Victorianna

There is always a threshold of pressure, physical or mental may it be, where anything, no matter how bendable, breaks. No one expected fragile, sensitive little Ana to last as long as she has. From a coddled childhood to the storybook romance she was lucky enough to find, her life was not one you would expect to shape her into a resilient woman. It didn't. The outbreak of Iho Palla and the long and painful process of losing her lover was a pitiful trainwreck to behold. A Pakkeli that had never been left wanting for anything lost everything. And much like a glass shop with very precarious foundations, something was expected to up and shatter. It didn't.

Maybe except her heart, or so suspected, intimately and deeply, behind closed doors. But there is always something to be said about a widow that ends up cashing in on funeral vases, isn't there? 

___________________________________________________________________

Victorianna is a woman that's always been very simply described as 'sweet'. With multiple implications therein: Sickly sweet, stupidly sweet, stomp-able, footrugged, or just... naive. The community she grew up in, as privileged and untouched by the rest of the world (what with being the apple of her mother's eye) as she was, shaped her to see the best in people no matter what. Suppose that explained the unsavoury affiliations she's made herself as of late. As well as the surprising agreeableness she showed at being betrothed. It was a bit of a fairytale-esque ordeal, wasn't it? And after all, doesn't every girl look at a closed-off, stoic fianceé and foolishly think she can be their saviour and undoing? Here's the thing though: She was. She broke through her new wife's barriers and succeeded in crafting herself the storybook romance every bride dreams of when saying 'yes.'

The marriage was no walk in the park. Two women that had always met their parents' expectations and had never bothered deviating from the predetermined plans someone had made for their lives without blinking an eye now founds themselves in new, unexplored territory. And they didn't love each other. But they made it work. It was less a marriage and more a partnership, but it was still full of fondness. Through lucrative business affiliations, contrasting jolly family occasions and awkward silences at home, some vague sort of affection grew. Victorianna's stubborn advances opened Ellis up to a whole world of romance, chivalry and convinced her to go on her first date four months into the marriage. Ellis' strong front and unyielding morals taught Victorianna to stand her ground and not let herself be walked over. They enriched each others' lives and that birthed love, from platonic to romantic.

There's little more official than a wedding, but they filled in the gaps where affection and courting had been missing from the whole equation. Ellis proposed seven years in. A second small ceremony was held in Aloidia all on their lonesome and they finally went on that little honeymoon that they hadn't thought of having. A house grew into a home.

And then Ellis returned ill from an operation. Assuming it a mild flu, she never went to get it checked and in retrospect a doctor's appointment wouldn't have yielded any result anyway. No one knew that Iho Palla was an existing disease until the breaking news hit. And Ellis was suddenly ripped away from her. When they weren't separated by the pane of glass in the quarantine wing of the hospital, they weren't even allowed to touch. It was a series of painful months apart with Anna only watching from afar as her wife wilted and drained of life. Until the unthinkable happened.

And Anna's world up and shattered. When you lose your everything - partner, support, pillar and best friend - things tend to shift. The world tilts at an axis you're not familiar with. And what is there left for you other than try to cope?

And Anna, sheltered Anna, thought that something foreign and scary to her would finally bring about the closure she's pursued for so long - /revenge./