Tag Archive | character: beryl

Charming, a short story of The Aunt Family, for the Giraffe Call

Dec17

For [personal profile] moonwolf‘s prompt.

The Aunt Family has a landing page (and here on LJ).

“Thanks, Eva. I’ll talk to her.”

“You should, Hadelai,” Aunt Evangaline answered, more gently than she normally did. “Of course, you know she’s listening now.

“No, she’s a good girl, she’d never….”

“You did when you were her age. So did I.”

“Hrmph.”

Beryl’s mother had been acting strangely since her Aunt Asta died and Aunt Evangaline took over the Aunt House and all the associated… things, and it seemed Aunt Eva had noticed, too. Beryl knew why, of course – she had the markers, assuming Chalcie or Amy got around to having children (or, she supposed, Stone) – but she wasn’t the only one who did. Mom – Hadelai, Hadie – and Eva had another sister and another brother. There were plenty of cousins to go around.

Still, Mom was all of a sudden very interested in any boy Beryl happened to talk to or about, and very curious about her dating prospects, very worried when she acted at all “strange” or, god forbid, “fey.” It was beginning to get a little annoying, so Beryl had had a quiet word with Aunt Eva, who had had a few less quiet but more subtle words with Mom, and now, it seemed, Mom was going to have a few words with her. She made sure she wasn’t anywhere near the phone – damnit, Aunt Eva – and very engrossed in her homework – Chemistry homework, because Mom, for some reason, didn’t think Chem was fey – and waited for Mom to come have that word.

When she did – thirty minutes later, long enough that Beryl was beginning to wonder if she’d gotten cold feet – it wasn’t the conversation she was expecting. Instead, Mom came with a small charm bracelet in hand.

“My grandmother, Diandre, gave this to me,” she said, with no preamble, as she sat down next to Beryl on the bed. “And I’ve kept it. I thought I would pass it on to a granddaughter – Grandma Diandre got it from her grandmother, after all, and I’m not sure how many generations it’s been in the family before that, but I know it’s quite a few – but I think I should give it to you. If you want to… if you want to give it to a daughter, or a niece, in your turn, that’s your choice.”

She turned the bracelet over in her hands, clearly unwilling to hand it over quite yet. “This is the thing. This isn’t a monkey’s paw, it’s not a magic lantern. But it has power, Beryl, and I worry about that power. I worry about it in your hands, but I have to admit,” she sighed, “I worry about it, right now, more in mine.”

“This one, this is the one I’m worried about.” She showed Beryl the garnet heart, crowned with gold. “This one can bring love or ruin it. And Beryl, I very much want you to find love.”

As if it pained her, she passed the bracelet over. “Please, honey, please be careful.”

Cradling the small relic, Beryl nodded and gulped. Love. Bring love or ruin it. “I will, Mom. I promise.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/199338.html. You can comment here or there.

What to do about Auntie X, a story of the Aunt Verse for the Giraffe Call

Nov17

For Rix_Scaedu‘s prompt.

This is in the Aunt Family setting, which has a landing page now here (and on LJ).

Beryl is one of Evangaline’s nieces.

“But Mom…”

“Don’t argue. You know it’s your Aunt Beatrix’s turn to host Thanksgiving, and you know we can’t very well not show up only on her years.”

“But Moooom,” Beryl’s younger sister Amy picked up the complaint, “it smells funny there.”

“It’s the cats,” their older sister Chalcedony added. “Mom, come on. Someone needs to tell Beatrix that her house smells like cat pee.”

“Well,” their mother pursed her lips, “we do have a new Aunt in the family. Perhaps we can convince her to do the honors.”

Beryl faltered. “Now that’s just mean. Maybe we could call that TV show?”

“The last thing we want is some tv cameras in a Family house. Who knows what they’d find? Beatrix never had any kids, after all.”

“They’d find cats,” Chalce answered succinctly. “And who knows? She could have a kid in there somewhere, and nobody would be able to tell.”

“All right, you girls are just being silly. Sit next to someone with a cold for a couple days before the holiday, and I’ll let you have the Monday after the holiday home sick.”

“You know…” Their brother rarely spoke up. Men in the Family tended not to, after a while. Beryl had heard her father refer to them as the silent minority; personaly, she thought they stayed quiet mostly out of self-defense. Now, they all looked at Stone. Waiting. Stunned. He coughed. “Forget TV. The five of us could manage an intervention on our own.”

“An…”

“Five…”

“Seriously?”

“Awesome! Mom…!”

Their mother shook her head slowly. “An intervention. Well. It would make Thanksgiving awkward…”

“But it would make it smell so much better!”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/179401.html. You can comment here or there.

Difficult Relations, a story of the Aunt Family, for the Giraffe Call

Nov14

For [personal profile] clare_dragonfly‘s prompt.

This is in the Aunt Family setting, which has a landing page now here (and on LJ).

Beryl is one of Evangaline’s nieces.

“What did you get from your Aunt’s garage sale?”

Beryl’s mother was trying to be casual about it, but she did a very unbelievable casual.  She was also rather predictable, so Beryl was prepared for her.

“Couple vintage dresses, two pairs of nineteen-seventies pants I’m going to turn into skirts, and these nice candlesticks.” She juggled things to show her mother the cut-glass sticks.  “Aunt Eva even gave me the candles for free.”

“Hrmph, nothing interesting?”

“No, Mom.”  She rolled her eyes.  “No secret journals, no magical tea leaves, no mystical anythings.”

::Not going to tell her about your great-great-great-great-grandfather in your g-g-g-Aunt’s necklace?:: a voice teased in her ear.

::No, and neither are you,:: she answered firmly. ::Stay quiet when she’s around.:

::Yes’m,:: the voice answered with surprising meekness, and fell quiet, allowing her to navigate her mother’s nosiness with ease.

“Ah, well, I suppose Evangaline kept all the good things for herself.”

“That’s the whole point of the Aunt thing, isn’t it?”  She didn’t mean to twit her mother, she really didn’t – it just made everyone upset, stressed out the whole family, and got them nowhere in the long run.  But sometimes it seemed like Mom was just asking for it.

“What do you mean?”  Mom was getting pretty uncomfortable with Beryl’s interest in their family’s line of Aunts, especially with Aunt Asta passing away.  The discomfort only made Beryl all the more curious, of course, but her curiosity only made her mom, her other aunts, her uncles, and so on clam up like their lives depended on the silence.

“I mean, you have an Aunt in every generation, who holds on to the powerful things, right?”

“Well… who’s been telling you these things?”

“No-one!” she answered, with some exasperation.  “But you guys all talk, and it’s not like we kids don’t have ears.”  We kids made it not just her, not the teens, but the whole generation.  Shift the attention.  “And everyone knew it would be Aunt Eva.”

“Well, yeah,” Mom answered, uncomfortably.  “But it’s not that big a deal, just the family tradition.  The house goes to the unmarried niece of the current inhabitant.”

“With all the good stuff?”

“Well, it’s been in the family for a long time. There’s supposed to be some expensive stuff hidden under the rafters there.

The voice in Beryl’s head chuckled very quietly.  She couldn’t really fault him.

“I don’t think she’d sell expensive stuff at a yard sale anyway, Mom.  Anyone could get their hands on it there.”

“I guess you’re right.  Well, they’re very nice candlesticks.  And don’t call those dresses ‘vintage’ where you aunts can hear you; I think I recognize one from Sally’s senior year of high school.”  Mollified, Mom took one last look at the candlesticks and left Beryl to it.

::They really don’t want you to know, do they?:: He didn’t sound like a dirty old man anymore; he sounded almost her age, and a bit uncertain.

::She’s afraid it’s going to be me.  I don’t know why it’s a bad thing.::

::I can’t tell you on my own,:: he offered hesitantly, ::but I can’t disobey you, either.::

::That sucks.  Being trapped forever in a necklace and having to do whatever… oh.  Oh.::  She felt a grin growing.  ::Grandpa, you and me are going to have some conversations.::

::Call me Joseph.::

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/174911.html. You can comment here or there.