This is for the "send me anons about my muses family" and my question is, is there anyone else in Jewel's family that feels the kind of chained up restlessness Jewel does? Is there anyone that craves freedom as desperately as her?
|| Anon me Q's about Jewel's family! ||
Jewel's father was a traveler and translator. Nathan had a wealth of stories and experiences under his belt, and even though the ship he was on crashed upon the shores of Hokkaido during a storm and wiped out everything of meaning to him, he kept a healthy mindset and set off to start a new life. The sky was the limit in his mind.
Jewel's mother was well known in her village. Friendly. Giving to a fault. Reliable. Heshiu loved being a maternal figure and helping out new mothers if they sought it. Freedom meant giving to her -- her time, labor, and emotional readiness for others.
Fureppo was an angry old woman. Many in the village avoided her due to her fiery temper. She was never the same after losing her husband, and often kept close to her own family and avoided others. She felt chained to her misery and bitterly accepted her fate.
Nathan was all over the place with Jewel. He wanted to teach her how to hunt and set traps, but also wanted her to learn embroidery and how to create beads and pendants with her mother and grandmother, while learning multiple languages. Normally, an Ainu child would've leaned into a role based on gender, but her father -- being a foreigner -- always wanted to push boundaries.
Jewel loved his attention and learning from him, but their time together often felt like crossing off a to-do list and Nathan often overloaded her and caused her to throw fits from time to time. He put a lot of pressure on her to be as accomplished as possible as young as possible.
Heshiu was almost never around Jewel one to one. Because she loved to look after and/or adopt other children, her attention was often divided. Jewel had more of her mom's time when she was a baby and toddler, but it dwindled as she aged.
When it came to getting her traditional tattoos, Jewel vehemently refused, in part because of the pain, but mostly to spite her mother. She rejected the idea of 'looking attractive to suitors,' and, 'being ready for marriage and a family.' Nathan and Fureppo couldn't convince her either. Deep down, it was because of the growing resentment towards her mother and not wanting to be like her.
She made Jewel feel invisible and unwanted in the sense that her mom never made her a priority. It felt like a slap in the face to Jewel to see her mother so present in her community but not with her, in their own home. Jewel's efforts for her attention were nil by adolescence.
Jewel came to view Heshiu as a ghost -- a non present presence that shared some of her features, but wasn't there for her (her only biological child). She was abandonment in the flesh; a ghost passing through.
When Jewel wasn't with her dad, she spent the most of her time with grammy Fureppo. Fureppo -- despite her anger and unresolved grief -- found a sense of peace with Jewel. The two of them would organize beads and rocks, brush out fur pelts, and garden together.
Jewel became the ever interested ear for grammys' stories ... and her traumas that she would get on tangents about that left Jewel feeling sad, confused, and introspective.
These were taboo conversations, as Ainu did not traditionally talk of death, but Jewel was curious and continuously probed her for information. Jewel loved Grammy because Grammy cared about her perspective and what she thought. She treated Jewel like her own person rather than a vessel to impose her desires upon.
Each member of her family was more or less comfortable in their lives, but they brought up an emotionally suffocated girl who was uncertain in her own identity and internally shriveling in her own loneliness. She was raised -- torn between Nathan's expectations, Heshiu's neglect, and even shouldering some of Grammy's emotions. Her mom and dad made her feel like she had to perform for their love, rather than simply being loved for who she was. Grammy filled that hole to an extent, but not without emotional baggage.
Her family served as the foundation for her desire for freedom.