video ✨ seelie/unseelie

[gandere]

[ Being a mother... isn't as easy as it sounds, Rin's painfully discovering. While the boy she adopted is a sweet little thing, he is also a boy and Rin is lacking in experience when it comes to boys that age. In Japan they were proper and didn't mingle much with girls so there's minimal experience from her childhood to go by. Growing up, there was a baby sister for a few years, but she doesn't like to think about those times either so it's no good. She's been a mother for a week and she's already crawling to her locket after asking around. Turns out most of her close companions either suck at parenting (thanks Saber for everything Mordred) or just planned to never have children at all (because that's helpful, Waver), leaving her in the dark. If only there were self help books available, but of course there's not.

Plus this gives her a reason to actually pester people. See what's been going on now that Caer Scima is rubble and everyone is scattered throughout the world. Let people know she's alive. Give them a chance to speak with her before she shut her locket for good. So here's one Rin, dressed tomboyish for her poking around for all to see. ]

Boys are really a handful, aren't they? No--before you ask--I'm not having relationship problems. I mean little boys. I'm not sulking, but it's really kind of hard to think of activities for someone his age-! [ She's brooding pretty fiercely by now. ] When I was seven years old, all I ever wanted to do was study, so why won't he?

[ Just in case anyone in Allaidh Darach needed further proof that Rin Tohsaka was a nerd. ]

I don't even know what to feed him since Emiya left. [ Yes, that's a public jab at his departure today. She's still a bit sour over it. ] He's a stupid boy, so he knows what boys need! What if I don't have enough of the right vegetables and his growth is stunted as a result. That can happen, can't it?!

[ There's a sound in the background that causes her to nearly drop her locket, the magus fumbling with it for a few seconds before it lands solidly in her palm. ]

Crap, crap, crap! What if he heard-?! Oh no, he's going to think he's an inconvenience and—[ Snapping the locket shut. It'll be a couple minutes to confirm it's clear before she replies to anyone. ]

Comments

[steeledskin]

You might ask him.

[ soft. she means it helpfully -- not a hint of malice in any syllable. ] Or else begin with lemon cakes.

[gandere]

If I ask him all these questions, he'll become overwhelmed and begin to doubt my ability as a parent. [ Much like everyone else who has seen this cry for help. ]

I can't let him think that. A child must have pride in their parents.

[steeledskin]

And yet -- surely -- you're not really...

[ his mother. ]

A-are you, Lady Rin?

[gandere]

I am. [ She knows Sansa doesn't mean to offend, but her tone is firm.

This is something she won't budge on. Ever. ] Adopted from one of the temples devoted to the Black Shuck. If I'm going to settle down here, I may as well work on improving the lives of others if I can.

[steeledskin]

[ adoption is just as valid a family tie -- or so sansa has but recently decided. even so: ] Gods, for a moment I thought you were claiming to have birthed him.

[ look, magic's a little weird in these parts... ]

[gandere]

R-Really?! Is that a honest thing people are wondering about?

[ Just wait until she finds out they think she had a child with Lord El-Melloi II. Fortunately no one has been stupid enough to raise that point just yet. Despite the absurdity of it all, it takes Rin a few seconds longer than usual to regain her composure. ]

No, no, no. I don't think that's possible.

Someone would have noticed? Right?

[steeledskin]

I would otherwise have thought you'd call him your ward. Or else say he was fostered-- [ but her ways are different to these ways. to call someone a mother, it has a hard definition in her mind. it does not diminish the love of adoption or fostering. ]

Besides, this world proves itself full of strange magicks. Cousins younger than they should be. People pulled from all manner of times. I thought -- perhaps -- you spoke of a child you'd not yet had. It would have been difficult to notice indeed.

[ sansa has been skittish about many things. but not this. what is childbirth, but another fact of life? ]

[gandere]

[ Rin understands and nods, realizing now she's made a terrible error in her wording. She's not quite used to the archaic cultures that surround her here and adoption in her world has been fairly modernized. To her Scian was her son and she would die to protect him just as she would die to protect her own flesh. ]

I'm certain that has probably happened here before. What a terrible ordeal to have to go through in the first place...

Thank you for telling me this though. I would have continued to address him that way without knowing there's proper terminology for what I've done. Is it, um, is it hurtful to call him my ward when I speak about him to others?