Summer challenge: Women of Summer: Dorothy
Title: Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi
Author: ingvild
Characters: Dorothy
Rating/Word Count: PG, 587 words
Summary/Disclaimer: Not mine. Dorothy is considering the situation and her own feelings while on Libra.
Mankind needs wars. They need this unique opportunity to test themselves, to try their strength against the strength of others. Man is never more beautiful than when engaged in a battle.
That was what her father believed. That was why he went to war, why he spent more time with his soldiers than with herself and her mother. If asked, Dorothy would insist that she is not bitter about that - she cannot truly blame him for wanting to spend more time with these vital, vibrant, alive people than with a small girlchild and a woman more interested in the intrigue of the Romefeller court than actual battles. Sophia Catalonia was her father’s daughter before she was her husband’s wife, and she brought up her only child to follow in the footsteps of the Dermail line.
But Dorothy was always drawn to what her father was doing. Perhaps it is because she saw him so rarely, but she would read books on tactics, soldiers’ accounts of battle, and play war games. In the midst of a court steeped in secrecy and intrigue, Dorothy was drawn to the honesty and bleak integrity of the battles. When her father died, she refused to cry. He had gone in battle, as he would have wanted.
And now she stands on the bridge of the Battleship Libra, looking at the soldiers of White Fang as they mill about. Miss Relena has been brought back to her quarters/prison, her words falling on deaf ears. Poor Miss Relena, always trying so hard, only to have her results stolen away by men with weapons. Dorothy kept challenging her in the Sank Kingdom, waiting to see how she would get out of this situation.
She wonders, briefly, why the word is ‘how’ and not ‘if’.
She could have told her it would not work. Miss Relena’s ways place too much faith in the ability of people to think independently. People are sheep, always following a leader, never questioning as long as they have food in their bellies and a roof over their heads.
She wants to think that her soldiers are different. However, Dorothy is too used to brutal truths, even though she is always circumspect about revealing them. The soldiers of White Fang, who are going about their duties without giving her more than an occasional curious (or appreciative) glance are as much sheep following their shepherd as the civilians on Earth or in the colonies.
Sheep - or sacrificial lambs.
The thought strikes her with the shock of stray lightning. These people, they are all fighting and dying - and for what? The end to all battles? The War to end all Wars? Those are not new thoughts, and they have never had the desired result.
Why is she here? To inscribe this battle in her memory, as she told Mister Milliardo, or for a different reason? Is she here to bear witness, or to die?
Did she in fact challenge Miss Relena because she wanted to know if there was a different solution after all?
Dorothy shudders and wraps her arms about herself. She is as much responsible for this situation as the rest of Romefeller, Mister Treize and Mister Milliardo. That is why she is here. Because she cannot in good conscience look away.
War took her father. Now war will take many, many others, perhaps for nothing, and all Dorothy can do is to stay with them.
After all, she cannot expect others to shoulder a burden she herself is unwilling to carry.
Author: ingvild
Characters: Dorothy
Rating/Word Count: PG, 587 words
Summary/Disclaimer: Not mine. Dorothy is considering the situation and her own feelings while on Libra.
Mankind needs wars. They need this unique opportunity to test themselves, to try their strength against the strength of others. Man is never more beautiful than when engaged in a battle.
That was what her father believed. That was why he went to war, why he spent more time with his soldiers than with herself and her mother. If asked, Dorothy would insist that she is not bitter about that - she cannot truly blame him for wanting to spend more time with these vital, vibrant, alive people than with a small girlchild and a woman more interested in the intrigue of the Romefeller court than actual battles. Sophia Catalonia was her father’s daughter before she was her husband’s wife, and she brought up her only child to follow in the footsteps of the Dermail line.
But Dorothy was always drawn to what her father was doing. Perhaps it is because she saw him so rarely, but she would read books on tactics, soldiers’ accounts of battle, and play war games. In the midst of a court steeped in secrecy and intrigue, Dorothy was drawn to the honesty and bleak integrity of the battles. When her father died, she refused to cry. He had gone in battle, as he would have wanted.
And now she stands on the bridge of the Battleship Libra, looking at the soldiers of White Fang as they mill about. Miss Relena has been brought back to her quarters/prison, her words falling on deaf ears. Poor Miss Relena, always trying so hard, only to have her results stolen away by men with weapons. Dorothy kept challenging her in the Sank Kingdom, waiting to see how she would get out of this situation.
She wonders, briefly, why the word is ‘how’ and not ‘if’.
She could have told her it would not work. Miss Relena’s ways place too much faith in the ability of people to think independently. People are sheep, always following a leader, never questioning as long as they have food in their bellies and a roof over their heads.
She wants to think that her soldiers are different. However, Dorothy is too used to brutal truths, even though she is always circumspect about revealing them. The soldiers of White Fang, who are going about their duties without giving her more than an occasional curious (or appreciative) glance are as much sheep following their shepherd as the civilians on Earth or in the colonies.
Sheep - or sacrificial lambs.
The thought strikes her with the shock of stray lightning. These people, they are all fighting and dying - and for what? The end to all battles? The War to end all Wars? Those are not new thoughts, and they have never had the desired result.
Why is she here? To inscribe this battle in her memory, as she told Mister Milliardo, or for a different reason? Is she here to bear witness, or to die?
Did she in fact challenge Miss Relena because she wanted to know if there was a different solution after all?
Dorothy shudders and wraps her arms about herself. She is as much responsible for this situation as the rest of Romefeller, Mister Treize and Mister Milliardo. That is why she is here. Because she cannot in good conscience look away.
War took her father. Now war will take many, many others, perhaps for nothing, and all Dorothy can do is to stay with them.
After all, she cannot expect others to shoulder a burden she herself is unwilling to carry.