Family can be a bit overwhelming at times, too many people, too much history. Some people shy away from interaction with their family's, others embrace it with open arms. Sometimes you don't get a choice either way sadly. Family's family though, good, bad or miscellaneous right? Events unfold including but not limited to: John making himself useful (as a waiter, which he’s surprisingly good at?) and Hannah is having a magic free da- Wait! there's something in the trees?!

 

“You look like hell..”

A growl rumbled low in my chest and I glared at him with all that I had.
“YOU look like a selfish asshole, get your ugly face out of my way ya rat-bastard.”

Everyone froze.
It took me a moment to realise I’d said all of that out loud.. I’m way too tired for this crap..

“I need my meds.”

John’s surprised face shifted slightly into a more amused look.
“Really? It doesn’t show.”

I grit my teeth down, rolling my magic around in my chest to try and calm myself down a little.
It’s about as close as a mage can get to cracking their knuckles to relieve stress.

“Really not the time to be a smartass John.”
He didn’t resist when I pushed past him, a groggy Eris following behind me at a shuffle.

Before anything else could set me off I made a bee-line for my pills and got a glass of water to down them with.
Hopefully they do something, I’m pretty sure my mood is more tiredness and bad dream related then a magic induced mood swing but the pills are given to mental patients so they’re probably good for something, right?

“Did you sleep at all last night Han?”

I glanced up at Sarah and wrinkled my nose in frustration.
Those dreams last night really unsettled me.

I’m trying not to think about how natural it feels to have Eris tucked in behind me now.
It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable to begin with but it feels like it’d actually be more awkward and unsettling if she WASN’T near me at this point.

“I’m.. I’ll be fine, just had a bad dream and got caught up with some rune problems.”

She’ll buy that, she’s used to me getting a bit too into my work when it involves runes.
She woke up for work more than once in the flat to find me slumped over a table doodling possible glyph patterns on messy piles of paper.

She didn’t look too convinced by my words for some reason but that didn’t seem so important a moment later when she placed a fresh cup of coffee on the table in front of me.

I mouthed the words ‘love you’ to her and she finally cracked a smile at last.
Eris seemed to perk up a little in interest when she saw me sip the unofficial life-blood of American civilisation from a steaming hot mug, a few seconds later her eyes lit up happily when Sarah placed a glass of juice on the counter next to my mug for her with a wink.

“T’anks”
Her partly slurred word made me want to scoop her up in a hug and make her giggle somehow.
She’s always been such a slow-poke in the morning, just like her mo-

DAMN IT!
I almost slipped into it again!

All last night I had to beat back thoughts and feelings that weren’t naturally MINE!
Eris’s presence didn’t help, if anything she draws them all out worse than anything else..

I can feel what thoughts are ‘mine’ and which ones aren’t but if I’m not concentrating hard enough then they just slip through before I can catch them!

I’ve had this problem before, it happened a lot during my first awakening.
That doesn’t make it any easier or less scary to deal with NOW though!

“Everyone else is outside, Mum and Gran organised everything so we’re having breakfast in the garden for once.”
I caught her eyes and she rolled them dramatically to show me what she thought about going outside this early in the morning.

Sarah’s worse than me sometimes when it comes to mornings, especially sunlight, before she’s had a few hours to let her eyes relearn how the world works first at least.

For a moment I considered going back to my room and getting changed but the smell of meat cooking from outside decided to waft in through the open doors at that exact second, cutting off any ideas of clothes swapping as my baser ‘stomach related’ needs kicked into overdrive.
I glanced at Eris, still in her dress from yesterday which was now wrinkled beyond belief, and down at my own shorts/bikini combo under the equally messy long yellow T-shirt from yesterday with a sigh.

“Two seconds.”

With a dip and a shove I let a fraction of my diverted magic leak out.
Not a lot, just enough to refresh my clothes, Eris’s clothes and possibly reach Sarah on the other side of the counter.

Judging by the sudden ‘perk’ that appeared on Sarah’s face, along with a wide knowing grin, it reached her pretty easily.
I couldn’t help but sigh when my magic managed what the coffee so far hadn’t and took away that horrible dragging feeling of sleep deprivation for me.
Eris giggled at my side, taking my free hand in both of hers with a lot more perk to her as well.

A glance told me why she was giggling, just like always, the diversion had done wonders for all of our hair, Eris’s long red curls had puffed up at the very least.

She was playing some kind of game as she tried to blow her fringe up out of her eyes from where it had landed in a tangle.
I put down my now empty coffee mug and ran my hand through my own hair which was probably as ‘styled’ and ‘full’ looking as Sarah’s near identical cut now.

“Thanks Han, if we could bottle that gold-magic thing you do we’d be millionaires!”

I was tempted for just a moment to point out that we have a solid gold basketball court sized room in our elevator.. and when I get my accounts back in order I’ll be a ‘millionaire’ several times over again.. but the warm happy feelings from my diversion dissuaded me from bursting her bubble.

Following along with my new inborn instincts that seemed to mesh EVER so well with those forced happy feelings, I swooped down and smoothly scooped Eris up into my arms.
She let off a giggle and quickly set about sliding her head onto my chest, just above my heart as always.

“Lets go get some food, huh?”
Sarah smiled and nodded in agreement, Eris glanced up at me and smiled too.

As almost an afterthought I glanced over at John, who’d been unusually quite since I stepped past him, catching a flash of worry in his eyes before he hide it away behind his casual but amused smirk.
If I wasn’t ME and I didn’t KNOW him then I’d probably have missed it honestly.

We’ll probably be having words about whatever’s worrying him sooner rather than later.
..not now though..

“Onward! To food and sunlight!”
Eris giggled to herself and pressed her ear to my chest a little more as I jiggled her in my arms and lead the march out towards the annoyingly bright morning sun.

======

“Who conjured the benches?”

A load of picnic benches were lining our garden’s grass, full of family members obviously.
They looked familiar for some reason?
John decided to confirm why a moment later.

“No-one did, your family brought them from the farm along with the barbeques.. apparently I’m not the only one who can make expanded bags, despite what you seem to think..”
I shot him a warning look for being snarky.

John’s not like me in the morning.
He’s way more alert but in a much fouler mood typically.
Sometimes he just needs a glare or two to remind him that I’m not the enemy and he doesn’t have to snap about everything.

Feeling a little cheeky I slide over to his side and bumped his hip with my own.
“You make them so WELL though John-boy.”

He glared at me for the ‘John-boy’ jab but his face smoothed out into mild acceptance after a slight pause.

He probably has a reason to be annoyed, it can’t have been fun making all those expanded bags to store Arista’s mail yesterday OR shrinking and carrying all the beds.
I should have at least asked him before volunteering his help but in my defence I WAS kind of distracted at the time.

“Any preferred place you wanna sit?”
His eyes trailed up my arm as I waved at the tables and jiggled Eris on my hip to get her in a bit of a better position again.

He scanned the tables slowly with a slight look of distaste on his face.

He never has enjoyed dining ‘Al Fresco’.
Even in the court of King Louis, when we had free roam of Versailles Gardens practically to ourselves most days he would barely take a drink to the door, let alone eat his meal among the flowers.
..he’s such a prissy sod sometimes..

“How about I go save you a space and you get us some food? Meat preferably, Bacon if they have it?”
He shot me a curious glance but in the end he shrugged and left for the meal queue with a nod.

I shifted Eris on my hip one more time to get her comfortable and made my way over to one of the empty tables closer to the treeline.

Dite seemed to be holding court with the teenaged girls that hung out around the radio at the farm, on one of the tables nearby, while Tos slumped himself against the side of the table with a plate full of burgers and a grin on his lips.
Despite the way ‘Dites elbow kept lightly hitting the back of his head as she spoke and waved her arms around enthusiastically he seemed about as content as I’ve seen him be so far.

The whole scene was rather sweet honestly?
In a weird way of course, but still sweet, they seem so comfortable with each other in general?
It kinda reminds me of how Sarah and I were when we were younger.. they looked like a real brother and sister despite how different they appear from each other at first glance..

I wonder how long they’ve known each other?
In these incarnations I mean, not just in general because I can guess THAT would be roughly three to four millennia just from where their myths begin in recorded history..

“Oh powers, she’s talking again.”
My head dipped down to stare at Eris in surprise.
I’ve not heard her use that phrase before, it’s pretty common for mages around here to call on the ‘powers’ instead of making ‘god’ references but I always kind of figured it was just a local thing?
I picked it up from Karl honestly, so maybe he got it from somewhere else to start with I guess..

“She’s allowed to talk you know?”
Eris turned her bright little eyes up at me with a frown on her face.

For a moment I almost stumbled in my steps as a burst of several different variations on that EXACT expression came across several different variations of that EXACT same cute little girls face, flashing across my minds-eye at lightning speed.
With an effort I managed to shove them all aside and offer her a weak smile at last.
She didn’t seem very convinced either way sadly.

“She never stops talking, it’s so annoying..”
Eris shot her adversary a little glare that somehow still managed to look ‘cute’, then turned her eyes back up to me with a slightly lost look.

“Do we really have to sit with her? Can’t we go over by-”
She cut herself off and shot a quick, slightly desperate glance around us but apparently came up empty?

I couldn’t help but be amused as the emotions flashed blatantly across her little face while she studied each table and seemed to find some kind of flaw with them.
Jessie’s table had the boys playing around it, Grace’s group had Grace in it and all the other tables held family members that she’d pretty much never met before.

Knowing what I do now, it wasn’t hard to see that she wrote off most of them just because they had ‘strangers’ on them.
After what I saw in my ‘dreams’ last night it’s not hard to see why she would be nervous around strangers.. especially the werewolves of the family..

I shuddered a little as the final part of the dream played through my head one more time in quick succession before I could stop it.

I honestly have nothing against anyone here but even I’M going to give the werewolves of the family a bit of a wide berth for today.. maybe tomorrow too.. just long enough for me to move past the red moons light and maliciously tight golden eyes of that night, ya know?

That’s the trouble with past-life memories sometimes.
They can be insidious and slip their way into your brain without you even noticing them a lot of the time until something jars a little ‘wrong’ with your current self’s personality and you realise what’s happening.. but sometimes..

Sometimes they are like last night, sometimes they just come in like a freight train and drag you along with them leaving a lot of mess behind for you to clear up in their wake..

“How about we go take one of the empty tables in the shade and see who joins us instead, huh?”
I jiggled her on my hip again just to see if she’d brighten up a bit but it wasn’t necessary because she smiled at me anyway, just from the suggestion.

I wove my way out onto the grass, valiantly ignoring the annoying feeling of flowers sprouting up between my toes as I went, and got us over to the free bench that sat slightly off to the side of everyone else’s.
It took me a moment to recognise it but when I ran my hand over the smooth, fresh-red painted surface of the table top it was pretty obvious that this was the same bench I sat on for most of the barbeque a few days ago as people processed in and out with greetings for us to save me the embarrassment of walking everywhere with my stupid footprints in toe.

“Oppsie Daisy”
Eris looked about as surprised as I did when the words slipped past of my lips while shifting her from my hip onto the bench seat next to me.

I blushed brightly and ducked my head while glancing around to make sure no-one else heard me.
My eyes finally came back to Eris who seemed to be having a hard time not giggling at my embarrassing slip-up.

Despite the embarrassment I grinned and cupped a finger to my lips making a ‘shhh’ sound which made her giggle even more, especially when I added a wink for good measure.

“Not a bad spot, bit cold in the shade like this but at least we’re not sitting on the grass like animals.”
I yelped loudly when John just seemed to appear at my elbow, arms full of plated food and several water bottles sticking out of his pockets.
My surprise and overreaction set Eris off into a full blown laughter fit as she cupped her hands over her mouth to try and unsuccessfully hide her amusement.

“Don’t DO that! Damn near gave me a heart attack, ya maniac..”

John seemed just as amused as Eris did by my reaction.
Even as he slid the plates into place in front of us and fished out the water bottles so he could take the seat opposite me I could feel his eyes twinkling away like they always do when he finds something hilariously funny but doesn’t want to vocalise it.

“Ohhh, funny table! Always good this time of morning..”
Without much preamble Sarah plopped herself down in the spot next to John and pulled one of the plates full of meat toward herself with a hungry look in her eye.
“What was so funny anyway? Guessing Hannah did something stupid?”

I twitched and shot her a glare for the insinuation but it couldn’t hold much weight when she’s actually correct for once.
It was me that set the pair of them off after all..

“Shu’rup”

Even through clenched teeth she got the message I was trying to give and held her arms up slightly in surrender for a moment before going back to her food with a smug grin.
I shot John one more warning look which he seemed to find amusing and dove into my burger with gusto rather than try speaking again.

Eris had a fork in her hand from somewhere and out the corner of my eye I could see her trying to stab it into her burger.
It took me a moment to realise what she was trying to do but in the end it clicked enough to make me sigh.

Sarah used to be like that too.
Either her food was cut up or it wasn’t edible as far as she was concerned, luckily she grew out of that stage eventually..

“Pass them here sweetie.”
Eris shot me a slightly worried look but after blushing slightly she put the fork and a blunt knife she’d held at her side into my hands.
I pulled the plate closer and cut her burger up into strips, just like Sarah used to demand it.

She blushed a lot when I passed the knife and fork back to her but she also seemed inordinately pleased with the outcome of it all if her quick work of stabbing burger portions is anything to go by.

I moved back over to my own plate and caught Sarah’s eye as I went.
She had a warm look on her face that seemed a bit weird honestly?

“Gran’s right, you make a good mother Han..”

Part of my burger that I’d been chewing went down the wrong hole and sent me into a coughing fit out of surprise.
It took a few seconds to clear the blockage but it still left me gasping for air.
My hand snatched up one of the water bottles to chug some down which helped a lot at least.

Everyone at the table was watching me now.

John looked far too amused for his own good.
Eris seemed confused, she kept shooting looks between me and Sarah every few seconds between mouthfuls of her burger.
Sarah was trying, and failing, to look apologetic for catching me off guard like that.

With a sigh I folded my arm under my bust slightly and gave myself a loose little hug.

What is it with people and making ‘mother’ comments lately?
It’s not like I’m treating Eris weird or anything!

I used to do practically the same stuff I do for her for Sarah when we were kids and no-one commented on it back then!

Maybe it’s just a female thing?.. people see me as a woman with a kid at her side and instantly everything’s all ‘mother’ this and ‘you’re so good with kids’ that, talk about sexual bias!
I bet I wouldn’t have to put up with this crap if I still looked like Al!

“..stupid sexism..”

Luckily Sarah and Eris didn’t seem to catch my grumble but I have no doubt that John did, or that he understood where my brain had gone on the topic judging by how he cringed a little guiltily and sunk his shoulders instead of laughing like I would normally have expected of him.

It’s kind of nice to know that he feels guilty for doing this to me I guess?
That’s some kind of bright spot in it all at least.

“So, what’s the plan for today Han? Got another mad magical adventure planned?”

Her smirk didn’t dim even slightly despite my glare.
It’s not like I actually PLANNED to have all the crazy crap that’s been happening lately interrupt my life all the time?!

“Absolutely nothing, oh smart-assed sibling of mine, after breakfast I’m going to go change into something comfortable.. maybe get a book out and watch some TV with Eris?”
My head dipped a little to glance at Eris but I shouldn’t have worried.
She’d perked up instantly at the mention of ‘TV’.
Maybe it was just the idea of doing something with me though?.. kinda hard to tell honestly.
“I’m having a mildly magic free day today, no crazy people, no accidental spells and NO surprises!”

“INCOMING!”

My body tensed automatically even as I whipped around to stare at the source of the yell.
Dite and Tos had shot to their feet and were staring off towards the lake, despite the fact that it wasn’t visible through the trees.

“Stay here Eris, Sarah keep an eye on her..”
Sarah nodded and Eris huffed a little as I pushed myself to my feet.
“John.. come on, let’s find out what’s going on..”

As we both made our way over to ‘Dites table I felt like beating myself over the head repeatedly.
I just HAD to say ‘no surprises’, didn’t I?!

There should be a law about stuff like this!
It’s not fair that the world likes to screw with me so much.. with such a worryingly accurate degree of timing too!

Dite jumped a little when I came up to her side but quickly swung her eyes back into the treeline.

“What’s wrong?”
She grimaced and didn’t quite meet my eyes in the glance she shot at me but it’s pretty obvious something’s worried her.

“Can’t you feel it? There’s something.. or someone.. out in the trees?”
With a frown I dipped into my mage senses and had a quick scout around us.

There’s not really much that stands out honestly?
I’ll admit, my senses aren’t exactly the best and with all the magical folk around us it’s hard for me to focus on just one area at once but I can’t really feel anything particularly dangerous at least?

“It’s like.. I don’t know?.. like a Succubus or something?”

That made me frown even deeper and try my senses once more.
Succubi are bad news.
They’re technically human/fae hybrids so they can be reasoned with like normal people usually but for one to come this close to a house so full with THIS many magical signatures..
She must be starving or something?”

“I really don’t feel anyth-”
Something in the treeline moved making me stop mid-sentence.

Quick as a flash my hands came up and ice was already forming at my fingertips.
Whatever it was moved a bit closer at a steady pace and with a twitch I sent off a warning shot.

The long javelin of ice flew straight and true, embedding itself into the trunk of a tree near the things head.
A very human, very girly scream followed a moment later.
In a frantic rush the thing moved closer at a frightened sprint and burst out of the trees into the morning light.

For one painfully long second I almost followed my instincts and tossed a second Javelin at the perceived threat but as I took in the sight before me my shoulders slumped in relief.
With a heavy sigh I let the ice fall to the floor un-thrown.

“Narcissus, what the HELL are you doing here?!”

The tall, effeminate dark haired visage of Arista’s ‘son’ seemed to relax slightly at the sound of my voice.
With a practiced sweep he had his suit looking perfect again with his hair smoothed back down and a charming grin plastered on his face.

The tree’s moved and ‘Echo’ stepped out looking a bit worse for wear clothing-wise.
She looked like she’d just run a marathon honestly.

“Motherrr!”
With an exuberant wave of his arms Narcissus made his way towards me for a hug.
He never made it sadly.

Without much warning at all he was tackled to the ground by a flying missile with long red hair.
“SISSY!”

Everyone watched the byplay with several degrees of amusement on their faces as the first frightened, then dashing and now floundering ‘perfect’ specimen of man tried to fight off Eris’s grabby little hands while she fought tooth and nail for a hug of some kind.

I brought my hand up to the bridge of my nose in frustration but didn’t pause in walking over to the spot where they were rolling around on the floor to separate pair of them.

It didn’t take much to grab Eris by the back of her dress and lift her bodily off of Narcissus.
Her little arms stretched out for him for a moment more before she seemed to realise who it was holding her up, seemingly without missing a beat she turned her body and latched on to me instead in a tight cuddle.

I sighed and tried to ignore the way my arms automatically shifted to hold her better as she wiggled for a good position.

“..be a good mother my ass..”
No-one seemed to catch my little grumble but my point was clear enough for me at least.
Arista has FAR too many kids, I’m not sure how on earth I’m going to survive if this keeps up!

“To reiterate, what on earth are you doing here Narcissus?”

He lay panting to himself on the floor instead of answering me at first.
Before he could gather himself back together properly Echo spoke up instead.

“We heard that you were finally out of New Avalon, he wouldn’t listen when I said we should call his Father first.. but then what do you expect, he never listens to ME anyway..”
I tried to not wince at the last part.

The fact that it was painfully obvious, and true, just from what I’ve seen of the pair so far made things somehow so much worse.
..poor girl..

She blushed self-consciously and flicked her hair out of her face slightly with a huff.
“Sorry for bursting in on you like this, it looks like we aren’t the only ones at least?”
Her eyes turned to Eris and a warm smile crossed her lips.
“Hi little one, it’s been a while..”
Eris turned away from her and huffed to herself with her face buried in my chest again.

“Eris don’t be rude.”

Her head turned up to glance at me with tight eyes for a second before she inevitably gave in.
“Sorry Mommy.”

She didn’t apologise to Echo, despite having said that.
I jostled her on my hip a few times to prompt her but she seemed determined not to apologise to Echo for some reason.

In the end I turned my eyes back up to Echo and offered her a weak smile with a slight shrug.

She seemed disappointed by Eris’s reaction but not overly surprised so I think it’s safe to assume there’s some part of this that I’m missing?
As always with awakened mages everything’s complicated by history at some point.
With so many years around each other in different forms and situations I’m amazed we can keep it all straight in our heads at the best of times, let alone remember other people’s problems too!

“Have you both had breakfast? We’ve got the barbeque going still.”

Echo smiled at me awkwardly but nodded her thanks anyway.
I think she was just glad for the change of topic honestly?

My eyes cut down to Narcissus, he stared up to me with surprise obvious on his face.

As I studied him I had to hold back a relieved sigh when the overwhelming lust for him I’d had the first time we met didn’t show its ugly head again.
That pretty much confirms my initial thoughts at Yellowstone of my ‘overly-flirty’ mood being partly brought on by influences from one of my newly integrated past-lives.

Hopefully the whole thing is over with for now!
I definitely feel different at least, a lot more stable and less out of control.

It looks like Theodora may have pushed me out of my first integration cycle with her scary little ‘body-snatchers’ routine after I brought John back?
Well.. if you ignore the whole ‘bad dream/partial memories from incarnations I didn’t even know existed before’ thing last night at least..

“Eris sweetie, can you go get some burgers for Narcissus and his friend before they stop cooking them for me?”

Eris turned her wide little eyes up at me uncertainly but with a glance across the yard at the pretty much non-existent queue and a second glance back at Narcissus she nodded.
She shuffled around and managed to get across that she wanted to be let down easily enough so I slid her carefully off my hip until her feet hit the grass.

She didn’t hesitate in running off to the barbeques, although she DID give the people still sitting at the benches a wide berth.

I couldn’t help but frown slightly at her caution.
It’s probably not healthy that she’s this scared of people when she’s on her own..

“My names Kit by the way..”
My eyebrow twitched a little but luckily Echo.. uh.. ‘Kit’ I guess?.. didn’t notice it.
“Don’t worry about it, we got the lowdown on your memory problems through the grapevine.. for what it’s worth I’m sorry we came on so strong back at the restaurant, I was having a bad day and Narcissus has a certain ability to set me off at times.. especially when your involved..”

My face mirrored hers with a grimace but those looks gave way to twin smirks of amusement when we realised we’d matched for a moment.

I kind of like her?
I thought she was pretty bossy, kinda scary and not just a little delusional the first time we met but she seems a lot calmer now if nothing else..

Narcissus obviously had enough of not being the center of attention because he shot to his feet in seconds with a flourish that was just DESIGNED to get attention, breaking the moment as he went.

Ech.. ‘Kit’.. that name still doesn’t feel right for some reason?..
Anyway, ‘Kit’ grimaced again as she watched Narcissus slide his body into that same dramatically enticing pose he’d struck when he stepped through the door in the Chinese restaurant the other day.

It really feels weird to not be effected by it suddenly?
I’m kind of curious which past-incarnation I was in the process of ‘integrating’ at the time for her to find him to be some kind of ‘god among men’ perfect specimen..
..if anything he looks kind of silly now that I look properly?..

His pose in general is something I could imagine John doing if he was trying to be funny, like his fake ‘male-model’ pose, only with a bit more emphasis on the ‘model’ part to make it obvious that he wasn’t playing around.

“She’s not buying it this time Narcissus.”
I smirked rather proudly at E.. ‘Kit’..
She doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to normally speak out of turn unless she’s in a particularly bad mood?

Just call it gut instinct, but I think she’d usually be far more likely to commiserate with Narcissus for his failed attempt at looking ‘seductive’ then openly tell him that it failed for some reason.

Either way Narcissus suddenly looked, in a far too dramatic way, deeply offended at the idea that I wouldn’t find him attractive.
He opened his mouth to give some kind of comeback but before he could voice anything he was interrupted by a.. reluctantly welcome voice.

“Echo? You finally caught up with us huh? I take it little Sissy delayed you..”
‘Kit’.. or as I apparently correctly guessed ‘Echo’ cringed.

I shouldn’t be overly surprised I guess, a lot of mages tend to adopt preferred pseudonym’s as times change and their true mage names become well known enough to make life in general slightly awkward.

Hell, I don’t go by ‘Arista’ after all.
It’s not like it’s a crime to use a different name or anything..

Naturally John sounded far too amused to NOT know that he’d used the wrong name for her as he came over to us but, much to my surprise, there was no malice on his face or in his magic?

It took me far longer than it should have between Eris’s happy cry earlier and now Johns opening words to realise that ‘Sissy’ wasn’t in some way an insult against Narcissus but apparently an openly accepted nickname instead?

I guess times DO change a lot?
While ‘Sissy’ tends to have a different meaning these days I don’t really have any memories of it being an actual word until pretty recently..

In fact, the closest thing I can think of to the word before the fifteen-hundreds would be a little fishing village on the expansive coast of the Greek island Crete?
Not that I particularly remember HOW I know there’s a place called ‘Sisi’ in Greece but I must have picked it up from one incarnation or another.
That tends to be the reason for most of the knowledge I just somehow KNOW, ya know?

“Hi Uncle Max, you look well!”
With more enthusiasm then I’d expected Kit.. or Echo..

You know what?
In the sanctity of my own mind I’ll call her Echo for now, ‘Kit’ really doesn’t feel RIGHT for some reason..

Anyway, Echo bounced on her toes excitedly and shot over to give John a warm hug.
The fact that John not only didn’t try to dodge her but actually seemed HAPPY to be hugging her threw me off completely.. also, since when did John become someone’s UNCLE?!

Narcissus huffed to himself loudly and practically pouted when he realised that John had taken the limelight off of him again.
I had to resist the urge to laugh at how silly he was being honestly.
He really IS just an overgrown child at times.

Speaking of children, Eris wandered over to us on slightly unsteady legs.. which is completely understandable considering she was weighed down by a large tray of burgers in her little arms.

I quickly moved to her side and took the tray from her with a smile.
She grinned back at me proudly, it kind of made me want to drop the tray and hug her?
She’s far too cute for words when she smiles like that!

Instead of dropping it I moved the tray onto the nearest empty table before kneeling slightly and offering her my open arms.
She didn’t need a seconds thought before practically diving in for a hug that let me scoop her up in a twirling hold that settled her on that particularly comfortable spot she seems to automatically land in at my hip every time.

She giggled to herself happily and buried her face into my T-shirt for some reason but I let her do it anyway, I was giggling a little too honestly, although I tried to keep it quiet so John wouldn’t notice.

When we finally looked away from each other it became apparent that we were now the center of attention.
I blushed brightly and Eris buried her face a little more into my chest.

..I kind of wish I could bury my face in someone’s chest to hide too now..
My eyes subconsciously turned to John with an assessing gaze before I shook the stupid half-formed idea away with a frustrated grunt.

No matter how awkward the situation, THAT’S not gonna happen!
Stupid brain, why does it always have to come up with weird ideas when John’s involved?!

“The burgers are here, why don’t you catch up with John while I take Eris to go get dressed for the day?”
John opened his mouth, possibly to complain, but I think he worked out why I was trying to leave so quickly a moment later.

I don’t tend to handle being the center of attention very well to start with.
The fact that even more ‘new’ people are here, and they’re drawing out strange feelings with accompanying instincts from me.. it has me feeling unnervingly far from my ‘comfort zone’ at the moment.

Rather than wait for a response I turned on my heel, jiggled Eris a little to get her positioned properly again and made my way back towards the house.

“She’s leaving footprints in the grass, is that normal?.. Who’s ‘John’ anyway?”
While I didn’t even miss a step in my march towards the house I DID cringe visibly at Echo’s mumbled question.

Eris’s head pushed up a little so she could catch my eye.
She offered me a weak smile before settling her head down against my shoulder so she could peer out at the trees as we moved by.

“..people are annoying..”

It took everything I had to not burst out in a giggle fit when she spouted that line again.
I really shouldn’t encourage her with that idea but she’s a girl after my own heart if nothing else.
..ah, what the hell?! She can work out the meaning of tolerance and friendship another day..

“Yeah.. they are..”

She sighed happily and slid her head down slightly further until her ear rested above my heart.
It felt nice to know I could get a reaction out of her like that so easily.

With a slight skip to my step I brought us onto the path and carried on toward the house with a smile playing across my lips.

======

I hissed a frustrated breath through my teeth.
In a smooth gesture I managed to yank my shirt over my head and pulled my short-shorts down without pausing in between.

Eris watched on from the bed with interested eyes.
While I’m not particularly body conscious, especially about THIS body, there’s something unnerving about having a little girl watch you get changed.

I tried going into my en-suite bathroom but she followed me.
I tried to shoo her outside for a moment so I could at least change my underwear in peace but she wasn’t having any of it.

After we wasted almost ten minutes with me trying to find more and more inventive ways to encourage her to leave the room I gave up, hence why I’m now standing in front of Eris in my bikini top and the embarrassingly feminine panties I’d worn under my shorts for the last few days.

I hadn’t exactly planned on someone else seeing me wearing them when I put them on, I was more focused on how annoying and scary my lack of magic was at the time!

I shot Eris one more hopeful look but she seemed entirely too interested in seeing what I would do next and didn’t seem to even notice my glance.
With a heavy sigh I made my way over to my bag and shoved my arm inside, up to my shoulder.

In my minds-eye I focused on the particular clothes I’d decided to wear today and a dip into my lines was enough to summon them from the depths of the expanded bag into my hand.
..that’s so much easier to do with magic..

I kept my back to Eris but my cheeks still flushed when I put the bundle of cloth out on the table and carefully slid the too feminine undies down my legs.
As quick as humanly possible I grabbed the plain white cotton pair I’d summoned from my bag and stepped into them in the blink of an eye.

Bra swapping was a bit less nerve wracking.
It took a bit of fiddling but I managed to get the straps at the back of my bikini top undone then switched it out for a much more boring but comfortable skin-tone sports bra.

When I turned around, finally feeling a bit more at ease with Eris’s presence now that the really embarrassing parts were done, I was met by a slightly disappointed look from her.
I think she doesn’t like the ‘boring’ undies I picked?

Well TOUGH little Miss picky!
I’m the adult.. sort of.. and I’ll pick my own damn underwear, so THERE!

She seemed to perk up a bit when she realised that the last part of my outfit was, in fact, a dress at least.
Of all the unnecessary clothes Mum and Sarah got me at the store I actually like this dress the best..

Come to think of it, should I be worried that I have a ‘favorite’ dress now?

It’s a royal blue modern-style midi dress with a wide pleated skirt that feels delicious and a sort of.. off-the shoulder-but-technically-not design to the top?
okay.. so I’m terrible at descriptions..

It has a sort of.. slightly dipped neckline with thick shoulder straps that don’t connect to the sleeves?
The Cut-outs at each shoulder show a bit of skin on either side and end with a set of almost ‘Bardot’ style mini-sleeves that end just past my armpits?
It looks very retro if I’m honest with myself, luckily that’s in fashion these days I guess..

If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d be able to use the knowledge of old, pre-color film era woman’s clothing that I gained when Sarah went through her ‘elegant’ phase to describe my own casual, comfortable clothing choices I’d have probably laughed in your face.. but what can I say?

I may have only BEEN a woman for a week or so but I know what I like!

Everything about this dress from the eye-catching yet subdued color to the heavy but breathable fabric and the top half that somehow makes me feel so much cooler despite only exposing a few inches of shoulder on either side is just PERFECT to my eyes.

When I had it all settled properly I gave a little twirl sending the skirt and it’s subtle layer of stitched in ‘petticoat’ material fluttering around me, much to Eris’s approval judging by the wide eyed look and accompanying grin she was sporting.
Feeling a bit ‘fluttery’ myself after giving in to yet another strange impulse from my muddled brain I dipped into my lines to feed some power into my pancreas.

It won’t last, conjured stuff never does in the end, especially if it’s done quickly without a proper source design but it will do for now.

Within seconds the image in my minds-eye became reality and clutched in my hand was a truly adorable replica of my dress but in miniature scale for obvious reasons.
Eris squealed happily and shot off the bed.

Without hesitation she yanked her old dress over her head and was moments from grabbing the new dress from my hands before I rose it slightly out of her reach.
She shot me an almost offended look and tried to hop up slightly but to no avail.

“New undies first, then the dress.”
She cringed and seemed uncertain of herself suddenly.

At first I thought she was just shy but that’s not it, from the way she shifted her body uncertainly I can read a few details about what she’s thinking.. most prevalent is that she doesn’t have any other underwear around.

I gave her a warm understanding look which seemed to freeze her in place and with a florish of my free hand, followed closely by a dip back into my lines, I was clutching a dainty pair of little girls panties and a cami-top for her to wear.

Her face lit up again and she grabbed them from my hand without hesitation.
I quickly spun on my heel so I didn’t have to see her naked, it’s bad enough she pretty much saw me naked a minute ago without making this all even MORE awkward and wrong!

The first sign I got that she was finished was a slight tugging on the dress in my hand.
I turned cautiously and couldn’t help but smile as she stood there in the delicate, overly fussy undies that came to my mind when I tried to think what a little girl would wear.
I think Sarah wore something like these quite a lot when we were younger, naturally that means I probably wore them at some point too.
..damn pushy sister..

The pink little cami’s a bit plain but the panties with their frilly little butt, rows lace and opal-like soft pink coloring just made her look cute as a button!
If anything the whole outfit somehow made her look smaller or younger in some weird way?

Instead of letting her do it I stepped up and moved the dress in my hands above her head.
After a momentarily confused pause she seemed to realise what I was going to do because a wide grin split her face and she shot her arms up in the air.
With care to not hurt her I slid the dress over her head and helped move her arms into the little sleeves.

Eris giggled to herself when the skirt of the dress settled around her knees.
She grabbed a side of it with her hand and spun in a circle making the skirt flare out like mine had previously.

We both shared a smile.
Without conscious thought my hand came up to cup her face lovingly and she practically sank into my touch.

The royal blue of her dress is rather striking in contrast to her red hair.
It doesn’t clash surprisingly.. at least, not to my eyes?

“Give me a second to grab a book or two and we’ll go watch some TV, how does that sound sweetie?”
Eris smiled happily.

Her hands wouldn’t stop fiddling with the edge of her new dress and she seemed inordinately pleased to be wearing a similar outfit to mine.
I turned back to my bag to grab a few books from inside it but froze a second later when a weight collided with my stomach.

“Thanks Mommy.”
My eyes tracked down to Eris’s bright little face from where she’d splayed herself into the skirt of my dress, her arms wide in a hug around my thighs that didn’t even come close to reaching all the way around.

I couldn’t have stopped the warm smile that came to my lips even if I’d wanted to.
My hand came up to pat her hair slightly in that particular way she seems to enjoy so much.

With a twist, dip into my lines through my kidneys and a gesture of my free hand I managed to summon a pile of books from inside my bag without getting any closer to it.

I’d been focused on the books Edith put in there seemingly so long ago, back when she first gave me the bag.
I’ve got to get around to reading them at some point anyway and this is as good a time as any.

I’ve got to give credit to Edith though!
I doubt I’d have been able to find the books so easily if she hadn’t done such a good job on the bag itself.

It’s got to have some kind of ‘retrieval’ charm on it or something?
There’s no way I’d be able to pick out such a specific but undefined set of items as ‘those books Edith gave me’ with a simple summoning charm normally!

Every time I think that I’m catching up to her the crazy little yoda has another trick up her sleeve..
It’d be frustrating if it wasn’t so fun working out how she does it!

“Let’s go then, TV calls!”
Eris giggled happily and slid to my side so she could grasp my hand tightly as we stepped out into the hallway.

A glance back into my room and a wave of my hand later had the books levitated off the floor to follow after us like a particularly papery but eager pile of puppies.
..I love magic sometimes..

======

‘Mindscapes are malleable by the will of the owner only, if two beings inhabit a mindscape at the same time then the dominant one will hold the power alone. This effect can be seen in diagram four below as-‘
I paused mid-sentence and glanced up from my book to check on Eris.

I needn’t have worried.
She was far too busy lying out on the floor in front of the TV, her little legs kicking the material of her skirt around slightly as she stared avidly at the screen.

A wave of nostalgia flowed through me as I watched her for a moment.
Add in another girl at her side, change her hair to a duller shade without her signature red in it and she could practically BE me as a kid!

The amount of times Sarah and I would lay out on our bellies watching TV like that, skirts flying about as we chatted and laughed with each other in our own little oblivious world.. even dad couldn’t ruin that little bonding activity for us.
Although, after he was gone, we had to be a bit more subtle about it and wait for times when Mum was out running errands before even attempting to bring skirts and dresses back into it all..

Still.. the cute sight before me warmed my heart a bit anyway!

I couldn’t resist smiling to myself when a particularly hard leg kick sent Eris’s skirts flying and flashed just a hint of pink underneath.
Little girls can be so oblivious to things like that, I should really warn her about it but I just can’t bring myself to interrupt her fun at the moment?

There’s only the two of us here anyway and I changed her cloth-diapers as a baby so it’s not lik-

DAMN IT!
It’s getting harder and harder to keep those insidious little thoughts from leaking out when Eris is involved!

The book on mind-magics slid from my fingers and landed on the seat to my side as I brought a hand up to squeeze the bridge of my nose hard.
All it takes is just a moment of inattention and ‘BAM!’ for all intents and purposes I’m Eris’s ‘Mother’ in all but name!

It’s really getting bad.
Imagining a day without having her at my side is almost physically painful at this point.

I didn’t even realise that I was doing it at the time but this whole ‘matching mother-daughter outfits’ thing is ridiculous too!
I’m not going to change it NOW obviously, Eris seems so happy that we’re wearing the same clothes but in principle I shouldn’t have even THOUGHT about putting her in something like my clothes because it would be ‘cute’ or ‘adorable’..

Those are ‘Mom’ thoughts, those aren’t ‘Hannah’ thoughts damn it!

I’m NOT her mother!
I’m NOT Arista and I don’t ever WANT to be her!

I need to get a handle on this soon or who knows what will happen?!
Today I’m the mother, what if tomorrow one of her ex-husbands turns up and I’m suddenly the ‘wife’?.. or even worse I wake up and I’m just flat-out ‘Arista’ instead!

I HATE magic sometimes!

Eris burst into a fit of giggles when the dopy looking purple thing on screen fell over.
The sound jolted me out of my melancholic musings and reluctantly a smile slipped onto my lips again despite myself.
With a sigh I settled back into the sofa a little more and picked up my book.

No use worrying about it now, there’s not much I can do about it if something IS wrong at the moment.

It’s just lucky my magic’s been almost frustratingly calm since I woke up in New Avalon really?
Apollo checked me over and agreed with John’s theory that I’d come out of my first major integration cycle as a result of the ‘solar flare’ I let off a few days ago.

For the next few weeks I should be practically stable and pretty safe to be around.. and then it’s back to panic stations again.
..naturally John couldn’t resist making a PMS comparison 'joke'..

I hit him for it of course.. HARD!
He didn’t seem to find my ‘sudden relapse into violent mood swings’ either convincing or fair, but screw him!

You don’t make PMS jokes to the person you exclusively had a hand in turning into a woman!
“..stupid John..”

======

“Hannah?”

Sarah stuck her head around the doorframe into the TV room and paused for a moment.
I desperately tried to neither blush nor show in any way that I was somewhat embarrassed at her seeing me sitting here in a dress with Eris in a matching outfit.. it didn’t work of course..

Her previously worried face split into a slight grin as her eyes cut between me and Eris a few more times.
She seemed to catalogue every similarity as she went, being painfully obvious about it as she did.

“Can I help you with something Sare?”
She didn’t particularly seem to notice or care about the warning tone to my voice but at least it got her attention back again.

“John needs you for a second, apparently Echo’s brought something to his attention.. it sounded kinda important.”

Eris twisted her body and peered at me thoughtfully for a moment.
I offered her a smile even though I felt a slight flash of worry go down my spine.

If John thinks something is important.. it probably is?..
He’s an ass at times but he can be serious when he has to.

“Can you stay with Eris while I go see him Sare?”

Sarah’s face lit up for some reason.
Eris didn’t seem at all pleased that I’d be leaving her for a moment but when I caught her eyes she rolled her own ones in a sign that she’d be okay, but by no means happy about it all, and turned back to watching the TV.
..I’m starting to see why mothers plant their kids down in-front of the ‘idiot box’ so much these days..

“Thanks Sare, I’ll be back soon.”

I left my book on the side table and made my way downstairs to find John.
It wasn’t hard to guess where he would be.

Since his little trick at our front door that made her faint, Mum’s been a bit cold with him and he honestly seems a bit worried being too close to her?
That means he seems to spend most of his time in our back garden with Tos and whoever else happens to be out there at the time.

I’ve got to admit it IS kind of feeling a bit cramped indoors at the moment.
Our house was kind of a squeeze with just me, Mum and Sarah growing up so having THIS many people saying over.. let’s just say it’s a good thing we have so many bathrooms in the house!

My foot hesitated slightly as I went to step out onto the grass but with a sigh I did it anyway.
I need to work on stopping the whole ‘grow flowers’ effect, Gran said I should be able to with a bit of practice but honestly it’s finding the time to do it that’s the problem..

“What’s wrong John?”

Everyone in his little group near Tos’s temporary ‘sleeping-hut’ turned to look at me.
It made my stomach tense slightly to have so many worried looks sent my way at the same time.

“Echo reminded me that her and Narcissus weren’t the only ones out looking for you the other day. She also mentioned that before they got here she sent out word to everyone that you were awake and apparently open for visitors..”
John seemed to be unsure how to react to his own words.

I don’t really see the problem, the rumor-mill that is ‘mages in general’ would surely have told everyone at some point anyway right?
Echo winced and guiltily stubbed her shoe in the grass when my eyes drifted over to her.

I frowned, my eyes cutting back over to John so I could give him a curious eyebrow.
What am I missing here?

“We just got word that the Klamath Falls waypoint beacon has been reactivated and it’s promptly been flooded with incoming travellers.”

Ahh.. that’s.. that’s not good?..
“How long do we have until-”

Dite visibly tensed and turned with Tos in tow to stare out into the treeline at the south-side of the garden.
With a dawning sense of inevitability I turned to follow her gazes, trailed quickly by everyone else.

Slowly the lower bush-like tree branches started moving and people started coming into view, cautiously at first, but with progressively more confidence as others followed behind them.
Ten.. Twenty.. Thirty.. there’s got to be more of them then the worrying amount of people from Mum’s family currently indoors already!

From the middle of the crowd a few little children that seemed to be around Eris’s age, give or take a few years, pushed their way through and broke into a squealing happy run straight for us.
Almost in unison they broke the awkward silence that had fallen over the garden with their bright little voices.

“MOMMY!”

John cringed at my side.
I could feel his magic roll around with worry as he scanned the mass of people coming towards us.

“..we’re going to need more beds..”

My face scrunched up into a frustrated frown as the youngest of the group reached the halfway point between us and the treeline.
Subtly my foot came up to stamp hard on his unsuspecting foot.

This is NOT the time for jokes!
He’s such an asshole sometimes..

“MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!!”

I carefully slide a smile onto my face as the younger ones got closer.
My magic rolled around in my chest with worry but I focused on everything I’ve learnt while dealing with Eris over the last few days instead of voicing it openly.

The only thing that could be worse than an unexpected flood of ‘children’ at this point would be if I manage to make the lot of them cry by showing just how PISSED OFF with this whole mess I am right now!

Damn it Arista!
Couldn’t you keep your bloody legs shut for ONCE you heartless bitch?!

“MOMMY!”
With giggles and squeals I was buried under a wave of excitable little children that practically tackled me to the floor.

I had to focus on breathing for a moment as they settled themselves on top of me in a way that I assume was in some way ‘comfortable’ for them but left ME with a compressed chest and a definite lack of air!

“Mommy! We missed you, can we have ice-cream?”
The one that spoke from somewhere near my navel suddenly yelped and squirmed a bit.
“Mommy, tell her! Lache hit me!”

“I did NOT! Mommy, Clo’s lying!”
My one free arm came up so I could bring my hand to my nose and squeeze away a headache for what feels like the millionth time in the last few days.
“OWW! MOMMY, Pos kicked me!”

A breath hissed its way through my teeth as I tried to not do precisely what I wanted to do SO badly at the moment.

“Don’t look now Hannah but here come the ‘adults’ of the group.”
My eyes squinted down into a tight little glare as I stared at the upside-down face of John.
He seems FAR too amused about all of this suddenly, his magic is practically rolling with supressed mirth!

“DADDY!”
His eyes shot wide and a moment later he was tackled to the ground by a swarm of teenaged girls.

I tried not to be too obvious with just how good it felt to see him get the same rough treatment as me but there wasn’t much I could do to hide my wide grin or the laugh that rumbled in my chest, especially with so many kids on top of me to hear it!

My eyes tracked a boy of about fourteen, who actually held a worrying likeness to John, as he came flying out of nowhere and dived on top of the veritable dog-pile garnering indignant yells from the girls and a pained grunt from John.

As the writhing mass rolled around on top of him I lay back into the grass and shifted the little ones on my chest into a slightly more comfortable position so they could look at me with wide happy eyes and bicker with each other lightly without hurting me too much.

“OWW! That’s my hand Ninka you fat drunk!”
My eyes flew back over to the dog-pile on top of John as two of the girls started fighting amongst themselves and John’s magic flared in a way that signified a sudden jolt of pain.
..feels like I got off kinda lightly actually?..

HA! Teach you to make PMS jokes and laugh at me being swarmed John!

The commotion had obviously attracted attention from inside the house.
People were already coming out of the backdoor with curious and weary looks on their faces.
A little object wiggled its way through the legs of the men at the front of the house group and made a break towards us, her red hair trailing behind her and her royal blue dress flapping about in the breeze.

I almost managed to let off a plea for her to stop before Eris kicked off and practically flew out to land heavily on top of me.
She clambered around to claim the spot near my left breast as her own, with a few well-placed kicks and shoves she managed to tuck herself into my arm and plant her ear above my heart as she always does.

The other little ones started moving angrily at what they saw as Eris’s invasion of ‘their’ space.
I could see the arguments and fights brewing already with horrible inevitability.

“..THIS is why I don’t work with kids..”
No-one seemed to notice or appreciate my muttered groan for what it was.
If anything the wide grin on Sarah’s face as she 'busily' takes her sweet-ass time getting over here to help me would suggest that I’m, in fact, completely alone in understanding just how horrible this whole situation is!

Is it too late to join Grace in the ‘I don’t do babies’ club?
..I wonder what the membership requirements are?..

OUCH! That’s my boob not a hand-hold you annoying little-!