Hey…….. Hey........... This is largely just headcanons and speculation for me and my good erimela (Erique x Flamela) and kabrinmick friend because we love Rin angst and her backstory's vague but it's interesting to think about lowkey so c'mere c'mere... Since my headcanon is that Rin grew up with the canaries, it'd be interesting to make Flamela & Erique her shitty distant mother figures……. For base info on Flamela and her little trio go here. Misyl is Flamela's more prominent convict, and Erique is Flamela's second in command, an ex-convict herself. It's unsure since how long they've all been assigned to each other, but we do seem to see both Erique and Misyl in Rin's backstory comic, and of course Flamela. Erique's the cold and serious type, often on the same wavelength as Flamela but balances out her more loud and impulsive sides, meanwhile Misyl is in the shortest way I can describe it, a fangirl.
Like, my take is that since Milsiril couldn't take her in, they sorta just... Kept her around. The canaries' headquarters is basically a prison, they have plenty of room and food to give to a meager kid. Rin was in shock so she wasn't one to throw tantrums- and well, we know who she grew up to be too. Rin grew up minded like an animal, eating rations and given no time of day. I go into it all a bit more here. She was an "impounded article" and the only piece of evidence to be able to tell if her family did do ancient magic or not, but the trauma made her mute, so they kept her around as a piece of evidence at first. Kabru was used as a shorthand for therapy and Rin gradually processed things and opened up and when she could talk again, talk to adult elves a month or two down the line is when the case could finally be classified, ancient magic hadn't been involved after all. Flamela was the one in charge of her case since she lead the investigation and was the one to retrieve Rin, so I like to think she also was the one to keep tabs on Rin's progress and try to get her to talk, the one more or less in charge of saying when the impounded article served its purpose and where to store it. Once things settle down, maybe Flamela still checks on her semi regularly, until eventually she doesn't ever. And where she goes, her second in command and prisoners follow.
Idk if birthdays are celebrated within the dunmesh world at all but god imagining Rin living with the canaries and year after year never having her birthday celebrated because she truly doesn't matter in this place and the pace of it wasn't built for her. She stayed there too short a time for her presence to have mattered- both negatively in that people didn't grow to care about her, but positively too in that she was allowed to stay for a decade because that's not that long to elves and so not much of a bother- she really just didn't matter and that was that. Her presence changed nothing.
I need her as a kid to be able to cry loudly into SOMEONE'S arms I'm going to make it happen by god. Milsiril-Rin dynamic is also interesting to think about since if Rin kept in touch with Kabru she doubtlessly has had run-ins with and has opinions™️ in the woman, either way...
I can definitely see how Rin would have grown so tough with Flamela monitoring her every so often- or even just with Flamela being her first/biggest impression of elves and "how we do things here, where you'll be living until you can take care of yourself and leave". And Erique & Rin duo? Would go so so hard. Ice queen forms ice queen.
Like would you not turn out like Rin if these two were the most memorable role models you have to survive in the system you live in.
Which is fun because it seems like Flamela doesn't really remember Rin either when they meet during canon? And with how traumatized Rin was and how she neverrr ever brings up her parents Rin may actively want to forget that time of her time or repress memories too. Rin grew up so much :/ Is she supposed to remember every face of insignificant shortlived people she interacts with!!!! Weird mother figure who forgets you're not a baby anymore so she doesn't recognize you, also you kinda hate each other.
Erique and Rin probably get along better but still. Elf. Honestly seeing Erique as a role model to Rin makes so much sense to me like is that not where Rin got the ice queen stance from……. She does not like elves but she thought erique was cool and seemed untouchable… So she wanted to be like that too so she wouldn't get hurt anymore…
Bonus points if Rin notices the whole erimela mess/they have some talks about it, like Erique has to wait on Flamela while with Rin or she feels like she should teach this despondent vulnerable child to be stronger- and Erique is the one to tell Rin that loving is a pain and to never, ever expect things from others. (Erimela kabrin parallels when…) In that "vaguely and briefly ranting to a kid and framing it as imparting wisdom" way adults do. Rin is quiet and just stares all the time when they're there and she looks disheveled and feral and maybe Erique relates a lil man…… She sees the fierceness and anger in her and is like, yes good, always bite the hand of your master, don't chain yourself to your slavery as I have, be rebellious and free and always prioritize yourself. Misyl is a little Mickbelly…… Misyl being super dependent and clingy with Flamela like that's the other thing Rin grows up seeing and that Erique points to like "don't be like that". Especially since Flamela barely reciprocates the attention like at all. Growing up seeing the Misyl-Erique-Flamela triangle mess… Rin fell into the same trap in the end after all. The cycle is too real...
And she saw Erique as a role model somewhat even if she was still spiteful of her right, but in the end she moreso became Flamela- rigid and angry and militaristic in attitude and discipline, and these 2 guys are pursuing her in very different ways but she's closed herself so much she can't see that or open up her feelings to anyone anymore. She's become Flamela, the big one of her 3 role models growing up even when she tried to be Erique, she's become the most suffocating one the most unhappy miserable non convict officer the one that upholds the system. The doom and tragedy of it………..
Makes me wanna spin dramatic poetry about mothers. Kabru had a foster mother all plushes and cakes, who couldn't quite try fleeing her past as a soldier but tried, Rin had a general. Kabru had someone to dry his tears and Rin had someone tell her to suck them back in. Rin had a mother figure she never saw as such and never wanted to let her have any importance in her life, but the ghost of her still hangs in how straight she keeps her back while standing and how she frowns at everything. She's become the person she least wanted to be tied to. Neither chose their replacement mother but both have become irreparably shaped by them.
