Adalace: Just a bit of innocent digital eavesdropping, nothing wrong with that is there?

Later that night, after Adalace and Sarsaparilla had gone to bed.

"Well, Leroy just can't help being a hero, can he?" she Adalace.

"Nope! He narrowly avoids death from scary ladies on a daily basis!" said Sarsaparilla.

Lots of giggles.

The next morning found the five teenagers at the communal table, scoffing down their breakfasts.

"So, everyone else is still asleep?" said Sarsaparilla.

Nobody bothered to reply, after all the answer was obvious.

Adalace, finishing off her eggs and tomatoes, manage to see Leroy looking up, give a barely perceptible sigh, then return to listlessly stirring his porridge.

Ha-ha! He was looking at Kaydence's door. Oh, poor boy, he's missing his non-girlfriend. Which reminds me-

Adalace put on a medium strength smile.

"Say, Leroy, straight after breakfast, are you going to search the web for the contact details of that girl?"

The spoon stirring the porridge jerked, sending a few drops onto the table. Leroy collected his thoughts and looked at Adalace.

Gotcha! I'm so enjoying this. Leroy is such a nice diversion from thinking about you know who.

"Ah, right. I haven't forgotten."

A quarter of an hour later, Leroy was sitting in the computer alcove, facing a big screen. He had an attentive audience aligned behind him. Two of them were definitely enjoying themselves, while the other two were a bit more sympathetic.

Leroy was rapidly twitching his right hand, issuing search requests.

"I'll search for Candide, aged about seventeen, and ... yes, she's got a Marsbook page. Hello, she's now living in Verdant. That makes it easy. Well, easier. It's still going to be hard going for me."

Suck it up, baby!

Adalace exchanged grins with Sarsaparilla, but she wisely decided not to say anything to Leroy.

Leroy copied the details from the page and stuck them into a memo file.

"I could read her public profile and get some information about her... On second thoughts, all things considered, that might come across as a bit creepy."

So he just closed the page.

"Say does anyone here have their own Marsbook page?" he asked.

It turned out that none of them did. Not very surprising, since none of them had any friends before, so they didn't have any compelling need to provide an easy means for others to contact them.

"What are you lot doing at the public computer screen; Oh, I get it, Leroy was searching for that girl."

They all looked around, to see Francesca standing there. She looked slightly annoyed.

"You're a pain, Mr Leroy, I suppose I now have to look up the dick-, I mean look up Richard."

She sat down at the now vacated chair, then looked up.

"OK, scram, kids, I don't want any over-the-shoulder surfers here."

The kids scrammed.

After breakfast, Francesca consulted with Devina. Eventually, Francesca announced to the group-

"Us Girls in Pink would like to take Juniper and Kaydence to the craft fair. It's going to be a girls only outing, but I'm sure that Leroy will be only too happy to wait till later - any objections?"

Leroy definitely did not object, nor did anyone else.

Half an hour later, the five girls were gone. Teylon was still in his bedroom, but everyone else was present, Adalace clapped her hands. With a lovely smile on her face, she said, "I'm going to see who this Richard bloke was, anyone want to see also?"

"How are you going to do that?" said Erasyl.

"Yeah, especially since I'm sure that Francesca used the privacy options when she was searching." said Leroy.

Both boys look puzzled. But, hmm, no one else looks very surprised. Am I that transparent?

"Dear boys, I think that you are just a touch innocent, especially when it comes to the wiles of devious females." said Maggie. She had a big smirk on her face.

"Yes! I'm sure she has already installed some sort of keylogger or whatever lnto the public screen." said Sarawatch.

Should I put on my big innocent smile - probably not, since I'm not actually innocent, am I.

Aww, just drop the act.

"That's right, although technically it's not a keylogger for the screen access, it's more like data packet sniffer in one of the main router's start up sub processors-"

Adalace noticed that Sarsaparilla was giving her a warning frown.

"Ah, never mind the details! I'll just do this..."

A few minutes of furious twitching of both hands.

"And here we are! The Marsbook page that Francesca accessed. Let's see, his name is Richard, he's twenty five years old. Interesting; he's married and has two small sons. And look at his picture."

Seven people had a good look at his face.

"Yep, his left side has a mild, but definite, scar. Hmm, I'll enlarge that a bit... Yeah, I'd say there are indications that he had plastic surgery there, it wasn't quite successful, the original wound must have been horrifying impressive." said Adalace.

"So, Francesca was able to restrain herself from severely injuring him or even killing him, but nonetheless she managed to do some damage. Definitely more than she was letting on..." said Sarsaparilla.

"Yes, it's no wonder she was expelled from her school." said Sarawatch.

"That's going to be one interesting encounter. I don't think I would like to be there." said Leroy.

Me neither. But I wouldn't mind watching Leroy squirm at his apology!

At this point Sarsaparilla gave Adalace's hand a squeeze.

OK! OK! I'll stop the negativity. Since when did Sarsa get to know me so well?

She smiled at Sarsaparilla.

"So what do we do today, dear?" said Adalace.

Adalace and Sarsaparilla made their arrangements. Teylon had appeared by now, and he, Sarawatch, and the other three teenagers decided to stroll over to the shopping district, and then make further arrangements as they saw fit.

Teylon still looks off kilter.

Adalace sighed at this thought, causing Sarsaparilla to raise her eyebrows.

“Let’s talk about this while we walk, shall we?” said Adalace.

----------------------------------------

Teylon: Freaking out

The next day Teylon was again the last one to join the fray at the morning breakfast. This time everybody was present.

Teylon finally emerged from his room, blinking at a new day, and feeling the urgent desire for some coffee. He was also trying to decide if he wanted to follow that by some scrambled eggs on toast, or some cereal with milk and a few fresh strawberries. He was hoping that the ravenous teenagers had not already eaten everything.

Living by himself made everything so much simpler.

He looked around, to see who was up...

Oh shit. Not again.

He had just caught a sight of Juniper, who had been enjoying her fried tomatoes and barbecue sausages. She looked at her food, then started to make gagging sounds. Devina, sitting right next to her, was quick to wrap her arms around her, but Juniper kept on with the retching sounds.

"Can't these revolting memories go away." said Juniper.

Esmeralda! Can I have something to distract her!

Fortunately, Esmeralda was kind enough to provide. Teylon stood behind Juniper, bent his knees and put his arms around both Juniper and Devina.

"Do you remember when you were ten and your parents took you to a restaurant to celebrate your father's promotion?"

Instantly distracted, Juniper nodded her head.

"Oh, that's right! We had sukiyaki which the waiter cooked right in front of us at the table."

Teylon turned his head slightly to Devina's.

"And what happened when you did that with your family?"

Devina looked blank for a moment, before a memory from a happier past surfaced.

"That's right, the chopsticks - I mean, Juniper, do you remember the struggle you had with the chopsticks?"

"Why, yes I do! I was so frustrated trying to work them, that mum wanted me to use a knife and fork, but I kept insisting on using them. I sure dropped a lot of food, but!"

Everyone else, looking on, relaxed. It appeared that Juniper had either totally forgotten the unpleasant memories, or at least they were no longer overwhelming her.

Teylon moved his head back, away from the two girls, but he still kept his arms around both of them.

Saved the day. Again. How long is this going to go on for? At least Juniper now looks happy, and Devina looks like a mother hen, happily clucking around her little chick.

He caught Devina's eye. And she realised that he had an arm around her. She squirmed and twitched and looked as if she wanted to rear back away from him, but she didn't want to upset Juniper.

So Teylon acted like the perfect gentleman and withdrew from the embrace.

Sigh, she treats me as if I had bubonic plague, or as if I was some monster that that had just crawled up from the sewers, dripping all over the floor and table.

God damn it, I'm only trying to help! I am helping!

Avoiding everyone else's eyes, he sat at the first unused chair he found, and grabbed whatever was in front of him for breakfast. He sat there, eating some revoltingly sweet candy cereal instead of his usual preferred wholemeal grains and mixed fruit.

Bloody hell, this is what Sarsaparilla eats. I didn't realise how awful it actually was.

Wanting only to withdraw into himself, he did not feel like changing anything, so he sat there, looking at his bowl of multicoloured non-nutritional flakes, and steadily munched his way through them.

Sarawatch softly put a cup of coffee next to him, then retreated without saying anything.

He drank the last dregs of his cup of coffee, and reluctantly became aware again of what was happening around him. Apparently everyone was excitedly discussing plans for the day. In particular, Juniper was getting enthusiastic about the possibility of buying some more clothes.

But she already got some new clothes from the last time, when we all visited the theatre. Why does she need more? Females.

Naturally Devina was happy to go, Juniper didn't even bother to ask her. But she did bother to ask someone else important to her.

"Teylon, you'll come shopping with us, won't you?"

This is too much, can't I get away from it for a while. All this commitment. These constant demands for my emotional support. I don't know how to do this! And I never get any support from Devina. All I get is the memory of burning skin...

He managed a smile. For the consummate con man that he was, it was a pretty pathetic smile. It more than just hinted at his feelings, indeed, it showed to everyone who was paying attention a lot about his feelings. Even Juniper picked up something. The bustling sounds of a dozen people getting ready for the day slowly and gradually faded out.

"Ah, how about I, hmm, I don't do shopping very well, how about you just go with Devina?"

"But, but, I want you to admire the clothes I select, as well as Devina!"

Even though Juniper was starting to get upset, Teylon did not relent. Mumbling some apologies, he briefly nodded to everyone, and then disappeared out of the door.

Devina: Having a few words with Teylon

Damn him!

Devina did her best to get her support in before Juniper lost it completely.

"It's alright dear, I will go with you."

"I don't want to go with just you! I want Teylon also. After all, he promised to love me and to be committed to me, just like you!"

He certainly did! However...

"Well, I suppose right now he's also having a difficult time."

Am I actually defending a man?

And Juniper looks as if she might start crying at any moment. What do I do?

"Then what say we take Kaydence also. I mean," said Devina, turning towards Kaydence, "You also would like some new clothes?"

"Ah, sure. I'll go with you!" said Kaydence. She looked nervously at Sarsaparilla, as if to ask her for help also.

"Well, in that case, I suppose I can..." said Sarsaparilla, but she stopped half way through and looked pensive.

Ah, the Angel of Death sign. Wish I knew what all of that was really about.

"Right. OK. Well, now, Devina, it looks like you need to be the one to go and confront Teylon. We can give you moral support, but apparently you are the one most qualified to have a little chat with Teylon and to get him out of his funk."

What? Me confront a man? How do I do that?

"I think that is an excellent idea!" said Francesca, "And I'm sure both me and Tamara will be happy to lend our moral support."

"Ah, I suppose, no problems." said Tamara.

Five teenagers looked at each other.

"Then, of course, we will also come along." said Sarsaparilla, "Oh; Esmeralda also says we should wait an hour, to let him have time to stew in his own thoughts for a while."

Juniper still was not looking very happy. So Sarawatch stepped up.

"Young lady, I know it's not the best, but how about I take you and Kaydence shopping, and we let the others sort out Teylon? Remember, Teylon really has had a hard time with certain things, and if we can let him discuss things over with Devina, it will do both of them the world of good."

"OK, if it helps Teylon I'm willing to do that."

Juniper did not look too happy, but she did look determined to do her bit to help.

They made preparations. Sarsaparilla went over to Sarawatch and extended her right arm, the one with the wristband on it.

"I've still got access to a sizable chunk of Teylon's fortune, how about I give you the same rights? At this stage of the game I don't think he will have any objections."

"Sure."

Therefore, armed with enough money to buy an awful lot of pretty dresses, plus matching accessories, Sarawatch and Kaydence accompanied Juniper to the shopping mall.

The remaining people eyed each other.

"You're tracking him?" said Francesca, looking at Tamara.

"Of course. Right now he's about five hundred metres away in that direction, in other words at the local park. He appears to be walking around and around it - ah, he's stopped. I guess he is now sitting down? Presumably he knows full well that we will be visiting him very soon."

Devina looked at the clock. Not quite time, yet.

"But are you sure it should be me to talk to him? Surely, it should be Sarsaparilla? Or, err, Maggie?"

"Nope! I have to agree with Sarsaparilla. Or Esmeralda. Whoever. It is definitely your prerogative to do so." said Francesca, who was looking as if she was enjoying all of this. As usual.

That's no help, Francesca. But, for the sake of Juniper, I guess I will have to.

Her feet crunched on the gravel path as she walked up to the man sitting on a park bench. He had his head in his hands and was looking intently at the gravel at his feet. She stood in front of him, silent for the moment.

What do I do now? What do I say?

"Teylon..."

"I was wondering when you would turn up."

"Teylon... Ah, Juniper was very upset that you didn't want to go with us."

"Sorry. I know."

She began to feel irritated. "If you knew, then why didn't you say yes?"

"Because... It's getting to be all too much, you know."

She went from irritated to full-blown anger.

"Too much? Too much for you? What about Juniper? What about her suffering? You promised to look after her! So why aren't you?"

Consumed by her rage, she grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"And look at me when we talk!"

So he did, he lifted his head upwards and looked at her.

Shit, he's actually been crying. This is getting ever so complicated - but Juniper is still hurting!

"Look, Teylon, I know it must be tough for you."

And now I'm feeling sorry for a man. What the hell is going on?

"But Juniper needs your help! I can't do it by myself, since we both know that you are the only one receiving these messages from some angel or other. So you got to get over your funk and help Juniper!"

"I am helping Juniper! I do care for her! But I've never done anything like this in my entire life. It's difficult!"

"I don't care about your feelings! Don't you get it? I will gladly lay down my life to save Juniper. So your precious little feelings don't matter to me at all! I'm going to protect Juniper and you're going to do so too, no matter what your suffering might be!"

He stared up at her, mouth open, tears running down his face. He looked defeated, as if he was lost and had no idea of which way to go.

"OK, OK. I am trying my best. But, you know, can't you be just a tiny bit more positive towards me? This hatred I get every time I interact with you, I'm telling you it's hard to take. I'm not your father! I didn't cause you all that pain. I didn't go insane and start burning you."

"You're not my father? But you are a man, the cause of all of my pain!"

"No! Men are not the cause of your pain. Your father was the cause! Not all men are insane monsters!"

Teylon, getting thoroughly riled, stood up, all the better to face Devina directly.

"If you are so determined to look after Devina, even up to dying, then how about making a little bit more effort and try to act friendly towards me?"

Devina was shocked into silence.

What, me? Be friends with a man?

But, shit, I suppose he is right - after all he isn't my father.

But those other men also did their best to hurt me!

But, Teylon hasn't. In fact, Teylon saved my life.

But, but.

And Leroy and Erasyl have always been kind of friendly. In spite the fact that we tried to kill them when we first met.

Why do I have to go through this?

To save Juniper. Isn't any effort worth it to save her?

So that means I have to be friendly with Teylon?

I have to make the effort and separate out my image of my horrible father from my image of Teylon.

After all, Teylon experienced all of my pain.

Oh geez, this is painful in its own right.

"Ah, Teylon... Well, I suppose I can try to be a little bit more friendly towards you. Solely for Juniper's sake, of course."

"Can't it be just a little bit more than a little bit? I mean, I know that Juniper is the important one, but, well, if you try looking after me, well I suppose I will find it easier to look after Juniper. Or, well, I don't know, I'm well out of my depth here..."

Is he saying that I have to look after him also?

But...

Well...

I suppose...

How do I look after him?

Well, how do I comfort Juniper?

By hugging her...

So, does that mean I have to hug Teylon? A man.

Sigh.

For Juniper's sake.

How does it go again?

Just remember how I hug Juniper.

Moving stiffly, awkwardly, she moved closer to Teylon, she took her hands off his shoulders and reluctantly wrapped them around his body.

She could feel the remembered pain and fear rising.

No! He is not my father! He is helping me look after Juniper!

Fighting hard to conqueror the intrusive emotions, she lightly gave him a full body hug, her face just touching the side of his.

"Teylon. I, I'm sorry."

Why am I crying?

For whom am I crying?

Francesca: Impressed beyond words

This is absolutely amazing.

She, along with the others, watched from a respectful distance as Devina and Teylon shared an extremely self-conscious and unrelaxed hug.

My, they certainly need a lot more practice. But it's a start!

After a while, the two separated. Teylon briefly glanced at the others, then suggested to Devina that they go back to the accommodation. At a not quite comfortable one-metre separation, they walked back, followed by everyone else. They all remained silent.

I know, I'll ring Sarawatch, suggest that they come back also. In fact, why not capitalise on the situation, and ask her to suggest to Teylon and Devina that they should take Juniper off somewhere, all by themselves? Strike while the iron is hot and all of that; let them really wallow in their happy little family grouping.

Consequently, half an hour later, they all watched as Devina and Teylon, holding hands with Juniper in the middle, walked off along the beachside path. The plan was that they would eat lunch out somewhere, noodle around a bit for the afternoon, then after a bite of tea they were going to see a theatre show.

"You lot are really amazing. Getting Devina, of all people, to give a man a hug. That can only be regarded as a miracle. This Angel of Death business must be the real thing, after all." said Francesca.

"Yeah, I have to agree." said Tamara. Who was managing a respectable smile, for once.

Big smirk from Sarsaparilla. "That's right, it's totally a miracle!"

----------------------------------------

Erasyl: At last, Maggie gives him a hug

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

That afternoon, all of those remaining at the beach house decided to just laze around, do a bit of swimming or sunbaking along the shore.

Ooh look! Now that's a lovely sight. I think it is within my allowable rights to make a comment...

"Hello Maggie! I see you are not wearing a shirt over your swim suit today!" said Erasyl.

"Humph, yeah I'm not. I'm sure you are enjoying the sight; just as long as you don't overdo it, of course." said Maggie.

"Oh, definitely not! I mean, I'll definitely won't overdo it!"

"Yeah, right. Since Devina is not here, I decided I didn't have to wear it."

"Ah, sorry?"

"Because I knew that Devina had been subject to physical abuse, so when I saw her wearing a shirt even when she went swimming with Juniper, I guessed that maybe she had visible scars, and she was embarrassed by them. So I decided to also wear one, so that she wouldn't feel too out of place."

I'm impressed.

"That's actually very nice of you. I certainly didn't think of anything like that. I thought you were wearing it for some other reason."

"Some other reason? What else would I want to do that, for? I mean, this isn't Earth where it's possible to get sunburn. Err, not that I would get sunburn, anyway." said Maggie. She looked puzzled.

"Oh, ah, never mind. Want to join the others for another swim?"

"Race you to the water!"

After tea, after the food was packed away and the dishes cleaned up, they all just milled around, chatting to each other and generally wasting time.

The front door opened and in walked Teylon, followed by two ladies. Everybody else instantly pretended that they were continuing with what they had been doing, while actually watching the three with extreme interest.

"Oh, hi everyone, ah, we have already had tea." said Teylon.

"Fine, fine" said someone.

Juniper stretched out and grabbed both Devina's and Teylon's hands.

"I've had enough for the day, but I want a hug before I go to bed..."

She got one from each. Then, smiling brightly, she added, "And I want you to hug each other!"

There was no escaping, she was holding their arms. So without too much protest, they carefully and gingerly hugged each other. No kisses, but even a hug was a big achievement for these two.

"Ah, thanks Devina." said Teylon.

"Y-yes." said Devina.

"Right, you lot, I'm going to bed. See you later." said Teylon, as he disappeared into his bedroom.

After his door closed, the audience gently, and softly, clapped. Devina looked around in extreme embarrassment, grabbed hold of Juniper, and they both went off to the bathroom to freshen up prior to going to bed.

A little later Kaydence also retired for the night. Sarawatch and Francesca settled in for a little talk, with Tamara listening in. Sarawatch was interested in the dark side of maintaining law and order, while Francesca was wondering about how the official police forces went about it. They were both circumspect and picked their topics carefully, they did not want any blow-ups to mar the social occasion.

Meanwhile, the five teenagers had gathered outside, sitting in a circle, the night-lights of the dome reflecting off the water on one side, their beach house on the other.

"It's a bit chilly, what with the night breeze." said Sarsaparilla.

Click. Maggie raised a shield, faintly shimmering. It cut down the breeze to the merest movement of air, and also heated the air a little.

"That's better." said Adalace. She had an arm around Sarsaparilla, who was snuggled up to her side.

"Isn't it wonderful, seeing Devina hugging a man!" said Erasyl.

"Sure is, but they certainly need a lot of practice!" said Maggie.

"Going by their performance, I’d say they would have to have a whole another life to get enough practice." said Adalace.

"That's a point, if your Angel of Death implies a life after death, then are we all to be reincarnated?" said Leroy. He looked at Sarsaparilla.

"Wouldn't have a clue." said Sarsaparilla, "And what's more, I certainly don't get any such information from Esmeralda. She probably thinks I get enough as it is, she's not going to give anything more that what she needs for her own purposes."

With a big grin on his face, Leroy then said: "You know, I think the Erasyl is the only one here who hasn't received any hugs from anyone."

"Well, we all know that Leroy gets some from Kaydence." said Adalace. There was a look of menace directed to Leroy.

"Oh, let him be, I have to admit that Kaydence is allowed to make up her own mind." said Sarsaparilla.

"Humph."

"Oh, I don't know about Erasyl, after all he hugged both me and Juniper when she was having an episode." said Maggie.

But that hardly counts!

A sour look from Erasyl. "That was me hugging Juniper and you just happened to be there also."

Two giggles from Adalace and Sarsaparilla.

"Poor thing, maybe he actually deserves a hug by now? Especially after the Ajaeren stuff." said Sarsaparilla.

Maggie looked at Erasyl. His face lit up in a big grin, then he wiped it off and he looked a little nervous.

If I look suitably contrite, maybe she will...

"Well, I suppose he was extraordinarily competent in looking after Juniper, so."

With a big sigh, she stood up. "Come on, stand up Erasyl."

Yes! A win for team Erasyl!

She gave him a hug. On the scale of 1 to 10 it might have stood at about 5. But Erasyl was very happy. They sat down.

"Here, you can sit so that we are just touching each other..." said Maggie.

Have I died and been blessed by Esmeralda?

"Oh my God, look at that big silly grin he has on his face!" said Adalace.

"Geezes, it's only sitting next to me." said Maggie. But she didn't look all that displeased, either.

Apparently, Erasyl really did like living close to the edge. Because his next statement was:

"You know how Devina managed to overcome her incredibly adverse reaction to that utterly horrible man that was her father, and managed to recognise that Teylon wasn't so bad after all..."

"Where's this going?" said Maggie.

"Well, maybe Adalace can recognise that Leroy isn't so bad, either - after all Leroy is certainly a much better person than - you know who."

Maggie rolled her eyes. The social temperature dropped ten degrees. Adalace glared at both boys. Until she was brought up short by Sarsaparilla squeezing her hand.

"I don't know about actually hugging him, but Erasyl does have a point. You really don't hate Leroy do you? So why not extend a little olive branch of friendship?" said Sarsaparilla.

There was a staring match between Adalace and Sarsaparilla, before Adalace admitted defeat.

"OK, OK, I admit, Leroy is more or less OK. But I'm certainly not going to hug him, not quite yet. Kaydence can do that for me. But, I suppose, I can shake his hand..."

So the two of them stretched their arms forward, and shook hands.

"Thanks, Adalace."

"Yeah, you're not too bad. Well, as far as I can tell. After all, I don't have Sarsaparilla's cheat ability of getting soul readings of everyone."

Sarsaparilla flicked her hair. "Just remember, I have never gotten a soul reading from any of you. Teylon has, but not me."

"It must be awesome, to get a soul reading of someone. Like of that evil little person, ah, Ne - someone." said Adalace, stalling at the name of the person.

"Nethezal." said Sarsaparilla.

"Yeah, him."

"When it's one like that, it's also frightening. Like, like, I'm involved in things that are a long way out of my capacity to deal with. You know, dealing with the judgement of people's souls - Both me and Teylon are really just free riders, Esmeralda is calling the shots all the way and we are just desperately hanging on, and, apparently, providing some sort of token free will choice or whatever, so that, technically, the angels can claim they aren't interfering directly in the mortal realm."

"Although, really, they are." said Leroy.

"Oh, definitely. But, as long as I can get on top of the fear, I'm really glad I can have such an experience." said Sarsaparilla.

A sigh from Adalace. "I'm just a tiny bit envious, you know. You get this absolutely awesome power, which I can never experience."

"Sorry, my dear." said Sarsaparilla. "But, still, you also have an awesome power, your programming abilities are far ahead of anybody else’s."

"Yeah, but still..."

"And, of course, that gives you quite a bit of power. Just not the same sort of power that Sarsaparilla has." said Maggie.

"Sorry?" said Adalace, an innocent look on her face.

Big grin from Maggie. "By now we all know that you have all sorts of access to the computer systems on Mars. Don't you?"

"Ah, yes?"

"I bet you have managed to get lots of passwords to lots of restricted systems!" said Maggie.

Adalace dropped her innocent look. "Is it that obvious?"

Laughter from the other two girls.

"It certainly is!" said Maggie, "Why, even the two boys are becoming aware of it!"

"Ah, yes." said Leroy.

Erasyl nodded his head.

There was silence for a while, before someone thought of another topic.

“Say, it’s occurred to me that, in spite of all of us living in Verdant, none of us were actually born here,” said Leroy.

“Yeah, that’s right. Although Francesca and Devina were. Hmm, I think Sarawatch was, also,” said Adalace.

“Even my grandparents were not from here,” said Maggie.

“I suppose it’s not all that surprising, after all Verdant Dome isn’t all that old,” said Erasyl.

“Ah! One set of my grandparents were from here!” said Sarsaparilla, “I got a small packet of family history from the orphanage , and in it was a few facts about my granddad. Apparently he had a logistics business here when dad was just a boy. Sadly, there was a crash in commodity prices, or something, and he went bankrupt. He lost his business and had to take a job half way round the planet. So that’s where I was raised, both in my original family and in that orphanage.”

They started to compare and contrast their family histories.

They must have been enjoying each other's company, as they kept on chatting until the early hours of the morning.

----------------------------------------

Erasyl: Having a visit from his family

The next morning, they slept in, by the time they got up and staggered into the dining area, the sun was well and truly up. Fortunately, the others were still present. It looked like everyone else slept in also.

"Hello Teylon! I see you're not eating coloured candy chips this morning!" said Francesca.

"Ah, no, I mean I wouldn't want to deprive Sarsaparilla of her favourite breakfast food." said Teylon.

Sarawatch, sitting on one side of Teylon, giggled. Juniper and Devina, on the other side, did not appear to get the joke and looked momentarily puzzled.

Erasyl's phone gave a chirp.

Who's this, an email from ...

"Oh shit! My father and two brothers are coming to see us. Right now! Sorry, I gotta go!"

Everybody heard this and they were all intrigued about the possibilities.

Erasyl jumped out, ran around the end of the table and headed towards the back entrance. Only to come up short when he realised that Tamara was standing in the road. He tried to move to one side to duck around her; only she extended both arms out, just brushing the sides of the doorway on either side with her fingertips. She smiled, and said:

"This could be interesting."

Shit! I could push past her... Like hell. She knows perfectly well that I dare not touch her.

Maybe out of my bedroom window - damn, none of the windows open.

This was Mars. Unless there was a very good reason, no external windows on any building were openable.

Well then, dash out the front door and round the corner, I still might avoid them... Oh.

He had just seen Francesca and Sarawatch take up station just inside the front door. They both had big smiles on their faces, although one smile looked a lot more dangerous than the other did.

"Ah, everyone, I would really like to avoid this..."

Maggie marched up to him, and wrapped her arms around his arm.

"But we all would really like to not avoid this. How about you sit on the sofa right here, and I'll sit right next to you. After all, I'm wearing a reasonably short skirt today."

So she is. This could be interesting - but my father and brothers! Meeting all of my friends? Oh hell.

Maggie: Thoroughly enjoys herself

This might be fun! Finding out what sort of weird family Erasyl has.

He is certainly freaking out, he's not even distracted by my short skirt.

Not quite ten minutes later, the front door produced a soft chime. Teylon had already walked up. Looking every bit the relaxed, confident, mature man that he was not; he opened the door and invited the visitors in. One giant and two large men walked in. They were built solidly, they were tall, they had muscles, and very little fat.

Oh wow, they are all big hunks. Good looking with it, too.

The biggest, tallest and oldest man scanned the room, saw Erasyl, and took a couple of huge steps over to him. Erasyl stood up.

"Hi my son!" he said, in a voice the boomed around the room.

With a big grin on his face, he hoisted Erasyl up in a massive bear hug.

"Good to see you!" he said.

"Dad, it's great to see you too!" said Erasyl, returning the hug.

They hug each other? Hey, that's nice!

Erasyl was plonked back down on the ground, only to get two more hugs from each of his brothers.

A hug fest? I wasn't expecting that.

"You're looking well, little brother!" said one brother.

"Yeah, but still as skinny as ever!" said the other.

He's not skinny!

Except when compared to the rest of this family, I suppose.

Maggie had already noticed that Devina, holding hands with Juniper, had stepped back in dismay when they had entered. As did Tamara. However, with the display of affection, these three ladies relaxed.

Yeah, I can see that they could be intimidating. Not to me of course! After all, I'm Maggie the Magneto! I don't get intimidated by massive hunks of men. Definitely not!

And all of that muscle is so attractive - no, no there is no way that I just thought that!

The initial reunion over, the father and the two brothers took a bit of time to survey the room. Dad had a good look at Maggie, who had also stood up and was standing next to Erasyl. But without any hand holding, of course.

"Hey you little sly dog, did you go and find yourself a girlfriend while we weren't looking?" he said, poking his finger into Erasyl's shoulder.

Erasyl moved back due to the impact, and gently collided with Maggie.

"Ah, no, no! That is, we're friends only!"

This was somewhat contraindicated by the fact that, in an effort to stop Erasyl falling over her, she had grabbed his arm and shoulder and was currently propping him up.

We're not an item! Ah, but we not quite just friends either... Shit, what do I say here?

His dad was the one to think the fastest.

"Ah, I see, you're not quite decided yet. I agree, an awkward state to be in, not one nor the other. I wish you the best either way." he said.

That's a bit more sophisticated an observation than I would have thought possible.

He extended his right hand, and Maggie took and they shook hands. She was still off kilter, and only managed to say "Hello sir."

For someone who could crush my hand with ease, his hold feels firm but gentle.

I'm trusting him already.

Not bad.

"Say, do you have an esp power?"

"Of course. I'm Maggie the Magneto!"

"Ah, of course! I saw you on the news, as you were holding off that mini nuke. Sorry, I didn't remember that in time."

He softly disengaged his hold of Maggie's hand, then gently slapped Erasyl across the back. Erasyl was shoved forward a metre, but he seemed to be perfectly used to such a manoeuvre.

"That's my boy, you always liked dangerous people, didn't you? Must have got it from associating with us. There could hardly be a more dangerous female on Mars than Maggie!"

"Ah, dad, I think you will find that there are quite a few more dangerous females here right now in this room. Much more dangerous than Maggie."

A titter of amusement from Francesca, and two big smiles from Adalace and Sarsaparilla.

"Really? Wow, that's even better!"

The three men looked around the room, as if to wonder which women were the dangerous ones. Until one of the brothers had a look at Francesca. He frowned slightly, then said.

"Hey, I know you. I think. Aren't you Francesca, from the Girls in Pink?"

Oh crap. Oh crap. Where is this going to end up?

Devina and Tamara got worried again. Everyone else took a collective breath and went very quiet. And Francesca smiled sweetly and said:

"Yep, that's right. How do you know me?"

"Well, you see, certain sources of unofficial information suggest that my best friend's brother was killed by the Girls in Pink. Fairly recently, in a hit conducted at the IronBark dome."

Maggie began to map out the visual centres of the three men with her magnetic sense, just in case.

Devina stepped forward and stood in front of Juniper. Tamara moved in to stand next to Devina, so that they ended up protecting Juniper from any possible violence.

Sarawatch twitched a few fingers, and got the emergency call app on her phone ready, should it be needed.

Leroy lifted himself off the ground a few centimetres.

Adalace took a nail out of her pocket, but at the moment it was still cold.

And Francesca merely said.

"Yes, we certainly did take out a bunch of sleaze bags at IronBark dome. They were making White Angel, you know."

The tense silence stretched out -

"Actually I did know."

He looked around.

"Oops, sorry, it looks like I put you all on high alert. Perhaps I should mention that even my friend isn't sorry for his brother's death. He was always complaining to me that his brother took the rebellion thing way too far. And getting people addicted to White Angel is, as far as I'm concerned, way beyond the moral event horizon."

Everybody relaxed. Francesca kept on smiling. And when he extended his hand, she happily shook it.

"So, you do Fusion Flash? I suppose that Erasyl hasn't mentioned that I own a mining company? We do tunnels for sewerage and water and electricity services."

"No, he has been very economical with details about his family."

"Figures! Anyway, can your fireballs – pink I believe - bore through solid rock?"

"Of a course. If you like, you can look up the full specifications on the web, just search for Fusion Flash."

"Hmm. Considering you don't appear to have what I would consider to be a proper job, what say we sit down at some stage and have a little discussion - I might have a job opening for someone with your abilities."

My, Francesca's smile has become a lot nicer all of a sudden.

"Sure. Not quite yet, since I, ah, we, are busy with certain matters, but..."

They held up their wristbands next to each other, and took each other’s email addresses.

"Well, so that's one of the other dangerous females!" said Erasyl's dad, "My son, I'm really impressed that you are in such a social group."

"Oh, well, now, actually - she's not even the most dangerous one!" said Erasyl.

"So do tell, who is the most dangerous one?" said Erasyl's other brother.

Erasyl, somewhat late in the proceedings, looked cautious and did not say anything.

It's a bit late now, Erasyl.

Maggie giggled a bit, which set of Adalace. When the three men turned their attention to Adalace, she said:

"No, no, not me, I'm quite harmless! Really!"

There was a snort of derision from Leroy.

"It's her that's the most dangerous one!" she said, pointing to Sarsaparilla.

Three big men, towering over everyone in the room, and definitely towering over our diminutive Sarsaparilla, looked at her with a certain amount of perplexity.

"She's really cute." said one of the brothers.

"So what's your ability called?" said another.

Sarsaparilla gave a look to Adalace.

Ha, Adalace is going to get a few words, later!

Then, smiling her cutest smile, she said: "Judgement!"

"Judgement?" said Erasyl's dad, "Never heard of that one. Can you give us a demonstration?"

"That might not be all that wise..." said Sarsaparilla, then stopped.

She appeared to be thinking to herself.

Everyone else, apart from Erasyl's family of course, took a breath and held it.

Oh - oh, what is it going to be this time?

"Err, everyone? Don't panic too much, but you're all going to get a soul reading. A different one for each person. Ready?"

"Ready for what? Oh-" said Erasyl's dad.