And If Ever Fate Should Choose to Smite You...

We just dropped the boys off with Jack.

My other kids, Brendan, Susan, Gunter, Charlotte, Alex, Azzeza and Amanda are all fine. I'll know the next time they're in trouble again. Fuck, I'll know the next time the dog's in trouble.

We found them in a hotel and spent a little bit of time catching up. Susan is excited - and confused - to be an aunt.
After a bit of chit-chat, I took Gair aside - way aside. Like, I guessed how far away I'd have to get for Gunnar not to hear me if for some reason I ever wanted to keep something from him, so Gair and I ended up walking out on the street. I told him what I remembered of the time craziness, and you know... Maybe I should have let Gunnar tell him about that. I guess it makes sense that future Gair said he never got the whole story, because I probably forgot a lot of it in the retelling. Anyway, I told him where he met us and what he told us and that he looked like he was doing well and being important and that before any of that stuff ever happens, in the right here and right now that I am proud of him.
I'm proud of them all, really. But he has lost a lot and I remember being that lost and quiet kid so I made sure to tell him what I needed to hear back when my mom died.
He told me about what happened in the water, how a big whirlpool showed up and something attacked them but they couldn't see what it was. I had a hunch maybe Susan had seen it. I mean, Gunnar can see through the water because his dad's a righteous and sunny guy and while I can't see the same way I thought maybe Susan could. So we walked back to the hotel and I went up to talk to Susan. I asked her as subtly as I could what she saw and she said we should take a walk.
Gunnar and Brendan got back from looking at some dead whales at this point, and Susan said that the dead whales on the beach were fighting for them. Against something Ixion probably made. Some big chainsaw sea monster. She didn't wanna say anything in front of Alex. Herc's kid. Not my Alexander. I remember looking at Gunnar and saying something angry and stupid and vengeful, like, "He's going to get dealt with sometime soon."
And he will. I'm going to make Ixion very, very sorry for ever fucking with my kids. I'm making it a personal priority to rip that man several new orifices before perhaps handing him off to some starving Maenads.
The kids wanted to know what to do next, and I remembered that I promised a Greek party boy that I would get him a shrine built in the new Deustch wine country. I offered that as a task to the kids, and they seemed to go for it. Okay, maybe it was more of a, "Hey, I made this promise and could you guys go keep it for me" kinda thing but still, they could have said no. Any way, it should keep them safe while giving them a chance to relax and show off and help people.
That business concluded, we decided to stay the night in the hotel before parting ways again. It took a little bit of doing to get us newcomers some rooms, especially since I now am broke. Well, by "it took a little doing" I mean, I pretty much went down to the front desk andasked nicely and told the lady the truth. House burned down, trying to keep my kids safe, yadda yadda. I think Gunnar threw in something about an orphanage. She said we could stay there for one night, which was my plan.
I got the boys down for the night, singing them to sleep. Before too long I decided to get some sleep myself, I haven't really slept much since we went to Helheim, and even less since the boys were born. This being a mom thing is kind of exhausting.
I don't know how long I was out, but I woke up to a knock on the door. There were three women standing outside and at first I thought "Oh fuck Furies."
Nah. This was either better or worse, and I'm not sure which yet. I stepped outside the door and asked what they wanted. They were here to see the boys. I said something threatening because yes, I am the type of woman who makes threats against Fate itself, except they didn't really seem to notice. That was kind of annoying. And kind of a relief. But mostly annoying. They just walked through me and the door and stood over my kids like creepy hover-hags and I stood there wondering if I was about to have to do something that would get me killed.
The Fates just nodded and said they were done. Then they bamf'd away and I followed my first instinct whenever I'm freaked out and texted Gunnar. Some long and rambling something about how the Fates were here but everything was fine and now the Fates were gone.
I'm a little bit terrified of what Fate has in store for my sons. I want to know what those three saw and whether or not I'm going to be making an enemy of the most powerful force in the universe in the future. It would be a short-lived relationship, I'm sure.

Anyway.
Then we headed to Mexico, with Gunnar driving. He pointed to something he called Waffles, which I'm assuming was the griffin Jack was sitting on when I met him future-yesterday.

I told Jack about what was in store for him, kinda. I told him in my roundabout, rambling way about what was going to happen in China. Except... and this might cause him some difficulty, I forgot to use the words "China," or "future" or "time loop."
I just told him that I was going to try my very best to be back before then, but definitely in twenty years I would try to come back. Well, I would have to come back because I already did come back and if I didn't then how would I have already done it? But yeah, I told him that the boys were going to need him and that I would forget to tell him then so I was telling him now, Thank You. And I know they're great. They have to be, because they're my babies and I will not accept anything less.
As he was shutting the door I heard Jack say to them, "Alright, let's get some sugar in you." The mom in me wanted to throw a fit, and the rest of me thought that if he really wanted to give my unusually strong, not quite mentally developed sons with nine-year-old bodies a stomach full of sugar, that would be a big dose of "not my problem" being unleashed on Jack's ranch. Also, I'd really suck at this whole "letting someone else raise my kids" thing if I just turned around and barged into his house and started telling him how to raise my kids.

So now we're off to follow up on Herc's lead about the apples. I'll probably do some more work on the blueprints for Uncle Dio's shrine so I can send those off to the kids. Apparently I'm kinda good at this design stuff, which might come in useful when I start going to put Nevermore back together.

I miss my boys already. I have the lullaby I sang them stuck in my head.

"May you find solace in the gentle arms of sleep
Despite the wolves outside your door
In time you will see them all as harmless
And their idle threats easy to ignore

And if ever fate should choose to smite you
Stand your ground, never walk away
Please don't ever let the world defeat you
Don't get buried in its decay

As you drift into the gauzy realm of dreams
May you take comfort in the thought that you are safe
For it only takes a fraction of a second
For all of this to change

Return to me
When slumber's fog has lifted
Return to me
Stronger than before

As you sink beneath the soothing streams of time
May you be thankful that you had another day
For there comes a time when each of us will enter
A sleep from which we will never wake

And if ever fate should choose to smite you
Stand your ground, never walk away
Please don't ever let the world defeat you
Don't get buried in its decay

Close your eyes now, if only for a moment
For it's time you get some rest
The wolves are gone and nothing here can harm you
Let go of your fragile consciousness..."
Assemblage 23, Lullaby