set our eyes west

like there is a SECOND in which she is claudia to him and he takes the hood down in a silent "it's me" to see if she responds at all

like he is looking at his daughter's face and no matter how rational he might be about the impossibility of it, like! this is claudia's face! he knows this face! he looked at this face for years! he wiped blood off of this face when she was learning to eat neatly! he sang happy birthday to this face! he watched this face laugh and scream and tease and burn to ash right in front of him. but here it is again! his DAUGHTER in front of him! and consciously or not, he has a moment of, "i'm here, see?"

but then she looks out to louis in the car and lestat remembers that this is impossible and this isn't claudia.

and the spell is broken.

even if part of him wishes it wasn't.

Suffered in his terrible family home in Auvergne till age of 29,

Only had 2 years of freedom/poverty with Nicki before Magnus kidnapped him,

Got assaulted by Armand and lost his first love while he was only a month old fledgling,

Got continued to be groomed and sa'd by Gabriella during their travels until she abandoned him,

Burried himself under ground for 80 years,

Akasha and Marius forced him to be the Keeper and he was alone for 10 years,

Then got assaulted by Akasha via forced feeding,

Came to NOLA fell in love had a family,

Then 30 years later his husband and daughter poisoned him and slit his throat,

Get abandoned by Gabrella again,

Made it to Paris and he got tortured again and forced to watch his daughter burn alive,

Louis kissed the man who killed their child and left so Lestat is alone for another 80 years,

Then his lover finally came to him they have a few years of hapiness/friendship,

Then he found out his ex husband/lover/best friend wrote a terrible book about him and whole world knows about his rape and everything,

Goes on a self destructive tour,

Gabby assaults and abandons again,

Shit happenes and gets kidnapped by the Queen.

like they are NOT on good terms this season, but this is a moment of, "i am showing this painful, infected wound to you because you have a matching one, and you are the only one who can do this for me." like this is a big, extremely vulnerable ask from louis.

and even lestat's quiet "yes. okay." in this request even though things are bad, because this is a request of one parent to another and thus sidesteps the conflict of, "we are supposed to be something to each other, but you didn't even call when i was shot." like louis is louis and the great love of his life, but louis is also the person he raised a child with, and that bond still stands strong enough to call a favor in on.

and louis's tone when lestat brings up claudia's eyes and louis jumps in with, "i know, right? there's no spark." and there is SO MUCH pain in it but also such a moment of, "she was our child and you know her like i did. you know her eyes. talk to me about her because it's the only way she can still exist, and you are the only one she can exist for me with. she was ours."

"And the violin was talking, not merely singing, the violin was insisting. The violin was telling a tale." – TVL