Family Matters, a story of Fae Apoc for the Giraffe Call

[aldersprig]

To rix_scaedu's prompt.

Fae Apoc has a landing page here

The city's counter-culture had never been so counter.

Unfortunately for Gillian, what it was being counter to, this month, was her wishes.

All right, large portions of the social circle she called home were often counter to her wishes, but she'd never had trouble before bulling her way through, reshaping things (and people) to what she needed.

Until this. Reegan was a good kid, and it wasn't a bad Change, such as things went. Toothy, but then, the person Gillian had always assumed was Reegan's father had been pretty toothy.

So what if she'd given another man Naming rights? The creep who'd probably fathered Reegan was, well, a real creep, and Matt had as much of a statistical chance of being the dad as Mr. All Mouth.

That had been fifteen - nearly sixteen - years ago. Now Reegan had Changed, and was looking, as was proper, for a Mentor.

Matt turned him down first. "Sorry, kid. But it's just..." He wouldn't explain more than that, although Reegan seemed to understand something Gillian didn't out of this.

Then Connell, Sharp-Hands-Flying, who also had had some time with Gillian back around then. He could have taught Reegan combat as well as the Law - but he wouldn't even answer Gillian's calls.

Then Kit, Maria, The Doomchaser, Abbot and the Monk, Red Rhoda and Blue Betty all turned Reegan down. Lame excuses or no excuse at all, and no amount of haranguing on Gillian's part would sway them.

"It's ridiculous. I've been part of this group for years. Decades." Gillian paced back and forth, muttering and swearing. "It's a disgrace, an outrage. Horrible."

"Mom. Mom. Mom!" She didn't know how long Reegan had been trying to get her attention. "Look, I'll handle it."

"I'm your Mother. This is my last duty as your Mother."

"Well... as my Mother, maybe you ought to trust me. I can handle this better on my own, okay?"

Gillian didn't know what he meant, but she was willing to let him screw up on his own if it would make him listen. "Fine, go ahead and try. Then I'll move on to plan B."

He didn't need her approval or sign-off to choose a Mentor, not by the Law. She should have remembered that before she sent him out the door.

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

Oh dear, I'm not sure whether I feel worse for Reegan or Gillian XD I hope he does manage it by himself...

[aldersprig]

Well, Gillian brought it on herself. Reegan really didn't.

[clare_dragonfly]

Also, I didn't know it was possible to give naming rights to someone who might not be the bio-dad... I guess I figured the naming ability was magically connected to the genetics.

[aldersprig]

There has to be a clause for don't-know or dad-dead, I think.

[clare_dragonfly]

Dad-dead makes sense, but wouldn't it be fairly easy to ascertain fatherhood magically? I know Caitrin can do it--which doesn't mean it's easy, of course, but I'd think it would be straightforward. I can't remember the actual Words, but I would think it would be Know Sentient Being...

[(Anonymous)]

What she's doing is probably faintly illegal - like touching someone else's Kept, etc. It probably doesn't do good things for the kid's tie into the Law, which is as far as I can tell a contract drawn up and agreed to ages ago by parents, or laid upon parents, and when they Name their kids and then give them adult Names, those various names tie the child/adult to the geas/Law/whatever. I bet it would have been easier than usual to turn kid to The Dark Side if someone on The Dark Side had gotten ahold of the kid, but since no one did, it becomes a moot point....

~Wyste

[aldersprig]

/Nods/ This makes sense. Having the wrong person Name your child removes one string of the hold of the Law from them.

[(Anonymous)]

Just to spec a lot - I wonder if children bind parents to the Law the way parents bind children. Like, having a Law abiding parent ties you to the law, but does having a Law abiding child do it, too? Could that be part of why kids from Addergoole don't go bad very often, because they're bound 'round by the Law from their time with a Mentor? Family, blood, names... it all ties together. I wonder if a child not properly lawful has an effect on the parent's status vis-a-vis the Law.... ~W

[aldersprig]

Hrrm. I don't have an opinion on that one yet.

[(Anonymous)]

Me neither! Just interesting. ~W

[clare_dragonfly]

Ooh, intriguing! Works for me :D

[(Anonymous)]

To continue, I love how it ties into grander ideas about the fae and names - to name a thing is to control it, to name a thing is to know it, to name a thing is to bespell it. Hide your true name, to avoid being controlled, hide your true name, to avoid being known. To give someone, something, their true name, is to control them or be tied to them forever - I think technically this kid doesn't even have a true name, yet, just a nickname? Given with proper ceremony and more Namey than a nickname, but like trying to put a hat on a turtle and call it a duck. ~W

[(Anonymous)]

And I bet Ambrus' trick of finding-his-children he uses in Addergoole-the-story wouldn't have worked nearly so well on this kid, because the magical tie isn't set right.

[aldersprig]

Definitely true.