Hmmm. ...fairy circle's probably smartest? It'd be awkward if our world started...expecting things of us...right now.

Yeaaaah. Also if we have to do stuff here for a while we should at some point decide whether to bring the kids here or ask if your mom can look after them for a bit, but that doesn't have to be right now.

And they can go back to the fairy circle, and she can hug him and turn telepathy on. She's really glad that telepathy is important for faster magic gain because it means she isn't trading off useful stuff against it, she can just do the thing she actually wants to do, which is snuggle and telepathy and possibly maybe get to hear that she's wonderful and he loves her. Maybe. She's so tired.

She's wonderful and he loves her. It's, like, slightly soothing that most of him also love her even if some of them are suspiciously bad at it. He's worried that the full fairy one kidnapped her because that's what he would've done if he was a full fairy, he wouldn't have known that it'd hurt her. But he'd still love her.

Eeee. The full fairy one does seem like he loves Cecelia, and maybe he's not doing things that are super great for her but if he's not then maybe Connor can explain some things to him? Maybe he'll be more understanding about that than Hagan. 

She's really really glad she has him with her for this. Like - getting the pizza and setting up the tents and talking with her about getting Matt was maybe not, like, a set of things that will go down in the history books, but if he hadn't done them then everyone would be way more hungry and scared and stressed, including her, and it's just - really really really good to have someone she knows she can count on to do stuff. 

He was not really figuring he'd be in the history books. He was figuring he would be hers and that would be good, and also lots of cool random magical stuff would happen that he could be helpful with. So everything's good, on that front. 

He will try to explain to the full fairy one about how to take good care of your Karen and maybe he will try again with Hagan when Korva is not listening and Hagan doesn't have to pretend to be whatever he's pretending to be.

Does he think that's a good idea? Probably some people are kind of averse to people telling them they should serve random people they barely know. Possibly even some people who are him.

Yeah part of the problem was definitely also the content but - maybe he'll talk to Matt about it.

Talking to Matt about it makes sense.

Snuggle. She feels sort of like she should be doing something nice for him. Since he was so helpful today. Can he think of any nice things he wants.

Well there's this girl he really likes and she could arrange for him to get to kiss her. The girl is her. He was gonna not think that last thing because it was a kind of joke where you pretend it's not obvious who you are thinking about but those are hard to do over telepathy and also he was a little worried she wouldn't realize and would think it was a different Karen or something. The other ones aren't pretty. - that's mean. The other ones are probably okay they're just all grown up and - this is irrelevant -

He is adorable and she can definitely arrange for him to get kissed. By her.

Oh good.

Hagan is now wearing a little circlet of Osirian make. It looks very expensive. He spends a long time asking Matt questions about Earth and America, and then an equally long time answering them about Osirion so they are even.

She fills her sister in on most of the important things that have happened since she died. Tries to answer her questions about the demiplane and about everyone around them. Lets her know that the fairy is sketchy and that they should maybe be running emotional support for Valentine and Cecelia, who seem to have very little of it. 

Eventually she finishes hugging and filling her sister in and wanders over in Hagan's general direction.

He has finished talking with Matt and is digging at the grass with a knife that he's apparently been carrying.

"Hey. Is your sister okay?"

"Pretty okay, for someone who's been wandering around the Maelstrom for the past seven years. I guess it takes longer than that to drive you completely insane."

"Does it even reliably do that or is that just anti-Maelstrom propaganda, I always wondered. - 'm glad she's doing all right. You?"

Shrug. "Managing. It was cool of your.... pharaoh, to bring her back."

"I'm glad he could.

He's - I don't like the way Osirion teaches about any of it, but whenever Fazil says 'the pharaoh's picked by Abadar and embodies his ideals and doesn't have human flaws anymore' I don't actually know how to argue, because he - 

- I'm sure he makes mistakes but they're too small for anyone to catch them, or too big to ever actually know for sure if they were one. No medium-sized mistakes at all."

" - I guess that makes sense."

"Does it? Then I should write it down." Snort. "Ask Matt to write it down." He touches the circlet, self-consciously. 

"What's it do?" she asks, looking at the circlet. "Assuming it does something. It looks like it'd do something."

"Three standard deviations on all cognitive skills. It's the pharaoh's. I'm borrowing it." He imitates his brother's voice. 'Don't lose it, the backup one digs into my scalp funny'".

"Huh. Does it... feel like anything?"

"Wanna try it?"

" - is that even allowed? Are there not, like, rules against letting the peasantry use the pharaoh's stuff?"