Crude and Feckless —14
Meet Fiona. Even in the Otherworld a young punk can’t find love at home and has to look for it in the world at large.
As I mentioned a few posts back, Yeats cautions: “Do not think the fairies are always little. Everything is capricious about them, even their size.” Which is why Fiona, a pixie, is so much bigger than the rest of her adopted troop, whom she meets in the final panel here.
As always I am mixing and sorting for my own storytelling needs, in this case blending the Scottish divisions of Seelie and Unseelie courts with the Irish divisions of Trooping and Solitary fairies. One is a matter of class, the other a matter of cultural disposition. And there is always fluidity among them.
↓ Transcript
PANEL 1
Fiona begins telling her story. Inset panel: Fiona. Main panel: Two angry Pixies stand before a gnarled tree, the father pointing, the mother folding her arms, as a younger Fiona gives them the finger.
FIONA: Me and my ma and da never got along.
When they found out what I was, they kicked me out of the family elder tree.
I had been on the edge of running away anyway, they were so hard on me.
PANEL 2
A young Fiona sneaks off with a calf while a farmer milks a cow.
FIONA: I tried the life of a solitary pixie. I stole, I robbed, I ate anything I could find.
I did what I could to get by, so don’t expect me to apologize.
PANEL 3
A young Fiona stands looking up at a shabby tenement, where various faeries peer out.
FIONA: But I was raised by troopin’ folk. I couldn’t stay solo for long.
I found myself heading to the city.
Soon I moved into Unseelie Commons.
It was filthy, run down, wreck of a place with terrible spirits
creeping up its walls.
PANEL 4
Fiona walks into a hallway full of pixies. Dancing, drinking, various rioting. Lydia, Bridget, and Naida are welcoming.
FIONA: It felt like home.
Fiona begins telling her story. Inset panel: Fiona. Main panel: Two angry Pixies stand before a gnarled tree, the father pointing, the mother folding her arms, as a younger Fiona gives them the finger.
FIONA: Me and my ma and da never got along.
When they found out what I was, they kicked me out of the family elder tree.
I had been on the edge of running away anyway, they were so hard on me.
PANEL 2
A young Fiona sneaks off with a calf while a farmer milks a cow.
FIONA: I tried the life of a solitary pixie. I stole, I robbed, I ate anything I could find.
I did what I could to get by, so don’t expect me to apologize.
PANEL 3
A young Fiona stands looking up at a shabby tenement, where various faeries peer out.
FIONA: But I was raised by troopin’ folk. I couldn’t stay solo for long.
I found myself heading to the city.
Soon I moved into Unseelie Commons.
It was filthy, run down, wreck of a place with terrible spirits
creeping up its walls.
PANEL 4
Fiona walks into a hallway full of pixies. Dancing, drinking, various rioting. Lydia, Bridget, and Naida are welcoming.
FIONA: It felt like home.
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