Dear Diary,

Almost forgot that tonight's the Full Moon. That would be kinda embarrassing. Not to mention possibly rude to Diana, who since her redemption has been nothing but cool, so I'm gonna try real hard not to be rude to her. As I've mentioned, when people aren't complete dicks, I'm a joy to be around. Really.

Stop laughing.

So after my kids spent most of the afternoon playing with the evacuee kids from Grandmother's Village, I stepped them home to dinner. Marie did this one entirely on her own, because while I love the stuff, all of my attempts at sushi so far have been abominations not fit for human consumption. Shit, I don't think I'd feed that shit to Baby.

Once I got everybody settled in for dinner, with the women of the house tentatively trying the food after watching my girls follow Menace's lead, I dispensed hugs and kisses to my ladies. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

Saffron raised an eyebrow and murmured, "I think not." Before I could feel some kind of way, she Grinned at me and said, "I fully intend to visit the Temple tonight."

I looked at the other two. "You two gonna come too?"

Siobhan pouted the tiniest bit, then quietly said, "that would be lovely, but I'm afraid I'm not up for anything quite so... energetic."

I leaned in, bunted my forehead against hers, then kissed her on the brow. "It wouldn't have to be energetic. It can be anything you want it to be." At that moment I felt the same kind of thing from her that I felt from the Worshippers who came up to me at the altar, and I shot an image to Marie. My magnificent Maenad Maid Marie squeezed my hand to let me know she'd gotten the point. "Just so you know? I would be thrilled if you wanted to, y'know, ride along." I tapped my head so she didn't miss my point.

She smiled up at me, a little sad, I guess because she was the one who'd started the whole thing, and now she had to sit out. "I... I may?"

"You absolutely may." She giggled at my deliberate misunderstanding, and I doled out extra hugs and kisses, then did the same for the girls, who'd taken a brief break from sushi nomming.

After that I stepped to the Temple to find Karen and Diana facing one another across the Altar. Not exactly staring one another down, but clearly disagreeing over something. When I arrived, they each opened their mouths, but before the bickering could start, I reached out a hand to each of them and said, "What's up, ladies?"

Karen opened her mouth, then closed it without speaking and nodded to Diana. For her part, Diana raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "My Clergy would like to Worship at your Altar, to Revel with you again."

I shrugged. "I don't have a problem with that, although I think at this point folks are coming up for their second turn with me?" Before either of them could reply, I snorted. "That sounds so fuckin' weird. 'Turns with me', like..." I trailed off, not wanting to air my self-doubt in front of my congregation. Maybe in front of my High Clergy, maybe in front of my original Patron, but I didn't want people thinking, I dunno, that I wasn't able to protect them or shit like that. "Sorry, just never thought I'd be a shared commodity that people eagerly awaited their turn with. Kinda messes with my head a little."

Karen said, "we didn't expect you would have a problem, and yes, everyone involved tonight is a member of your or Diana's Clergy, so they're all coming up for seconds." I definitely caught the innuendo there. Shit, Diana caught it, by her smirk.

"So what's the problem?"

The two of them inadvertently chorused, "precedence," then glared at each other just a little.

I rolled my eyes. "I'd say you have to share, but that would kind of defeat the whole point. Or maybe that whichever of you falls over first gets with me second, but that's kinda unfair to Karen, what with you having Worshippers right here to keep you upright, even if she manages to outlast an incarnate Goddess. Which, y'know, not likely. Sorry Karen."

"No offense taken." She actually grinned. "Although I'm more than willing to take that risk."

"I thought you preferred guys?"

"Oh, I do, but between yourself and Marie and... well... let's say my experience with my own sex has been enjoyable enough that I've no hesitation to indulging."

I turned to Diana. "She is my Highest Priestess."

I let that hang there, and she drew herself up to her full seven foot height and said, "she is, and yet I claim precedence."

"Because you are a Goddess and I a mere Mortal?" Karen asked the question, but I gave Diana a look that definitely said she ought to answer.

Which she did. "No. Of course not. I may find my Matriarch's Egalitarian ways strange, but she is my Matriarch, and I am obedient to her wishes in this. I... even may see some merit in them. So no. Not because of our origins, Divinity, or lack thereof. I claim seniority."

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"Seniority? You go first because you're older than me? How is that not trading on your Divine status?"

Diana smiled and shook her head. "No, Karen. I go first because I claimed Tabitha as my Matriarch more than a day before your Ordination."

Karen's jaw dropped a little at that, and she definitely got a bit of a booger look, because Diana wasn't wrong. Of course, both of them jerked a little when Saffron landed on the altar, jiggle physics in full effect, and declared, "she's correct, Karen. Which means she goes second. After me." I heard some stifled groans from the gathered Clergy, at least half of whom had been there for Saffron's last marathon session. She just smirked at them all and said, "oh, hush. Watch and learn, my fellow Clergy."

She pulled me in for a kiss, during which Shapeshifting shenanigans happened, and he threw me down on the Altar. My Kitten's Skills in full effect, she kept me almost too distracted to really feel what my Wife wanted, needed from me. I really didn't understand until that deep pit of need filled itself as my random bullshit word salad echoed through the Temple. She stood with the smuggest look that ever smugged on her face as she turned to my and Diana's collected Clergy and Worshippers, wiped her lips, licked her fingertips, and said, "I'd say we ought compete for speed and volume, but some of us," she shot Diana some side eye, "have unfair advantages. So shall I suggest simply showing our Goddess what she means to all of us?"

Before I could really catch my breath and sort my brain out to reply to any of that, the entire congregation, not to mention Diana and Karen, chorused, "let it be so."

I stared, open mouthed, as Saffron flounced around to a seat in the front row, Grinning at me. Then nodding at something in front of my Altar. When I turned to look, Diana scooped me up and did unto me like only a competitive Goddess trying to outdo a Mortal upstart could possibly do. She still wound up taking longer than Saffron to scramble my brain. I think. Time wasn't really something I was paying attention to.

Then, surprising everyone, I think, she walked down, took a seat an arm's reach from Saffron, and held up a fist, which my Kitten Grinned and bumped.

I turned to face Karen, who sat there shaking her head. "There's no way I could ever win a fair contest against either of those two, I don't think."

I just looked up at her, propping myself up with one elbow, surreptitiously tryna wipe the drool off my lips with the other, completely incapable of wiping the smile off. "I dunno, you're..."

She cut me off with the smirkiest smirk that ever smirked. Another of her scooped me up from behind, stage whispering, "the Highest Priestess of a Trickster Goddess, so," then she shapeshifted into boy mode her own self. Not as hot as Saffron, but not bad at all, especially with the manic gremlin grin as she said, "if the contest is fair, I'm doing something terribly wrong."

She eventually had to drop back from three of her to two. Okay, I'm not sure she collapsed the third of her, but she had to free my mouth up for the word salad to get out. Saffron's voice whispered into my head, such Divine Obscenity. Such Sacred Profanity. Well done, Karen.

Not as fast as yours, nor as loud, pouted my Highest Priestess.

Oh, but far more creative. Points for style. I think I might have been over-eager to hear it echo through the Temple. She almost sounded embarrassed as the first of Diana's Clergy, Luna, came up and did unto me as her Goddess had done. I mean, sort of. Diana's Clergy aren't seven feet tall with fingers the size of the average male member. Of course, Diana can't actually put her whole hand inside me and make me see stars, either. I don't even know what the fuck came out of my mouth that time, and I was the one saying it. But she got a round of applause.

Then Hannah, one of my girls' teachers, stepped up to the Altar and I tried desperately to pull my shit back together.

She laid a tentative hand on my thigh, and I twitched a little, still definitely hypersensitized. "Must I?"

I pushed myself up, hypersensitive or not, and opened my arms. "Of course not. I'm here for you."

She giggled and said, "you come here for us?" I nodded. "For me?" I nodded again, but before I could say anything to reassure her, the chaos gremlin energy surging through my Temple infected that deep place where her secret heart's desire lurked. Lit it on fire as she pressed against me and whispered into my lips, "promise?"

Yeah, for whatever reason my Kitten had set the tone for the evening, and after Hannah left me gasping out imprecations, Diana's next Priestess, Trivia, came up and set a speed record for the night. Not, like, quick, because I think she wanted volume, but every bit of everything, the attention, the Worship, the tiny bits of Glory flickering to Diana and I from our Clergy as they all made their Goddess of Passion and Ecstasy as euphoric as I'd made them the time before, all of it had left me stimulated to the point I... was kind of a pushover. At one point I think the word 'love' might have slipped out of my mouth mid-salad. As Trivia smirked, I thought, sorry, Kitten.

She just chuckled into my brain. You love us all, my love, and I love you for it. I...

What?

She actually blushed as she thought, I am greedy. I wish to be first among equals.

I sighed, absolutely a sigh of contentment and adoration for my Kitten. You are, Kitten.

Saffron. Always Saffron. I'm not sure if I thought that part, or it just... suffused me. Either way, her Grin got predatory before she nodded to the next visitor to my Altar. Cherry looked as cute as ever, and I remembered last time as I sat up, holding my hands out to pull him into a gentle embrace. "My sweet Cherry pie," I crooned to him, and he blushed. "I remember, Cherry. Like I told Hannah, I do this for you. For all of you. I'm here for you, not the other way around."

He smiled at me, tilted his head thoughtfully, and said, "maybe we're here for each other?" I smiled and nodded. At which point he wriggled and I let him step away just enough to put his hands on my waist. "I, uh..."

I cupped his cheeks in my hands, drew him down to kiss his forehead. "Cherry, this time is for you. Not for anyone else in the Temple."

He looked around, grinning impishly, drawing smiles from those watching. Which was about eighty percent of the crowd. The other twenty percent were too deep in their mutual entertainment or too exhausted by earlier Reveling to really pay attention. "Really?"

I laughed. "The audience?" He smiled and nodded, and I held him so he stared into my eyes as I sang, "that makes it even better."

His smirk got smirkier as he said, "I want to show off."

"Show off?" He nodded, and I slid my hands down his arms, stretched them out behind me. "So do with me as you will, I Consent, my most flamboyant follower." Then I stage whispered, "Impress me."

I am utterly uncertain as to whether my Kitten has higher Skills than Cherry, but I'm absolutely certain that where she rushed, he took his time.

My boy even set a new high score for volume.

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