vdistinctive | At the docks, then out to sea, Sunday

The colors from the previous days were still holding, if maybe slightly more muted, Fandom's magic slowly fading but still managing to hang on for another day.

Seemed like a good omen as any for a wedding that Eliot still couldn't quite believe was happening.

Eliot's boat wasn't big enough for all their guests so they had "rented" (long story) a well-appointed yacht for the day. It was docked in the Port of Fandom, waiting for all the guests to board. Once the last person had crossed the gangplank, it sailed almost to the edge of the island, where blue water lapped with gray. Eliot's boat was already there, anchor down, Hardison in a tux, playing around with a sound system.

A few minutes to futz with mics and the speakers set up discreetly around the yacht came to life. "Testin'...Testin'..." Hardison murmured. Good. Everybody would be able to hear the ceremony on the second ship.

Looks like it was time to begin.

[TIME FOR A WEDDING! If you think you were invited, you were. Some OCD coming]

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Cassie wasn't too much older than her, was she? She was pretty sure they were on opposite sides of the "legal drinking age" divide, but she wasn't sure by how much. Either way, she figured she ought to keep this to light flirting and just being friendly.

"Hey," she greeted with a wave. "Bride or groom? Or groom?"

"Oh!!!!!!" Nina was, honestly, a little surprised to be greeted, but the smile she shot back at the other girl was dazzling nonetheless.

"Groom???????" Nina said, then had to laugh. "Should I, like, have you guess which one, though???????????"

And, at fifteen, that legal drinking age was looking rather far away for Nina...

Edited 2019-06-30 20:21 (UTC)

"Sounds like fun," Cassie said with a little laugh. "But that means I'm going to make you guess which one for me, too."

. . . It probably wouldn't be hard. Cassie and Eliot had basically the same accent: born and raised in Oklahoma, but having cut their respective teeth further out in the world.

And Nina might know know much about Oklahoma as a place, but she was good at the whole matching up accents game and Eliot had spoken during the ceremony.

"That's easy," she said, pleased at the chance to show off innocuously. "You're with Eliot, right???????"

“You’re good,” Cassie said. “He’s my uncle.” The cool uncle, who didn’t wish she was more like her twin sister. “I’m gonna say you’re here for Hardison. You’re one of the students, right?”

And Eliot hadn’t told her about teaching any classes in awhile.

"That's right," Nina said cheerfully. It didn't actually matter to Nina that she wasn't here because of Hardison having taught her in school.

He was a teacher and she was a student, so it wasn't even lying.

"You're good yourself!!!!!!!! What's your name?????? I'm, like, Nina!!!!!!!"

She was, like, adorable. Cassie had never thought she’d go for an airhead, but Nina just had such a pleasant air about her.

And also seeing her talking to a cute little blonde girl was going to drive her sister NUTS.

“Cassie,” she said, offering her hand (palm up, in case she could get away with something delightfully tacky, like a hand-kiss). “It’s nice meeting you. Uncle El sure lives in a place with fabulous people.”

In Nina's world, hand-kisses weren't tacky at all! They were polite and dashing and Nina was... all for that, really, so absolutely, Cassie was getting her hand.

"It seems like he's related to some fabulous people too," she said happily, delighted to have someone not too much older than herself to talk to. "Are you here for, like, just the wedding?????????"

Then Nina's hand was absolutely getting kissed. Somewhere behind Nina, Ellie rolled her eyes.

"Afraid so," Cassie said, once she'd lifted her head again. "I'd love to stick around longer, but we've got a big order to take care of before festival season really kicks off." She shrugged, absolutely bragging but trying to look casual as she said. "I"m a blacksmith."

"A blacksmith????? Really???????? But you're so young!!!!!!!!!!"

Being a woman, now, that wasn't a deterrent, but Nina had never met a blacksmith so close to her age--not a full-fledged one, at least.

"But that's amazing!!!!!!!!!!" she enthused, taking her hand back and feeling a little flustered that a girl had kissed her hand and yet, at the same time, charmed?

". . . Apprentice," Cassie admitted. "But I'm really good. My boss says I could totally have my own shop some day." She smiled fondly. "It's pretty awesome, though. We make medieval style weapons. I'm totally working on my own axe."

"That's still, like, super neat," Nina said earnestly, wanting to reassure Cassie that she didn't think less of her for not being a master at the craft yet. "Do you, like, know how to use axes then??????????? Is that why you're making one of your own?????????????"

"I have some practice," Cassie said, flexing her bare arms, making the tattoos on her biceps flex. "I'm not, like, a big fighter or anything, though. I just think they're neat."

"They are pretty neat," Nina admitted, "though if I'm hitting people, I tend to hit them with my bookbelt and, when it comes to watching other people practice fighting... it's usually sword fighting that I tend to watch??????????"

Nina, for the record, did not look anything at all like a fighter. Let alone one that was actually good at it.

"Sword fighting is also very awesome," Cassie said. ". . . Not familiar with a 'bookbelt', though."

Nina laughed.

"I don't have it on me," she admitted, since... wedding. And if something attacked, Nina still had magic to fall back on. "But, like, it's pretty old-fashioned too. It's just a belt meant for being wrapped around books so you can carry them like that???????? Like, a really, really old fashioned backpack??????????"

"Like in the old children's books," Cassie nodded, then screwed up her mouth a little, amused. "So basically a biblioflail. That's kind of bad ass."

"People, like, don't really expect books to come at them either," Nina admitted, looking a bit pleased with herself. "And, like, if I'm bored, it means I've always got something to read with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

“I like your style, Nina.”

At the docks, then out to sea, Sunday

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