strangetrip | [GP] The De Rolo Wedding Reception

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[GP] The De Rolo Wedding Reception

The calendar of "Kahl-ee-Fornea" was very different to that of Tal'Dorei. But the spring dance had been a good reminder for the Exandrians (one of them, anyway) that the Renewal Festival would take place more or less this time of year, landing always on the thirteenth day of Dulahei. It seemed a fitting time to set the 'small family dinner' in celebration of the marriage of Vex and Percy.

...Yeah, but no. Because Vax'ildan didn't mind a bit of revenge for their having done the thing without so much as telling him for several weeks, and because his sister always deserved the best of everything anyway, the garden had a whopping lot more than that for the happy couple as they opened the doors onto what first looked like pitch blackness. Until the big, white-hot spotlight snapped abruptly on to glare down on top of the pair with blinding scrutiny.

A familiar voice sang out from beyond, his ever-charming booming and crooning amplified to fill the whole of the outdoors by something called a 'microphone,' Scanlan using all his singular panache to belt out a melodic tune:

"There she is, Mrs. De Rolo
There she is, your ideal
The dreams of a million boys and girls who want to find love in Emon City
For Vex may turn out to more than Baroness of the first house of Whitestone and Grand Mistress of the Hunt
There he is, Mr. De Rolo
There he is, your ideal
With so much brooding and tinkering he took the town by storm
With his all-Whitestone face and form
And there they are
Walking on air, he is
Fairest of the fair, she is
There they are - Mr. and Mrs. De Rolooooooooooo~"

A resounding wave of applause, murmuring, cheers, and laughter broke out all around the newlyweds - one such unbridled merry cackle absolutely coming from the bride's brother - and Scanlan's tone changed immediately to a much more vibrant, excited, sporting-event-enthusiasm style of announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen - it's the DE ROLO FAMILY!"

The strands of bulb lighting popped into yellow-soft brightness all at once, revealing the guests gathered around dozens of tables artfully set with dinner places enough for everyone at the Inn. Each table included flowers, linens, and garlands all matched in smart Whitestone-Blue, darker Owlbear-Blue, black and white with touches of gold accents, all thanks to Caroline's management. The outdoor area so far as one could see had been dressed in one of Lillith's illusions to mimic a beautiful forest clearing at purple-dusk with fireflies dancing, the shapes of buildings and foothills in the distance distinctly cast to look like the city and castle of Whitestone. Ignis and Emma stood by putting a few final touches on what they'd all started calling 'fancy barbecue,' an enormous buffet of haute cuisine smoked and grilled meats with artful sides, a table beside them holding up the massive layer cake Pike had tirelessly fussed into perfection. So many others had come together to help or to wish the de Rolos well - but there would be plenty of time over the evening for them to be thanked and recognized with food, drink, song - there was even an area marked out as a dance floor.

A freshly bathed Trinket in his very own bowtie lumbered up to Vex'ahlia to rumble and lick her face as the pair finally had a moment to react to the spectacle. At ground-level, a small disc-like device with a large serving spoon taped to it had been labeled with marker as Ensign Stubby, rolling its way between tables and chairs while balancing a large, many-times-stabbed basket of flower petals (with a handful left nestled in its giant spoon) on top of its flat surface like a drunken flower girl to finally bump into Vex and Percy's shoes. ...And possibly the best thing about their stunning surprise? That Peter boy had got the whole thing on VHS.

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Corbie'd warned him about Lillith. And her cousin. The demon-looking girls. He hadn't realized she'd told them about him. But Lillith was teaching Corbie magic stuff, and he knew how important that was to her.

He kept his words slow and careful, so the scar didn't turn them all to mush. "She's hard to disappoint." That was why he was here tonight, wasn't it? 'Cause Corbie'd wanted him here, and he wasn't gonna disappoint her by refusing. "And yeah, I'm Mildmay. Nice to meet you." See, Felix? He could have manners.

"I do hope it will be, nice to meet me, that is," Lillith said, her voice carrying a gentle lilt of her homeland that matched the warmth of a smile in her eyes.

She would have said he need not worry for his speech, since everything in Infernal sounded like gargling with glass shards and choking on the blood, but it seemed unnecessary to call attention to it. Instead, she tuned her hearing so that she would make out his words the best she could. "It is an interesting name, Mildmay. I have heard nothing like it. May I ask what it means?"

It wasn't the first time somebody'd asked about his name. The shorter form was better than what Methony had named him, but it was still strange to most. Nothing Mildmay could do about that. "It was Mild-may-your-sufferings-be-at-the-hands-of-the-wicked. Was a fad, giving names like that. Knew a gal name Fly-from-fornication-and-blasphemy. Bad name for a whore. She went by Butterfly." A fad, for a little faddy cult that'd died out, along with its members in the Fire.

"Oh, that is pretty!" Lillith began to say when he explained his name, but he got to his friend 'Butterfly' and she had to clap her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.

Her eyes sparkled their mischievousness in watermelon pink and her giggles issued from between vicious fangs. For some people, Lillith was simply confusing. She looked like a demon, but she experienced the good things in world with the delight of an artistic child.

Mildmay wasn't sure he'd call it pretty. More... what was that word Felix liked? It took a moment, but he eventually remembered. Ironic. Yeah, that was about right. What with how the gods seemed to take it as a personal challenge, in Mildmay's case.

That was another reason he usually mentioned Butterfly whenever anybody asked him about his name. It usually made 'em laugh, or get all shocked and embarrassed that he knew and talked about whores, if it was the kind of person who got uptight about that kind of thing. He was glad Lillith wasn't. It also hinted at how the names didn't always turn out so good, without getting into things Mildmay'd as soon not talk about. So he watched her laugh, a glint in green eyes of the amusement his stony face didn't show.

"S'just Mildmay Foxe now." He'd never be Mildmay the Fox again, except in stories, but Felix had made it his name, and that was good enough.

"You do not like it," Lillith surmised easily enough and nodded. "I did not like my own name when it was given to me. It was a cruel joke, since Lillith means 'of the night' and I am plainly albino." She had made it her own, but she remembered her sisters' taunting only too well.

"If you would prefer something other, only tell me and I will honor your preference. And if Lillith is the mother of demons in your world and my name bothers you, you may call me Lilli."

"Mildmay's fine," a small pause, easy to ignore with his slow, careful speech, "Lillith." She didn't seem to mind her name any more, from the way she said, so he'd call her what she wanted, showing it didn't bother him none.

Then, because it sounded like there was a story there, and he couldn't resist, "Lillith's the mother of demons somewhere?"

"Yes, Mildmay." She repeated his name to acknowledge his preference and because she liked the sound of it. If he did not like the long form, it was understandable, but to her, nevertheless, it seemed like a form of a blessing.

"In many worlds, perhaps. Home world for Inn, it seems, is one." When she had learned, Lillith had read the Book of Genesis in one of the bibles, but it taught her little. So she required a moment to organize thoughts. "One God, only God, in these worlds, made Man. But Man was lonely. So God made the wife, Lillith. Lillith refused to submit to the Man and wanted to be on top during sex. She wanted to be equal at all times. So Adam rejected her. The God, he made a new wife. This wife, she was made from Adam's rib, so she was always subordinate. Lillith was banished from Paradise and there she bred with other beings God had made and became the mother of all demons." Lillith quite admired her in truth.

"Kethe. That's fucked up." But that was gods for you, Mildmay guessed. And it wasn't like couples didn't do that shit to each other anyway.

Mildmay had been spending most of his time here with Corbie, getting used to everything that was different here, and figuring out how to test the boundaries. Maybe he should look more into the religion and legends and things.

"She was better off without him."

"Very much so, I believe. I have always admired her, if truth be told," Lillith said and she was pleased to find Mildmay seemed to agree. The demon part usually put others off their admiration.

"There is a book in a drawer in your room called a Bible. The first part of it contains many stories of the religion of this Earth. The second half also, but the women in it are all meant to be subordinate, so I like it less."

Mildmay knew the book she meant. He'd found it his second day at the inn, when he'd searched his room from top to bottom. Hadn't got around to reading more than the first page, though, and hadn't figured it for some religious text. He'd got other books, books from home, in one of those eggs, he'd wanted to read first.

A nod passed for thanks for the information or for knowing what she was talking about.

Now, Lillith knew, was when she should ask a question. Zahra certainly would know something bright and interesting to say that would make him smile or speak, but she did not, and asking too many questions got one noticed, so she had grown out of the habit--at least when she was not entirely comfortable.

She scrambled in her thoughts for something and then recalled a word he had said. "Kethe, was that what you said? What does it mean?"

Mildmay rubbed his neck under his braid. It was one of those things he'd have to explain a lot around here, what with nobody else knowing the first thing about Marathat. Except Corbie, and most of what she knew, it was from him and Felix telling her already.

"Kethe. He's the patron saint," if he was a saint, and there was a fair bit of debate on that, but saint would do for this, "for secrets and thieves and things done in the sept- uh, in the middle of the night." Didn't nobody here count the hours and days like him neither. Least Mildmay'd already gotten kinda used to the flashie calendar being around Felix and other hocuses so long, but it was a hard habit to break.

He shrugged one shoulder. "It's like 'powers and saints' or 'lumme'," Corbie said lumme, maybe Lillith'd heard her sometime. "Not exactly a swear, but..." It was a lot of words, but she'd told him about the other Lillith, and she acted like she was for real curious.

She was 'for real curious,' even if she would not have expressed it such. She would have said it interested her. That she loved learning things and knowing things. That he had beautiful fiery red hair and it was pleasing to look at while he spoke. That his scars reminded her a little of what she had done to Bellenore and that was a hard but good thing to remember about herself. That he said true things instead of glib ones and that was no small thing in this world where people so often did not say what they meant.

So Lillith listened attentively and heard things he might not have intended to say about things done in the dark of night, and she realized that he was like her a little, and like Vax a lot, and maybe more like Kashaw than either of them would know how to say. When he finished, she said, "Not a curse or an invocation, but an expression of feelings not easily put into words but needing an outlet? A teacher, once she told me words moved energy from one person to another. Maybe like that?"

If he hadn'ta known she was a hocus, the way she talked then woulda convinced him. Talking about words moving energy, kinda like Felix and his talk of metaphors, or any of a half dozen wizard arguments he'd heard and only half followed during his time trailing along like Felix's shadow. Mildmay didn't exactly follow her meaning entirely, but it sounded like it should make sense.

"Somethin' like that." He rolled one shoulder in another sort of shrug.

Lillith's conversational reach had, in that one exchange, fully exceeded her grasp. With a child, or another given to asking questions, she could speak for hours without pause, or just as likely, quite forget herself in the middle of a sentence, and only remember when sometime later, she looked up to find herself somewhere unexpected, and often with a pen between her teeth and a journal in hand. Given an unwilling conversational partner, she could apply magic to get answers with better than usual success.

Give her a willing partner or a not unwilling one with a taciturn disposition, and she was undone, adrift in a sea of her own awkward self-reflections, like this one. Since she could think of nothing appropriate to say, Lillith took refuge in manners. "Thank you for the explanation and the company. To meet you, it has been my very great pleasure."

"Yeah. You too." Mildmay'd never been much for small talk, or talking in general, 'less it was telling stories. And Lillith was friends with the bride and groom and the ones throwing the party. She had better things to do, people to talk with than somebody like him. No faulting her for that. "It was nice."

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[GP] The De Rolo Wedding Reception

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