Work Text:
After that whole debacle with the punch monkeys, Hope has yet to find a proper meaning of what the tribe really was.
It shouldn't have been something she would care about, but it reminded her all too much of hers back then.
She picked out a few candidates to ask.
Up first was Eep, she had a burning passion for anything she set her mind to, and to fight with all her heart. A fire heart, you could say. And if Gran were to ever pass her title to someone, it would probably be her.
“Oh, the Thunder Sisters? It's just a cool tribe full of women fighting for whatever they want and stand for, how deep can it get?”
“I thought it would at least have something specific.”
“Not that I think much about it, why are you though?”
Maybe better than them. “Oh, yeah. Nothing to think much about, mhm."
Okay yeah, who was she to ask a young adult about the long living Thunder Sisters. She wouldn't have asked a young member herself last time.
So Eep was out, that was fine, she wasn’t her biggest bet anyway.
If that's the case, next up would be…Ugga!
She is her best friend, she wouldn't have been if she didn't have both the benefits of cognitive and mental functions, she may have not been as smart as Phil but he lacked emotional depth, at least to her measurement.
Ugga had both of the best sides, and quite frankly, it had very much intrigued her.
Plus, she was the daughter of the tribe leader. She probably slept to Thunder Sister stories! An answer was definite!
“Hey Hope!” Oh how her voice just utters the syllables of her name.
“Ugga…so I was curious about the meaning of the Thunder Sisters, since you’ve probably had the longest experience with it, maybe you would know?”
“Oh that, yeah I don’t really think it has a solid one. Gran always finds a way to further complicate or change the whole story entirely. It was an absolute headache to think of what it could mean.”
“Oh…so it doesn't have a true meaning?”
“Not officially, but for me personally, it's just like any tribe with the ‘having each other’s back’ sorta stuff you know?”
Right...”Yeah, I remember…”
“And well, our team just so happens to thrive with aggressive feminine energy like strikes of thunder, though not sure it matters as much regarding gender, as long as you have the spirit and mindset for it. And with the sister-like motto, I'm sure you could get it from there.”
Hope nodded, it wasn't an official motto but her way of seeing it made it feel like it was. She would've wanted to eliminate any other candidates she had up next from how much sense it made to her and just spend the rest of the day with Ugga instead —even if it simply meant watching her flex and strain her capable muscles, you know incase it gets an ache of some sort!
But still, she had one candidate left, and maybe she could get some more official information from her. She is the Queen of Wimmins after all.
“Hey Gran? I wanna ask you about the meaning of the Thunder Sisters.” just a simple question. How did it end up so badly?
The queen creaks her neck to look at the double braided woman.
“You want the true meaning of the Thunder Sisters?" She says warily "Well, you’re going to have to prove to me that you can keep your ears long enough to hear it!” a sharp noise makes Hope wince in a panic, why does she do this?!
“What?! No! I am not giving you my ears! Eugh..." She says in a disdain. "Fine, if not the true meaning, just tell me the meaning, any official meaning?”
“Why? All the fights already carry the meaning, you can't put the meaning of a tribe into words!”
“Like, didn't you all have goals?”
“Let me think-NO! We just wrecked any danger that was in the way of our powerful, naked selves!"
Hope felt her cheeks getting hotter. “I-I'm sorry, naked?”
“Well, all the sisters in our tribe were ripped, muscle training everyday till we could fight the big firey ball up there!” She pointed her boney and muscular finger to the sun. “Clothes only slowed us down!”
“We moved all the time, the cave would be fucking stenched from our musky, feminine sweat.”
Okay, it wasn't just Hope, right? Did the place get hotter? Musky, muscular, capable hot women…
“And also because some sisters were fucking each other senseless!”
Okay, it really was just Hope, “Excuse me?”
“Yeah you know? ‘Lesbians’ they were called, wimmin liking other wimmin. Bunch of those in the Thunder Sisters back then and well…most of our women were incredibly strong and whatnot.”
Hope furrowed her brows in confusion, “That…no, how was that allowed?”
“It didn't interrupt fights, our wimmin knew how to control themselves. If they wanted a good fuck, they’ll get one once they’ve earned it.”
So it was them that…
“B-but Gran, you, uh…did you?”
“Nope! Only the few straight ones in the Thunder Sisters! And they needed a leader in charge where they didn't want to suck pussy every fight after.”
Her mind felt like it was being flooded, her words were fumbling with the attempt of separating speech from those thoughts. “Okay! I think I heard enough about all these women! Uhm…thank you, Gran.” She walked rigidly away from Gran before her voice came back.
“...hey braids.” Hope turned to Gran, “the repressed always ends up being one of the strongest.”
“The repressed?” she tilted her head.
"Go bog water swimming.", "who taught you metaphors?"
Gran, growing exhausted of her bullshit (and not the kind she deals with on a secluded basis) “If you wanna fuck my daughter-”
“Woah! No! NO WAY! I-I DONT EVEN LIKE WOMEN! I-NO! It's a bad idea and you know it!” she defended, a little too aggrievingly.
“I’ve lived so long, I know one when I see one. Takes many to know so many others. And, you might find it nice that all of them had worked out their problematic baggages out nicely.”
She shouldn’t…shame…oh but curiosity always had a hold on her, didn't it? She's not with them anymore. “...and how did they end up?”
“How would I know?! They fought for what they want and stand for like the Thunder Sisters they are!" Somehow, somewhere deep inside her chest had warmed that she thought had gone ice cold.
"And next thing you know they're-", "OKAY! ENOUGH!"
“And you're much better than that meat-neck that Ugga was with. It was what the sisters would've done!"
“Enough! If I liked her, I would've told her so. I'm not a coward." She turned her back away from Gran, hoping to hide the lie on her face. "I am not hearing another word!” Like that, she stormed out.
A few moments later, Gran finds Ugga sitting around a stream on a hill.
“Oh, mom. Did Hope come to find you?”
“Yeah, her and tar-stuck ass in the closet. She wants to see you later tonight.”
“Really? Why are you the one telling me this?”
“Had a talk with her, she knows about your crush on her now.”
Ugga choked on her own saliva at the sudden reveal that her mother shared her secret. Oh but maybe she should've poured her a cup of bitter bean juice and spat on it as a thank you instead.
“WHAT?!” yeah, no. Even she knew this was intentional this time.
“She's interested too, you gotta make her see that you're worth. Her tribe before, might've had some problems with warriors liking the same gender, you know how some of them are."
Ugga curled her legs uncomfortably, like an attack that she couldn't see, it pains her to think that Hope had to go through with that.
“Also, you might needa to top for a while, she's too busy thinkin' pussy and-”
Okay, she just knew how to ruin the mood everytime, didn't she?
Ugga flared up in embarrassment and immediately stood up from her once comfortable seating position. “OKAY MOM! ENOUGH! I’M LEAVING! GOOD-BYE!” and like that, she took the quickest dive way out away from that conversation down the damned stream. (A way to get yourself ready, ay?)
Bonus
Gran when the 'moon' was high up in the sky, she happened to stumble upon Ugga carrying a dead asleep Hope into her room. Both of them were covered with the aftermath of what could've happened from the presumed event —majorly Ugga though, she raised her well.
Then when the ‘sun’ rose, Ugga told the family about a rare disease that Hope had caught that would paralyze her legs for probably a few moons, or seven…and would be under Ugga’s and only Ugga’s care as both of them explicitly insisted.
Side effects also later asked to Ugga about whether bite marks and hickeys were a part of it too.
(Hope would've never knew improvision looked so good on Ugga if it weren't for the signs of regaining life on her lower body)
Ugga allowed Gran to visit Hope in bed, she wasn't lying about the basically paralyzed legs. I guess that's the reward of what she wanted.
She didn't let the thunder consume her, diving and swimming through murky bog water.
Guess Ugga really pulled Hope out of her wooden closet. And she let her.