Octavia Girl Vol. 3

Jenna’s gown for her wedding with Favel was extraordinary. Misha had not made it. It was a gift from Favel, stating that she and Misha couldn’t possibly choose something that would make the Octavians as happy as he could.

When it was delivered the day before the wedding, Jenna couldn’t believe it. When she opened the package, she thought it was a box full of smartwatches. Favel wasn’t there to explain it. Perplexed, she tried to pick one up, but a bunch of them came up with the one she selected. Then she realized what was going on. It was not a pile of smartwatches, but tiny screens that had been linked together like chainmail. It was pretty heavy.

Misha helped her lift it out of the box.

“I wish Favel was here to explain this,” Jenna complained morosely.

“He doesn’t want to see the bride before the wedding because it’s bad luck. He needs all the luck he can get,” Misha said with a smirk.

Jenna acted like she was stupid. Behind her eyes, she knew why Favel needed luck. Marrying her was linking him to a potentially hazardous situation. It was one thing to be the chair of the Octavian Council. It was quite another to be married to an Adamis diplomat. They might stand together strong and beautiful, holding peace together… or he might get dragged into tragedy and disaster because his fate was tied to Jenna’s.

Faking cheerfulness, Jenna continued like she didn’t have a care in the world. “This has basically been a done deal since I suggested on TV that I’d marry him if he asked me. Besides, nothing about our relationship will change after we get married. We’ll still be the same. Why go to all this trouble?”

“It’s for him,” Misha said simply.

Jenna wished she cared what she wore for her wedding, but she didn’t. If Favel wanted her to wear a dress that made her look like an Octavian, then so be it, but she wasn’t sure how the garment in front of her would accomplish that.

“Can you see how I’m supposed to get it on?” Jenna asked after turning parts of it over in her hands and not finding a break in the links.

“Yeah. It’s just a tube. One end is a little tighter, so I’m guessing it’s the bodice, though I would have preferred it if he had given us more time to fit it. How can they know if it’s going to fit the way they want it to without trying it on you first?”

“If it’s a disaster, I’ll just have to wear a dress I already have. Is there a white or blue one I’ve never worn before?”

Misha was holding the wedding gown inside out. “We have to make this work. I can’t tell if you’re supposed to wear a bra with this or not. There are no straps, so how about we start with a strapless one?”

“I’ll grab one. What color?”

“Flesh. I hate this, Jenna.”

“How can you hate something you don’t understand?” Jenna asked as she rooted around the underwear until she found the bra Misha wanted her to wear.

“I hate not understanding things,” Misha answered, her little arms buckling under the weight of the dress in her hands. “It looks like there are sensors on the underside of each of the screens. I’m guessing they’ll tighten or loosen the links between the screens once you’ve got it on.”

Jenna put the new bra on and Misha put the gown on the floor and it fell in a circle. Jenna stepped inside the circle and the whole thing sprung up and took shape around her. It clasped her in and buckled her up without her having to do a thing.

“I know what it is!” Ixy suddenly announced over the room’s speakers. “It’s a mood dress!”

“Like a mood ring?” Jenna asked.

“I don’t know what a mood ring is, but a mood dress is a joke,” Misha declared.

“Favel wouldn’t play a joke on me on our wedding day,” Jenna contradicted.

Misha shook her head. “It’s not that kind of joke. Octavians don’t wear clothes. They do have a color that their skin naturally takes on, but they can also change their skin colors to match the terrain around them or, in some cases, their mood. Most often it is unintentional. If they’re surprised or shocked, they change colors and patterns to defend themselves. They joke that Octavians are always wearing mood dresses, the same way humans joke that they’re wearing their birthday suits when they are buck naked.”

“Oh,” Jenna said, adding the term mood dresses to her internal dictionary.

Misha chuckled. “This is the most man-inspired wedding dress I have ever seen. He wants you to look like an Octavian, but obviously, he doesn’t want to dress you in an octopus costume, and he has decided that this is the best way. So, more than the shape of an Octavian, with eight tentacles, he’s going to make you show him your mood… and not just him, but all of the Octavian world. That’s the thing about Octavians. They can’t hide how they are feeling.”

“This is a dangerous gift, Jenna,” Ixy warned. “The dress isn’t powered on now, so we can’t practice how you need to feel during your wedding to get the best colors to show on the dress. What do you think all these little screens are going to show once he turns them on?”

Jenna felt her armpits get slick with sweat. “Okay, saying all that has made me nervous. Even if we can’t practice with the dress, surely you can tell me what colors and patterns are bad so that I can school myself a bit and avoid them. Ixy, can you help out?”

“This is hilarious,” the PA chortled over the room’s speakers. “But I’ve been researching it while you two were working it out. Octavians primarily use the patterns on their skin to avoid detection and to frighten predators. So, if you notice yourself fading into the background, it will seem like you don’t want to be seen with Favel, and that will look bad.”

“Yes,” Jenna agreed.

“On the other hand, if you look like a checkerboard with black and white checks, that is an aggressive pattern. I think that will be easy for you, Jenna. You don’t usually want to kill people.”

“Shut up, Ixy. I almost always want to kill someone.”

“But you don’t usually do it, so that’s something,” Ixy said brightly. “All you need to do is to try to keep your killing rage down a few notches. The last piece of advice I can give you is to avoid being sexually aroused by anything. Many octopuses and squid turn a light pink to a dark red when they’re about to mate. It will make everything in your life less fun if you seem aroused by anything at your wedding with Favel.”

Jenna tried to keep her face deadpan as she accepted that news. She was very good at keeping a feeling to herself until she had time to process it. Putting that on display, taping it, and broadcasting it as a part of her wedding seemed bananas.

“Do you think we could insert a needle into the back of all these screens before the wedding tomorrow?” Jenna asked, looking for loopholes.

Misha huffed. “You want to break the dress so no one can tell how you feel? What are you so worried about? No one is going to be there except you and Favel. Everyone else has been ordered to stay out of the Mercury Palace. Yes, there will be cameras, but the only person you could react to will be Favel.”

“She’s right. Favel’s not dumb enough to dangle an Adamis man in front of you on your wedding day. He knows he’s not a man. Besides, we haven’t had a chance to experiment with the dress. Hopefully, he’ll turn it on a few minutes before the ceremony so you can get the hang of it.”

Jenna nodded and hoped they were right.

***

The next day, Jenna’s hair was tied up in a bun, her makeup was done and the mood dress was slid on.

“Is it powering up?” Jenna asked Misha.

“No. I guess Favel’s not going to start it until you’re about to enter the Mercury Palace.”

“Let’s review,” Ixy said, over the room’s speakers. “If your dress is yellow, green, or blue, that is all good. If your dress is reflective or the color of the gray stone around you, you are hooped. Smarten up with a dash of confidence. Remember the mantra.”

“I’m Jenna Fairchild and the Octavians love me,” Jenna repeated the mantra smoothly.

“Good girl. Now if your dress makes a black and white checked pattern? What do you say to yourself then?”

“I am floating on an island of good wishes,” Jenna said in a dazed trance.

Ixy smacked her tongue ironically. “That wouldn’t work for me, but you do you.”

“Shut up!” Jenna snapped.

“Did that little show of aggression change her dress, Misha?”

“No. It’s still not powered on, Ixy. Don’t antagonize her intentionally until after the wedding,” the stylist replied curtly.

“Last question before you head in,” Ixy declared. “What do you do if you get even a hint of pink on your dress?”

Jenna didn’t answer. She hadn’t been able to think of anything clever to snap her out of any warm romantic feelings if she should experience any. She cracked her neck. “Look, if I turn pink, it’s going to be because I’m naturally a little lovelorn since Sardius left. I’m not going to be able to help it. If it’s that sensitive that it shows that… then…”

“Just try not to look aggressive,” Misha encouraged. “I think that emotion would look the worst.”

Jenna agreed.

Misha called for Vash and he arrived with an umbrella with a veil around it. The veil surrounded Jenna as she got under the umbrella. It was intended to hide her from the view of the news drones as Vash walked her from the Dahlia Palace to the Mercury Palace. It was important to the Octavians that the news outlets didn’t see her before Favel did. Vash walked next to her outside the umbrella as they made their way down the docks.

“Feel like you’re giving me away?” Jenna asked cheekily as the drones noisily circled them.

“No. I think of you as more like my hot aunt than my daughter,” he said pleasantly through the veil.

Jenna chuckled and wished the dress had been powered on so she could see what colors the dress made to represent that emotion. What was that emotion? Complemented? Pleased? Flirty?

Jenna stepped into an antechamber with Vash and he closed the doors on them before he took the umbrella off her.

“Now I will go back to the Dahlia Palace and you will marry Favel.” He rolled up the umbrella. “Can I wish you luck with a chaste kiss on the cheek?” he asked.

Jenna slowly shook her head in the negative. “I’ll take a rain check on the cheek kiss. Right now, I’m scared of causing any kind of scandal. Today, I need to be yellow.”

“Right. Like a yellow rose. Friendly,” he said with a smile as he left the antechamber.

Compared to all the things Misha and Ixy had told her about controlling her emotions, what Vash said made more sense to her. Surely, when the dress was turned on it would work somewhat according to her wishes. She just had to wish to be friendly and the dress could interpret that feeling however it wanted to.

The door to the inner dome of the Mercury Palace opened. Jenna noticed at once how differently it was decorated from the first time she had been inside. That first time, it had been organized with a large conference table. For her wedding, it was arranged differently.

Today, the table was gone. All that was there was a circular hole in the floor where the water lapped. Favel sat on the edge of the pool. Had he always been that large? Had he always had so many crinkles in his skin? Three of his tentacles fell into the ocean entrance while the other five fanned out around him.

Jenna stepped across the threshold into the inner dome and her dress lit up.

Bright yellow.

Favel’s skin went smooth.

Whatever nervousness he had been experiencing clearly vanished as she approached. He offered her a tentacle and she sat next to him, letting her feet dangle in the water.

“How do Octavians get married?” she asked. “No one told me. I thought there’d be someone here to cut me so I could provide my DNA.”

Favel pushed the forehead part of his mantle against Jenna’s upper arm. “I’m here to cut you.”

Jenna nodded. “That’s right. With your beak. I’ve never seen your beak. You’re very private about it.”

“Not usually, but I am when I’m with you,” he confessed.

Jenna rubbed her wet thumb across her dry fingers. “Do we just do it?”

“You have to get a hair first,” he prompted.

Jenna reached behind her ear and pulled a stray that hadn’t got worked up into her updo loose. “Will this do?”

He nodded.

“Where do I put it?” she asked, looking around cluelessly, her dress going creamy.

Immediately, Favel was patting her hand. “Just drop it into the ocean. If you think all these drones buzzing around us up here are a media circus, you should see what’s happening underwater. Everyone below the surface wishes you were better at breathing water or that I was less good at breathing air, so they can get a better view.”

Jenna dropped the hair. Tentacles under the water disturbed the surface, but Jenna didn’t see the exact fate of something as small as one of her hairs.

“That was Temptic,” Favel said.

“He’s performing our wedding?”

“He is. A great honor.”

Jenna looked at Favel with concern in her eyes. “You don’t have any hair. What are you going to give them as a primary DNA sample?”

“It’s okay,” he said, lifting a tentacle, choosing a sucker, and pulling a tiny layer of film off the top of it. He dropped it into the water.

“That looked painless,” she said happily, her dress returning to the yellow it had been before.

“Now we say our vows.”

Their vows were that they would be best friends forever, through sickness and health, through poverty and wealth, through war and peace, and anything else that life might throw at them. It made them swear to be military allies and to do all that they could to prevent war with each other’s people, securing Favel as the kind of ally Jenna needed most.

There was only one thing that surprised her. Favel made her promise that if anything should happen to him she would marry Temptic. Jenna didn’t appreciate having that dropped on her in that way, but she agreed.

Her dress showed her feelings by going yellow and gray checked for a few seconds before returning to full yellow. It was easy to get control of it. All she had to do was remind herself how much she liked Temptic, how much Crimp liked him (even though he was poisonous), how he was Favel’s most beloved child (even though he was poisonous), and then take a deep breath.

When the time came to draw blood, Favel took Jenna’s hand in his tentacle and guided it under his body. Jenna felt the slice in her finger.

Her dress turned orange for a moment. Orange was another aggressive color, but it was what she felt in the moment she felt pain. It could be explained away.

One calming breath brought her dress back to yellow as she thought of yellow roses and friendship.

Favel looked at her like he didn’t understand what had just happened. He held her hand over the water and let the blood drip between the dipping arcs in the surface tension of the water.

“How am I supposed to cut you?” she asked.

“You’re supposed to cut me with your crown,” he offered quietly.

Jenna remembered the angry points on her head and took his tentacle in her hand. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it as elegantly as you,” she admitted.

“I’ll do it,” he said, moving his whole body behind her. She couldn’t exactly see him, but it felt like he was climbing her as he moved to get close enough that he could see the cut he was going to make in himself.

Jenna breathed and tried to keep her yellow bright.

Then it was over. Favel was allowing his blue blood to fall into the water.

When eight tentacle tips rose out of the water, Favel declared that the Octavians had finished their wedding ceremony and they were now friends and allies forever.

Jenna’s dress turned light blue and she slid the rest of the way into the water. She needed to show the Octavians that she wasn’t snooty about being underwater and blow kisses at them. Once under the water, she held her breath and opened her eyes. Looking around, she saw all the Octavian eyes staring at her. The dress started flipping out, showing all the colors at once and scaring everyone around her.

Jenna felt Favel’s beak rip up the back of her dress. Only then did she realize how far she had sunk from the surface as the heavy dress pulled her down. It fell off her and she beat her legs to get to the surface.

Then she was breathing air again.

She rested her arms on the lip of the ocean entrance and gave the cameras a thumbs up. Unfortunately, she did have to get out of the water with a dozen cameras trained on her while she was wearing nothing but her skin-colored bra and panty set. It was embarrassing even if Misha was there with a towel and a housecoat immediately.

Then there were a million interviews about the event, almost like a wedding reception, except less fun. Why had her dress malfunctioned? How did she feel when she saw all those Octavians staring at her under the water? Did she feel worse or better when Favel cut her dress off her? Was it exciting? How many other brides have had their husbands cut off their wedding dress before they’d even left the venue?

The Adamis reporters didn’t ask, but later, when Jenna and Favel were alone in the pool of the Crescent Bell Palace for their wedding night, Jenna asked Favel, “Did my dress malfunction, or did I flip out?”

“You don’t know?” he asked, confused.

“No. I was surprised, but I was not horrified. The dress seemed to be showing the hugest panic attack a person could have. I was really worried that I had offended your people with that reaction. Did I?”

“No,” he said, grasping the edge of the pool and coming closer to talk to her. “That reaction was one baby octopuses have the first time they realize their mother is gone. I cut the dress off you because you have to be seen as an adult by my people, but I wonder if it worked. They might view you as a child, or they might see that moment as the moment you entered Octavian society. Like the moment you were born as an Octavian. Shall we look at the Octavian news reels?”

Jenna nodded and Ixy turned on the screen in the room. The top video was of two Octavians reenacting the scene. One wore a piece of clothing that looked like a zip-lock bag to Jenna. While the Octavian inside the bag changed all the colors in rapid succession, a blue Octavian playing Favel whipped the zip on the bag and it fell off her. Then she swam to the surface while the blue octopus went gray.

Jenna had not seen that side of the story, as she had been at the surface. “Were you embarrassed?”

“I was worried and I looked like it. My people are not a hive mind and I know there will be different interpretations of what they saw. We’ll just have to see how things shake out.”

All in all, the wedding had not been much like any wedding Jenna had ever been to before. There had been food for other people, she only got to sip her drink. There were flowers, but she didn’t get a bouquet. There were guests, but there wasn’t time for her to greet them or enjoy the party as she had to do interviews. There was a groom, but he wasn’t a man. There was a honeymoon, but there was no sex.

Jenna let herself float on the surface of the pool as she looked upward at the twinkling lights on the domed ceiling of the pool. It was beautiful.

“I should have at least insisted on chocolate-covered strawberries,” she moaned.

Favel giggled. “I’ll get them to make you a shake that takes like that.”

Jenna smiled, but she and Favel had their triumph tinged with worry. They didn’t know how anything would work out.

Luckily, Favel was the type of Octavian who did not leave things to fate and immediately started talking to Jenna about Iker, Rennett, Scion, Fallcet, and all the unknown variables of having four AAMC-appointed diplomats. Jenna listened carefully and didn’t think about Sardius at all.

_______________

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! This is a huge chapter, but chopping it into pieces didn't suit me, so you got the whole thing like eating an entire pie all by yourself. Excellent.