Phase Twenty-One: Your Standard Fairy Tale Happy Ending

[emorangerpink]

[The world has been saved, hopefully for the last time in a long time. The celebrations - and the mourning - have started, and in a lot of places are still continuing. But the victory isn't the only thing to celebrate - and with a lot of help, and a lot of favours, Laura and Lily have extended an invitation to the Chalice crew, past and present, to join them. If you were nearby, chances are the invitation was hand-delivered by a dutiful Servbot.]

1. The setup
[With the looming deadline of the closing portals, things move quickly! Invitations are sent, travel is arranged, a venue is prepared. What had been the White Chalice's Arboretum - now an open-air grove in what's set to become a lush forest - is the site of the ceremony itself, while the celebrations afterwards will take place in Gucun. There's a lot to be done to make ready. Are you helping, or seeking out one of the brides beforehand?]

2. The ceremony
[It's only fitting that Captain Smith should officiate. He's waiting at an arch set up by the flowerbeds of the Arboretum, where the happy couple met, where Laura's tended her memorial to her friends from before the Chalice and to those who've passed on since. Between the Kwan daughters, Epimetheus, and a brace of Servbots you shouldn't have any trouble finding your seat, even if Xue Yi is a little preoccupied ensuring Prometheus behaves. There's some time before the wedding party arrive, to talk amongst yourselves - or with some of the other guests present, who include Laura's overwhelmed-looking parents!]

3. The reception
[Of course, the real point of a wedding is the party afterwards! There's food, drink, and music - Miki pulled some strings, and Pit's showing how Skyworld does catering. After the recent battle, perhaps this is a chance to see some long-absent faces in more peaceful circumstances, or to say goodbye. Or are you just here for the embarrassing speeches?]

[This is a joint mingle post, open to dropped and retired characters as well! For all prompts, please specify whether it's Laura/Lily you want to talk reply, or others!]

Comments

[a_human_work]

That still seems worrying. Plants don't really explode here, why would they anyway?

And for something completely different, it sure seems Earth-like.

[emorangerpink]

Well, we have things like pitcher plants and bombardier beetles. Life on Earth does pretty strange things... I gave up trying to figure out how things got the way they are on Cosmic Ark pretty quickly, though. Now that there'll be proper traffic between us, maybe the kinds of people who can ask the right questions will start on the problem.

I'm still not sure whether Cosmic Ark or Irgel are stranger for how similar they are to Earth. At least it gives us some baby steps to take before we run in to the really different stuff that must be out there.

[a_human_work]

True. It does make it easier to deal with. Even if it ruins all the image we got from tv as kids. And probably raise some questions for scientists.

Still hard to really imagine...Maybe I'll end up going there once everything's properly demobilized.

[emorangerpink]

You should! And of course, there are plenty of visitors to talk to here. They tend to think humans are weird and interesting too, you know.

[a_human_work]

I should probably try going to talk to them when I have a bit of time, then.

And if I can depends on what I'll do once we're done demobilizing. It depends on work and such. And my parents. They'll probably want to actually get to spend some time with their daughter again.

[mecha_eihwaz]

I was happy to be able to spend some time with my own parents, when we returned to Cosmic Ark for a while not so long ago. Even if the other circumstances were less than ideal...

I know! Why won't you take them on a vacation to Cosmic Ark?

[a_human_work]

That might be a bit much for them. They're just ordinary working class. Only vacations they have shown any interest in is just going a bit down the coast to the beach...But it will definitely be an experience for all of us.

And I imagine it must be nice to meet your family after being on a strange, foreign world for that long.

[mecha_eihwaz]

A strange, foreign and beautiful world. Despite all the suffering that happened on Earth not so long ago, it is still an amazing planet...

[a_human_work]

Yeah, I'm quite fond of it. Where would we put all our stuff if it was gone? Even if it's seen better day.

It is quite amazing too. Especially with how quickly all sorts of new and different things sprung up after the Second Impact.

[emorangerpink]

And maybe now, some of those things will have a chance to grow, too.

[a_human_work]

Yes. Now that the threat of alien invasion is gone...Hopefully at least, we can start building new stuff that'll hopefully be better than what we have. And with contact with other worlds interesting things should happen.

[mecha_eihwaz]

The leaders of Cosmic Ark are very interested in friendly mutual relations with Earth. Draken is impressed by humans' strength and wants to form an alliance, Icy wants to trade technologies and knowledge, and Lios... He's just happy to make new friends, I think.

[a_human_work]

That makes sense. All those various robots that showed up during the recent wars have got to have technology you don't have. And it seems like biology isn't terribly advanced on Cosmic Ark.

And, yeah, humanity really got to show our strength recently.