Day One Thousand Two Hundred And Nineteen

Dear Diary,

After yesterday I'm guessing Trolls tend toward meaningful names. Then again, from what I remember from back in the day, that's way, way more common than folks in a lot of developed Western nations seem to think. A few places remembered the meanings of their names, and some still spoke the old languages the names came from, but for the most part the only people in wealthy Western nations who gave their kids names that meant something in English were, y'know, dirty filthy hippies.

Yes, I played Loathing. I even managed to play a little Kingdom when it was a pure browser game.

For clarity's sake, I have nothing against hippies in general. Some of them could stand to toke a little less and bathe a little more, sure, but worst case I wound up forgetting about the aroma of the hippie because of the aroma of the weed they shared. Given the generally shitty conditions I lived in before I got isekaied, I'm gonna call that a win overall, because pachouli, ganja, and musk is better than mold, mildew, and broken sewer pipes.

But yeah, five more of my kids have names now. There are, in fact, no unnamed children in the Kid Collective. Lingua Acris: 'Sharp Tongue'. Vox Dulcis: 'Sweet Voice'. Somnia Dulcia: 'Sweet Dream'. Manus Solertes: 'Clever Hands'. And finally, the one whose got to have more stones than Dad despite being a Human sized girl type Troll, Furtim Cauda: 'Sneaky Tail'. The Younger, yeah, but that's still kinda biting off her mom's schtick.

Fortunately, while Furtim Junior's announcement wound up with an epic wrestling match that wandered all over the section of Dad's cave I'd walled off with a tent of some semi-transparent tentacles, neither of them seemed genuinely angry about it. On Furtim's... I guess 'Furtim the elder's' part, it had more of a 'so, you think you're worthy to bear my name, then show me', and on our daughter's part a sort of 'bring it on, old woman, I'll out-sneak you any day of the week, twice on Sunday'.

I mean, our girl was laughably wrong, but she's got a lot of spunk, and is surprisingly Agile. I mean, okay, given the kind of whipcord build all the Troll Girls have, it's not really surprising that any of them are Agile, but there was some 'made out of wire, cord, and solidified Jello' levels of Agility going on during that wrestling. Like, it seemed pretty clear that the Troll equivalent of a 'pin' was to get jaws around the opponent's neck, but I swear at least once Junior did some straight up cartoon bullshit to keep her neck out of Furtim's jaws. Another time I'm pretty sure she managed to stretch her neck to twice it's normal length.

I'm not super sure on either of those, mind you, because that little bitch is fast as fuck, and never stopped moving, but at the end of the day it wound up being Furtim the Elder's ridiculous levels of Skill, accrued over millennia of life in a Legion, that won the day. Junior looked a little bummed, but before I could even intervene Furtim gave her a little shake, which might have been a finishing move on a lesser being, what with Furtim's claws wrapped around Junior's neck, but Junior just laughed as her mom said, "none of that now. You show promise." Then she leaned in and, in a stage whisper, advised, "but you might just go by the matronymic suffix around the other Legionnaires."

Junior nodded acceptance, but simultaneously unloaded The Question. "Why?"

Furtim managed to mix a Human Adjacent laugh with a Trollish jaw clap, then said, "because some of those louts will no doubt want to claim they've beaten Furtim Cauda in a match, and won't append 'the Younger' when they tell the tale."

Junior looked at her mom out of the corner of her eye, then said, "Understood. Younger it is... Until I can beat them."

Got home, got some food into the kids, simple easy to heat stuff that Marie had us make on Thursday combined with the last of the Revel leftovers, then adjourned to the Bath. Furtim, as usual, snagged me once Saffron and I were done in the shower and carried me off to use me as a floatie pillow. As we laid there drifting off, listening to the kids do their kid things, whether that was singing, counting games, or underwater hide and seek, she murmured, "so strange."

Half asleep, not really super curious, but wanting to hold up my end of the conversation, I asked, "what's that?"

"Names."

I kinda huffed out a chuckle. "Trolls have names. You've got a name."

She gently clapped her jaws. "Young."

"So?"

It took her a bit. When I was almost asleep, she murmured out, "investment."

Yeah, Dreamt of all my ladies watching highlight reels on the big screen. I'm not sure even who, because I was too focused on my big Troll lady, holding her just under the surface as she dissolved, bit by bit, over and over.

So weird that I can hear underwater. At least I can hear Troll. Which I found out when I woke to Furtim rolling over and dunking me, holding me to the bottom of the Bath with her face right up to mine.

"Too soon."

Yeah, I'm not sure if it says something about my inherent snark, my confidence in my own CQC, or both that I smirked at her and said, "too soon to reward my favorite Troll Mama for investing in our girls?"

She rolled her eyes, then licked my nose. Weird. Not terrible, but weird. "Too soon for more."

Also really, really not sure why I felt disappointed by that, what with not actually having any kind of deep and abiding need to make new kids with my Prefect in any case. Then again, at this point I'm not sure if that fuckin' Title is influencing me or is just some kind of Divination based analysis of my own proclivities. Black Swan with a Thousand, Thousand Young was supposed to be metaphoric and shit.

At any rate, let the newly named Troll Girls bid their sisters farewell, then stepped them and their mom all back to Troll Home as I delivered everybody to work. Guess I'm finally back to my full daily routine, although I can't tell if I'm doing so many things because of the whole ADHD thing or despite it.

Court, although today Cailyn filled in for her mom, who'd gone to Airi to do Sidhe Court shit for the day. After Tallulah's rock solid certainty and Adrienne's freaky ceramic and fire self, I actually had to growl a little bit at a couple folks. Not much more than that, and I will not comment on whether or not I was annoyed by having to be less flirty with my protectee.

Council, with Adrienne visiting and filling in for Cailyn while also subtly doing some negotiating for Jackville to maybe look for admission to the Alliance in the spring. Kinda hilarious watching Ophelia try not to freak out about aforementioned animated fire-wreathed ceramic. Especially when, led by Saffron, everyone else pretty much treated it like a slightly showy fashion statement.

Combat Training class, where I finally got the Cadets to start acting in teams by setting them up against me in four man squads. Four of them to each one of me, with another of me refereeing each spar. Not really what I wanted to do, but it worked.

Kitchens, both Homestead and Phileo Academy, where Marie and I did some roasts. Chicken, pork, beef, and bear. Asked Marie about how we were still getting bear meat, to which she replied, "Underwater Storage." I took that to mean the bottom of the Great Lakes here and now are chill enough to store shit long, long term.

Homestead, with the kids, where I discovered that they'd stenciled in the Troll Girls' names onto their doors. No surprises who they bunked with, even if it's not really 'bunking' when they all sleep in the big round bed.

Academy suite office, where after her mandatory lunch time pit stop, I mentioned that to Saffron, who sighed, then chuckled.

"What's up, Kitten?"

Smile still on her face, she pushed aside what she was working on to nudge me and twist herself around to straddle my lap. "Despite all my vaunted planning, I still make... I was going to say mistakes, but I think it closer to say I underestimate how quickly things Change, especially around you."

"Sorry."

She kissed me, long and hard, and when she let me up for air, my head spinning a little, said, "none of that. Children Live. Yet we still make them at the rates we did when they didn't, which means I'll be asking the Academy Smiths for an expansion to our bed."

I kinda surprised myself when I said, "no."

One eyebrow going up, she asked, "why?"

"Didn't the women at the Homestead make our bed?"

She rocked her head side to side. "They didn't make the springs. We didn't have the capacity to make spring steel at the time."

"Do we now?"

She paused, thinking about it. "Not as such, but we've all the Skills and materials we need to begin doing so by... Spring, I think, amusingly enough."

I nodded. "There you go then. Let them do it." I stopped myself. "Unless they don't want to?"

She just smiled. "No. No, I think you're correct in this." She kissed me again. "Thank you, love."

"Just helping my Kitten reshape the world."

She laughed. "About that?" I head tilted, she giggled, then kissed me again while thinking, I'll need your assistance with re-Shaping a facet or two of Status.

Uh...

Nothing is broken, but there are a few items that... She pulled away and sighed. "I didn't think why I did it, but Domains aren't listed for Deities. Not overtly. The person Shaping Status needs to know where to look."

I realized she was starting to babble and head bunted her. "Kitten?"

"Yes, love?"

"Were you maybe trying to protect me?"

So quietly I wouldn't have heard if if she was facing away from me, she breathed out, "I think so."

"Then I don't want to hear any apologies. Not even oblique ones. You wanted to protect me. From myself, I guess?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, well. I'm not ever gonna be mad at you for that, Kitten."

She smiled and looked up at me, tears in her eyes. "So my Goof."

"Yep. Don't forget it."

We spent a while sitting there, just muttering little affirmations and putting in some quality spouse time, until some time mid-afternoon she sighed and turned around, citing the need to get back to work.

Not long before sunset, as she was closing things down, an irked looking Tallulah joined us, crumpling to sit on Isnomi's toddler bed with a sigh.

"What's up, T?"

"Yes, Elle? Why do you sigh?"

She looked up, frustration and chagrin mixing on her face. I worried at the departure from her normal stoicism until I realized this wasn't her breaking under the strain or anything. It was her letting her intimate partners see what no one else got to see.

"Two Courts have sided with my rival."