Logs:She's My Sister
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| RL Date: 1 August, 2015 |
| Who: Hattie, Tabitha, Elaruth |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Vignette |
| What: Tabitha misses her sister, except... she's not her sister. And maybe that's the problem. |
| Where: Weyrleaders' Weyr, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 4, Month 6, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Mimi/Mentions, N'muir/Mentions, P'draig/Mentions |
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| When she reached the mouth of the weyr, she began to automatically lift a hand to greet her queen with the brush of her palm over her nose, only glancing down to see what - or rather, who - was tucked against Elaruth's chest, she discovered that they weren't alone. It was not uncommon to find any of her children in her lifemate's company, or in the wallow with her. Hattie had made sure that they knew they were welcome, all having been raised in some measure in that weyr, but she knew that her eldest didn't like pushing what boundaries they had imposed themselves. N'muir was not their father, and though they had, more or less, developed an easy familiarity with him, that the weyr was his too meant it was not to be invaded at all hours. Tabitha blinked up at her from the safety of Elaruth's embrace. Tabitha, who didn't really remember that she had once believed P'draig to be her father. One of her two girls who didn't really know or understand what it was to have a father - and in their situation, it was probably for the best. She had never lacked for affection; had never seemed to be too affected by the lies and blackmail that had tainted her early years. Hattie gathered her skirts and made to step carefully down into the wallow to join them, reluctantly accepting assistance to keep her balance. Settling was more difficult and less elegant, but she eventually found a comfortable enough spot, propped against Elaruth with one of the gold's forearms curved at her back. She waited for Tabitha to talk. The girl didn't do so well when questioned. She didn't have long to wait. "...I miss Mimi," Tabitha murmured, staring down at her knees. "I don't know why she went to the Hold. It didn't make sense then and it still doesn't." "No-one made her go," she answered gently. "I know, but no-one stopped her either. She could have apprenticed. We could have." Hattie frowned. "...You're still young enough to apprentice, Tabitha. You've got nearly two turns of training in records and archives." "It's not that I want to," her daughter calmly argued. "...I just--I would've done it if she wanted to. I would've gone to a Hall with her." "And sacrificed what you wanted for her...?" "She's my sister!" The fact that Mimi wasn't her sister, nor truly the goldrider's daughter, hung heavily in the silence between them, yet it also acknowledged that the truth of blood meant nothing to either of them, however foolish their insistences might sound out loud. "Yes, she is," Hattie said slowly, "but you making sacrifices for her won't make her past any easier for her to bear. You can't make up... for the people who knew they weren't right for her. Making yourself unhappy won't ever be the way to make any of it better." "You could ask her to come back to help with the baby," Tabitha proposed, her too casual delivery betraying long thought on the subject. Hattie couldn't help but smile. "...Do you really think she has the... patience... to deal with a baby?" « It has taken you some time to grow into... patience, » Elaruth chose to remind her, a soft nudge against her shoulder accompanying her near-whisper. "I think she went to the Hold to try and prove something, and that I love her, and you love her, and Elaruth loves her..." The little queen confirmed that thought with a quiet clatter of sound. "And she should be here," Tabitha finished, brow furrowed with the effort of trying to keep her argument cool and clear and grown-up. "...And if she doesn't want to be?" "Then maybe I need to go the Hold. I don't know." Hattie made sure her sigh was all but inaudible. It would be no good smothering her and telling her that she wanted her to stay at Fort, or that she wanted Mimi back too. Neither of them were considered children anymore. She had to try to be a voice of reason and not an overbearing mother, no matter how much she wanted to just hold her and tell her everything would be okay - that she'd fix everything. "Then maybe that's what you need to do," she heard herself say. She couldn't miss Tabitha pawing at her eyes, attempting to hide her tears. "...I miss her," she said again, wobble in her voice. Hattie lifted an arm towards her, hoping to coax Tabitha in against her, and was rewarded when her daughter tucked herself close. "I know, Tabs," she murmured, determined that tears of her own wouldn't follow, though the battle was already half-lost. "Me too." She might have given in to the urge to comfort her, but she wouldn't tell her that everything would be fine. Too much uncertainty lay ahead for her to even assure herself of that. The baby kicked. Hattie ignored the fact that she'd surrendered to her tears. |
Comments
Squishy (11:28, 2 August 2015 (PDT)) said...
Aww.
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