Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Five (section)

==Parents Suck==

===Maternal Instinct===


As the girls and their families wandered outside, leaving the caterers to clean up, Farah and Remilia nearly raced off to their own homes to do last-minute packing and shopping, while the others left more sedately.  As they flew, Remilia and her mother avoided serious talk, just catching up on things.  It wasn’t until they were already in the Dorn manor and Remilia was unpacking her things that they finally broached the hardest subject.

Olivia mentioned it first.  “Sweetheart, I don’t want to ask this and I know you don’t want to answer, but…your arms,” she said hesitantly.  “Are you feeling better?”

“I am,” Remilia said resolutely.  She chucked a shirt in the laundry servitor’s bin before turning to face her mother.  “I’ve stopped.  Probably for good.”

“That’s reassuring,” Olivia sighed.  “Can I ask why?”

“Why…I did it, or why I stopped?” Remilia asked.

“Both.  Either.”

Remilia thought that one over.  She sat on the top of an unopened suitcase and pondered.  “Well, I guess…I did it because I just hurt that much,” she said softly.  “When Dad…hit me, when I was on the verge of failing that Collegiate Product Physics course…Morticia getting shot.”

Olivia looked away as Remilia recited the list.  Her daughter continued.  “As for why I stopped…Uncle Magnus helped a lot, Freya helped a lot, Jake helped a little…but I also got a new perspective.”

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked.

“I met a guy on the trip.  A really sweet guy,” Remilia said, half-smiling to herself.  “He was so smart…we just sat and talked for hours.  Turns out…well, it’s his business, but his little sister cut too.  She died, in fact,” Remilia said sadly.

“That’s horrible,” Olivia said with a wince.

“Yeah.  When he saw my arms…he got tense, yeah, but we just talked after that,” Remilia said.  “We sat in my room and talked, for hours.  I mean, we had to wait until he was off-shift, but we talked as much as we could.  Just…life.  His growing up on a farm, my growing up on Terra…it felt so good to just bare my soul to someone,” she said.  “And without psychics involved.”

Olivia nodded sagely.  “Well, as long as that’s all you bared to him,” she said.

Remilia struggled to hide an inappropriate giggle.  Her mother started.  “Remilia, you didn’t.”

She giggled.  “I didn’t say anything.”

“Tell me you didn’t have sex with some random crewer on the ship!” Olivia demanded, faint.

“Hey!” Remilia barked.  “He wasn’t some random crewer, he was some random officer!”

“Remilia!  I can’t believe you did that!” Olivia said, aghast.

“Why not?  He was sweet as candy,” Remilia said primly.  “Besides, four hours talking with him, seven times over the course of two months, did more for getting my head un-scrambled than a year in therapy could have.”  She smiled broadly at her mother’s horror.

“Remilia…oh, sweetheart, I thought you were going to choose better than that,” Olivia said.  “I know you were hurting, baby, but turning to sex for a passing relief doesn’t accomplish anything.”

“Mom, I already felt better,” Remilia said patiently.  “Shit, after seeing Jake bounce back from getting that badly hurt by a random asshole, I would have felt hollow if I just jumped in this guy’s bunk.  I made my choice and I’m better for it,” she said.  Her eyes narrowed.  “And here I thought you’d be proud of me for that.”

“Remilia, I’m…I mean, did you even know this man’s history?  You could have gotten sick with something, or pregnant!” Olivia said.

Remilia sighed.  “Give me some credit, Mom.  I wouldn’t have even considered it if we weren’t being safe.”  She crossed her legs on the suitcase and played with the hem of her fleece jacket.  “Besides, he needed someone to talk to as much as I did.  We spent hours just loafing around in my room, talking about school, about the news, about my trip…he was more than a pretty face, though he had that going too,” she added coyly.  “He was a friend.  Someone I could confide in.”

Olivia stared.  “Confide in?  Remilia, what if he tells someone?!”

Remilia shrugged.  “Who would notice, with all of Vicky’s tabloid dramabombs?  Besides, I never asked him to keep his mouth shut, and he was hardly the type to kiss and tell.”

“You didn’t even ask him not to tell anyone?” Olivia gaped.

Remilia finally let some of her mounting anger peek through.  “What exactly is the problem here, Mom?  That I had sex with a guy?  Or someone who wasn’t a noble?  Because I guarantee that he was better for my head than anything else that could have happened.  Is my mental health not more important than the family’s sacrosanct public image?”

Olivia snapped her mouth shut, fuming.  “Discretion is important, Remilia,” she said.

“And I was discreet.  Aside from him, the other four of us, the ship’s LO who was outright ordered to keep a lid on it by Venus, you, and Angela, not a soul knows,” Remilia said coldly.  “As for discretion being important, Mom, I think you should reflect on the fact that I felt that I had to leave in the first place because I couldn’t trust myself to stay here until Alanaster.”

“What has that got to do with anything?” Olivia asked.

“Forget it,” Remilia said in disgust, climbing off the suitcase and starting to unpack it.  She turned her back on her mother and pulled assorted clothes out of the container.

For a few minutes, Olivia was quiet.  When she spoke again, however, her voice was softer.  “Remilia, I’m sorry.  I just don’t want you to be hurt again.”

“I’m not expecting to see him again, Mom, if that’s what you mean.  He’s on Mars, right now, I could go see him.  But I won’t.  That’s what we wanted,” Remilia said, unpacking her jewelry.

“I mean…”  Remilia heard her mother struggle to find words, before finally sighing.  “Remilia, I just don’t understand.”

“What part?” Remilia asked.

“All of it,” Olivia said heavily, dropping onto the bed next to her daughter.  Remilia looked at her in surprise.  “I just don’t get it, baby.”

“Mom…”

“Like…like cutting.  Why do it at all?  And why did you go straight to Magnus instead of asking me first?  And why did you need to leave the house for three months?  And why turn to sex with a total stranger?  Isn’t that as bad as cutting?” Olivia asked, tears gathering in her eyes.

Remilia looked into her mother’s face and found her anger shrinking.  “Mom, I don’t know why hurting myself felt like a good idea at the time.  I can quote Magnus and half a dozen other people as to why they think people do it, but what the fuck do they know?  If there were a right answer, all of them would have said the same thing.”  She set her jewelry box down.

“Magnus…I didn’t go to him first.  I didn’t do anything of the sort, actually,” she said.  “I tried to hide it.  Dad confronted me and tried to scare me into stopping,” she said with a trace of old bitterness.  “When that didn’t work, I just kept hiding it until Freya figured out what had happened and outright ordered me to stop.  When I realized that the others were figuring it out, I went to Miranda.”

“Why?”

“Because I trust her, Mom, so deeply,” Remilia said quietly.  “My god, she can see into people so deeply that they literally can’t lie without her knowing…and yet she’s so sweet, so innocent, so kind…I thought if anyone could help me figure it out, it would be her.  She said her father had solved problems like mine before with people, so I went to him to figure things out.”

She sat down next to her mother, pushing the suitcase aside.  “Magnus said that I was hurting myself metaphysically, badly enough that my soul was in real danger.  That alone would have scared me straight, I bet, but he helped me a little.”

===Olivia's Realization===


Remilia ran her hands over each other and looked down at her scars.  “He went into my mind and helped me remember all the things that had ever made me hurt myself, but all the things that I couldn’t think about when I was doing it too.  Like when I won that,” she said, jerking her head at one of the many trophies and certificates on the wall over her bed.

“He also did some stuff with my spirit…I don’t even begin to understand it, but I felt better within an hour,” she said.  “That stuff scares me, but it worked, whatever it was.  So I got all fired up and went to confront Dad about…everything.  And Dad…confessed that he was a bad father, and that he thought he was making me stronger, and all those things he said…” she trailed off, hugging her ravaged arms to her breasts as the painful memories came back.  Olivia stared, saddened but unable to help.

“And when he said he was trying to make me see for myself why it wasn’t a good idea in the long run, I just lost it.  I said he should have helped a little, like a father would, and I went straight to Freya.”

“Why Freya?” Olivia asked tremulously.

“Because she’s the one who figured it out on her own, but also…” Remilia sniffed through her budding smile.  “Because she’s a sister to me, Mom, she’s been there whether or not I wanted her to be, every single time I was hurt or sad or lonely.”  She hung her head, closing her eyes as a tear worked its way free.  “Where would I be without her?” she whispered.

Olivia squeezed her daughter’s shoulder as Remilia wiped her tears away.  “Well, she set me up for a few days and talked to me for a bit…and she invited me on the road trip, too,” she remembered.  “And then there was a little get-together, at her place.  Venus, Faith, Freya, and their boyfriends, and me.  And I asked Jake, Venus’ boyfriend, to help me figure shit out.  Before you ask,” she said, anticipating her mother’s question, “it’s because I…well.  I sort of envied Venus her relationship with him.  She used to hate going to school sometimes, you know,” Remilia said.  “People made fun of her, or got scared of her, because of how she looks, and the fact that she likes to spend time alone in her basement all the time.”

“And Jake changed that somehow?” Olivia asked.

“What?  No, no,” Remilia said, shaking her head.  “But she started to look forward to coming to school when she met him, and they’re practically joined at the hip now.  So, I asked him to give me a new perspective.”  She screwed her face up.  “And I came off like a complete bitch, too, but hey.  He explained some stuff, and he helped me figure out why I felt like I needed to get away from home for a while.”

“And why was that?” Olivia asked.

Remilia turned to look at her.  Her mother looked a lot like her, coincidentally enough.  She was tall, too, only where Remilia was lanky but trim, her mother was just thin.  At that moment, Olivia’s narrow face was pinched further yet, by sadness and regret that Remilia didn’t like seeing.

“Because, Mom, Dad loves me but has no clue how to show it, and you love me but you’re never home,” Remilia said simply.  “And neither of you ever stopped to explain to me why Dad hurt himself too…or why he stopped.”

Olivia just stared at her daughter, before she emitted a single sob.  “I’m sorry, Remilia, I was wrong,” she said, wiping her eyes.

Remilia nodded and reached out to hug her mother around the shoulders.  Olivia sobbed again, holding her daughter tight.  “I can’t remember the last time I actually told you I love you,” Olivia wept.

Remilia closed her eyes.  Her eidetic memory could provide her with an exact answer, and it did.  It had been a long time.  “Well…I know it’s true, so we’ll go from there,” she mumbled.

At length, she let go of her mother and leaned back.  “Can I keep going?” she asked.

“Sure, baby, go on,” Olivia said, wiping her eyes.

“Anyway…when it was time to go, I immediately looked for things to do on the ship, as you might expect,” Remilia said.  She peered over at her mother.  “Mom, I want you to swear something to me, okay?”

“What is it?” Olivia asked, drying her eyes on her hankie.

Remilia straightened up on the bed.  “Swear to me that you won’t go after the guy I was with on the ship.  I mean it.”

Olivia blinked, but she nodded.  “I promise.”

“Good.”  Remilia lay flat on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, where the faint outlines of little plastic stars could be seen, before she had been too ‘mature’ to want them there any longer and had had them scraped off.

“After we came back from Nocturne, which I’ll describe later, I decided I wanted to get to know the funny, mouth-wateringly cute bartender, Chuck, from the ship’s O-Club, and, well…that happened.”  She smiled at the ceiling.  “He was a balm.  I don’t think I’ve ever really had a friend I could just unload on like that, not outside the family or the football team.”

Olivia winced, displaying an entirely understandable dislike of discussing her daughter’s sex life, but Remilia plowed on.  “He was so adorable, too…and he was always smiling when he was around me.  It was so rewarding,” she said dreamily.  “Just to be acknowledged like that.  He told me flat-out that I was the best thing that had happened to him since he got conscripted.”

“Well, that’s good…I guess…” Olivia said.  “And…just to be sure, you were safe, weren’t you?”

“Naturally,” Remilia sighed.

“Good…”  Olivia trailed off, looking away.  “You were saying?”

“Well, that was it, really.  He told me a lot about life as a conscript, what he was going to do after his tour…that’s it.”  Remilia sat up and resumed her unpacking.  “I did get these on Nocturne, though, for…oh shit!” she said, extracting the jewelry she had picked for Alpharia and Omegan.  “I meant to hand these off to the Twins at the party.  Damn.  I’ll have to have someone send them,” she chided herself.

“On Nocturne, you say?” Olivia said.  “Those are pretty.”

“Yeah, I bought them in a market in Skarokk,” Remilia said.  She dropped them onto a side table for later.  “Well…I guess that’s it about Chuck, really,” she said.  She looked up at her mother.  “Want to stay and listen to some of the other stuff that happened?”

Olivia hesitated and sat back down.  “Sure, I’d love to.”

===Veronica Carlin===


Alex stood at the door of his mother’s new home in the hive spire and tried to calm down.

The new place was dark.  So incredibly dark, compared to the house where they had lived in the surface city.  There wasn’t a sky overhead at all, either.  Just a metal dome, strung with lights.  Some of the individual homes backed up to the outside, so the people could look out of the hive when they wanted, but there wasn’t blue overhead any more.

He drew in a breath and slowly exhaled, steeling his nerves.  “Nothing for it,” he muttered, knocking on the door.

After a moment, it creaked open.  Veronica was standing there, dressed in her business clothes, seemingly no worse for wear, except for dark bags under her eyes.  As soon as she saw her son, her mouth flew open.  “Alex!”

“Hi, Mom,” he managed to say, before he was buried in a hug.

“Baby, welcome home!” his mother said, holding him at arm’s length after a moment.  “Look at you…you turned into a man when I wasn’t looking,” she said wistfully.

Alex scoffed and casually flexed his arms.  “Well, I don’t like to brag,” he said airily.

“Come on in, see the new place,” Veronica said, stepping back.  Alex walked in and craned his head back.  The new apartment was surprisingly roomy, moreso than their old home had been.  A narrow staircase cut across from the very middle of the room to an upper level, which circled the central main room like a balcony.  The whole outer wall was a window on one side, over the undulating sea of silvery hive metal.  The polarized window was sealed tight against the ravaging winds over the hive skin.

There was a small, sunken conversation area in front of the window, and a little kitchenette in one corner of the large room.  All in all, Alex decided, it was a pretty nice place…for a hive apartment.

“Interesting new digs,” Alex said.

“It’s pretty comfortable,” Veronica said, following her son into the conversation area.  “But tell me how your trip went!”

“It was pretty wild, I gotta say,” Alex admitted, sitting in one overstuffed chair.  “Traveling with three Ladies Primarch is unforgettable.  Oh, before I forget,” he said, leaning forward, “what happened to my stuff in the old house?”

“It’s just in storage until you have the chance to root through it,” Veronica said.  “Don’t worry.  We can go get it before you move out with Freya.”  She sighed impatiently.  “When do I get to meet her?  A Lady Primarch!  I have so much to ask her!”

Alex felt relief loosen his tensed shoulders.  Clearly, his and his mother’s misfortunes hadn’t dampened her spirits overmuch.  “Well, actually,” he said, standing up.  He turned to the door and walked over, pushing it open.  “Come on in,” he said.

Freya, who had been lounging against the side of her car the entire time, waiting for Alex to decide if his mother was in any state for company at her own suggestion, straightened up and walked in.  Veronica’s eyes widened at the sight, and she shot to her feet.

“Mom, this is Freya,” Alex said by means of introduction.  “Freya, this is my mother, Veronica.”

Freya walked straight up to her and inclined her head.  “Nice to meet you at long last, ma’am,” she said.

“An honor, your Ladyship,” Veronica said, kneeling.

“Please get up,” Freya said as Alex walked back over.  As soon as she could make eye contact again, she smiled broadly, her fangs glinting in the artificial light.  “It’s a bit incongruous to meet you just as I’m taking your son away for four or so years, but it’s still a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she said happily, shaking the astonished woman’s hand.

“L-likewise, Lady Russ,” Veronica said.  Whether it was surprise alone or shame from having a Primarch have to enter a hive to speak to her, Freya couldn’t tell, but her cheeks suddenly colored, and she stepped back as soon as she could withdraw her hand.

Freya had none of it.  “Oh, you needn’t call me that, Veronica, titles are for strangers,” she said.  “Call me Freya.”

“Freya, yes, thank you,” Veronica said.  “So, er…welcome,” she said, awkwardly gesturing to the room around them as a servitor appeared at the door with the first of Alex’s belongings.

“Mom, where do I put my shit?” Alex asked, pointing at the idling servitor.

“Oh, uh, guest room upstairs for now,” Veronica said, stepping over to the servitor to direct them to the larger stairs in the back.

Freya leaned over to Alex as his mother moved out of earshot.  “She seems nice,” she said quietly.

“I’m relieved.  Can you stay a while to discuss the trip and where I go from here?” he asked under his breath.

“Not for too long, I have unpacking to do too,” Freya reminded him.  “But yeah, I can for a while.”

“Good,” Alex whispered as his mother returned.

“Well…Alex, Freya, tell me everything, please!” Veronica said, gesturing to chairs for them both.

The two sank into a love seat as Veronica sat across from them.  “Well, the ship was a bit…samey, but it’s a warship, not a cruise liner, so that’s to be expected,” Alex began.

Over the next few hours, as the servitor unloaded all of Alex’s things, Freya and Alex retold their tale, leaving out only the most salacious of details.  When Alex reached his argument with his father, however, he couldn’t stop himself from clenching his hands into fists.  Freya’s eyes turned down in remorse as Alex recalled his father’s ultimatum, and his passive-aggressive dismissal of Alex’s college career.

“Oh, baby,” Veronica said softly, closing her eyes and sinking back into her chair.  “I’m sorry he hurt you.”

Freya leaned against his shoulder, and he looped an arm around her back, letting her presence soothe his anger.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I was pretty far gone,” he said quietly.  “The others were great, though…I changed my college enrollment to stay with Freya until…well, until the future happens.  You know.”

“Yeah.”  Alex’s mother shook her head, thinking that one over.  “Well…thank you, Freya, for giving Alex a place to stay and keep learning,” she said.

“It was my pleasure,” Freya said, smiling faintly.

“So…what did you do next?” Veronica asked.

Alex bit back an inappropriate smile.  “Well…I just stayed in the suite for a while until I felt better, then we just went on a tour of a gallery on Skarokk…”

Finally, they reached the part where Alex and Leman Russ had come to a tentative truce.  “Wow.”  Veronica shook her head, looking overwhelmed.  “Alex, that just…I mean, I know, intellectually, that you’ve met him before, but that still just blows my mind.”

“What?” Alex asked.

“Meeting a Lord Primarch like that…shaking his hand,” Veronica said.  “I suppose going to school with his daughter must have made it seem commonplace, but still.”

Alex tilted his head to the side, looking a bit distracted.  “Well…no, it’s still pretty intimidating.  He’s a scary man.”

“He also tried to intimidate you directly, Alex,” Freya said drily.  “He doesn’t show his teeth around the house as much as he does around you.”

“When you show me your teeth it doesn’t scare me,” Alex said.

Freya grinned coyly.  “Context is important, though,” she said playfully.

Alex chuckled.  His mother looked from one to the other, uncomprehending.  “Aaaanyway, Mom, we came home a day or two after that,” Alex said.  “The flight back was a bit rougher since the ship had been in combat, but that’s the way it goes,” he finished.

“Well, it sounds like apart from Joseph’s arrogance and your friend’s injury, it was a pretty fun trip,” Veronica said.

“It really was,” Alex said.  “I just wish I hadn’t spent all of my discretionary budget before I left.”

“Have you actually tried to reach your old accounts?” Veronica asked.

“I have.  Only the two that were under my name and sealed to my ID code are still active, and they’re tiny compared to the ones Dad cut off,” Alex said heavily.  “Enough to finance housing for a few years, but not enough to live off of.”

“That’s too bad,” Veronica said.  “Then, I guess I owe you doubly, Freya,” she said.

Freya shrugged awkwardly.  “I haven’t given Alex any money, Veronica, and I’m not going to unless something even worse happens.  I’m just happy to room with him.  To be honest, Mom and Dad keep my own accounts on a pretty short leash, and Dad would blow a circuit if I just up and gave one to Alex.”

“I don’t mind, really, either,” Alex spoke up.  “I’m just grateful for what I’m getting, and this way I can earn my degree.”

Veronica rose to her feet.  “Well, baby, I’m glad you managed to have fun anyway,” she said.  “Want to go get your stuff from the lock-up?”

“Let’s,” Alex said.  He turned to Freya as she stood too.  “Thanks for everything, Freya,” he said.

She took his hand and lifted it to her lips.  “It was fun meeting your Mom.  I’ll see you again in a few days, when we have to consolidate out luggage for the move, okay?”

“Sure.”  Alex released her hand and drew her into a quick hug.  “See you then.”


===Jake's New Swag===


Jake’s parents’ new ride settled on the roof of their little apartment.  Jake stood and breathed in the cycled air.  “Home, sweet home,” he said, peering up into the endless maze of aircar lights.

“It sure is,” George said, opening the trunk.  “Grab a few suitcases.”

Jake and his mother grabbed some bags and cases and followed George into the apartment.  Jake paused at the threshold as he looked around.  “Man, I know I should know better, but I can’t help but compare this to the hotel room in Clymene.  Venus got us into the Imperial suite,” Jake said.

“Really?” Sandra asked.

“Yeah, it was bigger than the whole apartment here,” Jake said.  “Here, let me take that,” he said, hefting the massive case his mother had taken.

“Say, someone’s been working out,” George said.

“Yep!  Alex gave me a workout routine to do on the ship, since there was basically nothing else to do,” Jake said.  “I’ve gained ten pounds since I left, all muscle.”

George nodded his approval.  “Good for you,” he said.  “And I understand Nocturne was Terra-plus on gravity and pressure?”

“It was,” Jake confirmed, setting a case on his bed.  “First few days were hell.  I just dealt with it after a while.”

Sandra opened one case to help expedite unpacking, and her eyes widened.  “Jake, what in the world is this?” she asked, withdrawing the suit he had purchased on Nocturne.

“Oh, that was a present from Remilia,” Jake said.  “That formal dinner I talked about, where Alex’s dad was a dick, I didn’t have anything suitable, so Remilia bought that for me.  Don’t worry, I felt bad afterwards, that’s what matters, right?”

“Jake, this is…this is a seven thousand credit suit,” Sandra said.

“And Remilia’s a generous girl,” Jake said.  “She swore before we left that she’d buy all my clothes for me for the trip.  The thermoreflective outfit, this, all of it.”

“I hope you thanked her,” Sandra said.

“Profusely,” Jake said.  “She’s a sweet girl, though, she was happy to do it without even being asked.”

“Which one is your girlfriend?  I can’t tell,” George quipped, feeling the fabric.

“The one who made me that watch,” Jake laughed.  He walked out to the car and returned with yet more suitcases.  “I washed most of this on the ship, so I can just put it away,” he said.

“Oh, good,” Sandra said.  She closed the suitcase.  “You know, Jake, your friends are really generous to you,” she said.  “I’m sure you’re smart enough to thank them for everything, but does it ever feel like they’re just trying to buy favor?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Jake asked, sliding the gift card into his wallet.  “Favor from who?  Some hiver they went to school with?”

“Well, I just…I know that a few of the Lords Primarch set up charities or private companies or what have you after the Crusade, and some of them are basically used as tax sinks by the rich to dodge paying full taxes,” Sandra said.

Jake stared.  “And you want to know…”

“If you ever get the feeling that they’re being generous to you out of pity instead of genuine friendship, yes,” Sandra said carefully.  “Obviously I don’t think Venus is, but still.”

Jake sank into a chair, staring at his mother.  “Wow.  Holy shit, Mom, that…wow.  That’s fucking mean,” Jake said, feeling anger stir in his stomach.

“Jake, don’t talk like that to me,” she said defensively.

“Do you honestly think I’m either stupid enough or pathetic enough not to tell the difference?” Jake asked, gripping the armrests of the chair.  “Sure, there are Royal Family members who look down on me, but I don’t hang out with them!”

“Jake, it’s not just that,” Sandra said.  George looked back and forth between his wife and son, silent.  “After the Crusade ended, the Royal Family-operated charities and so forth, like Lord Primarch Fulgrim’s Foundation, they had people flock to them.  Not the recipients, either, but the people who just wanted to have some of his glamor rub off on them,” she said disgustedly.  “Jake, all I’m saying is that when I see you come home with these gifts, I feel like maybe they’re just giving you these things because they feel that it absolved them of some…moral problem, or something.  You see it all the time in the business and political worlds.”

Jake stared at her as she finished her recitation.  “Mom, do you know why Remilia gave me all that stuff?  I doubt I’ve told you,” he said coldly.  “She gave it to me,” he said, cutting his mother off, “because she was horribly depressed by an act of abuse in her household, and you may not, under any circumstances, repeat that,” he said, pointing at both of his parents, who recoiled, stunned.  “She was broken, sad, confused, and when she asked me to help, I did.  It made her feel better, and she wanted repay me.  I said she didn’t have to, and she said she did, so I let her pay for something I could never have bought on my own and thanked her for it anyway,” Jake said, trying to rein in his temper.  “They’re PEOPLE, Mom.”

“There are good people and bad people, Jake, and some of them are rich and some are poor,” Sandra said flatly.

“Yeah, and I don’t treat any of the Daughters interchangeably, and I certainly don’t spend time with the ones who pity or dislike me,” Jake said.  “Now are you done questioning my judgment?  I have a gift card to spend before we leave.”

“To where?” George asked, speaking at last.

“Remilia gave me a gift card for my birthday, for Keller’s Electronics,” Jake said, tapping his wallet.  “I want to build a new gaming rig.”

“That was nice of her,” George said before Sandra could say anything.

“It was,” Jake said, putting the last cases in his room.  “See you guys later,” he added, swiping the keys for the car off of the table on the way out.

===The Daughter of the Drake===


Venus felt her feet leave the floor as her father swept her into a hug.  “Forgedaughter, welcome home,” he murmured.

“Hello, Dad,” Venus said softly.  “It’s good to be back.”

“Tell me of your venture,” Vulkan said, allowing his daughter to sink back to the ground.

“It was amazing,” Venus said excitedly.  “I have all these holos and videos to show you.”

“I bet you do,” Vulkan replied, sitting in one of the reinforced chairs in the spacious living room.  “Before anything, though, I want you to tell me some of the things you’ve mentioned in passing in your messages.”

Venus sat down, bursting with excitement.  “Well, Captain Roemer did a commendable job adapting to our weirdness,” she began, drawing a chuckle from both parents.  “He was a good host.  And Isaac!  I ran into Isaac while we were there, and I kicked the shit out of him,” she said proudly.

“So you mentioned,” Vulkan chuckled.

“As for the planet itself, well…it was beautiful.  I had to work really hard to look like I knew what I was doing, too,” Venus said drily.  “I think I came off as being as much a tourist as they did.”

“That’s to be expected, really,” Misja said.  “It was your first time there, too.”

Venus pulled off the ring she had bought from the market in Hesiod and showed it to her father.  “Here, check this out,” she said.

Vulkan took the ring and examined it.  “Hmm.  A heliotrope…one of yours?  No, it isn’t, that’s not your setting…it’s passable, though.”

“I bought it in Hesiod.”  Venus took the ring back.  “Heliotrope is my birthstone, right?  Well, I got that, and a cymophane for Jake, I used it as a clasp on a watch I made for him.”

“That was sweet of you,” Misja said.  “Did he like it?”

“He loved it!  And he said his paternal grandfather made watches in the seminary in his free time, so that was cool too,” Venus said happily.  “And the best thing, oh man…I got to make it in the Hall of Deathfire!”

Vulkan nodded solemnly.  “How was that?”

“Awe-inspiring,” Venus said.  “I felt so at home, though.  And the other Salamanders were very respectful, although one did get a bit nosy,” she mumbled as an aside.

One black brow peaked.  “Oh?” Vulkan asked.

“Yeah, he said I would be better off with a Nocturnean partner,” Venus sniffed.

“Hmph.  He should have minded his own business.  Still, I’m glad you went,” Vulkan said.  “Do you understand why we hold that place in such reverence?”

“Absolutely,” Venus said emphatically.  “The entire place felt…what’s the word I’m looking for?  Historical?”

“Atavistic?” Misja suggested.

“Purposeful, I think,” Venus said.  “Like the entire experience was as much a goal as it was a means.  Like going there was something I should have done whether I was actually making something or not.”

“Good answer, my daughter,” Vulkan said, smiling faintly.

Venus looked down, pleased by her father’s praise.  “Well, all the cities had their cool bits,” she said.  “The Hall of Initiation in Themis – I didn’t invite the others to that one, though.  The Aerie in Heliosa, the Walls!  Oh, the walls in Epithemus!” she exclaimed.  “Magnificent!  Walls a half-mile high on three sides and an open port on the fourth.  We just climbed up there and watched the waves one day, it was breathtaking!”

Vulkan grinned again, sitting back in his seat.  “Did you make it to Ignea?” he asked, referring to the subterranean cave networks where the Ignean nomads made their homes.

“Of course!” Venus said.  “I saw all my people.  Including the worst one of all,” she said darkly.

“Yes…the man who maimed Jake,” Vulkan said.  He closed his brilliantly glowing eyes for a moment.  “I feel I should see to that when I go home next.”

“You’re going to Nocturne?” Venus asked.

“After you leave for school,” Vulkan said.  “Clearly, they need me to hold their hands while this crime wave recedes.”

“What else do you guys want to know?” Venus asked sheepishly.

Vulkan crossed his arms over his chest and sat back in his seat.  “I want to hear more of what happened between Alex and his father,” he said.

“Do I have to?” Venus asked hesitantly.  “That’s kind of private.”

“I understand he confronted his son at a formal banquet in your honor at the Castle in Skarokk,” Vulkan pressed.

“Dad, he’s a spoiled and self-entitled asshole who treats his son like an employee he can’t fire,” Venus said coldly.  She didn’t hesitate to say it for a moment, knowing full well that even in his darkest anger, Vulkan loved her with all his heart.  Her opinion was never unwelcome.

The Primarch shook his head slowly.  “And Freya will try to make it better?”

“She will.  She has.”  Venus nodded.  “She’s a sweetheart, isn’t she?  She changed her college plans to help Alex get back on his feet.”

“You think they have a future together beyond college?” Misja asked.

Venus paused.  “You mean marriage?  I don’t know.  I don’t think so.  But they treat each other very well, and I think she really loves him back, so for now, I think they’re on the right course.”

Misja smiled faintly.  “You know…after that message where you described your arrival in Skarokk, and then the thing with Alex, I wondered aloud if Jake was going to propose to you,” she gently teased.

Venus’ eyes widened.  “You did what?”

Her mother grinned.  “He didn’t, did he?” Misja asked.

Venus let her gaze drop to the heliotrope ring on her finger.

Her parents stared.  “…Please tell me you’re kidding,” Misja said.

Venus grinned.  “I’m just kidding.  He didn’t propose.  But I don’t mind saying…when I thought I lost him, and he came back unchanged…I considered it.”

“Well, don’t tell him that,” Misja said gravely.  “Nothing’s more insulting than telling someone you were going to propose and then changed your mind.”

Venus thought of the words Jake had spoken to that effect on the Observation Deck of the Fang.  For a moment, she considered telling her parents of Jake’s own abortive plan, and decided against it.  They really were too young by Terran law, anyway.

“I don’t think he’d interpret it that way at all,” Venus said instead.  “But yeah.  It’s not a topic we’re going to discuss for a while.”

“Well, you’re going to be living with him for a good long while,” Misja pointed out.

Venus cracked a smile.  “Suggesting I should use the time as a test bed for something more long-term?” she asked innocently.

“No, but I bet he will be,” Misja said.  “I would.”

Her daughter rolled her eyes.  “I’ll keep that in mind.”  She stood up.  “Well.  Mind if I go throw myself in the pool?”

“Only if you stop by the changing room first,” Misja said.

Venus cocked her head.  “Oh?”

“You’ll see,” Misja said.

Minutes later, Venus stepped into the changing room of the little sunken pool in their back yard – well behind the house and holo-shielded, so as to not be visible to passing paparazzi – and beamed at the sight of what was sitting on the bench.  “Awesome!”  She reached down and grabbed the little bundle of cloth off of the bench and unfolded it into a new swimsuit.  “Excellent, Mom,” she said.

“Go ahead,” Misja said from the other side of the acid-scoured concrete wall.

Venus hurriedly shucked her clothes and slid on the new suit, then launched herself clean from the little structure into the pool with a massive splash.  Misja skipped back from the edge as some of the water lapped out of the depression.

Venus surfaced blowing chlorinated water out of her nose.  She grinned broadly up at her mother from the pool.  “Hah!  I haven’t gone swimming in three months!”

“Well, you can now,” Misja said, walking up to the edge of the water and crouching.  “Don’t stay in too long, though, we need to unpack.  Remember?”

“Right, I know,” Venus said distractedly, kicking off of the wall.  “I’m just going to indulge first.”


===I Stocked That Shelf===


Jake set his parent’s aircar down at the edge of the little shopping block in the residential zone of the hab, locking it up.  He glanced up at the sign on the side of the structure towering overhead and beamed.  Keller’s Electronics, it said, underlined with running neon lights.

“Remilia must have funded them pretty well when she bought the card,” Jake said to himself.  “Time to lighten their inventory a bit.”

As he reached the broad walkway between the parking block and the stores, however, he paused.  He glanced down the row to the tiny store on the corner.  He ambled up to the front door and glanced through, noting the broad shelves of random crap he had himself stocked, three months before.  “Why not,” he muttered.  He pushed the door open and walked in.

The store’s noisy fans rattled in their plastic cages as Jake walked up to the magazine racks by the door.  “Heh.  I stacked some of these,” he said to himself.

“Jake!” the man behind the counter said.  “Well, hello there!  Back from vacation?”

Jake looked over to where the elderly proprietor was standing.  “Yep.  For a while.  Then off to school.”

“Well, that’s good,” the old shopkeeper said.  He straightened up behind the counter, nearly invisible over the racks of recycled protein candy and flavored wafers.  “How was it?”

“Wonderful, except the part where I went to the hospital,” Jake said.

The old man stared.  “What?”

“I got hit with a beer bottle in a bar on Nocturne,” Jake said.  “Nearly put me in a box, that did.”

“Shit, Jake, that’s a damn shame,” the old man said.  His crusty ID tag was so faded that Jake had to wonder why he even wore it, but it said ‘Jeff’ under many decades of stains.

“Yeah, that sucked,” Jake said.  “How about you?  Find a new guy?”

“I did,” Jeff said, jerking a thumb in the back.  “And he didn’t run off to bone royalty, either,” he added snidely.

Jake glared at him in disgust.  “Wow, dude, mind your own business.”

“I am, by the way,” Jeff said.  “Think you could get her Highness to get those pushers outside to fuck off?”

Jake nearly snapped at the old man until he remembered just how much those swine had frightened them both.  “If you want me to, I bet I could,” he said instead.

Jeff blinked.  “Really?”

“Why not?” Jake asked.

“Well…thanks,” Jeff said.

“Yeah.”  Jake turned for the door.  “I’ll see you around, Jeff.”

“Yeah.  Thanks for swinging by,” Jeff said, somewhat wrong-footed.

Jake emerged to glare at the back of Slide dealer on the corner before walking down to the electronics shop.  “Count your blessings,” he muttered under his breath.


===The War God's Wife===


Freya dropped the last of her clothes onto her bed for later sorting.  “Mission accomplished,” she declared.

Her mother’s scent at the door, and the faint sound of her breath, announced her company.  “Freya, dearest.  Have a moment?” she asked, in Juvjk.  Despite never having set foot on the planet Fenris until the age of twenty eight, she had learned the language from her father and husband.  Freya liked that she spoke it around the house.  Certainly, it had eased her own time on Fenris.

“Sure, what’s up?” she asked.

“Just checking in,” Gairwyn said.  “Warp Travel’s never safe.”

Freya shrugged red locks over bare shoulders.  “I’m fine.  Thanks for checking, though.”  She held her new gloves aloft.  “Look at what Bjorn gave me!”

“I saw at the party,” Gairwyn said, sitting down on the gargantuan bed.  “They’re really pretty.  Doeskin?”

“Yep,” Freya said, sliding them on.  “They’re a tiny bit loose, but they’re still really comfy.”

“That was nice of him.”  Gairwyn smiled down at her daughter.  “And I wanted to say before you vanish into the laundry room…I’m proud of you.”

“What for?” Freya asked.

“Going out to see the people on their own level,” Gairwyn said.  “That was brave of you.”

Freya looked down in modesty.  “It was educational, certainly,” she said.

Gairwyn leaned over and wrapped her arm around her daughter’s shoulder to pull her into a maternal hug.  “And despite what your father thinks, I’m very proud of how maturely you handled Alex’s difficulty.”

Freya felt her cheeks warm a bit at her mother’s remark.  “I just did what I thought would help,” she said.

“And that’s why I’m proud of you,” Gairwyn said softly, mindful of her daughter’s hypersensitive hearing.  She kissed the top of Freya’s tangled red mass.  “You’re growing into a responsible woman of the pack, and your father and I are both very pleased to see that.”

Freya leaned her head against her mother’s shoulder and grinned contentedly, eyes shut.  “Thanks, Mom.”

Gairwyn let the moment continue for a moment before rising to lean against the dresser across from the bed.  “Do you know how your classes at New Cyprine are going to work, regarding your career choice?” she asked, apropos of nothing.  “Their athletic and political science departments aren’t exactly their star roles, yet that’s what you’re both interested in.”

“Yep!  I’m pretty much railroaded into the first few classes,” Freya said, folding her hands in her lap.  “But starting with year two, you can take any of about thirty classes in whatever order you want, then write a seventy-page paper at the end of the last year.”

“That’s intense,” Gairwyn said.  “I will admit, though, Freya, that as proud of your choice as I am, I didn’t think you'd be the Political Science type.”

Freya rolled her eyes.  “Yes, well.  I’m strange like that,” she said.

Gairwyn chuckled, shaking her head.  Though there wasn’t a single one of her genes on her daughter’s body, their hair was so similar one could be forgiven for thinking they were related.  “Freya, you wouldn’t happen to be cruising for an easy degree, would you?”

“Seventy page graduation paper,” Freya said flatly.

“True.”


Jake pushed the door of his apartment open backwards, and shuffled in, arms laden with swag.  “Behold, for it is the electronics fairy, and I bear stuff,” he said.

George looked up from his holomag and blinked.  “Wow.”

“Aww yeah, buildin’ me a rig,” Jake said, laboriously hauling his goods to his room to set up.

“Uh, maybe you should leave that stuff in its packing until you move, so it doesn’t break in transit,” George pointed out.

Jake looked down at the pile of hardware in his arms.  “You’re ruining my entire life here, Dad,” he grumped, setting the parts down gently and wrapping them up in a blanket.

George stood and walked over to the entrance of his son’s tiny room.  Jake was gingerly packing the electronics into bath towels for transport, looking longingly at them as he did.  “Jake, about what your mother said before…”

Jake’s shoulders tensed, and he sighed in rising anger.  “What?”

“I don’t want you to think we don’t like that you’re spending time with the Royal family,” George said.

“Okay.”  Jake straightened up.  “Well, Mom sure wasn’t convincing me not to.”

His father set his teeth and tried to rein in his own irritation.  “Look, I don’t agree with Sandra about your friends using you as a morality pet.”

“Great, because it was really not what I wanted to hear, coming home after three months,” Jake said.  “I mean, she didn’t even stop to ask me if I had fun.  She just jumped straight to questioning my perception and judgment.”  He glanced over at his father and narrowed his eyes.  “Did you guys come to some conclusion about me and the Royal girls while I was gone?”

George hesitated.  “We discussed what your college plans would mean for us, in terms of you being out of the shop.  I’ll have to hire an assistant, since I was assuming that you were going to help me.”

“Sorry about that,” Jake said, packing up the last of the electronics and starting on his Nocturne purchases.  “That doesn’t explain Mom’s unexpected truculence,” he noted.

“Don’t talk about your mother like that,” George warned.

“Don’t give me this ‘united front’ crap,” Jake shot back.  “You know as well as I do that she was way out of line with that little accusation.  What brought it on?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood from his suitcases.

George glared at his son, but he relented.  “Your mother thinks that you’re going to get so attached to the Royal Daughters that if something goes wrong between you and Venus like it did with you and Hana, you’ll be emotionally demolished by it,” he said.

“Great.  And she should have said that outright instead of passive-aggressively accusing me of poor perception,” Jake said.  “Where is she, anyway?”

“She’s picking up our ration card,” George said.

“Good.  Did you guys add me back on for the nine days that I’ll be here?” Jake asked, abandoning his posture and rooting through his souvenirs.

“No, we left you off from the day you left to the mid-year break of your first year at Kouthry,” George said.

“Cool.  Venus’ parents are loaning her a car, so we’ll be able to get around on campus if we need to,” Jake said.  He dug a pair of little boxes out of the bag and held them up.  “Here, this one was from Alex to me, but this one is from me to you.  I said I’d get you something,” he said.

George took the proffered box and opened it.  Inside was a small storage card.  “What’s on it?” he asked.

“An explorable holo of Heliosa,” Jake said.  “One of the Sanctuaries of Nocturne.”

“Wow.  Thanks,” George said.  “This will work on our ancient projector?”

“Yes.”  Jake extracted the watch and set it on his bedside table, putting the chain and other accoutrements in as well.  “All right.  I need to do paperwork and start getting winter clothes ready to pack.”

“Did you wash your clothes before coming home?” George asked.

“On the ship, yeah.”  Jake cricked his neck.  “All right, I better get to it.”