we do not bear children until we have so chosen

[dark_light]

Amariah appears in the Belltower, throws herself into a chair, and tries to read postcards, but her eyes won't focus on them. She tries the Bellbook, and scarcely has better luck, although her eyes do catch on a certain word.

"Jane."

"Yep?"

"I want to talk to Aether."

"I'll let her know!"

Comments

[pythbox]

Fusion, Iron, Sapphire, and Red all answer in the affirmative, Red fastest. Screwdriver says [Maybe?]

Iron Man says [Huh? Never mind, not me, no.]

[mind_game]

[Should I just assume you are exempt from statements in this category about the template?] Jane inquires of Iron Man as she relays the results to Amariah and Aether.

[dark_light]

"I guess in the absence of other distinguishing criteria I'll take Red," says Amariah.

[mind_game]

[You answered first and have spontaneous-teenage-rant-listening-experience, you win, ding ding,] Jane tells Red.

[pythbox]

[Yeah,] says Iron Man, [good plan.]

[toblameforit]

[Ooh, do I get a prize?] says Red. [Is the prize interdimensional travel?]

[mind_game]

[The prize is interdimensional travel. Report to the Janepoint to collect. Or they're in the Belltower, you could go by door if you feel like walking.]

[toblameforit]

He reports to the Janepoint.

[mind_game]

Yoink!

[dark_light]

Here is Amariah, looking like she has had her - well, not her soul stepped on, her soul is sitting on her shoulder in perfect physical health - but at any rate like she is in very poor emotional shape.

[subtly_artistic]

And there is Aether, looking totally out of her depth.

[toblameforit]

"Wow, hi," says Tony, taking a seat. "You look - unhappy. I barely know what's going on, but I guess that might conceivably make me a better person to rant to? Jane just said 'spontaneous teenage relative' and I'd give good odds you didn't get hit with a Soph."

[dark_light]

"No, her name is Helen. I hear Juliet has a sister now. I have a - a daughter."

[toblameforit]

"...Wow," says Tony. "Okay. What, like - happened?"

[dark_light]

"Kas had her. He wasn't trying to have her be anybody's in particular but his, I guess, but the wish - filled in the gap. She looks like a thirteen-year-old Damaris or Yseult, I recognized her right away when she showed up. I was gone a long time."

[toblameforit]

"At least thirteen years, I guess," says Tony. "Wow. I'm sorry."

[dark_light]

"Sixty-six. He didn't have her immediately. I mean, I understand he'd be lonely, I just wish he'd addressed that by - talking to the harpies or hanging out with that bear he was friends with or meeting new people - I could even get it if he'd met someone and fell in love with them and wanted to have kids with them - but this is so much worse."

[toblameforit]

Tony nods.

[dark_light]

"We never talked about having kids. Not even the perfunctory conversation about prophylactics - witches can't get pregnant until the first time we want to, it's supposed to be literally impossible for me to have a surprise kid even more than it would be for anyone else - and - Now if I ever want to, the one we would've had is already grown, she's probably already settled and separated, at thirteen - if she's even going to settle, if she's even separating, she was wearing mortal clothes when I saw her. I don't know anything about how he's bringing her up - culturally, personally, induction into the mysteries of the multiverse; she didn't look surprised when she saw me but who knows why that would be. I don't know what possessed him to spontaneously reproduce at all, let alone anything about what he opted to do once he'd managed it. I wouldn't have wanted to name her Helen. I wouldn't have left her alone for thirteen years. Even if I hadn't meant to have her. If I'd gone home and he'd presented me with a newborn I could - I'd be mad, I'd be bewildered, but I'd step in. It's not like I'd decided to be eternally childless, you know? And now the - possibility I was supposed to have is gone. I'm not even old enough to have a thirteen-year-old daughter. I am only seven years older than her."

[toblameforit]

"That really sucks," says Tony. "On the subject of not being old enough to have a thirteen-year-old daughter, I can say some stuff about when I was thirteen if you want, Sherry wouldn't mind."

[dark_light]

"- Yes, actually, that hadn't occurred to me, but yes."

[toblameforit]

"Also kind of relevant to spontaneously having children, I guess," he says. "Except that wasn't really what I was after, I just - I was a bored, lonely genius and I thought I probably could clone myself if I tried, and I'm not even sure I was expecting it to work, and then suddenly there was this baby and he had needs and I kind of freaked out and by the time I'd almost started to figure out what to do with him, he was practically my age and I had a whole different set of problems. Which I will totally talk about at length if you want, but I don't really know where it stops being relevant for you, you'll have to tell me."

[dark_light]

"I'm not sure. It's probably closer to relevant than most things? I'm not sure anyone has had my exact problem before, so."

[toblameforit]

Tony shrugs.

"So, there I was," he says, "thirteen years old, with this one-and-a-half-year-old clone most of the way caught up to me - it seemed like every time I turned around he was a year older. And, uh, it was kind of freaky and I did a lot of stuff I ended up regretting. Mostly I didn't talk to him enough. Because it was new and weird and I didn't know what to do and I was vaguely afraid of fucking it up, so I didn't do anything, which definitely fucked it up. Wow, that is a super depressing story with a super depressing moral, I'm sorry."

[dark_light]

"- Yeah, quite apart from whether Kas thought through the effect on me I don't know if he fully thought through the effects on Helen. Even if it'd turned out how he wanted to and she was just some random kid, I was always going to come home eventually and then she'd have a - we aren't married, so not a stepmother, but the same general idea - who was there first and simultaneously had no idea she existed. And instead she's mine and she's been growing up without a mom except insofar as Kas counts, so even if I'd talked to Yseult and Damaris more I wouldn't know that much about her, I don't know how that will have affected her, I don't know what if anything she wants from me now, and I don't feel like I can ask her till I'm more calmed down and have read these - postcards. He wrote me a lot of postcards while I was gone." She brandishes her postcard bag.