Depending on when this is set, white was the colour of death and funerals, not weddings. If memory serves, there is a painting of Mary Queen of Scots as a widow in white, when she was in France, which would be 16th century. So white is quite fitting for this story too! And shrouds were white until quite recently.
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waaaaait what??? i thought fiance was used for whatver gender i’m genuinely confused lol
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I thought it was too, since men normally wear black and to be honest, I’ve never seen them wear white.
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A “fiancé” is a man, and a “fiancée” is a woman. The words were stolen from French, which is a gendered language, so the words are gendered even though English generally is not a gendered language.
Same reason that a man is a blond while a woman is a blonde.
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i… ok so i AM an idiot lol, i did not know that either. 
yea, so i guess if someone’s just a regular english speaking person they’re not gonna like just assume it’s like purely masculine. This is super interesting… I’m gonna ask a family member (im half french) to pronounce them for me cause they’re spelled very similar, unless you know if they’re pronounced the same or not? and this is the last i’ll talk about it cause i dont wanna derail the thread too badly 
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English recognizes the difference between fiancé and fiancée. That is why I thought it was a gendered choice.
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@Alex_Parker_Roberts
I think I was thinking something like this for the MMC:
But white/beige and a little embroidered
Yes!!!
…You’re so right… I will mourn my alliteration of “Fleeing your forced fiancé/e” but I will get over it 
The “fiancé/e” is currently a variable tied to the RO gender choice. But I’m thinking maybe it would better make that a choice or maybe lock it to the opposite sex of the MC so I can do some additional motivation for gay MCs to leave their betrothed + a potential minor plot thing, and also cause I’m still thinking on how “historically accurate” I should lean in this story.
I’m thinking, as I want the story to have old school vibes, I do want classical gendered behaviour to exist, but not locked to the genders. Does that make sense? Like, I want the ability for the MC to be able to sit in Dracula’s lap, but that should be a choice if you act in that way or not. I think I have a good way to code if the MC acts with masculine or feminine mannerisms:
“You bow; you have always expressed yourself with masculine mannerisms, always.”
/ “you curtsy blabla”
And then I was thinking the vampire curtsies or bows by their gender expectation cause after hundreds of years of acting a certain way, that would be very hard coded, I imagine. But you can sort of question these and have them try a new role than they are used to. (Which would be both in the bedroom and out of it).
Ohh! You know, I remember reading that pure white could be used in funerals and maybe even mourning. You’re right!
But if the fiance/e word is removed to something gn, would it still be as confusing?
Cause I don’t think anyone wore black for a wedding in the pre-1700s? Or did they? I haven’t read that.
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Considering the historical setting, I do appreciate the idea of more rigid gendered mannerisms— and the ability to break them.
It would follow well with how vampires, particularly Dracula, were used as a literary tools to express non traditional sexual roles, anyway; there are so many books, articles, and essays about how Dracula is both a mirror of Victorian views on sexuality, and how said mirror is purposefully broken within the halls of the castle.
So non-traditional gendered mannerisms would fit right in with that, I think.
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How about betrothed instead of fiance/e?
I suspect they wore their sunday best to weddings unless they were very rich, as it often took a long time to make a new dress. And church dress would be a sober colour like black. Besides, black or a very dark colour did not show the dirt and these dresses could not be washed. It would depend on what dyes were available and where, and presumably quickest to use.
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IMO, the more important thing in most works is that it feels like a historical piece, not that it’s actually historically accurate.
My favorite example of this is in Deadwood. They used modern swearing in that show because they wanted it to feel like a rough mining town, and that’s the language that feels right for a modern audience. They tried using historically accurate swearing and found that it just sounded ridiculous to a modern ear. A character using ‘goldarn’ and ‘tarnation’ and the like doesn’t sound serious because those words have no impact now.
IMO, anachronistic behavior can often sell the setting better than if it were historically accurate, because it feels right to the audience.
Bailing from a begrudging betrothal?
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I’m there for my gay mc running away from a wedding they didnt want into the arms (sitting in the lap) of Dracula - it’s how I was headcannoning it anyway.
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I believe that’s the same rationale as the choice of music in A Knight’s Tale. Music in the Middle Ages would have sounded nothing like Queen or Bowie, but using the music of the time wouldn’t have had the same impact.
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I tried the demo, and genuinely enjoyed it.
The writing, the -pace- (and of course the options)
I do hope this’ll develop into something more. It’s a great start
The other option I would suggest is possible adding something in brackets to signify the choices your making. A simple example between choices would be something like this:
- seeing red (angry)
- feeling blue (sad)
- turned pale (afraid)
- looking green (sick)
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Hmm, I wouldn’t want that, to be honest. When I first saw the wedding option, I had to look up the word “fiancé” to check what gender it is, and I was very happy to discover that I can explore forced marriage storyline without it being heteronormative. It isn’t something that has happened irl, yes, but the beauty of fiction is that you can freely include unrealistic things like that. For me, as an lgbt person, it’s a part of the escapist fantasy: comfortably exploring topics that are usually unavailable to me due to being strictly tied to heteronormativity, without having to compromise my preferences. Even though heterosexual forced marriage would have additional meaning for gay MCs, which most likely would be interesting for a number of players, I still think having the opportunity to avoid forced heteronormativity (which lgbt people are constantly subjected to) is a worthy option to consider, therefore making it a player’s choice is the best solution, imho (or leave it gender neutral altogether).
OMG, yes! I’ve always dreamed of having the ability to choose MC’s mannerism regardless of gender, since I really dislike it when gendered behaviour is enforced on the MC. Thank you for being thoughtful about this! 
I think it’s a perfect way of doing this!
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