Joyous Union
Octavia smiled widely as she sat in the little flower filly's dress CiCi had managed to make for her, glancing back and forth between the two happy couples that stood at the altar as Varia hovered over her head, waiting for the event of their lives. To one side was her Uncle Zero, dressed in a dapper tuxedo with a radiant Iris at his side in a formal white gown. To the other side, X and Alia were dressed in outfits that were exact mirrors of Zero and Iris's.
When she'd heard the hesitance in Redips' voice when he'd spoken of 'making it happen', she'd thought that there would be a special dispensation recognizing Zero and Iris' union, or something similar. However, he'd gone further than that, using Zero's simple request and the overwhelming public pressure to 'reward' him to actually legalize Reploid marriage, along with all the protections thereof. There had been some resistance, of course, from the same groups that had been against the idea of 'artificial' life getting the same rights and protections as 'natural' life, for a wide variety of reasons from the logical to the reactionary. It had done no good, however. Redips had carefully manipulated the proceedings with a few petitions, a few false 'reactionary' protests, and a few other events that had ensured that the bill that allowed Reploids to wed passed completely unopposed.
When news of this had gotten back to HQ, Alia and Iris had immediately gone into a flurry of wedding planning, while X and Zero were left wondering what they'd gotten themselves into. Of course, each of them wanted the other for their best man, and at first argued over whose wedding should be first - X said it should be Zero's, Zero said it should be X's. Finally sick of the arguments, Signas had suggested holding a double wedding where they could act as each others' Best Man, and their brides - as they desired - act as each others' Maids of Honor. This left Octavia pulling double duty as flower filly, but she didn't mind.
The seats were filled, of course, as this was the wedding of the century, and anyone who was anyone wanted to be there. Most of the seats near the front were reserved for their fellow Maverick Hunters, with specially reserved seats for Gate and his Reploids, along with the descendants of Dr. Cain and Dr. Ciel. While the families of those two scientists had not been as involved with the Maverick Hunters as their ancestors, they were still considered 'family friends'.
There was an empty reserved seat in that front row as well, as the one it was meant for was never seen entering the chapel as all other guests filed in. However, Octavia spotted a scarf gently flowing in an absent wind from behind one of the pillars around the outer wall every so often, and knew he was here, even if he chose not to make his presence known. Up above, she also spotted the hint of black and dark blue in the rafters, showing that one particular party crasher was choosing to be circumspect.
There was no priest or judge to perform the ceremony, however. This was not because one could not be found, far from it. Instead, X and Zero had chosen who would perform the ceremony...someone who, as it turned out, had been ordained in life, and the technicalities of the law that allowed Reploid marriage meant that said honor applied to his technological echo, left behind after all this time. So it was that, as everyone finally settled in, the capsule behind the altar opened, revealing the image of Dr. Light...or, as the case was with his garb, Father Light.
"Dearly beloved," he spoke up, the image of unshed tears visible in the image of his eyes, "we are gathered here today for a most momentous occasion, one that I had hoped and prayed might happen whilst I was alive...but I can welcome now that it is happening. Though I did not live to see it, I am certain my soul is gladdened to know that it has indeed come to pass. My dear son and his best friend - one whom he loves like a brother - will now be joined to the loves of their lives in holy matrimony. And this has come to pass not just from their own efforts, but because the people of the world gathered and raised their voice in a joined outcry to proclaim, 'Let it be so!' Truly, the dreams of the past have been realized in the here and now.
"But even these dreams cannot be the end of dreaming, but just the next step. The future is forever unfolding, and these dear children have chosen to walk that path together. Surely, none here could witness how they are together and doubt their love." He paused as though to take a breath, though he lacked the need, then continued in a more subdued tone. "If there are any here who, for whatever reason, would gainsay these four the right to bind themselves in the unions they so desire-"
The sound of every weapon in the chapel - whether attached to a Reploid or handheld by Reploid or human guest - being simultaneously primed to fire interrupted the familiar question.
"Hey!" Father Light snapped out. "No weapons in this house of God! Who let you all in here with weapons? Shame on you!"
Off in one corner, Colonel whistled innocently as he avoided his sister's gaze from the altar. After a time, the sounds of weapons being disengaged heralded an easing of tension in the chapel.
"As I was saying," Father Light continued. "If there are any here who have sound reason why these two couples should not be wed, speak now..." He paused. Plainly, he wanted to continue in seriousness, but even he couldn't leave such a thing without comment. "...if you dare..." he finally settled on, startling nervous laughter around the chapel. "...or forever hold your peace," he concluded, gazing around to see if any would speak.
When none did, he continued. "X, Zero, do you take these two ladies to be your lawfully wedded wives, to have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, from now unto eternity?" Given that Reploids could, conceivably, live forever if not destroyed, it had been decided that this vow held more sway for them...that even if death separated them, they would remain dedicated to each other, in the hopes that in death they would somehow be reunited.
"I do," X spoke, calmly and warmly.
"I do," Zero confirmed, his eyes turning to Iris' own.
"Alia, Iris," Light continued, "do you take these two gentlemen to be your lawfully wedded husbands, to have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, from now unto eternity?"
"I do," Alia spoke, her voice thrumming with emotion.
"I do," Iris purred, smiling warmly up at Zero.
"Then by the power invested in me by the people of the world, the laws of the land, and by the will of God," Father Light concluded, "I pronounce you men and wives. You may now kiss the brides."
As X and Zero eagerly obeyed the directive, the cheering proved deafening. Octavia sighed warmly as she watched, feeling that at long last, things were finally going right.
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It's not going to go right now. You jinxed it, Octavia. Shame on you.
Seeing Redips be such a cool guy here, organizing that whole thing... It makes me sad for what I know is to become of him... Really hoping you'll change that somehow.
The weapon priming part got me good.
Dammit, Octy!
Surprised Sigma didn't crash this.
7514855 Yeah, where's Silver Quill with his doom flag when you need him?
Im now reminded of Fix it Felix and his wedding.
D'aw....
{Sigma: *sniff* I taught X everything he knows, and now he's finally become a man *blows nose*.
Guy Next to Him: Hey, aren't you that one guy who tried to destroy the wor-
Sigma: *whispers* Shush, this is a wedding!
X: Hey, you're not supposed to be here! *Blasts him into the sky*}
A robot and a human date: No one bats an eye.
<100 years pass and two robots want to marry: MOST UNORTHODOX!
Logic, everyone!
{Tatsurou:...}
I know what you're going to say, but that doesn't mean I still don't find it stupid.
Eh, I have a feeling Tatsurou doesn't care.
Hmm, but is that righteousness deserved? Anyways, take care.
Ancient Samurai proverb that comes to mind:
"After victory, tighten your helmet cords."
7514863 who can even say if that is the same Redips? Perhaps the Redips line and mass produced, with this one being 003 and the other being 183?
Since there are Repliod assembly lines.
Darn it, Colonel.
Skull Man really is good at hiding. This chapter... however... *sniff* made me cry tears of joy!!! :")
7514920
Ya know, I've noticed you've made comments like that on a lot of this story's previous chapters. I personally find the direction this story's been taking rather refreshing, considering all the tragedy in the original games....
7514867
Me too. Me too...
Saaaaaaaaaaaaay, where is the obligatory Happy-Time-Destroyer anyhow?
TUNE IN NEXT CHAPTER FOR WHATEVER ANSWERS ARE AVAILABLE! SAME MEGA-DAYS! SAME MEGA-CHANNEL!
This chapter was full of feel good feels!!! Very happy and content.
Wow... just wow....
Octavia, I feel as though you jinxed it at the end...
7515153 *face talon* It's Tatsurou. OF COURSE IT'S GONNA BE A JINX! I FULLY EXPECT ROBO NINJAS FROM OUTER SPACE OR ALIENS WIELDING PLASMA GATLINGS!! *shakes gymmacabre*
7514924 The EA abided by that proverb. Abided.
7515026 It's true that it takes a different direction, and that in itself isn't that bad of an idea. The problem lies in it being a completely different make and model. All those problems that the original cast went through, the things they fought tooth and nail to protect/prevent? In this story, it's like watching some brat playing a homebrew where Super Guide is available on every level with no penalty.
X and Zero are tragic characters, and it's nice to imagine them in a more positive reality. But if it comes at the expense of other characters getting shit on, bland Mary Sue OC's as leads, and a cast of characters so unconvincing that Sigma's really the only one I'm rooting for, then I'd take "the tragedy in the original games" any day.
7515318
This is understandable, but really, this is how a lot of Tatsurou's stories are. I suppose they're not to everyone's tastes, though. And define "unconvincing".
7515360 I dunno, You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter, There's Nopony I'd Rather Be Than Me, and Moon in the Dark all seemed to be able to tell their respective stories while respecting the source material enough to not be insulting. I can't even imagine what it'd be like if he ever made a Homestuck fic.
7515369
I'm genuinely curious: how has this story been insulting?
7515402 Well, it's not really insulting, per say. It's more like there are a certain set of unfavorable variables that coalesce into an amalgam of personal disagreement. I can somehow play Mighty No. 9 without getting "insulted", so I might just be a hipster. In any case, there are some parts about this that I kind of like about it that make me curious about how it'll end. But yeah, here's a whole bunch of things I find bad about it.
I'll get the pointless complaints out of the way. First, there's killing off Metal Man. No back-ups, no extra lives, no repurposing. Deleted. Whether it was to set up a poorly executed running gag, or to instill a sense of civility in Wily's ideal of controlled chaos, it seemed pointless to kill off a guy just because some toddler who probably shouldn't even be watching something where robots destroy each other for a periodic basis. This especially hits home when Wily probably shouldn't have installed a program made by a toddler that makes the system crazy just to get an edge in the first place.
Then there's vilifying Dr. Light over a run-time error. Yeah, he forgot to put in a condition statement to allow technicolor ponies to count as humans, but what does it matter? Banning him from a rock in the sky isn't going to make it sink in what an "EVIL" thing he did, and neither is forgetting the fact that Mega Man himself once said "Maybe next time you should let the 'evil doctor' tell you his plans, rather than assuming them?" I get that Tatsurou's trying to do some parallel between them, like with Charles Xavier and Magneto, but it doesn't work if you don't have a backstory to get behind, reasoning behind their ideals, or a path that isn't completely obvious.
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In the end, which has the more thought-provoking environmental message: The Lorax the book, or The Lorax the movie?
The worst pointless part is whatever numskull who convinced Tatsurou to make Skull Man into Sans... oh wait, that was me. It was just a one-time joke, something to just be like "Hey, I made an alt!script or whatever". Then once he was reintroduced, he acted like some cut-out who didn't understand the meaning of mortality (No one ever goes back to the beginning of The Ruins during the True End, I swear), and now he's a mercenary for some reason. It's not like there are any other characters in X who could have also had an interesting exploration of their character instead of cannon fodder... oh, wait.
Now with the trivial stuff out of the way, now it's time for the quote unquote "meat" of it. In the original, we had some characters who we identified with.
X was the underdog, a guy who was the progenitor of the current stage of robot evolution, yet inferior in his station in life, improving in leaps and bounds as he fought for what he believed in.
Zero was an incredibly powerful warrior, but constantly questioned his identity and what he was made for, then made his choices based off what he believed, not what others tell him.
The constructs who share their names hardly resemble them in the slightest. This X... is just a protective father. And this Zero didn't even care about his destiny until partway through X5. I don't really feel justice being done for characters from one series, if iterations in a different work don't even have similar arcs. It's like wanting to see Ash Ketchum win a Pokemon League, but see a jerky Not!Ash win it after an invariable amount of years training... oh right, Betrayal Ash stories.
A staple in the Mega Man franchise was the theme of self-empowerment. That by having trust in yourself and your comrades, you can accomplish feats the likes of which no one has ever seen. It just uses robots as a medium. Rules set up by a sci-fi writer from the mid-20th century? Beaten. An omnipotent juggernaut who caused you pain and suffering every step of the way? Beaten off-screen. A version of you that calls itself the original, and is more powerful than you in multiple facets? Beaten in one of the most over-the-top fights of all time.
But in this story, rules set up by a sci-fi writer from the mid-20th century are insurmountable, serving as a barrier that can't be overcome except in the case of a deus ex machina. An omnipotent juggernaut who caused you pain and suffering every step of the way is treated like a butt-monkey, where even the Sonic Boom version of Eggman has more dignity than him. The last thing... well, that's never gonna happen, so I guess it doesn't really matter. I just think it looks cool.
With YCSSWL, I felt like Pinkie was genuinely making strides in connecting with the people she met (Even if four important people died in the meantime. Oh well).
In TNIRBTM, it told something of a sequel to the source material, exploring things in depth while also forging new paths (Even if Blueblood was treated like a tool until the next chapter where he's looking for treasure... one day...).
TMITD didn't default to SansXToriel, had a story that at least made sense, and it seemed like Tatsurou finally went to the beginning of The Ruins during The True End (Even if Red's personality seemed underutilized compared to her initial appearance, and the Mages' involvement is detracted outside of their ultimate fate. Oh well.)
In here or HotDG, it just seems like there are too many missed opportunities and downgrades to say something like "Omigosh, you guys! Tatsurou just made another story and it's really cool and I love (almost) every second of it!" It just makes me think "... Come on, man, I want to like your stories, I really do, but you're not making this easy for me."... Or is it me who's making it hard for myself? *GASP* Plot twist! But yeah, I'm still gonna read these stories, if only because I'm curious how these ones will ultimately pan out.
7515550
I would like to answer something regarding what you were saying about the WWW story.
Vinyl not letting Dr. Light come to Sky Lagoon? It has nothing to do with her seeing him as 'evil' or being a 'bad guy' or making him 'learn a lesson'. It's as simple as "You made a mistake and hurt my friend and put me in danger...so you don't get to come over and play until you apologize." And Dr. Light never actually got around to apologizing...and he doesn't want to go to Sky Lagoon in the first place.
I think that's where the problem is here. From the perspective of a reader and gamer, you look at these characters and their original stories and see what they represented and stood for. I look at them...and see people. And I don't write them as symbols or their original roles...I write them as people. And people make mistakes, and learn from them.
...or robots or Reploids, as the case may be.
7515581 ... "People", huh? That's cute, coming from you. If anything, your constructs are a step behind characters than they are a step ahead. But to each their own.
7515178 Crashing a wedding where at least, I'd say 80%, of the guests are armed? Yeah, their deaths shall be swift and hilarious.
It is here that shit start hitting the fan..
7515869 Yeah........... *goes into a bloody gory daydream about two certain alicorns exploding*
7514899 Same
7515550
Yes, you are making this extremely hard for yourself. Seriously I've played the mega man games and watched others play it to, and frankly these stories delved deeper into the characters when, to be honest, X and Zero are kind of bland in my opinion. Zero's basically 'Mary Sue' for the first three X games, basically being ten times stronger than practically anything, while X is just running around being the underdog and trying to be the best he can be. I think X and Zero actually having personality rather than 'Zero being Zuko from Avatar' and 'X being #8675309 of the bland underdog hero that saves the day'. But that's just my opinion.
7516085 I've already wasted hours of my life I'll never get back by talking to you people about what I think. I'm not going to waste more on a person who can't tell the difference between a character from 2005 and a character from 1993, both of whom having completely different backstories and character arcs. I'll gladly take "overused" archetypes over a random guy on the Internet's interpretation of "people" any day. I'll admit that these stories are decent, but I'm not going to roll over and say "Omigosh, this is SO much better than the original; who needs theming?"
Deuces.
7515550 A ripple is very small at first. A single change that doesn't seem to be much at first. But by the time it's over that tiny ripple has expanded hundreds of times its original size. Better known as "The Butterfly Effect". The tiniest of changes can make the end result improbably different from the original. That's what you're looking at here with WWW and MotF. Whether you like things after the changes or you don't is entirely dependent on your point of view.
7516683 One time I read this person's fanfiction. Sooner or later, we got to talking and became friends. Then we decided to get into a relationship (rather hastily I might add) and things were okay. Then it turned out she had depression. Then she broke up with me. Then it turned out that a person I thought was my friend was really her all along. As you can understand, I broke off all contact with her.
I learned a lesson about jumping into things too quickly, judging sanity over friendship, and coping with loss... all because I wanted to see a fanfic about an R63 Link.
Now you may be wondering "What's your point?" The point is that you're correct. A small change to daily routine can very well change a person, for better and worse. From an outsider's prospective, the event itself can be viewed as either good or bad. To me, it was a valuable experience, but to others, it could be something I made up as well as completely stupid considering it was an Internet relationship and I should've known better.
So yeah, you're 100% correct. No arguments here.
7516751 So far I feel that ALMOST all the progression in the story makes sense. I agree that the story versions no longer resemble their canon selves, but I feel that they DO fit with how their lives have actually gone in this case. The biggest standout against that is honestly Octavia's personal computer, the Pinkie Pie AI. Where the fuck it came from has never been explained, or if it has I missed it. But what I did note is that the computer seemed to have info on what SHOULD have happened, if not for the intervention of Vinyl or Octavia. Armed with what is literal 'Knowledge of the Future' it's rather easy to see why things have seemed to be fairly easy. Octavia was able to head off the worst issues because she could see the stupid mistakes and prevent them from ever happening. And honestly a LOT of the major issues in the X series were because someone did something MONUMENTALLY STUPID. (Looking at you Colonel) You prevent the stupid and half the problems in the X series solve themselves.
Why does the computer not outright irritate the fuck out of me because let's face it that is some blatant OP shit? It's Pinkie Pie. The easiest solution is to assume that all Pinkie Pies and related objects are self aware cartoon characters and thus can go "Screw the rules" at various points in time. The most obvious explanation is that the Pinkie Pie AI simply has the game scripts and gave parts of them to Octavia.
7516882 Heh, what bothered me about the Pinkie Pie thing was how Octavia solved those solutions. For example, Copy X was made to give people hope for the future after the original X's sacrifice to keep the Dark Elf sealed, not because a daughter figure would be saddened by X's "disappearance" (otherwise there would be several other "Copy X's" to replace the reploids who died [rest their souls] who had loved ones). Then the Colonel thing bugged me because it was trying too hard. Instead of simply saying something along the lines of "avoiding reasonable questioning is in itself a matter of dishonor", she pretty much copypasted the plot of X4 while deleting the unnecessary bits and supplying headcanon to make up for the weird stuff that wasn't explained. To me, the former would've been smarter and funnier because it pinpoints the exact issue with what he did instead of using a plot-dumping guilt trip.
That's just me, though.
7515613
Little harsh, dontcha think?
7519224 Well, it's like if a talented artist like Tite Kubo claims that his most recent work is a perfect example of such art. As anyone who's even looked at the Quincy Arc can tell you, that is sadly not the case.
I'm not saying that Tatsurou is terrible at making characters, setting up twists and reveals, or interactions between said characters. I'm just saying that when he fails at it... it really shows. I'm just a salty harpy is all.
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Hmm, seems legit. But yeah, sorry for being super rude. It was more of a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing, like when fans hear about something from their childhood getting a revival, but then gets triggered when it's not exactly what they wanted.
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(Ironically, I'm fine with all of those... maybe not so much Paper Mario Color Splash, but yeah.) Anyways, sorry.
(Sound of glass breaking)
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"
"Sup bitches
Missed opportunity Tatsy, missed opportunity.
7520651
Sigma walks in. "I HAVE COME ONCE AGA-"
Everyone points their weapons at Sigma.
"...Perhaps another time."
Yeah no kidding, this is basically everything Light and Willy were working towards in their own ways.
Congratulations to the four of them.
I couldn't complete my full catchup binge again but I was NOT going to miss the wedding today! (Technically I am late in so many ways- 10:50PM -that it is unreal.)
I am partially glad Sigma did not crash the wedding but I wish somebody resembling Sigma showed up late. Like every weapon reprimed, causing the random Reploid to slowly back out of the church.
This chapters holds a lot more meaning after the ending of Vinyl's story.
At least Father Light saw one of his sons get married...
oh thank sodding goodness this one went well
Yep, learning from the last time there was a wedding like this. *Hint hint last megaman story hint*
Methinks they were prepped for anyone that might've wanted to repeat history.
Shouldn't that be "four"? Or "two couples". It is a double wedding after all.
8103144
Fixed.