video: un; apparition (characters 18+ please for the first portion)

[unphase]

[Tinya lounges back wearing a little black dress in her sunroom with her batkitten, her kittens, and her Omen, Moonlight sitting at attention on the armrest of her chair]

So! This may seem like an unusual request, but I'm looking for friends. Friends with benefits, actually. I know that may sound strange, but I miss being close to someone. All are invited to apply, if that makes sense. I want to know whom I'm dealing with before I say yes to anything.

[and a Mona Lisa smile] And is it strange to spend more than five years bouncing between worlds? Who else has been through this? [a teasing smile] You don't necessarily have to be auditioning for the first role to answer, I promise.

Comments

[unphase]

He knew. He knew I was both pregnant and married. [she says with a small, self-recriminating grin] At the time, I didn't see many options. Not on that planet.

[fogsong]

Could you not leave that planet?

(CW: pregnancy)

[unphase]

Not really? I was nine months pregnant, having Braxton-Hicks, and he was giving me free help. On Rimbor, that Voidhole. I've mentioned Rimbor before? Besides, there's an even deeper level to the bullshit, thanks to guess whom?

[fogsong]

...Your mom? [ Sharon sighs deeply. Goddamn, that woman. ]

[unphase]

Got it in one! She'd had me declared legally incompetent and sent bounty hunters after me.

[fogsong]

Fucking hell, Tinya! They were just going to kidnap you and drag you home, right? [ Sharon hears bounty hunters and thinks maybe, just maybe, her mom sent people to kill her. ]

[unphase]

I...think those were the orders they were given. In practice, it was different.

[fogsong]

What do you mean?

(CW: pregnancy, childbirth, murder)

[unphase]

[a rueful smile] They found me when I was in the middle of giving birth to my son. They told me that they were going to cut my son out of me and tell my mother I'd married the guy who was just a friend.

There was no way to cut my son out of me without killing me. But they didn't care.

[fogsong]

Oh my god. [ The words just drop out of her mouth, shocked. Horrified. ]

Did he... Your friend, did he save you? Protect you? Kill them? [ Because, dear god, Sharon wants those hunters dead. They tried to kill one of her best friends. Tried to kill her son. There's no denying the rage in her voice. ]

[unphase]

[Tinya looks down and tries to smile] Not exactly. In the end, I saved me. [she's still not sure what to do with anger on her behalf. not to say that she'd never been angry but it had the tendency to eat her alive]

[fogsong]

You were giving birth, dealing with some insane shit, and you saved yourself. [ Her voice warms. ] Have I told you you're a badass lately? Because goddamn, Tinya. You're a badass.

[unphase]

Mm-hmm. It was wild, there's no other way of putting it. [and Tinya grins, ducking her head slightly] I like to think I am. It's nice to have you confirm it.

[fogsong]

That's what I'm here for, Tinya. To remind you that you're amazing. And that you deserve good things. And that your mom needs to get punched, along with that dude.

[unphase]

[Tinya grins] I can't disagree with any of that. And Brin--that's his name--I think he thinks he means well. I'd thought my husband was dead for a year, so maybe he thought he could stand in for him. But Jo's alive and our marriage is...shaky. But we want to work it out.

[fogsong]

You still love him? [ Sharon still doesn't understand how love like that works. ]

(CW: sexual assault--catfishing)

[unphase]

Yes, very much so. [she says without hesitation] Jo has...his own issues, though. While we were separated for a year, a telepath imitated my presence. On every level.

[fogsong]

I remember you telling me about that. Did you two ever manage to sort that out before you were... taken to the other world?

[unphase]

...no. We didn't. He was just not wanting to talk about it. And I can't make him. I don't know if it's because her fucking with his mind like that created some--some kind of attraction after the face or if he's just trying to repress his emotions like a good Rimborian.

[fogsong]

I hope you get the chance to sort it out one day. I can't imagine how hard it is to have all these unresolved issues.

(CW: parental abuse--mental/emotional)

[unphase]

So do I. I don't want to spend the rest of my marriage wondering if my husband's heart belongs to me. I don't want to ruin a friendship with Brin. And I really, really don't want to spend the rest of my life running scared from what my mother might do.

We live for hundreds of years. Have I told you that? I could be in for hundreds of years of my mother making my life terrible.

[fogsong]

You definitely didn't mention that. That sounds hellish. Hundreds of years of being hounded by her.

Maybe you can convince her to let you go.

[unphase]

Mmm. Yes. Hundreds of years. My great-great-grandmother, my great-grandmother, and--well, grandmother is dead, but it wasn't her fault, but. It's mother and I for centuries, it seems. [Tinya sighs] I may have to flee to the furthest part of the galaxy to be rid of her. But that sounds awfully lonely.

[fogsong]

Are you lonely here? [ In a way, Tinya may be the furthest she will ever get from her mother in this world. ]

[unphase]

[after a long pause] I am.