Very good point–and you’re right, Masen is afraid of Annette. Miguel doesn’t have the spare brain cells to be afraid of anything. (And even if Miguel has a little bit of fear in him, it’d be more directed at Jayson and maybe Annette than at Tawny.) But then again… Miguel spends a lot of his time at work and most of the rest of it drunk as a skunk, it’s easier to get around someone like Miguel, Miguel is an idiot. Masen is observant and calculating. I’d say it all works out.

But yes, here’s hoping all around for good things. Thanks, Morgaine!

Tawny is sort of in awe of Annette, a lot of which comes from outwardly she has the traits that Tawny always wanted to have but her parents didn’t approve of. (Like the characters in the books Tawny read when she was younger, Annette is strong-willed and independent and can hold her own against the boys. Tawny’s been crushed down under the heel of her parents, her grandmother’s bad advice, the world, and Miguel. She can’t help but admire someone who refuses to be squashed.)

As far as how she feels about Kevin and Annette, I think in some ways, she’s–shipping them herself. If Annette, Kevin, and Masen were characters in a book, Tawny’d definitely be rooting for Kevin to win the day more then Masen. Her head ‘knows’ that adultery is wrong, her heart is on board with a friend being happy. And I think that she’s tired of letting logic and religious rhetoric always have their way. (After all, logic and religious rhetoric are what make her have to crawl into Miguel’s bed time after time. Right now they could go to hell.)

We shall see, I think the idea of playing Claire’s compositions on a reproduction of Claire’s piano sounds like a lovely plan for Miguel. Thanks, Van!

But yeah, I liked this update! It’s a good thing that Tawny is making friends and having a little bit of fun in life. Even Annette has fun from time to time, and she’s married to Cox. If she can do it while being married to that man, anybody can.

… Then again, I get the sense that Cox is a little bit afraid of Annette, and Miguel isn’t afraid of anybody. You have to have half a brain to be afraid of someone. Miguel does not qualify.

But yeah, I hope good things come from the piano lessons, and I hope Annette and Kevin continue to have fun together, because they both deserve it.

Despite her former Tuckishness, I feel bad for Tawny. Bors’s One True Love was and forever will be the outfit he worse to Elyan’s wedding, and I firmly believe that all his incarnations are forever doomed to seek that lost romance at the bottom of the bottle to the point of impotence. If they do end up divorcing, I hope at least someone points out that hey, Miguel didn’t get either of his previous two wives pregnant either, so maybe it’s HIM (more evidence if one of the other two remarried and has kids with the new guy!).

Tawny reacted better than I expected to the prospect of Annette sleeping with Kevin. Though, I get the sense that Tawny sees Annette as somewhat more than human, so maybe her traditional scruples don’t apply there. Plus, she knows Cox is an even bigger ass than Miguel.

The piano lessons are an excellent idea! May Tawny soon be filling Miguel’s house with the compositions of Lady Claire.

*runs off to post her own update*

You’re right, things will probably be pretty uncomfortable around the Fitz-Chivalry house with Katherine in charge. And even the slightest hint of Marianne having a possible suitor is likely to make Katherine hit the roof. It’s not her baby, it’s not her favorite. Caroline had her poor heart stepped on. The last thing she’d want is for Marianne to have something that Caroline does not while Caroline is still hurting.

It won’t be easy to mend things for the two of them, that’s for certain. Vivi has a temper and she does like a grudge… Pair that with the fact that she. Was. Right. and this is could be a Sisyphean task. But he is still her brother, for a long time there was a lot that was right between them, and I think there’s still hope for putting things right.

We’ll be blipping over to see a few other households in the next few updates, but we’ll be back to see how things go for Vivi and Leo and all the Finessas in the not too far off future.

Thanks, Winter!

As with a lot of inappropriate relationships there are a lot of levels and I’m sure that Vivi did find it–easier–in a lot of ways that Leo was bespoken for. For one she could focus on hating Caroline rather than on possible ways she could possibly act upon her feelings, which she knows are wrong, but I think she’s also at the age where she might think that if she thought about it in the right way–hard enough–that she could make it work.

I certainly would want to put my fist in the face of any person who tried to even hint that a woman shouldn’t have a fully-functioning brain used to the best of it’s ability. (There are people out there who aren’t necessarily “intelligent” but there’s no excuse for being stupid, no matter what your IQ.) And the fact that Caroline seems to revel in being stupid would make it all the more annoying.

Severus would be more sensitive, Charlie is not a people-person and he fully acknowledges that he’s not a people-person. But I think this might be one of those times when sensitivity wouldn’t necessarily be a virtue. Sometimes you need the blunt brother who’ll call the spade a spade.

Squeak does get involved here in the rather near future. I won’t say entirely how it plays out, if I don’t make it into an update I will at least include some of what falls out of the conversation in the next update with Vivi in it, but Squeak’s not stupid, he knows that trying to force feelings and people in the direction he wants them to go (without a damned persuasive way to get them going that direction) will only blow up in his face. He doesn’t want Vivi to hate him, I never got the impression that Haldred and Cladelia cared what Searle and Rinoa thought of them as long as no one knew their dirty secret.

We’ll see what happens with Sev and Marianne. Henry would like nothing better than to patch things up with the Finessas and if he gets that alliance marriage out of it, all the better.

But you’re quite correct, Katherine won’t be jumping up and down with happiness if Marianne and Severus get together. I don’t think that if Hector offered one of his sons for Marianne Katherine would jump up and down with joy.

Thanks, Van!

Yes, fighting does seem to beget more fighting, especially between Leo-Caroline-Vivi. Leo would have been better off to calm down and think about what had happened before going to talk to Vivi. His timing sucked and he wasn’t cool-headed enough to think about what he was saying before he said it, which of course just made matters worse.

Pretty much. It’d be one thing if Caroline were a nice idiot, it’s a whole different world of something else altogether when it’s a mean idiot who quite honestly meant what she said.

Vivi comes from a long line of smart women, capable women, to even get the hint of the implication that her brother might possibly agree with the “idiots make better wives” idea? I’d have probably smacked him. It certainly wouldn’t have left me on his side.

Charlie is the first one to brave Vivi. He knows that Severus is hurting himself and he’s not going to send his twin in for that. But mostly what he does is encourages Vivi to talk to Squeak.

I’m still deciding if I’m actually going to write that talk, but they will have a talk and it will put a lot of things in perspective for Vivi. Sorry for the long-ass delay on the responses. I thought I had already responded. *blushes*

I doubt even the haven of Camford would save Leo if Katherine truly wanted him dead at any cost. The distance plus the social consequences of murdering a nobleman’s heir will be just enough to keep his head on his shoulders. The thought of Marianne getting married before Caroline would probably just make her worse, though, so I’m hoping she gets some time to cool off before anything happens there. It will be tough all around as long as she’s running the show at home.

I’m going to agree that some distance will do Leo/Vivi some good. There’s really nothing anyone can say to her that is going to make this better. Leo was going to marry that halfwit despite everything Vivi told him – being told she was right after he got hit in the head with Caroline’s idiocy just doesn’t cut it. Whether or not they’re going to be resolving their issues any time soon, they can’t do anything while Vivi is fuming. It’s better that she gets some time to cool down. I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship goes from here.

Have the current nobles taken sides in the church conflict? I can see both Jayson and Katherine as supporters of the Neo-Pascalians.

Looks like it’s not going to be fun times in the Finessa house for a while. Leo heading off to Camford is in both his and Vivi’s best interests right now. There is sometimes a certain bitterness that comes with being right, especially if it took something catastrophic for you to be proven so.

I also kind of have to wonder if some part of Vivi took a comfort in Leo being semi-engaged, in that it gave her another reason not to act on her feelings. The fact that it was someone she couldn’t stand probably helped there, since she might feel she’s bound to resent whoever he ends up with no matter what; it might as well be someone she wouldn’t have liked anyway. And while not being conventionally intelligent does not by any means make someone a bad person or unworthy of happiness, I agree, it’s never fun for an intelligent woman to hear any implication that a woman ought to be dim–doubly so when the not-so-bright one in question also happens to be a total bitch.

Not sure which of the twins I hope goes to comfort her. Sev would probably be more sensitive, but maybe Vivi (and Leo!) has to hear Charlie’s take on it. I’m also going to hope that Squeak gets involved before this gets too out of hand, and I’m sure he’ll handle it in a way worthy of George and Ravenna (or, failing that, at least better than Haldred and Cladelia did).

In regards to Sev’s own issues, I hope he tells his father how much he likes Marianne soon. If Squeak knows this, then that’s one way he and Henry can possibly mend that bridge. Katherine won’t be happy, but Katherine is never happy, so whatever.