“Mora, I’ve decided,” Delair began once she arrived that day. “Today, we’re making a sword, the biggest one we can!”

“Why?” the soul spirit asked, not seeing the point and getting a shrug in return.

“Because it’ll be fun! Now come on, let’s get started!”

She pulled the boy with her to gather materials while Ben and Thera watched from the side, Thera raising an eyebrow while Ben just chuckled.

“Does Delair always take charge like that?”

“Ha, sometimes. Depends on if I want to give them any specific projects to work on or a free day.”

“Does Mora ever decide?”

“She’s asked him before; in general, it seems like he’s happy to let her decide things though, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Well, alright, but how big of a sword do you think is going to qualify as the biggest one they can?”

“Well-”

The answer was given in a slightly different manner as the two came back out, both of them carrying as many ingots as they could hold, even if Mora’s strength meant his were piled far higher, leaving the two to stack them to the side of the forge.

“From the looks of it, big enough that I’m going to need to create more metal to replace some of our stock,” Ben finished, letting the two of them get started by themselves, even as he kept watch through a nearby clone, with his true self focused on Thera. “Still, it should keep them busy for the day while we focus on you. We’ve got a wedding coming up, what do you want to wear?”

“I have no clue. I know about succubus weddings but that’s not really the impression Greed gave me when he was inviting us and for some completely unexplainable reason that I’m sure had nothing to do with their scary daughter, any political weddings my parents were invited to while I was growing up always made a point of not including children.”

“Alright, well I’m sure this one will be fun. Let’s see, he said to wear anything, but since we should at least try to look nice, let me whip a few things up for you. Any preference in colour?”

“Let’s go with a dark blue.”

“Alright, some dark blue dresses, coming up.”

He materialized a range of styles, basing them largely off of ones he remembered from Earth, even if he made sure to add his own bit of personal flair to each of them, with each one on a mannequin, letting her look them over in a way that would let her see how they’d fit as she gave her impression.

“They’re beautiful… mostly,” she told him, largely liking them but veering away from one that only had one shoulder. “But why only dresses?”

“... Because apparently, I was thinking too much about what I’d seen from Earth weddings. Hold on, I can make you some other options.”

“No, this is fine. I don’t wear too many so this will be a nice change of pace. Although, if you can do this so easily then maybe I should get you to help update my wardrobe sometime.”

“Sure, I’ve got some decent designs in my head I think you could make look real nice. For now though, any style that really stands out to you? We can adjust the shade and shape a bit on the fly if you pick a base to work off of.”

“Mmh, let’s say this one then,” she told him, pointing out the peplum dress, having shoulders but no sleeves and a length going just past her knees, with a strip of fabric adding a bit of frill at the waistline. “I think that would be my top pick. As for the colour… okay, just read my mind and go with the shade of blue I’m thinking instead of making my fumble to try and describe it.”

“Ha, can do.”

Taking his peek, he remade the dress to her desires, watching her smile when she saw it. “I really like that. I think it’s perfect. And you then? What are you going to wear?”

“Hmm, considering that I doubt anyone else would wear anything that looks like what a human would probably wear to a wedding, I guess I’ll go with something simple-”

“Wait,” she stopped him. “Let me see what a human would wear to a wedding.”

“Hmm? Sure, if you’re interested,” he said, materializing a new mannequin to match his proportions with a simple grey suit on it. “In my part of Earth at least, it would be something like that. You’d get black, grey, or darker blues for the suit jacket and pants usually, though the under shirt might have a bit more variety, and that would be something you’d see on both the wedding party and guests, though guests can also wear a dress shirt instead and whatever they go with, a general rule of thumb would typically be to avoid wearing the same colours as the wedding party.”

“Okay, you’ve gotta try this on for me; I can’t imagine what you’d look like with it.”

“Alright, if you really want. Just a moment.”

He created a privacy screen around him since there were kids in the room as well as a chance that someone might pass through any of his opened gates before pulling off his clothing and materializing the same outfit directly onto his body before stepping out to let Thera look, getting to see as she smiled for a moment before it cracked, breaking out into laughter.

“You know, I really don’t want to take this from someone whose traditional outfit is togas,” he told her. “On Earth, they’d be considered very two thousand years out of date.”

“Sorry, sorry,” she said, raising her hand to try and calm down. “It’s not that it looks silly… okay, it looks a little silly; it’s just more seeing you wear it.”

“Ouch.”

“You know what I mean,” she told him, laughing again. “You wear jackets and T-shirts and more rings and armbands than anyone else I know, watching you try to look fancy is very different. This is really what humans wear to weddings?”

“Specifically in my culture and specifically men, but yeah.”

“Then I can’t imagine what women must wear.”

“You wanna see for yourself then?” he asked, nodding her towards the privacy screen he’d made. “Let’s see how you like it then?”

“Depends, is this something I’m going to be able to figure out how to put on?”

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll just materialize it on you.”

“Okay, fine, let’s see what you’ve got then.”

She stepped through and undressed, letting Ben cast his magic to poke his own fun but lost the chance as she stepped back through, wearing a wedding dress and taking his breath away.

A reaction she completely missed. As soon as she came out, she looked down at herself before bursting into laughter again, all the harder, holding onto his jacket to support herself as she did.

“Your people do not seriously wear something like this. What do they actually wear?”

“I’m being serious. At least for the brides, this is the sort of thing they get. Guests usually just go for nice dresses though.”

“What’s the point of this silly thin fabric covering my eyes?”

“Well, it’s a veil and… I don’t actually know.”

“And this dress is so long I have entire feet of it dragging on the ground.”

“It’s supposed to make it look flowy, probably at least. I also don’t really know.”

“And why white? I’m basically as pale as the dress.”

“Yeah, wedding dresses are just white, but this isn’t a point you can go too hard against either. I know succubi and incubi each have a specific wedding colour in your culture.”

“Okay, sure, but the rest of our outfits aren’t insane.”

“Big words from someone whose outfits are, once again, togas.”

“Togas are nice though, they’re light and comfortable in the heat. With the way you’re dressed, you look like you can’t get married in the summer, while this one would leave me freezing in the winter, it’s completely mismatched.”

“Okay, so admittedly, suits do get warm, but the magical thing about Earth was the prevalence of temperature control. Heated buildings in the winter and those air conditioners you love so much in the summer. Get an indoor venue and you could definitely find a nice middle ground for both parties, and as for guests… well, they’re ideally seeing someone they love get married, they can manage a bit of discomfort.”

“Ha, well speaking of discomfort, I need to change back, and I don’t think I’m getting this off as easily as you got it on. Give me a hand so I can slip back into some real clothing.”

“Alright, sure.”

He helped her with the dress and let her change from there, changing back himself after, before breaking both outfits down into air and dust, neither one likely to be worn again.

Although Amy or Steph might want a good old-fashioned human marriage one day, maybe I should preemptively make them some dresses, just in case I’m not around to do it when they’d actually want them. Ooh, if I’m not dead, I wonder if they’d let me officiate? Having a wedding ordained by both an apostle and a god, I’m sure that would be very exciting for them.

To be on the safe side, he materialized a few boxes of different styles that would fit the two off to the side, getting a curious look from Thera as he did.

“Some human outfits in case any of our human friends ever want an Earth wedding, along with a quick recipe of ingredients from this world for an Earth wedding cake.”

“Oh? Now there’s an idea I can actually get behind,” Thera said, her sweet tooth latching on to the idea of a wedding cake with interest that left Ben grinning. “But also not the main goal for the day. We had our fun, now what are you going to wear?”

“Ah, like I said, I’m thinking a dress shirt.”

Materializing one more outfit, he made black pants along with a simple blue dress shirt, the shade a bit darker than Thera’s while at the same time, highlighting the edges of the buttons with gold, adding just a bit of pop that didn’t go unnoticed.

“Matching my hair?”

“Technically, but when I did it I was thinking more your eyes.”

“Mmh,” she hummed, reaching out to take his face in her hands and stare into his own. “Should I have something like that then? A little touch of violet?”

“You don’t have to just because I’m doing it.”

“No, I think I want to. If you’re okay with it, that is.”

“Yeah, of course. Give me just a second.”

Instead of making a new one, he instead turned back to her dress, extracting the colouring along the trim and adding a deep violet that would match the shade of his eyes instead, nodding once it was done.

UNENDING EXTRACTION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED

DEEP MATERIAL SENSE LEVEL INCREASED

“There we go, just a little bit of highlight to finish it off. We’ll make a cute pair for this.”

“Ha, it’ll be fun. Probably. You think it will turn out okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“Because it’s Greed’s wedding,” she laughed. “And the fact that you're going to be there too, there’s going to be some sort of bad luck cyclone going on.”

“It’ll be fine, it-” Greed was intentionally keeping a secret from me. “Will maybe be fine. I mean, how bad could things possibly get?”