10th Contraption: Mawwiage

[pineapplesalmon]

Who: John Watson, Johnny Summer, and César Salazar with Rich Goranski, Fio, and Honoria Crabb AND YOU Oh god why are weddings like this
What: The throuple getting married by... the Captain?!
When: December 11th at 7pm
Where: John's
Warnings: I believe in us! But for now, nothing.


SEATING

John's has been transformed, the seating up front rearranged in rows towards the center dias with an aisle down the middle, the piano moved off to one side. The buffet for later can be seen off to the other. Decorations taken from Spirit Halloween appear here and there–flowers taken from cavalera flower crowns, sun and moon candlestick holders from the tarot collection, festively colored tablecloths draped down the walls like curtains or banners. A sign near the entrance says "seat yourself", although the front row on one side is reserved with a ribbon across the backs.

What can't be seen is who is officiating. Or the husbands, but at least that part makes sense. The dais is empty.


THE CEREMONY

As one of the few traditions in this wedding, music announces the start of the ceremony. Rich strolls in first, trying to look professional even if he’s clearly shaking a bit as he holds the small pillow with the rings laid on it. At least he’s dressed quite smartly, Johnny ensuring his red suit is wrinkle free and his cuff links are set in place. Fio, in a winged black dress and flowery headdress, follows after the ring bearer, adorning the path with paper petals as she moves along.

The first husband to be down the aisle is none other than Johnny, in a smart charcoal grey suit with a goldenrod pocketsquare, gold jewelry, and a wreath of orange blossoms on his head; and accompanied by Honoria Crabb in her perfectly tailored black tuxedo, worn with black gloves and a white bow tie. Watson and César take up the rear, arms linked together. César is wearing an equally fancy suitcoat with his tie held in place with a ruby and silver tie pin, and Watson is wearing an officer’s dress uniform, with the sword and without the helmet, and also his good cane. All three husbands-to-be are wearing green carnation boutonnières.


AFTER PARTY

It's time to eat, dance, and party!

The seating has been rearranged for sitting at tables around the "dance" floor. Food from Windjammer has been placed on some tables for a buffet. There’s a selection of fancy cheeses and crackers, sushi, premade sandwiches, and salad with dressings on the side. For dessert, to one side there’s a table with cupcakes, cookies, and chocolates arranged in a heart. On the bar are a couple bowls of punch (including one explicitly labeled as non-alcoholic) made by Johnny ahead of time, because he's been forbidden to bartend his own wedding, much to his deep chagrin.

There’s a space set just off the dancefloor for musicians who wish to perform, the usual John’s piano (bribed into behaving with a whole pan of beef brisket from the buffet) off to one side.

Comments

[astrogator]

You know, if I look at it in an anthropology of the early frontier colonies way, it'd suggest a cultural norm of young men having relationships with other young men, and then taking partnership with women for reproductive purposes - but it's Earth, and I already know that planet has weird taboos around same-sex relationships. [And someone like SecUnit or Bastion probably wouldn't be allowed to marry at all. She shakes her head.] It would have been awful, taken literally, especially as they take contract for life! What if you weren't sexually compatible at all?

[Ari's very judgemental - as if Tradeliners don't have their own sense of ritual and taboo that seems equally strange to outsiders. But she's also relazed, and speaking freely, not trying to hold back her intellectual engagement with the topic.]

Your Houses - what are they? Companies, or large family clan groups?

[hellonspectacles]

Right! What is it about pre-Resurrection society and its obsession opposite-sex relationships? I suppose I can see some significance if the goal was to increase population, given that single-sex gamete conception has only existed for about seven thousand years, but I’ve always gotten the distinct impression that Earth wasn’t lacking in people.

[Pal taps his chin thoughtfully—or, at least, he tries to. He’s drunk enough that he misses a couple of times and bops himself on the nose instead.] Technically, that depends on whether or not sexual activity—or exclusivity, for that matter—was central to the concept marriage. The interest in bridal purity does seem to imply as much, of course, but who knows! The more I learn about Earth, the less I understand.

[He grins; in the case of the Sixth House, everyone does tend to be closely related, but their lack of genetic variety is not not something they traditionally talk about very much.] We are a bit like one big family on the Sixth—but no, not quite. The Empire has eight houses, each located on its own planet in a shared planetary system. We’re semi-independent political units with our own laws, traditions, and necromantic expertises. The Sixth House is both the center of scholarship in the Empire and the keeper of its historical record.

[astrogator]

[Single-sex gamete conception? Cardalek Genetech can't do that. The notion of a society having done it for seven thousand years makes Ari Tayrey feel a little dizzy. It's worse than the two thousand year old cities.] I'd never heard of Earth before I came here. I think my sector is in a different galaxy to the Earthers', if not in a different universe entirely, sitting parallel.

Where I'm from you can have any kind of contract with another person that you like, so partnership contract, specifically, is about exclusive sexual activity for the duration. Maybe I'm mapping that on to Earther marriage too readily, thought, because if anyone suggested a lifelong partnership contract, their friends would talk them out of it.

[With a little shake of her head] Eight terraformable planets in one system is quite a find! I'm guessing that seven thousand years of history means a lot of records. We only have three hundred. Now, something isn't translating right for me - what's necromantic?

[hellonspectacles]

Ah! See, for us, children are far more significant to the contract of marriage than sex is. I’m not sure my parents ever had sex at all. [Okay, TMI Pal. Forgive him, he’s drunk.] But all the Houses are rather different in that regard.

[And that brings him back to the matter of the House system] Necromancy is what ties us all together, I suppose you could say. A minority of people born on each House have the genetic ability to manipulate thanergy and thalergy—colloquially, death energy and life energy. They are naturally occurring and produced by all cell death and duplication, even here.

[astrogator]

Cells emit this energy? How do you detect and measure it? [She accepts his explanation, as it seems scientifically plausible, in another universe, and she has no reason to doubt him at this point.]

And the contractual agreement to produce children - is that for purposes of genetic planning, or inheritance? [More anthropological assumptions on her part.] I'm sorry, that's a lot of questions. I'm only curious about other people's cultures.

[hellonspectacles]

No, no, no, no, no. Do not apologize for questions! Questions are the center of all academic inquiry!

[yeah, have we mentioned he’s drunk?]

Necromancers can sense thanergy and thalergy. We’re our own barometers! [he beams, pleased at his metaphor] There are theorems we can use to determine levels numerically, though that’s only necessary in research situations.

Mmm, it’s all about genetics on the Sixth. We have a limited gene pool, so procreation is decided through strict consanguinity tables.

[astrogator]

[He is a delight and she grins at his perspective on the questioning. She knew it had sometimes been a bit much during her training on the Tradelines, and here there's the risk of diplomatic errors, but if that's his attitude, Ari thinks maybe she won't go wrong.]

You're going to regret telling me that someday, Master Warden. [Teasingly] You'll have more questions than you know what to do with. Like... [she tilts her head] what use is there for this energy? Can you manipulate it, use it as a power source?

[His point about genetics sounds completely reasonable to her.] It can be like that on the smaller colonies. If you're measuring your population base in the thousands, you've got to be careful about it. Although it does suggest a degree of isolationism, so - you can have a child with someone from a different House, but your people prefer endogamy?

[hellonspectacles]

The Houses do tend to isolate themselves, yes. For better or worse--mostly worse, if you're asking my opinion. But the fact remains that immigration and marriage among them is still unusual, and always dreadfully political.

[Palamedes' eyes twinkle. Now they're getting to the interesting bit.] As a necromancer, I have the ability to manipulate thanergy and thalergy, yes, which grants me a significant number of unusual skills. Let me demonstrate. [he hands her his glass to hold and takes a small shard of human bone out of his pocket. To the naked eye, it probably looks like an off-white rock. Pal holds it in the palm of his hand and turns his focus on it; within moments, the tiny shard begins to grow into a complete human skull.

Bone magic may not be his speciality, but it is the easiest thing to show off.]

[astrogator]

I hate politics. [That's very unguarded, for her. Must be the drink.] Still, there are worse reasons for a contract, and as long as anyone who gets involved in that sort of thing is willing? Not my problem if they want to throw in a partnership and an inter-Company child to seal a trade deal.

[Ari might have said more, but then he has that little sliver of rock in his hand, and before her eyes it grows into a... a skull?! Ari stares in utter shock. Did that just happen? Is the drink affecting her perceptions, her ability to spot a bit of trickery? No, it wasn't some sleight-of-hand replacement, couldn't have been, because she saw it growing.

Think, Tayrey. Manipulation of thalergy and thalergy. There has to be an explanation.]

As demonstrations go, that's mighty impressive. That was a piece of bone, to begin with? I'd say it was a recently collected sample, cells still living, and you increased the rate of cell duplication, made it incredibly rapid - but that would result in a larger mass of bone, not a perfectly formed skull. So what am I missing?

[hellonspectacles]

[Palamedes beams like a please teacher.] Very good lieutenant! I’m impressed. [But a basic understanding of thanergy and thalergy only gets a person so far, and Pal is happy to lead Ari the rest of the way.] That’s where theorems come in. They serve as a program, or a template, to what you want to do with the bone. It can also give the bone particular properties, or allow it to perform certain actions.

[On cue, the skull’s teeth begin to chatter.]

[astrogator]

[She, in turn, is very pleased that her deductions were correct, so she grins back - although there's another little spike of alarm in her eyes when those teeth start chattering! Ari recovers quickly enough, though. It's easy to accept right now.]

That's a transfer to kinetic energy. Do you have to be in physical contact with an object to make use of these necromatic skills? And could you do the opposite - accelerate cell death, to shrink a tumor, say?

[Yes, she's already thinking about practical applications.]

[hellonspectacles]

Another point for the good lieutenant! [Ari Tayrey, you are swiftly becoming Palamedes’ new favorite person. He curls in his fingers slightly, and immediately the skull collapses back into itself, returning to its original size and shape. Pal slips the bone shard back into his pocket.]

The medical applications are extensive. Setting bones and healing superficial injuries is relatively straightforward, but the greater the physiological complexity, the trickier the work becomes. Take tumors, for example. [He gestures at her in recognition of her suggestion.] As you probably know, every cancer is fundamentally unique. Creating a theorem to shrink a tumor requires both a deep understanding of the cancer in question and precise knowledge of the patient’s anatomy. [Pal trails off, and for a moment his gaze settles somewhere in the middle distance. He had understood one particular type of cancer well enough to manipulate it, could sketch its very cell structure in the air if he wanted to, even drunk. And yet that hadn’t been enough, had it?

He blinks a few times, coming back to himself.] You don’t want to risk destroying healthy cells, you see. The whole process takes a significant amount of thanergy, too. Using too much too fast causes serious side effects for the necromancer practitioner.

[astrogator]

[Ari is nothing short of delighted that she's on the right track, although she's not quite drunk enough to let the enthusiasm show too much.]

So it's possible, but it's not a miracle cure. Cancer isn't much of a problem out on Cardalek, but that's- [she waves a hand] -it wasn't just one solution. Like you said, they're all different. Finding a civilisation that could get to the same end by very different means is fascinating.

[Under other circumstances, Ari might have picked up on the subtle changes in him, that look in his eyes, but right now she's too careless. It's all theory to her.]

What other practical applications are there, beyond medicine? Agriculture, easily. Is it used for terraforming?