Suikoden - Cleo, McDohl household
Sep. 6th, 2010 02:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lirillithTitle: Peacetime
Fandom: Suikoden
Characters: Cleo, and the rest of the McDohl household
Length: 418 words
Summary: The McDohl household deals with the end of the war.
Warnings: None
Notes: Set post-game, general ending spoilers, no SuikoII content. Written for 15minuteficlets.
****
She thought of herself as a fighter - a soldier, really. She'd been on more long, weary marches than she could count, she'd fallen asleep on a hard cot feeling her arms were about to drop off after a long day's practice with bow or sword, and after that she'd learned to shoot from the back of a moving horse. She'd fought and bled and seen friends die, and been too tired to grieve for them, then or even long after.
And then after years of peace she'd seen it all begin again, and she'd had her small hand in helping it along - not that she thought a word from her could have halted the young master, let alone the mass of the Liberation Army. War would have happened even if they'd never met Viktor on a cold, rainy night, even if Ted had never used his rune or gone to the palace. The outcome was the only thing that might have gone differently, and if destiny meant what it seemed to, there was never a time it could have been altered, either.
Destiny didn't mean she'd expected it, though, any of it - betrayal or loss or torn loyalties, because even though she knew her place was with the young master, Master Teo was the one she'd sworn to serve. Her second war hurt, in a way she didn't remember the first hurting her. But maybe she just didn't remember - she'd been so very young when she joined up, and she'd lost something she might once have called her innocence or her childhood along the way, along with friends and comrades and all those painfully young boys and a handful of other girls from her village.
Whatever the reason, the second war is the last one she'll fight. She's not thirty yet, but she's too old for battle. Pahn speaks of redeeming himself somehow, travelling, training, purifying his spirit. The young master doesn't speak of much, especially not now - was he always so quiet? - but she can see in his eyes that he's all but gone. And she can see in the still-packed bags, the hesitation before he replies to her words about the future, about plans, that Gremio's going too - probably with the young master, if he can. Cleo will stay, keep a fire on the hearth and dust off the floors, and try not to make it into waiting for them to return. She just wants to stay. She's tired.
****
Fandom: Suikoden
Characters: Cleo, and the rest of the McDohl household
Length: 418 words
Summary: The McDohl household deals with the end of the war.
Warnings: None
Notes: Set post-game, general ending spoilers, no SuikoII content. Written for 15minuteficlets.
****
She thought of herself as a fighter - a soldier, really. She'd been on more long, weary marches than she could count, she'd fallen asleep on a hard cot feeling her arms were about to drop off after a long day's practice with bow or sword, and after that she'd learned to shoot from the back of a moving horse. She'd fought and bled and seen friends die, and been too tired to grieve for them, then or even long after.
And then after years of peace she'd seen it all begin again, and she'd had her small hand in helping it along - not that she thought a word from her could have halted the young master, let alone the mass of the Liberation Army. War would have happened even if they'd never met Viktor on a cold, rainy night, even if Ted had never used his rune or gone to the palace. The outcome was the only thing that might have gone differently, and if destiny meant what it seemed to, there was never a time it could have been altered, either.
Destiny didn't mean she'd expected it, though, any of it - betrayal or loss or torn loyalties, because even though she knew her place was with the young master, Master Teo was the one she'd sworn to serve. Her second war hurt, in a way she didn't remember the first hurting her. But maybe she just didn't remember - she'd been so very young when she joined up, and she'd lost something she might once have called her innocence or her childhood along the way, along with friends and comrades and all those painfully young boys and a handful of other girls from her village.
Whatever the reason, the second war is the last one she'll fight. She's not thirty yet, but she's too old for battle. Pahn speaks of redeeming himself somehow, travelling, training, purifying his spirit. The young master doesn't speak of much, especially not now - was he always so quiet? - but she can see in his eyes that he's all but gone. And she can see in the still-packed bags, the hesitation before he replies to her words about the future, about plans, that Gremio's going too - probably with the young master, if he can. Cleo will stay, keep a fire on the hearth and dust off the floors, and try not to make it into waiting for them to return. She just wants to stay. She's tired.
****
