Born to Carry On: Sister, by Sophonisba [gift challenge]
-title- Born To Carry On: sister
-author- Sophonisba (saphanibaal)
-ratings/warnings- Gen. No warnings necessary that I can think of.
-timeframe- The first week in Atlantis.
-spoilers- Uh... "Rising"?
-characters- Teyla, Miko, Jinto
-notes- A bit of spackleness.
-disclaimer- Completely and utterly not mine, except perhaps for my conception of the Athosians. Oh, and Miko's nephew isn't mine either, he belongs to Aoyama Gosho.
-word count- 871
-summary- Jinto has a gift in mind, and goes after it.
Born To Carry On:
sister
Teyla was walking back to Doctor McKay's lab with a basket of food-wrapped-in-bread when something suggested that she should quicken her pace.
She did so, unsettled but not yet anxious, to find that Jinto had cornered one of Doctor McKay's wizards: Doctor Kusanagi, her name was, and if she was not the youngest of his argument, she was the quietest, the least likely to put herself forward.
"...and I would bring you pomes every day for a year, as soon as we find a pome tree!" Jinto was finishing enthusiastically.
"We do not know how long a year here will be," Teyla pointed out automatically, "and one tree will most likely not grow enough pomes to keep the rest for a whole year. And crowding Doctor Kusanagi is not likely to make her want to do you a favor, whatever it is."
"Sorry?" Jinto said, moving a pace back.
Doctor Kusanagi drew a deep breath, began to pull her frame of glass lenses off her face, and then resettled it upon her ears.
"So could you bear me a sister? Please?" Jinto continued.
"I, er, that is, I think..." the doctor began.
"Jinto!" Teyla choked down a terrible urge to laugh. "A pregnancy lasts for nearly a year," she warned him instead, sternly, "of our old years, however long those of the City of the Ancestors may be, and surely it is an imposition to ask any woman not already preparing to fulfill her Responsibility to give over that much of her life and more, much less one whom we have allied with so recently?"
"Well, yes, but," and Jinto favored them with the chipper smile Anteia his mother had always used to try at least to charm herself out of well-deserved trouble, "my father has said that now that we have come safe from a culling he will give me a baby sister, and none of my kinswomen of Irrylar can be pregnant just now, so we'd have had to ask somebody if I'm to have a sister in anything like a timely manner, and here in the Silver City anyone can see that to bear enough of the marrow of the Ancestors to wield more of their works than the door-openers is at least as useful as reflecting hand-skill or a strong throwing arm, although maybe not quite as much as good teeth, so we should ask someone who does have the 'A-T-A gene'" -- he turned the Tellurian word into the first syllable of his own name -- "and Doctor Kusanagi does, so."
"And yet it remains true that never, once, in the history of ever, has 'because I would have it so' made the inconvenience to another any less. Nor do you even know that after such trouble, it would be a sister."
"But I want a sister," Jinto said inarguably. "And the wizard is from the Mother-earth, so surely her nature is stronger even than my father's."
"It is the father's particular seed that determines whether a child will be a son or a daughter, not the mother," Doctor Kusanagi said tentatively, "and either is possible, for nearly any man; you should ask Doctor Beckett to explain the way it works to you, sometime when he has a moment free, for of we Tellurians, who have come to Atlantis, all of the sages will be very busy for many moons, if we live so long; and that we may remain so, all of the soldiers must hold themselves in readiness to fight, as best they may."
"So not now, then?" Jinto's face fell.
"That is no, certainly not now, and likely not soon afterwards," Teyla said firmly. "If your customers cannot bear to disappoint you to your face, you must not take advantage of their manners, lest neither they nor anyone else remain willing to trade with those of Athos."
"It is the custom of the people of... Nihon on the Mother-earth," Doctor Kusanagi's voice had gained some slight assurance, but nevertheless remained soft and frail as she tapped the rectangle of cloth on her arm, white with a round red spot at its center. "Should one ask a question of Doctor McKay, he will not hesitate to reply 'no, you are wrong,' or 'no, you must not be right in the head,' or 'no, I don't want to and I shall not.'"
"Indeed, I had gained that impression," Teyla smiled.
"But I -- "
"Jinto," Teyla cut him off, "does your father even know that you have asked as much of Doctor Kusanagi?"
"I wished to surprise him with the gift!"
The two women's eyes met, and communication passed between them in a blink that spanned a galaxy and more on the shared ground of women and not-so-small boys.
"Go forth," Teyla told her young tribesman, "and tell Halling what it is you have been doing; I shall consider my response when I know his."
Jinto tried Anteia's smile once more, but finding nothing encouraging in his leader's face, forthwith went.
"I am sorry," Teyla apologized when he had gone.
"I have a nephew," the wizard answered. "It is as well, perhaps, to have some notion of what to expect when Mitsuhiko reaches that age."
-author- Sophonisba (saphanibaal)
-ratings/warnings- Gen. No warnings necessary that I can think of.
-timeframe- The first week in Atlantis.
-spoilers- Uh... "Rising"?
-characters- Teyla, Miko, Jinto
-notes- A bit of spackleness.
-disclaimer- Completely and utterly not mine, except perhaps for my conception of the Athosians. Oh, and Miko's nephew isn't mine either, he belongs to Aoyama Gosho.
-word count- 871
-summary- Jinto has a gift in mind, and goes after it.
Born To Carry On:
sister
Teyla was walking back to Doctor McKay's lab with a basket of food-wrapped-in-bread when something suggested that she should quicken her pace.
She did so, unsettled but not yet anxious, to find that Jinto had cornered one of Doctor McKay's wizards: Doctor Kusanagi, her name was, and if she was not the youngest of his argument, she was the quietest, the least likely to put herself forward.
"...and I would bring you pomes every day for a year, as soon as we find a pome tree!" Jinto was finishing enthusiastically.
"We do not know how long a year here will be," Teyla pointed out automatically, "and one tree will most likely not grow enough pomes to keep the rest for a whole year. And crowding Doctor Kusanagi is not likely to make her want to do you a favor, whatever it is."
"Sorry?" Jinto said, moving a pace back.
Doctor Kusanagi drew a deep breath, began to pull her frame of glass lenses off her face, and then resettled it upon her ears.
"So could you bear me a sister? Please?" Jinto continued.
"I, er, that is, I think..." the doctor began.
"Jinto!" Teyla choked down a terrible urge to laugh. "A pregnancy lasts for nearly a year," she warned him instead, sternly, "of our old years, however long those of the City of the Ancestors may be, and surely it is an imposition to ask any woman not already preparing to fulfill her Responsibility to give over that much of her life and more, much less one whom we have allied with so recently?"
"Well, yes, but," and Jinto favored them with the chipper smile Anteia his mother had always used to try at least to charm herself out of well-deserved trouble, "my father has said that now that we have come safe from a culling he will give me a baby sister, and none of my kinswomen of Irrylar can be pregnant just now, so we'd have had to ask somebody if I'm to have a sister in anything like a timely manner, and here in the Silver City anyone can see that to bear enough of the marrow of the Ancestors to wield more of their works than the door-openers is at least as useful as reflecting hand-skill or a strong throwing arm, although maybe not quite as much as good teeth, so we should ask someone who does have the 'A-T-A gene'" -- he turned the Tellurian word into the first syllable of his own name -- "and Doctor Kusanagi does, so."
"And yet it remains true that never, once, in the history of ever, has 'because I would have it so' made the inconvenience to another any less. Nor do you even know that after such trouble, it would be a sister."
"But I want a sister," Jinto said inarguably. "And the wizard is from the Mother-earth, so surely her nature is stronger even than my father's."
"It is the father's particular seed that determines whether a child will be a son or a daughter, not the mother," Doctor Kusanagi said tentatively, "and either is possible, for nearly any man; you should ask Doctor Beckett to explain the way it works to you, sometime when he has a moment free, for of we Tellurians, who have come to Atlantis, all of the sages will be very busy for many moons, if we live so long; and that we may remain so, all of the soldiers must hold themselves in readiness to fight, as best they may."
"So not now, then?" Jinto's face fell.
"That is no, certainly not now, and likely not soon afterwards," Teyla said firmly. "If your customers cannot bear to disappoint you to your face, you must not take advantage of their manners, lest neither they nor anyone else remain willing to trade with those of Athos."
"It is the custom of the people of... Nihon on the Mother-earth," Doctor Kusanagi's voice had gained some slight assurance, but nevertheless remained soft and frail as she tapped the rectangle of cloth on her arm, white with a round red spot at its center. "Should one ask a question of Doctor McKay, he will not hesitate to reply 'no, you are wrong,' or 'no, you must not be right in the head,' or 'no, I don't want to and I shall not.'"
"Indeed, I had gained that impression," Teyla smiled.
"But I -- "
"Jinto," Teyla cut him off, "does your father even know that you have asked as much of Doctor Kusanagi?"
"I wished to surprise him with the gift!"
The two women's eyes met, and communication passed between them in a blink that spanned a galaxy and more on the shared ground of women and not-so-small boys.
"Go forth," Teyla told her young tribesman, "and tell Halling what it is you have been doing; I shall consider my response when I know his."
Jinto tried Anteia's smile once more, but finding nothing encouraging in his leader's face, forthwith went.
"I am sorry," Teyla apologized when he had gone.
"I have a nephew," the wizard answered. "It is as well, perhaps, to have some notion of what to expect when Mitsuhiko reaches that age."