On the flip side, that’s not how it is in her story books and somewhat like young Tawny, her view of reality is shaped by the types of books that she reads. She may not truly understand what love is, but it is what is in her books where everything turns out alright in the end, so obviously that’s what would be the best course. She wants things to turn out like in her books.

Annette is walking a tightrope as regards Lyssa’s relationship with Masen. Annette does not want to influence Lyssa’s opinion of Masen. She obviously doesn’t really like Masen, but she also knows that how she, personally, feels about her husband is a whole different universe of something else altogether from how her daughter should feel about her father. They’re two completely different relationships and I think that Annette would feel terrible if she thought her dislike of Masen was coloring Lyssa’s view of him. She really does want Lyssa to decide what she feels about her father for herself.

On the flipside, given Masen’s proclivities and the fact that Lyssa is the single most important thing in her life, Annette wants to protect and shelter Lyssa as much as she can. Which means that sometimes she does come down like a wall between the two of them because it’s the only way she can see to protect her.

But this mostly manifests in not putting Masen and Lyssandra in the same bed together. And Masen’s coldness and disinterest in his daughter does a lot of the rest.

But you’re right, Lyssa doesn’t hate her father. She’s never really had a reason to. Masen’s cold and distant and disinterested, but there is a long, long, long way between not being treated well by her father and actively hating him. She’s only seven after all. Hate at that point in your life usually requires a fire of passion and she doesn’t have that.

After all, she’s surrounded by people who are terribly busy most of the time and don’t have a lot of time for their kids, so again, it’s relatively normal from where Lyssa’s standing.

Very good points about Ellan! (And I love the mental image of Masen as a dog trying to mark the Whomping Willow.) But Ellan doesn’t have the brains to give up, so he’ll probably continue to try for as long as he, Masen, and Annette are all alive.

Thanks, Winter!

Just how much Ellan wants a son for Masen would be an interesting question. If the existence of a son was that damn important, I’d guess he would try to get rid of the biggest problem – Annette. Annette probably isn’t far off saying Ellan gets off on it. Getting a son out of Annette would be like breaking a horse, and seeing his son be a man and do it would not be unsatisfying to him. It’s like a dog marking a tree, getting a son out of one’s wife. (Unfortunately for Masen & Co., the Annette tree is of the Whomping Willow variety.)

Most people don’t actually know about Masen’s proclivities. Why would a grown man with a relatively attractive wife need to do that? (If you don’t know what “that” is, it’ll be crystal clear in tomorrow’s update.) They know that Annette and Masen aren’t warm and cuddly with each other, but for the most part people just think that they have a slightly chilly arranged marriage like dozens of other couples in town.

Yes, yes, the Darwin awards really do need to catch up with some of these Bors-brain carriers. If Ellan came right out and said something to Annette about getting pregnant, she would tell him to go take a long walk off a short pier, but he’s not going to say anything “It’s not his place.” He’s just going to nag his son about it, because it’s Masen’s job to educate his wife and put her in her place.

I can say, though, that Ellan had no idea what he signed on for daughter-in-law. Ellan’s idea of how you handle a stubborn woman is you break the stubborn out of her. Unfortunately for Masen, (if you want to call it unfortunate) Patron makes him look like he’s still in short pants on all fronts, and if Annette came out of having Patron for a father strong and with most of her sanity intact, there’s almost nada that Masen can do to get past Annette’s barriers.

After all, Annette at one point loved her father and did want his approval. She doesn’t give a shit what Masen thinks of her.

Lyssa is conflicted about siblings, but I think she and Annette could work it out if Annette ever chose to have more children. It’s just not happening with Masen. Lyssa’s seen her friends with their siblings and she’s not sure the upsides would really outweigh the downsides. Until she could be sure she really wanted them, she wouldn’t even bring it up to her mom, cause she knows when Annette’s being stubborn. And she’s never more stubborn than when it comes to the whole one kid only thing.

But yes, Masen is totally mortal and there are a lot of things that could take him out. Annette might totally be on board with more kids as long as it doesn’t mean climbing into bed with Masen.

Thanks, Van!

And she also knows what it’s like to know your mother killed your father. It was mentioned in this post that Annette’s mother, Rochelle, had killed Patron. (I’m not sure if anyone read that paragraph that way, but it is true.)

Ellan, unfortunately, did not hear the conversation. He was having a smoke with his brother out in the garden and they weren’t being that loud and Ellan wouldn’t have processed what Annette was telling Masen anyway. She can tell him she wants him out of her uterus until she’s worn her teeth away and his ears are bleeding and it won’t sink through, because of course a woman wants to provide her husband with a son, even a woman like Annette. It does not compute…

The visit does end very soon, there’s still some fallout in the next two posts or rather there’s two posts about how Annette and Masen each unwind after the visit, but the readers won’t see Ellan or Luis again until the next Darid, so almost a year.

I think as long as Masen is alive, there’s going to be a little weirdness between Annette and Lyssa. But as Van pointed out, Masen is mortal, so who knows when he could have a random anvil dropped on him. *shrugs*

I don’t know, there’s having a crappy dad and there’s having a dad that you just can’t call your father… He’s cold and distant, but there’s nothing to say that he will ever actually tip the line…

Thanks, Morgaine!

I wonder if whoever suggested that Lyssa sleep in Cox’s room really read into Annette’s reaction. I’d certainly hope it was someone who didn’t know/suspect anything off about Cox–otherwise, there’d have to be something pretty off about them as well, and Annette and Lyssa don’t need to put up with that sort of company.

I doubt Ellan really knew what he was getting when he made Masen marry Annette, and damn it, I’m glad she holds her own, even though all these years later he still doesn’t get it (damn, natural selection sure failed with those Bors brains!). I kind of hope he overheard this. I’m sure Annette would tell him what’s what to his face if it came up, just like she does with Masen–who is probably the bigger “threat” in Annette’s mind, since she has to see him all the time, even if she can handle him without a problem.

Judging by a few friends of mine who never had siblings, I think you captured Lyssa’s conflicting thoughts about the possibility very well. I’m glad that she’s not going to pressure her mother about it, though, even if some of that is rooted in the sad knowledge that her father would care more for a son.

And hey, who knows? Masen, as far as we know, is 100% mortal. All it would take is one sufficiently pissed off parent and he’d be out of Annette’s hair for good. And then, if she chooses, she could find someone actually worth being with and maybe Lyssa could have some siblings after all, Masen-free.

However, that being said, if there was a way for her to quietly push him off a cliff and walk away whistling, I somehow think she’d go for that. It would be a net boon to Simkind!

I’m glad that Annette stands up to the jerkass, though. And I hope that Ellan heard that argument. Maybe if Annette was the one who looked Ellan in the eye — or really, spit in his eye — and told him that she and Masen had decided that there would be one kid and he’d just have to deal with it, he’d get off her back. … Or not really. This is a de Ganis male. I doubt Bors would have listened to any daughter-in-law who dared to tell him that she’d made her own reproductive choices and he’d just have to live with it.

… Come to think about it, a de Ganis male’s brain might explode at the thought, so maybe Annette ought to try it … I’m just sayin’ …

Still, I hope that this visit ends soon, and Annette and Masen can go back to ignoring each other and Annette and Lyssa can have their adorable relationship without all the … fraughtness and weirdness. Though something tells me that won’t ever go away.

And something also tells me that when Lyssa is talking about her childhood to her own kids, she won’t be calling Masen “father,” either. *sigh*

I never feel like I do kids right, they always seem too adult. >_<’ But hopefully we can just write that off on being that Lyssa, like Elizabet, has some weird dynamics to deal with that force her to be a little more grown up… right? (As bad as I think I am with kids, climbing into Masen’s head woulda been worse…)