Sulphur 7, Faded Blue 28: Attachment

[bookblather]

Author: Kat
Title: Attachment
Story: In the Heart
Colors: Sulphur 7 (Deceiver), faded blue 28 (It's just a mental, incidental, sentimental, alibi)
Supplies and Materials: Tapestry, canvas (baby Danny), charcoal (Frank), miniature, novelty beads ("A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal." -- Oscar Wilde), pastels (bluffing), brush (rebuff), seed beads, glitter (- "I think if I took therapy, the doctor would quit. He’d just pick up the couch and walk out of the room." – Don Rickles).
Word Count: 100
Rating: G.
Summary: Frank pretends.
Warnings: none.
Notes: The glitter might be a bit meta.


"Isn't she beautiful?" Rebecca asks, her eyes glowing. Frank looks down at the baby in her arms, and shrugs.

"She's a baby," he says, and Rebecca frowns, looking puzzled, a little hurt.

"She's our daughter, Frank," she says. "She's the most perfect thing on this earth."

Oh, this was attachment, then. He wasn't going to feel it, but Rebecca clearly did, and he couldn't afford to disrupt this arrangement. So he smiled, and said all the words she expected of him.

He only needed to pretend for a while. Soon she'd be too bound up in the baby to care.

Comments

[settecorvi]

That is some serious lack of empathy, but he doesn't seem malicious, and he cares enough to try and give Rebecca what he assumes she wants to hear. I don't think I've read about him before, but now I'm curious as to whether he's a functional sociopath who's working around his own limitations, or something else.

[walkwithheroes]

Well. Frank's lack of emotions toward his daughter makes me sad. Yet, it doesn't seem malicious. He does care enough to try to say the right words. I'm not sure if him pretending to have the attachment is better than him just not faking it, either way doesn't seem very good.

[isana]

Awwww, God. Really, Frank? Although maybe his dad had something to do with this. This is pretty sad, all told.

[bookblather]

He's not malicious exactly, he just doesn't care about anyone but himself. He's being sympathetic here because he doesn't want the fuss that Rebecca's going to make. And he's... a functional sociopath is a pretty good way of putting it.

Thank you!

[bookblather]

He doesn't actually care? He just doesn't want Rebecca to make a fuss over him not caring. He's... interesting.

Thanks!

[bookblather]

A lot, yeah. A lot a lot. Although some of this is certainly just how he was born, his father didn't help any (contrast Sociopath!Aaron, for example).

Thanks!

[shipwreck_light]

Honestly, even for a fic about a lack of empathy, I can kind of empathize with Frank. Like he's missing something, but he knows it and he can almost try to get it back.

Almost and try.

(And fail all over the place later, but for now.)

[bookblather]

He just fails SO extravagently. Bless him. Except not.

Thank you!