New chapter!!

[darcyjausten]

Hear hear! The new chapter of ACP is out guys! And OMG soooooo many FEELINGS! I wish I could post a more coherent starter post but I cannot. What's your reaction to ahem what's happened in the latest chapter? I'm crap at linking and avoiding spoilers so I'll post the rest in comments

Comments

spoilers!

[shirogiku]

It was a breathtaking chapter, even more so than the previous one. So many things are happening at once, but also we get to see and reflect on all the changes in Damen (and Laurent and their relationship) that occured over the course of the story.

I never thought we'd see Laurent so... vulnerable? emotionally exposed? It seemed impossible in the beginning. I loved that the morning after scene was so sweet but tinged with impending farewell.

I loved that Damen left one golden manacle on. It seems appropriate.

"It was an honor to serve with you". The loyalty Damen managed to win ♥

And then the delegation from McPedo arrived and Damen shouted "he needs me!" and that he didn't care if Jord told everyone about his read identity.

Nicaise! I don't even know. I liked his story arc in the sense that it exposed a lot about McPedo and Laurent's past relationship with him. McPedo knew whose head to send, that's for sure.

Aimeric's suicide :/ I didn't see it coming, not really. But I don't think Laurent had anything good in store for him

Re: spoilers!

[darcyjausten]

From a completely objective writing point of view I can see that Aimeric's suicide was plot wise clever in that it removed the responsibility of what to do with Aimeric from Laurent's hand: Laurent could not execute Aimeric for treason without completely alienating Jord, but what other penalty was there for treason in Damen and Laurent's world?

Nicaise- someone wrote in the chapter comments that they hope Nicaise 's death was quick and that he hadn't suffered but 'fast death doesn't hurt' that's surely something Laurent learnt from his uncle (it's pretty inconceivable that he would have learnt it from his father or auguste) the poor little mite probably suffered - he no longer had his blue eyes? God I hope he wasnt blinded first like Oonag was in Dunnett's lymond!

The morning sex and damens wonderful ness - I was reading the chapter thinking god at least Laurent had a decent morning before everythxiZg went tits up!

[darcyjausten]

Firstly I'd like to say that despite of or perhaps because of the deaths this latest chapter is one of my favourites to date. The deaths added power to the story, and I loved the contrast that Cat gave us between this latest chapter and the last one

[elizaben]

Firstly I'd like to say that despite of or perhaps because of the deaths this latest chapter is one of my favourites to date.

I feel the same. It hurts so good XD
Seriously, though, I'm devastated about Nicaise, but at the same time I can't curse the writer, the way I would in other instances. I never saw it coming, but it still felt terribly natural, the unavoidable conclusion of events.

And I can't squee enough about the "morning after". And the men going to say goodbye was very touching. Of course, Freece made us pay.

Bottom line, Freece is a great writer and I'm a masochist XD

[darcyjausten]

Like a machochist I can't seem to get over the latest chapter and keep on re reading it and scrolling the comments even worse than usual just to see everyone's reaction to it. I agree in that Both Aimeric and nicaise's deaths had a 'natural progression' feel to it Aimeric because despite the sad reasons that he did what he did he had committed treason and from a writing standpoint it takes the choice of executing him for treason away from Laurent's hands, and with Nicaise the regents interest in him was already waning from the start so we always expected him to be disposed of in one way or another though I for one didn't anticipate this so early (plus so far the deaths in the story have had little emotional impact as when orlant died we all thought he was a traitor so i wrongly thought ACP was going to be death-light) and I certainly didn't expect the two major side characters to be disposed of in the kind of sudden/ casual brutality that would have made Dorothy dunnett proud - plus even though I can see Nicaise's death made sense

[elizaben]

Me too, it's the first time I've been reading the comments and even commented more than once

[kestrelsparhawk]

I checked so see if someone had started the discussion already but didn't see it-- sorry! So also posted, but will comment here

[darcyjausten]

Lol I checked too I think we probably posted about the same time and mine got accepted a fraction of a second earlier or something! I think Laurent is going to learn just how much he can hurt from his words after Aimeric s suicide now as Damen came across Laurent standing completely still as though is shock : I think Laurent wanted to hurt Aimeric last night but I don't think he ever thought the regents betrayal would be enough to drive Aimeric to suicide, after all Laurent 'coped' with the betrayal and he probably simply expected Aimeric to as well. A hard lesson for laurent to learn I think - that not everyone is going to be as tough as he is and just how much harm his words can do to someone

[kestrelsparhawk]

I'd forgotten that Laurent had hammered home how unlovable Aimeric was to the Regent, and was thinking just of how he might feel about betraying Jord and Laurent's highly uncertain temper and willingness to have him gangraped.

I do hope Laurent does get a lesson in empathy from that. And will accept Damen rather than push him away as part of it.

[darcyjausten]

I think ultimately Aimeric had to know what the regent did to him : but I'm not sure if he'd have slit his own wrists had Laurent not broken the news to him with the aim of breaking him if that makes sense? I think Aimeric would probably have taken the gang rape but still not have taken his own life ( taken the rape as I'm doing this for my lover the regent kind of way) so in that chapter when Damen had taken a look at Laurent's face and realised Aimeric was actually better off being with 'those' men than with Laurent: how sadly his thoughts were proven true.