eswareinmal | Choose Your Own Marital Adventure!

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Choose Your Own Marital Adventure!

Characters: Everyone's Favorite King and You!
Where: The Castle Courtyard
When: 19th of Rebirth's Decline
What: Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togethew today.

The townspeople have wasted no time in setting up the bit of green by the castle with all the decorations from the Height's Moon Dance and the Ball of the Slain Monster, making it look utterly festive and down right gaudy. Young ladies, dressed in their finest pressed together, looking as if they would explode with excitement while the young men stood more stiffly, though with no less anticipation.

Finally, the King stepped onto the hastily arranged platform, a huge grin on his face. "My people! Since yesterday, I have been flooded with papers!" he gestured to the attendants on the side who had two large sacks that looked positively overflowing. "The love that these heroes show for you truly knows no bounds that they would be so willing to sign themselves over to this, eh?" he joked, getting a laugh from the crowd.

"So today, let this all come to a momentous conclusion! Bring the sacks!"

There was a near deafening roar as the attendants drug over the bags of paper, the King all the while grinning up a storm.

"Now! Let's see who the lucky ones are, shall we?" he exclaimed before pushing up his sleeve and plunging his hand down into the first bag, papers fluttering and escaping off into the air as he pulled out a single crumpled paper.

"The names are....!"

[[OoC: If you want your characters name chosen, reply with their name in the subject line! Just an onlooker? No subject heading needed! The King will pull as many names as people want. Have fun!

edit: Also! Feel free to puppet the nameless NPCs!]]

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((ooc: Any paper with Giles' name on it is going to be a forgery, but I'm cool with there being a few in there!))

Giles is here as a spectator. He hasn't signed anything, and so he knows that a marriage is not in the stars for him, thank heavens for small mercies. But he knows that there had been plenty of people in the market sniffing after Helios' signature in turn, to say nothing of what Lavinia might have been up to or what Ginia might have done in exchange for something that looked even a little valuable.

That said, he's also here for some entirely selfish reasons - namely, he's here to look for whoever might have orchestrated this farce so he can hopefully indulge in the chance to beat the hell out of them.

The invisibility clasp is nestled in his bag, in case a hasty escape is needed. Other than that, Giles keeps to the walls, and avoids eye contact with anyone he doesn't recognize.

But when his name is pulled out of the bag and called out for all to hear, any thoughts of slipping away fly apart at the seams. Giles just gapes at the King, his ears ringing and his mind a blank.

"...what?!"

Edited 2012-09-10 00:45 (UTC)

Ginia is there in the crowd. She's not sure why she's there of all places at such a ridiculous event. Some sense of hero-ly obligation, or maybe because she knows her name is on a few slips of paper. Some had been signed to get the person away, others in order to steal off with an item. Now she kicks herself for her foolishness.

On the plus side, she doesn't believe the paper is any way legally binding and it wouldn't be the first marriage she's slipped away from.

On the other hand, after the disaster of the last few days, after her utterly shameful behavior and how much she hurt the ones closest to her... hell, that anyone would want her is almost some odd twisted relief.

However, when she hears Giles' name called, she jerks to attention. The crowd murmurs appreciatively and applauds. Oh yes, there was that dreadful business with him and the rogue, it's good he found someone who will take care of and love him. He's such a respected figure who deserves so much.

Ginia bristles under the words, but... well, maybe they are right. Maybe there is someone better for him.

Giles, for his part, is already rummaging in his bag by the time his would-be "bride" hurries up to grab him by the arm and greatly impede his efforts. He's just that bit too restrained to actually shove her off...or maybe she just has that good of a grip.

Wildly, he looks up - and, like a trick of fate, he sees Ginia. And his stomach drops as his heart feels like it's being squeezed in a vice. And even though they're across the room and she can't hear him, even in the midst of the scene, his lips move to form a word, just one word:

"Wait."

Please.

In a sea of hundreds of people, many already quick to part and let the new not-so-happy couple go forth and receive their blessings from the king, it's remarkable Giles even sees Ginia. However, there is luck and there is fate and the distinction between the two is very, very thin.

Ginia balks as he sees her. She should leave, go before she causes anymore pain. Goodness knows she's done enough over the last few days, even enough in just the morning.

But words have power and that single word means everything.

Once, he pleaded for her to stay and she ran.

Sound of mind once more, she can hardly do the same.

Ginia flickers out of sight, only to reappear several feet in front of her, the crowd quickly parting as she appears between them. She shadow jumps yet again until she's in front of Giles and his "bride", cutting off their path. Silver and emeralds glimmer around her neck, a sign of Giles' love and Helios' care, undeserved in Ginia's opinion.

She doesn't meet Giles' eyes, can't meet his eyes. Instead, she grabs the woman's wrist - not gentle, but not rough either - and looks the woman in the eye.

"Let him go. He's not yours to marry," Ginia says, her voice calm and quiet.

Salvation arrives, and it's the most beautiful thing Giles has ever seen. She can't look at him, no, especially not with the bandage still covering the cut to his face. But Giles can't take his eyes off of her, with a new necklace glittering at her throat, with magic that gives her back her voice at long last.

The woman, as they've probably both come to expect, is completely oblivious to all of this and what's transpired in the past. She merely looks over eher shoulder to glare at Ginia - one look at her is enough to see that she's a young girl, a girl who's probably lived a very simple life and, much like most of the villagers, hasn't had to think too hard about a lot of things.

"You had your chance," she snits, before making to turn away.

You had your chance.

The woman may not mean too much by it, just a small jab as Ginia's nothing more than another rival for Giles' affection, but it cuts deeply. Did she have her chance and subsequently lose it? Is Giles just the last in a long string of failed relationships?

Ginia tries not to think about it. She lets the woman go and watches her walk away, still unable to look at Giles. The woman takes a few steps, looks over Ginia, snorts derisively, and keeps going. As the crowd whispers and chatters over this new turn of events, Ginia takes it as her cue to go, using the shadows to shadow jump a few feet away.

Giles misses grabbing hold of her sleeve by the skin of his teeth. He looks wildly around through the crowd for any further sign of her, unwilling to let it go at just that.

When he thinks he catches a glimpse of her a few feet away, Giles starts towards her...and then he stops, remembering himself. Remembering everything, and why Ginia might not want to be near him.

Shamefaced, this time he just looks after her, silently searching her face for any hint of what might come next, or what she might want or need him to do.

Ginia stops and glances briefly over her shoulder, enough to see him, but not really look at him. She can't look at him yet, maybe not ever again. Not after cutting him, not after hurting Helios. Yet there's still the necklace around her neck. It feels almost like a collar because she knows they want her back and one day she will return to them, but why they still accept her is what she can't figure out.

Forgiveness is a strange and tricky thing. It isn't something she can ask for and she feels she doesn't deserve it, but they'll give it to her anyway, wrapped up in layers of love and concern.

But even knowing all this, she turns away and continues on, literally disappearing out of sight. Wherever she came from, she can't go back.

It's a sour note on a day of weddings, but hell, everyone's in for a bunch of disappointment anyway.

On this, what is supposed to be a day of weddings, Giles feels like the one getting left at the alter.

He doesn't stop her, though. He can understand, or at least thinks he does, why she might need her space. No matter how much it hurts to stay standing there, he doesn't stop her.

Instead, before anyone else can accost him again, he finishes pinning the clasp to the cloak, and goes looking for Helios.

Helios is just...so awkward right now, so awkward. He's only here as a spectator too and he's otherwise in the far back of the crowd as possible. No he does not want his name picked, no he did not sign anything, and no he is not getting married. Not in a million years. So, yes, there is just a very jittery awkward looking man holing himself up in one of the more innocuous corners of the courtyard. Good lord he doesn't even know what Ginia or Giles' stance is on all of this, probably nothing good. Especially after that little run in the other day. And Helios is carrying his own wounds from that day. A makeshift sling is slung about his shoulder and his arm wrapped in all too neatly bandage gauze.

He can't even begin to count how many things are wrong with this entire situation. Yet here he was to only hear his name be called.

Edited 2012-09-11 09:05 (UTC)

Just behind Helios is the sound of Giles' palm very firmly meeting his forehead.

"For all the time they spend on forgeries..."

Then, drawing up alongside Helios in preparation for the inevitable argument, Giles gives him a curious sidelong glance, taking in the state of his bandaging as he does so.

"You...didn't get talked into signing anything, did you?"

Helios bandaging is holding out fairly well, for the crudeness of it. The healing potion he tries before sneaking out of the house also has helped, if minimally. He jumps at Giles' voice from behind him. Good lord Giles you are going to give your bro a heart attack if you keep sneaking up on him like that. Helios will shift as he feels eyes turn their gaze on to the both of them. The Sage and Wizard seen together once more, and after the Rogue had run away. Torrid love affair indeed. Helios looks entirely self conscious as Giles' sidelong glance moves over his arm. Another uncomfortable shift as he looks at the people around, some whispering to each other, other's laughing a little too.

"G-Giles. N-No! No, I-I'd never d-do that..." he was far too busy these last few days to actually oblige anyone a signature, much to the chagrin of the many single woman of the town. "Y-You know I'd never do s-something like that."

Edited 2012-09-11 23:13 (UTC)

The murmuring, the stares, the giggles, they aren't lost on Giles. Even if he's grown to expect them, even to some degree get used to the idea that people just seem to think he and Helios are a couple, that doesn't mean he can just ignore them.

He smiles thinly at the crowd before pulling Helios aside a bit, by his good arm. "Pardon us," he says, to the expectant bride-to-be already making her way over. "Must sort out a few things."

Then he turns his back on her to murmur to Helios: "Are we quite sure that's your signature, then?"

Helios follows without much needed effort on Giles' part. He is really trying to not stammer or blush at the bride to be walking over. Gods this was a nightmare. Helios' green eyes tick from the huffy touchy bride, her demeanor speaking loads of what's on her mind at the moment, and back to Giles.

"I-I don't know...it-it shouldn't be. Unless s-some forged it..." Helios doesn't know anyone who would actually have seen his handwriting enough to be able to do that.

"...do we know that someone wouldn't for it? After all, um, it's not as though your signature is around for anyone to compare it with."

Giles takes in Helios' obvious nervousness and anxiety. He leans in closer to Helios, and adds in a whisper only the other man will be able to hear:

"Needless to say, I have no intention of letting you tie the knot today."

Or any day, if it's with one of these people.

Helios looks anxiously back at the woman and men waiting for him to tie said knot. He swallows thickly as his eyes tick to Giles and he nods a little with resignation. "I suppose you're right. I-I don't have anything on me at the moment. I-I don't know why any w-would want to, um, do that to me. Th-they all know how I-I get by now." His nervousness and anxiety in the face of a new, overbearing, crowd. He wasn't used to having so much attention drawn to him like this. Of course maybe it was the two years in Luceti that had made him soft. Still it was strange and taxing on him and he wasn't really in the best frame of mind at the moment. His arm hurt, a lot, and he's really trying to pay attention for what it's worth. But sometimes pain can really put a damper on one's self awareness.

"Wh-what should I do?"

About the whole marriage thing he means. Does running away and hiding for awhile count?

Goodness, what a wonderful day for a marriage. Not that Lavinia has any intent of getting married, oh no, she likes her freedom, but if there are other happy unions, well, all the more joy to them. Her role as princess gives her a very nice seat and she preens in her chair, lightly fanning herself as she watches everything.

Are there slips of paper with her name in that bag? Yes, there are. She supposes she should have known better after the sudden rush of autographs, but as they weren't contracts or anything actually binding, Lavinia doesn't think much of everything.

She doesn't recognize the name that's called, but she does recognize her own name. With grace and dignity, she rises slowly, still fanning herself as a twiggy man practically tripping over himself rushes up.

"Oh, dear, I do believe there's been a horrible mistake," Lavinia comments lightly, looking at her husband to be, then at the king.

...why?

Why, why, why?

Giles knows that, really, he shouldn't be surprised in the slightest. And, really, he's not. But, what with all the various and sundry events of the last few days, the realization that he's getting roped by association into a marriage scandal is just one more ding round the ear.

"What...the hell...were you thinking?" he asks in a voice of long suffering patience, drawing up just behind her.

Why? Why not?

Lavinia smiles lightly while Giles appears, drawing some interested whispers and chatter when she gives his chest a light tap.

"Oh, Rupert, darling, do lighten up," she remarks, completely ignoring the poor suitor trying to gain her attention. "It's not as if all of this is serious. Just a bit of fun. Now do tell, any wedding plans for you?"

"A-Absolutely not." Giles shakes his head most emphatically at the question, looking horrified at the very thought. "N-Not if I, I have any say in the matter at all!"

He's well aware of the fact that most of the town doesn't seem to believe that he does.

"So this, this farce wasn't your doing either, then?"

He wouldn't put it past her ordinarily to have set up something like this, but she had seemed genuinely surprised to be involved...

Lavinia frowns and straightens up, suddenly looking every bit an old English matriarch - though not as good as Edna did - despite her youthful appearance. Never has a tap to the chest with a fan been so disapproving and menacing.

"Rupert Edmund Giles, what do you take me for, hm? Of course not. This is all entirely preposterous. If I wanted to set up a marriage for you, there would be other ways to do so."

"Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Owh," James leaned against a nearby wall and covered his heart with his hands.

A shit-eating grin sprawled across his face as he watched the baffled, worried, and even enraged expressions move through the crowd as names were called. Poor bastards.

"You're enjoying this far too much."

Giles undoes the invisibility clasp, the better to safely reappear slightly behind J.W. His name has already been called once, and it has resulted in a hasty escape.

But, out of some perverse fascination, he finds himself wanting to see the farce through until the end.

"Are you sure someone hasn't forged your signature, then?"

When Suddenly Giles made his appearance James jumped a good two feet and performed a short flaily dance of sorts before turning to face the man.

"Don't people have heart conditions where you're from? Jesus Christ!" He smoothed his robes down and squared his shoulders.

Big tall guys didn't scream like little girls, no sir! Whatever anger Giles had stirred up in him dissipated in favor of watching the others. He stuffed his hands into his sleeves and shook his head.

"Nah...wouldn't surprise me if you and maybe two other people were the only folks who even knew who I was. That's what you call a low profile."

"Of course they do." Giles gives James a surprised look. Does he really move that silently? He's not a small man, after all.

Well, James' surprise over his sudden appearance speaks well for his upcoming escape attempt, at least. Giles will politely ignore the screaming like a girl. It seems only fair.

"I suppose most of the town would know you by that mask you got stuck with. An appearance like that does, um, tend to stick in the mind.

Well then, I'll, I'll hope that none of those other two people decided to pass your name around. They're all being rather...insistent, about this."

Then a thought strikes Giles, and he frowns at James.

"This...wasn't your doing, was it?"

James's face blanched. Oh, right. The skull thing. That was a thing that happened, wasn't it? He shrugged and failed at not looking as worried as he really was.

"What? Pff, I've got better things to do with my time." James considered the future for a moment before facing Giles again. "You don't think these villagers really expect strangers to shack up, do you?"

They couldn't call his name if they couldn't fucking read it.

He gritted his teeth. One paper. One--he'd written the kana to see if it would dissuade the girl hounding him for his autograph. It had caused a swarm he'd only escaped by stunning two of his fans and brandishing the sword at the rest of them. The rest of the day had consisted of brooding, napping, and double- and triple-checking the locks on his door and windows.

Erasmus looked stupid. No wonder they had to drag in outsiders to do their dirty work for them.

Edited 2012-09-11 05:56 (UTC)

Funny thing when you gave one girl a copy of your signature, Sasuke. Instead of there being just one copy of it in that pile, there were easily a hundred copies, with 50 different names.

The King pulled out yet another name before blinking at it. "Who wrote this? I can't read any of that!" he exclaimed, waving Sasuke's name around as the crowd laughed. "Floppinwrist!" he called to his herald. "Get the scribes to decode this, would you? Or better yet, go find Matilda to ask her who she asked to write that!"

He didn't trust the scribe to be able to figure it out--references to the "private language" he shared with Shin and Bakura kept showing up on the notice board. Even if they did figure out it was actually a real language, he doubted they'd have the tools to decipher it. So he continued leaning against the pillar, smirking.

Until a hand shot up in the air and Matilda screeched out, "It's the Knight of Fire!"

Damn it.

Later on, after the fuss with that has died down, Giles approaches Sasuke with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Those were, um, Japanese characters you gave them, isn't it?" he asks curiously. "Funny - I would have thought those would have translated themselves. No one's ever had any problems understanding us before."

After a beat, he adds: "At least, um, not on a linguistic level."

"They must not have given me enchanted paper," Sasuke replied, grimacing. The whole thing made his skin crawl. "It was kana. Whatever language they speak here seems to have been given to me upon entry--I know it's different, but I can't remember learning it."

"Not unheard of. The, um, the last world I was unexpectedly brought to, much the same happened - everyone spoke the same language. The, um, the difference was...none of us spoke our own anymore.

I know this isn't the appropriate time at all, mind, but I wouldn't mind experimenting more with this particular phenomenon later with you. If we can develop a way to communicate without them knowing, orbs aside, it could only be to our advantage."

"Hn." The corner of his lip twitched into a smirk. "I'm in. Anything that could get them off our cases is a worthy cause."

[ Sansa is there out of some peculiar sense of obligation, the same that drives her to go through the motions she does. Fulfilling a role is nothing new to her. Do it well, and you blend into the background better.

Knowing the maids had tricked her out of her signature, of course she's nervous. She hopes the king would not be so cruel, but she knows it's a stupid hope. All kings are cruel somewhere deep down, and kings who steal people away from their homes even moreso. I could say I'm already married, she thinks, but they'll wonder to whom. And if the Targaryen princess finds out, what would I say?

It's with a dream sort of numbness that she reacts when she hears Alayne's name called. She stands. No matter who they pick, at least it's not a Lannister. And at that she almost smiles. ]

[ ooc: Some NPC or otherwise a total creepy stranger will get Sansa's hand, and then Sif will step in. because reasons ]

Edited 2012-09-14 18:52 (UTC)

[At first, it comes as a welcome relief that Sif's name has not been called. She was not looking forward to the demonstrative violence that might have followed. She does not want these villagers to love her, to seek her hand. She has no use for that.

But Sansa's false name is drawn, and that outcome is unacceptable. Even though the given name is false, and the marriage thus invalid, questions to Sansa's identity might be raised that could compromise the girl's safety.

Sif is already charging up to the stage, sword in hand, when the villager fool enough to trick her friend steps onstage. She aims the sword at his throat.]

The Princess shall wed none of you this day.

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Choose Your Own Marital Adventure!

Rupert Giles

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Helios totally can get picked. Because I'm mean.

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Lavinia Fairweather

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Laughing at your pain.

Re: Laughing at your pain.

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うちはサスケ

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❝ Alayne Stone ❞

oh hale no