The point was, Armand didn't know what men felt. He never had. Oh, of course he'd known the pleasures of the flesh, that was par for the course. Nobody then thought children were innocent of sensuous pleasures. But of true aggression he knew little. He killed because it was his nature as a vampire; and the blood was irresistible. But why did men find war irresistible? What was the desire to clash violently against the will of another with weapons? What was the physical need to destroy?
At such times, Daniel did his best to answer: for some men it was the need to affirm one's own existence through the annihilation of another. Surely Armand knew these things.
"Know? Know? What does that matter if you don't understand," Armand had asked, his accent unusually sharp in his agitation, "if you cannot proceed from one perception to another? Don't you see, this is what I cannot do."
Anne Rice
if you’re ever looking for a dopamine rush, just tell your parents that the vampire lestat sucked the blood of jesus christ carrying the cross. bonus points if you tell them it was consensual
Just saying, Lestat's version of the lesmand meeting is gonna be so fucking funny
Since we never see Armand's perspective of it in the books, I think it makes total sense that Armand would be like "Lestat seduced me in his harlequin outfit 😩" "we fought but I easily over powered him and took Nicki 😏" "I let him reveal the truth to my coven, of course" "he seduced me for my power and then left me 🤧"
And if Lestat's version is similar to how he describes it in the TVL book, it'll be like, "there I was, doing backflips on the stage and crying, when all of the sudden I sense this creepy stalker presence in the crowd....😰" "Armand tried to kill me, but I easily beat him to a pulp 😏 I could've killed him, but he was so cute and pathetic, I decided to spare him 🥺" "he literally begged me to love him, what was I supposed to do???"
I submit for your entertainment, one way this conversation could go:
“He’s going to get us all killed.”
“Come on,” Daniel scoffs.
“Listen to me!”
“I am! And all I’m hearing are the same threats you waved at me before the book was published. Vampires scaling the walls to tear me and Louis apart for breaking the oh-so-special sacred laws? Where are they, Armand? There’s been no vampire boogieman in my shadow but you.”
“Please, Daniel.”
“Look, you can tell my ghost you told me so later. I have to get back to set.”
Armand winces at that.
“If you won’t come with me, then at least take this.”
He draws out a gold chain from inside his coat. The charm that hangs from it is not gaudy per se, but it’s a far cry from delicate.
Daniel frowns.
“Where’d you find this thing? It looks like you stole it from someone’s grandmother. Or a pirate. Oh my god, is that where you were? Are you a pirate now?” he asks dryly.
“That’s neither here nor there,” Armand mumbles, moving to place the amulet around Daniel’s neck.
“Hey! Knock it off,” he snaps, batting the other vampire’s hands away and snatching the chain. “I’ll do it myself. If it’ll get you to stop looking at me like that.” The chain glints softly under the streetlight. Daniel splays his arms. “There. Ya happy? I’m wearing your pirate treasure. It’s hideous by the way.”
Armand’s posture has relaxed somewhat but his voice is solemn. “Never take it off.”
Daniel’s next quip is smothered under his maker’s intense gaze. He almost promises that he won’t, but something distracts him.
“Is that smell what I think it is?”
“Yes. If you’re in danger, if anyone comes near you, break the clasp. They’ll know it’s my blood. They’ll know that you’re…”
“Taken?”
Armand bites his lip to hold back a smile. “I was going to say ‘protected’ but yes. You are mine, beautiful boy.”
We all want Armand to get violent revenge on Marius for the sexual abuse he survived, for taking and enthralling Daniel with the Mind Gift, and for killing Benji and Sybelle, but in TVC Armand does something even better: why kill Marius when he can be made to suffer eternally at his own hands?
Armand gets justice for himself, his fledgling, and his children in a manner specifically designed to infuriate and humiliate Marius for all eternity by exposing his hypocrisy to the vampire community: Armand offers Marius the choice of redemption, the very thing that Marius refused him, because Marius found Armand centuries ago but gave up on him as a lost cause and considered him irredeemable for the crime of (checks notes) being a teenager who allowed himself to be kidnapped and brainwashed by the bloodthirsty religious cult that burned his friends alive in front of him in order to survive. Armand cuts Marius off, but makes it clear he is willing to reconcile–not as friends, lovers, or family but as civil–if only Marius apologizes and atones while knowing Marius never will.
Armand’s justice is handing Marius the rope and watching him hang himself. Marius de Romanus, who so prides himself in his public persona of the kindly, wizened mentor and the voice of reason with peerless morality, is forever revealed to be a petty little bitch. Marius is so infuriated at this epic own he writes and publishes Blood and Gold to dispute Armand’s account of his abuse in The Vampire Armand and deliberately leaves Daniel out of the vampire mural at Trinity Gate.
Armand rescues and reconciles with Daniel. Armand raises and loves his two vampire children. Armand creates a community with Louis and Lestat at Trinity Gate that is open and welcoming to any vampire no matter their past…all while Marius sulks in the corner for the next 10,000 years muttering about being misunderstood while Bianca and Pandora roll their eyes and say, sure, Jan.
kianamaiart
stormborns
dededos
tangentwithtanner
dailybridgerton
gummygunk
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
pixelskylines
