Flauraan, One Week Before the Wedding

I have to continually remind myself what a big event this wedding is turning into. I don’t think I am properly emotionally prepared for the sheer extravaganza that is about to take place on the hill next to my house that has always felt so private, so personal, a place of significance in my life and Sophie’s. It was the obvious choice for the wedding, but the idea of not only my family and friends but of strangers and aliens gathering with us there, of the logistics of food and entertainment and socialising that Jayken is thankfully taking the brunt of organizing; it’s all exhausting just to think about. And this is without even considering the wider implications of this event. I probably should be more concerned about it as a potential intergalactic incident, more aliens gathering in this system than even during the Weraynian war, with both Sophie and I being significant persons both in our system and to the Alliance. Robyn has tried to discuss the possibility of paparazzi, of journalists trying to get a story out of the festivities, and try to engage me in the concept of countermeasures such as bodyguards. Honestly, it’s all too much for me to consider, as the event looms ever closer. It is the personal implications of the wedding that are beginning to take root in me.

There has been a staggering of arrivals in preparation for the big week. Jayken has blocked out the whole month to stay here on Flauraan, and Alexa came along with him to help with the preparations. I feel like they should be staying in my house, given how many times they have hosted me, but they were offered lodging in the Council building, an honour the Council leaders clearly felt compelled to offer a rare visiting Weraynian and Aandriggian - the Weraynian in particular that our disgraced former leader Ray experimented on and tortured during the war. Seemingly oblivious to their guilt, Lexie and Jayken accepted and have been talking about how much they are being tended to and offered assistance by the leaders and other people in town. I’m glad to hear of it.

Robyn, Beth, Steve, Mickey, Zara and the girls arrived not long after. Again, I would be very happy for them to stay with us, but Steve apparently made modifications to the Assistance Impressing to make the trip special for the girls, and they have loved sleeping in there so much that they’ve begged Mickey to let them stay there for the entirety of their time here. Beth and Steve are staying there too, to help Mickey with the girls at night. Robyn, however, has elected to stay in town. In spite of her obvious affection for Mickey’s children, I think she’s concerned about bunking in the ship for too long; she privately told me that the trip over with them was quite chaotic. I’d invite her to stay in our house but there’s a professionalism and dignity to Robyn that makes me feel like it would be a bit awkward and she wouldn’t enjoy it. When we’ve all met up in town over the past couple of weeks she has raved about the cleanliness of her room and politeness of everyone in the tiny inn that my town has to offer.

With barely a week left until the wedding, I am in spite of all these arrivals beginning to feel a little distanced from it all. Although it is pointless to compare any of this to my brother’s wedding almost ten years ago, I find myself thinking of our family and Mari’s extended family being hosted in her mother’s house for the few days we were over there. It was a little intense and I was not in a mindset to appreciate it at the time but I’ve developed a nostalgia for it. I thought my family might be able to extend the same sort of hospitality to mine and Sophie’s dear friends, our chosen family. I’d quickly learnt that there wasn’t really much hope for any biological family; my brother, who I guess I never expected to want to exist in the midst of this, is staying with his wife and children in a hotel in the nearest city and commuting in for each event in the wedding. My dad’s parents are staying with them also. My mum’s remaining parent, my grandmother, has passed away in the intervening years since the previous wedding. I’d really hoped she’d get to see me marry Sophie. She’d met her a few times before she died, and pinched her cheek, then later told me with tears in her eyes about how the way I looked at Sophie reminded me of the way she felt about her late wife, my other grandmother. I can’t think about it too hard without wanting to break down crying.

Sophie’s side of the family is obviously a little sparse. Rachel has been in close contact with Sophie and helped a lot with wedding preparations, but is traveling over fairly close to the event as she’s bringing her housemate and friend Adrian, who hasn’t been to space before and is a little worried about the prospect of it all. I honestly can’t blame him. I knew Kris and his coworkers, his partners, would be traveling over at the beginning of this week, in the ship that they both lived and worked in, transporting goods around the galaxy, and was under the impression that they were planning to stay in the ship - it being their home and all - and that my parents house would continue to host just us and Sophie, and maybe Zara if she can convince the girls to let her leave the exciting sleepover in Steve’s ship and stay in her own room in the house.

Kris surprises me - and Sophie - by asking if they can stay in our house. I know Sophie has always been a little bit convinced that she and Kris aren’t as close as they could be, and she is touched that he wants to stay under the same roof after all the years they’ve spent apart. Though they are on good terms now, she’s internalised his angry reaction to their reunion back in the day, when he thought that she’d abandoned him and Rachel without a thought after their mother’s death. Even with all the progress she’s made in therapy, that self loathing she carries with her is hard to shake. It’s a little amusing to me because it’s incredibly obvious how alike she and Kris are. They both have an easy affability to them, an ability to focus intensely and also get distracted at the slightest project. They both have their parent’s affinity for machines, and Kris all but explicitly followed in Sophie’s footsteps in seeking any path that took him to space travel, and though it is through a corporate job he is able to capture the same wonder at the universe that Sophie has always had within her. It’s almost an insight into what Sophie could have been if she had not stumbled into something more spectacular, and instead made a more mundane living out among the stars. I really admire Kris, and find him very easy to get along with, more so than Rachel who is a bit standoffish. I nonetheless didn’t expect the desire to stay with us, as I don’t really know him that well. My parents are very happy to play the usual wedding host roles and so when Kris and company arrive we give them the run of our living room and try to find out what accommodations we can make to ensure their stay with us is as comfortable as possible.

It turns out that Kris and his partners are delightful guests.

I have to admit to a fair amount of curiosity as to the inner workings of a polycule. My culture has different definitions of romantic relationships, or at least of partnerships that warrant relationships, so it is not unheard of to see a Paladanian polycule. I know Sierra has been in one at some point. By some definitions I am in one, with Sophie at the centre; my romantic relationship with her and Mickey's queerplatonic relationship with her being intertwined both by her, our own friendship and co-parenting Zara. This is obviously different to what Kris has, a polycule which combines working relationships and romantic ones and requires an impressive amount of continuous presence in a relatively small space. Which is of course in space itself most of the time. It's a little bit difficult for me to fathom, mainly because it feels like it would require a lot of communication and balancing of expectations. I think I would find it very stressful, but I learn by observing Kris and his partners that they thrive in it. There is an effortlessness to it all that I find myself envious of.

Something I'd known but hadn't put much thought to is that sometimes Kris and Mickey actually see each other more than either of them see Sophie. Kris makes the effort to visit them whenever he is back on Earth from an extended trip. Mickey recounts Kris is amazing with the kids, inventing games to entertain the younger girls, and leading up to the wedding they barely spend any time walking because they are gleefully being carried around. He ropes Zara into playing Earth sport games with him, and cheers her on as she speeds across the pitch they've made up with random items as markers.