author's note: please excuse the disappearing picnic table. A crash during the pics brought me back to a save that didn't have the table out and I didn't notice until after I had put the story boards together. :) I apologize.
Ammon knew it was foolish to think that he might be able to catch a quick catnap before heading into Nautilus for the day, but none the less he felt he should try. After an hour of his mind and heart racing he decided to let the ocean air refresh his senses before reporting in and climbed the stairs to the main floor. He assumed he would be the only one up; it was still early and he hadn't heard anyone above. When he stepped onto the deck he saw he was wrong. Karlie was staring out to sea, lost in thought "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you were up dear. I was just going to get a breath of fresh air before heading into work, sorry to intrude!" he said, wondering if he should turn and head back in, leaving Karlie any respite she might have been looking for. "No, please, sit" Karlie softly said nodding to the seat to her right.
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As he walked over to the chair Ammon couldn't help but comment "Such a beautiful morning." Karlie closed her eyes and inhaled the ocean air, feeling the sun and breeze dance on her face. "Mmm. Yes it is" she said softly. "You sound exactly like Adrastria - er well, your mother, last night" Ammon said warmly as he sat down. Karlie couldn't help but hear the gentle devoted love Ammon had for her mother when he said it, and couldn't help but beam with happiness that he still felt that way after everything that had happened. "Told you that the mornings here were fabulous" Karlie softly joked. "That you did, my dear, that you did" Ammon replied as he sat down.
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After a moment he asked "So.. How are you doing, dear? Did you sleep ok? I'm sure it's been all quite a lot to take in." "It would have been a whole lot easier to take in if this hadn't been all my mom's fault. And not even fault, but I mean I use to think I could trust her more than anyone else in the world yet she's lied to me my whole LIFE, more than anyone else ever even could have. I can't even imagine how you and Niella must feel after she just left you both." The words came out of Karlie's mouth before she could stop them. They stung her as they did, knowing that had her mom heard them she would have been crushed. But her mom wasn't here and right now she didn't care, SHE was crushed. Ammon frowned, hearing the pain in Karlie's voice hurt his own heart. He sat quiet for a minute and then said "Yes, you're right, you know. It was very hard for both Niella and I. I'm sure there were many times in Niella's life growing up that she wondered if her mother just didn't love her. I know I did. And here come to find out it was all so your mom could live on the beach, too, right? Talk about betrayal." "Wait, what??" Karlie asked, giving her eyes a strong blink and her head a quick shake. She wasn't sure she heard him right.
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"I mean here we are decades later and she has everything she ever wanted, right? But hey, far be it from any of us to step in her way" Ammon did his best Magdy impression. "Nooo no no no uh uh" Karlie fiercely defied, shaking her head and finger. "If there's two things I know about my mom it's 1. that the only reason she left was because she felt she had no choice, it was what was best for you and Niella, not her. And 2. Even though I didn't know why then, my mother's heart has been broke ever since. This ocean is full of the tears she cried herself to sleep shedding night after night. She doesn't have a selfish cell in her whole body!" Ammon threw his hands up "I surrender I surrender! Whew you certainly are as fierce as she is over her loved ones! " he protested with a sly smile.
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Karlie sat staring blankly at Ammon for a second, her own words reverberating in her mind as she slowly realized what Ammon had just done before bursting into laughter. "Ugh! You're as bad as Niella! She pulls that reverse psychology shtick on me all the time!" "Well who do you think she learned it from? She is the apple, I am the tree." Ammon playfully boasted. Then, clapping his hands and rubbing them together, he added "Well the day isn't going to grow time just for me! I guess I should head to Nautilus." "You're still going to work?? Man, tough boss!" Karlie chided, knowing full well Niella would would shake her head in feigned disapproval of her father's hard core work ethic.
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As Ammon started to stand, Karlie did the same, though just a slight bit slower and more awkwardly. Ammon offered his arm and helped her up. She threw him off guard when she wrapped her arms around him after she was standing. "Thank you so much Mr. Anni.. Dad" she added quietly. Ammon felt a leprechaun kick him in the Adam's apple riiight before he felt one kick him in his slightly out of shape belly. "Oh! My! What a kick! You've got quite a little fighter in there!" he said, surprised. "Hehe yes, he or she is quite strong. Go on, you can feel, Papa" Karlie smiled warmly. Instantly Ammon felt his roll in Karlie's life was forever cemented and it filled him with love and a hope he had never felt before.
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And then *boop* he felt another kick under his hand. He looked at Karlie and they both chuckled. "Well I'm off!" he said, standing and gave Karlie's hand a soft squeeze before turning toward the door. On his way in he heard Karlie's phone vibrate on the table while Linda Belcher's voice said "I love showahs and mornings and bologna and turtles. ... I'm Linda. I love showahs and morni" before Karlie answered the call. "I. I didn't wake you did I?" Shari asked, tentatively. Karlie had shown her mother love and grace at the end of the night but Shari knew she still had a lot to answer for.
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"No Mom, you didn't wake me." Karlie said flatly, still not ready to completely forgive her mother. "How are you feeling?" Shari asked, her voice heavy with guilt and concern. "You know Mom, everyone keeps asking me that - how I'm feeling and I really just wish they'd stop because I'm not really sure what I'm suppose to say!" Karlie snapped, throwing her hand up on the air in frustration. She was as frustrated with herself as she was at her mom. She wasn't mad that people had asked her how she felt, it was just a convenient target to throw daggers at rather than directly at her mother. She loved her mother fiercely but feeling like her mother had kept such a huge thing from her, ABOUT her - that really hurt. And Shari knew it. "I'm so sorry Karlie Ana. How can I help? What can I do?" Shari implored.
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"I don't know, mom, how you're suppose to help. I don't know even know what I am but all I could think about all night long was what that might mean for my baby!" her panic poking it's ugly head out from Karlie's normally "together and in control" demeanor. "Well, I might actually be able to help you with that" Shari tried to ease her daughter's tension. "Oh Right. And I'm suppose to trust you?" Karlie said, bitterly. Shari gasped the blow to her heart hurt so much. "Karlie Ana," she said softly, "I know you're very hurt right now and you have every single reason to be angry at me for.. all that I've done.. But please just think back to two days ago. Have I ever done anything else that hurt you? Did that Karlie trust that me? I promise, with my whole heart, that I will never hold anything from you again, or lie to you ever. I'm not asking you to trust me forever. But if you can just trust me right now, I will help you get some answers."
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Halfway through her mother's words, Karlie was already filled with regret. She had always trusted her mother, without question. Her mother had never ever lied about anything... except this... "I'm sorry Mom, I'm just feeling very overwhelmed and I really am trying to understand but right now I'm just very worried about this baby. I mean am I half mermaid and half genie? Half witch and half genie? Human?? What does that mean for this baby?? Is going to be some kind of mermaid--genie-faerie-witch-human freak? With wings and scales and blue skin and a pointy hat and a giant sense of entitlement?? Can that even happen??" Karlie's panic was rising again. "Karlie Ana take a deep breath. If you can trust me, come to my house, I have something to show you. I promise you, whatever answers you need I will help you find, ok?" "Ok, yes, alright." Karlie replied, letting herself be comforted by her mother's words. "I'll be right over." Shari told Karlie she loved her and as she hung up she steeled herself for what was in store. Today Shari would find herself again in the worst, most painful place on earth. But there was no way to avoid it.https://i.imgur.com/Cs4jtIW.jpg
When Karlie got to Shari's, she was surprised to find her mom waiting on the porch. Karlie gave her mom a sad but loving smile as she climbed the couple steps up and they just hugged. "I'm so sorry" Shari managed to whisper as she held her daughter close. Karlie squeezed her mom tighter. "C'mon, it's out back" Shari said. "What is??" Karlie asked. "The water taxi" Shari replied. As they rode, Shari directed the water taxi around various water obstacles and small islands. Finally she directed him to a particular patch of beach on one of the smaller uninhabited islands, usually surrounded by a thick fog. Shari arranged for the taxi to return in two hours and as it sped away she started making her way to the end of the beach where the trees and bushes all but completely camouflaged a dilapidated shack. "Mom, come on, enough, where are we?" Karlie's patience wearing even thinner. Shari turned to Karlie and held her hands up. "Ok, now don't freak out. No one lives here anymore. Sh-she's been dead for 20 years..."
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"Wait, is this where that old crone that blackmailed you lives?!?" Karlie demanded incredulously. "Lived" Shari reminded her. "I hadn't been back here since that ... day until you told me you were pregnant. I knew you would need answers so after looking up land deeds at City Hall I found out that she died over 20 years ago and had no living relative. I figured if we were going to be able to find answers anywhere, it'd be in there. I was just trying to figure out how to tell you this when.. yesterday happened." Shari explained. "So now you know, and all that's left to do is for us to go look for answers." she finished. As if the wind was warning them personally, it howled through the broken windows. Shari turned and Karlie followed her up the stairs. The outside was even creepier up close, with cobwebs and moss and ivy growing through the neglected boards. Karlie felt a strange pull to the place within her, from some deep but familiar place buried inside. It pricked her skin like electricity as she stepped inside.
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When Ammon got to his office, he immediately began combing the AI code for any sort of clues. After laboring through the code that he barely recognized it became clear that any clue would be in deciphering the parts of the code he didn't recognize and then determining, if possible, the parameters and function of the AI. He worked straight through lunch, making little progress. If he had thought just combing through the code looking for clues was laborious, deciphering the code and determining the parameters and function was nothing short of mental Olympics of galactic proportions, but it was crucial to determining how his AI came to be used without his knowledge or permission. He had always known that the propitiatory code could be dangerous in the wrong hands so literally no one else had ever even seen the code. The hard drives for the traversers were in his suitcase when he arrived and were still there as far as he knew.. Using his base code as a key, Ammon set to work. It was going to be a long day.
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As Karlie followed Shari into the shack they found it only in nominally better shape on the inside than out, but at least the floors felt solid, and mostly the walls. Strange pictures, portraits of people with harsh stares, bizarre artifacts and talismen, and jars of the grotesque filled every surface, every dark nook and cranny. All highlighted by the occasional beam of sunlight piercing the dank shadowy places with shards of light hazed by blooms of dust like spears through the occasional hole in the walls or reflection off shards of broken window that lay scattered about. "Oh, Tim Burton's summer home!" Karlie said wryly as she looked around. Shari said "This was the scariest place I had ever been when i got here. It actually feels bigger right now - there were animals in here! Snakes and lizards, a giant ol' crow, an old scrappy one eyed cat mean as sin, a couple of chickens I'm pretty sure. And these screens had just cloth draped over an old rod that just blew in the wind. And she stunk, like moldy vegetables and sweat and chewing tobacco." Shari couldn't help herself, the memory was so visceral. She curled in on herself and closed her eyes "And her bony fingers gripped my arm so hard I thought it might come off if I tried to run. Where would I have run, anyway? All I had was you and if they found out about you..." Shari's voice trailed.
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"Good heavens Mom! How horrible. I'm so sorry, I really just did not understand at all." Karlie felt like the most selfish brat in the universe. She hadn't even once thought of how hard this place might have been for her until seeing it for herself. She had been so worried about herself and her baby, and so angry at her mother for a choice that really was no choice at all that she hadn't even stopped to think about revisiting one of the worst days of her life. "Listen," Karlie clapped her hands "Let's look for clues here for a bit and then dip our toes in the water before the taxi comes back, ok? Rinse this place off of us! I'll take this side, you take that and then once we're done we're out of here for good!" Karlie found herself comforting her mom, partially in hopes of making up for the gigantic heel she had been, and partially to let her mom know how much she appreciated the immense effort just to help Karlie find any answers she could.
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They split up and Shari soon found herself staring at a strange glowing orb trying to figure out what it was. Clearly it wasn't a "crystal ball" because it was on it's own stand, marked with various markings including phases of the moon. From behind her she heard some clanking and Karlie saying "I wonder what this is..." "I wouldn't touch anything honey, I distinctly remember a voice coming from one of these things in here" Shari warned right before she heard a very very faint low warbling. Turning around she saw Karlie had pulled out some sort of old machinery, all rusted and rickety. The center of it spinned and the warbling seemed to be emitting from it. "Hey did you touch that??" Shari asked before realizing Karlie's eyes had glazed over and she seemed to be completely unaware to anything else around her, swaying as though she'd drank a bottle of vodka. "Karlie Ana!" Shari said, snapping her fingers in front of Karlie's face to no avail. "Karlie Ana!" she clapped this time. The warbling was getting louder, deeper, more intense when suddenly the warbling stopped, Karlie's eyes fell closed and her swaying stopped. Looking around in a panic Shari grabbed a pillow from the nearby bed and *PFFT* hit Karlie square across the face.
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The blow seemed to immediately bring Karlie back to her senses. "HEY!" Karlie protested after recovering. Shari explained what happened, begging her forgiveness, worrying that things still might be fragile between them. Shari's words seemed to ring true and bring a faint familiarity with what she was saying and Karlie soon forgave her, her memory returning as her wits came back to her.
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Shari wrapped her daughter tight into her arms, relieved she was seemingly alright. "I really don't know what I was thinking bringing you here, with the baby and all. I'm sure there are other ways to find out. Her family line is centuries old so this can't be the only place we can look. Let's go take that walk, babybird, dip our feet. K?" Shari urged gently. "Ok Mama, we can go" Karlie agreed even though she felt more at ease than she had in the last 24 hours, almost as if she belonged here. Just as her mom opened the door to leave, the light's path passed over a book on the floor. The threaded title on it's cover almost glowed as if it were lit from within. "De la Barthe: Une Histoire Vraie et Puissante" Before she knew it, Karlie found it in her hand. She looked back upon the room, knowing it would not be the last time she saw it, stepped out and closed the door behind her.
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Across Isla Paradiso at Nautilus Ammon was just about to toss in the towel for the day and make his way home when it hit him like a freight train. There it was, staring him in the face the entire time. He had been struggling trying to determine the function and perimeters of this AI when it suddenly became clear that was in fact the entire problem. There was no function other than to communicate and there were very very little, if any, perimeters, sort of a computer version of "by any means necessary. But that was just the headlights of the train. The real metal and power of the hit came when Ammon realized the only actual parameters he had found were two separate numbers. One of them was the latitude and longitude of the science lab. The other was the binary equivalent to his social security number. He called for a water taxi, loaded the code into a flash drive, and made his way for the door. As he closed in on the front entrance he could hear someone, a male, outside speaking in a poorly hushed but angry voice. Great, some employee was clearly experiencing personal drama during work hours. Ammon pushed the front door open intent on B-lining it for the docks as quickly and quietly was possible. Seeing the unmistakable sparkle of faerie wings from just outside his field of vision he found himself already more involved than he wanted to be and quickened his pace. Just as he reached the stairs to the doc he thought he made out "No, No, she has no idea. She's off off on prenatal leave so she'll have no idea until I'm long gone" but before his mind could process it he was already at the bottom of the stairs. He decided to shake it off. He hadn't had sleep in a day and a half, found his long lost love, a daughter he never knew he had, and at least half the words coincided with the clicking of his heels on the boardwalk. "You're beat, old boy, get home before you start hallucinating, too." He thought to himself.
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(continued below)
