HOW DOES IT FEEL?

you've pulled out all your stitches ! hubris is a bitch. JOHANNE GLÜCKSBURG DENMARK

[jchvnne]

sclenez​.

            ❝     aunt   johanne  !❞      selene   exclaims   as   she   beelines   it   towards   one   of   her   favorite   family   members  .      ❝     oh   how   i’ve   missed   you  !      how’ve   you   been   enjoying   the   festivities  ?      you    look   as   beautiful   as  ever  .      ❞    /   @jchvnne​​

‘ SELENE... ’  a smile curves her lips, stepping towards her, smoothly, seamlessly, gliding for the soft touch at her arm to press a warm kiss to her cheek. dear selene. always well-behaved. ‘ oh, not as lovely as you. i have, the dutch have done a — ’  okay job.  ‘ wonderful job. and yourself ? you should join in the stamping it’s quite entertaining. ’

[jchvnne]

‘ WELL ? ’  a hand lifts to rest at her hip.  ‘ has he spoken to you ? ’   /.  @nikelykke​

[jchvnne]

‘ i’m worried about her. i mean we knew she was capable, and she came through as usual, but...  throwing herself into this wedding with this much gusto i... ’  her head shakes slowly with a sigh. tekla has made seeming okay into performance art. ‘ how does she seem to you ? really ? ’    /.  @thcrc​

[jchvnne]

aurcls​:​

“ the beauty of having good friends is that the foundations of trust and goodwill were already built before this marriage. no need to worry about anyone scheming against crowns. ” it’s his right to be patronizing, when experience and history proves coenraad’s claim true. two raised fingers summon a waiter and a tray of beer flutes, hand opening to gesture for aurel to take a glass. “ it was the helles you liked? enjoy. and if it’s finances your father is struggling with, tell him it’s much more productive to set a meeting than send a novice to gamble. ” / @aurcls​

“ you guys really took one comment personally. ” he looked between the fossils. a hint of a smile left on his face anymore. it was nice to notice that someone else was being more inappropriate than he was. “ is this really the sort of diplomacy two experienced monarchs practice ? a glass of beer doesn’t really make up for insulting us. ” his hands remained far from the glass. “ i think you’re forgetting what stood between france and you because i can tell you it was not belgium. ” he turned his head just slightly towards the dane. “ nor was it the croÿs’ influence. we can talk about morals if you’d like. i like my chances. ”

“ is your idea of diplomacy attending something as a guest, insulting the hosts and then using age as an excuse ? again i thought we were all joking here. if you can’t take what you’re dishing out, i suggest you occupy your mouth with eating and drinking instead. you can compare moral apples to oranges all you like, it won’t change how people see you. if you listen instead of running your mouth so much you might learn something. viggo and armani organised this party this way so you could enjoy yourself instead of calling something stuffy, plain, old and boring. you don’t have to appreciate it. but you don’t have stain his majesty’s hospitality either. ”

[jchvnne]

princesten​.

“ I DON’T KNOW, maybe at least wait until tomorrow to talk about this ?   i’m not leaving tonight. ”   he DEFINITELY didn’t want to talk to his father about this—at this rate, he just wants this conversation to be over, lips pressed together so tightly the color starts to change in them. he crossed a line attending the party and he knows it, but he still doesn’t understand :   why must everything be so black and white ?   “ i hear you, ”   he tells her—a bit stiffly, but he does.   “ it won’t be a problem again, i promise. i’ll speak to selene and nike. ”

does she believe him ? she’s not sure. they have let him stray too far, given him too much. ‘ this better not be because you think it’s what i want to hear. ’   and if he simply curates his words just because he got caught, she’ll hear about it. she will make sure of that. ‘ go on. go have fun.’ 

[jchvnne]

tvkla​.​

the narrow skirt of her dress has her feet scurrying tiny steps to match tekla’s — her sister-in-law !! — steps. why does her pulse suddenly quicken the moment her toe breeches the threshold ? the nerves somewhat dissipate when she’s greeted by johanne’s embrace, but her spine straightens nonetheless. must she be so gracious, even when lifting a velvet box ? when the outermost jewels catch the light, her shoulders slacken with an unconfined gasp, fingers reaching for tekla’s. wrist raises, parallel to the box, revealing matching jewels. the feeling was akin to being accepted into an exclusive club that people only dared to speak legends of. “ you had these made for me ? ”     * / @tvkla​

she lets ani lace her fingers through her own and squeezes a little. “ we did ! now you have the full set. ”  the magic ani is feeling is one she remembers well. like it was just yesterday. another one has joined the the family !  “ something that will last. ”  [ @jchvnne​ ]

“  you don’t have to try them on now, we can keep these for you with your things. ”  hands clasp together, looking from tekla, who will take her place, to armani, who... well... who she’s watched grow. her vision blurs and she blinks rapidly, drawing in a measured breath. “ you’ll take care of each other. ”  a finger lifts at tekla in reminder. “ your responsibility has increased. ”  it is the next step for tekla, to guide someone on the right path. inspire. she’ll need it when she is queen. she smiled at ani. “ i hope you like them ? ”  copying viggo’s design hadn’t been easy, but the designer they had used had done a beautiful job.

[jchvnne]

aurcls​.​

no wonder the german prince was friends with the tazmanian – they both shared the same irritating grin and distinct lack of etiquette. “ you’d do well to slip a ‘ congratulations ’ somewhere in there next time, that…winning smile won’t get you far with any of her majesties. ” had the hohenzollerns really fallen to such an embarrassing state? “ ah no need, his father must be used to his people making plays behind his back. the boy is old enough to stand behind his words – aren’t you? ” / @aurcls​

“ a massive fan of humour that one. you wouldn’t believe it, your majesty. ” he was fairly sure he had seen the russian old crow smile more times than he had seen his father smile. “ oh ! of course, the father of the bride and the mother of the groom — you’re pretty much the stars of the show. congratulations. ” on making a miracle happen, he wanted to add. “ you’re technically in-laws now. how does it feel ? ” maybe if he spoke quickly and endlessly, he’d be able to bite his tongue and keep his own comments about burning palaces to himself. “ you want to profit off of your children ? that’s certainly interesting… i do feel it’s kind of an unfair bet when you can just force them to stick it out a few extra months if it starts looking like i’d win. ”

she smiles evenly. ‘ ooh, and let you take money off strangers to profit off of our children instead ?  doesn’t seem very appealing. it’s an interesting set of morals you have, i’ll give you that. i thought this was about having a sense of humour, are you feeling threatened ?  don’t worry, dear. have more beer.  ’  this is what happens when her son panders to ‘young people’ things. the young people complain about it being young.  /.  @cocnraad​

[jchvnne]

aurcls​:

“ regret doesn’t stop you from living and learning – though in your father’s case, he seems to given up any hope of improvement. no wonder he never shared this wisdom with you. or any, for that matter. where is he, by the way? ”

if it wasn’t the king who lived himself ! aurel flashed the older man a very wide smile. the sort that charmed older aunt persons. as far as aurel, it did not work on kings. “ loosen up, your majesty. viggo’s sense of humour can handle a bit of roasting. it’s a party. ” and obviously, with the game going on, it was not supposed to be the most elegant one. “ he’s here somewhere with mom. he was impressed by the beer selection. you even sneaked in a few authentic helles. ” bavarian though. not the coolest option.

why is it always the beer?  ‘ oh, but mine can’t. i’ll take that bet. our coffers could use a bit more. shall i have someone summon your father ? he loves jokes doesn’t he ?  ’  he must ! look at his 26 year old son !  /.  @cocnraad​

[jchvnne]

nike and johanne calling out convenience = def family

[jchvnne]

princesten​.

“ DO WE REALLY HAVE TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW ? ”   sten’s jaw sets tightly as he holds back everything he wants to say, knowing it’ll only fall on deaf ears. he’s already apologized to her, who else does she want him to do it to ?   nike, who likely put him in this mess to begin with ?   “ viggo JUST got married. and if nike or selene were really upset by any of this, i’d like to think they’re mature enough to tell me themselves. my loyalty shouldn’t be questioned just because of this. ”   and it stings because it is anyway, a stain on a night he had been looking forward to for his brother. 

‘ oh, am i inconveniencing you ?  are you feeling embarrassed ?  how do you think i’m feeling hm ?  when else am i supposed to talk to you ? when you’re gallivanting, off to god knows where, or when you’re on a flight to canada ? if you don’t want to do this right now with me, you’re more than welcome to have it out with your father, but i can tell you how it will end. ’  with significantly less freedom. then what will they have ? not a son, a prisoner. ‘ oh i don’t think so. your actions are so loud and obvious they would have rather not questioned your intelligence. they don’t have to explain themselves to you. you are in no position to expect that kind of respect from them. no one is telling you to toilet paper their house, punch their brother or kill their pets, you can be civil and keep your distance, but that is not what is happening here, is it ? you can’t expect to ride in on white horse for everybody that is not how it works. loyalty is priorities sten. you are not picking the right ones. ’ 

[jchvnne]

princesten​.

HIS SMILE DISAPPEARS FROM HIS FACE PAINFULLY SLOW, realization seeping into him about what this conversation is actually about. fucking nike. he’ll kill her.   “ mor… ”   this is NOT the place to be having this conversation, glancing around to see if anybody’s listening in.   “ i’m sorry, ”   he finally says, willing himself to look back at her.   “ i’ve just… i’ve known miray and hafiz for a long time. my fr— me talking to them doesn’t mean i agree with their father or brother, but you’re right, i shouldn’t have gone. it wasn’t appropriate. ”   there’s nothing he CAN do but apologize ;   he’s not going to make a promise he can’t keep, and he knows better than to argue when she’s like this.

SHARP GAZE doesn’t miss one single twitch he makes. ‘ your fr — what, your friends ?  and how long have you known nike and selene, our family ? since last week ?  tell me, did either of these girls disavow their father and brother ?  i think we would all have heard of it, no ?  did either of them express their regret to either nike or selene ?  have they taken any steps to help them ? ’  a finger raises slowly. ‘ don’t. this complex of yours comes from the arrogance of someone whose every problem has been taken care of. you feel entitled to the greeks’ goodwill — i’ll tell you now, you are not. i might have expected this kind of idiocy from your brother, but not from you. before the flights back to canada, you will apologise. ’

[jchvnne]

olivicr​:

vcra​:

“  that’s not a bad idea, sask, but freja is my niece, even my sister doesn’t know what to think, how will i explain that ?  they’re so close. ”  and if this spawns sol’s non-existent stubborn streak, it’s another thing on the mountain of problems to deal.  “ maybe i’ll work on the older ones first. ”  it’s a delicate matter, sweden is somehow in the middle, they don’t condone this !   “ oh don’t worry dear, you’re not in trouble. ”  coenraad, is already staring the boy stiff. she shoots him a look. “ we were just wondering, if you knew who that boy is over there. just so we know the appropriate title of course. are you friends ? ”   [ @olivicr or @cocnraad​ ]

“ oh i know, vera, i have kept my fist at my side — behaved, i mean. ” he grinned at the crowd before turning to search for the ‘boy’ the older generation was going crazy about. “ ah… ” oh sweet sol what have you done ! “ appropriate title, of course, it has nothing to do with the way his hand is barely high enough to be on her waist. ” he almost said the other way around: but not even he dared to use the word ‘ass’ in front of his mother. “ jelani mwezi. tanzania. you know him, ” he was talking past his father, at his mother. saskia might have had a chance at knowing him, coenraad not. “ olimpia’s ex. i think the previous breakup was the fifth… ? no, seventh… ? hey not even they know for sure so don’t expect me to. always glued to hohenzollern. ”

a low hum sounds at the back of her throat. ‘  tanzania. ’   as if it’s the only important thing.  ‘ well then, thank you olivier. ’  she blows him a brief kiss with her hand, that waves him away in the same sweeping motion. ‘ you may go now, ’  before his father says something no one wants him to hear. hands clasp in front of her. ‘ who’s going to say it ? will it be me ? ’  her left hand moves within its clasp to squeeze at her right wrist which swivel to show two fingers miming the snip of scissors. vera is liberal, but sol is different. ‘  i’m sure it’ll resolve itself anyway, these things don’t last with these children. ’  but does sol need to learn how to be treated like a piece of meat ?  /.  @saskiaelse, @cocnraad,

[jchvnne]

vcra​.​

back falls against his seat soundly – and not because he still tires easily – taking a sip to cover an amused grin. johanne’s interpretation of the dress code makes her look as though she’d been wrapped in tin foil. expensive tin foil, of course, but vera has certainly won this round. “ since when have you set such low standards for acceptable conduct. tonight is just the beginning – the reception is where we can expect the worst. ” the camera game invited such gauche behavior….but what ani wanted, ani got. / @vcra​ or @jchvnne​

“ we allowed quite a few known pairs of enemies here. you might take back you words. ” but at least none of her sons would be throwing punches ! the absence of the turkish had ensured that. “ vera, is that a new thing ? ” she gestured towards the youngest bernadotte and her date. one that she had been told olivier should be kept a safe distance away from. ( @vcra + whoever )

there it goes. now johanne’s statement carries more water, and the two of them will be at this until something actually happens. “ take it night by night, if i didn’t know any better, i’d call the two of you so morose. ”  they have security. they will have to trust that any one of them or their families will intervene in time. “ hmm ? where ? ”  eyes narrow, oh, she’s forgotten to wear her contacts despite the reminders she’d left herself. forefinger turns upright, hanging aloft.  “ i think that’s — oh, tack alskling, what would i do without you — ” she accepts the glasses nils pushes into her hand and puts them on with as much dignity as she can muster. that is most definitely not rohan. “  i have no idea who that is. i can’t keep up with her. which is saying a lot, you’d think she would have graduated by now. i’m still reeling from the time she said she wanted to be an army nurse !  ”  sol is an adult. the look on that boy’s face shouldn’t bother her so much. it doesn’t.   [  @jchvnne​  or hijack ]

‘  since i got shot, you went into a coma — sorry saskia, that bastard got murdered after his own trial, that italian also got shot, and nearly everything in between ? ’  hand comes up matter-of-factly directed at vera. ‘ what you call morose, i call realism. no wonder sol wanted to become an army nurse, there was market for it. very enterprising of her, you should be proud. she will graduate when she graduates, not everything is a race ! ask one of the children who the boy is, they should know. ’   /. @cocnraad​  or hijack!

[jchvnne]

tvkla​.

“  the cake will wait for you don’t worry. ”   it would have to, with not one, not two, but three major absences. she helps rearrange ani’s dress when she stands, holding her hands as they move away from the table. “ you, ”  she points to the second photographer, the one who she’s identified as the one who’d shoot in black and white, “ follow us please. thank you. ”  it feels a little silly, leading armani along in her own home, to the designated room, pushing the huge ornate double doors open. [ @jchvnne​ ]

the doors open and she turns, striding with a beam, hands braced to hold her second, ( the second ! )  daughter in law. tekla had organised this exceptionally well, arranged for the room with the dutch, the drinks, just in case, the transportation of the goods. all without a hitch, and johanne hadn’t had to lift one finger. it’s rare for someone to offer to take something off one’s plate, to actually do so without need for rectification.  ‘   ani darling. ’   the embrace is soft, and brief. she waits for tekla to take her place at her side before continuing. ‘  now between festivities and you enjoying your honeymoon after, there won’t be time, so we thought, we’d welcome you to the family properly. in our way. you’re one of us now. ’   she picks up the velvet box, and opens it carefully, the jewels glittering in the light. ‘ from us to you, armani catherina glücksburg van oranje-nassau, ’  /. @armanicatherina​

[jchvnne]

princesten​.

“ IT IS, ”   he says slowly, as if in thought. there’s no denying the validity of the statement, and sten’s proud of his country—just as he’s proud of viggo today.   “ but we’ve already had that alliance with them for years now. viggo and armani aren’t a recent pairing, ”   he adds, lightly.   “ but i understand what you’re saying, and i get it. i just want you to enjoy yourself, because this was several years in the making. forget the history books for right now, and have some fun. we could dance ? ”   dimples flash at her in jest, though had they not just gotten fresh drinks, he’d be offering his hand instead.

‘ some things that are binding last for generations. ’  a friendship lasted for only one. these days, barely even that. ‘ oh ! do you ?  do you ? ’ her head moves sharply into a tilt, gaze piercing with the precision of the tip of a knife-blade through him. she does not smile back. ‘ because i’m very confused to be hearing, sten glücksburg, my sten glücksburg is enjoying parties, friendships, neighbourly relations with people making an unabashed grab for control, from greece under the pretext of ‘building defences’. who rules greece i wonder ? oh, that’s right, glücksburgs. now what do you think that suggests ? i’d love to know. i’ve been trying to come up with excuses for you all evening and all of them sound like fragrant bullshit to me, and i’ve been alive decades longer than you, that’s quite the feat.  ’  

[jchvnne]

princesten​.

HE’S SEEN THAT LOOK enough times in his life to know when he’s veering into a trap, but they’re out in public and it’s been months since he’s seen his mother, so sten attempts to placate her.   “ viggo and armani. ”   it’s not the answer she’s looking for and he knows it, but that’s what today means to him.   “ and the union of denmark and holland. ”

the first response, while not untrue, on its own, from his mouth, is painfully naïve, and superficial. the second is a rehearsed answer fishing for what she might want to hear. it’s taxing really, as if she and frederik don’t have this tactic jousted at them ad nauseam on a daily basis. ‘ viggo and armani, ’  she confirms. ‘ it is a union, it is love, it is also creation, a new foundation is being created, here, ’  her finger swivels around the room on its axis, ‘ in the palace that nearly burned down, overseen by the king who nearly burned with it because someone thought it would make them powerful, to cut something at its root. the two houses are pledging to uphold each other and safeguard each other’s names, proud to coexist. i think that’s beautiful. don’t you agree ? ’

[jchvnne]

viggc​.

“ i already made a reference during the vows, isn’t that enough ? ” he pulled his chin back, away from his mother’s affectionate touch, and shot her a grin. “ it’s a young people thing, you don’t get it. ”

brows lift and her lips pucker innocently in thought, ‘ what’s a young people thing, giving ani a plastic cup in suburban canada, to be the thing she remembers for the rest of her life or the world’s most prolific and unwanted campaign for beer superiority ? ’  he said it during his vows, he’ll say it to everyone at this party and he’ll probably say it again for his reception speech. her abrupt grin is as wide as his — the original of his imitation. ‘  tekla gave your name eluctari, and now you’ve washed it with beer, lowering couples’ standards everywhere. well done !  try not to drink too much. you’ll become an example.  ’