last year i did some frenzied search abt victorian marriage guides & costumes for oc writing purposes (and also bc edward would've done the same, naturally) & i vaaaguely remember reading a bit how it wasn't actually that odd for only one person (the bride) to get/wear a ring or for the respective parties to each buy theirs
anyway my initial headcanon to explain why he showed the FLPC the ring and then bolted with it was to make him too attached to it (like it being one of the few things he still had from his mother), but there was also a. je ne sais quoi in the fact he never gave us a ring bc he was waiting for us to do it? so i said to myself oh in the distant future my pc getting a ring would be a big step. and now that this is closer to a reality it suddenly hit me like a bag of bricks:
the mask. is the mask his actual equivalent of a wedding ring. lovingly sculpted as a twin image hoping that you'll wear it not as a master or servant but as an equal. the mask is his wedding ring isnt it.
