#ratchetxoc

I took at least some inspiration from my actual wedding for the ceremony, as well as the couple weddings I had been to already by the time I was writing this, which I've been to another one since. I also put some different spins on it, of course, cause it's a Cybertronian celebration, not a human one, so it needed to be different somehow. I thought about having some influence from Shadebreaker's human background, but I think she'd only want for that in the reception, with the dance, like the specific song chosen, but then she might hesitate for that because it was the song she was supposed to dance with her human fiance to. The song I danced with my hubby to is the one I had picked out really early in life and it was set as my first dance song since I was a teenager. I imagine if something like what happened to Shadebreaker had happened to me, I would struggle to keep it as that if I found someone new later.

I think there's probably multiple different traditions within Cybertronian cultures regarding Bonding Ceremonies, like there are several different ones for humans. The ones I used, I think, are probably the ones Elita and Optimus would've followed, but, if, say Prowl gets bonded in the future, he would follow different ones being a Praxian, though some elements might be the same.

Seekers, too, might have different ones, which I could've played around with more if I had more Seekers in the story already on base that had been around for longer or if they'd been around for longer--or if Shade' was friends with Slingshot. But Shadebreaker isn't really connected with her Seeker parts, despite having Seeker CNA, due to not having much connection to her family and heritage and not really knowing other Seekers. And the bots don't know a whole lot about Seeker culture either, since most Seekers are Decepticons. Slingshot knows, but I headcanon he's not really friends with Shadebreaker at this stage and doesn't even know she's part Seeker to care what she does and doesn't know regarding the culture. At this point, I'm not even sure what he does and doesn't know himself regarding it. And Lunar' and Blaze' have barely begun seeing her as a friend, so they wouldn't have butted in on her ceremony, despite her telling them she's got Seeker in her. Besides, she's also Beast former and they have no idea what that means culturally. NO ONE knows what that means culturally, really. Beast former traditions? Do they even exist? No one knows anymore.

Shadowstreaker might know some stuff about Seeker traditions, but he's not the type to butt into how they run their ceremony and I don't think Shadebreaker would've thought to ask him, or cared enough about honoring her Seeker side to ask him unprompted given her feelings about her family. She would've forgone the ceremony anyways, if Ratchet hadn't wanted it.

The vows I pulled a bunch of stuff from the internet and did some editing to make it fit Shadebreaker and Ratchet until I was at least mostly happy with them. Part of the reason my hubby and I went with traditional vows was that there was no way I could memorize custom ones with the time we had and the struggles I was dealing with, same for him, but also because there was nothing I could've said that would've felt adequate. I'm still not fully satisfied with Ratchet and Shade's, but they're fitting and as good as I can do. That's enough. I just always feel like I could do better with such things. I hope they hit as well as custom vows do at other people's weddings. I somewhat regret not doing custom vows and just reading them off notes for my wedding, so I wanted to do them for Shade and Ratchet. I hope they're good enough to communicate what I wanted them to.

Optimus's speeches was somewhat hard, because I had little to base it off of, but I was happy with it. I hope you all are, too. Elita's was absolutely inspired by my sister's speech she gave at my wedding and the mention of the jetty was absolutely pulled directly from it. I learned how she viewed that night in that moment and it brought me to tears. I was always inspired by her, but learning I had been inspiring her by my bravery and my it's-going-to-be-fine-as-long-as-we-keep-going attitude was very…it was touching and a lot and I wanted to pay homage to that.

Wheeljack's speech was…completely winged. I could only somewhat take inspiration from all the speeches I heard, because Ratchet and my hubby are vastly different people who did and experienced vastly different things. There was nothing in his best man's speech that I could put directly into Wheeljack's speech, because it wouldn't have fit for Ratchet.

Then, of course, the dances. Of course you have the first dance. I imagine traditionally there would be a father-daughter dance as well, but I don't think it would be made a big deal of. And maybe a mother-son dance. I don't think it would be made a big deal of either. I also don't think Cybertronians would have the same struggles with it we do, where parents feel entitled to these things and say things like "It's *my* day, you have to do this for me on *your* ceremony day." Because that's absolutely bullshit(which I could go on a RANT about) and I feel like Cybertronians might have at least that together. Because of their lifespans and the fact sometimes the parents don't even raise their own kids, so it ruins their ability to feel entitled to them when there's this threat of the caste system taking them away all the time. Plus, the fact ceremonies aren't even considered to be required for bonding and by now, with the war, so many bots don't even have their parents in their lives anymore.

I see a mixture of expectations with humans on whether the newly weds help with cleanup or not. I think with Cybertronians, it's generally expected that they don't, unless there's just not enough help otherwise. Like, if the bonded couple are taking sweet days, they are expected to head directly to them after the ceremony unless they are traveling, in which case they are expected to go rest for the travels. Unless there's only, like, three other bots available to help clean up, then they will *allowed* to help clean up, otherwise, they're shooed out of the process like you see Elita and Chromia do to Shadebreaker, who had been fully expecting to help clean up both with her human wedding and her Cybertronian ceremony(though, I ended up hurting too much to do much at my wedding at the end. T_T).

This used to be dependent on the bonding bots' caste and monetary means, but these days it depends upon other factors, like bots willing, available, urgency of getting it cleaned up, ect. There's plenty of bots willing and available to cleanup Shade and Ratchet's reception and there's no real urgency besides the food to cleanup everything. So there's no need to interfere with their sweet days for cleanup.

Ratchet wears special armor for the ceremony, but Shadebreaker doesn't. Ratchet does because he has it, but no one mentions anything to Shadebreaker about new, special armor, because it's not something that's expected. Just the polish and gems are. Ratchet just knows his usual armor isn't his *best* looking armor he has, so he goes for his *special occasion* armor for the ceremony. It's not battle armor or even very protective at all, which is why he doesn't wear it usually, but it does look better than what he usually wears. I haven't quite decided exactly what it looks like, I don't have an exact image of it in my head, just a vague idea that it looks better on him than what he usually wears in Primeverse.