Dear Diary,

Y'know, it's been a while since shit went me-terminally sideways. Like, so sideways that my options were 'do something that's likely to kill me, or everything goes directly to hell in a handbasket'. Seriously, the last time it really happened was New Amsterdam. Since then I've had some tough fights, some shit where either I got injured or someone I care about was in danger, or hurt, or even killed. Still gotta make sure Ria's recovering properly from that. Yeah, physically she's fine, but mentally, emotionally, psychologically that kind of shit leaves a mark. Oddly enough, she and I have that in common. I'm not even talking about the emotional damage, either, but the fact that in neither of our cases do we have a physical scar to go along with the psychological one.

Now that I think about that, I really gotta be more careful. Yeah, I managed to sort things out with what happened to Ria. Yeah, I've arguably got more sustained power now than I did when that went down, what with my tentacles now covering the bulk of the east coast of Atlantis. But I've known since the day Bonnie got killed that my problem is not, is never going to be, 'can I kill the motherfucker causing the problem'. The answer is an unequivocal 'yes'. The trouble, which I've kinda known since then, but it's just become more and more clear, is collateral damage. Sure, you pick a target, I can kill them. No questions. But for big enough, tough enough targets, the collateral might wind up being anyone who doesn't get to minimum safe distance. Which might be out of the room, might be out of the building, might be out of the City.

Might be off the planet.

With Earth being the only place my Wife and Kids and my extended family can live at the moment, that's not acceptable. So I gotta work on my finesse. Work on my control. Work on making sure that when push comes to shove and I need to shove someone's face in, I can do so with enough specificity that whatever hostage they're holding doesn't get more than some friction burns and maybe a sprained ankle when they hit the ground. I also gotta make sure I can put enough power behind that precision that whoever the asshole is who has provoked my wrath is no longer capable of provoking said wrath.

Yeah, thought about all this when I hopped over to Dad's place late yesterday afternoon.

"Tabitha. This is a surprise." Sigyn looked up from where she'd been massaging one of Loki's arms as he pondered a big assed tome in front of him.

I shrugged and maybe laughed a little. "It's still Monday, isn't it?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. Meanwhile Loki laid one thick finger on the page to keep his place, then looked up at me. "No, actually. You've skipped across the sunset."

I slumped. "Ah, shit." I half turned. "I guess I'll..."

Then Sigyn was there. Mom was there, pulling me over to them. "Nonsense. While we've both more Worshippers now than we have in days past, neither of us is so overburdened that we've no time for our daughter. Right dear?"

Loki smiled at her, then turned that same gently affectionate smile on me. "Of course my beloved wife is correct, daughter. Come. Sit. Speak with us."

So I did. For... Hell, I don't know. Time still flows oddly in Loki's cave. We talked about the girls and how they're growing, about my worries about screwing up their friendships, but not wanting to step too far away in case they needed me. We talked about their new Temples in Atlantis, built by the High Priestesses and Priests who technically report to me, most of whom I'd met only in passing. I found out that the Temple in Calverton, my Temple, the one I'd been to three times in the past few days, was part of a single huge complex purpose built to house the Clergy of Calverton. Of course, the two biggest sections, I guess what would be the two anchor stores of the Divine Mall, are his and my Temples. Both of which have wound up being dual purpose, what with me being out and proud as Mimic, and Loki making it very clear that Sigyn's Clergy would be welcome in his Temple, or he wouldn't be.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Apparently Sigyn's Clergy in Phileo have been invited to not one, not two, but three temples; the Temple of Love, because Marital Devotion, the Temple of Wisdom, both because she's Loki's wife and because of the whole 'Victory' thing, and the Temple of the Sun, because she is in fact Sol's daughter. She hasn't directed them to any Temple in particular, and both the Temple of Wisdom and the Temple of Love have both let her Clergy use the space when they need it without those Clergy 'officially' requesting it or anything. Which I'm honestly fine with. More than fine with, really.

Of course, Camden Yards hasn't really built any new Temples. The Big Seven are kind of hard to compete with in terms of sheer grandeur, at least not with the sort of tight budget the Yards are working with. They've just had to build a brand new City Hall, not to mention an Academy. Yeah, my people are putting up a Temple there, but it's more focused on education, child care, and maybe some housing and support for adult entertainers than it is Revel Central. I'm sure most of the Olympians would blow a gasket about not getting the lion's share of the City budget devoted to them, but Loki and I both are in complete agreement that Bill's got his priorities straight.

Speaking of a big honking budget, Ora Orange has one. Apparently Ophelia isn't technically 'head of house' for House Orange. Because Octavio and Oliver are both old school sexists. Yeah, they can't run the City, because New Amsterdam's got that whole 'of sound body' thing going on, but they were trying to hold on to as much of their personal fortunes as they could, I guess to control Ophelia from behind the scenes. I totally missed my Kitten doing this little power play, and it happened a while back, but one side of the 'where did the Orange money go' power play had Ophelia, Octavio, and Oliver all fucking around trying to fuck one another over. On the other side, little Ora. She's younger than Ria, even if she is a little more mature, what with being Dan instead of Sidhe. She also had the advice and support of Saffron and Loki. Who were nice enough to leave Ophelia enough income that she shouldn't be too susceptible to bribery, even if she is having to take care of her brother and father. Yeah, our, and I mean the whole family, Loki, Me, Sigyn, Mimic, even Diana have a nice shared Temple in New Amsterdam now.

Ora offered to pay for the Temple in Newark as well, but Antony wasn't having any of it. He's not stupid proud, he took a no interest loan from House Orange to get everything started, but Loki's followers in Newark are paying it back, bit by bit. From what Loki tells me, they're running something like a casino there. I don't have a proper Temple in Newark yet; it's under construction still, mostly because the actual construction workers in Newark are in high demand, and Karen figured I'd rather they work on shit like housing. She's right.

Rich Man's Port isn't really big on Temples. Something about the presence of so many Fae. But they do shrines. Kinda funny; my Shrine there looks an awful lot like a scale model of the Black Dragon, with red silk bunting. Like somebody put The Dress on her. Which I want to do now if I can figure out how.

That leaves Norfolk. Where Queen Olga is focusing on getting her Academy in order. Again, I'm cool with that. I do not need smoke blown up my ass. Of course, there is a new Temple going up in Norfolk. To Domnu. Loki and I scried on it. Black wood, black stone, black metal for the fittings, black glass in the windows. My man Johnson does not do things by halves. Then again, his Goddess has put in personal appearances on the regular, so I guess she likes the flavor of his favors or something.

Didn't get home until the middle of breakfast. After the discussion with Loki and Sigyn, I decided to just play with the girls today. One of me stayed home and talked with them, fed and brushed the Nightmares with them, made sure Baby's terrarium is clean and her? His? Their? Food is fresh. Also got Mister Slither to ride them all up the outside of the West Tower, which did not help my blood pressure, but I don't think he'd let them come to harm. Besides, I watched them the whole time, tentacles ready to catch them if they slipped.

Marie and I are experimenting with other grilled sandwiches now. We're gonna bring a whole selection home tonight. Some beef, some chicken, some pork, some mutton. I think even some fish and some veggie and cheese sandwiches, because my little Sidhe girl isn't big on meat.

Also, I finally caught the clue Saffron's been ever so patiently bouncing off my skull for the past week or so. Maid me walked in with a tray right at lunch time. Saffron tapped her desk and said, "right here." So I dropped the empty tray and hopped my ass up on her desk. Absolutely worth it just for the smile that put on her face as she stood up out of my lap, murmuring, "my favorite lunchtime treat."

"Hmm?" I murmured into her mouth.

She pulled back just far enough to say, "Fancy Goof."

I smirked at her and said, "But that's not what's for lunch though."

"Oh, really? Then what is?"

That's when I stood up, slipped my arms around her from behind, and whispered, "Kitten sandwich. Yum."

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