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Feb. 13th, 2011 02:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeIt's two thirty in the morning. I'm not coherent. But I was working on some writing and some world-building and some marriage-building of characters, and I wanted to put this down before I forgot it.
Sometimes, it's the little things that tell more about a relationship and how comfortable or solid it is than the big things. Sometimes. I heard this referred to once as the pass-the-broccoli test; since I should be going to bed rather than journaling I'm not going to look it up right now. But, here you go. Three characters at breakfast in the morning. For background, these three characters in a space opera type story have been married off to each other to seal a truce between their three nations. Yes, three people in one marriage.
Andreas has washed and shaved and combed his hair before he sits down to breakfast; blame the habits of his many-year-long military career. He takes his breakfast with juice and slowly, savoring the variety of foods available to him. Even though he sits to eat with his tablet in one hand so he can scan the newsfeeds, he pays attention to his wife and husband and how their moods seem. Mornings are his favorite time of day, for the most part. Everything is new, full of possibilities, and no one's yet brought him any problems he has to address, or at least he can pretend it at the breakfast table. Their breakfasts are sacrosanct, and it's largely his influence. He wears his pajamas and house robe, even if he didn't spend the night in them. Ahem. He's very calm and relaxed in his movements and in his posture as he sits at the breakfast table.
Aleksandr is not a morning person. He always approached mornings as something to be dealt with and gotten through, usually waking up when the sun was higher in the sky. This might or might not have something to do with him coming from a closer to the sun planet, as Beata claims when she rubs his shoulders and kisses his cheek on a particularly slow morning. He doesn't always wash before coming to the table, if it's been a late night beforehand he'll sit for a bit and drink coffee and take a sugared pastry before he goes and showers and comes back for something more healthy, by which time at least Andreas has usually gone. Other times, if he's actually awake that morning, he'll ask Andreas what's happening in the news, give Beata her kiss and hug before she claims it, and hog a certain type of pastry. He does his best to keep up with the other two, though. It's just that some mornings his best is more surly than others.
Beata just somehow seems to need less sleep than the other two. It might be a factor of age or it might simply be how she is. She huddles in on herself more when there's less sunlight, sits up straighter and brighter and smiles more when there's more sunlight. It's because of her that their breakfast nook has windows at all, in any place where they live. She goes back and forth with Andreas in a tug of war over the juice, organizes all their social calendars according to what may have happened since the appointments were made (and what mood Aleksandr is in, how much sleep he got) and reminds them of the little details if she knows them. Which usually also results in them reminding her, especially if these are familiar people or cultures, that they know. And then she smiles and apologizes or says she knows, she's just making sure they're paying attention, or whatever seems to fit the situation. She's always touching and giving out kisses, too, stroking hair, rubbing shoulders, stealing kisses, little touches to start her day pleasantly and take her touchstoning while she can because they might not see each other all day.
(And now you've all been thoroughly confused. *falls asleep*)
Sometimes, it's the little things that tell more about a relationship and how comfortable or solid it is than the big things. Sometimes. I heard this referred to once as the pass-the-broccoli test; since I should be going to bed rather than journaling I'm not going to look it up right now. But, here you go. Three characters at breakfast in the morning. For background, these three characters in a space opera type story have been married off to each other to seal a truce between their three nations. Yes, three people in one marriage.
Andreas has washed and shaved and combed his hair before he sits down to breakfast; blame the habits of his many-year-long military career. He takes his breakfast with juice and slowly, savoring the variety of foods available to him. Even though he sits to eat with his tablet in one hand so he can scan the newsfeeds, he pays attention to his wife and husband and how their moods seem. Mornings are his favorite time of day, for the most part. Everything is new, full of possibilities, and no one's yet brought him any problems he has to address, or at least he can pretend it at the breakfast table. Their breakfasts are sacrosanct, and it's largely his influence. He wears his pajamas and house robe, even if he didn't spend the night in them. Ahem. He's very calm and relaxed in his movements and in his posture as he sits at the breakfast table.
Aleksandr is not a morning person. He always approached mornings as something to be dealt with and gotten through, usually waking up when the sun was higher in the sky. This might or might not have something to do with him coming from a closer to the sun planet, as Beata claims when she rubs his shoulders and kisses his cheek on a particularly slow morning. He doesn't always wash before coming to the table, if it's been a late night beforehand he'll sit for a bit and drink coffee and take a sugared pastry before he goes and showers and comes back for something more healthy, by which time at least Andreas has usually gone. Other times, if he's actually awake that morning, he'll ask Andreas what's happening in the news, give Beata her kiss and hug before she claims it, and hog a certain type of pastry. He does his best to keep up with the other two, though. It's just that some mornings his best is more surly than others.
Beata just somehow seems to need less sleep than the other two. It might be a factor of age or it might simply be how she is. She huddles in on herself more when there's less sunlight, sits up straighter and brighter and smiles more when there's more sunlight. It's because of her that their breakfast nook has windows at all, in any place where they live. She goes back and forth with Andreas in a tug of war over the juice, organizes all their social calendars according to what may have happened since the appointments were made (and what mood Aleksandr is in, how much sleep he got) and reminds them of the little details if she knows them. Which usually also results in them reminding her, especially if these are familiar people or cultures, that they know. And then she smiles and apologizes or says she knows, she's just making sure they're paying attention, or whatever seems to fit the situation. She's always touching and giving out kisses, too, stroking hair, rubbing shoulders, stealing kisses, little touches to start her day pleasantly and take her touchstoning while she can because they might not see each other all day.
(And now you've all been thoroughly confused. *falls asleep*)