of doing all the thing to others that he was once put through, he tortures and starves vampires, kills them for breaking rules, stuff like that. Armand doesn’t believe in the covens principles, he is only a part of the coven because he feel he has no other choice. Coven leaders often abandon their stations and live normal lives, but Armand doesn’t do this bcus he doesn’t know how to live without smth to devote himself to. He’s never lived independently, he was turned as a teenager 😭 a teen who was being abused, and that’s all he knows how to be. He daydreams often about Marius coming to save him, but obviously this never happens.

We are told that Armand’s life continues in this way in much the same low action, depressing fashion until lestat comes around, the only change being that Allessandra goes crazy from old age and depression and kills herself. Lestat is the only reason Armand’s life with the coven ends, it’s implied he would have lived that way forever if he hadn’t been stopped.

Even tho the children of darkness part is pretty short and doesn’t detail much of the long time Armand spent there, it definitely informs a lot about Armand’s character. It’s a massive influence on how he perceives life as a vampire and why he reacts with so much disproportionate violence and cruelty for seemingly no reason. The reason Armand kills Claudia is very cult based, bcus for him he sees her death as a necessary part of Vampire Law. And Armand continues for the rest of his life to see extreme violence and torture as a necessary, common aspect of life that some scenarios demand. The cult also changes his personality a lot, within a few months he goes from a rebellious strong spirited kid to a cold and wide eyed monster who moves through the world like a ghost. It’s only during devils minion that Armand starts to regain his ability to be a person and starts to find a life for himself where he isn’t submitting to a purpose or a leader, for the first time in his existence

thank u again for the ask!!! I hope I answer ur question + this is what u were looking for, lol

[nalyra-dreaming]

I don't get how people are upset with DM not being as much explored in the recent episode, I mean this is supposed to be the beginning right? Beginning of Armand being utterly fascinated with Daniel and thus the whole chase happening, the showmakers established it quite nicely.

I get people being upset over not getting more Armandaniel as compared to Danlou because this season is majorly about Louis still so it's natural we get his perspective on events happened in SanFran.

For me I'd say I am satisfied with the amount of DM they have included in this episode,

-like the whole Armand cleaning the blood on Daniel's neck and the embrace, I know the context is not romantic but the INTIMACY oh my god I was so overwhelmed. The caressing, the quite whispered murmuring, Daniel melting in that embrace, clinging to Armand, WE ARE GETTING FED actually.

This was only the beginning.

I really don't get why people would be upset with it. It sets up Armand's fascination and Daniel's almost blind drive wrt his journalism, and we don't even know where they put Daniel afterwards.

For all we know - for all LOUIS and DANIEL know the 12 years have already happened.

They cannot know, because Armand truncated their memory there.

So... yes. Intimacy. Fascination. Obvious chemistry, too, imho :)

Personally I loved it.

[lizardkingeliot]

Just gonna pop this full quote from Rolin here for anyone who might need to see it today:

"When I read the novel, it was very clear that this was a romance, and we wanted to tackle it in a big way: overflowing passion, big fights and big reconciliations. A relationship like that may not be the best thing for you in life, but sometimes you just can't control yourself, and that's what happens to Louis and Lestat." Will the show respect the structure of the books, in which Louis disappears and Lestat comes to the fore? "We want to focus on the relationship between the two" replies the showrunner. "That does not mean that they will be together in every scene of every chapter, but when the second season arrives you will have a clearer idea of what will happen to Louis, and even more so in the third, when we adapt The Vampire Lestat. We will keep the spirit of the novels and their emotional arcs, but their plots are built in a very different way than what a TV series asks for. Besides, who would want to get rid of an actor like Jacob Anderson?"

(source)

I understand being worried reading a quote from the showrunner in which he implies Louis and Lestat might not really reconcile for 8 more seasons, but the entire show thus far has focused on Louis and Lestat. They restructured so many things in season 2 to be about Louis and Lestat. The entire trial was about their love! The tower scene ended up being Lestat getting metaphorically broken by losing Louis instead. Dreamstat! Even the Armand and Louis relationship ended up being about Louis and Lestat in the end. Jacob and Sam are co-leads. They will continue to be co-leads. Their chemistry is legendary. The show has never given us any reason to believe they're suddenly going to squander that.

Rolin has said he specifically went in the AMC offices asking to write a love story. Obviously none of us can see into the future and predict how the story is going to unfold, but I'm personally choosing to trust where they're headed with it. This team is so good and they have not let us down thus far in my opinion. Sam has implied they have the whole arc plotted out, and I can't see any reason why they would suddenly change their minds. It might end up taking a different shape than we imagine. We might not get everything we want. Louis and Lestat are always going to have a chaotic and insane dynamic as long as the show is airing. But that insane, chaotic dynamic is the heart of the show. That's what makes it so compelling!

And also, just as a side note, please remember Louis and Lestat do reunite as lovers near the end of TVL. Louis is there for the rockstar era. He and Lestat smooch backstage! Why on earth would the show choose to not give us that turned up to eleven like they do with everything else?

Now let's all just take some nice deep breaths and enjoy our hiatus yeah? Season 3 is happening! We have so much to look forward to! 💖

[covenofthearticulate]

Ash I’ve been bitten by the Louis!Simp bug, I need your headcanons about his romantic side please and thank you 🥹 (with specific partners or in general or both, dealers choice!!!)

JESS!!!!!! hello. in all forms but physical i am squeezing your shoulders and kissing your cheeks. welcome to the louis!simp club i am so glad you're here

anyway YEAH i think in terms of fanon, folks tend to underestimate Louis' interest/capacity for romance because he always has a bad time whenever anyone tries to show him a Grand Romantic Gesture but i just adhgdskfbhsjbfvdjhbf I think Louis is one of the most romantic characters in the series!!! he just shows it in ways that aren't obvious to those who don't know him well, but I know for a fact that this man is down so bad for Lestat and Armand and just wants to see them happy.

He strikes me as the kind of person who puts a lot of time and effort into the love he gives— whether that's spending actual time with his lovers (I always HC that his preferred love language is Quality Time) or hunting down a specific gift, or even taking the time to better himself!!

Like I know we talk about it a lot, but I think all the times throughout later canon where Louis dresses nicely for Lestat and Armand is such a great example of the type of lover Louis is. That's the closest thing to any Grand Love Gesture he'll get. We know if it were up to him, he would wear the same clothes for centuries. He doesn't care about his appearance, but he knows that Lestat and Armand do. He knows that they like to look at him, that they like to see him in fine things, just as he used to like seeing Claudia in fine things. They gift him clothes because that is their way of showing affection, and he knows he can ease Lestat's or Armand's anxiety just a little bit by accepting that affection and allowing them to fawn over his beauty, even if it makes him uncomfortable. Louis is someone who thrives with the comfort of the familiar; to step out of his comfort zone is a BIG DEAL to him, and I think we really see that reflected in Lestat and even Armand's narration any time they do see him all dressed up, like they always seem so surprised and awestruck LOL

ANYWAY yeah he cares so deeply for his loved ones like really truly, I think that Louis is the kind of lover who is just so thoughtful. Gift giving isn't necessarily his preferred love language, but he's ALWAYS thinking of Lestat and Armand, and it manifests in different ways. Some nights he'll barge into the room and read aloud an article he thinks they might find interesting, and he'll ask them questions and soak in every one of their opinions. Other nights he simply graces them with his presence and reads silently beside them.

And other nights still, Louis will revisit arguments that occurred a century ago, or even an hour ago, and will pick at old wounds not because he is truly upset, but because Louis is genuinely the kind of person who is constantly thinking about the things Lestat or Armand have said to him. He's constantly picking their words apart in his head, trying to find new meaning, and I know it's absolutely infuriating for Lestat, but there's something about Louis where, even as he's rebutting an argument from two years back, there's a passion in his eyes that's just so exciting and almost kind of sweet. You just KNOW that Louis loves to debate, not for the sake of winning (though he loves to win) but because he loves to hear his lovers' ideas and understand their psyche. Honest to god, I think Louis' ideal date night would be debating beside a cozy fire LOL

Okay sorry this is getting long! I don't have a lot of individual headcanons BUT one favorite headcanon that I've had in my back pocket and do want to turn into a fic one day is that Louis teaches himself to speak Armand's native tongue, so he can tell him he loves him with a language Armand has not heard for centuries.

Another headcanon I've been thinking about as well is like, in a similar vein to the clothes thing, Louis understanding how insecure Lestat gets at times, especially about how their relationship is perceived. So like, again with the comfort zone thing, I think Louis tries very very very hard to swallow his discomfort in order to occasionally hold Lestat's hand in public. Maybe even kiss him, who knows. He loathes being perceived, but he'll do it for Lestat.

[blacclotusss]

Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape

Starting off strong, I want to discuss the argument between Louis and Armand. This, in my opinion, is where everything fell apart. It's just them going back and forth hitting each other in the jugular and it made me want to rip my hair out just hearing it. I, personally, have always hated when things like that get thrown up in arguments so that's my own personal bias. Just hearing Louis throw back the CSA in Armand's face and Armand throwing Paul's suicide, Grace leaving him, and his history with Lestat back up brought me to tears almost. It really sucks that these two felt that they had to resort to these things, but that's the tragedy of it all.

But, for some reason, I think Armand was more hurt that Louis called him dull and boring. My belief is that it hit harder because being boring and dull to Louis means he goes out to look for more exciting things and people, leaving Armand home all night. He doesn't want to lose Louis and the first ounce of real love that he's experienced, so he was taken aback by that. Louis walking out into the sun wasn't much of a surprise to me, but I think him doing it at that moment was. I would have expected a suicide attempt back in Paris, or even in Dubai, but not in San Francisco. I do understand now that the story has unfolded. 

I think Louis has just had enough of it all, talking about it with Daniel who kind of brushed it off in his intoxicated state and his argument with Armand only fuels that. He wants to be with Claudia, she's the one that he says is calling him, and if dying is how he's going to get to meet her again, then so be it. Now, the whole situation with Armand leaving Louis on that bed to suffer while he begs for relief definitely rubbed me the wrong way. Louis no longer has Claudia to nurse him back to health, as she did when he was dropped, so he has no choice but to rely on Armand and that sucks. Armand is in here torturing Daniel while he leaves Louis to holler and yell for him, that's so messed up. Even going as far as to contact Lestat and relay messages from him to Louis, and omitting some things. The psychological abuse at play here is crazy to think about.

I also want to talk about the power balance that has been discussed as well. Yes, Louis is able to express himself a bit more and in a different way in his relationship with Armand. They have an understanding of each other and what the other needs and their roles and positions switch based on what one needs at that moment. The whole Arun/Maitre thing is really working in Armand's favor more, in my personal opinion. He knows just how to push enough to get Louis to fall in line with that. You can see that towards the end when Armand calls Louis maitre after all he said. He's all of a sudden asking Louis to lead after everything that has happened, after Louis had to beg, and Louis will happily oblige in order to keep the peace between them. I wonder in what other instances has this happened before. We see Louis trying to keep Armand from falling off of the deep end while he, himself, is the one sitting in the coffin burned and charred begging for blood. So curious as to how this will all unfold in the coming episodes, I know Dubai will be a madhouse just as much as Paris. 

Aside from the analysis of relationships and arguments, this episode was amazing. The styling choices in both the filming and wardrobe were superb. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this was Jacob and Assad's first episode they shot. It had to be funny to go from this to all the sweet lovey dovey stuff in the earlier episodes. I want to hear them talk about this more. Also, the SFX makeup was amazing! Much love to everyone involved with that! And it was nice to finally see Luke! He played that part so well. This and episode two are my absolute favorites so far. I wonder what's to come next in Dubai... 

[gallierhouse]

I really do think Armand is ultimately someone who’s motivated by love and compassion in equal measure; he just expresses it in all the wrong ways. Maybe it’s not something anyone else would identify as love or compassion but I don’t think he’s ever unkind, really, except to Lestat. He’s always operating from this place of trying to be the bigger person and trying to control himself and trying to let things go and forgive and be kind and be good and he’s put in positions that make it very difficult to keep up the restraint. He’s holding his own chain. He’s trying to do the right thing, but his idea of the right thing is so entangled with his flawed logic and his utterly insane beliefs about the world (and duty, and suffering, and right and wrong). He’s trying to play nice and he’s trying to behave and it never really works out because he’s selfish and he’s monstrous and he’s cruel and he’s possessive and he needs to own things and he needs them to own him, too, and he likes the taste of power and he likes the taste of despair, and yet he’s still trying to not be bad. He’s not trying to be good. But there are certain lines even he won’t cross and there are certain people he doesn’t want to be, and while it’s obvious he takes pleasure in the suffering of others, it’s also so clear that he, in a lot of ways, is trying to be the person that he needs. Or maybe he thinks he needed a long time ago. As much as he likes to play the victim and act like he’s been wronged, I don’t really think that’s what he believes about himself. I think he probably thinks he’s… unmoored, a lost cause, someone whose fate was sealed a long, long, long time ago and now it’s all meaningless because what’s done is done and whatever good or innocence that he maybe once had, once upon a time, is long gone and now it’s only waiting for the end. Or maybe never the end. Doesn’t really matter which. There’s no meaning, only filling time. Armand’s very principled, deep down, which is why he’s got this one line he refuses to cross until he does (not making fledglings) and everything he does is in proportion to that. He’s evil, but he’ll only do things up to how evil he is now, and he won’t go a step further, and it’s fine for him to do all those evil things as long as he doesn’t cross that line because he’s already damned and it’s already done and he has to do these things anyway and if he doesn’t someone else will and if he does it maybe he can control it or make it better or at least give someone else somewhere to put all the pain. I don’t know. I think he’s compassionate. In a fucked up way, but it’s a cornerstone of who he is. He’s the person who puts down the dog when no one else wants to and he knows everyone else is going to hate him for it, but sometimes dogs have to die, and it’s his dog so it’s his choice, and it doesn’t really matter what anyone else wants, not even the dog.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog: Wakfu Season 2 (episode 17)

I find myself liking Eva a lot, during this rewatch, because I really am realizing that Eva&Joris is a very interesting and insane duo to consider.

If Ankama was wiser, they'd make them friends explicitly. Oh well.

Joris watching Adamai say this (Adamai is living through his worst nightmare of the person who loved him dying and coming back without memories, this time for real): 😬💀🚶‍♂️

This seems like some sort of waiting room for the meeting, judging from the fact that all the participants (as well as Grougal, but, to be fair, he's like a baby, it's logical that he'd be present with him until the very last possible moment, before being passed on to babysitters.)

I think it's interesting that Joris is sitting quite neutrally, looking exactly at Adamai and Armand, while Qilby is turned fully towards him.

...Studying him, perhaps?

Judging from the fact that Qilby was appealing to Sadida royalty by having studied their texts, and claiming to have met their god, he seems interested in learning more about people — maybe to manipulate, maybe simply curious.

Considering Qilby's connection with dragons and millions of years worth of memory, I could wager that he can feel/see that Joris is a bit weird.

(I know I am reading way too much into this, but let me have this lmaoo.)

This is why I find it quite fascinating that Qilby (interested in studying people around him, maybe seeking an advantage) is telling Joris (an old, dragonized Bontarian deligate) about a dragon that razed Bonta before Joris was born (Arty (Goultard's Dead Dragon Husband)).

Trying to gauge if Joris is secretly a dragon? If he knows that dragon? Trying to gauge his age? His opinions? Hmm???

This is one of the most short and uninformative Joris one-liners in the whole franchise. He's so epic for the way he dodges saying anything here.

Considering the fact that Joris is 1. pretty gullable, actually, 2. generally distrustful of people he doesn't know, especially royalty, 3. sounds pretty happy about this interaction here, I think Joris's opinion of Qilby is "this is a foreign leader, and the whole thing is going to cause a lot of issues. Eliatropes' happiness is worth it, though, and also he seems nice enough. But we are not friends."

Basically, I think Qilby has Joris on his side hook, line, and sinker. Lmaoo.

HE LOOKS SO AMUSED BY THE SHENANIGANS.

Joris LOVES Sadida Kingdom.

I'm insane about Brakmar. Of course the prince of Brakmar (a capitalist hellhole) would be the only one to give a lowly servant a coin.

[wipes tear] Tipping culture is real in Brakmar because otherwise people will not survive on their wage alone. Just like in America...

While none of them are shown, this meeting implies the existence of a kingdom for every race. (I need ecaflip lore so bad...)

I love this animation error so much. How did this happen.

Sitting cutely with his hands crossed.

Guys I think Qilby might have supremacist beliefs about his people. Idk, just a hunch.

And in THIS shot, the animation error is gone.

I want so, so bad to know about whatever the Ecaflip equivalent of Cra City/Sadida Kingdom may be...

Kerubim has canonically been to Trool fair and he LOVES fishing for quaquacks, and we know this from the anniversary map commentary (despite his painful and traumatic memories from episode 48 of Aux Tresors de Kerubim. He talks in the MMO about being uneasy about quaquacks since then.)

Another error — Joris sits there quite inconsistently...

@dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard HEY DULLARD HE SAID THE LINE—-

I love this so much. He's been dealing with politics for centuries, and he's so fucking angry that he allowed himself to slip up and say something antagonizing.

This is a bunch of rich people who have not known orphanhood or living in squalor in their entire lives, talking about putting children in mines, and trying to pass off a bunch of children who lost their parents in a war like a hot potato. And one of them, from a country that his country fucking hates, says that this might lead to a war.

I think Joris, with his life story and opinions and the tragedies he's witnessed in life, must be thinking things much harsher than this. Just a hunch.

This "us" doesn't include Bonta, btw :)

While I have issues with season 4, I do like that there was some moral ambiguity to the world leaders: with hindsight, I think we can say pretty easily that Brakmar's concerns are quite valid, even if false this time.

As I've said — Joris, like Yugo and Adamai, thinks pretty simply that everyone should always do good things, and that it's so so simple to be good — you just give people what they need! :) It's literally so so simple.

And that's how he, after becoming the ruler of Bonta in Waven, got to the point of having: cannibalistic wars, using living beings as building material and weapons, having 999 prisoners of war, spies and guards everywhere, implied slavery, as well as—- [I am forcibly taken offstage]

Once again, Wakfu demonstrates that Bonta and Sadida are very closely aligned.

me and @dullard have had countless conversations about this fucking episode, and he said a lot of interesting things. Here are some highlights, which he has allowed me to include:

I literally don't even know how to put my opinions into words, besides including these screenshots.

[platoapproved]

Do you think Lestat still loves and desires Armand?

I have NO idea the direction they will go with Lestat and Armand in the TV show if I am being honest. Predicting things from future media has never been a strong suit of mine. I'm sort of just along for the ride!

In the books? They are so in love with one another and also hate one another and both things are expressed in deeply horny ways. Like, words cannot describe their levels of hater soulmate 'want to fuck him so bad it makes you look stupid' shenanigans.

I'd love if the TV adaptation were to play with that! I think Lestat's desire for Armand physically at the very least needs to be present; it's such a fundamental part of Armand's character that everyone who sees him lusts after him. Like this quote from Queen of the Damned really says it very concisely (the wording here is 'love' but in the context of the broader passage it's clearly just talking about people wanting to fuck him). And really any element they can include of Lestat like... seeing this beautiful person who is suffering and grimy and wanting him sexually but also wanting to like, clean him up and get him some nice clothes and brush his hair and make him look pretty. YES that passage from Memnoch is still living rent free in my head, but honestly it's such a like, fun route to take when depicting desire? It's both tender and a lil dehumanizing, just to keep things spicy.

As for love, that's harder to say because I feel like TV Lestat seems to love in a different way to book Lestat and if I'm being honest I don't understand either of those guys.

Thanks for the question anon! Hope the answer wasn't a letdown!

[vorbarrsultana]

the vampire lestat reread, pt. 1 (lestat and nickistat)

also known as "i decided to reread tvl after the season finale because some takes i've seen online give me the impression i read a completely different book two years ago". i've finished it two days ago, and turns out i have more than 5000 words of notes that significally exceed tumblr character limit. so, i had to split them into three parts.

here is part one, all about dramatic theater kids full of love, sad violinists of infinite beauty, and friends-to-lovers romances doomed by the narrative.

i love lestat.

i forgot how fun and likable tvl lestat is from page one. and how different he is from his fanon characterization!

lestatposting is fun, i get it, but i am starting to get annoyed at the amount of fanfics where lestat needs someone to help him adapt to modern times. he is doing fine on his own, thank you. it took him less than two weeks to start a rock band.

(and the whole iphone thing from "prince lestat" is more about him not seeing it as something useful since he has a mind-skype ability to talk to any vamp on planet earth, and they cannot decline the call.)

lestat is not stupid. impulsive? yes. stubborn? of course. but clever, resourseful, and cunning when he needs to be. all of this makes him a great hunter! also, really thoughtful when the mood strikes, and his quiet, existential moments have some of the best prose in that book.

i wish someone smarter than me wrote a good meta about lestat & social class because he really seems to buy into the idea of "noblesse oblige" i.e. the belief that aristocrats are obliged to take care of those less fortunate. it's present in the way he kills the wolf pack for the villagers (who live on his father's land), and later takes responsibility for the theatre troupe & remnants of armand's coven, even though he doesn't owe them anything.

also, characterization of lestat as someone socially cluesless is simply untrue. sure, he plays dumb on occasion (and hates it every time because early life illiteracy trauma), but he is also good at reading people. like, he got a pretty accurate read of armand behind the angelic facade during their first face-to-face meeting. the only people he has trouble reading are those closest to him because he heavily projects his abandonment issues on them.

lestat's struggle of being "too much" contrasts nicely with the struggle of never being enough which is so crucial to louis. hashtag made for each other.

and juxtaposition of lestat's desire to be loved for who he is and louis's struggle with identity is also delicious.

this time i also related so much to lestat's "malady of mortality" and his search for meaning in the world. which ultimately fails because he is forcibly turned into a monster, and now every ounce of happiness he might bring into the world (and lestat desperately wants to do good!) is outweighed by him killing to survive.

and marius later reinforced the belief that vampirism has no higher purpose, and no wonder that nola!lestat is a shell of his former self.

lestat's turning is the most classic horror moment of the vampire chronicles to me. the mina harker of it all. the creature of night shrouded in terror snatching an innocent victim from the arms of their love right before bleak november sunrise.

also, all the implications of what magnus has done to lestat were even more clear during this reread, and i wonder if that was the reason rolin "i-love-narrative-parallels" jones added bruce into claudia's story.

the book also explains perfectly why lestat is so well suited for vampirism. his curiosity, thirst for new experiences, and adventuring spirit are his eternal engine on the devil's road :)

however, the downside of that personality facet is that lestat steamrolls over his trauma telling himself "this is fine! look, satan, i am making the best of it", which in turn leads to the iwtv nola mess.

and i feel like this constant search for positives in vampirism (that unwilligly turned lestat & claudia share) is why they can't really relate to louis, who chose it for himself. if these two start to get too existential, the temptation to throw themselves into the fire might become unbearable.

lestat equating his loneliness with his evilness is interesting, but i have nothing to say about that for now other than equation being there.

lestat's explosive temper is also present in the book. there is a constant pattern of lestat doing things he regrets the most (like the theater performance fiasco or eating people at notre dame's steps) when he is angry or upset.

let's talk about nicki. i love him, despite half of fandom hating on him for some reason.

lestat has a type, which is "good catholic boy" with narrow view of good and evil. except louis is of a parent's favorite, conforming variety, and nicki is the rebellious one, driven to the utmost cynicism by religious dogmas.

however, despite being a self-proclaimed cynic, nicki practically drowns in catholic guilt, almost reveling in the fact that everything he does, from playing violin in the boulevard theater to having an affair with lestat, is wrong. there is no meaning in anything, and he is doomed to die a sinner's death.

he is doomed! by the narrative though.

lestat and nicki's philosophical difference seems to be that nicki (unlike lestat) does not believe in inherent goodness of the positive emotions. for him, "sin always feels good", therefore happiness they bring performing = sin.

but still, nickistat's love is so touching. after lestat ghosts nicki to protect him, he still trusts lestat's love for him and the troupe, thinks best of him, and shuts down all nasty rumours. in turn, lestat equates all the good that was in his mortal life, all his hopes and dreams with nicki. he is a symbol of everything magnus took from him.

AND THEY COMMUNICATE THROUGH MUSIC, AND IT'S THEM AT THEIR BEST, AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

nicki almost became lestat's charlie. when they meet face to face for the first time after lestat's transformation, he can barely contain his hunger magnified by attraction.

the most terribly sad thing about nicki is the unfairness of all that happened to him. he had seen lestat being shot right before him, then he disappeared with dying gabrielle, then the coven kidnapped and tortured him until he lost his mind.

and for nicki, the dark gift is a confirmation of everything he believes in being true. the meaninglessness of it all. evil being the only certain thing in the world. the way to fall into a deeper, darker abyss than the one that was before the mortal him. and it is a confirmation that lestat's inner light he loved so much will eventually burn out.

(his spark in the dark, if you will.)

(and lestat's dream before turning nicki hurts, because he dreams of growing up and growing old together, of maturing past magnus's eternal lelio with sunlight in his hair and summer sky in his eyes. oh, the lesdaughter of it all.)

there is certainly a parallel between nickistat's bitter "in darkness, we are equal now" vs loustat's comforting "in the quiet dark, we were equals".