instar | the divulgence

Bella assembles everyone (in the garage, out of politeness to Ax, who is standing in grass clippings that Andi took from two houses down for him) after she has organized her notes on Yeerking.

"I have tentatively concluded that the benefits of telling Renée outweigh the risks. We already use her house as a base of operations, and not having to work around her would be much easier, especially now that we have three people who don't officially exist to hide. She exists - and her official existence is an adult; she can drive us places and so on. She can excuse me and Andi from school, if Charlie morphs her he can be out in public as long as they coordinate and not have to pretend he's not our parent, she can make sure we have enough food in the house - and I guess for Ax we experiment with commercially available forms of hay, there aren't going to be grass clippings in Phoenix so readily available - to sustain extra people. She's flighty but not terrible with secrets. I do think we might want to avoid teaching her specialized vocabulary like 'Yeerk' or 'Escafil' or whatever, because that seems like the easier slip for her to make, but I think we should tell her what's going on. Charlie will be able to convince her that we can't just turn over the issue to the authorities."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hold_infinity

"I'll get them," she says, "come in, sit down."

And she heads for the last known location of a Swan twin.

From:

instar

Bella heard the door and is already collecting Andi. They follow Robin down the stairs.

"Hi, Mom," says Bella, and she goes to shut the front door. "Dad -"

From:

kindestgarden

"I know, I know, my poor girls -"

From:

instar

"Mom," says Bella, "I still don't like to be interrupted. And it's more complicated than you know. Dad isn't actually dead. He faked it."

From:

kindestgarden

"...What?"

From:

instar

"The short version is, aliens exist, one was possessing him, the others would notice if he just stopped showing up to alien meetings, we killed it but Charlie has to look dead for them not to be tipped off. Other, nicer aliens also exist and gave us powers and there is one of those in the garage."

From:

kindestgarden

"...What?"

From:

instar

"Trouble had an alien possessor too but we cut a deal with her and he ran away from home to avoid detection," Bella adds, "and he's here, as is Ethan, they both helped with un-possessing Charlie."

From:

pandion

"Also we can all turn into animals," Andi adds helpfully, "want to see?"

From:

kindestgarden

"You know what, yes, yes I would like to see. If this is some kind of prank -"

But Andi is already changing, and she stops before describing the consequences of pranking.

From:

morphbox

<Hi, Mom.>

From:

hold_infinity

Robin looks from the barn owl to the barn owl's mother and shrugs.

From:

instar

Bella pets Andi-the-owl's soft feathers.

"You can also meet the alien in the garage if you would like. Charlie and Trouble and Ethan will corroborate us if Robin doesn't suffice."

From:

kindestgarden

"What in God's name is going on?"

From:

hold_infinity

"...Evil aliens?" says Robin.

From:

kindestgarden

"Evil aliens! Less evil aliens! Owls!" exclaims Renée, throwing her hands into the air. "Faked deaths and faked running-away -"

From:

pandion

"He really ran away, it just was for evil-alien reasons," clarifies Andi.

From:

hold_infinity

"Yeah."

From:

kindestgarden

"Where is Charlie, then?" demands Renée.

From:

morphbox

From:

sundayfish

And here is Charlie. "'Lo, Renée. Girls told you about the aliens and all that?"

From:

kindestgarden

"They told me something - look, did you know they called me and told me you were dead - that you can all turn into animals -"

From:

sundayfish

"Didn't have much choice. Aliens in the NSA, aliens in the phone companies, don't want to say too much over the phone. I am sorry," he adds. "Just - didn't have a better idea."