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fandomweekly2016-03-04 03:11 pm
corvinity) wrote in fandomweekly2016-03-04 03:11 pm
Entry tags:
[#005] All Alone With the Memory (Tales of Symphonia)
Theme Prompt: Minor Characters
Title: All Alone With the Memory
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Rating/Warnings: PG.
Bonus: no, oops
Word Count: 842
Summary: Pain is a warning sign. If it hurts, don't pick at it. This is equally true for mind as well as body.
Virginia's family is fine.
Pain is the body’s teacher. Healers know this best, of course. Pain is what says stop, that you have pushed too far, that you need to do something different or damage yourself permanently.
Healers, naturally, spend a great deal of their lives attempting to remind other people that their bodies have limits. Virginia resigns herself to this early, and it’s mitigated by the fact that the elves of Heimdall are not what anyone would call adventurous.
Kloitz, though. Virginia can spend hours lecturing him about be more careful and he’ll still have some fresh injury the next time she sees him, whether it be bruise or scrape or some more lasting mark from the wildlife of the Ymir Forest, which he will insist on studying.
Humans. Virginia sighs over the injuries, and heals him, again, and again.
She herself is careful. Hoping, perhaps, that he will learn by example. She listens to her body, and she does not charge into danger.
And when things hurt to think about, she follows the same tenets, and does not press them. The mind is as much a part of the body as anything, after all.
Where is Kloitz now? Virginia doesn’t know. Something tries to surface -- the Forest, the glint of sunlight off metal, and it seems somehow wrong because terrible things should not happen in the sun -- and Virginia turns away. It hurts: she will not go there. Kloitz is off studying, and will be back soon.
Where is her daughter? The Gate-- tall pillars of stone that Kloitz once said must pre-date the Kharlan War-- no. Why would her daughter be there? (It hurts.) There is a weight in Virginia’s arms that must be Raine, and she cradles the baby’s head absently and rocks her, murmuring, until everything stops hurting.
It’s okay. Everything is fine. Kloitz will come back soon, and Raine will grow up to be bright and strong and beautiful, and soon she’ll have a little sibling, too. Their family will be safe and happy.
Kloitz isn’t back yet when the half-elves appear. Virginia recognizes that immediately, of course. There’s something about the way human and elven mana interacts, a warped sense of being not quite either one. There are humans, too, but the half-elves are more interesting. The woman carries a staff, like Virginia used to. The boy can’t be more than a hundred. Wait-- half-elves age differently, that’s right. She remembers that. Maybe he hasn’t even two decades.
She knows Raine will grow up faster than she expects, counts herself lucky it hasn’t happened yet. “My child is a half-elf too,” she says brightly.
One of the humans says something, which she ignores. Instead she shows the woman her daughter, smiling softly. “See, she has such an intelligent-looking face, doesn’t she? Her name is Raine. She’s my pride and joy.”
Raine is going to grow up to be just as brilliant as both her parents, Virginia knows it. She will surpass them, as children are meant to do, and maybe she can start to change peoples’s minds about half-elves, too. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?
She doesn’t understand why the woman’s face falls. Virginia tries to salvage something-- talks about the child she’s going to have, too. Jean for a girl; Genis for a boy. But something’s wrong, under everything. Maybe they think Virginia will act the way the rest of the elves do, towards half-elves. She shifts the baby in her arms, soothes her absently, tries to figure out what’s wrong.
Whatever it is, Virginia doesn’t figure it out in time and then the woman is shouting at her. Much of it doesn’t penetrate, except--
“I’m Raine!”
And Virginia--
Virginia sees the hands that she taught to heal clenched white-knuckled on the staff, sees Kloitz in the unfinished lines of the boy’s face, sees properly now the short fall of white hair only a few shades paler than her own--
Raine. Genis. But if Raine is a woman, then...
The full moon above, and the Otherworldly Gate, and her daughter reaching back toward her, desperate, weeping. Sunlight on metal, and Kloitz lost in the woods. Coming home finally only to fade.
If Raine is a woman then Virginia’s husband is dead, died right in front of Virginia from a sickness she couldn’t cure with all her healing artes. If Genis is a boy now then she abandoned her children, sent them to Sylvarant and ran away while her daughter was still calling out for her mother. If these are her children then she broke her family apart.
No. No, that can’t be right, it hurts and Virginia’s family is fine and Kloitz will be back soon and--
And Raine is crying.
Virginia bends her head over the baby in her arms, fretful, not sure why her cheeks are wet. “Please leave,” she says insistently. “There, there-- it’s okay, Raine, don’t cry--”
The woman runs out of the room, and Virginia isn’t sure why, but that hurts, too.
She doesn’t think about it.
Title: All Alone With the Memory
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Rating/Warnings: PG.
Bonus: no, oops
Word Count: 842
Summary: Pain is a warning sign. If it hurts, don't pick at it. This is equally true for mind as well as body.
Virginia's family is fine.
Pain is the body’s teacher. Healers know this best, of course. Pain is what says stop, that you have pushed too far, that you need to do something different or damage yourself permanently.
Healers, naturally, spend a great deal of their lives attempting to remind other people that their bodies have limits. Virginia resigns herself to this early, and it’s mitigated by the fact that the elves of Heimdall are not what anyone would call adventurous.
Kloitz, though. Virginia can spend hours lecturing him about be more careful and he’ll still have some fresh injury the next time she sees him, whether it be bruise or scrape or some more lasting mark from the wildlife of the Ymir Forest, which he will insist on studying.
Humans. Virginia sighs over the injuries, and heals him, again, and again.
She herself is careful. Hoping, perhaps, that he will learn by example. She listens to her body, and she does not charge into danger.
And when things hurt to think about, she follows the same tenets, and does not press them. The mind is as much a part of the body as anything, after all.
Where is Kloitz now? Virginia doesn’t know. Something tries to surface -- the Forest, the glint of sunlight off metal, and it seems somehow wrong because terrible things should not happen in the sun -- and Virginia turns away. It hurts: she will not go there. Kloitz is off studying, and will be back soon.
Where is her daughter? The Gate-- tall pillars of stone that Kloitz once said must pre-date the Kharlan War-- no. Why would her daughter be there? (It hurts.) There is a weight in Virginia’s arms that must be Raine, and she cradles the baby’s head absently and rocks her, murmuring, until everything stops hurting.
It’s okay. Everything is fine. Kloitz will come back soon, and Raine will grow up to be bright and strong and beautiful, and soon she’ll have a little sibling, too. Their family will be safe and happy.
Kloitz isn’t back yet when the half-elves appear. Virginia recognizes that immediately, of course. There’s something about the way human and elven mana interacts, a warped sense of being not quite either one. There are humans, too, but the half-elves are more interesting. The woman carries a staff, like Virginia used to. The boy can’t be more than a hundred. Wait-- half-elves age differently, that’s right. She remembers that. Maybe he hasn’t even two decades.
She knows Raine will grow up faster than she expects, counts herself lucky it hasn’t happened yet. “My child is a half-elf too,” she says brightly.
One of the humans says something, which she ignores. Instead she shows the woman her daughter, smiling softly. “See, she has such an intelligent-looking face, doesn’t she? Her name is Raine. She’s my pride and joy.”
Raine is going to grow up to be just as brilliant as both her parents, Virginia knows it. She will surpass them, as children are meant to do, and maybe she can start to change peoples’s minds about half-elves, too. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?
She doesn’t understand why the woman’s face falls. Virginia tries to salvage something-- talks about the child she’s going to have, too. Jean for a girl; Genis for a boy. But something’s wrong, under everything. Maybe they think Virginia will act the way the rest of the elves do, towards half-elves. She shifts the baby in her arms, soothes her absently, tries to figure out what’s wrong.
Whatever it is, Virginia doesn’t figure it out in time and then the woman is shouting at her. Much of it doesn’t penetrate, except--
“I’m Raine!”
And Virginia--
Virginia sees the hands that she taught to heal clenched white-knuckled on the staff, sees Kloitz in the unfinished lines of the boy’s face, sees properly now the short fall of white hair only a few shades paler than her own--
Raine. Genis. But if Raine is a woman, then...
The full moon above, and the Otherworldly Gate, and her daughter reaching back toward her, desperate, weeping. Sunlight on metal, and Kloitz lost in the woods. Coming home finally only to fade.
If Raine is a woman then Virginia’s husband is dead, died right in front of Virginia from a sickness she couldn’t cure with all her healing artes. If Genis is a boy now then she abandoned her children, sent them to Sylvarant and ran away while her daughter was still calling out for her mother. If these are her children then she broke her family apart.
No. No, that can’t be right, it hurts and Virginia’s family is fine and Kloitz will be back soon and--
And Raine is crying.
Virginia bends her head over the baby in her arms, fretful, not sure why her cheeks are wet. “Please leave,” she says insistently. “There, there-- it’s okay, Raine, don’t cry--”
The woman runs out of the room, and Virginia isn’t sure why, but that hurts, too.
She doesn’t think about it.
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