Flashback Trickery Tricks

[Piraen Saneka]

Trickery Tricks Piraen and Aella Day 13, Spring of 510 AV Afternoon, Party at a Private Residence "Do you condition it as well?" A petite woman smiled charmingly, exhaling an airy chuckle. The low orange light in the room refracted off her near-metallic hair as she tossed it arrogantly over her shoulder. The smile grew, pushing the charm way passed smarmy. "Oh, I'm sorry. What I am asking is, do you wash your hair once then wash--" Aella smoothly waved her hand in the air. It was as if she was erasing the words of the petite woman, depleting her esteem well."I know what you are asking, dear." Her hand moved back to its place on her hip. She was bizarre, but in a majestic way. Just like Alvadas itself, Aella had an uncanny talent for unnerving people. One could only explain it as a sort of physical and mental intuition for small yet dramatic changes that allowed her to slither her way into others' minds. It was in the way she could crack open your eyes and read your soul through them, forcing you to trust and love her--all with just a smile. "I didn't mean to offend. You know how it is." The petite woman laughed again, attempting to regain her pride. "Oh," Aella cooed out the syllable softly, much like a mother would do while consoling her child. "I know." Piraen watched as the small lady frowned. She was clearly disappointed with being dismissed...it was obviously a new experience for her. "Hmm?" Aella raised her eyebrows inquisitively and smiled slightly. At that point, only the side of her face was pointed towards her tiny company. The rest of her body was facing the dim room, which allowed Aella's conversation partner a lovely view of her back. Pi smiled excitedly. He knew that move! It was a tactic his mother used often. She had called it an invaluable resource, saying that the only people capable of ignoring a resident of a higher class were people from even higher up the food chain. "Oh, nothing. It was charming, dear, but those peaches over there are calling for my attention. Bye~Bye!" The lady wiggled her fingers as she glided away. Now, all of this learning business was making Piraen hungry, and peaches were one of his favorites. His black, beady locked onto the small woman's table. "Mom. Peaches." Aella glanced down at Piraen, following his death stare. Reaching the end, she laughed brightly. Whatever struck her funny only caused Pi's stare to intensify. He failed to see the humor under the current conditions. These were peaches that they were talking about, and his mother clearly didn't understand the gravity of the situation. This was a matter of peaches or death. "I'm going in." Piraen nodded decisively. "Do you want any?" Without waiting for her response, the small boy began to sashay forward. Fists clenched, nose high in the air and mission in mind, Pi stepped with confidence; his mother taught him enough. He was ready. Snag. "Piraen, no." Aella reeled her son in by his shirt's collar. A huge scowl quickly stamped onto the youn kelvic's face. "Why not?" Pi demanded, indignance dripping from his words. Aella shook her head slowly. She released Pi's shirt and moved her hand onto his slim shoulders, crouching down to meet his disapproving gaze. "There are no peaches over there, Deer Heart." Aella patted her son's shoulder affectionately. This, despite the consoling, only deepened Pi's grimace. What did she take him for any way? He had clearly heard that lady say "peaches." Piraen couldn't understand why his own mother wanted to impede his happiness...and at a party no less! The boy came to the conclusion that his mother had, obviously, come to hate him and it was time for him to leave her. Which, as far as Pi was concerned, was completely okay: he could get his peaches elsewhere. "Why don't you want me to be happy?" Pi frowned. I'll need my shoes, all my clothes, that rock that looks like a fish... His list was interrupted as Aella laughed once more. Piraen's mouth dropped in shock. "You. Hate. Me." His tone was flat and informative. It was no longer a question, but, instead, a fact. In the season since he had been born his own mother had come to regard him as one of her play things. He wasn't sad, per se...it was only to be expected. Pi heard what others said about his kind. Kelvics were reckless, they said, only cared for themselves and the wild. Though he never understood their words before, he did now. The boy nodded before turning to leave. His mother's cheer ceased. She knelt forward and enveloped in her arms. She hushed her son. "Piraen, you know I don't hate you. Why else would I teach you all I know? I couldn't hate my little Deer, not my little boy." Pi took her words with a grain of salt. He was still young, but he was old enough to know that his mother was a natural-born liar. Was she lying now? Only time would tell. Only time, and Peaches.

[Piraen Saneka]

"Piraen, don't sit on the floor." Aella twitched her head to the side, inviting her son to stand up from his spot against the wall. She snatched the delicate bowl from his hands, plucking out a peach slice before setting the whole thing down on a nearby table. "It is neither appropriate, nor genteel." Piraen squinted his eyes, quizzically looking at Aella as he stood. "How is standing more gentle, mama?" Whenever his mother was acting, she would use such long words. It had gotten worse lately: every new word she heard one of the "higher-ups" say was a new word immediately slotted into her repertoire. She called it blending. Piraen called it madness--or floccinaucinihilipilificated, to put it into the terms of his mother. "No, no, Piraen." Aella quickly hushed the boy. She didn't wish to let the other guests know that her son was uneducated--no, that would be inappropriate and unheard of. She leaned in, fixing her Pi's small vest as she did so. "'It is 'genteel', not 'gentle.'" "Oh." Pi looked down, dejected. He nervously shuffled, clicking his shoes together in a shy game of 'King of the Hill.' A gentle (not genteel) finger lifted his chin up. His mother met his eyes with a stern stare. "Piraen, what did we speak about?" Aella's orbs flickered down to his shoes and back. Pi stopped shuffling, standing up straight as his mother preached the ways of gentlemen and women. "Correct. Shuffling about is an indicator of weakness. It would be very disadvantageous to be viewed as submissive, Piraen." Pi rolled his eyes, though he made sure the action was quick. He had just reconciled with his mother after the peach incident from earlier that evening and wasn't looking forward to another misunderstanding. A sigh slithered from his small mouth. He wished he could be normal. While other children his age were learning the family trade or going to school, Pi was stuck in an Alvadasian tea party playing dress-up with strangers (with his present company included). At least she might have well been. Whenever his mother turned into his teacher...well, she did exactly that: turned into his teacher. No longer was Aella his mother. No, now she referred to him as "Piraen", always. Never Pi, never Deer Heart, never son. She scolded him at every turn, offered up her judgments of him readily and, worst of all, expected him to be near-silent. "To them, Pi, children are seen, but not heard. These people view their children as trophies, and they expect them to act like exactly that." Aella's square body turned towards the room. She placed flat on her thighs, forcing her shoulders back. With a glance down her nose and a coaxing smile, Aella prompted Pi to take the same stance. "Remember, Pi, you have to look like you belong there. If you look nervous, people will eat you alive." Pi took up the stance as well: broad shoulders, feet spread, hands on hips... The young boy smiled. This he could do. After all the smarmy grins and empty laughter, after all the meetings and social events, after all that these socialites put out, it didn't matter. At the end of the day, they were all still animals. They all held the qualities that they deemed "uncivilized." They tried to make themselves bigger. As if filling more space would make them seem less insignificant in the large ballrooms that they called home. They fanned out their plumage, puffed out their chests and dared the world to challenge them. They thought themselves better, but the only thing that made them different from him was the money...and you could always fake money.

[Piraen Saneka]

Piraen sulked as his mother dragged him along. Aella tightened her grip on her son's arm, glaring down at him disapprovingly. "What was that, hm?" Fire dripped from every word, burning Piraen through-and-through as Aella's anger seared the boy's ego. "Are you trying to ruin my life?!" At that moment, Pi couldn't have cared any less about what his mother felt. She was a scoundrel. A lousy, good-for-nothing liar. Piraen had told the truth, and now he was being punished for it. "She asked me if it made her look fat! I told her the truth!" How was he to know that the owner of the party was so unstable? The head mistress of the household asked him a question and he answered her. Somehow, she found the truth to be unsavory or distasteful. How, or why, she was offended, Pi would never be able to understand. "And you are ruining mine." As soon as the boy's rebellious words were pushed out, Aella attempted to shove them back in. The mother spun and, with her grip still strong on Pi's arm, slapped her son's mouth. "You ungrateful brat! You don't know all the petching trouble you've caused, or the shyke I go through to keep you warm, and fed, and petching educated, do you? No! You could be in a petching slave market right now, you know that? Is that what you want, Piraen? To be a slave? Because I can do that if that's what you really want." Pi looked his mother in the eyes. Who did she think she was? She sat there and punished him for being an honest being! Time and time again Pi tried to be what she wanted him to be. He ate the way she told him to, walked the way he told him to, talked the way she told him to--if he could even talk at all, that is! She dressed him, she placed him, and she moved him as though he were her own toy doll! If he was the ungrateful one, then that made her the high queen of ingratitude! "You already have." Piraen tugged his arm free. His black eyes were locked onto his mother's. Pi could see the emotions bursting inside Aella as she watched her son use the very same tricks that she had taught him against her. A hungry hand reached out, latching onto an arm that was already gone. Aella called out in frustration, cursing at both herself and her son as Pi sped away. His tiny arms pumped as hard as they could, pushing himself through the forest outside Alvadas. Once he was far enough away, he'd find a barn to sleep in or an elderly couple to take him in. That was how these wilderness things went, Pi was certain of it. Aella would never find him. She would never again wrap her evil hands around his arm. Goodbye, mom! Piraen happily threw his tiny bowtie on the ground. He was free, at last! "Now where can I find some peaches?" OOC : I'm sorry for the 1) length and 2) terrible ending. I got stuck, but seriously needed this flashback to be done. Thanks for reading, though!

[Tapestry]

Your Reward is in the Weave

Piraen:

XP Award:

• +3 Observation
• +1 Larceny
• +1 Stealth
• +2 Running

Lore:

• Etiquette: The definition of Genteel
• Running Away

Comments :

I'm sorry I couldn't give you much exp. I really loved how this thread was written though.

TAPESTRY