#(( and treats all love as highly conditional and terrifying because if she doesnt fulfill these narrow expectations of how she should behave

[royalreef]

      She has an image to maintain, and just because she’s close to someone does not mean that image does not also extend to them in turn. Failure to comply with that image means consequences. If the world is not scared of what the Merkingdom might do to them, then the Merkingdom loses bargaining power, and when Miranda is the only face of the Merkingdom currently inland at the moment... What she does echoes out onto the entirety of her people. 

      Stray elements and actors who know and can say better, actors who do not know the stakes at play and the game they are pawns within, are going to reveal secrets that they cannot understand the power of. There’s a reason why she’s targeted the family and friends of those who need to take a knee before. If they don’t know something is bad or implies weakness, then they’ll expose it the second they begin to lose control.

       ....... Albeit, currently the discussion is upon a more personal scene anyhow. Just because she’s close to someone doesn’t mean that they aren’t fully capable of skipping the act of playing the middle man, and becoming a danger to her themselves.

      And who wouldn’t, really? Who wouldn’t see her, in her weakness, and not smell the blood in the water, not be compelled to take what is rightfully theirs? It was Miranda’s fault for straying, after all. It’s some weakness in her that caused this, some weakness that has to be removed before it can cause any further damage. They’d be doing her a favor, really. She has to be taught a lesson.