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raineydaywrites · 3 years

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great shall be the peace of your children

“Hey, Mom? Dad?” Gordy’s voice was always a bit rough when he called through the interplanar capable Stone of Farspeech, but even with that slight distortion, the stress in his voice was obvious. “We need some advice. Family visit? Uh, entire family.”

It didn’t take long for Lup and Barry to make their arrangements to visit Nua after they heard that message. Their son was in distress and wanted their entire family to come help, so whatever this was, it was big.

Even though it had been a while since their last proper adventure, everyone was quick to come when Lup and Barry explained the situation.

They weren’t sure what to expect when they arrived in Nua, but they prepared for danger just in case. It- probably wouldn’t be necessary, but better to be safe than sorry. And it’s not like they’d frighten Gordy and Rainer. If anything, those two would probably just be amused by their protectiveness.

They entered Gordy and Rainer’s home quickly- the Crypt couldn’t keep them out- only to find three strangers in the living room, who all jumped up in alarm and started to prepare to fight at the sight of them.

“Are you friends of the Undying Lord and his Princess?” Barry asked them, the only one of them who could consistently keep a straight face using those titles to refer to the kids.

“You mean, Gordy and Rainer?” One of the strangers asked, a half elf who was eying them all warily with his hands raised to cast a spell. “Wait, of course you do. Who else- yes, we are. Are you?”

“We’re their family,” Lup said, a threat and an explanation in one.

It would have been easier to do both if this kid was old enough to have seen the Story and Song, but he looked too young and didn’t appear to recognize them, so she’d have to do it the old-fashioned way. The other two strangers were a water Genasi and a Firbolg. Lup wasn’t especially practiced at knowing ages for those species on sight, but they didn’t seem to recognize them either.

“Oh, well that’s a relief,” the half elf said, flopping back down on the couch. “I’m far too tired for another adventure at the moment.”

Their family relaxed, mostly. Gordy’s message hadn’t indicated active danger, and these kids didn’t seem to want to fight them. If they truly were friends of Gordy and Rainer, then they wouldn’t want to make a bad first impression by trying to murder them after all.

“Where are they? Why are you here? And who are you?” Barry asked, glancing around the room quickly for any signs of his son or granddaughter.

“Groceries,” the Firbolg said, simply, voice a deep rumble. “Ve are vithout home and tired. And I am Firbolg, representing Thunderman, LLC.”

That- prompted a few more questions, but before any of the Birds could ask, the Genasi spoke up.

“Ya don’t need to represent anything! We’re all here! We can represent our own damn selves!”

Despite his words, he seemed teasing more than aggravated.

“And who are you?” Lucretia prompted.

“Argonaut Keene, at your service, ma’am. Well, actually, not at your service. I gotta sleep for a week, I think before I can do anybody any service. But anyway, uh, call me Argo.”

“I think we’ve passed our service milestone for the, ooh, year at least. Maybe even decade? Is that too long? Five years?” The half elf said.

“Yes, five years is good,” the Firbolg said.

“Yeah, five years. Any service you want to provide in the mean time is extra and stellar, but for now, I think we got this covered.”

The half elf straightened up slightly, not quite standing, reaching a hand out to their group. “Si- I’m Fitzroy Maplecourt. CEO of Thunderman, LLC, friend of Gordy and Rainer, and, I guess, Savior of Nua now?”

He looked back to the other two who shrugged.

“Anyway, you’ll forgive me for not standing to introduce myself, I’m sure. We just saved the world or whatever, and that really takes it out of a guy, whodda guessed? I’m fu- f- freaking exhausted.”

“Good try, buddy,” Argo offered. “You’ll get there someday!”

“I just- it feels so unnatural!” Fitzroy said.

Well, okay. That was interesting. The Birds weren’t exactly sure why Nua needed saving in the first place, but that gave a bit of context to why Gordy might have been so stressed.

Fitzroy had kept his hand outstretched, but he still seemed surprised when Lucretia stepped forward and shook it.

“No, of course you can stay seated. We certainly understand that feeling,” she glanced back at the rest of the Birds as she said it, widening her eyes slightly. “I’m Lucretia.”

“Charmed,” Fitzroy said, shaking her hand limply. “Normally, I have a firmer handshake than that, but, you know. Can’t understate how tired we are at the moment.”

“Lovely name, miss Lucretia,” Argo said. “Lovely to meet ya, as well.”

So they hadn’t made the connection as to who they were. That was fine, Lucretia had one of the less immediately identifiable names of their group, and these boys were definitely a little out of it. They’d figure it out sooner or later.

Before they could get any farther in the process of introducing themselves, they heard sounds coming from the kitchen. Gordy and Rainer were home.

"Mister Undying Lord? Your family has arrived," the Firbolg called out.

At the words, Rainer made her way out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"Hi Gramma! Hi Grampa!" she greeted, coming over to give each of the Birds a hug and greeting.

"Hey kiddo," Barry greeted her happily. "Your dad called? Said you needed some help?"

"Oh, right!" Rainer said. "So, we were hoping you would have some advice on rebuilding a plane after it was devastated by the army of the evil physical manifestation of a concept? Oh, and we have some allies who might want to talk to Aunt Lucretia about how to transition a secret benevolent organization to a public benevolent organization, if you have some time?"

"Wait, what exactly happened here?" Taako asked, frowning down at Rainer in concern.

"Oh, yeah, and I need to start at a new school, and I'm not sure how many- options are going to be available on Nua at the moment. I can transfer to your school, right, Uncle Taako?"

"Not a problem pumpkin. About time you did it," Taako huffed. "But seriously, what the hell?"

"So, apparently, the gods of order and chaos are- evil," Rainer said. "Especially Order. They thought that Nua had stagnated, because capitalism-"

"Not exactly wrong about that bit," Gordy said, entering the room.

"Gordy!" Lup exclaimed, darting toward her son and hugging him, taking a minute to subtly check him over for injuries, because apparently some serious shit had gone down since she last saw her boy.

As she pulled back from Gordy, she saw Taako smirk at her overprotectiveness, as if he had any right to talk after how he was with Angus after the Day of Story and Song. So she flipped him off behind Gordy's back as her son went to go greet his father and the rest of their family.

"Sorry, guys, I didn't mean to worry you. It's just been real busy and chaotic here the last few days, and I didn't have time to explain over the Stone," he said, a bit sheepish as he took in their ready stances and armor and weapons.

"Not a problem, Gordy," Magnus assured him. "We're just glad you guys are safe."

"Anyway, so even though they weren't wrong about the capitalism sucking bit, their plan to fix the situation was. Bad," Rainer said.

"They wanted us to fight a demon war to alter the balance of chaos and order in the plane, blah, blah, etc. Well, that was what Chaos wanted anyway. Order just kind of wanted to destroy the whole plane so they didn't have to be in charge anymore. Kind of suicidal of them really, they might have possibly benefited from some psychological intervention actually, but oh well. You live and you learn," Fitzroy said, waving one hand in the air gesturally as he spoke, not quite sitting up. "Ah, Rainer, dear lady?"

"Yes?" Rainer asked, looking back to Fitzroy, though his position on the couch meant that he couldn't really see her anyway.

Which left Lup free to mouth 'dear lady?' at Rainer, who promptly blushed and whispered, "Stop it Gramma! He's just like that!"

"Huh?" Fitzroy asked, sitting up now.

"Nothing, Fitz," Rainer said.

Fitzroy shrugged and kept speaking. "Rainer, why does your family appear to be unaware of the recent goings-on-" he paused. "-wait, your aunt is named- and your uncle is- Rainer! You didn't tell me that you're related to the Birds!"

"You know how people are about family here, Fitzroy. They would have been insufferable. I only even told Buckminster last year, and we've known each other since we were kids!"

"I suppose you have a point. But still! You could have said something earlier!" Fitzroy said.

"I mean, Aunt Lucy literally told you that they understood the feeling and then her name. It's not my fault you didn't make the connection," Rainer defended.

"People can understand the concept of someone being tired after doing a thing without having to have actually done the thing themselves! I thought she was, you know, speaking metaphorically!" Fitzroy said.

"Vhat about birds?" the Firbolg asked. "You have bird family, Rainer?"

"No, Firby-" Argo started. "It's just a, you know, a metaphor. A title of sorts. Didja ever hear about the Day of Story and Song?"

"No," the Firbolg said.

"Oh boy," Fitzroy sighed. "They saved- everything. The whole omniverse. And it got projected into everyone's brains, apparently, but it was before any of us were born, so we didn't see it. I'm surprised you don't know about it."

"Firbolgs do not care for non-Firbolg stories," the Firbolg explained. Then he tilted his head at the Birds curiously. "Thank you. I prefer to be alive."

"Yeah, I mean, same!" Taako agreed, snickering lightly. "And I also 'prefer' my nephew and great-niece to be alive, so back at ya, I guess."

"You are velcome," the Firbolg nodded firmly.

"Okay, so the threat is solved now, though, right?" Davenport asked.

"Oh, yeah, we're cool," Argo assured him. "Chaos turned to our side when they realized that Order planned to destroy the whole plane and not just a part of it, I guess, and Order is locked up in a hell dimension."

"Yep. Now all we gotta deal with is a total restructuring of our world's society," Fitzroy said, voice tinging a bit hysterical as he laughed and added, "no biggie!"

"Yes, that's why I asked you guys to come visit," Gordy nodded. "There's- a lot going on right now."

He moved back into the kitchen for a second, bringing back a mug of something and handing it to Fitzroy.

"Here, drink some tea, buddy," he said, patting Fitzroy on the shoulder firmly. "Let the adults talk about it for a while."

"Dad, you don't have to be condescending!" Rainer pouted at him. "They saved Nua, they can handle it!"

"I know," Gordy assured her. "And now they ought to rest. And so should you, because I know protecting the school couldn't have been easy either."

Rainer shrugged slightly. "I had help. But yeah. Thanks."

"Maybe we could go talk- somewhere else?" Gordy asked, glancing to the Birds.

"Yes, of course," Davenport agreed, glancing over to the three teenagers in concern, before they all followed Gordy out of the room.

They ended up spending hours planning in Gordy’s office, a place he rarely used and had never before used with family, but he didn’t want to talk about this stuff with the kids around. They’d try to insert themselves into it, and they wouldn’t understand why he wanted to keep them out of it. He didn’t want them to feel insulted or excluded, but he also didn’t want to be yet another adult who let those children handle a problem that he easily could have done on his own. They’d been necessary for saving the world- but he could handle some of this mess for them now.

It was only right that he take some of the burden off their too-young shoulders now that he could.

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