artistsfuneral

The prodigal son of house Pavus…

YES. the way this hasn’t left my mind….Like okay they’re still Victorians. They’re still sexist and homophobic. My thought for this alternate history is third gender people are expected to only marry into already married couples. And they’d probably throw in a lot of Christian Holy Trinity and Mary Joseph God imagery to religiously validate triads.

Or three people (of all different genders of course bc again. They’re Victorian) could marry all at once but the courting situation would be a nightmare.

This is why it was so important for women to marry well: even if you worked as a married woman (and many women did), your money wasn't actually yours. It's one thing to have to live with a drunk asshole; it's worse to have that drunk asshole be the sole person who decides if that paycheck goes towards rent or more booze.

So, having a trinity/three parts of one whole entity would totally fit Victorian ideas of coverture. I think you'd still have it be men > everyone else, because they'd expect some kind of hierarchy, and even within the Trinity, God is still the leader.

Second thought: separate spheres. The Victorian era was very heavily focused on men being involved in the "dirty" business of work/politics/etc., and women being more morally pure and better suited to the domestic sphere (the whole "angel of the house" thing). Obviously this wasn't actually or practically true a lot of the time, but it was the aspired-to standard, the thing you'd measure people against to say if they were acting appropriately as members of their gender or not.

So you'd need a third sphere for Honorables to inhabit that is completely separate from the work/domestic dichotomy, or create an entirely different three-way dichotomy. Basically, you'd need a thing to point to, like "X is very ladylike" or "Y is not manly," but for Honorables.

So, extrapolating:

You'd still have "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Smith," it'd just be, "Mr., Mrs., and Mx. Robert Smith" (differentiating by title, not by first name). I could actually see there being a different title for unmarried vs. married Honorables, like Master vs. Mister or Miss vs. Madam/Missus. Mix vs. Max, maybe?

I think Honorables would definitely need to have some kind of dowry. It actually might be even more necessary, because unless the guy is insanely wealthy on his own, you're going to need enough money to support three people, not just two.

The idea of who should be in charge of household accounting has always waffled between a man’s job and a woman’s job. Is teaching the realm of governesses and school mistresses or lecturers and professors. Academics are too weak and frail to be masculine but too logical and rigorous to be feminine.

Thus, men, even if they're unqualified on whatever area of knowledge they're dealing with, and even if they have no understanding of their or other people's feelings whatsoever, still possess an inherent and intangible quality that makes them the only part truly suited for decision making.

Woman: Caretaker

Honorable: Assistant/Advisor

No nuance. If you don’t have a mother/are no contact etc this is not a poll for you.

Weirdly enough his anger calms Lambert.

Communal meals have always been a big part of their family life so when Vesemir's boys grew up into young men and when one after the other moved out of his house, they developed a kind of routine around the mealtimes.

Monday mornings were reserved for breakfast at Geralt's. Having two teenage daughters meant that Monday mornings were a time of dramatic sighs, rolled eyes and the chanting of "I don't want to go to school" over and over again. So Geralt had started doing the one thing that always made him feel better, he invited his family for breakfast and started cooking. It became a tradition very quickly and soon his girls were looking forward to Monday mornings.

Saturday was a day spend at Vesemir's. Thanks to being a kindergarten teacher, Jaskier didn't have to work on the weekends and so it fell into his hands to pick up all the kids in the morning and then drive them to the family farm. They'd spend most of the day together, helping Vesemir with the livestock and in the garden, played games and did their homework. The others would arrive once they got off work and around dinner time everyone was present around the big dining table.

Lunch at Lambert's was reserved for special occasions, like the holidays or birthdays, promotions or good grades. The youngest brother was a perfectionist when it came to these meals, always spending hours in the kitchen, preparing incredible tasty food. It was one of the easiest and for him most comfortable ways he could tell his family that he loved them. They all knew of course, but seeing their faces light up whenever they tasted a new dish or found their favorite right in front of them, let Lambert know that he had made them happy.

Tea Time with Eskel is as adorable as it sounds. A tradition that started when Vesemir's boys where still playing with plastic cups and became a more and more regularly thing once Eskel discovered his love for baking when he was around twelve years old. Most of the times it's something that is just reserved for Eskel, Geralt and Lambert, but over the years it has become a sort of "important discussion meeting". Lambert admitting he had a crush on a boy for the first time, Geralt finding out he liked both boys and girls, them coming out to Vesemir, said one telling them that they would move from their two bedroom flat into a big farmhouse, Geralt telling them about the pregnancy, getting to meet Aiden and later Jaskier for the first time; all those conversations happened during Tea Time.