faderift | ( OPEN ) | something borrowed, something blue

WHO: Byerly, Sidony and guests (everyone is invited)
WHAT: The best sham of a wedding Thedas has ever seen
WHEN: Now
WHERE: the Toad and Flagon
NOTES: The Best Wedding Ever ft. a kidnapping

You are hereby invited to the wedding of Byerly Rutyer and Sidony Celogera Allegra Venaras.
The venue is not quiet nor is it beautiful; the gambling hall is loud and intense, with all kinds of smells and dirtiness to carry along with the strangeness of their wedding. There’s some attempt at draping, some attempt at making it look as though some kind of party is taking place here, but it certainly doesn’t look like there’s going to be a wedding at all. It’s hastily done, hastily put together, but at least it’s something, which is better than nothing.

There’s about an hour until the wedding is due to start and both the bride and groom are getting ready - whatever that means to the two of them.

Food is not provided. There are no drinks bought. There's a table for gifts to one side, with a little plaque with their names on. Prostitutes and gamblers wander between the aisles and chairs, laughing and making jokes with one another, completely avoiding setting the scene of a proper wedding.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I saw your maid pacing out there, looking torn between sulking and relief," he says as he comes in. Sidony looks almost equally torn, plopped down in her chair. The door gets closed behind Anders before he comes over and meets her gaze in the mirror.

"I've no idea why you sent her out, but I do know my way around getting ready for events, if you'd like a hand." Everyone wants to look amazing on their wedding day, noble and mage and peasant alike, even if the marriage is just a shield. "Or I can sit here and chatter if you'd just like company. Lack of attraction notwithstanding, it's still a wedding and that still carries nerves, I'd think."

Her hair is a little bit of a mess. Anders pulls it back behind her shoulders, at least, making her look less defeated.

"The less she is involved the better. I'd hate for my mother to get the poor girl into any more trouble than she already is." Which is frustrating, because Sidony desperately needs someone to help her with the final pieces of her clothes and the last touchups to her hair - there's only so much she can do with her own two hands, which is more irritating than she'd like to admit.

At least she relaxes when Anders comes in and towards her, turning close to offer him a small smile, lifting her hand to touch his. She's more than glad to see him, especially since it immediately calms her down and settles some of her more aggravated nerves.

"Please," she nods, sitting up a little, ignoring the slump of her shoulders. "Anything you can do with my hair would be wonderful, dear, truly."

"A good reason for her to look stuck, then." And also to send the maid out, which is another reason Sidony is the sort of nobility that doesn't bother him. Her hand gets a quick squeeze before he's reaching past her for a brush.

"Up? Down? I've enough skill to manage either and make it presentable. And if we've someone to send for flowers I could tuck them in too. After all, it's your big day until you remove him because you've found someone you love." Anders grins in the mirror, making it tease instead of something with meaning behind it. His wedding was never going to be legal no matter who he married - there was a tiny bit of freedom in being less than a person there. Hers, unless she went for being disowned, was a little more complicated. And as someone who was without family until Nate, he can sympathize a little with clinging to one.

He starts to brush her hair out carefully.

It's not necessarily that Sidony is taking good care of her handmaiden - she's just well versed in her mother using people against her. Servants, maids, her brother, her future; they're all tools her parents had used to control her and demand that she follow their rules. Fleeing had been her only option and she had embraced it because she'd had no other choice, no other option other than getting out of Nevarra as quickly as she could.

Breathing out, she turns her head to glance at Anders for a moment before she softens. He has, already, made her feel quite a lot better.

"Up. I wear it down so often that having it up would suit the occasion." She missed the feeling of someone else brushing her hair out for her. Octavian used to... "I think we can abandon the flowers for now, but I do have some hair combs that might look fetching. Byerly and I might not be a true love match but I do want my betrothed to think me the most handsome woman in the room."

"That, my dear, will take no effort at all." He says it with every confidence, meeting her gaze. She's gorgeous. He'd say a blind person could even see it but considering the one blind person he knew wound up sighted again, it feels a little weak of a statement.

"Are those the combs?" He nods at them with his chin as his hands are a little busy, finishing getting any tangles out and starting to braid it loosely so it can be pinned in. His own hair has gotten longer since he's been with the Inquisition, enough that he's got a fair amount of practice when it comes to braiding and getting it up out of the way... and he's vain enough that he cares how good it looks, too. Justice had driven that out of him for years, but Nate's brought it back. Nate's brought back a lot, far more than he'd expected.

"I sincerely hope he has no qualms about his lady-wife working in the Infirmary? I don't want to lose you there, and if I was a guess you've no desire to quit either."

"Thank you for your honesty," Sidony teases, smiling gently. Her eyes flick to meet his and she softens around the edges, a touch gentler around someone she cares for and loves compared to how she might be around a stranger or a handmaiden. There's something tight about her, something tense, but it settles as she leans back into his touch, nodding her head.

"My mother's. She would lose her sanity if she knew I was intending to use them for this scandal, so all the more reason to put them to use, hm?" There are butterflies and flowers settled around silvers and golds, all jewelled and pretty. They're one of the few things she had brought with her for vanity's sake, alongside some of her dresses and nice shoes. She hasn't worn them enough to make it feel worth it, so at least she has her wedding.

Anders' comment, however, makes her laugh.

"Darling, I think he would be offended if I stopped. This is a wedding to allow me to keep my dreams, not lose them."

( OPEN ) | something borrowed, something blue

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