Sydney Sage (sage_lily) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-05-27 23:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, jill mastrano (needstobreathe), ~2017 may, ~25 points, ~~sydney sage (sage_lily) |
WHO: Jill Mastrano-Dragomir and Sydney Sage
WHERE: Starbucks
WHEN: May 27
WHAT: Catching up
RATING: PG
STATUS: closed; completed
For an evil unnatural creature, Princess Jill Mastrano-Dragomir was really sweet. Not that Sydney really thought of her as evil or even unnatural anymore. She was simply Jill, with whom Sydney had regular coffee meetings to touch base and ensure the hidden Princess of the Moroi Court was still safe and happy. “How have things been?” Sydney asked. As usual, she was only drinking black coffee and hadn't ordered any food. *** “They’ve been good,” Jill replied, taking a sip of her own coffee -- it was a little more than black coffee, but she wasn’t one of those people who went all crazy. Usually. “Work and school are pretty much the same.” A laugh. “I survived the kid thing last month, thank God. Came out of it with only one, and he was with my boyfriend. Thank God for small favors. I was pretty much willing to take what I got. Not that Jordan and I are anywhere near ready for kids, don’t get me wrong, but considering how things go when the kids show up…” She tilted her head and looked at Sydney. “How’ve things been for you?” Because she wasn’t the kind of person who wasn’t going to ask about the other person. *** “They're fine,” Sydney said simply, because she wasn't nearly as voluble as Jill, and also because she was used to listening, not talking. Alchemists weren't meant to be seen or heard, and Sydney liked it that way. Except, maybe, sometimes it got a little lonely. “I didn't have any kids show up,” she added, in an attempt to be more conversational. “Which is a relief. How did you manage taking care of your kid?” *** “He was a teenager, so it wasn’t too bad,” Jill said with a shrug. “He mostly took care of himself, actually. Spent a lot of time with a friend he made here.” Not that Morgan had necessarily been the best friend he could have made, but that was a worry for another time. “It was kind of nice meeting him. But a little scary, too.” *** “Why’s that?” Sydney asked. She could think of any number of reasons why having a sudden teenage child - when Jill was little more than a teenager herself - would be scary, but she wanted to know what in particular made it scary. Understanding Jill would help Sydney protect her better. She still considered it her job, despite them having been taken from their homes. *** “Because he’s a glimpse of a future I could really realistically have,” Jill said. “I’m involved with his father, it’s been ten months, and it’s pretty serious. I mean, not like marriage and kids serious. But the kind where we might actually be together for a while. And that’s part of a possible natural progression of things, you know?” She couldn’t figure out the rest of how she wanted to put it, so she just kind of tried to muddle on through. “You’re used to a progression of things, a plan, knowing what’s going to happen. I’m… not so much. So having an idea of how my life won’t go? It throws me, every time this happens.” And it threw her even moreso because this time, it wasn’t Eddie. *** It took Sydney a moment to wrap her head around this, because Jill was right: she was used plans and schedules. Certainly, as an Alchemist, she’d always known what her path looked like. She liked knowing what her plan looked like. Even here, she kept a heavily regimented schedule - so Jill's concern about this glimpse into her future was strange to Sydney. She tried to understand, though. “Is it because you'd rather things develop on their own?” *** ‘“Not exactly,” Jill said, frowning slightly. “I think it’s more because I don’t know that that is going to be the future that happens. It’s the uncertainty that bothers me more than anything.” A shrug. “I mean, I’ve seen glimpses of my theoretical future before and it hasn’t bothered me, so it’s not that -- it’s that it’s someone who isn’t Eddie. It isn’t the person I know I go home to. My son, his existence… it means that in at least one universe out there. I’m here long enough to set down roots and actually stay.” Sighing now. “It’s both terrifying and fantastic.” *** Now Sydney started to understand. Yes, in order to have a child here, Jill would have to be here long enough for it - which meant being away from her family and...whatever Eddie was to her. Sydney hadn't had that problem, because she vastly preferred being here, away from the controlling eyes of the Alchemists. “I can see how it can feel weird,” she acknowledged. “This isn’t home, but there's a possibility that one day, it might be. And where does that leave your life back home?” *** “And it’s even more weird because of the fact that when we go home -- if we do -- we go back to the moment we left from,” Jill said. “So everything picks up from that point. Which, if I went home now… it’d be okay. Well, not okay, exactly, but people here would adjust to me going home a lot better than they would if I went home after twenty years, a marriage, and a kid.” A shake of her head. “I don’t want to disrupt anybody’s life if I go home and the longer I’m here, the more I’d do that.” A breath, because words in the actual order weren’t so much a thing. “So put it all together and it’s… knowing that whatever life I’m going to have here is with someone else and then I’m going disrupt it all by going back to an actual life with Eddie, it’s… a thing I’d rather not deal with thinking about. But that never gets you anywhere, so…” A shrug. *** “How long have you been here?” Sydney asked. She knew Jill had been around for much longer than she had - enough to feel settled here and see herself with a potential future here. Sydney obviously hadn’t. There was no future kid for her. Sydney couldn’t even envision being here that long. But for someone who had been, it wouldn’t be too much of a leap to see herself here years down the road. And now Sydney understood how it could be weird. *** “Just over three years,” Jill replied. “I’m almost nineteen now. It feels… surreal. Because I’m not much younger than Lissa is here, when I’m supposed to be several years younger. I mean, it’s not a bad thing, it’s just one of those ones that makes you realize yeah, it is possible to live a life here.” A sigh. “I mean, it’s not just people spending time here. Look at the people who’ve been here the longest. Haymitch and Darcy have a baby. Adam and Finch are married and have an almost two-year-old. Steve got married recently. Thalia’s been married for a while. People are setting down pretty deep roots here.” *** “And all the lives of the people around them would be disrupted if they got sent home,” Sydney said. “Just like our lives would be if you did, no matter how long you stayed.” It wasn’t so much that she was imparting advice as she was making statements of fact. Sydney was probably the worst person to give advice to anyone, even if she had a desire to. Which she didn’t. “I don’t think it’s realistic to not affect anyone if you go, unless you kept to yourself and didn’t interact with anyone.” *** And Jill was used to the Sydney she’d known here, sort of, the one who’d been practically like a sister to her. But this Sydney? Was just as reassuring, in a different sort of way. Because statements of fact were just as soothing as emotional hugs and shit. Made her think about things in an entirely different sort of way. “You know me,” Jill said with a slight laugh. “I like people, and I want to be liked. So having so many people here that know me… it’s nice, and it’s scary.” She sighed, running a hand through her hair. “And having so many people willing to give up their time for me? That’s scary, too. Because at the start of things, when Rose and Dimitri first asked for volunteers? These people didn’t even know me, and they volunteered anyway.” *** Sydney normally wouldn't have been surprised by that. Back home, the Alchemists had to keep a close eye on the people who “volunteered” to help the Moroi. More often than not, it was with the hope that they would somehow be turned into vampires themselves. Here, however, people offered to help with no expectation of receiving anything in return. It was just as surprising to Sydney as it was to Jill. “There seems to be a lot of helpful people here, she said carefully. She herself still kept herself separate and aloof, but she couldn't deny she'd benefited from the teachings of magic users who had readily welcomed her and offered her assistance without asking anything in return. She wasn't used to that at all. *** “There are,” Jill said with a nod. “It’s… it’s nice. I know that sounds simplistic, but it is what it is. I mean, Johanna takes time out of her whole busy schedule to help you coordinate the feeder schedule and to be a feeder. Chris coordinates my Guardian rotation and serves as one of my Guardians. Johnny and his girlfriend Izzy have served as my Guardians for years -- he’s like my big brother and she’s one of my best friends.” She ran a hand through her hair. “And Lissa’s got people who are just as close, people who don’t care that she doesn’t remember being here before. Adam that she works with, Carson, Adam that coordinates her Guardian rotation… nobody expects anything from us, haven’t ever.” A sigh, now. “And I like it because… well, can you blame me? I go home and people are going to have expectations of me, just because I’m royalty.” *** Contrary to her training, Sydney did feel sympathy for Jill, who'd been ripped from her comfortable, obscure life and thrust into the world of court politics. Knowing the girl - vampire - as she did, Sydney knew Jill didn't like any of the attention of expectations that came from being a princess of the court. She didn't blame Jill for liking it better here. How could she, when she herself found the freedom here that had always been denied to her back home? “Just be careful,” she cautioned. “Just because a lot of people here are willing to help without getting something back doesn't mean everyone is.” A pause, and then she admitted, “I’d hate to see you get hurt.” *** “I”m not fifteen anymore, Sydney. I’m nineteen now. Believe me, I watch people a lot better than I did then.” Not to be confused with disagreeing with Sydney -- exactly the opposite. She’d learned enough from the people who were willing to help so easily that it made her realize even more how lucky she was. “I kind of think that oddly enough, until we got here and were handed this particular situation, with so many people willing to help so freely, we didn’t realize just how constricting our lives really are.” She smiled wryly. “And I’ve realized that a lot.” *** Sydney shifted uncomfortably. She'd always had the sense of being constricted back at home, unable to do what she truly wanted, but it wasn't until she'd gotten here that she realized just how shackled she'd been - and still was - by the Alchemists. She wasn't quite ready to completely burst out of those shackles, though. “Good,” she said eventually, and realized, with surprise, that she'd finished her coffee. “I'm going for another cup. Do you want anything else?” *** Her drink was still warm enough that she could finish the half dozen sips left -- and hello, definitely too expensive in this place -- so she didn’t need to fish money out of her pocket and hand it over, because she wouldn’t send Sydney up and make the other woman pay for her coffee. Buuuuut.... “See if they still have any of those chocolate scones left?” Her voice was very definitely hopeful; everybody had a favorite, after all. “I know they were running out when I got here.” This was how she liked her life; relaxed, calm, where the biggest thing she had to worry about was whether or not Starbucks had her favorite pastry. Of course, that could still change in fifteen minutes, even in Madison Valley. The point still stood. *** |