{{OOC}} AU History
Short version:
-Not the heir and glad of it.
-Not having a Special Destiny when everyone else does kind of sucks, though.
-So does having to stay underground anyway.
-Believes her father when he says Rishid isn't one of them and it's not right that he's the heir.
-But he still is regardless. DILEMMA, RESENTMENT, AND CONFUSION.
-Gets no attention from anyone but Rishid and Isis unless she acts up. Not sure if want on the Rishid being nice thing.
-As soon as Isis is old enough to bear children she's getting married to Rishid. DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT.
-SOMEBODY ANYBODY CALL ME SPECIALLLL, PLEASE. OR LET ME OUUUUT.
Long version:
Mali is the only genderswapped character in her universe, and is not next in line to inherit the scars of the Pharaoh’s memory, etc. That lot in life has already fallen to Rishid, who was extremely begrudgingly accepted as heir (though not a full-blown member of the family) by their father, in accordance with his wife’s dying wishes - Rishid was already nine years old, not far from the age for initiation. Their father decreed, however, that as soon as Isis was old enough to bear children, she would get married to Rishid and they’d set about fixing this little blip in the family history as quickly as possible. So Rishid has a lot in life. Isis has a lot in life.
It’s only Mali who doesn’t really have anything specific she’s supposedly been born to do. It’s not like her father can scold her for doing much wrong when there isn’t much she can do outside of learning the basic things every Ishtar child is taught, and imagining what it must have been like to get her back cut open is enough to make her extremely glad she wasn’t born a boy and thus managed to escape that particular fate. She’s glad she isn’t the elder sister, too: for starters, though she doesn’t blame herself for her mother’s death, she’s all too aware that people who have babies sometimes die in so doing.
Plus she wouldn’t really want to marry Rishid. Actually, she really, really wouldn’t want to marry Rishid. Their father sets a horrible example, continuing to hold this ridiculous double standard for his children - Rishid is the “heir” and therefore important, but he’s also Not an Ishtar and therefore someone inferior....who they still have to somehow respect despite their father being very explicit with the young man in question that he should be grateful to his dead “mother”, that he wishes one of the girls were a boy so Rishid wouldn’t have the position, etc. etc. There’s indeed a bit of blame placed on the girls for being female there but Isis helps Mali not feel it too badly. Mali does believe boys are more important, however.
Mali therefore grows up, despite Rishid’s best efforts to be a good big brother (if not a guardian/shadow - that wouldn’t be fitting for the heir though he still has to pay them the respect they deserve as Ishtars), resenting him and trying to outsmart him - the only way she’s superior to anyone is because she’s a member of the family proper, and who does he think he is, posing as one when he’s not, when their father doesn’t even like him anyway. Because Rishid is really, really nice, however, and pays her attention when he has time to and isn’t cramming to make up for all of the Tombkeeper-y things he wasn’t taught before (not being able to read his own back is a bit awkward, for starters), he makes resenting him pretty difficult and uncomfortable. Plus, better him than her or Isis for all that scary Tombkeeper stuff. Double standard much, Mali?
She still spends more time with Isis than with Rishid, however, and grows as close to her big sister as canon!Malik was to Rishid - both having almost exactly the same duties means Isis is the one looking after Mali most of the time, with Rishid doing his own thing/getting emotionally and physically abused when he screws up, and his “father” is extra-perfectionist (“But what could I expect from someone who isn’t my son?”). As Rishid and Isis grow older, however, they start spending more time together, knowing what’s going to happen sooner or later. Mali knows too, at least hazily, and it makes her really uncomfortable. She doesn’t want Rishid to monopolize Isis. At eight, she’s a bit too old to be super-clingy to a mommy figure but Isis is the person who puts the most time aside to be with Mali, to make Mali feel like she’s wanted and important and special despite not having a fancy set fate within the family. Having Isis be taken away, even a little, by the fake-Ishtar who already confuses her....well, it’s just a lot easier to get angry than to sort her emotions out.
AND COMPOUNDING ALL THIS, she has been to the surface a few times with her sister and the servants to fetch the necessary supplies for life/gardening/etc. and considers the outside world to be a totally awesome place no matter how many times she goes there. She takes to shoplifting anything she can fit in her pockets or hide anywhere on her person, and starts drawing pictures of things she’s seen on the surface using materials she’s smuggled down from said surface (drawing in general she does to show off/imagine things as being better but she’s always told not to waste paper, baaw ;A;). There’s one thought in her head every time she goes up there, however, that gives even those trips a sour taste in her mouth: if she has no real purpose as a tombkeeper’s daughter, then why should she have to spend her whole life in the dark down there like everyone else? It isn’t fair. It really isn’t fair.
So here we have Mali, the marriage between her sibling and her almost-sibling getting closer every day, feeling she’s being kept somewhere against her will, needing to act up in order to get any attention at all from her father - being a good girl just makes him ignore her. Yami no Mali hasn’t quite formed fully yet. But at this point, it’s really only a matter of time.
-Not the heir and glad of it.
-Not having a Special Destiny when everyone else does kind of sucks, though.
-So does having to stay underground anyway.
-Believes her father when he says Rishid isn't one of them and it's not right that he's the heir.
-But he still is regardless. DILEMMA, RESENTMENT, AND CONFUSION.
-Gets no attention from anyone but Rishid and Isis unless she acts up. Not sure if want on the Rishid being nice thing.
-As soon as Isis is old enough to bear children she's getting married to Rishid. DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT.
-SOMEBODY ANYBODY CALL ME SPECIALLLL, PLEASE. OR LET ME OUUUUT.
Long version:
Mali is the only genderswapped character in her universe, and is not next in line to inherit the scars of the Pharaoh’s memory, etc. That lot in life has already fallen to Rishid, who was extremely begrudgingly accepted as heir (though not a full-blown member of the family) by their father, in accordance with his wife’s dying wishes - Rishid was already nine years old, not far from the age for initiation. Their father decreed, however, that as soon as Isis was old enough to bear children, she would get married to Rishid and they’d set about fixing this little blip in the family history as quickly as possible. So Rishid has a lot in life. Isis has a lot in life.
It’s only Mali who doesn’t really have anything specific she’s supposedly been born to do. It’s not like her father can scold her for doing much wrong when there isn’t much she can do outside of learning the basic things every Ishtar child is taught, and imagining what it must have been like to get her back cut open is enough to make her extremely glad she wasn’t born a boy and thus managed to escape that particular fate. She’s glad she isn’t the elder sister, too: for starters, though she doesn’t blame herself for her mother’s death, she’s all too aware that people who have babies sometimes die in so doing.
Plus she wouldn’t really want to marry Rishid. Actually, she really, really wouldn’t want to marry Rishid. Their father sets a horrible example, continuing to hold this ridiculous double standard for his children - Rishid is the “heir” and therefore important, but he’s also Not an Ishtar and therefore someone inferior....who they still have to somehow respect despite their father being very explicit with the young man in question that he should be grateful to his dead “mother”, that he wishes one of the girls were a boy so Rishid wouldn’t have the position, etc. etc. There’s indeed a bit of blame placed on the girls for being female there but Isis helps Mali not feel it too badly. Mali does believe boys are more important, however.
Mali therefore grows up, despite Rishid’s best efforts to be a good big brother (if not a guardian/shadow - that wouldn’t be fitting for the heir though he still has to pay them the respect they deserve as Ishtars), resenting him and trying to outsmart him - the only way she’s superior to anyone is because she’s a member of the family proper, and who does he think he is, posing as one when he’s not, when their father doesn’t even like him anyway. Because Rishid is really, really nice, however, and pays her attention when he has time to and isn’t cramming to make up for all of the Tombkeeper-y things he wasn’t taught before (not being able to read his own back is a bit awkward, for starters), he makes resenting him pretty difficult and uncomfortable. Plus, better him than her or Isis for all that scary Tombkeeper stuff. Double standard much, Mali?
She still spends more time with Isis than with Rishid, however, and grows as close to her big sister as canon!Malik was to Rishid - both having almost exactly the same duties means Isis is the one looking after Mali most of the time, with Rishid doing his own thing/getting emotionally and physically abused when he screws up, and his “father” is extra-perfectionist (“But what could I expect from someone who isn’t my son?”). As Rishid and Isis grow older, however, they start spending more time together, knowing what’s going to happen sooner or later. Mali knows too, at least hazily, and it makes her really uncomfortable. She doesn’t want Rishid to monopolize Isis. At eight, she’s a bit too old to be super-clingy to a mommy figure but Isis is the person who puts the most time aside to be with Mali, to make Mali feel like she’s wanted and important and special despite not having a fancy set fate within the family. Having Isis be taken away, even a little, by the fake-Ishtar who already confuses her....well, it’s just a lot easier to get angry than to sort her emotions out.
AND COMPOUNDING ALL THIS, she has been to the surface a few times with her sister and the servants to fetch the necessary supplies for life/gardening/etc. and considers the outside world to be a totally awesome place no matter how many times she goes there. She takes to shoplifting anything she can fit in her pockets or hide anywhere on her person, and starts drawing pictures of things she’s seen on the surface using materials she’s smuggled down from said surface (drawing in general she does to show off/imagine things as being better but she’s always told not to waste paper, baaw ;A;). There’s one thought in her head every time she goes up there, however, that gives even those trips a sour taste in her mouth: if she has no real purpose as a tombkeeper’s daughter, then why should she have to spend her whole life in the dark down there like everyone else? It isn’t fair. It really isn’t fair.
So here we have Mali, the marriage between her sibling and her almost-sibling getting closer every day, feeling she’s being kept somewhere against her will, needing to act up in order to get any attention at all from her father - being a good girl just makes him ignore her. Yami no Mali hasn’t quite formed fully yet. But at this point, it’s really only a matter of time.