"He needs help getting his completion percentage up, and to learn how to stop making so many obvious tells before he throws. He was on concussion protocol two weeks ago because he hadn’t learned how to minimize his ti in the pocket."
"Got it, got it... How’s his decision-making?"
"It’s not terrible, but he gets easily flustered when he hasn’t been performing well, and it makes him play worse. If he can stay out of his own head, Omari is a great quarterback."
Jazmine nodded to herself as she scribbled in a yellow notepad.
"What’s our ga plan like for Central this week?"
"Well, I had their film pulled up on my tablet this morning, but I hadn’t had the chance to watch it. This little one has been keeping pretty busy."
Abaddon looked down at baby Yggdrasil, who was fighting off her sleep like it owed her money.
"...You could just give her back to her parents like they’ve been asking for the last two hours."
Abaddon turned to stare at Nubia and their partners on the other side of the couch.
Not one of them looked pleased. Now that they had finished their booklet, they wanted their baby back expeditiously.
"...Okay, okay, fine."
Abaddon held the bundled child out to her parents, and Nubia stood up to take her with a huff.
As she, Zheng, and Adeline made their way upstairs to baby-proof their realm, Jazmine and Abaddon went back to their strategizing.
"Wanna take a look at that film now?" He suddenly asked.
Jazmine started to open her mouth when a manicured hand pressed it closed.
"Actually, we have sothing else we could be doing. Like literally anything." Thea showed a smile that was not a smile.
"Oh, co on, dear, don’t be like that." Abaddon frowned. "We’re working."
"Uh-huh. And Jazmine and I are working too on trying to stay married. Isn’t that right, honey?"
Jazmine now resembled a hostage being held at gunpoint in a movie. She nodded nervously with bulbous beads of sweat dripping down her brow.
Thea began pulling her wife up by her arms while waving her father goodbye. "Have fun studying, Dad!"
"I’m sorry!" Jazmine cried.
"No, you’re not!" Thea snapped.
She tossed her wife over her shoulder and ran away with her like a bandit. Abaddon was crestfallen.
"You seem to love the children who aren’t yours more than you love your actual children."
Abaddon looked to his left side, where Gabbrielle sat.
"...Peach? When did you get here?"
Adult Gabbrielle gave her father a fierce glare.
"Kidding, kidding!"
His daughter turned away, unamused. "I hope that all of your first-string players tear their ACLs."
"Hey!"
Footsteps ca clipping down the hallway, and Apophis returned to the living room with the children.
None of them was quite as smiley as they were when they left. Abaddon guessed that things hadn’t exactly gone well.
"Rough day?"
Apophis strode across the living room towards a tall cabinet filled with liquor.
"Oof. Rougher than I thought." Abaddon sat up.
Apophis reached for a bottle of peanut butter whiskey and downed around half the bottle before turning back to his father.
"We told the gods to bolster their defenses and plan escape routes."
"Okay... so what’s the part of the day that has you indulging in your mother’s alcoholism?"
"I heard that!" Valerie yelled from sowhere in the house.
Apophis wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his robe.
"Turns out, they’re a little short on manpower. Apparently, gods have been going missing."
"What!?" Abaddon stood up abruptly. "For how long?"
"No clue."
"How many are gone?!"
"No idea. But apparently it’s enough that the Greeks, Egyptians, Celts, Norse, and Shinto were all having a eting about it when we showed up to talk."
K’ael sat down next to his sister with his arms folded into his sleeves. "They say they had no one to tell because of Asherah’s absence, Zheng’s off-world training, and..."
"They didn’t want to tell you and Moms because they’re afraid of you." Apophis huffed. "Fucking children."
"Us?" Abaddon arched his brow. "But we.."
He suddenly felt a small tugging on the back of his hood.
Odessa stood behind him, shuffling from foot to foot infrequently.
’Dad... what happened at this ’trial’ thing..?’
Abaddon opened his mouth, but no sound ca out. He had no answer to give, because he himself did not rember.
Every single thing that Abaddon did after Eris disappeared right before his eyes was a complete blur.
He could only rember the grief. The rage.
"I don’t rember." He finally said. "I thought I had lost your mother, and I just... I couldn’t control myself."
Odie looked down at her feet.
’There was this old bearded guy... he showed this kind of flaming image thing...? I guess it was supposed to be you, but not... this you.’ She gestured to Abaddon’s body.
Abaddon tilted his head. "Don’t tell you’re afraid... you’ve seen what I look like before."
’Not since I was little, and I didn’t really rember it all that well to be honest... I only really knew what you looked like because of the tapestries and paintings that people made of you, but I guess I... I never really thought about how other people might’ve seen you."
Abaddon stared at her tenderly.
"On the count of three, I’d like for you to close your eyes and then open them. Okay?"
’D-Dad, you know I don’t like surprises...’
"One."
’If this is a jumpscare thing, I’m going to tell mom..!’
"Two."
Odessa shut her eyes so tightly that she was liable to crush them.
"Three."
When Odie opened her eyes again, she gasped and nearly fell back onto her butt. There was nothing but darkness in front of her.
Luckily, K’ael was behind her and could easily catch her in that mont.
"Calm down." He pointed upward.
Odessa followed her brother’s finger towards the ceiling.
It dawned upon her that the world had not beco black. She had simply been enshrouded by a sea of obsidian scales that seed to swallow all light.
She strained her neck to look up as high as the clouds hung in the sky.
Staring back at her were an assortnt of identical heads staring down at her casually.
The fear she expected to feel was not present, but there was a small amount of reverence.
Odessa had heard that it was often not possible for mortals to glance upon divine beings in their truest forms without dying.
She could certainly see why that was the case. Her father was so big that it hurt her brain to look at.
Gradually, Abaddon shrank to a size more conducive to conversation, and the dinsions of the house adjusted to him.
"No matter which form I take, I’m still your father. You don’t have to be afraid of . I have made an ocean’s worth of mistakes in my life, but I have never hard anyone who wasn’t antagonizing our family. I can’t force everyone else in the world to understand my intentions.
...Well, I could, but that would kind of defeat the purpose a bit." He laughed halfheartedly.
When he was around nine feet in height, he stopped shrinking and stared down at Odessa with a patient look.
"But you trust , right? You know that I would never harm the innocent or pursue needless violence. Don’t you?"
Odie nodded tearfully.
"Stop crying all of the ti..." K’ael grumbled.
’I’m sorry!’
"You’re still doing it."
Abaddon wrapped his body around Odessa. The surge of guilt she felt for doubting him caused a virtual monsoon of tears to drop from her face.
K’ael could only roll his eyes and walk away.
When Abaddon returned to normal, he was still holding Odie close to his chest as he talked with Apophis and Gabbrielle.
"Tell your aunt to have so Euphrates on standby... this is Zheng’s first real assignnt, so we should let him handle it, but we can also be ready to step in and lend our aid if he needs it. Apophis, you and your mother should also be ready to see if you can divine the location of the missing gods. I doubt it’ll be that easy, but it never hurts to try; we might get lucky."
Abaddon felt another tug on his hood.
’Hey, Dad, what was that spinning thing behind your head...?’
"...The Cursed Wheel of Fate."
’...Sounds cool.’
"Yes, it’s very cool."
Abaddon went back to strategizing with his older children.
"In the anti, I think I’m going to ask Lisa to visit the realms. She can quickly get a head count of all of the gods that have yet to go missing, and she’ll help to ease their fears a bit as well."
The children nodded as if they didn’t have a problem with that.
Abaddon started to speak again when he felt another tug on his hood.
"...Yes, daughter?"
’What’s a ’cursed wheel of fate’ do?’ Odie blinked.
"..." Abaddon could see the beginnings of a new hyperfixation starting to take root in his daughter’s mind. He just never thought it would be with him as the source.
"...You know what? eting adjourned."
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