Who: Noah, Sebastian When: Current (actually this was before Halloween, but roughly current) Where: Craigcrook Castle, Edinburgh What: Noah's confused by ideas for modern weddings, and stares at odd cakes with Sebastian. Noah's a lot more relaxed now that things can't be too bad. Mostly, the two of them are snuggling. Rating/Warnings: Nothing bad. Status: Complete
Noah's deliberately wearing something soft and comfortable, and wishing he went more formal when he sees the stack of magazines and clippings. "Sebastian?" He's not uneasy, really, but it is a little strange to see so many grinning guys in kilts of various flavors, and handcrafts strewn on tables. Apparently autumn meant you should take slices of tree branches and stick name cards in them. He's so lucky they won't have that many.
“Hmm?” Sebastian asks, where he’s perched behind a stack of Calum’s binders. “It’s madness isn’t it now?” he peeks out his head now ,and has to laugh. “I think I can safely say that naked cakes are the bloody ugliest trend I can think of, off the bat.”
He’s not dressed any more formally, believe him, his grey warden t-shirt and some vaguely matching bottoms with the logo repeated in a tiny print.
“Hello, love. Any ideas besides the roses? Those are a given.”
That - makes Noah's heart soar. It's strange to feel that. Noah leans into look at the page, and then leans over to kiss his cheek. "I've made those cakes, but that's just called a crumb coat before you do the rest." He moves to sit next to him. "At least I'd . . . I'd like a crown of them, at some point. You said you wanted some floral -" Noah indicates some sweeping gestures.
“Aye, like the one that you and Balthier were trying out.” Sebastian nods, smiling. “And I think something added in the way of that to the rest of the setting too. “Maybe, hmm, the idea of heather is nice, when I think more about it. And the colors would suit nicely mixed with roses. It’d be a nod to here and now.”
"We were thinking just gold or silver toned metal, to match, but it'd be possible to get a bit of enamel work, or stones. I just wanted something quiet, for me." Noah's settling in next to him, and not looking at the picture showing some square cake done up with jet black fondant. "Heather would be lovely. Maybe sneak a small thistle in?"
“Perfect.” Sebastian grins. “And quiet is fair. I mean I’ve got the circlet here that I do for normal things, when it’s required and it’s not too flashy at that. Feels a little strange to get used to actually putting one on when I’m being official. Not that there’s MUCH call for it, but sometimes there are events.”
Noah taps his fingers as he thinks. "Wild roses? I don't know if there'd be any blooming, but - they'd be closer to what I remember. Maybe some leaves? For a bower?"
“Oh that’d be lovely. On the vines if we can?” Sebastian says. “With the roses that is. Maybe the smaller sort among them. Colors?” he muses. “The wild idea puts me in mind of darker pinks or reds.”
"We'll - be wearing what?" Noah's thinking. "At least - which plaid would you like? I was thinking reds, from the leaves, if we do maples or oaks. And white or pink with the roses, but there's surely darker ones. Blue wouldn't look bad against that."
“I was pondering the red and gold as well.” Sebastian nods. “The others would more than likely go with the green. I mean, technically speaking, Calum could do the red because he DID rule, however briefly, but he wouldn’t, I don’t think . I’ve not gotten the impression he thinks fondly of it. Then, I wouldn’t either.”
He smiles. “But we’ll fix that in a way. I’d like to do a handfasting, with cords or a cord, depending on...we could look up what we wanted.”
Noah nods. "I'd like that. I'm not sure how it's done, but I'd like it."
“There’s extra vows sort of a thing, and then your attendant wraps it, depending on what you’re vowing to and what you’ve chosen.” Sebastian looks thoughtful. “The pagan version usually has a TON of cords, but I’ve seen other ones too. And some just use a version of the tartan as a scarf. We could pop the green in there as a family thing. It’d clash and look a bit like this world’s christmas, but…”
"I'm fine with going for . . . blue and green if you don't want to bring up bad memories for Calum. And it sounds good to me. We are looking at - fall? So Christmas colors on a priest isn't surprising, if you didn't think about culture." Noah's tucking his feet up on the couch. "Do we need to pick a cake? I was thinking something that tasted good, with butter used on the frosting, versus something pure white. I think you'd do a keeping cake - one of the dense ones with chopped nuts and fruit at home, but I think that was mostly that you could transport it."
“We probably should have a vague idea in mind for it.” Sebastian says, of the cake. “I think that’d be better than going for too much of a design that’s weird, honestly. I don’t MIND fondant, but it would depend on what decorations might even work. Maybe some of the same flowers?”
Noah looks thoughtful. "Let me -" He's digging out his phone and sliding it over. "It looks like a British tradition is marzipan on a dense cake with royal icing. There's - a Polish one with plum jam and chocolate icing or marzipan on the cake." He looks thoughtful. "Flowers do sound nice. We can see what looks good? Rose petals are edible, if we want a simple decoration."
Noah looks at the books and takes a breath. "Maybe -" He taps one with some simple buttercream flowers. "If we went for a more normal cake, something like that would be pretty."
“So like those polish gingerbreads with jam and chocolate they have in at the aldi?” Sebastian remembers those. The ones he managed to pick up last year were kind of stale at the time, but honestly, winter’s usually weird for shopping around that time of year anyway, so…
“That could be lovely. You dip the petals in a paste with something, don’t you?”
"I've seen how to pipe them with a piping bag, but it's tedious work. Usually I end up doing pansies." Noah grins. "And yeah - like the gingerbreads. Weren't they a little stale, the ones when we got here? I picked up a few."
“Yeah they WERE,” Sebastian makes a face. “They WERE on sale and I mean, that probably has to do with that. I DID pick them up in, what was that, The end of the year I think.” he eyedarts. “This year, I need to food shop early. It’ll likely be mostly just the lot of us again, Aedan’ll probably need to get out, and I suspect Ellie’ll want to come around.”
"I'd . . . like to make pasta again, and curl up with a warm blanket and you. That was pleasant, the night we did that. I suppose a night when we don't have the kids around." Noah's snuggling in against Sebastian and accomplishing nothing. "Is there more things to look at?"
He can sort of picture - he should take notes. It looks a little silly, writing down blue / green, and then the wild roses. Heather and the autumn leaves. The two cake options.
“That’d be nice.” Sebastian nods. “And probably sooner enough than not. We’ll wait until my brothers are occupied, surely.” He grins. “But that’s easily enough done. “ As he says that, his elbow knocks over Calum’s binder and he jumps a little. “In physical presence, at least.”
Noah gingerly picks it up and sets it carefully back. "We've got - clothes for us. What about Ellie? Would she like to pick something out? And Aedan?"
“Aedan should be set I’d imagine. Ellie may like to choose something special for the occasion.” Sebastian figures she’s more likely than Aedan, who seems fairly content with the formal kilt he has for things like this. “It’s worth checking for Aedan while there’s time to do something else if he wants.”
"Iomhar and Calum might want to choose something." Noah's thinking. "Vows - can I take something you like? If you ask me to write something, you'll be finding rough drafts for ages, I fear."
“I’ll see what we might be able to come up with.” Sebastian nods. “I’m not too good at the creating your own aspect myself. I may be there for days, waffling about nothing in particular and never reaching a point otherwise. Cal should have the words we’d use written here somewhere for you to get a better look at, or I could copy them. I wasn’t able to marry people, only the Mothers could do that, unless there were none to be found to hear those vows, but I assisted in enough of them.”
Noah touches his hand. "I hope I make you a stronger and happier man, just like you've done for me, and that we are together as long as you'll have me? I don't know what a good set of vows are."
“And you do.” Sebastian says, quite seriously. “All of the time, you do. I can’t imagine there being a time I won’t want to have you, now. Just as a warning. You don’t get out of this easily.”
They COULD do something like that, right? Sort of a dire binding forever, no matter what. It has a certain dramatic ring to it. Not really the right TONE, admittedly, but it’s sort of funny to think about.
"I'm stubborn to a fault, Sebastian. I won't try to run off on you." Noah's facing the dread folder and looking at suggestions for place name markers for tables. "We'll - not have that many, right? This is overkill?"
Though thinking about it. Noah looks over, seriously. "You still think I might get - I don't know - you are part of my life now. I have lunch with you, and check on Aedan, and see if Ellie's around, and then check on Calum. Just like I do the yoga thing with Basch in the morning. It's a good life. I want to stay in it."
“I’m told I am stubborn too.” Sebastian laughs a bit. And then he looks at the suggestions and he blinks. “I think at some point Cal lost his sense of reason and just started compiling options on the offchance someone, someday, could use these.”
And when it comes to that question, hmm. It’s a little more difficult to let HIMSELF believe that fate isn’t going to play a role. “I believe YOU.” Sebastian says. “I hope the world is kind enough to allow us to keep it too.”
Noah laughs quietly. "Can you imagine? Me, with a huge bird, riding up to - Starkhaven?" He knows it doesn't work like that. "Should we pick a room? For the ceremony? Or the trees, I suppose if the weather is fair."
“I like the thought.” Sebastian grins. “We’ll have to arrange for that, won’t we? And hmm, I’d think outdoors would be best, but otherwise, hmm. Any preferences? Probably somewhere with room. The hall’s an option.”
"If it's just us, we could decorate the hall, and if the weather is poor, we can work inside?" Noah frowns. "It seems practical enough, if it's heavy rain. If it's light, and we're under a tree, that's probably fine. I think we're . . . mostly we seem like we know what we want? How would lunch sound, and we can flip through more of the ideas if you'd like? Or ask Ellie if she's got opinions?"
“That seems nice enough, certainly.” Sebastian nods and smiles. “We do seem to have a lot of ideas of our own. And we COULD. I’m told there are hilarious options in here too.” Calum has a LOT of time on his hands, it seems.
“But good idea, running it by her too.”
"She might want something. I get the feeling Aedan doesn't mind what's going on as long as he feels cool and safe." Noah grimaces. "That's not fair, but - you know what I mean. He wouldn't care about the color of the roses, I think."
“The only time and place he’s ever seemed worried about decoration schemes and what he was wearing was the last show he rode in.” Sebastian laughs a little. “But no, I do know, entirely. It wouldn’t have interested me at any point in my life besides for us, either. I think for most people the minutiae is a wee bit…” He flips another page and stares.
“Who in their right mind serves a snack cakes tower at their wedding? Couldn’t they at least get or make cupcakes that aren’t prepackaged?” He looks horrified.
"Maybe they hoped the company would pay for it? Or they - ugh." Noah's staring at the picture. "Wow. That looks - sticky."
“Aye…” Sebastian shudders. “Can you imagine if there were small children about. I mean, I appreciate the idea of single servings, different flavors if you’ve got a big crowd to deal with, BUT it does seem a bit..” He shakes his head. “And I can’t say I like twinkiees all that MUCH. They seemed a little…” He shrugs. “Eh. Not particularly tasting of ANYTHING in the sponge. I’d imagine a standardized version that someone made might be nice.”
Noah flips a page and stares at - well - they're bakery made cupcakes, but they look tedious. "These look a little more appealing, but I feel sorry for the baker."
“Oh, AYE.” Sebastian stares at them a moment. “That would take...well, I imagine HOURS from what I’ve seen of your work.”
Noah frowns. "Well, if you did that for the wedding season, I'm sure you'd get faster, but - at least an hour to do the entire group."
“Not to mention if you had a centerpiece like they do..” And Sebastian flips another page. “Hmm, I SORT of see what they were going with here.” He points out a cake done up like tree stumps. “It doesn’t scream wedding so much as lumberjack party, but it’s nice. I suppose if you were marrying a ranger.”
"Splinter puns. Wood you like to be wooed." Noah leans to kiss his cheek, because it's there. "The cake looks good. It doesn't look as dry as the other one. I think I like the ones that aren't pure white."
“Arrows through the heart too, I suppose.” Sebastian snickers…”Ah yeah, look at this view.” There’s a neatly done target on the cake, done in what appears to be edible clay. “I didn’t know that edible clay was its own thing. It hardly sounds appetizing.”
"Archery puns, the cake." Noah eyes a cake covered with fancy looking lilies and roses. "These all seem really fancy to me."
They really do. Sebastian nods, starring at them. “Yeah these are all for bigger stuff. Cal’s got a note here that it probably doesn’t go with our stuff but down the line Aed or Ellie might be interested. Which..” he takes a moment to really think about that. “That’s a WEIRD idea. I feel like I just adjusted to the fact they exist.”
"It's got to be odd for them. Since - had you met them, before they got here? I think Aedan said he'd met you, and Ellie said she'd met you." Noah leans back a bit. "They implied you were a little different from the Sebastian they knew."
“I’d not, no. Ellie’s actually much younger than Aedan, so that was WEIRD for her.” Sebastian explains, “And Aed, no. He said it was a few months later, by my timeline when he cropped up in the city, properly. So that DID take a bit for everyone along the way.”
"Balthier said he's slightly out of alignment with his siblings. His sister is from after his brother visited him in prison, and his brother is shortly before. I think that's partly why they're so protective." Noah thinks for a little. "He's . . . worried with Courfeyrac seeing someone. I think Balthier's more - her family worries him, since they're some of the Les Amis crowd. And it sounds like the kid had a rough time here. Do you think you'd feel comfortable chatting with Balthier a bit about that?"
“I could do that.” Sebastian nods. “I do know what that’s like and…” he winces a bit. “Eponine, right? That family? They’re the ones who, well. That was how the incident occured. So I have a bit more experience than you might THINK there. And that makes sense with the siblings. Part of Aedan’s whole THING with Ellie..that’s more of a she honestly didn’t exist when he came from. And when it was implied that she was going to be the heir..I mean it’s seventy percent the mage thing, to be fair. But still.” He frowns at the last part. “Poor kid though. Their family seems to have a LOT of things going on. And a lot of children. I mean, that’s good for them, they’re obviously good parents, but I do wonder if any of them ARE actually happy for very long. Drama has a way of sticking around that lot.”
"Bad luck, I'm guessing, and bad circumstances from home. It doesn't help." Noah sighs. "Balthier said he suspected they were kin of the girl with Aedan. And we're two steps removed, but he didn't want people encouraging a traumatized kid to threaten any of us or something ridiculous like that. He's from Archades, and the politics there got nasty, often, in his level of things, and he wasn't even noble."
Noah leans to turn the page and blinks at some simple stencils on paper table runners. It's pretty, but he can feel his mind balking at doing the work. Ellie might like the idea. "Your brother did a lot of work with all of this."
“Balthier’s good with that sort of a situation. Has a real head for it.” Sebastian smiles. “He’d have done well in Orlais or Antiva. Probably would have hated it, but they’re the sort of political minefield that requires SKILL.”
And, yeah, he does get that with the threatening thing. “Sounds like a smart move on his behalf, to be concerned.” Sebastian winces a bit. “Poor girl, but I do see where the worry might come through. I mean, pushed enough, it’s the least likely people who eventually snap.”
He studies that and smiles. “Those ARE very nice. And he DID. I feel like he overplans for every eventuality, on the offchance that sometime it’ll come in useful. Or he’s distracting himself.”
"I'd pity Orlais and Antiva. I was not in charge of Balthier, but I heard enough stories about them working through the military and the social circles." Noah tucks an arm around Sebastian. "He had a good ear for mimics, which would come hunting electricity and people being drunk and foolish at parties. So there was more than one party where he ended up disrupting things, for good reasons and ruining his clothes."
The number of times he heard stories of various noblemen angry that it was all Balthier's fault that he didn't want the lights to go out or anyone to die. Not to mention that often enough he'd partner up with his dance partners or his siblings. Which meant that Balthier's habit of taking less famous people as his dance partner also meant they had a chance of getting commendations.
“Sounds like Hawke.” Sebastian grins. “At least, Erec, the one I knew. I suspect Marion, the Hawke here is like that, but I couldn’t confirm it. But it does sound like the sort of thing that happened to us at parties, often enough.
“I mean, we did all manage to get into a lot of chaos simply by hanging around people with the surname Hawke so…” he grins a little. “I understand THAT.”
"And all the Bunansa kids were - prone to word play. Which was also good when you're having a conversation entirely in puns and Shakespeare references, and not so good if you've ticked them off." Noah's smiling back at Sebastian. "I like that you like them. They're good kids."
“Haa,” Sebastian grins at that. “Sounds a bit like what I’d expect of them. And they seem like it. I like them. They’re sharp without being complete arses about it. It’s rare to see that sort of a thing, you know?”
"I thought someone like you was rare." Noah touches his hand. "I keep feeling like I need to make sure you know how lucky I feel."
“It’s good to have found YOU.” Sebastian says. “I feel it too. In this world, people often do not say things as easily as that. I don’t like that.”
Noah grins. "One benefit of the Archadian system. You're encouraged to tell someone things you like." He squeezes Sebastian's hand. "Lunch?"
“Good idea.” Sebastian squeezes back. “Let’s leave these aside for now, then?”
Noah digs out his phone. "Want me to message the others? Or are you feeling like you want some time to lean first?"
“We can do that.” Sebastian nods. “I wouldn’t expect Aed. He and Hans were doing...something. Dressage, I think. But the others, sure, inviting them is good.”
Noah adds Aedan to the invitation, at the very least to also remind him that he should have lunch and a drink of water at some point. He stretches his back as he gets up and offers Sebastian a hand up. "What'd you like to make, love?"
Sebastian takes the hand and stretches. “Mm let’s see. We had some of the casserole left, didn’t we?”
"I think so." Noah looks thoughtful. "Could we crisp it in a pan a bit? Or in the tiny oven?" Calling it a toaster oven is so odd for him. It does not hold toast between two elements. Why is it a toaster? It's a box?
“I think so.” Sebastian nods. “Maybe throw on some of the cheese to make it a little more interesting?” He thinks that could be nice, anyway.
"Sounds good to me. Admittedly, adding cheese or gravy seems to help a lot of leftovers." Noah leans as they walk. "There's plums on sale at the store. Would you like a plum tart? I could pick some up."
“That’d be lovely, actually.” Sebastian says, smiling. “You do a very good job with those, always.”