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 Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 6:02 pm
They left the scene once all the Chaos auras were gone, snuck back into the shadows of an alley as the emergency crews arrived and returned to their powerless selves. Paris shushed Claire before her mother-in-law could say anything on the subject, steering her away to safety.
How the hell was Paris supposed to explain this to her father-in-law? To her husband? To anyone?
They ran into Peter and his girlfriend (“Not my girlfriend,” Peter would say if Paris uttered the word out loud), but the girlfriend left after a friendly greeting, leaving Peter to his mother.
His mother, who was a Page.
The drive back to the Gallo house was quiet and awkward, broken only by Claire’s rambling, which steered too close to magical subjects for Paris's liking. She needed to think, and she couldn’t do that with Momma gushing about being a magical girl.
Fortunately, they had to pick up Henry and Abby from school; Claire knew better than to talk about any of it around them. Once they arrived, the twins tumbled out of the car, dropping their school bags in the foyer before running through the house to burst out into the backyard, shouting for snacks and their grandfather and their little sister.
---
Their grandfather was exactly where they expected him to be, out in the backyard with the youngest, keeping guard as Elsie climbed up and down the extravagantly designed and lovingly crafted chateau, complete with multiple swings, and multiple slides, and a little hideaway underneath for a miniature table and chairs.
Beau took being a grandfather seriously. It helped that he was retired, and didn’t know what to do with himself now that his career was over.
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:18 pm
At first Peter didn’t want to believe it. There were so few things in this world that surprised him, so his mother being a magical girl shouldn’t have been one of those things. But. She wasn’t exactly. Well. Young. She was already a grandmother!
He supposed it was better than finding out that Nana was part of this magical war, but Peter didn’t think he would be surprised if they found out that Nana was really a General Queen of the Negaverse. She certainly schemed enough for it.
If anything, it was Paris’s lack of talking about what happened that convinced him that his mother being a new Page had to be true. Peter sat in one of the middle seats of Paris’s car, trying to keep the twins entertained while also trying to catch any conversation between Paris and his mother. There wasn’t much. It was mostly his mother talking.
Finally, once the twins were released to the backyard did Peter turn to Paris and ask, “What do you mean she’s a knight??” as if his mother wasn’t literally right there to ask -- No, it was because she had no idea what was going on, so she was a horrible source for information. _____ Really, it wasn’t that big of a deal! She had only been reading fantasy and science fiction novels since she was a little girl. She had always dreamed about going on adventures and using magic, and while her introduction to the magical girl life wasn’t exactly what she’d imagined, it was just the beginning.
Claire bustled about the house once they got home, obviously still excited but she had her grandbabies to take care of, and went about pulling out fresh snacks from the refrigerator. All healthy, of course. But she did have some ice cream that she could probably sneak them later.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:09 pm
“Look, I tried to stop her, okay?” Paris said, whispering, like that made the conversation slightly less ridiculous. “I told her not to touch anything, but what does she go and do? Touches the first magical object she comes across. I don’t even know what it was, just that all of a sudden she’s a Page of Cosmos.”
Ugh. Cosmos. Fitting as the attire might be, Paris still couldn’t get over the association.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like Cosmos; Paris didn’t know her well enough to have much of an opinion. It was that the last time she’d seen Cosmos, there’d been disagreements all over the place and Paris didn’t really want that drama in her life.
Why couldn’t Momma be a page of Venus? Love and beauty were kind of her things, weren’t they? Or Jupiter, like two of her sons! Or Polaris, even! Paris didn’t remember any drama with Polaris.
“Thank God she’s not a Page of Castor,” Paris muttered.
Although, as things were, she was pretty sure God didn’t have anything to do with anything.
With Peter at her side, Paris followed the exuberant twins into the backyard, where her father-in-law was waiting.--- Beau hugged each of the twins when they ran up to him, listening to them talk about their day, which went well, according to Abby, who chattered about winning some sort of tournament on the playground swings. (Who could swing the highest, most likely — a claim to fame Beau also boasted as a child. Abby was suitably impressed.)
Once the twins joined their little sister on the playset, Beau turned to his youngest son and his daughter-in-law, taking in the look on their faces.
“You’re looking grim,” he told Paris. “After a spa day?”--- Paris frowned and huffed out a breath. “Spa day got interrupted. Momma!” she called to her mother-n-law, “Why don’t you tell Dad what happened downtown?”
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:29 pm
Peter still wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all. Were they supposed to ground his mother? Make her stay home? She hadn’t really forced him to stay home when she found out about him being a Senshi (thanks Paris), but he also did his best to be as careful as possible after that. He knew she worried, but now they were all going to worry about her.
It was probably karma for making her upset whenever they got hurt. “Oh, darling, it was quite exciting. A little scary. Did you see anything on the news about it yet? Would it be on the news, do you think? There were so many Senshi and Knights and I met people in the Negaverse! It was a good thing we know all about it, otherwise I might have been a bit overwhelmed,” she smiled brightly as she made her way back over to the others, practically skipping over to her husband to give him a quick kiss, before handing out little cups with apple slices to everyone.
“Paris got to show off her wings, and I got to be a magical girl. Oh, do you do your magical thing at certain times? I would love to join now that I can! It's like being in an exclusive club!” "Oh my god," Peter breathed, staring at his mother for a moment before lifting his hand to cover his mouth. She was going to get herself killed.
"It's... definitely not a club. Mom. It's dangerous. Dad, tell her she can't go out and fight evil or..." he trailed off and just shook his head in exasperation.
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Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2021 9:55 am
Paris groaned and collapsed onto the nearest chair, slouching and pouting petulantly.
Even Princesses could be a bit moody sometimes.
In Paris’s case, “sometimes” became “frequently.” But could anyone blame her? Look at all the things she had to deal with! And now, on top of everything else, her mother-in-law was a Page!
“Why is this my life?” she asked no one in particular.--- Deadpan, Beau told his wife, “You can’t go out and fight evil.”
It’d been years since Paris and Chris sat down and told them about the war taking place in Destiny City, which seemed absurd the more he heard about it, but the proof was all around him, if Beau cared to look for it. His two younger sons were involved, by their own admission; Beau suspected his oldest had a hand in things, too, though Paris and Chris had been careful to omit Michael from their confessions. (They would’ve had a better chance of convincing Beau of Michael’s lack of involvement if they’d outright denied it, rather than keeping his name out of things altogether.)
Beau supposed, with so many of them already embroiled in the magical conflict, he shouldn’t be surprised that his wife found her way in.
And he wasn’t.
If anyone was destined to be a magical girl, it was Claire. It wasn’t her fault she happened to be sixty-five years old when destiny finally found her.
So Beau offered her a supportive smile and returned the kiss. “I’m sure you were lovely. You’ll have to show me at the next opportunity.”--- Paris glanced up at her father-in-law, aghast that he didn’t immediately use his authority as Gallo Family Patriarch to insist that Momma not go out and put herself in danger.
“You can’t just let her…”--- “I can’t exactly stop her either,” Beau gently argued. “Although, I would suggest not treating this like your book club, darling.”
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Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:08 pm
Peter gawked, staring in disbelief as his own father was going to let his mother run around and do dangerous things, because that was going to happen, no matter what his dad said about how she wasn’t allowed to go out and fight evil. --- Claire beamed up at her husband, but quickly forced herself to put on a serious face to nod understandingly about not treating it like her book club.
“Of course,” she said in agreement, fondly patting down the mostly non-existent wrinkles on Beau’s shirt. Really, she just wanted an excuse to touch his chest. He might be a grandfather, but he was absolutely a silver fox. “It’s a shame I won’t be able to wear my new dress to any galas. I’m sure that’s a big n--” --- ”No!” Peter finished for her, still aghast at everything happening in front of him. “Mom, this is a war. People get hurt. Or worse! You should absolutely never use your powers in front of anyone else, no matter how much you think you can trust them, unless you’re absolutely certain you know they’re not on the other side of this! Definitely not at any gala. Je--miny Cricket…” --- Despite what the younger generation apparently thought of her, she wasn’t completely stupid when it came to things. She might have a bubbly outlook, but she was also realistic. There were obviously people getting hurt, or worse. It had taken everything to even allow Peter out of the house when it was revealed that he was part of this magical world, but both she and Beau knew they wouldn’t be able to stop him. All they could do was prepare him for anything he might encounter.
“I don’t think they want to hang out with me,” she looked up at her husband instead, forcing a pout so her disappointment looked purposeful, and not because she was actually hurt.
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:48 pm
“It has nothing to do with whether or not we want to hang out with you, Momma,” Paris said, dredging up the patience she’d acquired after becoming a mother. “Obviously I want to hang out with you, but Peter’s right. This is war.”
This is war, this is war, this is war. Jesus, how many times had people said that over the years? Some of them used it as a justification, others used it like this, to make a point.
Paris hated saying it as much as she hated hearing it.
“Please, if you’re going to do this, don’t go out alone. You have no magic and a useless weapon as a Page. What do you even have? I didn’t notice anything during the… confrontation.”
She couldn’t really call it a battle when it hadn’t been much of one. What happened downtown was child’s play compared to the things Paris had seen over the years.--- Beau said nothing about Peter’s tone of voice, or his slip, almost taking the Lord’s name in vain, but he gave Peter a stern look to let his youngest son know he didn’t appreciate him taking that tone with his mother.
After all she’d done for him growing up, he should treat her with more respect than that.
Okay, well, Beau didn’t really care about the Jesus Christ nonsense, and he knew his wife wasn’t really hurt by Paris’s or Peter’s concern, but there was no harm in pretending otherwise.
“I think you’ll find Claire can be far more resourceful than you’d expect.”
After all, he wasn’t so shallow to have married her just for her looks.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 8:44 pm
Claire paused to think very hard about what her weapon was, and then shook her head. "Well, I saw a pretty ribbon floating in the air, so I picked it up," she explained, which drew a groan from Peter. "I know how to handle myself," she insisted with another pout. "I raised you and your brothers, didn't I? And your father and I did meet in the Navy."
It seemed like an age ago, and in many ways it was. They had a beautiful family that was continuously growing. And there was more magic than they could have ever imagined. She couldn't help but wonder what was in store for the youngest generation of their family.
"I promise I won't go out alone," she said to appease Paris, and gave her a warm smile to try and help her settle. At least she had more experience than Peter had when he was sneaking out of windows at night.Peter grumbled under his breath at the look his father gave him, and shuffled his feet a little. Still, he thought it was a horrible idea for his mother to be out fighting monsters and getting into trouble. She wasn't as young and agile as the rest of them! She could really get hurt! He supposed they could all get hurt, but she was their mom. And a lot of people relied on her.
"You get to tell Chris," Peter huffed. "Are you a knight, too??" he asked, eyeing his father suspiciously, although he supposed they would have already figured it out if he was. It wasn't like their mom would have been able to keep it a secret. "And you can't go around telling people that you have magical powers! It's very dangerous," he reiterated once more. This was going to be a nightmare if they weren't careful.
"Ugh, can we talk about this later? I'm starving."
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 9:41 am
Beau lifted his hands in a careless shrug. As far as he was aware, he had no part in this war but to be the doting husband, father, and grandfather, waiting for the others to return from their adventures.
Although… it was a shame he couldn’t join Claire.
No, best not to think about that.Paris whimpered and dropped her face into her hands, hoping the world would make sense once she dropped them. (It didn’t.)
How the hell was she going to tell Chris?
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