Day One Thousand One Hundred And Seventy-Six

Dear Diary,

Just in case it didn't come across in the past couple, what with me not immediately going on a hunt for Tallulah's nemesis, I'm definitely not copacetic with not knowing where the bitch is, or even if she's still alive. Or maybe worse, if she's not alive but is still kicking around doing the Undead thing, because that bitch would absolutely make the worst kind of Bane Sidhe, and I've had enough of that shit for a dozen lifetimes.

Seriously, I get that expecting my Blend to be a perfect defense without any flaws whatsoever is a little much, but even if they couldn't figure out exactly where I was within the sphere of their Miasma, nor zero in on my Translocation and Co-Location destinations unerringly, they're fuckin' area of effect weapons of mass destruction. Pull pin, throw three miles, line of hearing kill radius. Unpleasant to deal with for me, and fuckin' nigh impossible for anybody without Deific power levels or Cold Iron earplugs.

Speaking of Deific power levels, that whole 'projecting an image into the sky' got me thinking. I can do that, no problem, but then I am in fact in the upper tiers of raw power when it comes to Deities. The image I tossed up only had such fine attention to detail because Tallulah was helping me out, and I'm not sure she could have done it without me providing the oomph. Saffron pulled that shit off on her own, but along with being able to pull Mana from me via tentacle if she really needs it, I'm pretty sure 'Legendary Archmage' puts her up at least on an even footing with Demigods, at least power wise.

She claimed to have taken The Morrigan's throne. She pulled in two big assed Sidhe fleets, which gives that some credence. I thought about them maybe being illusions, but given that my Great Kraken High Clergy didn't say anything, that would make them full sensory illusions on a fleet scale, which is some serious Archmage level illusion crafting. Okay, I think it is, and it's like back when I first got here, if I could convince people I was Loki's High Priestess, that doesn't put me far below actually being his High Priestess in terms of danger to wallet and sanity level.

Really, Daughter?

C'mon, Dad. You were barely surviving back then. You did Mortal things at my Court Martial at least as much because you had no gas in the tank as because you wanted to protect my reputation.

I suppose that's a fair summation. He sighed into my brain. I still feel guilty about not being able to do more for you then, given how much you've done for me since.

Hey, Dad. You did your best. Because you are, in fact...

I waited until he almost whined, I'm what? 

The best.

I know.

I can't really describe how happy, how satisfied it makes me to hear Dad laugh. Okay, it's not just the laughter. It's the laughter that's just joyful. No self-recrimination, no snide mockery, just pure joy at being who and what and where he is. I guess some of the reason it makes me happy is that I'm the one doing it.

At any rate, she's a dangerous bitch, and may actually be on a danger level with some Deities. I was gonna say 'less dangerous Deities', but the fact is that she's not the same kind of enemy I've fought before. She's really more in Saffron or Tallulah's wheelhouse, because it seems like most of her power is illusion and political shit. Which I hate. Political shit, that is. Illusions I'm not half bad at, even if mine tend to be a little simplistic.

I was gonna say that her core competency seemed to be Trickery, and that makes her somebody else's problem, but not even I'm that un-self-aware.

But I am a bit chonk, in a metaphoric sense. Not even gonna go on about how chonk I am in the Metaphoric sense. So I can't go hunting somebody with potential M-Space connections without them finding out about it, when my tentacles start sprouting from the ground if nothing else.

Also, no matter whether I think she's an appropriate opponent for me or not, she's gonna come gunning for me. I did not miss the whole 'and your little doggy style too' vibe when she was wicked witching at Tallulah. Which is totally inappropriate, since my long tall Sidhe Lady is not as endowed as my MILFs, which means that's not nearly as much fun, because they don't sway the way Saffron's do.

Wait, Siobhan's now got literal mommy milkers, I have got to try that with her now.

Anywho, I gotta keep my eyes and ears open for the bitch trying shit, but do so without making her realize I'm keeping my eyes and ears open, because that will totally give away the game that we know she's alive and well. Or dead and Undead and Bane Sidhe.

T?

Yes, Goddess?

When you get around to doing diplomatic thing with the Europan Sidhe, can you check to see if there are any more Bane Sidhe?

With my Greatmother no longer on the throne, and most of the most powerful ones destroyed when the Black Dragon arrived at Rich Man's Port, I doubt it. Why?

I put on my big girl panties and thought, because they annoy me, they're dangerous as shit, and I'm a little scared of them.

Really?

They can kill people around me and I can't stop them without, y'know, squishing them, and that shit is painful. Worse if they're wearing Cold Iron.

Rest assured, they cannot. They are still Sidhe.

Good to know. Still, check for me?

As you wish, Go... Tabitha.

Yeah, yesterday was just a day for warm fuzzies from family.

Which, honestly, was pretty cool, given that other than that it was unremarkable.

Along with teaching Math all day yesterday.

I had one of me leaning against my stepdaughter's calves opposite Murder Mittens. Weirdest thing, I can feel something like Miasma when I do that, but it's muted. Probably by her skin, which if it isn't porcelain, it does an incredible job of feeling and looking like it. Yeah, Jack o the Lantern does not need a bodyguard, but I think Mittens and I sitting there just like we'd do with Tallulah let the petitioners realize that the person in the chair was in fact Adrienne Crow, standing in for her mother the Overlord.

Yeah, Cailyn and George were still on soft honeymoon, managing feel good stuff for the Grand Council. Planning the construction of hospitals and public works, mostly but not exclusively in Newark. Again with the warm fuzzies watching them work together. I mean, when I could tear my eyes away from my Kitten doing her Imperator thing in Glowing Midnight. Unfortunately she'd been away long enough that she needed to pay some extra attention to keeping Lenny in line. Nothing I could call him on, nothing she would pull rank or anything, so nothing actively harmful. Just... Lenny Lancaster is gonna Lenny Lancaster, and Kitten needs to keep that in check, let him know that some is okay, but too much is right out.

Spent the day doing some stuff with barbeque pork and beans. Made a spice rub, massaged that shit into a big hunk of pork shoulder, poked hella holes into it, then slow cooked it in a crock. Meanwhile in another crock I'd had beans simmering in my best attempt at a barbeque sauce all damn day. Pureed tomatoes, diced onions, brown sugar, honey, paprika, diced peppers, molasses, and a little bit of concord grape vinegar to keep it all from getting too clumpy. Plus beans. Lots of beans. Not sure what kind they are, because despite my mom making them on the regular, I never started with, y'know, 'beans'. If they didn't come in a can with the words 'baked beans' on the outside, I had no idea how to make them go.

But I'm a Kitchen Witch now, and if they weren't exactly what I remembered, they weren't half bad.

Yes, I remembered to soak them overnight. They were beans, not horrid little crunchy bits of hate.

At lunch in the Infirmary, where I'd been just kinda sitting around providing minor triage and staring at Siobhan, who still hadn't removed the cutouts from her robes, my favorite Healer herself wandered up to me, leaned over until she was almost perpendicular to the floor, and asked, "so, is side to side as good as back and forth?"

Didn't get to watch it for long. Engaged in some tongue on tongue warfare with her myself right then and there. I am so gonna drop you from a great height some day soon.

Will you catch me?

Not sure. Does my Maw count?

I felt her lips curve against mine. I look forward to it.

Yeah, I'd have to make sure she was Co-Located and could survive that with minimal negative impact, but holy shit I'd actually hit the point where that did not immediately paralyze me with guilt. Then again, I'd seen them all do it and walk away from it apparently unharmed, so my guilt and worry had very little to grab on to.

Today was... fun. Came home to feed the kids and my ladies dinner, followed by playing Kaiju Mama with the kids to tire them out. Which, when they'd all gotten a little sleepy looking, earned me a dunking by Isadora. My girl, she big, my girl, she strong, my girl, she got her mommy's sneaky going on. One second laughing in Kaiju Mama triumph, the next ass over teakettle with one of her claws wrapped around my ankles and one tickling me.

Good times. Also, stole away to the Bedroom with my favorite littler MILFS once the kids were asleep at Mom and Dad's place. One set of tatas swaying to the motion of the ocean was mesmerizing, two was almost enough to get me to lose the rhythm, and watching Saffron and Siobhan play tonsil hockey while I kept that rhythm up was perfection in the flesh.

The ladies watching reruns on the wide screen next to my Maw thought so too. They cheered when I recreated the scene with Ice Pop Darling and Soup Dumpling Kitten. All except the two of them. Can't cheer while you're engaging in tongue on tongue warfare.

Family therapy today was pretty chill. Mostly just the girls talking about little things the others had done that made them feel some kinda way. Jack mentioning how he sometimes felt left out because the others did 'girly' things and he didn't, at which point Alex and Lindsey both pointed out that neither of them did 'girly' things, and he could and did spend most of his days with them for just that reason.

I really shouldn't feel better about myself because my kids, entirely separate from anything I'd done, have their own issues. Although I guess maybe there's something to be said for the parenting of the Mom Collective, of which I am a proud part, that our kids can come out and say those things without feeling some kinda way about, y'know, saying them.

Still worried about that bitch in Europa, though.