[open] Wuko Wedding

[arclightning]

Who: Mako, Wu, and you!
What: GETTING MARRIED
When: February 20th
Where: The beach, through the city, at the Raccoon Room in Cellar Door.

Content Warnings: An inordinate amount of fluff, potentially event happenings.

The Wedding

It's not a normal wedding. There's no officiant, they're not standing up in front of a bunch of people to declare their love: this is a Trench wedding, based on Mako and Wu's shared traditions, inventing some new ones.

The ceremony itself is a procession, from the beach to the Raccoon Room. It starts with just the two of them, at a flower arch on the beach, their hands clasped together, each in a gold suit with red and green accents on the collar and as piping down the front. They walk together along a flower strewn path, talking quietly with one another, sharing small, nervous smiles.

If you are close to the couple, you recieved a red envelope, delivered either by raccoon or small dragon, a few days before the wedding, inviting you to the ceremony. The small crowd gathers outside the Raccoon Room, where the threshold is decked out in red roses. The couple stands in the doorway, saying their vows, and pressing a blood-and-ash covered hand to the other's cheek.

While the ceremony is private, the reception isn't. Invites have gone out to basically the entire city, via Wu's post, so it's a pretty public event. Maybe you're coming because you saw that post. Maybe you're coming because you're involved somehow, maybe you just see a flower-and-light-filled party and decide to drop in. Everyone is welcome. After all, this is Trench, and everyone could be dead tomorrow, so why not celebrate something good while you have the chance? Come in, dance to music from different worlds, eat cake and noodles and dumplings, celebrate a little moment of happiness while you can. The party's going all night, and the couple making their solemn, slightly-bloody vows to each other are only the excuse for it.

The Party

Naturally, since this is Mako and Wu's wedding, it's at the Raccoon Room, decked out even more grandly than it was for its opening. Roses adorn every surface and drop from the ceiling in strings, perfuming the air. Scattered between them are red-and-gold lanterns, casting a dim, inviting light onto velvet hangings. Lining the walls are tables full of food and drinks. Everyone can't fit into this little venue, so Wu has also set up a draping tent outside, full of burning braziers of coal to keep the chill away. The doors are wide open to let the music from inside out: it's just the party, continued! Renfri can be found behind the bar, dishing up custom drinks.

The Music

Chicken Choice Judy, or Ryan Akagi and Min-Gi Park, make their Trench debut on the stage of the Raccoon Room, playing an eclectic mix of original music, 80s hits, current pop, and classical piano music. They begin with a slowed-down version of Lil Nas X's Montero, ease into an upbeat version of That's What I Want, and things take off from there. Maybe give them requests? They might play some of your favorite dance songs! This is a party for everyone, after all. A big space in front of the stage has been cleared for dancing, and the music will be going all night.

The Couple

After the more private ceremony (with only close friends and loved ones, for Mako's peace of mind) Mako and Wu are as available as any couple at their wedding, which is to say, not terribly. With new dark handprints from the ceremony on their faces—really, more on their necks, because Wu wouldn't stand for a giant handprint ruining his look—they can be found chatting with friends, huddled together whispering, or dancing together. They'll try to mingle as much as they can, but they're in pretty high demand tonight!

((ooc: Make top-levels to your hearts' content, mingle, have a good time! This is a Trench party and it's open to everyone! Wuko image credit)) © tessisamess

Comments

[dialscientist]

[Oh! A hug! Okay, yes this is fine!

And it actually is fine because tonight has been so incredible he can't spare the energy to be weird about anything. So that's growth! He hugs back, grinning ear to ear. When he speaks his tongue is purple from the cocktails, though he's only been drinking the blue one.]

Right?? That was such a good find, you're so good at finding things in this place. It has some presets and instruments on there I've never even heard of. I'm so glad it all worked out! It's been so interesting getting to know all this new music.

[royalfling]

Oh, boy, that's amazing! And it's got that cool, that cool moon gem in it!

[ He hugs Min tighter, squeezing him with a little sound before letting him go. Zuko flits over with a trill and lands on Min's shoulder, settling there ]

Oh, hi, sweetheart! She's really been hanging around me tonight. I-- music! Yes. The music was wonderful. So wonderful! You both really shine when you play together.

[ Mm... purple tongue. Purple tongue, blue drink, Ryan was missing... ]

Had a little fun, huh, buddy? Had a good time? You and Ryan ridding a little high there?

[dialscientist]

[Oh! Zuko! He loves Zuko! Man he honestly loves having all these animals around and he loves that Zuko is a dragon and she's so long! What a good noodle!

Min goes to pet her before hearing Wu's powers of deduction and flounders. He's already blushed from the drink and adrenaline, but sure. Why not. Have some more. He's so busted and he knows it. He doesn't know about his tongue, but Wu just seems to know everything all the time and he attributes it to paleblood stuff. They're touching so.. it makes sense.

He's got two options. Deny and die or.. maybe man up a little bit and be honest. Maybe step a toe out of his little safety bubble of being covert (covert how, this is Ryan we're talking about) and testing the waters of including himself in the culture.

He chooses courage. If he still had a number it would tick down, down, down.]

Oh- ffh- Well, we uh. We stepped outside for a little bit. Once or twice.

[royalfling]

Once or twice! Good for you, buddy! [ Wu laughs and squeezes him (maybe a little too) tight. He's teasing, he's just teasing! ] I'm happy for you two. Really happy! You know, I thought Ryan was happy before, sometimes, but he wasn't, was he? He was all smiles and stuff, but it's not the same. It's not the same at all! He really lights up around you, buddy. You're something special.

[dialscientist]

[It's true, Ryan is pretty good at faking that everything is okay when it isn't, but he didn't realize it was that bad. Min-Gi thought he just kinda.. oriented himself and got on with his new life here. That Ryan missed him, sure, he's said, but it hasn't really sunk in, you know?

He flusters.]

Well- ah- I mean-

Nngh-

We're just. Meant to be in each other's lives, I think. Nothing is right when we aren't.

[royalfling]

Yeah, yes! That's exactly it. Because he was missing a part of himself. He was missing you! [ Wu pats Min-Gi's chest, still hanging off of him ] You know, that's really special. Really, really special. Being so, so close to someone. That's amazing. Really amazing. I wish I had that.

[ Yes, he married the love of his life today, and they're sharing thoughts now, but it really isn't the same. He's known Mako for four years. Min-Gi and Ryan have known each other their entire lives. Mako and Bolin, too. Having someone like that, someone who knows you, all of you, that's really something.

Everyone who's known Wu since he was a baby is dead, or lost to the upheaval in the Earth Kingdom. It's almost like he didn't exist, not really, before he started meeting the people he knows here. He could have been anyone, done anything, and no one would know unless he told them about it. It's a lonely thought.

But he's at his wedding! A party for him, and for Mako. To celebrate their new life, a step into something new, a beginning of a life together, one they've built the foundation for, that they can continue into, together.

His smile slipped as he thought, and while the thoughts themselves didn't feed through to Min-Gi, his melancholy may have ]

[arclightning]

[ It's hard not to pick up on those thoughts, and Mako may be halfway across the room wrapped around Bolin, but—

That's why we're doing this, right? In twenty years, we'll have known each other that long, too. ]

[dialscientist]

[Thank you Mako. Doin the good work.

Not that Min-Gi knows. But he can feel that bitter sweet sinking and he's aware enough to know it isn't him for once. Aware that Wu is toughing him and ah-

Oh..

Oh no, that's sad.]

Hey, don't be like that.

[Soft. He can be awkward, sure, but he's empathetic. Kinda hard with only a feeling to go off but.. he's worked with less.]

It's not a competition, right? And aren't you and Mako like.. psychic linked now? That's as close as you can get to someone. Plus, you've got all these other amazing things and like, all these people are here for you. That's incredible. This city loves you, Wu. They love you for exactly who you are. I think it's really brave. I wish I had that.

[royalfling]

No, no, you're right! You're right.

[ And Mako's right, too. They're creating that, together. Creating a new life, for the two of them ]

Thank you, Min-Gi. You're being so much kinder to me than I deserve. You, you can have that! You can have it! [ Wu twists so he's facing Min-Gi now, a hand clutched in Min-Gi's star shirt ] Ryan loves you, for you! And here? Here, you don't have to be anything else but you. You can be exactly who you are and people, people will love you for it! Not everyone, but, but that's just how it works! People never loved me, back home. I was always, always trying to be someone else, someone I wasn't. I thought that's what they wanted, and it wasn't! It wasn't, and here? Here all the horrible things that happened to me made it so, so hard to keep pretending and you know what? That's when people started liking me? Because I was myself! That's how I got Mako to love me. He, he hated me back home. Okay maybe not hated, but he sure didn't like me for a while there! And I can't blame him, the poor guy, I took him away from his job, his job he loved! Just to be with me. But that's beside the point.

[ Wu is fully grabbing Min's shirt now, looking at him with an intensity that belies the spirit of the night. He really means this, all of this, and he's just drunk enough to say all of it ]

The point is: no one knows you here, buddy! No one but Ryan. You can be whoever you want here, whatever you want. And you? You're going to be pretty amazing.

[dialscientist]

[There's something about the way Wu speaks- or touches him and speaks- or the words he says- that break through all of Min-Gi's years of defenses. Right through like an arrow. All his fears and insecurities are laid out in front of him in tight little rows before they're bundled up and tied with twine to be set aside for another time. Or, just maybe, let go. Wouldn't that be nice.

The opportunity Wu suggests looks glittering and bright on the horizon. Almost as glittering and bright as Ryan out on the dance floor.

Just be himself. For everyone to see. That it- he- could be amazing. It pulls such a scarlet to his cheeks you'd think he'd just been told a filthy joke.

Ryan has supported and complimented him a million times but it hits different from someone older and wiser. Especially someone with whom he had a ragged start. Wu's words mean more that way. Like he really means them. Min can feel through their touch that he does. It's been a lot, but he's spent the last three weeks in Ryan's constant company learning how to distinguish what his feelings and thoughts are and which ones are being shifting inside him by his paleblood partner. It makes this interaction easier. It makes knowing easier.

It's a little overwhelming, but in the best possible way.]

Well, I'll try my best. That's all I can do, right?

[But there's more. He feels compelled.]

I want to be more. And do better. I've never had the opportunity, not really. I'm... kind of starting to think that might be possible, here.

[A small laugh,]

I mean look around us, this never would have happened back home. I never could have had this. I always kind of thought we'd be Orpheus and Eurydice.

[royalfling]

You have the opportunity here. You have to take it. [ There isn't any room in what Wu is telling him, still holding tight to his shirt. He believes so strongly that Min has to take this opportunity, he has to see what he can do, has to try and not hold himself back. He stares into Min's eyes, his own full of a fiery determination. before he blinks. ]

Orpheus? What about him?

[ Because, y'know... he's here and stuff. ]

[dialscientist]

[Its an extremely powerful moment before the conversation breaks and whooshes into another.

It won’t be forgotten. Wu’s words will vibrate there in Min-Gi’s chest for the foreseeable future.]

Well he was the son of the Greek god Apollo. It’s a myth? He was this musician guy and he was so talented it’s said that no man or animal could resist his playing. He falls in love with Eurydice but she dies so he goes to the underworld to try to get her back-

[He stops himself and shakes his head.]

It’s a long story but ultimately they don’t get to be together and they’re both miserable.

[royalfling]

A myth..? But he's here, in Trench. Orpheus-- that can't be a common Earth name, can it? And he sings songs-- he once made a song for Mako and tried to woo him!

[ This is all very confusing. Maybe it's a different Orpheus, but it sure sounds similar.

But also: ]

Why did you think you couldn't be together?

[dialscientist]

That is a weird coincidence,

[He admits quietly before answering the more important thing.]

But um. So… being…

[wow why is it so hard to say the word gay. Just say it-]

You know.

[Pussy.]

When we were born it was illegal for same, uh, same sex couples to be together. If you were suspected of being that way then you would be arrested and put in prison and really hurt. The laws have changed and people aren’t legally allowed to discriminate against you but they still do. It’s just… risky.

We’re already so different from everybody back home it was just another target to pin on your back. Plus, like Ryan and I never had that conversation with each other, definitely not about each other. We were both too scared that we’d ruin our friendship and lose everything.

There was a while when we weren’t in each other’s lives and it was really hard.

I guess we both just haven’t always been very honest about our feelings. It felt like being quiet and keeping him was the better option than being honest and losing him forever.

[royalfling]

[ Right, that. That little detail that seems to follow him around, that seems to be in world after world, that detail that made him hide himself, made him miserable for most of his life.

Wu's eyes flick off toward the dance floor and find Ryan, having a great time, not really aware of this conversation. He looks so happy. He needs Min-Gi to be this happy.

Wu's hand lands on Min's arm again ]

I wish people would stop caring about, about what makes other people happy. It's not exactly illegal, in the Earth Kingdom, but it isn't easy. For a guy like me? I was resigned to marrying a gal and having heirs or, or something like that. I don't want heirs, I was going to give up the throne anyways, but that-- is not the point! That's not the point.

The point is, yeah. Sometimes, sometimes maybe it isn't worth it. To be together. You know how long I, I liked Mako before I said anything? So long! But do you, do you really think you could lose Ryan forever? Ryan? That Ryan?

[ He points out at Ryan now, like Min-Gi needs to be reminded who they're talking about. ]

I dunno what I'm saying anymore. I just, I just want you both to be happy. If anyone, anyone gives you guys any trouble, you send them to me. [ Because he's such a big threat. But, the implication is there that he will have Mako deal with them and Mako? Mako is a threat. ] You shouldn't have to worry. You aren't Orpheus! You can be together. You're gonna be together.