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Slightly nsfw? Not sure if it counts as that, but it's under the cut. Just a lil' weekend sketch. (EDIT FRICK I FORGOT THE SCARS AGAIN! It's changed now.)

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never did run smooth

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/On3AXSN by FaeyWrites Laurent willed softness into his voice, “I hope I do not disappoint you, your Highness.” ~~~~~ au in which instead of war, Vere and Akielos strike precarious peace through a royal marriage. title from shakespeare's a midsummer night's dream: "the course of true love never did run smooth" Words: 4500, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Slow Burn, Political Alliances, greek mythology aspects, Intercultural Marriage, Auguste Lives (Captive Prince), and aleron but who cares, will add tags as I go! read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/On3AXSN

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I know I promised Sherlock reviews for Free Fandom Friday, and trust me, they will come, but first I have to talk about hockey. Oh, and Captive Prince.

Concordia by Ccainao3 is what we'll be discussing today, because I haven't stopped talking about it, nor will.

fandom: captive prince

pairing: damen/laurent

explicit, 123869 words

I'm going to start by saying that if you haven't read the Captive Prince series by C.S. Pacat, it is the humble opinion of this Correspondent that you really, really should. Like, right now. It's epic enemies to lovers villain with a heart of gold Nikki catnip and I will never, ever shut up about it.

But Concordia is something very different. First of all, it's a hockey au, and for all the hockey lovers in the hbowar fandom (@ep6bastogne included)...I am not one of them. I have never once seen a hockey. And yet, as has been discussed, there's...a lot of good hockey writing? So I've read a shocking amount of hockey, and I'm here to tell you that Concordia offers Very Good Hockey.

More than that, it offers extremely good character work. Captive Prince is full of horrors, and in taking the story out of that Franco/Roman fantasy world, Ccainao3 did not remove the horrors--they exposed them. The traumas in all their multitudes are laid bare, and each character is forced to work through them. Damen and Laurent work slowly (very slowly) through Laurent's abuse, as well as each of their complicated relationships with Auguste (who lives). Damen also works through his relationship with Kastor. As in the books, Damen and Laurent are both deeply flawed people, who are trying so fucking hard.

If this all sounds dark and challenging...it is. But it's also so fun and sweet and lovely! Damen and Laurent are just so good for each other, and hard on each other in the best kinds of ways, and it was wonderful to watch them come together and heal.

“Did you think I’d been reporting on you, or something?” “No,” Laurent says, but his face twitches. Damen digs in his pocket for his phone, and tosses it to Laurent, who fumbles it a little but doesn’t let it fall. He looks down at it, and then back up at Damen. “What,” he says, blank. Damen gives a “go-ahead” gesture. “You’re serious,” Laurent says. “As a heart attack.” For a moment, Laurent looks almost anguished. “If your passcode’s four sevens, I’m breaking up with you,” he says finally. “No you won’t,” Damen says comfortably. His passcode is, in fact, four sevens; there’s a click as Laurent unlocks it. “And besides, we’re just friends.” “Of course,” Laurent murmurs. “By any chance, do you have a peach emoji and a heart next to all your friends’ names?” Damen’s face is on fire. “The, uh, the peach emoji’s old.” “And the heart is new?” Damen had added it a week ago on a whim, after Laurent had sent him a text asking him to grab some yogurt on his way home. “Newer.” “I suppose I should add an eggplant to yours,” Laurent says, almost too quietly to hear. Damen thinks he must be eggplant-colored at this point. “Sure,” he says.

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Nobody prepared me for how unhinged CaPri was gonna be

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modern day damen is the kind of person who'd do an iron man

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Marry Me?

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/5UJnvjr by Anonymous "What about your bitch of an ex-wife?" "She’s a bitch, Laurent. That’s why she’s my ex-wife." "What about Auguste? He isn’t gonna be happy about his best friend marrying his little brother. Speaking of which, does he know the intentions you have for me?" Words: 843, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Damen (Captive Prince), Laurent (Captive Prince) Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Marriage Proposal, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Auguste Lives (Captive Prince), Romance, Random & Short read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/5UJnvjr

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My reaction to...

Laurent ordering Damen around in Captive Prince: 😑😶

Laurent ordering Damen around in Kings Rising: 🥰🤗

Still got four more chapters to go btw... I'm spacing this out like never before 🙈

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I just re-read the captive prince trilogy after 9 years so here are some thoughts and observations (I read a physical copy while listening to the audiobbok):

No spoilers

the books are super easy to read, I read each of them in a day and never once did I get bored or felt like I needed to take a break. If you enjoy them I feel like they work perfectly if you are in a reading slump.

I might be biased because I was also listening to it while reading but I feel like the writing worked just fine. I saw people say that the writing was awful but I didn't have any problems at all with it. I was never once confused by what was happening on page nor did I ever feel like too little or too much was being said and described.

One of my gripes with the writing comes in book 3 because I felt like the two parts that had Laurent POV just didn't work because it didn't feel like it was a stylistic choice and it didn't feel natural or needed, it just made me think that the author didn't know how to write that from Demen POV (which makes no sense because I know she can)

not only that but I also feel like it would've worked much better if we didn't get those scenes and continued with Demen's knowledge instead of making us privy to something he didn't know. I genuinely think they were unnecessary.

I might've missed something but in book 3 there is also a part where I felt like what Demen is thinking in a chapter and then what he claims and thinks a few chapters later don't align. With no spoilers, this is how it felt to me: chapter 1: demen thoughts: the apple fell from the tree chapter 3: demen thoughts and words: I knew the apple didn't fall on it's own and that there was a reason for it to fall.

I don't know why people say that these books handle its dark themes badly. Personally I think it handled everything quite well. Just because every 3 seconds the author isn't telling you "this is bad" it doesn't mean that it's poorly done or supports any of the bad things that happen.

The characters live in extremely flawed societies that have practices that we wouldn't condemn, so of course they will not immediately start out being against them, it wouldn't make sense, instead throughout the books and events they slowly start to realise why some things are bad. It's called character development.

Not only that, words coming out of a flawed and traumatised character shouldn't be taken as the moral of the book but as what they are: words of a flawed and traumatised character who is lashing out.

I feel like many people saw that very bad things that happen in these books and instrad of saying "I can't read that", which is fair, they decided to take the high horse and act as if it's morally wrong to like these books because bad things are portrayed in them.

Book 2 I think was my favourite, I devoured it and it was just super fun to read.

My second gripe is with Jokaste but without spoiling anything I can only say that her character was imo wasted and that it just felt like the author had 2 very different ideas of who she was in book 1 and book 3.

I LOVE laurent, he's just the type of characters that I enjoy, cold and guarded on the outside but only because he wants to protect himself while being also sweet.

Also really enjoyed many of the side characteristics which I thought were really interesting (I would've enjoyed more interactions between those other characteristics and L and D but that's a personal taste)

I actually think that 9 years ago I only read the first book and the first half of the second while skimming through the rest lmao

also I will not tell you which character I didn't like at all and found annoying when I was 16 but would die for in an instant now because you'll think 16 years old me was psychopath because what the fuck

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After Office Hours

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/GDYrBT0 by thatscoolbutwhataboutme Laurent doesn't need to sleep with Professor Damianos to do well in his class, but if Jokaste doesn't stop trying to ridicule Laurent, he might do it anyway. ~~~ “We should not be having this conversation during office hours.” A glance at the desktop screen confirms that it is three minutes after the end of business hours, three minutes after Damianos was scheduled to be done. “Your office hours are over, Professor.” “Don’t get smart with me,” Damianos warns, and Laurent’s legs go a little weak. “We should not be having this conversation at all.” Words: 7089, Chapters: 1/3, Language: English Fandoms: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Laurent (Captive Prince), Damen (Captive Prince), Jokaste (Captive Prince), Auguste (Captive Prince), Nicaise (Captive Prince), Jord (Captive Prince) Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Damen/Jokaste (Captive Prince), Isander/Laurent (Captive Prince) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Infidelity, Sexual Tension, Power Imbalance, sounds worse than it really is, Flirting read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/GDYrBT0

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The Way You Slice It

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZDVkUJ2 by chalk Damen talks Laurent into joining him for a dinner much too large for just two people. His motives soon become clear. Words: 1808, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Laurent (Captive Prince), Damen (Captive Prince) Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Roommates, Pre-Relationship, Mild Hurt/Comfort, an abundance of pizza and relevant sides, Movie Night, Supportive Laurent (Captive Prince), Fluff, Past Relationship(s), Slice of Life read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZDVkUJ2

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that definitely looks like a man who can wield a sword! Thank you!

quick laurent for the divas

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Summer palace

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modern day damen is the kind of person who'd do an iron man

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modern day damen is the kind of person who'd do an iron man

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nikandros, kyros of delpha and akielos’ number one hatergirl

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vital captive prince modern!au headcanons

laurent is a descendant in the male-line from louis-phillippe d’orleans and thus may or may not be the true heir to the french throne, depends on who you ask

he brings this up to damen the first time they get drunk together, in nikandros’ dorm room, in college. damen is very sincerely, very genuinely wowed. laurent is in books of peerage. damen thinks this is SO cool

damen: has not mentioned that he is king of several small islands in the aegean sea

it’s not like a big deal. he doesn’t own the islands, they’re obviously part of the republic of greece

it’s just like. sometimes he goes back to see the fam and all the restaurants give him free drinks on the house because, you know, every ancient mycenean coin they dig up on these islands bears a profile that looks weirdly exactly like damen

not a big deal! he’s king. they still charge him tourist prices for weed

you know how it is, they say

he knows how it is.

laurent finds one of these coins once, holds it up against damen’s profile as he looks out over the sea

damen: surfboard under one arm, joint in hand. an islander waves something at them. damen passes laurent the joint just in time to catch the still-living octopus, bite it hard between the eyes, and ask his new buddy where the cookout is.

laurent, later, throws the coin into the sea

meanwhile: jokaste’s accent says montenegro. her birth certificate says wisconsin.

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This is so good. Again. And again. And again.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Street Racers Summary:

He’s a slim, too-pretty boy of twenty, and the men of this particular underworld talk about him as though he’s an open flame, a sparking engine near a pool of gasoline: volatile, and not to be handled. Kid’s got balls of sheer fucking steel, Damen’s contact said.

Which must be true, because having just lost a race against Damen for pink slips, Laurent looks him straight in the eye and says, “Double or nothing?” in a voice like vodka poured straight from the freezer.