"Mother, I am perfectly capable of dressing myself! You didn't need to get an army of maids!" Charlie insists.
Judy ignored her daughter and pointed to the balcony turning to the palace guards, Sam and Finn were busy patrolling the grounds around Charlie's balcony. "Make sure to block all exits," Judy commanded before turning to her youngest daughter who looked outraged.
"I wore my nicest clothes!" Charlie insists pointing at what she was wearing.
Judy glanced over Charlie's clothing with a critical eye, a sleeveless shirt and hunting pants, with semi-clean boots. At least the clothes were clean, which was probably what Charlie meant by her nicest clothes. She was grossly underdressed for her event and it was troubling. "Charlie, this is a ball. You are not going drinking with Kara and getting into bar fights, I have invited plenty of suitors from outside the capital, in hopes of finding you a match. It's like you're not even making an attempt."
"They're clean clothes mother! An attempt was made!" Charlie insists.
Judy inhales the fact that it was perhaps the only thing clean was in itself a bit of a problem, she would need to talk to the Head Maid and figure out how often they were doing laundry, "A poor attempt. You did promise you'd try dear. Don't worry I've brought along a proper dress uniform for you to wear, with polished boots and I've prepared a ceremonial sword, so you don't feel naked. You're not allowed to stab anyone with that sword."
"Mother, I don't go around stabbing people!" Charlie insists.
"Kara will be there—"
"It's probably for the best it's a ceremonial sword then," Charlie agrees with her mother, changing her tune immediately.
Judy rolled her eyes, "Charlie this may be your last chance in finding someone you connect with, there aren't that many unattached women left in the kingdom, and I would rather not send you off to your grandfather to find you a match in the Holy Empire. Countess Georgiou has informed me that there are plenty of unattached women there."
"Perhaps I won't ever get married then. I'm perfectly fine on my own mother, I don't need a wife. I can have a bunch of concubines like dad."
"And how is that working out for your sister?" Judy retorts and nods at the uniform. "Go and put it on."
"Here?" Charlie said motioning to all the maids and the guards.
"Charlie, if you could get away with it you would walk around naked. And you have, numerous times, I'm sure everyone here has seen you in a state of undress at some point or another. You enjoy showing off, now get dressed. I know the moment that my back is turned you'll try and jump out the window and flee. So hurry up."
"Mother."
"Charlie," Judy said, her tone indicating that she was losing what was left of her patience.
Charlie puffed out her cheeks and sighed, before she began to strip down, grumbling as she did so. She manages to strip down to her undergarments before the maids begin to help her with her clothes, doing up the buttons. "It's tight mother, and is it supposed to be this scratchy?" Charlie questions pulling on her collar only to get her hand slapped by one of the maids.
"You're not a child dear," Judy snaps in an exasperated tone, moving to help the maids. She grabs her daughter's hands and looks at her, she needed to get her daughter to behave if only for a few hours. "It's one night of discomfort and who knows you might meet your future wife at this event. Do you know what caught my eye when I met your father? How attractive he looked in his military uniform."
"Really? You saw him in his uniform and thought to yourself, I need to have that?" Charlie wrinkled her nose, "Were you blind?"
"Your father is a very attractive man," Judy insisted, giving her daughter a quick smack upside the head, she immediately runs her hand through Charlie's hair and sighs. "We're going to need to spend some time brushing this out."
"Did you get a size too small mother? It feels like if I breathe then the uniform will split into a million pieces," Charlie grumbles, she definitely could barely move in this, it pinched her in all the places that she'd grown, it was always around the arms. Why couldn't people make it in a way that was comfortable? As she pulls at her collar there is a firm knock on the door. A smile appears on her face as she spots her twin, "Quinn, did you come here to save me?"
"No," Quinn replies bluntly, "You were probably going to show up in hunting pants and a loose shirt ignoring that balls have quite strict dress codes. Then you would have complained that there wasn't a woman who wanted to talk to you, and then you'd go pester one of my dolls, if you didn't pick a fight with Kara thus ruining the whole thing. Mother has put a lot of effort and time into this, all in the hopes that you will find a woman who thinks that your general weirdness is attractive."
Charlie immediately looked to her mother for some sort of defense, but her mother simply pulled at an errant thread, as if the conversation wasn't terribly insulting. "You're supposed to be on my side," she grumbles.
"Why? We share a face, Charlie, and your actions reflect poorly on me all the time." Quinn explains. "Do you know how many noble women you've offended?"
"I can't remember offending anyone," Charlie grumbled. She really had no idea why she had such terrible luck with women, she shared her looks with Quinn, so she knew that people found Quinn attractive. She was aware she wasn't as regal as her siblings, but surely there were others who found that charming?
Judy watches as the maids finish dressing her daughter and she casts a very critical eye, "Her hair next, you have my permission to tie her down if it is necessary. I need to get ready myself and that should take an inordinate amount of time. Quinn keep your sister away from Kara, and more importantly away from the alcohol."
"Of course," Quinn said immediately, smirking at her twin who looked outraged.
"How am I supposed to get through a ball sober?" Charlie insists, the moments the words were out of her mouth she immediately flinches as her mother gives her a look.
"Keep her away from Kara, Quinn if the two of them fight, it will come out of your budget."
Quinn nods at her mother and looks at the group of soldiers, "I'll make her presentable mother, I know what works best for her."
Judy sighed, "Quinn, if you pull one of your little jokes, I'll be very disappointed in you."
"I will make her look presentable, and she'll even be there on time, with her sleeves on. I promise," Quinn smiles as she takes the brush from a maid and pokes Charlie in the side with it. "I need to run some things by her."
Judy narrowed her eyes briefly, "Very well," with a gesture of her hand people file out of the room. "Quinn, this is important to me, and I'd rather you didn't test me."
Quinn looked at her mother, "Mother, I swear that Charlie will get to the ball in a presence and a state of mind that you find acceptable. After she gets to the ball she's your problem. I'm not a miracle worker mother, you know how she is!"
"I'm sitting right here," Charlie grumbles at her twin.
Judy narrowed her eyes, she didn't have to pick apart whatever word game Quinn was getting at. She shakes her head and simply exits the room.
"Do you know how it happened?" Charlie questions once their mother is gone, grimacing as Quinn begins to brush her hair out.
"No. I wanted to talk to you about your dalliance with the cat beastkin, she was caught attempting to break into Brittany's lab. You need to be far more careful Charlie," Quinn lectures. "I know she's pretty but she's still a beastkin."
Charlie narrowed her eyes slightly she hadn't told any member of her family about what was going on with the strange beastkin, she still had no idea what to make of it, and with the peace talks, and dealing with incoming dignitaries, fixing the downtown core and avoiding Kara, she hadn't had the time to figure out what it all meant. "Even if they saw Brittany's invention that doesn't mean that they'll know how anything works. I go to Brittany's tower all the time and I have no idea how any of it works, I wouldn't be able to sabotage it if I tried."
"Still, do try and keep your distance," Quinn lectures, as she braids her twins' hair. "Especially from Kara, mom has worked really hard to find someone that you can marry, and most of the families that she's chosen Charlie are neutral, so you don't have to worry about the politics of it all. So just choose someone and be done with it."
Charlie grunts at the idea, "I'm far more charming when I'm drunk."
"That's not even remotely true," Quinn retorts. "Look, I don't consider dwarven ale to be alcohol, it tastes like muddy water, where they sprinkled some mushrooms for taste. You can have a few glasses of that, but you heard mother stay away from the wine and the rum."
"It does taste like muddy water, all dwarven alcohol tastes like dirt," Charlie agrees, but dwarven ale was mostly alcohol anyway, Quinn had never had a decent batch of it and a few good swigs of it should calm any nerves that she had.
"A few glasses," Quinn reminds her twin. "So long as you do exactly as I say and get there on time," Quinn finishes and takes a step back. "See, you look presentable now, if you can act like a noble with manners."
Charlie nodded happily, just a few glasses before she went in. Even if dwarven ale did taste like fermented dirt, it would give her the liquid courage that she needed to be charming, and slightly less dull. Perhaps she'd finally find someone who she could talk to about swords, and the badlands.