Chương 1100: Day One Thousand And Ninety-Eight

Dear Diary, I'm... I'm kind of embarrassed about yesterday. I'm trying really hard not to be ashamed of it. I honestly don't think I feel guilty about it. That's progress, right? I think it's progress, so that's something.

Seriously, I disappointed myself, which has me embarrassed, because if I didn't exactly show my ass in public, and boy does that phrasing not fit me what with me literally showing my entire ass in public on a semi-regular basis, I did in fact wind up just Reveling with my Worshippers as if I were just another rando scene girl joining the party to get my groove on. Which isn't the worst thing in the world, even if I maybe have a whole assed family at home.

Shit, I'm pretty sure Marie used to do the same thing at Dionysus' Revels. Honestly, she might still do so, given that he might not have had any while she was preggers. Or maybe she skipped those. Or maybe she just rocked the world of some of those folks who find baby bellies sexy. Not my thing, although to be honest they're not a turn off, either. They're just, y'know, a thing that exists. Two days left until I see if the fate of the Spartans convinced the Fates to stop fucking with me in that particular fashion.

So as noted, I partied my ass off in Manic mode yesterday at the Revel, then came home and crashed, hard. Okay, when I say 'crashed, hard', I don't mean I beat myself up or wallowed in my self-recrimination or anything of the sort. I just kinda ran out of go and collapsed, dead to the world, with Aisling spooned up in front of me. Woke up to the sound of crunching.

I very quickly recognized the noise as normal crunchy food being eaten crunching, and not anything horrifying like accidentally nomming Aisling or anything like that. When I rolled my shoulders the crunching stopped, and I realized belatedly that it had been coming from right around my belly, where Aisling's warm weight still rested against me.

"Go on, Aisling. You didn't wake me."

"... K." The crunching started up again. I looked around the room and realized that the two of us were alone in the bed. Everybody okay? Of course, love? Why wouldn't we be? I checked the sun and realized it was dinner time. I kinda figured you guys would wake me for lunch. Maybe dinner. The mattress next to my head squished a little, and Saffron's hand stroked my hair.

"You slept as long as you needed to. There is no ongoing crisis, no reason to push yourself while you were exhausted." I leaned into the feel of her hand against my head.

"Yeah, but... My class?"

"Taken care of by Karen." Thanks Karen! Think nothing of it, Goddess. That is one of the proper purposes of Clergy, to stand in our Goddess' stead, after all. Still. Thanks, Karen. You are welcome, Tabitha The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"See? Nothing has gone awry while you slept." I frowned a little.

"Yeah, well. Kinda worried that things moved in the direction of awry at the Revel." She snorted, then barked out a laugh. Karen, what is your opinion on the congregations' thoughts on the most recent Revel? Yeah, Karen definitely had the whole cat who stole the cream factor going on in her mental voice. I can check if you like, Saffron, but suffice to say that there are far more smiles on faces in Phileo today than there were yesterday. Although my sister High Priestesses are perhaps a touch envious.

Might I recommend our Goddess spend the next few weeks touring her Temples?

"The fuck?"

"From what I observed, you were quite wanton," she paused, then continued just before I could reply, "with your use of Gift Ecstasy. I doubt a single Worshipper walked out of the Temple fully under their own power." She then giggled out, "at least not without taking a bit of a nap first." Her giggle seemed infectious, as I chuckled a little myself.

"Guess I needed a nap too." She smiled down at me.

"Do you feel better?" I took stock of myself as the crunching continued.

"Yeah. Yeah, y'know what? I think I do."

"Would you like to head down to dinner then?" She looked down my front and put on an obvious mock frown.

"Someone could use more food than carrots today." I twisted around so I could look down at Aisling, who froze, carrot in her mouth, eyes wide.

"Wouldn't leave my side, huh?" She shook her head, a single tiny jerk from side to side.

"Hey, that's fine. You know you can trust the rest of the family, right?" She shrugged, but did not look convinced. With a stifled sigh, I scooped her up and rolled to my feet beside the bed, holding out one elbow for Saffron to walk beside me. Marie? Yes? I'm out of the bed if you wanted to change the sheets? I can strip the old ones off and help put the new ones on. Bath Time. So the three of us walked downstairs to find that Marie had gone overboard with sushi.

Sashimi, rolls, she'd even managed to find some green horseradish and pickled ginger. Not sure if the horseradish was actual wasabi or not, but then I was never a snob about that. The soy sauce she'd put together tasted right too. The best part was that after trying a couple of the veggie rolls, Aisling started nomming them steadily.

Nothing like Menace or I hoovering up whole plates or anything, not that I did that tonight, but still, I was pretty sure most, or at least some of Aisling's trauma was from poor nutrition. Like, chronic hunger compounded with food insecurity. Maybe even some illness from eating food that had gone off. I did not want to think that whoever had abused her had deliberately fed her shit to make her sick. When dinner was over, Marie and I went up to the bedroom to change the sheets while everybody else soaked.

Okay, we were done way before they finished, because while putting a fitted bottom sheet on a twenty foot bed is a two person job, Marie's got Skills and I've got tentacles. She seemed really jazzed by how smoothly it went on, not to mention how well it snugged under our mattress.

"I'll help you out with washing the old ones tomorrow, okay?" She shook her head.

"Therapy." I smiled.

"Okay, Monday?" She nodded.

"Moonday." So after that we soaked for a while. The Docs had remained at our place, at least at nights. I'm not sure if it was to help me with Aisling or to enjoy our Bath, but honestly I'm absolutely sure I don't care which made the decision for them, because not once have they acted like helping my newest little one was an imposition. With that reminder, I Co-Located over to the Docs and quietly asked, "do you think maybe some of Aisling's malnutrition might have been deliberate?"

Both of them shuddered, and Doc Z started in with, "what kind of a monster..."

"Joe." Doc G's single word silenced his partner.

"It would explain some of her hesitation with food."

"What do you mean, Doc?" With Doc Z looking sickened, but nodding in agreement, Doc Glass explained.

"Normally a healthy young person who's been denied food because of a famine or other circumstance will, when given the opportunity, stuff themselves. They don't know enough to ease back into eating, so the danger is that they'll make themselves sick. With Aisling, though..." He shuddered.

"It's like something in her past has caused her to be wary of food. Both some specific foods, unknown foods, and even the concept of food itself, really."

"I am getting less and less happy with whoever did this," I growled out. Doc Glass shot me a tight lipped smile.

"As I've said before, while I am personally sworn to nonviolence? I find myself glad that you are not."