un: sieglindesullivan // text

[grunehexe]

Greetings, all members of the Ophelia guild of Hathaway. It is I, Sieglinde Sullivan, the Green Witch.

I understand that there is likely much business you have to attend to now that we have returned to Headquarters, but I thought it best to extend the invitation to everyone in the interest of team cooperation.

I shall be hosting a small banquet in honor of my fourteenth birthday now that the snow moon has waned in my own world (if my calculations are correct). If you would care to join me in these celebrations, do feel free to visit my quarters tomorrow afternoon. Victuals and beverages shall be provided, and directions attached below.

Good day!

Comments

[refashioned]

Cookies are one thing I'll allow you to bake on this wonderful occasion.

[grunehexe]

Oh, that is good. A friend promised to show me how they are made and I should hate to hear they were not appropriate.

[refashioned]

Admittedly, I tend to have my baked goods ordered on demand. But something unique for your guests is never inappropriate.

[grunehexe]

Well, yes, of course. Were it my manor, we should have everything prepared by my manservant and the staff, but.

One must learn new things to suit.

[refashioned]

Exactly. Though sometimes I prefer to refrain from consigning myself to activities dictated by certain gender roles. It's an easy way to pigeonhole ourselves.

[grunehexe]

I had heard skills in the kitchen were good for attracting men, but...

You do not have men doing such things in your world?

[refashioned]

Oh, we do. Unfortunately.

But if a man needs you to be in the kitchen to be attractive, then you can do better.

[grunehexe]

Is it not like a hunting situation?

Where the delicious food one has prepared serves as the bait for the unsuspecting male?

[HAS SHE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS ALL WRONG?]

[refashioned]

Wow.

It is nothing like hunting. Typically you want to be with someone you respect and who respects you. Mutual interest. And desire. No ... bait.

[grunehexe]

But there are so few men with respectable intelligence...

[refashioned]

What you're describing is acting as a predator. I told a guy here to cut that out. You can't be the same way just because you're a woman.

[grunehexe]

I am afraid you have lost me, Veronica.

[please send explanatory help]

[refashioned]

Let's back up.

Why do you think you have to capture a man against his will?

[grunehexe]

Perhaps I worded it poorly... I do not mean physical entrapment like a net or some such...

Just that one can lure the simpler members of the gender by showcasing one’s cooking skills. Much in the way that one could easily attract attention with beauty or skill at brewing or weaving and such.

[or does that not work either?]

[refashioned]

Why do you want a simple man?

[grunehexe]

Well it is not a matter of “want” so much as that there are very few available men I have met who are not my intellectual inferiors.

Which is not to say they do not have other redeemable qualities, of course.

[But she def thinks they could be manipulated by cooking]

[refashioned]

You're fourteen.

I mean, I'm sixteen and I'm not looking to lure in some man, any man, because otherwise they're too simple to be dealt with.

Have some self respect. If you can't find someone up to your standards, then wait for someone to come along. It might just take a while.

And you'll sound far less ... predatory about it.

[grunehexe]

I do think we have different timelines planned out for our future heirs. There is no reason for you to be making efforts if you come from one of those worlds which values the age of eighteen so highly.

[she feels like she really might be missing here...]

But do I respect myself quite enough, I think? Any more so and it might be mistaken for vainglory.

[refashioned]

I understand the world thing, but what I'm telling you is ...

OK, look. Remember when we talked about how the stigma surrounding witches is the extension of misogyny, rather than any real basis of truth?

[grunehexe]

Yes?

[refashioned]

The demand on a woman to produce an heir is the same. That's why it feels like it's culturally correct to you. It's about making the demand of a woman for her body to produce something.

While you're ensuring you have power in this situation, you're only entering a cycle of sexual abuse in order to claim that power. It's better to be with someone you love and respect and who isn't duped into being with you to produce an heir because society demands it of you. You're fourteen. You have a lot of time to find someone to be with, and it won't just be because your cookies smell delicious.

[grunehexe]

But I do not wish to have an heir to please a husband, but myself. I require someone to pass the Green Witch's traditions and knowledge on to, and I am physically capable of creating that only with the aid of a man.

Is that not different?

[... though now she's somewhat curious if it could be done without one. What with Hathaway's technology and magics...]

[refashioned]

Look up "artificial insemination."

Since you don't seem to respect any of the men you'd want to lure in—and that's totally fair—there is another option.

[Veronica already has the answer for her.]

[grunehexe]

How interesting- I shall! Thank you, Veronica.

[what better birthday present than something to research???{

[refashioned]

You're very welcome.

Do me a favor, though, and figure it out, and then consider it for when you're older? I'm only two years older than you, and the thought of having an ... heir terrifies me. I don't think that's just my version of the modern era talking.