#we are on full Nancy Drew CW brainworms lockdown until august soz to my sane mutuals and followers

[sesamestreep]

okay sorry one last one: 50, dealer's choice

50. rudely barging in on a white veil occasion (from this list) you say dealer’s choice, I say DREW CREW! 🔎✨ set several years in the future so all these characters can legally drink and technically not be child brides, basically 🥂💍

After breaking several traffic laws to get there in record time, Nick and Ace barge in to the fitting area of Delia’s Bridal Shop in Augusta to find burn marks on the plush beige carpet as well as the remnants of several broken champagne glasses scattered on the floor. Nancy is standing center stage, as it were, grasping George by the arms but they both turn in surprise when the boys enter.

“Nancy, don’t!” Nick calls, first to act as always.

“Whatever you’re feeling right now,” Ace tries to say while still catching his breath after the sprint from the parking lot, “it’s not you. It’s the—!”

“Earrings,” Nancy replies flatly. “The ones Ryan gave me to wear, from the Hudson estate.”

“Yeah,” Nick says, cautiously, throwing a baffled look in Ace’s direction. “It turns out they belonged to one of the Women in White, and she—”

“Went crazy at her own wedding and killed a bunch of the guests,” George finishes for him, with a grim smile. “So, now they’re infused with her rage.”

“Yeah,” Ace responds, feeling his heart rate hesitantly returning to normal, “and it looks like Temperance held onto them and they got passed down through the Hudsons because…”

“She’s a nightmare person from Hell,” Bess says, nodding from an overstuffed chaise nearby, somehow managing to look both exhausted and blasé at the same time.

“Wait,” Nick says, gesturing at Nancy and George, “if you’re not in the midst of some bridal meltdown, how did you know about the earrings? And what’s with this mess?”

George gives Nancy an arch look. “Someone decided it might be nice to let the salesgirl try on her spooky family heirloom jewelry because she’s just sooo friendly and accommodating.”

At Nick and Ace’s mutual confused looks, Bess gestures to the corner, where a disheveled salesgirl is tied up in dressing room curtains and snoring gently as she presumably sleeps off the side effects of the curse, then holds up what Ace recognizes as her kit of spell components that she keeps in her purse.

“Magical first aid kit,” she announces proudly before taking a swig out of the last intact champagne flute, “never leave home without it!”

“How was I supposed to know the earrings were cursed?” Nancy asks, helplessly.

“Well, they are from the Hudsons,” Nick offers, getting a universal murmur of agreement from everyone else.

“Yeah, no more gifts or relics from that side of the family, please,” Ace says, moving to put his arm around her shoulders soothingly.

“Nothing older than twenty years, I promise,” she replies, leaning into his side. “Though, Bess did break the curse on the earrings, so…”

“Nancy!” Bess yells.

“Absolutely not,” Nick puts in.

“Not happening,” Ace objects.

“Ryan is rich. He can buy you new earrings,” George says, shaking her head and going to stand with Nick.

“Fine,” Nancy grumbles. “I guess we don’t need the risk of any extra bad luck for our wedding anyway.”

“Extra bad luck?” Ace asks. “Without the earrings, what do we have to worry about?”

Nancy bites her lip and looks uncomfortably at George and Bess. “Well, I know it’s old-fashioned, but it is considered bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the ceremony and…you’re, well…”

When she gestures down at her body, Ace notices her dress for the first time. It’s…big, with a lot of layers of tulle and…a lot more rhinestones around the neckline than he could have anticipated. The minute he spots the enormous bows down the back, he catches up and slaps a hand over his eyes.

“Oh, no! I’m sorry, I didn’t even think! I was so worried about the cursed earrings that I…”

“Goddammit,” George says.

Ace looks over at her, in case something else has suddenly gone wrong, only to find Nick trying desperately not to laugh while she glares at Nancy.

“Pay up, baby!” Nancy says, with a triumphant grin.

“What,” Ace says, not even bothering to make it a question.

“George bet me 20 bucks that I wouldn’t put this dress on and be able to convince you I was going to buy it,” Nancy says, patting his chest with her palm. “I was just going to text you a photo but you made it a lot easier by showing up. You should’ve seen your face.”

“That’s so mean,” Ace says, even as relief floods through him.

“As if I’d ever choose this dress of all things.”

“I’m still coming down from a panicked adrenaline high and I feel that I should be graded on a curve as a result.”

“Does that mean I don’t have to give Nancy twenty dollars?” George asks, as she fishes a bill out of her bra.

“Hell no,” Nancy replies, snatching it out of her hands. “Weddings are expensive.”

Ace nods at the damage around them. “Yeah, and I have a feeling these guys aren’t going to give us a discount.”

“Maybe there’s a matching wedding dress in the Hudson House of Horrors you could borrow,” Nick suggests.

“Don’t even joke about that,” Nancy says, darkly, curling even further into Ace’s side.

#sometimes the muse sends you ideas in Morse code and hieroglyphics and you really have to decode that shit #and sometimes she just airdrops a full fic into your brain in an instant like she did with this #here you go ma’am 🫡 #I think a few of these character voices even scan correctly and everything #It’s….something! right?? maybe?? #it’s done that’s what it is #we are on full Nancy Drew CW brainworms lockdown until august soz to my sane mutuals and followers #I will not be normal about these dingos for A WHILE #nancy drew cw #nancy drew #bess marvin #ned nickerson #george fan #ace [redacted] #ace nancydrewcw my main man #taylor swift song prompts #firstelevens #ask #prompt game #prompt fic #truly didn’t know I was such a speak now girlie until I listened to the re-release #and I was like oh this album bumps actually #speak now the song is genuinely such a closely held guilty pleasure of mine #we like to have fun in this house #homelywenchsociety #that’s my writing tag! don’t worry about it!