Finding some random artists OC and getting so incredibly attached to the character and design out of nowhere like hi. I’ve just met you and your Pet Freak. I’m going to Monitor You so I can one day catch another sighting of your Pet Freak
“I was sent here to be a slave as a punishment and a humiliation,” Damen says to Erasmus, the slave that was trained to be a slave for Damen specifically and was brainwashed so hard into liking it that he apologized for not being quiet enough when he was branded.
This is actually the reason why the books worked for me, because yeah Laurent was a bitch, but Damen was SO MUCH WORSE when they met and he didn’t even know it, and then Damen GOT BETTER as part of his character arc and got to the point where he swore to abolish slavery in the third book. And then we see in follow-up stories that he did, no hesitation or waffling or compromise, he straight up made it illegal and went undercover to bust some slave traders.
In this house we love and respect a character that reforms his entire world view after one hot girl summer romance.
Like… that was it, the fight was over. Auguste was stronger in the end. It was probably the first time anyone has ever disarmed Damen on the field, and in that frozen moment of shock and disbelief, Auguste could have pressed the advantage and killed Damen right then.
But Auguste still let Damen pick up the sword again. Let him have a fair chance to go down with a weapon in his hand.
Because I think Auguste looked into his eyes and saw, for a moment, a younger brother who was in way over his head. A younger brother who was only here because his father had expectations and Damen was trying so hard to meet them. A younger brother who is scared and alone and too young for any of this, who should have been back home reading books and riding his horse while his father and older brother kept him safe.
Pick it up, Auguste tells him gently, just like he has told Laurent so many times when they sparred. Try again.
Every time Damen says something you know without a doubt that whatever it is, he’s underselling it.
This man almost died from how badly Laurent had him flogged and he said “it wasn’t that bad” making the physician look at him like he’s insane because it was in fact that bad and Paschal was probably fighting to keep the life inside his body.
Also “yeah my brother stabbed me once but it was totally just an accident he didn’t mean it.”
Dude almost died again bleeding out on the floor and he described it like “haha it’s okay it’s not a moral wound, my organs are fine I’ll be fine. Also my boyfriend is gonna be all cute and doting so getting stabbed is totally worth it.” Meanwhile he actually nearly died.
That’s how you know when Laurent mentions Damen being a foot taller and Damen says “it’s significantly less than a foot” it actually translates to “it’s more than a foot”
Or when they’re having their divorce argument in the tent and Laurent is trying to be all “nuh-uh I don’t like you I was faking it when you fucked me” and Damen calls him a liar and describes his own voice as being “too loud” that means that motherfucker is SCREAMING.
Just read someone point out that book 1 Damen saying “You can do whatever you want to me, I’m not going to rape a child,” was the first time someone told Laurent even indirectly that what happened to him was wrong and not his fault and I’m sick to my stomach.
