Chương 898: Day Eight Hundred And Ninety-Six

Dear Diary, I'd... I'd wish Saffron doesn't have to be right all the time, but at least that means she'll do the right thing when it comes to taking care of the kids and everybody else in my absence. Because after this, after what I saw, I'm not sure I can trust myself around them. At least it was a hell of a Day, though.

Started off with everybody living at the Homestead cycling through our dining room, some of them grabbing plates and settling in, some of them bringing plates and taking them home once they said hi to us, but most of them just cycling through, saying hi, then heading back to their Houses to get ready for the fire lighting later on. I discovered at that point that Sarah and D had been living in one of the Guess Rooms.

With the kits growing like weeds, we'd hit the point where if we all spread out, we might fill the bed, but it's not like we've ever done that, even in the middle of the summer last summer. I waved her over when I saw her carry little D down to grab some dinner.

"Tabitha." I waved her in, giving her a hug, with another little hug and head bunt for D. He'd grown even faster than my kits, and looked to be about the same maturity level as Isnomi when I first met her. Bigger though, which tracked with his whole eight foot fuckin' stature when full grown.

"Hey Sarah. You know that you guys are welcome to join us in the bedroom, right? I know the nights are getting colder." She sighed.

"Fine." I shook my head.

"Hey, it's not an obligation. Not something you have to do to stay here. It's an offer. But," I paused, making sure she knew I was kinda changing the subject.

"I'd appreciate it if you could stick around; we're gonna do presents after the fire lighting, and I've got some stuff for him, and some stuff for you."

"Didn't..."

"Doesn't matter. Again, not an obligation, I just figure some of it might be stuff he'd like to play with tomorrow, whether that's in the bedroom or up in whatever room you've camped out in." She frowned, but nodded. Saffron, sitting in Marie's lap with her chair slid over so she could drape her legs over Siobhan's, who sat in mine, plucked at The Dress. She, like all of my ladies in the room, wore her white Holy Garb, which did not do anything helpful for my attention span for anything else.

"So, are we to be skyclad, or dressed in our Holy Finest? For the bonfire lighting, that is?" I plucked some chicken off my plate, fed one bite to Siobhan, another to Saffron, and the final bit to Marie, then said, "why do I think that if I suggest something warmer, you'll all riot?"

"Of course not. But I suspect our Holy Garb will definitely disappear, with nothing to replace it." I shook my head and distributed more chicken, stealing the extra crunchy bit at the end of the tender for myself.

"The kids need to dress warmer, at least." For some reason Saffron glanced at Marie, who sighed and said, "Furs." I did not quite get what she was talking about until everybody had packed in enough food to last them for a couple days if they had to, at which point we all staggered upright and headed for the front door. That's when I realized that not only did Lindsey and Alex both have thick, bulky, fur coats, Marie had one on over her stripperific wedding gown.

I still didn't quite twig to the reason until Ria and Maze both pranced into the room in their Glowing Midnight. I looked around for Isnomi, waved her over, and caught her mid-leap.

"Figured out your Holy Garb for your Clergy, huh?"

"Yeth!" I nodded.

"At least it's warm." I turned to my two novices. Well, the two I knew about. I'm sure there were others in the Temples somewhere, but these were the two I knew about.

"You two sure? it's cold out?" They looked at each other, nodded, then looked back at me. Ria said, "these have layers, and there is no directly exposed skin. We'll be fine." Maze reached up, took my hand, and said, "we'll be fine, Papa." Kids and kits clinging to us, we all trooped out to the courtyard. Right before we got there, Mom and Dad showed up.

"Joyous Yule, Daughter!" Kinda funny, with him doing his normal 'Lyman' thing, he had his arms full of presents, while Mom had a log that looked bigger than she was over one shoulder.

"I'll just add this to the pile?" I grinned at her.

"Thanks, Mom." A few minutes later, long before the kids got bored with blowing steam and pretending to be Dragons, everyone from all three Houses had gathered around the massive bonfire. I turned to Dad.

"Would you?"

"Are you asking the God of Hearth and Home to light your Yuletide bonfire?" I smiled at him.

"Nah. Asking my Dad, since he came to visit, and he is after all the best." He grinned at me and said, "I know," as the bonfire spontaneously burst into flames.

"Okay, everybody! Grab your logs or coals or whatever as soon as you like! It's cold out here!" Beyond cold, it had started snowing again. Not anywhere near enough to put the fire out, but nobody needed to be standing around any longer than they needed to. When it had caught fire completely, I handed Isnomi off to Maze, whose arms she wriggled out of immediately. She kept her hand in Maze's until Alex and Lindsey slipped up to steal her hands away, which Maze took with good grace.

Then I had my arms full of burning log, and Saffron called out, "make a path!" Never been gladder for The Dress' seeming invulnerability to fire, not to mention her boots' complete and utter inability to slip if I didn't want to.

As I carried the log inside and into the main fireplace, the one between the Dining Room and Kitchen, I Co-Located, grabbed up all the miscellaneous games and toys I'd stolen for the Temple Orphanages, then Co-Located to each of my Altars, amplified my voice to a level everybody would hear it, and called out, "Joyous Yule Kids! Have fun!" Okay, I waited in each spot until I saw the first kid rush in, eyes wide and smiling. Then I winked at them and collapsed to myself at the Homestead.

As I returned to the Homestead I started pulling the assorted gifts I'd stolen out of the hiding spots they'd been in. Before I delivered anything else, I hopped to the Workshop with an extra large gift bag.

"Son?" A moment later he appeared in front of me.

"Mother Dearest. Joyous Yule to you."

"Joyous Yule to you, Son!" I held out my arms, and he stepped into them for a hug. He felt a little, I dunno, lethargic. Almost like he'd been hibernating. Fuck it, he'd done good work, if he wanted to sleep the winter away, I wasn't gonna bitch at him. As I let go of him, I held out the bag. He took it and peered inside.

"And what is this?"

"DVD player and a few titles I thought you might get a kick out of. If you can't figure out how to charge it, I got your moms some solar panels, once they set them up you ought to be able to plug it in and charge it that way." He looked a little confused, which was a new look on him, but not upset.

"Thank you, Mother. I'm afraid my gift for you won't likely be ready until near the end of Yule." I shrugged.

"S'okay, son. Honestly I didn't really expect anything. But anything you come up with? I'm sure I'll love."

"I don't say this often, but I do appreciate your faith in me, Mother." For whatever reason, that made me blush a little. Maybe the heat of his Workshop after the cold outside.

"Thanks, son. I love you too. I gotta get back. You're welcome to join us? Even just to get some dinner and dessert?" He opened his mouth, head already shaking, but then froze.

"Perhaps. Perhaps. Joyous Yule, Mother."

"Joyous Yule to you too, son!" I collapsed back to myself and started handing out gifts. I gave D his first, and he wound up absolutely demolishing the gift bag. I'm not sure Sarah really understood the concept of 'play blanket', but we'd get over that at some point in the future. The little play sets were pretty self-explanatory, although most of them needed some assembly.

I flopped the blanket on one part of the big table, set D under it with one of the simpler playsets, nodded for Marie to watch him, and pulled Sarah up to my office. Before she could say anything, I handed her the case with her main gift.

"This isn't something I want the kids seeing." She gave me all the side eye, but opened the case. It took a second, but her eyes gleamed once she half-recognized what lay inside. She looked up at me.

"Cannon?" I smiled, realizing that my Kitten had very likely had our first Maenad Hero involved in the creation of the cannon on the Penetrating.

"Something like.

'Maenad portable', in the sense that you can carry and fire it without special equipment, although everything I've read says you ought to be lying down when you do.'' I tapped the box with the reloading and care kit with my foot, then did the same with the box of ammunition.

"You'll need to reload your own ammo once the stuff I got you runs out. Unless you can convince someone to make you some. But I figure that'll help you deal with things that are, y'know, flying, or otherwise out of reach." She closed the lid, set the case down on my desk, then wrapped her arms around me and kissed me. When she came up for air, she said, "thank you."

Kinda funny, two years ago I'd have thought that was the start of some kind of adult fun time, but just now I realized that was just a Maenad being friendly. Not like 'friendly Maenad' and 'mutual screaming orgasm' were terribly far apart, but I didn't get the impression she was insistent on it.

"You wanna get back now?" She nodded, and we stepped back down to the chaos of kids opening presents. A few things stood out. First, by sheer weight of numbers the kits managed to inflict cat rules on the gifts. That being the packaging receiving far more attention than the gifts, at least for a while. Then again, they were brightly colored and sparkly. I managed to keep most of the gift bags from being destroyed, although one or two wound up with bite marks all over.

While the kids demolished the packaging, I delivered my gifts to my High Clergy who wouldn't be staying at the Homestead for Yule. Orla wasn't around, so I left her weight set all boxed up next to the altar. Then went back and moved it to the bottom of the dais the Altar sat on, just in case some kid tried to ride it down the incline. Mads and Karen were both at their Altars, explaining the rules of games to the kids.

I handed them each their gift bag, but couldn't get away until they kissed me and held me there for the kids to glomp hug me. I did not stay because of the sudden burst of intense, childlike Worship, but I certainly didn't rush out because of it, either. Second thing that stood out were the trio of Borysthenis, Calliope, and Erato. I'd gotten sets of three instruments. Guitars, tambourines, drums, and xylophones.

I hadn't gotten anything more complex, and I wasn't sure on the guitars, honestly, but I couldn't think of a simpler stringed instrument for them. Which, to be clear, I wasn't sure guitars were, but they were all one piece, unlike violins which required bows. At any rate, before they even got all of them out of the packaging, they'd circled up with two on tambourines and one on a drum, dancing around in a circle singing. Not, like, super loud or anything, but the Dining Room wasn't that big.

They kinda got banished to a corner of the room, where they continued their musical accompaniment of Yule. Garde took a bit to realize exactly what was in her gift bags. Especially the dresses. Eventually Daya and David helped her into one, and dashed off with her, heading for the Bore. A minute later a dark, frilly missile hit me, glomping onto me and purring.

"Thank you, Mama." I ruffled her hair.

"Lemme know if you need help setting up the kit." She looked a question at me, and I nodded to the other bag.

"I noticed you collect things. I got you a kit that helps dry things out so they won't go bad as fast." She looked a little confused by that, but nodded.

"Thank you." I hugged her again, then made sure David had her gift before she led Garde off, both of them dragging all their gifts along, headed for the Bore once more. I guess playing dress up is more fun with mirrors, and the nearest ones I knew of were in the closets up in the bedroom. Okay, if David had one in her room, I didn't know about it, but I wouldn't be surprised or upset by that.

I darted around to North House and South House, dropping off the assorted gifts I'd collected in their dining rooms, where most of them were still gathered in front of their own hearths. Lindsey and Alex both liked their new gear, although they both looked at Isnomi, then at me. At that point I realized I'd kinda fucked up. Fortunately, I managed to improvise the shit out of that situation.

Hopped to the location of one of my last kaiju fights, dropped straight down, ripped something off the bottom, and yeeted it back tentacle by tentacle, all the way to the Homestead. Didn't arrive until right before bedtime, but it arrived before bedtime, even if she didn't technically see it until after dawn. After that, though, I pulled the table games from the M-Space Guess Room I'd hid them in into the Mortal Realm version of the same, then showed them to Felicia and Anise.

I had to go collect them before bed, and each of them brought their ping pong paddle with them, clutched like a teddy bear. Ria and her mom both appreciated their new sparkly armor. Ria especially laughed as she stood there and let Alex bonk her around with her new boffo.

"You are a better combatant than that, daughter." Tallulah didn't sound upset, but I put an arm around her anyhow. Ria, for her part, just giggled more, with Alex's laughter a slightly deeper counterpoint.

"But she's having so much fun, and this doesn't hurt at all."

"Just no bonking her in the face, Alex."

"Kay!" I turned Tallulah to face me, pulling her down for a kiss.

"She'll be fine. They're playing right now. Not even sparring, just enjoying themselves." Tallulah huffed. Then after a quick glance at the kids, looked back at me.

"Like you'll be enjoying myself later?" That level of forwardness left me a little gobsmacked, and before I could respond, she looked up, grinned, and said, "or maybe not." That's when the smell hit me. Honey and alcohol.

"Hi Devorah." My ladies had formed a kind of defensive perimeter around the two of us, although I could feel the weight of their attention on us as Devorah brought that jar up to my lips. As the rim touched my tongue, which burned pleasantly with the alcohol, she whispered, "after." I chuckled.

"After the kids are in bed."

"Go to bed, kids," she whispered as she tipped that golden elixir down my throat. She did not let up until I'd licked the inside clean. She reached for another, and I grabbed her wrist. Then, before she could complain, flopped back in my chair, pulled her into my lap, and fed her a sip of her own concoction.

"A few more gifts first." At that point I called Daya over and explained her gift, as well as Saffron's, not to mention Marie's. Saffron just looked at me and said, "you expect me to set this all up tonight, I assume?" I shook my head.

"Nah. Tha's for the rest of Yule."

"So we've no toys to play with?" I realized right then that I hadn't, in fact, gotten Daya anything she could just pull out and play with. Fuckin' Hell I was stupid sometimes.

"Just a sec." I looked down at Daya, realizing the mead had already started to hit.

"You still got metal and gems for your jewelry kit?" She frowned a little.

"I haven't pulled those gaudy ones apart yet. Not all the way." I huffed.

"Okay." I Co-Located to M-Space, grabbed some spools and some sparklies, then set them on the table in front of her.

"To tide you over until Mom gets the power going. Also," I snagged the bag I'd forgotten about, "here's the rest," I hopped away again, brought back the stack of games I'd sort of intended for the House in general.

"And if none of them take your fancy, got some games you can play with everybody." Daya just blinked.

"You didn't have to." I pulled her in, hugged her, and said, "I know. I wanted to." I shook my head.

"Sorry if it's not what you wanted." She shook her little head.

"Not that. Didn't expect anything." Then she sighed and hugged me. Not an unhappy sigh, and she said, "thank you, mama." Then she dumped her new jewelry supplies into the bag with the EZ bake oven and dragged all her loot off toward the Bore. Took a while after that for the kids to get tired enough to get to bed. Devorah and I polished off another two jars of mead while we waited.

Finally, when all of them had their loot up in their rooms, and their exhausted little bodies in our big bed in the bedroom, everyone's attention turned to Devorah and I. Okay, at that point Siobhan quietly, softly said, "may I stay here tonight?"

"You feeling okay, Ice Pop?" The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. She shook her head, shrugged, and said, "I'm sorry, Mistresses. I'm tired." I glanced at Saffron, who squinted with that look that told me she'd Assessed our devoted Concubine.

"She's fine. Just, as she says, tired." I leaned down, pulled Siobhan into a hug, and said, "only if you stop being sorry about it, Darling. I'll tell you as often as I have to, you're not obligated to do a damn thing. If you're tired, sleep. If you wake up and feel anxious, come join us. If not, you'll still wake up tomorrow surrounded by all of us, because we love you." At that point, eyes closed, she smirked and said, "I can't wait to see how sloppy you are with her."

Devorah almost choked on her mead at that point. Okay, I think she did choke on it, but I covered her mouth with my own. No sense wasting good mead. A few moments later the rest of us were in the Bedroom. My ladies, inclusive of the three who'd spent earlier at their Temples, filled the divan and lay along the sides of the bed. Devorah looked around.

"I'm.. I'm not used to this much of an audience." I stepped back, grabbed another two jars of mead, realized that she'd brought a whole fuckin' case of the stuff, and stepped back, pulling the lids off as I did. Handing her one, I asked, "never been to a Revel before?" She chuckled.

"A few, yes. I've led more than one. But I don't think I've ever been the center of this much attention before."

"No?" I took a drink, flopped to my knees in front of where I plonked Devorah onto the end of the bed, and stopped myself right before my hand touched her chest.

"Uh. Shit. Sorry. Drunk. May I?" She blinked at me, real slow. Then raised her jar of mead to her mouth, took a long, slow pull, then lowered it to my own mouth, where she poured another long pull into me.

"I don't think anyone's ever asked my permission at a Revel before. I didn't think I'd be able to talk right now." I took a sip from my own jar. A big sip.

"Why not?" Before she could answer, I turned to my ladies.

"You gotta try this." Devorah coughed.

"I hadn't expected to be a party favor."

"Meant the mead." I blinked once, owlishly.

"Did you wanna be?" She took another drink. Fed me one. Weird how fast these jars emptied themselves.

"With all these," she waved a hand at the Clergy watching us. I realized right then that the biggest, furriest one was doing some pregaming, smiling at me the whole time.

"You'd have me?" She brought her hand back around, ran it down my arm.

"With all this, they'd have me?" I licked my jar clean, sent it to wherever my clothes had gone. Then very pointedly stared at where my hand hovered.

"Not unless you say yes."

"Just to be clear, Devorah, while as my Wife and Goddess has made clear to us on many occasions, you may say yes to her, or to all of us, or to any of us. But on this I cannot truly bend, every moment of everything you do will be observed by Tabitha's most faithful."

"Observed?" Saffron chuckled, and that sound should have qualified as some kind of assault. Shit, if I'd heard that sound as a virgin I wouldn't have been after hearing it.

"With varying levels of attention, as what you do, and more likely what is done unto you, inspires us to enjoy ourselves, each other, and most especially you, should you allow it. After our dearest Tabitha has had her way with you." Her eyes a little wild, but nowhere near afraid, Devorah threw back the rest of her mead, then held the jar to my lips until I licked the interior clean. She very pointedly glanced at my tongue, then down to her own crotch as I did.

I shot her a smile that I hoped was full of promise, because I absolutely intended on licking her just as clean if she would only fuckin' say yes so I could fill my fuckin' hand with Devorah tit while I did Lily like things to her interior with my Shapeshifted tongue. Holy fuckballs this mead was strong. She lifted the jar, looked me in the eyes, and said, "part of me wants to say that you can all have your way with me after she's stolen away anything resembling consciousness from me."

Saffron's voice filled with the husky tone I loved and lusted after so much.

"And the rest of you?"

"Is giving any and all of you permission to do as you will the moment we've both come at least once." She slammed the jar down on the floor, looking a little confused as it bounced off the foam rubbery padding instead of breaking.

"Revel?" I would have shouted the word myself, just to join in with my ladies, but my mouth was full. Just like she was full of my tongue. Just like my hands were full of her breasts. Just like I was full of my tentacles. I mean, just two of them, one in, one out, but my hands were full and for once I wasn't self conscious or self hating or even, after a few moments when I realized Devorah smelled and tasted just like her mead, self aware enough to do anything but speedrun us to that finish line.

Okay, time was weird in the Bedroom. It happened in a moment. It took an eternity. It was over in a second. It lasted forever. Her belly pressing against my head, her legs clenching up around me, her hands scrabbling at my hands, my hair as she grunted, moaned, gasped her climax forced the moan from my own lips. I kinda forgot that my ladies could Translocate just as well as I could. I didn't realize I could taste mead with my tentacles. I didn't know how well cleavage worked as a shot glass.

Which, to be clear, it worked both awfully and wonderfully. Awfully in that most of it wound up in first Devorah's, then Saffron's laps. Wonderfully in that it gave me an excuse to lick them clean. Then watch as they did so to each other. I really don't think I went more than a minute without someone grabbing some part of me along with all my attention and dousing both in mead. Then licking it off. Or making me lick it off. Of body parts, not of my attention.

By dawn I'm pretty sure that had been licked entirely away like a tootsie pop. As I gently toyed with all of my ladies, drunk as shit, in a sort of state of perpetual near orgasm that had kept jumping back and forth all night across the line from 'near' to 'full on would be screaming if they didn't keep my mouth full of one of them at all times', I pulled back just far enough from...

From Orla, who immediately got stolen away from me by Saffron for some southerly cleaning activities, and said, "How many licks did it take..." At which point Saffron leaned over, grabbed me by the hair, kissed me hard and fast, then pulled back just far enough for me to watch her pupils dilate and shrink as she moaned out, "all of them, I think." Then dawn came. As did every one of my ladies in the room, who'd each kept enough of their Holy Garb on to facilitate that.

Which also meant Devorah and I got swept up in their orgasmic ecstasy. She sat there blinking in the aftermath and afterglow. She looked at me as soon as she got her breath back and said, "I'm not drunk?"

"Won't be hung over, either," Saffron whispered in her ear. Then slipped her hands around, gave Devorah's breasts one quick yet thorough fondling, and said, "apologies, if you like I'll make it up to you tonight once the children have gone to bed, but I couldn't resist." I gave her a look, then laughed when she half whined, "it's not the same playing with my own." Spent the day today helping Marie and Saffron set up solar panels, battery packs, and extension cords.

Conrad came out and helped out as well, assisting both with removing the snow and ice from the roof via precision Air Shielding, then with placing the panels for optimum sunlight access. As we got started, Isnomi came up to me, looking worried.

"Joo fowged me, Mama?"

"Nope." I lied. Hopefully well.

"I got you something, but it just arrived last night. It's also kind of a fixer upper." She tilted her head.

"Washoo mean?" I scooped her up and stepped up to my office. I pulled the door open enough to step outside, then hopped around to the outside of the wall with the door, where a huge something, like way bigger than my 'office', sat under a coating of snow from the previous night.

"Figured you could use this to build your first... I dunno if it would be a Temple, or a shrine, or just a hideout for you and your posse."

"Whud?"

"Too big to wrap, so the snow has to do." She looked at me, I nodded, and a bevy of air shields blasted the snow away from the head of the Kaiju Dragon I'd killed. She swallowed when she realized what it was.

"For me?"

"Yep. Normally I'd give something like this to your mom, but I figured you'd enjoy this one, and you're building up some Clergy already, and Clergy like Temples." She glomped my neck.

"Thank you, Mama!"

"Just be careful if you decide to eat part of it. Kaiju brains are acidic, so are Dragons, so make sure Marie helps you prep it."

"Not raw?"

"Not raw." She sighed.

"Okay, Mama." Then she hugged me again.

"I love you, Mama."

"I love you too, Menace. Wanna go back and play with your sisters?" She glanced at the monstrous head.

"Marie's kinda busy with the solar panels and her present. You might ask Conrad if he's got any ideas about it while he's out, though."

"No bullying?"

"No bullying. Just asking. Maybe bartering. I'm sure there's something he'd love you to hunt down for him at some point in the future." She sighed.

"Okay. No bullying. Let's go, Mama." Isadora stayed in bed all day, glomped around her body pillow. She wasn't greedy about it or anything; she'd pulled Siobhan around it as well, and Hailee lay across both of them. Siobhan murmured quiet calm tired things when I asked her about breakfast, so I just brought up some less messy noshes and left the whole platter there for them when they woke up. Of course Menace got annoyed at the solar panels blocking her runway.

Not that she was allowed to fly in the snow anyhow, but Conrad assured her that come spring, some of those panels would move to the top of my office. That got her the opening to ask about her new Temple, which had the two of them haring off up the Bore to show him, Alex and Lindsey in hot pursuit. Overall, it was the kind of busy, hectic, noisy, exhausting, exhilarating day that midwinter gifting days are supposed to be.

There was even another big snow battle down in front of the house after lunch, although it wound up a little more civilized than normal, what with the Menace and her two minions up with Conrad and the Dragon head. With the sun about three quarters of the way through the sky, Saffron snagged me and pulled me to the top of the West tower, where she hugged me and pressed her cheek against my breast. After standing there for a bit, she sighed, pulled back to look me in the eye, and said, "it's time."

"Time for?" She shook herself, cutting her own second sigh off.

"I wanted you as fortified as you could be, with all the love we could muster, so you would have that buoying you, know that you are loved. But Yule has begun, and I know not whether our fortification will be enough for you to fight through the black mood I think this knowledge will bring upon you, nor how long you will need to recover."

"You're scaring me a little, Kitten."

"I am scared, Goof." Then she sighed again.

"But these are things you should know, and I cannot in good conscience keep them from you one moment longer. Our borders are secure, our love for you on display, our homes warm and safe and ready for winter. If this knowledge lays you as low as I think it will, now is the time you will be able to recover before we need your strength again." I thought about that while I pulled her to me, held her against me.

"I shouldn't do it here."

"You ought not do it anywhere you might be observed, love." I nodded.

"Can you come with me?" She caught herself, I saw it, wanting to nod, but instead saying, "I will, if you ask. I do not believe it would be safe, though. I felt some minor side effects when you Inspected Isnomi."

"Are you okay?" She chuckled.

"So my Goof. I said minor. Temporary. No evidence remains. But she is orders of magnitude less powerful than you, love. I fear it would not be safe for me to be close enough to you." I nodded, took a deep breath.

"Okay then." I leaned down, kissed her. Then turned to the Homestead, cranked up my PA Spell.

"Hey everybody, I need to run a quick errand, but I love you all! Joyous Yule!" The collected cheers of my family and friends in my ears, the warmth of my Kitten on my chest, I stepped away to the depths I'd pulled Isnomi's gift from. I pulled my Blend around me, disappearing into the depths, swimming sort of at random until I felt my tentacles around me in M-Space.

I slipped over there, nudged them to keep everything else away, then pulled on my Blend, hard, until this bit of the deep M-Space ocean floor was less a dream than a figment glanced in a dream. I Shaped Status.

Inspection Target: Tabitha "Commander", "Goof", "Mama", "Papa", "Vlickies" Diaz Target Type Humanoid Divine Biped (Bag, Dan, Human, Vanir) Titles Black Swan with a Thousand, Thousand Young, Cadet (Phileo), Champion of Loki, Champion of Marie Aetos-Diaz, Champion of Phileo, Champion of The Inter-City Alliance, Champion of Rich Man's Port, Dragon Slayer, Elder Primordial, Godslayer, God Slayer, Legendary Champion, Legendary Slayer, Matriarch, Mistress, Mother, Priestess High Set Above All Others, Wife, Walking Ragnarok, Psychopomp, The Avenger, The Liberator, The Plague Bane, The Whore of Phileo, Titan Slayer, Young Adult Pantheon Alliance Attributes: Strength: 8(T6), Agility: 8(T6), Endurance: 7(T7), Reason: 2(T6), Memory: 1(T6), Personality: 4(T6) Skills Assess Health, Blend, Cure, Close Quarters Combat, Comfort, Dragon Scales, Elemental Control, Gift Ecstasy, Heal, Inflict Agony, Mana Blade, Mana Shaping, Kitchen Witchery, Revive, Scry, Spawn Carapace, Stabilize, Status, Strong Arm, Swift Foot, Thick Skin, Translocate I snickered a little, then risked a quick poke at my Kitten.

I think your Status is malfunctioning. Why? It says I'm smarter than you. Only because you are. The rock solid certainty in her thought kinda floored me. Dafuq? Love, I can barely control one or two of your tentacles in direct contact with them. Perhaps switch back and forth between a half dozen of me at most. You are constantly maintaining dozens of yourself on a typical day, switching back and forth between them fast enough few realize you're not paying close attention.

I snorted, amused at the bubbles rising in front of me, even here in M-Space where water wasn't proper water, really. So, uh, fast, not good, huh? I heard the echo of the previous night when she said, plenty good enough for me, and I have very high standards. Have you looked under your Blend yet? Nah. Gonna do so now. Talk later? I hope... Yes, love. When you're ready.

The statement she cut off did not fill me with comfort, so after a quick glance through my Skills, grimacing a little at Inflict Agony, trying to ignore those Legendary Titles, I pushed my Blend around me even harder, while simultaneously dropping my personal Blend. I glanced at the back of my fuzzy hand, then Shaped Status again.

Inspection Target: Mimic AKA "Goof", "Mama", "Vlickies" Target Type Divine Biped (Mor) Titles Black Swan with a Thousand, Thousand Young, Cadet (Phileo), Champion of Loki, Champion of Marie Aetos-Diaz, Champion of Phileo, Champion of The Inter-City Alliance, Champion of Rich Man's Port, Dragon Slayer, Elder Primordial, Godslayer, God Slayer, Legendary Champion, Legendary Slayer, Matriarch, Mistress, Mother, Priestess High Set Above All Others, Wife, Walking Ragnarok, Psychopomp, The Avenger, The Liberator, The Plague Bane, The Whore Slut of Phileo, Titan Slayer, Young Adult Pantheon Alliance Attributes: Strength: 5(T10), Agility: 1(T10), Endurance: 5(T13), Reason: 7(T6), Memory: 3(T6), Personality: 7(T7) Skills Assess Health, Blend, Cure, Close Quarters Combat, Comfort, Corrupt, Dragon Scales, Domination, Elemental Control, Conclude, Gift Ecstasy, Heal, Inflict Agony, Mana Blade, Mana Shaping, Mimic, Mimic Attack, Mimic Attribute, Mimic Defense, Mimic Size, Mimic Skill, Music, Kitchen Witchery, Revive, Scry, Spawn Carapace, Stabilize, Status, Strong Arm, Swift Foot, Thick Skin, Translocate It was kinda interesting that without my Blend hiding my true nature, I was Stronger, had more force of Personality, and holy shit that explained why my Blend would sometimes knock me out when I shouldn't be anywhere near dead, because I'd done something that might, if looked at just the right way, knocked out somebody with Tier seven Endurance.

Especially if I did it when being observed by somebody who might not realize my Endurance was that high. Keeping up the impression that I was still a Demigod or something. Or just a Goddess. Fuck, I wasn't even a Primordial. I was an Elder Primordial, and I didn't even know what that meant. Other than, I assumed, something to do with my ability to step outside Time itself.

Sitting there at the bottom of the M-Space Atlantic, my personal Blend down, the area around me no longer extant to any perception Divine or Mortal, I Shaped Status, added that tiny switch, and poured in Mana. It took a while. It took a long while, and midway through I lost track of the sun. I think it was still in the sky, if only barely, when the blazing glow in the center of the Shape finally turned green. I Cast it.

Inspection Target: <unknown> Target Type Divine Polyped (Mor) Titles None Pantheon None Attributes: Strength: 7(T12), Agility: 9(T7), Endurance: 7(T15), Reason: 0(T0), Memory: 0(T0), Personality: 0(T0) Skills None I stared blankly at the Status screen in front of me. Not quite understanding yet, with that incomprehensible Blend Piercing Status still hovering before my eyes, I Assessed myself.

Assessment For: <unknown> Target Type: Divine Polyped (Mor) General Health: Persistent Vegetative State Conditions: Persistent Vegetative State Recommended Treatment: Attendant, Manual Feeding Granular Assessment Data: Activate: (Y / N) I stared, uncomprehending at first. Much as it had that day long ago, my forty seventh day here, my body reacted before I did, curling around myself in a fetal ball.

Holy shit I remembered that so maybe that Memory stat when I was me wasn't a glitch, which meant the Memory stat for Big Black wasn't either. Nor the Reason. Nor the Personality. Which meant there was no Big Black. No Dark Fatass. No Hypermelanistic Orange Tabby of Tectonic Proportions. No dark entity prophesied to consume everything feeding me ever darker impulses that I had to fight against.

No devil I could point at and say that it made me do, made me want to do every dark, heinous, awful thing that had ever crossed my mind. That I'd ever given in to. That I'd done. No one to blame it all on. There was just me.