Dear Diary,

"Children, Passion, Ecstasy, Bloodlust, Vengeance, and, of course, the Justified Homicide." Tabitha Diaz, Doctrine of Tabitha, Testament of Domains

The first Testament of the Doctrine of Tabitha now complete, Tabitha begins her description of Domains, those areas of Mortal life over which she holds the greatest sway. While it may not be readily apparent, given her simple presentation, Tabitha presents these to us in order of her own priority. Children, because they are the future. Passion, for in the end it is what drives us. Ecstasy, the simplest yet greatest reward we can receive. Bloodlust, the fierce desire to bring harm. Vengeance, the desire to harm those who cause harm. Finally, Justified Homicide, the realm of executioners and vigilantes alike. - Priestess Most High Above All Others, Archmage Imperator Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Commentary on the Doctrine of Tabitha

Huh. I never really thought of it that way. I mean, yeah, I kinda figured 'Justified Homicide' would cover vigilantes, but I never even stopped to consider like, legit executioners. I guess back in the day they weren't really a profession any more. Not as far as I know, anyway. Back before the invention of shit like guillotines and gas chambers, where somebody could throw a switch and somebody else died, I guess making someone else reliably dead took skill. Not to mention the whole 'gotta make sure the poors know we have someone ready to hang them'.

Shit, hanging doesn't take that much skill does it. Just wrap that rope tight around the neck, then kick the ground out from under them. So I guess to hang somebody you need a boy scout, maybe. They're good with knots. Also I remember reading some bullshit about them not admitting trans boys, so fuck those guys. Okay, that's not entirely fair. I'm pretty sure the scouts themselves weren't some kind of unified bloc of transphobia. Not sure on the homophobia; something tells me any given scout is gonna be entirely for or entirely against, depending on their own personal inclinations.

But that doesn't change the fact that 'tying knots' is probably the simplest way to guarantee some poor bastard is gonna die if you live in a place that hasn't invented the guillotine or the gas chamber. So we've probably got professional executioners. Not sure. I'll have to ask Saffron about that at some point. Just to be clear, I'm not entirely opposed to the idea, both because I'm not an absolute hypocrite and because as one of my old teachers put it, there are times when a human starts hurting and killing other humans, and they can't stop themselves, and you can't economically justify keeping them in a cage forever'. So, like, serial killers and shit. Which I really hope isn't as big a thing here and now, but knowing what things were like when I got here, I wouldn't be surprised if there are more of them.

Shit, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them were in the Clergy.

Okay, now I've made myself depressed.

At any rate, after our conversation yesterday at lunch, Saffron left to go do Imperator things. I realized what she'd said like half an hour later and thought, who's bodyguarding you? For that matter, who's watching over Tallulah? Has Tallulah gone back to work?

We're watching over each other, love.

That made a weird sort of sense. It's not like I paid a whole lot of attention playing bodyguard. Something, something, something, 'will catch an assassin, rip their tongue out through their asshole, and use their dying soul to Revive their target' is apparently a pretty solid deterrent. Of course, not long before dinner, I realized the other problem.

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Who's watching the kids?

In answer to my question I heard Karen laughing in the bedroom outside the curtain. "They've not ventured far out of this room or the hallway with their rooms, Goddess."

"You mind keeping the doors closed?" I called out.

Isnomi crawled under the curtain and scrambled up to lay a hand on my face. "They closed and locked, Mama."

I nodded, then frowned. "Did you wash up?"

She shook her head. "I hasn't gone out today."

I grumped a little, but couldn't really argue too much with that. Then one of the kittens farted. Only it wasn't exactly a fart. "Karen? Could you bring some diapers from one of the closets?"

"I hep! I hep!" Isnomi darted off, and I listened to the sounds of Karen laughing as our girls ransacked the closets looking for wherever the diapers had been stored. A few minutes later, after a bunch of scrambling, the girls slid the curtains open and delivered half a dozen stacks of diapers. I looked back and forth between Marie and I, then to the girls. I waved Maze over, had her sit leaning against Marie's back, lifted Anise off my tit, and said, "Okay, girls, Maze. You want to hold her?"

That got a rush of girls surrounding Maze to 'help'. I lay Anise gently in her lap; it had nearly been time to swap her out for one of the others anyhow. Then I pulled Borysthenis off my other tit, laid her down, and worked that Mom Origami Magic to swaddle her butt in a diaper. It... wasn't perfect, because unlike Isnomi, our new girls had tails. I briefly considered cutting a hole in the diaper, but that seemed like a terrible idea once I thought about getting a poop diaper off a squirming tail. So eventually I just sliced a slit in one side of the diaper and tied it around her tail before doing up the rest of the diaper. By the time I finished, she'd gotten a little rammy, so I swapped her out for Isadora, then went back to diapering.

Isadora fell asleep while I was diapering her. I traded Maze Isadora for Anise, diapered Anise, then swapped her for Calliope. One kitten at a time, I got them all diapered. I did Erato last, because she'd been the one to start it all by sharting. I used a diaper to clean the little poo curds off of her, then got as much as I could off of the bed as well. I set the dirty diapers aside, then wrapped her up and held her to my breast.

Marie shifted the other kittens around and handed Garde to me. I gave her a look, but still took our kitten and plonked her onto a tit. Then I sighed and quietly asked, "why?"

She smiled sadly at me and whispered back, "Better Milk."

I didn't think the girls, who'd focused entirely on Anise to the exclusion of everything else, heard her, but I wasn't really ready for them to be asking questions about this. Really? Marie nodded. Why do you think that?

She smiled at me and thought back, Primordial.

Which made a weird kind of sense, I guessed. I lay there thinking about it until Saffron arrived with dinner. Chicken tendies with... not macaroni and cheese. I mean, it was pasta and cheese, but not macaroni. I wasn't sure why that got to me so much, but it did. I sat there and ate mechanically as Saffron fed me. After dinner, which took quite a while and got kinda messy with all the girls eating in the bedroom, Saffron slipped in behind me and let me lie back in her lap. "Penny for your thoughts?"

I shook my head. "No thoughts. Just weirdly tired."

She chuckled. "Feeding Isnomi was occasionally enough to tire me out. I can only imagine feeding eight kittens must be worse."

I shrugged. "Marie's doing as much as me."

"And she's napping through much of it." I turned to look, and Marie was, in fact, asleep while four kittens nuzzled at her.

I shook my head. "Yeah, I just... I can't do that."

"Well. I can't say I disagree with your decision to feed the little ones. Perhaps we could get some friends to visit and cheer you up, though?"

I shrugged, then closed my eyes. "Watch over me? Us?"

She bent herself over to kiss my brow. "Of course, love."

My ladies all massaged Marie and my tentacles. Dream time was very subdued tonight.

Woke up suddenly, to the smell of caramelized sugar and warm chocolate. The curtain slid aside, and before I even opened my eyes, a cream filled crepe slipped into my mouth, gooey chocolate dripping onto my tongue and painting my lips. Right about then I wound up really glad Saffron had overengineered our house.

Sure as shit nothing short of an overengineered fortress floor was gonna stand up to Mama Driver's Kawaii Overload Berserker Mode.

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