Post by opalgirl on Jul 1, 2011 14:50:21 GMT 10
Title: A Family in Four Themes
Rating: PG
Couple/Character: Roald I/Lianne I
Event: 4x100 word relay
Words: 400
Summary: Four Conte-family snippets, following the themes given for the relay.
Notes: Tearjerker warning on #3. Just... yeah. (Roald. Lianne. If you two keep smashing my heart into little bits, I'm not going to finish this).
--
i. Envy
When he’s young, he envies his younger brother. As a second son who stands little chance to inherit, Baldric has much more freedom and is under much less public scrutiny. He knows, though, that his brother covets his position. Baldric thrives on glory and on parties and glamour, while Roald does not. Were the roles reversed, he would not begrudge his brother the throne.
Their mother often wonders how she bore two sons so very different. Two children from the same parents (and there is no question of it: they are both their father’s sons) who are such precise opposites.
ii. Greed
Lianne knows that men must go to war. Her brother, her father, and her grandfather all marched to war on behalf of the Crown.
It’s her task to stay behind and her duty to wait for her men to return. Roald has never led campaigns as his father did, but after so many years, she’s well-used to being separated from him.
Watching her son prepare for battle—her only child, the one she’s very nearly lost—for the first time, she weeps. For the first time in her life, she has the selfish desire to keep him safely at home.
iii. Pride
He takes pride in Lianne’s quiet strength. She never complains and she stands with him as long as she can, until her lingering illness confines her to her bed.
“If a dozen men in the army had your strength, my love,” he tells her.
She smiles thinly and coughs. “It isn’t anything great, Roald.”
A wife’s duty, he remembers her telling him. “It is, darling. It is. I--”
She reaches for his hand, hers trembling. “Look after Jonathan. Please.”
It is pointless to argue; she well knows she is dying. Dying and still thinking of their son. “I will.”
iv. Lust
She sees the desire for greatness, for power, for control in her nephew’s eyes. This is not the boy she mothered as if he was her own. She no longer recognizes him.
She thinks she sees parallels of his father in him—her brother-in-law had also desired power and rank—but Baldric was not nearly so cold.
“Hello, Aunt,” he says.
His smile gives her a shiver. There is something wrong about him and she cannot place it. She wants to blame Carthak for shaping her boy into something else, but that is far too simple. There is something else.
Rating: PG
Couple/Character: Roald I/Lianne I
Event: 4x100 word relay
Words: 400
Summary: Four Conte-family snippets, following the themes given for the relay.
Notes: Tearjerker warning on #3. Just... yeah. (Roald. Lianne. If you two keep smashing my heart into little bits, I'm not going to finish this).
--
i. Envy
When he’s young, he envies his younger brother. As a second son who stands little chance to inherit, Baldric has much more freedom and is under much less public scrutiny. He knows, though, that his brother covets his position. Baldric thrives on glory and on parties and glamour, while Roald does not. Were the roles reversed, he would not begrudge his brother the throne.
Their mother often wonders how she bore two sons so very different. Two children from the same parents (and there is no question of it: they are both their father’s sons) who are such precise opposites.
ii. Greed
Lianne knows that men must go to war. Her brother, her father, and her grandfather all marched to war on behalf of the Crown.
It’s her task to stay behind and her duty to wait for her men to return. Roald has never led campaigns as his father did, but after so many years, she’s well-used to being separated from him.
Watching her son prepare for battle—her only child, the one she’s very nearly lost—for the first time, she weeps. For the first time in her life, she has the selfish desire to keep him safely at home.
iii. Pride
He takes pride in Lianne’s quiet strength. She never complains and she stands with him as long as she can, until her lingering illness confines her to her bed.
“If a dozen men in the army had your strength, my love,” he tells her.
She smiles thinly and coughs. “It isn’t anything great, Roald.”
A wife’s duty, he remembers her telling him. “It is, darling. It is. I--”
She reaches for his hand, hers trembling. “Look after Jonathan. Please.”
It is pointless to argue; she well knows she is dying. Dying and still thinking of their son. “I will.”
iv. Lust
She sees the desire for greatness, for power, for control in her nephew’s eyes. This is not the boy she mothered as if he was her own. She no longer recognizes him.
She thinks she sees parallels of his father in him—her brother-in-law had also desired power and rank—but Baldric was not nearly so cold.
“Hello, Aunt,” he says.
His smile gives her a shiver. There is something wrong about him and she cannot place it. She wants to blame Carthak for shaping her boy into something else, but that is far too simple. There is something else.