If I gave you my heart

kazarina 32 | captive prince | poetry | AO3 | ficlets

[laurent-roi]

Captive prince: a summary

[ancelegance-deactivated20230815]

So what if it wasn’t the regent who did it 😏😏😏 what if he just… died… what if Laurent got the upper hand and his uncle was executed, and Laurent’s one remaining fixation in life was to get revenge on Damianos …….. what if it was kind of too late for Laurent, and his ascension as king wasn’t necessarily such good news for Vere. What if he needed Kastor’s help to get his hands on Damianos, and offered some men and an alliance in exchange for his brother…?

THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE are answered by @thickenmyblood in the fic Quietus on AO3. I am beyond blessed to have Maca as my partner for the @capri-bigbang2k21, and I am so thrilled to see this twisted AU published. I hear it’s not for the faint of heart but I can’t wait to see the finished piece ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

[capri-bigbang2k21]

Captive Prince Reverse Big Bang 2021:

Read "Quietus" (16k, complete) on Ao3, and feel the scheming in the linked art.

Eager for more bang stuff? Check out our collection on Ao3!

[deripmaver]

laurent is a good person - book 1 meta

one of the most amazing things about captive prince is how the reveals in book 3 recontextualize all of the scenes leading up to them, including about laurent himself. in book one, all we see is damen pov as he’s being abused and humiliated by this supposedly spoiled, vile ice prince. when the regent comes to damen and subtly (and not so subtly) insults laurent, calling him unfit to rule - well, why would he think anything different? laurent has insulted him, had him whipped within an inch of his life, and even attempted to (and later successfully lmfao) have him raped while drugged out of his mind. 

after book 3 we can reread most if not all of book 1 as a very traumatized boy who has finally been confronted with the man who killed his brother, leaving him alone with his abusive uncle, and who he clearly has made into a complete monster in his own mind. damen of course sees him as a complete bitch, but there’s textual/subtextual evidence that laurent is well liked, and that his behavior during book 1 was actually pretty out of character for him. i’d like to provide some examples of that now!!!!

Keep reading

[ancientsstudies]

She Writes Poems For Him, He Paints Her Portrait.

[galacteddy]

Laurent is really enjoying it, and Nicaise is probably talking trash about someone.

[eternal-love-song]

The real joy of fanfiction is getting to read several versions of the exact same, oddly specific plot written by different people and seeing the small ways things differ and falling in love with every one.

[metamorphesque]

books to read while Autumn is reigning

a warm cuppa in your hands, sitting near the window, enjoying the rain

with a sprinkle of amour

The Girl at the Lion d'Or by Sebastian Faulks

The Collector by John Fowles

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

The Broken Wings by Kahlil Gibran

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

with a dash of existential crisis

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Fish in Exile by Vi Khi Nao

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

with a pinch of dark academia

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Maurice by E. M. Forster

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

with a side of je ne sais quoi

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Death with Interruptions by José Saramago

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa

The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

under the covers, with a flashlight in your hands, in the middle of the night

Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Metamorphosis & Other Stories by Franz Kafka

[aquestionofcharacter]

there’s going to be a difference sometimes between the stories that you find masterfully crafted and the stories that mean a lot to you personally and those two things don’t have to overlap completely or even at all to make that story worthwhile

and that’s a good thing to remember as a reader/viewer/etc but also as a writer because even if whatever you ultimately write is full of mistakes, someone out there is gonna take it so to heart that it fundamentally changes them as a person. and that is. Huge.

[killerbytes]

the amount of pressure we are all under to go to uni and find a job and work full time and have a hobby and keep a workout schedule and eat well and fall in love on time and do yoga and get good grades is just all so bullshit. i want to lie in some grass. that part of dogfish where mary oliver said i want to listen to the enormous waterfalls of the sun. that.

[vaskianmountains]

Honestly, I think it would be funny if Auguste couldn’t hold his liquor at all either

[vaskianmountains]

And Laurent would feel so embarrassed about it, because drunk Auguste is even more open about how much he loves his baby brother, and has even less tact about when to and when not to share embarrassing anecdotes from Laurent’s childhood

[vaskianmountains]

Case in point: by the time dessert rolls around during the feast celebrating the arrival of a certain Akielon prince (who Laurent most certainly doesn’t think is handsome, and who he most certainly isn’t falling for), Auguste has already had multiple glasses of wine and when the servants start bringing out slices of fruit pie, Auguste starts telling that same Akielon prince about how when Laurent was younger, he once stuffed his pockets full with strawberry fruit pie, cream and all, because he wanted to share it with his pony, who had always really loved strawberries, and that it had taken a lot of convincing on the part of a stable hand to get Laurent to agree with getting his pony some fresh strawberries the kitchens still had left over, rather than the pie he’d saved for her.

[captivekings]

one of my fave things about captive prince is how damen is so ver big but inside so smol and how laurent is so ver smol but inside so big

[wafflewarrior111]

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

[missroserose]

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

[heck-in-a-handbasket]

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

[ineedthesons]

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

[mareebird]

THIS

[kendrixtermina]

hm. im REALLY against any variation of “this rule is true in any context” because it defeats the point of creativity, but this is good advice for a) beefing up your descriptions and b) communicating emotional tension (eg, the MC has not admitted or processes this feeling but you want to show them having it)

That said, sometimes you would want to just state the character’s opinion. (& maybe contrast it with their actions, the situation) or use a shorthand when it’s like an introductory side detail. 

[porcupine-girl]

What I like about it though is that it’s NOT stated as a “don’t ever do this in any context” rule - it’s not a rule, it’s a challenge. Don’t ever do this for the next six months and see how it changes your writing. Not never do it again, just try it and then you can go back to using them but you’ll probably do it way more sparingly because you’ve built up other tools to use instead of those words.

[dearanemone]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince) Characters: Damen (Captive Prince), Laurent (Captive Prince), Auguste (Captive Prince), Aimeric (Captive Prince), Jord (Captive Prince), Nikandros (Captive Prince), Nicaise (Captive Prince), Hennike (Captive Prince), Kastor (Captive Prince), Jokaste (Captive Prince) Additional Tags: Games, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Unhealthy Relationships, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Pain, Eventual Relationships, way too many references to 80s and 90s music, Will add more tags as we go on, Angst, Eventual Romance, Eventual Happy Ending, I more or less know where this is going and how it will end but I might be wrong, The Abuse doesn’t happen in this one and The Regent doesn’t exist, Minor Violence, Illegal Activities, Mischief Summary:

Laurent and Damen play a game of dares. But the only way of winning is to aim for the heart.

[dearanemone]

One year ago I started posting Linger. Now it’s 20+ chapters, almost 200k words and I’m still not done. (Somebody sedate meeeeee)

So happy anniversary to damen and laurent’s toxic relationship. Take a shot every time they do something stupid or whenever you miss Fabio🍸

[not-a-coral-snake]

for the @lamenweek Day 6 prompt: Auguste Lives Au

inspired by this post by @skyline-sunset-in-my-veins and @phoenixtcm

“When I am in Arles this fall,” Damianos says, words soft in the summer sunset air around them, “I will kneel before your brother the king and ask his permission to court you.” He pauses, smile just the slightest bit cocky. Laurent is lounging, hair mussed and shirt trailing half-opened laces, in Damen’s arms. “Court you officially, I mean.” 

“You are going to Arles for the negotiations yourself this year?” Laurent says. Seated as they are, Damen cannot mistake the shudder of tension, quickly repressed, that runs through Laurent at Damen’s words.

“You haven’t told him yet,” he says. 

“It’s just I thought that the ambassador—”

“You haven’t told him yet,” Damen says again. “You said when I saw you last fall that you would tell him last winter for sure.” He tries not to sound accusatory, but well. It is not the first time they have had this conversation.

“I haven’t told him yet,” Laurent concedes. It should not be so hard. It’s been six years since Marlas. Vere and Akielos are at peace. Laurent is in the habit of sharing nearly everything with Auguste, and yet— 

“I’m waiting for the right moment,” he says, as he always does. “It’s a sensitive matter, I wish to catch him in the right mood, lest he make up his mind before hearing me out.” 

“And you’re afraid of hurting him,” Damen says, as he always does.

“And I want to ensure I don’t hurt him. So I have to find the right time—”

“It’s been years now,” Damen cuts in. “Should we believe that, somehow, the perfect moment will occur this summer, when it did not last winter, or last spring, or the summer before that?”

“Damen—”

“This can just be a fling, if you want,” Damen says, gently.

‘That’s not what I—no,” says Laurent. Damen’s never said that before. 

“We can just keep meeting a few times a year. It doesn’t need to be serious. It doesn’t need to be something we tell others about.”

“Damen, stop,” Laurent says. “No. I want to court you. I want it to be official. I want it to be serious.”

“Well, then let it become serious.”

“I’ll tell him this time,” Laurent says. He can do this. It’s been six years since Marlas. Auguste always speaks of Prince Damianos in respectful tones. Laurent picks up Damen’s hand, kisses his knuckles. “Promise.”

Keep reading

[laurentspup]

Friends... Is that what we are? (Lamen AU) Part 5

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Part 5: Still at the Long Distance Date

A/N: As always I hope you guys enjoy this!!!!!!!! And there are threads that are long and won’t load the whole picture at once, so if you’re using your phone, you have to either pinch the whole picture or go to the next picture and back to the first one to load it. I really wish I could post more than ten pictures for a better viewing experience 😔😔.

Also I know I’m the one writing this but God WHY CANT THEY KISS OR SAY I LOVE YOU YET WHY WHY MUST THEY BE IDIOTS FIRST. Okay see you all on the next one!! Thank you for the comments they are very very cute and sweet and I love them very very much ♥️♥️♥️♥️

[lavenderbirds]

ok u know what. golden hour is great and all, but u know what time of day is super underappreciated??? BLUE hour

that time of day right after the sun sets or right before it rises…. *chef kiss* love that

[willowiswriting]

How to Kick a Reader in the Gut

Disrupt the reader’s sense of justice. 

This generally means setting a character up to deserve one thing and then giving them the exact opposite. 

Kill a character off before they can achieve their goal. 

Let the bad guy get an extremely important win. 

Set up a coup against a tyrannical king. The coup fails miserably.

Don’t always give characters closure. 

(Excluding the end of the book, obviously)

A beloved friend dies in battle and there’s no time to mourn him.

A random tryst between two main characters is not (or cannot be) brought up again.

A character suddenly loses their job or can otherwise no longer keep up their old routine

Make it the main character’s fault sometimes. 

And not in an “imposter syndrome” way. Make your MC do something bad, and make the blame they shoulder for it heavy and tangible.

MC must choose the lesser of two evils.

MC kills someone they believe to be a bad guy, only to later discover the bad guy was a different person altogether.

Rejection is a powerful tool. 

People generally want to be understood, and if you can make a character think they are Known, and then rip that away from them with a rejection (romantic or platonic) people will empathize with it.

MC is finally accepting the Thing They Must Do/Become, and their love interest decides that that’s not a path they want to be on and breaks up with them

MC makes a decision they believe is right, everyone around them thinks they chose wrong.

MC finds kinship with someone Like Them, at long last, but that person later discovers that there is some inherent aspect of MC that they wholly reject. (Perhaps it was MC’s fault that their family member died, they have important religious differences, or WERE THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG!)

On the flipside, make your main character keep going. 

Push them beyond what they are capable of, and then push them farther. Make them want something so deeply that they are willing to do literally anything to get it. Give them passion and drive and grit and more of that than they have fear.

“But what if my MC is quiet and meek?” Even better. They want something so deeply that every single moment they push themselves toward it is a moment spent outside their comfort zone. What must that do to a person?

Obviously, don’t do all of these things, or the story can begin to feel tedious or overly dramatic, and make sure that every decision you make is informed by your plot first and foremost. 

Also remember that the things that make us sad, angry, or otherwise emotional as readers are the same things that make us feel that way in our day-to-day lives. Creating an empathetic main character is the foundation for all of the above tips.