Curtis and Cheyenne have known each other for eight years now, which Mateo
is finding surreal, because he’s awake even less than they are. Though, he
shouldn’t think it’s that weird, since skipping time has been his life for
awhile now. The two lovebirds met tens of thousands of years ago, but since
they have so much time on their hands, they have spent some of it keeping
track of actual time. In fact, that eight year figure doesn’t even account
for the time that one of them was out of stasis without the other. A normal
couple would count all the time they were geographically apart from each
other, so all told, it’s longer than that. There aren’t a whole lot of
options for partnerships here. Between relatives and external relationships,
neither Curtis nor Cheyenne has a large pool to choose from. So they worked
really hard to test their relationship with each other to make sure that it
was real, and not just a last man on Earth type of situation. After all
that, they have decided that they really do care for each other, and
exclusively so, even if there were billions of others around. They want to
get married, but the problem is that no one here is qualified to officiate
the ceremony, or sign the papers.
“We don’t need a big ceremony, though,” Cheyenne says. “Are you sure that no
one vested that power in you?”
“Certain,” Danica replies. “It’s the responsibility of someone else in our
world.”
“Well...could you contact that person?” Curtis requests.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how,” Danica apologizes.
“I know how.” Bhulan steps forward.
“You do?” Danica question.
“Not her; me,” Bhulan says, confusingly. “This is Aquila.” Oh, right.
“Oh.” Danica nods. “You know how to contact The Officiant?”
“Yeah, I know a lot of things,” Aquila replies.
“I’m not sure that she can come to this reality,” Danica says, worried.
“She can go anywhere,” Aquila claims. At least that is the assumption.
Perhaps they should come up with some way of knowing which one is talking.
One of them could always be wearing sunglasses, or be holding the talking
stick. “Trust me.”
“Okay. We have nothing else to do for the next 4,000 years, so let’s plan a
wedding. And by let’s, I mean anyone else, because that is not my strong
suit. Really, you don’t want me involved. I can set up chairs, or fold
announcements, but...”
“We don’t need much,” Cheyenne says. “We can’t invite anyone else, and don’t
really want to.”
Curtis is confused. “Wait, we talked about this,” he says to her in a hushed
tone.
“Yeah, and I don’t think they’re gonna be able to swing it,” she replies in
a more hushed tone.
They continue to argue softer and softer until no one else can here.
“Aquila, do you know if the Officiant would be able to transport people
here, like her family?” Curtis asks.
“I doubt it, but you can ask. You can’t have the wedding today, she’ll want
to meet you first, and then give you time.”
“Great. Call her.”
“I have to do it alone,” Aquila explains. “That includes you,” she says to
her own shoulder, likely as a way of communicating with her brainmate,
Bhulan. “I’ll go dormant, like we practiced,” she then says, suggesting that
this is Bhulan speaking now. Yeah, a good talking stick would really help.
“Just remember to wake me up.”
Aquila goes off to do whatever she needs to do to make contact with the
Officiant. By the time she walks back into the room, the woman herself has
arrived. A bookcase in the master sitting room disappears, and is replaced
with the door to the Officiant’s office. She steps out. “Who are the lucky
two?”
Curtis and Cheyenne step forward.
“Come with me so we can talk. This could be the first of many, or the last.”
As they’re stepping up to the door, she looks at the rest of the group. “I
need someone to join us as witness.”
Bhulan raises her hand.
“Only one witness, please,” the Officiant clarifies. “How about you, sir?”
“Me?” Mateo questions, looking behind him to see if she means it.
“Yes, you’ve gone through this before, you know what to expect. It could
help.”
“We didn’t have a witness at mine and Leona’s meeting.”
The Officiant scowls. “I made a lot of concessions for that marriage. How is
it going, by the way?”
“It’s been better,” Mateo replies. “I miss her.”
“Well, come on, then. Your friends need you.”
He wouldn’t feel comfortable calling either of them friends. Curtis is from
a timeline that Mateo doesn’t remember, and he’s only ever met
Future!Cheyenne. But still, if they need someone to be there, he can’t say
no.
Once they’re all seated, she begins. “Why don’t I let you start and drive
the conversation? What are your biggest concerns regarding this event?”
“Well,” Cheyenne says, looking over to make sure that Curtis doesn’t want to
say something first. “Neither of us wants a big wedding, but I was hoping my
family could be there. He thought it would be okay to ask if you could
retrieve them for us.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the Officiant replies. “Guest lists are beyond
my purview. We in the business call it scope creep, and it’s caused some
issues in past ceremonies. I can, however, perform the ceremony whenever,
and wherever, you like. We can wait until you return to your family. Is that
a possibility?”
“Not for a long time,” Curtis responds. “But we’re anxious to get to it.”
“Even if we did go back,” Cheyenne says, “people would hear about it, and
ask a lot of questions. Who’s this guy? Where did he come from? Why wasn’t I
invited? We don’t just want to keep it small, we don’t want excluded people
to know about it.”
That’s an interesting take that Mateo and Leona might have tried in another
life. There were some people at their wedding that they would not have
chosen to invite. They didn’t get the chance to discuss before it was forced
upon them. They probably would have split the difference, where all their
loved ones could attend, but not the entire multiverse. Maybe they should
consider a do-over. It’s certainly possible.
“Snap out of it,” the Officiant instructs with a literal snap of her
fingers. “Today is about them. We can discuss your own situation at a later
date.”
“Sorry, yes, of course,” Mateo says. He doesn’t remember her being psychic.
The Officiant nods. “Now. What else would you like to discuss?”
“The most important aspect of any wedding ceremony...flower arrangements,”
Curtis jokes.
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