(Untitled)

[queenofmay]

[OOM: Guy finalizes their engagement before the world. Robin kidnaps the would-be-groom for treason and the Merry Men knock him out save the day. And in the end, a visitor comes to tell her all's well that ends well....except when it isn't ended, or well. ]There is a ring on the table

Comments

[fabled_fox]

The vines on the ring looked like the ones in the garden where the grapes grew. The grapes Fox had wanted so badly but never got.

He placed his paws on whatever he could reach to see the person sitting there.

Was Marian feeling pensive? Fox thought she was.

[queenofmay]

Marian startled at the sudden touch, looking ever more confused when her gaze was shifted from that damnable ring to the face of a little fox. She felt surprise war with unexpected awe, and the tiniest shiver of wary nervousness or fear.

"Hi, there."

It was worth a try. This was Milliways, after all.

[fabled_fox]

It was Milliways. No need to fear.

"Hello lady. Are you sad?"

[queenofmay]

There was some dawning shock in the eyes. Not many normal looking talking animals met in the Bar here yet the sign said.

"I--I" Marian was stammering slightly in surprise, before she ducked her head with a nod. "It's complicated."

[fabled_fox]

Hard to tell if an animal could speak if it was normal-looking.

"But do you want to talk about it?"

Humans may be complex, but he knew that sometimes, when humans said, "It's complicated", sometimes it meant, "I'm not sure I want to discuss it".

One did not live several millennia and not learn that.

[queenofmay]

"It's a long story," she said. Unhelpfully. Looking back at the ring, her brow furrowing. "Which doesn't get better by its end."

[fabled_fox]

Fox stretched himself a little in order to get a better look at the bauble. It was pretty.

"Does it have to do with that?" he asked, indicating the ring. "Was it a gift? A present?"

[queenofmay]

"Yes, but no."

"It's disguised as a gift," Marian frowns at it slightly, trying to figure out the right word. "As it will be more like a collar."

[fabled_fox]

Fox could not frown the way people did, but his expression doubled as one.

Collars were things some slaves wore. And the dogs kept by men.

"Someone asked for your hand?" he pondered. Not everyone looked forward to marriage. "Or a betrothal?"

Betrothals, some thought, were worse, because the participants had no say in the matter.

[queenofmay]

"Sir Guy of Gisborne did, yes," she said. Though her second thought was that two people had, but only the one mentioned had given her the ring on the table. "We are to wed when the king returns to our home. The circumstances under its happenstance were not good, nor fair."

[fabled_fox]

And fox hopped up onto Marian's lap, and curled to lie down upon it. There would be fox-scent on her clothes, but nothing permanent.

"He didn't trick you did he? Or make you an unrefusable offer?"

[queenofmay]

"Something like that, yes," Marian said, her voice a little absent as she was reaching out to stroke the head of the fox very gently.

[fabled_fox]

"What did he say to you to make you agree to this?"

[queenofmay]

"Twisted truth," Marian said, after a moment pause toward wording again. "That's complicated, too. I did something and got caught, he was going to take me in, but when he perceived me later as innocent, he proposed so as to keep me from the danger which would come for the aforementioned act."

[fabled_fox]

"A clever trap," Fox said. "He gets what he wants under the guise of altruism."

[queenofmay]

Marian ran her fingers gently through the foxes fur, not noticing the act was causing her to relax a little even though the talking wasn't.

"If it were just me I would not have said yes, but my-" she frowned, hand hitching for moment before she continued on. "I have to worry about my father who can not simply be left to himself under he regiment of our government."