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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 23, 2021 23:50:53 GMT 10
Title: Heir
Rating: PG-13 for sexism.
Word Count: 100
Summary: Thayet doesn't understand why her father's priests pray for an heir.
Heir
Thayet didn’t understand why her father had the priests pray, their appeals stretching to the radiant sun god in the sky like burned incense, when she was right there, kneeling beside him on the marble floor.
“I can be your heir,” she said to him after services ended.
“You’re a girl. You cannot be my heir.” Her father’s laugh, echoing deep in his belly, was a slap on her face. He looked at her without seeing her and continued with a kindness that was its own cruelty, “You’re a beautiful girl, though. You’ll make a good marriage alliance one day.”
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Post by mistrali on Jul 24, 2021 16:38:36 GMT 10
So many excellent lines here: “He looked at her without seeing her”, a deep belly laugh, the casual misogyny because he is so entrenched in his worldview that his own daughter doesn’t count as a person.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 25, 2021 1:23:27 GMT 10
Thank you so much for commenting! I've been meaning to write a story like this with Thayet for a long time, so it was nice to finally be able to get it out in the world and no longer just floating in my head in vague form.
I think one of the most dehumanizing feelings in the world can be the sense of being looked at without being seen, and I imagine that was something Thayet experienced a lot from her father in her childhood. That he wouldn't be able to see her as a person and value. He would only be able to see her as the potential alliance her marriage could bring him and mother to some other guy's heirs. But not as his own heir. Never as his own heir.
Writing this, her father's deep belly laugh sort of drove home to me that sometimes laughter can sting more than straight-up insults or explicitly degrading language.
And I think that casual misogyny that refuses to see his own daughter as a person because of his entrenched views about only males being capable of being heirs and girls only being good for marriage alliances was exactly what I was trying to capture so I am so happy to hear that it came through in this fic.
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purplepotatoblob
Message Runner
'From now on I'm Alan of Trebond, the younger twin. I'll be a knight.' - Alanna
Posts: 45
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Post by purplepotatoblob on Jul 27, 2021 11:40:57 GMT 10
This is beautiful… time to stab adigun… I have half a mind to write a fic in which Thayet and Kalasin yell at him/defy him because well, he is an idiot. Thayet is meant for MORE.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 28, 2021 0:15:21 GMT 10
purplepotatoblob, thank you so much for reading and commenting! I'm so glad that you found this piece beautiful, and I don't blame you for wanting to stab Adigun. I would love to see a fic from you where Thayet and Kalasin defy him so I hope you will post it here if you write it!
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Post by Tamari on Jul 28, 2021 8:11:10 GMT 10
She was right there 🥺 This hits so hard.
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purplepotatoblob
Message Runner
'From now on I'm Alan of Trebond, the younger twin. I'll be a knight.' - Alanna
Posts: 45
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Post by purplepotatoblob on Jul 28, 2021 13:12:07 GMT 10
purplepotatoblob , thank you so much for reading and commenting! I'm so glad that you found this piece beautiful, and I don't blame you for wanting to stab Adigun. I would love to see a fic from you where Thayet and Kalasin defy him so I hope you will post it here if you write it! mm yes maybe I'll try my hand at it after finishing the current chapter of my fanfic, my math assignment and my projects (sigh I'm dead) thank you!!
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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 30, 2021 3:23:59 GMT 10
She was right there 🥺 This hits so hard. Thanks so much for commenting! My heart did break for Thayet here! She was right there, as you say, and her father was rejecting her, dismissing her as an heir. So hurtful:(
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