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Most of this takes place in London, their mother's native city, where the family moved shortly after Koyumi's birth.
What Once Was: The past from Bookwyrm's perspective Bookwyrm can never remember a time when his home life was stable. A tension always existed between his mother and father, but he never really discovered the source of it until a number of years after Koyumi was born and he learned the truth about his parents’ past. Soon after this discovery, his father and mother went their separate ways. Official divorce is no longer a necessary aspect of British culture so after a time his father just simply wasn’t. Bookwyrm reacted to the separation by wholly blaming his father for it; he coupled the family’s unhappiness with his father’s past actions, blaming him for the undermining of his now ex-wife’s mental state. Akira was able to find some escape by perfecting his magical abilities and becoming embroiled in the vibrant street life London afforded.
Koyumi did not adjust as well to the split home as Bookwyrm.
The instability of the mother estranged the woman from her daughter, so
Koyumi attached herself to their father.
When Daddy left, Bookwyrm found that he had the responsibility of
bolstering his little sister emotionally. He basically raised her while they
lived in London, as their mother was…occupied with other things (being one
aspect of a multi-faceted demigod-like being just eats up your time) and their father
was either busy with work or just neglectful in general. Thus the budding young
Bookwyrm found himself in a place of supreme authority in the eyes of an
innocent girl almost totally dependant on him for guidance and protection. And
he did a surprisingly good job of it. This did, however, cause him to do the
growing up for two people and lose out on a good portion of his own childhood to
ensure that his more emotionally delicate sister could benefit from hers. She
still took care of her brother in that she cleaned and cooked for him, but it
was in more of a loving housewife way than an oppressive mother-figure way. She
took care of him and he took care of her. Bookwyrm did not attempt to keep many
secrets from her and, indeed, included her in almost all of his activities that
did not involve drug use and the like. (She, of course, knew of these
activities, as she could read him like a book in those days, but it didn’t
seem to be hurting him, lots of other kids at school did them, so she smiled and
indulged him.) She began to erect the mental walls that currently seperate them when
she mentally turned a complete blind eye to his magical activities,
subconsciously suppressing what little she noticed at all, until Bookwyrm became
fully adept at hiding his abilities. These days, it's amazing that she can see him at all.
All this was, of course, shattered shortly before they moved back to
New Edo. Koyumi had taken up with a boy she met at the Artiste School who came
from, shall we say, a lower social standing. This would not have bothered
Bookwyrm in the slightest, as he had found that it is often the “salt of the
earth” that makes the best seasoning in life, but this fellow was more dreg
than spice. Bookwyrm, not wanting to scare her or allow a “star-crossed
lovers” syndrome to come between he and his sister, did nothing, and even attempted to
befriend the kid. The more he found out, however, the more concerned he became,
and rightly so, for before he even figured out that darling sister had lost her
virginity at all (a discovery he was a few years late on anyway), she was
pregnant, and the kid slipped back under whatever rock he had crawled out
from. She tracked him down and kicked the ever-loving shit out of him, which did
nothing to help that Koyumi was now faced with a life-shattering decision: bear the child and give it
up for adoption, or get an abortion. Bookwyrm counseled her to do the former. He
believed (and still does) that the child had a right to live; that killing it
without giving it a chance to prove itself in the world, was horrible. He
understood that Koyumi could not keep the baby; even though he felt that between
the two of them they could take as good care of it as he had of her, their
father had almost outright said that she would be fully responsible for it, and
Bookwyrm and Koyumi alone simply could not support it financially. She could,
however, put it up for adoption with relative ease, giving it a slightly better
chance than most newborns of a family that could and would take care of it. (The
adoption system in this culture is very careful and efficient, even if nothing
else is.) He explained this too her and she seemed to agree. Not a day later, however, she came back from the doctor’s office and, confident and decided, told him that she was having the abortion. Well, fuck the baby and my council then, Bookwyrm up and left the room, little realizing the effect that the withdrawal of the love and support of her only real parental figure would have on his sister. She was in the hospital for a week. Neither her parents or her brother visited her. She took a taxi home. Life went on as if none of it had happened, though a cold rift remained beneath the surface of their interaction. Bookwyrm began to notice that she was increasingly more delicate and was slowly losing her hold on sanity. He convinced his mother to move them back to Krysolis. Bookwyrm saw this as a blessing because of the changes that it would bring to his life after beginning to stagnate in the emotional wasteland that Britain had become to him, as well as getting his sister away from a world that reminded her of the baby. On the surface, his relationship with Koyumi remained the same, and after a while he attempted to return to the old rapport fully, but found his trusting little sister gone, replaced by a closed, cynical, manic, mother-robbed who seemed to adopt him as the child she’d lost. She no longer felt the need to listen to his advice or wanted his protection. Here is the Koyumi of today. Bookwyrm was not pleased with this new dynamic, but found when he tried to pull away again that she began to fall apart in earnest. And so the great masquerade began. Tsuke may pride his little self for his acting, but he is nothing compared to the face Bookwyrm puts on for his sister. Part of his irrationally and fucking wacky behavior stems from an act that he puts on to keep Koyumi sane. She feels very comfortable mothering those close to her because she feels that she always knows what is best for them. Bookwyrm figures that if Koyumi has a person that needs her constant care and affection then she’ll remain more stable. Then there’s the whole relationship she has with Tsuke, whom he sees as little better than the worm who got her pregnant. The boy doesn’t love her and is using her for sex, but she simply refuses to see it, and Bookwyrm will not sit idly by and watch the past repeat itself. Raising Brother Dearest: Koyumi's side
Koyumi doesn't know how lucky she is, despite all the shit. As a
child, she was talented enough
to garner constant indulgence, praise and support from everyone around her, and
faced a future of elite superstardom in the world of the Artiste. (A sort of
universal guild for artists in a culture wherein the creators of beauty are
idolized much as scientists and doctors are idolized now. Through this guild
Koyumi was set up at Amano Academy of the Arts in Krysolis and met the gang.) Yes
indeed, the world was bright and rosy for young Koyumi, life a walk on the clouds. And
Akira worked hard to keep her blissfully oblivious to the smog that the clouds thinly
veiled. This doesn’t mean that she was fully sheltered, of course; Bookwyrm’s
definition of “smog” is very different than a conservative Republican
preacher’s. She was, and still is, fiercely proud and intelligent, observant
as only an artist can be, sensitive to others, and caring; but lacked the
pessimism, obsessive-compulsive behaviors (they seemed more compulsive back
then), and endless rage and violence. She and her brother loved her.
Then she got pregnant.
Koyumi's doctor told her that she
would probably be able to carry to term, but as she was so small, it could
potentially shatter her health, and giving birth would
probably kill her. C-sections are relatively uncommon in London at the time
(they’re basically the way it’s done in Krysolis, which is much higher tech)
and without her father’s help, she could never afford one. She could, however,
afford the drugs that would induce the abortion, as long as she took them within
two weeks. She went home and did the most difficult thing she had ever had to
do: she told Bookwyrm that she was going to have an abortion. He got up and left
the room, never waiting to hear the reason why. The brother/father to
whom she had always been able to turn for understanding and advice had turned
his back on her, and she was left to make the decision and go through with it on her own.
Two days later, Koyumi went to the hospital. Aborting a child is not a fun
process, as it basically induced labor within hours of taking the
drug; and, while not half as bad as actually having a baby, it still involved a
lot of physical pain, much like the longest and most intense menstrual cramp
ever. It left Koyumi drained, dehydrated and in shock. She was in the hospital
for a week. Neither her parents or her brother visited her. She took a taxi
home.
Getting an abortion in London was a similar experience to getting an
abortion in our world: you could do it, but don’t expect most people to understand. Her
school life became a living hell, and Bookwyrm had, in his subtle way, stopped
supporting her. The death of her child weighed heavily on her conscience, and
her mind began to shatter. Her parents and Bookwyrm noticed this and, in a rare
moment of family unity, decided to move. Bookwyrm had always remembered the
transformed Tokyo as being much more interesting than London, and their mother
had been under pressure from various magical/governmental factions to move back
ever since they left. (Dad, of course, wasn’t going anywhere.) Mother, brother and sister went back
to Krysolis, a place Koyumi did not remember being born in, and attempted to
re-start their lives. Koyumi hates it here.
Her relationship with her brother remained the same on the surface:
she’d take care of him and they’d hang out together, but the deeper love had
been withdrawn. He eventually warmed up again, but by this time she had
accustomed herself (in her own mind) to taking care of herself as well as him,
and that’s what she did, whether he liked it or not. Yet, when he tried to
draw away again, she felt keenly how alone she was without the only real
parental figure she’d ever been close too, and, in trying to find the strength
to truly support herself alone, she began to collapse in on herself. Bookwyrm
seemed to find doing his own laundry and dishes and finding his own friends too
tiresome, and came back to her again, and their relationship continues. She
cleans and cooks for him and brings her friends over to hang at his house, and
she has built a dysfunctional little family for herself. Problem: Koyumi needs Bookwyrm more than she ever did, even as a child. Children can grow and adapt, but Koyumi has lost this ability. Her life remains as static as she can possibly make it. For all of her self-sufficient posturing, she still depends heavily on Bookwyrm to take care of her, for now instead of the outside world threatening to harm her, she is slowly self-destructing from the inside. Bookwyrm doesn’t need her at all. As his moral and emotional values fall away, so does his affection for his sister. She clings, he grows distant, she grows worse and clings more, and so on. |
