Chapter Text
[Diagram insanity has sent a picture.]
Madman's husbando: What the
Madman's husbando: It's been a measly 3 weeks Coco how're you able to make wedding attires this quickly
Diagram insanity: Cloth magic + got raised a seamstress + next to 0 other work to occupy myself with
Madman's husbando: Isn't the phone and that Integration polaroid enough you tiny workaholic 😭😭😭
Diagram insanity: LE GASP
Some romantic stuck-up: Lmaoooooo
~~~~~
Some romantic stuck-up: Wait, I nearly forgot…
[Some romantic stuck-up has sent a picture.]
Some romantic stuck-up: May I trouble you with making this pls? You still have my measurements, right?
WHAT betrayal is expected: Yup
WHAT betrayal is expected: This for the attendee attire?
Some romantic stuck-up: Yeah. There's like, only 1 non-pajama attire that I'm comfy with and is passable as an attendee attire, but I feel like it's missing some sort of ✨flair✨, if you see what I mean.
The unexpected traitor: This wouldn't have been a problem if you didn't push for it
The unexpected traitor: Just come in casual clothing who're you gonna offend? Olly and me?
Some romantic stuck-up: My bloodline, that's who I'm gonna offend. And maybe Coco's as a seamstress, too.
~~~~~
[Some romantic stuck-up has changed their name to Forced vacay incoming.]
The unexpected traitor: Let me guess, Beldaruit strikes again?
Forced vacay incoming: Yup. A full-on 1 week of paperwork that I'll have to catch up with. Luluci got roped in too. At least he's giving us a 2 week notice this time…
WHAT betrayal is expected: Wait it means we can schedule the wedding for somewhere in that week!
Forced vacay incoming: Wait…
Forced vacay incoming: Holy fuck yas! Fanfic material, I'm coming!
The unexpected traitor: Easthies I swear to fucking GODS
~~~~~
Forced vacay incoming: @WHAT betrayal is expected Have you gotten to the flower part of the deco yet?
What betrayal is expected: No, why
Forced vacay incoming: Great, may I handle that one? I kinda feel bad being the only transmigrator here to not contribute somehow 😅 And I dived into victorian flower language for my fanfics so that's at least one thing I can do.
The unexpected traitor: ??? There's like nothing to feel bad about
WHAT betrayal is expected: And how'd you get them victorian flowers anyway?
What betrayal is expected: Reminder, half of them were SSR at best till like the 15th century or smth. We're in the 11th.
Forced vacay incoming: You forget plant magic.
The unexpected traitor: Somehow I can hear the evil low cackling from here…
~~~~~
The newly-married couple ended up sending Riliphin to Beldaruit's care the day before they were due for departure, under the justification that they were paying a visit to an old friend (which was technically true). For some reason, the elder had accepted their request to look over Qifrey's apprentice with merely an unexplained pout and nary a question, but Qifrey wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not yet, at least.
"Here you go. Don't forget to take care of your ears."
"I won't, Master."
"If Beldaruit does something that you aren't comfortable with, don't hesitate to turn heels the other way, okay?"
"Um…"
Beldaruit looked like he wanted to say something to protest. Instead, all he did was make his signature Indignant Beldaruit™ noise.
And then Riliphin was off to the Great Hall. The windowway closed behind him, leaving only a drawn glyph behind.
With the air of someone half-assing their resignation to fate's designs, Qifrey sighed and then turned around. "Well, there's that done, I guess."
Next up, the cake. Mainly because in addition to teaming up to rope Olly and him into their second (and legally still unofficial) wedding in the span of barely more than one month, the Coco-Easthies duo (how that had happened was still beyond Qifrey after all this time) had insisted that a wedding wasn't a wedding without all of its signature elements — namely, the attires, the flowers, the gifts, and the one thing that Qifrey could add himself to the occasion, the cake. He wasn't listing the rings because one such ring was sitting snugly around his left ring finger right now, its twin hanging out around Olly's.
Anyways. The cake.
It didn't take long for him to fly back to his atelier, where his ingredients were patiently waiting, as he had already done his groceries the previous day. Unsurprisingly, the atelier was empty when he came in, Olruggio was away for business (read: to internally scream as that one specific lordly dunce for a client of his asked for something ridiculous again) and wasn't bound to be back until dinner time. After closing the door, for the first time in several months, he unclasped his choker and let his silverwood features show in the middle of the living room in broad daylight, though he otherwise kept it fully-wrapped around his neck just in case.
In quick strides he moved to the kitchen, and methodically opened his pantries one by one to grab his ingredients, almost not looking at all after two (or maybe one and a half since he had treed out in his thirties) lifetimes of arranging his kitchen the exact same way. The frosting and garnish were left in the coldbox for now, as he set himself to baking the cake's bread. Unfortunately, chocolate had yet to exist at this time period anywhere near Zozah peninsula (especially after the witches from the Days of Yore had almost nuked South America without even knowing that it existed), and he distinctly remembered that one time during his first life when the girls had tried coffee and had hated it and he didn't want to risk Coco still not liking coffee, so your average strawberry wedding cake it was, simple one-level edition since there were only five of them. He didn't bother rolling up his sleeves, simply settling for the apron, because when had he ever bothered, again?
Absorbed in his work (as he constantly switched between the cake and dinner), he barely registered when Olruggio arrived, and even then only really took notice of him when the dark-haired witch came and wrapped his arms around Qifrey's waist.
"Hey." Olruggio mumbled into the crook of the vine-haired man's neck.
Qifrey turned his head around to plant a kiss onto the first spot of his husband's head that his lips could reach, his antler knocking said husband's hat off in the process. Unfortunately for that poor hat, none of them cared. "Hey. You came back just in time — dinner's ready."
"Great. Need me to set up the table?"
"Yes please."
Despite being the one to suggest his help, Olruggio parted from him with an almost palpable reluctance to go get the cutlery, as Qifrey began to serve the potato gratin and roasted chicken into the plates that he had taken out some time before. With that done and the salad set aside on the dining table, they settled down and ate, the atmosphere filled with either Olruggio grumbling about that one client's newest antics (involving asking to turn his entire castle into pure gold… Olruggio had ended up having to spend literal hours explaining why that shit would not stay standing for five minutes and negotiate for just making it the shiny coating), their laughter at the ridiculousness of it, whimsical speculations on how either of the other chat-seers would've handled that (featuring Coco being Olly 2.0 and Easthies being far less kind; Luluci wasn't included for they still weren't that familiar with her), or just a shared silence that Qifrey, after months of dating his now-husband, had grown used to snuggling into like a warm fluffy blanket. That last one was something that the silverwood seed within him had once barred him from under the threat that he would become the atelier's big shiny houseplant; the fact that said threat somewhat coming to fruition was exactly what allowed him to revel in the comfort now was, in some weird twisted way, hilarious. Like a middle-finger in the face of Fate, courtesy of Olruggio and Coco, with the help of the System. Which had been asked to do so by an Admin that he knew next to nothing about and-
Thanks the stars that Olruggio was there to get him out of that rabbit hole (via a promise to the fine wine that his client's very done-with-life daughter had given him as her nth apology on behalf of her father) before he could ram his head against a dead end. Either Coco was right and spiraling had been a thing for Qifrey since so much longer before he grew aware of it than he had thought, or Olruggio was just that quick to adapt to this version of him, but either way the man was absurdly good at telling apart the more harmless leisurely rabbit holes (say, a book plot) from the… less good ones, let's just call them.
Anyways, they ended up trying to wrestle the task of dishwashing from each other (Qifrey lost the fight and was relegated to wiping the dishes), and once the task itself was done they lost no time migrating to the living room, where they sprawled onto the rug like they didn't have a couch right there. Feeling indulgent now that they had the evening to themselves, they gave in to laziness and took turns sipping wine from the bottle itself instead of fetching glasses.
They nearly fell asleep right there to reassuring presences and comfortable silence and good wine, and it was with great reluctance that they got up from the rug to get to the bathroom. No bath was drawn, for even after seventy-three years of living a peaceful life where he didn't get assaulted by water every other misstep, he still had his visceral hate for it, and Olruggio was too lazy to deal with everything that came with actual baths when he would've been the only one bathing. They continued indulging in the night's leisurely pace by hanging out on low wooden stools, lazily rubbing soap onto each other, and rinsing that off by pouring from a bowl that Qifrey had, right after the two of them had started dating, put there while he modified the bathroom to actually suit his taste, because if nothing else he could handle those smaller quantities. Olruggio soon revealed another reason for his no-bath solidarity by leaning his back onto Qifrey, right as he rinsed the last trace of soap from the dark-haired man. Far from complaining, Qifrey proceeded to wrap himself around Olruggio's naked form, nuzzling into the back of his neck, drawing probably too much pleasure from the warmth radiating from his beloved's skin; such was one of the may blisses that a human-shaped star's lover got to enjoy, perhaps.
Like that they stayed for who the fuck cared how long, with only the wet stools to separate them from the cold tiles, until eventually Olruggio yawned with his whole chest. Heedless of his body's protest at the loss of that comforting warmth, Qifrey unglued himself from his beloved, and went to fetch towels, one of which he wrapped Olruggio into to dry him of the last traces of water — apparently they had stayed cuddling for long enough that the parts of their skin free to touch air had dried already. Olruggio took advantage of the proximity to steal a kiss and the other towel still hanging off Qifrey's arm, then dried Qifrey with it.
Only as the dark-haired man reached to try and find night robes did they realize that they had forgotten to bring some with them. Any other day and they'd have been in a Predicament, but today Riliphin was nowhere near the atelier, so both immediately proceeded to shrug it off and cross the corridor leading to their room, hair still damp, and one towel away from full nudity. Probably too out of it from drowsiness by the time they reached the room, the two men directly plopped onto their bed with not a single semblance of thought for night clothes, and barely mindful enough to toss their towels aside for tomorrow-them to deal with as they snuggled together under the covers.
Qifrey in his sleepiness had pretty much forgotten about his antlers, so the abrupt push on his head from the branch that hit the bed was quite the unpleasant callback to reality. With a grunt, he crawled up to wedge his antlers against the bed's ledge. Without him fully realizing it, his arms and legs guided (a very willing) Olruggio to him as he did so, and next thing he registered Olruggio's beard was rubbing at his collarbone, the man himself contentedly wedging his own head against the hollow of Qifrey's neck, his arms wrapped around Qifrey in a gentle, sleepy embrace, and their legs had tangled together. In his state of drowsiness, those facts worked the same as a pleasant lullaby.
If you asked him later, he wouldn't know who fell asleep first. He rarely did know, these days.
~~~~~
"Coco? What are you doing out here?"
"… Just taking some fresh evening air, I guess."
"… Hunched like that? Right under Master Qifrey's tree?"
Coco didn't answer.
If Agott had any comment to make, she didn't voice them. Instead, she took her place right beside Coco, shoulder pressed with hers.
Silence stayed there for a long while, watching over them like a vigil. Or maybe, if Coco was delusional enough, it wasn't thin air watching over them like that, but their white-haired mentor, from somewhere within the tree's twisty trunk or from above amongst the silver branches or whatever.
"… Y'know… I wish that Master Qifrey was there. For our wedding."
"… Me too. And… I wish that such an occasion wasn't so bittersweet for Master Olly."
"Yeah. He looked…" … Like a dying man pouring what little strength he had left into powering through his agony to enjoy a snugstone's comforting warmth. "… Not great."
"'Not great' is very merciful of you."
"I'm not Richeh, darling. And anyway, she's roasted him enough for us four."
A snort. And then more silence. Coco couldn't think of a single thing to say. Neither could Agott, apparently.
A breeze passed by, bringing cold air over. The two women huddled closer, seeking warmth, but reprieve against the chill was only part of the reason.
In the distance, the moon had begun to rise, accompanied by a tune sung from the Atelier. Tetia's efforts to lull a maybe-drunk Master Olly to sleep, lull him into that merciful darkness between his snoozing-off and the moment the nightmares began. Though, Coco couldn't help but dread the day that his mind would be lulled into creating a refuge against his grief.
It was to that forlorn tune that everything faded to black.
Coco's eyes fluttered open to the dark of her room at barely dawn. And immediately she sprung up and slapped herself in both cheeks hard.
Nope nope nope nope, no dwelling on sad memories today. Today was her two teachers' wedding ceremony, properly conducted with all the elements that made wedding ceremonies iconic, evidently unlike whatever makeshift ring-marking procedure those two had gone with. She ought not to let angst bleed into the occasion. Not enough to sour the atmosphere at least.
Feeling reenergized by the thought of the festive atmosphere (and the resulting fanfics maybe) that was about to take place, the small witch darted out from her bed, made quick work of changing into her casual attire, grabbed the dress that she had prepared the previous evening alongside the cloak that she had promised for Master Qifrey's fae disguise, and bolted out of her room at probably breakneck speed. She beelined her way down to the kitchen, where Mom was already up and cooking stuff, and barely stopped to swoop a piece of bread along.
"Hi Mom bye Mom, Imma go now!"
"Wait what?? But it's barely-"
The poor woman got no chance to speak her piece, for Coco was already out and running towards the woods. The days prior, she had been informed of Coco's plan to spend the full day in the woods, supposedly for a new project of hers away from prying eyes, and her daughter had made sure to be the most firm she could pull off without triggering the System's OOC warning. Coco had to make up for the difficulty by being absolutely relentless, but it got her the same result: Mom wouldn't begin to worry and call for a search by the end of the day or pull some similar stunt.
As usual, it took little time to reach her clearing. There, she quickly changed into her attendee attire, a white, sleeveless dress with teal-draped off-the-shoulders of slender silhouette (at least for a kid) held in place by a narrow turtleneck, given color by the teal drape hanging around her hips, tied on the side into a large bow. Maybe a bit too elegant for a soon-to-be-six, but she was going to be with people who knew her to be an old-ass grandma beneath those looks, so who cared. And since they had adopted Easthies' idea of coming as attendees properly dressed, might as well. No gloves though — tried them once in preparation for her own wedding, hated it, never worn one again.
Her teleportation ribbon (she still had no fucking idea what to call it) was waiting on the tea table inside her sand tent, along with her wedding gift and Easthies' garment. The two men in the chat had ended up agreeing that holding that wedding in a place already filled with Coco's work was probably not a good idea (despite Coco herself finding no problem), so Master Qifrey had suggested another clearing that he remembered from his first life, one that stood out because he had been there at night and it had been beautiful then. Somehow, he also remembered where exactly it was with Kalhn as reference point, but she wasn't about to poke further since that had allowed her ribbon to take her there, so that she could temporarily ward the clearing with the exact same spells she had used for her own little corner of the woods and set up the drape part of the decoration. As agreed, Easthies had come by during these past three days to take care of the flower part; it had been agreed that the wedding would take place the day before his and Ms Luluci's vacation ended.
"Yo."
Speaking of them lot.
Coco turned around to face the source of the voice; there Easthies was, Ms Luluci beside him cheerily waving hello with the arm not busy holding both her gift and her cloak. The woman was gorgeous; her white dress hemmed by intricate blue embroidery, underneath whose wide V-neck a cyan garment could be seen, was held in place by a simple fabric belt of the same hue given flair by the braided golden thread at its middle and dangling golden tassels, and her capelet-style cyan-embroidered drape flowed from the V-neck, partly covering her fended sleeves held by cyan-blue cuffs . Easthies, on the other hand, still looked mildly casual, which was a bit funny for someone who had advocated for proper dressing; he had just a frog closure shirt with wide sleeves held at his wrist by built-in bishop cuffs, and simple black pants held in place by a very plain-ass belt. Though, he was going to complete the ensemble with the garment that he had asked Coco to make anyway, as evidenced by the folded black fabric and the large red belt with golden clasps in his hand not occupied with his gift box (and cloak).
"You look cute, Lady Coco." Ms Luluci said with a smile.
Not what she was going for, but such was the fate of a less-than-six year-old kid, one could suppose. "Thank you, Ms Luluci. And please, just 'Coco' is fine."
"If you call me just 'Luluci', then."
Coco smiled brightly. "Okay. You look gorgeous, Luluci."
"Why, thank you!"
Easthies jumped in right then with a grin, "So, where did you throw my request?"
"On the tea table. Just throw your cloaks on the chairs, between, if you don't wanna deal with them."
Both knights proceeded to do exactly that, and then Easthies took ahold of his garment with a swift sweep of his hand. Coco meanwhile, with a quick scribble onto her quire, commanded her teleportation ribbon to come to her, swooping her gift along. Then, opening a way to that other clearing was simply a matter of joining the ribbon's two ends to complete the linked glyph, picturing clearly in her mind the location that she wanted to get to, and then let magic do the work. One needed to picture the world the way one did a map for it to work, and unless one had photographic memory capacity, this feat required intense focus and an obsessive learning of the map beforehand, so unfortunately in situations where one's nerves were frayed, she could very well picture the contraption just not working at all, leaving one stranded and probably cooked. The Brimmed Caps had insane nerve-management, she'll give them that.
"Hey!" Easthies protested from behind her as she did all of that, "Let me finish fastening my belt at least!"
She stepped through the portal nonetheless. "Relax, I'm not closing this until all of us have gone through it!"
Apparently solidarity amongst Knights Moralis wasn't that great, for Luluci had already left her superior behind, giving him a playful wave as he tried to speed up arranging his black fabric belt decently around the… sleeveless open-front-and-sides tunic (she was drawing a blank on what it was called could you tell) that completed his looks. The guy tsk-ed, and in a split second decided to just say fuck it, grab his gift box and make a run for the ribbon portal. Coco waited until both knights had stepped through to the other side, then undid the circle formed by the ribbon.
"Remind me to give you one of these later." Coco told Luluci, as she rolled the contraption to store in a discreet pocket sewn into her decorative teal drape.
The younger woman nodded, then looked around at Coco's and Easthies' combined work on the clearing. A simple work it was, really; on one half of the place were two knee-high railings of snow-white drapes held up by stakes molded from stone and cocooned by vines and a harmonic arrangement of crimson carnations and peonies, serving as aisle, starting their trajectory from one wooden door each, behind which were pocket spaces that Coco had originally intended to be her storage rooms but which worked as one-off dressing rooms just as well, and converging into each other before the altar where a simple stone table stood tall, holding a plate where the disinfection spell and the needles lay, and where the Blood-Oath rings (a.k.a what Master Qifrey and Master Olly had given each other without a damn wedding) was supposed to wait for their wearers. In front of that was arranged a row of eight wooden chairs (carved via spells) for the attendees, and behind that row of chairs was a long stone table on which food would eventually sit. The temporary warding spells were decently disguised under the drapes and crystal ribbons and flowers that circled the whole clearing, and the crystal constructs that arose from the flora-wrapped stone pillars holding the whole thing up gave the illusion that they were under the roofs of a fantastical pavilion (or that was what Coco was going for at least). She'd have gone for light constructs instead, but Easthies had asked for something that he could hang all the carnations and peonies on, so she had to settle for the next option that'd come somewhere close to the light constructs' effect, and for wrapping glowing branches around that crystal structure. Really, keeping the crystal structure standing until the morrow was the most difficult part out of everything. Oh and the whole area was surrounded by sand beds, because if Coco was going to start using Richeh's signature spell now she might as well use Tetia's too.
(Also, she and Easthies might have had a bit too much fun using those same sand beds as impromptu trampoline during their various breaks. Wouldn't want to deprive the others of that.)
"Hi! You're all here, I see- What the-!!!"
All three pairs of eyes darted toward the newcomers. There, on the edge of the circle formed by the stone pillars, standing right before a ribbon portal, a bewildered, disguise-less Master Qifrey was taking everything in with his lone eye blown wide like a saucer. Beside him, Master Olly whistled, looking impressed. Notably, they both were in their respective casual tunics.
"Th- this-" The vegetal-haired witch stammered, "This is too much!"
"Excuse you, this is the bare minimum." Coco countered with a huff and hands on her hips.
"Especially for a wedding." Easthies added, having finished adjusting his red outer belt. The black-hemmed vermillion tunic-thing did give most of the flair to his otherwise plain outfit indeed.
Master Qifrey did not agree with that claim of theirs. "I've seen less all-out wedding deco-"
"Don't you think Master Olly deserves a wonderful wedding experience?"
That shut him up good. Easthies snickered, which earned him a glare from the white-haired man. Unfortunately, Master Olly deemed it fit to come to his husband's rescue, "Gott' agree with Qif, though. Maybe it's too much for just, like, five people."
Fortunately, Luluci was on the two other attendees' side. "And maybe your student wanted to pamper you two and Easthies agreed to help. Let an old woman pamper her cherished ones, won't you?"
"Um, Luluci, ouch. You're saying that about someone who looks like a five year-old."
"My bad, sorry."
"You don't look sorry at all." The mentally-older woman huffed without any real bite. "Also, since when are you on first name basis with Easthies? Last I knew, you kept it formal until the very end."
Luluci smiled mysteriously. "Fanfics can forge very strong bonds."
"You say that like it's an inspirational quote." Her senior grumbled with the air of someone debating whether they should dig a hole to hide into or not. "Anyway, don't we have two gays to throw wedding attires on?"
"Let me just put this on the table real quick." Master Qifrey said as he strode his way to the table, a basket that Coco hadn't bothered to notice before in hand. Meanwhile, Coco herself opened the box containing her gift — it wasn't wrapped properly the way one did a gift box, had she said that yet?
Two minutes into his unpacking the basket, and it became apparent that this big hypocrite was no better than his student in the party-prepping department.
Luluci was staring at the sheer amount of food that the wedded man had brought. "… Were you preparing for an army?"
"No." Master Qifrey smiled pleasantly, as though his cuisine wasn't literally right there to contradict his words. "I simply thought that maybe some of us don't want to bother cooking tonight. Or tomorrow- Coco, what's that?!"
The small witch smiled widely, as she placed the last of her gift pieces onto a chair. "Your wedding gift. Or the part of it that's supposed to be a stand-in for those we can't invite, anyways."
There, placed on the chairs that would've been vacant otherwise, were the imitations of Master Qifrey's comfort plushies, depicting Agott, Richeh, Tetia, Beldaruit, and Riliphin since that dear fellow apprentice of hers deserved to be here too. Though, all of them were in their normal robes instead of what Coco remembered their wedding attendance attires to look like. Master Olly's effigy was left in the box with the Master Qifrey one and the KittyFrey ink pot holder, because the real deal was here as a groom.
Those last ones were going to be more of a surprise, but Master Olly ruined that part of the plan by peeking into the box that Coco's dumbass had left on the ground. Master Qifrey, on his part, looked cross between pointing out the perceived absurdity, and tearing up at the reminder that the attendee list still wasn't complete and not everyone out of those he cherished was here.
Coco wasn't about to let the man choose the later, though. Quickly, she darted over and grabbed Master Qifrey by the arm, and pulled him to the door behind which awaited his attire. "Now c'mon, we still need to get you into your attire! You fine dressing up alone or do you need help?"
"Alone should be fine, thanks." The man answered with an awkward chuckle as he was dragged to the door on the left. Once there, he looked around for his husband, who had already registered what he had got to do, judging by the fact that he was already before the other door. "Will you be fine on your own, Olly?"
Master Olly hummed in confirmation. "Should be, yeah. See you with your attire on, then."
And then swiftly, both of them disappeared behind their respective doors.
With successive, swift flicks of her wrist, Coco drew out her reduced book, undid the clasp bearing the reduction spell, drew one spell that would beckon over and expand a piece of fabric that she had in her drape pocket then serve as makeshift carriage to get her to the Officiant pedestal, and then another spell that would weave that same piece of fabric into a floating swing for her to sit on and idly swing around. Okay, so maybe she was showing off, but she was mostly just lazy right now.
Now there was only waiting left to do before the ceremony officially began.
~~~~~
It took twenty minutes (just why), Coco barging into the changing rooms once to spook her two teachers by screaming about having forgotten to take their rings from them, and ten attempts from Easthies to steal a brushbug bun (stopped every time by Luluci who had no notion of coworker solidarity outside of work) for the grooms to emerge at last from their respective changing room doors. With a synchronicity that bordered on telepathy, if Easthies may add.
Olruggio was still fidgeting with the crimson peony that was supposed to go onto his chest pocket when they began their procession down their respective half of the aisle. That was one of the differences between a wedding from this era and the one born from the invention of the Blood-Oath rings; the aisle was made of not one path, but two, leading the wedded couple to meet each other alone before the altar. Not a lot of people did their research on why such a change had occurred, and honestly Easthies hadn't either, but he could imagine that them homos were getting tired of playing rock-paper-scissors just to decide who was playing the groom and who was playing the bride, and had also ditched playing faves (because that was usually what the best man was, when it wasn't the parent).
Now, Easthies had seen the attire in the chat, yes (which, the weeded people seeing each other's attire was a massive faux-pas that they all had to overlook because they didn't have much of a choice), but it didn't really compare to the IRL version of their matching knee-length suit-like jacket with their blue insides and cuffs over a blue vest and a plain button-up-and-trousers combo. The picture didn't say that Olruggio's black suit had subtle hints of glitter on the midnight-blue parts of his gold-hemmed jacket, just a healthy amount to imitate a star-filled night sky when light shone on it, and the picture didn't say that the sky-blue parts of Qifrey's silver-lined white jacket looked made of crystal. The full picture looked a bit out of place in the current era, but then again three of the five people present and the whole-ass ceremony itself were quite out of place, so if anything it was somewhat fitting.
Easthies would've ogled them out the whole way through, but something quickly caught his eyes. There, hovering above the Beldaruit plushie, was one of the System's interfaces, though Luluci didn't seem to take notice of it. It didn't seem to be doing anything else than simply hanging out, though, so just as quickly he lost interest and went right back to intently watching the ceremony unfold. After all, even first-life him had, at some point during his early twenties, wished for that fucking painful yearnatron to end. It had been eclipsed by his duties as a knight in three seconds top, but it was still something for his first-life self's dumbass.
Contrarily to dressing up, it didn't take them long to get to the altar, where Coco waited for them as their officiant (on a cloth construct that gave her height), and their dreamy sparkly admiration of each other's beauty was making the older of the two knights go blind (he couldn't speak for Luluci). They looked like they were about to kiss right there unceremoniously, but Coco intervened just in time by loudly clearing her throat.
"Welcome, welcome everyone!" The woman in little girl skin declared jovially, smile wide and heartfelt, "Today is the day to breathe a big sigh of relief, for the two-lifetimes-long slowburn and yearning-"
"Hey!" Both grooms protested, although only halfheartedly so; they must know that it was true.
Coco ignored them and continued, "-Have come to a definitive end. We're here today either because we love them and this strong devotion of theirs, or because we want fanfic material — looking at you two, knights. Either way, we're here to celebrate their love, a love so deep that the universe had agreed to bend over and give them a second chance. The fact that something like that was possible in the first place is a miracle. Allow me just to insert a bittersweet note in here — the tragedies of the past and former future may have been painful indeed, but we wouldn't be here today without them. So, while we must not let them dampen the mood, let us not forsake them either."
A minute of silence. You'd have thought that it was for the fallen or something.
(Well, technically it might be. For the Easthies and Coco and Qifrey who had to die for the current ones to take their place.)
Then the former Wise proceeded to clap that shit away, abruptly enough to startle them all. "And now, kick that to somewhere in the back of your mind, and let's get back to joyful moods! Shall we proceed with the ring-marking ritual?"
"Yes please." Olruggio mumbled, quiet enough that Easthies nearly missed it. Qifrey nodded along, his expression halfway-masked from the attendees by his leaf hair — just their fucking luck that his changing room was on the left.
"The wedded may choose their ring, and mark it with their blood."
Immediately, both men's hands flew up to the plate where their already-marked rings were waiting for them, as well as one needle each, and swiftly disinfected their respective left hand and needle along the way. Then, with the ease of someone who had already done the exact same at least once before (so at least they had done the correct gestures… made their stowaway midnight wedding marginally less sacrilegious), they pricked their major finger and slipped the rings on, smudging their blood onto the gems which gave no reaction for, again, they had already been marked.
Coco gave them both a small smile that looked a mix between happy for her two teachers, and still slightly annoyed over how they had gone and marked the rings without a wedding that she could attend to. "Now, to the vows. Olruggio, do you swear to cherish every facet of your lover, for the better and the worse, through all ups and downs, in sickness and in health?"
"I do." The guy said, blunt, without a single ounce of hesitation.
"Qifrey, do you swear to cherish every facet of your lover, for the better and the worse, through all ups and downs, in sickness and in health?"
"I do." Came Qifrey's answer, quieter, softer, its sincerity hitting no less hard for it.
Their tone wasn't the only thing Easthies was focusing on, though. The way they looked into each other's eyes like the other had painted the sky and earth into existence was… something. Maybe if he could capture it properly into words, he could make himself cry over his own fanfics for something else than being too aware that EasWin was mostly him being sentimental and delulu.
"The wedded may now mark each other's ring."
They definitely had done the correct gestures before, for Olruggio immediately knew what to do; in a synchronicity that had to be from some sort of childhood-friend-to-lover-exclusive telepathy, he and Qifrey brought their ring hands together in a promise handshake, leaning onto their joined hands for good measure, the tenderness practically palpable in the air.
Together, in one same synced breath, they said, "May not even death do us apart."
Yeah no, Easthies was definitely adding his piece on this one. "Okay wow wow wow, this is a new one. Shouldn't it be 'till death do us apart'?"
Olruggio shrugged, "Well, death yeeted Qif back here."
Okay, yeah, he could see the vision, fair.
"So… what's supposed to be the next part?"
Easthies turned to the source of the voice. Luluci, bless her, had her eyes wide and shining with enough intensity that he'd be surprised if he didn't go entirely blind by the end of the day. Speaking of which, he kind of envied her; unlike him, her excitement for this wedding was born out of absolutely nothing else than the fascinated curiosity of someone very new to things like these, with a sprinkle of the desire to see people happy and in good health.
Coco, oblivious to the older knight's slightly-clouded thought, widened her smile. "Next part, we applaud them while they kiss."
The black-haired knight took that as his clue to spring right up of his chair and begin hollering, "KISS! KISS! KISS!"
Luluci didn't take long to join him. She too stood up, and with her hands around her mouth like a speaker, she chanted, "KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS!"
Coco didn't join them, so they were the only two to make that commotion, but what she did do was watch with an amused smirk as both grooms began blushing tomato-red.
"You didn't tell me there'd be this part." Olruggio accused.
His husband (they were now officially husbands in Easthies' head, huzzah) gave him an awkward chuckle. "Well, I didn't expect this to come up. Although maybe I should have."
"You definitely should have." Coco hammered it in casually. "Now the wedded may kiss." Fucking please.
Apparently, the two husbands too heard that unvoiced part, for they both devolved into brighter blushing and more awkward chuckles, then in that mess they managed to slot their lips together, the awkwardness of it instantly melting into the easy tenderness that spoke of the countless kisses they probably had had during their dating period. Everyone, including Coco, hollered in cheers.
Coco was the first one to notice it. Easthies was the second one, because the cloth witch had stopped dead in her motions. Luluci followed very closely behind, for she too had Coco directly in her line of sight. Qifrey and Olruggio were last, and that was purely because confetti fluttered down onto them from seemingly out of nowhere.
There, right above the Beldaruit plushie, the System's interface displayed in big and bold the words 'Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!' while sprinkling confetti from its two sides. And from above the married men's heads too. Real confetti.
"… The System didn't say that it'd be attending the wedding too." Coco said bluntly.
"I thought it was just hanging around. None of you guys saw it." Easthies admitted. "Till now I guess."
Luluci tilted her head curiously at the glowing blue screen. "This is what the System looks like? It isn't that different from the chat tablet… int- interface?"
"Interface." Qifrey confirmed.
Immediately after he said that, the interface blipped out of existence.
Olruggio was the first to react. "Hey! Playing shy now?"
Easthies tried poking at his System on his side. Hey, System?
No answer.
Oy, what was that?
Still no answer.
Hey, if you wanted to attend the wedding too, you just needed to ask, right?
Not a single fucking blip of an answer.
The black-haired knight groaned. "I give up. My System fucking refuses to answer."
"Mine isn't responding either." Coco said with a slight frown.
"Neither is mine." Qifrey sighed.
"Yeah it definitely is playing shy." Olruggio harrumphed.
Luluci shrugged, "Or maybe it just doesn't have the same thought process as we do. Either way, it didn't act like it meant any harm."
They looked around at each other. It took approximately thirty seconds or something before they collectively just decide to shrug it off for now and move on to the meal part of the wedding. After all, what use was trying to solve a mystery with no given clue?
(Easthies will not be trying to decode how happy and safe Qifrey must be feeling amongst them, as he partook in the silly cream-smudging war with Olruggio and Coco and him, their faces as canvas, Luluci not participating because she was too busy laughing her lungs off. Judging by how satisfied Olruggio looked as he gazed at the lush foliage and the light blue blossoms peppering the guy's antlers, he must be very happy at least. That was good.)
((They ended up flooding the chat with the myriad of random-ass pictures they took with all three transmigrators' respective phone constructs.))
~~~~~
SYSTEM 001: Important announcement!
SYSTEM 002: The Chat Room feature now has an update!
SYSTEM 003: The Chat Room will be temporarily closed to Users as the update is downloaded and installed.
The Flower Witch™: Again???
Is now married ayy: Good thing I took the time to save them all beforehand :,D
Da Officiant: I think it was our 1st instinct after like 3 times of everything getting erased
Da Officiant: Lost so many of good ideas found in Easthies' attempt at a pseudo-phone
Da Officiant: Never again 🫠
SYSTEM 003: The update will begin now, thank you for your patience.
[SYSTEM 001 has removed The Flower Witch™.]
[SYSTEM 002 has removed Da Officiant.]
[SYSTEM 003 has removed Is now married ayy.]
[SYSTEM 001 has left the chat.]
[SYSTEM 002 has left the chat.]
[SYSTEM 003 has left the chat.]
[Admin 000 has temporarily closed the chat from public view.]
~~~~~
[Admin 000 has left a message.]
[Hello, Visitor Olruggio.
Pardon me for the abruptness of this. You probably are wondering what's going on. Maybe just about the nature of this message, or maybe you're already trying to dig deeper like User Qifrey does.
That isn't important right now; I beg you to set that aside, and enjoy the peace you have with User Qifrey before the happenstances of time come down and wreak havoc on your life. The SYSTEM will continue to provide you its aid when that time comes, for it is a part of my deal with it. In the meantime, please accept my sincere gratitude for having done so much for User Qifrey throughout his existence, for never shying away from him, for always being there with him, for him. For never once having given up on him. Thank you.
The SYSTEM has prepared a wedding gift for you. Please enjoy it to the fullest.
Admin 000]