Post by Bee on May 31, 2010 22:37:30 GMT -5
Bee got a burst of inspiration. Look upon the baby, ye mighty, and despair. [Thanks to lovely Seraface for the help with Ira. ]
_______
Mnem had suggested just lopping the offending bits off, of course. He was a round little fluffball of a boy, from what Mnem had briefly glimpsed, built delicately cute in the Gardens mold; with the right denial of testosterone, he could grow up into an adorable girl. If he--she, Mnem was quite determined--ever attained a higher form--well, Minh loved making additions, didn't she? Surely she wouldn't mind assembling a couple of perky little ones.
But her daughter merely gave her a blank look from the bed. Not the blank stare borne of incomprehension, as was typically the case with Thalia, but rather the blank stare borne of burgeoning indignation. What a riot! Mnem thought. Thalia, who kidnapped children with the same amoral ease as her mama and gleefully experimented on them; Thalia, who never met a shiny object she didn't pilfer; that Thalia was about to open her mouth and express outrage. Mnem prepared herself not to laugh.
Thalia said--void of outrage, surprisingly, only tinted with the naive overconfidence that Thalia lent to everything she spoke and did--"I think it's important that Nephy is true to himself."
"Honey," Mnem said, with condescending sweetness, "being true to yourself is only an admirable goal when your true self isn't a fuckwitted mistake of nature."
"Nephy isn't a mistake." It was spoken quite firmly. Thalia looked searchingly in the direction of the door; somewhere outside of it, Tosiek was tending to the infants while Thalia relaxed, and a horde of family was oogling the spawn. Perhaps she was willing the boy to make a timely entrance and solve the whole problem with his presence; after all, Tosiek had never liked Mnem, and Mnem suspected he might let fly with all the outrage that Thalia couldn't articulate. Not that this would function as a deterrent, clearly; Kel's son was something like a bug crawling along the periphery of Mnem's life, and she was prepared to squish it.
"Darling," Mnem said, allowing in a note of kindness that never failed to arrest Thalia's attention no matter how insincere it was, "you want to raise this charming little fellow in the court. A court which is, I remind you, staffed almost exclusively with Gardens women. Including youself." There was also Ezekiel, of course, who was going for his kingship, but Mnem always liked to think that at any moment a comet would fall from the sky and crush him. Imagining him constantly on the brink of a violent and untimely demise had never failed to fill her idle moments with a certain amusement.
Thalia brought the bird up, of course. "There's Ez."
Mnem said all that needed to be said on that subject with a disdainful curl of her lip. "I understand Sadie's logic and don't intend to question it. Additionally, he isn't a Yarrow."
Regional pride meant nothing to Thalia, of course. If anything, she felt more Corvie. Mnem's own pride fluctuated. She'd had her period of early-twenties rebellion that she never spoke of, in the same era she'd met Minh; her level of misandry had its ups and downs, from they should all be killed to they should all be sex slaves to just don't hire them anywhere. What she was always certain of, however, was their intrinsic inferiority. A fully Yarrow male was an insult to the motherland. She'd bred a couple, after all. Eir was a horrific mess, and Iphis had essentially turned himself into a woman. The natural order was bound to assert itself at some point. And if it didn't, vigilant Yarrow women were there to help.
"Mom," Thalia said, "please don't mutilate my baby. Maybe Sarabeth has enough Corvie in her to want to do something..." Her eyes took on the dreamy Corvie glaze of potential experimentation.
"Sarabeth?" Mnem hadn't heard the names of the other two. She supposed she ought to be thankful she didn't name the little monster Toothbrush or some rot.
"Maybe Sora..."
Mnem sighed.
"Saoirse..."
"Sweetheart, no."
"Sophrosyne..."
Mnem grimaced, and then stopped caring. "It's lovely." She paused. "So," she pursued, "should I call your mama to nip the little man?"
"My son's bits stay right where they are! He will be true to himself and his penis! Thank you."
"You'll change your mind soon enough," Mnem warned her, already planning to talk to Minh about this. In all likelihood she would be unable to get Minh to care, but she was confident she could get Minh to do it. She glanced to the door. "It's peculiarly quiet out there."
Thalia tilted her head to the side. She seemed to agree.
"I shall investigate," Mnem said. She slipped out of the room and downstairs, to where the masses were oogling the spawn and with any luck Tosiek was perfectly miserable.
They were crowded in a circle. A silent, awed circle.
"What madness is this?" Mnem said. "They're just babies for the love of light. I ate several for breakfast this morning."
"Something horrible has happened," said Vishne, with solemn mockery, but in his voice there was a real note of fear. Mnem was not quite sure what to make of it, as Vishne was typically unnerved by everything. He had a delicate mental constitution. Something horrible has happened could meaning anything from "My god, all the children are dead" to "One of them is the color of roses and you know how flowers make me cry."
There was another stretch of silence.
Ira said, with the boisterous grin of madness that Mnem had long regarded as unique to her son, "DADDY DEAREST HAS BEEN REBORN!"
A strange weight seemed to be lifted from the room, as though the assembled crowd were family members at a hospital, waiting for the prognosis on a deadly disease that had this far been difficult to diagnose. There was a sort of relief at the knowing what the problem was, wrapped in the cold certainty that no matter what the illness was, that family member was still going to die.
Mnem stepped forward curiously. The crowd parted before her.
"Dad, you are as a phoenix rising from the ashes," Ira continued, but Mnem ignored him, as she often did when he started in on one of his strange tangents. "She is to be called Dearest Dear."
Mnem's mouth turned up in a smile when she saw her, really saw her. A full-blooded Yarrow girl, who had a wee, perfect face that could have been Mnem's at that age. It was framed by a beautiful mane, and Mnem sensed in it the potential for life. Mnem forgot entirely about Nephele's unfortunate maleness. She forgot that she had allowed Thalia to name him Nephele and the other one Sophrosyne. She forgot even that she hated children, for this one was perfect, and a generation removed from the depression that had barred her from taking a more active interest in Venka's development.
She plucked the child from Tosiek's arms and cooed at her.
"She is to be called Medea," she announced. "And she is my favorite."
_______
Mnem had suggested just lopping the offending bits off, of course. He was a round little fluffball of a boy, from what Mnem had briefly glimpsed, built delicately cute in the Gardens mold; with the right denial of testosterone, he could grow up into an adorable girl. If he--she, Mnem was quite determined--ever attained a higher form--well, Minh loved making additions, didn't she? Surely she wouldn't mind assembling a couple of perky little ones.
But her daughter merely gave her a blank look from the bed. Not the blank stare borne of incomprehension, as was typically the case with Thalia, but rather the blank stare borne of burgeoning indignation. What a riot! Mnem thought. Thalia, who kidnapped children with the same amoral ease as her mama and gleefully experimented on them; Thalia, who never met a shiny object she didn't pilfer; that Thalia was about to open her mouth and express outrage. Mnem prepared herself not to laugh.
Thalia said--void of outrage, surprisingly, only tinted with the naive overconfidence that Thalia lent to everything she spoke and did--"I think it's important that Nephy is true to himself."
"Honey," Mnem said, with condescending sweetness, "being true to yourself is only an admirable goal when your true self isn't a fuckwitted mistake of nature."
"Nephy isn't a mistake." It was spoken quite firmly. Thalia looked searchingly in the direction of the door; somewhere outside of it, Tosiek was tending to the infants while Thalia relaxed, and a horde of family was oogling the spawn. Perhaps she was willing the boy to make a timely entrance and solve the whole problem with his presence; after all, Tosiek had never liked Mnem, and Mnem suspected he might let fly with all the outrage that Thalia couldn't articulate. Not that this would function as a deterrent, clearly; Kel's son was something like a bug crawling along the periphery of Mnem's life, and she was prepared to squish it.
"Darling," Mnem said, allowing in a note of kindness that never failed to arrest Thalia's attention no matter how insincere it was, "you want to raise this charming little fellow in the court. A court which is, I remind you, staffed almost exclusively with Gardens women. Including youself." There was also Ezekiel, of course, who was going for his kingship, but Mnem always liked to think that at any moment a comet would fall from the sky and crush him. Imagining him constantly on the brink of a violent and untimely demise had never failed to fill her idle moments with a certain amusement.
Thalia brought the bird up, of course. "There's Ez."
Mnem said all that needed to be said on that subject with a disdainful curl of her lip. "I understand Sadie's logic and don't intend to question it. Additionally, he isn't a Yarrow."
Regional pride meant nothing to Thalia, of course. If anything, she felt more Corvie. Mnem's own pride fluctuated. She'd had her period of early-twenties rebellion that she never spoke of, in the same era she'd met Minh; her level of misandry had its ups and downs, from they should all be killed to they should all be sex slaves to just don't hire them anywhere. What she was always certain of, however, was their intrinsic inferiority. A fully Yarrow male was an insult to the motherland. She'd bred a couple, after all. Eir was a horrific mess, and Iphis had essentially turned himself into a woman. The natural order was bound to assert itself at some point. And if it didn't, vigilant Yarrow women were there to help.
"Mom," Thalia said, "please don't mutilate my baby. Maybe Sarabeth has enough Corvie in her to want to do something..." Her eyes took on the dreamy Corvie glaze of potential experimentation.
"Sarabeth?" Mnem hadn't heard the names of the other two. She supposed she ought to be thankful she didn't name the little monster Toothbrush or some rot.
"Maybe Sora..."
Mnem sighed.
"Saoirse..."
"Sweetheart, no."
"Sophrosyne..."
Mnem grimaced, and then stopped caring. "It's lovely." She paused. "So," she pursued, "should I call your mama to nip the little man?"
"My son's bits stay right where they are! He will be true to himself and his penis! Thank you."
"You'll change your mind soon enough," Mnem warned her, already planning to talk to Minh about this. In all likelihood she would be unable to get Minh to care, but she was confident she could get Minh to do it. She glanced to the door. "It's peculiarly quiet out there."
Thalia tilted her head to the side. She seemed to agree.
"I shall investigate," Mnem said. She slipped out of the room and downstairs, to where the masses were oogling the spawn and with any luck Tosiek was perfectly miserable.
They were crowded in a circle. A silent, awed circle.
"What madness is this?" Mnem said. "They're just babies for the love of light. I ate several for breakfast this morning."
"Something horrible has happened," said Vishne, with solemn mockery, but in his voice there was a real note of fear. Mnem was not quite sure what to make of it, as Vishne was typically unnerved by everything. He had a delicate mental constitution. Something horrible has happened could meaning anything from "My god, all the children are dead" to "One of them is the color of roses and you know how flowers make me cry."
There was another stretch of silence.
Ira said, with the boisterous grin of madness that Mnem had long regarded as unique to her son, "DADDY DEAREST HAS BEEN REBORN!"
A strange weight seemed to be lifted from the room, as though the assembled crowd were family members at a hospital, waiting for the prognosis on a deadly disease that had this far been difficult to diagnose. There was a sort of relief at the knowing what the problem was, wrapped in the cold certainty that no matter what the illness was, that family member was still going to die.
Mnem stepped forward curiously. The crowd parted before her.
"Dad, you are as a phoenix rising from the ashes," Ira continued, but Mnem ignored him, as she often did when he started in on one of his strange tangents. "She is to be called Dearest Dear."
Mnem's mouth turned up in a smile when she saw her, really saw her. A full-blooded Yarrow girl, who had a wee, perfect face that could have been Mnem's at that age. It was framed by a beautiful mane, and Mnem sensed in it the potential for life. Mnem forgot entirely about Nephele's unfortunate maleness. She forgot that she had allowed Thalia to name him Nephele and the other one Sophrosyne. She forgot even that she hated children, for this one was perfect, and a generation removed from the depression that had barred her from taking a more active interest in Venka's development.
She plucked the child from Tosiek's arms and cooed at her.
"She is to be called Medea," she announced. "And she is my favorite."