Diary of a Teenaged Mimic

Dear Diary,

Some days are better than others. Our wedding day was awesome. Our wedding night, which kinda took up most of the following day as well, was an entirely different kind of awesome. Sunday, and I'm not sure if this is ironic or not, because nobody fuckin' actually knows what irony means, was our day of rest. I think it's even funnier that it was a day of rest after two days spent creating things. On Friday we created a family, a marriage, a cemented bond that officially makes all of the horde hoard all of ours, not to mention giving Marie and all of our kids an actual surname. That reminds me, I gotta ask Ria if she wants to append Aetos-Diaz, or just Aetos or just Diaz, to her name. I'm down for any of the above, or for her just sticking with 'Crow'. Whatever makes her happiest. But days like the past couple aren't quite what makes the rest worthwhile, but they're the icing on the cake of life. Days like Bonnie and Larry's Wedding, or Saffron's birthday party, or even my birthday party. The best days, that stand out and make me smile even when flaming shit's raining from the sky and all I can do is dodge and weave and look for an asbestos umbrella.

There are the slow days. The ones where nothing's really happening, so I play with my kids, do stupid little romantic stuff for my ladies, or maybe learn and train to incorporate what I've learned so that the next time shit goes down, I can handle it that much better. Less casualties on both sides. Less pain, less suffering, less people to mourn. Or maybe the days after shit has gone down, when my sole responsibility is to rest up, to heal, to recover from the dumb shit I have to do to myself to keep my family, my friends, my people, my nation safe. Honestly, while I get that the awesome days stand out more, I think the slow days are the really good ones. The ones where stress flows out more than it flows in. The ones where I can just relax and bask in the progress we've made.

Then there are the waiting days, where stress both good and bad builds up. The days of preparation, like most of last week. The days where sometimes tension builds up in us, like when I waited back in Phileo and stood watch on the walls of the Yards while Saffron marched on New Amsterdam. Like the days we spent sailing north to Calverton from Newark, or all the days we spent running around Lancaster watching and waiting for Calverton to respond to the shitdickery of the former Heroes Lancaster. The days when not much happens, but there's clearly something that's going to happen in the future. The ones where tension builds up, just a little bit every day, because I'm waiting for the balloon to go up, the shoe to fall, or even in the best of times for the party to start. I think maybe I'm realizing that those days, the ones where stress builds up bit by bit by bit, can be almost as good as the slow days. The anticipation of good things, good days, can make them even better, so long as I'm not setting unrealistic expectations for myself. Weirdest thing to me is that if I manage my expectations, fuck if I spend most of my time waiting for shit to go down preparing for likely shit and managing my expectations of how bad things can be, I think they wind up less bad than they otherwise might.

Seriously, because the last kind of day, the Bad Days, those can be bad to a degree that's hard to really comprehend, and I was fuckin' there for all of them. Like, the Least Bad Bad Day I can think of recently was the day a Dragon old enough to have eaten two dinosaur empires came at my house and I had to eat her. I mean yeah, I probably enjoyed that way more than I should have. I sure as shit have not yet really ferreted out all the self inflicted trauma and regression just from deliberately implying that I might not eat her head. From deliberately sparking hope just to taste it being snuffed out when I dropped her brain in the Maw. Kinda funny, while a lot of the Bad Days have involved Gods, a surprising number have involved Dragons somehow. Shit, the only one of my Top Ten Bad Days I can think of that didn't have an Incarnate God showing up in some fashion was the Battle of the Walls, and that will forever live in my memory as the absolute worst Bad Day yet. Kinda, I dunno, maybe says something that the second worst day was the Autumn Equinox before that, the one where I heard Isnomi's scream cut off with the crunch of that evil fucking knife into the stone of the altar. Third place goes to The Morrigan showing up and killing Ria, and then her High Priest killing Marie.

Yeah, Marie got back up at sunrise. Yeah, I burned Balor to raise Ria, and Maze's mom to raise Isnomi. Yeah, Saffron's demise was greatly exaggerated. But none of that shit is something I can take for granted. Even as I play with it and joke about it with Siobhan, some part of me realizes that she's grown up in a world where a Deity eating a Mortal's Soul as a tasty treat is just... something that happens. Her best case scenario isn't 'not being eaten', it's being eaten by a Deity who will, she believes, take the time to savor her, to remember her fondly at some point in the future, when no one living even remembers she existed, let alone her name, her face, her cool skin and silky hair, her Skill with Healing and her talented mouth, the way she loves liver and enjoys cock so long as there's not a dude attached to it. The way she so quickly and easily will sacrifice herself, in whole or in part, to bring joy to others. Because some part of this fucking world has convinced her, deep in her bones, that she doesn't get a happy ending, and the best she can do is maybe help someone else get one.

Yeah, my worst days are the days when my loved ones get hurt. Days like the Battle of the Walls, the Autumn Equinox, or the Battle at Overlord's Keep.

Days like today.

It didn't start out bad. Really, Sunday was one of those awesome slow days, and that didn't really change when we all rolled into the dining room to find Karen and Vickerson both looking a little ragged, but not in a bad or unhappy way. Just in the way that two non-Moms handling seven kids who normally have four Moms momming them are gonna wind up a little overwhelmed, even with Grandma Aetos backing them up. Grandma herself sat there in Saffron's chair, the Queen Mother playing Regent while her daughter took a couple days of vacation time. I think I realized right then exactly why Saffron called her Grandma 'Ma'. Like, I'd have known if I thought about it, but I'm pretty sure her parents died when she was younger than our kids. Well, most of them. Definitely younger than Alex, Lindsey, and Maze. Probably around David and Daya's age. She remembers her Mom, I'm sure, but I'm not sure she really remembers her as a person. Shit, if the economic situation in Camden Yards pre-Alliance was anything like the situation in the Camden I left, her mom probably worked, leaving her with Grandma even then.

We'd slipped into jeans and tee shirts before we left the Bedroom. Okay, kind of. I'd hopped over to M-Space and pulled back four sets of low-rise jeans, then I straight up ripped everything below boob level off the tee shirts. Had to do Loki's insta-dressing trick on Marie, but I made the other two put them on the normal way, and I definitely went with sizes where they had to hop up and down a little to get into them. With Siobhan it was just cute watching her hop up and down, but when she'd realized that no, they didn't pull up further than a couple inches below her belly button, I pulled her over, pulled her tee shirt on her and made sure the bottom edge ended well above where here little glowing temporary tattoo started.

"But... everyone will see!"

I nodded. "Absolutely. I'm seriously considering finding a way to alter your robes so it shows your belly, at least until that," I traced my fingers across the glowing sigil, "wears off."

She giggled. "So shameless."

"Hey, my Kitten did good work there, of course I want to show it off." Saffron, who'd been helping Marie with her tee shirt, blushed a little. "Just like when the little one pops out, I'm gonna show her off to everybody who doesn't run away fast enough, just to show off all the hard work you're gonna put in."

She rolled her eyes. "I won't be doing anything particularly complex."

"Making a whole assed person isn't complex?"

She shook her head. "Okay, fine, but I need not be particularly Skilled to do it."

"Doesn't mean it's not hard work. Just so you know, I'm gonna be checking in on you, making sure you don't push yourself too hard, making sure you get proper food in you."

"But I..."

I shook my head, "have already nearly starved yourself once. You're growing our kid in there. The Imperator's kid. The Champion's newest playmate. Mega-Wifey Marie's latest addition to the horde hoard. Darling's little darling. That, in my opinion, should be your top priority until you decant. Got it?"

"What about the three of you? Who'll see to it you're..."

"Don't even say it. Because until you're fully recovered from growing a whole assed human adjacent being in your belly, Saffron and I are gonna be the ones making sure you're healthy and hale and," I leaned over and whispered in her ear loud enough for Saffron and Marie to hear, "satisfied."

She blushed. "As my Mistresses command."

"Betcher ass. Now. Comfy?"

Her blush deepened, and it made the sigil's glow stand out that much more as it crept down past her collar. "Feeling very exposed. On display, even."

"Well. Yeah. You are. C'mere." I picked her up and set her on the bed next to me as Saffron went to put her own jeans on. Siobhan was cute. Watching Saffron hop up and down was mesmerizing. Like, Marie and Siobhan and I all three just sat there staring, until Saffron started laughing when she realized her jeans weren't coming any further up either. "You..."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes, buttoned her jeans, then when she looked back at us she smirked and hopped again. She laughed, Marie laughed, and even I smiled a little as I saw Siobhan's head nodding along with my own as my gaze stayed locked on Saffron's bodacious bouncing curves. She shook her head and held out her hand, so I handed her the tee shirt. Which was absolutely the visual testimony to the Glory of underboob. "I think you ripped this too short."

I kinda expected Marie to chorus, "Nope," with me. Hearing Siobhan blurt it out made me start giggling. I waved Saffron over, spun her around to sit with one cheek on my lap and one on Siobhan's, at which point both of us leaned over one of her shoulders and said, "please?"

"Just until Bath time?" I added.

She sighed, which is when my fingertips met Siobhan's as each of us explored that magical crease. "Fine." She scooted over onto Siobhan's lap and replaced my hand with Siobhan's other one. "Now, go put yours on." I moved to pop my own jeans on, at which point she did something and stopped me. "Nope." She pointed to the open floor. "The same way we did. You're not in traction like Marie."

"I get to see you bounce, then her? If these are the rewards I get for carrying your child, I think I might want you to put another one in me when this one comes out."

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Saffron slipped into boy mode long enough to whisper, "you sure?"

At which point Siobhan giggled, slapped Saffron's shoulder, then when she changed back murmured, "maybe. Just for that." Then she perked up as I got my own jeans to the point where I had to start tugging and hopping. "So taut, but they still bounce!"

Saffron smirked, for some reason looking past me, her gaze not actually transfixed to where my tits were, in fact, bouncing a bit. "I'm fond of her muscles. Look at how her ass flexes... oops, you missed it."

As I buttoned up my jeans I shook my head and said, "you're having way too much fun with that 'oops, too late' thing, Kitten."

"Too much fun?"

"Probably."

"Then why did your nipples get stiff when I said it?"

Siobhan giggled. "They did!"

I just shook my head and held out my hand for my own tee shirt. At which point Saffron slipped out a Mana Blade and vandalized it. By the time she finished, my shirt didn't just bare my abs, it also had a boob window. Okay, almost a boob veranda. Like, if it shifted either way, a nip slip was definitely gonna occur. I'd never actually wished for nipple piercings before, but if I'd had them II could have threaded them through the material to keep it from slipping. I tugged the sides of the window in, and the back ripped. "Dammit."

Saffron waved me over, spun me around, and I'm guessing she Mineral Bonded it back together. "There. Good as new."

"Oh, c'mon, it probably looks super glued."

At that point Siobhan chimed in with, "no one in front of you can see it, and no one behind you is looking above your waist."

Which is when Marie chimed in with, "I'm Not."

So we all showed up like that, me with Marie in a princess carry, Saffron scooping Siobhan into one at the last moment. When Grandma saw us, the corners of her lips drew up in the tiniest smirk. Of course, before she could say anything the horde hoard saw us and screamed out variations on "MAMA!" then charged us. Isnomi and Alex came right over the tables. Daya and David both snuck under them. Heck, even Lindsey, Ria, and Maze, who normally kept their cool pretty well, ran around the ends of the table to get to us. Menace didn't hesitate, she climbed right up me to perch atop Marie's elevated lap, at which point she noticed the glowing sigil on her belly.

"Wha dis?"

"That, my girl," said Saffron, "is proof positive that at some point in the near future, likely within the year, you will have a little sister."

"Little Sisters." corrected Marie.

Holy crap but I'd never seen Menace's eyes get that big. "SISTERS!" I realized that for whatever reason she'd put the Hell of Teeth away. Probably to con Vickerson or Karen out of something. Not like Grandma was gonna get conned. Then again, maybe Grandma had engineered it somehow.

The kids exploded with questions. "Hey, make a hole so we can sit down and we'll answer everything!"

At that point I realized that Tallulah was in my normal seat. She stood, smiled, said, "congratulations," then stepped away.

I looked over at Karen, who shrugged. "She wanted a day away from Rich Man's Port, and we needed the help."

I frowned at my beloved miscreants. "Were you guys that bad while we were gone?"

Karen shook her head, smiling and sighing. "Not bad. Just... eager to have you back. Excited."

"Yeah, Mama! We 'cited!"

That opened the floodgates again as I sat down. Fortunately most of them were of the 'how long' and 'how many' variety. Which got asked over and over by each of our girls, even though the answers were, for Siobhan, 'seven to fifteen months' and 'probably one', and for Marie were 'no clue, but probably the same' and 'lots'.

As Karen gathered up Vickerson to head back to Phileo, Saffron called her over. "I'll be returning to Alliance Headquarters tomorrow. I'll need you to stay in contact with me." When Karen simply nodded and gave her a questioning look, Saffron said, "I'll need you on Seeking when it leaves headed south."

Karen nodded again, but frowned. "I'm not an expert on the Law and Custom of Compton. I'm certainly not an expert on that of Muscogee."

Saffron smiled and raised an eyebrow. "So you're confident you understand the Law and Custom of Jackville?"

Karen snerked. "Of course. 'Jack's word is Law, and you'd best get Accustomed to it."

Saffron laughed at that, then quietly said, "I understand, and there will be Law and Custom experts with you. You, however, will be the head of the delegation."

"I suspect I know, but why?"

"Because you can communicate directly with me, not to mention calling in our most powerful strategic asset if needed, and you are neither a head of state nor an invading army." Karen glanced at Marie, and Saffron added, "nor are you carrying the Champion's children."

"Understood, Imperator."

Saffron waved her over and pulled her in for a hug. "Thank you for watching over our children for us." Then she did the same to Vickerson, who kind of stammered out a 'de nada' before going kinda mute and hiding behind Karen. Funny, I think until Karen mentioned it she'd low key forgotten Saffron was, in fact, the Imperator.

Might we visit, Daughter?

You and Mom are always welcome, Dad. Heck, bring Mister Slither; I think he might get lonely there.

I felt Loki's smile. I never truly leave this place, though.

Yeah, but I'm betting he misses Menace.

"A fair point," he said, as he and Sigyn appeared between where Saffron and I sat, each with an occupied pre-mama in our lap. Karen and Vickerson both took half a step back when they saw Mister Slither.

Of course right about then Menace saw the new arrivals and leapt for Mister Slither, hollering, "Vai!" before she glomped him. When they realized Mister Slither wasn't a threat, just another part of our big weird wacky family, they both relaxed, nodded to us, and Karen stepped them both away back to Phileo.

Dinner made my 'steaks on rolls' look complex and fancy. Everybody had a hunk of meat, probably bear but cooked too much to tell, another hunk of cheese, and something that Saffron looked at and muttered, "hardtack."

Of course a moment later she shut her mouth and smiled as Alex swelled up and proudly said, "yeah, we looked up the Army recipe and made it ourselves!"

I have never seen someone pretend to like hardtack before, but my Kitten pulled it off.

Bath time rolled around, and much to my absolute gremlin glee the sigils proved entirely resistant to any kind of washing. When Siobhan looked a little put out by that, Saffron gently pulled her into a hug and asked, "are you so embarrassed to be carrying our child?"

Siobhan shook her head. "Not as such? But... I didn't do anything to earn this, did I?" She smirked. "I didn't even suffer for it like our lovely Marie."

Marie purred out, "Enjoyed It." at that point.

"Well. I still didn't do anything to be proud of."

"You think not?" Siobhan shook her head. "Siobhan, there are two reasons you carry our child in your belly right now. I think either one might be something to be proud of."

"What are they?"

Saffron nodded. "The first, the reason we asked you on our wedding night, was because you, Siobhan Darling, impressed our Tabitha so much that she decided that she wanted there to be another of you scampering around our house. That she wanted you, Siobhan Darling, to bear our child. To mingle our essence with yours, and make you part of our legacy. She's surprised and honored that you said yes."

Siobhan turned to me, eyes shining. "Is... is that really true?"

"Ayep. I mean, I'm not as good with words as my Kitten, but yeah. That's all true. You're awesome. Little half you, half me would have been super cool. Little half you, half Saffron is just..." I ran out of words as the thought of the little one who'd be running around this time a couple years from now teamed up with my mental image of the two of them making that little one to take my words away.

I think Siobhan saw all that in my eyes. She smiled, as radiant as Marie on our wedding day, then turned back to Saffron. "And the second reason?"

"I agree with her." Saffron ended the discussion with a kiss that Siobhan responded to eagerly.

Loki, Sigyn, and Slither stayed the night, the latter curling all around the perimeter of our big round bed. Never quite realized how long he was. Oddly enough, it really made me feel better having him around, what with Murder Mittens on the injured reserve for the moment.

Dreamt of the ladies pampering Murder Mittens again. Felt some kinda way about that, so I picked Siobhan up, hovered her over my Maw, and fed her bite sized bits of pasta all night while Marie giggled and kept forking it over.

In the morning, Saffron kissed us all and stepped away to Alliance HQ; one of me followed her, although mostly I just sat on Treachery Rock looking bored. According to Saffron, it puts the rest of the Grand Council on just the right kind of edge when I look bored.

I also spread myself out across the Academy, filling in in dozens of little ways. When the Headmaster asked about it, I told him, "Marie will be taking a full honeymoon. She'll be back in a month." When he looked a little put out by that, I followed it up with, "and when she gets back, she's gonna be on singular light duty. She can direct traffic, but she's not gonna be in a dozen places at once."

"Is she well?"

I grinned up at him. "Yeah. Just in a family way."

He looked a little surprised. "Congratulations. I hope it's not indelicate to ask who the father is?" I just grinned my biggest, smuggest grin at him. Vulcan would have been proud. After a few moments, the light bulb came on and the clockwork titanium soul slipped a few gears. "Of course. Silly of me to ask. Well, congratulations to you and your bride! I'm sure we'll muddle through somehow."

"Hey, I'll be here helping out the whole time! From now until she's recovered from decanting!"

He just nodded and said, "we'll survive even that, I'm sure."

Just for that, I didn't sit on my gremlin impulses about socks today. Don't ask, it'll be funnier when they find out.

Loki and Sigyn returned to Loki's cave, but left Mister Slither with us. 'To help with the children'. Screw it, sixty foot long viper was another layer of defense for the kids, and they loved him. Even if he did scare the shit out of me by carrying them up the walls more than once.

Before she left for the Infirmary, Siobhan held up a set of robes. She'd gotten her habit on, but she looked... disappointed in her robes. "What's up?"

"I want to cut these."

I took her hand, slid a petite Mana Blade out of her index finger, maybe six inches long, and said, "careful. It's sharp."

"Hold these?" She handed me her robes, and I held them up by the shoulders.

She sliced a fuckin' rectangle out of them, front and back. Then she sliced the fabric she'd removed into strips and asked me to Mineral Bond them to the tops and bottoms of the hole she'd made in the front of her robes. After she finished securing them, then looked down to realize that the bottom of the opening barely cleared the pale fuzz in her crotch, I asked, "want me to fix it?"

She just smiled up at me. "Why? It's not broken." She laid one hand on her glowing belly sigil, one hand on my cheek, and kissed me.

I slipped my hands around behind her and took advantage of the gap in her robes to fondle her pert little butt. When she broke away from the kiss, I said, "what about the back?"

She just smiled at me and said, "you'll be watching over me all day, right?"

"Yeah?"

Her smile slipped into a smirk. "So it behooves me to give you something to look at, no?"

Go Ice Pop. That's all I have to say about that.

The kids spent about half the day waiting hand and foot on Marie. I mean, I spent the whole day doing so, but then I'm normally pretty enthralled by Murder Mittens. Her glowing belly and the knowledge that it meant she had a belly full of my kittens... our kittens... only enhanced that.

At one point Grandma, who did all of her kid wrangling with looks and gestures and, once in a very great while a sharp word, came over to talk to us. Okay, she mostly came over to talk to Marie, but she started with me. "That little one in Siobhan's belly. Saffron's?"

I smiled just thinking about it. "Yeah. I mean, ours. All four of us. But yeah, Saffron's the one who put it there. Marie and I are just gonna help with the, y'know, momming part."

She smirked at 'momming' then nodded to Marie's stomach. "So... Aetos?"

Marie replied, "Aetos-Diaz."

Grandma just shrugged, as if to say she was too old, too tired, and had no fucks left to give for important things, let alone hyphenation. "Still Aetos." We sat there like that for a while, watching the kids playing in the Courtyard. "You?"

Marie thought a moment, then smiled and said, "Aetos-Diaz."

Grandma... sighed. She almost deflated, really, I think, like she'd been holding onto something and finally let it go. Then she chuckled. "So you're the oldest Aetos now, then."

Marie pondered that for a while, staring at Grandma the whole time, then shook her head. She lay one claw on Grandma's lap, atop one of her hands. "Eldest, Still."

Grandma just snorted at that. "Yeah, well. Your sisters. Living in our old Aetos house in the Yards."

I'd kind of lost the thread, so I just sat there listening until Marie asked, "Aetos?"

Grandma nodded. "If you say so."

Marie thought about that for a while, then shook her head slowly, her denial stubborn when she squeezed Grandma's hand gently and repeated, "Still Eldest."

Grandma smiled at her, then at me, then at the kids streaming past us headed for the dining room as the setting sun lit up our little valley, the West Tower hiding the sun itself. She turned to Marie, a mischievous grin on her face. "Yeah. About that." Then she turned to me, blinked, and her smile got... sad, but somehow not the sadness of mourning, or failure. Melancholy, maybe. "See you on the other side, lass."

Then, between one instant and the next, before I could even parse her words, she died.