Fortunately, it looked like Mai didn’t do anything too crazy. The Council members were, at the least, their correct ages. “How are you all?” Lilith asked tentatively.
“Excellent, mother.” Tunem replied.
“Don’t call me that.” Lilith said flatly.
“What would you like us to call you, then?” He asked.
“High Arbiter, Lilith, whatever. Just not mother or anything like that.” She replied. “What happened while I was out?”
“Our little sister here showed us the way.” Yamato informed her. “We were panicking, so she calmed us.”
Lilith sighed. “Mai, from now on no showing people the way or fixing them or whatever you want to call it without asking me first.”
“Yes, mommy.” Mai said obediently.
“Um…can we still call you mom?” Aria asked shyly.
Lilith thought that over for a moment. The girls were…well, they looked and acted like children. It wasn’t nearly as weird feeling as having grown adults call her that. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
Aria smiled. “Thanks.”
Lilith turned back to the Council. “You all are to keep running things as you did before, alright? Not so much as a hint of what’s gone down tonight is to get out.”
“Understood.” The Council members chorused.
“You all are dismissed, then. Go back to whatever you were doing before.” Lilith instructed.
The Council members meandered out, leaving just the Perfect Chimeras in the room.
“Is it alright to just…leave them like that?” Eve asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Lilith replied. “It’s not like we’re going to be constantly giving them orders or trying to rule via proxy. Having total control could come in handy down the line. The more important question is what we’re going to do with these two.” She said, motioning at Mai and Aria.
“Um, if…it’s alright with you, mommy, we want in on your Skill.” Aria mumbled. “The family one.”
Mai and Aria are requesting access to Familial Bond as daughters of Lilith Clements. Accept? |
Lilith mulled that one over for a bit. She had been planning to raise Mai to at least somewhat, but this would be a hard commitment to raising them both until they were actually of age.
Everyone, thoughts? Lilith asked her Parallels.
Well, this will almost guarantee they won’t end up trying to betray us or something, even more than Mai’s magic already has. Nuwa said.
It seems most efficient to me. Mae concurred.
I…guess it’s fine. We can manage. Eve admitted. Nuwa, everyone at home is watching somehow, right? What do they think?
Yeah, Kali’s helping them scry us through the building’s wards. Um…seems like they’re generally alright with it. There’s a bit of trepidation, but everyone agrees their threat is mostly mitigated now that we’ve got all of their Skills too. And Kali’s saying that, even after their mental reset wears off a decade or so down the line, they won’t bear any ill will towards us if we treat them right. She also says that she thinks we’ll be able to rehabilitate them. Mai was able to convert Errus to her side when he was one of her staunchest opponents, so…
Lilith nodded. “Alright, I got permission from the rest of the family, they say you two are allowed in.”
Lilith officially let them into the Skill, and the girls’ faces broke into smiles, Mai’s huge and Aria’s slight. “Thanks, mommy, I love you!” Mai said, giving Lilith a big hug.
There was a brief moment of dissonance as Lilith began to feel things she had never felt before. A sort of…protectiveness, an intense love, and a deep-seated conviction that these two little kids were the cutest things in existence all wrapped up into one.
Lilith picked Mai up. “Love you too, sweetie.”
Aria looked away shyly. “Um…”
Eve picked her up. “You too, munchkin.”
“Alright, we’re going to take you two home, and then we’re going to talk a bit about things, OK?”
Mai hugged Lilith even tighter, nodding happily. “Mhm.”
They teleported back into the dungeon and made their way to where everyone was waiting. “Hey everyone, we’re back. Um, plus two I guess.”
Mai waved. “Hi, um…” She squirmed around until Lilith let her down and ran over to Judy. “Aunt Judy, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to take you away from your family like I did. Will you forgive me?”
Judy nodded. “So long as you never do it again.”
“I won’t.” Mai promised.
“Mai, Aria, over here!” Jessica called. “Come say hi to your grandparents!”
Mai happily walked the few steps over, but Aria buried her face in Eve’s chest. Eve put her down and gently shooed her towards her new grandparents. But, as she was hesitantly moving over, she was intercepted by Tiamat and Kirdin, who scooped her up and began doting on her.
While they got to know each other more, Lilith talked with the other people living in the dungeon.
Vithi was eying the children warily. “I can’t help but feel a sense of dissonance about this whole thing.” She admitted. “Knowing who they are, and that they were in the middle of trying take over the world not an hour ago really soils things.”
Lilith shrugged. “Call it a combination of karmic justice and a rehabilitation program. It’ll take some time for everyone else to get used to it, but it’s for the best.”
“If you say so.” Vithi replied, “But I’m going to keep an eye on them just in case.”
Lilith nodded. “That’s reasonable. Emily, Raphi, would you mind watching them if I’m busy? I imagine Nuwa will be able to take care of them most of the time, but if all four of us happen to be doing something and they need help, I would appreciate it if you could take care of it.”
“Of course, mistress.” Emily replied.
Raphi smiled hugely. “I’d be happy to!”
Lilith turned to Alex. “Do you want to have your dad deprogrammed? I’m more than willing to have him be the only one on the Council not compromised if it makes you feel more comfortable.”
Alex frowned. “I…don’t know. Give me a couple hours to think on it.”
“Just let me know.” Lilith said, “Kali, would you be willing to do the actual work of removing the control? I mean, I’m sure we can figure something out with Mai’s help if you think that’d be better, but this just seems fastest.”
“Yeah, it’s not a problem.” Kali confirmed. “I can leave him none the wiser for the whole ordeal.”
“Alright.” Alex said, “I’ll decide before morning.”
“Don’t feel rushed.” Lilith soothed. “It’s not something you have to decide right away. Give it some more time, it’s a big thing to just decide all of a sudden. And honestly, I really don’t care what you pick. In the long run, it doesn’t really matter that much.”
“So…what now?” Anna asked hesitantly. “What do we do with Mai’s flock?”
Lilith shrugged. “Just going to have them live however they want. I’ll work up some backstory in case they meet people they knew from before they vanished, but otherwise I think it’s high time they were put back in charge of their lives.”
“Not going to deprogram them?” Jameson asked.
“No point, really. I really don’t want the whole Mai thing getting out, and if we wanted to completely wipe their minds, the flock’s been gone for so long that finding any sort of reasonable excuse for themselves or others would be nearly impossible. I’m not planning on making any use of them, so it’s just really not worth the effort to undo Mai’s control.”
“I guess.” Jameson admitted, “I just feel bad for them, you know?”
Lilith nodded. “Yeah, it’s a bad situation, and I don’t think there are any good options. I think this is the easiest for everyone involved. Maybe we’ll re-evaluate it in the future, I’m not sure.”
“Mommy!” Mai called, running back over to Lilith, “Where are we going to sleep? Can we have a bunk bed?”
“Yeah, we can get you two a bunk bed, no problem.” Lilith replied, picking her daughter up, “I think we should come back to this in the morning. It’s late, and it’s probably best that we make decisions with clearer heads.”
“Are you sure?” Vithi said, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah. This all can wait until morning, it’s not going anywhere.”
“Alright, if you insist.”
I’ve got a bed for them, they’re sleeping in the room next to Lilith’s, the one that used to be Carmen’s. Nuwa said.
Eve was already on her way back with a relieved-looking Aria. “Yeah, I’m tired. It’s been a long few hours. I’ll take these two to bed, get changed back to my regular body, then head to bed.”
“That’s not your normal body, mom?” Aria asked curiously, “What is, then?”
“I’ll show you two in the morning.” Eve said, “For now we really need to get you to bed.”
“Yes, mom.”
Lilith let Mai down, and gently pushed her towards Eve. “Go with your mom.”
“Yes, mommy!” Mai ran to Eve and Aria, grabbing Eve’s hand and letting herself be led away.
“Alright, everyone meet back here at noon.” Lilith instructed, “We can have a better discussion then.”
After everyone acknowledged that, Lilith bade them good night, then left to go help Eve.
Mistress, I believe we should introduce them to Nuwa and I. Mae said as they walked. I’m not sure they know about us.
“Oh, right. Girls, did Judy tell you about Nuwa and Mae?”
“Yup!” Mai said cheerfully. “Mama and I have matching names and that makes me happy!”
“And mother’s the one making our bunk beds, right?” Aria asked.
That’s right. Nuwa replied. I’m always listening, so just give me a shout if you need anything.
And I’m always with your mommy. Mae confirmed. I don’t talk much, but I’m always willing to talk with you two if you want, just let me know.
The next morning, a couple of hours before everyone was due to gather, Lilith and Eve went to go question their daughters. She gently opened the door to their room, then called out to them. “You two, it’s time to get up.” She said, watching as the lumps under the covers began to stir.
Mai sat up, yawning. “Good morning, mommy, what time is it?”
“Just after ten.” Lilith replied.
Mai hopped down from the top bunk, gave Lilith a hug, then froze when she saw Eve. “Who are you?” She asked, frowning, “I didn’t see you last night. Are you one of mommy’s friends?”
“You’d think a kid would recognize her own mother, but I suppose I’ll let it slide in this case. I do look quite different, after all.” Eve replied dryly, giving a slight smile.
“Mom?!” Mai shouted, causing Aria to bolt upright.
“What’s going on?” Aria asked blearily, rubbing her eyes.
Mai pointed wildly at Eve. “That’s mom’s actual body!”
Aria frowned. “I thought you were a grown-up, mom.”
“I am, I just chose to look like a kid, so people underestimate me.” Eve said defensively. “I was just in our spare body because I was out in public. People aren’t supposed to know about me yet.”
“Why?” Aria asked. “Everyone knew about Carmen.”
“I’ll explain later.” Eve said, waving a hand. “We need to talk to you two for a bit, OK?”
“OK.” Mai said, sitting down on Aria’s bed, “What do you need?”
“What happened to all the other people you “fixed”?” Lilith asked, “What are they doing right now?”
“Oh, them. I made sure they knew you’re the mom now, and I’m just their little sister. Then I just had them go back to what they were doing. Not like…the kidnapping stuff, just the living in the frontier towns and stuff.” Mai said. “Do you want anything with them?”
Lilith shook her head. “No, just make sure they all know not to call me mother, you sister, or talk about the flock or anything where anyone can hear them. Then, just let them live however they want, no obligations or anything.”
Mai nodded. “OK, mommy.”
Lilith hesitated a bit before asking her next question, trying to figure out the best way to phrase it. “How much do you…remember? From before?”
Mai frowned. “I remember the important stuff, but it’s all really fuzzy. I…think it’ll become clearer when I grow up some more, but I’m not sure. I don’t…know if I want to, though. I did bad things, and I don’t want to have to remember those.”
Eve sighed. “It’s important to remember the bad things you did, otherwise you can’t make up for them or learn from your mistakes. Yes, you did a lot of bad things, but there’s always a chance for redemption. You’ve got the potential to do a lot of good, so just make sure you listen to what we tell you so you can be as good as possible when you grow up, OK?”
“I understand. I’ll be a good girl from now on.” Mai said.
“Aria, are you the same way?” Lilith asked.
“Um…yeah. Is it alright that I was an old man before?” She asked. “I…don’t know, I just…don’t want to make anyone feel weird or anything.”
Lilith smiled. “Of course it’s OK. I can look at turning you back into a boy now if you want.”
Aria shrunk back a little. “No, I don’t…I’d rather stay like this for now, mommy. Maybe in a couple of years, but not now.”
“Alright, that’s perfectly fine. Now, why don’t we get you two some breakfast, and then we’ll take you around to meet everyone. Sound good?”
The kids voiced their assent, so Lilith and Eve took them to the kitchen, where Emily and Raphi were in the process of making breakfast. “Hey you two, I want to officially introduce you to Mai and Aria. We said hi briefly last night, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go around individually and get everyone acquainted.”
Emily gave a curtsy. “It’s nice to meet you two. My name is Emily, and Raphi and I will be taking care of you two when your mother is busy. Feel free to ask as if you need anything.”
“I’m Raphi, pleased to meet you!” Raphi said, flipping the bacon she was frying, “Like Emily said, we’re gonna help watch you two, so really, don’t be afraid to talk to us.”
“I’m Mai and this is Aria!” Mai said happily.
Aria was doing her best to hide behind her sister but peeked her head out and gave a shy wave regardless.
“Um…do you two mind if I call you big sis Emily and big sis Raphi?” Mai asked hopefully.
“Whatever you wish.” Emily replied.
“I…um, yeah, go ahead.” Raphi replied awkwardly. There was a strange…hesitation about the way she did, and Lilith resolved to talk with her about it when the kids weren’t around.
But that was for later. For now, Lilith helped the kids get some food, and people slowly began to trickle into the dining area while they wait.
“Uh…what?”
Lilith turned around to find Thiala in the doorway, staring at Mai and Aria. “Oh, good timing. This is Mai and Errus, though she’s going by Aria right now. They made their move last night and I gave them a taste of their own medicine. They’re harmless now, so don’t worry about them. Girls, this is Thiala.”
“Um…hi, I guess? I’m Thiala.” Thiala replied, taken aback.
“Hi there!” Mai said, waving. “I’m Mai!”
Aria was silent until Eve gave her a little nudge, then spoke up. “Um, I’m Aria.”
“I’ll be raising these girls for the next fifteen or so years.” Lilith said casually. “So, get used to them, they’re going to stick around.”
Mai smiled. “Can I call you big sis? Big sis Emily and big sis Raphi said yes.”
“I don’t see why not.” Thiala said slowly. “Um…can someone tell me exactly what happened last night?”
“I made a recording.” Kali said, looking up from her breakfast. “I’ll show it to you after breakfast.”
The rest of the morning went pretty well. Lilith got the kids introduced to all of the dungeon’s permanent residents, and then held the meeting. Not much of note happened during the meeting; it was mostly just confirming that what they were thinking the previous night was the course of action they wanted to take.
Alex decided to hold off on making a decision about her father for about a week, and the date would come after she had done so. She wanted a clearer head before trying any romance, something Lilith approved of wholeheartedly.
And…that was everything, really. For the first time in a while, there was no threat hanging over her head, no pressing thing to take care of. There was the whole Queen of Monsters thing they would be implementing soon, especially now that they had access to Mai’s army of monsters, but that wasn’t life or death and wouldn’t be for another couple of months. So, Lilith mentally sat back and prepared for a well-deserved break.
Lilith mentally sat back and prepared for a well-deserved break.
Its about time! Her life's been a roller coaster ever since she met Vithi!
The burn out and hiatus isn't very good news, but hopefully a break will be enough to get your spark back. Thanks for all the chapters.
Oh wow, the Alex situation just got hilariously awkward-her father thinks of Lilith as his mother and his daughter is in love with Lilith. Here's another example of the marked difference between new and old Lilith-old Lilith would insist in undoing the mental conditioning on the council members no matter how troublesome it would be to do even if she knows she would never abuse it. Aria continues to be adorable, and Mai is pretty cute here as well.
Looks like Raphi is going to have to do some soul searching and decide some things about herself, and what she wants to be and where she wants to go with her life.
Personally I like the shift in focus away from the game elements to focus more on the characters-it makes things flow better and is less restrictive in case you need to be...flexible with the numbers to keep the story moving. Seeing a level 1 with 10 stats across the board beat a level 100 with 5000 stats across the board is a lot harder to take seriously than seeing a weak but skilled character beat a much stronger one with tricks and traps. I mean-it's possible to pull off those kinds of upset victories in a convincing way-one example being the FEAR strategy with Rattata/Aron in Pokemon-using a level 1 Pokemon to beat a level 100 one using specific moves that have fixed effects-get hit by enemy and brought down to 1 HP while surviving with either focus sash or sturdy, use endeavor to make the opponent's pokemon have 1 HP and then kill it with quick attack since that move always goes first and does at least 1 damage, ignoring cases where the enemy is immune to it or also has priority moves.
You're going to put the series on hiatus after the next chapter? While it'll be unfortunate to not get updated for a while, a planned hiatus as a good spot to pause on is much better than an unplanned one in the middle of an arc because of reaching total burnout, though it sounds like you're near total burnout anyways. I really hope you recover your enthusiasm for writing and get through the burnout soon. I really enjoy the story and would love to see it continued as soon as possible, but it's better to take longer to come back and have it be consistent than to try resuming it to early while still burnt out and have to quickly put it on hold again or risk a massive drop in quality.
Fortunately, I'm not completely stopping work (TBH I'm not even slowing down that much lol). I'm using this time to actually get the rewrite I'm always talking about done, and I've been working on getting my other series up and presentable, so it'll be coming out here on SH this Sunday, and it'll be coming out every day thereafter until it's 5 chapters behind Patreon, which I'm estimating to be ~20 chapters here on SH. I'll explain more on Sunday, though, when that time actually comes.
If you do want a bit more info about it now, there's a pastebin up on my profile from a while back that goes a bit more in-depth on what exactly the hiatus is going to look like and my reasons behind it, so check that out if you're curious!
@Fighterman481 Ah ok, best of luck with the rewrite. I think it'll be a big improvement over the first version since you have a much better idea of what you want and where you want it to go, at least up until the current point in Perfect Chimera. Stuff like knowing Lilith = *the* Lilith and her being an old flame of Kali's from the start will help you plan out their interactions a lot more, and maybe drop a few hints in earlier in the story. Looking forward to the rewrite and your other new story
So just out of curiosity, how did Mai "fix" her and Errus's appearances? It didn't occur to me until near the end of this chapter so I went back to the previous one and now Mai and Aria look like mini-Lilith's, but how did they get around the Form Anchoring restriction? I thought Lilith could only do that thanks to Eldritch Abomination giving her a "temporary" transformation that lasts pretty much forever but everything else would eventually regress to her "original" which was whatever she looked like 10 seconds after becoming a Perfect Chimera. Shouldn't that same rule apply to Aria and Mai?
A good question. While I haven't nailed down the exact details, the general idea is that they also have a "permanent temporary" transformation similar to Eldritch Abomination. Unlike Isa and Winston, who have no real need to have anything more than a temporary change, Mai and Errus have been working with espionage, and needed something a bit more...undetectable and not prone to just vanishing on them if they forget or something happens.
Perhaps they dabbled briefly in the eldritch, perhaps they just figured out a way to make a really, really long temporary spell that's nearly undetectable. I'm not 100% sure how they did it just yet.
@Fighterman481 When the characters outsmart the author, you know it's about to get real.
@DemonLordShadowheart Or they jump of the page and kiss him... but to Fighterman, there are doppelgangers and more powerful shapeshifters in these worlds and there in lies you're narrative out on the change just a simple use of certain racial abilities to alter form. Course I could be off mark and you can throw a fish at this suggestion.
@Syth_Dracous To be completely honest, as the series has progressed I've put less and less emphasis (in my mind) on the nuts and bolts of how everything works, choosing instead to focus on the character driven aspects of things. It has its pros and its cons, and this is an excellent example: In all, complete transparency, I totally forgot about the form anchoring. But also...Perfect Chimeras, in my mind (and I believe you can find this if you dig through Lilith's abilities, especially the early stuff), always had some sort of innate shapeshifting to other forms they had somehow acquired that kind of flew in the face of form anchoring? Form anchoring in general isn't the most fleshed out concept and, TBH, has a good shot of being reworked entirely in the rewrite since it's unreasonably wonky as is.
But on the other hand, stepping away from that stuff allows me to make the narrative flow much better without having to stop and explain every little thing, which is probably the biggest reason I've had it step down TBH. It wasn't even a purposeful choice, it just sort of happened along the way.
That being said, I still have that itch for mechanics and character building, and I've sort of let that out onto my other series (which is actually coming out on SH here on Sunday, as that's also when this series goes on hiatus), which I've sort of forced myself to maintain because the power scale is...much different. Lilith's on the high end of the scale, and while I eventually (keyword eventually) want to get there in the other series, it's going to be from a vastly different angle, since as things stand Lilith uses either a few broken abilities or just raw stats to get through her fights.
Anyway, I've begun to ramble so I'm going to cut things off here. We'll have time for a more thorough discussion on issues like this come Sunday when I drop the last chapter and ask you all what you'd like to see from the rewrite, since I think listening to people's advice is important (especially in this sort of situation when, to be completely honest, there's just so much stuff I've written in this series that I have a hard time keeping track of every little change I was thinking. I seriously have almost 1,000 pages in the word doc for this, it's kind of nuts how far it's come) and I think I can really polish this up significantly with the rewrite.