so after a recent conversation with my friends weâve come to a realization: fandom loves Slave Rights Advocate laurent trope. whether it be an arranged marriage au, a time travel au, an auguste lives au or any kind of setting where slavery is still in motion; itâs always laurent who opens damenâs eyes to the horrors of slavery and insists they canât be with each other until slavery is abolished, that slavery is a deal breaker on whether they can be together or not. now i certainly donât want to sound like iâm policing anybodyâs creative choices but itâs become such a common trope in the fandom that it is baffling at this point because. hereâs the thing. slavery isnât one of laurentâs battles. at all.
allow me to explain further before i make people angry. itâs clear laurent is against the fundamental premise of slavery and finds it inhumane. but through the series (counting out taofc where he and damen are trying to build an empire together), he doesnât actively fight or challenge the system or slavery. i donât even think this is a hot take when you remember that he;
i. didnât protect the akielon slaves in arles until damen begged him to and sold them to torveld for personal gain (which was the best course of action he could take under the circumstances but as i said, he wasnât above using them)
ii. referred to damen as his slave constantly in both a technical and romantic sense
iii. got turned on by playing master and slave and master and pet
iv. used isander as a way to get back at damen: was fed by isander in the feast, stroked him, allowed him to kiss his feet and boots etc.
in fact here are plenty of instances where itâs clear laurent enjoyed the type of power he had over damen:
and hereâs the only part where i can remember damen and laurent discussing slavery after damenâs identity is revealed and they have the possibility of a future together. as you can see, laurentâs attitude towards it is pretty neutral. he doesnât approve, but itâs clear heâs not a passionate champion of the anti slavery movement.
let me make it clear that none of this is a criticism towards laurent. itâs important to remember that capri started as a slavekink fic (in pacatâs own words) and though it evolved, by the final draft she still kept some of those elements: like making the first night between lamen a romantic, sacred, precious thing between them; laurent telling damen heâs his slave by feeding him as a slave would, damen calling himself laurentâs slave as a sign of submission/love/romance before their first kiss, laurent saying damen is still his slave before sleeping with him⌠the narrative still eroticizes slavery to some extent and uses it as a vehicle of romance.
the thing is, laurent finding enjoyment in these practices is not the problem. when the fandom loves to pretend like laurent would be so disgusted by the idea of slavery (even though the text repeatedly shows heâs not) , that he; a perfect civilized blonde veretian angel would come to akielos and educate those barbarians about how horrible slavery is and damen would only open his eyes to the truth through laurentâs guidance, thatâs when my issues start. because, like i said, this was never laurentâs battle and it pretty much reads like laurent is some sort of white savior, someone who comes to damenâs country to âfixâ the problems of akielos without understanding their history, needs, or the regionâs current state of affairs.
another very important thing to underline is that the whole slavery ordeal in the series was damenâs character arc, not laurentâs. heâs the actual slave in the scenario, and as much as laurent doesnât like slavery, damen didnât come to the conclusion that it was bad because of laurentâs preachings. it leaves a bad taste in the mouth that damen was the one who actually experienced slavery and faced countless humiliations in vere and yet people still insist on making laurent educate damen about why itâs wrong, even though he himself has never experienced slavery in his life. (one might argue in aus where damen was never sent to vere as a slave he wouldnât come to the same realizations but that still doesnât mean laurent would have a passionate agenda regarding slaves. at best i believe he would demand damen to stop sleeping with his slaves as they are monogamous.)
choosing laurent as The One who firmly stands against slavery is bad from a narrative pov too. making this specifically about laurent makes no sense because it's got nothing to do with him. it's not his country! he doesn't care about akielos the way damen does. everything about it thematically relates back to damen; who exists as a metaphor for akielos - any insult or injury done to him is an insult to akielos. he embodies itâs values and itâs people, and by becoming a slave heâs reflecting the current slave state of akielos, and through finding liberation for himself heâs also finding liberation for akielos. itâs a powerful symbolism for how akielos is changed and freed directly BECAUSE of his own personal liberation. laurent has nothing more than an intellectual interest in anti-slavery and he only ever begins to care about akielos because he cares for damen. but damen was raised with it and experienced it and cares very deeply about it. itâs his country! it's his story!
tldr; through the series, it was damenâs journey to experience what it was like to be a slave, to see the true horrors of this practice and decide he doesnât want to rule his country that way anymore. so taking his agency and giving it laurent, someone who was neutral at best about slavery, feels incredibly insensitive and wrong.
i'll forever love that c s pacat is bold enough to make laurent being androgynous effeminate canonical so much so that he's able to pass as jokaste with flying colors and even gets complimented on 'her' beauty. it's so rare to find a character like him. beautiful things happen when genderqueer writers play with gender expression in their books thank you pacat!!
Yes and it's so well-managed in relation to Damenâs bisexuality too because (at least as far as I remember) he doesn't allude to Laurent being feminine. He's so clearly attracted to him as a man we're never getting the impression that he views him in some kind of best-of-both sense and that's so refreshing.
I also like to think about how Laurent passably playing Jokaste has implications for how strong the feminine beauty ideal looks in Akielos, which is also a wonderful thing.
This! I love the implication that maybe Akielos simply idealizes strength and masculinity so much that masculine women are considered the ideal standard as opposed to dainty femininity. The idea that being strong can also be feminine and worthy of desire is so healing to me.
truth is SOME BITCHES OUT THERE are boring as fuck.
I miss the old days when we were all fucked in the head and down for whatever novelty take/approach we had to these characters in this DARK FANTASY trilogy we adore.
not..... you know. who is the nicest character doing the nicest things in the nicest way.
So you have an au about damen being abusive with laurent ?????
Please let me know more?? Any hcs or thoughts or anything pls
The capri fandom needs some dark aus fr
~đŚđş
hello my darling!
I've been gone so long that I have no idea when you sent this and I'm deeply sorry for that!
I came up with the idea for an AU in which Damen's abusive way back in 2019/2020 (2021?) and to say I was a different person altogether back then is an understatement. I also haven't re-read the books in a long while so I can't say I recall everything I had imagined for this fic to begin with BUT!, I've got some fuzzy thoughts stored in the back of my mind that may satisfy some of the crave for Dark Damianos (a concept deeply slept on in my honest opinion but with how much people like to hate on him for free, it's best if we keep it sleeping lol).
DISCLAIMER: in my very private opinion, Damen has a natural darkness to his character that I find appealing (or would be appealing if I wasn't a coward) to explore. Those are the lenses through which I approach the abusive patterns he could come to develop in a relationship with an already emotionally/psychologically vulnerable Laurent. And also in my very private opinion, Laurent is a vulnerable character (for all reasons we as a fandom dwelled on to the point of exhaustion, but, most of all, in relation to how he sees and thinks of Damen â in terms not only of admiration but almost adoration, just as he did with his brother).
We all rememeber the scene at the end (?) of PG when Laurent is stepping on Damen's toes by saying bad things regarding his family and how Damen loses his temper and hits Laurent hard enough to draw blood. The guards step in to arrest Damen for hurting the prince and Damen takes full blame for doing it without showing a single bit of remorse whatsoever. Laurent is the one to talk his guards down from arresting Damen by pinning the blame of being assaulted on himself and that is it.
This idea (of an AU that never came to be) was forged mostly on the side of Damen's character that has a tendency to jump believe he is always right in the assessments he makes and proceed to never question the truth behind his own reasoning. And on the side of Laurent's character that always blames himself for every bad thing that has ever happened to him despite his own helplessness, and nurtures an unhealthy need for a role model to hold on to â once his brother, now his lover.
I'm going to leave all my thoughts for this AU bellow the cut, in case some people may find the matter too upsetting to read about.
Trigger warnings for domestic, physical and psychological abuse, obviously! Proceed at your own accord and don't come whinning laterđŤ°
so putting two and two together:
Damen is prone to angry outbursts or just violence in general. We see in more than one occasion that it doesn't take much for his 'bad side' to come out, which is a characteristic a lot of aggressors in this very patriarcal society we live in also showcase. And as their universe is ALSO incredibly patriarcal, this would check out.
As aforementioned, one of the most significative intances of Damen's violence is the day (after he had already slept with Laurent, after he admitted to himself he was in love with Laurent) where he he baits into Laurent's provocations and hits him.
Laurent's edge, I personally believe, though attenuated as it may be by the end of the cicle of abuse he endured all the way from his late childhood throughout his adolescence, will continue to be in place. It was wired into him as a survival mechanisms and old habits die hard. Whenever he is overwhelmed or any of his emotions slip from his iron-cast grip, he will likely spit fire and try and hurt whoever is within his reach.
Honeymoon phase being over, let's say the kingdoms were in fact merged (not going to get into any of that). Let's say Damen is the king of Vere as much as Laurent is the king of Akielos. Let's say their troups, their guards, palace servants â they are all unbiased and answer to both Laurent and Damen as their true kings equally.
Let's say Damen and Laurent continue to get at each other's throats. Lets's say they still got plenty to disagree upon and that their personalities continue to make them butt heads. Let's say their grudges, though they have agreed to leave the past be in the past, hold and come up again. An underlying resentment inate to their love. There's a lot of tension that I can see surrounding L/D's relationship. If you don't believe that it's fine, if you don't see it, that's more than okay. But I'm asking you to bear with me here.
They are having a heated argument in their palace about something that wasn't (shouldn't be) personal, but all of a sudden is. Damen says something that offsets a chain reaction in Laurent and he becomes a boy in selfdefense mode resorting to the good old habit of pushing Damen's weak spots just for the pleasure of making him angry and miserable. Damen has had a long day, he is weary, he is fed-up with all the kyroi, all the councelors making demands and telling him how to do his job. Laurent says the wrong thing at the wrong time and a moment later he is on the floor, with his hand on his cheek touching the burning spot where Damen slapped him. He bit his tongue in the impact and he can feel the blood in his mouth which he swallows.
There are no guards that come in this time, because they know better than to step into their king's quarrels. Damen tells himself it was Laurent who pushed him too far, he didn't mean to do it. Laurent agrees â Damen would never have done that if Laurent himself hadn't asked for it. Damen was good. He's only ever been good. He doesn't do anything without a good reason. Laurent is the one who fucks things up and pushes people too far. They make up.
Next time isn't that different. Nerves were high for a thousand different reasons. Laurent maybe got up from the wrong side of the bed. They argue. Damen pisses him off so he goes on to piss him off in return â just to give him a taste of what that feels like. In the back of his mind he remembers what happened last time they argued but he brushes it off as a mistake. Damen wouldn't dare to make the same mistake twice.
Then Damen does. And just like the other time Laurent loses his footing from the strength of the blow. His eyes tear from the pain but they don't fall. Damen is fumming over him, telling him how Laurent pushes him over the edge. Damen, who is such a just, charming, fair king. A much better king than Laurent is, with his head in place at all times in a way Laurent's own never is. If he lost his temper, it was because he was forced into it.
Laurent is the one who went too far again; Damen simply reacted to it. He stands and tells Damen he was wrong for saying the things he said. He shouldn't have. Damen agrees; Laurent shouldn't have. They make up.
Every time Damen is forced to loose his temper with Laurent he get angrier with Laurent and becomes a little wilder. Laurent should not make him keep doing it! He doesn't mean to do it! When the anger subdues, after they make love, in the morning after, Damen shows Laurent the tokens of the love he still has for him â a new mare of an excellent breed for Laurent's private stables, a new imported book he would like for his personal library, a new delicacy their cooks learns to make as sweet as a human can handle just the way Laurent likes it.
Damen is a good lover. Most of the time. If only Laurent stopped bringing out his bad side.
Laurent understands how every time Damen hits him it's his own fault. He tries to stop himself from causing their arguments but he can't. He always ends up saying the wrong thing, he always disappoints Damen somehow and though he can keep his stance straight and his face void, deep down he's terrified he will eventually drive Damen away.
After the loss of his entire family, after the death of Auguste, of living so many years under the sadistic regime of his uncle, Damen is everything Laurent has. And Laurent, warped as he is by nature, tainted and wrong and bad at his very core, doesn't deserve him. He knows he doesn't deserve Damen, who is so honorable, so good a leader, so righteous and mighty. But he wants Damen and he wants him to stay. He wants to be good for him and for Damen to think he is good.
So when the slapping evolves into punching, Laurent searches his own words, his own actions for where the fault lies. And always he finds it. The exact word he said in a meeting with their kiroi and councelors that undermined Damen's authority. The exact moment he stopped to speak with an ill-intentioned courtier who flirted with him and he must have unintentionally flirted back. The provokation implied in a comment he thought was innocuous. And the fact Damen only found more and more of reasons to be dissatisfied with Laurent, despite him becoming evermore self-aware and trying so hard, so much of the time, to please Damen, meant nothing more than the fact that Laurent was a man full of flaws. It wasn't on Damen.
They both agree Damen's assessment and his morals could never be wrong. He is too good and honest a man for that. Laurent is causing all of it.
The oldest members of their guards notice the slow, steady shift. Those that used to compose the old Veretian prince's guard are worried. They whisper among themselves when they see a new bruise blooming in their king's fair skin or hear the shouts coming from inside the royal chambers. But no one dares to raise a voice against king Damianos. Jord or Lazar (or whichever of the prince's guards you like best) goes to Laurent to raise their concerns and ask if everything is all right between him and Exalted. If there is anything Laurent needs. Anything at all. They will stand by him come what will. But Laurent berates them and tells them to keep their noses out of royal business.
Damen is approached by Nikandros and inquired about it when one day Damen unintentionally leaves Laurent with a black eye. Damen finds that is the perfect opportunity to lament about all the ways Laurent has been driving him insane and making him miserable. That he is getting worse with time where Damen had hoped he would have settled and his temperament improved. That years after the events they lived through, he keeps holding Damen accountable for things that should be left in the past. That Damen doesn't blame Laurent for killing Kastor, or torturing him in Vere anymore, so why should Laurent still resent him for Auguste.
Nikandros understands. He feels sorry for Damen, that Laurent makes his life so difficult. He has witnessed their quarrels before, had seen the way Laurent evokes Auguste's name as a dagger to dig into Damen's heart.
Then it becomes common knowledge all around their court: Laurent is as unbearable and hard to reconcile with as he'd ever been, prideful and resentful and cruel. And Damen is the poor man who has to handle him atop a whole kingdom he has to rule. There is no soul in their kingdom that doesn't feel bad for Damen's situation.
What no one seems to notice is that Laurent has taken to flinch whenever Damen lifts his hand. That he tenses when he raises his voice. That he is much more succint and careful with his words whenever Damen is around, because he doesn't want to upset him.
All they notice is Laurent's worsening moods. His renewed bouts of broodiness and anger. That he takes anything and everything out on everyone â the servants, the guards, officials, nobles of the court, the walls and the furniture. Nothing seems to please him anymore. Everything sets off his rage. Which is something else Damen has taken to punish him for, in the privacy of their chambers.
Laurent never cries. Not when Damen tell him how difficult he is, how impossible he makes to love him. Not when he sees the several shades of new and healing bruises all over his body, not when he gulps mouthfuls of his own blood. Laurent hasn't cried since he was thirteen. But he gets more and more hopeless each day that passes and he is proven again no good man could ever truly love him because nothing good and pure remains so in his presence.
Laurent always brings out the worse in people, no matter how he tries to get things right.
But he keeps on trying. Because maybe one day he can. And maybe Damen will see there is good left in him to love even though he makes his life hard and harder every day. And maybe one day Damen will love him easily.
Because all he really wants is to be worth it of Damen's love.
And that's all Damen wants too. He already loves Laurent so much. He would never, ever hurt him again if only Laurent would stop provoking him into it.
âYou never told me how you ended up in Laurentâs factionâ
âI was the Regentâs physician.â
âSo you ministered to his household.â
âAnd to his boys,â said Paschal.
Damen said nothing.
After a moment, Paschal said, âBefore he died, my brother served in the Kingâs Guard. I never swore my brotherâs oath to the King. But I like to think that Iâm carrying it out.â
" âWhy are you getting mad at me for something you brought up?â Damen said. âI have never said I wanted anything from you.âÂ
âYou mean to say you agreed to go through all of thisâa legal trial, through fucking marriageâfor free? That there's nothing in it for you?âÂ
âYes.âÂ
â Bullshit, â Laurent repeated, firmly.Â
âYouâre the one whoâs been asking for favors since the moment we first met, not me.â Laurent reacted the same way he did the day Damen slapped him. Damen tried to fix it, âAnd Iâm fine with that,â he said. âIâm glad to help whenever I can. I just canât understand why you would assume I want to take advantage of you when Iâve done nothing to allude to that. Ever.âÂ
Laurentâs entire face twisted. âWhy?â He said it like it irked him somehow. âHow can you agree to something like this and expect nothing in return?âÂ
âI donât know.â Damen frowned back at him. âItâs what friends do?âÂ
Laurent went very still. âFriends?âÂ
âYes?â It took Damen no small amount of effort to say it.
âWe are notââ Laurent began and cut himself off. âWeââ he tried again, equally unsuccessful. âIâmââÂ
Laurent took a step back, heedful of Damen. Damen sustained it. The silence stretched. Â
Finally, after setting a long discussion he obviously had in his own mind, Laurent said, âYou are remarkably stupid.âÂ
â Excuse me? âÂ
âYou are an idiot,â he said, stepping away. From a good distance, he turned and shouted, âAre you coming or not?â "
I've been thinking about deleting this side account to create another one (or simply delete this side account and leave it dead), but I wanted to see if I have any active followers first.
So if you see this and you could give this post a like, just so I can Know you're here, that would be really great.
If you don't want to do that then you don't want to, nothing can be done. Thank you either way.
Lamen Week will start in less than a month, and I'm super excited about it!
Before we can start, letâs just make a few rules clear!
Lamen Week Rules :
The week will run from the 21st to the 28th of July 2022.
The prompts are:
Day 1. Summer Palace
Day 2. Alternative Universe
Day 3. Scars
Day 4. Parents
Day 5. What-if
Day 6. Future
Day 7. Nicaise Lives!AU
Day 8. âIt was one kingdom, onceâ
You can create any kind of content! Fanfics, fanarts, edits, headcanons, cosplay, tiktoks whatever your imagination suggests you, everything is welcome.
Remember whatever Social media or platform you'll publish things in, use the hashtags #Lamen Week and #Lamen Week 2022 and if you will use tumblr remember to tag the blog. Iâll be very happy to reblog all your creations!
You can write in every language you feel more comfortable writing in.
You can post following your own time zone, no particular time zone to follow.
If you have any questions, just ask me, I'll be here to answer!
