Headmaster Brockert
March 29, 2019 9:04 PM
Returning Feast by Headmaster Brockert
The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.Except that things were basically all the latter. Mortimer was honestly glad to be back at Sonora where socializing wasn't required of him on a regular basis. Parties might have been tolerable if people had more interesting things to say. He didn't care about the weather. He didn't care about Quidditch. He didn't care about people's work. Unless they had an interesting job but most people did not.Nothing else was really going on. Shannon was pregnant and huge and stumped on what to call the baby if it was a girl. She and Ben had a thing where he named the boys and she named the girls. Hence why their daughters had relatively decent names like Allegra, Esme and Isla and their son was named Olaf. And U was such a difficult letter too. Mortimer honestly didn't think there were any decent U names out there for either gender. Of course, Ben wasn't constrained by decency on this topic and he had a name all picked out for a boy.
Uriah.
And to top it off, they were going to have the middle name be after him. Uriah Mortimer Brockert. Thank Merlin that the kid's last name would be Brockert. Being rich and powerful it would be easier to get away with naming a child something strange. Zeke and Opal had proven that with Topaz.
He had to admit, he was somewhat honored. Emerald's middle name was Vivien, after his wife, but Jasper's middle name was Vincent (to go with the theme his parents had going on, their kids were all named after gems or rocks and their middle names all started with V) Christopher's and Olaf's middle names were after their fathers.
The students filed in and sat down. When it looked like everyone was here, Mortimer stood up and said "Welcome back to Sonora. I hope you have all had a nice midterm." And sat back down.
Subthreads: Wow, that was quick (tag Lily) by Jozua Sparks with Lily Spencer
Sticking with my own kind (tag Jasmine) by Cleo James with Jasmine
I don't hate you, so that's good enough. (Tag Jeremy) by Felipe De Matteo with Jeremy Mordue
True colours (tag Zevalyn) by Georgia Kirkly with Zevalyn Ives
I have friendliness! (Tag a Tepp) by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen with Bridget Ferguson
Returning in style. by Tatiana Vorontsova with Hilda Hexenmeister
Silly kids, Trix are for rabbits. by Katerina Vorontsov with Dorian Montoir
Returning and feasting. by Simon Mordue
Post-Feast Announcements by DH Skies with Evelyn Stones
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Headmaster Brockert
Returning Feast
6
Headmaster Brockert
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Katerina Vorontsov
April 04, 2019 11:57 AM
Silly kids, Trix are for rabbits. by Katerina Vorontsov
It was peculiar, Katya thought, watching other girls around the room as they entered and took their seats. At home, a woman wore jewels, or displayed them in her home, as a show of wealth and taste, to let everyone know what she was; sometimes, you could surmise a great deal about how another woman's position related to your own at a glance. In America, however, girls who at home could have been mistaken for prosperous seamstresses walked with the dignified grace of a tsaritsa in her palace, while Tatiana, sparkling from head to waist...bounced.They had argued again over midterm, Katya finally getting in severe trouble for throwing a cup at her sister in exasperation. Tatya just refused to stop acting like a child, or else moaning when she was compelled to do otherwise, and tonight she looked like one who had been playing in her mother's wardrobe instead of like a young lady of importance. Meanwhile, Katya was still treated like a child, even though she had done little to nothing to deserve it. It was all so unfair!
Unfair or not, however, they were sisters, and had ended the holiday back on good terms. Seeing her sister look silly - yet again - did, however, bring back some of the exasperation. If not enough to throw anything. She was not going to forget herself that far again any time soon, that was for sure.
Headmaster Brockert, however, arguably looked just as silly in the opposite direction, saying one sentence and then sitting down again. That just called attention to him, which clearly he did not want; it was all very puzzling to her. He could have either made the food appear without speaking - in which case hardly any of them would have been bothered to notice him at all - or he could have said something to make drawing attention to himself worthwhile. Now he just looked awkward, to her mind. Though Nadezhda had chided her over midterm also for being too critical whenever Mama and Papa weren't around. In any case, food was more interesting than whatever he had to say, so Katya set herself to gathering up some and giving an American smile to her neighbors to show that she knew how to show good manners here. She, at least, would not look silly tonight, even if everyone else in the Hall decided to do so.
16
Katerina Vorontsov
Silly kids, Trix are for rabbits.
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Katerina Vorontsov
0
5
Dorian Montoir
April 05, 2019 9:56 AM
On behalf of rabbits, I object by Dorian Montoir
Professor Brooding's wedding had quite possibly been the best eight hours of his life. It had been so perfect, and he had found it hard to keep the promise he had made to his mother that he would come home by a pre-arranged portkey. He had wanted to stay forever. Everything had been so lovely, the whole day had been infused with gentleness and warmth and happiness. He was also quite in love with the professors' friend, Evangeline - or at least with the fact she spoke one his languages and had kept feeding him. He was fifteen, and thus there was a fine line between romantic attraction and being given delicious food. Beyond that, it was the furthest from home he’d ever been, especially without an kind of parental supervision, and the taste of freedom he’d got had been thrilling. It had been so easy to imagine a life outside that which was planned out for him, but one which was happy - full of friends, and warm sunshine, and good food…And then he had stumbled back onto the terrace in Québec, and barely touched down before there was a cry of ’Nǐ huíláile’ - you’re back, relieved, as if he had been somehow late. And he had leant on the low stone wall, feeling slightly more sick and dizzy than he usually did from a portkey, and she had dropped the warming charm that usually bounded the terrace to let him take sharp lungfuls of cold air, and had gently brushed a hand through his hair. And when he straightened up, feeling better, he realised she was shivering with cold. For his sake. Too focussed on his well-being to cast a warming charm on herself. And they had taken each other inside, where she had a pot of tea waiting - somehow the exact blend he hadn’t even known he wanted, and he’d felt guilty at any thought of abandoning her.
It was still the biggest conflict. He wanted to run away from home, and just take Jehan away to live in Greece with him, and be fed by Evangeline and not have any worries. And he wanted never to leave his mother or make her sad because she was wonderful and she loved him and he loved her. The little taste he’d got of a different kind of life had only made that schism run deeper. It didn’t feel like one side was going to win out against the other - like he was going to ever know how to choose or to deal with this - it felt only like the split between the two halves of him was getting bigger, and the most likely outcome was that it would grow and grow until he ripped clean in two. And the amortentia-laced flowers at the wedding had only served to underline it. Because they smelt of three things to him; they smelt of Jehan’s sweaters (of course they did) and of old books, but also of jasmine tea. They were different kinds of love, but the comfort of home pulled on his heart as strongly as the boy he loved. Almost. Or as much? He didn’t know.
He had thrown himself for the remainder of the holidays into being a good son. Into making his mother smile, and spending time curled up at her side reading, letting her fuss over him. He wanted to say his motivation was just enjoying it, but he couldn’t help but worry, let other thoughts creep in... Was he was putting on a show to compensate for how he was going to fail later? Was he making the most of it in case it got snatched away if he got the other half of what he wanted? It didn’t feel simple and uncomplicated to just enjoy being loved any more, and that sucked.
Outside of this, the rest of the holiday had gone as he predicted. When he wasn’t around his mother, he was subject to trip jinxes, or the books he was reading suddenly jumping up and pinching his nose or hitting him over the head. He had got good, over the years, at dodging and diving, of staying out of Matthieu’s reach, but now that his brother could use magic at home, it had shifted things, and the range for being a target had become much wider. He had found himself thinking a lot of a certain someone coming to his rescue… It had been interesting to meet someone back home who seemed wholly opposed to everything his brother represented, and he could not help but drift into the occasional daydream where Jean-Loup swooped in to save him from Matthieu. They were not romantic fantasies. He did not kiss imaginary Jean-Loup. First and foremost, he was in love with Jehan, and it would have felt like a betrayal of that to go around kissing other boys, even if only in his own head. Secondly, he was pretty sure Jean-Loup would not want Dorian to imagine doing that with him, and thus it felt a bit rude. That logic had once applied to Jehan too, but somewhere along the way he’d just given into the fact that fantasising about making out with Jehan was impossible to avoid.
All these factors combined to make him feel rather down on his luck as he entered the hall. However, he threw Professor Brooding a cheerful smile nonetheless as he suspected she was still happily riding high from the time in Greece, and he didn’t want to spoil that. He’d been getting better and better recently at smiling convincingly even when he didn’t feel like it. It had been something that he needed more and more often. Close up, he thought his friends might notice the cracks, but from this distance, it would pass.
He found himself watching Tatiana as he waited for everyone to settle - she was especially eye-catching this evening. He had tried to draw a correlation between her jewellery and her moods but had never reached any definitive conclusions; the three moods in which Tatiana wore above and beyond her usual level of sparkles appeared to be 1) when she was feeling down and wanted to cheer herself up 2) when she was feeling exuberantly happy and wished to display this and 3) when she had new sparkles. Given that this covered, essentially, almost all of Tatya’s spectrum of emotions, it was a little hard to divine from. He hoped it was option two or three.
He didn’t particularly notice the headmaster’s speech. Rather, he noticed the scent of food and everyone around him starting to move. He found he was sitting next to Katerina, who was smiling. She did this more than Tatya. He was unsure whether this because she was happier (or amused) more often or simply trying to be more American (Tatya having educated him on American over-smiling). Still, when someone smiled - whatever the reason - they usually expected one in return. He gave her one that would pass for cheerful and friendly.
“Good evening. Our Tanya is especially shiny tonight. Good news, bad news, or simply Christmas gifts?” he asked.
13
Dorian Montoir
On behalf of rabbits, I object
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Dorian Montoir
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Katerina
April 05, 2019 6:57 PM
Oh? I thought Trix were what rabbits wanted most. by Katerina
Katya was not precisely pleased to have everyone else also noticing Tatiana, but neither was she surprised. Dorian was not, after all, blind, and neither was the rest of the student body."Some Christmas," she said, glad he had used the English word first so she didn't slip and say Rozhdestvo instead. "She gets - what she wears here for Christmas," added Katya, pointing to the spot above her own House badge as she realized she was not quite sure she knew the English word for a brooch.
Privately, Katya thought the opal brooch a bit ugly, and certainly ostentatious - the two not seeming so far removed from each other to her as they might have to some. Tatiana was awfully fond of opals, though, so her latching on to that piece when Papa had had a selection laid out for her to pick her own big present from had not been surprising. More surprising had been Papa letting her have two things this year, when she had wavered between that brooch and the strand of comparatively small but quite exquisite peacock-black sea pearls from Polynesia. Tatiana's liking for irregular sea pearls had its precedent in her baroque blue strands and the earrings she wore with those, but those were only Japanese - more valuable than the freshwater strands they all had for everyday wear, but rather less valuable than anything from the south seas. Katya considered this latest acquisition a bit ridiculous, at least for a fourteen-year-old girl, and she knew Mama agreed with her.
"Did you receive good gifts this year?" she asked.
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Katerina
Oh? I thought Trix were what rabbits wanted most.
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Katerina
0
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Dorian
April 05, 2019 10:59 PM
You are not saying that we play tricks? by Dorian
”Brosh,” Dorian shrugged with a slightly apologetic smile, showing that he knew the Russian rather than supplying the English. “You can say to me jewellery words in Russian. I will understand,” he assured her. This was an issue that was becoming more and more apparent in all his languages… They were all a bit patchy. There were certain subjects where he had the vocabulary in one but not another. For school things, it was far easier to talk about them in English, and he worried that he wouldn’t be able to have a suitably intelligent conversation about magic, or about the things he discussed with Jehan such as art and literature, with anyone back home. And yet, at times, he still felt like he was struggling to articulate himself as smoothly as he would have liked in English. He enjoyed speaking multiple languages, but he didn’t want to end up with a smattering of each, and no one language in which he could truly express himself.“Yes. Many foods, clothes and books,” he smiled, in response to her question about Christmas gifts. He decided not to elaborate on the books he had received, even though they had often shared reading material. He had finished one of his gifts already - it was set in the near future, where non-magical people had discovered the existence of wizarding kind and were trying to destroy/exploit it. It was down to a plucky band of teenagers to preserve magical knowledge and fight back. It was sort of a fun adventure, he supposed, but it wasn’t really his type of thing. He was more interested in a book that Émilie had received but he had already borrowed, about a girl dying of Vanishing Sickness who falls in love, and which promised to be wonderfully heartbreaking. “And my sister bought me some nice stationeries, for doing plans for the concert,” he elaborated, a little sliver of optimism finding him as he thought about that. The concert was something he was looking forward to, and which might manage to replace wedding planning, now that he no longer had that to lift his spirits.
“And you?” he asked.
13
Dorian
You are not saying that we play tricks?
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Dorian
0
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Katya
April 05, 2019 11:47 PM
No, I am saying you have a right to choose your own cereal. by Katya
Katya knew her sister rather well. Katya knew that her sister and Dorian were very close. Katya even knew that men ought to have some interest in baubles, if only so they knew the value of their wives’ collections, or at least could avoid a bad bargain when buying gifts for sisters and wives and daughters. Even so, even with all that knowledge, she was still startled for a moment when Dorian casually identified the item she was trying to explain- and did so in Russian.“Tatya is impossible,” she said matter-of-factly. It hardly seemed to her like a subject worthy of debate, at least at first glance. At second glance, she paused and added, “or do your family make jewelry?”
This was said with a slight note of teasing in her voice, but it was possible. The best metal charmers - or at least, heads of the houses which employed the best metal charmers - were often wealthy and respected. Tatiana had come home from a party Mama had dragged her to and reported that she had danced with a son of such a house. It had never occurred to Katya to think of marrying a merchant, however prosperous, but some did rub shoulders with the same people her family did, and she and Tatiana were younger daughters. If Dorian was destined to become a jeweler one day - well, Tatiana might enjoy marriage to him, but Katya doubted his house would enjoy her. She’d be terrible for profits. However, there was no reason to rule out one of them marrying him or the young man at Mama’s party or any number of people, regardless of what answer Dorian gave.
Food, clothes, books, stationery. These all sounded familiar. She and her siblings were each given a few coins to spend on small gifts for each other, and so Katya had a full new supply of note paper, embroidered handkerchiefs, hair ribbons, lace gloves, a really beautiful cut glass inkwell with a silvery stopper elaborately embossed with images of birds and flowering vines, and a few bags of sweets, along with her proper gifts from the adults.
“My brother - “ Alyosha was too young still to take part, though Katya expected by next year he would at least be expected to knit little things for Papa and his unmarried sisters - “and sisters give me gloves, stationeries, ribbon,” she said. “I also have books from Mama and Papa, in French and German.” There were three people here who spoke German, which made her want to improve hers. “And this,” she added, remembering, holding up her wrist. Several lengths of golden mesh encircled her wrist, and the links between segments were attached to three emeralds. “I think this is bracelet - “ her accent thickened, prouncing the word as the Russian brah-slet in place of the American English brayslet - “in three language,” she observed, trying to be sure of her memory of French.
16
Katya
No, I am saying you have a right to choose your own cereal.
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Katya
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Dorian
April 06, 2019 12:47 AM
Oh. That sounds much more reasonable. by Dorian
“No, I learn from Tatya,” Dorian confirmed, when Katerina - if he understood her correctly - asked whether he had learnt such words due to her sister or a family business. He knew some of them in Chinese as well because they were Mama Words but he had not brought this up because it was not relevant, Katerina not speaking any of this language, and he did not wish to seem to like he was showing off or drawing attention to her lack of knowledge in something (especially something in which it was entirely reasonable and expected that she knew nothing). “Why does this make her impossible?” he asked. Although her tone had been neutral enough, it was a far from positive comment, and he didn’t understand the problem.“That is very impressive,” he commented regarding her acquisition of novels in different languages - or rather, he ability to read such things. “Have you become well acquainted with any of the German-speakers here?” he asked. He had never really connected with Heinrich, who was the closest to him in age, and he felt a little bad about this. He felt the non-native speakers should offer each other some solidarity. The other boy was rather silent and almost stand-offish though. As someone fairly quiet himself, Dorian knew not to automatically equate the one with the other but it made Dorian wary of intruding if his company might be unwanted.
“Yes, correct,” he confirmed. In French, the pronunciation was different enough to have an extra syllable but it was recognisable as the same word. “Or, at least three languages,” he added, as given the prevalence of the word, it was possible that it was the same or similar in multiple more European languages. He wondered about the etymology of jewellery… Who had invented each piece, and how had names spread so that in some places they were so similar, and yet the names for other items diverged so widely? He wondered whether the library could tell him, and whether Tatya would be interested in the answers if he found them. She generally seemed less inclined to make an academic study of her passions than he was, but it tied into two areas of her interest, and just because she didn’t want to do the research herself did not mean she would be uninterested in his findings. He added to the mental list of reasons to cocoon himself in a pleasant corner of the library as soon as possible. “Vash braslet ochen' krasivyy,” he added to Katerina. It might have been a bit of an exaggeration to say that the names of different bits of jewellery and ‘is very pretty’ had been amongst the first sentences he had learnt in Russian, but he didn’t think it was much of one…
13
Dorian
Oh. That sounds much more reasonable.
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Dorian
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Katerina
April 06, 2019 11:23 AM
Naturally. I am very reasonable. by Katerina
Katya did not know if she knew how to explain the issue with her sister in such a way that it would be comprehensible to someone who, to her surprise, seemed to genuinely think it was something that required explanation. She would have expected any teenage boy to be less than interested in Tatiana showing off her pretties...."Tatiana is like malen'kaya devochka," she said - a little girl. "She...says the ocean to fill the tea glass." She was beginning from a saying that referred to something else entirely, then translating that into English, so she wasn't sure how well it was going to work. Oh, well.
She flushed with pleasure at being called impressive, but had to shake her head when asked if she knew the German speakers well. "No," she said. "This is why I must practice. German is hard." Katya prided herself on her skill with languages, but the 'h' sound was truly difficult. The girl sitting with Tatiana - when Katerina tried to say her name, it sounded like she was accusing her of murder in English. Khil'da - that was what Katya came up with. The surname almost gave her a headache just looking at it, never mind trying to say it, though she thought the 'kh' sound was difficult for English and German speakers too, along, possibly, with 'zh' and 'ts' and 'zn.'
Remembering the difference between formal and informal forms of 'you' in different languages was also difficult, so Katya didn't correct Dorian for addressing her as though she was an adult or someone who stood above him in rank. Perhaps he thought he ought to address all females that way; she had read that some English and French had an elaborate idea of how to treat women that involved virtually treating any lady as if she was at least a princess. "Pozhaluista," she said, and smiled. "So. The - kon-tsert. How do you plan for it?" she asked.
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Katerina
Naturally. I am very reasonable.
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Katerina
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Dorian
April 08, 2019 9:30 AM
Except towards your sister by Dorian
Dorian was rather taken aback by Katya’s comments. Having spent his whole life having his sibling complain that he behaved in a way that didn’t fit his gender, he wondered what was wrong with Tatya behaving like a girl, given that she was one. This also did not mesh with her own complaints about the unfair hands life had dealt them as these had revolved around her failure to behave how girls should. Had he confused the words for girl and boy somehow? Was she complaining that Tatya behaved like a little boy? Perhaps, had he not been trying to process a remark from his least familiar language, the connotations of ‘little’ would have struck him more - but then again, perhaps not, given how Katya’s remark clashed up against all his his issues with the world.The rest of what she said was equally confusing. Dorian took advantage of the food on his plate, taking a couple of mouthfuls to give himself time to puzzle over what Katya had said. An ocean into a teaglass… That was too much. He was not sure why Tatya would talk about oceans filling tea glasses. Clearly it was an idiom… It either meant talking nonsense, or overflowing… He felt a slight stab of guilt at finding himself not really able to rule either out….
“I… I do not confuse my words. Tatya is devochka, yes?” he asked, clearly puzzled. “And… oceans into teaglass… She says that an ocean can go in a teaglass, meaning she says silly things, or she talks… the amount of an ocean, when there is only a teaglass to fill?” he asked.
“I… I am not sure,” he confessed, when she asked how he would plan for the concert. “Well, as with all plans, I will go to the library,” he reasoned, “I do not yet know much about what the prefects want, or how the songs are. But hopefully, I find this out, and the library will have helpful books.” He was not sure that the library would have an extensive section on the backstage magics of the theatre industry, but he was sure that there would be information that he could put to good use - scattered perhaps through different volumes of Charms - and as Sonora’s library had never once let him down, he felt quite confident asserting that it would assist him now.
13
Dorian
Except towards your sister
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Dorian
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Katerina
April 08, 2019 6:38 PM
I think I'm being fair to her as well. by Katerina
"Tatya is devochka," confirmed Katya. "But she should be big one now. Instead she is like - " she struggled with words - "she like the girl who - oh, what is word?" she asked, snapping her fingers with impatience with herself. "A false baby? Small girl plays with it."Not that Tatiana had ever had much interest in baby dolls, on the whole. She had preferred dolls that looked like people who were big enough to walk, anyway, even if they clearly were not adults, dolls which Tatiana could use beads and thread to fashion necklaces and bracelets and hairpieces and belts for and then send on 'adventures' which had often been rather too adventurous for girls at all, much less ones with strings of 'pearls' wrapped around their waists. She had sometimes agreed to play teatime with Katya in exchange for Katya writing down the adventures for her, but even with her toys she had never been exactly proper, at least not of her own free choice.
"She says the ocean of words about her, when all we needs is the tea glass. If I go to samovar, I do not want the ocean in the spout!" She smiled at that, amused by the joke she had made. "And Tatiana shows her shiny to all, like the little one shows its toy-baby, wants you to - " Katya mimed rocking a baby back and forth. "Though it is only a toy-baby. Impossible. You have great - " she could not remember the word for patience. "Good manners," she finished instead.
She nodded to the plans for concert preparations. "I am sure it will," she said. "If I see the book that will help, I will tell you," she promised.
16
Katerina
I think I'm being fair to her as well.
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Katerina
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Dorian
April 08, 2019 9:11 PM
I am inclined to disagree by Dorian
Ah. Tatya behaved like a little girl. Not Tatya behaved like a little girl. Dorian tilted his head curiously, appraising this assessment. This was never something he had much considered. He suppossed he felt that he acted a little more grown up than she did, if he thought about it, but he never really had. He was generally inclined to think of her and Vlad as the little ones anyway, because they had summer birthdays. And Tatya was his souerette, and was so like Émilie, to the extent that he was perhaps inclined to consider her younger than she was. On top of which, he tended to forget how much Émilie herself was growing up... All in all, 'maturity' had never been a value which he had particularly measured either of them by.He also thought jewellery was more for grown-ups than for children, but given that he was talking to a girl, he was not going to attempt to have any kind of authority there. He supposed the way Tatya wore it was more obvious and more ostentatious, but this was something he had always attributed to either culture or personality, neither of which he was keen to stamp out or correct. Even Katya's more muted appearance had done little to change his perception - she was either less interested in jewellery than her sister, or had more desire to blend in. It had never prompted him to think of the way Tatya wore jewellery as being incorrect. Just different.
"Don't be unkind about your sister," he requested gently. He was disturbed by how annoyed Katya seemed. He knew that the sisters squabbled sometimes but she seemed to be taking exception to the very fact of who Tatya was, and that was different. "A Tatya who does not talk and sparkle so much sounds not much like Tatya," he observed. "Can she not be a big person who is still herself? I do not listen to her from good manners," he added, taking exception to the idea that Tatya was somehow to be put up with, or endured, " I listen because I like when she is happy. People are more interesting when they are enthusiastic." Admittedly, there were exceptions to that rule, such as Matthieu's blow by blow accounts of Quidditch matches. But then, he suspected a large part of that was how inherently unpleasant Matthieu was as a person. Could he listen to Jean-Loup detailing a Quidditch match? He thought it might be bearable, at the very least. He might even be
"We like her as she is really, no?" he checked with Katya, forcing his attention back to the topic at hand.
13
Dorian
I am inclined to disagree
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Dorian
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Katerina
April 09, 2019 8:27 PM
As is your right, of course. by Katerina
Katya could have screamed. Of course he would take Tatiana's part in this - of course her sister was the one who must be in the right, always. Even at home, it was really only Mama who routinely saw things the same way that Katya did, and....Well, of course Mama was very important. She ruled their home. But really, at the end of it all, she was not that much more influential than Katya herself. Men were the ones who had all the control, and Tatya seemed to have...some peculiar power over men, or at least the ones they both knew, at least for now. It must change, as all things had to do, but for now, they listened to her sister, indulged Tatiana's selfish, often capricious whims, if Katya was ever so forward, she could hardly imagine....
She smoothed her face over. Mama said that Katya could be too sharp, too critical, when she let her tongue go free. No one wanted to hear that, least of all a young man - it was not pretty. She had to be tranquil. Serene. Pleasant.
"Yes," said Katya. "Of course we do. But she must learn to be dama. None can stay as malen'kaya devochka."
The question disturbed her more than she let on. Did she actually like her sister? She had never really thought about it before. They were sisters, so they loved each other, but this didn't mean they had to like each other - the two things were very different. One would put up with things from a family member that would get an outsider banished from one's company in perpetuity and think nothing of it. The difference between public and private had a great deal to do with it, along with the importance of family. She knew that even if they had just had a blazing argument, Tatiana would instantly forget it if Katerina needed something, and Katya would do as much for her. All this, however, was beyond her English, and beyond polite dinner conversation as well.
"Tatiana makes some effort, though," she allowed, then had an idea. "She goes to party in the holiday. Danced with a big jewelry-man's son," she added, glancing sideways at Dorian to see what reaction that nugget of information got from him.
16
Katerina
As is your right, of course.
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Katerina
0
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Dorian
April 10, 2019 12:22 AM
And it's probably yours to be annoyed with her by Dorian
Dorian was relieved to hear Katya admit that, underneath all this, she loved her sister. As she explained that Tatya would have to grow up (something he thought she herself might be rather opposed to) he wondered whether more of her complaints came from concern rather than bitterness or anger towards her sister. Katya was a Teppenpaw after all, and was probably just wanting the best for Tatya. He found himself softening towards her again, reassured that there was nothing hostile in what she was saying. Of course, that did not mean there was nothing harmful... Pressuring someone to grow up into what you wanted them to be, instead of what they were, could hurt a lot. But that was definitely projecting, and there was no reason why he shouldn't give her the benefit of the doubt."Oh, really?" Dorian asked, with mild curiosity when Katya mentioned Tatya dancing with some jewellery boy at a ball. When he pictured Tatya at home, he pictured her amongst her family, playing and eating, as those were the things she talked about most. She was too young for many of the parties, and had always seemed to regret the loss of a chance to wear a pretty outfit more than the loss of a chance to meet boys. It was strange to think of Tatya dancing with boys, but equally he could not imagine that this meant much. He and she had danced together previously, after all. And she was so against marriage that it was hard to imagine Tatya losing her head over a boy. That was much more his style... "That is nice for her. I suspect she enjoys this meeting."
13
Dorian
And it's probably yours to be annoyed with her
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Dorian
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Katerina
April 10, 2019 6:35 PM
It is in the Sister Contract, yes. by Katerina
Dorian seemed prepared to accept Katya's explanation for her faux pas, and so she breathed a little easier, muscles in her shoulders coming back down to normal from positions she hadn't realized they had assumed. Crisis averted, for now.That was, admittedly, not altogether a surprise to her. What was more interesting was his lack of any real reaction to the news that Tatya had been dancing with other boys over the holidays, and ones theoretically in positions to give her things she valued, should she marry them. Either they were as good as engaged, and so he wasn't threatened at all, or - or Katya simply didn't know enough to know. It was possible Dorian was simply very self-controlled (which seemed to be a fact) and so wasn't going to react in front of Katya, and it was theoretically possible that he simply thought Tatya had too much dignity to lower herself to marrying into a merchant family, though Katya found the thought that someone might think that incredible. It might or might not be a good match, depending on how one looked at it, but who would think that Tatiana would think long enough at one time to think of that?
"I did not hear this much," she admitted, and then sighed glumly. "I am too young. No party for me. I stay home, I only hear from others." She bit her tongue before she went on too much and seemed to be whining. Whining was not pretty. Nobody wanted to hear that, and it just made her seem sillier. "Do you have parties in winter?" she asked, wishing to both direct attention away from her own youth and to learn more about life outside the village.
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Katerina
It is in the Sister Contract, yes.
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Katerina
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Dorian
April 11, 2019 9:23 AM
Is there anything about unconditional love in there? by Dorian
“Yes. Some parties, and also some events, for example there is always a classical music concert, and many people attend,” he answered doing a good job of sounding neutral-to-enthusiastic. He liked the concerts themselves, much more than parties, but there was such a feeling that people went in order to Be Seen and that irritated him. He swore half the time people weren’t listening to the musicians because they were too busy eyeing up other audience members, critiquing in their heads the outfits they would later fawn over to the wearers’ faces, and carefully constructing the whispered put downs they would offer behind the person’s back. It was all so superficial, and a waste of talented musicians, who were, after all, the reason they were supposedly there, and who were by far and away much more interesting than somebody’s hat choice, or who was sitting with whom.He refrained from mentioning that they had hosted a party, because that involved mentioning he Matthieu. He refrained from mentioning that he had attended a wedding between two women in Greece because well… that involved, well, mentioning that. It also wasn’t the kind of party Katya was really asking about.
“I think you do not miss so much,” he assured her, willing to admit this much, “I think I would prefer to stay home. At home you can wear your fuzzy robe, you can cuddle with your sister, you can drink bowls of hot chocolate the size of your face… I like these things more than parties.” Perhaps if all parties were like Professor Brooding’s wedding, he would feel different - parties only of people he liked, he thought would be alright. Dancing was, in itself, pleasant, if you could do it with someone you wanted to. And fancy food was always welcome. It wasn’t really the parties, he supposed, that were at fault - as with everything else, it was the people involved in them.
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Dorian
Is there anything about unconditional love in there?
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Dorian
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Katerina
April 13, 2019 10:04 PM
It's mentioned in a few sub-clauses, I believe. by Katerina
Katerina's eyes lit up at the mention of a classical concert. She did love music, and was fascinated by the exotic, foreign sound of music from outside her own culture, but she was also enchanted with the idea of an elegant outing to hear music. That was the sort of thing that happened in novels, where sophisticated society ladies passed handkerchiefs which were sewn together to conceal the letters to their lovers. How did they dress for an outdoor event this deep in winter? At home, it would have been dangerous to go sit and listen to music - someone's nose would have frozen off, or else they would have suffocated beneath the weight of wrappers required to prevent it. Vigorous movement was just possible outdoors, and Mama and Anya sometimes went for very short rides around the grounds with a special screen in the front of their sleigh to help keep the wind off, but sitting for a concert would have been quite impossible.“This sounds beautiful,” she breathed.
His next words were, after that, a bit of a letdown. Katya thought back to her holidays at home – the same place as always, and the same people, too, all of whom thought of her as malen’kaya and most of whom called her that, too. The same fairly unluxurious little bedroom she shared with Tatiana, at this time of year turned into a pretty prison by the heavy colorful tapestries hung on the walls and especially over the huge shutters covering the windows to keep out the chill. The chill that crept in anyway….
There were good memories, of course. She and Tatiana had had the same winter hangings all their lives, so looking at the images, when she was not already in a bad mood, did bring up recollections of playing, making up stories about the figures stitched into the fabrics. The girls’ sitting room was also very cozy and comfortable; when the weather was bad, it was very pleasant when they all drew close around the fire and each sat with her feet up, absorbed in her own book or letter-writing, perhaps, or most of them stitching while one read aloud. And there were similar associations in every room of the house. When she was in a mood to recall them. Such moods were simply so much easier to come by when she was not boiling with frustration over being left behind, and moreover, left behind by Tatiana, who didn’t even really want to go out at all.
“These things are nice, too,” she agreed with Dorian politely. “But it is hard, when all others go outside, and I stay.”
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Katerina
It's mentioned in a few sub-clauses, I believe.
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Katerina
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