14588/Unfashionably Late

Unfashionably Late
Date of Scene:	28 March 2023
Location:	Hera's Haven Taverna
Synopsis:	Explanations all around between beast, bird, and birthday boy.
Cast of Characters:	Kian, Gar Logan, Terry O'Neil

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Kian has posed:
    Of all the rotten timing….
    Kían doesn't remember to celebrate birthdays.  It's just not a custom among the Akiár.  But that doesn't mean he would have turned down an opportunity to celebrate Terry's, especially since it was being held on Themyscira.  Almost nothing would have stopped him from being there for that.
    Almost.
    So when the notification came that he should expect a call from Ría q'San in about thirty minutes—which would be about twenty minutes after they were supposed to leave—well, there wasn't much to do make his apologies (and promises to make up for it) to Terry and wait for the viceroy's call.
    It went on rather longer than Kían expected; by the time he gets on the T-Comm to let them know he's done and ready for a Rabbit Hole, the party's essentially over.
    Which actually doesn't bother Kían all that much, since he doesn't celebrate birthdays.
    As he steps through the opening in spacetime, he's already talking—and he's forgotten to put his translator back on.  "c'Rhys'yw, I thought that would never be done," he complains.  He looks tired, or maybe weary is a better way to put it.  If it weren't for what coffee does to him, he looks like he could use a cup.  "I had to explain that I really haf not learn' much about the Eart' way of fightin', an' that's really my own fault, but it's such a difficul' thin' to understan', you know?  For me, anyway.  I think she knows it isn't easy for me, but she's right, it iss somethin' I need to learn.  I jus' hope I never haf to use it.  An' anyway, I did get one thin' done that I wanted to, an' it's sort of your birthday presen', Terry tenár'h, although I never dream' I would haf to talk to—"
    Now, Kían's grasp of Earthly body language is weak, but even he can tell, just from looking at his tenár'yw, that Something Is Up.  "Did I miss somethin'?  Iss everythin' okay?"

Gar Logan has posed:
    By the time Kian's done with his business at hand—or is it wing?—much of the party at the taverna on Themyscira has begun to wind down.  There's been no shortage of food, drink, and other entertainment, but with plans made for partying to go deep into the night in another spot for those who wanted to keep going, some needed the chance to freshen up a bit.
    It's given Gar and Vorpal the chance to catch their breath, yet to leave the taverna itself.  Gar's made sure to get his fill of the food on offer, still in the white and red chiton he donned to fit in better with the island's Greek-based culture.
    It's also given the pair a chance to have a more personal conversation about a few things, not the least of which was the surprise Gar pulled on the cat.  With the neat and significant gifts the feline was given, there weren't many ways Gar could have topped them all but he pulled it off.  "When do you think Kian will be… ah, there he is now," as the call comes in over the T-Comm.  "You want to do the honors?  And tell him?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    The cat opens the rift, and grins at Kian as he appears.  The two are definitely up to something, you can tell, by the close proximity and exchanged glances.  Terry keeps one hand out of sight, as subtly as he can—"Oh, you missed a lot, hon!  The food, for starters—but there's still some. And the gifts.  Raven gave me a book."  This is very much their in-joke, considering what happened the time Terry asked Kian to give Raven a book on his behalf.
    "Oh!  And I am going to be the Head Librarian of the Themysciran Library at the Center in New York, isn't that exciting?"  Nope.  He doesn't mention that.  He did agree with Gar that they would tell him.
    But he didn't exactly agree on a specific pacing.
    "But you look like Hades… was the call that bad?"

Kian has posed:
    A bit of Kían wants to rush forward and grab someone's shoulder to find out, but that would be both disrespectful and unfair.  Neither man looks upset or worried or anything, so… huh.
    "Tell me what?  That you got a job offer for your birthday?  That sounds wonderful!  Congratulation, tenár'h!"
    And then, the birdman takes a deep breath.  "It was… awk-ward.  An' a little overwhelmin'.  Ría q'San was understandin' that this iss not easy for me, but she was still not really very happy that I haf made no progress.  Gettin' a lecture from an Imperial princess an' likely heir to the Crystal Council is… well, no matter how gentle she tried to be, it was still a lecture.  An' then…."
    Here Kían trails off, taking a second as if verifying in his memory that it really did happen.  "An' then I ask' about a reques' I made about you, Terry.  Gar iss officially consider' Akiár, an' t'Káeh as well, since he had a Firs' Flight an' iss my tenár.  I wanted the same for you an' I tol' her that no one could seem to figure out how to do that, an' an' an'…"  He doesn't shiver, but his feathers do fuff out and re-settle.  "…an' she call' her mother.  Tóra q'Tar.  The actual empress.  Right then with me still on the call!  I actually spoke wit' the empress herself!"
    Remember how flustered he was on Kyshán about that first call from the viceroy?  Yeah, this is just like that, turned up to eleven.
    It takes him a moment to settle himself down.  "So, uh, Terry, she said yes.  You are now also t'Káeh."
    He really can't help himself but add this: "Happy bird day."

Gar Logan has posed:
    "You get to tell him," Gar says quietly to Vorpal, not as if Kian couldn't hear all the same.  "But yes, he might not have to be your drug mule, I mean, chocolate dealer to make good money."
    He's got a hand wrapped around Terry's 'clean' one, fingers interlocked.
    He asks, "No progress on what?" to talk of the lecture made, leading to him sharing a glance with Terry in question.  That may go by the wayside with the talk of having to speak with the Empress herself.  "Tora q'Tar huh?  Well, that sounds kind of important."  A brow shifts upward at the result of that discussion, vis-á-vis the increasingly complicated relationship matters of Earthers and Akiar.  It's about to get even more so.
    "Wait, did he just make a joke?" he stage-whispers, thumbing in Kian's direction.  "My, how he's grown, from fledgling to this."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "Clearly we have been good influences on him," Terry replies in an equally ineffective stage whisper, he squeezes Gar's hand.  Then he grins at the bird-man.  "Oh Kian… that is wonderful!  I must extend my gratitude to the Empress for this.  It means a great deal… and it has happened at just the right time, because…."
    He lets go of Gar's hand and he approaches Kian, as if to kiss him, but then passes him by.  Because he knows that touching Kian will ruin the surprise.  Instead, he reaches for some wine and serves himself, careful to keep the ringed hand wrapped around the vessel, the ring away from Kian's point of view.  "Because now that's two wonderful things that have happened to me today!" he grins.  Is he trying to make Gar squirm?  He opens his mouth, and if Gar hoped the suspense would end, he is wrong, for Terry says:
    "Also, I fainted, too."

Kian has posed:
    Wine sounds like a fantastic idea, and Kían grabs a glass and a bottle as well—although the bottle he reaches for is the Themysciran brandy, which is an even better idea.
    Hey, his nerves are shot!  He had to miss the party and talk to two people he's been raised to respect almost as much as if they were divine themselves.
    "So what that means," he explains, after taking a sip, "iss that no one can object to you, either of you, comin' to my world.  An' Her Serenity said she might like us to come visit the homeworld some time.  If we can, I woul' like to.  I've only been there once an' that was before my rhy'thar appear', so I don' know if you can get that from my mind or not.  I know I don' dare use an Akiár starship.  We'll probably haf to figure out some way there.  Ría q'San has sent chocolate to the Imperial court, and you won' be surprised to hear it was popular."
    He walks closer, with his glass raised in a salute.  "So that iss two very good things, I know you haf always been interested in the Themysciran library, an' you are the firs' wingless Akiar."  He glances at Gar.  "You don't count as wingless, even if it's not all the time."

Gar Logan has posed:
    In response to the talk of passing out, Gar remarks, "If we were playing tabletop, this guy would be rolling a bunch of critical failures or really close to it.  Sometimes it amazes me he hasn't used up all of his lives by now."  No, he isn't giving any sort of reaction to Terry's stalling tactics.  It was agreed that he'd be the one to share the news.  After all, it's his special day.
    "And that's great.  I was curious about your homeworld and if it's a lot like your planet, or really different.  I bet they'll all love meeting me, too," he grins, though he lets go of Vorpal's hand so he can go get something to sip from as well.  Non-alcoholic, at least this time.  Some sort of juice.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "It's more than just that… Kian, you know how much Themyscira means to me."  The cat grins at Kian.  "I mean… this is a place of myth.  The fact that they allowed me to have my birthday here…."  He waves a hand, and shakes his head.  "To be the librarian bringing knowledge of this place to the world…."
    And then he smiles, and holds out his hand.  "And now… this isn't just the place where I celebrated my 21st birthday, but also the place where Gar asked for my hand in marriage."
    Now he can show off the ring.

Kian has posed:
    "Just the hand?" Kían asks mildly.  "I guess that means I get the rest of you?"

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan was waiting for the moment, no question.  "Yeah, and when you think about it, no men are usually allowed here so if the Amazons are getting into anything it's with themselves.  And now I proposed to him, here of all places.  Ain't that something?"
    When Vorpal shows off that ring and makes his rather poor choice of words obvious.  Kian's learned a lot, but there are still some things….
    And Gar passes by Kian to deliver a light whap against the side of his head.  "No, you dork."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Leave it to Kian to have developed enough of a sophisticated understanding of English to dare to pun, and yet—
    He sighs softly.  "He has asked to marry all of me, you dork."  He smiles fondly.  "We don't do dismemberment on Earth.  Of course, nothing is simple… now I belong to your world, and Earth.  And Wonderland I guess.  So, too, I 'belong' to two… so what do you have to say for yourself, Kian?"  He grins teasingly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Kian has posed:
    Kían blinks twice.  "I am… not completely sure what Earth marriage is.  But I think it is a more formal way of declarin' each other to be tenár?  An' it is limited to jus' two here, I know.  I—"
    The birdman swallows hard, drains off his whole drink in one go, and refills his glass.  "I am very happy for both of you, tavárik'yw."
    Looks like someone is making assumptions about what this all means for him.

Gar Logan has posed:
    "Well, see, there's the thing," Gar says, returning for a nibble of something that isn't Vorpal or Kian.  There is, after all, still food.  "Uh, like, marriage is a legal thing here."  He doesn't get into church marriage, since it doesn't really matter in this case.  "For a long time, it was only allowed between opposite sexes.  Then some opinions changed and legal partnerships were a thing, but still not full marriage when it came to certain rights.  Anyway, now same-sex marriage is legal in every state because the federal government made it so.  That just means that what we have," as he motions between himself and Vorpal, "will be recognized by the law once we take care of that.  I just asked him if he'd marry me.  So that means we're engaged."
    A lot of words to explain what is probably, for the Akiar, a very simple thing.  Or is it?  "How do they handle stuff like that with you?  And, uh, yeah.  They don't allow more than two people to be married to each other here.  I don't even know what kinds of rights they'd give you anyway, but that doesn't mean you're not part of this as far as we're concerned.  I just don't know what we can do about it."  That goes back to the question of how the Akiar deal with things like this.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "What Gar means, Kian," Terry takes a sip from his wine, fixing Kian with a piercing 'Really?' glance, "in his adorably roundabout way, is that while the United States does only recognize this commitment between two people…."
    He holds up a hand.  "There are countries that do recognize marriage between multiple people.  Such as Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Central Afrigan Republic, Republic of the Congo, among others.  However, those countries only recognize marriage between one man and multiple wives, and many of those countries have laws that ensure any man trying to marry another man is either put to death or thrown in jail—I know, dear, Earth is stupid at times.  SO—"  Return from tangent.
    "The question Gar is so adorably hinting at is whether your home has any ceremony by which a commitment is ratified and affirmed in a similar way.  And," sip, "When do you think you'll ask us to take part in one, since now we are both, by ceremony and decree, part of your world as well?"  He grins.

Kian has posed:
    Kían listens, and it sinks in that he is not tavárik but still tenár, and he relaxes visibly.  But he's still puzzling over Earth's weird ways of handling what should be strictly personal choices.  "So it iss a legal agreemen', an' they only let it be between two people.  Or between one man an' many women."
    Since learning that the Akiár are related to the now-extinct Earthly Neanderthals, Kían has really tried hard to eliminate a certain three word phrase from his vocabulary, but sometimes it's called for.  "Earth is weird."
    He considers the matter some more.  "So, you haf ask Terry to marry you," he says, pointing at Gar.  "Well then, I ask you to marry me, an' if Terry will ask me to marry him, it iss solved!  Three marryings between two people each!"  He beams at both of them, as if it really is that simple.
    The question of what his people do, though… well.  "You are already my tenár'yw, my family-by-choice.  There is a rite where it can be publicly sworn, but that doesn' change what we already are.  An' it iss not a legal contrac' like it seems to be here.  It iss a little like takin' a momen' to thank the Gods for bringin' us together.  Mos' people do it to mark that their houses haf been joined.  An'… huh.  If you two are both t'Káeh now, that means… well, I will haf to ask about that, but I think that means that my estate will be enlarged to become our estate.  You are both Akiár, and you have claim to a share of the t'Káeh holdings."

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan casts a glance between bird and cat, then he rubs his face with a hand.  "For one, we're not even citizens in those countries, and… yeah.  That's not gonna help here," he remarks with a shake of the head.  "Earth is already… yeah, what he said.  Weird enough.  And they're definitely not gonna let us do that either.  I can't be married to two different people at once!" he exclaims, gesturing with his hands up.  "I wasn't even sure if I'd ever be married to one, for that matter!"
    He grabs the nearest seat, just to take a load off for a spell.  "Your ceremonies are interesting, Kian.  I'll say that.  But, whatever laws here or anywhere else say, we still know what we mean to each other, and what we think about each other.  Nobody can say we can't have that."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "Yes, no matter who asks who, that does leave one person married to two, and that means that at least one of us would be running a-fowl of the law, see?"  He grins.  He's just going to get away with that.  There is no justice in this world.  "The reason this is so meaningful, Kian, is because how allergic Gar has been to the notion of a commitment.  Now—dear, you know what I mean," he says, anticipating a protest from Gar, "Not a year ago the 'M'-word sent you running away to join the Kangas."  He shoots Gar a mischievous look, and goes to his side to kiss his cheek.  "You know it's true.  But you are right—we know what we mean to each other, and I think that it would be perfectly suitable to have a ceremony in our new second home world to reaffirm our mutual commitment."
    "We'll need the rest and relaxation.  After all, I suspect Harley will offer to organize the wedding ceremony.  And I suspect we're going to end up in Wonderland."

Kian has posed:
    Kían fairly lunges at Gar and Terry, wrapping arms and wings around them both.  He fairly radiates happiness, certainly now that he understands what's happened.  "You can explain a Wonderlan' weddin' to me later, Téri s'Ágata Oníl t'Káeh."  Well, that is Terry's full name to the Akiár now.  "If you can do that without breakin' my brain."
    There's a little tremor as something sinks in: Terry just asked him for the Akiár rite of joining.  The answer comes out a little hoarsely, but not at all hesitantly: "I will declare before mortals and Gods that I am yours and you are mine, Téri."
    Now to close the circle.  Gar asked Terry.  Terry asked him.  So it's inevitable that he says, still hoarsely, "Gar s'Márek'Mári Lógan t'Káeh, will you be mine an' allow me to be yours?"

Gar Logan has posed:
     "Oh, no… we're going to have to tell her," Gar realizes.  There's a brief flashback to a certain time a few years ago, in an old apartment, and he rubs his face again.  "Gonna cross that bridge when we get to it," he decides, for the warmer, more immediate thoughts that surround Kian's uncertain then more positive mood are what he chooses to focus on right now.
    "Dude, of course," he grins, arms out for both of them.  "So come on.  Bring it in.  I think I've got some partying left in me before we all have to sleep."