MxF 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 & 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍

[nettlesting]

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Spoiler: A bit about me, roleplay preferences, & musts

A BIT ABOUT ME.

Hello everyone, I'm Nettles (she/her or they/them).

I'm a twenty-two year old uni student who was once a Quotev connoisseur from 2018 to mid 2024 (if you know you know). I'm a lesbian, disabled, and (Gasp! My greatest ailment!) English.

I adore the wide span of the medieval era, pre-history (Spinosaurus, my beloved), drawing, scruffy dogs, autumnal colours, folklore and mythology, and making little pocket words in my brain ── amongst other things.

I also love reading and I am currently reading The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill. My music taste can be condensed into my favourite artists: Adrienne Lenker, Yaelokre, Small Fools, Lo & the High Road, and Rabbitology.


ROLEPLAY PREFERENCES.

I would prefer anyone roleplaying with me to be in the age bracket of 20-26 however, if we get to know each other first as individuals before roleplaying, I do think we could roleplay together. This preference is my only one ── a partner's gender, sexuality, or race is no preference of mine ── and it is up to change with time, because I haven't roleplayed with anyone beyond 26 before. So maybe I will remove this preference with time.

On a less serious note . . . with a roleplay partner, I need to (and love to!) discuss with roleplay partners the roleplay idea before hand. Along with plotting, headcanons, and, overall, getting to know roleplay partners before the roleplay starts. It helps me submerge myself in the roleplay ideas. I also support the divas who make OC playlists, Pinterest boards, and anyone with the same interests as me.


MUSTS.

Triggers: My only trigger is domestic violence. Please respect that trigger, as I am not someone who uses the term "trigger" lightly.

Smut: I have had a bad experience with roleplaying this theme years ago and it's stuck with me, even now. That being said, however, I promise I'm no prude and that my OCs can dirty talk, tease, and intimately touch if that is anyone's preference. Like my partner's age preference, this might be something that changes in the future.

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ABOUT THE ROLEPLAY.

slow-burn | unexpected romance | political tension | dystopian undercurrents


✦ Premise — Royal x Seamstress ✦

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Thirty-five girls are chosen for the Selection.
But they are not the only ones brought to the palace.

Alongside them arrive one hundred and five personal maids and seventy seamstresses and stylists, quietly absorbed into the palace's constant machinery of servants — unseen and easily replaceable.

Among them is a seamstress from Labrabor (my oc*), a former shopkeeper lifted from obscurity after being declared a "diamond in the rough" by the royal family's advisor who was tasked with choosing staff members. She is given no choice. Refusal would mean abandoning her ailing great-aunt, or being branded a traitor for fleeing.

She never meant to stand out. Yet something about her work — her recycling fabric, silhouettes, her unusual personal style — draws the attention of the Selected, and with them, the King / Crown Prince.

In a palace obsessed with the thirty-five Selected, it is the woman who was never meant to be noticed who becomes impossible to ignore.

** My oc's form will be down below, in a spoiler, for ease of use. :)

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✦ Themes & Dynamics ✦​

This is not going to be a glitter-and-gowns only story. Maybe there is arguments, discomfort, tension, learning (from both sides), and moments where affection feels inconvenient?

• Dystopia beneath the flamboyance and fashion of Illea's royal
• Power imbalance & moral friction
• Ideology vs. intimacy
• The Selection as political structure of worldbuilding and dystopia

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✦ Writing Preferences ✦​

• Third person, past tense
• Multi-paragraph replies (my minimum is 200 words per reply)
• Slow-burn romance pacing
• Slow paced roleplay overall
• Character-driven over plot-rushing
• EAGERLY open to plotting collaboratively ;]

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Spoiler: ✦ OC Form for Premise ✦

ÍDE O'RINN,
The seamstress

BASICS​

Full name: Íde (Ead-eh) Aileen O'Rinn

Date of birth: 17th June 21XX

Place of birth: Kilfinane town, County Limerick, the Republic of Ireland

Age: 20-30

Gender: Cis female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Ethnicity: Irish traveller (also known as an lucht siúil ('the walking people') in Irish)

Nationality: Irish and American

Education: (Home-schooled) primary and (traditional schooling) secondary school, and a two year college degree in fashion design

Occupation: Íde works as a shopkeeper and seamstress in her great-aunt Agatha's haberdashery and styling services shop called Buttons and Bobbins.

Residence: Íde both lives and works in Buttons & Bobbins in St. John's, Newfoundland with her Aunt Agatha. The building is a narrow yet tall thing, tucked away in a little alleyway, and some pass it without knowing — not seeing the little sign on the high street.

PSYCHOLOGICAL​

Personality: Íde is a striking mix of poise, wit, and gentle dominance. She carries herself with a forced elegance that seems effortless to unassuming eyes, yet her mind is always working — analysing, planning, creating. To strangers Íde appears reserved or even aloof thanks to her serious demeanour, lengthy vocabulary, and carefully measured words. However, those who spend time with her will discover that she is someone with a deep sense of empathy who struggles at outwardly expressing herself those who are not used to her ways. Íde tends to keep her own struggles private, preferring to handle problems by herself than burden others. She sees beauty in the overlooked — from scraps of fabric that she turns into something exquisite, to the house spider living in the attic that she collects flies for.

Hobbies: The Roaring Twenties and it's fashion history, embroidery, archaeology, scrapbooking, reading historical detective fiction, basketball, and building her antique broach collection.

Skills: She has moderate first aid knowledge due to her learning that skill for her jobs just in case, is fluent in Irish sign language and has begun learning American sign language since her living in St. John's, has fairly good deductive skills from her love of reading detective fiction, clothes making, and identifying birds (a skill passed down from her father).

Likes: Fashion design, make-up, playing solitaire on her phone, "creepy crawlies", karaoke bars, collecting knickknacks from charity shops, theatre performances, and trying to out-nice her petty neighbour.

Dislikes: Liars and fake people, being late to anything, flower bouquets ("Why not just gift a potted flower?"), neon colours, loud environments, and babies (she doesn't know how to relate to them).

PHYSICAL​

Spoiler: Faceclaim — Emma D'arcy

In her wig and preferred daily fashion of the 20's:

Out of her wig:
(A very rare sight for others to see, unless she is caught at 3am or is ill in bed and unable to properly put her wig on. Note that Íde has alopecia areata and will have large patches of hair loss on scalp, so the image below is not wholly what her appearance is.)

Appearance: Íde has a tall, slim build and yet also carries a wiry strength to her, standing at 6'3" (6'5" in her 20's heels). Her skin is pale with a cool undertone. She wears a dark brown wig styled in a short, 1920s finger-waved bob to match her antique aesthetic. She is meticulous about keeping her wig perfect. It's more costly than her entire hand-made wardrobe and thrifted accessories.

Her face is androgynous, with high cheekbones, a strong jawline, and an aquiline nose. Her eyes are deep-set and a cold grey-blue. Underneath her wig she has her large patches of hair loss from her alopecia areata, which she keeps short for practicality. Her teeth are clean, sharp and crooked – not enough to cause a speech impediment, but enough to make Íde grow up self-conscious of her natural "wonky fangs".

Íde has her earlobes pierced and has a half-finished, faded stick and poke tattoo from her 18th birthday as a tramp stamp — which used to look like a little centipede curled up. She has three woodcut tattoos, all from her years spent living in St. John's.

Spoiler: Tattoos

• Her first tattoo is of intertwined snowdrops. It is on the inside of her upper forearm, facing her. Snowdrops was her mother's favourite flower.
• A significant quote from Macbeth, split into "fair is foul" and "foul is fair" curved on top and below her right knee.

(It's funny to point out that none of her tattoos will probably ever be seen by other ocs, lmaoo )

Style: Íde's wardrobe is rooted in 1920s-inspired silhouettes — clean lines, dropped waists, and muted colour palettes (mainly light blues and creams). She leans toward practicality and always tailors them with her own hands. Accessories are subtle but meaningful — a scarf with hand-stitched details, or woollen gloves she's repaired herself. Her favourite hat is her blue cloche hat, fitted with a butterfly brooch she was gifted on her 21st by her great aunt.

When in the comfort of her own home and with no one seeing her but her aunt, Íde doesn't wear her wig but (if it's cold, which it often is in their home) a beanie.

Spoiler: Casual outfit examples

RELATIONSHIPS​

Family:
Mother — Eithne O'Rinn (nee Prendergast)
Father — Ciar O'Rinn
(A vast array of other family members who either never talked to Íde (Maternal side), or refused to talk to Íde after she left for America (Paternal side)
Great-aunt (maternal grandmothers younger, spinster sister) — Agatha Moran
Pet — Trinket, a two year old Giant African Land Snail she adopted from craigslist (she spoils Trinket with the occasional sweet potatoes and bananas)

HISTORY​

Íde O'Rinn was unintentionally born in a traditional Irish traveller's caravan in 1998 to her parents Eithne (nee Prendergast) and Ciar O'Rinn. Eithne, a primary school teacher, came from Kenmare and had gone against her strict family's wishes to marry the man of her dreams — Ciar, a partially deaf, self-identifying "adventurer" who had promised "all the world [he could] give" to her. Despite this promise, however, Eithne passed away from the effects of lymphoma when Íde was three and Eithne was twenty-seven and Ciar twenty-six.

Although life was not always easy with one parent, Ciar made himself a grounding presence for Íde as she grew up. He had an artist's soul and a deep appreciation for the beauty of everyday life, even if his personal paintings of nature rarely left the walls of their caravan home. He was patient and kind, with a dry sense of humour. Growing up as the only hearing person in their tiny family, Íde was his translator from a young age — often the cute, little haggler between her father and the farmer Ciar wanted to buy horse feed from.

Íde's early years were filled with daily home-schooling with her father as they slowly rode through Ireland's rural landscape in their bright, horse-pulled caravan. It wasn't a lot in monetary value, but it was home. Íde wouldn't have wanted anything else, even with the tribulations she had growing up and the prejudice that came with it.

When it came for Íde to begin secondary school, Ciar decided that moving to Dingle was best. Someplace stationary. There, Ciar was promised a weekly wage from a small, family-owned farm called Setting Sun Orchard if he worked as a farmhand. It offered a secure and better paying job, and he decided — after visiting the local secondary school with her — that it was the perfect fit for Íde.

The tiny family planned to only stay pitched up in Setting Sun Orchard until Íde left secondary, however, after she visited the local college, the two of them went on to continue to live on the farm during Íde's two year college degree in fashion design. It was during her years of college that she found her specific passion for wearing 1920's clothing.

The month after Christmas, months before Íde finished her college degree, Ciar suffered sepsis shock while working on the farm. It was misdiagnosed by the ambulance service as being the common cold. He passed away in hospital after being rushed in too late.

Ciar's dream was always to leave behind something beautiful — a painting that might outlive him — but when he passed away from sepsis, a teenage Íde buried him with his favourite painting, dishonouring his wish to be remembered through his art. His grave lies beside Eithne's in a quiet field of Kenmare, marked by a simple gravestone between them and a patch of wildflowers their daughter planted . . .

MISCELLANEOUS​

• Your grandmother very probably loves her
• Íde has to write lists for everything due to how chaotic her work-life is.
• She jokingly calls herself a lady while her sharp manners aren't far from it.
• Despite Íde's formal personality, she has shown an occasional inclination for punching louts.
• Growing up, Íde dreamt of becoming a fashion designer with her own brand. Now she simply wants her remaining family to stay safe.
• Agatha Christie is Íde's favourite author, thanks to her 66 novels being set in her beloved roaring 1920's that are within the mystery genre.
• She has a mild strawberries allergy (hives and mild swelling if ingested – uncomfortable but not life-threatening if treated quickly).

OTHER DYNAMIC IDEAS​

• Small haberdashery owner x major fashion owner — underdog x top dog / professional competition / rivals to lovers, rivals who are lovers
• Small haberdashery owner x artistic muse
• Skint haberdashery owner x billionaire / celebrity — secret identity / supportive relationship / meet ugly / fluffy / domestic / rags to riches
• Cinderella x Prince(ss) Charming — working class women x royal / A-list celebrity / billionaire

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✦ Final Notes ✦​

If you're interested in this Selection AU please directly message me with:

• A short intro about yourself (name, pronouns, age, and favourite book / film (because I'm nosey :D)
• Your vision for the king/crown prince / your existing male oc that can be made into a royal
• Any themes you're especially excited to explore (examples: romance, dystopian, etc.)

If you are not in The Selection fandom but are still interested by the plot(s) overall, DM me and we can always make it set within a fictional world.