Dear Diary,

"Egalitarianism, To be judged for who you are, Not judged for your origin." - Tabitha Diaz, Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Egalitarianism

In the second Verse of the Book of Egalitarianism, Tabitha explains to us, her followers, what Egalitarianism means to her. Because our Goddess, while she has been educated both in Academy Classrooms and via her own love of reading and knowledge, is not an academic, nor does she hold herself the concerns of Mortals. Her definition is not that of academia or philosophers, but one anyone can understand and relate to. Building on her previous statement about Consequences, she explains that Egalitarianism means to be judged based on who you are. Again, building on the Book of Agency, where she explained that we show who we are by our actions, this means that to our Goddess, Egalitarianism means to be judged by how we use our Agency. Not, as is so commonly done by both those with power, whether Temporal or Divine, by what family we were born into, our Temporal Power or Wealth, or any other item beyond our control. - Priestess Most High Above All Others, Archmage Imperator Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Commentary on the Doctrine of Tabitha

Yeah, this one is not my best. I mean, it's not terrible, don't get me wrong. I don't exactly disagree with the overall sentiment, and Saffron definitely did me a favor with how she explained that last line. Seriously, because sometimes Equity means that to be Egalitarian, you do have to take birth circumstances into account. Nothing has shown me that more than being Mom to kids with such varied backgrounds.

Seriously, we've got a kid who was born into the worst kind of crushing poverty in the Yards, the daughter of an orphan whose mom was still struggling with malnutrition that I'm pretty sure stunted her growth while trying to breastfeed her. Then one who grew up in a mercenary camp, which isn't really poverty, but isn't really kid friendly, either. Given how much soldiers eat and the fact that she seemed more pissed at me about her dad than her mom, I'm pretty sure he made sure she ate well, which by soldier standards means she got all her calories, at least. At the far end of the spectrum from the first one, I've got a kid who grew up in an almost literal ivory tower, secluded from the world, given every advantage a parent could give in the crapsack that dominated before I arrived. The rest of them I haven't really tried to pry into their backgrounds, because I want them to open up to me when they're ready, not because I want them to open up to me.

Wait, I think I just inadvertently admitted to recognizing that I've made a positive impact here and now. I think I need to go sit down for a bit, maybe breathe into a paper bag or some shit like that. Seriously though, I think me and Saffron going around the Alliance incognito might be worth it just for me to see what things are like now. To see people living their lives, hopefully free of the kind of all pervasive fear I remember from back in the day, that I've seen ignite into a thankfully productive, constructive passionate rage in my Kitten.

So yesterday as Saffron kept working on fixing the interface problems with her new Inspect, I whispered in the ears of each of my ladies, putting a nefarious plot in motion. When we got home, I trooped us all outside to the Courtyard for dinner. The women looked at me a little oddly, but I'd already talked things over with the ladies, and the kids absolutely loved it. They all went a little wild with dinner, eating and running around and just generally enjoying dining in the light of sunset, then under the stars. When we all finished eating, I gave them all some hot cocoa way closer to what I remember from back in the day. Basically warm, sweetened, chocolate milk. They loved it. The ladies didn't seem to like it as much as their chocolate syrup cups, but they knew the plan, and pretended it was basically the same.

I mean, we didn't lie to the kids about it, but it was kinda like being allowed to drink sparkling grape juice with the adults you saw drinking wine every night. They each downed at least two cups of the stuff. Then we followed them to the Bath, where by the end of their showers the smaller ones had already started stumbling a bit. By half an hour into the soak, all of them just kinda drifted there snoring. We gathered them up, gently patted them dry, and carried them down to bed. Maze was the only one who woke up, right as I tucked her into bed with her sisters. She looked up at me, got the tiniest, cutest frown and muttered, "no Bath?" Then she peered muzzily behind me where the other ladies stood. When she saw them all still upright she smirked at me and muttered, "have fun, papa." Then she rolled over and drifted off to sleep again.

I turned around, tentacles slipping around my ladies, and stepped us all to the Bedroom. I set Siobhan centered on the divan, then gently placed Saffron in her lap. She looked at the three of us in front of her and asked, "what are you planning, Goof?"

"You, my brilliant little Kitten, have been far too stressed to sleep properly. So until you finish your testing and fixing on your new Inspect, my precocious Archmage, you are getting thoroughly de-stressed every evening before bed."

"I don't need all thi..." Siobhan, assisted by gentle tentacles, turned Saffron's head until she could claim her mouth with a kiss, while the rest of us got to stress removal. Half an hour later, I slipped a snoring Saffron away and laid her in bed before turning to my ladies. "You three good to sleep?"

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Marie nodded. Tallulah said, "some relaxation would be nice." Siobhan pouted the tiniest bit. So I relaxed Tallulah while Marie removed Siobhan's pout, and then we all snuggled in with the kids and our Kitten.

Dreamt of the ladies drifting around my Maw with their heads lying on each other, slowly relaxing as they endlessly dissolved away into me.

Typical lovely boring day today. Academy Maid service, Siobhan pampering, Tallulah boot snuggling, Infirmary sitting, Treachery Rock sitting, kid wrangling, and best of all playing seat cushion for my brilliant little Kitten. After lunch, as I returned her to her upright locked in position, she sighed contentedly, then made mildly worried Kitten noises and asked, "I cannot stress how much I adore our new routine, but I'm terribly worried you're, ah, being very one sided about things?"

I shrugged. Then realized she wasn't wrong, thought about the times I'd spent way more time than now just scrambling for the next Dopamine hit, then shrugged again. "I'm okay. I mean, I'm down for something in the evening, maybe, but I'm not starving." I paused a beat, then said, "I think it's a combination of not curb stomping myself recently and the weekly Revels."

"Oh, so you've no more taste for me?" I could have taken that some kind of way, but the humor in her voice let me roll with it.

"Wasn't I just doing that?" Then I hugged her to me. "Look, Kitten, when you're done this, or maybe tomorrow night at the Revel, I'd love to. But right now I'm focusing on you. On your next big personal project. Because you're important to me, and your project is important, and this is how I can support you right now."

She hummed speculatively, then quietly sang, "my wifey is the best wife."

I shuddered, holding her close the whole time, then murmured, "no, you." After a few minutes, as she got back to coding, I asked, "hey, can I Inspect you?"

She paused. "The interface is still a bit jank. I've no objections, but the numbers may not display very well."

"Not the numbers. I kinda wanna see what the stats actually mean."

"Oh. Well, just a moment." She waved her hands around a bit, and I felt and heard a rush of something around the room. "There you go. Don't put any stock in the numbers at the moment, but the static definitions you're looking for should be available. Please tell me if anything seems strange."

"Thanks Kitten." She nodded and went back to her coding. I slipped a petite Inspect out of my cheekbone, unsurprised when her new windows came up. I flipped past the first two, then poked 'Personality'.

Personality:

Personality is a measure of a subject's ability to project and control Mana. The most common untrained use for Personality is to subconsciously influence the environment. This is most effective on sapient beings, hence why the Attribute was originally called 'Force of Personality', as those with high Personality have a much greater impact on those they interact with than those without it. Personality also provides some defense against those same subconscious effects.

As those interactions can be difficult to objectively quantify, Inspect now measures Personality entirely by the subject's innate ability to project Mana. A value of 'one' in Personality indicates that the subject, utilizing Heraclitus' original Ray of Fire Shape, can heat one gallon of water by one degree per second.

I mulled that over for a bit. "Uh, my Personality wasn't all that high when I blew a hole in the wall."

My Kitten snorted. "Oh, love. You've Blended so well you forget that you're not quite as limited by your apparent Attributes as we Mortals are."

I frowned at that. "You mean your new Inspect won't measure Deities correctly?"

She snorted. "Of course not. It will simply produce accurate numbers for them, which will be much higher than anyone is going to be comfortable with. Well, much higher than I'd be comfortable with if my Deity were as capricious and malevolent as those currently dominating Europa." She sighed, then followed that with, "also, Blend is... a special case."

My frown got a little deeper. "Didn't we start this whole thing to Inspect Isnomi?"

She nodded, then squared her shoulders. "And it will." Then she slumped again. "Just not when I'm the one Inspecting her."

"Huh?"

She leaned back against me. "There will be an alternate... 'mode', if you will, specifically designed to cut through Blend. I won't be teaching that version to anyone but you, although you're welcome to share it with whomever, of course. But beyond knowing that alternate version of the shape, much like many Healing shapes, the ability to circumvent Blend will require the addition of more Mana into the Shape."

I snorted. "Your Personality is still higher than mine."

"Not after your Deific nature is factored in, love. Which is critical, since our target shares that Deific nature. Which means you'll need to be the one to Shape the Inspect on her, so we can confirm that everything is well with her."

I sighed, then nodded. "Okay. But you're gonna be right there with me, looking through my eyes."

"Of course, but why are you suddenly so insistent on that?"

"Hey, we started this thing together. You've done most of the heavy lifting, but I'm not gonna hog all the credit, or even the Glory."

She smiled and kissed me. "Of course you will, love. The Glory, not the credit. What else is a Patron's rightful duty, but to bask in the Glory I attain, and remember my accomplishments long after I'm gone?"

"I don't like the idea of you being gone, though."

"Well then, between now and my demise I'd best earn enough Glory for you to enlarge me to Demigodhood, hadn't I?"

Yeah, my Kitten, she do not think small. She also do not think slow. Way too fast for me to outthink, so I just replied with the only thing that made sense. "Yes, Dear."

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