Chapter Text
It was finally the day of the “wedding” and Lilia could not be more excited. Yuu and Gloomurai’s brother had reported that the wedding venue in the guildhouse was finished a few days ahead of schedule, and the anticipation of knowing that it was done and he couldn’t look at it yet was almost enough to send Lilia to an early grave. But today was the day, and classes were finally finished, and soon he’d get to see what Gloomurai the Younger had designed and unlock that gorgeous sparkly suit.
He booted up his PC, Malleus leaning over his shoulder, having been caught between grinning and pouting all day. Grinning, because Yuu finishing their grinding and waiting on the audition results meant they were spending much more time with him then the last few weeks (they were also clearly conspiring something together, though Lilia was trying not to pry too much). Pouting, because Idia found out about what happened to Malleus’s last several phones and banned him from Ignihyde’s computer lab, so he couldn’t watch them play the game. Yuu had apparently described some of the wedding venue to him (a description he refused to share, the ungrateful hatchling), but he hadn’t actually seen any more of it than Lilia. The game loaded, and Muscle Red spawned in his house, where Lilia had left him last night. His plot was larger than Gloomurai’s, so they agreed to sell their home and move into his. Lilia had accordingly spent last night moving his things around to make space for his “fiancé” to decorate to their tastes. There was plenty of room on the plot to add an extra wing to be entirely Gloomurai’s, but Lilia thought it’d be fun to let them leave their mark on his half of the build, too. Shortly afterwards, he was notified that Gloomurai and Shrimpie were online, and the message panel pinged at him.
<Shrimpie> every1 ready?
<Gloomurai> last chance 2 back out if u want muscle
<Muscle Red> And disappoint your darling brother? Perish the thought!
<Muscle Red> Besides, I still need that suit.
A moment later, an information panel appeared on his screen.
[Your fiancé, <Gloomurai>, would like to hold a Forever Promise Ceremony
[Groom]: <Gloomurai>
[Bride]/[Groom]: <Muscle Red>
Location: <Guild Base>
Guests: 11/20 <Edit Guest List>
Confirm to start event?]
[yes] [no]
Pressing “yes” teleported Lilia to the guildhouse, and he saw that the partitions around the venue Yuu built had been taken down. The guildhouse as a whole was a dark building, decorated largely in various shades of gray, the sleek lines and minimalist furniture that Gloomurai preferred occasionally broken up by trophies from various raids and events the guild had participated in, and by Lilia’s fondness for imposing stone statues and tapestries in color schemes most often found in a goth teen’s art portfolio. Gloomurai griped about the clutter sometimes, but he also chose to arrange the main hall to display and draw attention to those items, so that the effect a viewer was left with was of a brutalist corporate office that a bunch of vampires had taken over.
The room that Yuu, under the direction of Gloomurai’s brother, had converted into a chapel was similarly sleek and gray, but they had added several large windows, making it seem much more open than the rest of the base. There was technically no “outside” of the guildhouse, the windows just displayed a set outdoor scenery, but you could choose what weather was in that scenery, and the tone and brightness of the light streaming through. Yuu had opted for a bright, sunny day, which made everything look warmer in color, even though Lilia was sure if he checked the build details he would see the room was using the exact same walls and flooring as the hall he entered from. The game did have themed wedding furniture, but it had only been obtainable from a limited-time event when the Forever Promise Ceremony was first implemented in their server, and now sold for a rather high price on the player market. Instead, the young designer had gotten creative. The pews were park benches, with a stone texture that matched the rest of the room. The aisle up to the altar was lined with small plinths, on top of which were placed vases of roses, alternating between red for Muscle Red and blue for Gloomurai. The altar itself was flanked by tall, potted rose bushes in the same colors which also lined the walls between the windows, further contributing to the room’s livelier appearance compared to the rest of the building. Some details (like the altar being a dining table with a white tablecloth) definitely spoke to the constraints it was built under, but it was lovely nonetheless, and its creators certainly deserved praise.
<Muscle Red> You did a wonderful job, putting this all together in so little time, Shrimpie! And give my regards to Gloomurai’s brother, too!
<Gloomurai> yeah he did good
<Shrimpie> he says thanks
<Shrimpie> now get ur suits on and get over to the altar so we can do this
Lilia opened the wardrobe, scrolling to the Bedazzled Suit, which had unlocked as soon as the event started. He’d prepared some dye items ahead of time, and looked through the different color options, before choosing his character’s namesake red for the jacket, pants, and tie, and white for the shirt. Malleus leaned in, asking, “Is this supposed to be your digital representation?” Lilia nodded, and spun his avatar around, so he could see it from all angles. “It isn’t a particularly accurate recreation…”
Lilia laughed, “Being different from reality is half the point! I’m already adorable in my day-to-day life, why not be ‘jacked,’ as the kids say, here?”
“I see,” Malleus nodded thoughtfully, “Do all players design their ‘avatar’ not to resemble themself?”
“Most of them, probably. Yuu’s avatar is a very far cry from their true appearance, and I don’t know what Gloomurai looks like, but he’s indicated that there isn’t much of a resemblance as well.” Lilia closed his menu to see that Gloomurai himself had also finished changing, and was waiting by the altar. He had opted to color most of the outfit black, except for the shirt, which was a dark blue. With his sharp features and usual low ponytail in a blue so dark it was almost black, it almost would have had a somber, formal look, if it wasn’t so sparkly. The devs had really done excellent work rendering all those sequins without making the outfit take forever to load. Lilia thought he remembered something mentioned about procedural generation, but that was really more Gloomurai’s area of expertise than his. He walked up next to him and looked at the pews to see the rest of the guild either seated or finding a spot.
Technically, there was no need for an officiant, Gloomurai was the host of the event and could simply press the button to finalize the marriage at any time. Yuu had seemed to want to give some sort of speech, however, and somehow got Gloomurai to let them (Lilia suspected that his mysterious little brother’s puppy eyes were involved). To that end they had dressed their avatar up in plain white robes (incidentally, Shrimpie was a male character with long, dark hair and striking green eyes. Yuu had declared during character creation that something they were going to stare at for hours had better be pretty. Lilia nudged Malleus slightly when they had spawned in, but he didn’t seem to notice anything about their design choices.) and positioned themself between the grooms.
<Shrimpie> every1 ready?
There was a chorus of agreement in the chat.
<Shrimpie> Fowevah Pwomise. Fowevah Pwomise is what bwings us togethah today.
<Gloomurai> no
<Gloomurai> absolutely not
<Shrimpie> yeah ur right
<Shrimpie> Spawkwy Suits. Spawkwy Suits awe what bwing us togethah today.
<Gloomurai> i swear 2 the 7 if u dont stop that rn u will never have a ping below triple digits again
<Shrimpie> Noted. Skipping ahead.
<Shrimpie> If anyone objects, speak now or forever hold your peace.
<KuroShadow> stop the wedding!
Behind him, Lilia could feel the crackle of lightning, before another message quickly popped up.
<KuroShadow> sry always wanted to do that
<KuroShadow> go ahead
<Shrimpie> anyway i cant actually declare u husbands, gloom has the button so take it away dude
<System> Congratulations to <Gloomurai> and <Muscle Red> for performing the 68th Forever Promise on the server!
<Gloomurai> damn maybe we shouldve waited a lil longer
<Muscle Red> If only we’d checked the number of bonded players on the server before scheduling the ceremony for today. Truly, we have forever missed a priceless opportunity!
Malleus made a confused noise, but fortunately did not ask Lilia to explain the significance of the number. Yuu steered the guests out into the guildhall’s dining room, where a feast had been prepared for the guests. Apparently, this had not been part of Gloomurai the Younger’s initial plan. It had actually been suggested by one of their guildmates, who had also been the one to prepare all the food, as he had the highest possible cooking skill level. The spread didn’t initially seem to adhere to any particular theme, representing an eclectic mix of normal feast fare, breakfast items, and lighter snacks, from a variety of cultures, but as Lilia moused over them and read their descriptions, he noticed a connection.
<Muscle Red> Is it just me, or does everything here boost luck?
<Meatie> yeah, i mathed it out so if u eat one of each dish u get the max possible luck buff
<Meatie> itll also max ur sat tho
<Muscle Red> I see, Shrimpie warned us yesterday not to eat anything so our satiety would be empty, this must be why.
<Meatie> u and gloom should start ur new life with as much luck as possible lol
<Meatie> also we’re gonna raid the new dungeon after this and try to get the boss trophy for the guildhall
<Gloomurai> so thats ur real motive lol
“I see,” Malleus seemed thoughtful, “Many cultures have traditions meant to bless a new marriage with luck. Your guildmates are quite thoughtful, finding a way to adapt that to this virtual world.” He said it so seriously that Lilia couldn’t help but laugh, but he did agree it was sweet. Yuu signed out after chatting with the others for a bit, since they were still too low level for the particular dungeon the guild wanted to raid. A minute later, Malleus’s phone dinged, and he pulled it out to peer at the screen before looking back at Lilia with a slightly conflicted expression.
“Oh, go hang out with your friend,” said Lilia, guessing what the text was about. “You can watch me raid a dungeon any night, I know you haven’t had as much time with Yuu lately.”
“You really shouldn’t stay up playing your game every night,” Malleus replied, but he smiled, and let Lilia ruffle his hair before he teleported away.
Lilia turned his attention back to the game, and accepted the invite to the raid party. The dungeon, the ruined and monster-infested castle of a former kingdom that a local archeologist wanted photos of, and its boss, a magical construct set to guard the long-abandoned throne room, were quite fun the first time. Solo, it would have been significantly less fun the tenth time in a row, which was how many tries it took for someone to get the trophy. Fortunately, Lilia had Gloomurai and the rest of the group to joke around with, so the grind didn’t become too monotonous. He knew Gloomurai had been a solo player before they met each other, and he’d had no idea how they’d had the patience to clear the same dungeon over and over in their pursuit to own every item worth bragging about on their own. Now that he knew they had a brother, he figured that he must have kept them company in person.
After they had gotten the trophy, the construct’s broken but still beautifully ornate sword, they decided to display it against the back wall of the wedding chapel, behind the altar (which they had all decided to leave up and maybe use again someday, although probably not for another Forever Promise). Then the rest of the guild started logging out, most of them leaving messages of congratulations to him and Gloomurai. Neither of them were ready to retire for the night, but there was nothing in particular they wanted to do in the game, so they moved over to private messages on Magicam.
gloomurai: okay that was actually kinda fun
gloomurai: im glad i let my bro talk us into doing a whole ceremony
muscle.red: Indeed, perhaps we should do more events like that with the guild?
gloomurai: do gotta wonder what all the congratz were about tho
gloomurai: sure getting an exclusive cosmetic is cool but that was a bit much lol
gloomurai: my mentions have been blowing up too
gloomurai: and how broken is the forever promise that everyone thinks we need so much luck??
muscle.red: Oh, I looked at the comments on your last post and it seemed there’d been some confusion and people thought we were engaged outside of the game. Perhaps that misunderstanding reached the guild?
gloomurai: what
Lilia was surprised that Gloomurai hadn’t noticed. Perhaps the flood of notifications had prevented him from reading any of the messages particularly closely. He screenshotted one that seemed most obvious and sent it to them.
gloomurai: wow ok lol
gloomurai: where did they even get that idea?
gloomurai: even putting aside that im p sure u already have a family y would u wanna marry me
muscle.red: Oh, I don’t know, perhaps because we get along so well? You hardly spend any time with the rest of the guild outside of raids and the like, it makes sense they’d assume we must have some form of relationship outside of gaming to spend so much time together. Not to mention how charming you can be! I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s someone waiting to sweep you away, wherever you are.
gloomurai: anosnet u cant just say that
Gloomurai did not keysmash often, since his preferred keyboard layout rendered the result unrecognizable, but it was always a delight to see him get so flustered he went for it anyway. Lilia considered pushing further, perhaps mentioning that while he did have a family that did not mean he had a spouse, but that might be too far, and invite Gloomurai too close. It would be better to change the subject.
muscle.red: By the way, I finished listening to the Premo album my acquaintance gave me. I can see why you both wanted to share this with me, I loved it.
gloomurai: ikr?? all the songs were individually good and the theme of cherishing what you have because your thread will inevitably be cut tied them all together really well
gloomurai: that fic i mentioned im writing is actually partly inspired by this album
gloomurai: i finished another chapter of it btw, do you have time to beta it?
Lilia agreed, and Gloomurai sent them the chapter. After he finished marking up the grammar and sent back his thoughts, the conversation turned to an upcoming update in the game, and then to some programming projects Gloomurai was working on. One of them was apparently some sort of game with different types of levels.
gloomurai: yeah theres gonna be a level where you have to light a campfire while fighting off the forest fairies that try to stop you
muscle.red: Can’t you talk things out with the fairies? After all, I’m sure they’re only worried about their forest, surely you could explain how you’re being careful not to let the fire spread.
gloomurai: thatd be nice but how would they even communicate?
gloomurai: no one except the tiny fairies can speak or understand their language
muscle.red: Oh there’s actually a magitool for that. It’s called a translation bell, and it’s mostly used in mixed gatherings of larger and smaller fae, such as the Fairy Gala.
gloomurai: wow u rlly know everything! next ull say uve been to one of those on ur travels
muscle.red: Oh, you’re making me blush! Alas, I am not someone the denizens of Fairyland would want at one of their most important celebrations.
gloomurai: oh yeah they rlly dont like humans huh
muscle.red: Let’s go with that.
gloomurai: anyway i guess i could work that in somehow? like, if u get the special item in a previous level then u can skip the challenge in this one
They continued to talk about this and that until eventually Lilia glanced at the clock and realized he had been sitting at his computer for nearly eight hours. His back was going to murder him when he got up for school (which would be in about four more hours). Reluctantly, he bid Gloomurai good night and toppled into bed, smiling for a reason he couldn’t quite name.