"Soooo….."

"Don't say it."

"Say what?"

"Oh, don't play coy, smart as- butt. Smart butt."

Apostolos snorted as Rory caught himself mid swear, the two men going quiet for a moment, watching.

Who they were watching was none other than the young sensen girl, who was scribbling away on a piece of paper.

"Dad, daddy, look!" The girl suddenly ran over, holding up a picture for Rory to examine.

"What is it?" Rory asked, voice sweeter than usual.

"It's you and me!"

As Rory looked at the picture, it looked like nothing more than scribbles of what could vaguely be two humanoid shapes, one adorned with small horns, the other a stick figure.

"It's wonderful!" Rory said, smiling, and clapped once as the young girl cheered and ran back to the table.

"So…"

"Don't say it."

"That's four now, I think?"

"Gah," Rory grumbled, shaking his head. "See, this is what I get for telling you about Jinn."

"Eia," Apostolos held up his hand, counting off his fingers as he listed off names. "Jinn. Astra-"

"Astra doesn't count."

"Please, while not often, I've interacted with the star fairy, she acts far differently around you than anyone else."

Rory grumbled but otherwise remained silent.

"And now this little girl. A father of four, how special. You put me and Violet to shame."

"Never should have told you nuffin," Rory said, kicking an imaginary pebble as Apostolos laughed.

"You know, we might be able to count some of the early gens of Ehkorrus."

"No, no, absolutely not, not the same at all."

"So, you do admit that those four are special."

Rory grumbled once more, having been cornered.

"That aside," Apostolos said after taking a moment to roll his eyes at Rory. "Remind me again why she's calling you dad?"

"No dam- dang idea," Rory said, keeping his voice a whisper so only the two of them could hear. He'd sent for Apostolos not long after the young sensen girl had woken up. "For whatever reason, she thinks I'm her dad."

"Is it like… some imprinting thing?"

"No idea, not like I ever met a sensen in person to inquire about their culture or norms," Rory said with a snort. "Most people thought they were a plague that should be removed down to the last child."

"Well, obviously not you," Apostolos said after a quiet moment of watching the girl happily humming.

"Maybe I have a tiny soft spot for kids," Rory said, crossing his arms.

"It's still hard to imagine that she's one of the people responsible for… You know." Apostolos waved about as Rory nodded, getting his message.

"Looks can be deceiving," Rory said with a shrug. As far as information about the old universe went, now that Kal and Viviann had died, only Apostolos was left in Ehkorrus with knowledge of the 'past', and that was solely because Rory had made a point of explaining things long ago.

"Why do you think she was in there?" Apostolos asked, clearly referring to the life pod.

"Once more, I have no idea. I even tried to fish some answers out of Eon."

"How'd you go about that?"

"Used a reinterpretation charge. Eon was not amused to see me abusing that feature to strike up a conversation. Threatened to pull the ability."

"It can do that?"

"Probably can't make a regular occurrence of it, but yeah, Eon has intervened where things have been unbalanced in the past."

"Such as your railguns?"

"Exactly. Which reminds me, I should make a new one for old times' sake. I might actually be allowed to use it now that I can recreate that level of firepower myself."

"Rory?"

"Oh, right, where was I? So, after annoying Eon, I gave 'em an ask if they knew anything,"

"And?"

"Nada," Rory said with a disappointed sigh. "Information decay is accelerating every day as the Laws become more stabilized. All that latent information that once existed about our old universe? Vanishing rapidly. Meaning Eon's starting to get to the point of only knowing what we explicitly know of our old universe."

"And if none of the Founders had any direct intel about that final assault on the sensen-"

"Bingo," Rory sighed. "There is no way to determine what exactly led to a sensen child being in the life pod of a destroyed ricochet ship."

"And the child herself?"

"If she knows anything, she's doing a dam- dang good job of playing dumb."

The two of them once more looked at the happily humming sensen girl.

"Is it the standard mindwipe affair?"

"Nah, she didn't enter this universe through usual means."

"Speaking of which, for being untiered, I'm surprised she isn't in, you know, pain; she's not part of this universe after all."

"That's because of me. I've been keeping her smothered in my aura to push back against the excess pneuma that might press down on her otherwise. Back when I first appeared, it wasn't much more than a static-y buzz, but now that Ehkorrus has so much denser pneuma than those days, it would be too much for her, hence my aura shielding her."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"How long can you keep it up?" Apostolos asked.

"This level of aura? Indefinitely, or close to it."

"And then what? You're going to let a child go through tiering up from untiered to tier one? Isn't that supposed to be agonizing?"

"Sure, if she were forced to withstand it without any assistance," Rory said with a snort. "You think I'm just going to allow that?"

"So you have a plan."

"Of course I do, but it requires that I push back a few other things temporarily. I still plan to visit the forge, though, as I made a promise with Gil."

"And her?" Apostolos asked.

"I guess she can come with." Rory sighed.

"I'm sure Astra will appreciate having a new sister."

"Shut up," Rory grumbled.

Apostolos once more laughed at him, shaking his head as if he was having the time of his life.

"By the way, you never actually mentioned what her name is."

Rory was silent for a moment as Apostolos eyed him.

"C'mon, out with it."

Rory frowned, lips creasing.

"Out with it."

Mumbling once, Apostolos leaned closer.

"What was that?"

"Roxy." Rory finally grumbled.

"Roxy?"

"Roxy," Rory repeated.

"So, you mean-"

"Yes, Rory and Roxy." Rory huffed. "No, I didn't name her. That was literally the only thing she seemed to recall. That her name was Roxy."

"Yes, Dad?" Roxy suddenly looked his way, as if zeroing in on her name, spoken a tad too loudly.

"I was just telling your Uncle Apostolos some stuff about you."

"Uncle Apostolos?" Roxy frowned for a moment, a look of childish contemplation before a wide grin broke out, revealing her teeth, which looked like a cross between the teeth of a cheetah and the regular pearly whites of a human. "Uncle Apostolos!"

Apostolos turned to Rory, a hand covering his mouth.

"What?" Rory asked after a moment.

"Nothing just…. My heart hurts." Apostolos said, holding his chest with his other hand. "She's a cute kid; I'll give her that."

"And the entire-" Rory waved in her general direction, once more speaking quietly. "Doesn't bother you?"

"Rory, I'm not human, not like I'm one to talk."

"But you only look like an oddly angular, overly tall, and somewhat bird-y dude."

"And what exactly do you mean by bird-y?'

Rory chose to ignore Apostolos, who was crossing his arms, before he finally sighed.

"I'm afraid she might get bullied," Rory said after a moment.

"Bullied. That's what you're worried about?"

"Yes? What else would I be worried about?"

"You know, because she's a sensen?"

"Ehh, either she blows up this universe, or she doesn't."

Apostolos stared at Rory for a moment, who sighed.

"A joke. I was joking. Hehe, haha, am I right?"

Apostolos continued to stare at Rory blankly.

"You're no fun. Yes, that is in fact what I'm worried about, as insignificant as it may seem, that she might get bullied. I can take care of her for some time, but kids can't hang around their parents all the time, you know?"

"So, you admit she's your daughter."

"I was making a point," Rory said, staring daggers at Apostolos. "I'll probably be spending most of the next few years here in Ehkorrus so I can keep an eye on her in that time, but what about after?"

"She'll be a teenager. You know, kids grow up."

"Yeah, I know," Rory said, making it a point of staring directly at Apostolos, who squirmed for a moment.

Getting over it, Apostolos glanced once more at the girl before looking at Rory.

"I appreciate the heads up, though. I'll see if there aren't maybe some things I can do on my end to help with…. This. In the meantime, what are you intending to do?"

"Honestly? Probably a lot of what I did with you when you were young. Teach her some, get to know her, etc."

"I would say I always wanted a little sister, but you already went and called me 'Uncle,' so I guess a niece is fine."

"Bah," Rory gave Apostolos a gentle swat. "Git. I'm sure you're a busy enough man that even this distraction has put you behind schedule."

"Something of the sort," Apostolos said with a sigh before glancing at Roxy once more. "If you want, I'm sure my grandkids would get along with her. They're younger than her, but kids can be kids either way."

Clapping Apostolos on the shoulder, Rory pulled him in for a brief shoulder hug, releasing the man a moment after.

"' Ppreciate it, brother, but for now I think I'll focus on getting some things settled."

Getting ready to leave, Apostolos paused when Roxy ran up to him, looking up at him with her different color eyes.

"Bye-bye, Uncle Apostolos!"

Then, without missing a beat, she rushed forward and hugged the tall man. Hesitating for a single heartbeat, Apostolos leaned down, returning the hug before straightening back out, all while hiding his mouth behind his hand.

The idiot really is a family man. Call him uncle and hug him, and he's smiling like a moron.

As rough as his thoughts were, Rory couldn't deny his own smile.

Watching Apostolos leave shortly after, Rory was left alone with the young girl, who eventually stopped drawing to look at Rory.

"I'm bored."

"And I'm Rory," Rory said instantly. "Nice to meet you, Bored."

"Nooooo," The girl giggled, shaking her head. "You're Dad!"

There it is again.

Rather than push back, Rory crossed his arms, examining the girl for a split second before deciding.

"Why don't we play some games?"

For the rest of the day, Rory did something highly unusual for himself.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was one thing to do nothing when he needed to recover his strength, or was sleeping, but for the first time in… a long time, Rory did nothing productive, instead just playing games with Roxy.

For being untiered, the girl was a bundle of energy, so much so that it took even Rory by surprise.

Eventually, nighttime had rolled around, and Roxy, who had finally begun to tire out, was tucked into his bed, the girl yawning before clonking out within seconds of being tucked in.

Rory hadn't really meant to, but for some reason or another, he found himself far more attached to the kid than he'd anticipated after a single day.

Overlooking his prisoners, the terrified scourge mites who were doing their best to stay as far away as they could from Rory, he crossed his arms.

"Is it because of a sort of kinship? Aside from the other founders, who are almost all strictly on antagonistic terms at this point, no one else has arrived as I did. She's perhaps the only one out there who wasn't deposited by Eon or naturally born here."

The mites made no attempt to answer, as they generally did. Sighing, Rory flexed his hand as one of the small mites was pulled toward him, threads of nearly invisible pneuma like fishing hooks that could not be avoided. The other mites seemed to stare at the unfortunate drone, in their mite brains just glad it wasn't them.

"Oh, Jimmy, relax," Rory muttered as he inspected the mite. "We've been through this enough times, haven't we?"

Jimmy clearly disagreed, still attempting to free itself as Rory sighed. Sticking his index finger out, a small, blood-red crystal extended as he gave a quick cut against the mite's back. It squealed, but there was nothing it could do against the strength of a peak tier-seven. Giving it a quick squeeze, its discolored blood, far darker red than ordinary from a human, was drained as Rory caught it in a projected crystal bowl. It wasn't much; he wasn't intending to kill Jimmy after all. He just needed some blood to drop off at Mariah's place for her own investigations.

"There, see, not that bad," Rory said after a moment, putting the mite back down, who skittered away, quickly surrounded by the other mites, which seemed to empathize with their tormented kin.

"Drama queens," Rory said before cracking a grin. "And Drama Empress. Oh, and Drama drones."

The silence that followed Rory told himself was purely because the mites couldn't speak, and not because the joke was just that terrible.

Whatever.

Having gathered what he needed, he made his way up from his basement lab and sat on the ground on the main floor of the treehouse.

Calling it a treehouse always feels a bit disingenuous, but it's a tree, and it's my home. Therefore, treehouse.

Given that his bed was currently occupied by a snoring child, not that Rory was tired to begin with, Rory instead decided to withdraw into his Mind Palace, spending what felt like a few days there before he emerged.

Perfect timing.

What felt like days ago to Rory, but in reality had been mere hours, the darkness of night had been replaced by the shining rays of the suns hanging overhead and birds chirping in the distance.

You'd almost think it was a nice, pristine day on Earth.

Chuckling at the thought, Rory went over his thoughts once more, having laid out his plans for the demonstration during his time within his Mind Palace.

He was only disrupted when he heard the patter of feet rushing down the stairs, Roxy appearing shortly after, yawning as she looked around and located Rory sitting cross-legged on the ground.

"How'd you sleep?" Rory asked, a simple enough question.

"Good!" Roxy answered before she frowned. "Why are you on the floor?"

"It's comfy," Rory said before making a point of lying down and snoring dramatically.

Roxy giggled before a sound erupted, like a blaring horn.

Sitting upright, Rory's eyes widened as the noise went on for several seconds longer, growing louder and louder by the second before reaching a crescendo, before being silenced.

Heavens above, you're joking.

Roxy stood there, looking sheepish, scuffing her feet on the floor before she looked at Rory, eyes like a pathetically starving puppy.

"What's for breakfast?"

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