Day 6: Culture & Day 7: Ending
Originally I was going to write about Alphys and Undyne's wedding for this theme, but my first draft felt like it didn't focus on Chara and Frisk enough to be part of Chara Frisk Week. So you get this instead. Also, I'm counting this as both Day 6 and Day 7 because it ended up longer than I thought and no better idea for Day 7 materialized.
The building was oval-shaped, with the entrance on one of the long sides and a raised dais of the other. Two concentric half-circles of benches formed the audience chamber, the building only large enough to hold maybe twenty people comfortably. It was an old design, a recreation of the old one in New Home, a re-recreation of the ancient one in Home, and a re-re-recreation of the antediluvian one which once existed on the surface in the time before the war. A raised dais in the back, on which Frisk, Chara, and Undyne stood in their purple and white robes, was surrounded by concentric half-circles of long pews. The first row was reserved for the immediate family; Asgore was openly weeping already, Toriel gave sidelong glances to her ex-husband while trying to conceal her own moist eyes, while Asriel smiled beatifically at his two half-siblings. There was also a bit of smugness in that grin, as he never failed to point out his role in getting the two of them together whenever either of them brought up how happy they were. The second row held close friends and more distant family. Alphys was in the second row, giving them a thumbs-up, and next to her was her and Undyne's child giving them a blank look while picking their nose. Sans was next to her in a t-shirt with a tuxedo pattern, likely the nicest clothing he owned. Papyrus was next to him in a sharp tan suit and looked ready to give a speech, though he had made it clear he was attending today as a private citizen and not as the governor. Next to him MK waved (Frisk looked for a gender signifier without being consciously aware they were doing so and noticed a ribbon tied around a head spike) her tail and mouthed "Yooooooo!" when she spotted Frisk looking in her direction. There were other monsters Frisk and Chara had befriended over the years, and not a small amount of humans either. The third row was supposed to be reserved for passer-by and unrelated persons to walk in and bask in the ceremony, but instead it served as the overflow for the friends section. That alone served as a testimony to how well-liked the two humans were and how many people were excited for this day. It should have been heartwarming, but it only reminded Frisk of how many they would be disappointing if they made a mistake.
"Hey," Undyne whispered, putting her hands on Chara and Frisk's shoulders and returning Frisk's distracted attention back to the matter at hand. "Relax, alright? You two've got this."
"I'm still nervous," Frisk said with a tremble in their voice. "What if it doesn't go right?"
Undyne flashed a shark-tooth grin. "You got Alphys to do the math for you, right? She did most of the work on ours, and it turned out great! Both of you are better at cyan magic than I ever was, so just do your spells and it'll be fine!" Chara squeezed Frisk's right hand with their left in solidarity, and Frisk squeezed back. Yeah, it would be okay. "I'm gonna start if you two don't mind," Undyne said, and since neither of them raised an objection she coughed to clear her throat.
"Greetings friends, family, everyone," she projected out across the hall in a serious tone Frisk had not heard much of since Undyne's Captain days. Her diction sounded distinctly Asgorian in a way that was odd to hear out of her mouth and yet not surprising in the slightest. "We are gathered here today so we may bear witness to the joining of Frisk Dreemurr and Chara Dreemurr in the holy bonds of marriage. We all thank you coming and are grateful that you are able to celebrate in this love with them, their families, and their closest friends." Polite clapping resounded throughout the small structure. "In accordance with our ways and customs, Frisk and Chara have agreed to form a marriage cord. Through their combined hearts, souls, and magics, they will form a symbol of their love to guide them on their journey through life together. For the humans in the audience, I wish to stress this is a task even monsters find difficult, with no guarantee of success. Today they will be granted only one try. This means they may not be married today. You may find this difficult to accept, but Frisk and Chara, as well as all of us monsters, beg your patience and understanding in the event it does not go through."
Chara was holding onto their hand so hard now they were trembling with the effort. "Hey," Frisk said, and Chara's eyes darted over in their sockets to stare at them. "We've gone through a lot already. What's one more trial? This isn't half as hard as some of the other stuff we've done."
"Easy for you to say," Chara said through a strained throat, staring at an indeterminate point in space over Undyne's shoulder. "You like being the center of attention. I can feel their stares, I feel like I'm gonna puke."
"Never mind that," Frisk said. "Just relax. You've practiced, we've gone over this for weeks, it'll be fine. Let's… start at the top. The sooner we get started the sooner it'll be over, right? Once we start we'll just need to keep running until we're done." Chara took a deep breath and nodded once.
"Whenever you two are ready, you can get started."
Frisk expanded their magic field to fill the air around their wrist. As they did so they felt a tingly wave, like static, over their body as Chara did the same. Chara and Frisk inhaled through their noses, intoned a count of "one, two, three" in time, and began.
Materialization magic took magic and formed it into a physical shape. The intent of the marriage cord was for two people, each using materialization magic, would form a cord that would coil around the other's cord to form a rope. In theory it was not dissimilar to hand-fasting, but forming the rope out of magic introduced several new wrinkles. The size, shape, placement, and direction of the cords had to be determined beforehand and detailed exactly in its casting due to how complex physical matter was to create, a process called a "spell". Each person had to cast their marriage cord spell exactly in time with the other, and their individual spells had to interlock closely together to form the cord. Too far apart and the rope would fall apart; too close together and they would collide into each other's space, destroying both spells. Bit by bit, inch by inch, Frisk formed their cord. Curling and twining with a similar cord from Chara that Frisk could only hope was there, hoping their own strand could be there to support Chara's. Not only did they have to tightly wind their magic together without overlapping, but they had to proceed at the same pace. If one got too far ahead of the other the cord would collapse and the spell would fail. Asgore had told them, In this way the ceremony symbolizes the struggles and hardships of a real marriage. You may have one idea of how to proceed, and your partner may have another. Only with communication focused on cooperation will you be able to face the challenges of the future together. This was intricate work, and because it was spell work they could not simply try again; they would have to go back and make adjustments to the spell and re-learn it almost from scratch. Even after being told it was not uncommon for a couple or group to need several attempts to form a marriage cord Frisk absolutely did not want to mess up and have all these people come down for nothing. They wanted this to work.
Frisk finished the spell, exhaled deeply, and looked down. There, wrapped around Frisk and Chara's wrist was a tightly-wound rope of shimmering green and purple. Each strand sparkled like a diamond, prompting a chorus of "ooh"s and "aah"s from the gathered audience. The cord felt smooth and polished against their skin, like it really was made out of fine crystal. It was not for nothing that materialization used to be called "crystallization". They looked up at Chara and found their crooked smile staring back at them, eyes thin and wet with unshed tears. Frisk laughed through clenched teeth, causing tears to spill from their own eyes, and then they were giggling and holding each other and kissing while their wrapped hands clenched each other so hard their fingers began to ache. The cord was hung loosely around their hands, so either one could pull themself free from the bonds with little effort, but the cord itself was very tightly formed with no visible gaps between them.
They remembered Alphys and Undyne's ceremony, seeing the cord draped loosely around the women's hands, and being confused. "Why is it so loose? Isn't it supposed to be really tight, to show you'll never be apart again?" Asriel had stared at them in muted horror, telling Frisk they had just said something very wrong.
"I'll field this one," Chara came to the rescue. "To remind you, emotional health is important for monsters. They can have irreconcilable differences or fall out of love the same way humans do, and if they were stuck in an unhappy marriage it could literally kill them. Monsters don't really do divorce courts… remember how Toriel didn't even have to speak to Asgore, she just left him and everyone considered the marriage over? That's what a monster marriage is like. Either of them can leave at any time."
Then it was Frisk's turn to be horrified. "So… there's no 'til death do us part'? Their love won't be forever?"
"I won't say it never occurs," Chara said. "But it's not really the expected thing. Things happen, people change, and maybe the person you were with fifteen years ago isn't the person you should be with now. Honestly, though… I hope they make it."
At the time it had sounded sad, like they were sowing the seeds of their love's destruction take root in what was supposed to be an affirmation of that love. Now that they were older they understood a little better the wisdom of the ritual and making separation so easy. It also helped that Chara and Frisk were not the same people now they were then. They were not dating at the time but already they were very close to one another. Frisk was sure they would not have been able to go on if Chara was no longer in their life. Chara as well would never have recovered if anything happened to Frisk back then. They had needed each other, maybe too much when they looked back on it. But things were different now. They were not so dependent on each other and that made their love stronger. They chose to be together. They wanted to be with one another, even though they did not have to.
"YEEEEEAAAAAAH! It came out awesome!" Undyne yelled out, causing the rest of the gathered congregation to cry out in cheers and snapping Frisk back to the present. Frisk and Chara released each other and, after sharing one last smile, returned to their places side by side. Alphys waved at her to calm down and Undyne composed herself with a cough. "Uh, I mean, the spell is complete. We will now have the families of the two gather to inspect the cord formed by their mutual love and care." Asgore and Toriel stood up and took their places on the dais, behind Chara and Frisk so as not to obscure them. They brushed their paws against the cords and nodded approvingly.
"My word," Asgore said breathlessly. "In all my years and all my days, this is the best, greatest, most magnificent marriage cord I've ever seen."
"Don't read too much into that," Gerson warned from the third row, prompting a laugh amongst the monsters. He had always said he would stay Underground for the rest of his life, and other than his adopted daughter Undyne's wedding and this one he had kept that promise. It was a sign of how much he liked Frisk that he was here at all. "Ol' Fluffybuns says the same thing about every marriage cord he ever sees!"
"And I always mean it!" Asgore returned with a chuckle of his own. "Every one is a new commitment, a new vision of the future! Each new one is a sign that the future is still bright. How can I not believe each is the best I've seen yet?"
"It's beautiful," Toriel agreed, her voice choked with emotion. "I am… so happy and proud of you two. It's better than I ever imagined…"
All four of them hugged each other; Asgore was the first to break, then Toriel rather more reluctantly extricated herself. They returned to their places in the front bench, off to opposite sides less because of their bad relationship and more to block the sight of as few people as possible. Undyne raised her hands to calm the roaring applause and said, "With the cord formed and it meeting the approval of the families, there, uh, isn't actually much left of the ceremony. But Frisk and Chara, our newlyweds, invite all of you to the grand reception they will be having at-"
The rest of Undyne's words were drowned out. Frisk could not understand them any more. Their head was hot, their face hurt from smiling so much, their throat constricted so badly they could not say a word. But they were happy, so indescribably happy that there were no more obstacles, no more fears, nothing left that would get between them and a happy life with Chara. Their longtime friend, their partner, their love.