#* ˖ armand ╱ muse ⊹

[erebus0dora]

i can't choose one, so let's have both, i guess..?

«I am the Devil's Minion, and he grants my every wish.»

brb here when i get some proper sleep for i still have a wish to rant on Eric Bogosian being actually a scary smart researcher in my bloodstream

[angrybubbles]

I think one of my favorite parts of Devil's Minion is that their flaws really suit each other to a degree.

Daniel is harshly blunt. He speaks deliberately and without any fanfare, and you know exactly what he means as he says it. Even when he's insulting you, and especially when he's angry, his bluntness is front-and-center. This is probably why he's been divorced twice, because this kind of behavior is cute and refreshing at first, until he starts laying out the problems with you.

Armand needs that kind of bold speech. That man could overthink himself out of how to tie shoelaces on a bad day, and part of his difficulty with Louis in the show is insecurity and doubt. With Daniel, he knows exactly where he stands, which is probably why he would take some of Daniel's worst moments as truth. Armand has the consciousness to know he's capable of some heinous shit, and doesn't really take part in guilt on it too much, so he's uniquely suited to handling insults being thrown at him.

And Armand is all about subtly. He'll lie and soothe; talk around something or simply avoid it physically. Not to mention the hall of mirrors that exists in his mind and memories. He masks to suit what is expected of him in order to fit a role, but it is just a mask, so it doesn't feel genuine to those looking for a deep connection. And it's up to his perception of reality to figure out which mask he needs.

Which Daniel, solver of puzzles and professional snoop, is never going to be bored with it. What is Armand doing today? Why is he acting this way? The process of finding out is how Daniel makes emotional connections, and every day or week with Armand would be a new task. The truth of Armand is a process of collaborative discovery, and Daniel not only thrives on challenge, but also on mystery.

Idk, I just think it's neat. Obviously they still step on each other's toes, and the growing pains are uh, flammatory, but they still are uniquely suited to handling bad days with each other, as long as they aren't having a bad day on the same day (cue horrible fight and another chase across the globe because they love each other anyway)

[writerformanymuses]

people in vampire media be like .... so they just suck the blood out? they don't find more inventive ways to survive with it? centuries of life, no one wants to get creative? take a cooking class?

but don't want to acknowledge the innovations of the vampire armand. like, my dude single-handedly came out with carbonated blood when the soda stream debuted in 1955. rat soup? invented it in the microwave in 1973. blood milkshakes? threw it together one night in his second favorite blender in 1998. blood fondue fountain? what did you think he was doing on september 11, 2001 in new york? stalking his boyfriend? NO. 👏 MAKING 👏 FUCKING 👏 MAGIC. 👏

don't insult my cooking mama princess armand de nothing, okay? gordon ramsey could never.

[chuck-the-goon]

The Vampire Armand

[gvnchyno2]

Andrei | Amadeo | Armand

[ipadhannibal]

Something about Claudia being described as a Botticelli angel (just as Armand is commonly referred to as later in the series) and her and Armand having a form of instant understanding (and hatred) that Louis is exempt from. Two vampires made before adulthood and forever stuck that way.

[covenofthearticulate]

i had a thought: imagine louis falls asleep first because he’s the weakest and the baby and armand reads his thoughts as he dreams and then yaps to lestat right over louis’ head 😭

MWAH MWAH MWAH kissing u on the cheeks as we speak!!!! this is delicious i'm sobbing!!! since we're both going through it I wrote a lil something as a treat bc we deserve it <3

"He's dreaming of you," Armand mumbles into the nest of unkempt black hair.

From the pillow, on the other side of their sleeping lover, Lestat looks up from his phone. Like a pantomime, the expression shifts from surprised to curious to doubtful, before landing on the final fixed look of pure spite that crinkles his brow and stiffens his lip.

"He is not," Lestat frowns. "Liar."

He is always this way when he's afraid. Like a cornered wolf, snapping at any hand that might offer kindness.

And perhaps he is right to be afraid, Armand thinks, as he rests one hand over Louis' chest, feels the rise and fall of it as the mortal sleep pulls him under like the gentle lull of the ocean waves. Perhaps it is a gift, the severance between maker and fledgling. Perhaps the ugly things in Louis' head are better left unsaid.

That won't stop Armand, though.

"He's dreaming of you at the chess board with your father."

If there is any color left behind from the hunt, it immediately drains from Lestat's face. There's a sharp pain in his eyes for just a moment, one singular earth-shattering moment, before he glazes right over, and turns his attention back to his phone.

"...oh."

"You're yelling at him."

Armand doesn't know why he's digging further. He likes to dig, likes to press on Lestat's old wounds because sometimes it is the only way to see the real creature hiding behind the facade, because it makes him feel less alone, knowing there is someone else in this wide world who is every bit as broken and wretched as he is.

"Enough."

"Oh, but he loves you, even now," Armand continues to murmur, soft and low, against the crown of Louis' head. "He loves the curl of your hair, and the shape of your calves. Even the flash of your fangs as you tell your father to go to hell. He feels sorry for you."

"I said ENOUGH, Armand."

When he looks up, finally, there is a rage in Lestat's eyes. It's an old flame of anger, and yet it makes Lestat look so devastatingly young.

"Why are you telling me this?" Lestat breathes.

"Because you are the center of his universe," Armand snaps, and undercurrent is clear: ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful.

"I don't want to be." Something quivers in the back of Lestat's throat as he speaks. "I never wanted to hurt him, I never wanted—"

"And yet he dreams of you still."

Silence, for a moment.

And the longer Armand's words hang in the air, the more Lestat begins to recognize the jealousy seeping into each syllable.

"I want him to dream about us," Lestat finally sighs.

All Armand does is nod, close his eyes and inhale a breath as if he might pick up some lingering scent from the long dead flesh cuddled between them. And as he begins to gently exhale, Louis makes a small noise, a soft groan, and shifts ever so slightly so that his toes bump against Lestat's leg.

Lestat hates that he cannot know the cause of that noise, and for a moment he considers swallowing his pride simply to ask Armand to play conduit, to slide the blade between his ribs just once more—

But before he can speak, he feels the gentle press of Armand inside of his head, like a warm summer breeze, and once he opens the door, allows the battlements to crumble down, he can hear it like a relentless pulse:

Dream of us, dearest. Dream of us. No more sorrow. We are here, now. Dream of us.

And the world seems so warm and so small, suddenly, as Lestat allows himself to sink down into it, to be guided by Armand through the dreamscape in his lover's head. The three of them, tucked away in a venerable library deep in the heart of New York. The three of them, in the box at the opera. In the snow-covered trails of Auvergne, the moonlit streets of Paris, the ocean-kissed air of California...yes, the three of them, in all their many iterations, always finding their way home to one another over and over again.

A yawn creeps it's way up into Lestat as he shifts under the covers. He wraps his arm around Louis, rests his hand on Armand's shoulder.

And when he closes his eyes, he dreams of the three of them, too.

[longingquiet]

thinking about armand being a whisper in the wind throughout daniel’s life. a reflection in a window at a bar. a hazy face in the crowd of students leaving his guest lecture. a passing stranger he can’t escape but can never quite remember either.

[tboy-molloy]

If I think about devil's minion for too long I'll start to take psychic damage

[carabinerdrawing]

He was dying, no matter what his visions had told him, and no slight tender kiss of blood could save him now.

[angrybubbles]

Quick Hint for how to engage with Gothic Horror

Don't judge the characters for their actions. Like, just don't. You'll end up in a moral swamp if you do. You'll start measuring the bad and that's not great.

Judge the characters for their justifications. Judge them for their ability to change.

Gothic literature asks you to explore the psychology and macabre of humanity. Horror asks you to explore the darkness and limits of it. Together they ask you to explore the darkness and limits of our minds, and the horrors that live there.

[writerformanymuses]

The heartbreaking thing about a lot of viewers who haven't consumed the books is they don't completely see is WHY Lestat is near sobbing when he asks "Did you hurt yourself?"

Yes, for general reasons like he loves him and what not. But, don't forget, he also said, "I gave you to Armand. You tell me if that is saving."

In TVL, you get ALOT more of the Lestat/Nicky relationship. You see them bond, fall in love, and then Lestat have to contend with that love once he's kidnapped and turned.

Nicky does not take the vampirism very well. Nicky is a very desolate sort of character. Religious trauma to the max, and then throw in family trauma, gay repression, and then vampirism.

When Lestat leaves Paris with Gabrielle in TVL, he essentially leaves Nicky with Armand. He entrusts him into his care in a way, and Nicky chooses the fire. He can't endure as they call it. Naturally, it breaks Lestat's heart.

One of Armand's jobs as coven leader was to cull weak vampires who can't survive on their own or endure. So there is definitely room for S3 for them to show Armand pushing for Nicky to accept the flame.

With Louis, Lestat doesn't fight back in Paris and lets Louis go with Armand. Once again, he's entrusting someone he loves to Armand. Even if it's very much unwilling, but I'll give it to him for once for respecting a choice.

When Armand calls out to him in San Francisco, it's Lestat's worst nightmare. Louis is hurt, Lestat can't get to him. Armand either has allowed him to be hurt, hurt him himself, or did not protect him as Lestat wants him protected.

It is heavily implied Lestat thinks Louis died in San Francisco. In the books, Armand tells both of them the other died to keep them apart. Once again, the person Lestat loves is dead because of Armand.

Lestat, in his mind, has ultimately failed Louis, and so he falls apart as we see him do in 2x08. When Louis shows up, he cannot believe he's there initially. It's very clear he's only half there mentally. He has to ask him if it was all real and if he'd really been hurt because he has to know if it is really Louis. It's a question you'd ask the ghost of the person you love, but Louis CAN answer him.

Needless to say, please read the books if you're up for it. They are a riot.

[mythuzalasheir3]

I love the chaoticule because it’s three dramatic vampires all with complicated history with each other, plus a reporter and two spies (with their own baggage with each other) who got roped into this by accident and are now kind of indispensable to the dynamic lest it all falls apart again

[shinjistar]

in the jp release of TVA, the title was translated as 美青年アルマンの遍歴 (roughly, "the history/travels of the beautiful young man armand")... i thought 美青年 (biseinen, beautiful young man) was such an interesting choice of translation <3 the word used for travels/history (遍歴) also has a connotation of itinerancy, pilgrimage, a long chronicle of travels, etc. the original release was split into 2 volumes and had special illustrated covers ( 1, 2 ) that reminded me so much of retro shoujo and BL that it inspired me to draw something similar with showmand hehe

[themoonandthedogstar]

lesmand dorian gray au when ?? 👀👀

[cher-horowitz]

something something the parallel between armand lurking in the corner of the room the entire time while louis talks about his relationship with lestat in season 1 vs louis letting a vision of lestat haunt the narrative while he and armand begin their own relationship in season 2... walk with me...