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rainbowfic2025-11-17 03:23 pm
paradoxcase) wrote in rainbowfic2025-11-17 03:23 pm
Entry tags:
Realgar #12 [The Fulcrum]
Name: Mothers
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Realgar #12: Part
Styles and Supplies: Brushes (November 17, 2025: Crucible), Tempera (Knight of Cups reversed from dailytarotdraw.com: "Knight of Cups reversed indicates you may be walking away from a relationship and/or a creative venture. It could signify a lack of commitment or instability in your relationships, as the reversed Knight of Cups is often associated with a tendency to become emotionally unreliable. This card advises exercising caution when making decisions based on emotions alone, as there is a risk of being carried away by unrealistic fantasies or romantic illusions. It urges the need for self-reflection and emotional healing in order to regain a sense of emotional stability and authentic connection with others.")
Word Count: 792
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.4.1.3
Summary: Setsiana and Qhoroali have a conversation over breakfast.
The dream was on Setsiana’s mind as she readied herself for the day and came out for breakfast. Somehow, she had slept later today, and it was already more around the time when Qhoroali would typically rise, though she did not feel the depression that had accompanied this before. There was already congee waiting for them in the kitchen. She served herself a bowl and sat down to mull over what the meaning of the last part of the dream could possibly have been.
Qhoroali wandered into the kitchen a few minutes later and served herself as well. “Did Li bring breakfast up late today?” she asked. “You’re usually done by the time that I get up.”
Setsiana shook her head. “Overslept today,” she said. “I’ve been having weird dreams.”
Qhoroali’s mouth quirked. “Yeah, me too, honestly,” she said. She stirred the porridge with her spoon for a moment and then continued, “I’ve been thinking about my mother. Or I guess, moreso just back to the time when I decided to leave her temple, the stuff I was doing back then. You think you know a person, you grow up almost worshiping them, and then one day you find out their values were completely opposite yours all along.” She paused to eat a few spoonfuls. “I guess I’m at least lucky that the dream wasn’t about that conversation again.”
“What was it about?” Setsiana asked, starting to get a weird feeling.
Qhoroali shook her head. “Just… stuff. Mostly about when I time traveled to Cyaru’s village for the first time, but it pretty quickly became about… other stuff. Old stuff. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Setsiana watched her as she ate. Had she somehow dreamed Qhoroali’s dream? But that wasn’t possible; regular dreams like that weren’t real enough to be captured by a dreamreader, right? They only occurred inside your own head.
This wasn’t a useful line of thinking. She decided to switch gears. “I had to leave my mother behind, too,” she said, remembering their last conversation in Syarhrít. “I’m not sure if the circumstances were any better than yours, though, all things considered.”
“Really?” asked Qhoroali. “What happened?”
Setsiana recounted the conversation she’d had with her mother after she’d stabbed Priestess Meqhola. “She actually told me about the list I was on, before you did,” she said.
Qhoroali’s eyes narrowed. “How did she know about that?”
“I think it was from when she was a junior priestess herself— no wait. She specifically said it wasn’t. She said I told her that. So I guess that means that at some point I’m going to have to go back there and do that.”
“It’s nice that you can still go back and talk to your mother, even after learning what you’ve learned,” said Qhoroali. “I don’t think I’ll ever talk to mine again.”
“We still don’t have a great relationship,” said Setsiana. “The last time I talked to her before you kidnapped me, we had a horrible argument. She told me that the priesthood was up to something nefarious and that I needed to leave immediately, and that they were going to lock me in the temple and never let me see her again. Just a lot of weird conspiracies.”
“I mean, she wasn’t wrong.”
Setsiana thought about that for a moment. “You know… if that argument had happened after the conversation where I told her about the list, from her perspective, I guess it would have made a lot more sense for her to say that.”
“She doesn’t sound so bad,” said Qhoroali. “It sounds like she was just trying to look out for you. You should probably go back and visit her sometimes.”
“I should,” said Setsiana. “I think I need to apologize to her about that argument, now, too.” She looked at Qhoroali, cautiously. “Are you sure you can’t go back and convince your mother that she was wrong about the Sohanke slavery?”
Qhoroali just shook her head. “I already did my damnedest to do that back before I ran away,” she said. “She has a lot of pride riding on her position as the head of the temple, and on running it in a very traditional way, aside from including men. She used to talk about how the Egalitarian heresy was the original main branch of the religion, that Yesora herself had started it, and some politics had somehow changed the Grammar and pushed us aside. She would cooperate with people like the Personalists for practical reasons, but she never saw herself as a heretic, or as someone who was breaking the mold. She’s invested so much of herself into upholding tradition that she would have had to become an entirely different person to budge on any of it.”
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Realgar #12: Part
Styles and Supplies: Brushes (November 17, 2025: Crucible), Tempera (Knight of Cups reversed from dailytarotdraw.com: "Knight of Cups reversed indicates you may be walking away from a relationship and/or a creative venture. It could signify a lack of commitment or instability in your relationships, as the reversed Knight of Cups is often associated with a tendency to become emotionally unreliable. This card advises exercising caution when making decisions based on emotions alone, as there is a risk of being carried away by unrealistic fantasies or romantic illusions. It urges the need for self-reflection and emotional healing in order to regain a sense of emotional stability and authentic connection with others.")
Word Count: 792
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.4.1.3
Summary: Setsiana and Qhoroali have a conversation over breakfast.
The dream was on Setsiana’s mind as she readied herself for the day and came out for breakfast. Somehow, she had slept later today, and it was already more around the time when Qhoroali would typically rise, though she did not feel the depression that had accompanied this before. There was already congee waiting for them in the kitchen. She served herself a bowl and sat down to mull over what the meaning of the last part of the dream could possibly have been.
Qhoroali wandered into the kitchen a few minutes later and served herself as well. “Did Li bring breakfast up late today?” she asked. “You’re usually done by the time that I get up.”
Setsiana shook her head. “Overslept today,” she said. “I’ve been having weird dreams.”
Qhoroali’s mouth quirked. “Yeah, me too, honestly,” she said. She stirred the porridge with her spoon for a moment and then continued, “I’ve been thinking about my mother. Or I guess, moreso just back to the time when I decided to leave her temple, the stuff I was doing back then. You think you know a person, you grow up almost worshiping them, and then one day you find out their values were completely opposite yours all along.” She paused to eat a few spoonfuls. “I guess I’m at least lucky that the dream wasn’t about that conversation again.”
“What was it about?” Setsiana asked, starting to get a weird feeling.
Qhoroali shook her head. “Just… stuff. Mostly about when I time traveled to Cyaru’s village for the first time, but it pretty quickly became about… other stuff. Old stuff. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Setsiana watched her as she ate. Had she somehow dreamed Qhoroali’s dream? But that wasn’t possible; regular dreams like that weren’t real enough to be captured by a dreamreader, right? They only occurred inside your own head.
This wasn’t a useful line of thinking. She decided to switch gears. “I had to leave my mother behind, too,” she said, remembering their last conversation in Syarhrít. “I’m not sure if the circumstances were any better than yours, though, all things considered.”
“Really?” asked Qhoroali. “What happened?”
Setsiana recounted the conversation she’d had with her mother after she’d stabbed Priestess Meqhola. “She actually told me about the list I was on, before you did,” she said.
Qhoroali’s eyes narrowed. “How did she know about that?”
“I think it was from when she was a junior priestess herself— no wait. She specifically said it wasn’t. She said I told her that. So I guess that means that at some point I’m going to have to go back there and do that.”
“It’s nice that you can still go back and talk to your mother, even after learning what you’ve learned,” said Qhoroali. “I don’t think I’ll ever talk to mine again.”
“We still don’t have a great relationship,” said Setsiana. “The last time I talked to her before you kidnapped me, we had a horrible argument. She told me that the priesthood was up to something nefarious and that I needed to leave immediately, and that they were going to lock me in the temple and never let me see her again. Just a lot of weird conspiracies.”
“I mean, she wasn’t wrong.”
Setsiana thought about that for a moment. “You know… if that argument had happened after the conversation where I told her about the list, from her perspective, I guess it would have made a lot more sense for her to say that.”
“She doesn’t sound so bad,” said Qhoroali. “It sounds like she was just trying to look out for you. You should probably go back and visit her sometimes.”
“I should,” said Setsiana. “I think I need to apologize to her about that argument, now, too.” She looked at Qhoroali, cautiously. “Are you sure you can’t go back and convince your mother that she was wrong about the Sohanke slavery?”
Qhoroali just shook her head. “I already did my damnedest to do that back before I ran away,” she said. “She has a lot of pride riding on her position as the head of the temple, and on running it in a very traditional way, aside from including men. She used to talk about how the Egalitarian heresy was the original main branch of the religion, that Yesora herself had started it, and some politics had somehow changed the Grammar and pushed us aside. She would cooperate with people like the Personalists for practical reasons, but she never saw herself as a heretic, or as someone who was breaking the mold. She’s invested so much of herself into upholding tradition that she would have had to become an entirely different person to budge on any of it.”
no subject
She told me that the priesthood was up to something nefarious and that I needed to leave immediately, and that they were going to lock me in the temple and never let me see her again. Just a lot of weird conspiracies.”
“I mean, she wasn’t wrong.”
Ha, well, no!! XD
Intriguing re. the possible shared dreams, too!
no subject
Thank you! There will be more on the shared dream idea to come..
no subject
no subject
Thank you, I'm glad it resonated! I was originally planning to work that bit into the scene at the end of part one in the carriage where Qhoroali talks about why she left, but it wound up not fitting in there and getting pushed all the way here instead. There is also a slight easter egg in there where, if you remember the story about Yesora that I posted a long time ago, Yesora actually was one of the founders of the Egalitarian heresy way back then.