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

[spirit_of_vitriol]

"She must've drunk out of the wrong punchbowl," Flavia replied, joining Coraline at the railing. "Or the right one."

A lifetime of observing people, looking for hints or clues, cannot be shut off so easily. And Coraline's preoccupation was easy to trace; the woman ranging through the crowd below, lithe and lanky, scavenging cakes and glasses of champagne from the tables and trays. Talk was, she'd been raised by wolves, or close to; locked away from society in a forest clearing. It was like something out of Daphne's novels.

Not that Flavia's current situation wasn't, too--the de Luces may have had the house (moldering and drafty), the grounds (ill-kept), the good name (well, the better-bred one), but it was Coraline's family who had the money.

Keeping up with the Joneses was, evidently, more than just a tiresome American expression.

[imcoraline]

"I thought the poisoned one was supposed to make them break out into hives," Coraline replied, glancing at Flavia- her best chum- before draping an arm around her. If she had to be married to someone, at least it was someone she liked. Even if she wasn't sure about the rest of the malarkey, then again things hadn't been the same since she'd left the grand estate of Tabula Rasa for a house that was mostly ill-kept, drafty and a little moldy in places. "I still can't believe she'd ingest anything we'd keep lying around, your sister is very... trusting."