#holy shit nonnie like--this is such a guilty pleasure to think about sdhjfhsfjg

[rsmrymnt-tea]

Must one make good points?? Is it not enough to be incomprehensible in the face of a good idea?? /j. Just so we're clear you are very comprehensible and I enjoy all of your input!! (also noticed you apologise for making long replies, but do you see my asks?? Do you think I would care if you rambled nonsense for a million words? I would read all of the nonsense and enjoy it!!)

Anyway I'm probably sending two asks with this. I have had a lot of Thoughts™️ about the arranged marriage au, there's so much to say. I am just throwing pasta at a wall to see what sticks with this so if anything feels like meh or ew just discard it!!

So I wanted to mention this idea, and I will come back to it but it's not super relevant for the most part: consider the Lord titles being inherited. Sort of like how they do with like kings and queens, if the Lord of Masks dies or abdicates the title then his kid (or less often an appointed person) inherits the title.

Anyway, you're right about royal politics being A Lot, so I am just gonna be vague about it, but my ideas in terms of backstory are thus: (gonna reference LoM's dad, he'll be called FLoM short for father of Lord of Masks. And we're considering Dola's family to be artists).

Once, perhaps when Dola was a young child, her family got on splendidly with the Masks family. The family served as patrons to Dola's for generations, and they visited fairly often. FLoM values art you see, and on these visits he would bring the little Lord of Masks to be with him, hoping to instill a love for the arts. And perhaps, once or twice, only for a moment, the LoM would catch Dola peaking at him and his father from around a corner before being shooed away by a grown up.

Something happens. Petty drama, perhaps. Or the family pushing just a little too hard, and the favour of FLoM snaps like a shitty hair tie. Whatever it is FLoM is furious and Dola's family meets that energy a touch too enthusiastically. And Dola and the Lord of Masks grow up hearing their family badmouthing the other's.

FLoM dies when our LoM is still a teenager. And his new role does bring him back onto Dola's family estate (something about reintroducing himself, now as their Lord or maybe re-establishing his patronage). He doesn't meet Dola, but he does see her art and it has.. A profound affect on him.

Sometime when he's more settled into his lordship, I think Dola's family requires his assistance. Financial trouble, or finding themselves in hot water with another lord, it doesn't really matter. They now owe him and they hate it.

Eventually the time comes for Masks to take a spouse. It's Dolasach, obviously. His mind drifts to fuzzy memories of a face peering at him from around a corner, and the art that touched his heart when he thought that perhaps all that was left for him to feel was grief and anger. And he does try to justify it of course, her family is incredibly influential, and it's spiteful to steal their best artist from them, and with her new title her work would only be worth that much more... And it would be a favour to allow the family to repay their debt so cheaply. But he knows a lie when he hears it, especially coming from his own mouth.

So I do feel that, on Dola's family's side. Losing the favour of FLoM, they were suddenly unable to get away with their sketchier behaviors, so they did lose members to the dungeons, and perhaps there were members who received fines that pushed them into financial ruin. And idk being bored rich people maybe killing people on the side has just been a hobby for certain branches of the family, so when Dola is chosen to be married to Masks, there's a lot of pressure for her to revenge them.

Anyway I've been considering how to translate certain aspects of Satan into the Lord of Masks. And I think that maybe Masks' father was a very opinionated, angry person, and Masks inherited these qualities. Maybe his father encouraged the suppression of all emotions that were not anger too. And upon his death, the LoM begins to recognise the prejudices that were put in him by his father, and his inability to properly contain his anger, the apparent absence of any other emotion. He recognises he wants to be better than that and begins to work towards it.

And of course we've got to have some tension with the Lord of Corruption. Consider: there being a common rumor that Masks is the bastard of Corruption. The trouble being that if it's true, Masks loses his rights to his lands, to his people, to his title. He can then only hope to be the next Lord of Corruption. And then perhaps also things going awry in the early days of his Lordship, and the LoC having to step in to stop things falling apart.

So I am thinking that maybe to get the polycule into the au that maybe Dola and Sol are childhood sweethearts? Dola being sent to stay at his castle to train under the kings most beloved artists for a time, and she and Sol having a cute forbidden romance thing? Sol asking Dola to run away with him but she says no because she's not ready for that yet!! Being forced to split when Dola's training is finished and she's sent back home. (the entire experience catalysting Sol leaving to pursue magic and explore the world)

Maybe once the pair have been married for a while, Dola takes an interest in magic, and Sol happens to be passing through and in need of some money, perhaps he's the only one who meets Masks' high standards for a teacher. Or perhaps Sol breaks into the castle with the intent to steal an artefact and she catches him in the act!!

I know I just suggested Masks and Dola being connected via childhood stuff, but I consider that to be more one-sided (perhaps Dola was too young to remember his visits) than her and Sol being sort of first loves for one another.

Honestly though, realizing that the LoM knows something is going on with Dola elevates the entire concept? He feels something is wrong, but despite being able, does not force her confession. Wanting her to trust him, and wanting to trust her even though he knows it's a bad idea. One night, finding her when he's drunk, and pleading with her to lay her burdens on him, that they can work through it together, that he will support her every endeavor if only she let's him, and her turning him away. And then when she finally tells him, he feels all her masks slip away. He feels for the first time she is not hiding anything, and that is when she tells him for the first time that she loves him??? Ajdjsksksjdjdms

- 🐝

oh my god nonnie this whole thing sdhjkshdfjg I literally woke up less than a minute before this was sent in and this woke me up so good like shdjhsfdjg this honestly only loses out to the other concept because I adore the idea of scrappy runaway noble Dola having a rivals to friends to What Are We story with Sol

Plus I've got this idea stuck in my head (that I'm going to write I swear to god) of Dola resting at a little camp in the woods at night after an awful day, when Solomon suddenly shows up because he just happened to be around and saw sensed a familiar presence around the campfire. They have a little talk, for once not on the subject of whatever artifact they're fighting over, and Sol learns a little bit more about her now that they're just... talking.

(but really he just happened to be there during the worse part of Dola's day when something went horribly wrong and wanted to check on her >.< this whole short thing being before the rivalry becomes companionship but after Sol starts feeling that urge to help and mentor here aaaa)

But oh my fucking god nonnie this is all so so so good!! There's so much in here that I wanna mix into the other one somehow bc sdjhsdfjg holy hell

The whole thing with the family falling out of the FLoM's favor is so *chefs kiss* and little Dola and little LoM meeting but never really interacting???

And the bold move of the LoM choosing to marry Dolasach despite the bad blood between the families!!! I feel like no matter how he explains it, it's just going to come off as a move fueled by spite by the LoM even if his reasons for choosing her are entirely sincere and actually based off of positive emotions shdjfhdjfg

Honestly, the reasons for him choosing her are so... ;w; The vague memory of curious eyes, and the much more vivid one of actually feeling emotions that aren't just anger and hatred and grief when he looked upon her work. An attraction that formed from what he knows isn't enough basis for a real love, but he can't help himself, he's beyond curious and just has that gut feeling that this is something he needs to explore somehow. Even if all he knows of her is the face she presents to the public, one that allows her to succeed and thrive despite the disgrace her family has fallen into

(And perhaps a vague memory of seeing her and those curious eyes during her time in the castle)

Which, speaking of!! A foRBIDDEN ROMANCE WITH SOLOMON??? I'm not sure how old you envision them to be but like it's so sdhjk both ways, whether they're incredibly young or it being more recent, like in their later adolescence or early adulthood. Thinking of Sol being royalty at the time and trying to convince her to leave with him to his country, only for her to refuse because being that far from what's familiar and so young is so terrifying!! So cute if they were something like pre-teens, and bittersweet if older and actually capable. Both their hearts would be broken because who knows if they'd even ever see each other again because Sol comes from across the sea, and once he's older he'll struggle to even leave his castle.

So when they meet again it's the most thrilling and startling thing. I like to think that the LoM wouldn't have been aware of the secret romance at all--the two were amazing at keeping secrets after all,and the young lord was too busy to really pay attention to them.

When the LoM brings Solomon to Dola's studio within the castle, the tension is there and clear as day to the LoM. He gets an inkling that there's something the matter, but when he asks them if there was, the sorcerer's insistence that there's nothing wrong only registers as something not entirely true and he waits for when he and his wife are alone for him to ask for the full story.

AND THAT LAST PARAGRAPH!! Nonnie help me I am dying... just the absolute risk he's putting himself in by not forcing her to confess everything she's hiding to him like he would with any other person... Drunk LoM being so openly vulnerable and desperate, she's so close to finally cracking because it does kill her that she's doing this to him... But she's saved by the alcohol, and she gently lays her betrothed to bed, quietly crying as she caresses his face in his troubled sleep because she doesn't know what to do sdhkjshdfgkj

God nonnie this is all so so so so SO good beyond words like every little thing in here is making me wanna run around the house yelling!!!