Question:
Assuming they could speak, what would each of your character's parents (separately) say about him/her?Answer:
Lume's parents live in Sao Paulo, Amazonia and teach at a large local university. They were both devastated when she ran away at 16 and did not return. They have no other children but are God Parents to several young children (of their friends and graduated students). In general they try not to talk about Lume as they know very little about where she is now or what she is doing with herself. It's a rather nasty sticking point between them. Lume has sent them physical Christmas cards for the last few years, but they contained little more than an expression of familial seasons greetings and her signature.
If you managed to somehow get them to talk about her, they would say the following.
Father:
Mae was very energetic as a kid. She was always asking questions and smiling. She loved my old movies and sports, but hated academics. I guess she just wanted to take a different path. I sort of hoped she would grow up to be a soccer star. She sure had the talent! Unfortunately when we found out she was magically active that nixed that, since at that point none of the Amazonian leagues would take magically active players. I bet she doesn't even remember the junior soccer league she was in at this point.
She had a hard time getting along with her mother even when she was a tiny baby. No matter what her mother asked, Mae would immediately do the opposite. I never really understood it. She had some trouble with bullies in school, but after she started learning martial arts that cleared up okay. I hoped it would give her more confidence to talk to my wife on respectful equal ground, but it didn't really end up that way. I think she probably left home because she needed space from us. She's a smart kid and I'm sure she's able to take care of herself, but I know her mother worries about her a lot. It would be nice if she wrote more often and maybe called once in a while.
Mother:
Mae was a bit of a troubled child. We love her dearly, especially since the doctors told us it was unlikely we would be able to have more children, but she never quite understood our expectations. Instead of turning the other cheek, she often resorted to violence in school and even among friends. Eventually her father convinced me that some formal training might calm her down. For a while it helped, but she began to focus on martial arts and ignore her studies. I tried to explain to her why her education was important and how much better her future would be if she got into a good college, but I guess she never wanted to listen.
When she vanished it was only two months shy of her 17th birthday. She left a note saying that she had gone off to start a new life and would write when she was settled. I didn't know what to think and her father and I were worried sick. We hired a private investigator to track her down, but he was not much help. He followed her as far as Rio and said that she was safe, but refused to tell us anything else. It was six years before I heard anything from her, and that was only to say that she was okay and moving to Europe. We were both glad just to know that she was alive at that point. Her next letter came with a post mark in Boston, saying plans had changed, and she was fine. She made a big point of saying that we should not follow her.
I still don't know what kind of life my daughter is living and most of the time I try not to think about it. She felt she needed to be on her own, but I wish I could understand why she won't let us be more of a part of her life. More than anything I just hope that she's alright and hasn't taken up with people who are too terrible or gotten herself addicted to BTL's or something else awful like that.