"Flesh&Blood" Vol. 5 - Pirate Series Reading Club šŸ“ā€ā˜  ā›µ

Thank you! I guess Kaitoā€™s going to have a lot of time to think, if nothing elseā€¦

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Ok folks, Iā€™m on board and following you! This week I will catch up to Kafka as well so itā€˜ll be a bit slower, but once that oneā€˜s under control I will set all sails and chase you :grin:

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Chapter 6 thoughts

Expect some unpleasantness in this chapter @eefara

Weā€™re back at the Clink. Kaito is at a breaking point from lack of sleep, as heā€™s starting to have trouble knowing reality from hallucinationā€‹s.

Kaito, donā€™t tell him where you keep your money! :woman_facepalming: But, I guess, heā€™s delirious enough here to not really know what heā€™s saying? Poor Kaito! :cry: Not to mention, clearly the money Drake payed to let him stay fed and given good water etc. isnā€™t being used at all. The injustice of it all, makes my blood boil, ngl. >:

p 111-> (@eefara if you wanna skip the first pages of the chapter, you should still continue reading on p 111)

We get some more historical insights , this time on the irony of the Catholic insistence of no marriage for priests. :eyes: This leading on to some more introspection for Kaito, on his own thoughts on women, men and his own sexuality. Also, his views of resentment toward his mother, that might have a role to play in this

BIG spoiler
As Kaito is about to loose consciousness to sleep, thereā€™s a rather surprising development: Good Will is there to check in on things! The story takes rather big liberties here with history, and itā€™s best to just go with the flow! XD William manages to talk the guard into letting him into the room, and after that, he moves on to offering the warden a drink. Heā€™s clearly here to help Kaito! :sob:

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Chapter 7 thoughts

Clearly, Will has a plan with that brandy bottle and the guard isnā€™t bright enough to sense something off before heā€™s gulped most of it down. Soon enough, heā€™s out cold.

But why is Will really there? That is the question. :eyes: Kaito isnā€™t so out of it, that he doesnā€™t sense something is off by the initial explanation, that Jeoffrey somehow had ordered Will to help Kaito escape the Clink. No, thatā€™s not something Jeoffrey would do, sacrificing Will as the culprit in a breakout, also ensuring Jeoffrey, Kaito and Nigel will be hunted down by Walshingham, no matter if they flee England, with Kaito with no way to defend against the murder charges either.

Another big spoiler
And here, history is stretched even more by Natsuki-sensei! It turns out Good Will is more like Bad Will in this parallel universe! :astonished: Heā€™s actually secretly working with the Spanish! :male_detective:

follow up spoiler
In the end, Kaito is forced to drink the opium-brandy mixture. Before passing out, he manages to make a final plea to Will, to not choose the wrong path. dun dun dun

p 135
Language question: what is the reference done at the very end of this chapter? Is it a reference? :thinking:

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Oh no :cold_sweat: Iā€™m really really hoping this volume is it, and we return to non-scary things afterwards. :sob: :persevere: I want to start chapter 3 today; my scheduleā€™s a little messed up due to work stuff, so @NicoleIsEnough, youā€™ll have plenty of time to catch up.

Maybe we could make a list of chapters with unpleasantness for future reference. If thereā€™s too many Iā€™m going to have to suck it up, I guess. My main reading strategy for such stuff in English is just skimming over things, but thatā€™s much harder to do in Japanese. The closest equivalent would be reading without a dictionary, which might workā€¦

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Chapter 6 talk
I donā€™t think itā€™s all that gruesome. I think the scare in ch 2 what partially not knowing what would happen to poor Kaito. But, knowing the situation somehow helps? You could give it a try?

Iā€™m not a hardened person, and donā€™t like reading about anything being bad for Kaito. But, to be fair, the amputation scene with Jim in vol 2 was more difficult to read imo. For me personally, as I canā€™t take maiming and such. This situation is more of the psychologically unsettling kind, tense and dark. ^^;

Well, important stuff happens, so youā€™ll wanna read most of this chapter regardless.

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I was actually fine with the amputation in volume 2, funnily enough. It helps that I wasnā€™t emotionally attached to Jim at that point; if Kaito were undergoing something similar hereā€¦ Nope nope nope. Iā€™m actually usually pretty decent with gore and stuff, itā€™s the psychological baggage that goes with it that Iā€™m really weak to. :cold_sweat:

And not to worry, I donā€™t intend to skip half of the book or anything. Iā€™m going to do my best to power through. :muscle: I, uh, may not be great for conversational insights, though. ^_^;

Iā€™m thinking something along those lines, actually. Once I can confirm that Kaito gets through all this, Iā€™m going to go back and try reading the bad parts. Like, of course heā€™ll get through it, probably fine, but I need to see it with my own eyes, you know?

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Chapter 8 thoughts

Back to Jeoffreyā€™s POV and him and Nigel are finally back in London. They immediately seek out Burghley as theyā€™re hoping he might be able to create an additional path to Kaitoā€™s release, since the testimony of the priest is too weak to be relied on.

Well, when they arrive they soon learn of the killing spree at the Clink. Things have gone from bad to worse. Walshingham is using the attack as a further support for his accusation that Kaito is affiliated with Spain. Them having left him behind, drugged and bound, notwithstanding.

Itā€™s clear, that Jeoffrey and Nigel will have to find a much different strategy to freeing Kaito. As things stand, Kaito might be locked away in an even worse prison, that is Newgate, to keep the Spanish away. :fearful: Or they might execute him as a spy. Urk, things are not looking good at all. :cry:

As Jeoffrey and Nigel prepare to leave, knowing they have literally nothing anymore that could help Kaito out of his predicament, the son Robert Cecil stops them. Heā€™s overheard the conversation, and (for a price) he is willing to lend a handā€¦ dun dun dun

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@ekg after giving it some thought last night, I think I will try to read chapter 2. If I need to persevere for an entire volume, might as well dip my toes in now, especially since you gave me a heads up of what happened. Sorry Iā€™ve been waffling so much on reading it or not; appreciate your patience. orz

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No need to apologize to me! Itā€™s entirely your decision! I only skimmed the bit in vol 2 as I have no wish to understand the details. ^^ in the end itā€™s not the end of the world if you donā€™t fully read a book. :slight_smile:

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Iā€™m going to adapt my reading strategy accordingly; normally I try to read a chapter in one shot, but Iā€™m going to be taking breaks when needed here, haha. It also helps if my mental image of certain characters isā€¦inventive. For example, Iā€™ve just met the Raven. So in my mind Iā€™ve decided to imagine a giant bird in the cell with Kaito. :stuck_out_tongue: Itā€™s the little things.

Iā€™m learning lots of jail vocabulary, if nothing else. Finally I know how to say ā€œearlobeā€ in Japanese.

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Lol. Ngl, I relate since a lot of body vocab I know has been learnt from reading, listening, or playing BL content. :joy:

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Slightly off topic, but do you have an account on Natively? Iā€™m always on the hunt for more BL to read :eyes:, so Iā€™d love to see the libraries of others with similar tastes.

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I donā€™t, but somewhere on my computer I have compiled a list of all BL I own. ^^; and drama CDs Iā€™ve listened to. I could give you a top 20 or so! ^>^

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Thatā€™d be great! Both books and CDs would be welcome; Iā€™m still working on the listening, and I need plenty of goals to aim for. :wink:

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Re Chapter 1:

My expectation would be that this payment usually goes by the name of bribery though :sweat_smile:
(which of course was and is common pretty much everywhere because humans)

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Finished chapter 2 somehow. So story time: I got the covid booster shot yesterday and woke up this morning feeling like crap. ā€œYes,ā€ I thought to myself, ā€œmy personal misery should outweigh Kaitoā€™s. Perfect plan.ā€ So I start reading the last eight pages of chapter 2 and Iā€™m doing pretty good. Kaito is unhappy, but I am also unhappy, and my immersion is broken as I wonder whether I feel bad enough to call out sick even though like half of my team at work is also out sick because of covid.

Then I get to, like, the last two or three pages. The Ravenā€™s description of his ancestor shoving a hot poker up Edward IIā€™s butt as a means of torture literally wiped away all feelings of pain I was currently experiencing, leaving only a void of cold. Dang. Thank gooood the Raven decided Kaito wasnā€™t lying. And thank god the chapter ended there; I donā€™t know if I would have had it in me to continue after that mental image.

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Good work getting through the chapter! :+1: And I hope you get better soon!

(Iā€™m also planning on having the booster, next week, and can only hope I donā€™t come down with anything). ^^;

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Chapter 9 thoughts

Kaito wakes up to his new worsened situation, immediately forced to face Walshingham. Urk! That canā€™t be a nice way to wake up. Walshingham is eager to get Kaito to spill the details of what happened in the isolation cell, but as the conversation progress, Kaito becomes increasingly reckless, imo, in what he choose to say. Still, itā€™s not for the worse this time. But neither is it changing anything for the better. Walshingham is not one to change his mind, clearly. And since Jeoffrey is back, Kaito has until morning before heā€™s face his judgement. *dun dun

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I finished chapter 3 last night!

Two trains of thought on this chapter: wow, all the political talk, and :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:. Ahem. So, first, all of Jeoffreyā€™s schemeing/research into the major groups at the court. I honestly probably shouldā€™ve made a diagram or something while they were talking, but I think I more or less followed everything okay. I guess ultimately all you need to know is that he plans on getting one of them (the name escapes me atm) on Kaitoā€™s side by getting him to join as a sponsor for Jeoffreyā€™s voyages, since the man loves making money and privateering is really lucrative.

Iā€™m definitely a proponent of this idea; Kaito needs a firm ally in court, even one whoā€™s only motivated by greed. I donā€™t have a lot of hope of Jeoffrey and Nigel finding much useful evidence in proving Kaitoā€™s innocence. :confused:

And the second part of this chapterā€¦ Phew. It aaaalmost makes up for chapter 2. Almost. So I thought it was nice to see confirmation that Nigel liked Kaito in the same way that Jeoffrey does; I had been under the impression that it was more like brotherly love, but this definitely throws a wrench into things. I can definitely foresee future drama with this situation; itā€™s a really hard one to be in, given Jeoffrey and Nigelā€™s previous friendship.

Now that Kaitoā€™s harem has grown, I eagerly await Vicenteā€™s entrance into it. Just gotta get out of jail firstā€¦

Iā€™m also happy to report that the covid booster ills appear to be a one and done thing; I woke up this morning feeling great. :muscle::muscle::muscle:

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