....Right, they probably should take Iomedae to Mass. And not just leave her there and go out for coffee, that wouldn't be very supportive. Can Lily sit through an entire Mass? ....She would probably be overjoyed to go, actually, but can she sit through a Mass without screaming about praising God and Costco at inopportune moments, no almost certainly not. Maybe there's a children's Mass...

Jeremy looks kind of impressed! "Wow. How did that work? Like, did you quote random scripture, or did you answer questions and stuff except you'd dig up just the right quote for it?" 

"I was not allowed to say disobedient things. I say, is scripture disobedient? My father say, no. So I learn lots and always answer with God say the things I wanted to say."

"....Okay, that's kind of incredible, nice. Does God say a lot of disobedient things in Scripture?" 

"Yes!! God not very obedient at all. That why they kill him that one time."

Evelyn has a very hard time not bursting out laughing. "That's a pretty good point," she manages in an almost-normal tone. Her lips are only slightly twitching. 

(She's also feeling weirdly proud of Iomedae. What a clever way to push back against the limitations her parents wanted to place on her! ...It doesn't sound like an abusive family, overall, with how Iomedae talks about, but definitely a bit controlling and - well, patriarchal. Evelyn is, once again, impressed with Iomedae for managing to get out. And - sad, that she can't make the transition any easier.) 

"What sorts of things did you want to say, that your parents would've thought were disobedient if it wasn't literally Scripture?" 

"I no have all the words but - that it the duty and power of children grow past their parents and gods. That no man matter more than any other and no woman any less. That the world shape to our will. That ambition great virtue."

Jeremy is tempted to pump his fist and say 'girl power!' but he's not sure if that would be weird for Iomedae so he doesn't.

"That's really cool," he says instead, though internally he's trying to think where you would even find quotes expressing that sentiment in the Bible, of all places. It doesn't feel very Biblical. Though maybe the weird cult sect that thinks Jesus is from Atlantis have their own bonus Scripture, like the Mormons. ...Actually it would make a lot more sense of Iomedae if she'd grown up reading weird bonus Scripture about Jesus in Atlantis. Jeremy kind of wants to hear more about it now but it feels awkward to ask. 

"It's quite impressive," Evelyn agrees. She feels like the movie gave her some time to find her mental balance, but she's pretty tired and the conversation is already making her feel out of her depth again. And she can't even go to bed, because she needs to write her log notes. 

Though at least Iomedae knows the pre-bedtime routine now, and is trustworthy to amuse herself and go to bed on her own while Evelyn shuts herself in the study. She doesn't normally do that, but she really doesn't want to be up late again tonight. 

"Jeremy, love," she says, "why don't you go look up the DVD thing? And maybe show Iomedae how to slow down videos on the computer, too. After that I need it, I have emails to send before bed." 

Jeremy will go consult the might of Google on how their DVD player controls work. Man, it's too bad Iomedae can't read yet, because then he could show her WIKIPEDIA. Iomedae is going to love Wikipedia. Wikipedia is absolutely an act of homage to Cool Atlantis Jesus. (He doesn't say that part out loud.)  

He can try to show her how to speed up and slow down videos on Youtube, too, though it's probably pretty confusing if you've never used a computer before and can't read English. 

Yeah having never interacted with electronics before in any capacity Iomedae is at a serious disadvantage but she will diligently try to learn (while maintaining quite a bit of physical distance from Jeremy.)

...Jeremy is unsurprised and will scoot as far over as he can on Evelyn's office chair so there's lots of room for her to be not-too-close to him. 

It turns out the DVD player does have controls for playback speed. Jeremy takes Evelyn over and shows her and makes her do it herself and then makes her a flashcard that includes a picture. He's kind of teasing her, but only a little, he thinks there's still some chance she'll be calling him next week asking for help about it. 

And then Evelyn can have her computer and Jeremy will head out, promising to rejoin them at breakfast for the coveted treat of fresh Costco croissants. 

Evelyn tells Iomedae that she has some things to do on the computer. Does Iomedae need any help finding things to get ready for bed or is she all set? If she gets hungry again tonight she's of course welcome to anything in the fridge or cupboard. (Evelyn absolutely does not expect Iomedae to take her up on this, but she is a growing girl with a lot of muscle.) 

"Thank you, ma'am. I do not need help to get ready for bed." 

She will go upstairs and wash (not draw a whole bath) and follow Evelyn's bizarre other bedtime tooth care rituals and change into the borrowed pajamas again, and pray, for guidance and wisdom and generosity and for the souls of the dead and for Aroden to end Hell already, and then she will sleep on the floor with her swiss army knife under her pillow. 

And Evelyn will shut herself in the study and stare at an empty text document. 

...Where does she even start? There were so many things today. It feels like the longest day of her entire life. And, not to mention, there are a lot of things she feels...less than entirely comfortable...about relating to Diel, given the attitude displayed before. 

Okay. Focus. She wants to be quick about this and get to bed, so - start at the beginning, and go through in order, and if her notes are less meticulously thorough than usual for early in a placement, it's not like Diel will notice she is not going to be deliberately lazy. Just. Apply some judgement to how she phrases things, is all. That's a completely normal thing to do. 

Iomedae was up early with my other foster child (Lily, 7yo girl, learning disability and suspected abuse) and had a conversation that resulted in the two of them cleaning the kitchen before I was awake, as a "surprise" and for Lily to make up for breaking some of my things. I didn't punish either of them, since Lily assumed it was okay to open the cleaning supplies cupboard with a big girl there and Iomedae had no way of knowing otherwise; I explained that cleaning is my job, and then asked Iomedae privately what she had said to Lily. It wasn't terribly inappropriate, but I made sure she knew that it would be inappropriate to talk to Lily about Hell. 

Iomedae continues to learn English very diligently; I found her some worksheets and videos. She accompanied us on errands to Costco and Walmart, and seemed to be very impressed, describing it as "man building Heaven in the world". She continues to seem intensely guilty about spending money on herself rather than helping the poor, though I've tried to reassure her that this is a perfectly normal amount to spend on food and clothing in America and not especially extravagant. Iomedae prefers to dress modestly and avoid bright colors, and I've also noticed that she had some anxiety around meeting my adult son; she may have been taught to be cautious about socializing with unrelated men. My son handled it sensitively and there were no real issues. 

Iomedae continues to be distressed that she isn't allowed to work and earn money, and that she isn't allowed to carry a sword when she leaves the house. She is clearly used to being treated as an adult with adult responsibilities. I've tried to explain that a suburb in Reno is much safer than what she's used to, but I think she was alarmed that Lily isn't allowed to walk places alone, I suspect that in her culture children were supervised less and given more freedom. Iomedae continues to admit openly that she's considering leaving (in particular, going somewhere where it's not illegal to work without papers, which she seems very confident is a thing), though I don't think she sees it as running away, since in her worldview she's an adult. I've tried to approach it as sensitively as I can, and emphasize how going to school and learning more about America will make it easier for her to help the poor.

I did ask Iomedae some questions about the details of her religion. It may be some kind of polytheistic blend with Christianity; she mentioned praying to a number of other "gods" (the word she used, though the specifics sounded like she could be talking about Catholic saints). She said her family would pray to an "Erastil" for the harvest, and "Dezna" for safe travel, and an "Abadar" for prosperity, and a "Shelynne" for love or "Jaydee" for a husband; I'm obviously guessing at the spellings here. Her family also called Jesus by a different name, "Aroden". I've tried some Google searches for different spellings of the names, searching for both saints and figures from other cultures' mythology, and haven't turned up anything, so I'm not sure what to make of it. Some of what she says about Jesus/"Aroden" is also pretty unusual. The most notable to me is that she said Jesus/"Aroden" wants everyone to become a god and help defeat Hell, which is certainly not a Biblical interpretation I've ever heard before. She has very black-and-white views on churches and on priests, claiming that God personally chooses priests and they can never be bad people. She also definitely believes in miraculous healing. 

It's definitely leaving a lot of things out, but Evelyn honestly cannot be bothered to rake over her memory any further. Usually the process of writing up notes is sort of steadying, helping her sort through the events of an overwhelming day and leaving her feeling less confused and off-balance. Evelyn...isn't sure that's true, this time. She's getting to know Iomedae, for sure, accumulating a longer list of Iomedae's traits and preferences and reactions to situations, but on some level she's even more confused. 

- not helpful to sit here beating herself up over not being able to instantly figure out what Iomedae needs to relax and feel safe and happy here. Evelyn has to trust herself, and more important has to go to BED so she'll be rested for tomorrow, which promises to be just as intense. 

She goes to bed. 

Lily actually sleeps in a bit later than usual, but is awake at 6:15 am and padding over to Iomedae's room. She knocks. "I c'in?" 

"Of course!" Iomedae woke at sunrise and changed out of her pajamas and is studying her swiss army knife, though she puts it away when Lily knocks.

Lily wants a hug and to hear more stories about things that God did! ...And whether God likes dogs. Iomedae never did answer that bit. 

Iomedae will try to explain! "God likes dogs. God likes dogs because, long ago, when world was new, there no dogs. There only - big scary things kind of like dogs, but not. And people have to do all the things dogs do like listen for bad men and catch animals. But over lots time, they made friends the big scary things kind of like dogs, and raised some babies of the big scary things, and made dogs. And now dogs listen for bad men and catch animals, and people stronger and richer. Step on path to Costco and to Heaven."

That's a good story! Lily didn't know that there didn't used to be dogs and people had to make dogs! She's very happy that someone tried to make dogs, dogs are good. The neighbors have a dog and he barks in the nighttime sometimes, but it's not scary, because he's there to scare bad people away. 

Lily wants to hear more stories about things God made and things that God likes because people made them! 

Iomedae has some more vocabulary from last night's movie! God made magic. Well, there was magic before God, but it was lost when Azlant fell, and God is the one who passed on all of the magic that is known these days. God made part of Heaven though other parts are older than Him. God likes how man made plants the same way they made dogs, picking the most obedient ones. 

God made MAGIC?????? What kind of magic? Is it like wizards in stories? What does the magic do? Can you fight bad people with it? 

"Most stories about magic probably about real magic but maybe some storytellers not know everything about powerful magic, make things up. Magic do all kinds of things. Picture boxes, clean clothes. Fight bad people, yes."

"Mummy sa'it NOT re'm'gic," Lily points out. "P'ete'd m'gic."