The majority of the pictures that Katherine took were clearly just for her own use, and not meant to be sent back to Abaddon. Especially the scenes in the castle, with Gabriel posing as some sort of barbarian king with a harem. Only Whisper and Pheeny were shot riding any dragons. Some of the poses were a bit tiring though, and after the ordeal Tasha went through she's getting hungry.

Tasha and her dragon, and she increasingly thinks of Goldie as her dragon, largely due to the dragon's sticking close to her, her own aura, and the bond between herself and Galatea, make their way across the front of the residential section towards the galley, where she, and she assumes her dragon, hope to find food.

Sasha is cooking this evening, and it smells like pizza. Which is convenient for large groups. It's a bit like when everyone's minds where linked, in that everyone is naked. Which probably isn't a good match for hot melted cheese. Gabriel sits with Tasha and her dragon, looking through messages on his tablet. "Shojo and Lacci are inbound," he reports. "We'll need Kai to 'open the sky' for them when they get here."

"You know how to summon her, just mention the devil and she shall appear. She's never far and probably always listening," Tasha says, as if if were every day news and she's talking about some sort of evil, but predictable and local, weather. She also pulls out her tablet and taps it. "Everything looks in order on my end. I'm probably not too beat up from earlier. Added meditation to my schedule after morning exercise. Oh!" She looks over, holding up a hand in that matter of someone about to convey a fact or point. "I think Galatea's going to recover. We talked."

"There was doubt before?" Gabriel asks, surprised. "Kai was able to create whole people in those tubes, after all."

"Galatea is partly beyond Kai. Only Kainudy knows how she works, and who knows if she remembers anymore. Galatea is closer to the Waymakers in nature, and her construction is on the far extreme of what their family was capable of." Tasha lowers her hand, then uses it to pet her dragon. "Luckily the self-repair system seems to be sufficient and we resolved the, well, emotional conflict in returning. It turns out 'a sky full of fire' is a very unpleasant memory for her."

"I imagine that would be an unpleasant memory for anyone," Gabriel says. "We've all got traumatic memories to deal with. Live long enough and you'll accumulate a lot."

"Well, for her, that was the sky of her world shortly before it was no more, when she evacuated and left it behind when all was lost. So, more so than most." Tasha gives a little shrug. "Of course I like fire so how much a sky full of fire impacts anyone. Who knows, maybe in a few weeks I'l be able to make the skies be on fire. Isn't. That. Right. Goldie." And she taps the little dragon's nose with every word.

Goldie seems antsy in Tasha's lap, and starts making raspberry noises, before blurting, "PANCAKES!"

"Aww, her first word. And it's a good word, too." Tasha strokes the dragon and seems momentarily lost in just watching her antics.

"It's pizza tonight though," Gabriel tells the dragon. "Pancakes are for breakfast."

"Sasha, please make the little dragon some pancakes," Tasha calls out, "For me? Although if you don't I'm going to come over there and make it happen one way or another and no one wants me in the kitchen." She looks over to Gabriel and notes, "Which is unfair, I can do a mean barbecue now."

"I'm still trying to set up the toppings bar," Sasha calls. "I'm not making any for the dragons though, or I'll be at all night! The griddle is free though and there's batter in the fridge."

"Gotta love a girl who can sling pancakes though," Gabriel says and winks at Tasha.

"I'll take that as a double hint," Tasha says with a mock-sigh as she rises from the table. "Time for Terrible Tasha's Titanic Cooking Show. Come along, pancake dragon." And so the dragon is carried along towards the kitchen.

Sasha helps by turning on the grill to right setting. "It's just pour and flip when the bubbles stop," he explains. "Try not to let Goldie sit on the griddle."

Tasha looks offended and turns the grill right off. "Nonsense," she huffs. Instead she takes a curved sided dish, leans down to eyeball it, replaces it with another, shallower-wall dish, and then pulls out some grease, which she slather son the plate. "A grill. Goldie, I am offended." She then pours the batter on to the plate and holds her hand over it, and the battery begins to bubble, crackle, brown.

"Should you be doing that when you're clearly worn out?" Sasha asks. "You're heating it upside down." Goldie doesn't seem to care, and has her nose right up to the edge for the plate.

"It's a pancake, not cutting someone in half with a ray of fire," Tasha insists. "I can handle this much, and besides, I can feel the heat of the entire pancake.I can heat it perfectly, because I can feel its entire thermal existence. And Goldie doesn't mind, see, what matters is a) it's food, b) fire is involved and c) she pursues her desires even when others may deny her. And I'm teaching her about magic."

As soon at it starts to brown, Goldie snatches the pancake and runs off with it.

"Well, maybe you can help with the pizza then," Sasha says. "Once people select their toppings, you can heat them up."

Tasha, who had her hand out, ends up heating nothing for a moment. The effect is eerie, just heat radiating from a pancake-shaped space below her hand, a slight glow to the air. She cuts this off quickly enough, hand closing. "As long as I get to eat along the way, I know how much we eat and just how many pizzas this is going to be." She then walks over and slings an arm around Sasha's shoulders, bumping arm-to-arm. "Hey this is nice, we don't hang out together much." And then she boops his nose -- which feels warm for a moment. "Boop."

In response to the boop, Sasha smacks Tasha's rear end. "My headache is gone," he says. "Family orgy tonight?" he teases. Then he has to return to the pizza oven to get out the first one.

Tasha's straightens and her ears shoot up; she grins. "Well, can't turn that down. We can see how much Lapi Sharon and I retain." She lets her brother go, and steps back, waiting on hand to be portable oven.

The pizza draws people, once the it's been sliced up. Aaron grabs two slices, one for him and Liza, and forgoes any toppings. Yue goes for pineapple and pepperoni, presenting her slice to Tasha. "Not an application of magic I would have thought of," she notes to Tasha. Katie and Hakeber are loading up on sausage, ham and pepperoni.. although Katie adds some mushrooms, having a more sophisticated palette.

"Magic is a robust and broad field with many applications; using it this way helps me practice my precision and sensing," Tasha tells Yue in a formal, bland, educational style even while she grins. "Pizza is different than a pancake, which makes it more challenging to sense, but easier to heat, because a burst of heat will do."

"I don't care, so long as it's fast," Hakeber says, presenting her slice. "And what's this about an orgy? Ever since the.. thing.. I've been interested in a repeat, even if it's just my own body."

"It's probably why everyone got naked for pictures so easily," Katie suggests.

"Easy enough to accomplish, for both items." The pizza momentarily glows from inside, and then it's bubbling and steaming -- and the tip of one side is on fire. Tasha quickly blows it out and hands it over. "There are. Thank you for stopping by the Tasha Dragon Bakery."

Tasha then dusts her hands off, walking over to wash them. "Admittedly after getting destroyed as a Lapi I'm feeling somewhat calmer, too. I kind of miss the ears. I'm not sure I understood the quiet anxiety, or the relative peacefulness, between Lapi and myself. It was enlightening."

"So no lingering desire to sleep with Aaron?" Sasha teases, as he brings out the next pizza and cuts the large slices. Vasha looks over the toppings and laments, "No snakes. Why would I crave snakes? I don't remember any Vartans eating snakes." She surprisingly goes with onions, olives, mushrooms and peppers. "Don't want to be gassy," she tells Tasha.

Tasha opens her mouth, but she had to stop and think about that for a moment. She shifts her weight to a leg and puts her knuckle to a hip. "Now that you mention it, I hadn't thought about that much. I suppose the answer is no; while I'm attracted to the body, Aaron's Aaron. I try never to fall for my mentors. It was more than Sharon was piloting it, and Sharon-Aaron is a different experience than Aaron-Aaron. Also," she turns to eye Katie across the way, "Did you have any fun?"

"It was a bit disconcerting the first round, but the second was alright," Katie admits. "It's not as bad when you're feeling both sides, I suppose. Still not about to try it with my body though."

"What did you think of having my body? One of a kind and all. It's rare for me to talk to someone who knows what it's like to be me, if just in body," Tasha inquires as she steps up to heat the next pizza in line.

Mressa asks, "How does pizza work?"

"Take slice, put in face. repeat until satisfied," Tasha answers as she waits.

Tasha says, "'Oh! Speaking of food, I mad Cajun/Creole gumbo. :3"

"I've had your body before... oh, you mean being in your body," Katie says, grinning. "It was weird," the wolf says.

Tasha grins right back; the knowing grin between lovers. "It is pretty weird. I still remember the old one, and this one still feels a bit strange sometimes. Less so now, and it's diminishing, but you never forget your first." She winks. "As for my experience, it was strange being so short and compact, but I'd been without wings before. Also, vegetarianism is a strange, strange thing. I do sort of miss the ears, though."

"You also need to work out more," Katie says, before stuffing her face.

Mressa decides to play it easy with just sausage. Gabriel comes up next, and starts loading up on meats.

"I'm working on working out more. I was only born a few months ago, you know. And now I have spiritual workouts to do, too." Tasha turns her attention to Mressa, holding her hand out for the plate. "Is this your first experience with magic, Mressa? Directly."

"I'm not sure," Mressa says. "I've seen this done before, but it was using technology. I think. Might have just been a trick and the plate did the heating."

"Well today I'm heating with dragon magic. Though it might be phoenix-dragon magic, now." Tasha holds her hand over the pizza, and it goes from sad, cold, assembled to slowly warming to life, the crust golden, the cheese soft but not fluid, the sausage steaming and the sauce with that slight gloss that comes from heat increasing its fluidity. "Ding."

Pheeny and Whisper are next in line. The Phoenix girl picks vegetable toppings, and Whisper seems to like pineapple most. They look like they've been giggling.

Tasha beams a smile at both. "Hello girls, it looks like you've been having a good time. How do you want your pizza? Medium? Cold? Hot? On fire? Incinerated?" She doesn't interact with the girls as much, but she's always glad to see them happy. Like to Jotoki, it's enough for her to create a pleasant place for them to be. She doesn't need to be involved in everyone's life on a direct and immediate basis -- not anymore. She's pleased to realize she's come to terms with that and, maybe, her own self-isolation.

"We saw everyone's.. everything," Whisper says like it's a big secret. "I don't want it on fire!"

"Yeah, we're just full of weird and nasty secrets," Tasha agrees, not at all surprised nor disturbed. She does, after all, have multiple beings constantly looking in on her own thoughts and existence. "Anyway, a non-fire level of hot. We'll say... Average." The slice is heated up, and faster than the last as Tasha gets the hang of and memorizes the shape and heat distribution. "Done."

"Thank you," Whisper says. Who taught her that? Pheeny has a lot of peppers and onions on hers. "Crispy please," she tells Tasha.

Tasha decides it must have been Pheeny, who is much more polite. She wouldn't be at all surprised to learn the girls influence each other more than anyone else does. "Crispy it is. Please don't be mad at me if I burn it. crispy is a delicate operation. This will take longer." And then Tasha reaches out and with a concentrated look like a master craftswoman at work, she narrows her brow, purses her muzzles, leans in and goes "hmmmmmmmmm" for several seconds before the pizza goes from cooked to crispy cooked. "There," she declares, leaning back. "Easier than I thought."

"Thank you momma," Pheeny says, before taking her plate and going to Whisper's table. Another plate is set before Tasha, this one with a little bit of everything on it.

Tasha seems momentarily stunned by being called momma -- in fact she seemed practically polaxed for a moment. She's seen a lot, experienced more, and become a colection of entities from across this reality and others besides, and so it sometimes feels to her nothing can surprise her anymore -- and then moments like this happen and she remembers how wrong she is. "E-enjoy sweetie," she finds herself saying reflexively, and she watches Pheeny walk all the way to the table, eyes a little glassy, tail wagging, lost in the moment as she turns to the newcomer.

A golden-eyed kirinoid with white fur and gold scales smiles to Tasha. "This is my first pizza," it says.

"Theeeeeen it should be a good one," Tasha tells the newcomer. Already thrown off by Pheeny, Tasha slowly shifts her focus down to the pizza, stares at it like she'd never seen one before, and then remembers what it was she's doing. She holds her hand out, takes a moment to gather herself before she melts the pizza or sets the environment on fire, and then gets to work. "Soooo I haven't seen you around here before," she then goes on to say, conversationally, like a bartender who is serving a new client come in out of the rain. "Look seems familiar, though."

"It's my default," the person says. "No wings though. It will take awhile before I can alter it. I have to select the faces again, and calculate the average of the features before I can look human." There's a slight echo in the voice.

"Ahh, Galatea. Welcome back, and welcome home." Tasha only needed to hear 'it's my default' to know it was Galatea, though the rest was a strong indicator as well. She looks around to see if anyone else is in line. "Have you considered just not calculating them? If that's your default, why not wear it for a while? No one around here is going to complain, we're all used to each other by now. And, people will want to know you're back. They owe you some thanks."

"Thanks?" Galatea asks. "After what I made you all go through?"

"What'd you make us go through?" Tasha says with a grin. She snatches a slice -- then two more because she can -- of pizza and starts absently heating them without looking. "While it wasn't the most pleasant prospect for some, we did learn a lot about each other, and we assume you needed to do it to, you know, not die, so we're usually understanding there, too. And besides, you saved everyone here from being... " She leans in, very close. "From being obliterated in the rebirth. Don't mention that to Pheeny, I don't want to feel bad for being born. But she should meet you, too. I couldn't have done it without you. You saved her as much as I did. Us. We saved her. Together."

Galatea turns her head to look at Pheeny and Whisper at their table. "What should I say to her?" she asks. "That life is hard and cruel, and at times it is senseless - but it is still worthwhile to live it?"

"What do you mean, her old life? Or the new one? Maybe, ah, tone it down a little. For all she is, she's still just a girl, like Whisper. They're having a good time and enjoying their lives. I'm sure she'll come to that question about life sooner or later, but for now, lets let them enjoy each other's company, and our strange but cozy home. Our home, Galatea." Tasha leans back, grabs her plate, and steps around the counter. "And tell her 'Hi, I'm Galatea. I'm Tasha's partner, I was there when you were born, and I helped her bring you here. I live here, too. I hope we get along."

"That is a lot to say," Galatea admits. "Maybe it would be better to wait until there is ice cream. Sasha nudges Tasha as he works on his own slice and whispers, "Invite her to the orgy. Unless she's still working on her plumbing."

"That is a lot to ask," Tasha says, nudging back. Her tail even tries to grab Sasha's. "Let's give her some time to adjust, unless she's listening and agrees, but who knows if she is or not and if she doesn't say anything how will we know."

Galatea doesn't react like she overheard, as her attention is on the children. For never having pizza before she seems to hold it well in one hand while eating it. It's the first time Tasha has seen her eat anything. Maybe pizza is some sort of rite of passage.

Tasha watches Galatea eat for moment, then reaches over and pats Sasha -- and then gives him a big hug. "I'm going to join her, I should be with her. Pizza duty is yours, Pizza Commander." She steps off, salutes, and then walks around to grab Galatea's free hand. "Lets find a table near them. And you know... She called me momma."

"A term of endearment," Galatea says, as she's led by Tasha to another table. "I remember hearing the equivalent in my first life after.. after surviving."

"It's a term of love, Galatea. And time doesn't make it mean any less, even if you forget." Tasha takes a table near the girls, siting down and arranging her pizza slices in a nuclear caution formation, for reasons only she knows. "And I'm glad you survived, then and now. I thought about it, and what could you have done? If you sent them off, could they have even survived in that desolate nowhere-place, devoid of food, water, shelter, medical, with no idea where they are and too small a population to rebuild?"

"I don't try to rationalize it," Galatea says. "I don't remember all of my reasons for it, because I didn't have time to encode all of my memory and knowledge into the timestone, even if it was only a few years. I can't.." Here she pauses, fumbling for the right words. "I can't expand enough to understand," she settles on. "I miss my husband and children from that life. Not a long-lived species, so I never saw grandchildren. I remember my daughter's wedding. I felt proud and happy. I like that memory."

"Good. Well, I won't say anything as to the rest. As for expanding, I assume you'e still creating data paths and rebuilding architecture. I've had my mind connected to a number of sentient machines, and I think I understand what's going on in your head. But let's not worry about such things -- you're back! We should celebrate." Tasha looks over at Pheeny and then, when she catches her eye, waves her on over.

The Phoenix sort of skips over. "Who is your Kirin friend, momma?" Pheeny asks.

Tasha immediately brightens at being called momma. For a moment she looks about ready to burst with emotions, but she seems to keep herself under control, for now. "This is Galatea, she's my partner in the field. Together we try to accomplish great things, and she's my friend, too. She's the one who helped me bring you here, but she's been busy these last few days, and has only now been able to return. I know she's eager to meet you, and if you want to show her your thanks, that would be very appropriate."

"Thank you, Galatea, for helping to bring me here," Pheeny says. "It's a lot of fun!"

"You helped me a little," Galatea tells Pheeny. "Kai has been teaching you well?"

Tasha beams, then turns those brights right toward Galatea. She can even see her tail wagging. She doesn't dare interrupt, though.

"Yes! I never got to use my power before," Pheeny says with a bird smile.

"I'm sure you'll be able to do lots of good things," Galatea says, smiling as well.

"And you're doing very well at it, Pheeny. We should all be able to avail ourselves of our own power, for ourself, and for the people we love and care about." Tasha just can't help herself, the girl fills her with more emotions than she can count nor name, and she's so very proud.

"I look forward to doing and learning things," Pheeny says, her head crest rising up. "But I haven't decided who I will have sex with yet. There could be more people here by then, so I shouldn't get ahead of myself. It's difficult to not always be the same age."

"Yes, that is difficult," Galatea says. "If you have problems, I can help with that. I know how to age."

Tasha's big beaming smile goes a little off kilter at the mention of sex; suddenly she finds herself suspicious of everyone, and if they hurt her or the first experience is bad -- and if it's a Blackwings so help them..!

And then the red woman winces as her blood pressure goes up a little too high, she exhales, then stuffs her face full of pizza so it can absorb her anxiety.

"Whisper says that it's probably weird," Pheeny notes. "We've seen all the parts that are involved now, and.. they seem kind of silly."

"There's more to it than the parts," Galatea says. "I was suspicious of it at first too, and at the time the parts were weirder than what you saw here."

"Weird how," Pheeny asks raptly, to which Galatea holds up two fingers. "Two of everything," she claims.

Tasha continues to -- munch does not describe it -- to process down her pizza slices with deliberate and repetitive motions as she listens to the conversation with an static expression of enforced, and fire-hardened, happy neutrality. She keeps her fire in check. She's just listening. Everything is fine. Everything is fine.

Pheeny is laughing now. "I have to tell Whisper!" she says, and turns to Tasha. "May I go?" she asks.

Tasha chokes on her pizza, then after coughing for several seconds, she starts nodding even as her eyes water. "Yes, thank you dear, please give your mother a hug before you go. She loves you," she wheezes.

The hug is warm of course, and then Pheeny tells Galatea, "It's been nice to meet you!" Then she runs back to Whisper, and the two are soon laughing. Pheeny has an almost musical laugh.

"Don't worry, they will get bored of the notion soon enough," Galatea tells Tasha, noting her tension. "Was your mother like this with you?"

Tasha looks like she's either going to laugh or cry or both. Then Galatea mentions her mother and she adds alarmed. "Was she??" She blurts out. Her head tilts, she glances at the ceiling and says, "Tasha, you be careful, you know sleep with Blackwing, she nasty evil woman, I no help you you get sold in to slavery or dead in alley. Why not marry nice Vartan man, have lots of kids, help me take care of tavern." If Tasha could pale, she would be doing so now.

"I don't think the Phoenix can have children," Galatea says. "I'm the only one in my 'family' that can, I believe. Although from your memories, Envoy has undergone significant physical alteration so the situation may be different for her."

Tasha quirks, then twitches. Clearly the sheer amount of data, new experiences, and emotions have reached some critical level and now she just looks like a cat showing a negative reaction to a smell. "Ehhh?" Blink. "E-envoy..?" Another blink. "W-wait, that woman from Abaddon! I knew there was something familiar about her, you, and Daniarood!"

"She was the first remote, made for communication," Galatea explains. "She was sent through the Dreamgate after the dragon, armed with the godkiller, but contact was lost. The second was Chimera, a male, to explore gender and sexuality. Then came the cherubs, but they were.. simple. I was the last one to be created."

"Huh. She seems to be doing, well, badly, honestly. I think she got chased off Sinai and was hiding with the Abaddonians, last I saw her. We only met briefly, and she was what we call an Exile -- people from the Forbidden Zones. She was strange a bit off putting, but not overwhelmingly so, and frankly I was angry and more than a bit obnoxious. Of course now I am a loving and respectable mother." Tasha beams again.

"She is operating within the Sifran sphere of influence," Galatea says, and then frowns. "I'm not sure that I could. Even Caltrop makes me feel.. vulnerable. Mortal. So it is unlikely we will ever meet. Perhaps through Goldie. That's one of Kai's style of remotes, and may function. We won't know until you send your Chibi-Tasha back."

"An experiment for all of us. Even I'm a little anxious I may not function well or right back on Sinai, and I'm worried the Sifra will take notice of me sooner or later, so that's another reason I've stayed away. Sinai -- all of the home worlds -- feel like small ponds, but that's a illusion. The small pond is an enormous fish's mouth, as large and old as the sea itself. I don't want to wake it up." Tasha taps the table a moment, thinking. "I suppose we'll find out. My soul is, well, my Flame is partly that of a Waymaker, for one. And I have the other elements now, too."

The Kirin looks at her empty plate. "The pizza was good. I don't know that it makes me feel any closer to my mother though." She looks to Tasha and says, "You could send one of the others back in your place. I don't understand Kai's methods. I couldn't create something from the Unformed. Or the Vague or whatever term there is for it. Chaos, Cacaoastrum, Illiaster.. the list goes on. It's a part of Kai's makeup, but not of mine. And now it's a part of your clones."

"I'm not one to send others in to danger when I could send myself," Tasha says with some intensity. "I'll go. If I start feeling there's a problem I'll order the ship to return. And one of my clones may raise even larger flags for the Sifra, who knows how much or how well they can react to oddities? They certainly didn't move when Envoy was there, and they haven't moved at all in... Eons. Functionality wise, we'll see how I go. And I have a duty to Mariel to meet her in person." She blinks. "Oh, have you seen Mariel? Probably in my memories?"

"I try not to pry too much," Galatea says. "I'd like to see the pictures."

Tasha pulls out her tablet, finds the image collection, then choses Mariel with her award. She puts the tablet on the tablet and turns it around to face Galatea. "This is Mariel. She used to be a kind of Sifra ghost, which is how I met her, and before that she was a Karnor from Gabriel's time. One of his crew. She's my first real friend."

Galatea starts to cry when she sees young Mariel. "Does she want to be a knight?" she asks Tasha.

Tasha blinks, nonplussed. Mariel's adorable visage isn't something that usually causes tears, except in her. "M-maybe? Are you-... What's wrong?"

"There was a young wolf I knew who wanted to be a knight," Galatea says. "And an actual wolf knight. A bat too. They're all gone now. Off to worlds and realities I hoped to be safe."

"I loved them all," the Kirin adds. "I loved everyone. It was my first emotion."

"Do you know if they survived?" Tasha leans in, folding her arms on the table. "What were their names?"

"Their names don't matter now," Galatea says, and smiles. "I imagine they went to live grand lives with lots of adventures, that lovers were reunited and lived happily together." She then looks off toward the gate, and then upwards as if looking through the glass and metal to something beyond. She holds up a hand, and makes a gesture as if pressing something in it with her thumb. She even makes a 'beep beep' sound, and soon the rumble of rocket and jet engines can be felt. "Shojo and Lacci have returned," she announces.

"Vasha would like to swap bodies with either of them," she tells Tasha. "She craves both of them."

"Oh I bet she does, it's not exactly a secret. She's made form the Vartany parts of me and the Vartany parts of me had ideas about them." Tasha grins even as she watches the gate alight. "Looks like the ship will be landing, then. Let's go see how they're doing. We can get your thanks later, when you're ready to talk to everyone."

It looks like the old Vartan shuttle is landing in the main airfield instead of heading for Dark Horse. Specifically it's touching down next to the still unused military transport craft. Gabriel and Vasha are also heading out to meet it.

"Off we go. I should probably grab them some pizza... Lacci will be ungrateful though... Hrrm." Tasha slides off the bench and rises, angling towards the leftovers. "I do like Shojo though. I'll consider it a favor he owes me. Meet you on the field, Galatea. And again: welcome back, and welcome home."

The two Vartans are soon disembarked from the shuttle, which Lacci would have been piloting. She waves to Tasha and the others. "We brought treats!" she declares. "Did anything happen while we were gone?"

"I also brought treats," Tasha replies, waving with her free hand. "In the form of pizza. I threw some toppings on the side, pick what you want and hold the slices near me so I can heat them. As for what happened, well... " She gives a sidelong look towards Galatea. "That's a story."