#fun fact again! deksa is the hassa word for a pitchfork. meja has a deksa necklace that kamon gave her

[reneesbooks]

meja in 3

@chayscribbles thank u for the tag <3

rules: pick an OC and post a song that you relate to them, an image that represents them in some way (aesthetic, picrew, art, etc), and a quote of dialogue or narration from them. feel free to expand or explain!

meja my love. let's talk. salt and brine

song

this was tough bc i make playlists religiously. decided to pick a random from my meja playlist and oh boy did spotify deliver (cw for discussion of domestic violence and miscarriage in the analysis)

so some context. meja is married and was married young, in hass tradition you marry young and have many kids to continue the hass tradition. meja married stian, a spearfisherman who was passing through her village, and moved to his village on the coast. she had one daughter right away, reijka, which disappointed stian because he'd wanted a son. they tried again, and meja lost the pregnancy. stian became more controlling and angry, and meja failed to get or stay pregnant multiple times. stian's abuse grew worse over time, but it was never directed towards reijka so meja let him explain it away. she gets away from him by the end of the story (this is a romance and it has a happy ending) and has some. complex feelings. about him and their marriage in general. some lines in particular:

And I doubt you ever think about the damage that you did But I hold onto every detail like my life depends on it My undying love, now, I hold it like a grudge And I hear your voice every time that I think I'm not enough

And I try to understand why you would do this all to me You must be insecure, you must be so unhappy And I know, in my heart, hurt people hurt people And we both drew blood, but, man, those cuts were never equal

I try to be tough, I try to be mean But even after all this, you're still everything to me And I know you don't care, I guess that that's fine But you know I can't let it go, I've tried, I've tried, I've tried for so long It takes strength to forgive, but I'm not quite sure I'm there yet

i could annotate this entire song if i rlly wanted to bc it makes my brain vibrate at the speed of light about meja

2. picture

meja's refuge is the cove, where she finds kamon on the beach. she continues to meet him there and her excuse for going there all the time is that she sets traps along the shore. no fish swim into those traps, but she picks up plenty of shells and digs up mollusks to bring home, and it's time away from stian if she wants it. she grew up in the foothills, so she loves standing at the edge of the ocean and watching the waves come ashore. fun fact! the north sea is incredibly deep and hass tradition holds that the reason their land doesn't slide into the depths (their equivalent of hell) is due to the waves holding the land up. this is totally an irrelevant detail that has no bearing on the story :)

3. quote

meja's most iconic moment. the night she escapes reijmor, with reijka and her newborn daughter. (another cw for mention of domestic violence)

Meja stands there with Reijka's hand in hers, Eima asleep against her chest, and looks at her friend standing in her way. She feels no remorse. “Move, Tisha.” Tisha shakes her head, her expression hidden by the shadows. “You can't do this, Meja.” “I can and I will.” Her voice is stronger than she expected. “Get out of my way.” The deksa is warm against her collarbone. I know you would defend your home with only your bare hands if you thought you had to. Meja is covered in blood and sweat and tears and she understands the man clutching his deksa, the desperate bravery that comes from having no other choice. “I don't understand,” Tisha says. “I don't expect you to understand.” “How could you betray—” “How could I not?” Meja's hand tightens around Reijka's. “I...” She swallows, steeling herself. “I won't explain myself to you.” “Don't you think I deserve an explanation?” Tisha's voice doesn't raise, as if she's being careful not to give them away. It doesn't reassure Meja at all. “No,” she says. “You don't.” She inhales shakily, shoving down the sobs. “You knew. You always knew what he is. You never helped me, not really.” “I always helped you.” “You let him hurt me for years!” Meja fights to keep her voice low, tears springing to life in her eyes. “You didn't help me, you just turned the other way when the truth was inconvenient to you. I was suffering and you did nothing. So no, you don't deserve an explanation, but I will give you this. The choices I made, I made because the other option was quietly accepting my fate and letting Stian beat me to death without complaint.” Reijka presses against her side, trembling. “I don't care if you don't understand, I don't care if you think I betrayed Bjerkja by laying with an outsider, I don't care if you think Stian had the right to do what he did. It won't change what I did and it won't change what I'm going to do now.” Tisha shifts where she's standing, sighing. “You're a traitor,” she says sadly. “I am a mother.” Meja glares at her. “Get out of my way. I don't want to have to do something that I'll regret doing in front of my daughter.” “I won't stop you,” Tisha says, standing aside. “But I won't help you.” “That's fine.” Meja throws her bag into the boat, helping Reijka climb inside. “I'm used to doing it on my own.”

where is kamon in all of this? :)

tagging @oh-no-another-idea @avrablake @akindofmagictoo and anybody else who would like to do this for an oc!