Post by Harmony Vector on Jul 17, 2023 15:47:58 GMT -7
━ wanting burns from the inside out. ━
THE HARD BRISTLES OF THE BRUSH CAUGHT ON HARMONY'S soft scalp, but she dare not flinch. Her eyes closed and chin tilted upwards as she sat on her haunches between her mother's sharp, thin knees. It was comforting, the way her hair was pulled back from the root all the way to the tips. Pain aside, Harmony rarely got to spend such a quiet, solitary moment with her mother except for those moments when she was preening her daughter like a bird of prey. Humming a guttural song without words, Duchess was perfectly exact in her machinations. 100 full brushes, from root to tip, morning and evening. It kept ones hair in pristine condition, and helped train the scalp to grow thick, lustrous locks. Harmony had sat in this exact position, morning and evening, for as long as she could remember. She was old enough now that she'd learned not to cringe at the pain, having received one too many knocks to the crown should she be ungrateful enough to feel pain.
"Do you know what it means?" Her mother paused her humming, the brush stilling momentarily to prompt Harmony to open her eyes. She blinked blearily, their reflections sharpening in the large, gilded mirror they sat in front of. "Hm?" Harmony hummed her confusion between pinched lips, her mothers face coming into focus where it hovered over her head. Her mother was a frighteningly beautiful creature, with her skin almost entirely bleached of pigment. Her hair silver and her lips a deep, rosy pink, to match the slight rogue at the apples of both cheeks. She did not look entirely human, she never had, but Harmony's concept of the word was skewed. She'd never known any other, her mother was her blueprint for beauty and femininity. That beautiful face screwed at Harmony's dull response, and she pulled the brush down the bottom half of Harmony's hair, yanking her head back violently.
"I said, do you know what it means?" She hissed again, those rosy lips pulling back in something of a sneer. The fine silver hair seeming to float with static at her displeasure. Harmony shook her head delicately, her brow creased in confusion as she watched her mother's reflection with a bubbling worry. Had she missed something her mother had said beforehand? Was it a test? Harmony didn't know. "No, mama," She whispered, her voice hoarse from disuses. The words seemed to appease her mother's fury, and the next brush stroke was much kinder. "I am trying to explain to you, my sweet, what it means to be so beautiful." Harmony blinked, enraptured by her mother's ability to string a tale and hypnotise a room. They were alone, and yet it was as if the entire space waited with bated breath for Duchess's next word.
A hand, spindly fingers and manicured nails, snaked around Harmony's shoulder and pinched her soft chin between thumb and fingers. The grip was not painful, but it pinched tight enough to straighten Harmony's posture and force her eye contact with herself. "Look," Duchess whispered, thumb digging a divot into her soft pink cheek. "Are you not beautiful?" Her mother's soft voice sang like cluster of fine silver bells. Harmony blinked, looking at herself long enough that the reflection seemed almost unrecognisable. "Yes." She replied t0 her mother finally, with conviction. "I am beautiful, because I look like you." Her chin was set straight, but Harmony rolled her eyes up to watch her mother's reflection above her. A pinched smile pulling at her cheeks around her mothers firm grip.
Harmony did look like her mother in some ways, they had the same sharp jawline and sloping nose. There eyes were nearly the same shape, though Duchess's were more wider set and sly. And, there differences were almost startling to those who did not know them. Harmony had her father's chin dimple and soft, flushed skin. She had buttery blonde hair, where her mothers was silver. She was her mother's daughter, but the differences was split just enough that Harmony hated it. So, quite within her character, she ignored their differences. Her mother, unfortunately, was not so keen to be blind.
"No." Her harsh reply came, and she pressed her sharp knees into Harmony's bony shoulders. "You are beautiful because you are half of what I am," She corrected her daughter. Her grip loosened from Harmony's chin and she resumed her brushing with a contented hum. "You are fifty percent Veela." She explained with a cold, informative voice. Harmony had hard the word before, had even read about the creatures in her studies of magical creature classification, but she had never been told her mother was not simply an otherworldly witch. Harmony hiccupped in surprise, her expression tightening as she stared at her mother, wishing to pull away and turn back. "What do you mean?" She asked, her nose scrunching and eyes narrowing. She felt a sharp twinge of displeasure at her mothers lack of detail. "I'm a witch." Her own correction earned her a huff of exasperation from her mother and a quick knock on the back of the head by the brush handle. She grunted and reached for her mothers ankles, digging her nails in to the soft flesh in retaliation, before she realised what she was doing. Her mother kicked her in the rib in answer, but said nothing.
Harmony lay hunched forward, the breath knocked out of her by her mothers dull heels. She rubbed at her stomach until fingers pulled her back sharply and resumed that same repetitive brushing - Harmony found it lacked its usual comfort. "Your father is a wizard, that makes you a witch." Duchess said coolly, her eyes warning Harmony to keep her mouth closed as she spoke. "I am a Veela." She sniffed, saying the word with a quiet reverence. "That is why you are so beautiful, my sweet, and that is why you will have everything that you will ever want." A hand came down, smoothing it against Harmony's scalp so that her golden hair gleamed. "We will make sure of it."
