Summary: Sometimes, it was easier to think of Claude de Alger Obelia as having died long, long ago. Perhaps the man before her now was nothing but the Emperor, Sun of the Empire—just as cold-hearted and selfishly hedonistic as his predecessors. But Lilian had never been one to shy away from the truth, no matter how horrible it was. And the truth was that Claude de Alger Obelia and the Emperor were one and the same; a terrible, awful father that had never learned to care for his child—Diana’s child—because he was a weak coward who never found the strength to move on.
Sometimes, she really wished he was dead. But most days, she just wished to have been able to do more for Athy.
Note: hi wmmap fandom (no clue if this place is even alive) I'm back with my bullshit (LP timeline-based character studies). I wrote this in like an hour so maybe it shows
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Judgment had been swift for both her and Athy, and that judgment was surely wrong. Yet the day of her execution, ordered by the heartless Emperor, had finally arrived. It was a sunny day today. A nice sort of sunny, like the calm before the storm, the kind that would have her instincts ready to remove any laundry drying outside.
Maybe Lilian had already known from the very start. She’d just been too much of a coward to say it—afraid to leave a single scar on the bond between her and Athy, afraid to say something wrong and wake up with nothing the very next day. But that had been a stupid, stupid thing to do.
Just like how stupid it was for them to so blatantly lie about the culprit of the First Princess’s poisoning being Athy. Athy, who was always so gentle yet shy, so smart yet always so doubtful of herself. Athy, who’d sooner hurt herself than anyone else, despite all these years of Lilian trying to get her to see her own value.
The moment Lilian heard of it, heard of them arresting Athy—she ran. She ran to the Emperor, demanding an audience, demanding that Athy be released, demanding a fair trial and a restoration of her innocence. Hysteria coloured her vision, coloured her words with red. To be honest, now that she was standing here, waiting for her execution, she didn’t quite remember what she said to any of them, and more so, remembered the sheer rage that had consumed her.
Although looking at the disgustingly mournful look on Robaine’s face, maybe she’d ended up yelling something about Diana. Yes, Diana would’ve hated this all, wouldn’t she? For her daughter to have never experienced the freedom that she so loved. For her friend to have failed her and her daughter so utterly and terribly. For her beloved lover to have turned out to be such scum.
Or maybe she finally tried to stab the man.
If something like time travel existed, maybe she’d tell herself to run away with little Athy, to someplace where it was enough to simply have been born. Or maybe she’d tell herself to stop Athy from ever meeting her father, to do everything she could to make sure that Athy would want for nothing, would need nothing from anyone else in this forsaken palace. So that Athy could simply love and be loved in return.
Slowly, she started walking up the wooden stairs. The wood was firm and sturdy, just as the rope in front of her was thick and new. How generous of them.
But something like time travel didn’t exist. And so now here she was, about to die. The only cruel mercy was that they’d execute her before Athy. Ah, but maybe it would’ve been better if they had both died together, or if they’d both lived together. Perhaps that could’ve been true, in a world infinitely kinder than this one. Where the Emperor’s eyes were not so cold and apathetic, where she had a little bit more power and control, where she was a little bit braver, a little bit smarter. Everything this world was surely not.
The rope looped around her neck as someone else started rambling on about her perceived crimes. Her head felt numb, and an emptiness had consumed her. Staring at gold and red, at brown and white, haloed under the cold sun—Lilian hoped they’d die choking on their regrets.
The Lovely Princess started out as a story Lp!Athy and Jennette wrote together (the names were different). Athy mainly wrote about the character who became Jennette, because she wanted to imagine a world where she was loved like the heroine, and Jennie wrote the romance because she wanted to pretend that Ijekiel loved her. They both wrote about the sisters. Before Athy was killed Jennette snuck the book down and they wrote in it together for the last time. Athy started writing down their current reality, and that's why it slips into first person. After Athy's death Jennette wrote the rest of the story and changed the names because the story was practically their own. The characters were different from reality because of Athy writing Jennette and Claude and Jennie writing Ijekiel and Athy. After Obelia's destruction it becomes a history book, using the aliases of Athy and Jennie.
For reference: Jennette’s dress in The Lovely Princess
The flower crown lp! Jennette is wearing at her debutante ball reminds me a little bit of the one Elisabeth Alexeievna wore. She was a Grand Duchess who later became the Empress of Russia. Side fact: she was described as “shy and naïve, and ill-prepared for her new position. She was overwhelmed by the splendor of the Russian court and frightened by the vicious intrigues waged there with cold calculation.” (it’s fun to find these parallels even if it wasn’t intentional)
The blue rose shaped decorations at her lower skirt resemble the details of Isabel Álvarez Montes’ dress (left picture bottom).
The pink bows on her sleeves and chest are similary placed as to the bows on the blue dress on the left that François Boucher’s - Madame de Pompadour (ca. 1758) wore.
Fun Fact: Madame de Pompadour’s father is not fully known and another man named Le Normant de Tournehem became her legal guardian when her suspected father was forced to leave the country to avoid the death sentence. At age 5 Jeanne Antoinette was sent to receive the finest quality education of the day in an Ursuline convent in Poissy, where she gained admiration for her wit and charm. During this time her mother took her to a fortuneteller, Madame de Lebon, who predicted that the girl would one day reign over the heart of a King. Henceforth she became known as “Reinette”, meaning "little queen".
At the age of nineteen, Jeanne Antoinette was married to Charles Guillaume Le Normant d'Étiolles, the nephew of her guardian, Charles Le Normant de Tournehem. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? (foster daughter marries the heir of the house she was adopted into? Ijekiel and Jennette?)
