drabble: A gulf

[terabient]

Title: A gulf
Fandom: Soulcalibur
Characters: Siegfried
Rating: PG
Words: 200
Summary: Siegfried is a difficult child; Margaret is long-suffering.
A/N: ...i do not know what possesses me to write such things. :X fwiw, Siegfried is around 11-12 years old in this. (also, a jerk.)

---

"You can't keep doing this, Siegfried," Margaret tells her son. She peels off his shirt, flinching at the sight of bruises blossoming under the fragile skin. Margaret washes his back, sticky with dirt and blood, her hands gentle as she passes over dark, tender flesh. Margaret flinches; her child does not.

Unbidden, Margaret finds herself wishing for Frederick- they had never been close, even during the years he'd been home, but he, at least, could coax their son out of the sullen moods he so often indulged in. She, on the other hand, might as well speak to a rock, for all the response Siegfried gives her.

"Not every insult must be answered with your fists, my love," Margaret says, resisting the urge to snap, to yell; cruel experience has taught her that neither rage nor disapproval can break through the walls her son has built.

"I'm not the one they make fun of."

Margaret pauses in her ministrations. Siegfried rarely speaks to her, these days, and never when she scolds him.

"Then- why..."

"They call you a whore, Mother." His words are cold, sharp, aimed to hurt; Margaret shudders as they cut deep. "But I'll stop, if that's what you want."

Comments

[bri-ecrit.livejournal.com]

...wow. That last line certainly packs a punch. Sparse and simple but very charged in context.

I've gotta say, I've never seen Siegfried's past done this way, but I like it. A lot.

[terabient]

thanks! i feel like a dork saying this, but i...had a harder time writing that line than i expected. DX

everyone seems to write Siegfried's childhood as some kind of idyllic paradise but that just seems so...unlikely.

[theplaidsheep.livejournal.com]

everyone seems to write Siegfried's childhood as some kind of idyllic paradise but that just seems so...unlikely.

I do wonder if this is to make his fall seem all the more tragic, a bit like what happened with Ivy? Everything in her back-story points to her having a loving childhood, with the her dad's deterioration happening when she is older, and look at what happened with her.

Your version of Siegfried's childhood does appeal to me more though, simply because it's more hard-core angst and it offers a biting realism. Though I do think it might be possible that he did have a less harsh relationship with his mum during his tender years, but went off the rails due to bullying and bad influence as he got older. Sadly it happens to a lot of kids these days.

[terabient]

I do wonder if this is to make his fall seem all the more tragic

i think that's probably true - there aren't that many fics that take place during Siegfried's youth, it's usually brought up in flashback or memory or some other device, and the scene always seems to end on a 'WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? :( ' note.

Though I do think it might be possible that he did have a less harsh relationship with his mum during his tender years

yes - it's not uncommon for fatherless children to be close to their mothers when they're young, especially if they're an only child, only to grow resentful as they grow older and become more aware of how society views their family.

[theplaidsheep.livejournal.com]

Oooooowwwww!! Jeez, I felt that and I'm not even his mum!

I don't think you should be too worried about this one, you've captured more between the lines on Siegfried and his relationships than really needs to be explicitly told. Fewer words and concise descriptions make it work very well. And yes that last line. OW!

[elbarto252.livejournal.com]

o_O

I can't imagine Margaret even being happy with the life she had. She's practically a widow most of her life, forced to be self-sufficient, son was born out of wedlock, making her a sitting target for insults and had no one to defend her before or during Siegfried's childhood from anything at all...what a life.

This is a great drabble, btw. Can I expect more of this, or even a complete fic in the future? (Actually I've started one, but in the 2,000 words so far, it doesn't come close to what you did in 200 >sad<)

Well done. *theater claps*

[terabient]

re: Margaret - oh wow, i'm not the only one who thinks her life would have been terrible. even in modern society, a single woman raising a child born out of wedlock is still something of a social taboo - i can't imagine how awful it would be during the 16th century.

i have been playing around with writing more about Siegfried's childhood, and (possibly) Margaret's life before his birth but haven't put down anything concrete yet. it might take awhile to work out since i'm having a bit of crisis as far as writing longer fic is concerned. :(

btw: i've tried leaving a review for "Bitter Frost" on FF.net a few times but the site dislikes either my browser or uh...me?...and apparently haven't gone through. :( i'll try it again tonight but if there are still problems - i could try PMs or commenting through LJ? (or something else if it works better for you)