#wildeheart

On tonight's episode of the Bridette...

Our self-proclaimed winner Suletta M. and dark horse Andrew P. are already a step ahead of the competition...

A scene fades in of Miorine R. speaking to the camera:

"I have no intention of picking anyone except-"

The camera cuts away.

Tensions are high as our 12 competitors await the tomato ceremony. But before then...

"I'm Chip Garrison, and tonight, on the Bridette, our competitors will be in a 6 versus 6 competition of...Rugby."

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"Alright you two, we need to decide how we're going to do it. If you're both on the same team, you have to win, because the 'MVP' wins a tomato before the ceremony." She clicks her tongue, tapping her heel on the ground.

"Or you could be each on one team, so one of you can be given the tomato. Even if you're terrible, it'll just be a 'controversial decision' that increases ratings, so I think they'll allow it." Still, the issue with that is that both Suletta and the strange army of similar-looking men would probably crush Andrew, who was shaking like a leaf.

"I'll let you two choose, what do you think? As long as one of you gets the challenge tomato, I think we can make it through the tomato ceremony."

To those who still venture close to her home even after hearing the rumors about a ghost child. Regardless, she doesn't seem annoyed when a stranger stumbles upon her home in the mistwood. It's easy to get lost, and sometimes Soft Thistle of Feint Elk Level 90's loose branches and twigs led straight back home. A lot of the time, little critters would pick these up to use as a nesting site for their home. Today...someone followed them here.

"You are either brave, an idiot, or a monster like the rest of us. Which one is it?" Clearly human may be off the table. No human carried a rose in replacement of an eye...

☆ "Oh, hello Mister Andrew! Are you out shopping for Halloween decorations as well?" October was quickly approaching and Suletta had run out to a nearby department store when she'd had time to shop for decorations. She already had a cart of cobwebs, pumpkins, streamers, and lights.

Since it was a traditional Earth holiday, she wanted to make a big show of it for Miorine.

That, and...

Selfishly, maybe, but he didn't want this to be tinged by Dove's death. Of course her absence would touch every part of their lives for the rest of however long they would live, but right now...

"So, I was thinking that maybe,"

"You'd want to go on a...d...date?" He holds up the flyer, pointing it out. It was the last night for it, the Spirale Firewalks Show. Fireworks but in a way that wasn't overstimulating. A nice, 'comforting' event.

"With me?" That television show from a while ago played again in his mind, and how uncomfortable Andrew was around so many people. This was a much better way for him to go on a date.

The television flickers on, an angry teenager in formalwear appears to have just sent off a man, indistinguishable from the man who just introduced himself. She doesn't even shake their hands, nevermind hug them, instead standing there with clear disgust across her features.

The camera zooms in on her face, "That's ten of them, only two more."

This is the set of The Bridette, flowery, strange, and completely surreal. You've tuned in at the moment where the final two limousines pull up. Anticipatory music swells - will our Bridette, notoriously difficult to impress, want to meat our next two contestants...?

The limo pulls up, the music swells, and...

Oh, there's, oh he's running away. A teen in a rumples suit with a rose over his face has exited the wrong side of the car. Oh, he's crawling away.

The screen goes blank for a moment, TECHNICAL ISSUES on the screen.

When we resume, the Bridette is comforting the young man...could this be...love? Or, wait, someone stop his interview-

A...strange approach to our competition.

After our young Bridette comforts the shaking man, sending him inside looking like a lost puppy, the final limo shows up. Is there competition?

Oh, she's singing, it seems, the young woman is stepping out of the car, singing a jingle, and doing a strange dance. An advertisement, maybe...?

Oh! The Bridette is laughing...Our nervous boy has some competition, and some strong words from this competitor.

Stay tuned for an invigorating competition between 12 eligible grooms-to-be. Who will win the heart of our ice-cold Bridette? Stay tuned-

And, well, honestly, she...

Perhaps, wished to be better friends. And friends brought you coffee and food and asked you questions about your life. She was pretty sure, anyway. Given all of her 'friends' growing up had been fighting for her hand in marriage or hated her because some guy was fighting for her hand in marriage, she wasn't entirely sure.

(Even the person she considered a friend tried to use her anyway.)

So this was all new.

"Thomas is back, so, what else is going on?"

Waking up, alone, in a different bed. It was after the new year, apparently, and he knew that wasn't right. Peering into the dark room, he exhaled,

"Are you here, Andrew? Please be here."

Of course he'd seen scenes like this among his peers. Kids whose families had cultivated their bodies to be imbued with whatever magecraft they specialized in, usually to the heir's detriment.

Inhaling, he readies himself for the rant he knows is building...

"That's what I can't stand about mages! Especially families that cultivate - apparently literally in this case! - their heirs to be the perfect version of their magecraft! Are your parents specialists in plants? Ugh!"

"When I move up in the ranks...I'll dismantle it, this system. It's terrible."