Helantri Deru

---

"Dewei and Ai have been gone a while now," Makyon notes, as he stands with Orrin at the dish-bitch-position. "You, sir, ought to be proud. How many fathers can claim their son charmed a divinity?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm proud as hell, I'll admit," Orrin grins. "Just following in his dad's footsteps."

Ting looks around. "No mom around to hear, no brownie points this time! Play again tomorrow." She purrs, in a good mood. She's just kind of floating around the kitchen due to a "social towards close relations" mood.

Makyon pretends to ignore her. "But how does it make you feel that your daughter is divine? And to think that you might have another one on the way?"

Orrin's eyes twinkle a bit at this, smiling. "Well, the daughter, of course, I happen to wonder how I could have had anything to do with, for how darling she manages to be." He winks at her. "And..." puts away some pans as he speaks. "Quite frankly, I'm still processing the 'another on the way' part." He laughs. He's clearly delighted, but thrown for a loop, for sure. "I've only known a few hours more than you have."

"If Ting is any indication..." Makyon glances at her. Then at Orrin. "I'll start building the bunker. You get the sandbags." And he makes as if to dash off, right by Ting.

Appropriately, a sandbag appears right under Makyon's feet at exactly the wrong moment. Ting whistles pretty, then looks over and gasps, pointing. "There's one!"

Of course, Makyon goes flying and smacks himself on the floor with all the pomp and grace of a coconut dropping from a tree. He rolls onto his back, looking up. "Yeah, I probably deserved that."

"I'm just helping!" Ting giggles, and any bumps Makyon sustained heal themselves.

"What are we helping?" An upbeat Mara-kuru comes trapsing into the room about then, tripping soundly over Makyon but vanishing to reappear on her feet next to him on instinct. She looks down at him. "There's a stud on your floor!" she exclaims merrily, eyes atwinkle.

"He was looking for sandbags. I helped him find one!" Ting grins, and pounces her right onto Makyon. "Hiya!"

"Gah!" The air is pushed out of Makyon's lungs by the impact, but that is not enough to derail his inevitable comment. "Must be dreaming. I am the bread in a kitten sandwich."

Mara snickers and hugs Ting for all she's worth. "A good one, though!"

Ting grins, and hugs her aunt happily. Pats Makyon's head for being a good sport, and then hops up to give him some recovery time. "Dad's still being weird. Something about 'oh my god another one'."

Orrin grins as he puts away the last of the dishes. "I just need to upgrade our homeowners' insurance, is all! Or, for that matter, find someone still willing to cover us."

"Oh, Orrin, you frog. There's no way of knowing if this baby will be a scholar like Dewei or a hurricane like Tingy pie. Expect both. And she will be a monk! Muahaha!" Mara grins at poor, picked-on Orrin, and hugs his arm. "Poor Orrin. So! What are we gonna do while Dewei and Ai are making funny noises cause you know that's what's taking so long I bet she has to show him things because Dewei dunnit know ha ha! That's so cute I can't even imagine poor Dewei would have to have a roadmap or something and Ai would be giving him directions and probably end up having to wear stop signs and traffic cones and hee...! I made me laugh."

Ting cracks up at that. "Gah! How can he even be a virgin, as many girls as flirt with him? God, I can think of at least three who would love to be bedded by him."

"Dewei just has good taste. Like pears! What, I bit him once." Mara nods to Makyon, whose eyebrow slowly returns to its normal position. "Okay, twice. But you know, he's very sweet him. And naive, just like Fel's brother was. Coulda had some ass. Dinnit. Not that he wasn't interested, it just never made it onto his priority list."

"Hee..." Ting hugs her knees thoughtfully. "I wish I could've met Mom's brother. She talks about him a lot sometimes. He sounds cool. A lot like Dewei, actually! 'Cept quieter. Dewei talks too much if you get him started about something in a book." Ting wrinkles her nose.

"Saea barely talked at all. Even when I was playing with him, he was more likely to just smile that shy smile and go on about his business. He had wings! Pretty. And Yue thought he was cute, too, they had a lot in common. Yue's a dude who looks like a girl, and Saea was a dude who looked like a girl, except Yue looks WAY like a girl and Saea was just andro... andr... anthro? Anthrogenus? Orrin! What's the word?"

"Bishounen. I mean, androgynous."

"Smartass!" Mara looks at the kids. "Among other traits his ass has, besides cute and smackable, it is also very smart. Just ask his wife! She won't tell you. She'll hit you! And then what? Hey, where is she, anyway?"

"She's off finishing her rounds with her pet charity cases." Ting nods. It isn't meant to be at all disparaging.

"So many." Mara nods. "Such a day... many days. I want a cookie. Who wants a cookie?"

Makyon puts up his hand.

"Alright, big guy eating cookies! That's a good excuse to make a metric fuckton!"

"I want one! That's a good excuse to make two!" Ting laughs.

"Orrin," Mara glances to the patriarch. "Would you like a cookie?"

"Is that a trick question? Hey, company!" This as Dewei and Ai appear just outside the room. He's felt his wife teleporting for so many years that, as an admittedly average caster himself, he's become sensitive to the energy rises associated with.

"Hey Tingy. Feels like two of 'em so I'll pounce one you pounce the other got it ready go?!" Mara sets herself just as Ai peeks her head into the room.

"Eh?" Ting had been chasing a rather talented aphid and is slow on the uptake this time.

And so, Mara leaps for Ting instead.

"Gah!" Ting tries to intercept...they bounce on the top of the new table. It doesn't break this time through. Maybe it'll last another month.

Ultimately, though, the elder twin ends up with her bell rung and pinned to the floor. She squeaks.

Dewei blinks. "Home sweet home?"

"You could never give this up, though," Ai notes, stepping inside to pet a proud Mara's head. "Hello children."

Mara beams at them both. "Look Ting! Folks. C'mon, let's say hi." And she lets Ting up, smiling her Mara smile. "How's tricks, cuties?"

"Tricks are your department, but trees are planted and ready to go." Dewei smiles, and nods.

"Oh, good! That's nice." Mara looks between Ai and Dewei, looking for signs. Mussed hair? Not really, no more than planting a tree would explain easily. Rumpled clothes? Nope. Smelly? Nope. Practically fragrant, even. Bruises? ... nope. Mara looks to Ting, smiles, and back to Dewei. "Gotsta tell Fel."

Okay, so they can't prove it. But Dewei's got a certain look about him and Spot has no doubt that he and Ai hit the hay. She plays dumb, though. "Yup yup! I think mom's seeing that albino girl while Yue's gone because she upsets Yue for some reason? Anyway, she'll be back soon."

"Good, good. I would like to know a few things about the tree, anyway, when they get here." Ai sniffs the air, eyes suddenly lighting up. "Cookies?" she demands in a very TingyMarish way.

"Cookies!" Ting affirms. She purrs, and looks over to Dewei and Ai. Grins. "Takes a looong time to plant a tree."

Orrin, for his part, is staying the hell out of this one.

"Well," Ai answers without missing a beat, "it was a very, very big tree." And she takes a cookie to munch, eyes closing prettily.

Ting snickers, and just munches a cookie, grabs one for Makyon, and trots over to him, cookie held out.

"Aunt, have I told you today that I love you?" Dewei inquires, amusedly relieved.

Mara actually blushes. "Just now! I love you too! Lots. Enough to turn my head." And she does, grinning. 

Makyon, who had been watching the shenanigans with more than a little amused interest, glances at Ting as if snapping out of a trance.

"Oh. Thank you, Ting." He reaches out to take it, half expecting to be frozen or something.

Ting just smiles, and munches her own cookie, trotting back over to the counter and plopping down. There's nothing wrong with it...this time.

Makyon munches the cookie carefully, thanking his stars for that.

A certain angel comes wandering through the door about then, looking exhausted. "The tree is ready," he says without waiting to be greeted. "It would have been done sooner, but we were detecting presences there quite a bit longer than we thought we would, and could not speed up the time until then."

"Ah...right. Sorry about that," Dewei notes.

Ting titters, almost spits a little cookie, and as quickly collects herself with Mara-ish bipolar ability, quite respectable again.

"Like hell," Mara points out. Ai is just glowing, whether she's embarassed or not. "So it's all there, huh?"

Yue nods. "All of it. It... well, it's pretty spectacular. A real trophy of what a time caster can do when he's motivated. Mara... I need to talk to you in private. Do you mind?"

Mara blinks. "No. Meet me outside." She knows what he's going to say, of course. "Everyone else, get Fel when she gets back! I wanna tickle her."

"Who's tickling whom now?" Felina inquires, sipping a paper cup of tea as she walks in.

Mara turns a deer in the headlights look at Felina. "Um... Orrin is tickling, uh, Makyon."

Ai nearly spits out the drink she'd manifested.

Ting snerks, and then almost falls off the counter laughing.

Felina smirks, glancing to the two men.

The dumen blinks, although it admittedly takes even an Orrin an extra shake to get it together after that. "What? He got me the obligatory drink first."

"I put the first payment on a cell block, I figured, why not." Makyon, given a little time to think by Orrin's answer, was pretty well prepared.

"My eyes!" Mara covers them, snickering. She glances at Yue, who is staring at the table. "Hey. Whasa matter with you?"

He smiles at her, briefly, and then just vanishes outside.

"Huh. Must be that time of... wait, wait! I'm confused!" Mara snickers again.

Felina laughs. "Just go see what she wants, Mara. Am I invited, by the way?"

"Um, I suppose. It isn't as though we could hide anything from you anyway.' mara vanishes as well, for outside deru.

Felina pauses outside the door a moment, collecting herself and trying to put back on her game face. Her "entire life" face. Smiles a little, and heads into the room. "Are you two ready, Dewei and Ai? Understandably, Yue's a touch ansy to get this over and done."

"Right... right. I am ready." Ai stands up, looking unusually sure of herself for this sort of situation. After the day she and Dewei spent, very little is going to dampen her spirits.

"I think so." Dewei nods. He's still iffy on the Yue, thing, but is trusting him, his mother, and Ansendul more or less absolutely on this one. He looks over at his sister. "Hey, Spot, you want to see the new world tree?"

Ting swishes her feet uncomfortably a few moments, watching them. "No," she answers finally. Looks up, and smiles a little. "Mom's staying here. I think I'll just hang out with her. Have fun, though!"

Dewei's quite surprised at this. Smiles after just a moment, and nods, though he has no idea why this is what it is. "All right. We'll see you later, Ting."

Ting smiles her cute, head tilted smile, and munches her cookie quietly.

"Bring us back an angel," Makyon calls from the sink, where he is back on dish duty to keep himself occupied.

Ai reaches for Dewei's hand then. "All right. You know the way, my love. Please, take us there."

Dewei looks at Ai, smiles, and nods. Glances back to his mother, searching her neutral expressionlessness a few moments, sobered, though he's not sure why. Shakes it off, trusting this whole thing to blow over smoothly, and then he and Ai are on their way to Yggdrasil Minor once again.

Makyon looks to Felina once everyone else is gone. "You don't have to be so brave all the time," he says, not knowing that Kaies had said the exact same thing to Felina dozens of times."

Thus, he couldn't possibly know the effect on her...almost an opposite effect, actually. Felina observes him a few moments, eyes quiet, their expression vague. "There always needs to be someone keeping it together," she notes finally. Eyes travel down a few moments, and then she simply turns and walks out.

Orrin stands up and follows without a word.

Ting's ears press back a bit. Maybe she should have just gone to see Yue die.

Makyon stares, confused as all hell. "Did I say something wrong? That was supposed to be comforting." He looks at Ting, her ears set back. "Hey. I tried, I'm sorry. What do I do to make this better?"

"I...um...have no idea what went wrong. I thought it was nice, anyway. Maybe ask her? I mean like waaay later." she nods.

"Maybe. Meantime..." he blinks. Has a realization of some sort. "Ting, do you suppose this face bothers her?" He touches it thoughtfully. "The other man who owned it, she must have seen him today."

"Ohhh...that could have been it. A friend of hers is about to die, even he'll hopefully come back, and she did lose the first guy in your body." She ponders this. "She still likes you, though, you know that, right? And it's very much your face now." Ting nods a bit.

"I know. I only wish to make things as easy as possible, on everyone." He wonders about it, though, deciding he probably had nothing to do with Felina's discomfiture. Still an outsider, still insignificant in the face of family business.

Ting wanders over and sits beside him, legs swinging thoughtfully. "I think maybe it was the exact phrase you used, for some reason. She was...well, not fine, but bottling things up unhealthily well before that."

"Maybe. I imagine she gets told that a lot, though." The revenant looks to Ting, who is so cute when she does cute things like that. "Still, doing something nice for her might be a good idea. Any thoughts?"

"Hmm...no tea! She's had way too much today. Gods, I wonder if that stuff's addictive." Ting titters. "Mom's so habit-forming it's funny. It's really a good thing she's smart enough to keep from habit forming on nasty stuff."

"She is picky about her food, too, I think. Making her a nice dinner would not be good enough." Makyon puts his chin on his fist, considering. "I owe your mother a great deal, Ting. I have to do something. Perhaps Orrin can help, once he's done bearing the brunt of Felina's self-inflicted blame."

Ting smiles, just a little more brightly than before, and pats his knee. "Maybe! She'll appreciate the thought, for sure."

"What about you, though? Are you okay with all this? I can cook for you."

Ting wrinkles her nose a little. "It's kind of disconcerting. I mean...if it were a sure thing, I don't think mom would be so freaked out right now. And I really like Yue. She's nice."

Mara kuru appears in a crash of red and black and diamond wicker man, right on top of Felina's new table. In a pile of table debris Mara stands up, looking around.

Ting nearly jumps out of her skin, and grabs her heart. "Gah! Aunt, you scared me! Umm...what's that thing?"

"Well, I'm not sure," she says, glancing at Makyon, who is actually standing in front of Ting in attack position. How cute. "It looks like a wicker man, you know, a sacrificial cage. But diamond. And empty. Dewei sent it and told me to go home with all urgency."

Ting blinks. "Uh-oh. Everyone's in trouble?" She jumps down, and pokes the cage. "Is there something weird about it? I don't sense anything..."

"No. It's just empty." Mara shrugs. "Well... I may as well tell you. Yue is... gone. Gabriel was uncharacteristically merciful about it... he even allowed Yue to club him in the face, to pay back what he did to her forever ago. He's still there with Ai and Dewei, I guess."

"Well, that's good, I gues..." Ting nods slowly. "I guess nothing bad will happen to them as long as he's around."

At this point, Felina walks in at a quick step. "Mara, what's wrong over there? I have the most awful feeling right now..."

"Well..." Mara explains what she'd just told the kids. "Dewei isn't a weird kid, but Gabriel is there. I don't know, hon."

Felina is frowning heavily by this point. Something isn't adding up. Did Dewei think the wicker man was something else? Getting it away and getting it out of the universe are very different in extremity. "Yue?" she inquires.

"Gone," Mara-kuru nods, fighting the quiver in her lip. "He was so brave. He attacked Gabriel and... Gabriel let him land a blow to his face with that godawful club Yue always carries. And then... well, Yue didn't feel anything. Gabriel was... he was very..." her voice trails off.

"Humane," Makyon inserts for her, a hand set on Mara's head.

Felina blinks slowly. "that's...very charitable, in a Moorn-ish sort of way." She steps over to hug Mara gently for a moment. "I'll be back. I'm worried. I want to check on things there. And then she vanishes for Yggdrasil Minor with a teleportation recollection spell.

---

Dewei appears with Ai still wrapped in his thankfully long-ish coat, feeling immediately for Moorn.

... who appears exactly one eigth of a second later. "Ai?" He demands, his expression as stricken as Dewei has probably ever seen. He looks to his student, and to his daughter. "Good... good job, Dewei. Yes. Very good."

Dewei smiles just a little, and nods, but his expression is tight. All told, seeing Moorn's reaction...he'd gone through this whole thing in shock. It's only just now sinking in that they'd almost lost Ai...and now he's doing his damnest not to cry. He looks to Ai. "And...Ai's fully a goddess now," he observes quietly. Nods. "And alive. Alive is...good."

"Do you mind," the sorcerer begins, his tone only a little bit sarcastic for once, "if I hold my child...?"

Ai cannot keep her eyes dry to hear such a thing from the mouth of her father. She waits, though... as far as she is concerned, she belongs to Dewei now. Not that he can order her around, unless she wants him to.

"Of course..." Dewei has to coax his arms off of Ai, feeling quite a bit clingy, but then does, smiling a little at her.

Mara-kuru arrives about the time Ai nestles into her father's arms, eyes closing at the comfort of it.

Thus, she leaps to pounce Dewei, squealing gibberish at the top of her lungs.

Dewei is...hm. Startled out of his mind, and his yelp is removed from the usual, amused one. He's still on edge from being in Julengard...and everything else.

Yue and Felina appear just in time to see Mara take him down and smother him with affection.

"What was with the wicker man, Dewei? Mara likes to be tied up, but not put in one of those."

"Um...long, long story, Aunt, and not a pleasant one. But thanks for being quick on it." He smiles at her a bit. Expression tightens, and he suddenly just hugs her tightly, teeth bared in a grimace, and a sob actually cracks from his throat before he can bite back the rest.

Felina observes all of this quietly...very quietly, actually. This is simply not a good day, all in all.

Mara's brow wrinkle, lip pushing out in a pout. "It's okay, it is!" She hugs him too, rocking him as gracefully as she can with his height difference over her. "Ai's here, you're here, Yue's here and looking sexy if I do say so myself. Mara loves you." Still she holds onto her nephew, patting and soothing.

The angel's bleary gaze runs the gamut over them. Not a good day at all.

Dewei smiles a little after a moment, slowly working on feeling silly...but then dismisses it. No...no, it's been a damn hard day. And he's only human. Sentient. Mutt. Whatever. He leans back and wipes the one wet cheeck, smiling tightly at Mara. "Thanks, Aunt. I love you." And he pecks her cheek. Looks at Randleif's sword, and over to Ai. "Ai...I need to head back to the world tree, just briefly. I need to return something to the Valkyrie who led me to you loaned me...I'll be back tonight, okay?"

Mara draws up a little bit, almost defensively. "Is it safe?" she inquires without anything like sarcasm.

Dewei looks back to his dear Aunt. "I think so." He nods. "This whole thing was...a stupid, demented misunderstanding. If there's any risk this time, I'd call it minimal."

"I'll go anyway, methinks." Ting sidles up to him.

Dewei blinks. "Where did you come from, Spot?"

"Wouldn't you like to know!" She's been laying low, just listening and trying to avoid crowding people. She smiles. "But we're really hard to tackle together, yup. We're like Mom and Mara. I'm the brawn and you're the brain. Oh, I'm also the charisma and cuteness." Okay, so she's actively trying to restore some normalcy, without being too obnoxious. She's smarter than she lets on.

Ai notices this from her place in her father's grasp. She flashes a secret smile at Ting, uttering thanks that is not only for herself.

"Alright then. But you call your Auntie if something goes wrong. She'll get your mommy and we'll double team 'em, because me and Fel are both the cuteness." Mara nods, and lets Dewei up. "Valkyrie, though? Pimpdaddy Dewei!"

"Nah. Ai's plenty for anyone." Dewei grins, smiles at Ai, and then looks to Ting. "Ready, Spot?"

"Yup! Don't worry, Aunt and Mom, I'll keep him out of trouble." She grins at the ladies of the house, and Felina manages a slight smile and nod just as the twins vanish for Dame Astra.

Felina closes her eyes a moment once they're gone, and looks to Mara. "Do you suppose there's any way to keep the new one from getting into this much trouble, this often?"

"Oh, Fel... look at the family." Mara looks around, to Felina, herself, Radivishe Moorn and his goddess daughter, and a bitter fallen angel. "I can't imagine anything that could pose a real threat to 'em with this kind of vanguard."

"If you all will excuse me," Ai says out of the blue, "I am really quite naked under Dewei's jacket. I need a private moment." And she trots off to dress herself. Radivishe Moorn gazes after her, smiling a definitely not-himself smile.

For twelve seconds, until his eyes pop wide.

"What other one?"

Felina blinks, pulled away from grudgingly agreeing with Mara. Looks back to her double. "You didn't tell him? Well, I guess you haven't had a lot of time to do so, either, huh?"

"Well, I had an hour and a half, but my mouth was full most of the time."

"Oh my stars..." Yue, suddenly distracted from his self-loathing, marches off to the trees, hand set on his stomach in mock illness.

For the first time in history, Radivishe Moorn's face shows a hint of uncomfortable blush.

Felina sets a hand over her eyes. "Oh, lord...another venture into the world of 'will spend the next century trying to forcefully scrub that mental image from my brain.' Thank you, Mara." She snickers a little. Moorn can take solstice in teh fact that everyone here is likely as uncomfortable as he is right now.

Mara just beams.

"On that note, I am going home to drink. Mara, I will meet you later." Moorn pats her head, to a purring smile, and vanishes just that quickly.

"I'm so cute!" Mara observes. "So Fel. We gots a few more issues to deal with today." She looks over to Yue, who is hiding behind a tree to keep them from seeing that he's crying again.

"Yeah...I have a couple of ideas, but nothing that will work until he's more stable...gah. I just..." she shakes her head. "Yue's had such a tough time since she woke up. He didn't need this. This was the last hope she was clinging to."

"I think those wings are gorgeous. So colorful, pretty... and he looks good goth. They're very regal, very... I kinda want to make it with him, now. Not fair, the whole boyfriend thing, I don't know how you do it." Mara smiles. She's such a tramp, sometimes, but she knows that. "He does need some love. Do you think his friend would care if his wings were strong and scaly instead of soft and pillowy?"

"I agree. I think he looks fantastic...but he just had such a specific picture in his mind that it's going to be a touch tough to make him see that, and...Minna, you mean?"

"Well, yeah. And yes, Minna." Mara looks to the tree again. Her heart is breaking into bits, but she doesn't really know how to express that. "I'm not real sure about that whole situation, but I think he could seduce just about any man and any woman with a little lesbian streak if he were so inclined. Felina." She gazes at her double. "Like someone I know, you know. Fel."

Felina smirks, though there's something nostalgic in her gaze. "Yeah, yeah...he really is quite the charmer when he wants to be, thoroughly a sweetheart." Felina ponders quietly. "to be honest, I've been going back and forth on the issue, myself... I mean, do you really think it's a good idea? My but pokes me about 'yes,' but...well, she ended up with a broken neck last time they were together." Mortals being shoved aside by a hostile god's hand to the head simply doesn't end well. "Minna herself could stabilize Yue, I know it, but...there's also the risk of him seeing her death more than he sees her."

Don't think about Kaies. Don't think about Kaies.

"It isn't like buying a new pair of shoes, I know. But still... I'm afraid that if we don't do something, Yue'll just waste himself to death. And being an angel, that will be a long, horrible process." Mara shakes her head back and forth. "God dammit son of a bitch bastard! Stupid stupid!" Mara also babbles when she's nervous, but in a profoundly different way than Felina. 

"Along that line, I'd really like one of us to be here at all times, the kids can take turns too when they get back." Felina bites her lip a little. "I don't think he'd try to hurt himself, but in his current state of mind, I just don't know."

"Me neither. Me neither." Mara shakes her head again. "We need fat food to discuss this. I'll be right back, Fel."

Mara hops over to the forest, and proceeds to invite Yue to a cheesecake binge of death, in those words exactly. The angel mutters something in return, and the Serinian nods. "Fuckin' yeah, baby," is her answer. She looks at Felina as she comes bopping back. "He's fine. He really needs to be drunk, though. Wanna help?"

"Sure, why not." Felina grins, and nods. "I'll be the designated 'that's a bomb, not a mint' person."

"Nuh uh," Mara shakes her head. "You've had a lot of stress lately, baby. You get to drink mit Yue. As a favor to me, and your poor husband, who needs you to relax so he can do nice things to you."

"I want to, Mara, it's just..." Felina points down.

Mara smiles. "Yeah right. Like I'm gonna take that as an excuse? Honey, if you gave birth to a baby with no legs you could fix it with a snap. You know that."

Felina sticks out her tongue. "Yeah, but if the mind forms wrong, it will be harder. I was clean with the twins, and they turned out perfect, so I'll do the same with this one."

"Right. You're right, I'm sorry." Mara smiles, a little sadly. "I need to go home. I think Gabriel might be willing to turn my hair into static again and let me go around the house touching metal things."

Felina nods a little...she feels guilty, somehow, although she doesn't think she did anything wrong. "Sure...I'll stay with Yue, then...you okay, Mara?"

"I'm fine. Nothing a little mouth to mouth won't fix. Though..." her eyes turn serious. "I do wish you'd cut loose with me sometimes. Now was a stupid time to ask, but you wouldn't have done it anyway, would you?" She eeps, softly. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! It's just been a rough day and all, and..."

Felina shakes her head. "No, I understand, and...I actually wanted to, Mara. I would have if I weren't carrying. I've tried to get better about that in recent years, I have and...hey, I'm going to need a break from being a new mom anyway. Get me sloshed then, all right?"

Mara smiles, but it's not entirely genuine. In part because she can hear Yue talking to himself, of course.

"Bye, mommy," she says, fading away to go home and probably demand things from her man.

Felina sighs quietly. Lovely...Ai's died today, Dewei may or may not fully get over it, Yue's just taken an emotional ass-kicking when a single pinprick would have been enough to break him, and now she's somehow managed to offend her nether double...and she's not even sure how.

Just...damn.

Ai returns right about then, dressed in a simple blue sun dress and a cute, if a little oversized, sun hat. She looks around, brow wrinkled a bit.

"Where did everyone go?" she inquires with a sweet sort of music behind her voice.

Of course, considering the day she's had, Ai doesn't need to hear about her problems. Felina smiles at the half...full...goddess. "It was amusing, actually... Mara-kuru embarassed your father so sharply that he left, and she followed not long after." She laughs quietly. "Is there something I can get you, Ai? I don't suppose that new body has had anything to eat or drink yet."

"Mara is so good at that. And... no, but is there something I can do for you?" She beams. "Anything? I feel so light, so free of burden right now! Like worry is beneath me. So... let me share that with you, Felina."

Felina has to smile at this, more genuinely. "That's very sweet, and truly wonderful to hear, Ai."

She may have gone on, but this is when Dewei and Ting reappear. Felina smirks a little at her kids. "So. How complicated did you make returning a simple sword?"

"I got to stab a world worm in the head!" Ting chirps happily. "I also got covered in glitter. It was cool."

"You still have some on your nose, too, Ting." Ai grins at Dewei, and his sister of course. "Was everything all right?" She heads towards them, but stops when gets close to Felina and just stands. Felina is going to be family, she hopes, a mother even to her. So breaking down any proximity barriers is probably a good idea.

Felina smiles a moment at Ai before looking back to her kids. Yeah...Ai is likely to be her "daughter" before long, isn't she?

Ting wiggles her nose. "Right where it belongs."

Dewei smiles, and nods. "Yeah. It turns out that the Valkyrie who took me to find you before was in quite a bit of trouble...but she should be just fine now."

"Also, Mitre is really cool," Ting grins.

Ai crosses her arms over her chest, smirking Moornishly at Ting. "I imagine the two of you would be like peas in a maniacal pod. And it is good to know that she's alright. Mister Hero, right?" Her smile warms towards him. "And I'm sure Ting had more than her share to do with it, too."

"I," Ting declares proudly, "was worm bait!"

Dewei grins, and heads over to Ai while Ting takes over.

"Dewei way was cool, though. He was all...stealth ninja. Ish. And then the worm decided to ram both of us so we both ran like hell." She blinks.

Ai whistles. "No comment, dear. And Dewei..." her eyes settle on his face, and her smile turns dreamy. "... Dewei is always cool. He is perfect." She sidles up to him. "My hero."

Dewei smiles brightly at Ai, though blushing, and sets an arm around her back. "You're looking so chipper, too," he notes. "It's wonderful to see."