Day One Thousand One Hundred And Seventy-Two

Dear Diary,

Welp. It's officially Autumn. Harvest season. Last season of the year. Looks like it might well wind up a busy one.

I've been here three years now. Hell of a three years it's been, too. Fell in love. Twice. Got married. Also twice. Right in the middle there fell in love again, and immediately after getting married the second time, wound up with two thirds of the women I'd fallen in love with in a family way. Before said bundles of joy even arrived, wound up with yet another woman joining the household, albeit... I'm not sure 'falling' in love applies there. I love her. She loves me. But if the others were various jumps into a pool, she was more walking in via the steps. Same destination, much different course.

Adopted a kid. Adopted an adult. Forged a kid. Got adopted my own self. Adopted five more kids. Fostered, then adopted another one. Helped with the birth of nine more. Nine. That's a fuckin' number bigger than any two pregnancies ought to total to, but here we are. Adopted another pair, then another one just for good measure. Still have the weirdest feeling I'm forgetting one. Really fuckin' weird that I think I've had that feeling at least since I had Blessing induced amnesia.

Defied a Goddess. Won a war. Founded a nation, which even now is vying with Sparta for 'most powerful military in the world'. Not gonna claim the title, because while I'm sure our Tentacles would wipe the floor with whatever they've got afloat one vee one, I'm also pretty sure most of their Heroes would do the same with most of ours. Stopped a Plague. Conquered a City. Two, if you count the one infested with Undead. Killed a Dragon. Two, if you count the one I splattered with my Black Dragon. Four, if you count the ones Saffron shot and the one I squished right after getting here. Which, honestly, both of those were little ones, so I don't. Don't think either one was big enough to talk.

Maimed a Goddess. Killed two Gods. Killed another Goddess, then Revived her. Founded a Pantheon, but I'm not sure if it really counts as me founding it, since it happened when Diana swore allegiance to me. Helped another God find True Love, then broke Florida off the continent and welded it back on. 'Rescued' a City from an insane Death Goddess, and had the flagship of that Navy I talked about blow her to pieces just to be sure I didn't wind up with a Divine case of food poisoning. Fought off a horde of Kaiju, erased a God, restored another one, saved some Demigoddesses from durance vile, then erased another Goddess.

Honestly, at this point talking about leading military campaigns, three separate ones if you count the recent Naval dustup, seems a little like gilding a lily. Which I now have an inexplicable desire to do for some godawful reason.

It may be part of your Trickster nature, Daughter.

Really?

I, too have done things entirely because someone said I ought not. Or done things in the most perverse way possible, just to scandalize my putative allies.

Huh. So that's Sleipnir's origin story, huh?

Oh, no. Much like my Daughter, I have the occasional desire to be railed like a mare in heat.

GAH! Dad! I do not need to know that!

I'm sure you'd listen with morbid fascination if I weren't your father.

Well, yeah. But I'm glad I can't. Because then you wouldn't be best Dad ever.

I know.

So, yeah. Hell of a resume, and I still don't fuckin' register as an 'Adult' via Status. I checked. I even hopped to the top of the West Tower in M-Space, Blended the area around me to a fare-thee-well, dropped my personal Blend, and checked with Blend-piercing Status. I'm still officially a 'Young Adult'. With my luck there's some final flag like 'not caring about my Age Category' that'll flip me over to full, official 'Adult' status. Meh. Whatever. It'll happen when it happens.

Still, I'm a Young Adult who has now been married for three years, which is a record for anybody I knew back in Camden. Something about a town which was the source for the High School to Prison Labor pipeline didn't make for healthy long term relationships. Also, for whatever reason, while there were a shit ton of same sex relationships, none of them were the sort who wanted to engage in Holy Bedlock.

But I have. I have, and I have not once regretted it, and today I got to show my magnificent Kitten exactly how much. Mostly by remembering our anniversary with enough lead time to get reservations at what has turned into a surprisingly popular cafe. Something, something, something, General Lancaster and the Imperator and the Champion have all been seen dining there. I mean, Dad showed me the place, so I'm guessing he's been seen there too, but for whatever reason people do not clock him as a Deity unless he wants them to.

Yesterday's Revel lasted well into the afternoon yesterday. Some Altar shenanigans happened, but... It's so weird, having something that intimate happen, yet it not be really worth putting in my Diary. I think it might be because while it ranges from fun and satisfying with Orla and Mads, to bizarre in good ways with Furtim, and an absolute religious experience in every way possible with the rest of my ladies, it's... It's become my normal. I mean yeah, now and then something strikes me as so much beyond the norm that I talk about it here, but mostly it's become a very treasured, wonderful routine.

I don't routinely pay much attention to the rest of Revels, and I think I've been missing out. The food ranges from 'Nona showing off' to 'Michelin reviewers weep with joy and envy', because apparently somebody in New Amsterdam convinced Marie to do the cooking there, and I think Mister Driver may be volunteering at the Camden Yards Temple kitchen.

Oh. Oh, fuck. Mister Driver might be volunteering at the Camden Yards kitchen. I am so fucking fucked.

Nope, not gonna borrow trouble.

At any rate, all of us kind of collapsed into the bed at the Homestead in one big cuddly pile. Never thought I'd call one of my scaly bois 'cuddly' back when I met the first one, but Furtim is surprisingly so. Oddly more so than Orla, who has probably surpassed me in terms of being ripped. I kinda expected to wake up in the morning, but not long after sunset somebody moved me. Like, physically lifted me and dropped me in the Bed. Then Tallulah did the same with Saffron, who blinked her way awake as she rolled into my arms. One at a time, each of my ladies blinked into and out of the room, each one dropping off something. Most of them dropped off food. Little snacks that somehow screamed 'aphrodisiac'. Tallulah dropped off a chocolate lava cake.

Marie dropped off a set of jewelry. A set of five studs; two that looked like earrings. Two of the other three looked just about the right size to be nipple rings. Well, not rings in either case. The final one was a ring. It... Did not look like it went in an ear. I really kind of hoped it was supposed to go in a navel.

Then I pulled it out of the case to look at it closer and saw a navel stud nestled below it. Right before Saffron snatched ring and case away, disappeared them, and mock angrily shouted, "not yet, you big fuzzy nerd of a Tiger Wife!"

Aww...

"You know you're the one who gets to do it when it's time, lovely Maenad Mine."

Yay!

I poked her gently in the tit. When that got me her undivided attention, I asked, "what were those?"

She smiled at me. Grinned at me. Then said, "in honor of our anniversary, I'm going to do as the rest of your High Clergy think I ought and make you forget about them entirely."

Then she did.

Woke up not long before noon, as she stirred into her boot up routine. I didn't get to see it, but only because she did the whole thing pressed into my cleavage, where she'd fallen asleep. Then I realized, it was very, very close to noon.

"You ready to go, Kitten?"

"Mmmph?"

"I told you, I got us reservations. For our lunch date. For our anniversary."

She smiled up at me. "Well. I can't very well go like this."

I sucked at my teeth. "I am suddenly very interested in you going exactly like that."

She laughed. "Showing me off now?"

"Why wouldn't I? I'm the luckiest woman in the world, because you're all mine." I hugged her, only to have her motorboat me a little.

As I let her up, she laughed and said, "I seem to recall you encouraging me with the boys at one point."

"Well. Yeah. I'm not jealous. I share. And that was totally fuckin' hot."

She just tapped her teeth with a fingernail. "I wonder."

"Uh... Should I be afraid?"

"Afraid? Never. I seem to recall that you never are. Not for yourself. I was wondering how many horses it would take to fill all your hitches."

Yeah, I might have been offended at her continued interest, but... I dunno, I've never had an encounter with her be less than mind blowing. But what I said was, "still sixth."

"I'm well aware. Well, am I to be skyclad for our anniversary luncheon?"

I paused, really thinking about it. "Seems unfair."

"But I thought we could wear matching outfits."

Heat rushed across my skin. Yeah, started at my cheeks, but I think maybe my scars make it easier for me to blush or some shit like that. Definitely make my skin and scars look more like some kinda fucked up road map when I do. "You ready?"

She nodded, and I rolled us off the bed, landing us in front of our table at that cafe along the waterfront. Both of us wearing our Academy uniforms.

"Aww..." She looked down at my chest, then hers. "Still, I suppose we do match this way."

I pulled out her chair, then slipped into mine. Kinda funny, even at this little cafe, where there were only two chairs per table, I sat across from her rather than next to her. "Have I ever mentioned that I love your eyes?"

She blushed at that. Not as much as any of our paler ladies, but still cute. Maybe even cuter, what with how she had to blush harder for me to see it. "And I yours, love."

Our coffee and appetizers arrived, and... We talked. We talked, and nibbled, and spent the entire afternoon doing nothing much at all. Talking about our kids, about the stupid unimportant stuff about our jobs, about the ladies at the Homestead. I think both of us were deliberately avoiding anything that might be serious, might lead to 'talking about work' rather than maybe 'gossiping about coworkers'.

As the sun approached the western horizon, she sighed.

"What's wrong, Kitten?"

She shook her head. "This has been the loveliest date I can remember in... Well, ever. But..."

I gave her my best over the top sad face. "I'm not getting lucky tonight, am I?"

She laughed, then pointedly prodded me with her toe under the table. "Incorrigible."

"Didn't you say something about how I ought to never change?"

Her Grin made an appearance. "And you remembered, which has absolutely secured your luckiness later tonight..."

"But?"

"I know, I know, sixth." While I chewed air at her stealing my line, she chuckled, then sighed. "But I really would feel... Irresponsible, and not in a pleasant way, if I didn't tell you."

I sighed my own self. "Did somebody die?"

She shook her head. "Well, possibly, but it's rather the opposite that's the problem."

"Huh?"

"Let me?" She leaned forward a little, and I felt her Blend wrap around us both. I nodded, and she sent me an image. I realized that along with projecting her image into the sky above the Seeking, she'd done some kind of telescope Shape. Specifically watching Leanan. As I watched, the image animated, but in slow motion. Really kind of weird how she managed to project into my head both the image Leanan had projected above herself as well as the Leanan herself, standing on the deck of her largest ship.

In that mental image, the Cold Iron powder depth charge dropped by my Black Dragon detonated, right in the open mouth of Leanan's image. Her image fell apart like a popped soap bubble, disintegrating into rapidly dissipating wisps of glowing Mana. As I watched, Saffron slowed the image down still further, and I watched as Leanan herself fell apart the same way. Exactly the same way. Way before the Cold Iron Powder reached her.

I guess I've actually gotten smarter, because it didn't take me long at all. "Illusion?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Well. Fuck."

The image went away. Saffron shook her head, snorting. "You know? Why not. It's not like we can chase her with the Cold Iron erasing any traces of her Shaping."

"Huh?" It took me a second, but a smile stretched my face. "You mean?"

She stood, pulling me to my feet, hopping up to dangle with her arms around my neck. "I mean indeed. I think I deserve to 'get lucky' on my anniversary, don't you?"