greek deities

[her_imperial_radiance]

Harley is seven, and he and Elspeth are hanging out in the Québec capital (because the rest of the Golden Coven is doing so), and as is usual in capitals with major wolf villages, she, he, and Jacob stay in village quarters during this time.

The capital as a whole moves less often than it once did, now that people can readily teleport to other sites to handle things there; this is the first time in Harley's life that they've been to Québec for anything other than a brief visit, so it's the first time he's seen the Imperial Alpha house in which Jacob, his imprint, and her fosterling are entitled to live.

They have neighbors. One of these is a seven-year-old puppy boy, who is currently making a snowfort.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Fun!" says Harley.

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah! I help Mom sometimes."

[pythbox]

"Cool," he says. "Is it fun? Sometimes I go to Aedyt's asteroid and she lets me help her make stuff and it's really fun."

[alicornucopia]

"Who's Aedyt and why does she have an asteroid?" Demeter asks.

[pythbox]

"Aedyt is the Joker's daughter and she has an asteroid because he gave her one!" he says reasonably.

[alicornucopia]

"Why do you go there?" asks Zeus.

[pythbox]

"Because it's fun!"

[alicornucopia]

"But I mean how do you know her, isn't the Joker, like, the - I dunno, the something," says Zeus.

"Imperial something-or-other," agrees Bartholomew. "But the Princess presumably knows everyone."

[pythbox]

"The Joker's my alt," Harley explains serenely.

[alicornucopia]

"Oh!" says Demeter. "I see."

"What imperial thing is he?" asks Zeus. "I can't keep all the funny titles straight."

[pythbox]

"I forget," says Harley.

[alicornucopia]

"How do alts even work?" Zeus asks.

[pythbox]

[Elsie, Zeus wants to know how alts work and I dunno how to explain!]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[No one understands why alts happen, at least not yet, but your alts are versions of your personality and basic traits - and, in most cases, appearance - from other worlds and circumstances.]

[pythbox]

"Alts are people from different worlds who are like the same person!" says Harley, approximating this explanation as best he can without copying it verbatim.

[alicornucopia]

"So the imperial something is from another world but he's - like you sort of?" fumbles Zeus. "But what if you grow up to be different? He's a grownup, you could be anything you wanted when you grow up, right?"

[pythbox]

"I can be anything I wanna be when I grow up, but I'm still gonna be me," he says. "And I'll be one of the Jokers. There's lots and they're all the same but different and I'm gonna get to meet them when I grow up!"

[alicornucopia]

"You haven't met them yet?" asks Zeus.

[pythbox]

He shakes his head.

[alicornucopia]

"Why not?"

[pythbox]

"Because grown-up Jokers have sex with each other and it'd be weird when I grow up if I knew them all now!" he says, secure in the knowledge that this is an Elsie-splanation and is therefore absolutely true.

[alicornucopia]

Zeus blinks at him.

Demeter makes a soft disgruntled noise.

"Er," says Bartholomew, "who told you that?"

[pythbox]

"Elsie did!"

[alicornucopia]

"I'm not sure that's such a - how old are you?" Demeter says.

[pythbox]

"Seven!" he chirps.