Video Unseelie Locked

[huntedby]

[Vanessa turns on her locket, placing it on the table. She looks...much better than she had before. In fact, people can catch glimpses of a wedding dress.

She looks resigned, tension in her face, her chin held high. And yet...well.]

As of this morning, I am no longer Lady Vanessa Ives.

[She looks down at her hands for a moment, then back at the screen. She taps into her ability to remain stoic in the face of horrible things. The public does not need to know how much this angers her, or how helpless she feels.]

To better Arachne's Eye, Queen Morla has decided that it would be best for me to marry.

I agreed.

[As she was given no real choice.]


Henceforth, you would do well to refer to me by my husband Balem's last name, Abrasax.

[Yep. Lady Vanessa Abrasax. Wife to Balem. Lovely. She knows very well who is getting the most out of this deal. And it is not her.]

We have worked out the logistics, and while we are married, I will still spend a great deal of my time at my Spire, and will continue to be open to any of those who need to speak with me.

My plans...to make sure the Seelie pay, are unchanged. Just delayed.

[Her goal is still a fixed point.]

...apologies who anyone who wished to attend the wedding.

Comments

Video

[withbite]

[He isn't sure whether to laugh or console her.

Laughing wins out. There's a stifled chuckle before he tries to compose himself, not doing a good job of it.]

Congratulations. Unless you're into one of those open marriages, I guess I missed my chance to get you to loosen up a little.

Video

[huntedby]

[Balem never told her she couldn't cuckhold him.

She purses her lips, but accepts his laughter.]

You would half to ask him.

Perhaps he would enjoy sharing.

Video

[benumbing]

The Queen decided.

[Yeah, this is bothering him on levels. But she does go on to say that she agreed.]

Your spire seemed in order when I last visited.

[Though there was that mysterious warning he was bid to deliver.]

Video | Private

[huntedby]

Your warning--what you brought to me...

...it happened. Morla feels I need to be contained.

And so it is.

video; private

[boutant]

Would you like to come over, when you have a chance?

[ She's not sure how Vanessa feels about this, and she doesn't want to ask over the network. Besides, she feels like her friend might appreciate a change in scenery. ]

video; private

[huntedby]

I would like that a great deal, actually.

[It has been far too long.]

action;

[entitles]

[Yeah, he's still there. They were just married after all, even if the ceremony was small.]

Try not to act too miserable about it. I don't want to lose allies, if they think I've hurt you.

action;

[huntedby]

[Vanessa sighs, pressing her lips together.]

I do not blame you for taking advantage of such an offer, Balem.

[She looks up at him, putting out a hand to him.]

I'm more angry with Morla.

She could have chosen worse.

video | private.

[fulminants]

[ uh................ what, now? ]

You don't look happy with it.

video | private.

[huntedby]

It isn't what I expected.

[She is worried Morla is watching.]

private, text.

[erythristic]

Vanessa, I am so sorry.

private, text.

[huntedby]

Are you, Grell?

I may not remember everything.

But I know you attempted to help my enemy.

video.

[uneulogized]

This is bullshit.

[Is this actually a thing they're doing now?]

video.

[huntedby]

Regardless, it has happened.

[She had no choice.]

I have my Spire. That is all that matters.

Video

[ragnarock]

[ Her eyebrows shoot up, and she chokes down a disbelieving noise that's half laugh and half gag. ]

Bullshit.

[ She has no idea who Vanessa is and she's said like three words over lockets to Balem, but please, enjoy that profound thought on a) marrying people over a thousand years old and b) the Unseelie monarchs arranging marriages. ]

Video

[huntedby]

Who are you, and why do you care?

[...though she does appreciate the sentiment?]

Audio

[gordianknots]

You want monthly shipments of plates to break?

Audio

[huntedby]

I would like one person to tell me I make a beautiful bride, you know. I never thought I'd become one.

[edgar_of_etheria]

Congratulations, my lady.

[huntedby]

Oh yes, congratulations. You seem the only one happy about this.

Video

[ofmyth]

One might expect gladder tidings of a wedding than this.

[Thor likes neither her look nor her tone as she relays the news. The realities of political life and advantageous marriages be damned.]

Video

[huntedby]

Are political marriages supposed to be happy occasions?

audio;

[uncertaindestiny]

[She always sits with the locket a short distance from her. She doesn't like seeing the pictures. The voices are bad enough, but it does make communication easier. So, she puts up with it.]

Congratulations.

[And she sounds like she means it. In a very formal way.]

Your husband seems to be quite ambitious and intelligent.

Queen Morla chose well, I believe.

[Arranged marries are, to her, simply the way of the world for women of importance. Even her own father had been talking about marrying her off to an important noble of the Earth Kingdom to solidify her position of queen there. Until the rebels had become too aggravating and he decided to simply sweep their resistance away instead of letting her retain her title.]

audio;

[huntedby]

He is ambitious, yes. And as I am more powerful than him, in marrying me, he gains standing, and I gain nothing.

So there is very little that should be congratulated. At least at my end.

video;

[survivra]

[ nope nope nope nope nOPE NOPE NOPE ]

Vanessa—Lady Ives—[ for that's who she is, after all—

Katsa is clearly mad enough to be struggling for words. ]

Queen Morla told you to marry? For the sake of a blazing spire?

[ oh there are GOING TO BE WORDS ]

And for all our supposed high ideals about choice and freedom and refusing to bind...

Do you love him?

video;

[huntedby]

No, of course not.

[Love. What a silly, terrible, horrible thought. Something she would never be allowed.]

I am not happy with it, but Balem is not the worst choice.

video;

[vaccinations]

Uhh, I'd say congrats, but being told to get married seems a little fucked up. I mean, I know she's the queen and all but... shit.

[She's clearly very perturbed by the very idea of this. She's not a romantic by any means but who wants to get forced into something like that?]

video;

[huntedby]

People in power are forced into arrange marriages through the history of time. Sadly, this is not any different.

text;

[digophelia]

[ Alice can't really say she's surprised to see an arranged marriage, even in Drabwurld. Women are married in their time to people they deemed financially stable. More importantly. ]

I am glad to see you well again, Miss Vanessa.

[ By the looks of it, she has enough grief. ]

text;

[huntedby]

I am glad to be well again, as well. And you?

Voice; private

[wasteofbreath]

[He can't quite bring himself to look at her yet, he'd mostly just listened to the broadcast with the locket turned over. It wasn't that he couldn't stand the sight of her, but that he could see the... whatever it was when he looked at her, the thing that was responsible for his current state. He imagined, maybe, that it was similar to how his father probably couldn't shake the way Simon had looked the night he'd killed his mother. Not that he hadn't realized that before, of course, only now he knew how it felt.

As to her announcement, he's not so sure, he hasn't got much to say on it, not until he gets some answers to his questions, then he can form an opinion, if it's what it looks like. Besides, he'd been in no state to answer her last broadcast.

He's a bit quiet when he speaks, the locket resting on his chest as he stares up at the ceiling of his room in Caer Scima.] Your last broadcast, you said there was darkness in you. What is it? What happened to you-- Who did I meet when I was at your Spire? Who-- [He stops, wondering then if she even remembers any of what was said or seen when she wasn't herself.]

Voice; private

[huntedby]

She is the devil's beloved. Amunet. Bride of the devil, mother of all evil.

[She sighs, shaking her head.]

I am sorry, for whatever she did to you. I remember little.