#both Louis and lestate provide him direction

[gloomy-eye]

I've been seeing posts around talkin about how how deeply Armand loves Lestat in the books and how he's the love of his life even though the feel isn't returned and I gotta say I hope that isn't how they take things moving forward in the show. I just haven't gotten that vibe from Armand honestly. Yeah, he loves him and he also loves Louis- that's clear. But to me it seems more like he has developed strong attachments/feelings for them out of a dependence. It doesn't feel like a "love of my life" situation. It feels like an "I need someone as I alone feel incomplete/lost" situation.

[ca-suffit]

re: nobody defending Armand. Not only is he not being defended, I see a lot of people (from both sides of the argument regarding episode 8) assuming things that weren't said about his involvement in the trial. I've seen people say that he wrote and orquestrated the whole thing, when Daniel only said that he directed the play. We've seen before (with My Baby Loves Windows) that Armand directs plays that are not his, he provides notes and stage direction, which is not the same as writing the play. The coven could have forced him to direct the play, and Armand's blame would lie in the fact that he did not try hard enough to stop them and that he lied to Louis. Santiago even takes credit for the play when he's taunting Louis, but because we were shown that Armand can be a dickhead and a liar then that means he must surely be evil in every single way, which is not the treatment that Lestat gets from most of the fandom. The lack of nuance when addressing these characters is a problem in general (I live in fear that Lestat will get flanderized) but it's really noticeable how extreme and malicious it gets with characters of color.

(context)

Assad has already flat out said that Armand was forced to do the play as well and the fandom is ignoring tf out of that

Zaman tells TV Insider’s Damian Holbrook that Armand was “forced” to direct the trial and that all of his subsequent punishment from the coven was “absolutely true.”

“He directed it, but it wasn’t his choice to do it,” Zaman says. (src)

If this were a white character and/or Lestat, it would be plastered in the tags every day.

The fandom has been afraid of this happening since the end of S1 (contrary to the lies being pushed all the time, a lot of ppl always distrusted Armand and knew something was wrong, whether they were book readers or not), but the choices the show made on top of it have made it worse.

I've seen posts claiming that Armand was full body controlling Lestat and making him speak during the trial as well. What???

So we see Lestat abuse Louis and he's admitted to that in canon now as well, but that's the part we're still supposed to think is a lie (according to the fandom)? But with Armand it's just....whatever evil thing u want to make up is prbly true. Ok. Despite Sam just saying all this about Lestat the other week too.

There's such clear parallels between how the show is treating Lestat and Armand and how both have "more" to their stories than we've seen yet. But only Lestat gets cushioned from it all almost entirely, not only by the fandom but the show itself as well between the episodes and the interviews with cast and crew.

Lestat is like "dickhead (affectionate, his background excuses it and it's sassy white gay rep anyway)" and Armand is like "dickhead (said to be affectionate but?? idk why, he was just born like that ig lol [ignores his backstory that involves sex slavery]"

[northprompt]

Loustat prompt

Warning for domestic abuse, mention of domestic violence and angst.

Four times they shared a coffin and one time they didn't.

One.

On the second night of Louis becoming a vampire he didn't bother to protest about sleeping in a coffin with Lestat, truthfully it hadn't been as uncomfortable, or as horrifying, as he had feared.

After they both changed into pjs, Louis' provided by Lestat, since he was avoiding going home for awhile. They climbed into Lestat's coffin together, Lestat automatically slinging an arm around Louis.

Louis lay there quietly, replaying the murder of the day, his second victim.

"Do not worry Louis, these feelings will pass soon, and trouble you no more." Lestat reassured him, stroking a hand over Louis' chest soothingly.

Louis nodded uncertainly, he somehow doubted his feelings of guilt and despair would pass. But he wanted to please Lestat, he didn't like it when they disagreed, so he he nodded.

 Two.

 The first time Louis drank blood from a drunk human, he staggered home and up he stairs giggling as he went, he fell over more than once on the way. Lestat was already home, having left Louis to his work at the Azaelea earlier.

Lestat opened his coffin lid when he heard Louis stumble into the room, he watched Louis fumble taking his clothes off for a moment before he spoke.

"Louis are you drunk?" Lestat asked amused, he smirked when Louis clumsily tripped out of his trousers.

Louis turned to glare at Lestat, "Why didn't you warn me this could happen?"

Lestat smiled, "It slipped my mind Louis, I have been too busy trying to get you to drink anyone to worry about your choice in victim."

Louis was too intoxicated to think of a good retort so he threw his waistcoat in Lestat's general direction, it missed by quite a distance, and the blonde vampire watched Louis with bemusement as the man walked over to the coffin and suddenly dropped into it. He landed on top of Lestat's body with an umph. Lestat grunted at the impact.

Louis lay back and began tugging at a strand of Lestat's hair, twirling it around his finger, while the other man begrudgingly rolled onto his side so Louis' weight was no longer crushing him.

The younger vampire fell asleep quickly and began snoring, a habit he usually did not do, Lestat regarded his beautiful face for a minute before leaning up and pulling the coffin lid close. He glanced at Louis' empty coffin before laying down and coiling himself around the other man.

 Three.

 Not long after Claudia joined their family, Lestat hopped into Louis' coffin as soon as he heard her gentle snores. Louis eagerly opened his arms to enclose Lestat, sharing a deep kiss.

Louis pulled away first, "I didn't mean what I said that day, you know that right?"

Lestat cradled Louis face, he knew the day Louis was referring to, the day they fought and Louis rescued Claudia.

"I know Louis, we get passionate when we fight, because we are in love." Lestat replied sincerely.

Louis glanced away at that, avoiding saying he loved Lestat was difficult but necessary, he may love him but he did not trust him.

Instead Louis said, "You won't be alone, we're your family."

Lestat blinked rapidly, emotion clouding his voice, "We will always have each other."

 Four.

 In the years that Claudia was gone, Louis and Lestat barely touched, and could not hold a conversation with one another for more than a few minutes before an argument erupted.

During the night Lestat would leave Louis to mourn in their home, and go join Antionette for an evening of partying and fucking.

Louis had a particularly difficult last few days, he didn't eat, he couldn't even read, he hadn't spoken to anyone, including Lestat during that time. He went to the coffin room early, Lestat still wasn't home, he pulled his pjs over his skinny body and lay in the dark of his coffin.

He heard Lestat enter about an hour later, he didn't attempt to speak to Louis at first, instead he changed and then threw open the lid to to Louis' coffin without warning.

"Have you done anything today but mope around?" Lestat asked him sneering down.

Louis blinked up at Lestat, feeling enraged and exhausted at the same time.

"Have you done anything but cheat on me with Antionette?" Louis snapped back, then rolled onto his side so he didn't have to look at the blonde.

He felt as though he may cry and didn't want to show weakness to Lestat, when arguing with the man it was best to be cold and unemotional he had learned, the arguments usually ended faster that way.

Lestat had no issue becoming emotional during a disagreement, "At least she pays attention to me, unlike you. She isn't dour, scornful and hateful towards me whenever I so much as enter the room."

"Then go live with her," Louis replied tiredly. "I was just trying to sleep here, I didn't say anything to you. You began this fight."

Lestat glared down at his partner, then he scoffed and said, "One day I won't come home Louis. And you can just lie here by your miserable self and pine for Claudia, who doesn't give two shits about you."

Lestat slammed the lid down violently, making Louis flinch, then went and climbed into his own coffin.

Louis lay there for perhaps another hour, he coughed a few times to muffle the sound of him crying. Lestat always knew where best to strike out.

Realizing he would not sleep that morning, he climbed out of his coffin as quietly as possible, and crept downstairs. Louis sat in front of the fire place, avoiding the sun streaming in out of habit rather than any real concern. He sat there for hours, managing to calm his emotions down after awhile, he didn't want to return to the coffin room and argue with Lestat when the sun went down.

A voice startled him from his stupor of looking into the empty fireplace.

"Are you coming back to coffin Louis?" Lestat asked hesitantly from the doorway.

Louis glanced over at him, he didn't know how long he had been standing there.

Louis looked away and swallowed a lump in his throat, "Yes." He said softly.

He rose and followed Lestat back upstairs, Lestat closed them into the room and watched as the other man climbed into his coffin. Before Louis could close to coffin lid, Lestat caught it and wordlessly climbed in beside him.

Louis automatically rolled onto to his side to make room for him. Lestat draped an arm over Louis and closed his eyes.

"Don't leave me," Louis whispered.

Lestat snapped his eyes open and gave Louis a gentle look, "I will never leave you, Louis, my Louis." He began peppering kisses all over Louis' face. "I love you. I hate it when you cry Louis, it hurts me more than anything else could."

Louis basked in the attention, he had missed the Frenchman, even if he would never admit it.

"Goodnight Louis." Lestat whispered.

 The time they didn't.

 On the first night Lestat returned home after their three year separation, there was only one coffin available. Lestat didn't mind in fact he was rather pleased, Louis however was less so. Despite having had sex with Lestat earlier he now felt engulfed by his proximity. Not able to help but recall the way Lestat had beaten, clawed and thrown him around the last time they were in this room together.

Lestat had caught the flinch Louis gave when he first climbed into the coffin that morning, he was too ashamed to address it, he wasn't surprised Louis was skittish of him now.

They lay side by side not touching, Louis feigned sleep, while Lestat tried to make himself smaller so not to take up too much space.

Louis couldn't take it anymore, memories of Lestat tackling him through the wall of the bedroom and dragging him into the courtyard plagued his mind. He gave up trying to sleep and without speaking to Lestat, climbed out of the coffin and gently closed the lid behind himself.

He wandered into the bedroom and lay down on the bed, he looked at the broken armoire in the corner of the room and remembered Lestat breaking it with Louis' body.

Lestat followed after Louis after he realized he wasn't returning to the coffin. He knelt on the floor next to the bed by Louis, and ran a hand through Louis' hair.

"Never again Louis." Lestat told him in French. "I won't ever lay a hand on you again."

Louis nodded and allowed Lestat to keep stroking his hair, he wasn't ready to face the enclosed space, but this gentle touch wasn't so bad.

'Are you sure about this Louis?' Claudia's voice rang out his mind.

'It will work this time." Louis sent back. At least he hoped it would.