Starting with some Marriage discussion

After Blossom left to search for Alex, the girls and you gathered in the living room to talk about the stuff that has happened. Everyone spread out among the couches and loveseats with room for everyone to have room. Even Pixel who was normally very shy (a leftover from her years as a Ralts) joined us though she stayed hidden behind the couch you were sitting behind.

“Sooo…you finally proposed to Aelita?” Gaige decided to start the conversation off. “I mean I kinda expected a wedding since you found Starfire but why now and not before?”

“Well the marriage laws regarding characters are a mess but in general, if you get engaged to one character you cannot get engaged or married to another until the first one agrees to add them to the marriage, breaks off the engagement or marriage, dies, or the marriage permit expires.” you reply reminding her and informing the others on that part of the marriage laws.

“So to marry me, James would’ve had to either wait for the permit that will allow him to marry Starfire to expire by which time the baby would’ve been born or declare her dead and he’d lose all claim to her,” Aelita explained.

“Those character marriage laws are interesting, I’ll tell you that,” you shake your head a bit. “But I guess RealDreams kinda wants it that way so not as many characters can get the rights character-spouses get.”

“What do you mean by that? What do character-spouses get?” Erza is curious with Gogo and others gaining an interested gleam in their eyes.

“I am not really sure, my parents told me some parts when we were planning Star’s original wedding but I’m a bit iffy on the details,” you mentioned scrunching up your face as you tried to remember. “I know that they can inherit their prime-worlder spouse’s property unless they have a kid at which point the kid will technically own them and inherit but legally the character-spouse will have guardianship over them. Character-spouses can’t be sold, traded or confiscated and anyone who tries will get arrested.”

“Isn’t that still giving too much power to the kid?” Diana asked in concern.

“Maybe but I don’t know enough; the closest example I have is the Wayne’s kid and they are alright.” You commented referring to one of your neighbors’ kids. Aelita saw there were no more questions and continued with her explanation.

“Character-spouses can also own property and come and go as they please as long as their spouse doesn’t make a fuss but they do get a lot more protections than normal characters; they legally become second-class citizens.” Aelita explained before grabbing your hand. “I’ve been given some additional rights as a pregnant character, anyone who looked at me wrong was in a lot of trouble, but once the baby is out, I will be considered a normal character again which is why your parents wanted to get us married soon.”

“Wait, really? I thought they just wanted us married before the baby was born,” you say in surprise.

“They did but they were mainly worried that I might disappear one day like Starfire,” Aelita replied looking at the floor. You embrace her and rub her back.

“Anyone who tried will be buried in a junkyard world,” you say with seriousness in your voice. “If the police didn’t get to Josh first…” Aelita breathed a few seconds before pulling away.

“I’m alright,” she breathed out. “Your mom also told me that while missing characters get a small investigation, they are not a priority since the locator chips or collars usually get them found quickly. However, character-spouses get nearly as much priority as missing prime-worlders, they pull a lot of resources to find them even if the locators don’t work.

“I think Josh mentioned something about that after he took me,” Starfire said offhandedly. “Since we didn’t get to the ceremony, the police wouldn’t look for me once they messed with my chip.”

“My dad got the previous police chief fired for that,” you said and your newbies’ jaws dropped at that revelation.

“I don’t think you can just drop that kind of info…” Gogo complained but you cut her off.

“He has connections.”

“How did you get taken anyway? And how did you get back?” Ahsoka addressed Starfire, taking some of the attention off of me. Diana and some of the others stared at me silently promising to get a better explanation later.

“Yeah what happened?” Katara asked.

“I would like to know too.” Aelita spoke up.

“Oh, well what happened was…”