MEME: Arranged Marriage AU

[frozenfractals]

We were craving a meme, so after some digging around, we've got something new and different for you guys, with a huge hat-tip to the bakerstreet RP memes comm (original post here). Let's get some of those marriage feels sorted.

Time to get your faux-historical/fantasy novel on. For today's meme, your pup is getting married, whether they want to or not. It's arranged marriages time!

HOW IT WORKS
❧ Post a comment with your character's name and any preferences. This should include whether you're open to full threads or mostly dialogue, Test Drive-style, if you have a preference.
❧ If there's a specific set of circumstances you like best, set the scene.
❧ Or leave your comment blank and let others use RNG to choose the scenario. Feel free to mix and match.
❧ Or even just write drabbles to any (or none) of the prompts.
❧ Please note the prompts below are merely suggestions and you're more than welcome to come up with your own situation.
❧ Have fun!

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR MARRIAGE
1) Station → You come from a royal, noble, or otherwise distinguished family who has chosen a suitable spouse for you.
2) Feud → You are being married to put an end to the bitter enmity between your two families.
3) Economics → Your economic state and/or your station will improve through the union, though one of you may be marrying down.
4) Empire → You and your spouse are merging your businesses and/or property to create something more influential or profitable.
5) Tribute → You have been offered as a gift or appeasement; alternately you're the spoils of war.
6) Bloodline → Carrying on your distinguished family name has fallen to you and the equally well-bred spouse of your family's selection.
7) Disapproval → Your marriage has been arranged to keep you away from the person with whom you truly wish to be.

POSSIBLE SCENARIOS
1) First meeting → This is the very first time you're meeting your future spouse.
2) Courtship → To get to know each other and encourage affection, your family has approved of you going on dates.
3) Engagement party → Be it a huge, formal affair or a small, intimate get together, you're celebrating (or pretending).
4) Wedding day → The big day!
5) Reception → The big party!
6) Wedding night → Every meme needs a smut prompt, right?
7) Honeymoon → Where will you go with your new spouse and what will you do there?

Comments

[frozenfractals]

Elsa of Arendelle is not interested, thank you

[somepoorsoul]

[Because the AU all but writes itself. I'm sorry, Elsa.]

It all happens so quickly.

Olivier de la Fere will not be marrying the woman he loves. It doesn’t matter that he is a grown man of twenty-three, and knows himself well enough to realize that he makes a better soldier on the battlefield than lord of a county, he does not have the strength he thought he had to refuse his father’s demand to break off his engagement with Anne, and the Comte de la Fere had acted quickly to ensure that his son did nothing so rash: marry a common girl from the village, and ruin their family’s reputation.

This girl is some sort of Swedish noblewoman; her family has more money and lands than her intended’s, if perhaps not more influence, but no one seems to ask too many questions about why Arendelle is so quick to marry off his eldest daughter and only heir. They come with servants and entourage of their own - they are trying to impress - and the de la Fere’s country estate feels full even before the guests arrive for the engagement party. The engaged couple barely has time to exchange hellos, though Olivier watches her in silence over dinner; appropriately, she is nothing like Anne, slight and pale, unsmiling and carefully controlled. Though, he supposes, she has as little reason to be happy as he does.

When the interminable dinner is finally over, a select few are ushered into the slightly more relaxed atmosphere of the drawing room, and the couple is as close to alone as they are likely to be until they are wed, as close as they can be with half a dozen servants and family members close at hand.

Finally, Olivier breaks the maddening, awkward silence between them. “One does begin to wonder what they expect us to do, exactly, with all of them watching us so closely.”

[frozenfractals]

It would be polite, Elsa knows, to speak first. If he's the kind of man who thinks a woman should wait to speak until spoken to, they'll never get along (though the match is already made, so what would it matter?). But the situation is unnerving, to say the least. The best she's been able to do thus far this even is keep quietly to herself, trying hard not to pluck at the fingers of her gloves and to keep her breathing steady. She will be calm, she will be graceful, she will be a lovely and appropriate bride, and she will not freeze this estate.

When Olivier speaks, she's unsure whether to be thankful or more nervous still, trying to measure out the meaning behind his words and the correct way to respond. "Get to know each other, I suppose," she says, glancing at their families and then back to him. She has no way of being sure what kind of man he is; she'd be a fool to trust the reports she's been given, undoubtedly curated to present him in his best light. Even so, focusing on him alone is easier to bear than thinking too much of the others. "Though these are hardly ideal conditions for that."

[somepoorsoul]

“Far from ideal,” he agrees with a ghost of a smile. Olivier can recognize when a person is choosing each word carefully; the girl is a master at it, with a mild politeness that never falters and tells him nothing about what lies beneath the cool surface. He can only reflect back the same impassivity, even as he thinks of the smiles Anne drew from him, the laughter. In sharp contrast, he and Elsa will be standing beside each other in silence for the rest of their lives, a handsome couple who never speaks.

Not so very different from his own parents.

Olivier has always been awful at smalltalk - at most talk, frankly - and this is no exception. As the silence again stretches, he ducks his head uncertainly. “I hope your travel here was uneventful."