[h2]L E A   L Y N T O N   O F   A C I R A S[/h2]
[hr]
“Lea, are you ready yet?” The sound of her sister's voice rang out, though Lea could barely hear her over the cacophony of the hair dryer and the music she was blasting at full volume so that she could actually [i]hear[/i] it over the hair dryer. Lea yelled back an "almost!" but apparently she didn't hear her, because there was a sharp knock at the door before it burst open.

"Ayleanna Katherine Lynton, what in the hell is taking you so goddamn long?"

Lea finished with the hair dryer and turned around, giving her older sister, the queen of Aciras, a mock-disapproving look, sticking out her tongue. "Cece, you should be more polite," she reproached, grinning at her. "And when did you get so [i]old[/i]? You sound like Mom." Queen Cecilia "Cece" Lynton of Aciras made a dismissive gesture with one manicured hand, rolling her eyes.

"You've been 'getting ready' for five hours now, Lea. We need you downstairs in three minutes." And with that, Lea's sister  turned on her heel and strode out of the room, the intricate beading of her royal blue gown shimmering in the light as she did so.

Lea sighed and rolled her eyes at the mirror. She was already done, anyway! [i]Why's Cece making such a big deal about me taking a long time?[/i] Lea wondered incredulously as she flicked an invisible speck of dust off the sheer pink silk of her gown. [i]This isn't anything new. I always take a long-ass time to get ready. But I definitely plan for it! You can't fault me for not taking this into account![/i]

Lea's warm brown eyes took in her reflection one last time as she prepared to follow her older sister down to the grand ballroom. The dress she wore was by one of her [i]favorite[/i] designers, made in partnership with People Tree, a fair trade apparel company founded in 1991 by Safia Minney. According to their Wikipedia page, anyway.

In any case, Lea [i]adored[/i] the gown, and she [i]adored[/i] the people from People Tree (they were all so nice to her, and they did so much good work. What was there not to love?). Everything from the bubble-gum pink drape to the intricate embroidered designs and the pink fringe at the bottom was absolutely [i]perfect[/i]. She didn't even mind that the bodice was too sheer for her to hide a tube of emergency lip gloss in (just in case, you know?). She!!! Loved!!!! It!!

Lea's glittery gold acrylic nails (to match her glittery gold eyeshadow, and glittery gold jewelry) glimmered and flashed when she moved, and she was [i]quite[/i] pleased with herself for doing her eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss almost flawlessly. Lea's gleaming black hair was styled in a fun combination in between a pixie cut and a bob (with the bangs curled!), and she'd thrown on a couple of gold bangles that jingled as she walked. All in all, Lea thought she looked quite glamorous. And her strappy gold heels only added to the effect.

Of course, her parents had thrown a fit when they realized that she wasn't exactly planning on wearing red and white, the colors of Aciras, so to appease them Lea had used a set of silver-white hairpins to hold up her hairdo. There was no way that she wasn't wearing as much pink as he could. Besides, pink is basically just light red! Lea didn't understand why it was such a big deal.

Realizing that she had approximately thirty seconds to get down to the ballroom before her sister and her parents [i]flipped[/i], Lea booked it down the corridor, skipping the elevator for the stairs, her steps never faltering once-even in god-knows-how-high heels (Lea prides herself on being more than capable of sprinting through the Aciran palace in a floor-length gown and high heels, and one can see why. She also prides herself on being capable of applying cosmetics of all varieties, including winged eyeliner, while operating a motor vehicle, but shh. Her parents don't know that, and she'd prefer for it to stay that way). She made it to the ballroom in less than a minute, though definitely more than thirty seconds. Still. That was pretty good.

Fortunately, King Landon and Queen Cecilia did not notice that Lea was a few seconds late, nor did Lea's parents, the former monarchs of Aciras. Lea took her place beside them just as the ball officially started. She walked out into the ballroom proper with her family, grinning widely. Oh, but Lea [i]loved[/i] parties!

Even as she smiled and waved and greeted the attendees of the welcome ball, Lea could not get rid of the pit of anxiety that had settled in her gut. In just a couple short months, she was to be [i]married[/i]! She'd ignored this fact in the flurry of preparations that had consumed her life for the last month or so (there were [i]many[/i] arrangements that had to be made, and many other things that had to be pushed back or re-scheduled due to the fact that Aciras would be hosting two dozen princes and princesses from around the world in the next two months, you see), but now that the welcome ball was upon her, Lea couldn't help but to feel...nervous. She was to marry one Prince Zhou Mei of Liang, who she knew nothing of besides what had been reported in the media and what her parents and their advisers had told her...and what she had been able to find on social media, of course. What was he like? What music did he listen to? Did he like the outdoors? Did he like to eat meat? Or fish? Or dairy and eggs? Did he think that the dress was white and gold or black and blue? Yanny or Laurel?

Lea's brother-in-law, King Landon Lynton of Aciras (well, the King Consort, technically. Or whatever the fancy word for it was supposed to be), raised his eyebrows comically in her direction. [i]Relax[/i], those expressive eyebrows seemed to murmur, and Lea decided to take her sister's husband's advice, smiling at him. [i]It'll be fine[/i], she told herself. [i]Everything will work out in the end. Mom and Dad wouldn't have picked this guy for me to marry if they didn't think that he'd be at least a decent person.[/i]

Now that Prince Zhou was not so much of a pressing worry, Lea scanned the room, looking for faces that she knew. She knew everybody's names and faces and countries by heart, as well as what she could talk about and what she could not talk about. For example, she shouldn't talk about how much she loved the Britannian old-growth forests to Princess Valentine Blanchfleur of Luxième (duh). And human sacrifice was a no-no when it came to Princess Isabella del Reyes of Evalusia. Her thoughts regarding socialism and communism and how they had the potential to both hurt and help the environment were [i]probably[/i] not to be discussed with Princess Mai of Liang, and she didn't think Prince Quentin of the Texas Sovereignty would appreciate a ramble about why concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs, for short) were not only torturing animals in the pursuit of wealth, but were also poisoning the Earth through excess phosphorus and greenhouse gases. Although, from what Lea knew, she was fairly certain that the Texas Sovereignty wasn't really big on factory farming and the like. Which could make CAFOs an interesting topic of discussion with Prince Quentin, but Lea supposed that she should save that "SJW-y stuff" (her sister's words, not hers!) for another day.

Really, though. This entire thing was going to be fun. It would be super cool to meet people from all around the world, yeah? And Lea was [i]so[/i] looking forward to meeting the princesses from Notia, Talya and Ivelynne (whom Lea had been referring to as "Ivy" in her head, but you know. She would need to remember to not do that out loud!!). She wanted to hear all about the work being done in renewable energy in their universities and maybe even ask if she could meet their energy and conservation experts, if there were any that would be willing to talk with her. And she [i]really[/i] wanted to ask the Veredunian royalty if they knew of any authentic  Veredunian cuisine that was also vegan (because as much as Veredunian aesthetics were [i]so[/i] lit, Lea really wasn't into sausage, ya know? But the [i]chocolate[/i]!!! And desserts!!!!!!), and if they could maybe forward a recipe to her so that she could get the palace cooks to try it out (Lea herself was atrocious at cooking. The most she could do was microwave a piece of leftover pizza). 

Lea's mind flitted to the third thing she loved most in the world (first came plants and animals and the Earth, since she couldn't possibly pick a favorite out of the three, and second was the colors pink and green)-fashion!!! Royalty from the various fashion capitals of the world would be here, and Lea was dying to see stuff from all of the cities, honestly. She'd heard that Prince Alejandro (from Castilya) was as into fashion as she was, and Lea had been in Portaya during the 2014 Spring/Summer shows. Officially, she'd been there to talk to Castilyan environmentalists, but hey she was already there-might as well go see some fashion shows, right? 

All in all, Lea was super excited to get this show on the road. She stood with her parents near the entrance of the ballroom, greeting people as they filtered in. This was going to be so much fun!

[hider=Dress pics][img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/434211524416897025/438500003716005889/lea2.jpg?width=518&height=564[/img]

[img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/434211524416897025/438500033835433999/leas_dress.jpg?width=515&height=565[/img]
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