u/Secure-Breakfast9061

Was wondering if there's any way to read or view the original Capri before official publication text. Or if anyone happens to have a file or know of a post that at least outlines the known differences between the livejournal version and the published version.

If not, then perhaps a contribution in the form of sharing tidbits you remember if you were lucky enough to read it back then?? 🤲🤲 I only know of the Rabat=Vere and on a previous post I made, a community member told me that Jokaste=Margaret

I just finished my reread of the first book and I annotated it! So naturally, I made a list of all the descriptors of Laurent I could find as I went along, pretty much directly quoted.

• astonishingly lovely face
• blond
• yellow hair
• buttercup yellow hair
• golden hair
• golden eyebrow(s)
• elegant leg
• arctic blue eyes
• refined fingers
• fine skin, like white pearl
• His body held the same impossible grace as his face
• (body) possessed the beautifully proportioned musculature... made for athletics and statuary
• stood like a young god
• skin as fair as a young girl's
• body like an elegantly sprung bow
• "A very, very nice body" lol
• that part of him, quite as sweetly made as the rest (talking about his dick)
• possessing a pleasing shape
• limpid blue eyes
• marmoreal perfection of his features (marmoreal= resembling, or having the cold, smooth, polished qualities of marble)
• little golden frown (talking about his furrowed eyebrows... unexpectedly cute descriptor)
• blue eyes like ice
• a nest of scorpions in the body of one person
• immaculate fingers
• fair skin
• body a series of graceful lines
• white column of his throat
• fine boned wrist
• bones of his face appeared as delicate as the calamus of a feather
• beauty like an arrow shaft to the heart (talking about Nicaise and then says it's a thing he has in common with Laurent)
• confident, developed look of a young man entering his prime
• bright hair and astonishing profile

I like that both the first and last times Damen describes Laurent's physical appearance use the word "astonishing(ly)". Hehe I might do this again for PG when I get around to rereading and annotating. Long live Laurent!

Edit: An indirect but honorable mention descriptor(?) is when Damen wonders why Torveld likes Laurent and thinks "maybe he likes reptiles 🤔"

I started my very first reread of Captive Prince last night, and the very first sentence immediately posed a question: What sort of info do the Akielons receive about Laurent? And why does is seem completely opposed to what the entire Veretian court says about him?

The first line of the prologue is a bit of dialogue from Jokaste "We hear that your Prince keeps his own harem."

She is speaking directly to Guion, while they view the slaves being sent to Vere.

Is it just Guion feeding the Akielon court completely contrary info on the Regent's orders? For what purpose? It's hard to think that NO other type of info about Laurent crossed the borders in the form of rumor, especially since we know Veretians are incurable gossips. They love talking about their cast iron bitch who only gets it once every 10 years.

Why would "he has a harem" (untrue) be the thing Akielons think about Laurent?

Edit: After getting further into my reread, it seems like all the characters refer to a harem not as just a term for a group of pets or slaves, but as a term for the quarters in which they stay. When Damen arrives, Laurent orders him to he taken to "the harem". And then Damen is taken to a wing of the palace and kept under watch. Presumably, he is the only resident. Then later, after the bath scene when he is being taken to the cross, Damen is narrating the path and saying things like "security on the perimeter of the harem" and mentioning the existence of larger rooms in the harem. A quick google search also yielded the info that the historical definition of the word "harem" is "The part of a home or palace set apart exclusively for women, children, and female servants". Essentially "the harem" is a room in a home/palace the same way "the kitchen" and "the bedroom" are. So now I'm leaning more towards the idea that Jokaste was simply aware that noble homes/palaces in Vere had harem room(s) to house their pets. In the royal family, it's likely important member would have their own household, and their own harem quarters to keep them separate (i.e. The king's harem quarters vs the Prince's harem quarters)

Does anyone think they had problems in their relationship that were internal? Besides any lingering regret about Aguste and the flogging. I feel that those were addressed by the end of KR and the Summer Palace.

I feel like it's entirely plausible that Laurent's trauma with being used and discarded might rear it's head and he would be terrified of Damen becoming less interested in him. That sort of bottled up internal strife would eventually cause a pretty big issues I think.

On Damen's end, I feel that he is quite possessive of Laurent. Although I'm not sure if this would cause problems, because Laurent probably enjoys it. And despite possessive feelings, Damen never came across as coddling or oppressive in his care and demeanor. Perhaps the SA of the pet ring and with Ancel in the garden? I think that wasn't properly addressed between them.

Is there any conflict from the book that you feel wasn't resolved that would cause strife between the two of them?? Or any sort of novel conflict that would be sparked by personality differences and insecurities?

We know that Akielos and Vere are loosely based off of Greek and French periods respectively. Do we know anything about Kempt and if it's based on anything? I know that Laurent's mother was from Kempt but I can't remember if the book states what her position was. I also have a vague recollection of the book saying it was located in the far North?? Maybe I just read that in a fanfiction. Has Pacat ever spoken about Kempt in interviews or panels??

I remember the Kemptian silk part of Adventure of Charls, but it made me think about how silk worms don't really like hanging out in cold places, so where would they grow their worms for silk?? I guess they could have greenhouse type farms, which would also explain the expenses. Unless Kempt is not in the north, or if it is then the northern part of the continent is not cold like I assume. Gosh this has me thinking a lot...does Pacat ever mention the weather/climate of vere or other areas?!?! I feel fairly certain that Akielos is mentioned to have hot weather. I ended up thinking of a lot while typing this so I'll just leave it at that haha!

P.S.

Do we think Laurent knows Kemptian?

I myself am partial to some more short stories from other POVs! I would love to see some Jokaste content to get a better understanding of her background and what led to the development of her ambitious nature. Another comedy like Charls the merchant vibes would be excellent too! I just really love the outsider POV for Lamen's relationship. And of course I would be thrilled to see a Nikandros focused story as well.

​

In terms of non-book content, a loyal adaptation would be insane. Though in a live action scenario, it's hard to imagine any casting being satisfactory 🫠 They would seriously have to pull someone with an insane facecard off the streets for Laurent...

I wanna know what everyone has been keeping in their brains! I have a few:

•After Damen, the person who has seen Laurent naked the most is actually Pallas (Laurent is lucky HR doesn't exist in these times or Pallas would be filing harassment claims every morning)

•Sometimes they fight over who gets to be the big or little spoon.

•Laurent is mildly allergic to so many things, Damen has a stomach of steel.

•Damen gifts a pair of his mother's earrings to Laurent. They are precious but not gaudy. Feeling very honored, Laurent starts wearing them in public after a time. Eventually Damen tells him that its part of a set and he wanted to give him the other pieces but he didn't have to wear them, Damen just wants Laurent to have them. Laurent wears them and starts the trend where veretian nobility start decking themselves out with jewelry to display status instead of dressing their pets and historians in the future attribute this to the beginning of the pet system becoming viewed as distasteful and obsolete. It also creates a huge boom in intricate and unique jewelry and metalwork.

•Torveld still tries to shoot his shot everytime he meets Laurent.

•Feeling a bit insecure, Laurent tells Damen that he can take lovers if he is getting bored or tired of their relationship. Just let Laurent know so he isn't embarrassed at court by being uninformed. He puts in a lot of effort to be nonchalant about it even though he is EXTREMELY chalant. This obviously upsets Damen and they fight for a week. Somehow, Charls of all people ends up resolving their conflict via middle aged wise man antics. This is the sort of thing they fight over on the occasions they are at odds. Laurent has a lot of trouble and relapses involving self-worth and the sort of love he thinks he deserves (or rather doesn't deserve). It takes about 5 years before he feels wholly secure.

•They eventually get Erasmus back and free him. Kallias is still alive and they get to be together!

•Kempt is considered a strange and somewhat mysterious country. They are typically very isolationist because they are so far north, and their religion is based on spirits that dwell in the great forest and mountains that surround them. The royal family is said the be descendants of the forest dwellers.

•Damen and Laurent do in fact have a public consummation. The veretian part of the council insist on it or the marriage is not legitimate. Of course, Damen always has something to prove (it was 7 hours thank you) and the records show that it was the longest lasting consummation ceremony in recorded history.

•On the topic of consummation, the new joint government employs both methods of governance: vere creates a sort of "kyros" or governor position for each region and these veretian and akielon positions form the council of the new kingdom. This is the council that oversees the consummation. Nikandros has never dreaded anything more in his life. It takes a while before he and Damen can look each other in the eye afterwards. Laurent always brings it up because he thinks it's funny. "Yes, Exalted." "Oh please Nikandros, you've seen Damen do unspeakable things to me on my wedding night. I insist you call me by my name."

•After the initial engagement announcement, lots of royals and nobility from other nations try to butt in and throw in their lot with Damen or Laurent. They try to convince one or the other that they offer the best political advantage and marriage offers. It takes a while for them to accept that Lamen are a love match. In the far future, it is well known that the historic union was borne of love.

•Speaking of the far future:

-In marlas, its popular for couple tourists to buy gold bracelets and place them on each other on the beach at sunset. If you do this, your love will last forever and ever just like the everlasting bond of the greatest kings.

-There is funny internet discourse over whether Nikandros was Lamen's third. (He wasn't but he would be rolling in his grave if he knew what the fujos were saying about him and his kings)

-The national museum has a permanent display room of Lamens lives and deeds complete with preserved clothing, weapons, love letters, paintings, gifts, and their gold cuffs.

-There are about 1 and a half million adaptations of Lamen's lives and what is essentially the Capri books. The worst one is a massive budget, heavily marketed movie that portrays their relationship as solely political and ends with Damen taking Jokaste back, and Laurent taking Torveld as his true love 💔 It is hilariously one of the lowest critic and audience scored movies to ever exist.

I read it in summer 2025 for the first time. I have a vague memory that I may have heard the title in some form on tumblr maybe circa 2015 but I'm not entirely sure.

I was really into MXTX works and followed a lot of artists and fic writers on twitter. One of them made a tweet about how before MXTX fandom, they really loved Captive Prince. I used to be an avid reader and was trying to get back into reading published works (not just fics lol) so I placed the first Capri book on hold on Libby along with a bunch of other books I heard were good and that I saw on booktok and would give a try (booktok was a mistake lol). It was like a 4 to 6 week wait I think, so I forgot about it and was reading other series. Honestly, it wasn't something I wasn't necessarily looking forward to; at the time it was just a single book in a growing list of TBR I was creating to get back into reading.

I like not reading blurbs of books and just going in blind, so when I got the notif at work that Captive Prince was available, I was just kinda like "yeah okay, I'll try this one to see if I like it". And it aligned perfectly with timing because I had just finished up another book the night before.

So yeah, I just... started reading with absolutely zero expectations because I literally had not heard a single thing about this series except someone I follow on twitter responding to another tweet saying "I miss my captive prince days I should reread soon".

Open the book, turn the page, read, a bit shocked but not disturbed or anything. I didn't know it was an adult novel but I have no issues with engaging with heavy topics and themes so I keep reading because it's genuinely good.

I don't remember exactly when it happened, but it was probably after the pet ring and before the whipping (or maybe the graden scene??) that it went from an "interesting-so-far" read to an "absolute-page-turner-im-not-sleeping-till-im-done-idk-i-have-work-tomorrow" read. I think I actually only stopped reading to pick up my phone and immediately purchase the whole trilogy next day delivery because I already knew that I needed to own this series and place it in a place of honor on my bookshelf.

The last time I had read a series and absolutely loved it and would stay up late to read was Heaven Official’s Blessing by MXTX back in like 2020-2021. And even now, I can say with my whole chest that Capri is without a doubt my number one fav series by a longshot.

I love that it doesn't worry about censorship. I love Pacat's unique writing style. The way they construct sentences, vocabulary, characters, world, dialogue... my god. And when you think about how short the books really are... Pacat is putting that real estate to WORK!!

And of course it was a whole other feeling of joy discovering the short stories existed after the initial read.

I've still been reading a lot since then and I haven't read anything that comes close to the feeling Capri gave me.

How did you guys hear of Captive Prince? Why did you decide to read it? And if it's your fav, have you been able to find another series that comes close? Because I'm literally still obsessed; reading fics every night, following artists and writers on twitter/bluesky/tumblr, lowkey writing my own fics in my head when I daydream. 24/7 after almost a year no joke it's so serious for me 😭