Dear Diary,

"Passion is what inspires us,

Passion is a fire that warms,

Passion is an urge that drives."

Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Passion

Yeah, I know this is probably kinda weird, what with me talking about depression in conjunction with Passion, but I think I might actually be Passionate about Passion. Like, yes, I am absolutely all about my partners. My towering tiger-lady Marie. My cool, smooth, sweet Ice Pop Siobhan. Of course, forever and always, my tiny tyrant and succulent short stack Saffron. I love them all Passionately, and I'm not just talking about sexy fun times. Hell, I'm not even really talking about sex at all. That's an entirely different Passion of mine, one that just so happens to overlap with those three. As often as I can make it do so, really.

Kinda wonder if Future Me is more, less, or equally into that aspect of the four of us. Like, She's obviously the one who hooked up with each of them, but did she go after them, did they pounce on her, was it mutual, did we somehow actually get the surprise isekai power up of having functional rizz to throw, or do they all just enjoy my body odor. Which is another weird thing I got when isekaied. I haven't mentioned it, because it's clearly in the 'really weird, but everybody else takes in stride' category like people purring and upright albino tigers and shit, but I smell like pumpkin pie spice. My pits and nethers natural odor when I get ripe is 'overflowing grandma spice cabinet'. And I do mean 'grandma' as opposed to 'abuela', because I don't smell of cumin, coriander, or any variety of capsaicin bearing pepper. Just ginger, allspice, and its component parts. So weird.

But while I'm maybe hesitant about being a Goddess of Homicide, Justified or not, and Vengeance and Bloodlust both need very careful application, I'm gonna have to think long and hard to come up with cautionary tales about Passion. I mean, I feel like I ought to, what with spending most of three 'books' admonishing folks to be careful with my other Domains. I guess there's some low hanging fruit there. Like if you're really Passionate about something, you can wind up hurting people pursuing it. Or you can talk somebody's ear off infodumping about it. I dunno, I'll think about it over the next couple days of putting steps and guardrails into the Bore.

Speaking of the Bore and guardrails, we're actually putting them in. Wooden ones, mind you, but solid heavy things, the kind that I think would take some effort to break, and definitely wouldn't splinter like balsa wood the moment somebody with some heft leaned on them. Like, Big Willy Johnson, Jarl and Domnu's favorite chew toy, might not be able to lean on them safely, but then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't fit on the steps in the first place. But I'm pretty sure even Marie and her sisters could slide down the rail without potentially breaking them. Not that I'd recommend that until they've been properly oiled, or waxed, or whatever the fuck people do to wood to keep it from cracking around here.

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Speaking of, along with the steps, I also put a simple little hut over the top of the Bore. Nothing fancy, just four walls, a slanted roof, and a six inch high sill to keep any runoff or rain or other wet shit from flowing into the Bore. Totally my own idea, which I would feel way prouder of if, when I sent her a picture of it, she hadn't thought, oh, Goddess, thank you, I'd intended to do that myself, but then got distracted by Lady Crow and this new line of research.

Like, go me, I thought of something important without somebody telling me, but also, dammit, I hadn't thought of something Saffron forgot. Not sure if Future Me has those kinds of moments of deep insecurity when faced with my wife's towering intellect, but I sure as fuck do.

So last night we all kinda stumbled to bed after we got everybody clean and fed. As the four of us lay there, I thought, you guys having trouble sleeping?

I'm afraid so, thought Siobhan.

We both spent the day physically mostly inactive, while having to think all day. A terrible combination for insomnia.

Yeah, I'm kinda the flipside of that, but my brain is all active while my muscles are mush.

Really? Saffron sounded surprised.

I shrugged. The Maenads were out lumbering or guarding the ladies gathering stuff. I did that little stone hut by myself. By hand, since I wasn't sure if anybody was watching. Didn't want to pull out the tentacles without you around.

Saffron's fuzzy chuckle rubbed velvet around the inside of my head, and definitely put me in mind of the Bed room, but I really was a little bit tired; I think I'd overexerted maybe. Wish one of us was in any kind of shape to take charge and make things happen.

Right about then another fuzzy chuckle hit me, this one in my ears. A moment later Marie delivered us all to our boudoir, and before long delivered all three of us into the sweet embrace of blissful sleep.

Dreamt of Marie gently pushing my other three Priestesses into my maw over and over again, where they just melted, smiling as they did. Felt... something. Way out toward the direction of the rising sun. Lots of somethings, really, in the water, tickling my tentacles as they raced toward me.

After breakfast I pulled Saffron aside and told her about it. "Your Kraken, you think?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe? Is anybody else out in the ocean likely to, y'know, interact with me?"

She thought for a while. "Your brother might? But along with him being petrified, I think he'd be rather distinctive should he contact you."

"I have a brother?" I thought about it for a second. Specifically just long enough to remember that Loki had sons, only one of whom was notably aquatic. "Holy shit, you mean Jörmungandr?"

"Unless you have another brother you haven't told me about?"

I thought about that for a bit, and realized that some part of me did think I had another one, but couldn't for the life of me think who. That thought stuck with me through the day as I worked on the reinforcements and railings for the Bore steps. No super heavy lifting today, but lots of fiddly bits as I carved out little slots for stone and wood, slipped them in, and then Mineral Bonded them in place. Bugged the crap out of me all day long. Probably something Future Me had figured out, but now I didn't remember.

Really hope that when Saffron figures out how to un-Bless me, she'll remember again. Having a brother and not remembering them would suck.

Probably even worse than having a sister who forgot about you.