#also they are people like aimeric or erasmus and who cares about them? i care about them

[x-xhiro]

I've only been drawing pieces that I want to share because I fear that if I don't, I'll just fall into irrelevance. Now everything I've been doing just looks so bad

[failes-xtra-bits]

Review: Prince's Gambit Ch 1

Prince’s Gambit

Review Chapter 1:

So we start off this book with our characters riding towards Chastillon. What I really like about the beginning is that we see Damen becoming more friendly with the other men. 

“It’s hunting country,’ said Orlant, mistaking the nature of his gaze. "Dare you to make a run for it.”

This piece of dialogue is half joking, half wary (if that makes any sense) which I absolutely love and sets the foundations for the trust the builds as we go through the book. 

After a while Damen is summoned by Paschal, the physician:

It was fine. His back had healed enough that new scars had replaced new wounds. Damen craned for a glimpse but, not being an owl, saw almost nothing. He stopped before he got a crick in his neck.

  The physician rummaged in the satchel and produced one of his endless ointments.

  ‘A massage?’

  ‘These are healing salves. It should be done every night. It will help the scarring to fade a little, in time.’

  That was really too much. ‘It’s cosmetic?’

  The physician said, ‘I was told you would be difficult. Very well. The better it heals, the less your back will trouble you with stiffness, both now and later in life, so that you will be better able to swing a sword around, killing a great many people. I was told you would be responsive to that argument.’

  ‘The Prince,’ said Damen. But of course. All this tender care of his back, like soothing with a kiss the reddened cheek you have slapped.

I always found this exchange interesting (side note I found the owl thing kinda amusing.) The question “is it cosmetic” hearkens back to what we know about Akielon culture and how while male nudity is not reviled using cosmetics on the male body is. Damen’s reluctance is not just him being rebellious but is coloured by this cultural view and his reluctance is only assuaged by the physician propounding its practical value. 

Further the last bit is also very interesting, it serves to remind the reader of all the brutalities Laurent has inflicted upon Damen, but also symbolises the beginning of Laurent trying to remedy all of it. 

As they talk we find out that Paschal served the king and tended to the fallen at Marlas. 

“If you served the King,’ said Damen, ‘how is it you now find yourself in the Prince’s household, and not his uncle’s?’

  ‘Men find themselves in the places they put themselves,’ Paschal said, closing his satchel with a snap.”

This exchange is interesting because it really hones in the idea that there are people who serve Laurent out of sheer loyalty. Up until this point the reader is positioned to hate Laurent, so it's a surprise to see that there a people willing to be on his side. Slowly our hatred for him is unraveling. 

After this Damen goes to the courtyard and meets Jord who tells him to go to the armoury. Once there we meet Aimeric (who was briefly introduced at the end of Captive Prince) who was getting his ass beat. When Damen enters he tells the three men to stop. 

“It wasn’t Damen’s size that stopped them. It wasn’t the sword he held casually in his hand. If these men really wanted to make a fight out of it, there were enough swords, flingable armour pieces, and teetering shelves to turn this into something long and ludicrous. It was only when the leader of the men saw Damen’s gold collar that he shoved out an arm, holding the others back.

  And Damen understood, in that moment, exactly how things were going to be on this campaign: the Regent’s men in ascendancy. Aimeric and the Prince’s men were targets because they had no one to complain to except Govart, who would slap them back down. Govart, the Regent’s favourite thug, brought here to keep the Prince’s men in “and the Prince’s men were targets because they had no one to complain to except Govart, who would slap them back down. Govart, the Regent’s favourite thug, brought here to keep the Prince’s men in check. But Damen was different. Damen was untouchable, because Damen had a direct line of reportage to the Prince.”

I always think it must be weird for Damen (a prince, future king, war hero, etc) to see that his power doesn’t come from he himself this time but rather because of Laurent. I don’t really have much commentary on this other than it must feel weird for him. 

Anyway the men leave, Damen and Aimeric talk to each other for the first time. We learn that Aimeric is young, 19. Once again we are presented with notion of loyalty. 

“Aimeric didn’t budge. ‘You couldn’t take a flogging like a man. You opened your mouth and squealed to the Regent. You laid hands on him. You spat on his reputation. Then you tried to escape, and he still intervened for you, because he’d never abandon a member of his household to the Regency. Not even someone like you.’

Damen had gone very still. He looked at the boy’s young, bloody face, and reminded himself that Aimeric had been willing to take a beating from three men in defence of his Prince’s honour. He’d call it misguided puppy love, except that he’d seen the glint of something similar in Jord, in Orlant, and even, in his own quiet way, in Paschal/ him. 

“Damen thought of the ivory and gold casing that held a creature duplicitous, self-serving and untrustworthy.

‘You’re so loyal to him. Why is that?’

‘I’m not a turncoat Akielon dog,’ said Aimeric.

It’s kinda of interesting in hindsight now that we know Aimeric is on the regents side. I’m not going to comment on this bc idk what I can say. 

Anyway after this Damen delivers the inventory to Rochert as promised. It’s mentioned that the preparations should have happened a lot earlier and out of the 150 men the regent sent only less than two dozen are actually helping. 

Jord then approached Damen and says that Aimeric won’t foment any more tension which Damen knows is a lie. Damen asks where the Captain is and we find out that: 

“The Captain is in one of the horse stalls, up to his waist in the stableboy,”

And that Damen is going to be the one to fetch him. When Damen finally arrives at the stables we see Govart fucking the stable boy. When told that he his to see the Prince, Govart is adamant in wanting to finish his business and says Laurent is just 

“ really just a tease who wants cock”

This provokes an interesting reaction in Damen 

“Damen felt anger settle inside him, a tangible weight. He recognised an echo of the impotence Aimeric must have experienced in the armoury, except that he was not a green nineteen year old who had never seen a fight. His eyes passed impassively over the half-unclothed body of the stableboy. He realised that in a moment he was going to return to Govart in this small, dusty stall all that was owed for the rape of Erasmus.”

While we know that Damen and Govart have some history but its interesting that this reaction is provoked when Govart insults the Prince. Does it imply that Damen feels a weird sense of loyalty? Perhaps. Or perhaps he just really hates Govart. 

Eventually Govart gives in to the Prince’s orders. 

Finally it is time for Damen to report to the castellan and he is led to to the bedchamber. Here we get another crumb about the regent and Laurent’s relationship.

“The Prince stays here often?’

The castellan mistook him to mean the keep, not the rooms. ‘Not often. He and his uncle came here a great deal together, in the year or two after Marlas. As he grew older, the Prince lost his taste for the runs here. He now comes only rarely to Chastillon.”

While most of us picked up on their relationship, its a surprise Damen does not. Once again this serves to reveal Damen’s  naivety which stems from his trusting nature  and the straightforwardness of his culture. 

Food is brought and Damen waits for Laurent while pondering on the political situation the regent has created for Laurent. He intends to tear the group apart. 

Laurent finally arrives:

“'I have saved you till last'….Laurent calmly helped himself to goblet and pitcher, pouring himself a drink. Damen couldn’t help glancing at the goblet, remembering the last time they had been alone together in Laurent’s rooms.

Pale brows arched a fraction. ‘Your virtue’s safe. It’s just water. Probably.’ Laurent took a sip, then lowered the goblet, holding it in refined fingers. He glanced at the chair, as a host might offering a seat, and said, as though the words amused him, ‘Make yourself comfortable. You are going to stay the night.’

‘No restraints?’ said Damen. ‘You don’t think I’ll try to leave, pausing only to kill you on the way out?’

‘Not until we get closer to the border,’ said Laurent.

He returned Damen’s gaze evenly. There was no sound but the crack and pop of the banked fire.

‘You really do have ice in your veins, don’t you,’ said Damen.”

“Laurent placed the goblet carefully back on the table, and picked up the knife.

It was a sharp knife, made for cutting meat. Damen felt his pulse quicken as Laurent came forward. Only a handful of nights ago, he had watched Laurent slit a man’s throat, spilling blood as red as the silk that covered this room’s bed. He felt shock as Laurent’s fingers touched his, pressing the hilt of the knife into his hand. Laurent took hold of Damen’s wrist below the gold cuff, firmed his grip, and drew the knife forward so that it was angled towards his own stomach. The tip of the blade pressed slightly into the dark blue of his prince’s garment.

‘You heard me tell Orlant to leave,’ said Laurent.

Damen felt Laurent’s grip slide down his wrist to his fingers, and tighten.

“Laurent said, ‘I am not going to waste time on posturing and threats. Why don’t we clear up any uncertainty about your intentions?’

It was well placed, just below the rib cage. All you would have to do was push in, then angle up.

He was so infuriatingly sure of himself, proving a point. Damen felt desire come hard upon him: not wholly a desire for violence, but a desire to drive the knife into Laurent’s composure, to force him to show something other than cool indifference.

He said: ‘I’m sure there are house servants still awake. How do I know you won’t scream?’

‘Do I seem like the type to scream?’

‘I’m not going to use the knife,’ said Damen, ‘but if you’re willing to put it in my hand, you underestimate how much I want to.’

‘No,’ said Laurent. ‘I know exactly what it is to want to kill a man, and to wait.”

 This scene here is interesting. We are once again reminded of the assassination attempt and Laurent and Damen's tenuous relationship. They are clearly not friends, there is still hate between them yet a weird sort of trust is forming. Further last bit hints at what we know in hindsight is Laurent’s almost life long obsession with wanting to kill Damen in retribution for Auguste’s death. 

“Laurent said, ‘When this campaign is over, I think—if you are a man and not a worm—you will attempt to gain retribution for what has happened to you. I expect it. On that day, we roll the dice and see how they fall. Until then, you serve me. Let me therefore make one thing above all clear to you: I expect your obedience. You are under my command. If you object to what you are told to do I will hear reasoned arguments in private, but if you disobey an order once it is made, I will send you back to the flogging post.”

The terms of their relationship are now set and now Laurent reveals why Damen is here. 

“You said you knew the territory,’ ”

[chromemuffin]

(Captive Prince Trilogy) Prince’s Gambit Liveblogging (Chapters 1 & 2)

Time to start the second book in my Captive Prince liveblog! This was sort of delayed because I was trying to read the extra chapter at the end of book 1, couldn’t get more than a page or two in, and kept putting it off. Then I got busy. I skipped it for now.

And, looking back, I completely missed the fact that all three books have a different crest on them lol...First book was a lion, second is...actually, I have no clue what it is, something with tassels. The third has something like a crown with two griffons.

Chapter 1

Yay, finally leaving the castle! I’m guessing this is where the story really picks up.

Damen’s analyzing mind, always relating things around him to what he knows (military stuff) is quite pleasant to read through for some reason. And considering we finally get a change of scenery, I can feel some of his relief at finally getting out of that castle (though he is not exactly free, we are, for a good while it seems).

lol wait the dogs like Laurent. Are very happy to see him, in fact. I guess he does get out of the main city every now and again, this keep isn’t too far away.

“...but, not being an owl, saw almost nothing.” lol sometimes I have to sit back and wonder, because this is in third person but clearly expressing all of Damen’s thoughts so like. Yes, he actually thinks this as he’s trying to look at his own back.

The better it heals, the less your back will trouble you with stiffness, both now and later in life, so that you will be better able to swing a sword around, killing a great many people.

lol you can just feel the deadpan tone and unimpressed attitude and sort of contempt for the business of killing.

All this tender care of his back, like soothing with a kiss the reddened cheek you have slapped.

Once again, I appreciate that Damen can clearly see through these actions, unlike a lot of ‘held captive by the enemy’ stories, he knows full well that these acts of kindness really aren’t done out of the goodness of the other party’s heart. He’ll go along with it, because he must, but doesn’t mistaken it for affection or care, he may be attracted to Laurent physically but for the time being that’s all it is.

Of course, that makes the transition to actual romance a little rocky but...I guess I’ll have to be patient.

“Men find themselves in the places they put themselves.”

I like this Paschal guy. The things he says are sort of lowkey really great.

omg the trash talk is starting again. trash talk is great too. 

Damen...

You noticed things like his pretty mouth, even dripping with nosebleed.

Ew. Damen is, like, attracted to pretty people easily and it is hilarious how easily he/the narrative gets distracted when one shows up. Also, I recall he liked to sleep with guys who won brawls so like, this is the perfect combination for him I guess? To each their own...

Ah, here it is. What I’ve been waiting for.

The first real glimpse of what sort of person Laurent appears to people other than Damen. Damen is obviously biased, so we’ve had nothing to go off except Damen’s thoughts and Laurent’s actions, and since Laurent isn’t exactly the most honest straightforward character, it was hard to tell in the last book what he really was like.

I really like this scene, I won’t go quoting the whole thing, but I really like the whole exchange (Aimeric is, like, a character I can maybe get behind and not be like ‘you’re such a little shit I guess you are also endearing but a shit nonetheless’ or Erasmus, who is in a class of his own (that short story on him did not help, ok, I couldn’t finish it, it’s too depressing).

Ha. Damen is still more intimidated by keeping Laurent waiting than he is Govart, that dude I fear we will not be rid of for quite a while.

Ugh, as good as it’s written, the sort of constant trash talk about Laurent and sex is really uncomfortable at times. 

I feel like the ensuing conversation when Laurent returns at night is probably the only way it could have gone after the debacle that happened at the end of the last book.

I also feel as if they are starting to be a little more honest with each other, here. Just a little. They need to, in order to move on and sort of cooperate on this campaign.

Chapter 2

Have I mentioned I like gallows humor and find it hilarious that somehow everyone, even Laurent’s own men, seem to be on the same page about him and the no sex and being made of ice? Yeah, well, the latter is getting quite Not Okay now. Maybe because they are getting more vulgar and gross, but I’m on the same page as Damen now. The narrative seems to have succeeded in that respect.

Oh, the snake comparisons are back! I do like how creative the insults are, truly.

But Laurent actually relaxing a bit, wow, we are finally seeing that. I like the subtle (actually not subtle at all given how Damen devotes a paragraph of thought to the image of him relaxing a bit) reminder that hey, he’s just a man. Human. Not, you know, a demon prince or something.

Although he goes and pulls an all-nighter, and is ready to go in the morning. So, not helping that image, but still.

...whatever cold bitchy remarks he had made - sharpened by a night without sleep - had been enough to eject the Regent’s men out of their beds and into a semblance of lines.

I think I have no choice but to say I relate to this on a spiritual level because I, too, do not get enough sleep and subsequently am horribly grumpy and terrible to deal with in the morning. I’m trying to stop, because I really do act bitchy without enough sleep (which is like every morning) but staying up late has become a really bad habit. urgh

Damen is so prepared for this fight waiting to happen. In the meantime, he’s trying to play peacemaker.

“Getting massaged.” omg I missed you and your remarks Damen, it’s been too long (when did I finish the last book? two weeks ago maybe)

This tent is so fancy what the heck haha.

Ooh fight scene! Not the one Damen is looking out for, but.

It’s only been a month since this whole thing started? Geez, feels like longer...

omg

They are being more honest in this book. I mean, Laurent admitted Damen was better than him at swordplay, and he sort of blushed (and how good is he at shoving his emotions down, like can you even suppress being flustered).

JUST SOME FRIENDLY ADVICE HAHA did you really think he willingly did drugs before a fight or

Bailleux Keep: a broken-down structure with a fancy name = ‘fancy’ how I feel about most French words, honestly. I just. am not good at pronouncing things so French is like a nightmare to me.

Ah, Damen, you are actually quite good at this military leader thing. And, nice exchange just before the end of the chapter.

I really wanted to read more but ahaha need to pace myself.

[fahye]

CP bachelor AU: part 13

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12

***

Laurent bends his legs, pulling his ankles out of direct sunlight and back into the shade of the poolside umbrella. He's had sunburned feet once in his life, and never plans to repeat it. He throws an annoyed glance at Damen, who is stretched out on the adjacent lounge chair. Damen has spent the last three days turning steadily browner while being very lax about sunscreen.

The villa they've rented on the west coast of Santorini has its own pool as well as its own tiny courtyard complete with mosaic floor and fountain. Sunshine off white stone and white paint makes it feel overbright and otherworldly during the day, shimmering with heat and light. Laurent tried for an hour this morning to go over his notes on the Theran eruption and the formation of the caldera, but the heat snuck into his brain, and he can't make himself mind. He feels looser, and happier, than he ever imagined he could.

The ratings for the show's finale were unprecedented. With the story of Erasmus and Kallias under their belts, the finale was marketed as an even more shocking twist, and Laurent and Damen have become the new faces of unexpected romance. They've been asked to present at the Logies, and to appear on every morning show in the country.

Laurent has never been a celebrity in his own right, nor wanted to. He's... adjusting.

The most obvious benefit is that Damen's stock in the eyes of his PR department has shot way, way up, and his father has--after a long talk with both Damen and Laurent, which left Laurent feeling like he'd run a marathon--agreed that Damen will assume control of the company as planned. Theomedes looked like a man who'd already planned the first three years of his luxury retirement and had one impatient foot out the door; he was ready to throw Damen the reins immediately.

Damen promptly turned around and declared that he was leaving the company in the care of his brother Kastor for six months, extending the leave of absence he'd taken to come on the show.

"To do what?" Theomedes demanded.

"This and that," said Damen, eyes dancing at Laurent. "Expand my horizons. Travel."

Laurent has only met Kastor once. He has a feeling that Damen's decision will come back to bite them later, but right now he can't bring himself to care too much if it means that Damen is here, with him, holding his hand in airports and telling him stories over lunches of bread and olive oil and fava and sun-wilted tomatoes, and kissing Laurent in the night breezes that sweep gladly through the open doors of the villa.

Tomorrow, filming begins in Fira for Laurent's new show.

Two of Laurent's major potential investors pulled out, after the season went to air. They cited various vague reasons but Laurent knew what they meant: that Laurent's uncle had managed to leverage the finale against Laurent, frame it as his unfortunate, inexperienced nephew being selfish; impetuous; unstable and untrustworthy.

Laurent's new network, however, looked at the ratings. They agreed to take the chance on his show.

And Laurent has another investor, now, even though he's been arguing about this with the investor in question for at least six months. And also for the last twenty minutes that they have been lounging here, poolside.

"I should make you take all the money back," he says now.

"What," Damen says, "I can't invest in my own fiancé's company?"

"Don't call me that," Laurent says, automatic.

Damen lifts his hand, and looks pointedly at Laurent's. The ring that had been donated to the show was some enormous, hideous diamond, which Laurent wore for publicity photos and promptly returned to the sponsor. Instead, he wears a plain gold band, and Damen has a matching one. They look like wedding bands, but for the hand they wear them on.

"Trappings," Laurent says, blithely insincere. "We're not engaged. You can't get engaged before you start dating, that's absurd."

"I seem to remember that's what I told someone when they approached me about being on a reality show."

Laurent throws a towel, with precision, at Damen's face.

Damen sets the towel aside and climbs off his lounge chair. He says, grinning, "Let's call it business. I expect a good return on my investment."

"Is that so," says Laurent.

"I'll settle for dividends, in the meantime."

Damen bends down over Laurent and kisses him with sun-chapped lips. Laurent hooks a finger in Damen's shirt and tries to drag him down further, but Damen pulls away and takes off his shirt, instead, ready to dive into the pool.

Laurent waits until Damen is down to just a clinging pair of board shorts, and then snaps a picture on his phone. After a moment's thought he sends the picture to Jokaste.

just sharing the wealth, he adds.

Her answer comes almost at once. just showing off, you mean.

It's late evening in Sydney. Jokaste is probably out somewhere, being sharp and sparkling. She's already been approached to do Dancing with the Stars, has booked a small part on a new TV drama, and appears near-weekly in gossip magazines, paired with various radio personalities and football players.

Three dots resolve themselves into another message.

btw I had coffee with kashel yesterday. do you know who she's seeing??

yes, laurent says.

you're bluffing.

he IS damen's best friend, Laurent points out.

stop being a smug asshole and go peel your bf out of those shorts.

Damen is in the pool by now, swimming aimless half-laps. Laurent watches him, feeling a pleasant heat of anticipation at the thought. Damen swims up to the edge and rests his elbows there; water gleams on the muscles of his arms and plasters his hair to his neck in thick strands. He sweeps a palm through the water, making waves, in an obvious threat.

"I will fucking destroy you," Laurent says. He picks up his phone, to serve as a shield of sorts--their phones are sacred and not to be endangered--then blinks as it starts to vibrate in his hand.

"What is it?" Damen says.

Laurent leans forward and holds out the phone so that Damen can see the name on the screen.

Damen mimes throwing it into the pool, and Laurent smiles. He leans back in his lounge chair. The phone keeps buzzing in his hands. After a moment, he picks up.

"Hello, uncle," he says.

"Laurent," his uncle says. "I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought you'd be buried in work, not taking calls from family."

"I can always make time for you," Laurent says.

"Producing a new format from scratch is a lot more work than taking over an existing show. You must be feeling stretched."

"It's kind of you to worry," Laurent says, "but there's really no need. After all, I learned from the best."

Since Laurent was seventeen, he and his uncle have spoken in code; everything they say aloud to one another, every email or text, is benign and deniable. Everything happens beneath the surface. Laurent imagines how pleased his uncle would be to report to his friends in the industry that he'd spoken to Laurent and the poor boy had sounded so stressed, and admitted to being in over his head.

He'll probably report it anyway. At least it he’ll know it to be a lie.

"I have to say it is a little disappointing, Laurent, that you were so desperate for capital you felt the need to attach yourself to the nearest bank account on legs. It doesn't look good, you must see that. I'm concerned that people won't take this little show of yours seriously."

Laurent lets himself smile. He enjoys arguing this topic with Damen himself, but he won't let anyone else question it. And if his uncle's skirting around calling Laurent a whore, he must be running low on inspiration.

He could come back with the obvious answer that it's hardly any better than everyone thinking he's no more than his uncle's pet project. But it's too obvious to bother saying aloud.

"I think I'll let the finished product speak for itself," he says. "Besides, there are some benefits. Now that everyone knows I'm off the market, there are far fewer people trying to wrangle an AD job by making indecent offers. I know how people gossip in this industry. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I make my personnel decisions in bed."

That is met with silence. Laurent meets Damen's eyes and makes a small face, and Damen starts to laugh.

Nicaise will be having lunch with Aimeric this week. An olive branch, of sorts, and perhaps an offer. Nicaise is far too untrusting to let Aimeric get away with anything; if they can avoid strangling one another in a Potts Point restaurant, Laurent's told Nicaise to extend the hand anyway. Responsibility ends where Laurent decides it ends.

"I'll be following your project with great interest," his uncle says, finally.

Laurent has friends, money, and manpower. He's not struggling just to maintain his footholds any more. This year, they're going on the offensive; if you're going to fight, you might as well do it from a position of strength. He and Damen have two companies between them, and all the influence that comes with a narrative that's grown bigger than them both. Damen is made for it, born to it, expanding and inhabiting the largeness of his life. And Laurent… well, Damen was right. Laurent enjoys a challenge, if he gets to set the terms.

"I'm sure you will," he says pleasantly, and hangs up.

He puts his phone on the table and pulls off his own shirt. Damen sends an inviting splash in his direction, droplets prickling coolly at his ankles.

Laurent dives in to join Damen, and the water folds over him like a second skin.