[ME] till forever falls apart

Thalassa

The problem
with wearing a dress

Just before the music begins to play, Thal slips her way into the Temple on quiet feet. Despite her brief interaction with Kiada thus far, she's a Grounds citizen now, and it seems strange not to attend the biggest even of Flowerbirth, so she reluctantly finds herself here - in a dress.

She recognizes a few faces but feels otherwise out of place in the jubilant atmosphere. The bust of her gown starts as a solid navy-blue shade before it darkens to a deep blue that borders black, like the chiffon of the dress has been dyed by the deepest depths of the ocean. It whispers against her legs as she makes her way through the shadows lining the pews. 

Spotting Astaroth and Dantalion, she decides she might as well sit with them. Not wanting to disrupt whatever conversation they're having, Thal slides into the row behind them, adjusting the dark curtain of her hair so that it curls down the front of her chest, only barely hiding the way her dress shows off her assets. The movement makes the delicate silver chains along her horns shimmer in the light, tinkling softly in the quiet hum of people. As her hands settles to her lap, she checks for the hidden daggers against her legs - then waits.

is that it clashes
with a sword.

charlie

Absolutely beaming, Charlie gives Fox one final once-over as the music swells and the hush of anticipation settles like a hush over the Temple. Her hands flutter expertly, straightening his lapels with a practiced elegance, plucking a tiny bit of lint from his shoulder with the same reverence one might adjust a crown. Her magic flickers faintly, just enough to warm the air around them—nothing too flashy, just enough to keep everything golden and aglow, a soft nudge of confidence in the shape of heat.

"Okay. Now you’re perfect," she whispers, stepping back with a grin that’s equal parts proud and devastatingly fond. "You've got this."

Then she glides—because Charlie never merely walks—toward the centre of the altar. Her dress spills behind her like liquid flame, horns catching the warm light like twin rubies. She turns just as Deimos and Kiada begin their procession, and oh.

Oh.

Charlie's breath catches. The priestess clasps her hands at her heart, shoulders pulled back proudly, blue eyes shimmering as Kiada comes into view. She’s radiant. Phoenix incarnate. Flames stitched into silk and strength in every measured step.

Charlie’s throat tightens around a sudden rush of emotion—because she knows Kiada. She knows what she’s survived, what she’s lost, what she’s rebuilt from the ashes time and again. And now here she is, walking into the next chapter like it’s been waiting for her all along.

Wiping away a single tear with the back of one knuckle, Charlie’s smile grows impossibly brighter. And as the bride reaches the altar, she gives both Kiada and Fox a mega-wyatt smile.

"Are you both ready?" she whispers, all bright white fangs and adoring blue eyes.

you make me wanna
make you fall in love

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// there's shadows on the walls //

"It seems like an awful not of waiting around," Danta complains, narrowing his eyes back at Asta as if well aware that he's being an ass on purpose. "Not to mention having to be strangled by a tie all day. Though I could be tempted, if most of the wedding involved an orgy." Bouncing his eyebrows at the butcher and bumping his shoulder against the other man's with a wicked smile, he glances up to see as others start to arrive.

Sunjata and Hotaru earn a cat-like smile, though Maea's entrance has the expression dropping into something icy. Only Thalassa's arrival saves him from doing something they'll all regret, Danta clearing his throat and giving her a gentle nod - just as the music begins, and they are all saved by the bride.

Blinking around and rising to his feet for Kiada's walk down the aisle, it isn't so much that the Maverick has to do a doubletake; he merely can't take his eyes off her. Her beauty has never been in question, but given that Danta is used to her slapping his hands off important documents or kicking his feet off the desk so she can write some correspondence, this is...

"Wow," he whispers, glancing over his shoulder to Asta with a softly crooked smile. Fine - maybe it wasn't all bad.

Dantalion

// of moments far too troubling to recall //

RONIN

the white knight

However kissable his husband and however he might have been content to hold Remi's hand and make quiet, passing remarks as people enter the Temple and take their seats, Ronin falls respectfully silent the moment the music starts up. Rising to his feet and tugging the Bastion alongside him, his arm slips gently around the other man's waist as he turns to spy Kiada's entrance, the harpy utterly radiant in her dress and with her smile beaming even through her sheer veil.

Finding a smile on his own face and offering a gentle nod to Deimos as well as he passes, the Knight is quite suddenly seized with the realisation that he might never actually be able to do this himself. Sure, if Flora got married that would be one thing, but he (naturally) assumes it will be Remi's arm she's taking when she eventually walks down the aisle. Mateo, whilst he can see his son enjoying the drama of such a walk, will likely never settle down as long as they both live.

It's with those bittersweet emotions flooding through their bond that he offers Remi an apologetic smile, leaning across to kiss his cheek.

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

'cause you've got me and you know, that I've got you and I know
if the tide takes california, i'm so glad i got to hold ya

Jumping a bit as Charlie appears before him, Fox manages something like a laugh (he's going for casual but it comes out a bit strangled) and leans down a fraction so the shorter Ancient doesn't have to reach up so far to straighten his bowtie, something he's privately very relieved about. "Kind of you to say," he murmurs; normally he'd not really look twice at what he was wearing, but given that this day really is for Kiada when it comes to his appearance, he'll take all the help he can get.

And so, making sure he does release his jacket to let his hands clasp gently behind his back, he gives Charlie a more genuine smile - for her advice, for her reassurance (Foxy, though?), for the offer of liquor that, while he chuckles at, he politely declines. Taking those deep breaths and trying to let the growing crowd at his back fade behind him, the hunter thinks he's finally mastered his nerves.

Then the music begins.

Resisting the urge to glance over his shoulder for a grand total of five seconds - it's difficult to keep facing forward when the oohs and ahhs from those in attendance start to hit the air - and as Fox turns, he realises just how right Charlie has been. The world drops away until nothing remains but the woman at the other end of the aisle, aflame in more than just her dress, and as she smiles at him, everything finally feels right again.

It's with steady fingers and a returning smile that suddenly feels as warm and easy as any he's ever given her, he holds out a hand for Kiada, offering a respectful bow of his head towards Deimos for being here, for walking her down to him. "I'm ready," he says, not just to Charlie, but to Kia as well. Right here, right now, he feels like he was born ready for this.

FOX

and if the sky falls from heaven above,
oh i know i had the best time falling into love

my, my, those eyes like fire, i'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre
come now, bite through these wires,

“Perhaps you may be inclined to wear a dress?” The butcher whispers the tease simply, letting the low rumble of a laugh punctuate the way he’s jostled slightly in the seat from the bump of Dantalion’s shoulder. He draws silent and attentive, however, to see more arrive. A sharp glare is sent toward Sunjata, before surprise flares at the sight of Hotaru, before another glowering glimpse is offered at the sight of Maea, only to be relieved by Thalassa’s arrival.

A nod is offered to her and a small smile of appreciation for her attire – just seconds before the music begins. They stand and Asta’s tail curls against Danta’s leg gently, peering over to see their Registrar as she makes her walk down the aisle with none other than Deimos at her side. A nod is given to him as they pass, but his dark gaze is full of utmost appreciation for the dress she wears, the way she looks effortlessly calm, collected, and proud.

“She is beautiful.” He whispers back to Danta, pulling his gaze from the procession to look toward his lover, winding an arm around him gently with a sharp yet soft and appreciative smile toward him, before he shifts his attention back to see the hand off.

Astaroth

i'm a waking hell and the gods grow tired

we've been living on a fault line
and for a while, you were all mine

The walk is one that Kiada never truly thought she’d make. Not with everything that had happened in her life. But here she was, stepping down the aisle with friends and family, both here and gone as the lanterns that dot the pews suggest, with her iceberg gaze warm and soft where they remain glued to her Fox, even if she hears the oohs and ahhs of their gathered people.

Stepping up as Deimos releases her with a wink, its with a gentle squeeze of her hand not holding the bouquet that she aims her bright smile at him, taking a long and slow measured breath as her head tilts over to spot Charlie’s bright smile and her question. Its when her eyes return to Fox that she knows everything would be perfect, taking Fox by the hand he extends and settling in front of him with the bouquet gently nestled in the crook of her arm. “I’m ready.” She echoes Fox with a gentle air of breath, her voice light and easy, hiding the excitement with ease as she waits for Charlie’s instructions.

KIADA

i've spent a lifetime giving you my heart,
i swear that i'll be yours forever, till forever falls apart

REMI

the bastion

there's a light that you give me
when I'm in shadow

Remi’s fingers tighten faintly in Ronin ’s as that bittersweet warmth coils through their bond, the kiss to his cheek both soft and grounding. His expression, tender and knowing, tilts toward his husband for just a breath longer than decorum strictly allows. But before he can respond—

The music swells.

Remi startles just slightly. "Merda!," he hisses, eyes flicking toward the aisle as the first rustle of Kiada’s veil comes into view. A quick nudge to Ronin’s hip follows, sharp but affectionate. "Scoot," he mutters low, the curve of his mouth betraying affection even in his grumbling. Weren't brides normally late?

There’s a subtle shimmer to the air as he draws inward—not outward, not divine in any obvious way—but something tethered and bone-deep. As Kiada begins her walk, radiant and resplendent, Remi reaches silently across the boundary only he can touch. He doesn’t speak aloud; he doesn’t need to. The call he sends into Mort’s realm is both a plea and a promise.

Rexanna.

His eyes don’t close. They stay fixed on Kiada, but soften with something more than admiration, something quietly radiant as he thinks of one of his oldest friends. The sea-glass glow of them seems just a little brighter, as if watching for a shimmer in the lantern light, a breeze that wasn’t part of the music. Something only he might notice if it comes.

And when it does—he shifts slightly as the Penumbra appears to his left. "Sorry," he whispers, flashing her a boyish smile. "I should have known Kiada wouldn't be the sort of waste time," Remi adds by way of apology.

---

Magic: Gone but not forgotten | 3x a year can bring back a dead PC (with permission) for one thread.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered

Remi brings Rexanna back for her daughter's wedding <3

there's a feeling you give me, an everglow

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

i'm tired of the weight of mortality, i want to tear it from my veins

until i bleed silver and gold

The call is answered in the fraction of a heartbeat. As if she’s been waiting, lingering, hoping he might reach out. The shimmer is one that brings the Penumbra from Mort’s Realm in an almost perfect fashion. With Kiada’s distraction for her waiting fiancé down the aisle, she’s none the wiser as Rexanna appears, sinking easily into pews in a familiar but completely changed Temple from when she’d fallen.

She appears at Remi’s left, her sapphire gaze flitting to the Bastion with excitement, her nose wrinkling to him before she nudges him gently with her elbow. “Has she ever?” Rex whispers softly, leaning a touch to wave to Ronin before she settles in, offering another quiet whisper to Remi. "Thank you for this."

Now, the last thing she wants to do is steal the show – because it’s her daughters wedding. Something she never anticipated a chance at being able to witness – whether she were still alive or not, and her gratefulness is evidently written on her face as she takes in the scene, her gaze lingering on her daughter, drifting to Fox in intrigue, then to Deimos with a playful wink.

maybe one day they'll chant our names

and name galaxies after us, and we too shall be eternal

REXANNA

charlie

The Temple hushes. Not in reverence, not in fear—but in the way a crowd falls silent right before lightning hits the sea.

Charlie takes a slow step forward, the hem of her crimson dress whispering against the stone like flame finding tinder. Her blue eyes gleam as they settle first on Kiada, then Fox, and for a long moment, she just smiles at them—at the crackling tension between them, at the promise that hums so loud it drowns out the music still trailing through the air.

"You’ve already done the hard part," she says at last, voice warm and bright and just a little wicked. "You’ve found someone whose touch makes your blood run faster. Someone who sees the chaos in you and doesn’t flinch. Someone you’d bare your throat to, not because you’re weak, but because you trust them not to tear it open."

Her tail flicks lazily behind her, a contrast to the feral joy in her smile. "Ancients don’t marry to be tamed. We don’t bind ourselves out of fear or law or lineage. We do it because we want someone who will stand beside us when the fire comes. Someone who will crawl through the blood and the dark and still reach for us. That’s what this is."

She turns slightly to the crowd, her horns catching the firelight in gleaming ruby arcs. "So if anyone here thinks this is the part where they say 'til death do us part'..." Charlie makes a face, then grins, glancing at the non-ancients in attendance. "You don’t know these two very well. Death has tried. Chaos has tried. And look where they still are."

Stepping back to give them space, Charlie lifts her hands, and from her palms, two small flames rise—golden and flickering like the first sparks of something sacred. She offers one to Kiada, the other to Fox.

"Say what you came to say in your own words, and when you're ready, touch flame to flame. Let it burn." Her smile softens, just a little. "That’s your vow. That no matter what changes, no matter how the world reshapes itself around you—your fire will always find the other’s."

---

This round is just for Kia/Fox!

you make me wanna
make you fall in love

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

'cause you've got me and you know, that I've got you and I know
if the tide takes california, i'm so glad i got to hold ya

Brushing his thumb across the back of Kiada's hand, Fox will have to be forgiven for not realising the incredibly important things happening among their guests, because the Temple could be on fire for all he cares now that his bride is before him, radiant as a phoenix flame and making rubies seem dull by comparison. It's only Charlie's voice that draws his attention, some part of him remembering that there's more to this than spending the day basking in Kia's beauty.

Clearing his throat quietly and turning to face the petite priestess, his smile is a mix of bashful and knowing as she speaks, chiming through him as clear as any bell, and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop the expression from getting giddily out of hand. Instead, reaching out to accept the flame from Charlie with his free hand, he turns to face Kiada. The world closes in until it may as well only be the two of them in the building, and his voice, when it comes, is loud enough to carry, but still soft.

"I wasn't really living, before I met you. It sounds trite to say it, but it's true," he begins. "I survived day to day. I went through the motions. Company was scarce, fun even rarer. And then you." Unable not to laugh at the ridiculousness of her presence in his life, Fox holds her gaze steady, hazel eyes warm.

"I am who I am today, in no small part because of you, Kiada. You showed me that there was still warmth in the world, and that I didn't have to walk through it alone." Reaching out, he offers the flame in his palm across to her. "It was a privilege to fall in love with you," he says, "and it will be an honour to carry that with me for the rest of my days. I am yours, for as long as you wish to keep me."

FOX

and if the sky falls from heaven above,
oh i know i had the best time falling into love

we've been living on a fault line
and for a while, you were all mine

She has yet to notice her mother in the flesh sitting amongst the pews, but perhaps that’s for the best. To keep it simple and focused entirely on Fox and Charlie’s voice as it reaches out to her. It gives her the time it takes to remember the vows she’s spent weeks memorizing. She feel’s Fox’s touch to the back of her hand and she’s warm and vibrant in his touch, looking over to Charlie as she speaks and it takes everything in her to not let the tears well up in her soft iceberg blues.

Taking the flame into her hand when offered, the golden fire sparking and waving delicately in the movement it takes to settle herself back into looking back at Fox, realizing for the umpteenth time that she would do anything for him, she’s grateful when he goes first. She should have known it would be his words that spark that silver line to her gaze, the glassiness from her happiness as it burns through her, taking a slow deep breath to steady herself as she nods, her soft laugh accompanying his own.

It isn’t the first time that Kiada knows she’s made the perfect choice. Because everything he says is all the confirmation of things the harpy has always wanted to hear, things she’s always wanted to be. And her voice, when it starts, begins soft before she can get her emotions settled enough to feel strong. “I was lost before I met you.” She starts off, shifting her own little vows a touch to reflect his own. “I had arrived into a world I didn’t know. So many things happened to me and at the end of it, I never felt completely right. A part of me was always missing. I used to think I lost it when I died. Like it was this part that would never come back no matter how much I longed for it.” Her bright blue gaze softens, still glassy, but vibrant as she peers up into loving hazel eyes.

“But then I met you, Fox. And suddenly I found that piece of me I had been searching years to find, all wrapped up in spider silk, and I knew that I would do everything and anything for you.” Her nose wrinkles here in her delight and amusement, before she softens again and starts to extend the fire in her hand to meet Fox’s. “You are my light, the one that guides me through my darkness. My beacon. My lighthouse. And I am yours, in all the fire, steel, blood, and ice I am made of. I love you, Fox.” She chokes up a touch here, her smile wobbling a touch. But it isn’t sadness or sorrow, it’s an overwhelming amount of love she can’t contain anymore.

She combines her flame with Fox’s, their hands touching perfectly to let the flame that settles in the middle combine into something brighter, sparking, flaring with all the passion and fierceness that Kiada has in her heart for the man standing across from her. The one she still can’t take her eyes off of.

KIADA

i've spent a lifetime giving you my heart,
i swear that i'll be yours forever, till forever falls apart

charlie

The flames meet.

For the briefest moment, there’s silence. Not the awkward kind—not hesitation, not nerves. Just awe. Just breath held tight in the lungs of every witness as the two golden fires curl toward one another and collide.

And then: woomph.

The joined flame leaps skyward, a flare of molten gold that erupts like a firework at sunset—brief, bright, and impossible to ignore. It dances above their hands, pulsing once, twice, and then settles between them, not extinguished, but tethered. A sliver of warmth, of light, a whisper of chaos now bound to their vows and thrumming with everything they’ve just spoken into the world.

Charlie, of course, is openly crying. Her eyes shimmer just as brightly as the flame had, though it doesn’t stop the smug smile curving her red lips or the way she blinks up at the ceiling like whoops, not again, as if she hadn’t known this moment was going to completely wreck her.

She doesn’t ask if anyone objects. She wouldn’t allow it if they did. Instead, she steps forward, lifting her hands to brush invisible ash or nerves from each of their shoulders before clasping them together. "By the chaos in your hearts, the fire in your blood, and the absolute radiance of whatever the hell just happened with those vows, I pronounce you bonded in the eyes of Dygra, your kin, and this temple. You are flame to flame. You are chaos made flesh. You are married."

Charlie steps back, tail swishing, voice bright with impish joy as she finishes:

"You may now devour each other. Or, y’know, kiss."

And if little puffs of fire in the shape of hearts appear around the happy couple, what of it.

you make me wanna
make you fall in love

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

'cause you've got me and you know, that I've got you and I know
if the tide takes california, i'm so glad i got to hold ya

Fox isn't a cryer - let's start out by saying that much. But even he has to blink quickly a few times as Kiada speaks, as her words patter down over him like a rainstorm at the height of Longheat, soothing and unexpected. He cups her hand as if it's something both fragile and infinitely sacred, forced to squint a touch as their twin flames roar towards the arched ceiling of the Temple, prompting a ripple of soft gasps and a bit of applause from the gathered crowd.

Glancing at Charlie as if to ask whether that should have happened, only to see her overjoyed and openly crying, the smile that creeps across Fox's face is one of elation and relief, and perhaps just a touch of disbelief as well. "I can do that second part," he says softly to the priestess, not imagining Kiada's nearest and dearest would appreciate them going that far in public.

Even so, it's with something of an apologetic glance to Deimos that the hunter steps forward to sweep his bride into his arms, leaning in to claim her lips in a soft kiss - the first as her husband, but by no means the last.

FOX

and if the sky falls from heaven above,
oh i know i had the best time falling into love