Chương 507: Day Five Hundred And Five

Dear Diary,"Passion binds us together, Share your Passions joyfully, Snuff not another's Passion." Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Passion Yeah, I think I might need to lean on this one a little. Because I'm guilty of it. I'm sure a lot of us are. Like, back in the day, I'd be sitting at lunch, or hanging at the mall food court, or in the back of a boring class, and somebody'd start gushing about some new anime, or band, or whatever the fuck lit a fire in their nethers, and I'd... I'd make fun of them for it.

Like, sometimes I literally got my jollies making some poor bastard feel bad about the fact that they enjoyed something. Holy fuck, I can't believe what a bitch I was. Like, who the fuck would do something like that? I mean, yeah, mean. I did that shit. My only excuse, such as it is, is that I was a poorly socialized bitch with little to no oversight on my behavior, and that little bit of petty bullying gave me my daily dose of dopamine. Which isn't so much an 'excuse' or 'justification' as 'reason'.

I mean, yeah, Zeus almost got eaten as a kid, so he maybe had a reason to be the biggest bitch boy on the planet for a bit after he realized his own father literally could not tell the difference between him and a rock, but, and this is the important part, when he ostensibly grew up and became King of the Gods, instead of saying, 'oh, hey, let's make sure nobody ever goes through that shit again', he just doubled down and chose, 'you get a trauma, and you get a trauma, and you get a trauma, everybody gets a trauma!'

Of course, it really tells you something about exactly how far I've grown as a person that my first response after realizing 'oh, shit, I did something shitty' is 'but he did something worse!' Still. I'm doing what I can. I've only just realized I did something shitty, and there's really no way I can go back and undo it. I mean, I don't think. God, is time travel a thing? Not that I am aware of, Daughter. Although... Although what?

I got the impression he heaved a sigh, not just the sound, but the whole shifted shoulders slump. Your, ah, non amnesiac self? I have a strong suspicion that she can step outside of Time itself. Which might allow her to move into the past. I'm uncertain. The fuck? As I said, I have a strong suspicion. I cannot be certain. Deities which can step outside of Time are few and far between. Domnu, and her alternate selves such as Nox. I've heard rumors some off the Eastern or Southern Deities can, but again, only rumors.

Well. Shit. What gave you the impression I could do that? Most recently? I watched as you helped deliver Bonita Obol's child. One moment, you watched through your High Priestess' eyes, listened through their ears, as they heard the child's bones crushed by his mother's labors. The next, you stood with the child in your arms, healthy and hale. Maybe I just... moved really fast? I got the impression of a headshake to go with Dad's next words in my brain. No one moves that fast, Daughter.

Not without leaving the slightest gust of wind at their passage, nor the slightest trace of Mana at their Shapings or Divine Will. Not even Hermes. Well. Okay. If time travel is a thing, maybe I can go back and fix shit. Have to look into that at some point. Y'know, when I figure out how to do it. If I figure out how to do it. Or when Saffron figures out how to un-Bless my memories, at which point hopefully Future Me will remember to look into that. Fuck, she won't, not with any certainty.

Like, I remember a fuckin' tiramisu going bad on my counter because I kept forgetting to eat that shit. Like, I wanted to save it for a special occasion, like to celebrate something. At first I got it to celebrate passing my finals. Then I failed a couple of them. Like, one of them I slept through because I was still half stoned from the night before. Another one I went to the wrong room and took the wrong fuckin' final.

Seriously, I'm six kinds of idiot, but I'm not actually dumb enough to fail a test I prepped and showed up sober for. I decided to save it for when I got my summer job that summer. Got turned down for all of them. By mid-July, I'd decided to have it next time I won a Call of Duty match. Fourth win streak later I wound up remembering and deciding that even though I'd just lost, a win streak counted, so I went and ate it. Worst case of food poisoning I'd ever had.

Never let something with any amount of dairy sit out on the counter in summer heat and then eat it. I know that now. I mean, I should have known it then, kinda did after I retched swallowing the second bite, but I am, stop me if you've heard this one, a stubborn bitch. So last night when everybody got home, we ran everybody through the bath before dinner.

None of my ladies were really all that dirty or sweaty, nor were the kids, but I reeked of pumpkin spice, and all the women had worked more or less from sunup to sundown, some of them doing really labor intensive stuff like felling trees and shit. I mean, some of the other stuff might be tough too, I dunno, but somehow my brain equates 'lumberjack' to a sweatier job than 'weaver'.

Probably some deep seated misogynist bullshit about logging being a 'manly' job and weaving being 'women's work', but on the other hand the one weaver I watched at lunch wasn't hauling logs bigger than she was around. Then again, she did work through lunch, where the loggers didn't, so fuck it, maybe it's just a question of endurance maybe. Fuck it, everybody does what they can, what they're good at, everybody eats, everybody gets a bath. I was gonna say 'shenanigans reserved for partners', but, y'know, Devorah.

Fuck it, for all I know, once the Homestead is in place and the kids are all in bed, the whole fuckin' House will turn into one big Revel. Which... y'know, so long as nobody feels obligated and everybody has fun? I can think of worse traditions. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. So when Isnomi bounced over to me with her hair spraying water all over the place, I scooped her up into a towel, sat her on my lap, and used another towel to start drying her hair.

"Mama! Mama! I hep Thitha Thawan!"

"You did? Really?"

"Yeth!" I glanced over at Siobhan, who'd taken up her station at the toilet, helping kids who couldn't reach the little water spout for the cup to rinse themselves off. Definitely had to talk with... Okay, as Siobhan nodded to me, I thought to Saffron, anybody come up with this yet, and shot her an image of a bidet. That's... wait, no, that's clean water, yes? Yep. Only used one once at a hotel, but holy shit my whole undercarriage felt clean as fuck afterward. Well.

Thank you for showing me this before we had the plumbing installed at the Homestead. Speaking of, have you ever installed plumbing? Yeah, no. Saffron sighed as she scrubbed Daya's hair. I guess we'll be learning to do plumbing then. Aren't there, like, professionals who do that? She glanced over at me. There's a relatively new guild. Why? Is it that difficult? To do? I don't think so. To do right? Yeah, a friend of mine did their own plumbing once. Leaked forever. Let's get professionals.

After a second's thought I added, Oh, and no lead in the clean water pipes. She gave me a quizzical look, and I thought, same stuff as the paint. Long term nasty poisons. She nodded. Thank you for the information. I suppose we'll just have to push things forward yet again. I have complete faith in you, Kitten. That's my line. She smirked at me over Daya's head, and I smiled back, then turned back to Isnomi.

"So, what did you do while you were helping?"

"I cawwied thtuff, I tawked to paythents... Oh! I wearn a thape!" I blinked at that.

"Did Mom or Siobhan teach you?" I looked up, and both of them were shaking their heads. Saffron with a kinda panic stricken look.

"Nah. I washed dem!" I took a deep breath, then said, "Isnomi, Shaping can be dangerous."

"I wearnded id!" I took her by the sides of the towel around her head, turned her to look her right in the eye and said, "I'm sure you watched carefully, and I'm sure you'll try your best to do it, but if you get even the slightest little thing wrong, you could hurt yourself, or maybe someone else you care about." I waited half a tick for that to sink in, then said, "if you watched them do it, it's a Healing shape, right?"

"Yeth!" I nodded.

"Okay, so if you're gonna try and use it, it's gonna be on someone you want to heal, like one of your sisters or your friends, right?"

"Yeth!"

"So if you mess it up and hurt them, how's that going to make you feel?" Her wide, almost belligerent smile faded just a little.

"And if you were gonna use it, they needed Healing already, so if you hurt them then, what's that gonna do?" Right about then her smile cracked, and I saw the faint edges of a blubber about to come out.

"Hey, hey, hey, Menace. I didn't say you did anything bad. Yet. But you were gonna try it the first chance you got, weren't you?" She nodded, pouting a little.

"Tell you what. Once everybody is all clean and dry and we've had dinner, if you're still feeling energetic enough you can show us. Once Mom and Sister Siobhan see what you're trying to do and sign off on it, okay?" She brightened up a little.

"Oh-tay!"

"No trying it until then, right?" A little of the brightness dulled, and she rolled her eyes at me, but she still smiled when she said, "Oh-tay." The rest of the kids had similar stories, although when I asked, the only ones who'd followed the shaping were Ria and Maze. Ria said she thought she could do the Stabilize shape after watching Sister Siobhan, but volunteered to wait until Saffron and Sister Siobhan could observe her Shaping it 'safely'. Good kid.

Maze didn't think she could do it yet, but sounded like she wanted to try. Thankfully, when we brought them up from dinner, they all zonked right out. Long day, and they were still all little kids, even Maze and Ria. Dreamt of my... Kraken? Racing toward me from the east, like something had lit a fire behind them. Which makes no sense, really. They're, y'know, aquatic. So, no fire. Of course, if somebody managed to light a fire underwater, that would motivate even my lazy ass.

Midway through today, Siobhan pinged me. Tabitha? Just a second. I fit the railing and supports I'd been shifting around in place, hit them with a Mineral Bond, and stepped away from the edge of the drop down the Bore. Whatcha need? Your daughters are, one and all, somewhat put out that we didn't let Isnomi test her Shaping last night. Hey Dad? Yes, Daughter? You and Mom mind if we bring the kids to visit tomorrow? Your visits are always welcome, Daughter. Mind if they do some Shaping practice while we're there?

I got the definite impression that if we'd been face to face, his would have frozen into something best described as a 'rictus'. I assume you're including Isnomi in that 'they'? Ayep. He sighed. Of course. I await your visit with bated breath. Thanks Dad. You're the best. I know. With that I hopped over to Sister Siobhan, landing next to her with my arm around her. She fit under my arm really nice, and standing so close my little squad of miscreants already had their eyes on me.

"You guys giving Sister Siobhan grief?" Menace glared up at me.

"Wanna thape! You thaid!" Before I could reply, Ria, standing right behind her, said, "You did." I closed my mouth, gave them my best, 'et tu, Brute' look, yes, I did read that in English class, and said, "I said if you were feeling up to it. Which you weren't, even if Ria might have been." Menace frowned, then opened her mouth to make some other complaint. I cut her off, not unkindly, but with a tone to tell her to listen, and said, "and you'll probably be tired after today, too.

Which is why I arranged for all of us to visit Grandpa and Grandma tomorrow, and you can show him along with the rest of us on a day when none of us are tired from working all day." While they all stood there staring, I asked, "How's that sound?"

"Ah tay!" Knew I could get her with that. Rewarded myself for successful momming with some mouth to mouth Ice Pop. Then looked back at my short squad of mini-miscreants.

"Now, no more bullying Sister Siobhan. She's in charge here, which means you listen to her. Got it?"

"Goddid!" The rest of my daughters nodded their agreement. I turned back to Siobhan.

"You let me know if they're..." I didn't get to finish my sentence. Apparently somebody needed more mouth to mouth. Good place for it. Infirmary and all.