would straight people even exist in the captive prince cultures? like, would they conceptualize it as a separate identity and not a preference that's liable to change?
"I wondered if you reserve your love for women" is how I know capri people believe straight people exist...somewhere. Damen almost makes it sound mythological đ Convoluted phrasing, so maybe veretian might not have a word for it?đ€ (unserious stretch, but i find it funny). But yeah, absolutely, "preference" is intentionally used a lot, we love to see a queer normative worldbuilding.
Partially related to that, but also funny to me especifically: âYou couple with men, in the Veretian style?â said Halvik.
"Veretian style": low vaskian slang for gay, or most likely, bottom đ€
I recently saw some top/bottom discourse for Laurent/Damen, and it made me wonder if anyone wanted to chat about Berenger/Ancel
Iâll start đđđ
First- to the texts!
We know that generally pets are expected to bottom-
The exception seeming to be during performances, where by necessity someone has to top.
In Pet Ancel tops and the other pet does not protest, because he thinks bottoming would make him more desirable to the audience. This appears to be correct-
Now, Ancel gets the upper hand by calling out Lord Rouart and implying he would top him. He does this to be blatantly provocative and to stand out
We see that Rouart is both turned on and humiliated, implying that being topped by a pet would not be part of the norm, and would be humiliating. But also a turn on? Perhaps because it is taboo, or perhaps heâs just into Ancelâs sheer audacity. Like someone else we know. lol.
After this, Rouart probably goes on to bid for Ancelâs contract, though I expect the appeal of this would be to put Ancel in his place, though of course we donât know for sure. Ultimately he does not win, which leads us to Berenger.
Berenger obvs does not fuck Ancel right away (or at all) and we see at one point Ancel assumes that this is because Berenger expects Ancel to want to top like he did in the ring and heâs not into that.
So on the one hand we have confirmation that Ancel expects to bottom and that is what he is used to. On the other hand, his assumption that Berenger was worried Ancel would want to top means that this arrangement isnât entirely unthinkable. Which leads me to think that while rare and probably not entirely socially acceptable, it is an option for pets to top their masters.
But of course all this tells us exactly zero about either of their actual preferences!! Berenger is a black box, meanwhile the main thing Ancel is thinking during sex is whether or not and who is watching.
He mentions briefly that it feels good to fuck Rouartâs pet, but then goes on to focus entirely on how much everyone is paying attention to him.
When he kisses Berenger he has feelings about it, but also no idea what those feelings are.
Ancel: what is this emotion? No clue
And then of course there is The Incident in the Garden, which no one enjoyed. Itâs the first time that Ancel acknowledges that he is NOT into this, and in fact he seems to be on the verge of admitting to himself that heâs not really into ANY of this-
-before distracting himself with how much attention heâs getting (or in the case of Laurent, not getting). And then he just goes ahead and lies about how great it was.
So anyway, thatâs the end of the receipts, and now on to the speculation.
As far as Berenger goes, I feel like heâs game for pretty much anything. Being a Lord, he was raised with safety, security, and privilege. I think itâs unlikely that he has any sexual trauma that would influence his sexual preferences. He was raised in Vere, where they have a pretty open attitude towards sex. Obvs heâd be expected to top due to his social status (especially in an interaction with a pet), but I also think heâd be fine with bottoming too, or at least doing other sexual acts that don't include anal at all. Heâs very concerned with consent and I think that extends naturally to specific sex acts. He wouldnât fuck Ancel if he suspects that Ancel isnât really into that.
Ancel is a little more complicated though, because as the text has made clear, he doesn't know what he likes other than having the attention of powerful people and getting expensive gifts. The only sexual activity he is shown to have enjoyed is, briefly, fucking Rouart's pet and later kissing Berenger. But even with the kiss he doesn't register it as enjoyment, exactly, but more like an unfamiliar feeling that could have more to do with just liking Berenger- seeing Berenger as an individual instead of just a generic "powerful client." I think he'd need to go through a journey to figure it all out.
He'd probably start out bottoming because that's what he's used to. His self worth seems to be wrapped up in pleasing others, and so he would be more comfortable bottoming because he's "good" at it. I can see him being a very active bottom, mostly as a way to maintain some control over the situation in order to give the best performance. Would he particularly enjoy it? With Berenger, maybe. But ultimately he'd be more concerned with the performance rather than his own pleasure.
But as he gets more comfortable, I can see him topping. We know he enjoys the physical sensation, at least. And I can see him also enjoying being in control of the situation and trying to please his partner. And really we can stop here, but i think there's a stage three XD
Back to bottoming! But this time, pillow princess mode. I think the ultimate Ancel sex-evolution would be to just lay back and let Berenger pleasure him. The final form of getting in touch with his sexuality for his own pleasure. We know he likes getting pampered and spoiled, and we know Berenger likes spoiling him. A true match made in heaven imo XD
So in answer to âwho topsâ I think realistically they take turns. Is that a cop out? đ What do you all think?
i'm not at all good at seeing hidden subplots in books, usually either figuring out too late or being surprised by the reveal, but to me it was clear that laurent knew right away. I closely watched two friends liveread capri, and they both also knew right away.
I know of people were in a back and forth of "he knows!! Or does he? Am i being teased he knows but he doesn't and the knife will drop any moment? Nah, he absolutely knows!...or not." Also know of people who didn't know at all, or wondered and firmly decided he didn't.
Istg... it really doesn't essentially change the experience. In the end, "i know who you are, damianos" will ALWAYS be a punch to the teeth regardless, TRUST đ
The whole 'hello lover' tent exchange... the scene you are đźâđšđ€đ€
a week ago i did some data collection on the ao3 lamen ship tag and found the total number of fics by rating, by tag, by AU, and by kink/nsfw tag for each year : ) here are some stats for 2025 vs 2017~ there is also a total word count and total number of unique authors by year. as of last week, together we have written over 7 million words in 2025 !
gdrive with a chart for every year from 2017-2025 with number of lamen fic separated by rating/tag/author/character/side relationship + the full list of tags: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FQsSS1vvjY6bPYsBzoIRe8v0XKbl_KYG
thanks to lynx-laurel on reddit for their modification of the ao3 wrapped (yearly user history) code which i modified to make this!
you can also find the modified code + the one i wrote for data processing in the gdrive above~
we were meant to live slowly!!!! we were meant to savor moments and feel unabashedly lazy and frolic and smell the flowers and laugh with our entire hearts and love with our entire souls!!!!! donât ever feel guilty for resting!!!!!! donât ever feel guilty for slowing down!!!!!! enjoying life shouldnât be something youâre ashamed of
there's a special place reserved in hell for whoever came up with the idea that tv-show episodes should be 40-70 minutes long and there should be only like 8-10 episodes per season, released all at once instead of the 00's 20-30 minute long episodes with 20-22 episodes per season released weekly.
(dont even get me started on the two part bullshit netflix has been doing lately. or the canecling before the storyline is done (lookin at you s&b, lockwood&co and julie&the phantoms)
People should make more doomed by narratives siblings relationship.
Like with lovers you can just sever it and not have it related to you ever again but with siblings how could you?
You grow up with them you raise them or they raised you you both know how unforgiving the world is to both of you? You would die for them but will hate them for doing the same and yet none of you would regret it and both of you know it. They could be the person you loath the most and miss the most cause you still remember how they sneaked a candy into your hands. You can sever the tie but you can never look away at what you've lost, at whom you've lost because fate doesn't allow you to be together, eating dinners in quiet peace, if only there's another life, another time, where i can make you another plate of pancakes i would im sorry im sorry im sorry â
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
ellievsbear
2087
prguitarman
jbbartram-illu
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