Profession

Aunt Antiope

I spent most of the rest of my time on the islands interacting with my relatives only at mealtimes. This was not to say that I was alone the rest of the time; I played in a hotly contested waterball game, I helped weeding the crops, spent time with the healers as usual, and I had more archery lessons with Aunt Antiope. This was surprisingly fun, and I looked forward to them. Her instruction was kinder and more compassionate for my failings. I had one of these lessons with the warrior who had the brain damage. She was still better than I was, but not by much, and it helped me to see someone who had achieved a high level of skill make progress again. Made me feel like I could do it too. She started to tire, though, and one of the healers escorted her back. It reminded me that my training and interests were with emergency medicine--maybe I didn't have the attention span for anything else?--and that it would be interesting to learn how the Themyscria healers addressed the rare chronic conditions they encountered. I remarked on this to my aunt, who smiled.

"Always learning," she said fondly. "It is true that conditions like Euboea's are fortunately rare, and the healers do their best, but they are limited by lack of prior experience. Their care is always compassionate, but they are learning as they go, as am I. It upsets Diana to see Euboea as she is; before Diana left for the world of man, they were companions." She touched my right shoulder bone to get me to squeeze it back on my draw. "I must admit that I could use some clarification. I know how Diana was raised here; it is true that Hippolyta had tutors and minders for her as she grew, to make her time and learning productive while my sister turned her attention to the needs of rule, but she was always home at least in time for bedtime, where she would tell Diana stories and they would discuss their days; it was also a way to introduce Diana to concepts of rule should something happen to Hippolyta. It sounds as if she did things similarly with you girls. Why was this insufficient?" And she sounded genuinely curious.

"It's true that Derinoe and I always had food and clothes, a roof over our head, a good education, the physical things we needed, and she and Daniel had a pre-dinner ritual where we interacted as a family. It all looked really good. But the topics at the pre-dinner conversation were limited to school, a few questions about our other activities. The older I got, the less I felt that either of them were interested in me as a person, overall. There were times when they were very interested in what I was doing, usually after one horrifying incident or another. But the daily things they never seemed to have time for. It was made more difficult because I can't see her face, her expression, because of the god touch. It's hard to interact with someone, not knowing what their face does when you're talking, trying to take your cues from vocal changes and shifts in posture. And to understand more, you'd need to know what it's like to live in the culture we do. It would require a lengthy explanation." Antiope studied me, then gently took my bow, setting it down and guiding me under a tree to sit.

"I'm listening," she said.

So I explained the consumer culture that was the basis of our society, which necessitated a brief dive into the Industrial Revolution and all that changed because of it, including the creation of the dependency cycle, the rise of fast fashion and technology, the waste of it all, the human suffering due to low wages and working conditions. And some psychology that I'd picked up, the human need to fit in, expectations, how to stand out in the crowd in an acceptable way. The isolation that came from being of an important, influential, and wealthy family and the expectations that came with that, above and beyond normal ones. The pressures of family superheroes and vigilantes, telling her in confidence how I'd dipped my toes in that pool myself with my computer work for the vigi-friends and to help find the British king's assassins. "It's a confusing and harsh world to grow up in if you don't have support. But I do have relatives I could go to. Grandma Alex lived just down the road, her daughter Iris is just slightly older than me, so she was current with trends and fads, I could talk to her crushes I had, day-to-day social things, but she was gone a lot with her own business. And in any case, she and Aunt Ann weren't my mother, they couldn't take care of everything."