Selves and Family and Other Considerations (Kamendressing)

[estirose]

I wrote this for musing_way on DW, but it’s a Kamendressing fic as well, so I thought I’d post it. (And I’ve written something other than RPM! Yay! And part 3 of “Dreamt-of Call” is up on AO3!) It features Questing, with one other character, and mention of others, including Tattered, Haunting, and Ocean. The musing_way prompt was “Generations”.

Generations.

I remember, once, sitting on the beach that defined one edge of the world-between-worlds that I found myself in, before I found myself here. I loved the place; I could spend hours there.

I’d ended up there after running across a version of my father, one much different than the one that fathered me. This version had been the father of one of my selves, the quarter-dryad one of me that had suffered a lot because of what he was. Of course, a lot of me suffered because of what we were; stuck between human and Fangire, some fighting over-possessive older brothers that were determined to make our choices for us.

I understood that struggle all too well. I’d fled my world after my Bishop, my brother, tried to kiss me, tried to arouse me. I knew what he was trying to do. Keep his little sister safe. But I couldn’t sleep with him knowing our shared blood.

And I’d ended up in the place instead. At least no other versions of my older brother tried that on me there; they’re more interested if I’m okay and if I’m ruling well. If I’m being Fangire like I’m supposed to be.

I sometimes think they have me mixed up with Haunting, the me that was sick for months as his body changed to be far more Fangire than human.

A person sitting beside me. Taiga. A Taiga from a world where my brother was born my sister, not that it makes it any easier for that me. She’s not quite Ocean’s sister, but the way they act, and the similar worlds they came from, means that they might as well be.

Her brother is resisting getting married, where Ocean didn’t have a chance before his sister took one look at Kimiko and asked him when the wedding was. She consults with Ocean’s sister, I know. They’re working on getting her him to submit.

And she’s just as protective of her little brother as my brother is of his little sister.

“How’s Tattered?” I ask her, because she, of all the Taigas, seems to end up taking care of him the most. He seems to resist her less than he does the male versions of her.

“His name is Darkness.” There is a danger to her voice, a darkness, a rebuke. The Taigas don’t like the name I gave to Tattered, because it makes him look weak where his brother wanted his name to make him strong.

“Darkness, then.” She hasn’t won the war, but I acknowledge her version of his name. He’ll decide what he wants to be called someday, and if he wants “Darkness”, I will call him that.

“I fed him and I sent him home.” She looks over at me. Of all the versions of me, she seems to think I know what I am the most. Haunting is a traitor to her, for clinging to his human blood. I merely tried to hide, and she takes comfort in that I was found.

“He doesn’t want to go home.” That was the truth; he doesn’t have the strength to stand up to his brother. That’s why he was in the place so often, staying until he dared not stay any longer.

“I know.” She looks at the ocean.

“Did you feed him with food, or….” Like me, he won’t ever be able to live completely on the Life Energy of humans. “He was a bit low on energy when I saw him a while ago.”

“I fed him with food.” She stiffens up in the way that says that she’d rather have fed him with Energy, but there’s some kind of unspoken rule that they don’t feed other versions of me unless they have permission or it’s an emergency.

“Just as long as he’s all right.” I look at the ocean too. “He’s one of me. I have to look out for him.”

“As do I.” She shares this with me, and I know that she counts it one of her responsibilities, even though he’s not her brother.

“Mother left us with a heavy burden,” I tell her. She doesn’t want to talk about our mother, how she was betrayed and how I was left alone. “We’re Kings. We have heavier responsibilities than anyone else. Ourselves, and our family, and the Fangire.”

This makes her ease up a little bit. No, she does not want to talk about the woman who gave us birth in two different worlds, but she is willing to acknowledge that at least it brought her family. Something to cling onto. And the fact that I don’t shy away from my blood, the fact that I know how to rule, the fact that I am Fangire.

I know it threw her the first time, that I was the one who took care of my brother, not the only way around. But in her eyes, at least he can’t lose me. At least we have family.

If he has his way, we’ll be family in more ways than one. But I won’t burden her with that.

“Yes. And I’m glad you know that. So many of you don’t.”

I smile. “Then, maybe it’s up to us to teach them.”

She smiles, and I wonder if I’ve lifted a burden from her. But she says nothing, only takes my hand, and I suddenly wish I’d had an older sister too.

Crossposted from Ramblings Yet Once More here.

Comments

[estirose]

Ditto for me, though hopefully I'll be coherent a while longer (or at least my reading comprehension will stay with me, even if my spelling doesn't).

Dr. K is pretty threatening, and he probably wouldn't stay if she told him to. She'd probably have to say something that would scare him into/entice him into entering (at which point she could keep him from leaving). Otherwise, she'd just tell the Rangers that he was there. Which would probably send Flynn right back to the orphanage.

He'd want to give the kids some closure, and I'm sure the Rangers wouldn't mind if he went for his stuff, though it would be more along the lines of one last cling at his 'normal' life before it gets swept up in hours of training, etc.

[reka]

I hope it did!

Would he be able to tell them why?

[estirose]

I think the kids would take "Mr. Ziggy is now/has been chosen to become a Power Ranger" far better than Mr. Ziggy is going to. Of course, nobody would go into things like Ziggy's willingness to be a Ranger. The kids think it's great, except one or two who think he looks "sad".

The adults? Well, he'd have to explain to his boss that he passed the tests and he'll be taught how to fight, and she'll want to know if he's okay and whether he's been conscripted, and how she can get him out of it.

(I think I managed to do my homework coherently. I think.)