#captive research

[sunnydayaoe]

whatever. self indulgent au blast. kills you with rocks

[epiphanyepica]

Thoughts on Captive Prince

So, fun fact! I did not do chapter-by-chapter thoughts on Captive Prince's first book. I did send some of my reactions and scathing opinions about Laurent to my friend, though! So, I figured I'd share some of that with those of you who like these posts!

A few things to note is that most of these were texts, but I've reformatted or adjusted the wording on some of them to be better suited as reactions. I've also omitted the responses my friend sent to my texts, so some things may seem like they're a part of a conversation.

Now... be warned... I was not the biggest fan of Laurent in the first book.

...

Okay, so my first impressions of Captive Prince so far include:

1. I think I should give lesbian books a chance because this book described a woman in a seductive light one time so far and I immediately felt intrigued 🤣.

2. I love how Damen's type is pale, blond(e), and probably blue eyed, and guess what LAURENT IS.

Damen just called Laurent PRINCELING. My Kadolin heart is feeling like this is infidelity. A blond prince and a tan man who is beneath him, socially 😭 calling him 'princeling'.

I've gotten far enough into Captive Prince to begin questioning whether or not Laurent is redeemable or if I can really ship him and Damen.

Laurent, from Damen's POV anyway, and from his ACTIONS, is nearly just as bad as all the other power hungry, sadistic rapists in that court, to be honest.

Like, I'm sure he has backstory that explains it, but it does NOT excuse the fact that while he won't rape anyone himself, he'll have someone else do it to punish that person.

As it stands right now, I want Laurent to get his ass fucking kicked so badly. He's coming across as spoiled and sadistic and I deeply dislike it.

I don't know if I'll ever like Laurent. He literally had someone raped to prove a point because he was acting like a spoiled prince not getting his way.

I also personally think he's a horrible person. Like I get that there's a backstory here that Damen doesn't know and Laurent grew up in Vere and they're practically all sadists there, but as it is, he's nearly just as bad as the rest of them because he not only doesn't do anything to change things, he perpetuates them.

Laurent is a compelling character. I just hate his actions.

The whole situation is messed up, but I'm more on Damen's side because he doesn't turn a blind eye to the sadistic torture these slaves are enduring.

I'm like 50% of the way through book 1 currently, by the way.

I do have hopes for Laurent's character to improve, but right now, he's pissing me off so badly.

I'm not over here trying to debate whether or not Damen is in the wrong for his own participation with sex slaves, but that Laurent's handling of him seems worse than what Damen would do to a palace slave.

Damen goes on about how the palace slaves in Akielos are meant to be treated better and are trained to be treated better, but that they are being wildly abused in Vere because Veretians are so much more violent in this respect.

So far, I just want to punch Laurent, and to be fair, regardless of the backstory, I still thinks he deserves a punch or two.

Okay, I have things to say...

I have a love-hate relationship with Laurent because, right now, Damen has a love-hate relationship with him.

Anyways, Damen going outside and realizing that the other prince was FLIRTING with Laurent and he just randomly, without thinking about it, interrupted the whole thing. Like hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Also, Nicaise is THE REGENT'S PET AND HAS BEEN SINCE HE WAS TEN/ELEVEN YEARS OLD?

That man is a fucking pedophile.

And Damen respected him, too 😭.

And it's just giving me really bad vibes because of how Laurent interacts with Nicaise and it makes me wonder...

Like the Regent is a full on pedophile, and when they have nephews or nieces, those are usually their number one victims.

I love Erasmus. He's so sweet 🥺.

The pedophile Regent going on about how Laurent used to be such a "lovely boy" NAHHHHHHH.

RED FLAG 🚩 RED FLAG 🚩 RED FLAG 🚩.

The Regent took his sweet time with planning to kill Laurent and it's making me wonder if, perhaps, that's because he was useful to his uncle when he was a boy. NOOOOO 😭😭😭.

...

BONUS:

I have spent the last 45 minutes or so looking into getting other library cards for free to get Prince's Gambit sooner. None of the options were working for me and then BAM.

Cue maniacal laughter.

...

PS: When I do a reread of this series someday–depending on how I feel about it once I finish it–I might do reread notes for Captive Prince and the rest of the trilogy for funsies. I think it'd be cool to react to my old theories and what not.

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise and the 747 SCA landing at the Edwards Air Force Base following the third Manned Captive test flight.

Date: July 26, 1977

706315691

[mueritos]

started a new job recently as a research assistant for a gay Latinx professor in my grad program, and while I definitely don't have the time to be doing my own research, working with this professor on his book projects has been so affirming and healing. i'm working on a book he hopes to publish soon that is full of interviews of gay and trans Latine men...and it is so fucking awesome. I feel so seen by the words I am reading, and I feel tears spring to my eyes looking at the photographs of these men. They look like family members, distant cousins, and family friends. They look so happy and full of confidence. I see myself in their eyes, recognizing the "fish" shape in our eyes that is so distinctly tied to Latines. One of the men in the book is a pup! And it is so beautiful seeing his smile as he holds his pup mask.

I have met very few queer latines. I don't know what it's like to have the tio or tia that has some secret aura to them, that "no se habla" vibes where everyone knows they're queer but just won't acknowledge it. Hell, this professor I'm working with is the first gay Latine man I've ever spoken to. I wish I had a community of gay Latines. I hope I am able to access that one day :)

[sainteclectic]

What if lifeblood Mind had a prosthetic arm too. And his favorite activity to piss off Heart is taking it off and tossing it to them when they say they need a hand

this is even funnier considering how long it takes to remove/put on a {functional} prosthetic arm. mind really just takes like. 20 minutes to remove his arm for a petty bit, and honestly? that's so accurate. he would do that.

[sinful-lanterns]

Help I'm imaging the researcher cleaning Corso's knot now...

I MEAN. You have to clean them everywhere, right? Corso probably hasn’t had a bath in years, so the Researcher takes it upon herself to roll up her sleeves and teach Corso how to properly bathe herself. It’s nothing sexual or weird to the Researcher at all, she simply wants to teach Corso the proper hygiene she needs to do in order to live a better life 💕

It’s almost astounding how professional the Researcher can be, even when she’s helping Werewolf! Corso wash herself 🥺

[oddsconvert]

How much blood do vampires drink in a sitting?

In a sitting maybeeeeee anywhere around one and a half to two pints? Enough to be substantial but not lethal. They don't feed everyday either, they give the humans time to build up their red blood cells again. Here are some of the symptoms I found from losing this volume of blood!

Cold and clammy limbs.

Pale skin.

May become confused, disorientated and flustered.

Heart racing and palpitations.

Feeling exhausted and sluggish. Weak and dizzy.

Nauseated.

Vampires don't always drink a lot. Sometimes they may only take a sip to tide them by, sometimes they may drain their blood bag dry!

[beethatwee]

Someone said something about Dark Sun not being able to destroy Lord Eclipse’s universe in my au because of the intervention of his wife. This is half true!

While her presence in the universe does guarantee its survival, it’s not because she intervened, but because Dark Sun couldn’t bring himself to harm her

No I will not elaborate at this point in time

[whumpacabra]

29. Agent

Past captivity and trauma, past torture, past character deaths, guilt

AU Masterpost / Previous / Next

Merrick was writing the mother of all mission reports and trying to do it in one sitting was going to make him sick. Six months. Six months, three good men, and a hell of excruciating detail to comb through for anything that could bring their captors to justice.

The early days, when Orson and Thatch were still around, those were oddly fuzzy. Hazy, faces obscured by time. Back then, Harrison was the only one who knew Arabic, so he was translating demands and orders to them in urgent whispers. Merrick and Elias knew enough by the time Orson died it wasn’t a problem when they took Harrison away.

Away to the Box.

Harrison didn’t talk about it much, and neither Elias nor Merrick knew exactly what happened in that coffin shaped space. So Merrick could only report what he knew: Harrison’s screams.

(He always wondered if Harrison could hear their screams over his own in there.) 

Merrick knew the Red Room - the furnace room - intimately. It was where they were most often dragged to be tortured. Sometimes strung up by their wrists, sometimes bound to a chair, sometimes blindfolded with their hands bound behind their back.

He wasn’t sure they ever washed the floor - it was always sticky with old blood and gritty from broken glass. At least he assumed it was broken glass - he never remembered seeing any.

Merrick was trying to recount one of the last few sessions they had with Goldtooth (Smith, he knew now). He remembered Elias strung up and whipped, Goldtooth stalking around him with saccharine promises to treat him well if he just agreed to…something. Those demands got blurry and vague the harder Merrick tried to think about them.

But he could remember Goldtooth in crystal clear color. His blue eyes were hungry when they watched Elias flinch under the blows, a smile drinking in every sob and scream. And when he remembered Goldtooth cutting Elias down, cradling his bare, broken body with far too much tenderness, Merrick couldn’t write anymore for the day.

Knowing what Smith did to Wolf, he wondered if they ever came close to his monstrous bloodlust.

Merrick stepped out of his office (a cramped closet cubicle, his old office had been given to a different soldier after all this time). He made his way to the restroom to splash some cold water on his face. The bruise from the Wolf’s solid right hook was starting to show through his dark skin, even though the tenderness had faded to an occasional ache.

He glanced to the mirror as Agent Anders stepped out of a stall, scrubbing his hands with soap and water.

“Captain Merrick.” He nodded in acknowledgement, quirking a brow at the water droplets still damp on his face. “Rough report to write, I assume?”

“Rough is right.” He huffed before sighing. “I keep…thinking of what could have happened.”

“That’s a good way to go insane, Captain.” Anders’ smile was sympathetic. “I’ve seen it happen. You’ll drive yourself crazy. Best not to dwell on it and move on.”

“I just…we could have ended up like the Wolf.”

“You’re not the torturing type, if I may make a naive assessment.”

“Neither was he.” Merrick snagged a paper towel from the dispenser. “Broke some bones, burned some skin but at least he never…he could have done worse.”

“Careful Captain.” Anders voice still had a lilt of friendliness veiling his cold, calculating eyes. “A little close to Stockholm Syndrome to be sympathizing with your torturer.”

“He saved our lives.” Saved them from whatever horrors Smith would inflict when he came to the forefront again. “Puts things into perspective.”

Anders hummed, dark eyes sharp and narrowed in thought. 

“That it does. That it does…”

AU Masterpost / Previous / Next

Taglist: @stargeode @genuineformality @i-eat-worlds @light-me-on-pyre

@risk606 @sacredwrath

[ph-cutie]

does he like have to keep doing this every time he shows up

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise mated to 747 SCA #905 prior to her second manned-captive flight.

Date: June 23, 1977

Cliff Steenhoff's collection

NASA ID: EC77-7553

[merakiui]

i just want you to know that i think about alpha prince floyd everyday

:o thank you!!!!! I'm happy he lives rent-free. I also think about him from time to time. He is the sweetest alpha prince there ever was. <3

[typicallyriarkle]

for any how could it be anyone but you enjoyers, I leave you with this gif as a spoiler for chapter 11

[sciderman]

american werewolf in london (1981)

[a1sart]

I made marble sky ocs <3

they're like toxic doomed yuri I love them

also I did not intend for their color palettes to literally just be the lesbian flag but y'know what I think it works

[inquisitor-julia]

Iggy, my large hermit crab, on any given day: I *hate* you and I am prepared to pinch you at all times for any reason!!! I will run to a corner when you enter the room bc you are big and scary!!

Iggy when I break out the catappa leaves: LEAF??? MOTHER HAS PROVIDED LEAF???? I LIKE LEAF SLIGHTLY MORE THAN I HATE MOTHER!