Sebastian and "Human Marriage"
Reading @mister-astringent's amazing oneshot again, rn I'm laughing, and my mind ran away with me. I was thinking about Sebastian having urges to eat Ciel's soul but preventing himself because there will come a proper time.
And I joked to myself "he's waiting until marriage", then I started cackling jfhfjdj
Now I'm giggling and kicking my feet about Sebastian thinking of "marriage" in his fleeting thoughts. It's so fun to think about this.
(I saw this on twitter, I'm gonna link it when I find it again)
I think it's really cute... Sebastian imagining "human marriage". Half of it is genuine and the other half feels like playing a game, playing house. A silly indulgent daydream that inadvertently got out of hand.
It's funny to think of Sebastian going like "we're human-married" as a bit, and Ciel doesn't even know.
He likes the Ceremony of things, it seems. I imagine he'd enjoy thinking about an imaginary wedding while he works. Picking out roses and making mental bouquet arrangements. "Ah yes, this would be most suitable for the Young Master". Venues and color schemes, the perfect catering service, the guests' dresscode. It's something entertaining to idly think about.
However, this imaginary wedding has gotten so detailed and out of hand, you could fill an entire booklet of specifications he's thought up in his free time.
Maybe this little daydream seeps into reality little by little, in the form of him dressing them up like this lmao
(Love how they're always matching in these official arts)
Another thing that makes Sebastian wanting to "marry" Ciel kind of cute is that 👉👈 Marriage seems to be a foreign concept to demons. It promises an eternal and unwavering bond, but in the grand scheme of things it is not binding in a way that is absolute, not in a way a demon respects. No bond is more binding or trustworthy than a contract, after all. Marriage holds no candle.
And yet... Sebastian thinking of this, marriage to his master, even as a thought or fantasy... I think it's really cute because it reminds me of a young person's concept of marriage. Someone new to love and exploring its concepts for the first time, maybe even looking up popular traditions and thinking/studying about them in his free time. Trying to understand its appeal and relating it to what he already knows to be the ultimate form of Union.
The difference between the binding of a marriage and a contract is that the only real tether between two people in a marriage is their own will. It is their own choice to stay tethered. Somehow, in this light, it becomes even more meaningful than the absolute union of a Demonic Contract. And so Sebastian dreams.
Since essentially, Seb is New to these concepts, or New to thinking about them, it's almost "innocent"..? There's a gap moe for an otherworldly being playing house out of their fascination and attachment to this one human that they, at first, weren't privy to being attached to.
And I could see Sebastian treating this as fact, cheekily, like it's an inside joke only he knows. That he's essentially "contractually married" to his Master. (Although that is NOT how demonic contracts work. It's something nice for him to think about. Leave him alone, he's romanticizing his own contract)
He'd huff to himself silently, chuckling, a fist to his mouth using the term "the old Ball and Chain" in reference to his Master. "My other half/worse-off half" etc.
And we know that Goshujin-sama means Master. Sebastian calls Ciel this sometimes. But it also means "husband". I like to think about him testing it out in his mind, the shape of it on his tongue. (Although, "bocchan" rolls off so easily, its an eternally precious term and he'd rather keep using that term instead)
(on a related note, narratively, marriage usually means the most exciting part of a ship is over, because all their issues are usually resolved at this point in the story, but sbcl "marriage" doesn't sound like It's Over. Probably because they already have a binding contract like "marriage", and still they have interesting character development and issues.)
Anyway I think I like it when Sebastian likes such small and simple things. Things you wouldn't think a beast would like.
He likes his master's cheeks,
he likes his hair,
he thinks he's beautiful,
he likes holding his hand,
he likes cooking good meals because he wants to see the Young Master smile etc.
And I think it's very in-line with Ciel's in-universe mischaracterization of Sebastian, for him to enjoy something as human as the finite fantasy of Marriage. He finds beauty in things that have An End after all, in laughably impossible promises, in things that are fleeting. And it would just be an added bonus: the materialization of the thread (the chain) that connects them in this way, seals akin to engagement rings.
It'll never happen, of course. So what's the harm in daydreaming?