See, I love it when there are consent issues in my Devil's Minion
Daniel thinks that consent is "yes" and "no." Once you give a "yes," it is "yes" until there is an audible "no."
"In high school, you told a girl you'd only do her if she had a paper bag over her head. She said yes, and you did it even as she cried."
And of course, everything with the book and Louis. "I should have asked, huh?" "I'd have said no." But he didn't even think to ask, did he? Because once Louis said yes to the interview, until he gave a verbal, solid, "no" (burning the laptop was symbolic, not literal), then Daniel isn't going to think Louis withdrew consent from the interview.
Daniel isn't going to ASK and check-in, and the non-verbal cues are just part of the scene, right?*
This extends to himself as well. If he agrees to something, unless he says "no," well... he agreed to it, right?
*in terms of sex, I do think the nonverbal cues extend to arousal signs, but with old-school misogyny and rape apologia. If a pussy is wet, that's a "yes," if a dick is hard, that's a "yes." If a pussy is dry, that's a "guess i need to tey harder" and if a dick is limp, that's a "i don't think you're into this at all."
Then, of course, there's all the ways Armand fucks with consent.
"You said yes." Does it matter entirely if what they thought they said yes to wasn't what Armand took the yes to mean? I think that's very up the alley of "I asked you to?" when examining what happened with Louis and the memories of Divisadero. Did Louis say yes to getting hypnotized, or did Louis say yes to "something that would make you forget" in the lines of like... sex, drugs, and rock and roll?
By playing with the boundaries of consent and how far that consent reaches (those half-in-love with an easeful death...), Armand is able to seduce, cajole, convince, and manipulate people into agreeing into almost anything. And that can leave him free from blame, because THEY agreed, did they not?
"Are you asking me or making me," was also a plea to Louis to control how much Armand was allowed to consent there. He was requesting partial submission (asking him as Louis to Armand) or total submission (making him as Maitre to Arun). Louis completely withdrawing from that plea fucked with Armand's trust in him, because it implied that he let Louis down by asking for the level of consent he was allowed to have in the first place. (Uuuggghhh, Loumand you are everything to me)
It's why Devil's Minion is a match made in hell, because Daniel will just steamroll once given a "yes" or "no" because coy doesn't work for him, and Armand will absolutely push a "no" if he thinks there's room to maneuver Daniel into a "yes." And once Daniel agrees with something, Daniel is going to be hard-pressed to actually say "no."
AND Daniel is going to treat that level of consent thing Armand asked for with absolute incredulity.
"Are you asking me, or making me?"
"Can I fucking make you do anything? If I didn't want you there, I wouldn't have brought it up at all. I want you there, Armand. Do you want to be there? Fuck it, yeah I'm making you if you're giving me the option."
Point is, dub-con, brat taming, switching, all the kinks that get hotter when consent gets fuzzier, thank you Devil's Minion for giving us two fucked-up idiots to pit against each other.
