Dear Diary,

So it turns out I didn't need to stretch the day out after all.

I'm a little worried about that, really. I mean, given that if I go up high enough, there's no atmosphere, that hints that shit like orbital mechanics are still normal here and now. That means when I stop the sun or pull it back or whatever, I'm not actually stopping the sun in the sky, I'm rotating the Earth backward. Because that's way less scary to think about.

Okay, yeah, I think it's technically a couple orders of magnitude less crazy to spin the world backward than it is to yoink it backward in its orbit, but still, that shit is just not right. I mean, I get that sometimes, when I'm really in tune with my inner Mimic, which is really the bigger part of me, I feel like the me I see in M-Space, that Brobdingnagian mass of tentacles, is really just the tiniest portion of Mimic, the bit that extends into the here and now. Which is also scary to think about.

So I kinda hope that I'm not screwing up the fuckin planet by slowing down or reversing the rotation. Then again, I can't be, or shit would get thrown off or something like that, right? So I'm probably doing something way less freaky, like messing with the appearance of sunset or sunrise or whatever. Because bending light on that scale is way less freaky than just bending physics over the table like Saffron bent me over the railing for railing.

But like I said, I didn't have to do that shit, because while Adrienne's reunion with her mom was emotional and heartwarming, especially when Maze and Menace got the rest of the horde hoard to glomp them together with Ria sandwiched in between them. A little while before sunset, Jack cleared his throat, and Adrienne gave her mom and sister one last hug before extricating herself and stepping over to take his hand. "I'll miss you, Reeree." Then, with hardly a pause. "I'll miss you too, Mother."

Tallulah, who'd picked up Ria and held her while the rest of her sisters stood within easy reach, nodded. "I will miss you as well. But I've been to Jackville once. Should your Patron not take exception, we will certainly visit."

Jack, unfortunately, remained silent on whether he would take exception or not. Instead, he reached out to me. I took his hand and stepped them down to his shack, where a burbling pot of stew waited. He stepped over, his shoulders already bowing, and took a taste. "Not bad."

"Thanks. My first attempt at gumbo."

He snorted. "This is stew. Not gumbo. But still, not bad."

"Maybe once we get everything sorted you can teach me the difference?" He nodded, looking a little hesitant. "Are you good to meet and talk tomorrow?"

"Not tonight?"

I shook my head. "Friday night Revel. I've kept some folks waiting for... well, months, really."

"Really? What have you been doing?"

I snorted. "My Worshippers, one at a time. Because the least I can do is pay attention y'know? Like, really get to know the ones working for me?"

He looked kinda shocked at that. "One at a time?" I nodded. "I've... wait, just your favorites or something?" I shook my head. "All your Worshippers?"

I chuckled. "Well, all the ones who volunteer at the Temples and Shrines and shit. Like, the ones who are out there representing me in the world, making the world a better place like I would when I can't be there."

"Can't you do that more than one place at a time thing?"

I shook my head. "If not tomorrow, how about the night after that?"

He nodded "Saturnday night, then." He stuck out a hand, we shook on it, and I stepped to my Temple in New Amsterdam.

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Dana waited there, with the last six temple volunteers waiting for me. All in a group, and when I looked, I realized that's part of what they wanted. These six were some kind of team, a found family almost like the one I had back at the Homestead. Oh, they each had their own wants, their own desires, but each of them wanted to be part of the others' time with me.

So first the five of them all held Josie, supported her and helped hide her as she rode me like my High Priestesses had on New Years. She wanted it so much, but was far too shy to let go with everyone in the temple looking on. Until right before her grip on consciousness faded, and I pulled the others away so Josie could see the entire Temple admiring her sweat soaked, exhausted beauty.

Then Sonny, who held Josie's limp hand as the other four held me pinned down for him, letting him have his way with me. So adorable, because his way was gentle and slow right up until the end, where he got absolutely frantic trying to finish before he passed out. I slipped surreptitious tentacles around his waist, his limbs, his body, turning his near limp twitches into motion until he passed out right in the middle of finishing. Okay, I think he finished sans consciousness, possibly sans sanity, but he seemed oh, so satisfied as he laid there.

Jo-Anna came next, and I do mean right after that. Kind of funny, I held her there, hovering above the altar, sweat dripping from her as she did, then I set her back down. Woman had a serious voyeuristic streak, and wanted to wait for last because of that.

Next was Alicia, who leaned back against me, my hands roaming along with the other three, one of my tentacles across her eyes. Kinda funny, that the six had more than one who had such a weird connection with being observed. Alicia didn't want to see herself being seen. But she wanted to know she was seen. So her remaining partners and I waved the crowd into some raucous, beautifully lewd cheering, the last things in her ears before she checked out for the night.

Then Dennis, who normally needed alcohol to be intimate, to let himself let go. I reached into him, flipped that little neurochemical switch, shut his inhibitions off for the night. For the first time my man Dennis got to get his groove on with his senses fully functioning. He had some stamina, not to mention Skills. I held him and made him watch my eyes each and every time until his eyes fluttered closed the last time. The grin didn't fade even as his consciousness did.

Next to last was Emil, who lay me down on a bed of his unconscious partner's thighs, then rocked the whole fuckin' bed. Emil was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Okay, that's not fair. Emil was not a knife. Not a blade. Emil was a blunt instrument, the one the others got to carry heavy shit and open jars. There is a certain pleasure to be had from that kind of blunt instrument, and I let him see that. I whispered encouragement and thanks into his ears until he slumped over, exhausted.

Then back to Jo-Anna, who popped off again as Emil fell over. Then again as I whispered in her ear about how much she'd inspired all of her friends, her found family, with her appreciation of their endeavors, as I had her look at them. Then again as I pulled on the power of the Worship flowing in and surrounded her with a audiovisual one way mirror, letting her watch herself be taken while the rest of the congregation looked on. Then, because Jo-Anna was absolutely my kind of Enduring freak, I let that mirror go translucent, let the Worship that had been flowing in from the congregation flow back out, and knocked her out by an absolute sensory overload as the whole fuckin' Temple congregation chose a partner or partners or just went solo mode, all for her viewing pleasure.

Slid her down with her crew, then looked to Dana. "You need any help getting them to bed?"

"May they use your Altar?"

"Won't there be, like, kids in here for school?"

Dana giggled. "We have sheets, Goddess. They've seen their parents sleeping before."

I thought about it, then shrugged. "Okay. If you're sure nobody's gonna feel some kinda way about it?"

They assured me that none in the Temple would see aught amiss with the six who'd built most of the Shrines in New Amsterdam sleeping off their 'Holy Exhaustion' on my Altar. Kinda weirded me out, her calling it that, like it was some kind of righteous, religious thing.

Shit, it kinda was. I'd spent so much time worrying about the consequences of being a Goddess of Vengeance, a Goddess of Bloodlust, a Goddess of fucking Justified Homicide, that I'd completely failed to think about the potential consequences of being a Goddess of Passion and Ecstasy. Definitely didn't think about juxtaposing those two and Children, which...

Let's face it, Children were probably the most common single consequence of Passion and Ecstasy.

So today along with all my other jobs, I took my kids to school, taught math, and sat with each of them at lunch. After sunset I had to go deal with Jack's weird Divine fuckery, but today? Today I got to teach, got to mom, got to spend time with my Children. and I absolutely Reveled in that as much as I had every Friday for the past several weeks.

As my High Clergy pointed out to me the day we knocked the old Temple down, there are plenty of kid-friendly Revel options, and I have never been gladder of that.

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