Originally posted September 29, 2009
((As I started working on the sisters' database entries, I thought it time to simplify and codify their background. This interview appeared in Spirits Aficionado))
Talk?! We Came to Watch Rugby!
They are the heirs to a new tradition of scotch; two daughters of Siobhan and Conall Tiernay, makers of whiskeys sipped by wealthy connoisseurs the world round. I caught up with them not a week into their move to Millennium City.
Even as step sisters go, these to are further apart physically than one can imagine. Ríobhca stands an average height, long black hair tucked neatly behind her ears, green eyes looking out from a pale, porcelain face. Short gray fur covers the entire of Weekah’s short, tightly muscled body, save for a lavender tussle of hair on her head. How she hooks her glasses around those ears remains a mystery. We sit on bat stools. “The tail can be such a pain sometimes,” the raccoon girl explains.
I’ve met them at a local pub where they’ve settled in to watch the Wallabies take on the Springboks in a broadcast from Johannesburg. "Tis naet the World Cup," Ríobhca tells me, "But we try tae git what rugby we can." It's clear they enjoy a good match. Questions are postponed until the half as the two exchange commentary and curses, trading good natured barbs in the way of siblings. Weekah laps her beer from a shallow bowl the barkeep keeps refilling.
The pair might well be the most well adjusted superheroes I've met, but I believe they would bristle at the term. No childhood trauma. No sense of vengeance or particular belief in justice. Their powers and abilities seem just another part of their life. They fight evil because they can. It comes as naturally to them their other pursuits in academics and fashion. By the time I get to ask questions, I find myself buoyed by their good spirits and easy company, and that I've learned a fair amount about scotch and Union Rules.
Weekah:
I don't remember much of my early childhood. I know from my adoptive mother that I was created on another world, someplace very similar to this one. I am a clone of one of her first wives, an accident of science and magic designed to breed mystically empowered shock troops for use as mercenaries. I have never met my 'true' mother, the raccoon-human hybrid I was cloned from.
There are details around it, but my mother fled her own world after she was attacked. Wounded and in pain, she traversed plane one right after the other, getting terribly lost. Once she recuperated, she started looking for her way back home, me in tow. We spent years searching.
Ríobhca:
By the tiem màthair met da, she was ready tae settle down, ah ken. T'wannae 'er Scotland, but t'was a Scotland. 'er enemies dinnae exist 'ere. While there were capes, they hadn't quite made it tae Inverness yet. She cuid 'andle what few vampires cared tae live in the 'ighlands. She cuid live 'er life, a life of peace that ah dinnae ken she reckoned she cuid e'er 'ave.
Growing up fer mae t'wasn tae unusual. Ah went tae school. Worked in the still. Studied magic wit mae ma and da, in secret mind ye. T'all seemed normal, even 'aving a raccoon for an older sister. T'was all a part of mae life since ah was a wee bairn.
Weekah:
Things were a bit rougher for me. I was already physically mature when we arrived on this plane. People don't seem to mind seeing creatures on TV. It's different to see them on the street. Inverness hadn't seen an anthropomorph before mom and I settled there. We talked a lot about weaving a charm to let me look more like a 'normal' teen. It wasn't easy, but we decided against it. It took a long time, but the community eventual accepted me.
I attended school. Worked at the still. I came up with the label designs for our bottles and made clothes for city's small alternative scene. I still beat it out of there as soon as this one passed her advanced highers.
Down to London?
Weekah:
Aye. I attended the London campus of Italy's Instituto Marangoni, fashion design.
I found London, freeing. I met more hybrids and a few supers. Tried my hand at it while working on designs and going to class. There was a much larger music and art scene. I would spend hours at The Tate. People didn't stare at me on the street. Well most didn't anyway. There's always a tourist in London-town.
Ríobhca:
Ah always enjoyed a visit. T'was a whole 'nother world. Ah remember mae first trip tae The Eye. The city jist went on an on, ah ken.
London wasn't for you?
Ríobhca:
Nay. Ilka cock craws crousest on 'is own midden. Ah was comfortable back at 'ome in Inverness. It t'was large enough fer mae. I got mae own flat when ah went tae college then went tae London for a visit when ah needed a holiday… an tae stretch mae skills a wee bit.
Why the decision to attend Millennium University?
Ríobhca:
Di ye remember where ye were when ye 'eard about Detroit? Ah ne'er noticed the city before that day. Jist one more dot on the map of the States. Ah remember staying 'ome from school that day as we watched the buildings burn. Ah remember watching, following the story as the city rebuilt. The Yanks set a stout hert tae a stey brae.
When ah decided tae go tae grad school, MU t'was mae first choice. T'was a new school. A modern curriculum in the most advanced setting. Ah wanted tae go, tae bae a part of that energy, that effort. Ah was ready tae move from mae comfort zone by then. An ah 'ad an accomplice.
Weekah
I never thought I would want to leave London, but when Reeves raised the idea it appealed to me. Millennium had become a city of anthros, more of my kind. Besides the bad guys, it seemed like a place where I could break into the field.
It was a business decision for you?
Weekah
Partly. I couldn't let Reeves go on her own, but I couldn't ignore the possibilities.
How are those possibilities working out?
Weekah
Ask me in a few weeks or at least after the half.
With that, I lose them to the game. I put the interview "into touch," for now.
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