September 30, 1174
"Ri-la!" whined Alina from her spot on the rug. "Sev's chewing on dolls again!"Fenrick's father's house had not been Eilyssa's first choice. She'd ridden down to Veldora to visit Xeta, only to find that Xeta was visiting her brother at Armion. Not wanting to waste the trip, she'd looked around for the other girls, but Aldara was out with her sweetheart, Vera was down with a headache, and--from the sounds of it--Riona had once again done something worthy of a scolding in her father's study. So she'd left the castle and headed to Falidor and Raia's place in hopes of catching her betrothed, but he wasn't there. His twin sister, however, was.
And now here she was, babysitting with Riala, of whom she was never sure. She was nice and all, but..."Aww, Sev, that's not food." Riala clicked her tongue as her little brother put down the doll and stared at her. Satisfied, Riala turned instead to her sister. "And you shouldn't be tattling, missy; if you're so quick to tattle on your brother, then one of these days he's going to tattle on you."
It wasn't bad advice, but there was something about the way Riala gave it that seemed a little off--like tattling was something more than an inconvenience. Something horrifying. Eilyssa nudged her left heel with her right toe and let her ankles fall together. There were some odd number of rumors flying around about her soon-to-be sister-in-law and she would have preferred to think that there wasn't any truth to them.
But if nothing else, at least the presence of the children provided an easy change in subject. "At least they're cute, right?""Oh, definitely." A fond smile on her face, Riala shot a thoughtful glance toward the pair of them. "I hope Father and Raia have another one soon."
Eilyssa frowned, if only because Fenrick had always expressed a hope otherwise. Then again, having a stepmother who was barely older than you were had its perks too; she herself had quite a bit of fun with Alsina. "I imagine Raia's welcoming the break, though."
"Well, you can't blame her there, can you?" There was something infectious about Riala's laugh. Maybe that was the source of all the rumors. "But no matter. I suppose it won't be long before I have a little niece or nephew to occupy me, correct?"As she was starting to do whenever someone mentioned that, Eilyssa blushed. She knew it wouldn't be the far off, but was there any sense in getting ahead of herself. "Err... with any luck?"
"Honey, you won't need luck. You're young and healthy and it shouldn't be a problem." Riala flashed her a quick grin and patted her on the shoulder. "If it doesn't happen, it's probably just because my brother isn't trying hard enough."If she'd been pink before, she must have been deep crimson now. Maybe it was comments like that that fueled the rumors. "Riala!"
The other girl smirked. "What? All these men go around bitching about their wives not being able to bear them any babies, but they never consider that it might not be her problem, do they?"
She did have a point there. If nothing else, it explained the annoyed look on Jeda's face every time Ietrin shook his head at the sight of her flat stomach. "I guess they don't."Bitter, Riala slouched back in her seat. It must have been the first time Eilyssa had ever seen her at all subdued. "Men. They have this one overly-specific idea about what a woman should be and any girl who doesn't fit that is an abomination by default. And yet, they never seem to apply the same logic to themselves, do they? Hypocrites."
Eilyssa let her eyes fall to her lap. Girls like Riala did suffer heavy blows at the hand of the double standards. A pity that it wasn't just the men who enabled them. And hell, what right did she have to think that? Wasn't she uncomfortable around Riala herself? Well, at least she had something to work on before she had to start worrying about babies.
"I managed to get Fenrick trained up for you pretty well, though--if I do say so myself." Riala took a piece of her hair in hand and fiddled absent-mindedly. Eilyssa kind of wanted to give her a hug. "If he starts slipping up, though, just let me know and I'll beat the sense back into him. We women have to stick together."NEXT CHAPTER:
7 comments:
Yes, I know I promised IFV, but there were a few kinks in the process last night. First off, I had to prepare a new lot and I had to go through a few ideas and restart because they weren't what I needed, and secondly... umm, general burn-out on that front. I'll finish the story for the sake of finishing the story, but it will probably be half-assed and sporadic. Sorry about that, and thanks for bearing with me.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping to have the next Realmspeaker up tonight, because I'm still in "OMG IT'S MY NEW BABY AND I LOVE IT" mode with that story. Although, the next post is on Farrel's lot again, and that was crashing last time, so it might have to wait until tomorrow. If nothing else, I do have the blueprints saved and can recreate the lot without much trouble if it proves necessary.
Interesting, very interesting. I could be wrong, but it sounds like Riala takes after her mother in certain ways. (Although I will say she is one gorgeous Sim!) But she seems to have a philosophy to it that goes deeper than, "Oh, hai, you're a guy? Let's have SECKS!"
I wonder what will happen when she gets unleashed on the world at large ... ;)
And I hope Eilyssa shares this insight with Jeda (not that Jeda hasn't gotten there herself). Preferably in front of Laralita and Roderick. Ietrin needs to be handed a dose of STFU.
We did get that one mention of Riala buying one of those mysterious red pouches from Laveria ;)
But yeah, Riala does seem to have a deeper approach than her mother did. She also seems a lot nicer. And she's pretty like her dad XD
I imagine she and her cousin Aldara get along very well.
Eilyssa probably doesn't see Jeda all that often--she and Ietrin were never close--but yeah, someone does need to cut that guy down to size one of these days...
I love how sensitive Eilyssa is to such things considering her own mother's approach. Nice contrast.
Thanks Epi :)
Eilyssa's a lot more sensitive than either of her parents. Her grandparents were all dead before the start of the story, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that she gets it from Aldhein's mother.
Every time Ietrin's name comes up, that sound is me grinding my teeth LOL!
I like Riala. She has a bitter path ahead of her and little in the way to sweeten it, all those damned men is right. But she also has a fantastic sense of humor. Eilyssa, for all her innocence, is really empathetic.
Ietrin does seem to inspire teeth-grinding :S
I'm liking Riala too. She an interesting character--kind of a Good Bad Girl. She's still young and figuring out who she is, but right now she's not in a social situation that works for her. She probably doesn't have many friends outside of her family, so it's a lucky thing Lyssie can sympathize.
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