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crosslaced) wrote2016-11-04 10:51 pm
app: soulgemmed
Contact info: starlitsunset @ plurk
Other characters currently played: Shinoa Hiiragi
Character name: Laurent
Age: 20
Canon: Captive Prince
Canonpoint: Book 3: mid-Kingsmeet
[content warning: mentions of slavery, prostitution, sexual abuse, implications of paedophilla. I've kept as much out of the app as possible.]
Background:
Captive Prince is set in medieval-ish times; with monarchies, warring kingdoms, and horses instead of cars. There are two main kingdoms: Akleios and Vere. Laurent is the second prince of the latter, made Crown Prince at thirteen after his brother Auguste dies in war between the kingdoms.
Cut to Damianos ("Damen"), Crown Prince of Akleios, and the man who killed Auguste. Seven years later Damen's half-brother Kastor overthrows him in secret, publicly claiming he died while actually secretly shipping him to Vere as an unnamed pleasure slave marked for Vere's Crown Prince. Re-enter Laurent, now twenty, who appears to be content idling in the royal court and bullying Damen viciously. Laurent's uncle, the Regent, touts him as unfit for the throne and has been politically manoeuvring Laurent into a corner for years. At one point the Regent sends assassins to Laurent's room, planning to secure his throne, pin it on Damen and as a bonus incite war with the unstable Akleios; because Damen ends up defending Laurent instead of turning on him, Laurent in turn protects him from blame when the attack is found out. Because of this Laurent is forced to accept border duty in order to secure Damen's pardon- Damen subsequently realises that the Regent behind the assassination attempt and therefore leaving the royal court leaves Laurent extremely vulnerable to more attacks. Aware that the Regent wants to attack the politically destabilised Akleios and Laurent is the only one in the way of that, Damen agrees to travel with Laurent to the border and assist him.
Cue travel montage. Laurent and Damen work together to train their entourage into a unit that won't crash and burn under attack, gaining each other's trust in the process. At the Vere-Akleios border, they find that the Regent continues to incite war by sending third-party raiders into Akleios villages- who assume it's Vere and have been hostile in retaliation. Laurent argues against war and tries to get to the bottom of things, but this worsens his reputation. By the time he captures the raiders, the Regent has accused him of treason. They escape being decimated by a larger troop thanks to Laurent having already planned contingencies for being cornered, and take a fortress to make camp in. More bad news, Laurent flying off the handle and reducing some people to tears, and some emotionally intimate moments later, Laurent and Damen separate to start their campaign against the Regent. Damen, guarding their fort, is promised reinforcements; the reinforcements are revealed to be his own soldiers from the border provinces. Nikandros, leader of the province just across the border, recognizes him and blows his cover immediately.
Damen next meets Laurent as his real identity of Prince of Akleios, Guy Who Killed Your Brother, only to find that Laurent 1) has known this from the start 2) has already prepared the can of worms for their reunion. A lot of the final arc is Laurent finally having to face up to Damen's dual role of his one trustworthy ally and supposed enemy, resulting in a lot of uncomfortable passive-aggression underneath a facade of alliance. Eventually they make up; at this point Damen finds out that he may have a child, and that child is potentially vulnerable to the Regent who's entered Akleios by sea. Reclaiming their thrones via head-on invasion becomes risky, and Laurent and Damen decide to travel inland in a smaller group to negotiate the baby's safety first. They head for the Kingsmeet, a sacred location where violence is prohibited and royalty can safely conduct such negotiations.
Except Damen's ex, the child's mother, lied. There's no baby where she said they'd be, only the Regent. He baits Damen into attacking him, which results in the Kingsmeet guards subduing and proceeding to execute Damen for breaking sacred laws. Laurent gives himself up on exchange for Damen's life, agreeing to go with the Regent to be trialed for his treason charge.
Laurent's canonpoint is just before he gives himself up; instead of doing that in canon, he makes the wish.
The first impression you might get of Laurent is that he is an asshole. A frigid asshole specifically, who’s stingy with his compliments and viciously generous with all sorts of nasty things. In the first book of his trilogy he is shown being stubbornly at odds with his uncle the Regent, having the protagonist whipped within an inch of his life, and generally “inspir[ing] homicidal urges just by breathing.” Among his own men he is respected but far from loved. He also has the reputation for having a filthy mouth; it's one reason people suspect he's not a virgin, though he's never publicly accepted a lover. It's not to say he's incapable of socialization- he has been shown to be adept at it if he so chooses, being elegantly witty with people he wants to establish an alliance with. But it doesn't seem to be what he's really like, if you compare that behavior to when he has no incentive to play nice.
The next impression you might get of Laurent is that he’s extremely intelligent. He’s so intelligent, when plot reveals itself Laurent reveals he’s already planned in advance for it. [BOOK 2 SPOILERS:] Laurent arranges, one book before the event itself, for an army to give him the military support he needs when he finds himself cornered against a bigger troop at the border. A traitor reveals themselves right then? He saw that one coming, too.
“ Laurent fought like he talked. The danger lay in the way he used his mind: there was not one thing he did that was not planned in advance. Yet he was not predictable, because in this, as with everything he did, there were layers of intent, moments when expected patterns would suddenly dissolve into something else. “
Let's backtrack a bit and examine the nature of his assholishness. Laurent indeed has a lot of capacity for being a terrible person; he is consistently terrible to the protagonist (Damen), whom he has power over at first, in the first book. He appears to have no qualms keeping Damen locked up most of the time, throwing Damen into a ringfight while drugged, et cetera. Truly Laurent is a bundle of joy. But he isn’t awful all the time: with the arguable exception of Damen himself, Laurent doesn't go out of his way to be an asshole when there’s no incentive for it; a lot of the time he’s dislikeable because he’s so unwaveringly cold about everything, usually keeping his emotions inside a limited range of ‘I don’t really give a damn’ and ‘I’m offended’.
He's actually shown to be decent- almost fraternal- with the Regent’s young prostitute Nicaise, even offering to purchase Nicaise’s contract and essentially liberate the boy. Once Laurent leaves the capital of Vere to travel to the border he becomes a lot more civil to Damen- an outward sign that he can set aside whatever drives his vindictiveness to focus on more pressing things. Detached, still, but civil. His shows of viciousness tend to be driven by necessity- his uncle is hellbent on disgracing his name and barring him from the throne and many of his seemingly petulant actions are discrete circumventions of that- or emotional stress.
“It’s not naive to trust your family.’
‘I promise you, it is,’ said Laurent.
Laurent is a very stressed prince. He keeps himself on high alert constantly, often neglecting sleep and straight-up pretending all kinds of pain don't exist. His frigid front is propped up by a stubborn refusal to show weakness; he’ll only let trusted parties in on his mortality, and he kind of literally trusts no one until Damen came along. Emotion counts as a weakness. That’s also why he’s so unemotive.
This is out of a fundamental belief that no one can be trusted indefinitely- even those that are loyal for the moment can be bribed or threatened. It's later revealed that Laurent has been fighting for survival against his powerhungry uncle for years- an uncle he once trusted as a child, who really only saw him as an obstacle to the throne to be eventually gotten rid of- and from this stems many of his issues. He has huge problems with trust and regularly keeping his allies at an arm’s length. When stressed, he tends to shove them even further just to get them away from him. In the second book [SPOILERS] he finds out about Nicaise’s death and is visibly unhinged by it; under this duress he (verbally) lashes out against Damen so viciously Damen retaliates with actual violence.
This behavior is likely a knee-jerk reaction; his composure, when lost, tends to lead to reckless and blinkered decisions. Not to mention an absolutely horrid personality- Laurent gets exponentially more vitriolic towards any and everyone when emotionally compromised. He’s reduced people to tears while like this. It’s unfortunately not easy to realize he’s upset, because he will calm down eventually if left alone.
“ You deserve to know that, as you deserve at least a fair . . . In Arles, I treated you with malice and cruelty. I will not insult you by attempting to atone for deeds with words, but I would not treat you
that way again. I was angry. Angry, that isn't the word.”
Underneath his prickly aloofness, he’s not a bad man. He’s surprisingly a decent one; he doesn’t shirk work and has a sense of fairness. Laurent tries to makes amends when he gets people hurt, and conversely will repay acts of kindness even if he hates the actor. The first time Damen saves Laurent’s life it gives him an opening to escape- in turn Laurent protects him from punishment when he is recaptured, and even explains away the attempt on Laurent’s life because it was done to implicate him. [SPOILERS] It is later revealed that Laurent does this despite knowing that Damen was his brother’s killer. His unexpected morality extends to his political views- he is against both the slavery practiced in the neighbouring Akleios and the sanctioned prostitution in his own country. This is buried fairly deep down- necessity drives a lot of Laurent’s actions and often obscures his own values. Laurent does accept the service of a slave at the invitation of Akleios’ provincial leaders, mostly to secure the political tie, but refuses to make any sexual advances (which was the norm of what people did with their attendants).
When left to his own devices Laurent gravitates towards being mild and forgiving, if a bit playful; Laurent on covert missions is reliably cooperative and finds satisfaction gambling away his money for the prize of learning a magic trick. He is, contrary to popular belief, capable of genuine laughter. Laurent in fact says he enjoys games, and immediately after that line sabotages his own getaway for an Enjoyable Chase Scene. He’s certainly inexperienced with having fun, but if sufficiently relaxed has no problem having fun like a normal person. (Getting him relaxed is the problem.)
He is also, contrary to popular belief, unselfish. Most of Laurent’s actions eventually come to a self-serving effect, but this is again very much due to his unfriendly environment. He can go out of his way to assist others if it doesn’t put him at risk- a prominent example is when he sits with a child who lost family in border skirmishes and teaches her the one magic trick he knows- but beyond that, once he decides Damen is important to him Laurent is willing to put aside a lot of interests for Damen’s benefit. Specifically, all of the interests (See: Kingsmeet).
“He wouldn’t have come back alone. If you think that, you don’t know him.”
EXTRA NOTE: Laurent was sexually abused as a child. I’ve decided not to go into that because 1. I have no experience with that and don't want to misrepresent such a topic, and 2. I don't want to risk triggering people who have such experiences. This isn't something Laurent talks about at even in canon, and I don't plan to have him bring this up while in the game.
Wish: “I desire all the pieces to be in place for Damianos of Akleios to gain unobstructed access to two things: kingship of Akleios, and significant control over the affairs of Vere.”
At the point of the wish Damianos (also ‘Damen’, protagonist,
But unlike some magi (most magi), Laurent is good enough with words to understand the importance of phrasing and the gravitas of Kyuubey’s offer. He realizes he’s not limited to getting what he needs- he could get a whole lot of shit if he can fit them all into one sentence. So the wish turns into this: ‘hand Damen everything he rightfully has- oh that’s right, that’s an entire kingdom. While you’re at it, give him everything I’ve got, too, yes, that happens to be another kingdom.’
The result: Following canon, the Regent is given custody of Laurent by the guards in return for letting Damen go. Damen goes after them and finds, inexplicably, a whole stash of evidence exposing both the Regent and Damen’s half-brother for underhanded throne-stealing. Everyone is so angry they oust the two immediately. By default Damen gets his country’s throne; inexplicably existent is also a faked ‘will’ found with a dead doppelganger Laurent that gives Damen a place on Vere’s high council.
Go big or go home, right?
Passive ability: A support power, since his wish involves enabling others to success: anyone near him will feel more calm and focused. This can help them think through puzzles and dampen any mind-altering magic. Laurent himself gets no benefit.
Active ability: Literally, moving pieces into place – i.e. telekinesis. At the cost of significant physical pain to himself, Laurent can haul things from one point to another as long as the target and its desired endpoint are both in his field of vision. In a day he can move a maximum mass equaling that of a small car (4-seater. pls do not encourage him to throw cars he will pass out immediately), to a maximum of 20ft per shift (for a human-sized target. Any bigger can only go 10ft.)
He has no control over the trajectory of the movement. Objects travel in a straight line as if pulled by a force towards the endpoint, bashing through whatever it can physically demolish (or just… stopping if it can’t) if there are obstacles.
Weapon: Sword
4th Wall Threads:
Dave - Mondo - Alphys - Mondo + Fujiko + Diarmuid - Bonnie - Saionji
Additional Memories?: Potentially part of Bonnie's memories, depending on how their in-progress thread goes. I'm thinking either her death by Lilith or vague overviews of her pre-SG backstory; if the thread goes that way I'll approach Bonnie's RPer about it. Laurent doesn't fight with anyone else.