51. Mischief

Last chapter…

Bella and Prim had some real talk about the state of the union and a few things that might have been their bad in the aftermath of the latest Oly vision; that kid’s dreamwalker thing is really messing up all the adult secrets.

Balsam was there, chopping stuff and offering to cuckold Kalvin, but then Perseus came in and shut everyone down with Shame and bad news about a lack of anchor finding.

Prim got kinda spazzy, but that’s just because everyone was being super annoying and incompetent and a bit speciesist, okay.

Onward!

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“So you’re my…”

“Very distant cousin.”

“Right, and your parents…”

“Dead, I’m afraid; sudden, and tragic.”

“I mean, yeah, that’s always the way of it, huh,” Oly glanced at the other ‘cousins’, “they don’t say much, eh?”

“Grief stricken, I’m afraid.”

“Sure, yeah, naturally, I mean I’d be bummed too,” this chick was creepy as fuck.

“Thank you for allowing me to share quarters with you, cousin; that’s extremely generous.”

“Well, sure, you know, anything for family I didn’t know I had and stuff,” also Nana B said Oly had to keep an eye on this particular cousin and ‘report back’ if she did anything ‘peculiar’…cuz that was a totally normal thing to say.

“Perhaps we should go play with some of your nice little friends?” Suggested Creepy Girl.

“Yeah, okay, sure; dope,” anything was better than sitting in a basement alone with a herd of weirdos?

---

“Oh! Oly!” Mrs. C looked stoked to see them, “what a–fun surprise, again.”

“Hey Mrs. C, is Lena or Artie home? Or heck, even Mo–” basically anyone was better than being alone with Creepy Girl.

“Sure, sweetie,” sighed Mrs. C, “who’s your new friend?”

“That’s my very distant cousin; she’s cool.” Not.

“Well, alright dear, the children are downstairs having quiet time; but we’re eating supper in an hour, so you can’t stay long, okay?”

“Baller,” take what I can get, yo.

“You have a lovely home, Mrs. Osiris,” added Creepy Girl with her creepy face.

“Er, thank you sweetie, that’s nice; come on in.”

Oly wondered if they had, like, a zombie branch of the family or something.

“Oly!” Selene jumped up from the bench and gave her friend a dazzling smile; Oly kinda felt weird for a sec for sort of avoiding her lately, “I’ve missed you!–”

“–oh, who’s your…new friend?”

“This is Persephone–”

“We’re very distant cousins,” supplied Creepy Girl with a soul-eating grin.

“It’s so super nice to meet you Persephone!” Selene gave the weirdo one of her extra friendly smiles, “I mean, I saw you in class, but I didn’t realize you and Oly were cousins! That’s so awesome!”

Oly snorted, “yeah, it’s something else, huh?”

“GODDESS HAVE MERCY ON MY SOUL!”

“Oh hey, Mo,” he must be having one of his ‘digestive’ thingies again from the look on his face, “you okay, brah?”

“Mosi, this is the new girl from class! She’s Oly’s cousin, isn’t that neat?” Sometimes Oly wondered if Lena was too pure for this world.

“–Mo?” Jeeze Louise, was he gonna have a seizure or something?

“Oh Gosh, I’m so sorry about that Persephone!” Gushed Selene, “sometimes Mosi has a hard time meeting new people?”

“Think nothing of it, child,” Persephone spoke warmly (and creepily), “I can see that he harbours only gentle feelings toward me.”

“Lena, what happened Mosi?” Asked Artie, emerging from the laboratory, “he’s suddenly cleaning his beakers really vigorous–oh!”

“I get it now; hey new girl, I’m Artemis.”

“You’re very special, Artemis–”

“Cool your jets woman, you can just say, like ‘hi’ or something,” Oly sighed, “sorry guys, I don’t think Cousin P used to get out much.”

“Are we going to get up to any sort of mischief this afternoon?” The weirdo asked, totally ignoring her totally embarrassed very distant cousin.

“Hm, I mean, we could…” Artemis agreed tentatively.

“But guys, I don’t know if that’s a good idea!” Protested Selene.

“I mean, yeah, I guess,” Oly shrugged, “what did you have in mind P?” Watch it totally be sacrificing pigeons or something.

“Something secret, perhaps?” Persephone was gazing at Artemis extra creepily.

“Do you have any secrets, Artemis?” Creeeeepy.

“Shit, what about that secret tunnel where your dad has all that stuff hidden like that painting from my vision??” I mean, duh, what else was there to get up to around here that even came close to being mischief?

“Ooo, yeah, totally!” Say what you would about Artie, man; that bitch was always down for some dope mischief.

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“What is this place?”  Whimpered Selene as the secret door closed behind them.

“It’s cool Lena,” Artemis tried to chill her sister, “it’s just an old storage room; there’s no bad stuff down here or anything–”

“But if it was okay to be here, mommy or daddy would have showed it to us already!”  Selene looked around the room nervously, “there’s probably a good reason why they haven’t, Artemis; I don’t think we should stay!”

“Aw, c’mon Lena,” Oly felt kinda bad for the poor kid; she looked seriously willied, “I know that mischief ain’t your fave thing, but there’s seriously nothing scary in here, okay?  I been in before, it’s just some paintings and other artsy crap.”

“I don’t know guys,” she totes wasn’t buying it, “I mean, maybe we should ask–”

“Omg Lena, it’s not mischief if you ask, ” huffed Artemis, “look, if you don’t want to be here, just leave okay?”

At bit harsh, but pretty legit; still, Oly felt bad for her?  “C’mon dude, we’ll just stay for ten mins tops, okay…”

“Well, I guess ten minutes would be alright,” Selene pouted, “but then–”

“This woman,” Persephone’s creepy voice butt right on in.  Rude.

“–do you know who she is?”

“Oh, er, kinda?”  Artemis shrugged, “I mean, we know it used to hang up in an old jungle ruin, but the inscription looks more al simharan.”

“Yeah, Artie says that’s weird,” Oly chimed in; creepy distant cousin seemed super into the picture.

“Weird,” murmured Persephone, “yes indeed, how does the Queen of Sima-Mighdall end up in a jungle ruin?”  Oly didn’t think creepy cousin was actually asking them.

“Sima-Mighdall?”  Shit.  That was Artie’s history-geek voice; they were totes going to just stand here and talk about boring stuff now, “the ancient Amazon city destroyed by Athena?  That’s a myth.”

“Sima-Mighdall is no myth, child,” Persephone pulled an especially creepy smile out of her inventory, “it was born again, by the will of Athena, and this was Her chosen queen; a Priestess named Bastet.”

“How did she come to be here?”  The creepy suddenly got a little scarier.

Like, Oly wasn’t a wimp, okay?  But probs better just to hang back and chill or something?

“The picture belonged to my dad,” Artie seemed more excited than scared, but Artie was a level 8.5 weirdo, “he used to live in the jungle, or he worked there maybe?”

“Both, actually,” oh fuuuck; busted.

“Do I even need to say it?”  He growled at them; and nope, Mr. P didn’t need to tell them they weren’t supposed to be in there.

“I’m so sorry daddy!”  Sniffed Selene.

“We just wanted to see the neat artifacts!  I swear we were only going to stay for ten minutes!”  Say what you would about Lena, but that girl wasn’t no snitch; solid as they came in a jam…Oly would’ve given her an ‘atta-boy’, but probs not the best moment.

“Still not cool, princess,” at least Mr. P wasn’t a yeller.

“I know daddy–”

“Oly and that other kid should go home; we’re going to have supper then we’ll do one of those talky things your mom likes.”

Selene nodded, “a family meeting.”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

Well fuck, so much for a bit of light mischief.

“Thank you for a most auspicious outing, cousin,” murmured Creepy.

“Yeah, sure, my pleasure, don’t tell moms or Nana B, okay?”  GDI, Mrs. C was probably going to call them though; moms loved doing that kind of crap.

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Footnotes:

It’s fine guys, she’s probably just hallucinating or having an overactive imagination!

Sorry Pili was wearing a shirt; blame Cassie, she makes him cover his nipples when they have other people’s kids over.

Next chapter is less kids and more adult damage control.

Holly: “Hai frens!  HAPPY SIMMING!!“