[ Okay, actually, this increasingly felt less like his parents getting too carried away with a kink and more like a test. Sister needed him on the level, he needed to prove to her that he could keep up with the day to day, that he could exercise a fraction of her omniscience. Weird things, they happened at the Ministry all the time, no? She wanted to know that he could keep up.
So he nodded, maybe a little excessively, to jog his thoughts. ]
You... [ Come to think of it, what was she up to today? She usually left him to his own devices and schedule when he and the Ghouls were working on a new number or two, so he hadn't seen her much - before this, of course.
But he wasn't sure that was quite what she meant, either. She probably wanted him to reach out for it or See something that she felt was missing.
That always gave him a headache when he tried to do it on purpose. ] Eh, geez. I don't know, probably you are in pre-production mode for Los Angeles? Maybe hiring a hazmat team to come hose down Nihil's coffin.
[ She'd meant - what was she doing to stop Papa Nihil from bullying his own kid? But well, Copia - a grown-ass man now, she reminded herself - could fend for himself. And she fully planned to make up for it by both buying him all the random things he wanted and reminding him to keep working hard, because the best revenge was success. Among other things.
She just continued to watch with raised brows as Copia attempted to wring his brain out. She even felt him try to use the occult gifts, but... they eluded him, as they eluded Papa Nihil.
[ He could only within his limits. Granted, those were wider than the ones his dear old man had to work with, since he had the benefit of also being his mother's child, but - yeesh. He understood that Sister raised herself up by her own strapped, high-heeled boots, but the little she allowed him to understand told him their situations were very different.
She was supposed to be here. He, maybe, sort of wasn't.
And - ] What?
[ Pregnant. (Pregonate.) Very young and full of questions she usually delivered as statements rather than genuine curiosity.
He points at her barely distended stomach. ] Hey. Okay. So. Wow?
How was it that she'd eventually have two boys in her life who you had to almost literally spell things out to? Not that she'd gotten to that point with Papa Nihil, because they were still very much in the "not talking about it" stage, what with her disappearing to Linkopia.
But Copia now gesturing to him in her womb - that made her smile. ]
[ Game over. Blue screen error. It should have but - of course - it didn't occur to him that when she said "pregnant" and "from the past" that this some how all worked out to looking at not just his literally this young mother (as opposed to her present self inhabiting that look for her own reasons), but his own fetal self within her.
Not that he could, like...see that, but. Well, he could sort of. Like, the shape of it. Him. Of him. In her. Shit.
He put his hands up and took a step back and said it out loud: ] Shit. What? [ This would have been less of a migraine if she'd just asked him to divine what it was that she was currently up to, today, literally. ] Did see that one coming, I gotta say.
[ There it was. It took a BSOD, but she saw that flash of dark insight, that unholy fire that burned briefly on his person and in the white iris of his left eye.
It was a good look on him. Her smile was both proud and smug. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. ]
You apparently currently have a ghostly father - why can't you your young and pregnant mother?
[ She laughed as she cupped Copia's face, looking at him with a mother's gaze, the maternal slave that she was. ]
That feels, eh... [ He wiggled his hand. He was going to say different, but really, like...how different? He took some things for granted: witches, demons, vampires, ghosts - the usual fare. Time travel, though? ]
Well, okay. But, see - he wasn't always - [ He gestured messily over his shoulder in the vague direction of the crypt Nihil's body temporarily slept in between tours. ] - that. He died. Which is pretty par for the course, no?
This? [ Another semi-frantic and vague gesture at his young mother's stomach, but it slowed into a calmer movement, Fingers knitted together, wringing gently, as Sister touched his face. ] I mean, I don't know. I guess probably if you said this was something you could do, I would believe that.
We all die in the end. Some people are just lucky enough to die and be reborn as vampires, or to come back as ghosts, or what have you. Papa Nihil obviously doesn't want to move on yet, for... reasons.
[ Her smile was shadowed, more to herself than to Copia. Was she pleased? Indeed, and for many selfish reasons, including that Nihil would see his bastard son become the most successful anti-Pope the church has had in its history - the Papa Emeritus that Nihil himself could have been, had he not been an asshole.
Was she also pleased that he was staying on so that he could spend more time with her older self? Also yes. Her love was possessive and exacting, and she'd made no secret of it. ]
This wasn't my doing this time. It was the Infernal One's.
So, you'll understand if I ask you - how are you? How is work? [ Because that was her love language - buying him juice and telling him to get the fuck back to work. ]
[ Fair - the old, unholy bastard had gone out what seemed prematurely, given how tightly he was trying to cling to Sister's reins even up until that last concert in Mexico before Copia's ascension. ]
I know you - [ He puts his hands up, defensively, so as to apologise for maybe saying something confusing, himself. ] - now you, I mean - probably is not upset that he is still...hanging around. I guess maybe that makes sense, too. For, eh, you guys.
[ Oh. Sure, yeah. Of course everything was to the Olde One's will, obviously. Copia just also expected, now that he understood it a little better, that Sister would have her own reasons to do...whatever this was. ]
I'm. [ Hoo, it was still almost too weird knowing that he was saying this to her and technically his own fetal self. ] Hey, no. We're doing great. US tour's about to start real soon and I think it's gonna be a pretty big deal. We're making a movie in September. Your idea. So. Cool, right?
[ Tours, movies - all the fame and the trappings that came with it. It had once been exhausting for Papa Nihil, and perhaps it had even felt thankless because at the time, the Ghost project was just taking off. Copia was fortunate in his own way that the road had been paved before him by his half-brothers - the bastards who had served only to remind her of Nihil's infidelity. Lauding Copia was the only thing they were good for as far as she was concerned. And now, in the wake of their efforts, Copia could take his place as the rightful heir.
Sister was proud of her son and the heights to which he was taking the United Clergy of Ghost. She looked on at him with a fierce joy as she stroked his hair back.
[ Eat properly. Right, sure. Copia wanted to know what that meant to his mother, at any age. Did she even eat, herself? They so rarely had family dinners (thank Lucifer) and, even then, it always seemed like she preferred to watch everyone else clear their plates. Maybe that was just the leftover pervasive feeling from his childhood, that she got all the sustenance she needed from bathing in the blood of her enemies.
(Maybe not the healthiest course of action either, he could argue, if she should choose to press further and find out about the box of cold pizza sitting on his bed or the literal beer cave the Ghouls created in the more-often-than-not empty crypt where his brothers' bodies barely rested.)
Would she take back all the tenderness, the hug, the gentility in her voice and touch, if she knew that he was more or less a bit of a mess, sometimes? ]
Oh, yeah, you know me. [ Or. Well, she would. He gave an awkward thumbs up. ] Stretching, cycling. Getting my steps in.
[ While the blood of her enemies was definitely on the menu, she also got sustenance from seeing the fruit of her womb devour his favorite Chinese takeout. Sister Imperator had had her share of revelries as a younger Sister of Sin - rituals dedicated to gluttony, with delicacies of rare and questionable origin all spread out for their consumption. None of it compared to the satisfaction of seeing her son inhale his fried rice and sweet and sour pork.
If he was a mess - first, could she blame him, when his father was Nihil? And second, that simply meant Copia needed her looking out for him, and it was a welcome need. ]
Are you playing any sports? Soccer is good for endurance - something you'll need for your concerts.
[ Boy, he was just going to disappoint her, all around, wasn't he? Maybe the new hobby she seemed to take up during last year's tour wasn't such a new thing after all.
If it had been, he couldn't blame her. The Pre-ImperaTour came after two years of relative confinement, a time during which she kept him close so he could learn the tricks of the trade (and a few of hers) and, as he sometimes guessed, because she was lonely without his father. So of course she was bound to get a little empty-nester crazy as soon as she lost all her company to the road again. A new activity never hurt anyone.
Until it did, colliding with your head.
He rubbed at the spot of phantom pain, just above his brow. ] Eh, no. I do what I can to avoid balls to the face. [ Those kinds of balls anyway. HOO, though, not a thought to share with Mama. This one, anyway. She'd find that out, probably, a little further on down the road. ] I think you will find that you're better off putting, ah... [ Sheepishly, he pointed at her stomach. ] ...that one in dance.
[ Sister Imperator did have a concept of fun, in theory, and so she could say she did have hobbies. One was terrorizing the Ghouls, and the other was punting a soccer ball into a gaggle of them and watching them go absolutely batshit crazy. She wasn't all work and no play - she did schedule spontaneity into her calendar sometimes.
She was also not shy talking about balls of any sort. ] Do you now? [ She'd been in enough lust rituals to know that it was inevitable that one would have balls hit a person in the face at some point, but she decided to save talking to Copia about balls - specifically Papa Nihil's - for later. ]
Excellent. Ballet, jazz, ballroom, tap - you can learn it all. The world's your stage, my little C, and you'll be ready for it. As you are today.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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So he nodded, maybe a little excessively, to jog his thoughts. ]
You... [ Come to think of it, what was she up to today? She usually left him to his own devices and schedule when he and the Ghouls were working on a new number or two, so he hadn't seen her much - before this, of course.
But he wasn't sure that was quite what she meant, either. She probably wanted him to reach out for it or See something that she felt was missing.
That always gave him a headache when he tried to do it on purpose. ] Eh, geez. I don't know, probably you are in pre-production mode for Los Angeles? Maybe hiring a hazmat team to come hose down Nihil's coffin.
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[ She'd meant - what was she doing to stop Papa Nihil from bullying his own kid? But well, Copia - a grown-ass man now, she reminded herself - could fend for himself. And she fully planned to make up for it by both buying him all the random things he wanted and reminding him to keep working hard, because the best revenge was success. Among other things.
She just continued to watch with raised brows as Copia attempted to wring his brain out. She even felt him try to use the occult gifts, but... they eluded him, as they eluded Papa Nihil.
Sister let out a long sigh. ]
Copia. I'm from the past.
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She was supposed to be here. He, maybe, sort of wasn't.
And - ] What?
[ Pregnant. (Pregonate.) Very young and full of questions she usually delivered as statements rather than genuine curiosity.
He points at her barely distended stomach. ] Hey. Okay. So. Wow?
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How was it that she'd eventually have two boys in her life who you had to almost literally spell things out to? Not that she'd gotten to that point with Papa Nihil, because they were still very much in the "not talking about it" stage, what with her disappearing to Linkopia.
But Copia now gesturing to him in her womb - that made her smile. ]
Yes, C. That's you.
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Not that he could, like...see that, but. Well, he could sort of. Like, the shape of it. Him. Of him. In her. Shit.
He put his hands up and took a step back and said it out loud: ] Shit. What? [ This would have been less of a migraine if she'd just asked him to divine what it was that she was currently up to, today, literally. ] Did see that one coming, I gotta say.
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It was a good look on him. Her smile was both proud and smug. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. ]
You apparently currently have a ghostly father - why can't you your young and pregnant mother?
[ She laughed as she cupped Copia's face, looking at him with a mother's gaze, the maternal slave that she was. ]
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Well, okay. But, see - he wasn't always - [ He gestured messily over his shoulder in the vague direction of the crypt Nihil's body temporarily slept in between tours. ] - that. He died. Which is pretty par for the course, no?
This? [ Another semi-frantic and vague gesture at his young mother's stomach, but it slowed into a calmer movement, Fingers knitted together, wringing gently, as Sister touched his face. ] I mean, I don't know. I guess probably if you said this was something you could do, I would believe that.
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[ Her smile was shadowed, more to herself than to Copia. Was she pleased? Indeed, and for many selfish reasons, including that Nihil would see his bastard son become the most successful anti-Pope the church has had in its history - the Papa Emeritus that Nihil himself could have been, had he not been an asshole.
Was she also pleased that he was staying on so that he could spend more time with her older self? Also yes. Her love was possessive and exacting, and she'd made no secret of it. ]
This wasn't my doing this time. It was the Infernal One's.
So, you'll understand if I ask you - how are you? How is work? [ Because that was her love language - buying him juice and telling him to get the fuck back to work. ]
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I know you - [ He puts his hands up, defensively, so as to apologise for maybe saying something confusing, himself. ] - now you, I mean - probably is not upset that he is still...hanging around. I guess maybe that makes sense, too. For, eh, you guys.
[ Oh. Sure, yeah. Of course everything was to the Olde One's will, obviously. Copia just also expected, now that he understood it a little better, that Sister would have her own reasons to do...whatever this was. ]
I'm. [ Hoo, it was still almost too weird knowing that he was saying this to her and technically his own fetal self. ] Hey, no. We're doing great. US tour's about to start real soon and I think it's gonna be a pretty big deal. We're making a movie in September. Your idea. So. Cool, right?
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Sister was proud of her son and the heights to which he was taking the United Clergy of Ghost. She looked on at him with a fierce joy as she stroked his hair back.
But she only said - ]
Don't forget to eat properly and to exercise.
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(Maybe not the healthiest course of action either, he could argue, if she should choose to press further and find out about the box of cold pizza sitting on his bed or the literal beer cave the Ghouls created in the more-often-than-not empty crypt where his brothers' bodies barely rested.)
Would she take back all the tenderness, the hug, the gentility in her voice and touch, if she knew that he was more or less a bit of a mess, sometimes? ]
Oh, yeah, you know me. [ Or. Well, she would. He gave an awkward thumbs up. ] Stretching, cycling. Getting my steps in.
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If he was a mess - first, could she blame him, when his father was Nihil? And second, that simply meant Copia needed her looking out for him, and it was a welcome need. ]
Are you playing any sports? Soccer is good for endurance - something you'll need for your concerts.
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If it had been, he couldn't blame her. The Pre-ImperaTour came after two years of relative confinement, a time during which she kept him close so he could learn the tricks of the trade (and a few of hers) and, as he sometimes guessed, because she was lonely without his father. So of course she was bound to get a little empty-nester crazy as soon as she lost all her company to the road again. A new activity never hurt anyone.
Until it did, colliding with your head.
He rubbed at the spot of phantom pain, just above his brow. ] Eh, no. I do what I can to avoid balls to the face. [ Those kinds of balls anyway. HOO, though, not a thought to share with Mama. This one, anyway. She'd find that out, probably, a little further on down the road. ] I think you will find that you're better off putting, ah... [ Sheepishly, he pointed at her stomach. ] ...that one in dance.
no subject
She was also not shy talking about balls of any sort. ] Do you now? [ She'd been in enough lust rituals to know that it was inevitable that one would have balls hit a person in the face at some point, but she decided to save talking to Copia about balls - specifically Papa Nihil's - for later. ]
Excellent. Ballet, jazz, ballroom, tap - you can learn it all. The world's your stage, my little C, and you'll be ready for it. As you are today.