Consortings and Espousals
Jun. 17th, 2009 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljI've written a bit about how the marriage equivalent works on Erde, as well as a snippet of how Antoinette proposed to Sarah.
Consortings and espousals are both done by contract, rather than by any real ceremony. Some people do have commitment ceremonies, but it isn’t particularly common, and almost unheard among the Families, except for the ones that rule a state. However in some cases signing the contract can be made into a ceremony of its own, usually among the Families who don’t use commitment ceremonies. The contracts can be long and complicated, or very simple and direct, and there are more or less standard contracts available for both espousals and consortings.
The standard contract for an espousal is simply as follows.
Person A and Person B promise to join their lives. They promise to be faithful to each other and support each other. They and any children will carry the name (either a double-barrelled surname consisting of all or part of each partner’s surname or a new name they selected together).
The standard contract for a consorting is a bit more complicated, and can vary a lot more. I’ve put brackets around clauses that may be omitted (as in this one) and slashes between words or clauses where all options are equally valid in general but only one may be selected in the contract i.e. his/her.
Person X promises to be Person Y’s consort. Person Y promises to take Person X as his/her consort. Person X may (not take outside lovers)/(only take outside lovers with Person Y’s specific consent). Person Y may (only take outside lovers and additional consorts with Person X’s specific consent)/(freely take outside lovers but only take additional consorts with Person X’s specific consent)/(freely take outside lovers and additional consorts). (Person X will take Person Y’s surname). Any children will carry Person Y’s surname.
So as an example the contract Antoinette has with Sarah is as follows.
Sarah Trimble promises to be Antoinette Terenev’s consort. Antoinette Terenev promises to take Sarah Trimble as her consort. Sarah Trimble may only take outside lovers with Antoinette Terenev’s specific consent. Antoinette Terenev may only take outside lovers, other than her pleasure slave Jasmine, and additional consorts with Sarah Trimble’s specific consent. Any children will be Terenevs.
Sarah wanted a standard contract for her consorting with Antoinette, and Antoinette didn’t see any real problem with that but she did want to make sure Jasmine would be safe, and that any children would be considered part of the Family, which meant using the variant phrasing ‘will be Terenevs’ as there are people who have the right to carry the name Terenev who are not counted as part of the Family. (Freed pleasure slaves, their children under some circumstances, very occasionally the children of a male Terenev’s female concubine.)
The assumption is always that neither partner has any claim on the property the other one brought into the consorting or espousal, only on property that they held in common, but sometimes the equivalent of a pre-nuptial agreement is added to the contract - almost always in the case of the more complicated negotiated contracts.
I’ve written a short scene about how Antoinette and Sarah agreed on their contract.
“Sarah, will you be my consort?” Antoinette was being very careful about how she asked, sitting on the floor at Sarah’s feet and looking directly up at her, but not touching her, leaving her room to move away if she wanted to. It was sweet that she’d be so careful about this, but Sarah had never once felt threatened by the other woman.
“Yes, of course.” She hesitated, then reached down to stroke Antoinette’s hair. “But I thought you said you wouldn’t be able to even offer for another year? Until your mother confirmed that Armand was her heir?”
“Not while my sister was a potential heir, no.” Antoinette laughed, softly, a hint of bitterness in the sound. “I couldn’t risk it, risk having a woman who doesn’t know how to compromise, how to take advice, or even how to really relate to people, as the Terenev. Are you angry about that, angry that I put my Family first?” She sounded almost plaintive, and it hurt Sarah to hear her strong lover so uncertain, and know that it was her hint of doubt that had caused that pain.
“No, no I’m not. You were always open about this, not being able to make me your consort until you knew your Family wouldn’t need you, and it’s like that quote about love and honour that Jasmine keeps on mentioning. ‘I could not love you half so much, if I loved not honour more.’ Or something like that anyway, I might have got it wrong.” But if she had Antoinette wasn’t going to correct her, not now, she could see that. “It really fits you, and I wouldn’t want you to be any different. I’d love to be your consort, and I think I love you enough that I’d want to be yours even if you had to take another consort first. But...I don’t want one of those negotiated Family contracts you’ve talked about. I want a nice simple standard contract.”
“Give me two concessions and I’ll sign whatever variant of the standard contract you want. I love Jasmine - I’m not in love with her, not the way I am with you, but I do love her, and I want her protected. I want it written into our contract that whatever you decide on for other outside lovers I’m still allowed to be with Jasmine, and you need to modify that last clause so that it says any children will be Terenevs, rather than any children will carry the name Terenev.” Antoinette shut her eyes, and leaned her head into Sarah’s stilled hand, prompting her to start stroking her hair again as she thought about it.
“I get what you mean about Jasmine, and I like her too, so it isn’t a problem.” It would have been cruel and unfair of Sarah to expect Antoinette to give Jasmine up now, when she hadn’t objected in the past, but she still frowned over the other, more puzzling change. “But when you say you want me to write that any children will be Terenevs do you mean that you’ll expect the father of any children I might have to be one of your Family?”
“Of course not.” Antoinette’s eyes snapped open as she shook her head in swift negation. “It doesn’t matter who fathers your children if you ever feel the urge to have any, but the usual form, carrying the name Terenev, doesn’t legally entitle them to a Terenev trust fund the way the version I want does. It’s a subtle difference, but there’ve been gold-diggers who sign concubinage contracts with some of our drones and been disappointed to learn that even though their children would get our name they wouldn’t get any of our money. It’s hard on the children, but nothing stops the fathers providing for their children themselves, and offers are usually made to adopt the kids once their ‘mothers’ learn that they won’t be able to use them - or us - as cash cows.”
“Oh, right. Yes, yes we can do that. We could probably raise any children without needing trust funds for them, but your way means they’ll have more freedom than they would if we did it the usual way. You don’t want a commitment ceremony, do you?” A party afterwards would be something different, although Sarah wouldn’t want anything too large.
“No, but my Family does make signing the contracts into a bit of a ceremony. We each bring two witnesses and enter the room with the registrar separately. I ask her to confirm all three copies are identical and she gives us each a copy to read. When we’re both finished we sign them at the same time, get our signatures witnessed and swap copies to repeat that, then we sign the last copy together if we can.” That would be awkward, but as ceremonies went it didn’t sound at all bad.
“Not too different from the way we ordinary folk do it I guess. I don’t have any problem doing it that way. I can get a couple of friends as my witnesses.”
Consortings and espousals are both done by contract, rather than by any real ceremony. Some people do have commitment ceremonies, but it isn’t particularly common, and almost unheard among the Families, except for the ones that rule a state. However in some cases signing the contract can be made into a ceremony of its own, usually among the Families who don’t use commitment ceremonies. The contracts can be long and complicated, or very simple and direct, and there are more or less standard contracts available for both espousals and consortings.
The standard contract for an espousal is simply as follows.
Person A and Person B promise to join their lives. They promise to be faithful to each other and support each other. They and any children will carry the name (either a double-barrelled surname consisting of all or part of each partner’s surname or a new name they selected together).
The standard contract for a consorting is a bit more complicated, and can vary a lot more. I’ve put brackets around clauses that may be omitted (as in this one) and slashes between words or clauses where all options are equally valid in general but only one may be selected in the contract i.e. his/her.
Person X promises to be Person Y’s consort. Person Y promises to take Person X as his/her consort. Person X may (not take outside lovers)/(only take outside lovers with Person Y’s specific consent). Person Y may (only take outside lovers and additional consorts with Person X’s specific consent)/(freely take outside lovers but only take additional consorts with Person X’s specific consent)/(freely take outside lovers and additional consorts). (Person X will take Person Y’s surname). Any children will carry Person Y’s surname.
So as an example the contract Antoinette has with Sarah is as follows.
Sarah Trimble promises to be Antoinette Terenev’s consort. Antoinette Terenev promises to take Sarah Trimble as her consort. Sarah Trimble may only take outside lovers with Antoinette Terenev’s specific consent. Antoinette Terenev may only take outside lovers, other than her pleasure slave Jasmine, and additional consorts with Sarah Trimble’s specific consent. Any children will be Terenevs.
Sarah wanted a standard contract for her consorting with Antoinette, and Antoinette didn’t see any real problem with that but she did want to make sure Jasmine would be safe, and that any children would be considered part of the Family, which meant using the variant phrasing ‘will be Terenevs’ as there are people who have the right to carry the name Terenev who are not counted as part of the Family. (Freed pleasure slaves, their children under some circumstances, very occasionally the children of a male Terenev’s female concubine.)
The assumption is always that neither partner has any claim on the property the other one brought into the consorting or espousal, only on property that they held in common, but sometimes the equivalent of a pre-nuptial agreement is added to the contract - almost always in the case of the more complicated negotiated contracts.
I’ve written a short scene about how Antoinette and Sarah agreed on their contract.
“Sarah, will you be my consort?” Antoinette was being very careful about how she asked, sitting on the floor at Sarah’s feet and looking directly up at her, but not touching her, leaving her room to move away if she wanted to. It was sweet that she’d be so careful about this, but Sarah had never once felt threatened by the other woman.
“Yes, of course.” She hesitated, then reached down to stroke Antoinette’s hair. “But I thought you said you wouldn’t be able to even offer for another year? Until your mother confirmed that Armand was her heir?”
“Not while my sister was a potential heir, no.” Antoinette laughed, softly, a hint of bitterness in the sound. “I couldn’t risk it, risk having a woman who doesn’t know how to compromise, how to take advice, or even how to really relate to people, as the Terenev. Are you angry about that, angry that I put my Family first?” She sounded almost plaintive, and it hurt Sarah to hear her strong lover so uncertain, and know that it was her hint of doubt that had caused that pain.
“No, no I’m not. You were always open about this, not being able to make me your consort until you knew your Family wouldn’t need you, and it’s like that quote about love and honour that Jasmine keeps on mentioning. ‘I could not love you half so much, if I loved not honour more.’ Or something like that anyway, I might have got it wrong.” But if she had Antoinette wasn’t going to correct her, not now, she could see that. “It really fits you, and I wouldn’t want you to be any different. I’d love to be your consort, and I think I love you enough that I’d want to be yours even if you had to take another consort first. But...I don’t want one of those negotiated Family contracts you’ve talked about. I want a nice simple standard contract.”
“Give me two concessions and I’ll sign whatever variant of the standard contract you want. I love Jasmine - I’m not in love with her, not the way I am with you, but I do love her, and I want her protected. I want it written into our contract that whatever you decide on for other outside lovers I’m still allowed to be with Jasmine, and you need to modify that last clause so that it says any children will be Terenevs, rather than any children will carry the name Terenev.” Antoinette shut her eyes, and leaned her head into Sarah’s stilled hand, prompting her to start stroking her hair again as she thought about it.
“I get what you mean about Jasmine, and I like her too, so it isn’t a problem.” It would have been cruel and unfair of Sarah to expect Antoinette to give Jasmine up now, when she hadn’t objected in the past, but she still frowned over the other, more puzzling change. “But when you say you want me to write that any children will be Terenevs do you mean that you’ll expect the father of any children I might have to be one of your Family?”
“Of course not.” Antoinette’s eyes snapped open as she shook her head in swift negation. “It doesn’t matter who fathers your children if you ever feel the urge to have any, but the usual form, carrying the name Terenev, doesn’t legally entitle them to a Terenev trust fund the way the version I want does. It’s a subtle difference, but there’ve been gold-diggers who sign concubinage contracts with some of our drones and been disappointed to learn that even though their children would get our name they wouldn’t get any of our money. It’s hard on the children, but nothing stops the fathers providing for their children themselves, and offers are usually made to adopt the kids once their ‘mothers’ learn that they won’t be able to use them - or us - as cash cows.”
“Oh, right. Yes, yes we can do that. We could probably raise any children without needing trust funds for them, but your way means they’ll have more freedom than they would if we did it the usual way. You don’t want a commitment ceremony, do you?” A party afterwards would be something different, although Sarah wouldn’t want anything too large.
“No, but my Family does make signing the contracts into a bit of a ceremony. We each bring two witnesses and enter the room with the registrar separately. I ask her to confirm all three copies are identical and she gives us each a copy to read. When we’re both finished we sign them at the same time, get our signatures witnessed and swap copies to repeat that, then we sign the last copy together if we can.” That would be awkward, but as ceremonies went it didn’t sound at all bad.
“Not too different from the way we ordinary folk do it I guess. I don’t have any problem doing it that way. I can get a couple of friends as my witnesses.”
