Chapter 7:
The name on the side of the boat was familiar to Jay Mertens. He'd seen it somewhere before. Rainicorn Shipping Inc. It wasn't something from Pillow World. It was something he'd seen here. But where? Father's court, obviously, he thought. Trouble was, he was having trouble understanding the significance. The ship was one of the single biggest things he'd seen since he'd come here, beggaring even the strange ships that had carried them all out of the wasteland in the east. The heavy thing was visible for well over an hour as it made its way slowly into the harbor before dropping anchor near shore.
Sitting on the bluff over the harbor in the blazing sun, the tall fellow watched as a swarm of smaller boats moved in on the larger ship. Men crawled over the thing like a swarm of zippers, pulling boxes and bails out of the enormous hold. That cargo got transferred to the small boats before being brought ashore to be stacked there on the beach like so much flotsam. As Jay watched the proceedings, he found himself tempted and tempted again to use his powers. He wanted to see what they were unloading. If these people were connected to his father's court, that made them one of the many dangerous factions working against his father's reign.
"Ah, you're up here, Your Highness," a voice announced. Jay turned slightly to find the strange wax-creature, Fitzroy, coming up the hill behind him. Melinda had left him here in the hands of this stranger. Jay had been... concerned about that. At the same time, there had been little point in complaining. She'd gone, and that was that. More to the point, no-one had tried to kill him while he was sleeping, so the move wasn't treachery. Unfortunately, he was no closer to his goal.
He'd been doing his best to be patient. He'd asked few questions beyond suggesting that he was willing to help them. He'd inquired about meeting the people he'd agreed to serve, but no-one had shown any willingness to bring him to Gumbald or Wells. Instead, they'd plied him with food, kept him here in this empty place, and examined him with their machines, as if they could open his seams and look at his stuffing without actually killing him. "Fitz," Jay rumbled, letting the stranger feel just a taste of the terrible power within him. It was a reminder that, if he had scant trust in Melinda, he'd none at all in this man. Shaking off his terror at feeling the strange, preternatural heat emanating from the stranger, Fitzroy announced, "come and meet our visitors! No need to stay up here!"
Jay rose and dusted himself off. Falling in behind the wax-hustler, the tall fellow followed him down and around the side of the hill, emerging on the flat lands below. The newcomers were unpacking massive metal boxes just now. "Cargo containers," the wax-hustler announced. "I imagine they don't have such things where you're from..." Fitzroy was always making such insinuations. Jake had come to realize that much of it was his fear of the unknown. He literally knew nothing about Jay, where he was from, or how he'd come to be. There was fear there, and that fear gave Jay power.
The tall fellow gave him a noncommittal shrug. "Not the first ship I've seen unloaded," he rumbled. Of course, he'd only really seen such sights when he'd landed in this mad world. The riverboats that stopped by his old village usually came stacked with bales of wool from the cushions that villages upriver had sold them. Or maybe they came with small boxes made in wood. In any event, Jay had never spent much time at the shore. There had been chores to get done.
As the pair approached the men involved in their frantic unloading, Jay caught sight of him. He was tall as Jay, with his short, pink hair teased up in front. He had a book in his hands, and Jay imagined him going through a manifest, checking to make sure all his goods had made it ashore. "Prince Chicle," Fitz announced. The stranger turned to regard the pair as they approached. Gesturing at Jay, the wax-hustler declared, "this is Prince Jay, son of Finn." Jay nodded at the stranger.
Chicle looked down his elegant nose at the stranger. Almost immediately, he reached into his pocket and drew out some sort of gadget, spending a fair bit of time staring at the glowing face of it. "We've heard so much about you," Chicle announced. "My dad's looking forward to meeting you..." Nodding at the boxes and bales, he added, "once we take care of business here."
Jay frowned. He'd been asking after what they were doing here in this terrible place. Neither Fitz nor Melinda before her, had been at all interested in enlightening him. They kept calling this place a stage. This was a stage, though Jay saw no actors or players in attendance. More to the point, it hardly made sense that they'd be putting on a show when his father's flunkies were chasing them all over creation. Of course, all of the sundry goods in those massive boxes could be this show that they were putting on.
A voice in Jay's mind suggested butchering this man. He'd let this madman out of captivity. His wish had loosed this madness on the world again, and that had been eating away at him for a fair bit. At the same time, he knew that was the dark seed that Annabelle had been nurturing. She'd wanted him angry and vengeful. She'd gotten that–at least until he'd murdered those innocents in the far east.
"Well," said Jay, as he turned to go, "we'll have to chat after the show." Chicle turned to Fitz and asked, "haven't you told him?" Jay stopped where he was, as Fitzroy replied, "no... not yet." When Jay turned to face him, Chicle declared, "you'll have your chance to strike back at your father's empire." "My father's coming here," Jay murmured? "Nah, man," Chicle said. "We'll be moving on one of his old girlfriends." Nodding at the horizon, the tall youth said, "her kingdom's over that-a-way. She's got things we can use to build our forces and our power. You can help us take them." Jay felt his stomach lurch. Fighting the awful feeling in his gut, the tall fellow rumbled, "as you wish."
Far to the north, Finn the King strode into Simone's office with a spring in his step, looking like a man who'd gotten lucky the night before. Striding through the door, the big man glanced around to see who was here. He hadn't honestly been checking up on what his wives were doing. Having been forced to set work–and family–aside for a few days to rest, he'd actually found himself having a good time and forgetting his troubles for a moment. A part of him felt guilty about that, but it had been good, if only for a moment.
Bonnie the Younger glanced up just in time to see her father sweep the half-machine princess, Nadia, out of her chair. The big man got his hands on the tall woman's curves, as he kissed her thoroughly. His big hand reached down and stroked her swollen belly possessively, saying to the world that was his and causing Bonnie to flush.
Breaking that kiss, he left the tall woman breathless and flushed as he turned next to the little gangster, snatching her quite literally off the floor as if she was a toy. Cherry melted into his embrace, her left hand pawing at his chest in seeming hunger. She was all but quivering when Finn let her down again.
The King of Ooo worked his way down the line, kissing Drusilla, their family doctor, then little Princess Strudel, before turning to Bonnie's mom. Reaching Roselinen, he jerked her up out of the chair, pulled her into his arms as if he would squeeze the stuffing out of her, and all but jammed his tongue down her throat. As Bonnie stared in slack-jawed shock, the big man grabbed her mother's lush bottom and squeezed it like a ripe piece of fruit. It was a bit of a shock to the half-breed. She vaguely recalled seeing her father kiss her mom ages ago, but never quite like this. "How do you think you got to be born," teased Fionna?
Indeed, Roselinen was a little startled herself. Jealous? Oh, she'd been afflicted the minute he came in the room and kissed one of the others. At the same time... this... He hadn't kissed her like this–this hungry, sexual way–in years. You wouldn't have thought he had the energy given how many others there were. More on point, the time away seemed to have done him a great deal of good. He was smiling and cheerful as he sat himself down in the seat at the center of the gathering.
"I'm guessing you had a good time with Bronwyn," teased Simone. Blushing because that was somewhat true, Finn replied, "spent some time mending fences..." He told them about the business with Jake and TV and rebuilding the deck behind Jake's house. He was excited to be talking to his brother again and delighted to have found TV a new job and a better place to live. It was as if a great load had come off his back, and Simone was delighted.
"Speaking of Jake," Finn said, "haven't heard from JJ in days..." He'd parted company with his bodyguard/mistress, and he'd honestly gotten lost in trying to rebuild his friendship with her father. "She's on light-duty," Drew lied. "She's... Her alien healing's working to repair the damage Nagumo did, Finn. I... I'd rather she didn't go on any adventures for a bit." Finn turned white as a sheet. "She's going to be ok," Drew insisted. "Just... I'd like her to get some rest." Finn nodded. With a smile, Roselinen announced, "well, I can keep you company on your trip to the Bandit Lands..." Finn blushed, but he couldn't help the smile that came to his face.
As the Finn-Wives filled their husband in on what had been going on, downstairs, Star and Jake Jr sat going through surveillance videos from across the capitol. It was a bit of a tough row to hoe finding somebody who had reasons not to be found. The Candy Capitol had tens of thousands of residents going about their daily business, and even Bonnie's insanely paranoid surveillance system had trouble handling the constant ebb and flow of people going in and out of town. Thankfully, Me-Mow had gifted them with a range of dates to look at.
"I almost wish they hadn't torn down the gates," Star rumbled. The Candy Kingdom had grown by leaps and bounds in the aftermath of the alien invasion. The town had already been growing well past the boundaries of the town wall, but growth had gone exponential after that, causing the candy monarch to stand up towns all over the grasslands. But the capitol had been the hub of that growth and eventually Bonnibel Bubblegum got tired of paying to have the wall torn down and moved. She'd let Finn tear down the gates and just moved on. Unfortunately, there were no longer checkpoints to let them spy people coming and going.
"There's still checkpoints, Star," Jake replied. "I want to check the train station again." The wood nymph glared at her. They'd looked at footage from the station again and again, but they'd found no sign of a nymph. "Maybe we're looking for the wrong thing," Jake declared. "We've been looking to see this Astartes come strolling in, but maybe we've got it twisted." Star frowned at her, half in puzzlement. What the fuck were they supposed to be looking for, then?
Sitting back in her chair, the shapechanger pondered that. "What would you do, Star," the former mafia hitter asked? Star turned and frowned at her. "You were on both sides," Jake reminded her. Star flushed to her hair. She was the best positioned person in all the Civilized Kingdoms to understand the ebb and flow of crime, having worked for the gangs and then risen to be one of her father's picked lieutenants. It was how she'd found herself in the position of being her father's head of police.
"You're a wizard," the shapechanger said. "You've got powers beyond what the average mook has. What would you do if somebody wanted your hide, and you needed to skedaddle?" Jake's voice was calm and soothing, and you might not have realized she was a monster and a killer. Star had been having trouble with that. This woman had been a friend, a family-member, and then her brother's wife. She'd protected Jake Jr from being found out, and she'd felt betrayed in pretty much every way there was to be betrayed.
Jake's face was staring back at her, as she calmly waited on Star to work through her own prejudices. The wood-nymph turned back to the problem at hand. This had to get solved. They needed to find this Astartes so they could figure out why she was on the run. It was literally a matter of life and death.
As Jake watched, the little woman's face shot up, and she began scrolling back through video clips from the train station at a frenetic pace. Jake said nothing. Star had the bit in her teeth, and the shapechanger let her run with it. Finally, Star stopped scanning through the recording. Toggling controls on the control panel, she zoomed in on a small figure standing before the ticket counter.
"That's her," the wood-nymph growled. The person on the screen was a little marshmallow person. "How do you know," Jake replied. It looked like a candy-person to her. "She's wearing an illusion," Star insisted. Toggling through controls, she switched the camera to a head-on view from inside the ticket-booth. Taking the picture they had of the woman in question, the little detective superimposed it on the face at the ticket-window. Jake goggled at the way the outline matched up. "If I had to bounce," Star said, "I'd put an illusion on myself and just walk through the train-station like everybody else."
Jake sat up and took notice as Star zoomed in on the counter. "This is it," announced the wood-nymph-wonder. "This is where she went." The mark had gotten on the train, bound for the last stop east of the bandit lands. There was a port there at the southern terminus of The Wall. "Glob-damn it," muttered Jake. Astartes had a pretty good head start. If she'd already made the port... "It's a place to start," Star rumbled. "Evil Stepmom likely knows some people who keep tabs on the shady ships coming and going."
Before Star could utter another word, Jake's phone began to ring, causing the shapechanger to mutter curses. They didn't have the time. Flicking her phone open, she was startled to see her sister was calling. It was at once a hopeful moment and a worrisome surprise. Charlie had dipped out while they were dealing with Nagoono. She'd left her job at the noodle-shop, sold what was left of her stuff, and disappeared. Finn had been very worried. Jake had a different reaction. Her sister was hiding something or up to something. That was the kind of shit you did when you were ducking family. She ought to know. She'd done enough of it herself.
"It's my sister," she sighed. "I gotta' take this." Rising, Jake headed out into the hall, leaving Star to plan out how they were going to get to the town and find the missing wizard. Jr was gone for a long ten minutes, while Star arranged them passage on an express train and setup a meeting with some locals when they arrived. Finally, the shapechanger came back through the door, her face clouded with worry.
"Not good news," Star asked? "I have to go see Charlie," Jake rumbled. It was matter-of-fact, suggesting Jake was daring her to complain. "The train leaves at seven sharp," Star replied. "Be on it or be left." Jake blew out a breath, but Star countered with, "I know how much of a pain in the ass family can be, Jake. I have three sisters and four brothers, remember?" Turning back to the business at hand, Star said, "take a car. You've got time to go out and get back. I'll see you at the train." Nodding, Jake got up. She had to get a bag packed, and she had to call her kids to say goodbye.
It was an hour later that Jake Jr walked into Fogel's bar to find her sister there at a booth in the back. It was like taking a journey into the past, when her family came here relatively often. Their dad had been working in the post-office at a job that Finn helped him get. He'd finally started to become the provider and father he was supposed to be–a little late but better than nothing. Finn had been in and out of their lives at the time, doing his best to help the family out, even when he was dealing with the madness going on outside the capitol in Princess Bubblegum's burgeoning empire. His reward was to have Kim Kil Wan trying to put him out of his home and put his family on the street because of Jake Jr's bad behavior.
The shapechanger tried to force away the tears that wanted to form. She'd been part of that. She'd cared not at all just how much damage she'd been doing to the family. The medication was helping, but it was making her feel melancholy. Regret was kicking her ass, right now.
"Charlie," Jake greeted her sister. "Jake," Charlie replied. The thicc sister was dressed in yoga-pants, fitted tight about her curves under a tank-top and heavy-duty sports-bra that struggled with her quartet of big cans. Jake had envied those tits when they were young, and Charlie turned every dude's head. On her side, Charlie was a little surprised to see her sister dressed down in jeans and a tee-shirt again, just like she wasn't the King's fuck-toy.
"Finn's on vacation," Jake announced, answering the unspoken question. Sitting down, she said, "I've got somewhere I have to go. What's up?" It was the kind of abrupt that said Jake was here not to mend fences but to do the bare minimum to help out a family-member before she scooted out the door. Charlie flushed. The family wasn't the same, and she knew she was part of the problem. She'd dipped out on them in the East after doing everything she could to push both her sister and uncle away from her.
Charlie turned and flagged down a waitress, ordering up a couple of berry-blitzers for the two of them. The skinny candy-cane woman hustled to the bar to place the order, leaving the pair staring at each other. Moments later, their waitress was back with their order, setting the two glasses down between them. "Two berry-blitzers," she said. "Call me if you need something else." Charlie watched her go. She was left alone with her sister and her own fears.
A long couple of minutes passed, where the two sisters did their best not to look at each other. Jake's focus was the clock on the wall. She had to get over to her kids' place to make sure they were squared away with food and money before she got on the train, and she wanted to check up on what was going on with Finn. After doing her best to get Charlie talking in the east and getting rejected, she didn't have a lot of time to play games right now.
Taking a breath, Charlie announced, "I... had a vision, Jake." The shapechanger sat up straight. "I... It was of us... or rather our kids," Charlie said. Turning to face her sister, the curvy pup said, "Finn came down to the noodle-shop to see me... to... look in on me." Which Jake already knew, since Finn had told her. Charlie's face was flushed, telling her sister that she was just as ashamed of her behavior as Jake was. After Finn had run the shapechanger out of the Candy Kingdom, Charlie had been the deciding vote on kicking Finn out of the family. With Jake out of the picture, it had come down to Charlie, Viola, TV, and Kim Kil Wan. TV sat the whole thing out because he couldn't be bothered, and Vi had come down squarely against the whole business, reasoning that Finn was just following the law. But Charlie and Kim had decided for the family to kick Finn out–to stop talking to him and to stop answering the phone when he called.
Eventually, they'd relented. Kim stopped hassling Finn about the treehouse's mortgage, and Charlie stopped ignoring him. Things had been going back to some shade of normal before Jake decided to step in it again. The family had covered for Jake Jr, hiding the fact that she was still alive and doing all in their power to keep Bill–and by extension, Finn–away from the family's dirty little secret. Things had gotten ugly between Finn and the pups all over again. Yet, in spite of that, Finn the Human still tried to take care of them, Jake and Charlie included.
"Finn hugged me," Charlie muttered. "I... I felt the curse..." She'd felt it's full, terrifying power, and it had scared her shitless. "I'm sorry I didn't call or let you know what was going on with me," Charlie rumbled. She'd been days unscrambling her senses. "Are you ok," Jake asked? Charlie, as she knew, had the strongest gift with reading the future in their whole family–stronger even than their mom's–and that was a very dangerous gift indeed.
"Fine," Charlie rumbled. Her expression was about as troubled as troubled got, though, telling Jake that what she saw had frightened her. "Tell me," Jake said. "It's important. We're... With what happened with that wish, things are mondo-turned around. This is important. If the curse gave you a vision, I need to hear it."
For a fair bit, Charlie stared at her, and it seemed as though she wouldn't get the words said. Finally, the curvy pup declared, "I saw... a kingdom, Jake, a kingdom of the dogs, just like Vi's dream. It was run by our descendants." She could still see that vision, and Jake's place in things teased at the corners of her senses. There was a pup there–Jake's daughter–and she was a rogue. Maybe. It was very blurry, and there seemed to be something clouding the vision.
Forcing that thought aside, Charlie explained, "my son, Gibbon, was the Princess's royal advisor and court wizard." The son she had yet to give birth to. Jake realized she was holding her breath, and she had to force herself to let that breath go. "You sound disturbed," Jake burbled. Charlie laughed. She didn't know the half of it.
"Jake, Finn's... Finn's the father of my son," Charlie admitted. Her face was red-hot now. Jake almost laughed. Their complicated family was getting more fucking complicated by the day. She could see the distress in her sister's eyes, and she wondered how much was the embarrassment of fucking their uncle and how much was the fact that they'd kicked Finn while he was down. Repeatedly.
"Piece of advice," Jake rumbled. "You're going to need to come clean... All of it. All the shit you did, and all the times you shit on them. Apologize. Mean it." Charlie frowned at her, and some of her usual abrasive feistiness came back. "Is that what you did," she demanded? Nodding, Jake said, "took everything I had. I'm my father's daughter, Charlie. Every bad habit you got, I have in spades. I'm... gonna' be on medication the rest of my natural life. You wonder why I'm afraid of being pregnant, there you go. Liz got a good chunk of the mess that I am, and she'll be on pills until the day she puts on the dirt shirt too."
Charlie grimaced and glanced away, staring at the far wall for a long few minutes. Turning back to her sister and screwing up her courage, the plush pup rumbled, "I... This isn't what I expected. I... I thought I'd be crowding you." Jake laughed in her face. She laughed for a long few minutes, until Charlie started to get sore. This wasn't a joke to her.
"You don't get it, do you," Jake Junior muttered. She sounded like the ugly Jake–the dangerous thing that committed murder. Fingers drumming on the table, Jake said, "my boyfriend... Glob, that sounds childish." Shaking her head, Jake said, "I'm the King's mistress, Charlie. Not his wife. He's married to some of the richest, most important gals in the world. What I want... doesn't really matter, does it?" She'd thrown away her marriage–a marriage that would likely have given her everything when Finn finally passed on. She'd have been the King's wife. Instead, she was the King's side-chick.
Charlie muttered curses under her breath. What did that say for her? "Your descendants... my descendants... They'll be... They're going to be princes and princesses, Charlie. Remember that. Think about that, before you go down this road." Charlie's eyes got big, telling Jake that her sister had only been thinking of the vision and the child she'd been desperate to have. Much like always, Charlie saw the trees, but she'd missed the forest. Nodding, Jake reminded her, "one of them becomes Princess of Dogs, Charlie. In your own vision, one of our descendants becomes Princess of Dogs. How do you think that works?"
Charlie nodded. That was pretty fucking heavy. Jake had more, though. "'Nother piece of advice, Charlie," she murmured. "Forget what we used to be. I had to forget what we used to be. We crossed the bridge and pulled up the planks, and that world is gone. We told him we didn't want him in our family... that he wasn't our uncle anymore. We zeroed out that relationship. Now, you're starting over."
Leaning forward, the skinny pup told her, "it won't be how you think it's going to be." Charlie rumbled, "how would you know how I think?" Jake laughed at her. "You think Finn thinks with his cock, because that's how dad thinks." Her curvy sister flushed to her long, golden hair and muttered, "touche..." Jake chuckled, and then she began to tell her sister what Bronwyn had told her. As Charlie listened in shock, Jake laid out just how the thing had gone with Bronwyn and then how it had gone with Jake herself.
The shapechanger took the glass in front of her and drained it at one go. Turning back to her sister, Jake muttered, "Finn's not going to just stick it in, bust a nut, and ride out." It was painfully clear from Charlie's expression that she was hoping for just that. It would make things less complicated with a man she'd shit on. There was an attraction there. Jake knew what Finn liked. She was surrounded by it every day, and she knew Charlie fit what Finn liked. Looking at her sister, it was clear Charlie hoped to take advantage of that to have Finn do the dick-and-dash, then slip away to raise her baby on her own, so she didn't have to feel beholden to him.
With a heavy sigh, Jake told her, "our kids are leverage on him and everybody else in the family. Ask me how I know that." Charlie flushed, as she remembered what had gone down with Liz. "He's going to want to know how you're caring for his babies, Charlie," Jake said, "and he's going to want to be part of the whole thing." Putting the glass back on the table, she said, "you're on the outside, Charlie... You don't have to be mixed into this. You can head back east... live your life."
"You know that's not how this works, Jake," Charlie snapped. "I can't run from the future." Only a fool tried to run from a prophecy. The best she could hope for was to steer towards one of the better outcomes. Staring at the table, she said, "I'm... I'll be pregnant with Finn's kid. It's... It's going to happen." She'd spent days meditating on the problem, and she'd seen all the permutations. All roads led to Finn siring Gibbon. Running away only served to create problems she didn't need or want. "Then you're going to have to accept the way this works," Jake retorted. "I had to."
Rising, the skinny girl said, "I have to go. I've got a job that needs to get done. Not sure how long I'll be gone. I'd... I'd really appreciate you looking in on Simone and Liz. Make sure Liz is taking her meds." Simone had that covered, but it didn't hurt to have multiple eyes on the problem. "Ok," said Charlie. "I'll look in on them. Do you know where Finn is?" "He's headed out of town, too," Jake replied. "He'll be back in a couple of weeks. You've got that long to figure out what you're going to say to him, Charlie."
The shapechanger strode out with nary a backwards glance. She was happy to see that her sister was ok, even if she was in turmoil. At the same time, she'd come to see just how childish she and her siblings had been. Maybe it was the way they'd been raised, but they weren't very good peeps, and Jake saw that now. That had to change. She had to pull her weight now, instead of raising hell and doing whatever she wanted. Me-Mow was out there, and Jake had a train to catch.
On the far side of the ocean, Princess Blargetha sat staring at a schematic. She'd been staring at that same page for hours now and comprehending it no more than she had when she picked it up. Her thoughts were a jumble, just now. Honestly, with the way her mind kept wanting to wander, one might have feared that Dr. Princess's nebulous worries were bearing bitter fruit. Truth? Blargetha was worried about the person she'd spent most of her life hating.
Hurletta refused to talk about what had gone on when Blargetha blacked out. She didn't talk about how she'd gotten the madman to stop drowning her younger sister. She didn't talk about how she'd gotten Blargetha out of the water. Knowing her own preternatural terror over water, that alone was enough to send the older sister spiraling into PTSD-land. Blargetha had a terror of just who it was that had ended the threat against her.
She had been struggling, honestly, with a downward spiral of regret, humiliation, and shame because, when you got down to it, there was no question. She was the asshole. Hurletta had done some pretty awful things to her, but none of it rose to the level of what Blargetha had done in return. Now, a dangerous voice coming from down deep inside the plump woman suggested that she didn't deserve to live.
"Morning, sister," 'Letta announced, as she came striding in, broad hips wig-wagging sensually. She'd taken to the local style of dress, and now came sporting a brightly-colored sarong around her wide hips under a floral-printed bikini top. The older sister had been sent out to get some measurements of the piping in the second launch platform. Now, Hurletta Mertens sat down at her sister's side and handed Blargetha a notebook. The younger sister put the schematic aside and looked over the measurements. She'd given detailed instructions and diagrams, and she was pleased to see that Hurletta had followed her instructions to the letter.
As she watched the genius work her way through the pages of the notebook, Hurletta announced, "Beto's asking about you..." Blargetha looked up with a frown. Glancing out the door, the older sister announced, "he's worried. I can tell he's worried." "Well, I don't appear to be getting any worse," Blargetha muttered. In point of fact, if not for Drew's obsession with her anatomy, she would likely be back at work already, but the doctor didn't like what Maja had done. She had questions. Lots and lots of questions. She sounded prickly, and she knew it.
With a grimace that told something about her state of mind, the evil genius pronounced that the measurements were good and that Hurletta could go. Tweaking the younger woman's nose, the Slime Princess said, "try accepting love for a change, sister. It might make you feel better." Blargetha felt her face go hot, and she glanced down at her toes. With a sigh, 'Letta admitted, "I'd be cross if I was cooped up here too, dear. It's not going to be forever." Resting a hand on her sister's shoulder, the older woman said, "the test firing went very well. Starchman says we're in business. We should be clear to stack the first rocket in a week's time."
Rising, the Slime Princess said, "I'll talk to Drew. She's not here, and it's not fair to keep you in this room." As she crossed the space to reach the door, the younger sister rumbled, "have you considered that maybe it's not my anatomy that's the problem." Hurletta stopped in her tracks. She had indeed considered that as the real reason for those orders. She was queasy about their decision to essentially hide what was going on from Finn. Lying to your partner never ended well and keeping secrets was only a shade better. "Be careful, 'Letta," Blargetha burbled, her tone brittle. "I will, sister," Hurletta responded, before she went out the door.
Standing outside, the plump woman got her bearings. She had to go see the witch-doctors. They were getting a little antsy. Work on the rockets had been going well without her sister. Starchman had things well in hand. Work on the water system for the launchpads had ground to a halt, with the chiefs digging in their heels. With Blargetha out of action, Blanca and Chief Red Legs had gotten their way, shutting down the digging of the diversion canal.
Hurletta had insisted on an investigation. With the witch-doctors screaming at her, Blanca had agreed to put one in motion, but it was clear she wasn't trying very hard. No tribe would claim the man who'd attempted to murder Blargetha. Supposedly, he was an outsider, though bits and pieces that Hurletta had pieced together suggested he did dirty jobs for Chief Red Legs. With no tribe willing to lay claim, the investigation was going resolutely nowhere, and Hurletta was angry and worried about the whole business. She wished Finn was here. Finn had the skills to get to the bottom of things. As Bonnie's Captain of the Guard, he'd become very good at getting to the bottom of such things. Unfortunately, they brought her back around to the ugly reality that they were having to keep things from Finn to avoid an even uglier reaction.
If all of that wasn't enough, some of the witch-doctors were making noises that if Hurletta was taking up the project in her sister's absence, she needed to be initiated into the tribe–as if she fucking had the time. She was still doing her best to keep the finances of the Empire afloat, even if she was having to do it in late night meetings over a tenuous satellite link. Truth? She was terrified of having to go through the things Blargetha went through to join the witch-doctors' coven, and she was just as afraid of what Finn would think when he saw those tattoos as her sister was. She was, just now, a worried, conflicted mess of emotions. But standing here doesn't get things done, she thought, as she stepped off. There was a rocket-base to finish.
Gumbald is making a move, and Jay is going to have to decide how deep he wants to play his little game. Finn's back, rested, and ready to go, and Jake and Star have zeroed in on where Astartes the nymph went. Can they find her before Me-Mow or Masia do?