Tuesday, July 01, 2003

Weekend Recap, Part 2 of 3

SATURDAY, 28 JUNE, 2003:

The next morning, Marcelle woke up, rather sleepy. It didn’t feel at all as though Beia and Rich were actually going to marry at all, not because they were arguing or anything, but even right this very moment, the whole thing just seems so… surreal. It’s as though the wedding was something that will forever be talked about but never will happen. After a short breakfast, everyone was just starting to get ready for the wedding. There was supposedly going to be a tournament after the wedding and reception for L5R, which Marcelle will naturally not join because he couldn’t play good, strategic L5R even if his life were to depend on it. Of course, he knows how to play the game, but playing the game doesn’t ensure his expertise in it…

Anyways, when everyone was all dressed up, Marcelle noticed four gorgeous ladies in the place: Tsumenki, Kaoko, Risetu, and naturally, Grace. It was fairly interesting, to say the least. Marcelle just went on with his business, and didn’t really have much to say. Still, after some encouragement from Grace, Marcelle decided to go ahead and ride with JM this time to the church. The venue was simply grand: the Transfiguration Chapel of Caleruega was a rather marvelous place, what with its extensive stairways and lush greenery. The scene was rather picturesque, and there was no question that they couldn’t have set a better day for the wedding. Nonetheless, Marcelle was up to his arms with jokes about calling the whole thing a “Zion” affair. It was funny, really, as there were at least fifty renditions of Morpheus’ “This is Zion! We are not asleep! We are not afraid!” speech from The Matrix Reloaded, as well as Smith’s “Me too.” Line.

At least half of the guys in the wedding entourage had the same ideas all throughout the wedding, what with a bald priest whose sense of humor strangely reminded everyone of Morpheus all the more. Marcelle was quick enough to point out how nervous Rich seemed to be all throughout the wedding.

“Must be because it’s his first time to get married,” he remarked. “Needs a bit more practice, eh?”

With this pitiful attempt at comedy (As well as the attempts of the priest, too.) aside, and in spite of the fact that he and John (Chrissie’s boyfriend.) were imagining Bea would burst out of the glass door like Stonecold Steve Austin for her entrance, the wedding itself was solemn. There isn’t much else to say about the entire thing itself…

After what seemed to be an eternity, Rich and Beia were finally married, much to the jubilation of everyone in the church (Obviously. Were any of us perhaps expecting someone to run into the chapel and scream “Itigil ang kasal!!!”?). This was followed by a photography session, and then our cue to return to the resort/retreat house for the reception came. Marcelle gingerly hopped into JM’s car again, this time with a few different passengers, as the lack of transportation (One van wasn’t ready at hand.) required a bit of reshuffling among the passengers.

When everyone got to the reception area, more Matrix jokes were being thrown about (“Vash must’ve copied his data onto the technicians to fix the video.”), and they settled themselves down into a round table, eagerly awaiting what was to happen next. There’s no question that more than a few of them were already quite hungry, and after a couple of speeches, people began to eat. The food was fairly fine, and when it was time for the bouquet and garter bit, they modified it such that the only one who wouldn’t get a flower would be the one, and the one who couldn’t do the Limbo Rock under the garter would be the guy for the other half of the tandem. One of Bea’s cousins, Rica, was the first part of the puzzle. The second, quite interestingly, was Groundzero, looking his Joko Diaz best. His first try at the garter was met by Firesenshi’s rather mischievous grin as she deliberately let the rope down for him to not make it past… He ended up kissing her on the cheek thrice before the host felt keen enough to let them go on their own ways.

After the reception (And another comedic photo session at that.), everyone trooped back to the resort/retreat house and dressed down a bit. Marcelle then ended up spending most of the night with a few other people, as they played a bit of Truth or Dare, which covered quite a lot of ground, actually. Now, there was only one particular question that stood out as unaskable, but then, it was allowed to slide. Someone made a confession about some past romance. Still another mused about missing someone who could’ve been with them that night, and another corroborated it. Another related a story about how that person got together with another person. It was being rather clear that while some interesting things were being said, this was not the time to have some deeper, darker secrets than usual. Still, Marcelle wonders how Jamie’s first impression of him was that he was actually craving attention. From what he can recall, the time that they met, he was merely playing his GBA…

This small gathering got even more uneasy when a couple more added to the fray. Marcelle managed to ask Vash about the long-standing “LRT discussion” he had with Nib. John had to answer Lizard’s question about a yaoi ménage a trois and who he’d pick to be with him. He picked Noel and Mike, if Marcelle is not mistaken. Noel of course, just had to ask Marcelle a rather pointed question about his intimacy with Grace with Grace around, and that kind of took Marcelle back. Regardless of how he were to answer it, there was no denying that this was an overstep of boundaries, especially because Grace was there to hear everything. Someone then shot a question about another's past rejection, which was likewise met with some protests of overstepping bounds, and Mike promptly retracted the question. Lots of people seemed to be fairly interested in Splender.

The dares were no less scarier, as Marcelle had to wear his underwear over his pants while everyone was looking for brown highways. Thank goodness Marcelle usually wears shorts as well… that proved to be less humiliating. Someone was asked to lick Voltee’s neck, another was asked to do a push up and then kiss Voltee on the forehead (Noticing a pattern here? ::winks::), and Grace was asked to lick Chrissie’s ear, which she failed to do because Chrissie jumped away at the last moment. They ended up joking later on that Grace only pretended it was a dare and really did it on her own accord, but anyways, moving on, This guy licked his armpits along with another guy, who wouldn’t do it without the former accompanying him, so to speak. The former put toothpaste on his nips. The latter donned a white shirt with the wet look. Grace was getting increasingly horrified with each dare by the time, as she was obviously afflicted with quite a spot of culture shock...

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