In Love With A MacGuffin

Day five begins, on the theme of love that ended happily. However, our tale today (5.1) can only be said to end happily for the men, as the women are treated by the characters and the narrative as if they have no opinions or preferences of their own. The protagonist is inspired by the sight of his love to a serious self-improvement project, then when he is unable to negotiate a betrothal, decides to kidnap her on the way to her husband. The first kidnap attempt is temporarily successful; the second, with the aid of another man in love, is more lastingly so.

CONTENT WARNINGS: In this story, the protagonist assumes that his love gives him a right to marry a woman, and never seeks her opinion on the matter. He observes her sleeping, walks her home despite protests, and later kidnaps, kisses, plans to sleep with, kidnaps again, and finally marries her. There is no indication of whether she agrees or objects to this, apart from her distress in the middle of being kidnapped (which may be attributable to violence).

Gore: mention of a guy getting his head chopped in half during the second kidnapping.