⛄️ winter catchall

[hearthwarming]

❄️ who: oriphi & others
❄️ what: closed starters
❄️ when: winter
❄️ where: various
❄️ warnings: will add as needed

Comments

🌲 somewhere in the forest...

[hearthwarming]

[ It would have been reminiscent of the morning of their cruise date, if Ori was conspicuously absent from their bed in the morning, leaving only a note...

Today is a special day, however, so instead she somewhat mirrors the very first time they met, gently waking M-21 with a cup of coffee in her hand and a kiss, before telling him that she's going to go elsewhere to get ready (Next door. She's going next door. Kaspar is doing her hair? And also she'd read something about it being bad luck for the groom to see the bride beforehand?) and that she'll find him at their chosen spot, which has already been decorated for the occasion, thanks to a questionable use of a Buff Fairy contract.

Spirits. They're doing this. They're getting married. Today. This very morning. Her heart and mind are both buzzing with all sorts of feelings and thoughts, all of which seem to make for a perfectly anxious Oriphi. But not anxious enough to change her mind - she won't change her mind.

When she finally arrives in her dress and her little cape, her hair in a long braid that tumbles over her shoulder, and a bundle of lupine flowers in her hands, she pauses in her tracks for a moment to find M-21 - her roommate turned boyfriend, turned fiancé, and soon to be husband. ]

[feralheart]

[ The time to be nervous would have been when he asked her — when he fumblingly presented the feather he was poorly trying to hide, rather. There's nothing left for nerves now with everything settled. But M-21 still finds himself smoothing his hands anxiously over his wedding tux again and again as he makes his way to their spot in the woods to wait for her. It's not like he really thinks she would've been struck by second thoughts and dashed off into the trees. But until the moment he spots her standing there in her dress, looking like a flower in bloom herself amidst all the snow, it somehow doesn't quite feel real.

He comes to a halt in front of her, speechless for a second as he stares down at her. He reaches up as if to tuck a strand of her hair back — but it's already perfect, and his fingers hover in uncertainty before he just smooths them down her braid, like it's impossible for him not to touch her. ]

You look...

[ What word even covers it? "Beautiful" isn't even close. "Radiant," maybe, but he falters in embarrassment. Scrambling for anything, he clears his throat softly. ]

...Incredible. We better hurry this up. [ Um, ] ...Before you freeze.

[ Definitely the driving motivator right now. He runs his palms lightly down her arms as though to warm her. ]

[hearthwarming]

[ Maybe she already is frozen, because the moment that she sees M-21, she feels as if everything has just stopped. Like they're not two people who met under such strange circumstances, on some strange island. Like nothing else matters as much as the two of them, here in this secluded little spot. It feels surreal, but at the same time... she wants to remember how this feels forever, and the way her eyes are fixed on him says as much. The way that he's scrambling for words is blessedly lost and goes entirely unscrutinized because she's simply stunned, silent and speechless.

And, while she knows that M-21 isn't a knight in the same sense that she knows... As he stands tall before her - dressed as sharply as he is, gazing down at her with the morning sun filtering through wintered tree canopies, his hand gently, reverently moving down her braid - he feels knightly to her, and perhaps that's all that matters.

...It's not until he moves his hands along her arms that his words even register, that it really hits her that this is really, truly happening, now that they're both here. (And also the Priest Fairy, somewhere.) Heat soon rises to her cheeks as she smiles up at him, unabashed and utterly lovestruck. ]

And you— You look so... So handsome, M. [ Oh, goodness. She can't stop smiling. ] I can't wait to marry you.

[ Luckily, she won't have to wait much longer. ]

[feralheart]

[ The Priest Fairy must be there already (and watching them, and probably tapping one fairy foot in impatience as M-21 gets all the staring out of his system). But for M-21 it's like they're the only two people in the world right now. He brushes the back of his hand over the blush brightening her cheeks and has to fight back a slightly giddy grin.

It's real. She's real. And once they do this, it's permanent, like nothing he can remember in his life. ]

Then let's get that priest to move it.

[ Just for his wedding day, M-21 can probably curb his undiplomatic impulses long enough to not drive away their officiant. At least until after it's, well, official. He finally shakes himself out of his daze enough to reach for her hand instead so they can make their way over to the little(?) fairy. ]

[hearthwarming]

[ "Get that priest to move it," M-21 says, as if their staring at each other isn't the entire reason for this whole thing being held up, and Ori can't help but chuckle warmly. She laces their fingers together when he takes her hand, and though he may have snapped out of his daze, she's not entirely free of hers; it's a good thing that there isn't a long way for them to go to get to the Priest Fairy.

The little(?) fairy clears their throat when the almost-newlyweds face each other with their hands still entwined, as they stand beneath the canopy of florals and warmly glowing lanterns hanging from tree branches. All the while, Ori is gazing up at her husband-to-be with all of the love in her heart. If there had been any lingering worries dwelling in her heart and mind, they seem to be completely dispelled now.

With a tiny little fairy voice, the two are welcomed to their ceremony of Sacred Unity, and... since there's no one else here, and especially no Mikan-Avolyn, there isn't anyone to object. And so with a solemn nod and a glance up at the groom, the Priest Fairy prompts him for his vows. ]