keeping up appearances back home has kept her busy in recent days , busier than she might like . she’s glad to be taking a break once more from it all , even if it’s only temporary . as a result in recent times she’s been absent from the gatherings of those of her class . though she’s not missed much of importance , if gossip is to be believed . ❛ i’m almost pleased i could not attend . ❜ wora replies , slight smile on her lips . ❛ some of the rumours are rather . . . off putting . ❜ / @hshqstarters
the entire event in monaco had been strange, to say the least. she’d felt out of sync the entire night, as if something was holding her back - perhaps, if the rumors were to be believed, it was her own self preservation pushing her to leave early, to put the drinks away and stop gambling. who knows, perhaps the universe was watching out for her - avoiding scandal seemed to be the name of the game these days. wora’s words were more than true, “ah - i felt the same. i went back to my room around ten, before the chaos broke out. i’ve never been more glad to go to bed a little bit early.”
He had decided the inside of the hotel breakfast was too loud, opting to grab some coffee and a smokes for breakfast. Any food now would make him sick. He would have stayed longer in the room had it not been for Louise and Miguel’s decision. He much rather stay in his bubble for a while longer.
He saw the older Grimaldi sex doll show up again, like the demon announcing the apocalypse herself and the commotion that followed. “What was she on about now?” He asked when someone finally came outside. @hshqstarters
she’d looked at the photographs for a long time. for once, she wasn’t the one hungover at breakfast the morning after new year’s - in fact, she had acted like she was fifty and went to bed before 11. she didn’t need to celebrate a new year, really. especially not after she heard about several broken noses. for once, she wasn’t drunk and embarrassing herself. flipping through the photos on her phone had been... enlightening, to say the least.
“she was exposing everyone’s terrible behavior, mostly. wittelsbach is so far out of your league, petro, you were bound to get the shit kicked out of you for trying,” natasja states, her voice as cool and collected as it ever was. she was never quite sure how to talk to petro without aleks around - especially after some of the stuff she’d heard around the tables at breakfast. she picks the rumor she thought was funniest, and brings it up nonchalantly, “now that i see you’re alive... what’s up with the brasilian?”
- ‘ THAT’S AN easy to fix problem, i have a spare dress that shows just as much of the girls as the one in ireland did. you say the word and i’ll go change. ’ she wasn’t lying either: barbara had her stylist prepare spare outfits to every party she went, adrian should have it somewhere in the building. ‘ what are you going for, poker ? ’
“we’ll see if you can manage without,” natasja laughs at the implication that barbie would do an outfit change for a reason so small. “actually, i was thinking blackjack. i used to be able to beat aleks at that - it’s easier to guess the cards after a few hands than poker. there’s a system to it.”
“open bars always end up with everyone acting badly,” natasja knew - she still couldn’t look arnauld d’orleans in the eye after her brother’s coronation. her eyes follow the commotion, plenty of people helping recover all the chips - whether their own or someone else’s, “but this is a new low. how did they even manage to knock the table over - it has to be heavy!”
FULL NAME. aleksander magnusson.
TITLE. his royal highness, the king of iceland.
AGE. 35.
FAMILY. younger sister, natasja magnusdottir ( @nctasja )
RELATIONSHIPS. engaged to petro soletsky, prince of ukraine ( @pctro )
FACECLAIMS. aaron taylor-johnson, kit harington, adam huber, brenton thwaites, william molseley, johnathan bailey, josh o’connor, boyd holbrook, max riemelt, luke thompson, charlie cox, kiernan culkin, tom payne, jake gylenhaal.
GROUP. @highsocietyhq
TRIGGERS. depiction of addiction and recovery, abusive parenting.
once, natasja and aleksander were pitted against each other by their own father.
natasja, the youngest, always the “perfect” child. she always did as she was asked and projected the calm demeanor that every nation seeks in a future ruler.
aleksander, the eldest, the rebel who never did what he was meant to. he lived his life to have a good time: because one day, he knew he would be forced to settle down and lead his country.
natasja always imagined her brother as a free spirit, a bird that was set free who left natasja behind in the cage. she always felt that she was unable to live for herself, that she was forced to keep the country afloat on her own. with a reckless father on top of that, natasja knew she’d been handed the shorter straw for all of her life.
but underneath all the resentment and the anger that years of competition put them through, they were still all the other had. he held her hand at her mother’s funeral, braided her hair when she didn’t trust the staff to do it correctly and promised her the world would still love her when she came out to him. underneath everything, she knows that there is not another soul on earth that will understand what it is like to be king magnus’ kid, and that they’ll always have that undercurrent of understanding. even if that isn’t enough to make them like their sibling most days, they still love each other.
they grow up, and aleksander is never attached to another royal. natasja, meanwhile, is engaged every other year - in a fruitless attempt by their father to secure her a title elsewhere. the one she wants, though, is right in the heart of reykjavik. natasja doesn’t want to be the spare, married off to a random country to be their consort - she wants to be queen. of her home, iceland, which she loves more than anything else. and there’s only one person standing in the way of that: her older brother.
petro soltesky comes in here - natasja’s engagement to her brother’s best friend had been a shock to her, but the way aleksander reacted had been even worse. they had gone to school together, and natasja figured it would be an agreeable match because, at the very least, she knew petro! but aleks had blocked her out, making these underhanded statements of how she’d hurt him. she didn’t understand, until she finally cornered him and he spilled everything.
aleks and petro had been close, in school, but it had been more for aleks. she hadn’t been able to recognize it, then, because she’d never seen her brother in love before. in fact, she hadn’t thought he was capable. he’d been in plenty of trysts with people in reykjavik, but never anything more serious than a few nights. the engagement is broken off without an explanation just two weeks later, when natasja declines personally, going over her father’s head.
after he finished his degree, aleks started spiraling. it seemed they couldn’t get him to stop, to pin himself down in one place and quit drinking himself to sleep every night. the family would, at times, not hear from him for weeks - while he was on a bender in tokyo, or vegas, or ibiza. natasja would run into him in a foreign city and barely recognize her own brother for a second - and any attempt to slow him down wouldn’t work.
in his mid-20s, everyone started to really get worried. natasja came home for jónsmessa to find her brother scared and finally asking for help. the family helped, and found a facility to help aleks get better. it was in a small village in northern iceland, in one of their cousin’s duchies - most importantly, it was safe, and out of the public eye. no one needed to know the details of his recovery unless he wanted them to know.
he got out five months later, a completely changed man. whereas before, aleks was a disaster that the people of iceland didn’t trust with ruling their country - now, he was a contender. he never lost that playful, rebellious spirit, but rehab had taught him how to handle his impulsivity in a productive way.
he reconnects with petro, after this, and their relationship changes. he’s no longer the juvenile young man he once was, instead he’d grown up. maybe that helps the spark between them, because they end up engaged just a few years later. and he seems happy, genuinely happy, for one of the first times in his life.
the cycle begins again, and things start to go wrong.
their father remarries without inviting either of them, and suddenly they have power-hungry in-laws that they have to handle. aleks takes to their new stepmother and sister from an opportunistic angle, while natasja chooses rage. their approaches are both beneficial in helping aleks’ interests - he stays on the right side of the world.
he and natasja grow farther apart than ever before, as the subject of their half sister’s reveal is contentious in the family. natasja refuses to back down, completely rejecting their addition to the family. aleks keeps them close, in the way you keep your enemies close, but natasja sees that as accepting their addition to the family. she resents him for it, and they do not speak for months.
king magnus’ cancer diagnosis shocks everyone, delivered just weeks after aleks’ thirty-fourth birthday. their family is in shambles, and natasja shuts out all of her emotions in favor of treating his treatment like a business deal. it’s easier for her to handle the emotion it brings out if she doesn’t acknowledge it.
aleksander, on the other hand, bonds with his father for the first real time in his life, using the time they have left to mend old bruises and build bridges, even if he’ll never forgive him for the way they were treated in childhood. the siblings fight about this again, and they fight about it at the kistulagning before the funeral.
they don’t stop fighting at the coronation, or when they’re both questioned about the death of their stepmother, or anytime after. the two are at-odds, now, and natasja has cemented her need to overthrow her brother.
historically, in iceland, a secondary heir can challenge the elder sibling in order to force a vote for who should retain the title - the dukes and duchesses make the decision. while aleksander begins to establish himself as the rightful king of iceland, his younger sister has begun to undermine him. his insecurity is winning half the battle - old doubts have begun to creep up from the darker parts of his past, and aleks has to make a decision - will he fight to hold the throne, or will he allow the voice inside his head to win the battle?
interested? contact @nctasja or @pctro to talk before you apply!
“are you like all those mothers in the movies, that miss having the baby around?” natasja isn’t sure how anyone can be like that - separation anxiety from a toddler seems a bit much, and definitely overplayed by those actresses, “or are you grateful for a night out? i would be happy to be allowed to drink again - wait, are you allowed to drink again, yet?” she pauses, her hand halfway to grabbing another flute of champagne for catherine.
“merci merci” she thanked the waited before turning back to her table. “Sorry gentilmen, yes I raise. 5 thousand.” she replied pushing her chips into the middle a smile always present on her lips “But what I truly want to know if how that date ended mister. Come on a good story is the only thing that tops a good game of poker.” @hshqstarters
natasja snorts, taking a drink off the tray just after valentina. “the date ends with the girl ghosting him, i’m sure of that.” she states, with a grin - deciding that insulting the man at the table was the way to win this round, “anyone with self respect wouldn’t put up with that amount of bad behavior.” she sighs, looking at her cards, and states, “i call. five thousand from me, too.”
- ‘ YOU CAME ! good, i’ll be your amulet, could sit on your lap as you gamble and everything. ’ because god knew barbara wasn’t stupid as to waste her own money on gambling, no, she was there for the company and to look good only. / @nctasja
“great! you’ll have to help me, ’ve had the worst luck this year. maybe next year will be better...” natasja was sure nothing would change just because a clock ticked over to an arbitrary new date, but maybe speaking it into existence would work, for once, “you can distract the dealer while i count cards - why did you pick this event to keep your tits covered? we could’ve cleaned the place out!”
princess natasja magnusdottir of iceland arrives at the monegasque new year’s eve casino night in a sleek green couture piece from elie saab’s fall 2018 collection. on twitter, many royal commentators are surprised to see the princess out - and arriving stag, of all things - to a major event in ex-fiancée zahra grimaldi’s home country. we’re not surprised, though. the princess is notorious for socializing with exes. after all, she’s been engaged thirteen times!
hi guys! long time no see - i have been a mess these past few weeks moving across the country and then finding out the job i moved here for had a height restriction i didn’t meet and having to take a different role and jflkjKFLJDSKLFJS basically my life is a fucking nightmare <3
i’ve been doing a lot of thinking about where i’m going with hshq and i want to revamp some of my characters’ plots (again) because i want them to have more fun and drama. so - i’m going to post this lil thingy and if you’ve got a concept you can dm me or like. hit me up on discord at ohgeezohno#0806.
anyways here we go:
natasja & karyna are fine and i won’t be changing anything about them really, but if you want a new thread or plot for the event, hmu!
luca is almost fine, i’m resetting a lot of his plots now that henri is gone (rip dallas forever in our hearts) and i would love it if someone’s interested in him bankrolling a war effort. i want him to have a proper war profiteer era <3
parker needs some plots! give me some stupid shit to get up to at this event, and maybe his enemy (wink wonk). i need to start figuring out where to go from here now that his days as a first son are numbered.
selene is my big problem child right now. i love her but i’m thinking of a full revamp - if you’ve got any adopts or concepts that “bitchy and annoying lesbian” could fit please hit me up i am open to everything (country concepts, fc concepts, adopt concepts. literally anything!)
anyways that’s it for now! i have a few character concepts i’m bouncing around for a sixth (or a fifth if i can’t revamp selene and end up dropping her)
<3 you guys and happy christmas sorry i didn’t make everyone gifts this year mickey mouse purchased my soul and made me work <3
wendy paced past the same bookshelf with the same titles on the spine of the books she had reread for the third time in twenty minutes. her laptop had been left open on the table a few meters away and a curser flashed against a white empty page, taunting her to write. something. anything. but it was each time wendy went to take a seat and place her fingertips on the corresponding keys that she drew a blank. it was as if each story disappeared from her mind before she could even recall what little she had seen since her arrival and thus wendy d’ansembourg had officially declared herself cursed with writers block. but as the saying goes, ‘ careful what you wish for, ’ because the very moment wendy had raised her gaze at the squeaking door was the very same moment she saw a ghost from her writers past. it was safe to assume the person she outed to the general public in russia for spying wasn’t about to suddenly forgive her or have warm fuzzy feelings and so wendy reached for the closest book and held it up in front of her face with her back turned to the door. there had been no time for a mad dash around the bookcase.
natasja figured that this day was just destined to be terrible. she’d bombed an interview with a newspaper in reykjavik, and then her lunch reservation had been cancelled, and she’d had to find a secondary location for her lunchtime meeting with the prince of georgia. she was ready to call the whole thing a wash when she cut through the library towards her apartment. she doesn’t expect to run into someone in there. usually, it’s completely empty. but... just her luck, not today. today it was occupied by a princess who couldn’t keep her mouth shut. the luxembourgish woman had only tried to get her dragged to the hague on espionage charges - which natasja beat, in the long run. natasja grimaces, and then plasters a faux-smile on her face. “wendy, hello,” she starts, forcing her voice to sound cheerful. “how have you been? this is all off the record, of course,” she tacks the last bit on sardonically, as if that would stop the journalist.
“sorry the gift is late. do you know how hard it is to track down a book of icelandic folktales in swedish?” nearly impossible, actually, but natasja had been determined. she’d come up with a run of the book from the 1980s released exclusively in stockholm, and then had tracked the threads to an antique bookshop in london. the book was surprisingly cheap, after all of that work. she’d thrown a moomin plush into the bag just for good measure, and to make up for her lateness, “i wanted to make sure you could read it to him in swedish, before he ditches the nordic accent for catherine’s scottish brogue.”
- ‘ HAS ANYBODY figured bjork out yet or have you spent all night explaining your costume to people ? i’ll tell you this: simply answering i’m barbie to anyone that doesn’t quite get mine has actually been funny. ’ / @nctasja
“no one has figured it out! i’ve gotten a lot of ‘is that really sewn into your back?’ and i love telling them that it is,” she smiles, brighter than she’d normally be. it was nice, now that she and barbie knew each other’s secrets again, “i’ll have to be something more recognizable next year, like you. a real icon. well, an icon that isn’t just well known in iceland.”
natasja arrived at the event in an exact replica of bjork’s pagan poetry music video look, complete hundreds of real strung pearls and special effects makeup to mimic the (tw: bjork really did this) sewn-into-her-skin corset from the video. while she didn’t opt to wear the actual alexander mcqueen original for the event (natasja did cover up her titties... a little bit...) she wanted to do the icelandic singer justice, and therefore made it as authentic as possible without actually causing a full-blown scandal or hurting herself.
