Gold Star for Robot Boy

[Miranda Weaver]

"Holding up alright, Sam?" Miranda ask. No hesitation before she use Sam's name and a sense that the question is only polite.

[Samantha McManus]

"Hard to keep this up but ah... they're helping."

[Miranda Weaver]

"They're?"

[Samantha McManus]

"They're kind of just... on the edges of where I can sense. Other flocks..."

"...other Morrigans."

[Miranda Weaver]

"Managing to stay out of territorial disputes then."

[Samantha McManus]

"It's... well it's a bit odd. It all feels like it's mine, but it all feels like it's theirs. It overlaps. They're my flock, but they're not."

[Miranda Weaver]

"I can see that you'd have a problem understanding what's yours and how it fits into your responsibilities," she says acidly.

[Samantha McManus]

"Look, I know I may not have... given the best first impression."

"And I know I'm not her, and that probably hurts."

[Miranda Weaver]

"Oh no, I have no problem identifying that you're not her. That's become crystal clear to me. I've seen the damage in my uncle's mind. Tell me, do you take such atrocious care of your wolves as well?"

[Samantha McManus]

"That wasn't me that did that."

[Miranda Weaver]

"I didn't say you did the damage. I was told who did the damage. But let's say, I take my staff, and slam it into the side of your head. And one of your friends sees you're injured and doesn't do anything about it. Would the fact that they didn't do the damage be a suitable excuse for not helping you?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Neither of them want me to help. They've said in no uncertain terms they don't want to re-merge."

[Miranda Weaver]

"Because that's the only solution here, obviously." She stands, pushing the chair away and flexing her wings in frustration, the feathers still all black.

[Samantha McManus]

"You think it doesn't bother me? They're both broken in different ways, but I can't do what Miriam did. I can't just rearrange him on a whim."

[Miranda Weaver]

"Leave to fester or pave paradise, huh? Those are the only options? He was right. This dimension sucks."

[Samantha McManus]

"Oh, so you and your mum are much more keen on waltzing into someone's brain without permission?" She frowns.

[Miranda Weaver]

"He has a golden statue of the Morrigan in downtown Will-burg. He's the Morrigan's champion. We're not talking about waltzing into some random mind on the street. We're talking about checking in on a friend and confidant. Did you even know the Other-Will had set up a password system on Will's mind?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Aren't you the one who reminded me that though he's the Morrigan's champion, he's not my champion?"

"I knew they could do things to each other. Force each other to shift. They're still the same person, on some level."

"They're just... each a perfect set of what he hates about himself," she sighs.

[Miranda Weaver]

"Actually, I don't think so. You're the one who made it abundantly clear you don't want to be what you are or even associated with what you appear to be." She hangs the staff back on her belt, "I get that you're not my mum. Trust me, I don't even see that relation now."

[Samantha McManus]

"I've been scared of my powers for half my bloody life. I've known I was the Morrigan for less than a year and everybody's got an opinion on what that should mean."

"You want me to admit she's better? She probably is! You think I don't want him back with his family?"

"It's... it's pretty damn clear what's happening now is what's supposed to happen. You take him back to be with his wife and his daughter. Have a good laugh with your mum about what a disappointment I am."

[Miranda Weaver]

"There's no 'supposed' to happen, no matter what Mom says. There's only 'can' happen. We put our fingers on the scale and we turn 'might' into 'probable' into 'near certainty', but even up to that last moment, things can always change."

[Samantha McManus]

"He was never supposed to be here. I might've tried to be his friend, but apparently I was bloody awful at it."

"You're his family. You deserve him."

[Miranda Weaver]

"Still handing off responsibility. 'Here, sorry he got broke while in my care, but you can fix him, right?'"

[Samantha McManus]

"Would you even trust me to try? I'm halfway through my freshman year."

[Miranda Weaver]

"Fine. Whatever." Miranda rubs her temple. "I'm going out for a bit," she says as she tries to brush past Sam.

[Samantha McManus]

"...good talk," she mumbles, slumping down into a corner.

[Robin Stanton]

"Whole lotta storming off going on around here..." Robin comments as she pokes her head in.

[Samantha McManus]

"...aye well, I've made a mess of things with your dad," she sighs.

[Robin Stanton]

"Really? Cause usually he does a pretty good job of that himself. I mean he got himself stuck here to start with, right?" she chuckles.

[Samantha McManus]

"Miranda's cross with me for not taking better care of him."

"I'm... not sure she's wrong."

[Robin Stanton]

"Yeah, well, Mirri's... protective and after being gone for a month... People were starting to worry, ya know? And I think to her it's like finding him battered and broken. Which he's not. He's my Dad and he bounces back from anything! He's just TwoDads right now. I dunno, I just learned that who or what my Dad is is a pretty dang flexible thing." she shrugs a little. "It's a shapeshifter thing, I guess or maybe just a Stanton thing."

[Samantha McManus]

"He's... been gone longer than you think."

"I mean, from his perspective."

[Robin Stanton]

"Doesn't make him any less of my Dad. Way I see it he's in pretty good shape, all things considered." she smiles. "And you know I'm not lieing cause you only get called out on lieing to someone who looks like you once." she shudders. Literally jiggling in reckless disregard of bones and joints.

[Samantha McManus]

"Miranda's mum really looked after your dad, didn't she?"

[Robin Stanton]

"All of us, really. I was too little to remember, but the way Dad tells it, Aunt Nailah died but cause she can see the future she'd made some arrangements and hid her soul in my Dad. He says cause he's clay and that's significant for magic somehow but also he's not really literal clay unless he wants to be, so I dunno. I think Mirri remembers it a little differently, cause she got to witness all of that firsthand. I only heard the version of how holding her soul and bringing her back to life brought everyone closer together, but my Mum and Dad split up for a while around that time and I'm not stupid, so I know it wasn't all that clean."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye well... Miranda seems to expect me to have picked up where her mum left off."

"And I just... I don't know how to do that. I'm not that person. I may never be that person."

[Robin Stanton]

"I don't know much, but one thing I do know is that people can be whatever and whoever they want to be. And how much you let other people have a say in that is entirely up to you."

[Samantha McManus]

"Seems to be a theme lately. And I'm... well I'm bloody trying, but it's been a lot to deal with."

[Robin Stanton]

"Here it is, the weirdest thing that has ever happened. A Stanton giving a McManus advice." she laughs.

"For reals though, don't try to be something you're not. Or not yet. Or not ever. Or you'll get stuck in one of your LEGO Bionicles and freak out your Mum something fierce when your leg snaps off." she nods sagely.

[Samantha McManus]

"...that sounds strangely specific."