Dear Diary,

I wonder sometimes if me getting myself set up with classes at the Academy is a sign I'm growing up, maturing, taking charge of my own challenges and doing what I can to overcome them, if I'm just doing it out of habit, or if I'm somehow trying to avoid progressing into whatever my next stage of life will be by remaining a student. Seriously, I'm not sure one way or the other, and some of those things might bleed into one another, which just makes it more confusing.

My conscious thoughts on the whole topic are that I'm trying to give myself a schedule. Something to give my life structure, so on the days when I'm resting I don't start spiraling into 'oh, I'm just wasting my life being useless'. My weekends I'm actively doing a job. Not just busywork, either, but a job that the Marshall of Phileo normally does, and I get the impression he does it not only because he thinks it's important, but because he thinks he's the most effective person to do it. Which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and now I'm joking because I can't actually admit to being proud of myself for duBois choosing me to stand in his stead doing this.

But that's something I've been assigned, not a class I chose to take. My actual classes I'm taking are Basic Heroics Two and Advanced Physical Training, which is just my weekly workout to keep myself in shape. I think I remember the gym bros back in the day talking about that being something you do three or four times a week, not one, so maybe I ought to do that a little more, but then I'm also supposed to be resting, and since I started this schedule I've actually wound up with full week duties one time out of four.

But while I think I signed up for those classes out of a sense of adult responsibility, taking charge of my own life and controlling my ongoing unmedicated ADHD and Depression. Although I haven't had any really bad spirals in a while, which means either I've found a way to keep myself moderately stable or I'm building up to a complete breakdown. Don't know which way the smart money is betting, but I do know that 'you sign up for classes because that's what you do' is definitely some shit I could wind up doing. As is, of course, refusing to just graduate and move on to full time adulting. Even if I am, in fact, doing some serious part time adulting between teaching two classes and doing ride alongs.

I think I'm thinking about the Academy so much because I've basically spent the past four days there. First teaching for two days, then following Marie along, then PT today, although I didn't spend the entire day in the Practice Yard.

After a very restful night's sleep after Marie decided to reward me for apparently inspiring a Thrall to join the Academy and try for Hero status, I had breakfast in the dining room at the Homestead, then stepped over to the Academy and hit the Headmaster's office. When I knocked he replied, "come!" immediately.

Stifling my smart assed reply, because I figured it wasn't a good idea to fuck with somebody right before you ask them a favor, I stepped in and nodded to him where he sat behind his desk, wrangling his typical piles of paperwork. "Good Morning, Headmaster."

"Good Morning, Champion. I'm glad you came by this morning, I had a favor to ask you."

"Sure. Whatcha need?"

He set his pen down and focused on me. "Could you take another group of Senior Cadets out on a recon in force?"

I thought about it a half second, then said, "next Monday through Friday?"

He nodded. "That would do just fine."

"Do I get the same batch as last time, or a whole new set?"

He paused in thought a moment. "Normal procedure would be to rotate new Cadets to join you, but Cadets preferring a particular Hero to follow and requesting them isn't unheard of. It's something of a faux pas for a Hero to request the same Cadets, but it's also done now and again when there are extenuating circumstances. That said, am I correct in remembering that you encountered some locals to the West?"

"Genuine Atlantis natives, yep. Only a small hunting party, but they didn't seem like they were way out of their normal stomping grounds."

He nodded. "Then it might be a better plan to send the same Cadets with you. Having a group of Senior Cadets or, in the future, Heroes who are on good terms with our Western neighbors couldn't be a bad thing."

I kept my thoughts about how the only people it would be bad for were assholes tryna make some kind off 'Alliance Manifest Destiny' bullshit happen to myself. "Okay, so... I'm game to take the same Cadets along, if they want to request it, or you want to assign them, or somethng?"

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He nodded. "I'll have them ready to go on Monday Morning, same as last time, if that works for you?" I nodded, and he made a quick note in a book to the side of his piles. Then he looked back at me, "Of course, I'm sure you had something you wanted to ask me?"

"Yeah, um..." After a moment of hesitation, I decided to just bite the bullet and ask. "Can we, I mean Saffron and I, use the Practice Yard for our wedding to Marie?"

He blinked, staring at me for a second. "Well. I suppose most of the weddings here at the Academy tend to be the informal sort, not unlike yourself and Imperator Aetos-Diaz. But I'm thinking you want a more formal affair?"

"Yeah. Big ceremony, guests, cake, all that good stuff."

He chuckled. "I'll assume the final plan will be slightly more detailed than that?"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, we're not gonna be doing it until Spring anyhow. I just... I wanted to make sure it was okay with you before I started really getting into the planning."

He just stared at me for a moment. "Remind me to congratulate Marshall duBois." When I head tilted, he smiled and said, "his lessons regarding planning in Strategy and Logistics seem to have sunk in."

I laughed. "Hey, I managed two whole military campaigns. Even if the first one was kinda little compared to the second."

"You did. You did indeed. Champion Diaz, lest I forget to tell you at some future point, it has been my honor to act as Headmaster while you attend Phileo Heroic. My name might be a footnote in history, but just presiding over your launching off point is still enough to guarantee me that footnote."

I smiled at him. "Hey, you're the first school boss who didn't make me want to punch them in the head."

He narrowed his eyes. "Aren't I the only 'school boss' you've studied under?" My grin widened, and he smiled back. "Of course, my permission isn't the only one you need seek out. Nor is it the most important, although I suspect you've got some influence with the most important person you need ask."

"Uh... The Marshall?"

"Oh, no. As it's been made clear to me, while I'm Headmaster of the Academy, that just means I make the boring daily decisions and keep the paperwork moving. It's not my Academy, after all." When I blinked in momentary confusion, he said, "Head Maid Marie."

I smiled in sudden understanding, and might even have been blushing a little. Then she popped up behind him, said, "Yes." and disappeared again.

He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "No matter how many times that happens, I'm not sure I'll ever quite get used to it."

I snarked back, "at least you don't have to worry about 'suddenly Marie' involving her digits three knuckles deep in your orifices."

He facepalmed. "I did not need to know that, Champion."

"Sorry," I lied. "I gotta go talk with Saffron now. You need anything else?"

He shook his head, and I stepped up to the Academy Suite. "Hey, Kitten. How's the coding going?"

"Frustratingly slowly."

I bend down behind her, put my arms around her, and pulled her back into my chest. "Code not working properly?"

She shrugged. "I'm always amused by you calling it that, but not exactly. I think around ninety percent of everything is integrated, and all of it works independently. My major problem isn't functionality, though."

"Okay, so what is it?"

"I believe the term I read in a book Loki stole for me is 'User Interface'."

I thought about that for a half second before picking her up, slipping into her chair, and settling her on my lap. "So just go with the same kind of thing you did with the new and improved Assess Health."

Even looking at the back of her head I felt her affectionate grin and her exasperated eye roll. "That is, in fact, my plan, Goof of my dreams. The trouble, of course, being how to go about doing that most effectively."

"Lost in the sauce?" She actually twisted around to look at me, one eyebrow raised. "Among other things, means when you get so wrapped up in stupid little details that you can make any serious progress on the bigger, more important shit."

"Hmm... I suppose that's not far from the truth. But there are also some Shaping issues to work out."

I shrugged, slipping a few tentacles around my Kitten and beginning my massage chair routine. "I'm sure I'm not qualified to actually be helpful, but I can do this. Oh, and I can rubber duck if you need me to."

She chuckled. "This I must hear."

"Oh, thought I'd used that one before. It's where you just sit there and let the knowledgeable person explain the problem to you. Talking out loud to another person sometimes puts shit in perspective."

"That... could work." She paused, then asked, "but aren't you supposed to be working out today?"

"Eh, I'll Co-Locate and run some laps, maybe do some sprinting, maybe see if I can cobble together some weights that matter or something."

"I've some other ideas, if you don't mind waiting until the afternoon?"

"Ooh. Special exercise ideas from my Kitten. Sounds debauched. I'm in."

So I spent the morning noodling around in the Yard, mostly focused on massaging and listening to my Kitten as she worked through her 'UI issues'. Marie brought lunch, and we ate together, Saffron and I both taking great delight in feeding Marie the sushi she'd made us. When afternoon rolled around and Saffron had mostly worked through the knots she'd tied herself in, she spun herself around and straddled my lap.

"Ready?" I nodded, my grin absolutely open mouthed and lecherous. Then she shrank me down to smaller than her, at which point she flopped us back to the Yard, right near where I'd been idly messing with the weights. She picked one of the bigger ones up and tossed it to me.

After staggering to a stop, I hefted the weight, one I'd been doing speed reps with earlier. "The fuck?"

"Something I've recently become aware of. Body mass affects Strength. So if you shapeshift down to have less mass..."

"I need more Strength to move shit. Nice!"

So for the rest of the afternoon I set up a bench and did all kinds of presses, mostly with a heavy bar.

Mostly with a Saffron straddling each end of the bar and sitting on my hands.