Arc X.1 | Chapter 33: Interlude | Project Piketown Infiltration 33

Yujao was quite enjoying himself—he lived to do things like this, even if there was also so much to do.

The thing was, there were just so many people there! So far, in the cute little function Emilia had made, long ago, for managing who was living where at any given time—a function that was generally only used for the kids these days, but was currently proving to be exceptionally useful—excluding the clones, there were over two dozen people noted as having moved at least partially into the building that was now their official base of operations in their Make Emmie’s Ex Suffer plan. Another dozen had indicated that they might move in, while a handful more had stated they’d come visit and would therefore appreciate a room being set up for them—the building was big enough to have dozens of dedicated guest rooms and money was no object. On top of that, a number of people were giving all the vibes that they might come live in the building if they were given permission.

What sort of permission, one might ask?

Well, in Darrian’s case, there was the implication that he would only come live in Piketown if Emilia personally gave him permission. It didn’t seem to matter to him that she had effectively given them all permission, but Yujao could understand. There was something implicit in the way the conversation between Sorvell and Emilia had gone that had made it clear that while she wasn’t going to stop them from coming to her city or making her ex miserable, at least part of her acceptance of what they were doing was because she wasn’t currently in the city. As a result, for the moment, there was this vaguely unsettled energy seeping through the building because no one knew how long they would be allowed to stay there.

Some of the people both already in the city and lingering in the peripheries, implying they would love to come for days, weeks, months, were assuming they would indeed be there for months. If their excuse for being there was that they were supporting Olivier in the Alver case, surely, that meant they could stay until said case was over? At the same time, when Emilia came back from her trip, none of them knew what would happen—whether they would be welcome, whether she would run, whether she would demand they leave.

In a complete contrast, a number of the kids were giving all the energy that they were intending on moving permanently into the building. For some of them, this was a bit of a problem. Several, including the extremely vocal Lennon, Hayden, and Calvial were all under thirty, and thus, would require permission from their parent to move to the city. Technically, despite being nearly forty, Melodian and Ivirium would also need permission, but as complicated as their situation was…

No, Yujao couldn’t see a world where most of those kids wouldn’t be given permission to move to Piketown, their small army of clones and majenstra following in their wake. For as much as Cavial’s mother could be overbearing and actually hated Baalphoria with a passion that led her to being the only person Yujao knew wouldn’t be requiring a room, temporary or otherwise, Yujao was sure the teenager could convince someone to agree to be her guardian in Baalphoria while she…

While she what? Attended a Baalphorian school? Lennon and Hayden were nearly six years older than Calvial, but they would also be in a situation of having to transfer into a Baalphorian school. That would be a significant change for those kids.

Out of all the kids who had ended up with their unit over the years, only a few of them had been given anything even approximating a traditional education. Xavier had attended school in the Penns with his adoptive siblings until the war, while Porsq had never been in a position to attend school, due to his irregular deviation. For the older kids, Clemence’s education had likely been the most normal, as she’d had a normal education in Lüshan before attending school with Alaric and Cyan in the Penns, but all three’s educations had been cut short by their removal to Crishar following the start of the war. Several of the older kids who had left Lüshan with them had been educated in some mixture of tutoring within the Virtuosi System, in order to make up for the reality that few of them had received any education in Falmíer, and attending actual schools in several different nations. Definitely not normal.

While a few of the kids had eventually lived in the Penns and attended school, after being caught up on things, most of the other kids had attended classes in Crishar and Norvel while also being tutored by the adults of their group who loved whatever topic they were currently obsessed with. They had occasionally slipped into Seer’ik’tine or Dion to attend lectures or learn from one person or another both during the war and in the decade since—recently, a few had also taken to attending Pylenius’ lectures as well. After the war, there had been offers to have those who were still under thirty return to Baalphoria in order to have a more traditional education—as though any education at Emilia’s old school in the Penns could ever be normal. All of the kids had refused, some mixture of their inadvertent public status as known children of Division 30 and their enjoyment of their freedom to learn and fuck around as they pleased keeping them within their strange and haphazard education.

This wasn’t to say the kids weren’t being properly educated—if anything, Yujao suspected that, were Calvial, Lennon, and Hayden to actually end up enrolled in compulsory schooling in Baalphoria, they would be driving their teacher’s mad with their knowledge of the world. These were children who had studied under both non-devs the world over and people thousands of years old—some of those non-dev were also thousands of years old! Those poor teachers were so totally fucked.

Regardless, the fact that a bunch of the kids would inevitably be moving into the building, either short or long term, eventually—assuming Emilia didn’t give up on her own education at the local university, the kids inevitably following her now that they felt more confident in asking that they be allowed to trail her wherever she went—this meant Yujao really needed to make sure this place was organized.

A million needs and wants laid out before his eyes, the result of how perfect Emilia’s function was.

There were notes on everyone’s favourites—on those things they couldn’t do without. Some of it was a bit dated—a few people’s information hadn’t been updated since the war ended, when the function had been used to manage housekeeping and food and everything else at their base. Yujao had sent messages out to everyone whose information hadn’t been updated in over two months, demanding they make sure their information was correct.

Some of the information was perfect, of course. The kids’, obviously, as well as all the adults who lived with them in any regularity. Someone in Meerik'za’s harem had apparently been using the function to manage their sprawling estate’s management as well. This left a few outliers, but for the most part, everyone had gotten back to him in a timely manner.

Some people would have waited until morning to organize their new home. Yujao was not one of those people. For decades, he had taken care of so much for his friends, acts of service something that gave him great pleasure. It worked well for him, especially as neither Hurinren nor Emilia were the sort to be organized the way he was.

Emilia could make the functions to organize things for her, or to allow someone else to do it for her. Hurinren could follow instructions perfectly, retrieving this or that for Yujao whenever he asked. Both would live in squalor without him and other people to manage their things—seriously, Yujao was concerned about Emilia’s current living situation, although Samina had informed him that one of her new friends was a mothering sort of person, although not as much as Yujao himself or Taelor were.

Before the war, Yujao had often been the one organizing to have this or that item sent to Emilia and the kids, wherever they happened to be at the time. Before Alliance Ridge, he had managed their side of the unit, making sure everyone had whatever they needed and pretending to be a flighty boy whenever the other side of the unit dared demand things of him. Many a piece of clothing had been ruined by him after those assholes had attempted to force him to care for them as though, had there not been a war raging, he wouldn’t have happily slit their throats.

Then, of course, after Alliance Ridge was destroyed, Yujao had been left in charge of so much. It had been exhausting, managing their main base as well as the various locations where their members were one moment to the next—Norvel, largely, Crishar having slowly become less safe as both the coup loomed and the war pressed at its borders. It had been so much easier once sparking was developed and they’d all been able to spark back to their preferred home, no matter where they were stationed at the time.

Everyone living in such tight quarters had its cons, of course. Tempers had been high, stress causing fights to break out. A few of their unit members had eventually been given functions to track down fights, due to their ability to break up human conflicts so quickly. Some had been skilled in junk skills, others had irregular deviations that could splinter through the world—takeover the aether or bring whoever was fighting to their knees or split through their mind until they were nothing but a husk of calm. It had always been fun to watch Darrian break up fights, the man having no specific ability to stop anyone save the inherent protection of his friendships with Emilia, Levi, Westrial, and Baylor.

The one time Darrian had been hurt during one of those fights, when he’d stepped between Charles and James, shortly after Lux’s death, Baylor had almost killed Charles. Given all that man was currently letting his wife get away with, Yujao rather thought it an unfortunate thing that Darrian had stopped Baylor from actually decapitating the Byshi non-dev.

[Yuyu:Can you source some stuff for me?]

[Yuyu sent {{Wants and Needs}}]

GH:Can you get a certain someone to do their paperwork?]

[Yuyu:At this very moment? No, but I can ask.]

[Yuyu:Just normal paperwork?]

[GH:Yes. It is late, and I have been unable to get a hold of that girl and have needed to make other arrangements.]

That was… strange. Yujao didn’t generally let anyone know, but he had a bit of contact with Emilia, due to their joint management of their exotic fruit smuggling ring. It actually required very little work from either of them these days—more, it was the behind-the-scenes stuff that took a bit of effort, and all of that stuff definitely wasn’t the sort of thing Emilia would ever brush aside.

[Yuyu:It’s going through her xphern, I assume?]

[GH:Of course.]

[Yuyu:I’ll ask if she hasn’t been checking it, or something.]

[Yuyu:It’s pretty old, so maybe it broke and she didn’t realize?]

[Yuyu:Not sure she uses it much. Since Calvie got her temp, the kids have been using relays more.]

There were still a few kids under sixteen associated with their unit, of course, but most of them were less connected to the kids. Simeon’s older girl was friendly enough with them, but as she was actually being raised in the Penns, she of course had her own friends—there was a reason Emilia had only just met the girl. Annette and Charles had kids as well, but they were… weird. Weird, as in, even they seemed to think that anyone who didn’t have a permanent Censor installed was so stupid that they shouldn’t even be talked to.

A few of the older kids had Censors installed, but part of the reason temporary Censors had been so quick to deploy during the war was that Emilia, Halen, and Curtisal had already been developing them, in concert with the Ridge Rind. Of those kids who had decided to have one permanently installed, Yujao thought most regretted it—maybe not Porsq, due to how much it helped him control his abilities, but the rest of them? Censors were a permanent severing from their heritage—from their cores and everything their ancestors had developed. For those little girls, half Baalphorian, half Free Colonier, to think that not giving up that heritage was something so abhorrent…

Yujao shook himself as he stared down at the various bits of paperwork that had been forwarded to him, all so he could express to Emilia how much she needed to get it done. G.H. and everyone else involved in their operations could handle it for a while, but…

In the background, Olivier was explaining some of the finer points of divorce law to Xavier, Louis’ terrible soon-to-be-ex-wife attempting to cite some obscure precedent that had Olivier’s tone tight and clipped.

“It’s the sort of law that people cite when they are complete pieces of shit,” Olivier was saying, Xavier’s laugh muffled—likely, the little boy was still curled into his uncle’s chest, laughing into his skin. “I suppose we should have expected her to use it, despite how bad using it will make her look,” he added, earning him more giggles from Xavier and a comment from Alkaniak that she had already suspected that vapid woman would do so.

On the conversation went, Olivier explaining that, for the most part, knowing that she would do it wasn’t super helpful—there was nothing they could do to stop Vanessa Van from using the law, apparently. To some extent, Yujao preferred the wild world of the Inner Court, where laws were less important than well-placed threats. In Baalphoria, threats and blackmail were liable to land a person in court, defending themselves against charges of intimidation.

Yujao was excellent at intimidating people; thus, this was very unfortunate. A few minutes alone with Louis’ wife, and she would never contact anyone from the de la Rue family again. A few minutes alone with Emilia’s ex, and the man would never set foot in any nation they claimed as theirs again.

[Yuyu:Since when was Sorac in a position to buy property under his own name?]

[GH:Since a few months ago, when his little boyfriend offered to help him buy a place—get something under his name.]

[Yuyu:Is that a good idea?]

[GH:Sorac made it clear to the boyfriend that it might cause problems for him. The kid didn’t seem to care—said he wasn’t the sort of person that problems in the Grey Sands would affect much.]

[Yuyu:You met the boyfriend?]

[GH:No. I just know he’s a baby silverstrain.]

[Yuyu:That’s what I’ve heard, but no one will tell me if the baby knows what he does or how baby he actually is.]

[GH:I believe the boyfriend knows, and from what I hear, either Sorac is violating consent laws or the kid is a low-dev who must be at least a century younger.]

[Yuyu:Wow. That’s… I dunno. Never really saw that guy dating someone that young.]

[GH:Indeed. I think I owe him for all the comments he made about my being in love with someone so much younger than I am during the war.]

A sad smile crossed Yujao’s face at the reminder of that situation. For a moment, his fingers froze. They wanted to move—wanted to type out yet another offer to reconnect G.H. with the boy he had found his heart entwined with, so long ago. In the end, he didn’t—it was an offer that would be rebuffed, just as his offers always were.

“He’s better off without me,” the man had said, some way or another, every time Yujao had offered. “It has been so long and… and our lives aren’t the sort that are compatible. To be with me, he would need to leave everything behind, and I can’t ask that of him.”

Sometimes, Yujao thought G.H. one of the most intelligent people he met—the man ran an international crime organization, after all! He had tens of thousands of people working under him. Then, the man would say stupid things like this, as though most of them weren’t fully aware that the lives they lived could crash around them any moment, forcing them to leave their current lives behind.

Decades ago, Yujao had left the slums to slip into the Inner Court, intent to kill his father and then return home to the streets and the gorankai and the life of crime he was meant to live. Then, Hurinren and Emilia had become his home. If they were forced out of the Inner Court, out of Baalphoria, out of the continent itself or even the entire fucking universe, Yujao wouldn’t hesitate to go with them.

Life was an ever-changing thing, and Yujao could understand where G.H. was coming from—could see the kindness he was trying to give the boy he loved by never revealing himself to him. It was still stupid; Yujao was sure that, were that boy to find out G.H. was still out there, he would give up everything, all to be with him again.