Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

Sagan Clan Rule

Molly and Tala stood, arms loosely around each other near the Nightwing's port dive ladder, looking over at the shore of the cove. People are spread out along it on towels sunning. Some were missing, off love bugging somewhere. Angel and Vera chose to use the Nightwing's bed. I don't blame them. Why we used the bins to keep the bed clear.

On our long journey to where we are now, we learned so many things about us and our world. Some good, and some bad. Angel learned a jealous Siren killed her father Apisi over Tala. It's weird in a Ninovan way because male Siren's are usually the opposite of possessive at that age. Ninovan breaks all the rules of common understanding about things, but it also has the same issues as the rest of the world too. Tala's defending of Alexander has led to a dynamic where Angel gets along better with Molly, the mother of her sister Ayasha with Apisi, than with Tala.

Tala had Angel's younger sister Kimberly with Alexander Despite Tala being an Astral and knowing she was tilting at windmills, she kept trying to make Alexander into something he is not. A good parent. Whenever Tala defends Alexander to Angel, Angel will have none of it. Angel is a Sagan. Jessica is her allegiance. Angel has no use for Alexander in any context other than 'not here'. She does not wish Alexander dead or even ill. She does wish him gone.

Even though Alexander is her biological father, this does not poison Angel's relationship with Kimberly. Kimberly knows Alexander was a garbage dad to her, despite everything Tala tried to do to change that.

At the core of Angel's issue with her mother is willful blindness. Turning off the Astral gift. Angel is aware of how it works because she did it with Nakoma's bio-dad. Andrea was an even worse father than Alexander. He was willing to put Nakoma into sexual slavery so that he would be left alone.

Such are the complexities of our world. Oh, what tangled webs we weave when at first we do conceive. My rule about any children I father gets ever more reinforced every time I look at things like this. I could be like Alexander. Technically. I am one of two of what Mom has taken to calling Vampire 'Catalyst' males. I could be like him but it's not me. It's not that I do not love children or women. I do. I'd rather walk away from a comely woman than end up like Angel did in her complicated family situation. I am glad Simi decided to have a child with Tobey first. I am glad of the space.

Helen just complicated the hell out of my life with her generosity toward Vera. A long time coming, but Vera earned being a Sagan. It is not something you should have to earn, but she did. Helen finally had to admit Vera is not the person I was with back when I was human.

As Vera is a Siren who turned into a Vampire, that is pretty literal as well, but that is not all there is to it.

I stood next to the pair of mothers. Molly looked over at me, smiled. "Adrian."

I love it when my name is the entire sentence, and it is loaded up with all sorts of nuance.

"Molly. Tala. Thank you for coming. It means the world to Vera and Angel you were here."

"Where else would we be?" Molly asked.

Tala visually scanned the people on the beach before she said anything. "Your family is really something, Adrian. This is what I thought Ninovan should be, but it isn't. Not like this."

"It can be." I replied.

"How?" Tala asked.

"Leadership. There is a strong sense of community there, even with all the being tossed up into the air and landing all over our part of town. We'll get the sense of community rebuilt. Not only with the personal responsibility stuff the Denise and Helen are working on, but with more community events. Things to pull you together. Song nights and barbecues and things. We have to work harder to pull together because the reality of the human world is that you in Ninovan have to stay like this. Spread out. Ninovan has been around for almost as long as there have been people on this Continent. That is too precious a thing to let the human world destroy. To let the pettiness of out there creep into. We'll fix it, one event at a time."

"Your song was beautiful." Molly said.

"Thank you. When I was in choir for all those years, there is this thing you feel when you get it right, as a group. This feeling you get when you as a group made a song perfect. You could see it in the Directors' face when we, the choir, nailed it. I feel that all the time when I sing with Morgan. Tobey made it even better, wrapping his Siren song around the sound-soul of the core of Morgan and me." I said.

"You made Vera cry. No mean feat." Tala said.

"We made Helen cry. Even harder." I told her, happily.

"We ask so much of your family. Shelter. Protection. Jobs. You all keep giving." Molly said.

"Yet we need to ask for more. We need to ask you to help us with this. To help Ninovan be what it should be again, and that it has not been for a while. Since perhaps Angel was taken from me." Tala crossed her arms and I could see her lock down her need to cry. I have been hanging around Angel.

"We will help, but Ninovan needs to find itself again, here in this new situation. Ninovan can never be exactly the same, but we can build back better. I can contribute my abilities to the community in terms of helping people have children without all the strings attached that you know who put there. I will eventually have a child with Simi that is both Sagan and Ninovan. It is also up to you. Simi and Tobey too. The leaders of Ninovan to find your way forward. Ask for what you need, and if it is ours to give, we will do it, but I think Helen is right too. Since Ninovan's started working again and fixing their community places again, I have seen a change. A return of pride. I have seen people that acted without respect taken out behind the proverbial woodshed and verbally spanked. It is a start. It is also a journey, not a destination. Like my family, it has to be nurtured and helped along every day. Change has to be adapted to. It's never perfect. Easy example, and sorry for this one Tala, is Morgan and Alexander. I have never seen my Morgan so intensely dislike anyone as much as she does him. It is not that I like him. He is a class A jerk. Morgan wants to hurt him. Very unlike her. Extremely so."

Tala wanly smiled at that. "I see that in her. I know it is there. I do not like that black spot on that bright person."

Molly, who is a Siren, looked over at the shore and waved at the two women's daughters, who gestured them over. "We should swim over, Tala. We are being invited."

Tala nodded. "Never turn down a daughter wanting to spend time with their mothers."

"Now that is a Sagan clan rule if there ever was one." I said. "There are plenty of towels, food, and drinks over there. Have fun!"

They both hugged me and then headed for the shore.