#marius also needs to get a gift for armand so

[desertfangs]

Valenfangs - Day 6 - Heart-Shaped Locket

💘 Just a short, silly little drabble today for the @valenfangs prompt "Heart-Shaped Locket" 💘

“You can’t give Pandora this,” Daniel said, looking at the contents of the shiny gold box on Marius’ dresser. Marius frowned from his chair where he was reading over some emails on his iPad. “What?” “This thing.” Daniel lifted the heart-shaped locket. “It’s too cheesy.” Marius stared at it for a long moment. “You don’t think it’s romantic?” Daniel put it back into the box. “Sure, I do, but I’m a sucker for those kinds of things. Pandora is going to think it’s silly. Maybe if it were shaped like anatomical heart…” “Shall I gift it to you then?” Marius smiled. Daniel laughed. “What about a bracelet? That seems more her style.” “You’re as bad as Armand, trying to play personal shopper for everyone else,” Marius said. “What did you get him anyway?” “A vase dug out of the ruins of Pompeii that’s been restored,” Daniel said. Marius’ face dropped a bit. “That is quite good.” He sighed and stood. “Fine, yes, let’s go shopping. I can fly us to Paris.”

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hey, thanks for answering my previous question. Could you also explain why Claudia wasn’t as powerful? She too was Lestat's blood and unlike Louis she always fed well. And she also drank from Santiago and the rest of the coven. And will Louis eventually get stronger and learn things like the cloud gift once he fully commits to vampirism and drinks from Lestat again?

So for one, Claudia's body is "too small" (at least canonically in the books), she cannot drink "enough" of Lestat's blood to make her truly powerful - or have her "have enough vampiric blood". In the show... that may be debatable, logically seen, given she's already 14, BUT they tried to make that canon there, too, by adding it in that she could not turn those boys she left there "gasping". (It's part of her narration when they confront her in ep5.)

In the book that is more logical, since Claudia's body is that of a small child there.

But there is another factor there as well, namely the sequence of fledglings and the relatively short time between.

Vampire blood "refines" with time, and also if "distilled" by sleeping. But it needs time either way.

Lestat turned Louis, and gave him the blood.

Claudia was turned a mere handful of years later, and rather unplanned, Lestat's blood had not yet become as powerful again.

Claudia was a strong vampire - for her body and for her "timing". She was a powerful predator.

The blood she had taken from the coven, as well as her feeding properly (and regularly) would have, eventually, granted the gifts to her.

Louis also will become stronger, has already become stronger with Armand's blood. But... well, at least canonically the gifts cannot be learned. I know we saw Armand "teaching", but it is more teaching how to trigger it - that can be taught. Akasha, for example, teaches Lestat how to use the cloud gift in the books.

But the "blood ability" of the blood being strong enough to use that gift has to be there first.

For Louis to be able to learn the fire gift at all means that he was, actually, quite strong already.

A lot of vampires only learn the fire gift quite the while later. And the cloud gift is actually quite rare, and limited to the truly old ones - or those who had access to truly powerful blood.

Like Armand, for example - he's been made by Marius, after Marius had not made someone for quite a while. And Marius had drunk from Akasha, often.

Armand is no ancient (though Louis calls him that) - but he has powers that surpass his basic age because of Marius' powerful blood. It was a rule by the Children of Darkness not to make a vampire with such powerful blood, a rule that Magnus, Lestat's maker also broke, for example.

And Lestat could have the cloud gift there because he was older - and had drunk from Akasha.

Hope that explained it a bit :)))

[loustat-0]

Not sure why we need to perpetuate this lie that people think loumand is healthy. Been in this fandom for two years and I’ve never seen anyone say it even once. Maybe that’s how they’re living on Twitter but not here.

1. None of the ships are quite healthy in TVC . Not from what I've read so far . But maybe people mistake Loumand being more understanding and more calm to be less toxic ? That's not how it is to me . Because Armand had so many benefits that Lestat didn't have with Louis . Armand had nothing to hide from Louis , Armand wasn't threatened by Marius to be destroyed if he said anything about their kind and their origins , Marius literally told Lestat to go live like a human and gave him sets of rules and told him if he breaks them he would definitely find him and kill his fledglings and himself . And more importantly ARMAND COULD READ LOUIS'S MIND . Of course he knew what Louis wanted to give it to him . Of course there was no dark gift between them so that Louis hates him too of course Louis believed Armand wasn't withholding anything until Madeline of course . And then Claudia and the fact that he never told Louis he imprisoned Lestat to get him to confess against Claudia . But again Armand wanted to save Louis and separate Lestat from him and he would do anything to make that happen .

2. Armand seems less toxic because he doesn't have those limits that Lestat had . Why do you think Armand was so opposite of turning Daniel ?? Because he knew once the dark gift is shared between them their love will disappear and it will make them resent each other or at least it will make Daniel resent him . And it actually did happen unfortunately , they fell apart after QOTD till prince Lestat . So the dark gift is such an important aspect that Armand and Louis are free of . And that's to their benefit . People say Armand was also a good listener to Louis yes I agree but Lestat became a good listener too if Louis's words weren't always triggering him . Louis always triggered him . It's also the same on the show , we saw Lestat talk a lot but he also listened too . Unless Louis was triggering him with something he hated to talk about which is also understandable .

3. Now I don't know how the show will handle Loumand but I hope they keep these factors in mind but even if they didn't we can't do much about it 😉

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep3 Musings - Loumand

Last post, I promise; I needed another nap; this ep's a freaking rollercoaster. And these two queens nearly gave me a stress ulcer!

DEBATABLE, Louis. I can think of FAR worse vamps than you, love.

Why're y'all having this whole conversation where anyone can hear?

They got Sartre's wall-eyes down; good makeup this season, team! 👌

DreamStat's a Loumand bed-death truther, jfc. 😭

I wanna know EXACTLY what Armand sees--or "feels"--whenever DreamStat pops up in Lou's head. Cuz he clearly knows precisely where Les is; he looks right in his direction. But does he HEAR Les too? (God I hope not, this song would've had me SEETHING--Back to Hell with you! 😅)

"Oh dear" indeed; I was HOLLERING.

SAM WAS DEVOURING THIS SCENE HOLY GOD GO AWAY DEMON

Armand looked PISSED, I was scared for Louis' life! And he DOES know, actually, yes Lou. I can almost GUARANTEE that he knows PRECISELY where Lestat is AT THIS VERY MOMENT, yes Lou.

If only you knew.... 😬

Claudia's suffered more than Christ. And nice cut to Daniel sneaking around with Raglan James as Armand talks about Furies punishing "human wrongdoing." It's really interesting that Armand told the lawyer that LOUIS is the owner of the paintings. Is he the owner of the penthouse too? HOW MANY DEEDS DOES HE HAVE, ROLIN?

I wonder what AMC might be saying about Loumand's art collection, not just wrt what we know about art heist!Armand (which we'll likely see a nod to in Ep4 at the Louvre); but also wrt what we know about Dubai's godawful neocapitalist hellscape economy, and Loumand's "moralizing" about Parisian black markets in S01E02.

I wonder if that's the excuse Armand'll give the coven when Louis shows up for dinner in Ep4--very much NOT dead; and rips out Santiago's tongue.

WILD voice-over, cuz you KNOW that's what Santiago was thinking, too, LOL. (You wish, Francis.) But yes: Louis' finna end your whole career. XD

Another TERRIFYING jumpscare from the coven, like in Ep2 with Annika. Louis, I am shocked & appalled--can you not HEAR all these vamps planning your bloody murder around you? CLAUDIA! WTF!?

But this is how you know Armand's true personality--he hates getting his hands dirty. He kills all the time, but he makes his victims' deaths pretty. He'd rather sit back & let Lestat/Louis come in and wreck his whole coven, even though he has the power to just light those mofos up all on his own! I wish AMC emphasized a bit more that Armand not only writes/directs the plays--he's an ACTOR, too. And istg he's an expert at PRETENDING to be helpless, meanwhile he's the strongest vamp that's NOT one of the Children of the Millennia (thanks to how well Marius made him).

Armand, that is LOW; waiting until Claudia's stuck under the oaths b4 you tell her she's guilty of breaking Great Laws she doesn't even know about yet. WTF?

How TF you gon' hold Louis accountable for following the Laws when he wasn't even allowed to be in the effing room when they were read!? He's not even a member! WTF! (I get it--any rogue vampires are subject to death, yadayada; we know it's a stupid policy.)

I love how he plans to leave by himself here--it had nothing to do with picking "another one" over Claudia. He just didn't want to hold her back anymore. And his presence was causing problems. 😭 It's so cute that Louis' stipulation about London was that if it's "too large" he'd leave and go to Ireland (?!?)--he's become agoraphobic or something? He just wants to be alone in his hermit hole--MOOD. 😭

Good to get confirmation that the Fire Gift here is Armand and blessedly NOT Santiago--so why's he zooming around in the sewers?

Look, sometimes folks make terrible first impressions--Lestat was being hella racist, Louis' always playing defense, Armand was finna kill Louis in a gay public park. It happens.

Foreshadowing like crazy, as usual.

WILD thing to say. I'm gonna cry, please stop.

(What kinda hypocrisy is that, when you were made young your dang self!?) She's already 30+ years old--maybe she'll last a little longer if y'all (read: sexist, racist, ageist, ableist, etc society) don't eff around tryna make her life even harder! But AMC's deliberately cutting Claudia's life in half, compared to the books, cuz misogynoir's real and Claudia gets NOTHING out of vampirism, not even a fair chance. And y'all let her into the coven KNOWING how much she loves y'all, and KNOWING y'all were gonna kill her. EFF THIS WHOLE COVEN, ARMAND INCLUDED. (Lemme calm down--this kind of betrayal is exactly how Lestat must've felt in S01E07; I get it; they're getting a taste of their own medicine. But LESTAT EFFING HAD IT COMING. The coven should've just told them: y'all got til sunrise to GTFO our territory, you're not welcome here. This whole bit's unnecessary.)

THE PARALLELS ARE PARALLELING

SKILL ISSUE. Cuz Louis' got the least power, and he's finna clear that whole bish out in just a couple episodes. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Louis, love, ARMAND DON'T GIVE A EFF ABOUT RAISING SOME OTHER MAN'S OFFSPRING. This is the call of the wild, as Alphas KILL the children their stolen Omega brides had for other Alphas/Betas, so he can restart the gene pool with HIS DNA instead. I know y'all had National Geographic back then already--READ A BOOK, Louis, it's what you're best at.

Incredible. After all of that Louis said Lestat never broke him. BENT BUT NEVER BROKEN, that's right! 💪😤

Boy, we're not talking about some little (unrequited) CRUSH over a man you only knew for a few months (which you've CLEARLY not gotten over yet). Louis was MARRIED to the man for 30 YEARS. This is his MAKER. Lestat knew his whole family; went to the Black cookouts and everything! They literally built a home AND business together! They raised a child together! WHATCHU KNOW ABOUT THAT!?

And that's LESTAT'S DAUGHTER TOO--how much can you possibly love EITHER of them while planning to knock her off!? I can't listen to too much more of this. *hands Louis the torch and scythe*

Beautiful end of this STACKED episode. Incredible work, AMC! Jacob acted his PANTS off; he excels at the trembling voice, agonized facial expressions, and utter mental breakdowns. He's pulling DEEP within him, holy god; it's so raw, it's almost hard to watch. EMMY WHEN?!

[hekateinhell]

Can Armand fly? Like does he have the ~Cloud Gift~ so to speak, or does he not? I can’t remember..

And he doesn’t seem to have/use the Fire Gift too right, or am I wrong?

Armand’s powers are so interesting to me, the way he can make life like illusions like no other (at least I can’t remember an Anne Rice vampire making that kind of illusions, maybe I’m wrong) is somehow so ‘compliant’ with his character.

I remember when Daniel is about to be turned, Armand creates this illusion for him and Daniel’s description is so haunting for some reason, like he can actually smell the flowers, he can see the stars, he can pick a leaf from a tree and he even sees Armand’s damp footprints on the ground(!) Imagine being able to conjure up an illusion like that.. jeez

And he seems to have been able to do it when he was a younger vampire too, right?

Like didn’t he draw mortals who were ready to die from their homes with some kind of illusion, so he could feed on them? (That is also so compliant with his character for some reason now I think about it)

God, he really is SUCH a good character I can’t get over him. I need to have his name tattooed on my body (like Armand definitely tried to convince Daniel to do. ‘Daniel, can’t you get this tattoo of my name on your arm? I want to see how it is done :3’)

Armand does have the Cloud Gift!

The very first mention of Armand being able to fly is in MtD, where Lestat seems rather surprised to realize that he can:

The steel buttons of his [Armand's] denim jacket were icy cold, as though he had come from some far worse winter in a very few moments of time. We are never entirely sure about each other's powers. It's all a game. I would no more have asked him how he got here, or in what manner, than I would ask a mortal man how precisely he made love to his wife. ~ Lestat, MtD

Unrelated but I'm always so thirsty for any insights as to how vampires view their relationships to each other within vampiric norms, and I think it's fascinating that even two vampires who've known each other for so long and have such a complex, intertwined history as Armand and Lestat do don't really know how powerful the other is and it would be taboo to ask. Scandalous!

Thank you to @thecactifindahome for reminding me that Armand actually has known how to fly for quite a while!

By my own will, and with the first explosion of my blood in the light of the morning sun, I had been driven upwards, as high perhaps as I could go. For centuries I'd known how to climb to airy heights and how to move there, but I'd never pushed it to a conceivable limit, but with my zeal for death, I had strained with all my available strength to move Heavenward. My fall had been from the greatest height. ~ Armand, TVA

Armand also has the Fire Gift, which is first noted in PL:

“You go to New York, my friend, and Armand will burn you to cinders,” said Killer. “Oh, not Benji or Sybelle, no, and maybe not even Louis ... but Armand will do it and they won’t bat an eye. And they can do it too. They have Marius’s blood in their veins, those two. Even Louis’s powerful now, got the blood of the older ones in him. But Armand is the one who kills. There are eight million people in Manhattan and four members of the Undead. I warn you, Antoine, they won’t listen to you. They won’t care that Lestat made you. Least I don’t think they will. Hell, you won’t even have a chance to tell them. Armand will hear you coming. Then he’ll kill you on sight. You do know they have to see you to burn you up, don’t you? They can’t do it unless they can see you. But Armand will hunt you down and you won’t be able to hide.” ~ Killer to Antoine, PL

Armand has always been incredibly powerful — even a newborn vampire — which I think is due to a few different factors:

Marius ensured that Armand received plenty of his blood during his turning

Prior to making Armand, Marius hadn't created another vampire since Pandora, some 1,500 years ago so the power in his blood was very potent

Marius's blood was so powerful to begin because of the regular infusions he received from Akasha, so the vampires in his line do tend to be powerful and gifted

This accounts for Armand's early strength and Mind Gift abilities (spellbinding and illusions).

Seeing as the Cloud Gift didn't come until after QotD, I headcanon Armand received a blood power-up from Marius (or perhaps another of the old ones, similar to how Maharet offered Louis her blood). Vampire powers evolve with time/age, surviving a burning, taking the blood of a much more powerful vampire.

Age gave him the Cloud Gift, and following his suicide attempt, Armand did drink from Lestat — so the combination of the burning and Lestat's blood likely contributed to him developing the Fire Gift soon afterwards.

Armand is also telekinetic:

I have most-powerful abilities to cast spells, to dislocate my vision, and to transmit my image over distances, and to affect matter both at close range and matter which is out of sight. ~ Armand, TVA

And last but not least, he may have the power to astral project although I don't believe it's explicitly spelled out but even as a mortal, he has an out of body experience witnessing himself dying, and later on when he's recounting his suicide attempt in TVA, he says this:

That is, having fallen on the roof, burnt and in unspeakable torment, I might have sought a desperate mental escape, projecting my image and my strength into Sybelle's apartment long enough to kill her brother. It certainly is possible for spirits to exert enough pressure on matter to change it. So perhaps that is exactly what I did-project myself in spirit form and lay hands upon the substance that was Fox, and kill him.

However, he doesn't actually believe that that's what happened in this particular instance, but it's the possibility that he is, in fact, powerful enough to do so. Armand was already so unique and "different" as a mortal child and adolescent (I would call this neurodivergent but that wasn't a term in the 15th century or anytime shortly after), that it makes sense his powers would be easily amplified and exceptional in their own right.

Re: his hunting style, it's described by Lestat when they first meet as:

He [Armand] had learned to summon those who truly wished to die. He had but to stand near the dwellings of mortals and call silently to see his victim appear. Old, young, wretched, diseased, the ugly or the beautiful, it did not matter because he did not choose. Dazzling visions he gave, if they should want to receive, but he did not move towards them nor even close his arms around them. Drawn inexorably towards him, it was they who embraced him. And when their warm living flesh touched him, when he opened his lips and felt the blood spill, he knew the only surcease from misery that he could know. It seemed to him in the best of these moments that his way was profoundly spiritual, uncontaminated by the appetites and confusions that made up the world, despite the carnal rapture of the kill. In that act the spiritual and the carnal came together, and it was the spiritual, he was convinced, that survived. Holy Communion it seemed to him, the Blood of the Children of Christ serving only to bring the essence of life itself into his understanding for the split second in which death occurred. ~ Lestat, TVL

Definitely within character, I agree :') for a character that to me reads as having been passively suicidal for most of his life, there is a bittersweet irony and perhaps even a misguided sense of mercy behind it.

AND YES YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY GET AN ARMAND TATTOO I WANT ONE SO BAD!!! character of all time, love of my life, etc etc you guys already know!!!!!

[covenofthearticulate]

ASH my love I missed your post last night I'm so glad you're okay!! 🫂🫂🫂

let me see if I can come up with any good vampire thoughts on the fly:

- for armand/lestat/louis I feel like lestat has SO MUCH to learn in terms of being a selfless lover and I guess I’m remembering crimson incarnate again like I do every day of my life, but this time I want lestat to put into practice what he’s learned about putting others’ needs first. and not just sex! I want to see him watching armand to learn how to pamper louis the way louis WANTS to be pampered. I want the three of them in the bath together and for once it’s not The Lestat Show but he’s watching louis and armand bathe each other and he finds in him to ask what he can do too 🤧 he ASKS armand if he’d like a turn in the middle for once

- thinking about louis and daniel, and I just think it would be really sweet if louis became the guy daniel went to whenever he feels like there’s a rift or a miscommunication happening in his relationship with armand (I feel like going to lestat or marius with this one would make it worse). since BOTH louis and daniel are on the fledging side of the equation, there’s a unique common ground here. tl; dr: louis is the post-canon a/d marriage counselor (also it’s so funny bc I know armand and louis commiserate re: lestat and now louis and daniel can commiserate re: armand rip louis my guy does not get a break)

- for armand/louis I’m just imagining louis getting armand’s blood stained filthy love letter and tearing off a rust colored edge and putting it in his mouth like an absolute fucking weirdo so he can have the slightest taste of armand on his tongue as he writes his response (whatever that may be 🫢 )

- for lestat/louis I’m know it doesn’t align with canon since most animals are afraid of vampires and mojo was the exception, but I desperately want them to raise a puppy together! I think they deserve it and I usually imagine louis with cats, but I also think he’d be so sweet with a dog and he’d never stop making comments to it—“you’re just like your papa” when it jumps up and licks his face (papa being lestat)

hope these made you smile and hope you feel better soon babe!!! ❤️❤️❤️ (I apologize for any typos I just drank two energy drinks and I am ZOOMING)

Hi friend I hope you know the reason for the late reply is because I've been keeping this in my inbox like a little locket and I go back to peek at it every time I need inspo or serotonin lmfao but these are all so excellent!!!!!!!!!!

LESTAT WATCHING ARMAND PAMPER LOUIS IN THE BATHTUB HELP I'M DECEASED you're so big brained for this oh my god like Crimson Incarnate was fun and I loved having Lestat watch Armand but I can't believe I never even thought about having Lestat watch Louis! Especially because they don't share the Mind Gift I bet Armand would pull out all the stops just to get Louis to vocalize a little more when he does something he likes :)

And YES I love the idea of Daniel being able to talk to Louis about Armand!!! and even before that like i’m honestly so intrigued by what it would look like when Daniel first decides that he’s going to stay with Louis and Armand like how long does it take for them to stop being awkward around one another and what does it look like the very first time that Daniel broaches the subject and asks Louis for advice!!! they have so much baggage between each other but their common ground is Armand 🥺🥺🥺

(also listen……..every day i’m tempted to write a letter from Louis in reply to the Armand letter like my god that shit STILL lives in my head rent free)

nooooooooooooo but i’m gonna fucking CRY at the idea of Loustat raising a puppy together 😭 like Mojo was already full grown when Lestat found him but imagine all the lovely chaos that comes along with raising a little PUPPY!! Louis is the dad who said “Absolutely Not” when Lestat showed up one night with a little dusty stray and then two days later Louis is planted on the sofa with the puppy curled up on his chest and he refuses to let Lestat anywhere near them LMAO (also just think of all the bittersweet ANGST of the two of them living together and co-parenting again and healing but also still being incredibly traumatized after Claudia aaaaaahhhhhhhh)

[zkaus]

Why do you think this interview is happening?

As the entire Dubai storyline is new, we just don't know where it's all heading, but I'm utterly fascinated!!

There are so many amazing theories! I've summarised my favs below:

THEORY 1: - The interview is for Armand/Daniel

This theory argues that Armand and Daniel's relationship will mirror the books. In the books, Armand was obsessed with Daniel (stalked him for years), then they were a couple for 8 years before Armand turned him. Armand desperately didn't want to, but Daniel was dying (substance abuse) - it was turn him or lose him.

This theory suggests that in the show Armand wiped Daniel's memories years ago, but still loves him. He has been tracking him closely, and upon finding out that he's dying, he freaks out.

He can't stand losing him, so, he has Louis repeat the interview (to reproduce the process that originally brought Daniel to him). He pretended to be human so Daniel had the opportunity to connect with him as an equal, a proper companion (like how Lestat hid his Cloud Gift from Louis).

THEORY 2: - General Vampire Unrest

This theory argues that there is unrest in the Vampire world and that the interview is about provoking Lestat into finding them. This suggests that Dubai storyline takes place either before 'Prince Lestat' or 'The Vampire Lestat', and that they are trying to get him to come to Dubai to help them sort out the unrest (as in the beginning of 'Prince Lestat'). Basically, Daniel's book is like Benji's radio station, begging Lestat to come to them.

THEORY 3: - 'The Groan' is Those Who Must Be Kept

This theory argues that 'The Groan' we hear many times throughout the Dubai scenes is Those Who Must Be Kept waking up. That's a HUGE problem because they would enslave the human and vampire races. (Possibly, the apartment in Dubai is Marius's house - It is his painting is on the wall).

They need Lestat's help to pacify/deal with them, so the interview is a way to get his attention. Also, we know Lestat has already met them before (he mentions this in episode 6) so it's canon that he knows them.

THEORY 4 :- 'The Groan' is Lestat

This theory argues that the show takes place after Memnoch and that it's Lestat groaning in despair. This supposes that (some of) the events of TVL, QOTD and ToTBT have already happened. At this point in the books, Lestat is semi-catatonic, but wakes up to save Louis when he attempts suicide. Earlier, he also helps Armand by culling a huge amount of vampires which were threatening the safety of the city. As Armand says in the show, the interview is basically a suicide note. So, this interview could be about getting Lestat to wake up by provoking the rest of the Vampires to try killing Louis.

THEORY 5a:- The Interview is for Louis

This theory supposes that Louis is a captive/prisoner of Armand, and that he is pretending to love him, but actually wants to escape. It argues that Louis is planning to publish IWTV to provoke Lestat into action and save him from Armand (and the vampires who would try to kill him). This one suggests that Armand loves Louis and is controlling/passifying him to 'protect' him from himself.

This theory also suggests that Armand is behaving like a caregiver, and allowing Louis to do the interview as a form of therapy. But that he has no intention of allowing Daniel to actually publish it (as he knows it's a death sentence for Louis).

THEORY 5b:- The interview is for Lestat

This theory is similar to the one above, except that it proposes that Armand will allow the book to be published. This is to provoke Lestat to come to them (either so Armand can kill him or because he is in love with Lestat too). And that he is pretending to be human both to avoid being mentioned in the book Daniel will publish, and to manipulate/control what Daniel will write about his past (the Theatre of the Vampires etc).

And that's just the start! There are so, so, so many more. And so many unanswered questions. I can't wait till season 2, to find out!

Personally, I think it's a combination of several (1, 3 and 5b).

Which do you think is most likely?

Do you have a different theory?

Anything to add?

.

[monstersinthecosmos]

LMAO THANKS FOR RIPPING MY HEART OUT WITH THE POST ABOUT WHAT A BLIP IN TIME VENICE ERA ACTUALLY WAS I GUESS?!?! im at workkkk i cant deal with this!!!!! ! 😫😫😫 WELL EVEN SO, how do you think armand views/deals with this difference in how formative those yrs were for him vs what they meant to marius? they were extremely significant for both of them but i feel like for very distinct reasons / in very distinct ways.... 😭!

i think he deals with it exactly like this:

✨ I fear him. I don't know why. Perhaps I fear him because I could love him again, and loving him, I would come to need him, and needing him, I would come to learn from him, and learning from him, I would be again his faithful pupil in all things, only to discover that his patience for me is no substitute for the passion which long ago blazed in his eyes. ✨

I feel like there's a huge fucking mother wound maker wound going on with Armand and I think a LOT of his behavior can be tracked to his abandonment issues. Making himself useful to people or trying to Spell Gift manipulate people into loving him back, or seeing a version of him that he wants them to see, etc.

Making a fledgling is his biggest fear and he sees it as a curse! He knows that once you turn them, they stop seeing you as special, you can never communicate the same way, and you lose your lustre, you become boring to them, there is no substitute for the passion which long ago blazed in their eyes!!

I'm gonna die on the hill defending why Marius didn't rescue Armand -- I GET IT -- but Armand doesn't know any of that. All he knows is that his Maker never rescued him. Even when he was out of the cult, running the TDV, easily track-downable, Marius never came to him.

In the way I think Marius declined to rescue Armand for fear of rejection, Armand also can't bridge this gap back to Marius for a fear of rejection. He wants it! He wants what they had! But he knows they're too different now and it's never going to be the way it was, and they both have to do a lot of work to build a new relationship that could work for who they each are now.

But to answer your question I think it probably just really compounds the feelings of inferiority and the fear that he doesn't deserve love! 🤗

[armandposting]

okay I'm back to talk about book armand and his hunting style

so book armand, in the present day, generally hunts by using the mind gift to project his presence to people who are suicidal. people come to him, he doesn't hunt them down. the show kind of uses this in 2x5 although I think it's implied there that daniel is not exactly suicidal until armand convinces him to be. in the books we never directly see him do this so I suppose its impossible to tell how much is manipulation on his part. but it's presented as more straightforward than that.

i find this really interesting because like his vow not to turn vampires, its one of the few things that armand creates for himself. he's originally taught by marius to seek out evil people to kill (a code marius also teaches to lestat and daniel, though lestats adherence to this is somewhat sporadic lol). the children of darkness teach him to kill with no particular method or code, theyre simply evil incarnate. after those two things armand has to figure out his own way to cope with needing to be a murderer. he's clearly already started onto something close to this concept with the theatre (in the books, armand is the one to do the "no pain" routine with the victim on stage), and he later refines it into seeking people who are already suicidal.

i think this says a lot about him. it's obviously a neat little encapsulation of his control issues and his whole "domination through yielding" thing- this is a scenario where armand has the ultimate control but it's being presented as giving the person he has control over something they want, and explicitly in an extremely gentle way. I think it also says a lot about his care for human life. while the evildoer method could be seen as righteous in some ways (I personally think it's arrogant, but I get what its going for), this is much more about giving the appearance of a choice or even a gift. whcih I also think is notable in contrast to the way armand sees other vampires as basically disposable- he still keeps to the old tradition of killing any young vampires he comes across and I don't think he ever really gets over considering all vampires to be inherently already evil and dead, so killing them is no loss. while he's certainly not going out of his way to preserve human life he does show more reverence for it. which I think is all connected to his moral line against turning vampires and his belief that humans will always be fundamentally better than vampires, because their existence is (theoretically) not predicated on killing.

i also think all of this shows a kind of romanticization of humans and their ability to die. this is something he never considers for himself until the present day events of TVA because he thinks he doesn't deserve it as a vampire, but I think he's a bit jealous of it and thinks it's beautiful that humans can die. the whole obsession with an easeful death and being able to escape pain. plus the religious background and promise of heaven. he's very afraid of the afterlife for himself but mainly because he doesn't know what it is and he's scared it's just chaos forever, but he has a kind of hope that it's not for everyone. and humans can so easily access that rest that he's never going to get.

i also think it's just a cool expression of autonomy on his part because it's a moral code that has no roots at all in either what marius taught him or what the children of darkness did. it's something solely based in what he feels about people and about the world. it's one of the first things he does that solely takes meaning from his own thoughts and beliefs and that's a really important step for him.

anyway. this post has no real point I just think he's neat

[nalyra-dreaming]

Let me use this opportunity of getting weird Loumand anons once more to say something that's been on my mind:

All the bad faith, passive aggressive anon asks (especially those wanting to make the "ships" about the fandom "shipping them" (or not) because of "color" and "racism") I see around piss me off sooooo much.

Lets look at the "ships" we have so far:

Loustat: difficult, at times toxic, later not so much, endgame

Loumand: difficult, at first infatuated, then dead, later healing

Lesmand: difficult, at times insane, obsessive in parts

Devil's Minion: difficult, intense, at times insane, obsessive in parts, endgame

What have all these "ships" in common?

They are canon relationships. And they are difficult.

Two of those are endgame.

Let's dive in (a bit).

Loustat:

At this point not much has to be said about why Loustat are toxic in parts, but that changes - their character journeys are inverted, and they are endgame. Two sides of the same coin. They are "petty and in love" as Jacob called it, and they are "it" for each other, for better or for worse.

Loumand:

Born from Lesmand actually, because Lestat goes to Armand to make him care for Louis (and for Armand's blood), which... works. But the initial infatuation phase, while honest on Louis' side, is based on Armand's fascination with him because of Lestat. He gaslights Louis into loving him. I bet they will be very much shown to be in love, and then the shit will hit the fan and then... Louis will be destroyed, for a long, long time. Qualifies as toxic for me, too, btw. The Loumand in later years, in Trinity Gate (or Dubai?) is a more healing one, one where Louis comes to terms with who he is and what he wants in safe, stable, loving surroundings. And I bet they are freaks in the sheets :P

Lesmand:

Obsessive, and while loving definitely more so from Armand's side than Lestat's. He "imprints" on Lestat when he sees him because Lestat reminds him of Marius, and a lot of Armand's actions are informed by his need for Lestat, and the fact that Lestat upends his world. That said, the fascination itself is mutual, and I bet the show will have them engage in a proper affair.

Devil's Minion:

Wohooo, Daniel, a gift from Louis for Armand!!! Armand shifts full on obsessive and love on Daniel, Daniel, who will become his only fledgling. (And who goes mad for a while, too!) The show has obviously expanded the journey, but I don't think it will change too much - Daniel is the only one Armand could not let die. Talk about love beyond reason or endurance.

ALL OF THESE SHIPS ARE RELATIONSHIPS IN THE VC.

YOU CANNOT PUT A VALIDATION BASED ON SKIN COLOR ON THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL VALID.

And they are canon.

Saying the fandom doesn't "ship" Loumand because of them being POC is just ludicrous.

If you think Louis in Dubai in season 1 is "happy" I don't know what to tell you. We haven't really seen "happy" Loumand yet, and, depending on how they spin it(!) we might not even see it in season 2, though I think they will make it seem as if it is happy and "pure" at first.

But they might throw in the horror of Claudia knowing (and she does, canonically, she tries to warn Louis!) and being ignored by Louis (failing her again) in - in fact, I take the little info of the scenes we have of Sam and Armand filming as precisely that, namely that they make it clear that there is a relationship there as well... and how that relationship enables Loumand.

And then Armand will kill Claudia. And Madeleine.

And Louis will stay with him.

Personally I found later Loumand always very healing, as said. (But, personally(!!!!!!), also a bit boring. I love them, but... writing them (i.e.) does not hold much appeal right now.

But that might change with the upcoming seasons!) But the Loumand in Paris?? Hell, that's not even real, Armand gaslights Louis into loving him, uses his spell gift and mind gift as influence, poor Louis. And it will hurt Louis, incredibly so.

Making it seem as if people, especially people with a background in the books, do not "ship" them because of the actors' skin color... is just...

There's many, many reasons to ship them.

There's many, many reasons not to.

I OBVIOUSLY cannot speak for everyone. But these simplified takes are becoming so tiresome, when there are so many other reasons that need to be considered.

And honestly, as said before, I fully expect parts of this fandom to turn on Armand when he is being himself, when his relationship to Lestat is becoming clear, when his meddling and role in Claudia's death are clear and... can you imagine the outcry when they actually kill off the black (likely) lesbian character and her lover. -.-

If they actually chop of Claudia's head on stage.

Mayhem.

Which brings me to the next part:

My predictions for season 2:

Louis hurting, seeing Lestat everywhere (outcry)

Loumand in love, oh so sweet, look at them

Claudia gets a girlfriend!! (Sweet!)

What is Lestat doing there? (outcry)

What, Armand is interested in Louis because of Lestat?? (outcry)

What, Louis is yearning for Lestat?? (outcry)

What, Armand is doing what to Claudia (and Madeleine)? "ThEy KiLl tHe gAys!!" ((outcry)

Armand throws Lestat off a tower (Meh, he deserved it, should have been much worse)

What, Louis stays with Armand?? (outcry)

Whatever will go on with Louis and Lestat (outcry)

At some point people will turn on Assad, I agree here with what has been said by others on this.

They could not separate Sam from Lestat, they will not do so for Assad, in fact THERE I can easily see it be much worse, because of the racial implications.

I can also see them turn on Jacob btw, because Louis stays with Armand. "How could he". -.-

So: Even if you are only a "show fan", if you have no idea of what the books might bring... the hiatus is still very long, and going and hating on people, accusing them of racism, because people who know the books go a bit bonkers when they see certain bts photos... is on you - not them.

These ships are all canon relationships.

And valid.

End of rant.

[murfpersonalblog]

What are your favorite scenes on TVC? Even if they're not the lightest/happiest, what are the ones that impacted you the most reading? Also, not necessarily the same, but do you have favorite quotes from the books? 🙃

@adamnablelittledevil Oh man this is hard. 🤦

SCENES

1:) Armand's Turning in TVA. Most vampires were created terribly, either without their consent, or bumbling through the process out of clumsy inexperience, following how they themselves were made--in a bloody blubbering mess--like childbirth, ofc; motherhood is AR's bag after all, LOL. But Armand's Turning was BEAUTIFUL, relatively speaking. Armand had been begging Marius to be Turned for SO long, and it's wild how Marius only agreed cuz Armand was legit dying. Sure, it was traumatic in the sense that Lord Harlech had killed so many of Armand's brothers, and Bianca & them were all crying around his deathbed; and then Marius comes in and it just hits him like a truck, like WTF I was asleep for 12 hours and everything's gone straight to hell?! But Marius loved Armand so much that he wanted to make his Turning as beautiful & loving & clean as possible. He talked Armand through the whole process, and shaved & bathed him to make sure he'd be nice & clean after his body expelled all his human waste. (Which is why I look at AMC's version with Loustat like omfg, don't tell me Louis didn't even go home to BATHE afterwards, this is nasty. 🤢) It was just a really lovely scene, and Armand had one of the better Turnings (at least out of those described in long detail--Jesse's Turning was similar, but VERY short). It was so unique, that Lestat specifically asked Marius to turn his son Viktor exactly the same way Marius had turned Armand, to give Viktor & Rose the VERY BEST experience possible. Marimand set the blueprint, and afterwards Marius was like Ok, as your Prime Minister I'll make it Vampire LAW that THIS is how ALL Turnings should go from now on; the way I Turned my favorite fledgling, Armand, cuz I loved HIM & wanted the best FOR him. Incredible.

2:) Mekare smashing Akasha into the window and ripping her head off. Best scene in the entire TVC, I freaking loved it. And it was a really nice touch how Lestat noticed that Mekare had even bothered to clothe herself in rags, despite clearly being an insane wild woman (she was so determined to get to Akasha that she even shoved Maharet away with zero hesitation, nothing but murder on her mind). And how in PL Lestat was like Mekare didn't even realize that she'd killed Akasha and held the Sacred Core. So I've always wanted to know WHAT was in Mekare's mind? She's monstrous in the sense that seemed to act purely on instinct--motivated purely by vengeance & self-preservation (not letting Dr Fareed operate on her, but letting him take samples of her hair, etc); but she was also self-aware enough to know she needed clothes (she tied her muddy rags with a hemp belt, even); and she let Maharet comb her hair. And when Maharet was gone, Mekare KNEW to go to Lestat and ask him for help committing suicide, cuz she was sad--even though while Maharet was alive Mekare barely seemed cognizant that her sister was even there--at least not to Maharet. GOD, Mekare's so fascinating; I love every scene she's in! I PRAY Rolin includes her in QotD, esp. since he's done such a good job with so many types of mental illness & trauma already.

3:) Marius' fight with Rhoshamandes in Blood Communion. They nearly burned down Lestat's chateau, using the Fire Gift on each other, but it was a really cool fight--reminded me of something out of anime like Dragonball or Bleach. I wanted to see more of THAT, vampires really USING their Gifts against each other. I complain a lot that AR's vampires are too normal/human for me sometimes, when I just want them to be utter savages, LOL. Esp. since a lot of the times her vamp fights have really unbalanced power dynamics, where 1 vamp is significantly stronger than the other(s), so the fight's more like a slaughter (eg: Akasha's Great Burnings, Rhosh's kidnappings, Enkil crushing Lestat's neck, etc); or the older vamp is deliberately holding back (eg: Loustat's numerous fights in IWTV). So yeah, getting to see Marius & Rhosh duke it out was great, esp. since that was the FIRST time we saw Rhosh in action; I was more hyped by it than Rhosh's fight vs Lestat, which was objectively the better & longer & THE most important fight.

QUOTES

As for quotes, omg AR is such a beautiful writer, it's impossible for me to even give justice to her. 😭

The main line that lives rent free in my head is ofc from TVA:

"If I am an angel, paint me with black wings."

When I tell you that line is so freaking ME. 🖤🖤🖤

Another one I really like is from Blood Communion:

"Speed and surprise!"

Cuz it goes all the way back to QotD, and how Mekare was able to take down Akasha. All those Gifts, all that talking & politicking, and at the end of the day it was just Mekare's element of surprise, and her brute strength.

Same with Marius both times he got jumped, by Santino & Rhosh.

And ofc same with Lestat vs Rhosh.

And my favorite WORD in TVC is ofc the iconic, the groundbreaking, the revolutionary:

Preternatural 😂🤣

[hekateinhell]

Hi! I'm a show watcher that's been trying to get into the books. I have seen around that Armand vowed to never make a fledgling but broke this vow for Daniel. Why did he vow to never turn another person?

Hi! 🖤

Okay, just a head's up - there's no real way I can give a detailed answer without spoilers so save this for later if you'd like to avoid them for now!

Jumping in, Armand actually touches on this topic in TVA and gives a somewhat straightforward response:

I was a firm believer that those we make ourselves will always despise us for it. I cannot claim that I have never despised Marius, both for making me and never returning to me to assure me that he had survived the horrible fire created by the Roman Coven. I had sought Louis rather than create others.

Armand never wanted to create other vampires, which is really no surprise given how horrible most of his lived experience as a vampire had been.

He also seems to have a preference for communicating via the Mind Gift, almost as if comes easier to him than communicating verbally. When a vampire turns a human, it closes off their minds to each other forever — something Armand particularly emphasizes in his tirade to Lestat in TVL when he mentions 'the veil' aka 'veil of silence':

"Oh, but it's always a travesty, don't you see?" he [Armand] said with that same gentleness. "Each time the death and the awakening will ravage the mortal spirit, so that one will hate you for taking his life, another will run to excesses that you scorn. A third will emerge mad and raving, another a monster you cannot control. One will be jealous of your superiority, another shut you out." And here he shot his glance to Gabrielle again and half smiled. "And the veil will always come down between you. Make a legion. You will be, always and forever, alone!"

Armand will never be able to communicate with his fledglings the way he can Lestat and others besides his own maker.

And interestingly enough, Armand did accurately prophesize the outcomes of several of Lestat's fledglings over the next hundred years. Gabrielle (shuts Lestat out); Nicki (goes mad); Louis (resents him); Claudia (need I say more?).

Even if Armand didn't have so much trauma from his own life and his maker abandoning him, I have to imagine bearing such close witness as to how the maker/fledgling dynamics played out for Lestat would be enough to make anyone second guess the whole idea. For Armand it must have served to reinforce every preconceived notion he had on the matter. He even said to Lestat:

"Remember that when your dark children strike out at you, when they rise up against you. Remember me."

And we have still to broach the final layer (in this post — dissecting the entire topic will end with me writing a dissertation and nobody wants that). But Armand was torn away from his maker at a very young age and he did spend the next three hundred years of his life in service of a Satanic cult, which was instrumental in shaping his perspective and driving home the belief that vampirism is the ultimate condemnation.

Yet in the centuries of his long obedience, Armand kept two secrets to himself. These were his property, these secrets, more purely his than the coffin in which he locked himself by day, or the few amulets he wore. The first was that no matter how great his loneliness, or how long the search for brothers and sisters in whom he might find some comfort, he never worked the Dark Trick himself. He wouldn't give that to Satan, no Child of Darkness made by him. ~ Lestat passing on Armand's story as it was told to him in TVL

In a way, I think it was the only measure of autonomy Armand felt he might have had during the cult years. He wouldn't give that to Satan! He wouldn't do that to another being!

And yet, eventually... he did.

And yes, Armand was different person by the end of Devil's Minion but it was obviously still a decision that pained him. One that he said he did out of loneliness but also love, and it's up to the reader to decide how hyperbolic Armand thought he was being when he tells Daniel as he's offering him the choice: "We'll be in hell together after all."

As an aside: it fascinates me how Armand and Lestat both suffered from this agonizing loneliness and yet they each approached it in entirely opposite ways.

[apoptoses]

♡ + Armand/Marius?

It took me a minute to answer these because I wanted to answer in detail. And they’re sweet questions, so here’s some sweet answers ♥

•Who’s the most affectionate?

In Venice? Armand. It's a wonder Marius ever got anything done with him slinking around, always trying to sneak a cuddle or a kiss. He was like the cat that manages to work its way into your lap no matter how much you twist around and try to put your laptop in the way. Marius could hunch over his desk with his journal and Armand would still find a way to drape himself over his back until he could no longer be ignored.

Modern day? Marius. The man's got some making up to do and it's high time Armand get pursued.

•Who initiates the handholding?

At home it's 50/50. In public I always picture Armand as someone who holds onto his partner's elbow, which is a suitably dignified level of PDA for Marius and also means if Armand is in a mood he can subtly drag him around by the arm with no one the wiser about who's leading who.

•Who worries more for the other?

Marius absolutely worries himself into knots about Armand, he just has such a difficult time showing it. I don't believe that a single day went by in between the kidnapping and the reunion in QotD that he wasn't worrying. It was just that he pushed those thoughts down inside himself and tried to bury them.

•Who is more likely to ask for help?

Unless the threat of death is imminent? Neither of them. Though in a less serious way, I see Armand using needing 'help' as a bid for attention 'Help me open this jar', 'help me wash my back', 'help me get dressed'. With all of those laces on 15th century clothes? You better believe Armand pestered Marius to 'help' him tie up his hose and in doing so got what he really wanted, and ended up stripped out of them.

•Who is the one always losing the keys?

God, both of them. They both have tendencies to collect stuff and hyperfocus, and we all know what that does to a person when it comes to keeping track of little items. Thank god for their immortal gifts rendering keys unnecessary.

•Who leaves little love notes for the other?

I like to think that Marius, upon learning how his fatalistic commentary in his journal wounded Armand, decided to correct course by writing kind things about him and leaving them around where he knew Armand could see. Maybe apologizing in words is difficult, but leaving his journal open to a page where he describes Armand's lovely eyes? That's not so hard at all.

•Who can’t sleep unless the other is there?

Armand. As a mortal his body just knew when Marius had left, and he would jerk out of his sleep and find the bed empty. It would take him ages to fall back asleep, tossing and turning the whole time. Perhaps on that very first night of immortality he climbed willingly into his own coffin. But after that? Just before sunrise he would sneak back out and open the coffin beside his, and climb in beside Marius to let sleep take them both.

•Who is more likely to propose to the other?

I'm not sure they're the proposing type- they both have so many other relationships. But I totally see Armand remembering the diamond ring Marius gave him, the one he described as having the white light of god. And once they've properly made up and smoothed things out between them for good he would seek out a similar matching set so that Marius, like his other loves, has a ring with a gemstone that goes with one of his.

•Who introduced the other to their family first?

Well, we have this answer in canon, don't we? I wonder though, if Armand wishes that instead of standing in the shadows Marius would have spoken to his family with him. He got to see them all for one last time but they never knew who the man with him was. He never could have told them the full details of their relationship, of course- but it's bittersweet that Marius was right there the whole time watching them.

•Who is more likely to play with the other’s hair?

Oh, it's 50/50. Armand had the nicest perfumed hair in Venice from Marius taking him into that big bathtub and washing his hair for him as often as he could. And then later when they were lying in bed Armand was fascinated by how long and pale blond Marius's hair was, silkier than even Bianca's. He'd have his fingers tangled in it as he fell asleep and Marius would have to gently pry them out so he could get out of bed every morning.

•Who makes sure the other has meals/stays hydrated?

In the past? Marius would ply mortal Armand with food and keep their cooks working into the night, for if he had a whim to feed him honey and figs at midnight he was going to do it. It was a special pleasure watching Armand eat, because he was always so fascinated by the exotic things Marius managed to have imported into Venice for him to try. And then later, when Armand was immortal- watching him feed then was a special pleasure too.

Now? With his lapses into focusing too hard on painting or on his work at court, Armand is compelled to check in on him. He has a smart mouthed way of hassling him to get his nose out of a book and get out in the city that's so reminiscent of young Amadeo that Marius can't help but shake his head and do as he's asked.

•Who is more likely to stand up to anyone for the other?

Oh man, what question considering their history lol I think they both know they're capable of fighting their own battles but if anyone stepped to Armand in a dangerous way Marius would be there, hoping to make up for his past failures by protecting him this time.

•Who is the most likely to prepare a surprise for the other?

In TVA Armand mentions the boys preparing things to read or music to play when Marius came home and I think he was instrumental in organizing some of that. He would pick the readings or the music for the night, or if he was feeling feisty he'd put together a little fencing tournament with the boys to surprise Marius and Bianca together.

And then in the modern day, when Armand picks up art again- he would surprise Marius with that, and leave one of his first paintings in half a millennia in his rooms as a gift for him.

•Who makes the other pinky promise not to do certain things?

Armand does it, specifically for the dry look he gets when, in front of the entire court, he makes Marius pinky promise to let this meeting end on time and not sit there asking Lestat questions that they all know Marius will ignore the answer to anyways.

•Who puts a blanket over the other when they fall asleep on the couch?

Marius. It's a habit he developed when Armand was mortal and more affected by temperature. He'd drift off on the bed and, unwilling to wake him and make him get under the covers, Marius would get one of his silk velvet cloaks out to cover him with. It's the same now if he passes the sofa and sees Armand has drifted off with a book. He finds the nearest throw blanket and tucks it around him.

[monstersinthecosmos]

The quote you posted by Marius ... "I have lived lies. I have done it again and again. I live lies because I cannot endure the weakness of anger, and I cannot admit the irrationality of love."

What do you think he meant by "I cannot admit the irrationality of love"?

I must be super stupid cause I have no clue. Like is he saying he fears love? Thinks love as a sort of weakness/inconvenience? Is he having an allergic reaction to love in general?

If possible.... Can you break down the entire quote?

!!!!!! This is one of my fav Marius quotes, I’d love to talk about it.

So I noticed this actually comes up in Loustat as well, there’s a part in TVL where Lestat says his love for Louis is humiliating and I think about this a lot. I think it’s your choice if you ascribe this to Anne Rice’s own feelings and philosophy that got woven into her work, or we can also say that it’s another way that Lestat and Marius are incredibly alike. 

Lestat says “the sheer excitement was excruciating, and the love I felt for him was positively humiliating.” which has always stuck with me!!! And in Lestat’s case I think it can be read as “I love Louis so much that I will act like a fucking moron” etc. LOL. I wonder for him if it means he’s overwhelmed by it, senseless, unintelligible, etc. 

It also comes up with Akasha in QOTD: “She loved him and it humiliated her, and so she sought to hurt him. And she had.”

And speaking of humiliation, these are a couple moments where Marius mentions humiliation in Blood & Gold:

His feelings @ Mael lol -  “I was trembling with this uncharacteristic and humiliating rage.”  

When Armand is abducted by zealots (callback to Marius being abducted by zealots) - “But that was gone. All was gone. Amadeo was gone. My paintings were gone. And there came again the desperation, the bitterness, the humiliation. I had not thought that such things could be done to me. I had not thought that I could be so miserable. I had believed myself so powerful, so very clever, so very beyond this abject grief.”

This is about Pandora leaving him - “I was too distressed, too perfectly miserable. I didn't want to see her companion, and when I thought of banging on the doors of her house, I found it too utterly humiliating.”  

So I’m bringing this up because I think it’s kind of getting at the same point. And forgive me if my aromantic ass is missing something LOL but it feels like Anne often wrote about the humiliation of being vulnerable, and there's a throughline of loving people feeling vulnerable. I think it’s especially potent in a character like Marius, and again since he and Lestat are so alike it makes sense that Lestat feels that way sometimes and it came up in other books. Not to talk about Lestat too much LOL, we just have a lot of material to work with from him. I think they’re both people who have always been rebellious and with that need for independence comes the need to know things and to be self sufficient. Modern emotional health and Brene Brown will tell you that vulnerability is a GIFT but when you’re this fucked up it’s hard! It’s scary! 

Like these are also a couple other things Lestat says in TVL that illustrate this point, too, when Armand is going nuts on all the books:  “I hate those who make me feel fear, those who know things that I need to know, who have that power over me.”   and  "Every word was received by a secret, humiliating curiosity and vulnerability." 

And going back to the Marius quote! I guess the point I’m making is that Lestat and Marius are people who feel insecure when they don’t have complete self possession or control, and to me this is one of Marius’s HUGE character beats and something he’s really been struggling with for his whole life. 

The quote “I have lived lies. I have done it again and again. I live lies because I cannot endure the weakness of anger, and I cannot admit the irrationality of love.” is part of a bigger moment where he’s frustrated by his own anger and stubbornness. This is the whole section: 

Avicus looked directly at me. He appeared quiet in his heart and genuinely moved by my words. But what was the use? I said no more. My proud calm was suddenly broken. The anger returned along with its weakness. I remembered the hymns of the grove, and I wanted to move against Mael, for all the ugliness of it, to quite literally tear him limb from limb. Would Avicus move to save him? It was likely. But what if he did not? And what if I proved stronger than both of them, I who had drunk from the Queen? I looked at Mael. He wasn't afraid of me, which I found interesting. And my pride returned. I could not stoop to a common physical battle, especially one which might become hideously awkward and ugly, one which I might not win. No, I was too wise for it. I was too good of heart. I was Marius, who slew the Evil Doer, and this was Mael, a fool. They made to walk away through the garden and I could find no words to say to them, but Avicus turned to me and said quickly, "Farewell, Marius. I thank you and I will remember you." And I found myself struck by the words. "Farewell, Avicus," I answered. And I listened as they disappeared into the night. I sat there, feeling a crushing loneliness. I looked at my many bookcases, and at my writing table. I looked at my inkstand. I looked at the paintings on the walls. I should have tried to make peace with Mael, surely, to have Avicus as my friend. I should go after them both. I should implore them to remain with me. We had so much more to say to one another. I needed them as they needed each other. As I needed Pandora. But I lived the lie. I lived it out of anger. This is what I'm trying to tell you. I have lived lies. I have done it again and again. I live lies because I cannot endure the weakness of anger, and I cannot admit the irrationality of love. Oh, the lies that I have told myself and others. I knew it yet I didn't know.

Marius’s whole schtick is that he sort of pretends to be this wise calm collected dude and he’s actually the biggest emotional mess. He is THE pettiest bitch. And part of this is like, him sticking to his culture, trying to be ~the spirit of his age~ is trying to always come back to logic and reason. He tries to like, logic his way out of having feelings and it just doesn’t work!!!! HE HAS LIVED LIES, HE KNOWS IT DOES NOT WORK. This comes up over and over in his book, that he is frustrated with his own anger, that he ruins his relationships, that he fucks up, and when he is being irrational & emotional he doesn’t like the person he becomes. He’s humiliated at the idea that he is a person who has feelings and needs.

(See also: my fav thing to bring up but him hitting Armand for being sad lol like he’s trying to TRAIN it out of someone else even though he knows he’s living a lie.)

So this moment with Avicus, he’s like desperately lonely and WANTS Avicus’s company and friendship. He wants to be able to love Avicus. But he’s got so much fucking unresolved rage @ Mael that he can’t be around him at all and doesn’t know how to navigate his own messy emotions.

And really any time Mael shows up, as funny as it is to be like ��lmao Marius is the pettiest bitch, he makes Mael sound like such a moron”, please don’t forget that Mael is the closest thing Marius has to a maker at this point. Mael is the symbol of Marius’s rape and nonconsensual turning, and his ritual sacrifice. Mael brought Marius to his own murder!!!!!!!!!! Mael is essentially his rapist.  And someone like Marius, who doesn’t know how to admit he has feelings, incessantly tries to tell himself (and everyone else) that Mael is a blundering fool instead of having to confront this extremely real hurt. 

As easy as it is to write off Marius’s bullshit as “toxic masculinity” or “man who won’t go to therapy” (which is a completely valid read LOL) it’s also very much steeped in trauma. And like, as much as I want to allow Marius a space to exist in his own world and talk about him in 360 degrees, he’s also not real. He’s a character in a book that survives the whole series as an unmoving object. Marius’s ability to heal or grow or be better is not really the point (but I do think there’s clues in canon that he can make it there; I think him in the PL trilogy is very much a New Marius!); he can survive the entire series as a table setting to represent toxic masculinity and there’s no obligation to heal. But the series asks us to spend time with monsters, to see the good in bad people, to ask if we are all our worst deeds, to ask what makes us human, and I think it’s good to take these characters seriously as wounded people making mistakes. 

The tragedy of it, too, is that Marius is just grinding ALL his emotions down in the process. He cannot allow himself to feel his own anger, and in the process of burying it, he also can’t feel love. He cannot live in this standard where it’s okay to embrace the irrationality of love but not the irrationality of anger. Throughout the whole series, every time he loses his temper and lashes out he just immediately feels humiliated for it and yet he can’t find a middle ground where he can just allow himself to feel things. And he cannot find it in himself to forgive Mael or confront these uncomfortable emotions, which means he cannot have Avicus and means he’s doomed himself to more isolation. 

Feelings are not rational! They make you act like a fool! They make you open the floodgates to other feelings you do not want to feel! 

I just think he’s such a fascinating character because like, he knows! He knows! He knows he does this! He hates himself for it! He doesn’t know how to get better! He knows he’s a fuckup! He’s lonely but if he tries to love someone it’ll destroy him!!! 

[desertfangs]

I know it's said in one of the later books that neither Daniel or Armand enjoy spending too much time in court and would rather go back to Trinity Gate but the thought of having Daniel there just being his ridiculous self a la QoTD is delightful. This is the same guy who was doing his own version of holding back laughter during a genocide and yes, part of it was because he'd recently been turned and was still in awe of everything but IMHO that's also part of who he is and how he responds to crisis situations. So picturing him being there during important meetings and witnessing the ins and outs of dealing with Lestat's court is hilarious. I imagine him having to excuse himself at times just to go to another room to let out the giggle he'd been holding back for hours because the whole thing IS kinda funny when you think about it.

LOL yes. I mean, Daniel was so overwhelmed when the Akasha thing went down. He'd almost died of alcoholism which absolutely means he spent the last days of his mortal life in this weird fog of confusion because of all of the ammonia in his brain since his kidneys were failing. Then he was turned into a vampire and overwhelmed by the strength and enormity of vampire senses and one of the first things he does is go to Lestat's concert, which had to feel surreal AF. Like, Daniel has been thinking of Lestat as this sort of almost mythical figure for over a decade and now on his like pretty much first night as a vampire, he's with Armand at Lestat's rock show? Tell me you wouldn't be laughing your ass off at the irony of that alone.

It's not that I think Daniel can't take things seriously, but I agree that he's definitely one of those people who's reaction to really dark and terrible things is to laugh and make jokes. Gallow's Humor is his friend. But IIRC he's pretty level-headed during the whole chaos in PL, so I think he can absolutely hold it in when he needs to, especially now that the colors of the wallpaper aren't distracting him and he knows how to manage his vampire senses better.

That said, I'm sure Court is ridiculous in a lot of ways. The part I think Daniel finds the funniest is that like... Marius, Lestat, and Louis are people he knows. Like he spent a decade with Louis and Lestat in the back of his mind as these people from Louis' story, and even Louis probably stopped feeling entirely real and then bam, they were just at his house for some long stretch of time. At this point, they're just people in his life.

But then at Court they're the Prince and the Prince Consort (whatever the fuck that means.... don't tell him, he knows what it means, he's just being an ass), and the Prime Minister, and things are probably often set up in a formal way in order to demonstrate to the younger set and the other immortals that this is a real, functioning vampire government (for now). And Daniel is just like... okay, sure, Lestat is the Prince or whatever, but that guy also keeps tagging me and Armand in instagram videos of people doing Blender Unboxings.

I'm sure he absolutely sometimes loses it when they're spending an hour debating some inane thing or whether to go stop some rogue vampire who is leaving a trail in some small country village or whatever their business entails. And it's worse if Lestat gets bored with it, because then the two of them start texting or having some kind of discussion with the Mind Gift and aren't paying attention, which frustrates whoever's leading the meeting (probably Marius). Maybe Lestat starts sending him suggestive mind images or who even knows. Or Armand starts giving him looks that means he's also thinking of which closet they abscond to when the meeting is over, and finally after some or all of this, Daniel has to stand up and exit the meeting so he doesn't burst out laughing in the middle of it.

I also think Daniel is very pragmatic and he as a pretty optimistic view of the world and vampirekind. So like sometimes while watching things go down, he's probably just standing in the background listening to some of the ancient vampires debate some archaic thing and finding it absurd. I would like Daniel Molloy's impressions of vampire court, because I'm sure he has some hilarious observations about the way they do things. So yeah, in those cases, too, he's probably sneaking off to go let out those giggles so he doesn't get yelled out again for not taking it seriously. And he does, but sometimes it's so absurd you can't help but laugh.

There's a lot of hilarity to be had in this scenario and a lot of potential for silly fic or fanart about it, because sometimes it is just kind of ridiculous, and Daniel absolutely understands that better than any of them. (Although I'm sure Armand does, too, and Lestat is in on the joke sometimes as well. But damn, he looks good in a crown!)

[uncivilcivilservice]

⚜️ : de Romanus men - Marius/Armand/Daniel (/Benji?!) head canons through the ages (together or separate)

So for some reason my brain interpreted this as Marius with each of the other de Romanus boys headcanons, so that's what I've written haha

Marius/Armand

Some of Marius's clothes seem to go mysteriously missing whenever he visits TG. Armand refuses to admit it's him that's stealing them, blaming Daniel, or on an occasion that a red sweater went missing while Daniel wasn't at TG, Louis.

Absolutely no one is buying it, but the other TG residents don't bother calling him out when they see him wearing Marius's clothes after he's left

Marius/Daniel

So important context is that part of my idea of Daniel's condition after leaving Armand is that he experiences difficulties talking (either physically getting the words out, or disorganised speech/disorders of thought, making it hard to be understood) and that this also affects the mind gift

As a result Marius and Daniel come up with a way for Daniel to communicate while holding Marius's hands

Examples:

- Squeezing right hand for yes, left for no

- Long, hard squeeze means "I'm not okay" or "something is wrong" and comes in handy even when Daniel can speak when they are out and about holding hands and Daniel starts feeling overwhelmed

- Three short squeezes means "I love you (too)". I absolutely stole this from a tumblr or reddit post and it's probably where this entire idea started, oops

- They also have signals for things like hungry/need to hunt, confused/lost/what's going on?, I want to be alone, I'm okay all things considered etc.

Marius & Benji

They help each other learn digital art skills

Benji helps set up the programmes and teaches Marius how to use the software and graphics tablets etc.

Marius teaches Benji how to actually use the tools and about how to use colour and, y'know, art stuff (I'm not an artist okay)

Benji enjoys spending time with his maker and learning about this stuff, but long term they bond more over photography than painting or drawing, and again Benji helps Marius get started with things like photoshop