Words and Wedding Bells
So, uh… things moved a bit faster than I thought they would. It turns out that upon the completion of the awesome quest chain you get for buying the in-game wedding package, you’re asked to schedule the ceremony for the following week. Since I’m still writing the proposal, and I never planned to do more than take video and fancy screenshots during the ceremony itself, I figured there was no harm in going ahead and biting the bullet before Raph passed out from nerves.
I also planned to commission some commemorative artwork from SarmandersStuff, who has drawn me some amazing art of Raph that never fails to make me smile. I always wanted to commission artwork of the characters I created when I was younger, but money was tight and prices back then were well outside anything that a kid could have paid for anyway. Now it’s not uncommon to find folks drawing for practice and/or love, all for the price of a fancy coffee or two.
In any case, getting the detailed screenshots she needed of Raph and G’raha in their tuxedos meant that I had to actually get them into them.
What does this mean? As of Friday, July 3rd, Raphail Somnalune is blissfully wedded to G’raha Tia, his new husband and partner of… well, far more years than logic and reason should allow. The story version of G’raha yet sleeps behind his closed door, but August 11th is still a month and change away. I still fear it’s best to celebrate while they have the chance.
We recorded the entire quest chain and ceremony, but the videos will take some time to clean up and share. We’re thinking of doing a kind of Pop-Up Video style commentary track for fun, since we had a blast goofing off together and really making the whole thing fun. I’m so grateful to be married to my own overgrown kitten in real life, even if neither of us are pretty catboys. 🙂 In the meantime, I’ve thrown my fancy screenshots of the ceremony up on Google Photos for friends and family.
If you managed to miss it before now: anyone that objects to same-sex marriage or relationships will want to pass on these photos. Nothing is explicit (it’s a wedding, y’all) but there is a distant kiss at one point and romantic hugs are frequent. I mention it only because I know I have friends and family that may have more conservative views on this than I do.
The Ceremony of Eternal Bonding — G’raha Tia and Raphail Somnalune
On a similar note: I mentioned before that John was moving my fanfiction from Wattpad to AO3. That move has now happened. One more story is finished and planned for release sometime during the next week or so. It’ll be the big, scary one I’ve mentioned where I write a little bit of explicit content.
I’m embarrassed/nervous but I’m also proud of my work, and I’m hoping to get braver as time goes on. There is absolutely an art to doing this well without being crass! I’m not using explicit language or getting into specific male-male sex acts yet, so depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing, it may not even qualify as explicit for you. It’s just WAY more mature than I usually get when I’m writing.
My previous (tamer) three stories have been up since last night, and they’ve already seen more hits and interactions than they did after almost an entire year on Wattpad. My long, continuing story about Raph’s early years is, of course, not as popular as my stuff about the romance between Raph and G’raha, but I expected that! It’s quite long and a big commitment unless you’re looking for that kind of story, and I don’t blame folks for not wanting to get involved until and unless it’s finished. I hope it’ll attract more people over time, but this is still clearly the right decision for my FFXIV work.
If you’d like to take a look, here is my new home for stories in the FFXIV universe.
Archive of our Own – DterminD’s Works
And with all that out of the way, I’m going to bid you all a good night and rest up for more writing in the morning. I’ve had a lot of little odds and ends to write for the big move, which means I haven’t had a chance to sit down and really move the bar forward on my current work in quite awhile. The proposal story is partially done, but the next chapter of Raph’s story is only a handful of notes and a loose plan right now. I’m looking forward to bringing it all together soon.
Stay happy, healthy, and strong, y’all. It’s a crazy world out there. But it’s also a world in which two crazy married people can have the gay wedding of their dreams to celebrate a couple of characters that mean so very much to them after all these years. I’m still honored to have my eyes opened by all of this, and I hope that whatever happens for Raph and G’raha as time goes on, I’ll be a wiser, braver, and kinder person for having gone through this with them.
–DterminD