I Resist the Muses

For much of my life, my family has meant everything to me. I never knew my mother, as she died when I was born, but I never felt as if I were missing something because she was not here. I have two older sisters who spoiled me quite unashamedly for much of my life, so it always felt as if I had two mothers. My father died when I was twelve, but to be truthful, I always saw Philippe more as my father than older brother. He was the one to whom I turned when I needed advice and guidance.

Except...not this time. Philippe says that I shouldn't be so attached to a mere opera singer, that it's foolish of me to even talk of marriage. He won't allow our union and is threatening to disinherit me if we elope. I don't understand why he is protesting so much - it's not as if he doesn't have his own female companion at the Opera, a dancer. She's his mistress and he won't marry her, he seems to think that this is the correct way of things, but I can't help but see this as less noble. At least my intentions towards Christine are honest and pure. I've never so much as kissed her...but I would like to, very much.

Even though I often say it isn't true, I do care what my family thinks, and it hurts me that they are so set against me marrying Christine. If they would only come to know her as I know her, perhaps that would change things. I know that she is not the same class as we are, but I was never raised to be snobbish and I don't understand why Philippe is acting that way now. Our parents were a love match, why won't he let me have the same?

...I..I don't know why you're asking me about family. I can't say I know what its like to live with the mother who birthed you or the father who sired you. They never gave me a chance, because of something I can't change. Admittedly if they hadn't cast me away I would never met my foster father Mana. He accepted me, everything about me. I couldn't have asked for a better person to take me in and raise me as his own. He was a very kind man who taught me...many things.

He always told me to keep walking no matter where the road was taking me. Its something I stick to even now years later. I used to hate my arm, that is different from everyone else's. That was sadly something he could only tell me quietly that 'God never makes mistakes'. It helped sometimes when people told me I was a demon child, other times I just didn't understand. But he was my world, everything revolved about him... Deep down maybe it still does, my hidden heart.

But as far as family that isn't blood related I know it quite well. The Black Order in a way is my family. We're from all walks of life, banded together for one cause. ...In other ways they are just nameless soldiers who live and die in this bloody war. Rinali asked me to share my burdens, that friends do that. I've never had friends before, until I met one while with master. That didn't end well. I can't agree with her, there are some things you have to deal with alone. Its better that way.

I apologised for yelling at her, but not for keeping things hidden. I'm not sorry for that at all. Opening up to others winds up in distaster and it will only slow me down. I can't afford to pause, I have to keep walking on. Whether she likes it or not.

Family

Family is very important to me. Some believe that Jedi aren't supposed to love or have families. Thankfully, those beliefs existed years before my time. I have a young daughter who is the center of my life. Raising a Jedi child can be a challenge. Some days I can't be sure if what Arianna sees while she sleeps are just a dream. If she gets upset over something, I have to make sure the objects hovering over her aren't breakable. Though everything else is pretty much the same.

There are moments when I've asked myself 'which is most important?' Being a Jedi or being a mother? I will always be a Jedi, no matter what other roles I take. That will never change. Having a family to care for and who care for me is part of what gives me my strength. The Force thrives where there is life. What can be a better way to represent life than love and children? I can't think of anything better.

Kasia Redstar, Jedi Master

Family

There’s a saying about how blood is thicker than water, but I don’t really think that it’s very true. Or maybe it’s true for some families but not for others.

( let's take... )

Ahaha. Family.

You see, I do have a family but all I really count for in the eyes of my father is being the heir that has magic. There's two types of nobility in Melluma of course and the sole difference between them is if you have magic or not. My father doesn't. In fact, the only reason he married my mother was for her magical ability. It wasn't because of noble blood because she had none and it wasn't because he loved her. She was common born and was taken from her family as a child to be raised by a noble family so she could marry a noble. All common borns with magical abilities are taken from their families in their childhood and either they are introduced into noble society or sent to fight on the battlefield.

But she's dead now. I think it wasn't long after I was born.

My father wasn't really there for me. He was too busy being an important man and so handed me over first to the nurse in the nursery, then to my tutors and finally off to boarding school. He didn't grieve my mother much either because she did what she needed: produce a healthy heir with magical abilities. Most I've gotten from him is money and other material things.

I have a step-mother. She's an older woman who my father soon married after my own mother's death. Another non-magical noble, she wasn't particularly fond of me because I represented the one thing she could never give my father. I had over heard once that before my mother - young compared to my father - was married to him, he was in love with my step-mother and only married my mother because he needed a magical heir to get higher in the world and it really just was all for the Merset family name. And so it is my step-mother that my father really loves and not me or my mother. And I think I'm fine with that.

Family - how complicated do you want this?

( ... )

I have mentioned my brother, Mycroft, who is seven years my senior. The seven years between us would seem to put a damper on our relationship, one would think, and I suppose it did, at first. As children, I recall that Mycroft was away at public school before I myself was sent away. I vaguely remember some sort of jealousy, as if he were privileged to be sent off to some strange unknown place. Of course, the realities of the educational system left all of those petty envious thoughts behind.

( Take an unprecedented peek at the childhood of Sherlock Holmes. )

Character: Martha Jones
Fandom: Dr Who
Prompt 2
( prompt 2 )

Character: Michael Anders
Fandom: Original
Prompt: voicesinmyhead #2: "Family"
Word Count: 328

( Family is where you find it. )

( Prompt #1: Who am I? )
( Prompt #2: Family )

Prompt #2 : Family




Muse: Savannah Levine
Fandom: "Women of the Otherworld" by Kelley Armstrong
Words: 174

Oh please. Now I KNOW this question is horseshit. And a trap. But I’m feeling playful today and you can’t punish me any more than this.. for this.. I think.. right? Okay, party line: I don’t remember. You know I don’t remember and you know that I know that that is your fault, and that I’ll pretend I don’t know OR remember that. I’m a good boy. This place is my home and the other inmates students are my family. Thank you. The end.

And fuck it, you’re going to forget this anyway, because I’m going to make you. I’ve already gotten a little piece of your mind in my teeth and I’m hanging on. So now, now that I’ve gotten your attention as well as confidence in your immanent amnesia..

Schwarz is my family. We’re like.. we are, hah, like nothing, we are a mismatched set of cracked glassware and crockery. We’re a bundle of orphans, sold four-for-one. We’re lightning in a bottle and you’ve used a weak cork.
Did you know that? That you won’t be able to keep us? Brad knows. What do you think about that?

Family. The end. Now - wouldn’t you feel better if you just put your head down, rested a little while, dream, süsse Träume, and forget...

Wieder immer Gott I hate this shit, hate this shit, hate this hate this hate this Crawford family doesn’t forget you bastard bastard bastard!

Schuldig fills the remainder of the page with a horrible doodle of a little square house with black and pointy looking flowers on the German style balcony and curly carving along the peaked roofline. Little stick figures represent all of Schwarz: Schu and Crawford figures have their arms out with pistols and Farfarello with his knives, they all grin hugely. There's a little boy figure in a blue suit with his arms crossed, too, but he's frowning.

Family... is a difficult subject for me to discuss.

Actually, it's a difficult subject for some of the people close to me, as well. Funny how that works, isn't it? Or perhaps it isn't, so much. Perhaps "funny" isn't the right word for it at all.

Our families - or lack thereof, percieved or actual - shape us in ways I don't think we even realize. I know my own family has affected me in ways I can't begin to describe. It's... rather overwhelming, when one thinks about it.

I don't like to think about it, but sometimes I have to.

Name: Vincent Valentine
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Prompt 2: Family
Word Count: 170

Family (Comments Welcome)

I never had a real family, not for long anyway.

Muse: Cole Turner
Fandom: Charmed
Words: 381


[Open for RP or comments, but will be slowplay due to late hour.]

Casey Z. [OC] Prompt #2 Family [Open]

To me, true family is the one you make yourself. It is the one you choose, not the one that fate or chance thrusts upon you. My family is the group I hang with. My friends are my family, my tribe.

My other family? The ones who “raised me” (if you could call it that). I don’t like to talk about them. I left that life years ago. Even before I was able to physically leave, I had already detached myself emotionally from them. Assuming I was ever very attached to them in the first place. I doubt they were ever really attached to me.

Oh, sure they were attached to that whole “son” label. But that wasn’t me. That could have been anyone they might have spawned. Me as an actual thinking individual? No, they were never all that fond of that boy.

But I said I wasn’t going to talk about them, so that’s it about that.

My older sister, Gretchen, has two kids. I watch them live such predictable lives, and though a part of me bitterly despises the normality, I envy them. They seem to believe they belong in this world and in life without question. They all go to church, they fight the usual family fights over cars, money, and the teens' boyfriends and girlfriends. It's all so easy for them, even when it's not fun. Things always work out, and cycle back to regular problems. Her family doesn't like me very much. The kids are old enough to think I'm just some weird old guy (even if I'm not as old as their dad, I'm still old to the teens.) None of them seem interested in my life or my work.

My younger brother, Stephan, is only slightly older than her kids. He's just graduated high school. I watch him, and I know that he's just like me, except without the "gifted" tag. He's not joining the family life the way my sister did right out of high school. He's not really trying at college, and yet he's not going to end up in the same situation I was in. He's got a job, and seems okay with it, as long as it doesn't interfere with his daily bar hopping.

I care about Stephan a lot. He's not quite a brother to me, because there are just under ten years between us. I watch him to see what I might have been like, had I not been born with my talents. He doesn't let me get close to him, though.

Mom and dad are still married. They bicker sometimes. They sit quietly at the breakfast table and read newspapers. They don't show us much of themselves. They were very normal parents. They got to church when the mood strikes them. They didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it, though. They showed no interest in whether I was confirmed or not. My sister did everything exactly as instructed. My brother behind me rebelliously declared his lack of faith. I did neither. I don't know what I think about God, yet. My parents didn't really seem to have any opinions about it, either. I think they just carried on tradition more than had any real faith. I don't know. They're both extremely private.

Growing up, they laid down the rules for me, put me into a tough school, and filled up my free time with activities. I didn't spend much time with them. I hate to say it, but I just don't know these people that I'm related to.

I just don't know them at all. My extended family always lived across the country. We visited a couple reunions over the years, but those people are complete strangers. So, my family consisted of five people who barely knew each other.

crossposted to soulvoid

Well. Here I am again, albeit somewhat late. Though, of course, I suppose it is impossible for a dead man to be anything but.

Family and love, hmmm?

Having traveled most of the known galaxy, having seeing countless cultures, I can be sure of only one thing. One tends to lead to the other, and usually in reverse order. In truth, I doubt the force that encourages most creatures to procreate is love at all. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with a touch of carnal lust. After all, it gets the blood pumping as well as any kata, and I thoroughly endorse hard exercise. Pity it lasts only a moment or two... unless one has spent time studying with the Zeltrons, of course.

Love lasts so much longer. Unlike lust--a flash fire that begins when eyes meet eyes--love can start slowly, uncomfortably. "Take another Padawan, you must," your Order might say, even though you have only pained the two you had before. Love can be a scabby-kneed boy you try to avoid over and over again for a month, only to find yourself saving his life less than four weeks later because you cannot imagine what it would be like to be without him.

Love can be dying in his arms, and saying all the wrong things.

Love can be desperately trying to speak to him now, and him still being too hurt to hear you.

Love can be many things, but as of yet I have only known one of them.

~ Qui-Gon Jinn


259 words, open to comments.

Jade Dragon-Prompt #2 Family [open]


I miss my family. I lived with my Mom Devona, her two husbands Arik and Gar and my half-sisters Lucine and Fae. It is not uncommon for people to take more than one spouse in my world, and often they have other lovers from time to time as well. I see that this sort of thing is strangely forbidden in the world that I'm now stuck in. I find it odd that something that brings no harm to anyone should be forbidden, but then it is a different world as I am so often being reminded.

My mother works the farm alongside Arik and Gar. She also does weaving and takes care of her younger girls. I don't need caring for so much anymore. I'm just about the age that many move away from their family's home.

I miss my Mom and her cooking; I miss my little sisters and their silly games. They often got on my nerves but now that we're apart I long for their company.

My father as I've mentioned is a dragon. He's a full-blooded dragon. He's called Zerahn and he visits me about one month a year these days. He used to visit more often when I was younger but as I've grown the visits have grown farther apart. My mother and he are still lovers from what I understand, but Dragons don't usually form the same sort of marriage bonds as the Orianna or some of the shifter races.

The Orianna are the non-shifter race of my world, kind of like humans here I guess. That is what my mom is. Arik and Gar are Phelan, which is the wolf shifter race. They are pretty cool, very protective of the family.

I was going to be visiting my father for a season to learn more about my dragon heritage but I don't know if that is going to happen now that I'm stuck here.

Family

Family? Wow, that's a complicated subject in the Summers home. I have my mother and my father though not many people know I have a dad. Okay yeah, hello not a test tube baby, obviously I have a father. It's just that he's not around much since we moved to Sunnydale. I get that, I do, I mean when you're a weekend dad and your daughter comes up with excuses why she can't see you because she has to patrol, it gets kinda old.

Then there's my sister Dawn who I can honestly say didn't become a sister to me until we moved to Sunnydale.

[Locked from those that don't know the truth about Dawn]

Dawn is my sister in every way that matters, even by blood. Sure mom didn't give birth to her and she started life as an energy blob that can open portals, but she's a Summers. Dawn has Summers blood no matter how she got that blood.

It was just her and I after mom died. I think the monks forgot I had a dad since he didn't even fight for custody of her. The courts didn't automatically send her to my dad even though she was a minor. For that I will always be grateful to the monks for not knowing and my dad for not being in my life more. I honestly don't think I would have got through those few weeks after mom's death without her. I had Giles, Willow, Xander, Tara and Spike. Yeah, you read that right, I leaned on Spike after mom's death. Dawn leaned on him more, but that also helped me deal. It was Dawn though, needing to be there for her, not letting myself break apart like I wanted to, that helped me the most.
[/Locked]

Last, but not least, we come to the Giles portion of the Summers family saga. Unlike my biological father, or any male in my life, Giles has always been there for me. There was this one time he went back to England, but that had been my fault. I didn't stop him or tell him how much I needed him. Even when he was far away in England, he was still there for me. He's the father I wish I'd had.

See? What did I tell you? Family is complicated in the Summers household.


Muse: Buffy Summers
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Word Count: 383


Comment/RP Welcome