Witch's Wedding

**Witch's Wedding** is the eleventh supplement in Counterside, focusing around the members of Cafe Strega. The event showcases Cafe Strega's situation after the close of EP. 10 and Season 2, while mainly serving as an in-cannon reason for the Wedding March skins of Harab, Larua and Maestra Nequitia to exist.

## Synopsis

> *Cafe Strega holds a special event by order of the owner, Laura. An unexpected incident causes the event to be more memorable than the original plan...*
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## Appearances

* Laura Beatrix
* Evelyn Keller
* Photographer
* Yuna Springfield
* Ingrid Johanna
* Cathy Wade
* Little Lenny
* Pluto
* Rayleigh (mentioned)
* Harab (as Honest Bride)
* Maestra Nequitia (as Destructive Bride)
* Shieldman (as placeholder for Puppets of the Bride and Instruments of the Bride)
* Suppressor (as placeholder for Puppets of the Bride and Instruments of the Bride)

## Plot

Evelyn forces Laura to accompany her during a grocery trip, trying to get Laura to go out more as Evelyn has noticed something being on her mind constantly. Laura reveals that she's worried about the cafe as she thinks the witch theme by itself, isn't getting customers anymore despite the large amount of weird people in Ground One. As they notice another business called Blonde Hat Cat advertise to passerby, Evelyn brings up the possibility that due to the constant Counterside Effects occurring due to the Crevice, people lives' may have been too difficult to even think of the cafe. Laura makes a conclusion that, 'The more difficult it is to live, the more extreme the theme has to be'. As she's about to ponder such a thing, a photographer nearby advertises a wedding picture event for engaged couples at Sweet Bay Studio. Intrigued, Laura doubts the amount of people getting married to appeal to but Evelyn points to the massive queue evidently disapproving such an idea. Confused, Laura brings up how Evelyn was talking about people's lives being difficult prior. Evelyn reasons its because of such difficulty the line is so long, "They might be rushing it, since it might be now or never.". The gears turn in Laura's head as she begins to consider an event for the cafe.

The duo return to the cafe, greeted by Yuna claiming she and Ingrid cleaned up the cafe without breaking anything. As if on cue, something does break and cause a mess. Laura bemoans the repeated occurrence of such incidents, stating that the recompense would be from Yuna's paycheck but there's nothing left to take from, giving an idea to how often this has occurred. As Ingrid tries to quickly clean the mess with magic, Laura stops her with a smack, deploring her overreliance and simplification of magic without worry of any unknown side effects that could occur from overuse. Telling her to not use it so often and that someone inexperienced like her should be careful, sends the two young witches off on an errand gathering wedding props for wedding-themed event they will host, while Evelyn cleans up the mess. Excited by such a prospect, Ingrid and Yuna run off to do their mission while Evelyn and Laura discuss the details. Settling on wearing wedding dresses and wedding desserts with a spell on them, with Yuna and Ingrid making the dresses when they come back while Evelyn researches new wedding-themed desserts and Laura focuses on preparing the spell for said desserts. Evelyn suggests ideas for the spell, such as
a spell that strengthens your relationship if you ate it with your lover, or a spell that gives you the courage to propose. Laura takes the suggestions, saying she'll think about it.

Yuna and Ingrid are extremely excited about hosting a wedding. Yuna wants it to be like a real wedding, before admitting she's never been to an actual wedding before. Ingrid shares similar thoughts, having been to a few with the last one being of a girl named Madeleine who Ingrid would fight with on the playground with wooden sticks, eventually leaving after getting married as Ingrid puts it "Married grown-ups don't have time to play with neighborhood children.". Yuna becomes bit down by Ingrid's loss of a friend/rival, which Ingrid quickly dismisses, calling her wedding 'fun', as it had a huge amount of flowers, good food and a fountain. Yuna is enamored, calling the idea of getting married at a venue with a fountain 'romantic'. Ingrid exclaims they can do it too, but with magic; and because of the cafe nature of the venue, they can make it a chocolate fountain too.

The girls soon get lost in their fantasy of a 'real wedding', calling for marshmallows on sticks to roast by the fireplace before dipping into the chocolate fountain, a grand orchestra of a hundred people, huge orbs in the sky that dispense flower petals and even a wedding-themed dimensional ship (a bright white dimensional ship with white ribbons on its tails, similar to a wedding car). Adding to that, are cakes that float around through magic alongside fizzy-water balloons and the two familiars, Rayleigh and Pluto, being the MC (Master of Ceremony) and flower boy respectively, with Rayleigh additionally charged with performing a fire show at the back when the bride and groom enter.

The duo express dreams of getting on the news like the witch from Necronomiko (a fictional animated series the two are fans of), which would make the cafe more famous, which would please Laura and Yuna would be able to get back all the money taken out of her paycheck. Enthusiastic and animated beyond belief the two rush off to get props, unaware they caught the attention of a certain journalist.

As the duo move about Yuna brings up to Ingrid that she had watched the Necronomiko movie, Wedding of Witch, and in said movie, a huge orb, fizzy-water balloons and a wedding-themed dimensional ship existed too, indirectly stating that the both of them are basing a real wedding based on a fictional one. Ingrid brushes it off with a stammer, stating "Th-That's just the standard for weddings! They're all similar!", which Yuna easily believes and excitedly agrees with due to her lack of knowledge on weddings, with Ingrid hesitantly reaffirming her (most likely because her knowledge of weddings is similar to Yuna and she has never been to a real wedding either, only seeing them in Necronomiko and she's tensed from how close the lie was to failing, with the possibility of her actually being at Madeleine's wedding, dubious).

The group are all busy at work, finding themselves in more than what they initially expected and having to adapt. While Evelyn congratulates everybody on a good job, the young witches go off to the storage room to look for more things to add to their wedding dresses. With their absence, Laura notices a lot of noise outside despite no promotion being done yet. Evelyn goes to investigate, only to be greeted by a massive crowd talking about wedding dresses, a wedding-themed dimensional ship and a huge, floating mirror ball that sprays flower petals. Confused, Evelyn is greeted by Cathy Wade, assuming Evelyn hasn't changed into her wedding dress and stating she, like the rest of the crowd, knows the place is famous for its costumes and that they are all very excited for their event to start. Still confused, Evelyn questions what does she mean, and Cathy reveals employees of Cafe Strega told her in an interview, showing Evelyn the article with the interview.

Explaining all this to Laura drives her furious, summoning the two 'brats' and demanding a reasoning for the wild concoctions spouted in the interview, "A dimensional ship? A flaming bird and a fire show? Is the grimoire of the sun a joke to you?!". Evelyn tries to be voice of reason, explaining that if the two had told them about before about such ideas, they could've tried to make something work but Laura is having none of it, saying she wouldn't allow it even then. The two are confused, with Ingrid asking that aren't these normal in weddings, and Yuna chipping in about seeing it on Necronomiko. Laura bemoans their faith in children's cartoons before Evelyn tries to calm her down and face the real, present issue of a massive crowd waiting in front of their shop. While stumped on how to handle it, Evelyn asks if they can explain and wave it away as a big misunderstanding, which Laura shuts down, as Yuna and Ingrid's faces are already on the article and should they pull the rug, their ratings will plummet. Then, Evelyn has an other idea...

Evelyn goes outside again, expressing worry which Catty catches on to and inquires about. She says a ruse about while the event being fine, the bride has lost her wedding shoes, and the employees are trying to find them, in reality, buying time for the others to pull of the new plan. Evelyn is also able to ingratiate herself with a little girl customer whose dressed like a witch called Little Lenny, giving her strawberry milk with extra strawberries and whipped cream. On hearing a cue, Evelyn exclaims she think the staff have 'found the shoes' before opening the cafe door which magically leads to a forest where Laura waits in a wedding dress, one so pretty that Lenny exclaims she's a 'princess', only to be sharply corrected by Laura that she is a 'bride' and Lenny needs glasses. Laura questions Evelyn on her plan, for her to be wearing a wedding dress, wondering why it had to be her and worried if it'll tear easily since it's made by those 'two dummies', to which Evelyn tells her to trust them as based on their work in halloween, even she knows they both can do a good job at costume making. Laura laments that the two are the way they are, because Evelyn keeps spoiling them. As she suggests that this charade won't go for long and that maybe it is best to tell them, voices from the crowd exclaim great interest and Evelyn asks if she really wants it to stop. Laura sighs and gives in, saying she'll play along with the act.

Evelyn then goes to Little Lenny, saying witches have a job to work together to protect the wedding as soon the 'bride of darkness' will arrive to interfere with the wedding. Yuna lets Evelyn know they're ready and the show begins. Suddenly, the lights go out. When they come back on, Ingrid stands in her Apprentice Ghost Hunter skin, acting (very stiffly, as Yuna puts it, but better than Evelyn thought) as the supposed 'bride of darkness', disparaging the wedding for starting without her and that she won't let the bride (Laura) have a happy wedding, before attacking Laura. Laura exclaims at her to not actually jump her like that but Ingrid says Evelyn told her to make it look real, to which Laura accentuates, 'To "look" real! "Look!"'. Lenny cries out that the 'princess' is in danger, with Evelyn adding that she'll be eaten by the bride of darkness unless they do something. Resolving to help, Lenny asks Evelyn what to do, to which Evelyn gives Lenny a glass jar, stating that she needs to gather 'Heart Points' in the jar by eating wedding desserts, to which Lenny immediately goes to her parents, demanding desserts. The other three witches look on in shock with Yuna wondering, "Is this how grown-ups make money... ?" while Evelyn laughs.

While the act is attracting some interest, its not as positive as hoped for. Brainstorming on what to do, Ingrid first suggests swinging her scythe more which gets firm, "NO!" from Laura, as Ingrid's 'looking real' is too much as is and should a customer get injured, it'll come from her paycheck (earlier, one of Ingrid's scythe swings managed to cut the corner off a table). Ingrid then suggests a second idea, inspired by what was done in Necronomiko 'when it was feeling a little stale'. Yuna catches on as Ingrid announces its to introduce a new villain. Evelyn is excited by the prospect but Yuna's unsure on how to pull it off, when Laura steps in with the idea to use magic, telling Yuna to bring the wedding dress out again. Evelyn cautiously checks on Laura as she's been, 'using a lot of magic today', which Laura rebuffs, that as a Beatrix, 'We barely yawn after using magic all day.', and Evelyn relents. As Yuna brings out the dress, Laura casts a spell on it telling the group to 'get ready for the second act.'.

A strange entity forms, talking about a sweet scent and how the addition of screaming would make the wedding venue perfect, is revealed to be Harab wearing the wedding dress, shocking the four witches. This Harab seems to be acting strange though, looking for a master that doesn't seem to be Serapel and an inability to 'wait a day longer to call him "Sweet Heart."'. Evelyn notices Laura's power emanating from this Harab, which causes them to realize this isn't the real Harab, only a magical entity with the same appearance as her, formed from the spell Laura cast on the wedding dress, triggering a chain reaction with the spell Laura cast on the wedding desserts for lovers to be honest with each other. This honesty spell, due to the amount of spells Laura was casting, had some of Laura's unconscious thoughts mixed in, hence the creation of the chain reaction looking like the honest sadist, Harab (and the ensuing creation by chain reaction in wedding dress, the Honest Bride).

The Honest Bride notices the other bride (Laura), making the observation that there are two brides here, so its assumedly an affair, and while likely done by 'him' to incur 'harsher punishment', the naughtiness of it all is much for her. She claims there is no need for two brides as, 'He and I have always been honest with each others taste', and that Laura would better serve as the flower girl to 'their' wedding ceremony, angering Laura who calls her a 'one-minute-old infant', and to "Give us back the dress and get lost.". Commenting on not assuming Laura would be so cutthroat, the Honest Bride states she's not one to take orders, but be the one to give orders. She states the wedding will start soon and Laura will be 'dealt with before my sweetheart returns.', how they two are the only important people necessary for the ceremony, and that she'll fight Laura to 'win him over'. All the while Laura grows more and more confused by what she's talking about and "Who the heck is this 'he' anyway?!" as they eventually fight.

The witches and Honest Bride battle, with Honest Bride's talk bordering on going into adult territory which Laura warns against, stating 'We welcome customers of all-ages'. After the battle, Yuna wonders how the customers think this is still not real, and Ingrid pointing out more people are gathering to attend. Laura calls them to help instead of chatting amongst themselves. As the Honest Bride seems to rev up for another fight to inflict, 'pain as intoxicating as married life!', Laura calls her insane. The customers seem to be shifting attention to another individual, wondering ,'is that person the final boss?'. As Laura turns to look at this newcomer, she's shocked, with Cathy noting that the atmosphere has even changed.

A new bride appears that bears a great resemblance to Maestra Nequitia (but as none of the characters present know her, nobody recognizes her). This new bride uses Nequitia's referral of others as 'instruments' in her way of speaking, but also spews overwhelming negativity. She decries marriage as 'meaningless performance' which evokes fear in everyone. Confused, Laura probes her on this supposed fear of marriage, to which the bride elaborates, how marriage is a mere sharing of a room, that the expense accrued to make such a ceremony as a wedding occur, as well fit one's dream, will ruin an individual financially. How after the newlywed feelings fade, with love, romance and happiness forgotten, the husband and wife will despair and merely stay together just to cause less trouble. This negative attitude confounds Laura (with Yuna chirping in its similarity to Laura's attitude, with her quickly telling Yuna to be quiet), which the new bride uses to call herself the Destructive Bride, a culmination of human's fear of marriage, and that she'll save them from the ruins of such ceremony by destroying it.

Ingrid recognizes the dress she's wearing as the one she made, leading the group to believe that like Honest Bride, she's created from a chain reaction between the honesty spell on the desserts and the spell on the wedding dress. Laura denies she would ever put such a dangerous spell that would cause such negativity to occur on the desserts, causing Evelyn to approach her on what her opinion marriage actually is as it might be from her fear (like the Honest Bride, another unconscious thought mixed in, her fear chain reacting with the magic of the dress). Laura states she doesn't know anything about weddings since she hasn't been married yet and the Beatrixes don't fear anything, before hesitantly admitting that her family castle (Walpurgis Castle, currently stuck in Counterside in the witches' basement and former sealed prison of Serapel), had to be redone after her parents fought, which seems to be source of her fears of marriage.

Cathy brings the groups attention back to the present, and how the Destructive Bride is wrecking chaos on the entire venue. They all try to stop her but none of their attacks seem to work. Suddenly, the Honest Bride pipes up, dismissing the Destructive Bride's claims as nonsense. The Destructive Bride deems her as a 'poor soul', incapable of understanding the potential destruction a wedding would bring, with Honest Bride retorting that she sees only a bright future 'filled with screams and moans'. Destructive Bride calls the Honest Bride as one with no love, with her rebutting that her love is not for the Destructive Bride to see, that it is a loyal love for 'him' should she die and be reborn, that love will still remain. Even with the Destructive Bride pointing that her love is more that of a servant than a bride, she accepts it, willing to be 'a loyal puppet, always ready to step on my master.' and claims the Destructive Bride knows nothing about love, pitying her.

Focused on the point of love, the two decide that the only way to prove who is right is through battle. As the witches discuss what to do while the two battle as none of their own attacks worked, Cathy brings up the observation that each Heart Point Lenny collects seems to have an effect on the Destructive Bride, slowing down her footsteps, commenting on the idea being interesting, unaware this isn't staged. Laura resolves to ending the mess caused by the two sentient dresses and the witches join the battle.

The Destructive Bride, beaten by the combined efforts of the Honest Bride and the witches, comments on her belief that all such pointless emotions as love to be exclusive to humans, with the Honest Bride claiming the only one who is actually afraid of marriage is her. As the two make small talk, the Destructive Bride wishes them all a 'happy wedding reception', before disappearing, along with the forest locale as everyone is returned back to the cafe in Ground One. Ingrid notices something scattered on the floor, turning out to be fortune cookies Laura made, becoming a mess as she was trying to cast a spell on each of them. The onlookers, excited by the "play's" storyline of the the witches teaming with villain to defeat another villain, garner the witches with cheer and applause.

Happy the cafe is safe, Laura says to give away the fortune cookies as a souvenir as the guests leave. Cathy congratulates Laura on running a great show, saying it'll make a good article, and Laura gifts her a wedding dessert with a special spell to make her a 'happy bride'. Laura also gifts Lenny a fortune cookie, with her correctly calling Laura a 'witch bride', saying she was very cool before shyly running away. As Laura and Evelyn discuss what to with the wedding reception Evelyn had planned, with her saying things are fine enough as is, Yuna goes to give the Honest Bride a fortune cookie since she did help them. Confused but accepting the gift, she remarks how this event was for everyone, not just two people and that 'Tears of joy instead of tears of agony' are 'occasionally acceptable.', still reaffirming she looks forwards to having her 'Sweet Heart', kneel under her, before disappearing.

In the aftermath of the wedding event, Cafe Strega's sales have significantly boosted, with Laura remarking, 'I've never seen a more upward-oriented line before.' while looking at the sales account. Evelyn wonders about if they should do such event regularly, with Laura immediately shutting her down, claiming she's going to have nightmares from the event. Ingrid pipes up to tell Laura to let her know if does have any nightmares, as she recently purchased some charms meant to be good against nightmares from a Madam Chloe Starseeker, which Laura heavily refuses. Evelyn asks Laura about the Original Puppet, as they both felt some of her energy, but are unsure of where exactly it was heading to. Evelyn wonders if she's dead, with Laura doubting, saying she's likely planning something in some hidden place and in the meantime, they all need to prepare ourselves, especially the great witch-in-training Yuna. Right on cue, Yuna appears, hearing her name being called, only to be immediately hounded by Laura and Pluto on not practicing her magic six hours a day. Yuna calls them both out on being so mean, and life goes on as always.

## Stage Detail

* Combat Environment - Sassy Bride - Laura Beatrix Skill Haste +100%
* Stages with gameplay in this event feature Laura Beatrix as an uncontrollable unit in the ship slot, taking the corresponding health bar.
* This event consists of 1 Act in the Normal Mode, with no Hard Mode stage.

## Trivia

* The ending implies that the witches are training to deal with Serapel; with Yuna, wielder of the Solar Codex, put great attention on, as being integral to said fight. However, the truth is that regardless of how strong she gets (even reaching the point of Regina, capable of freezing time and space), she will only be an aide and nothing more in the coming fight, as only 3 things can kill a Demon Lord:
	+ A wolf
	+ An individual chosen by this world
	+ Another Demon Lord