So I was thinking about Swan and Tez again...

[jeriendhal]

...and the scene I posted with them (note: this version is slightly longer that what's posted in my LJ, with some setup as to where they're talking).

I think I've finally figured out what Swan did to deserve Tez's fury. Not, as I'd first feared, something involving sexual violation. I couldn't write that, especially not with Maria as the victim. No, I think Swan for some reason wanted to get rid of her parents and wasn't quite ready to murder them. So instead she seperated and had them enslaved somewhere (likely the Dragon States). Even with Tez's resourcefulness it might have taken three or four years to find and free Maria. And given her (as far as they knew at the time) foreshortened lifespan, he wouldn't exactly be happy about those years being under the thumb of an egotistical lizard.

So yeah, he's a bit irritated with is daughter.

[Poll #1567370]

Comments

some rambling

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Torturing someone for a decade would in my book be an overreaction to ANYTHING. I'm not sure what to think about it as a threat. The "...I will merely appear in front of you"-bit tickles my sense of humour, so I'm not in the right state of mind to take the following threat completely seriously.

If Maria was enslaved in the DragonsStates, and they are in the centre of those now, would leaving Swan there be likely to put her in the same position she put her mother in? The added start kinda makes me wish there was a matching end to address Swan's immediate situation, but on the other hand you have a really good last line standing right there.

Re: some rambling

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Actually I posted the poll because I got the itch to work on the ending to Swan's story. Suffice to say that Tez never actually tortures her...

Directly.

Re: some rambling

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I've been pondering this. And I have to say I think doing what he *says* he will do would be overmuch. I have been thinking though, is there any opportunity for her to avoid the, "She is now dead, the hunt for you now begins," fate.

About the only think I can think of would be for her to work her way home, apologize to her mother, admit everything to her sisters herself and apologize to them as well, and ask to start again not as a sister and daughter but as a stranger who might do better.

I'm not so confident that she'd try even a fraction of that.

Re: some rambling

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

That scenario might work, if Maria bullied Tez into it. His suggestion that she complete her contriteness by being enslaved herself for a proportionate period of time similar to what Maria lost working in a mine that he knows will be used to extract uranium as soon as the tech level improves again wouldn't go over so well.

But that would depend on Swan giving up on the idea of herself as the victim. She's got Demona levels of self-deception in that regard.