Fic: Animorphs -- "Mar y Sol"

[acts_of_tekla]

Fandom: Animorphs
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Marisol (GB!Marco)
Series: Animorphs GB AU
Summary: Marisol would like you to know that she does not brood.
Notes: Inspired by this conversation with and post by joking

Takes place during #4, The Message.


Mom always said that she named me after the ocean. ‘Mar y sol’ – it means ‘sea and sun’ in Spanish.  That’s not the official meaning you’ll find if you in a baby name book, but it’s how she meant it.

I looked out over the water as we travelled.  It can’t really be called sailing when you aren’t using sails – my Mom was always very clear about that.  We used to have a sailboat, a real one, and even though it had an engine we were hardly ever allowed to use it.  Mom loved going out on the water.  We usually went out on the boat as a family, or sometimes just the two of us if Dad was travelling for work, but I know Mom went out on her own too sometimes, because she’d still smell like salt when she picked me up from school.  My Dad used to joke that she loved the boat almost as much as she loved us

It still seems insane sometimes.  My Mom was an experienced sailor; she would never take the boat out in a storm.  Maybe she thought it was clearing, or that it wouldn’t be so bad.  Maybe bank robbers had put a gun to her head and forced her to sail for Mexico.  I’d come up with hundreds of scenarios in the days and weeks and months after the wreck was found, but in the end I had to accept the obvious.

My mother died from something she’d loved.  In the kind of book we’re forced to read in English class, this would be a painful irony of the hero’s tragic past, tying in with the author’s complex thematic use of water symbolism.  The hero would probably agonize about how he too was named for the thing that killed his mother.  Luckily, I’d rather joke than brood.

Another lesson from my Mom.
 


[[Officially, Marisol is a contraction of ‘Maria’ (i.e. the Virgin Mary) and ‘Soledad’, which means solitude and is one of the Virgin Mary’s titles (Maria de Soledad = Mary of Solitude), so Marisol is really just another name for the Virgin Mary.]]

Comments

[joking.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like that name origin for Marisol! It occurs to me that I'd love to see Eva in relationship to Marisol and Jamie's friendship in a GB!AU. Did she approve? What did she think of them as friends?

[acts_of_tekla]

I think she approved of their friendship. Given how young Jamie and Marisol were when they became friends, she probably orchestrated it. Marisol and Jamie have similar interests and make a really good team, though that may be because they know each other so well at this point. Marisol is a bit more overtly aggressive and fiercely loyal (see: how she publicly tore into Ryan for teasing Jamie), while Jamie is more thoughtful and likely to stand up for strangers, though Marisol will follow her lead (see: standing up for Thora by quietly but firmly telling the other girls to stop, when the bullying probably wouldn't have registered with Marisol). It's not that Marisol is callous, it's just that her world view, especially after her mom's death, is more "Yeah, the world sucks. Get over it and stand up for yourself." Although if Jamie ever did get in trouble, Marisol would absolutely be there to get them out of it. I didn't mention before, but Marisol is a *fantastic* liar -- she's quick thinking, knows exactly how much truth to mix in, and is a darn good actress. Fortunately, Jamie has long since learned to nod along with the appropriate expression. I suspect Eva might have helped Marisol with that by calling her out and giving her tips, e.g. "Nice try, sweetie, but if you weren't playing catch in the house, why is there glass in the flowerbed instead of the inner window sill?"