Griselda and Omni

Omni Barnes was born handsome, wealthy, and stylish. He's currently on a mission to cancel his best friend's engagement and steal his company so he truly does not have time for a romantic entanglement. A business entanglement, however, is always welcome. When he sees a scrumptious hat traveling through a crowd, he hunts it down and finds the most perfect witch he's ever encountered. Omni suddenly knows one thing: He very much wants to be entangled (in all forms and shapes) with the delectably witchy milliner, time and plans be damned. One problem, among many, is that he's worried she might not like to be entangled with him after she finds out that he's using her friend to seduce his friend away from said engagement and company. Griselda was born ugly, poor, and dowdy. She's currently on a mission to propel her new millinery shop to a more profitable level so she truly does not have time for a romantic partnership. A business partnership, however, is more than welcome. When she is approached by none other than Nikola Omni Barnes, X. Griselda suddenly knows one thing: She wants nothing more than to be partnered with him (in multiple ways), time and plans be damned. One problem, among many, is that she's worried he might not want to be partnered with her after he finds out that she's actually partnered with his friend in an effort to keep Omni from cancelling the engagement and stealing the company. It's a tangled, hat strewn path they tread, and when it all comes to light neither one is comfortable returning to the dark, and so choices must be made, debts repaid, and hats unstrewn.

Plot points/Scenes

born in the forest and abandoned in the swamp, Griselda grew up strong and green. born in the finest non-royal hospital and abandaoned in the care of servants, Omni grew up savy and green. two greens, so very different, somehow begin walking paths that lead right towards, and into, one another. moni walks into the hat shop and stops. "You!" he gasps on a whisper flip to gris "me?" she said outloud and thought, "Him!" on a slow mental exhale. Nikola Omni Barnes the 10th was standing in her store. the plan was working, she might just get her hats... stay calm girl. do not panic. stay coool. stay green. meanwhile omni is in a tale spin because she is the green witch girl he would secretely watch (and look for) on market days to the witches forest. her nose was long and pointy, and even as a child she'd had a large wart on the side of her bright green face. Omni, captivated now as he'd been then, managed to inhale a shaley breaht and compose himself not to outright stare at her. he'd never seen anyone like her. she'd haunted his dreams. haunted them for years, for deacades. all through school and, genkies, even last night, or uh possibly this morning. his grandfather never dealt with them directly and so he'd remained at a polite and "uninterested" distance while he and grandfather found new and marketable and profitable aquisitions for the store. Swamp juice peddlers were not among them at the time for this had been before the new modern refridergation systems. newly installed and ready to go (ed has been working on the design for years because omni would like to start selling fresh swamp juice possibly from a green witch he'd been too itimidated to go up.) any way ok so he hasn't seen her in a while because he went away to school and when he came back she was gone. her grandmother is still there and he starts going to the markets alone and starts speaking to other vendors and asking what montgomery's can do to support them and if that's even what they want? her grandmother tells him refridergation wont work because real swamp juice is potent and only has a short shelf life. so they wont have swamp juice but they will have other juices. minerva is the one who figures out what is needed for the refridgeration portion to work. she and gris are talking and min says "Gris, you obvisouly drink swamp juice, how do you store it?" "You don't. you make it and drink it. It's to perishable and delicate to stay out long. also fresh is best. why? you going green?" Min blushes, "I've htought bout it. maybe a little undertone.," she shakes her head, "I donlt think it'd go with my hair." "Or your nose," another witch says serisouly. all the witches nod and min says, "Exactly! Plus i'm too fae to be truly green. no i'm asking because i'm working on a refridgertatin and using magic and what else can y ou tell me and then gris does and and min says "dang you know a lot about swamp juice." "my grams makes the best and purest. ___" "oshut up! i'm working with your grandma on a refridergation system for swamp juice. it's magically enhanced to keep frehsness. your grandma is tough. the spell will only last 24 hours. period. weather the juice is still active or not. no juice of hers will sit longer. that's her gaurentee." and gris is like what are you talking about. "Uh, your grandma and montgomery's have been working on this for a while." Gris goes to see her grandmother who is ... ....at the nmarket and gris is not happy to just hear of the news "Years, grandma? years? you and Omni have been working on this? how do i not know? why did neither of you tell me!" that catches grandmother, "Now why would he go telling YOU my business girl. and why are you calling Omni Omni when every one elsea round here calls him Mr. Barnes? hwat aren't you telling me girl? maybe something about you and hats? or how about trolls?" gtis gets mean looking and grabs her grandmother by her arm and drags her off while telling her cousin/sister/aunt/employee "watch the table." and saying to her grandmother, "Alright you rotten old withc, you and your spies. You better start talking." and so the grandmother does and she tells her aboput how about five years ago omni started coming to the market by himself and how he started speaking with the "fresh and raw" marketers asking questions about them and their products and lettign them get to know him and what he sands for and how things are changing and gettign a good relationship. and one day he spoke to her and they started speaking on freshness and refridergation and she found him to be a polite well dressed and well mannered and soemthing of bore until one day when granny mentioned that her granddaugher had moved to the forest and gotten married and has kids. and omni is heart broken and then the kicker she tells him, "she stopped drinking swamp juice." he reacts like he got kicked. "she's not green?" granny grunts. he can't look at her. "but her nose." granny grunts again. he takes a second and clears his throat. "Is she happy?" granny squints at him. "happy? can't say she is." he leaves and granny is smiling because she knows that omni used to look at gris when then were kids and then through his childhood, watching gris and her friends from a distance and wanting to join and blushing when he looked at gris for too long and look for her when he came in and doing his best to look dignified and uninterested like his grandfather but granny always knew and she always knew of gris's interest in omni even though gris had more of a business shark like interest in him because gris didn't think that a Rich Covie (a wealth someone from any of the nicer Covenants) would ever be interested in a green swamp girl. but granny isn't sure if he'll come back and continue what he said he was going to do. she knew he was doing it to get gris's attention but now that gris was out of the picture would he still follow through? he does. and it's been over a 2 years now and the market is thriving. which is why when... ...omni walks into Selda's hat shop he sees Gris from the swamp and she's the hat lady. holy shit. he's died and gone to heaven. and "You!" so he has to pull it together "Me?" "I know you." "Do you?" He smiles. "I've seen you. You're hard to forget," he says softly. her smile fades a bit. "May I interest you in a hat, Mr. Barnes." His smile kind of goes up. "You know me?" "I may have seen you as well. A man like you is hard to forget in these parts." His smile kind of fades. "Uh, yes, well, hats. Yes, I am intertested in these hats. Are they yours?" "yes, all of them." his eyes light up. "you like hats then?" he says cautiously. "obviously." he clears his throat, "Uh no, i mean, wearing them." she smiles at him. "I've yet to meet a milliner who doesn't." "Touche." he gestures to the store. "May I?" "Please." omni swallows and starts basking in all of the hats but pulls himself back because he's startign to get in deep with all of the ribbons and feathers and velvets and netting and there is gris staring at him with her perfect witch features and green she's green! and he starts sweating and he reaches for his tie and things start gettign a little woozie for him and gris is saying, "Mr. Barnes?" and suddenly ed rushes in, "Damn it OMni! you fool! " and pulls him outside of the shop and into the fresh air and he slaps him. "Pull yourself together man" (in the scene in the nbedroom surrounded by the hats he goesfor his tie to start taking off his clothing because he needs to be naked around all of the hats and then he starts unbuttoning gris and taking her out of her clothing no questions leaving only the hat "was this what you were doing in the shop that first day?" "Yes," "Oh!") "I should have wiated Ed." he grabs ed's tie and shirt in a death grip. "She's the green swamp girl, ed. it's her." "Hat girl is market girl?" ed pulls back and rubs his jaw. "oh Omni this is serious." he shkes his head and looks around. and pushes omni against the building. "Stay here don't move ok. I'll...oh man. I'll take care of it. take some deep breaths" ed goes back in and... "We'd be delighted to buy your hats, if you will write up an invoice and bring it with the hats to montgomery's--" "I'm affraid I can't do that--" figure this out because she can't let him leave without something.

Related Characters