black bats flying round and round

[colorshapes]

They're not really colors or really shapes, but Addy's tastes aren't really tastes, so Kerron thinks it's okay to call them like that anyway. Addy does too and they talk about colorshapes every week. He likes Addy. She has simple colorshapes that are easy to understand and he can help with lots of them. Other people have more complicated colorshapes but he's getting better at reading them while they fly through the air.

He's on his way back to the quarters he and Mummy and Daddy share, and he's just pushed open the door that usually leads to the right building in the Forks compound.

It doesn't.

Kerron has only opened this door twice before in this direction, but he sure remembers where it used to go. Probably Mummy or Her Majesty did a magic here. He wants to see what kind. He goes in and lets the door swing shut behind him.

Comments

[pythbox]

What's on the other side is a bar, full of people who are mostly, but not universally, human or at least humanoid. None of them are at all familiar.

There's one woman sitting alone at a table for two, staring out the huge window at the blossoming explosions of distant stars, who has a goal that relates to Kerron's mummy. Two, actually—no, three.

One: She wants to keep the city she lives in safe from him.

Two: She wants to understand why he is the way he is, and why he used to be the way he used to be, and what changed.

Three: She never ever wants to see him or Kerron's daddy again.

[colorshapes]

Kerron goes up to her to get a closer look at the colorshapes. Many of them are "shaped" like bats, which is funny, since none of those meanings he can see have anything to do with bats. They fly around and around. He's trying to stop tracking them with his hands because Addy says that will slow him down at reading them. He folds his hands behind his back.

[pythbox]

The lady with the bat shapes—she's got lots more of them, and one in particular that's much bigger and more bat-shaped than the rest—turns around and looks at him.



She looks unhappy.

[colorshapes]

"Hullo," says Kerron. "Mummy doesn't want to hurt your city! It's okay!"

[pythbox]

She closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath, and lets it out, and opens them again.

"Who," she asks levelly, "is your mummy?"

[colorshapes]

"My mummy's the Joker. Don't worry! I can tell what people wanna do and she doesn't have any colorshapes about any cities."

[pythbox]

...She really doesn't want to ask this question.

She asks it anyway.

"How is the Joker your or anyone's mother?"

[colorshapes]

"Magic!" says Kerron. "And just my mummy, nobody else's. I don't have any little brothers or sisters so far. But that's okay 'cause lots of people in the coven have kids my age so there's Henry and Brandon and Lily and everybody to play with."

[pythbox]

"That's... nice," she says tightly.

[colorshapes]

"Yup!" says Kerron, who is good at goals and not so good at tone of voice or facial expression.

[pythbox]

She sighs.

"...What's she like? Your mother," she clarifies.

[colorshapes]

"Mummy's fun! She does magic a lot, she makes magic coins for the Empress all the time but she keeps some and she makes stuff appear or she sometimes is a he and she makes stuff be more fun than it starts out being. I thought she made this door when I found it but now I'm not sure, I think maybe it only happened."

[pythbox]

"Your mother did not make this door," she confirms.

[colorshapes]

"Oh well. I bet she'd like it! There's all kinds of stuff here. Mummy mostly likes stuff," Kerron says, nodding sagely.

[pythbox]

Despite herself, she laughs.

"Is there any stuff she doesn't like?"

[colorshapes]

"She doesn't like stuff that makes me or Daddy or our friends sad," says Kerron thoughtfully. "And she doesn't like being stuck in one place or being lonesome. One time a lady who is like the Empress but not put her someplace lonesome that she couldn't leave and it made her really sad but then Daddy fell in love with her and asked nice and the Empress asked the lady who's like her to let Mummy out to come live where we live and she did." Kerron nods smartly. That is the end of this story.

[pythbox]

"I used to know your mother," she murmurs. "Or... maybe 'know' is the wrong word. I met her, anyway." She smiles wryly. "We didn't get along."

[colorshapes]

"That's sad," says Kerron frankly.

[pythbox]

"Yes," she sighs. "Yes it is."

[colorshapes]

"How come you didn't get along?" Kerron asks. "Most people can if they try! Esme says that. She's Lily's mummy. And also some other people's mummy, like the Emperor."

[pythbox]

She closes her eyes.

"Because," she says finally, "he did a lot of things that upset me and people I care about."

[colorshapes]

"Oh. Huh," says Kerron. "Was it a long time ago? Most grownups did some bad things a long time ago and then stopped." Pause. "Most of the grownups I know, anyway."

[pythbox]

"About six months," she says. "For me."

[colorshapes]

"Oh, that's way before I was born," says Kerron unconcernedly. "Okay then."

[pythbox]

She gives him a quizzical look.