what is love? [OPEN/CLOSED]

[circumitus]

Who: Rey and Maketh Tua + Nick Valentine and OPEN prompts to anyone who wants in on that small town wedding business.
What: An actual firefighter wedding turns into more of a shotgun wedding and not quite like how those movies usually end.
Where: The Park + Church.
When: The last day of Stepford Summer.

[ooc: Prompts will be in individual comments below. Some details of the plot are here and here, but feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

[Otherwise, feel free to assume that your character has received a wedding invitation and they're there... or square.]

Comments

church. [CLOSED(ish) to CARLISLE and MAKETH]

[circumitus]

Nightfall comes by the hour they arrive at the local church. The quiet after the bustles and whispers and background noise at the park's scene is by far a welcome one, in which Rey is more than grateful to be rid of. Maybe it's the crowd and strange faces that troubled her, or the fact that the man trying to put the ring on her finger seemed too much of a ghost. Something about it all crawled under her skin, and even now she feels sick thinking about it. The only thing that disrupts the nervous haze in her mind is the giddy fluttering in her chest as she reaches for the door leading to the church foyer.

Locked. For now, at least. It doesn't take long for Rey to figure out how to fix that, however, with just a couple pins that had been placed in her hair. The neat and clean style that had kept her hair back falls down and curls around her neck; a minor inconvenience to her as she figures out how to undo the pesky latch keeping them locked out of the structure. It's almost ironic, seeing herself partake in the petty crime of breaking and entering a place of worship in front of a police officer. However, a little felony doesn't deter either of them.

Once the door opens, Rey parts ways with Maketh, if only momentarily when she makes her way into the back room. There, she finds the town priest collapsed on the couch of his own office, a stench of alcohol wafting from the empty bottles nearby. Fully aware of Carlisle's... habits, Rey only offers the drunk priest a few prods to the face in order to rouse him from his slumber.

"Hey." She pokes him again. "Hey, hey."

Poke-poke.

"Rise and shine."

It's midnight wedding time.

[mismanagement]

Now that the madness has actually been done, it feels less like madness and more like the inevitable conclusion of a successful operation. None of it was planned, none of it was rehearsed, and yet Maketh feels no regret. No part of her second-guesses this.

It feels inevitable now that it's been done. The easiest thing in the world.

She follows Rey silently, standing in the doorway. She doesn't know Carlisle well. It's possible he won't react well.

Nonetheless, this part too will be done. It's been decided.

"Hello, Carlisle."

[tongueamok]

Carlisle doesn't stir from the first poke or two; however, once he does open his eyes, 'not reacting well' would be putting it lightly. The clergyman is simply startled at first as Rey rouses him from his sleep -- his eyes crack open and he sits up, looking as dazed as a man who might have napped through an appointment.

"Wh- what? What is it? What time—"

His voice dies as he looks to the window; it's dark outside. They dart back to the women, but stop midway on the bottles -- evidence of his shame -- littered all over the floor.

And there comes the guilt. He stumbles to his feet, which knock into some of the bottles, causing them to roll and clink together as he tries to straighten his vestments.

"Oh! Oh ah- sorry sorry sorry. I just- th-th-this is nothing! Nothing, just. A mess. Just a mess. Unrelated to anything, really. Was doing some cleaning and found these old things just- just lying about. Need to dispose of them, that's all. What can, ah."

He adjusts his glasses, running a hand through his disheveled hair to smooth it as he recognizes the two who've barged into his office in the dead of the night.

"Ah, Miss Rey. And um. Officer Tua, I believe? Weren't- weren't you getting married today?"

He asks that of Rey; he has no idea that's why they're there.

[circumitus]

For having the evidence of his shame riddled across the floor, Rey doesn't care about any of that. She's quite nonchalant, actually, about the fact that she's committed a felony herself, and in front of a police officer, no less. Whether that says something about herself or her situation, and just how insane this all is, who can say for certain.

Right now, she really doesn't give a shit.

"Well, funny that you should mention that..."

Funny because Rey just happens to still be in her wedding garb. She's cut up the lower part of her dress during her and Maketh's escape from the park, not lamenting the tattered remnants of her fancy, overly priced attire. Fortunately, it was her (now ex-)fiancé who dropped the cash on such a thing than her mother, otherwise she would have taken more care with the extravagant dress. Her mother had passed before they could decide on what she should wear, after all, so she was alone in that department.

Not anymore, though. For once, she feels confident in that she is doing something she feels is right. It helps her sort out her thoughts. She can't afford hesitation and second-thinking now. "We need a favor," she calmly tells him.

[mismanagement]

Maketh abandons the doorway to stand next to Rey. It's important to do this properly, and to commit fully.

Deliberately, she takes Rey's hand in hers.

"Someone will be married, yes."

[tongueamok]

"Oh."

That initial response is immediate, said in an oh, that's nice sort of fashion rather than one of comprehension. It's a second later as Carlisle's eyes trail down to their entwined hands that he realizes just what that favor they need is, and who he's doing it for.

"Oh. Oh, th- that's what- ah." The clergyman tugs at his collar nervously, his gaze flicking back to the ladies before him, meeting their faces with polite trepidation. "I- I suppose I could accommodate you in the morning, if you'd like to, ah. Come back and make an appointment for a proper ceremony."

[circumitus]

Rey's shoulders jump when Maketh takes her hand; an instinctive reaction when her heart skips at the unexpected but pleasant feeling. It helps, emboldening her to do what she wants to do.

She shakes her head at Carlisle's last comment. "No, don't want a 'proper' ceremony. Want this done -- just us."

Now.

"Sorry if this is short notice."

[mismanagement]

"Marry us," Maketh says softly. She could give it as an order, but that wouldn't be right. And she wants to do this part right. "Please."

[tongueamok]

Carlisle's eyes go from Rey to Maketh, and back again.

"Er... right. Well." He wrings his hands together, his lips pulled into an apprehensive grin. "I suppose I could, ah. Get the papers ready tomorrow." Emphasis on that last word. He slides away from them toward his desk, rifling through the cabinet beside it until he finds what he's looking for: a leather-bound journal, the parchment inside yellowed, but as official as he is.

"See, I'll have to write the documents, and then you both sign them, and then I sign them, and then it's done. We would like to do this, er... as properly as possible, of course."

He says that, fully realizing that these ladies broke into his office after presumably calling off Rey's wedding, considering that Officer Tua is most certainly not the fellow he was sure she was marrying.

[circumitus]

Emboldened by Maketh's hand in hers, as well as the other woman's presence there for her at all, Rey just nods, but doesn't move.

"Fine. I've got nowhere to be."

Meaning that she doesn't intend to be anywhere else than here until this gets done.

The thought of going back out there again, of possibly facing wedding spectators and even Sully himself is enough to make Rey's stomach turn. She doesn't want to hear the excuses, the demands for answers like they think they're owed. If not for Maketh, Rey would have been long gone from a wedding with a man she didn't at all love. She doesn't owe them anything, but to Maketh she owes everything.

This is something she wants. Get it done. Quick and efficient. They don't need an audience; everything they need is already here.

[mismanagement]

Except for Rey's hand in hers, the whole thing almost feels anticlimactic. It comes down to paperwork, of all things, and Maketh fights back laughter. Paperwork. Of course.

"We will wait," she agrees softly, covering her smile with her free hand.

[tongueamok]

They insist they'll wait; they end up doing that for at least another several seconds as Carlisle inwardly hems and haws over what to do. It really isn't proper wedding protocol for two people to break into the church in the dead of the night -- one of whom was supposed to be married to someone completely different that day -- and demand he write a marriage license right there and then.

And yet, here they are, Rey and Maketh standing hand-in-hand, awaiting the aforementioned license. Carlisle clears his throat, as though that might make them reconsider somehow, and when it clearly doesn't, he eases uncomfortably into his chair and draws his pen, flipping to an empty page.

"Right. Guess I'll, ah. Get started."

And so he does. It's going to take him a while, given it's a rather lengthy document, but when all is said and done, they'll be wed, no matter what anyone else may think.

"Are 'Rey" and 'Maketh Tua' your legal names?" he asks as he gets to the blanks he's drawn. He continues scrawling hastily, not realizing that he's written goddess and Clarity rather than the name of the deity the gods have created for this illusionary world.

[circumitus]

To some degree, it seems fitting for things to end this way. There's no dramatic ceremony, no flowers or prettied speeches. It isn't even the way Rey imagined her wedding would be...

Not that Rey thought she'd ever get married. Strange, that, all things considered. It was a feeling she had been warring with all week, but now it seems right. Coming together.

She squeezes Maketh's hand as Carlisle gets to work, and decides to leave the priest without any unnecessary distractions. She takes a seat, and gestures for Maketh to do the same. A small smile creases her face as she thinks about how funny this all is, she almost doesn't hear Carlisle's question.

"Oh, um. Yes. Just 'Rey'."

More strangeness. Her mother and father had last names, didn't they? Shouldn't it be Valentine? Or Stransky?

Never mind.