>>
|
2474dd.jpg
Shining Sugar
2474dd
Meeting Barry's Family
Barry warns Nem of his mother Martha's understandable prejudice towards spooky girls.
The very first thing she does is go on about how horrible the spooks are, how they're aligned with the devil, and how they almost killed her only son.
Nem nods and patiently lets her go on until she asks her to recite the Lord's Prayer with her. Nem agrees and she scrutinizes her as she repeats the words. She then offers her a crucifix which Nem puts on.
Then Martha grills her on how she met Barry, with Nem explaining honestly while leaving out details such as the porn blog or The Show.
Nem explains her work with the DoC and how it was her job to put down immortals who had lived too long, which was how she was able to warn Barry that he was in danger. Martha asks for more details but Nem explains that as usual, her boss was pretty vague on the details of which division knew about it -- explaining that the DoC doesn't primarily deal with mortals because their limited lifespans means that they don't cause the same problems immortals do.
She presses Nem on her intentions and Nem excitedly and rather girlishly talks about finally being able to settle down and raise a family.
Martha asks if she'll be raising the children Christian, to which Nem replies she doesn't know what that means. This results in a long and lengthy discussion about Christianity as well as Nem's shaken faith due to her occupation. Nem promises that if it means so much to her she will make sure the children will be taught the Bible and offers to bring them over to visit Grandma to do it.
After the visit, both Nem and Barry's mom speak privately to him for their impressions on the other.
Nem thinks Martha is a good, strong woman who reminds her of her father.
"Not your mom?"
Nem shakes her head.
Nem: I love my mother, and I have forgiven her for keeping me so ignorant for so long, but I have not forgotten what she did. I think my father would have been more up-front if he had known.
Barry's mother was clearly charmed by Nem.
Martha: That girl might have to work with devils, but she's clearly kept herself safe. I think she wants to be saved. Did you hear that child talk about having to kill her false gods? She's lost, she's open to the word of the Lord and I think Heaven would be happy to take her in. She seems to be one of the most honorable, well mannered long ladies I have ever met. The poor girl needs the one God she can't kill and we could introduce her to one.
Barry is respectful but internally rolling his eyes. While he believes in God, he also doesn't think Nem needs to be "saved" -- just like none of his spooky friends are devils or need to be "saved". But his mother is a little old-school and she's done so much for him he won't say a thing.
Martha: Did you hear her talk about grandchildren? Boy, you're actually gonna give me grandchildren? Little half-goat kids? Hah! I said goat kids.
"Nem's hinted she'd like quite a few children,"
Martha: Well, you were a handful all by yourself. You need some help, you call on me, OK? I can't imagine what a half-Barry, half-Nem supernatural spooky child will be like to raise.
"Nem's not really all that spooky. She sort of just works in a spooky job.
Her family is... from what I've told, she comes from a sort of faerie world where humanity is long-gone and they don't have indoor plumbing and her dad is a blacksmith. But they have a magical Internet,"
Martha stares at her son. He shrugs helplessly in response.
Martha: She adapted pretty well to Boston for a girl what grown up in some kinda faerie-tale land.
"Nem's really smart. Plus she's had four years and help from the Department of Change,"
Martha sighs and shakes her head.
Martha: Guess it was too much to hope you'd find a nice normal girl after that nasty business with that Freddy devil.
"Nem and some spooky friends helped save me from Freddy, don't forget that,"
His mom huffs.
Martha: Yeah, yeah, I know. Not ALL them spooky types are devils. What, they faeries then?
Barry thinks for a moment. He could explain that no, a 'devil' is an occupation and 'faerie' is just a catch-all for any metaphysical creature. But it'd be a lot easier to just tell her that faeries are nice and devils are bad and leave it at that.
"Yeah, basically,"
Martha: But those faeries still pose as false idols.
"But Nem's a MORTAL faerie. So's our friend who helped save me, and Red, who's like... a spooky cop or something. So as long as they're mortal, they've given up on stuff like that."
Martha: They found The Lord?
"More like they really understand love. It's going to be my new book,"
Martha pauses in thought.
Martha: I guess that's good enough. God is love, after all.
Barry internally breathes a long sigh of relief. Well, that's done. Now all he has to do is meet Nem's family. Hopefully it won't be as difficult, but they've never seen a human being before.
(continued)
Also don't forget that besides suggestions for Nem's married life I'm always looking for feedback on the writing. I don't do a lot of love scenes so by all means, let me know what you think.
If you have other questions about Nem, Barry, Lilly, etc, you can ask them too. https://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/116808.html[/i]
|