Dear Diary,

Kinda funny, but I never really put a lot of thought into the Lancasters since last Spring Equinox. Not as a family, as a House, or as a, I dunno, community. Really weird since I pretty much fuckin' lived in the Imperator's Suite at Lancaster House for a big chunk of that time. That's nearly a year now, and shit has changed, to put it mildly.

It's not just Bonnie's influence, either, I don't think, or Larry's intent to undo the really awful shit his family had done. Yeah, both of those are definitely driving most of the changes, not to mention feeding off each other, but I get there's a lot of other shit that's going on as well. For one thing, there aren't any 'Heroes Lancaster' except Lachlan at this point, and Lachlan never really struck me as the kind of asshole who would deliberately oppress people. Incidentally, sure, because he's an utter himbo, and if the social norm was passively oppressing people, he wasn't the sort to fight against the social norm. But now that his brother and sister-in-law are pushing for something approaching equality, both gender and racial, I think he's in a lot better place. He's the kind of guy who wants to be a real Hero, the kind of person people turn to when they're in trouble.

Lenny hasn't been around either, from what I can tell. Other than brief trips to celebrate events like the Imperator's birthday or his son's wedding, I don't think he's left Alliance HQ since the Alliance was founded. Then again, the man is definitely the sort to sniff out the seat of power, then try to sit in it. Of course, in this case the seat of power is whichever one is under my beautiful Kitten's luscious ass, and I think she'd object if he tried to play seat cushion for her. Not entirely sure about what she'd do if he sat in her lap. Crap, now I've got that image in my head, and it's not nearly as sexy as the thought of Lachlan sitting in her lap would be.

Thing is, looking at our own place, looking at some of the other Homesteads we saw, and then looking at Lancaster House with fresh eyes, I can see where it might not have been built as a misogynists' paradise. Seriously. I didn't realize this until a while later, but much like we've got connections between all of our buildings underground, Lancaster House's three main buildings are all connected, but down on the lower floors, and via the Women's Quarters. So, y'know, the whole 'all the women locked in the Women's Quarters' wasn't quite as hardcore as it might have seemed. Of course, the Dan women wouldn't go through the 'servants quarters' if their lives depended on it, and I'm not sure the pre-Larry Lancasters actually considered non-Dan 'Women'. Also, I'm not sure if there were any one way locked doors down in the basements. Maybe there were, maybe not.

But when you look at it, those quarters that you have to go through two bunkhouses of Volunteers or three stories of Heroes to get to are definitely the most protected places in Lancaster House. Which kinda looks a little like our kid's bedrooms, if you squint just the right way. I guess what I'm saying is that Lancaster House might not always have been as awful as it was when I found it. Thhing is, I don't think Lenny made it that way, either. Maybe there was some seriously fucked up misogynist Lancaster, or maybe it just slipped bit by bit until 'Dan uteruses awaiting Lancaster sperm' was all the Women's Quarters contained, but I'm pretty sure Lenny himself grew up with that as a kind of assumed thing. Yeah, he didn't pull his head out of his ass and do better, but to be fair to him, which I cannot fucking believe I'm saying, because I'm suggesting being fair to Leonard fucking Lancaster, the man who stabbed me in the hand before we were properly introduced. But to be fair to him, Larry didn't autocorrect his cranial rectal inversion either.

That took me grabbing him by the hair and pulling, hard, followed by Bonnie grabbing him by the ears and ramming his face in her cooch. Or her tits. Or her face. She really is pretty. I guess my point is that even Lenny was a product of his environment. But for the grace of me, Larry would be just like him, only with a heaping helping of short man's disease.

So after Larry, Karen, and I got done in the showers, we all stepped back down to dinner, where Larry and Karen went to town on Marie's cooking. I think Harold and Richard might have gotten a little intimidated watching Karen pack the food away, but credit where it's due, they didn't hesitate when, as Marie brought out dessert, some kind of gourd pie that wasn't pumpkin, she stood, stretched, and said, "I'm for bed." They looked at her, looked at each other, nodded, and stood up to follow her. They didn't even have a direct line to her brain letting them know how much she'd hoped they'd follow, or how much she was giggling with barely suppressed glee when they did.

When we all went up for after-dinner baths, Larry handed Lucas off to Euryale and Stheno, who joined Marie and the kids playing in the water, then drifted over to where Bonnie, Saffron, Siobhan and I were soaking. "Ladies. Commander, I... I take it your wife knows?"

"She does." I let that hang, then smiled and said, "as does Siobhan."

Bonnie's eyes narrowed just a little. "What is this that everyone else here knows that I don't?"

I nodded to Larry, "go on. She's your wife." Before anybody could get bent out of shape about that, I said, "you know her better than any of us."

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She smiled. "He does." Then he leaned over and, after taking a deep breath, whispered in her ear. She frowned, turned to him, and said, "is that some kind of a joke?" He shook his head. "You're serious." He nodded. She turned to the three of us, then focused on me. "I don't remember all my Dan lore, but... Domnu's daughter, right?"

"Ayep."

She just nodded. "That explains a few things."

At that point Larry blinked, obviously surprised by his wife's composure, and said, "what things?"

She just grinned at him, baring her teeth, then raised her right hand to tap at her matte black teeth with one matte black fingernail. "Oh, just things."

"You're taking this well," I said.

She shrugged. "If you told me tomorrow you had plans to spirit us all away and eat us or something, I might feel some kind of way, but even then, we've had a year we wouldn't have had otherwise." She pulled Larry to her, nuzzling him before saying, "the absolute happiest year of my life."

I chuckled a little. "Yeah, no plans to do anything like that. Worst case I might ask you to babysit in an emergency or something."

Everybody laughed at her look of mock horror, especially when she mouthed the words, "even Isnomi?" and that was that. Gotta hand it to Bonnie, she's totally embracing the 'lost all my fucks when I died, any I generate are for Larry's exclusive use' lifestyle.

Of course the kids wanted Lucas to sleep over with us. Which entailed Bonnie and Larry doing so as well. Which, since our big circular bed was totally big enough to fit a whole fuckin platoon, wasn't a problem, but Bonnie and Saffron took especial glee in both 'adhering to the norms of the house' and 'centering the heads of household, as was right and proper'. Which meant Larry and I wound up sleeping back to back, butts and backs pressed together. Both of them seemed vaguely disappointed that no shenanigans occurred. I mean, yeah, he and I both know that if the two of them straight up looked us in the face and said 'we wanna watch you to fuck, get to fuckin', we'd totally do it, because we dote on our spouses, but barring them being that blatant about it, it's just not gonna happen, because, I mean, he's Larry. Whether I think of him as my sworn man or guaranteed emetic or your money back, he just does nothing south of the border. Fuck, I slept with my ass against his all night long, and my nips remained stubbornly unstiffened.

Definitely gotta avoid letting them know that, though. As long as fuckin' possible. Because those two absolutely would do that just to watch the least sexy sexy times ever while laughing their asses off.

Spent most of the day letting the kids show off their rooms to Lucas, which mostly meant showing them off to Bonnie while Larry and I followed along chatting about the difference between blades and Blades. Okay, the kids had, like kids will do when they have their own spaces, started accruing stuff. Mostly just random shit they'd found while playing outside, but each of them had a few things that surprised me. Ria had added some really nice sketches of her sisters to her walls, and if Alex's was any indication, intended to turn those sketches into full fledged paintings. Menace had added what she called a 'There Thing' to her pictures on her wall; pretty clearly a Nightmare. Alex actually had what she called a 'sword'. Which was a bone shiv almost but not quite big enough to be a short sword for her. Apparently Marie taught her how to make it. Absolute bro that he is, Larry showed her a couple stances and moves to practice. Lindsey also had bones in her room, but in her case it was the start of a collection of a few little skulls and other bits. Like, squirrel sized skulls. Oddly uncreepy, because each skull had either some fur, some feathers, and some other bits next to it, and she knew what kind of animal each one came from. Again, Marie, who'd shown her how to gather them and preserve them. Maze had a bookshelf she'd started putting books on. Copies of Pratchett, because my little Pony Girl is awesome like that. She read a chapter to Lucas, who mostly sat and drooled, because he is a normal two month old, not Isnomi the wunderkind. David had a couple dolls Marie had sewn, and let Lucas hold one for a bit, and barely winced at all when the crotch goblin did as crotch goblins do and nommed at it. David whispered to Marie while everybody looked at Daya's 'dollhouse', which was barely four walls at this point, but looked pretty good for something put together by a little kid.

David absolutely got scooped into a big hug when, right before the Lancasters headed home after lunch, Marie handed him something, and he walked over and handed Lucas his very own little stuffed Kraken. Menace jumped into my arms and glomped David as well, whispering, "you gedded him hith own Mithdew Kwaken."

Now and then I worry at how our kids are progressing, what with there being a whole fuckin' squad of them, but it turns out that between the four of us, we're not doing a half bad job.

Spent the night after the kids went to sleep celebrating how well they were growing and maturing, and what a good job we were doing as moms. Mostly horizontally, but it's a dance we all know the steps to and enjoy. Especially a certain Ice Pop, who insisted that she wasn't really a 'mom', just kind of an aunt or something. She is so definitely on the 'to be gotten pregnant' list, if only so she'll admit to how much she deserves momming props. Not like I haven't heard stupider reasons for having a kid.

Today I spent the morning keeping the peace while the Cadets warmed up, stretched, then did duBois off-brand Tai Chi, then did the same thing in the afternoon for Basketball. Doesn't require all that much, because Vickerson is a professional, Citron is trying to project an image of 'nobility' or some shit, and Hildegarde has learned that if she waits until approved 'Citron beating' opportunities, I let her get away with a lot more. No idea why she's like that, but if I had to guess, it's something to do with her using him as a surrogate for every Jarl who ever used her like a disposable party favor. I think I'll have to intervene there at some point, but for right now, they're pushing each other, hard, when it comes to everything they do in both of my classes. So long as neither of them kills the other or anybody else permanently, worst case we just station them at opposite ends of the Alliance when they graduate.

Or, I dunno, tell them whoever kills the most Spartans is the 'winner' of whatever little feud they've got going. Whatever works.