Would-Be Gods

*Wayne's World Rewinding Noises*

The last time you can remember sleeping over at someone's house, you were ten and it was the mean girl from church that your mother thought you ought to be friends with.

You're not really sure what to expect. You think there ought to be some hair-brushing, maybe? But Farrah's hair is really short; you could brush it with your fingers.

Not a bad idea, you have to admit, but you're not sure how Farrah will feel about that.

You fluff your hair a lot in the shower, anyway, and make sure it'll be fun to brush if it comes to that.

It's so easy to eavesdrop on the conversation that you feel a little guilty about it. Farrah is spinning a story for her mother that seems to involve being freaked out by everything on TV and hiding in her Aunt and Uncle's cottage, not because she had turned into a mouse, but because she was scared of the world. (The fact that Farrah seemed totally comfortable with mom there calling her Young Lady tells you she is probably right, and short hair or not, Farrah looks like a girl. A very cute girl). She keeps spinning, just enough truth to be hard to catch the lies.

The thing is, you almost believe her. And her mother - her mother seems to completely accept the idea that Farrah had freaked out and run away. Like Farrah is always scared of everything.

They only talk about you a little - Farrah met you at a cafe, you started talking, you convinced Farrah to come back home. Nothing completely untrue. You relax. You don't have to keep too many lies straight if you're quizzed. You finish your shower - you haven't been this clean in weeks. Maybe months - and dress before heading out for your slumber party.

Farrah's mother brings in snacks and drinks and fusses over Farrah. "You know the rules. No loud noises, stay in the house, and if school comes back tomorrow, you can skip first period, but you are going to the rest of school."
Farrah rolls her eyes, but you're struck at the amount of affection between the two of them. You don't think that woman would send Farrah away for being a mouse-girl. You're not sure she'd send her child away for anything. You think you might be a little jealous.

You settle in her hearts-and-stuffed-animals bedroom and Farrah flips through the channels until a couple fae like creatures pop up on the tv.

The first one is a guy with wide eagle wings; the second one looks like something of a merman, which makes you wonder what he's doing in what's clearly a desert. They and a girl who appears made of stone are fighting four people who seem to be all cut of the same mold - elf-sorts in a variety of colors, all a little bit taller than humans ought to be but definitely not giants.

You eat fabulous popcorn and some rice krispie treats and toasted almonds (Mom was really happy to have Farrah home, geez) and listen to them, turning up the TV as loud as you dare and re-running the scenes (thank goodness Farrah has TiVo) over and over again.

The mer-looking-guy is all about the Huamu, which you've already played with a little bit. He's also using a lot of Yaku. So those look like - with his Tempero and his Qorawiyay - Plants or vines or trees or something like that and, almost certainly, water.

Okay, mer-guy being able to handle water makes a lot of sense.

The eagle guy keeps muttering his magic, so you don't get to hear how he makes a tornado hit the elves. But you do get to hear the stone girl call on Panida, and then there are rats everywhere climbing all over the elves.
The elves use an Aistrigh and the rats turn into little glass rats.

"Transfiguration!" Farrah crows.

In the end, the mismatched team wins and the elves are - well, you see them fall and then the camera cuts away.
You watch it over and over again until you've gotten all the words you can catch out of it and then you try them all. It sounds like when they have a moment to do things, they add on some weird Greek, which sounds like what you remember from the giant's fight.

(Speaking of, you really need to climb that beanstalk sometime soon.)

You're pretty sure that this is where you'd end up gossiping about boys, but instead the two of you practice words and try to see what you can do.

"So two words, and the order matters?" Farrah frowns. "Okay, so that thing there, um, so it seems like they do different things with the same, thing? Like they would ais - ais- aistrigh and then panida, ooh, panida. But the stone girl, she did Temp- temp- tempero Panida and I think, ooh, I need Greek."

A little more consideration and some practice and you figure out that the stone girl had done some word you didn't hear with Panida and made rats, and then tempero with panida, gamma, and the greek word for rats, and sent them running onto the elves. Farrah takes notes. You're gifted with a notepad and you take notes. You whisper things until Farrah accidentally takes the tv remote apart into component parts with Aposyntheto Unutu gamma έλεγχος, and then promptly passes out.

You actually do brush Farrah's hair while you're trying to be soothing and comforting. You practice the words one at a time for now, instead of risking setting something on fire or turning it into a rat, though you do save a Greek dictionary to your phone.

Qorawiyay sounds pretty good. You like that one. Aposyntheto is fun, too, but you're worried about that one, considering the remote control. Unutu, on the other hand, you can't say at all, and that sucks. Panida sounds decent, so you comfort yourself that you can probably control animals.

Or maybe - ew - take them apart?

Once Farrah is sitting up again, drinking fruit juice you scrounge from the fridge, you talk about anything else for a bit. School. The little you remember from your old school. Mama Rhea's and working for a limit. Farrah doesn't ask why you ran away and you don't offer anything. That's private. Farrah combs your hair as an apology for passing out and you find it's a really nice feeling. "You should comb my hair every day."

It's possible you're a little tired at the moment.

Even so, your sleep is pretty bad.

When you wake up, Farrah is still asleep. You do your best to pick up the room quietly and change into your new pants and one of your new shirts. New shirts. Maybe you should save stalkers' lives more often.

You've decided to read a book for a while when Farrah's mother sticks her head in. You catch a moment of relief on her face - Farrah's still here, you guess. "School's cancelled again," she whispers. "Farrah can sleep through an earthquake. Do you want to come down and get some breakfast?"

Your growling stomach answers for you. Farrah's-Mom smiles and gestures you downstairs.

Breakfast is eggs and bacon and toast and you try your best to eat politely. You remember manners, right? "Thank you, ma'am. Can I help with the dishes?" Your mother would have screamed at you (later, in private) if you forgot manners.

"You can call me Sarah. Farrah says you work at a cafe?"

"Yes, ma'am." You clear the table and start washing, even though you weren't told to.

"How's it doing, what with everything? My office has been closed for days. Water main break," she adds, as if she doesn't believe it.

"Well, so far, so good. It's avoided most of the bad stuff." You wince. "I've seen some of it, though."

"Do you ever wonder-" She stops and sighs. "You're just a kid, even if you're a bit older than my Farrah. I'm sorry, the world is just pretty scary right now."

"It is," you agree. "Giants in the streets and weird portals." See? You pay attention to something, Right?

"Yeah. It's like a natural disaster, only it's - it's people causing it." She tch's.

"You'd think people ought to be able to stop it, too," you mutter. But you're just a kid. You wash the dishes and dry them, but you're not sure where to put them away.

"You'd think," she agrees. "Oh, here, plates go over here. You're such a good kid. Are you sure you don't want to move in?"

She's probably joking.

But on the other hand...
[ ] Deflect: "Oh, you'd get sick of me in a day."
[ ] Deny: "But then who would do my dishes at home?"
[ ] Don't argue: "Hey, I never said I didn't."

Farrah comes down almost an hour after you do. "Oh, hey." She grins brightly at you. "I was thinking of walking to the park today. I mean, I assume school's closed?"

"School's still closed." Her mother frowns. "If this lasts longer than a week, we're going to start home schooling you, miss."

"MO-o-om."

"A week," her mother repeats. She takes the pan you just dried and starts making more breakfast. "If this lasts longer than a week, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself."

"Home schooling," Farrah teases. "You can learn something new, too."

You end up going to the park with Farrah for a bit. Some part of you is still thinking about what her mother said, but you don't know enough yet.

She seems to have the same idea. She takes you off to a pavilion where nobody is, and the two of you start practicing the words that you know. You twist them and try them and manage not to take apart anything bigger than a picnic bench.

"There has to be some sort of word for fix," Farrah mutters.

"Yeah, but they're probably not fixing things in the middle of a battle."

"We should figure it out."

"Maybe--"

You're about to say maybe Jayden knows when you see a white van that is far too clean just on the edge of the park.
Oh no!
[ ] Run!
[ ] Fly! You can carry Farrah!
[ ] Get ready to fight!
[ ] Hide!
[ ] confront them with words!
[ ] It's just a van. Chill.