Keepers of the Autumn World

Does the song repeat the same lyrics 3 or more times? Could these lyrics be construed as a promise of any kind?

Truthfully, their mother doesn't have a confession to make. She was a very hard working lady wedded to an accountant for a time, but when he passed, she truly struggled to keep their household afloat. The situation of women in Ireland at the time made it very difficult for her to find & maintain employment.

Here is a couple articles with a bit of reading on the subject, if you find yourself interested (lots of sexism):

https://www.independent.ie/life/lovely-girls-1960s-ireland-was-still-hostile-for-women-31413453.html

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/57301/ten-things-an-irish-woman-could-not-do-in-1970

Some postings offered to women came with the condition that the job would be revoked once they were married. Women who worked full time were often portrayed as selfish - taking jobs from the young who needed to enter the workforce for the sake of their "luxurious vacations" and "fully stocked liquor cabinets." Needless to say, Katie Slaine had a great deal of difficulty providing for her two boys once her husband, Fintan, passed away. They lived with her parents for a while as she sought out whatever work she could find - usually odd jobs of inconsistent cleaning work, some mending, some childcare.

Some relief came in the late 70s when her boys began to reach their adolescence as legislation was finally passed to guarantee equal pay for women - conditions still weren't greatly improved, but it was a start and she managed to move into administrative work, which provided more steady pay.

As young boys, Ronan and Nolan got along fairly well. Certainly there was the familiar sibling rivalries so common to children, but they lived in lean times and family was the only thing they could rely on. Their mother was always out of the house working or handling the many chores or passed out asleep, in dire need of rest. By and large, they were on their own once they moved out of their grandparents' home.

Neither of them much liked attending Mass with their Catholic family, but Katie insisted on it until Ronan began rebelling. Nolan still goes sometimes when he visits home; not because he feels any connection to the church, but because it makes his mother very happy to have at least one of her sons with her for important holiday masses. While Catholicism saturated their home life, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants throughout their youth was very, very prominent.

Even if neither of the boys were actually religious, being openly atheist simply wasn't an option at the time. Regardless of their personal beliefs (or lack thereof), being raised in a Catholic home was more than enough to place the Slaine family in the middle of the deeply, deeply sectarian conflicts. They grew up always feeling unsafe, always having to watch their backs, and scrapping with other locals when they dared cross into 'other' zones. There were also plenty of brawls brought on when other young men dared bring their mother into it.

Ronan's response was to let it roll off his back and took a more mocking approach towards life. If he never took anything seriously, how could anything ever hurt him? It became second nature to him to wind people up about things they took much too seriously, piss them off, and then disappear before he could suffer the consequences for it. As you can imagine, such troubles often followed him home.

Nolan, on the other hand, was deeply frustrated by the perceived unfairness of the world. He didn't even believe in god! Why would what church his mom attended matter? Why did everyone care so much? People were being horribly injured and outright murdered based on the circumstances of their upbringing or political views. His mother was harassed on many fronts by virtue of her being a woman and her religious beliefs, but he saw her as someone just trying to do the best she could to provide for her kids, politics and faith be damned. He was not quiet in his bitterness as to the pointlessness of the violence, often venting to his friends that the world would be so much better if everyone minded their own business and stopped making up reasons to hurt each other.

Though he was a good student, he was also a teenager who wanted to hang out with his friends. Since he tended to gravitate towards people who also just wanted the violence to stop, eventually they found their way into the punk scene. Concerts were often very non-sectarian, defying the status quo, and he felt like he had finally found a voice of reason. For a while, he was even the sole drummer for the tiny band he and his friends founded: Every Bad Day.

They never really made it 'big' - a couple of gigs at the local pub, plenty of jam sessions that were primarily excuses for them to hang out - but they were sincere. They went to many protests and counter-protests as a group, finding safety in numbers and in sticking up for each other, physically if need be (as well as anyone else who seemed to need some help at the time.) Above all else, Nolan fiercely defied the idea that anyone had the right to put themselves above others. The scene felt like the only place where he truly was among other people who felt the way he did, even when they had to fight to keep it that way (and they definitely did.) He believed very deeply that people had the right to live their lives and be themselves without fear.

As Nolan got older and finally decided to try for medical school, the scene had to take a backseat. It wasn't that he cared any less, he simply didn't have the time to do well in school and continue attending as many concerts and protests as he once did, though he was still very devoted to his ideals.

Now, with regards to Ronan becoming a changeling, here is a particularly disconcerting piece of lore:

Autumn Sidhe are the nobles who chose to make pacts with mortals, thereby having their faerie spirits protected from the painful banality and hopelessness of the world (which literally destroys them). They go through the cycles of death and rebirth, same as anyone, and essentially co-exist with their hosts in a seamless merger that makes them one, unified consciousness.

Arcadian Sidhe are the nobles who left this world, retreating to Arcadia to hide in the safety of the Dreaming while everyone else made the bargains. The Lunar Landing in 1959 sparked an outpouring of glamour and hope and wonder worldwide, the likes of which had never been seen on that scale before, and opened the doors to the Dreaming again. Since then, the Arcadians have been returning to Earth... but they still need human hosts to protect them from banality.

So when they find a host, they rip out their soul and walk around in their bodies until they don’t want them anymore.

While Ronan - Nolan’s true brother - might’ve been a selfish, rebelling teenager, he certainly wasn’t nearly as capricious and uncaring as the man Nolan hunts now. He would have never taken such advantage of their mother, knowing how poor they grew up and how hard she worked to keep them fed and safe.

Thank you so much! :D The act of oathswearing and being mystically bound to keep your word or behave in a certain manner is integral to a lot of Changeling stuff, so it was a lot of fun to get to try my hand at it. I will definitely try to do more like it in the future!!

And since you asked: Espen & Amelia's relationship follows a version of both courtly and romantic love. As denizens of the Dreaming, they are somewhat bound to act in the way humans dream about - not a reflection of how medieval society really was, but the idyllic fantasy of being heroic, noble, self-sacrificing, chivalrous, and pure of heart & love.

(more behind the cut! Also it goes so long, I’m so sorry, I just got caught up in the excitement)

[Author’s Note: As with many instances of ennobling a Commoner, the Oath of Fealty presented below was penned specifically for the occasion by the Marquess’ favored bard. While some credit the Bardic Duke of Rubezhal, Ronan Slaine, there is no surviving record that indicates the House of Daireann granted him patronage. In the absence of further information, this accounting would be remiss not to mention the possibility of the Duke’s involvement.]

Be Thou my compass, oh star of my heart Naught be all else to me, save what Thou art Thou my best thought in the day and the night Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light

Be Thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight Be Thou my armor and be Thou my might

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise Thou my sole governance, now and always Thou and Thou only, the first in my heart Waking or sleeping, my treasure Thou art

 Charlie likes to watch the cameras; maybe it’s just another addiction at this point, another habit, another way to cope - tracing his domitors movements with video clips and the small tracker on his phone, making sure all the cameras were working.. it was enough to occupy him into the late hours. Not just watching them though, no, that felt like it was too passive. He needed to be doing something useful. So when a screen flickers off when it’s not supposed to, he’s already got his car keys tucked in his pockets as he pushed himself from the chair. It won’t be long - a five minute drive out to the empty ‘safehouse’, a change of a few parts, done.  What he doesn’t expect is someone doing his job for him already. Charlie brings the car to a halt outside the house, though he stares at the stranger from behind the wheel at first; feeling safer behind black-tinted windows as he tried to figure out what the stranger was doing, if this was something more than a simple vandal… but he does step out eventually, albeit with a silenced handgun tucked under his baggy shirt. The ghoul is cautious in his approach, one hand tucked in his side pocket incase it had to reach quickly for his weapon - but he doesn’t make too much of an effort to stay hidden. He’s not that scared.  Even so, Charlies’ voice lacks any anger or authority when he speaks up.    “Uh- you’re trespassing, you know?”

The tip of Arun's screwdriver worked busily as Charlie approached, calling him out for his uninvited presence. Arun finished popping open the side of the camera before he braced himself with one hand and glanced down at Charlie with a weary smile. He was very clearly getting on in years, heavy lines winding well-worn trails across his face. "Oh-" He chuckled, tucking the screwdriver into his vest pocket. "I suppose I might be, from a certain perspective. I'd like to think I'm just lending a hand."

He tapped the side of the camera, peering into the inner workings and nodding thoughtfully to himself. "I think there may be a problem with the internal power supply. Noticed any rolling lines on the feed for this one? Easy enough to fix."

It was a shame he'd been found out, as he could have repaired it three times as quickly without an audience and he didn't enjoy the embarrassed or hostile reactions to being caught in the process. It was all so much easier when they just let him lend a hand and then shuffle along.

"Bit of a handyman, myself. Used to be there wasn't a day that went by without one of the kids or neighbors needing help with something or other, but when the grandkids started growing up they started making themselves nervous about me up on ladders or crouching down." He shook his head, giving a muffled, bemused laugh that sounded like a cough. "Don't mind me. I'll talk your ear off. My name's Arun. Who might you be, stranger?"