come_sailaway | 10th Contraption: Mawwiage

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good. Rich would much rather pretend he can be normal about being friends with a cute girl. It's fine. It's just him being a little overactive...

"Hey, well, you could always learn now if you wanted! I'm partly self-taught, so if a dummy like me can get it, I'm sure you'd have no problem."

"Is it hard to learn?"

Admittedly, Chrissy has never been particularly musically-inclined, unless one counts singing along with the radio. Once upon a time, Laura got it into her head that her daughter should take piano lessons, but that didn't last long- possibly because Laura had originally overestimated her patience for listening to piano practice.

"That's not a very nice thing to say. I'm sure you're not a dummy."

"Not really? Helped that my mom was a good teacher, though... She taught me the basics and I guess I took it from there..."

He trails off a little awkwardly, and that guilty feeling only gets worse when Chrissy points out his self-deprecation.

"Sorry. Uh, mainly do that as a joke, but I know it probably sounds like I'm being an ass."

"Sounds like you had a good head start, then!" Unfortunately, Chrissy's mother never seemed particularly interested in teaching her anything that didn't involve preparing to be married off after high school.

She's not angry about the self-deprecation so much as that she just doesn't believe what he's saying is true. "Oh. Jokes are fine as long as you don't actually believe that." It's not even her place to give him shit about it if he does actually believe it, but she's spent so long hearing her mother's criticisms that she doesn't like it when other people do the same to themselves. "I don't think it sounds like you're being an ass."

"No, it's okay! I probably need the reminder once in a while. You know, saying better things about myself instead of bringing myself down. If I get used to saying mean things about myself, I might end up saying something shitty about a friend, you know?"

And he certainly wouldn't want to say anything rude to Chrissy at least!

"I get it. Sometimes we just need a reminder to be kind to ourselves." It's not something she's struggling with, specifically, but years of listening to her mother's criticisms certainly haven't done her self-esteem any favors.

"I feel like you're too nice to say mean things about other people though." Or at least she's assuming so. She tends to give people the benefit of the doubt most of the time.

"Yeah, for sure. You get used to hearing mean things and you just... say 'em back, right?" Everything about you is so terrible. Everything about you makes me want to die. His SQUIP made him repeat that enough that it's sort of second nature... as is saying mean things about others. He winces softly.

"I wasn't nearly that nice not too long ago, honestly. I'm surprised you'd think that highly of me..."

"I try not to say mean things because I know how much it hurts to hear them," she admits. Unfortunately, the mean things Chrissy is accustomed to hearing were generally coming from the one person who was supposed to love her unconditionally. Laura Cunningham apparently never got the memo.

"That's okay. Most people aren't just one thing, you know. I know we don't know each other very well yet, but I bet you're not as bad as you're making it sound."

"Yeah... well. Sometimes you hear enough awful things that you have to tell them to someone else, so you feel like you're worth something." Walter Goranski also never got the memo when it came to unconditional love. Chrissy just seems to have handled that a bit better.

He shrugs awkwardly. "It's... a long story. I don't want to pile a bunch of my baggage on you. Especially since it's pretty weird. Like really contrived sci-fi story full of plot holes weird."

She might be naive about a lot of things, but Chrissy knows enough to know that her experience isn't universal. It's obvious that Rich has been through something- she just doesn't know him well enough to be comfortable with asking him about it directly. "I know how hard it can be to hear the awful things. I'm sorry you know what it's like, too."

Maybe sorry doesn't fix anything. "I don't mind listening if you want to tell it." She's also not going to push if he doesn't feel up to sharing.

"I mean, hard to even know where to start. Half the people here don't know what computers are, so when I say a microscopic one got implanted in my brain and took control of me for the better half of two years, I have to go back and try to explain why that premise is fucked."

Rich isn't exactly sharing, but making jokes about it always seems like a better place to tackle it from. Then he can gauge someone's reaction and see if he should change the subject entirely.

"I don't know. Telling someone that you had something in your brain that was controlling you for almost two years seems pretty straightforward." Admittedly, she's probably part of the crowd that doesn't know for sure what a computer is, but the broad strokes are easy enough to wrap her head around.

"It does sound kind of weird. Like waking up on a cruise ship you don't remember boarding."

"Heh, yeah, you'd think that'd kind of cover it." He's honestly glad she isn't digging into it. Most people get morbidly curious... or just sad, and start treating him like a charity case.

"But you're right. This ship is probably weirder than anything that's happened to me, at least. This time I got possessed by a fuckin' ghost instead of something that made some sort of scientific sense."

"That would be enough for me." If she's completely honest, Chrissy is pretty curious, but it seems like something he'd be less likely to want to answer a bunch of questions about even if he did bring it up.

"Yea, I'd say this ship is probably sitting at a seven or eight on the weird stuff-o-meter," she adds with a smile. Then again, her life in Hawkins had been a relatively uneventful one, at least until things went sideways. Finding out after the fact just how weird Hawkins is had been pretty wild, too.

10th Contraption: Mawwiage

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