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Prince's viewing from book 1 and Spar/knife scene from book 3

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Thinking about how Damen does not even begin to comprehend the absolute life-altering trauma he caused Laurent by killing Auguste until like halfway through Prince's Gambit. Thinking about how their mutual dehumanization of each other led Damen to see Laurent as incapable of love or affection for anyone, he never even considers that Laurent loved his brother and was shattered by his death, never shows a shred of sympathy, his first assumption was that Laurent resented Auguste for being the golden child/crowned prince, and it's only when Paschal looks at him like he's crazy and says "no, he loved him." that he begins to realize the Laurent he's been experiencing is one that in many ways *he helped create* and that the purest form of Laurent was a sweet, shy little boy who loved his brother without a cruel bone in his body, he never wanted power or glory or anything, all he wanted was his big brother, and Damen killed that version of Laurent when he killed Auguste.

I think that is in part how Damen begins to come to forgive Laurent, or at the very least to begin to sympathize with him, realizing that in a fucked up kind of way, everything Laurent does to him, while still totally being first and foremost Laurent's responsibility and moral failures to atone for, is partially a consequence of his own actions, that he helped turn Laurent into the tangled ball of pulsating yearning in the shape of a man that he is.

I think realizing how wrong he'd been about the kind of man Laurent was, was what began his journey to coming to terms with the kind of man he, Damen, was at the beginning of the story. When he first meets Laurent he thinks he has him pinned and describes him as arrogant, self-absorbed, self-serving, spoilt, and "raised to overestimate his own worth", which in hindsight is definitely meant to be projection because those are all ways that Damen himself could be described at the beginning of the story, something he basically admits to at the end of Kings Rising when he reflects on the version of himself that existed before he was imprisoned.

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year 5 of capri drawings for my bestie @carryonmylovelies ' bday!! <3 <3

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We would all be dead

Prince's Gambit drinking game: Every time Laurent and Damen gaze at each other, you take a shot.

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and so the au's have begun in earnest

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Celebrating and Akielon ritual Nicaise: Damen, you act like a jerk... Laurent: This is important to Damen, and we don't make fun of him just because we don't know the traditions of his culture! Damen: Thank you, sweetheart! Laurent: *whispers to Nicaise* No matter how stupid these traditions are...

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Prince's Gambit drinking game: Every time Laurent and Damen gaze at each other, you take a shot.

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My dad: why dont u let me see your drawings????

Me figuring out how i explain to him that this is in fact a very cunty ass man and not a woman: hmmmm lemme think on that

Never get between a girl and her ultra niche character that she projects onto for no apparent reason bc our personalities do not match at all

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So, like, does Damen know he took Laurent's virginity? Or is he clueless/doesn't care?? LOL i'm curious. Also, thank you for gracing us with this incredible fic.

oh he definitely knows!!! in my mind, he and laurent dont ever explicitly discuss it but based on context clues — laurent having no friends/previous boyfriends or hookups — it’s pretty obvious lol 😭😌

i answered this before, but in that ask i said that laurent doesn’t really feel ashamed of being a virgin/inexperienced when he’s with damen even though damen will make fun of it from time to time. HOWEVER damen only does so bc be secretly loves the fact that he’s the only man laurents ever been with 😌😌😌

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It's not lost on me that Laurent started being better only when they were away from the court at Arles and away from the Regent psychologically terrorizing him constantly

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Captive Prince if Damen didn't have blond fetish disease would be a pamphlet

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Laurent: *offended* How dare you, saying I never helped you with anything? I once cleaned your room!!! Nik: You threw my books out of the window... Laurent: Ohhh... Yesss.... Right...

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Jord and Orlant: *have to get Laurent* Laurent: *is sleeping* Orlant: He could be faking... Jord: Yeah, what are you gonna do? Poke him with a stick? Orlant:... Jord: Dude, you're not gonna poke him with a stick!!!

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unfastening

(Prince's gambit dynamics rkgk)

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First meeting

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nicaise