Natalia Date 2: Interlude

The shell-shocked contestants gathered in the room belonging to Team Daddy Issues as Atlas’s lights shifted to imitate dawn.

Laurel sat at the head of the table, which was actually a trophy case with a wooden top laid across it. A butterfly had returned to her hair. Her blazer made her look like a private-school student about to give a class presentation.

Chloe and Christian sat on either side of her. Chloe wore a shapeless sweater, while Christian had chosen a long jacket.

Joan and Ariadne sat together. Joan had changed her original body into a copy of Ariadne’s human form, and the two doppelgängers wore matching plaid shirts and jeans. Joan’s blonde avatar perched on the armrest beside them in a tight top and shorts. They had agreed to find Alan after the meeting, as they still needed his input on their new transformations.

“So,” Laurel said, opening the meeting she had declared during Natalia’s date. She wanted to do the woman a favor, mostly out of spite. “We’re getting stepkids.”

Joan blinked with two faces.

“You wrote Natalia’s cast profile by Googling her. What do you know about them?” Laurel asked Joan.

“They’re twelve and eight. The boy’s name is Tav. The girl is Amira.” Joan paused. “Neither one has a public profile.”

She looked around the table.

“Are they really going to be our stepchildren?”

“By the laws of Harem Hotel, maybe,” Ariadne said. “The classy move would be to formalize it through adoption, but that isn’t required.”

“You have laws?” Christian asked skeptically.

“That is a difficult question.” Ariadne frowned. “The laws are broken, but they’re real. The topic is complicated, and nobody wants a class on civics, right?”

“Believe me,” Laurel said from experience, “you do not want to be contrary and demand the civics lesson.”

“Okay, but what can we actually do about these kids while we’re stuck here?” Christian asked. “I understand that we shouldn’t be dicks to them, but aren’t we trapped on this island?”

“Island?” Laurel frowned.

She glanced around as if she had forgotten Atlas’s geography.

“Oh. Yeah. Island in the swamp.”

“That depends a great deal on the host,” Ariadne said.

Everyone looked at her.

“You are not going to Earth or making phone calls this season. It is too difficult to keep outside contact safe. I could send them a letter, or perhaps a gift, but what would you want to say?”

Ariadne paused.

“That was intended as a rhetorical question. Then I remembered Laurel Walker had called a family meeting.” She gestured with one hand. “Hit me.”

“Well, I was thinking we give them magic so they don’t get molested,” Laurel said. “Lightning bolts would be cool.”

“Amira is eight,” Joan said sharply.

“That’s part of the problem.” Laurel’s grin disappeared. “She doesn’t know shit.”

“Handing lethal evocation powers to young children is not on the table,” Ariadne said firmly. “We all have reasons to take this personally, but lethal **** is not an option we should give either child.”

The room fell silent.

Joan broke it.

“Why did Tess want to make them necromancers if you don’t give dangerous magic to young children?”

“That’s another civics lesson,” Laurel growled. “Skeletons are cheap, safe, responsive, and useful. They don’t manipulate the kid, they do extra labor, and Stargazers are immortal, so they think corpses are baby teeth.”

“It is more complicated than that,” Ariadne said. “But yes.”

She folded her hands on the table.

“Moving Amira into Jessie’s care would make her very difficult to victimize. Still, removing the children from a dangerous environment is more important than teaching them how to retaliate.”

Ariadne hesitated.

“Do you think we should contact—”

“No,” Laurel and Chloe said in unison.

They frowned at each other.

“Huh?” Joan looked toward Chloe.

“Alan’s grandmother has a history with this kind of intervention,” Chloe said. “You’ve picked up that I’m part of that history, right?”

“Oh.” Joan nodded slowly. “That tracks.”

“Mom would blow up the situation,” Laurel said. “Literally, if she were having a bad day. She’s the last resort.”

She leaned back.

“Could we ask Nathan and Kaitlyn to handle it?”

“They live in the same house as your mother,” Chloe reminded her.

“Well, that’s an image I want out of my head.” Laurel shuddered. “It isn’t surprising, but ick. Parents are not supposed to get laid.”

A silence followed.

Joan and Christian both appeared to be deciding whether Laurel was joking or simply lacked self-awareness.

“What could Nathan and Kaitlyn actually do?” Joan asked, rescuing the conversation. “They aren’t legal guardians, and they don’t have superpowers.”

“Legally, not much,” Laurel said. “And they most definitely have a few superpowers.”

“Oh. Right.” Joan nodded. “Minor superpowers are a thing we can get.”

She glanced at her own duplicated bodies.

“We’ve already gotten them. It’s just weird to think of them that way.”

Her blonde avatar blushed at the same time as Ariadne’s double.

“Kaitlyn has the right transformations for this,” Ariadne said thoughtfully. “I think I will send a letter to the Wayne household. They can investigate and give the situation more attention than we can, with less risk of the Audience turning it into a creepy plotline.”

“Creepy?” Laurel smirked. “I’m sure our Audience would never cross any lines when it comes to our families.”

No one could stop themselves from laughing.