@mydearestladylannister / aย privateย writingย account belonging to the roleplay group happiestplacehqย as lady , known in Redwood Hollow as lady Lannister.ย basedย ย onย ย theย disney filmย from 1955 'LADY AND THE TRAMPย written ย byย ย Naomi (ย she/her,ย ย 29,ย gmt+1-2ย ).ย
Lady surveyed the crowd with the unwavering focus of a hawk circling its prey. Becoming a duchess had changed many things about her life, but it had done precious little to dull the instincts forged through years of police work. Once a cop, always a copโthat old saying rang true enough. Her gaze swept effortlessly from face to face until a discarded paper cup arced through the air and landed carelessly on the ground.
She was moving before she'd even consciously decided to, closing the distance with the effortless authority that had once made seasoned criminals think twice. Her voice cut cleanly through the festival chatter, sharp enough to turn more than one head.
"Pick that up," she ordered, fixing the culprit with a look that brooked no argument. "Before I fine you for littering."
The lady wears her wedding ring proudly, letting it gleam wherever she goes, for she is Guinโs wife, and her love and devotion are a constant adornment to her presence.
โDonโt worry, I wonโt drink your blood tonight,โ Lady chuckled, her fangs catching the faint light like a threat wrapped in silk. It was a jokeโmostly. Unless, of course, it was Guin, and she got one of her rare, frisky ideas. But that was hardly likely in their carefully constructed farce of a marriage.
Sometimes, though, the pretense gnawed at her. Lady would find herself watching Guin from across the room, the candlelight tracing the edges of her face, and feel an ache she couldnโt quite name. It was ridiculous, she thoughtโlike a dog chasing after a sausage, only to catch it and realize it had already spoiled. Wanting something she couldnโt have, and knowing that even if she could, it wouldnโt taste the way she imagined. Still, the chase was its own kind of tormenting pleasure, and Lady was nothing if not addicted to torment.
It was quite late by now, and after the encounter with one Miss Aphrodite, Guinevere had been drinking more and more to loosen up and feel a bit more relaxed. The "just a bit more" soon turned into "a bit too much". She asked for a glass of water, and had a slightly uncouth gulp, hoping that could sober her up a little. I should eat a little, she thought, even though she wasn't really hungry. Nibbling at a bread roll, she got up and looked around. She had remembered she had told Lady to meet her there at the feast. Their seats weren't quite near each other, since Guinevere's had been slightly closer to the ones reserved to the town's outstanding citizens and founding families.
Lady had been walking around, and after she met with Oz she found herself quite flustered. She soon found the sole friend, her companion through the worst of her days, and walked over to her with a small polite bow. "Hello, Guinevere." She said with a smile, but that smile soon faltered. "Can I borrow you for a bit, I have something I need to tell you."
"Lady! I was wondering where you had gone," Guinevere said, with a smile and some quite uncharacteristic enthusiasm. "Are you enjoying yourself?" She was a bit tipsy, yes, but she quickly noticed the twitch in Lady's lips. Something had happened. She frowned.
"Of course," she said, lowering her voice and taking her aside so they wouldn't be bothered by the chatter and noise of the other guests. "What's the matter?"
"I uhm..." She wasn't sure what to say, a bit taken aback with how wellspoken guin was being, was she? Was she drunk?
"No, I'm not." She sighed.
"It's my parents, they want me to marry someone, so I can take over the household and become duchess." She sighed. "I was hoping to get a relationship with Oz, but I'm close to giving up, I also do not wish to marry a stranger-" She didn't want to be a breeding tool for the sake of her lineage. "I don't know what to do, Guin."
She gave a little sigh. After a brief moment of doubt, she reached out for Lady's hand and gave it a light squeeze.
"Did he reject you?" she asked her. "Or does he keep stalling, like a coward?" Guinevere knew about Lady's fixation on Mr Borror, something she still didn't quite understand. "Why did you want to marry him, anyways? You barely know him. It would be the same as marrying a stranger." Then again, in moments of desperation, one had to assume, it seems right to make a quick decision rather than none at all. Besides, Mr Borror did have the casino money, apart from a bad boy sort of style that by now Guinevere knew Lady was partial to.
"What options do we have left?" she asked her firmly, sobering up. "Forced marriage for your family, rushed marriage as a last resort... What else? Can't you do something so they can never find you?"
Lady muttered to herself but relaxed when Guin gave her hand a squeeze. "He didn't reject me, but he didn't say anything either." She wanted to be swept away, be claimed like a price, treated like a treasure. But here she was chasing a man, she wondered if she was nothing but a bother to him. "He's handsome!"
She said for starters. "But he's also kind and looks after his kids". She cannot explain it, but he's like a diamond in the rough.
His money did help - for the downer and all that jazz. "You mean aside from jumping off a cliff?" She bitterly laughed. "They have hired many private investigators. They know where I am - "
Guinevere laughed. "Yes, I suppose he is," she nodded. He was just not her usual type. "So you like them kind. Noted," she commented as she raised her eyebrows and made a small head bow. "But I'm sure you can find someone else, just as kind, and that can be more interested in you than him. If he can't see a good thing in front of him, why do you keep pursuing him? He'll think you desperate." And that was certainly a no-no for Guinevere.
She chuckled at Lady's little dark joke. "Okay, so escaping again is not possible... Alright, listen," she sighed, resting a hand on her hip. "Would it really be so bad, if you were married to this stranger? I mean, you'd be set for life. And you'd be living like a queen, too. Being a duchess sounds like an amazing privilege, when you think about it."
" I don't know, I did like the bad boy part as well." She admitted. What attracted her the most was something dangerous.
"Yeah...if only..." She didn't finish that sentence. If only Oz would like her, love her even. She was an attractive young woman. And she did not need to be a mother, she would be fine with being childless, but she would give him kids if that was what he wanted.
Because she had fallen for him.
"I don't want to be married to a stranger..."
She really did not want to marry someone she did not know. "Why be a queen if all you have to do is spread your legs and give them an heir...." She shook her head.
"I can't Guin I just can't."
She could only smirk at that. She could identify with that at least a little. The nicest guys were usually the dullest, in her experience. But then again, she had only had had short-lived flings with those types. Nice ones, like supposedly Mr Borror was, were the ones you settled with. And it was clear Lady had her eyes set on him. Still, she had to try one last time, to make sure Layd knew what she was turning away from.
"Look, back in the day, I wasn't sure if I truly loved Mr Bแบกch, when he asked me to marry him. We talked quite a few times before that, but still, it all felt like it was happening so fast." Now Guinevere knew she had to tread carefully with what she said next. "But, with time, I learned to love him. Maybe that will happen to you too."
And then Guinevere realized, if Lady gives up and goes back to marry that guy, she will leave Redwood Hollow. She would leave for good. I wouldn't have her around anymore, my only friend... She should have held her tongue. This is what I get for trying to be nice.
"Alright. I see, I understand. It would only be a job to have, a rather unpleasant job... But we'll think of something," she said, in her best sympathetic voice. And then she chuckled a bit. "It really would be much easier if you weren't such a romantic."
Lady huffed at the idea of being a romantic.
Was she?
"You cannot tell me you were happy to be in that position. Truly happy." She had seen the way Sofia had been treated by Guin briefly, but it was enough to make her realize Guin held little love for the girl.
"I'd be better off marrying you," she said as a matter of a joke. But it was kind of the truth. Guin was like a female oz, dangerous but beautiful. And she has always treated Lady as a true friend.
"I guess we will..." She felt a bit overcome with stress. Her body was tense, and she felt tired, but that could be blamed on the alcohol in her system.
"It was for the best. I wouldn't want to break the poor man's heart, you see," she said, bringing her hands together. "And at the end of the day, marriage is rarely about happiness... If ever. Sure, at first it's about being obsessed with one another, about the flames burning bright, but after a while... The cold sets in." Guinevere made sure to add some bitterness to her words. It wasn't as if she really felt bad about it, obviously. At least not now. She had learned her lesson, and at the end of the day, it had been a valuable one. "The marriage with Mr Bแบกch was about securing a deal. He knew it, deep inside. That made us happy. We both got what we wanted."
Guinevere chuckled. Maybe Lady should drink more often, she thought, and picked another glass of wine from the table and had a long sip. She really is funny this way. But her joke had her thinking. She brought down her glass, and lightly frowned, her mind slowly stringing her words together into an idea. "What if...?"
It was a silly idea. Guinevere smiled to herself, truly amused by the sheer thought of it. Then she looked at Lady, who didn't seem in the mood to really smile at all.
"What if you truly married me?"
Lady couldn't think of marriage as only a deal. She couldn't believe that people would stay together if the flame had died down. But maybe that was the issue with Lady in the first place. She wasn't a flame. She was a storm, a volcano of some sort.
Furthermore, she believed to have fire for both of them.
She was thinking about her joke when she frowned at Guin. Who seemed to have been thinking about something.
"Is that a proposal?" Lady laughed weakly. "Guin you need to go home you are clearly drunk." She said, but then she halted.
"It would never work, would it..." Her parents wouldn't accept that, would they?
She smiled wider, gave a little cock of her head and a little shrug, too. "Think about it. You know me well enough by now, which already puts me at an advantage over Mr Borror," Guinevere thought out loud. She had an inkling of knowledge that Lady had dated another man before, so maybe she wasn't interested in women at all. Regardless, it would just be pretend. She just hoped, for her own sake, that Lady was a decent actress.
"You know I can give you a nice, comfortable life. Sofia's around, so you don't need to worry about cooking or doing chores. If you want to marry me, you will be able to do whatever you want. You'd be as free as you are right now... Maybe even more free, without the weight of that responsability on your shoulders."
She had another sip of her glass, and chuckled. "You might even... You understand me. Maybe this will even make Mr Borror jealous."
Lady bit her lips, Lady was not straight if that was anything of Guin's concerns. It probably wasn't. Shed never see Lady that way. And in a way, Lady saw Guin as her closest friend. Being married to your best friend would be any girl's dream, and yet, her heart was still with oz.
But what she loves more than Oz is her freedom.
"Alright." She had thought about the pros and cons and decided there and then.
" I will marry you IF you do it properly." She sneakily smirked. " That is I want it announced in this hall, ask me to marry you Guin for everyone to hear."
She hummed. "Seal it with a kiss for all I care, after all we will be wives."
She made a sort of grimace at Lady's request. If it was up to her, she'd just walk to the town hall and sign the papers and be done with it. "I'm not that drunk, Lady. Besides, it's your choice, not mine," she reminded her. "I'm just doing you a favor. I'll be kind and not expect you to pay right away."
That would be funny, admittedly. But it would also mark her as taken to the whole town. And she wasn't sure if she wanted that, at least not yet. At her next request, though, Guinevere supposed she could acquiesce. She leaned forward and gave Lady a quick peck on the edge of her mouth. Nothing decisive. Nothing that could really compromise her. "So it's decided, then," Guinevere said, slowly smiling again, less out of joy at the engagement as much as stifling a laugh at how ridiculous this all seemed. "You'll be my fourth."
Just to add a little something more to this whole silly charade, Guinevere looked down to search her hand. She was wearing only one ring, the one Mr Bแบกch had given her on their wedding day, a pale gold band with a big red garnet, that used to belong to the late Mrs Bแบกch. Pretty enough for Guinevere not to sell it. And now, pretty enough to crown Lady's finger.
[ 21. ] sender leaves a single rose on receiverโs windshield with a note: "youโre being followed. smile."
The soft, ambient hum of the jazz club was abruptly eclipsed by the sight of Mirage. How could she not dominate the space? Every line of her tailored suit, every curve emphasized by the shimmering fabric, spoke of an elegance that was undeniably, breathtakingly sexy. Lady felt an involuntary catch in her breath, her gaze tracing the confident sweep of Mirage's hair, the knowing glint in her eyes.
Then, a singular rose appeared, almost magically, extended in Mirage's graceful hand. It was placed, with a flourish, directly in front of Lady. A wave of heat rushed to Lady's cheeks. Mirage, flirting with a married woman? The audacity! The sheer, unadulterated naughtiness of it sent a thrill, illicit and potent, through her. But as her eyes dropped to the rose, she saw it โ a small, folded note tucked amongst the petals.
"Motherfucker!" The expletive ripped through her thoughts, a stark contrast to the sophisticated scene around her. The romantic haze instantly dissipated, replaced by a jolt of ice-cold adrenaline. She was being followed. Her cop instincts, honed by years on the force, surged to the forefront. Her eyes, no longer lingering on Mirage's captivating form, began a rapid, methodical scan of her surroundings. Every face, every shadow, every subtle movement was meticulously assessed. And then she found him โ partially obscured by a potted palm, one of her wife's subordinates, a known fanboy with an unnervingly intense gaze.
Without a moment's hesitation, Lady moved. Her steps were silent, predator-like, as she closed the distance. Before he could react, she was on him, her hand clamping around his arm with a grip of steel. In one fluid, practiced motion, she twisted, leveraging his own momentum against him, sending him sprawling to the polished floor with a satisfying thud.
"You are under arrest!" she smirked, her voice low and laced with a dangerous satisfaction, pinning him firmly with her knee.
"On what charges!" he shrieked, his voice laced with a mix of pain and disbelief.
"I don't know, I did like the bad boy part as well," she admitted. What attracted her the most was something dangerous. "Yeah... if only..." She didn't finish that sentence. If only Oz would like her, love her even. She was an attractive young woman, and she didn't need to be a mother; she'd be fine with being childless, but she would give him kids if that was what he wanted, because she had fallen for him. "I don't want to be married to a stranger..." She really did not want to marry someone she didn't know. "Why be a queen if all you have to do is spread your legs and give them an heir...." She shook her head. "I can't, Guin, I just can't."
"You never disappoint," Lady said, just as sweetly, her anger fading as a kiss found its way to her forehead. She took a deep breath. They were in this together; Lady was a wild card, whereas Guin was a blossoming rose. "A wedding at an orchard?" It was certainly a unique location, Lady's mother felt.
Her mother, however, laughed at Guin's remark.
Lady, on the other hand, raised her eyebrow, telling Guin, "I'd like to see you try to tie me to your bed." "Mom, Guin has been sick. You wouldn't mind if she rests in your guest roomโ" Her mother shook her head. "Don't be silly, Lady. You have no secrets. She can stay in your room. You both can."
Lady nodded. "If you'll excuse us." For some reason, she felt glad she didn't bring Oz here, but her stomach sank, having to put Guin through this instead.
"Et voilร , my room. It's very, uhm... pink." She sighed; her parents had not changed anything about her room. It still smelled like roses. It sickened her.
