Star Force Stiltskin and Lacey, where did you get married? What kind of ceremony did you have? Thank you!
Lacey: We got married twice! The first ceremony was a traditional Rumplurian binding which took place, like all Rumplurian religious ceremonies, in our own home.
You can read about that here: Bonds of Body and Soul
(There’s also a sequel in which they renew their vows: Bonds Eternal)
We also had a traditional human wedding ceremony at the Force Base botanical gardens. I’m not particularly religious, so it was a simple civil ceremony performed by Force General King, whose rank means he can officiate all kinds of things. He was a bit perplexed when I asked if he’d do my wedding, but he was happy to oblige.
There are some very impressive wedding pictures of us surrounded by all these weird and wonderful plants, with me in my wedding gown and Stiltskin in his full dress uniform...
They were both wonderful ceremonies and I wouldn’t trade either of them for the world.
Stila: Do you have any coming of age traditions in your race? Anything that your kids will have the chance to experience?
(I found this gif and immediately had visions of some kind of secret ritual, so here goes!)
Rumplurians come of age at 19 but are not considered fully adult until a year later. Nineteen-year-olds are considered sort of ‘adults in training’, where they can do all the things that adults can (drink, vote, begin higher education, go bungee-jumping off giant palm trees…) but are still expected to consult with their parents before making big decisions.
After a year of learning how to adult, there’s a small ceremony at home where all of the adults in a family gather around to welcome the former child into the adult world. There are candles and blessings and a special meal. Children can’t be present, so they usually stay at a neighbour’s house.
I’d like to continue the tradition with our own children, but obviously we’re on a different planet and ages of adulthood are different her, so it’ll be changed around a little.
Star Force (because how can I not?) what if it had been Lacey who had been marooned on the ship and Rumple left at home?
Oh God I want to write so much Star Force now…
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One would have thought that, when Communications Officer Nova first picked up a transmission from the stranded ship Aurora Borealis, establishing that the vessel had not only survived its accident but also crossed into its home galaxy and was on its way back to Force Base at last, the first person she would have told about this monumental development would be Force General King.
One would have been mistaken.
Comms Officer Nova sent the person sitting at the desk next to her to go and tell the General.
Nova herself went in the opposite direction, towards the medical centre. Specifically, towards the office of the base’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Stiltskin.
Dr Stiltskin’s office was much of a muchness, not very different to any of the other officers in the medical centre. His desk, however, was another matter.
For a start, it was actually in two halves that were held together by screws and packing tape. This was the result of him flipping the thing so hard that it broke in half, on learning that the Aurora Borealis, carrying his wife Lacey as a medic, had been lost to the wormhole.
For a second, it was covered in little scratches, each one representing a day that the Rumplurian had been separated from his wife.
Nova was so eager to share her news that she burst into the office without knocking, alarming Dr Stiltskin who looked at her as if she was about to tell him that the building was burning down.
“We’ve found them,” she said simply.
“Really?” The doctor’s voice was so soft and disbelieving that Nova’s heart went out to him. She crossed the office and unceremoniously shoved him out of the way, sitting down behind his desk and bringing up the communications program on his computer, plugging in her headphones.
“Tink are you still there?” she asked.
“Yep.” The reply was crackly, but it was still there.
“Can you put Lacey on?”
“Sure.”
Nova put the headphones onto the shell-shocked doctor.
“Lace?” he whispered. “Little dove, is that you? Are you all right?”
Nova didn’t hear the reply, but she could tell from Stiltskin’s expression that it was an affirmative.
She slipped out of the office. General King could wait a while. There were some reunions that shouldn’t be postponed.
Star Force: Lace & Stila: What was your first date like? Who asked who out?
Lacey: Our first date was a walk in the park. Literally.
Stiltskin: We’d bumped into each other in the medical centre cafeteria the day before, which was how we met. I hadn’t been at Force Base all that long and still wasn’t entirely familiar with the geography of the place, so Lacey offered to take me round some of her favourite places.
Lacey: He didn’t realise it was a date at first.
Stiltskin: I caught on pretty quick after you kissed me.
Have a snippet from Lacey and Stila’s walk in the park here.
How did Star Force/Space Baby Bae get his first stuffed crocodile?
I really need to check my inbox more often, this is getting ridiculous. Sorry for the delay here!
Bae’s first crocodile was a plushie given to him by Lacey and Stiltskin’s Rumplurian friend Morgana, who’s the closest thing to family that Stiltskin has, and who is also Bae’s godmother.
Being a homo reptilia colony with a native planet full of reptiles and amphibians and not all that many mammals, it’s traditional to give plush lizards and crocodiles in the Rumplurian culture, rather than bears or other more ‘cuddly’ creatures.
It was a gift on the occasion of his birth, and it quickly established itself as his favourite plaything all while he was a little one. Since then, his collection has only grown!
@joylee56 prompted: “Star Force -- how Lacey and Stiltskin spent his first night home.”
Rated: E
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It’s been so long since he’s seen this apartment. Too long. Nevertheless, he still remembers every detail of it as he walks in through the door. Lacey’s made a few little changes to the décor during the time he’s been away, but nothing drastic. The place is still recognisable as his home. Home. Stiltskin can barely believe that he’s really here. He’s dreamed about this moment so often that it takes him pressing his sharp thumb claws into his palms to provide that sudden jolt of pain that tells him this is all very real. For a long time, all he can do is wander around the place in a state of silent wonder, taking it all in and basking in that feeling of being home.
Lacey meets him in the living room, holding out a glass of champagne as he runs his hands over the back of the couch.
“To us,” she says, chinking her glass against his. “Together again, at last.”
“And never to be parted again.”
He takes a sip, the fizzy liquid burning the back of his throat in that delicious way. It’s certainly better than the moonshine that others on the ship made during their long journey home, and he savours the taste. They always had plenty of food on board, with the replicators and regular supply stops throughout the quadrants, but nothing that really tasted like proper home cooking. He’s missed Lacey’s cooking almost as much as he’s missed Lacey herself. When he’s finally satisfied himself that everything in the house is real and he’s not hallucinating or dreaming, he settles on the sofa beside his beloved wife, and she snuggles into his side.
“I missed you so much,” she whispers. “Especially on the holidays. Gordontide has been utterly miserable these past few years.”
Stiltskin is touched that Lacey continued to honour his religious holidays in his absence, and he kisses her gently.
“This year it will be a proper celebration,” he says.
“As will Thanksgiving.” Lacey drains her glass and settles into his side. There’s something unspoken in the air between them, as they both know what is going to happen tonight. Although they had their share of long distance love after Aurora Borealis re-established contact with Force Base, to be able to see and feel Lacey after so long… Stiltskin can’t wait. They’re hovering around the subject, perhaps both of them feeling that they ought to let him get used to being home before they do anything, but they’re both adults in love with needs and desires, and they have both missed each other so very much.
“Dinner?” Lacey suggests, and as much as Stiltskin feels like having her for dinner right here on the sofa would be a much better idea, there is something very tempting about the idea of a good meal with Lacey at his side. Proper food and proper TV was the way that they always used to celebrate his return from the shorter trips he’s been on during his career. He leans in the kitchen doorway as she cooks something from his homeland, full of greens and spices, and in that moment, Stiltskin has never felt more blessed. He’s home, and he has everything he needs. If he ends up prolonging the cooking process a little by going over and slipping his arms around Lacey, nuzzling into her hair and breathing in the delicate citrus scent of her shampoo, feeling rather than hearing her soft laughter, then so be it. When they do finally sit down to eat, it could almost be any normal evening, as if he hasn’t just spent four years apart from her and as if just a few short hours ago, the fate of the Aurora and all her crew wasn’t still hanging in the balance. The most notable difference is that Lacey is practically glued to his side, as close to him as she has ever been with all her clothes on.
As the nature documentary they’ve been watching ends, she hits the remote and the screen winks out, leaving them in semi-darkness, the faint purple hew of the city lights around them giving the room an otherworldly feel that he will have to get used to again having been so long without it. In the space ship, everything was dark, but it was constantly loud, with all the noise from the warp core and the engines humming in the background without cease. Now, back home, the situation is reversed. The insulation in the windows mean that the city is silent around them and all he can hear is his and Lacey’s breathing, but even without the lights on in their apartment, there is still that persistent urban glow all around.
“I’ll clean up,” Stiltskin says, collecting together their plates, but Lacey pulls him back down before he can get up.
“No, it’ll keep till tomorrow. There are more important things to be done tonight.”
She kisses him then, deep and with all the same joyous passion that she had shown him in that first kiss when they were reunited in the Aurora hangar. He can taste the hot green peppers on her tongue and all he wants to do is keep kissing her for as long as he can, the plates instantly forgotten.
“Oh Stila,” she gasps as she finally lets him up for air. “Oh Stila, my love, I’ve missed you so much, I love you so much.”
“I love you too, my little dove,” Stiltskin growls, and he kisses her again, pushing her down against the sofa cushions and feeling her arms and legs snake around him and pull him in tight against her, her fingers digging into his back as if she can’t get him close enough and never wants to let him go. For all that their evening up until this moment has been calm and lazy, getting back into the normal routine of life on solid ground, their movements now are frantic and desperate. Having put off this last ultimate reunion for so long, they’re now rushing towards it with all the force and finesse of a space ship on warp ten. Stiltskin manages to wriggle out of Lacey’s hold on him and wrestles his shirt off, Lacey’s top and bra following in short order. There were times before, at the start of their marriage, when they were so keen to make up for lost time after a separation that they’d done it against the door as soon as they’d got into the apartment, not bothering to undress and just moving the barest minimum of clothing out of the way. Now though, although he has no desire to take his time like he usually does, Stiltskin wants the clothes gone; he wants to see and touch every inch of Lacey’s body, something he has been denied for so long.
“Oh Lace,” he breathes, kissing his way down her chest and sucking on each pert rosy nipple in turn. Her skin tastes divine, like it always has done, and her fingernails are tracing patterns over his bare back and tickling the place beneath his shoulder blades where he’s particularly sensitive.
“Stila.” She’s wriggling underneath him, pressing her hips up into his and providing the most wonderful friction against his twitching cock. He doesn’t think he’s ever wanted her quite as much as he does right now. “Please, Stila, make love to me. I want to feel you inside, I’ve missed you so much…”
Her words tail off and she keens under his touch, and Stiltskin can’t take it anymore. They scrabble out of the rest of their clothes, and Stiltskin takes a long moment to drink in the sight of Lacey sprawled beneath him, naked and lovely and every inch perfection, so much more wonderful in the flesh than memory could ever make her out to be.
“Come here, my love.” Lacey traces a fingertip up his rigid length, and Stiltskin’s eyes flutter closed. Her hands on him have never felt so good, and she keeps talking as she continues to stroke him. “Come here, Stila, come on inside, I want you so much, missed you so bad…”
He slips a hand down between her legs, finding her entrance wet and welcoming, and then Lacey’s hands are back around his back, pulling him down on top of her for another fierce kiss.
“You’re ready?”
She nods. “I’ve been ready since the moment you landed, darling.”
“This isn’t going to take very long,” he warns as he reaches down to line them up, pressing just the tip inside her soft heat and thrusting in long and slow. This truly feels like coming home, and Stiltskin cannot help but groan in pleasure as he loses himself in Lacey’s embrace.
“There’s time enough later,” Lacey whispers, wriggling her hips beneath him to encourage him to move. “We have all the time in the world, Stila. So much time.”
He’s right; after so long without Lacey’s touch it takes him hardly any time to come, but Lacey doesn’t mind, petting his hair as he rests his forehead against hers, both of them panting. He has plenty of time to make it up to her now that he’s back for good, and he plans to start just as soon as his limbs no longer feel like jelly.
Needless to say, the dishes remain forgotten about until late next day…
Lacey and Stila - do you often send your kid off to a sleepover with his cousins? And does Lacey's sister return the favor?
“Are you sure they’re going to be all right?”
Lacey rolled her eyes.
“They’ll be fine, Stila.”
“I’m just not used to having this many small beings in the house.”
“They’ll be fine, Stila. And you’ll be fine too. Besides, Ally’s taken Bae overnight a couple of times now, so it’s time we let her have a night off as well.”
They were standing in the living room doorway, watching Bae and his two cousins as they watched TV from the blanket fort that Lacey and Stiltskin had spent most of the afternoon helping them to create. When Lacey had told Bae that his cousins were coming for the night, he had pleaded with her for them to be allowed to sleep in a blanket fort in the living room and pretend that they were camping on one of the many exotic planets that Stiltskin had visited on his travels. Now, they were gazing rapt at their favourite TV show, Space Crocodile Sammy, completely unaware of the adults’ presence, and Lacey couldn’t help but smile, and be thankful that her family had stuck so close together.
Star Force: Have Lacey and Stiltskin ever been into space together?
Sorry it’s taken so long to answer these, work was ridiculous all afternoon...
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“Oh Stila, it’s so beautiful! I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before!”
Lacey was gazing out of the window of the Alpha Hop, the small shuttle ship that serviced the planets of Alpha Quadrant, her hands pressed against the glass as she watched the ribbons of hyperspace pass her by. It was their first trip away from Misthaven together, and Lacey’s first trip away from her home planet altogether. But for their honeymoon, they had wanted to get away, far away, and they were headed to Saphira for a week of relaxation and spa treatments at the famed Crystal Falls.
Stiltskin slipped his arms around Lacey’s waist and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“I can see something far more beautiful,” he whispered in her ear, watching her faint reflection in the glass.
