text;

[redwinekindofgirl]

What are your families like?

Just curious. I mean, I guess most of us must have them.

Comments

text; @apocalypseArisen

[livingdeadgirl]

[ casual socializing? on MY network? it's more likely than you think! ]

can confirm i do have one
back home i lived with my mom and dad
dad is japanese
he grew up somewhere in tokyo
but he went to college in america
which is where he met my mom
moms side of the family has been in the states since
gosh i wanna say the 1800s or so?
like pre civil war
so theyre a little bit of everything

[redwinekindofgirl]

That's cool.
I don't know much about my family history. I guess Europe with the blonde hair and everything.

Do you like them?

[livingdeadgirl]

oh! thats your natural color?
i didnt know that haha neat

[ "Do you like them," though... It's sort of an unusual question, but Ami can understand why she might be asking it. ]

i do
you might even say i love them!
and i miss them a lot
how about you julie
whats your family like?

[redwinekindofgirl]

Dead.

[Maybe that was a little blunt.]

My dad died last year.
My mom is

complicated.

[livingdeadgirl]

oh no
im sorry

[ Given what she knows about Julie's homeworld, though... ]

by complicated
i am guessing you mean
neither living nor dead?

[redwinekindofgirl]

Yeah.
I only found out recently.
I thought she died years ago.

[livingdeadgirl]

wow yeah
i can see how that might make things uh
awkward

[ "Complicated" is right. Not that long ago, she'd have figured being a zombie was basically the same as being dead, in terms of what it does to your relationships. But she's recently found out that a friend of hers right here in Anchor is undead, too, and he's just like a normal person most of the time. (Well, maybe "normal" is too strong a word.) ]

this may be sort of a personal question
so if you want me to stop just let me know
i just ask because i am unfamiliar with your worlds zombie rules

was she like
still in there?

[redwinekindofgirl]

[Oof. That's a hell of a question.]

I don't know.
I want to believe that she is... but she's

She's really far gone.

[text; un: longinmouth]

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle normally doesn't answer queries like this, but he's feeling disconnected from people these days, and missing the family he once had something fierce.]

My family were hunters, generations of brave and skilled individuals who dedicated their lives to protecting the valley we called our home. In terms of immediate members, there were my uncles. I looked up to them like the heroes they were, always wishing I could be more like them. They were good people, better than I felt I could ever be.

[redwinekindofgirl]

I get that.

I could never live up to my dad's expectations either.

[abheirrant]

I admit that I could have lived up to my uncles' expectations. They supported me when no one else would.

My father's expectations, however, are a different story. What is it yours wished of you?

[redwinekindofgirl]

To be less like my mom.

[abheirrant]

Ah.

I think mine would have preferred me to be more like my mother, but it is only a guess. He never said that to me directly, in any case.

[redwinekindofgirl]

What was your mother like?

[abheirrant]

I am told she was a fire that blazed unchecked. She was simultaneously beautiful and destructive, and her magic equally so. She was an enigmatic goddess too proud to mingle with mere mortals. Only my father was good enough for her, and her for him. They needed no one else.

[redwinekindofgirl]

Wow. She sounds badass.

[abheirrant]

I could not tell you, as I never met her. She was said to be powerful though, so I have no doubt she may have been.

[redwinekindofgirl]

You never met her? Rough.

[abheirrant]

[It is rough, in some ways. Carlisle never quite knows what to think about her, or how he should feel about someone he, logically, should care for. However:]

I imagine we would not have gotten along, so perhaps it is for the best. If nothing else, her death kept me from knowing what expectations she would have of me, and how much I would fail at living up to them.

Tell me of your mother. What was she like?

[redwinekindofgirl]

Artistic and gentle, but really strong, too. She had to be to handle my dad. But she needed to be able to feel hopeful.

[abheirrant]

And what would your father have preferred? That you were less hopeful?

[redwinekindofgirl]

Less of a dreamer, I think.
Really fucked me up in the end.

[abheirrant]

That you were a dreamer? Or that your father had a far different vision for you?

[redwinekindofgirl]

Both, I guess.

Did you ever want to be something other than what everyone else expected you to be?

[abheirrant]

Always. I was expected to do great things, and it's not as though I did not try, but I'd have been happier if no one expected anything of me at all.

[redwinekindofgirl]

Yeah, I guess I can understand that. I don't think dad expected anything great out of me, but he sure had expectations. That kind of pressure has to suck.

text; @starscream

[vosseeker]

A strange thing to ask a collection of relative strangers, don't you think?

[redwinekindofgirl]

I'm not putting a fucking gun to anyone's head, dude.

[vosseeker]

You're not, but I still wonder your motive. Pure boredom seems unlikely.

[ Don't mind Starscream, cynical and suspicious is his default mode. ]

[redwinekindofgirl]

People expert, huh?

[They're not actually so different in that regard...]

[vosseeker]

Unlike certain uncultured tyrants, I'm actually capable of negotiation and precision.

[redwinekindofgirl]

Weird segue. I guess you want me to ask about the uncultured tyrant now?

[vosseeker]

Not especially, no. The remark was context, not an invitation. For once, I am enjoying him not being the Pit-damned center of everyone's attention.

[redwinekindofgirl]

Kind of an attention-grabber, is he?

[vosseeker]

In the worst way possible.

[ Like Starscream is one to talk, drama queen that he is... ]

You still haven't answered why you're so curious as to the topic.

[redwinekindofgirl]

No real reason. Just got thinking about home.

[vosseeker]

[ Starscream mulls that over for a moment. ]

Cybertronians don't have family units as humans think of them. Outside of instances like split-sparks, nearly all of our cohorts are decided by choice.

[redwinekindofgirl]

Split-sparks?

[vosseeker]

Under unique circumstances, a spark divides into two halves and becomes encased in two separate Forged frames. Loosely analogous to human twins, albeit measurably connected by spark signature. They are relatively rare.

[redwinekindofgirl]

So a spark like, what, to a human.

A soul?

[vosseeker]

Yes. From what I understand of human perception of it.

[redwinekindofgirl]

Huh. That's actually pretty cool.

[vosseeker]

[ Whatever reaction Starscream might have been expecting, that wasn't it, and it throws him... evident in the delay before his next response arrives. ]

Surely you must only think so because human "souls" are so infinitesimal.

[redwinekindofgirl]

I guess you're trying to insult me or something.

But I don't believe in that kind of stuff.

[vosseeker]

Is it an insult if it's true? Many organics believe in the concept without a shred of physical evidence supporting it.

[redwinekindofgirl]

Then how can you prove it's true if no one can even prove that souls even exist?