Pepa knew that this was serious. Isabella had suffered a mental breakdown. Camilo, Dolores, and Luisa were spitting nails that Isabella had insulted Mirabel and basically told her to leave and never come back and if they had been adults most likely would have frog matched Isabella to the mountains and told HER she was banished ('Dolores and Luisa ARE adults' her mind whispered, making her wince). Antonio didn't know what was going on but was picking up there was a problem. And Mirabel had remained in her room in the Bureau, the sentient house providing her food and only allowing Gahoole, Dryft, and Saharah to go in from the Party and the grandkids (save for Isabella who was locked up in her own room) to enter. Now all the adults save for mama were gathered together to finally talk about all the problems that family was facing.

This was very serious...

"Oh God that feels good!" Pepa said as she leaned back against Dryft's chest, the capricorn somehow managing to run his huge fingers through her hair and making Pepa's entire scalp tingle in delight. She didn't even care that she was completely naked, as was everyone else gathered in the bath.

"He's amazing," Ulika commented as she carefully worked a brush along Saharah's scales while Nocci, who was standing just by the lip of the tub, showed Julieta how to use a thin rod to get between Gahoole's fathers and remove the powder and down that had built up.

Felix, sitting next to his wife, took her hand and began to kiss her knuckles. "Should I be worried you are going to leave me, my love?"

"Mmmm… maybe," Pepa said playfully, causing him to sputter while Anton laughed. He was floating on his back but even the Madrigals had quickly gotten used to him being naked, not saying a word as he floated by them. Pepa glanced up at Dryft as he gathered some fragrant shampoo and began to lather her hair. "Is this a water thing?"

"No," Dryft said, not once looking up from his work of getting the tight bundle that Pepa's hair had become into long smooth strands. "I have many sisters."

"I suppose I can handle it if he is doing a sibling thing," Felix teased.

Bruno scoffed from where he was reclining in the bath, Agustin next to him. "I don't wash her hair… I'd lose a hand in that rat's nest."

"And you know rat nests," Julieta teased as several of Bruno's pet rats did cannon balls into the massive pond-like bath; they were the only ones wearing swim trunks.

"Is everyone relaxed now?" Anton asked. "Because I want to make sure everyone is relaxed before we talk about Alma Madrigal, otherwise known as the raging c-"

"Anton!" Ernesto snapped. "Language!"

"There aren't any kids here!" he protested… before slowly looked at Dryft. "Okay, yeah, I almost forgot about the fragile little flower-"

Dryft idly waved a hand and Anton let out a scream, leaping out of the water and clenched at his rear.

"-I am sorry, Dryft," Anton moaned after he'd splashed down in the water.

"For what?" the capricorn asked and Felix snickered at that.

"You are a lot smarter than you let on, aren't you?" Pepa asked him as he finished washing her hair but Dryft merely moved over to Felix, startling the man before he shrugged and allowed the capricorn to begin working on his own curly locks. Pepa, for her part, dunked herself fully under the water before emerging, her hair falling down to her shoulders as she wiped her eyes. "As… coarse as his language might have been Anton is right… we need to talk about mama."

"She's a mean grandmother," Dryft said as he worked on Felix's hair. "If she were a capricorn my father would have pulled her from all command duties and forced her to remain at home, shamed that she wasn't trusted to pull her own weight."

Ulika scoffed. "She doesn't pull her weight now."

"Of course she does," Agustin said.

"What does she do?" the orc pressed.

Agustin opened his mouth… before snapping it shut.

Huh.

Pepa couldn't really think of what her mama did. She… made plans, yes. She made plans. Except the rest of the family had shown in recent days they could plan perfectly fine without her. And Mirabel had proven that mama's plans weren't that great and in fact seemed to make their tasks harder instead of easier. And she was supposed to watch the kids while they were out but considering that Isabella was having a breakdown, Luisa had only begun to smile again when Mirabel had returned, and Pepa's own kids seemed to alternate between retreating and shattering…

"I'm just saying that Dryft's right. My family would have cast her out long ago. You people have the patience of an Ent!"

"But… she's family," Julieta said softly.

"And?" Anton asked. "Family doesn't give you a fucking free pass. You realize how many members of my family I talk to still? I'll give you a hint." With that he flipped the bird.

Pepa bit her lip. "It isn't that bad-"

"My dear," Gahoole said softly, cutting her off, "why are we here?"

"We…oh." She slowly lowered herself down further in the tub. They had come up there to talk about alma and how her actions were affecting the family and the pressure she put on all of them was making everyone break… and within minutes they'd fallen back into old patterns of defending her.

Gahoole sighed, waving Julieta away and motioning for her to dip into the bath, leaving the owlkin sitting beside the bath, dipping her talons into the water but otherwise leaving the rest of herself dry. "A mother's job is to care for their children. And many times that means putting aside her own needs in order to see to their wellbeing. Your mother… she never did that for you three. She saw you as tools to help the village, not children suddenly gifted with abilities you didn't understand and needing desperate help to master."

"I think we need to focus on the important thing," Agustin said. "Isabella and Mirabel. Both of them are rather upset."

"That's putting it mildly," Saharah said with a snort. "Mirabel is sure she's ruined any chance of her and Isabella being sisters again."

"Isabella is little better," Agustin muttered, shaking his head in frustration. He leaned back in the tub and sighed. "I just... this is all crazy."

"It's actually something I feared," Bruno admitted.

"You thought this might happen?" Felix asked.

"I hoped it wouldn't but... I was prepared for it to happen. Or thought I was. I assumed they'd scream at each other during dinner. This was... a lot worse." His shoulders slumped. "Isabella has far more issues than I thought."

Ulika chimed in. "She has an inferiority complex."

"She told you that?" Pepa asked.

The orc shook her head though. "No but I could tell by how she talked. At least before she tried to insult me. Word choices, how she held herself and deflected the conversation... I've encountered plenty of people like that."

"Lord Boothe?" Ernesto asked.

"Yeah," Ulika said and while Pepa had no idea who 'Lord Boothe' was the rest of the party all nodded in agreement. "Even the insults she used against me… I didn't care because I realized they weren't about me. When she called me ugly and stupid… she was saying that all about herself. Projecting onto me. Isabella... she needs a lot of help. She's clinging to her sanity by her fingernails."

"And her grandmother keeps kicking her in the face even as she tries to get a better handhold," Anton said, finally rolling so he got off his back. Pepa and her family looked at him when he popped back out of the water but the warlock scoffed. "You all know it. That woman... she has never met a situation she couldn't make more tense."

"... I was nearly ready to defend her again," Pepa muttered. "Why do I keep doing that?"

"Routine," Fibonacci stated as he walked around the tub, waving his hand in the air. "All of you are used to doing it so it becomes as natural as breathing. After all, you don't THINK about needing to breathe, do you?" Everyone slowly nodded at that. "It is typical training for-"

He stopped himself.

"Nocci," Gahoole said warningly.

"That is why I didn't say it."

"Say what?" Julieta asked.

The party members all looked away.

"Say. What." Pepa stressed.

Fibonacci let out what sounded like a sigh. "It's typical training for slaves."

Pepa reeled back as if she had been slapped. She might as well have been, honestly. Because as much as she wanted to deny it, to scream at the war forged that he was wrong, that he didn't understand how living creatures functioned, that he didn't have a parent so how dare he act like he understood...

...he was right.

And she felt shame because he had told her of his people, how they had been a slave race… so how could she ever scorn him for declaring such a thing? She knew he would not use the term lightly. Not when it was so very close to him and his origins.

"People with power… the select a few that are… given privilege. The caretakers and overseers. They are still slaves but they are placed above the others and taught to see their existence as a blessing. That they have been gifted with something special-" Pepa winced at that, "-and this is fed to them, slowly, over countless years until they see their masters' desires as their own. Their honor as their own. They have nothing but what belongs to their masters."

"…damn it all," Bruno whispered.

Pepa was feeling the same way he was.

"What… what do we do?" Julieta asked. "How do we fix this?"

"Break the cycle," Fibonacci stated. "Shatter a piece of the wheel that is forever turning and suddenly it can't move anymore. That is how you fix this… by breaking it."

"How though?" Agustin asked.

"Don't let her help with the little boy's party," Dryft said absentmindedly. "That's how we'd punish someone in the Capricon Nation. Tasks and jobs are signs of respect… don't give it to her."

The party and the Madrigals slowly turned and stared at him.

"What?" he asked innocently.

Pepa leapt forward and kissed the goat on the cheek. "You are a genius!"

"Truly it's the end of the world if we are saying that," Anton teased only for Saharah to stomp on his foot. "I'm kidding! Eeesh!"

Felix shook his head… or tried to but failed because Dryft was still working on his hair. "That's perfect! We tell Alma we are going to handle Antonio's party on our own and she isn't allowed to help."

"She won't like that," Julieta said.

"She won't like it if I shoot lightning at her for giving my Dolores ulcers," Pepa said darkly. "She can pick which one she wants."

The party and the family all looked at each other before slowly nodding, coming to an agreement.

Alma was locked out.

It was time for the next generation of Madrigals to take control of their lives at long last.