#choices trr2

[prettyboisteveharrington]

Don’t take my heart don’t break my heart. Don’t… Don’t throw it away

Have a short Drabble based on book two’s love confession between Drake and Mc

Drake Walker x MC ( Rose Throne)

Word count: 856

Thorne… Meet me on the hotel balcony tonight. We need to talk ~ Drake.

As you made your Way up to the hotel balcony all you Can Think about is Drake and how much you love him. How much you need him.

Drake. Drake. Drake.

You stand and look out at New York. You are thinking about what you are going to say to him, you want him to know how special he is to you, how wonderful he makes you feel but you don’t want to mess it up.

You hear footsteps behind you and turn around and see him.

As you finally see him it feels like your heart is beating ten, twenty if not a hundred times faster than it normally does.

You drink in his presence, from the lights illuminating his face to his Golden eyes that remind you of a glass of whiskey near the fireplace.

‘Hi’ you say breathlessly

‘Hey, Thorne’ Drake says he would Seem very composed if you didn’t know him like you do. You see through the cracks. You can tell that he’s nervous just like you.

He takes a few tentative steps forward, his eyes locked on yours.

‘We need to talk… About Us’

‘Yeah, we do’ you agree and nod your head.

You take a step towards him as well. You take a deep breath. You can do this.

‘Drake… Liam proposed to me tonight’

‘Oh’

Drake face falls and you can see the hurt in his eyes for a brief second before he composes himself and his face turns stoic.

‘I’m very happ-‘ Drake starts to say even if his facial expression betrays him. He looks like you just ripped his heart out and shattered it into a million pieces.

It hurts to see him like that. So broken. You take a deep breath and you reach out and gently take his hand in yours

‘I turned him down Drake. I told him i’m in love with you’

‘….What?’ Drake says and he looks surprised

You give his hand a squeeze.

‘From the first moment i saw you I was drawn to you. Sure we didn’t get along at first but there was something about you that kept pulling me back to you’ you say and smile at him

‘Thorne do you really mean it? Liam could give you so much more than me. Hells he could give you anything you wanted. You could have Cordonia and be Queen. Do you really want to settle for less than you deserve… Settle for me?’ Drake searches your eyes for any hint of a lie

You step towards him again your eyes are glossy. It hurts to see Drake like this. It hurts to hear him speak so ill of himself.

‘I hate when you do this. It hurts Drake’

Drake looks at you concerned

‘Rose I-‘

‘I don’t want a kingdom or be Queen. What i want is You. It hurts me greatly that you can’t see how much you have to offer’

Drake seems lost for words as looks at you with a vulnerable expression on his face.

You stand on your toes and lean in to kiss Drake’s left cheek

‘You are Incredibly handsome’

You lean in and kiss his right cheek

‘ you would do anything for me’

You stand on your toes and kiss his forehead

‘You are the first person i think about when i wake up and the last person I think about before I fall asleep’

You lean in and kiss his nose

‘The only person i want to be with is you. I’m yours Drake. Completely. Do you want me too?’

‘I do. Thorne how can I not want you’ Drake says and caresses your cheek with his hand, his hand trembles and you lean into the touch. Your eyes trace his lips before you look into his eyes again

‘Then what are you waiting for?’ You say and lean into him, your lips are inches away from his

His lips meet yours in a searching kiss as he wraps his arms around your waist.

There’s a look of gentle, astonished joy on his face as he pulls away. You lean your head against his you are unable to stop smiling.

You look into his eyes

‘I love you Drake Walker. I have loved you for a long time. Always will. Nothing and no one could ever change that. You are it for me. My soulmate. My marshmallow’

Drake’s eyes are glossy and his smile is wide

‘I don’t know what I could have possibly done to deserve someone like you Rose Thorne. But I will never stop trying to be worthy of you. I love you with every fiber of my being and I will always give you my all’ Drake says earnestly unable to look anywhere but at you

Drake takes your hand and kisses it gently

The two of you sit down on the ground, your head rests on Drake’s shoulder as you both watch the sunset.

[findingdrake]

[choicesficwriterscreations]

November Creator of the Month: Lizzybeth1986

Each month CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers, and this month’s writer of the month is @lizzybeth1986 We hope you will enjoy learning more about them and their work below! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page.

Quick Links:

Tumblr Blog: Blog Masterlist

How do you want to be known on Tumblr?

Lizzy, absolutely 😁

*Center art by @sazanes

More below...

When did you start playing Choices? What was the first book you played?

I started playing mid 2017, I think. I played the flagship books (TF, TCaTF, MW), and def preferred TF at the time.

When and why did you join Choices fandom?

I joined the Tumblr fandom in 2017, around the time of the TRR finale. Mostly because the Liam hate at the time was intense and I wanted to write metas about why Liam was, in fact, not “a dick who betrayed the MC” 😂

I did have a Tumblr account before that (made it in 2015 to follow Bollywood film posts), but never actually used it.

How did you pick your blog name?

I was lazy af so it was my middle name plus my birth year haha

Pull up the first post in your archive, and tell us about it! 

I started out with a couple reblogs, but my first actual post was about the romance points mechanism in TRR1. There was a point in the middle of the book where one nice word to Drake would give you an automatic romance point, and I was like, “Huh??? Either treat him like shit or risk him catching feels for me? Is that how it is???”. Thankfully, that stopped after two chapters. After that, I did an essay series analyzing Liam’s actions in the finale called “The Crown, The King and The Flame.” Romance Points Post The Crown and the Flame

How long have you been writing fanfiction?

Almost 6 years now! I started doing Liam fics around the beginning of TRR2.

What is your favorite Choices book, and what is your favorite Choices book to write about?

I’m the most invested in TRR and PM, but between the two I’d probably say PM is my fave book overall. But yeah, my favourite book to write about would be TRR, because Liam, Hana and Kiara are such fantastic characters to write about! (Hayden and Sloane, too, but I’m still in the process of getting comfortable writing them).

Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it, or would you change it if you were writing it today?

It was Keychains, my two part fic series featuring my MC and Liam. It was set around the time the MC was waiting in the airport in TRR2, just before Maxwell and Bertrand intervene. It had a follow up with Liam’s PoV too.

I really like it. It included some really good hc’s I made at the time, like Esther buying an apple keychain to represent Cordonia at the same time, and Liam calling her his wife in Greek and Esther not realizing what the phrase meant. I thought the pathos and slight humour was quite well-done. I can’t think of much I would want to change in the story.

Keychains 1 Keychains 2

What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

As a series – Eleanor’s Kitchen! It’s ongoing, and it’s a joy to write. I love exploring food from a cultural lens, and since Cordonia was a fictional country, I could explore a variety of ethnicities and food cultures. Liam had a literal diamond scene that explored gastrodiplomacy, and I wanted to explore his childhood and Eleanor’s friendships too.

Individually – I would say my Kiara fic “An Ear to the Ground”. Kiara is a delightful character and exploring the social season through her eyes was a real journey! I also love “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” which explores the early days of the Sloane & Hayden friendship. I used asterisms and constellations to symbolize moments in their friendship.

Eleanor's Kitchen An Ear to the Ground The Stars (Are Out Tonight)

Do you have a fic that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to be but found could use a little more love?

Cordonian Waltz was definitely a surprise in terms of reception!! It was written in the style of headcanons I was seeing at the time, and I wrote it in second person. It became my most widely-read fanfic very fast, and every once in a while it would experience a major surge in readership. I enjoyed writing it and thought it was a lovely, romantic piece, but I really wasn’t expecting it to finally have 250+ reblogs out of it, and people coming and telling me this was the fic that got them into Liam x MC in the first place. I find that deeply gratifying 😍

There’s a lot of fics that I feel need more engagement and appreciation, but I can understand that those characters also don’t exactly get much of an audience. My entire PM set comes under this category; they typically get low readership. I think my Hana and Kiara fics too could do with more of an audience.

@twinkleallnight once told me that when she reads my stuff, she usually takes a long time just to ruminate on the story, and I like to believe that often, that’s why the engagement isn’t always immediate. Which I like too!! I like that some of my stuff can make people stop and think, and I like to believe that over time, the work will have its own impact.

Cordonian Waltz PM Set

If you could write only angst, fluff, or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?

Probably fluff but with a lot of observation and sometimes somber reflections. I’m not that great with angst…and I’ve never actually tried smut? But maybe one day 😄

Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?

Yes! Some of my MCs are v different from me but I always incorporate something from my life experiences in them. Like Esther taking photos of the sunset or Basil not being science oriented but still having an interest in space.

Character wise I find I put a lot of myself into a lot of the characters I write. Notably, Liam, Hana, Kiara, certain Haydens and Sloane. Liam’s love for learning, different aspects of Hana and Kiara’s experiences as queer women, Sloane’s experiences as a neurodivergent woman, and especially my Scholar!Hayden’s (Iris) observations. I tend to incorporate a lot of my feelings and experiences more into certain canonical characters than in MCs.

What element of writing do you struggle with most?

Dialogue, I think. Especially when it’s a character I don’t relate to that much. But also sometimes when it’s a character I love but am only starting to write because then I really overthink it!

Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?

Hmm…probably neglected wouldn’t be the word I’d use…I just take a very long time to kickstart them 😂

But yeah, definitely my Petals and Thornes series? That’s the fic series I’m doing for Hana x Kiara, that is supposed to explore TRR2 and 3 from their PoV (with significant changes). So far I’ve only been able to do some one-shots and hcs in that universe, but I do want to start the actual series soon!

I have some essay series’ I’d love to work on too! My Hana essay series which has two essays left, The Hayden Young Project, and a possible series on the alternative Lis of TRR!

Petals and Thornes Hana Lee: A Study in Erasure

If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?

Hmm. A few people have asked me, actually, and while I’m not fully opposed to showing them I’ll probably take some time before I do show my work. I’ll probably overthink how much will be understandable to a reader who doesn’t have the context of the source, and what they may not understand.

What to show them first? I’m not sure! Maybe the smaller ones first, like Cordonian Waltz. Or my RCD fic Snowstorms, because it doesn’t have more than 2-3 canon characters featuring and I do talk a little about being a closeted queer teen figuring out their sexuality through cinema, which is an overall relatable experience to some! Snowstorms

Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing?

In my early years I used to emulate Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s style. Much of her work that I read as a teen was pretty flowery, sometimes bordering on purple prose, and I really loved that style and tried to go that way. But now I think a variety of writers from different genres inform my writing. In terms of published authors, Jhumpa Lahiri, Helen Hoang, and non-fiction ones like Rukmini Pande, Ruby Hammad and Mikki Kendall.

In Choices fic, @callmetippytumbles for sure – a lot of the questions she was tackling with her MC in her Home series served as inspiration for some of the ideas I’ve been having in mind for Petals and Thornes. @thefirstcourtesan is a great writing buddy to have, too, and she has a knack for saying a lot in very few words! There’s also my amazing group of friends (shoutout to @cassiopeiacorvus, @thecapturedafrique, @mand-delemonde, and @beyonceswigs, as well as @twinkleallnight , @dcbbw @mariemarieohcontrary , @choicesfrog, @grapecaseschoices and @ohsnapitzlovehacker…the discussions are so good and leave some much to think about afterward 💖💖). All these discussions ALWAYS fuel my ideas and make me think out of the box.

I’ve also recently started writing polyamorous characters and relationships, and @angelasscribbles stories and resources have been such a great help in navigating that!

Home

@angelasscribbles Poly Resources

Which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series?

Haha! I’ve not even started the proper series yet but I think Petals and Thornes? But besides that maybe Eleanor’s Kitchen may work as a series idk 😄

Do you write original fiction?

I do try! I’ve done a few short stories but before I started fanfic, I did a lot of spoken word poetry and that was fun.

What other hobbies do you have?

Reading, watching video essays, spending months on hyperfixations 😂 and a little cooking. My kid’s gotten into craft recently and has succeeded in taking me down that rabbit hole too haha.

I used to be into making fruit wines but have gotten inconsistent with that over the years.

What’s your favorite emoji?

Because I have a huuuge thing for nerds – this one: 🤓

BONUS – tell us anything you’d like (if you want to).

A story my mum often tells about how I got into writing, began with some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. Apparently as a child I was notorious for writing things on the walls of our house. One day my older brother got a hardbound royal-blue covered notebook to write in, with gold lettering on the cover…and I got instantly jealous that I didn’t get one (I was 6 or 7 and already fond of telling stories). When I complained my mum made me a deal – she would get me the same notebook…IF I stopped writing on the walls and began writing in that instead 😂 It worked. My mother is a smart woman.

I love spoilers!! I will read the end of a novel I’m reading and then go back and read the rest. Sometimes I even read books all the way backwards lol.

I love romance, and my favorite tropes include second-chance romance and mutual pining while believing the other person will never love you back! Because, at heart, I’m a dramatic bitch.

[lizzybeth1986]

How the Court is Allowed to View A Polyglot Kiara

More photodumping for the upcoming Drake and Kiara essay!

So this is a compilation of the times I remember Kiara's skill with languages being viewed with disbelief, disdain or disrespect. There may be others, but these are the earliest ones and often the people who say it get away with saying it:

TRR1 Ch 16 - If the MC chooses "dare" at the Truth or Dare game, and calls Madeleine acting as a member of the press:

(Screenshots from the HIMEME YouTube channel)

TRR1 Ch 18 - A dialogue option where the MC can "quiz" Kiara on which other languages she knows:

(Screenshots by the My Choices (Fabbylous) channel)

(Possibly Inaccurate Translation: Good day (German), my friend (Spanish). Are you happy (Italian, though I get the sense that she's saying it sarcastically like...when someone says "satisfied??" after they've answered a stupid question you asked).

TRR2 Ch 4 - At the garden party in Applewood, when Madeleine is sending veiled threats to Hana about getting a suitor:

(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube channel)

Madeleine engages in a bizarre play of exoticization against Kiara in this scene, and her "advice" to her fails dramatically (but perhaps that was the intention?) when Rashad is unable to even understand either Kiara's French or German. As you can see from these screenshots, Kiara herself is not happy with this suggestion.

TRR2 Ch 14 - Gossiping with Adelaide

One of your gossiping options (the one that fails) is if you compliment Kiara ("Did you know that Kiara speaks more than just French?"), which gets a pretty negative response from Adelaide:

(Screenshots from @cassiopeiacorvus)

Ironic how this is one of the rare times the MC can truly compliment Kiara on her skills...and she's shot down for it!! Also it's funny how "nobody cares about Kiara's linguistic prowess" yet there are more than enough people out there just pouncing to discredit it and pretend she's lying!

TRR3 Ch 7 - Before meeting Kiara at her estate:

(Screenshots from the HIMEME YouTube channel)

There is plenty I hate about this scene (more on that in the essay) but I find it extremely sus that this shitty attitude towards Kiara's most prominent skill is allowed to go on without any pushback for three fucking books.

[thecapturedafrique]

TRR MC: Ally Romiere

Hello tri-state area Tumblr! In preparing to finally create a masterlist, I decide to first release the character page I made for my The Royal Romance character, Ally Romiere. A while back, I also did the Choices MC ask game for Ally and another MC which you can read here!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Full Name: Alejandra Carmen Romero de Torres

Legal Name: Ally Romiere

In Greek: Αλεξάνδρα Κάρμεν Ρωμαίος από Πύργους (Alexándra Kármen Romaíos apó Pýrgous)

Nicknames: Ale (María), Cinderella (Olivia), ma moitié (Maxwell)

Noble Title: HM The Queen Consort Ally of Houses Romiere and Beaumont, Duchess of Valtoria, Champion of the Realm and Saviour of Cordonia, DCOS, RC

Charge and Colors: phoenix; gules and or (w/ blue celeste)

Epithet: the Undefeated

Age: 25

Date of Birth: August 18th, 1993

Place of Birth: Queens, NYC

Zodiac: Leo ♌️

Gender: Cis woman

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual

Pronouns: She/her

Enneagram: 2.3 (w1; Companion)

Encouraging and appreciative, able to see the good in others. Service is important, but takes care of self too: they are nurturing, generous, and giving—a truly loving person.

Height: 5'8"

Race/Ethnicity: Latina (Nahua) and Afro-Caribbean

Nationality: American (renounced) and Cordonian

Face Claim: Lindsey Morgan

Education: GED

Languages: Spanish, English, Greek (novice)

Favorite Color: red

Piercings: single lobe; often wears ear cuff on upper right

Tattoos: five-point crown behind left ear; familia quote with dragonflies on left side of rib cage

Partner: Liam Reese (husband)

Best Friend(s): Hana Lee and Maxwell

Family: María del Pilar† (abuelita), Leo Reese (brother-in-law), Regina and Constantine Reese (in-laws), Bartie Beaumont and Luca Karvelas (nephews), Bertrand Beaumont and Maxwell Beaumont (House members)

Character Notes

There is a reason why Ally legally changed her name, which will hopefully one day be explained within Silver Spoons

Maxwell’s nickname for Ally is French for “my [better] half” and is used platonically in the same sense as the English phrase “my partner in crime.” He starts using this for Ally during the investigation in TRR2 and it sticks

As the Champion of the Realm, Ally is a member of the Order of the Seven, which confers upon her the title of Dame Commander (DCOS); the other post-nominal letters (RC) refer to her position on the Royal Council

Ally’s enneagram is type Two, also known as “The Helper”: the caring, interpersonal type described as demonstrative, generous, people-pleasing, and possessive. She is a One-wing, who are generally more ambitious and outspoken than other type Twos, and her level 3 is the level of social value

Her parents were both Mexican immigrants with primarily Native ancestry aside for her father, whose mother María was an Afro-Dominican who moved to Mexico following the civil war in 1965

As part of becoming queen of another country, Ally had to renounce her American citizenship

The dragonflies on her tattoo represent the three family members she’s lost (both her parents and her grandmother María), and the quote translates to, “Where life begins and love never ends.”

[hayden-park]

I made this because I miss this gang

[choosingmylife]

How can someone be this cuuteee???

[stayfallentasticc]

Bertrand: Where’s MC??

Hana: I’ll only tell you if you promise not to get angry

Bertrand: I promise.

Hana: Maxwell lost her at the art museum.

Bertrand: HOW DO YOU LOSE A WOMAN???

Maxwell: You forget to cherish her [begins to cry]

[zeniamiii]

A NEW EDIT ❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗WITH MY TTR AND LH FACE❤❤❤ @batouldhwalkersoul @klaudiana-beaumontkk-deactivate @lodberg Please if you want to be tagged let me know😉 - - - -

[simplyaiden-blog]

Drake awkwardly coming into the ballroom for the coronation ball, finally wearing a suit to impress that certain someone

[missingrenzeifeng]

ya know i’m not gonna get romance points with drake but it’s so worth it because p a n d a s

[ilovedrakewalker]

PB, when are you gonna let me and Drake live peacefully together?

Whisky on ice,

Sunset and Vine

You've ruined my life,

by not being mine...

You make me so happy, it turns back to sad, yeah

There's nothing I hate more than what I can't have.

These lines hella relate to us Drake stans! :(

[vengefclqueen]

Just like...random thought.

But imagine Olivia as a LI?

Imagine the power couple energy that MC and Olivia would've had?

Like if Olivia was offered as a LI option in book one, I would've chosen her over Liam.

[lizzybeth1986]

Have you heard of PB’s vip special, Villainous Valentines or something? I don’t have vip but Olivia has a route and if the spoilers are true….her chapter opens with MC rejecting Liam’s proposal 😬😬

PB just cannot give that guy a break!

Sorry I got so late in responding to this, anon. The past few months have been packed IRL.

I'm kinda not surprised that the MC rejecting Liam's proposal was the opening they went for... though I'm very tickled by the prospect of TRR2 being a romantic starting point for Olivia x MC considering all Olivia did was mope about for Liam and disappear for 3/4ths of the tour 🤣🤣🤣

This isn't much compared to a lot of other shit they've already done to him tbh. I'd say PB did far far worse to Liam already - Kara and Jen just recently had written a "backstory" kinda TRR-story for the now-defunct Storyloom, claiming to explore "Liam's perspective" of the bachelor party in TRR1 Ch 1. In this they made several retcons, few of which I'm listing down:

1. Acc to this retcon, NY was a detour from a larger diplomatic tour, rather than something the group and Liam had actually planned to have his bachelor party at.

On the surface this seems like a good change, but it also excuses Liam's friends not arranging for things Liam actually liked for his own bachelor party (remember - he'd told the group about his love for the Statue of Liberty, and they never bothered to even see if something could be done about that. They took him to a dingy bar), leaving a complete stranger like the MC to make that effort instead.

2. Remember how Liam approached us to apologise for the way his friends behaved? According to this version of TRR, Drake persuaded him to do that. Apparently in the story, Liam wants to go up and talk to her and ppl like Tariq and Maxwell give some nonsense suggestions before Drake says this:

First of all, they make him sound like he was socially inept in the dialogue options before this. Secondly, I think Liam can make his own decisions without Drake making them for him, but the writers' boners for Drake wouldn't allow them to admit that.

He confirms that the apology was Drake's idea later in this story, saying this:

This change doesn't make much sense unless you realize that the writers had Drake claim Liam was leading the MC on back in TRR3. This is maybe the second time the TRR team tried to retcon the events of the book to make Drake's lies the truth (the first time, they tried to rewrite the first four chapters of the book so that Liam was way more flirty).

I'm sorry but when Liam approached the MC with respect and apologized for his friends' behaviour, that was his choice and those were his actions. No retcon from a set of biased and greedy writers is going to change that.

Compared to that this Olivia thing is...okay? Like, you really can't explore the possibility of romancing her without having the MC turn down Liam' proposal first. That's just the structure of the story. It's whatever.

[thecapturedafrique]

HLAW: Day 5—Hana(ra)’s Perfect Wedding!

Like several members of the fandom, I too ship Hana and Kiara together, and though I have yet to write the fic where they fall in love, I’ve long since come up list of head canons about their wedding. I originally meant to share this for Kiara’s first appreciation week, but I wasn’t able to finish on time. Fortunately, one of the benefits to being a Hanara shipper is that their romantic content can work for both characters’ weeks! 😆

Tagging @hanaleeappreciationweek and the stupendous hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

This moodboard was designed to reflect the Pinboard that Hana would 100% make for her wedding to Kiara given the numerous ones she’s crafted in canon.

Bridal Ring Sets

The ring on the left is the one Hana chooses for Kiara; I initially searched for a ring similar to Hana's ring for MC in canon but didn't want a one-to-one match, and then I diverged further by selecting one with a vine design to reference Castelsareillan (aka Rowan’s tattoos which I head canon were tribal in nature and design). The side stones are diamonds since they’re both the ducal stone and Kiki’s birthstone, but Hana went with moissanite for the central stone since it's not as hard and refracts more multi-colored light, representing how there's more to Kiara than what the surface may show and that she is a lot more kind and sweet and thoughtful than her tough facade leads people to expect.

For the ring Kiara gives to Hana*, resetting a family heirloom is very popular in France, especially with traditional affluent families. The ruby was originally from her late maternal grandmother’s engagement ring, and Kiara had it reset in a rose gold band to match her own since Hana proposed first. Due to the canonical Cordonian tradition of lovers throwing a copper, a silver, and a gold coin into a well to guarantee that they stay together for eternity, I head canon that rose gold—which is made of those three metals—is a popular choice in Cordonia for engagement/anniversary jewelry. The wedding band is inlaid with opals since they're the ducal stone of Hana’s duchy, Chrysopolis.

*I was also partly inspired by @masked-alien-lesbian’s beautiful pick to find a more floral design than my original choice, and when I found one with embellishments that mirrored butterflies as well, I knew it was the one.

Bridal Party

In Chinese numerology, 8 is considered one of the most auspicious numbers, with 2, 3, and 6 also being lucky in general. As such, the bridal party is a total of 6 people (3 for each side) who combined with the 2 brides equal 8 in total.

Hana's Bridesmaids: Ally (MOH), Olivia, and Ganga

In my version of events, Olivia actually does offer a genuine apology to Hana in the beer garden scene at the end of TRR2, and so by the time Hana’s planning her wedding, the two have grown close enough for her to ask Liv to be her bridesmaid.

The name Ganga may be familiar to anyone who read Hana’s character page, as she’s one of Hana’s second cousins on her mother’s side. They meet and bond over the course of my reimagined TRH series Silver Spoons.

Kiara's Témoins: Penelope (MOH), Zeke, and Savannah

Instead of bridesmaids and groomsmen, French couples have témoins (witnesses) of any gender/age that stand next to them during the ceremonies. While Penelope is still courteously given the MOH title, Ally is the one who provides the most support in regard to the planning/corralling.

Wedding

Following Moroccan and Chinese traditions, the wedding celebration is several days long. I also head canon that many western regions of Cordonia outside of the five major duchies have three-day-length celebrations, including the regality from which Hana’s maternal family hails. The negafa (wedding planner) is Kiki’s paternal aunt Leïla, who is assisted by Hana’s own aunt Yawen.

Day 1: Castelsareillan

Hammam

In Morocco on the first day of a wedding celebration, the bride spends a day in the hammam (a type of steam bath or place of public bathing akin to a spa) with her companions, treating themselves with multiple body masks, scrubs, and massages as part of a bridal ritual of purification and beauty. Hanara chooses the baths and spa in Applewood visited in TRR2 and attend with their bridal party sans Zeke.

Bachelorette Party

Their joint party is thrown in Côte d'Or, the Cordonian gambling district visited in RoE which in my verse is located in one of Castelsareillan’s vassalages off the coast. Aside from the standard night on the town events, Ally also arranges a series of chuangmen (Chinese door games) for the couple to play: an alcoholic version of the Four Flavors of Life, Q&A Tests, and a Sweet Serenade karaoke session.

The theme is a rainbow, with everyone wearing a different colored dress: Ally in red, Ganga in orange, Kiara in yellow gold, Olivia in green, Penelope in blue, Savannah in purple, and Hana in pink. All of the bridesmaids wear the same cap-sleeved sequined style, while the brides’ outfits are pictured below:

Day 2: Samsara

Henna Party

Both Morocco and India have wedding traditions involving decorating the bride’s hands and feet with henna (mehndi being the South Asian term for the body art itself). Lorelai’s cousin Aparna offers her estate in Samsara (a western regality in Cordonia) as the venue, and the party is a long affair filled with food and music.

Hana wears a pink sari while Kiki dons a green kaftan. Since the brides plan to walk down the aisle the next day, they’re carried to their seats in the amaria (an elegant roofed platform) by four men: Zeke, Drake, Bertrand, and the male cousin Kiara mentions in TRR3 who I named Patrice and head canon is Joëlle’s nephew.

Having forgone a wedding shower, the brides open their gifts during the party, some of which revolve around the traditional “something old” rhyme (with the givers corresponding to whose side they walk on):

Something Old: received during the tea ceremony

Something New: white lotus hair stick (Ally), silver and onyx Berber necklace (Zeke)

Something Borrowed: Scarlet Handkerchief (Liv), Golden Tiara* (Penelope)

Something Blue: garter set (Savannah), nagapadam mala (Ganga)

*The Golden Tiara is the House treasure that was granted to the Amaranth’s when they were elevated in 1600 C.E. It was rumored that while donned, the makeup of any who wore it would remain flawless.

Rehearsal Dinner

The ribbons and bows from unwrapping the gifts are turned into two giant bouquets that the brides use for the following wedding rehearsal in place of the garlands they’ll be using for the real ceremony. They also incorporate some elements of the nischayam, an Indian Malayalee engagement ceremony generally held to formally announce the marriage, which includes exchanging horoscopes as well as the mothiram maattal (ring exchange). Since pigs are favored animals in Chinese culture, Kiara’s pet teacup pig Tambour acts as the ring bearer. At the end of the rehearsal dinner, the couple signs their marriage license following both French and Moroccan tradition (the latter of which call this ceremony Drib Sdak).

Day 3: Chrysopolis

Shutou & Jing Cha

The morning of the third and final wedding day begins in Hana’s manor in Chrysopolis with the Chinese shutou or hair combing ceremony performed by their mothers Lorelai and Joëlle. Immediately afterwards, the two change into their traditional formal wear (Hana in a qungua and Kiara in a takshita) before heading downstairs for the jing cha or tea ceremony, where their aunts have built an ancestral altar for the occasion.

The ceremony is done with both families at the same time, and in return for the tea that the couple offer, their families offer them golden jewelry and red envelopes filled with money called hongbao. They also receive from their fathers the “something old” gift that’s been passed down by their late grandmothers: a set of golden phoenix & dragon bangles for Hana and silver Berber bracelets for Kiara.

Vow Exchange

The exchanging of vows takes place outside in the sunflower garden. Kiki’s four-year-old cousin mentioned in TRH2 serves as the flower girl, and the bridal party are all dressed in a reddish mulberry and adorned with golden jewelry*. The brides change into their white outfits (Hana wearing the same dress as in canon and a veil, while Kiara dons a jumpsuit with a cape) and walk down the T-shaped aisle on the arms of their fathers to meet each other.

Hakim place Kiara’s hand in Hana’s and Xinghai hands them a pair of scissors before leaving the two to continue their march together. In a slightly altered French tradition, they must cut through the rows of white ribbons stretched across the aisle to reach the dais, where they exchange a set of garlands made from roses, fire lilies, jasmine, sunflowers, and Vescovi (magic) flowers in the Hindi jayamala ceremony, a pledge which substitutes their “I Do’s.”

Liam acts as the officiant and joins the couple’s hands together following the Agni Hito tradition of using a red string to represent their fates being bound. He hands them each a lambatha (Greek taper candle) to hold as the brides recite their individual customized vows to one another. They then use the lambathes to light a brazier filled with Heartoak wood which is placed before them.

This functions as the sacred fire for the saat phere, a Hindu wedding ritual continued by the Agni Hito where the couple walks around the fire seven times while reciting specific vows. Each circuit holds a certain meaning. Once the seventh one has been completed, Liam pronounces the two wives, and butterflies are released as they share their first kiss as a married couple.

*One of the bridal party’s statement pieces is a golden pin in the design of Hanara’s onnamon, pictured below. Mon are Japanese emblems that function similar to heraldic charges, and onnamon specifically are created by women after marriage through modifying her original family kamon. The Agni Hito, being of Japanese lineage, continued to use them within Cordonia. After becoming the Duchess of Chrysopolis, Hana adopted a new mon by turning her mother’s kamon/charge (the cherry blossom) into a butterfly-shape.

Reception

The rice toss is performed while the newlyweds exit down the aisle before everyone heads inside, where the vin d’honour (the French equivalent of a cocktail hour) is held. Kir Royale cocktails made with Cristal champagne and chocolate-coated almonds called les dragées are served, and both mahjong and mancala are played. Once all of the ~200 attendees have been greeted, they drive to the banquet hall with a liberal use of horns preceding the “just married” limo.

Each guest upon their arrival signs the livre des visiteurs (guestbook), delivers their hongbao, touches a set of oranges for good luck, and washes their hands in the orange blossom water. Ouzo and Moroccan mint tea are offered until everyone has been seated for the grand entrance, where under a shower of petals and sparklers, the newlyweds perform a TRR 2.0 Olivia-style change into their reception dresses pictured below (Hana on the left and Kiara on the right):

Thanks to @lizzybeth1986 for sharing the tumblr post with these lovely designs!

They step onto the floor with their fathers for the first dance, which they finish as a couple following French tradition. The song is one that Hana composed titled Le jardin de l'amour and performed by Kaitlyn Liao. The feast itself is a ten-course affair that contains a vast variety of cultural dishes, including drunken shrimp, butter chicken, Peking duck, pork jiaozi, tangine, bird’s nest soup, and seffa. Maxwell serves as the emcee, and toasts are given in between the various acts.

Friends provide most of the entertainment, including a ballad sung by the Cordonian Quartet, but there are also lion dancers and firecrackers following Chinese tradition. Halfway through, the couple changes into their final outfits for the night (a red qipao for Hana and a kaftan jumpsuit for Kiara). Once the last course has been served, the croquembouche (a French dessert that serves as the wedding cake) is wheeled out along with a Cordonian Ruby for the apple-cutting ceremony.

After feeding each other a slice of both, the dancing begins. The party lasts long into the night, but just before the newlyweds retire for the evening, they take part in another French tradition: eating a dish from a brand new pot de chambre (chamber pot). The bottom is lined by bananas and covered with melted chocolate before the leftover alcohol from the wedding is poured in. After the couple’s takes a drink and eats a spoonful of the gooey contents, the rest is left to be finished off by the bridal party.

Honeymoon

Lorelai’s wedding gift is the most expensive home in China, and it is here in Shanghai where Hana and Kiara spend the first week of their honeymoon, which ends with the Mid-Autumn Festival. The second week is spent in Tours, France where they go cycling and visit the famous châteaus before returning to Cordonia just in time for the Last Apple Ball.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Sources

[smoothoperador]

yeah not going to lie replaying bloodbound has me feeling some type of way. remember back then when I didn’t really like it and didn’t get all the hype around it and now oh my god,,,, i would sell a liver for recent choices books to be as Prodigious as bloodbound...