Next and final chapter (probably) is on the 20th of January.
Morticia gladly takes the part of hostess, leisurely walking down the stairs to greet the Mistress in human guise.
"It's been a while since I've seen you Esther." She comments when she finally reaches the bottom of the stairs.
The Time Lady turned human tilts up her head as she stomps down on the rug's head again, smile on a knife's edge as she narrows her eyes in pleasure.
"Far too long Morticia, far too long. I trust that my young cousins are… Unwell." She says delicately, staring directly into the Addams' eyes. Morticia returns the thin smile and takes her hand in both of her own, the human's hands almost as cold as the Time Lady's touch.
"Desperately so." Morticia replies, offering her elbow.
The Mistress tilts her head, bird-like in consideration and joins their arms.
"You must let me borrow Gomez later- it's been a long time since I've had a decent sparring partner." She requests as she lays her right hand over Morticia's, leaning slightly on the other woman.
"We'll see. He may be a little tied up later." The human says, smirking ever so slightly.
The Mistress can't help but grin, eyelids lowering.
"Only a little tied up? Morticia, my darling, you must be losing your touch." She quips, smiling cat-like at Wednesday's mother as she is lead into the gardens.
Missy ends up spending quite a lot of time with Gomez, both of them tied up in fact.
Well, technically.
Both of them tied with one hand behind their back, blade in the other uncapped as they swing it with bruising force at the other, any rules they had begun with forgotten as they dodge each other's movements, thrusting occasionally, evidenced by the small tears in their clothing as they've dragged the point of the blade, sharpened lovingly by Gomez, through the fabric.
Their faces are littered with scratches too, unable to protect them from harm with the hand tied behind their backs.
Often the light clash of metal is heard as their weapons impact, their eyes bright with the madness of a real fight despite the discipline usually related with the sport.
The Mistress laughs and the sound is matched by her partner as they lunge at each other, gaining another pair of scratches before they part again, blade quickly coming through for the next movement until one of them gives in.
Eventually.
They've been in this match for several hours now, leaving them both sweating and breathing heavily as they relentlessly pursue the other, grins unwavering.
Wednesday watches, enraptured but showing only curiosity as she watches the Mistress' movements, noting the slight laziness to them when compared to how the Time Lady usually moves and the lowered precision. The inhuman grace is gone.
It's a spectacle but still it could be more.
Missy like this lacks some key ruthless pursuit of victory.
Just as much as anything else Missy seems to enjoy cooking with Grandmama, bringing back various things she's killed or poisons from who-knows-where daily.
She takes in the fortune telling with interest, staring into foul looking cauldrons and predicting too.
The Time Lady says that she sees burning and war and hears countless screams and Grandmama eagerly pushes her away every time she does, searching for the suffering but finding nothing so grand in the murky waters.
"Nothing like that in our future." She grumbles, complaining as she tosses a dead squirrel, completely intact, into the cooking pot.
Esther can't explain why but it strangely fills her with horror as she stares silently into the bubbling stew and sees death and destruction everywhere. The word future tastes strange in connection to the visions.
She enjoys time with Fester too.
Wednesday as her unofficial guardian enjoys this most seeing this as the closest the Esther comes to being the Mistress with glee shining in her eyes at the despair given to any neighbours still in walking distance (quite a wide berth of empty houses has formed around the Addams' estate) and the crater in the desk, scorched black in a way which can never be repaired.
Esther even spends time with Pugsley and Pubert, wrestling the older to the ground and showing him how to gut any animals they can find and telling horror stories to the younger about seeing the light go out of people's eyes and the crack of bone against tile or tree or blade or fist (which she does not advise as it hurts).
Some evenings she plays poker with Thing and Lurch, smirking as she tells Thing that if they had a body to gamble they would have lost it all over again and gets a middle finger in response followed by Lurch's groaning in defense of his friend.
Still most of her time is spent with Wednesday watching over her, dark eyes and expressionless face tracking Esther unerringly.