"Hello, Elix; I'm Bruce. I don't know how much you've heard about how I got here, but your parents are letting me stay over for a bit."

"Mom said you teleported from a parallel universe by accident and also you have a 'Chaos problem' but that it'd be up to you if you want to tell me." 

"Yup, parallel universe. The problem is that if I, uh, leak chaos I'm unusually likely to do something really dangerous, and it's unusually hard to get me to stop, so I need to be extra careful about not doing it." He hopes that's the right balance of enough information for the kid to be informed but not enough to terrify him.

"Ooh. So you can't go to the Underworld? That sucks. Are you gonna see a therapist about it and get better? Veth's booooooyfriend has a problem where he can't remember things between Law and Chaos -" 

"Elix. Please." 

To Veth: "I, ah, take it I'm not supposed to have heard that?" To Elix: "I will see a therapist about it and I hope I will be able to get better."

He's very sweet. She smiles at him. 

"Hang on one second!" More footsteps, and then a woman with a clear family resemblance to both of the kids arrives. "Bruce, welcome. Shoes off, please, they go in the cabinet right there. Do you want to borrow some slippers?" 

Shoes: in cabinet. He hopes his feet don't stink too much after the thirty flights of stairs. "Some slippers would be lovely, thank you."

Slippers are obtained for him. They're beige and fluffy on the inside and slightly too big but stretchy. 

"Dinner's in a couple hours, my husband's running late at work. He may have his brother over, if that's all right with you? Pevas used to live with us when the children were little, he's part of our family." 

"Uncle Pevas is coming too?" Elix lights up. 

"If he can get away from the office, you know he's busy this year." She turns back to Bruce. "I'm Cassea, by the way. Leaning Lawful, right now, but I'm pretty integrated, so no need to keep track of another name." 

"Does your Chaos you who's dangerous and scary have a name?" Elix asks Bruce. 

"Pleased to meet you, Cassea. I look forward to meeting your husband and Pevas." Then to Elix, "Well, yes. He's called Hulk."

"Ha. Nice one." 

"Elix, honey, don't be pushy. Bruce, please don't be shy about telling my son to stop being nosy, if it's too much. Anyway, would you like to sit down with us for some tea and snacks? ...Oh, Ronda, you're here too! Sorry, didn't see you. There's a bag in the laundry-room of your things that got mixed in with Veth's laundry." 

"Aww, thank you, Second Mom." 

"You're welcome, hon."

Cassea leads the group of them down the hall to an open-concept kitchen and dining room, which opens onto another, much bigger deck in the backyard. This one is a bit less tidy; there are two enormous oak trees in the backyard, and a smattering of fallen oak leaves on the deck furniture.

"Bruce, you can help yourself to anything in the snack fridge - it's that one." The kitchen has two narrower-than-usual fridges on opposite sides of the stove and sink, rather than one standard-size one. "I mean, you can also poke in the ingredients fridge if you want, but I like cooking from scratch so it's mostly not, uh, especially in edible forms yet. Do you have any dietary restrictions, by the way?" 

"I don't want to be an inconvenience and I don't have any health issues but I prefer not to eat anything that come from animals for personal reasons." He hasn't actually been a houseguest anywhere other than with family for more than a night or two since he went vegan and somehow managed not to realize how embarrassing it was going to be. He really needs to get a job as soon as possible.

"Right, right, of course." Cassea doesn't seem judgemental at all, just sympathetic and curious. "I can do a plants-only dinner, I have some of that new brand of not-beef that's made out of - gosh what was it -" 

"I think it's the one made out of that really cool fungus they found in the Underworld down south?" 

"Ewww, I don't want mushroom-meat, can I have something else Mom?" 

"Seriously, Lixie, it's not mushrooms. Different thing. You ever paid attention a single time in biology?" 

"Shut it. It's basically mushrooms."

"Kids." 

(The kids immediately shush.) 

"- Anyway, Bruce - we can do that, but is your objection more about fundamental-dignity," (this is a single word in their language), "or unpleasantness for the farmed animals? We don't have good neighbourhood meat, here, not since the Atters went and retired on a farm, but we've got neighbourhood eggs and goat-milk - if you want to see for yourself we could take a walk over and I can introduce you to the neighbours...?"