Those Halcyon Days II -- All New, All Different

Game Master Stalwart

Everything is not all right. But I don’t want to worry her.

Connie: Time and place for WHAT
Connie: is this psychic surgery
Connie: is this speed of thought therapy
Connie: is this a factfinding mission before deciding
Connie: is dealing with Femtite part of this?
Connie: I'm not the f#$@ing mindreader here
Connie: And you get different answers for each of those
Gothic: to meet the civ, obv
Gothic: all of the above
Gothic: none of the above
Gothic: I'll know when I see

A few minutes pass and her phone rings.

"Hey Maeve! Raquel is here with me. Say hi." There's a distant "Hi" in the background.

"You okay? Or did you just miss me?" The smile on her voice comes through.

“Are we still doing the red and green dye? That isn’t gonna cause trouble with Mom and Dad or anything, is it?”

Maeve already feels so much better hearing that voice. Her human heart is pounding. Is that regular pounding, or does the heart actually respond to love and that’s why the heart emoji…

Chastity's voice on the other end is full of sympathy. "Hey, I'm sorry to hear that. Just imagine a great big hug from your favorite person. That makes me feel better even when I'm all alone, because I know they'd be in the room hugging you if they could. Shut up! Not you. Raquel!" Her voice is heard protesting that she didn't say anything. "You said it with your eyes!" Chastity laughs away from the receiver.

There's a >whump< sound of a pillow being thrown. "Now, where were we? Oh! Nutcracker. Still looking forward, but maybe rain check on the hair. It might make the holidays a little uncomfortable and I'm not going for that this year. You know? Low drama is the gift I'm giving my parents this year. "

Connie: The civilian is not consciously aware of the tampering, and I'll need to talk to her about why a cape is getting involved. This has reasonable odds of beginning a clock on things, so I don't want you shooting from the hip.
Connie: I promised I wouldn't do anything to make things worse.
Connie: So far I don't feel confident you fit that criterion.
Gothic: R U 4 real?
Gothic: wanna see my cv?
Gothic: gimme a time/place and u can check my resume
Gothic: or I CAN CHECK ON UR G@+%*+MD PROBLEM

…and she guesses that, if she wanted to, she could check Raquel’s dorm and join the visit. But Raquel likely wants Chas to herself right now.

“Haha, just hearing you say that is all the hug I need. Hey, I don’t want to take up your time with Raquel. She’s a really good friend… and you dating me is new, and maybe shaking up the friend group a little. So if Raquel brings me up as a conversation topic, it’s not gossip. It’s just a friend who cares, and I’m the girlfriend who fully trusts you. And I trust Raquel too.”

"That... happens a lot too, we're scared of things that don't even make sense to be scared of... or some things are so deeply engrained in the reptilian part of our brains. I don't know if it's actually reptilian but that's what we call the deepest primal instincts part. That we're terrified across the board.. like uh... how most people are afraid of spiders even though most of them can't really hurt us."

"That sort of stuff stems partially from our early evolution as a species, or at least that's the theory. I don't know about pixite history, or evolution and i'm not gonna try to make guesses here. But humans well... we came from violence it's part of us, it's hard to escape but we try our best, sometimes we succeed and other times..."

He gets a little crest fallen as he sighs, "Many times we fail. But that fear that... worry it stuck with us through it all even if it doesn't make ANY sense, if we don't understand something then we often times will retreat to a safe place to try and figure it out. I don't know if it's fair to compare pixites and humans because of our different upbringings as species. Kind of like comparing apples to oranges, they're both fruit but like really vastly different."

"But hey, you've seen some weird stuff, so if you've got a reason to think it was odd, or unnatural for her, a human with that kind of background then I'd like to hear what you thought made it so wrong or mindcontrolly?"

He gives her some time to answer that but afterwards nods with a hum accepting whatever she thought but not letting it known on if he thought it was bogus or not. He did come here with neutrality intended.

"This will be the second of your relationships with a human that your Mother, I'm guessing Queen Millie? Has interfered in right? Did you stop to think maybe she could try to tilt things weather to her own agenda or yours? No matter how likely or unlikely I mean, did it cross your mind as a possibility?"

"I suppose she may have just been trying to help, but she's also never met Chas as far as I'm aware, let alone read up on human religion and what comes with the societal pressures of being raised as such. Correct me if I'm wrong please."

"But, I think going to her for advice is okay, that's what parents are for to help you figure out your own mind, but not to make the follow-up choices for you. Especially not for solutions to such complex interpersonal relations, there's these things called arranged marriages. They were super common in our middle history all over the world and tons of nobles and commoners would get forced together in relationships that they didn't actually want to be in because the parents made them. Now days it's much less common because it's largely agreed that it takes away Your and your potential partner's free-will of choice. They do still happen but it's way less common for good reason."

"You going to her, your queen mom, to 'fix' something like this might not have been the intention when you went to talk to her right? But it looks like it's what she ended up doing which ultimately has caused a different problem entirely as we see with what's going on now. It's not quite the same as an arranged marriage, or forcing you to be with someone else. But I get a similar vibe as if Chas's parents said they'd disown her if she even thought gay thoughts and somehow had a mind-reader constantly relaying her thoughts to them. It takes away her autonomy to make her own decisions and learn from mistakes because it gave her little to no options of even exploring her sexuality freely."

"Everyone needs to learn who they are through their own actions and figure any relationships, out with their chosen partner, even if that means you ultimately can only be friends. You can't let others make a choice for you, otherwise it's not really a choice is it? Does that make sense? I really don't want to sound like I'm badmouthing her, and she's honestly probably trying to be a good mom in the way she knows how. But sometimes good intent doesn't exactly mean correct. I know my mom has made plenty of mistakes but she's human we're not perfect, I don't think pixites are either and that's not a bad thing. Our flaws make us who we really are."

He let's that sink in again keeping his stance and tone as neutral presenting as possible. It's impossible to read his facial features behind the magical cowl, but his now reptilian eyes are plain to see and shift this way and that when thinking of how best to word what he's trying to say. Which is to say he's actually giving this some thought and not just lashing out at her or her Queen mother.

"You're right to say free-will is very important to humans, and both a memory-wipe and time stutter sort of take away the agency of free-will. I'll get into why a time stutter to ignore consequences is bad later I think you get the general idea though, but the Seer's truth also doesn't really sound to me like it's leaving Chas with the free-will to make her choice. It's definitely painting the canvas in a different color that she didn't 'Really' reach on her own volition." He taps his arm as if thinking of more to say, but shakes his head, the icy blue eyes disappearing for a moment signifying they closed for the motion.

"With all that in thought, I want to think you just wanted her to have all the information without the film of religion so she could find her answer. In doing so you unintentionally stripped her of the journey and hardships that come with finding her own answer.

You wanted her to see without the thick veil that's been thrust over her head her entire life. To take the blinders off so to speak and see with... with fresh eyes. But I have to say that's not how humans work, our experiences and lessons, they guide us, make us stronger even through the hurt... that.. pain for lack of a better term it breaks us down, but with the right support and enough time we always come back stronger. I guess what I'm trying to say is we have to figure out how to dig our way out ourselves or ask other people for help, but we have to do it our own unique way."

Indy doesn't sound like he's enjoying having to explain this, but he doesn't sound disappointed in Femtites actions as of yet.

"Right... First time meeting the family is supposed to be uncomfortable but this beats that for sure." He says as he approaches to shake the man's hand.

"Sorry Mister, but I do not recognize your alias and Skyler has been shy of sharing family information."

He looks around, trying to situated himself. "So, how does this work? I'm only imagining this is happening? My real me is just drooling in real life?"

Cortex shakes the offered hand. When Caio says he doesn't recognize him, he blinks in surprise. He turns to Skyler, who shrugs her shoulders. "You don't --? Kids these days. I am Cortex. Lead telepath for the CADRE."

Skyler steps into Caio's view. "Your body's fine. Look, I'm sorry. I'm supposed to keep him a secret. Even Todd doesn't know he's not my biological father."

"I'm glad you're here, Caio. I need to know the extent of the damage to my daughter's reputation. I've sensed she still really wants to stay and from what I've gotten off you, you don't want her to go either. Whatever my little girl wants, she gets." He smiles at her. She doesn't smile back, which causes his smile to drop. "Even if it's me staying far away from her."

Cortex turns back to Caio. "Scouring through your mind for the details won't be good for you, and I've promised not to harm you. So go ahead and just tell me. Whose memories do I have to scrub?"

"Considering you can scrub memories away, do you mind answering a couple questions?" He asks. "The whole Church thing is yours doing as well. I recall the name CADRE. You are mercenaries, right? The whole cult doesn't look like your thing."

Cortex rolls his eyes and laughs. "The Church is NOT my doing. You think I care about a bunch of card readers and pencil pushers? They're all a joke."

Skyler looks down and away. "Mom's not a joke."

"Baby, your mom's the biggest joke of them all. She actually had potential, but she burned it all away on all her acid trips." Cortex laughs.

Caio nods and looks at Skyler, trying to give her a sympathetic smile. "Truth being told, I should be working towards bringing you down, but I know I have no hope of doing so right now and on my own... I'm not stupid and I'm not a martyr as well."

"The Alliance is all worked up about this Church and as far as I know it is mostly down. I know who knows for sure about Skyler's involvement, but there are probably many more..." He says, frowning and trying to really think about it. "My whole team I think. Whippoorwill for sure... but aside from that, she could have told the whole Alliance. Most of the Church members, as well as those who were taken by them with her help might know."

"Is it possible to work on so many people?" He wonders, taking this opportunity to try to gauge Cortex's power level.

"Let me worry about that," Cortex says, seemingly aware of Caio's attempt to get him to reveal the extent of his powers.

He steps next to Caio and puts his arm around his shoulders in a patronizing way. Somehow Caio feels smaller than Cortex, even though he's pretty sure that it was the other way around when he first saw him. "Son, let's get one thing straight. I like you. You said 'no' when my daughter said 'yes'. You stopped when she said 'no.' That is what a father wants to see in the young man dating his daughter."

His voice shifts to a terrifying tone. "And believe me, I've thought about what I'd do to a boy who'd hurt my baby girl."[i]

He gives Caio a squeeze and his voice becomes fatherly again. [i]"But you've passed a test you didn't even know you were taking. So don't ruin it. As long as you're treating her good, you have full immunity. You got someone you can call on. Someone who'll protect you and yours."

He maneuvers Caio so that he is standing next to Skyler. "Just like I'm sure you'll protect her." He turns to face her, and there's a silent conversation that happens. She nods.

"Don't do to a girl what you don't want done to your daughter." He replies automatically one of his most precious teachings. He doesn't recall where he heard it, though.

"As long as we are together, yes, I'll do whatever I can to protect her... from things she can't protect herself. She isn't a little girl." He adds. "And our minds? Mine and hers? Will we also forget about her involvement?"

Cortex shakes his head. "No need. You both have the right to remain silent. Besides, what did she really do? Invite some kids to a youth group? If you call that a crime, you'll have to arrest every kid who takes a friend to a regular church. It's called outreach, and it's perfectly legal."

"It is a bit more serious than that... while regular church will also fill your head with nonsense, they will not take your free will away."

He sighs. He did not want to discuss Skyler's mistakes with her father as if she wasn't present, so he turns to her. "I don't think you are a bad person. I don't think you are someone that should be locked away... but you did something bad, for whatever reason you had."

"Even if your father can erase what happened from everyone's mind, we'll still know about it. We can't undo the bad that was done, but we'll need to compensate... it is important that we do."

Skyler flinches. "I didn't make anyone do anything they didn't want to. I didn't kidnap anyone. They could have said no. And I had to. Todd enrolled me in the schools! If I didn't recruit..." she looks down at her feet, "I wouldn't be a member of the Church. And I wouldn't be able to see Mom."

Cortex taps his foot impatiently. "Yes, your life is very tragic. You could come with me. The offer is still open."

Skyler looks up, shaking her head. "All I do is see auras--"

"Bulls*~#! You turned a werewolf into a vegan. I knew you had more than you were letting on! No child of mine would have lame powers!"

Caio shakes his head. "All those girls that are recruited to be models but end up victims to sex traffic... they also weren't forced, kidnapped and could have said no to 'modelling'."

He sighs, grabbing her hand. "I don't blame you for doing what you thought you had to do to see your mom... but the Church is gone and dismantled now. Todd will be arrested. You'll be able to see your mom..."

"The other day you said you did not deserve to be happy, and I'm pretty sure it was because of what you did... you can't undo it for sure and even if your father wipe everyone's memories, you would still know. But that doesn't mean you can't clear your consciousness in other ways."

Skyler hugs Caio tightly. "You can show me how?"

Cortex clears his throat. "All right, time for you two lovebirds to get back to the real world. You can thank me later."

Suddenly, Cortex is gone and they're back in the office, with the passed-out people stirring awake.

As you're hurrying across campus, you pass by a man in a heavy coat you haven't seen before leaving the main offices. He glances briefly at you, then continues on his way.

”I know I can come off as emotional… but I know how to seek evidence objectively. So I still don’t know if it is simply as you say. That is likely.”

On arranged marriage: “Mother is not as controlling as she may seem, though certainly she is compared to most Pixites. She is Queen and tens of thousands of years old. She is an elder among elders.

“But she can adapt, and the experience with Connie changed my relationship with Mother for the better. She accepts that she doesn’t understand the human mind. And that I am better suited to explain the human point-of-view.”

As for Percy’s answer, Femtite lights up at his words. “Yes… you understand my reason. I’m not asking you to agree with it, but as long as you understand it was to help.

“So yes, close… close enough.”

She considers Indy’s mention of timelines. “I know more about timelines than you may realize. Care to hear it? It’s relevant, but if the topic interests you, I believe I have the talent of a Pixite Seer!”

Honestly, my thought is that the Harbinger’s +Memory move will represent Femtite ‘leveling up’ her Outta This World move.

Femtite adds to her point to ensure, as best she can, there’s not a Chastity-specific agenda. “It’s not that Mother wants Chastity—and make no mistake, she definitely wouldn’t force a girl to like me when I could simply find someone who does. She promised to support me on giving Chastity what she wanted: the truth about herself.

“I wanted this for Chastity. Mother wanted this for me. It was the same goal: she would like me and know it, or not like me and know it, and from there we’d get together or go our separate ways depending on the truth.”

Her expression and tone is remorseful when she says, “Neither Mother nor I understood a mortal mind can’t handle the Seer’s Truth. The fey knew.”

And on flaws. “My exoskeletal pixite form has a bent antenna from an injury when I was a nymph. I always liked having a glaring flaw. It may have once been my symbol of rebelling against being the Perfect Princess. But since I entered my teens, my thinking changed. Simply, flaws are what make us different. That is more beautiful than perfection.”

When you leave the campus, you realize that you should report to Whippoorwill. You call and arrange a meeting, suggesting a particular rooftop where she can find you.

* * *

"... big misunderstanding," Whip says, nodding after you've explained the Skyler situation. "I'm glad it's all worked out. We'll laugh about it later if we haven't all forgotten about it first."

She turns to take off. "Thanks for the update. I've got to get back to dealing with the Taylor crisis." With a flap of wings and a rush of air, she's soaring back toward the Tower District.

Free to finally go to bed, you ignore the man with a pink shock of hair sitting on the roof, and head home.

"Okay, explain how you were broken, I'm guessing because of the break up with Connie after the whole scenario down on your home? I mean we kind of understood it sucked and probably hurt for it all to happen but broken seems a bit... extreme. Admittedly I might not be the best one to try to empathize with that, I've never been in a deep relationship. I know they really suck and you feel awful when they end, but ehh i personally wouldn't say broken. Not to belittle how you felt, just trying to get a better understanding of it from your point of view."

Femtite’s golden glow dims and pales. Eyes downcast, she insists, “I was… broken. I… don’t know how to explain this… it isn’t the break-up that hurt most. And what hurt isn’t the reason I broke up. But it’s…

Her glow brightens a bit when Percy permits this.

He also wants to try to jab at the persona point, "Also was it the words that you said or Maeve said that set Chas off? Probably not super important, but if you're going to keep a one half of me is X, the other half is Y and they are separate well it helps to keep them in binary for the most part."

“Okay, just don’t think me one of those arrogant types that refers to the self in third person. I’m already a princess, so arrogance is probably assumed.

“Chas and Maeve were putting makeup on the week after I had a Sunday night dinner in her home. She couldn’t stand being near her ‘boyfriend.’ She wanted to figure herself out by applying makeup in the girls’ room… but only for me since her parents and ‘boyfriend’ would disapprove.

“And so the offending words were that my human body was for her.”

Her aura pinkens considerably during the retelling, but it fades back to gold at this point.

“In hindsight, I see why she took it as a confession of my feelings. All I meant was that the team unanimously voted for me to not accept Mother’s gift, but the previous Maeve guise would have stopped fooling people who paid close attention. So I simply meant it was only Chastity who desired to see me human.

“She was still sorting out whether she liked that boy, so I wouldn’t have mentioned my feelings on purpose. But I couldn’t deny that my feelings for her were overwhelming to me.”

He nods at the seer question though, "I would really like to hear about your seers. Humans had them in our past, but it's hard to determine if they actually could divine the future or if it was just good guesswork. Superpowers before the 1900s are kinda hard to keep track of and some folks burned a lot of our early history that we're trying to piece back together. Paper as it turns out is not the best way to keep information over extremely long periods of time."

Femtite admits, “I didn’t know much about them until after the team had left the Nanometeor. Mother said the Seers of the Amethyst Spike—the western queendom—were all in agreement on a doom prophecy. I …Femtite, if we’re still doing the third-person bit, am or is…”

Femtite pauses and tries this again just in first person. (Singular. She doesn’t care for The Royal We either. Not even with two personas.)

“They’re blaming me for the end of the world… and they might actually be right. When I talked to Mother about Chastity, I actually wanted to talk about…”

Femtite looks around at the border of Percy’s circle. She suddenly turns very serious.

“What I’m about to say does not leave this circle—especially don’t tell Connie. Because she will not stop thinking about it, and that’s the worst thing she can do.

“For spying on Mother and endangering my own planet, I would have accepted Disownership and Banishment. Mother immediately forgave me.”

She gives that some time to sink in.

“I also learned not to look into the future. I did this with Chastity to find out whether she liked me or not. I saw infinite branching paths. In some, we were together—but if I looked at those paths, they immediately vanished! Only in paths without me was I able to look.

“Other searches—such as Violet’s energy, silver fey threads, Mother’s intent to create a pixite vessel for Connie—were safe. So a safe search must be objective. It must not be paradoxical.”

Femtite beams with pride.

“So I think I know what the purpose of Unrealities are! We learn whether our decisions were optimal, or if not, we can recognize our mistakes. My power is not directly predictive. It’s reflective!

“So much worse.”

Making a mental note to not touch on Mother he aptly avoids going down that inevitable spiral of a conversation, trying to see her as well as a neutral figure. It's time to focus on what Femtite did, not what Millie may or may not have coaxed her into doing intentionally or unintentionally via Fey proxy. "Yeah we've got... a lot of folk tales explaining why you never trust a fey in a deal. They're old, I'd wager older than even your Queen mom, and they have had a LOT of practice in making deals that sound good but actually heavily favor what they want to happen. Can't really fault you for not knowing that though, it's kind of nerdy. Also folk tales so we can't exactly deduce…"

She explains, “Mother is quite adept at bargaining with the fey, but… she knew Chasity’s case was delicate and she apologized for the side effect. Her exact words:

“‘I am sorry. I thought I covered all the eventualities and angles. But it is difficult bargaining with the fae when there is something you truly want. They delight in giving you unintended consequences.’”

Femtite relives the rest of that conversation with Mother and finds herself on the verge of tears. She believes she answered Indarius sufficiently anyway, so for now, she does all in her power to maintain composure.

"Basically there was this nordic god who wanted to know everything, because at one point not all gods were omnipotent or omniscient and they each specialized in their own thing. Different pantheons had similar deities and such that usually symbolized a specific attribute or characteristic and so on but they're not really important for this. Anyways Odin basically used some really complex ritual to grant himself the power to more or less look into the future to help further this goals. He cut out his own eye, threw himself upon his own magic spear in a sort of sacrifice of himself... to himself it's complicated, then hung himself from the world tree that supposedly holds the nine realms and all of time in it's branches so that he could learn about other realms and his own and basically know what was going to happen."

"This all gave him neat new powers, but also let him see visions of things yet to happen, shapeshift, all kinds of stuff right? He sort of became a seer of sorts if we want to draw some kind of comparison to how this is related to you right now. You obviously didn't kill yourself or anything to then reanimate and gain these powers but stay with me on this okay?"

Indarius sets his staff out and lets it stand there on it's own as he adds his hands to the mix of telling the story with a few little moving images that might help.

"So Odin see's in no particular order that the Frost and Fire giants will get together and fight against all the gods, the Aesir and in that battle it'll destroy the world, in other words Ragnarok will happen, he doesn't know exactly why they fight though. He knows that a winter that will last year round after Baldur, another god, dies happens. There are some roosters but we can guess they are the three assistants to Loki another giant that play an important role in the battle a giant wolf, a giant serpent, and a half dead goddess remember these."

Indy starts with an image of a man strong and proud "So first to stop any of this from starting even he has to prevent the death of Baldur, to stop the year long winter. He has his wife, a very powerful mage-like goddess cast a spell on Baldur to make him impervious, but all spells can be unbound by 'something' so she chooses the unlikely Mistletoe, pretty uncommon where they're at so it's whatever no way anyone'll ever figure that out."
A thin sheen of green surrounds Baldur's image as Indy shifts over to produce another image while the first hangs there.

He then conjure the sun and moon. "Now Odin doesn't know what wolf will eat the sun and moon, two celestial objects that heavily empower him, but he knows it's gotta be big so he looks for the biggest wolf which happens to be his good friend Loki's son Fenrir, by the way Loki is sort of a friend and also sometimes enemy god of the Aesir it's a very complex relationship. ANYWAY, so Odin chains Fenrir with an unbreakable chain because he knows if he continues growing in size he'll soon eat the entire world and not just the sun and moon."
He shows Odin binding a large wolf with a golden chain which it struggles against in vain, he shifts over again.

"Next the serpent, which by the way happens to be another of Loki's children Jormungandr, also known as the Midgard, world, serpent well he thinks ah this thing will get big and large if it's allowed to eat so he throws him into the ocean of Midgard and thinks cool there's definitely not enough to eat to get so large that he's a problem."
A whimsical image of a man throwing a snake plays until the snake just sits under a slightly animated blue wave. Issue two solved.

"Next the half dead goddess, guess what another of Loki's children, Hel the goddess of death well he tasks her with ruling over the aptly named Hel the domain of the dead which is whatever right cause Grandpa said do it. She isn't happy especially after hearing what happened to her siblings Fenrir and Jormungandr but hey she's tied up with managing all the dead humans so not a problem."

The third image shows a smokey half-black half-white figure commanding a spooky ghost. "Then hey while we're at it there's a Giant who's offering to build stuff for a reasonable price so let's get my defenses set up just in case the giants do get uppity. The giant demands the hand of Odin's wife Odin refuses then thinks and agree's to sell his wife to the giant if he can build the wall in like... four weeks or something I forget the exact time but, an impossible time frame to build a wall around an entire realm regardless. So with all his problems dealt with he sits back and goes back to the books to keep learning and not dying."

The fourth image he casts is a wall around an island probably meant to represent the wall build around Odin's kingdom by the giant.

"And somewhere along those lines he managed to send all the other giants into exile in jotunheim, playing it off as some kind of paradise or something but actually it's a snowy frozen crap hole where nothing grows and then shuts the door to his own realm to keep them out. Not exactly sure on that part's specifics."

The last image shows some large fire and ice made men who look pretty upset.

"However.. and this is where the whole don't mess with time thing comes in play really hard. First, Baldur emboldened by his supposed imperviousness gets sloppy and fights ever more powerful beings with less skill and more brute force but eventually steps on mistletoe loses his cool shield and gets killed by a more skilled opponent. Fenrir angered by his unjust imprisonment, calls to his children Skoll and Hati and tells them to devour the sun and moon to weaken Odin, in an attempt to force his freedom. Jormungandr survives and even thrives in the bountiful oceans of the world and gets so big that he wraps around the world and can even bite his own tail and is stronger than ever. Hel is upset at her brother's imprisonment, her other brother and her own low-key exile from their home and demands things be set right and her duty relieved so she can visit home once in a while doesn't happen so she starts arming all her dead souls to go fight Odin and earn her freedom. The giant finishes the wall in time due to his magic horse and goes to collect his payment, Odin and company say he cheated, because they didn't know about the magic horse before the deal was struck and tell him to shove off. The giant takes his lack of payment as a serious offense and tells all the other giants of the weakpoint of the wall which makes it basically useless. The other giants are the kind of people who hold grudges and act upon them and well... Odin and his son Thor were never good to them and kind of exiled them to another place and that was a loooong resentment that they held and the bill came due, so with the giant wall builder being the last straw they rallied to kill all the gods."

The images flickered in sequence Baldur being stepping on a green twig and being stabbed in the heart, Fenrir's children chase the sun and the moon around their father before consuming them whole, Jormungandr becoming titanic and wrapping around the world to eat his own tail, Hel's souls becoming clad in armor with weapons, the wall around the realm showing a golden glowing crack, and the giants pulled out swords and armor as well.

"Then ragnarok happens just as Odin predicted, Baldur dies and a year long winter happens, the sun and moon are swallowed weakening Odin himself, Jormungandr and his son Thor the giant killer kill one another in battle leaving Odin's army very weak against the giants, Hel sent wave after wave of angry souls to batter down the door and kill most of his soldiers. The giants and their allies broke through the wall like it was nothing and killed all the gods."

Indarius lets all the images float in their now resolved states for a while including a now dead odin impaled with giant weapons, while he catches his breath and lets the whole thing sink in.

"The moral here is that in trying to prevent his death he actually set up the exact events that caused it in the first place. Had he not made Baldur nearly impervious he wouldn't have gotten sloppy. Had he not unjustly chained Fenrir he could have been a stalwart ally in the coming conflict. If he hadn't thrown Jormungandr to the ocean he wouldn't have become so large and dangerous. If he hadn't imprisoned Hel she wouldn't have come to resent her grandfather. If he had kept his deal with the wall builder he would have learned about the weakpoint, or it wouldn't have been put there. Had he not exiled the Giants they wouldn't have started the war in the first place. So all in all had Odin simply lived his life in the moment and not tried to look into the future to prevent one thing from happening he wouldn't have walked down the very path to it by trying to circumvent it in the first place. He literally created his own fate by trying to stop it with half-truths."

Indy seems almost excited by this revelation as if it spells everything out, but that's probably lost in the subtext for Femtite so he simplifies. "Long... long story short, sometimes the best thing to prevent an unwanted fate from happening is never knowing about it in the first place and just... living in the moment. You never know when trying to prevent disaster will inadvertently lead to it instead."

Once they reach Skyler's room and the door is closed, he lets himself fall on her bed, as if it was the nicest and softest thing in the world and he had never experienced anything similar.

"All things considered, not bad for a family introduction..."

Skyler sits down on her bed and coaxes his head onto her lap. She strokes his hair gently and glides her fingers along his cheek. "I didn't know how he'd react to you. I didn't -- well, I couldn't -- tell you about him. I'm sorry."

She leans back against the wall and stares at the ceiling. "Though... I think I can talk now. Probably only to you... but... the mental blocks are gone." A soft whimper escapes her throat. She grabs the sides of Caio's face and looks deep into his eyes. "Don't feel like you're stuck with me. Dad's threats... I won't let him hurt you. Even if you end up deciding I'm not worth it and leave."

Caio nods and smiles as he takes her hands. "I know, ok? Don't worry about it... What is important for me is respect, commitment, trust, companionship... The difficulties along the way are part of it."

"So, the cat is out of the bag... How about we talk about all the cats?"

She looks unsure. "I... I'll try. Being open isn't something I'm used to. Not my fault, I guess, but you know, habits and all that."

She forces a smile. "Go ahead. What cats do you want to know about?"

"The most pressing issue is about this Todd, your mom, and the whole thing about the church. I promise I'll not judge you on anything..."

"I need to actually know who you are, and not just who you want to be."

Skyler pauses as she orders her thoughts. "I guess first is... Todd's my dad too. Like, legally. He's on the birth certificate. He doesn't know about my... he doesn't know that Cortex is my bio dad. So if-- when you meet him, pretend that you don't know the truth. Assuming that Da-- Cortex didn't put something in your head to make you do it anyway. He's does stuff like that to me all the time."

She kicks off her shoes and crawls into bed to lie beside Caio. "Todd and Mom have been members of the Church for as long as I've been alive. I grew up in it. It was normal to me. The meditations, the mental exercises, the levels of consciousness... that's just what we all did. Kids too."

"Anyway, I'd always been able to see auras as far as I can remember. It let me tell who was actually gifted and who was faking. Todd and the higher-ups in the Church figured that out, so they decided to let me go to regular schools so I could invite other kids to visit the Church. They built the youth facility at the compound, and it became sort of popular. I didn't have to invite only kids I thought were gifted, since the Church was open to all."

She falls silent for a moment. "Then about a year ago, the Church changed. It became aggressive about recruiting people with powers. Sending them to the Estate and other places like Italy. I was almost sent off myself, but I convinced Todd that I could do better with recruiting. And I did." She looks into Caio's eyes, her own glistening with tears.

"It makes sense with what I've discovered... before it was just the Church of High Consciousness, then the Church of Psyche took over but decided to keep the former name."

"The Church, as it is now, is being dismantled... But do you feel it should be reverted to what it was before? Was it a nice place and environment?"

She shrugs. "Well, yeah. It was fine. I'm not going to say it was perfect or anything. It was sort of exclusive, though. Lots of wealthy people. I think we had the reputation of being a cult to take rich people's money. I don't think that's true, but you know how people are."

She props her head up with her hand. "I guess... I guess I'd go back if it was fixed. I always thought I could make Level 6 when I take the tests once I turn 18. I'm a J-5 now. Mom's an 8. Todd's at Level 11."

"I have no idea how the process will be to remove those working for the Archdeacon from the ones who were innocent, but I suspect it will be pretty brutal, unless the Alliance can figure a way to be certain of who is who." He tells her, not wanting to sugar coat it. He does wonder if she could do it, with her own powers if she wanted to.

"Perhaps there could be nothing left, but it doesn't mean it can't be rebuilt. On the other hand, it will be hard to make people believe it is not the same thing, you know?"

"So, it seems Todd was onboard with the new direction of the church... but what about your mom?"

"You... probably heard. My mom's not all there. She tries, she really does, but... she needs a lot of help. Anything the Archdeacon made her do, it wouldn't have been her fault."

She touches Caio's cheek. "You believe me, don't you? Please? She wouldn't have known, unlike me. I did what I-- Well, it was all a big misunderstanding. We'll laugh about it later." She flops on her back and stares at the ceiling. "Or maybe we can just forget about it."

"I do believe in you, but others might not... so we might have to work towards helping your mom not getting punished for something she could not help with." He says, trying to reassure her.

He grits his teeth when she repeats the programmed message her father has put inside her head. He said he'd not mess with her... s!@@.

"If I was completely sure no one would ever remember... perhaps." He says as he strokes her hair.

"Your father mentioned your mom had powers. Did Todd had as well? What were them?"

Skyler closes her eyes and savors Caio's touch. "Todd doesn't have any powers. I've never seen what Mom could do before she had me. Supposedly she was an empath. Now, not so much."

"And how was Todd as a father? The later developments do not paint a good picture of him."

Skyler gets a far-off look. "He's all right. It got weird between us when I found out who my real dad was. Not like I could tell anyone though. But it changed how I saw him, obviously. I was pretty hard for him to deal with, I'm sure." She looks at Caio with a smirk. "Just between us, I'm not always sweetness and light."

"I can only imagine." He smirks back, before falling silence for a minute.

"I think... no matter what, that we need to do two things before anything else. First, is to get us, but mainly you, some protection or training to resist mental meddling. And second, we need you to fully control and understand your powers."

"I know you are afraid, but I'm not saying we'll do it alone... but it needs to be done. The sooner the better. From personal experience, the longer we try to bottle these things, the stronger they get and then it could be impossible to get them back under control."

Skyler shakes her head. "No, I was afraid for you. Always for you. Dad's -- Cortex Dad -- meddling, I'm used to it. It's not fun, but he's too strong. Think about it: he was just rummaging around in Whippoorwill's sidekick's brain! Did you even once think about going to warn her?"

"I did not." He admits. "And I'm not sure if it was my thoughts or his... I knew he was powerful, so I knew I could not face him at that moment."

"I'm not planning on going after him, but I'm just worried how troublesome it could be for him to keep putting or blocking thoughts and actions in our heads."

"The Corps or the Alliance probably can help in some way... Gothic is a pretty powerful telepath as well, no?"

"Welcome to my life," Skyler mutters. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have let you get involved with me." She grows pensive. "Are you sure another telepath is the answer? I've heard she's strong, yeah, but what if she's not strong enough? He'll find out, and then..." she shudders.

"No. Look. It's not all bad. He's trying to protect me now, but he stays away for the most part. Checks up on me a couple times a year, makes sure I'm getting good grades... it's something I can live with."

"So, you are certain that he'd never harm you?" He asks. It was not difficult to believe. "No chance that, if for some reason my team has to face the CADRE, that he'll use you as a proverbial shield?"

"I don't know." She shivers and snuggles closer to Caio. "He's said he wouldn't hurt me. And he hasn't. I hope you don't ever have to face him in that way. I don't know what he'd do to your team, but he probably wouldn't hurt you either. Just stop you."

"That is somewhat reassuring, but I'm not sure I'd like to take chances..." He says, but then changes subject to her powers.

"And what about you learning to better control your powers? I can feel this is important to also keep you safe."

Skyler huffs in frustration. "I just see auras!" She deflates immediately, knowing that it's more than that.

"All right, but... there's not a lot of room for error, is there? What if I hadn't been able to give you your, um, 'mojo' back?"

"Though, maybe you could ask those dead guys for help? You're pretty tight with them, huh? The skinny one did all those tests on me."

"Yeah, it would be too risky for us to experiment among ourselves. My intention was to ask the Corps for help anyway... Aside from those you met, there are many others with all sorts of powers and whatnot." He says, relieved that she agreed to this.

"Who knows, perhaps we discover your power can actually help people... like, most of the media is so freaking obsessed with powers being used in combat and domination, but it is perfectly fine to use them just to solve problems." He shrugs, knowing she is not that keen on being a standard hero. "You know not all heroes wear capes."

Skyler listens quietly. "Can we maybe not jump straight into a training montage? You have no idea, probably, how much I have been dreading you finding out about all my s%+$. I thought it'd be over for us. That you'd curse me out, run back to Max, and throw me in a supermax prison for metas. Yeah, my imagination hates me. But you're still here..."

"I just want to cry a little in your arms, okay?"

"Of course... we do not need to rush at all. I just want to know one more thing. If we are to look for your mom, would you help us?" He asks as he puts her in his arms.

Skyler sits up, alarmed. "She's not at home?"

"Wait, I don't know! I was just thinking that since the Church is collapsing, some people would be hiding."

She scrambles for her phone and hits a saved number. It rings a few times before someone picks up. "Mom! Hey! Yeah, it's me. I know, I know. Sorry for calling you so late. Are you... how are you? Good. I'm sorry. I just had-- I mean, I was worried."

Skyler puts her phone against her chest and gives Caio a thumbs up. "No, nothing too bad. Just a misunderstanding. You're at home, right? Dad with you? Oh. Okay. You need me to--? Oh. Okay. All right. Uh-huh. No, no. I'm just glad to hear from you. Okay. Yeah, Christmas. Sure. Yep. All right, bye. Bye!"

Caio smiles, relieved, but when she mentions Todd, his heart sinks again. "Sky... You know Todd will most likely be arrested, right?"

Skyler looks resigned. She nods. "That's going to mean I'll need to help out Mom more."

"I'll help as well if you let me. As a boyfriend, nothing more, nothing less." He says, kissing her forehead.

Skyler squeezes Caio tight. "Can we get back to me crying in your arms?"

"Yeah, come here." he says wrapping his arms around her and moving in a way she is comfortable.

Femtite rushes into the hug (like she rushing into everything else), tears flowing freely, and having a really hard time forming words—

“—because it’s been so hard ever since we broke up. And I didn’t want Connie to have to help me with this because I know it hurts her too. Like she doesn’t get it that Chastity is in the place she used to be, so anything I do, even if I mess it up is supposed to be for Chastity first.

“And she doesn’t believe it because she didn’t understand it when it was her—especially on the Nanometeor, I didn’t choose Mother over her. I just knew the best thing was for everyone to get along—and it didn’t work! And now Connie thinks my Mother is a slaver and Caio thinks she’s a murderer and Shin thinks she’d split atoms like his father did—which is really ironic because she’s quite vocally against that!”

She lifts her head, golden rivers flowing down her cheeks as she gazes into Percy’s eyes.

She trembles as she says, “And you didn’t understand me either. I made such a big deal over that broken tea cup.

“And I was so distant from you for so long—and you’re really the nicest guy, so understanding, and especially now when the whole team just treats me like I don’t get earth and that makes me wrong about everything—evenwhenIholda30foottallgolematbaybybeingsilly and it works—it’s Femtite is a f!!@, and f$&~ her s%!+, and s&&+ her f&$~! Why do they even…”

She slows down a little.

“Sorry… I… uh… need a…”

She pauses as tears trickle a little more. She doesn’t wipe them away. She’s glad her crying isn’t contagious maybe because he’s a boy, though he cries a lot for a boy… or because he’s a boy? Does it even make a—?

Now relatively calm, Femtite says the thing she was trying to say.

“I’ve been meaning to apologize to you about that—how distant I’ve been since the tea cup broke, and up until recently when you took me to Miss Maple Honeypot’s place for tea. You are a true friend and so insightful, but… I just let a little thing become a big deal. I think of you as a very good friend, and I hope you forgive me for… well, a silent grudge you may not have known about caused by an instinct that was new to me at the time.

“And especially thank you for really hearing me and the story… everything. Yes. Thank you for everything.”

C&S: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (1, 2) + 3 = 6
Uh… are you allowed to team this?