A Conversation With A Student

Natalie didn't think Immortals could get sore, but she was wrong, again. Quinn was a hard teacher and definitely subscribed to the schools of hard-knocks and tough-love respectively. If she'd expected to be "mollycoddled" as Quinn put it, she'd have to find another teacher. Their lessons weren't always about fighting though. Natalie had learned how to change her appearance by using makeup, contacts, wigs and clothing. She'd been surprised when her eighteen-year-old self had stared back at her from the mirror. An hour later, she looked nearly sixty.

"So, why didn't you and Lance ever get together?" Natalie asked over tea one afternoon. "You know he's crazy about you."

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thetenspot #104: Disney Things

1) A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
2) Happily ever after only exists in a cartoon
3) When in doubt, sing.
4) Stick with the bear bare necessities.
5) Always have a "laughin' place" and a "thoughtful spot."
6) Beware of old women and shiny apples.
7) Cocker spaniels make good ratters.
8) Don't prick yourself on a spinning wheel.
9) King Richard III had an outlaw for an in-law.
10) Have flying carpet, will travel.

State of the Muse

In her present-day alias of Quinnleigh Kincaid, Freyja is in a very retrospective part of her life. She's completely alone for the first time in nearly thirty years. She's bitter about having to change her life over and over again just to evade the ever-present questions. She's tired of people coming after her head. She's cranky about always having to watch her back. She hates not having anyone (male) who a) stands up to her, b) knows her for who & what she is, and c) loves her anyway.

Freyja hasn't told me everything about her past. My brain would've exploded a long time ago if she had, but what she has told me is that she doesn't half-ass her past lives. When she changes personas, she changes them whole hog. Some Immortals might consider their aliases to be only skin deep, but not her. She becomes the persona she creates.

In her last life, Elaine was one-hundred-percent American from the tips of her boots to the top of her head. She could rope, ride, and wrangle circles around darn near any rodeo cowboy, and her husband, Wade, didn't have a clue she was more than what she seemed. It was a secret she hated keeping because he loved her, and deserved to know everything. After nearly thirty years of a happy, loving marriage,Freyja had to give it up because people were beginning to compliment her on her youthful appearance and were dying to know her beauty secret.

In this life as Quinn, she's as Scottish as they get. She drinks, swears, has "square goes" and loves history with a passion. She was drawn to Orkney for the ruins at Skara Bræ and it was also where she spent a few years after Arthur's death. In her guise as an archaeologist, she's often faced with the past, and has come to realize exactly how long she's lived. It's rather depressing.

Though she's been mad at the deities of her Norse upbringing, she can't help but wonder if there's some reason she's still alive, some lesson she hasn't learned. Speaking of grudges, there is, of course, the rather nasty one she has against the Romans. So, let's just flog that dead horse, shall we?

In her guise as Boudica, she equated the Romans with the marauders who invaded her village. The Romans beat her and raped her daughters the same as the marauders gang raped her and slashed her throat. While she never had revenge on the men who actually victimized her, she had her vengeance against Rome, and lost. Like most women, she hates to be wrong. Though she doesn't want to admit it, she understands that it's pointless to carry a grudge for so long. And it's not necessarily Rome that's she's mad at, but herself. Watling Street was very much akin to Thermopylae: the Romans had a smaller force but much better trained, and they chose the terrain that would effectively bottleneck her army. Had she won the battle, Nero might have pulled out of Britain altogether. Knowing that she was so close to absolute victory still irritates her to no end.

Lately, I've really tried to get her to see past her grudges. Although there are a few Roman!muses out there who still prove her point, there are some exceptions to the rule. At the end of the day, they're really no different from anyone else she's come across (deities excluded). But a nearly two-thousand-year-old bias isn't going to go away overnight.

I'm also trying to figure out more ways to bring out her fun side. She enjoys interacting with her "knockabouts" im_gavin_elliot & sorta_like_711, though she doesn't see them that often. I've made mention of her dog, Brutæ, using her remotes as chew toys. But I guess I still need to find other "fluffier" fodder for her. Maybe a shopping trip to Paris complete with spa day or something...