Lin laughed, and said softly "I do like you, Oswald.  You will have to come with me, someday, to meet some of my other friends.  But you will want to wait until you are certain you are no longer needed here, and are ready to 'die'.  Shangri-La is not a place most can come and go from freely."

Oswald sighed, looking pensieve as he spoke.

"While you no doubt make your offer out of goodwill, Lin, I will have to consider it carefully. I am old, though possibly not by your reckoning, but I feel old nonetheless. I do not know how much longer I could stand to linger on. I miss my wife terribly, and once I am sure Oswald is ready to face the world on his own, I would love nothing more than to go to her side. Still, it does present an interesting opportunity that I will have to carefully consider."

  She looked at him, and said softly "Shangri-La is not in this world.  The rules of normal interactions do not apply.  Life, and death, don't work the same there.  Lucas has been there, once.  I gave him a new heart.  But he came in dead, and left alive.  So, don't think you have to be lonely, Oswald."

"No, but nor is it in the next, Lin. Though through death did we part, I do miss my wife terribly, and I do not think they will let her out from behind the pearly gates to come visit me there. Still, as I said, I will think and meditate on the subject. That much, I will promise you now. Even if Ozzy does not need me, after all, someone else still might. A Seer's work is rarely done, unfortunately." said Oswald, sighing.

"Tell me, Lin... have I done wrong? Sometimes I feel like I stole his childhood from him. He's only sixteen, and already in a private military organization. I've tried to protect the boy some, but... I had to prepare him. The futures I've seen... Did I ever get the chance to tell you about the visions I had, the day he was born? I remember when I first held him, I saw his futures. Some were good, some were not. All, however, involved much conflict and strife. Thankfully, I believe some of the worst futures have been averted, but... I fear for him, Lin, and for Meg, and their friends." he continued, looking wistfully towards Ozzy and the other boys as they continued to get ready to go mussel hunting.

  Lin shook her head, and said softly "No, you haven't.  Sometime, when you have a moment, I will t ake you to an Isle of Moment, and you can tell me everything.  Yes, I can make Isles of Moment.  That spell isn't lost.  You would love to explore my Library.  Most of it is in Shangri-La.  And I will be here, when the future becomes the now.  I plan to do my best for my daughter, and your grandson.  Although it helps that she's a demigoddess."

Oswald nodded, "That would be nice, yes. As I said, I will think about it, and contact you when I reach a decision on the matter. I have tried my best for my grandson, myself, though I hope he does not waste the effort that both he and I put into him. While this mercernary business will be good further training for him, I do hope that he does not become corrupt. I would never have allowed it if it were not a man such as The Rocket at the head of the organization."

  She smiled, and said "I would think, with your moral compass to guide him, that Ozzy will turn out wonderfully.  You're a good man."  She leaned against the wall, watching her daughter mingle with the crowd of cousins.

"Maybe you are right, Lin, and maybe he will be fine. Still, I cannot help but worry, much like you yourself," said Oswald, chuckling.

Chuck hesitantly accepted a knife, putting it into his bucket and following along curiously, "Scrape them up? I guess I'll see when we get there. Say, do you guys get much TV out here?" He asked the boy who was walking near them.

Iris finished her lecture on genetics and statistics with Meg's poor probably now-befuddled cousin and then looked around for the others. They were missing, but there was some dancing starting. And off in the corner, "Mister Gysbourne!" Iris ran up, at first very quickly then remembered to slow down to merely fast, "You're here!" She greeted him in ancient Greek, having forgotten she had been speaking it. She held out a plate to him with some hummus and baklava on it, "They have delectable food! And you know that Meg's Dad's name is the same name as the ancient Greek philosopher whose writing I started learning Greek from? He formulated some of the ideas that our chemical theories are based on, you know, like about atoms."

"They probably do, Chuck, but why? You can watch TV back home. You can't go mussel hunting, though. Besides, it'd all probably be in Greek, anyway. You wouldn't be able to understand it. If you're skittish about the knife, let me know, and I'll handle that bit. C'mon, it'll be fun!" said Ozzy, grinning and giving Chuck a friendly slap on the back to try and encourage him. Ozzy was enjoying the prospect of doing something new, with new people, in a new place.

=================================================================================

Oswald smiled as Iris came running up.

"Yes, Greek food is very good, isn't it? I'm afraid I haven't had too much opportunity to get real Greek food ever since I stopped travelling. Most people see something even as simple as hummus and turn up their noses, just because of its color. I'm glad to see you're enjoying yourself, Iris, and sorry to hear that the other party ended too soon for your tastes. It's good to know that you're getting to experience this, as I'm afraid our own family Christmas won't be quite so... populous. I doubt that Michael will show up, though Gina and Michaela will probably drop by."

  Lin chuckled, dismissing the silence field with a thought, and told Iris "Actually, my husband is named Demetrious Zeus Kattakara.  His cousins occasionally call him DZ because they feel skittish about using his middle name.  Some still believe, to some extent, in the ancient Greek Gods."

---

  The boys shook their heads, and chattered something rapidly in Greek.  Their spokesman said "Four channels.  Not much to watch.  More fun to run the hills, the beach, the streets."

Chuck shook his head, "That's not what I meant." He told Ozzy, before turning back to the Greek boy who he had asked about TV, "Do you watch wrestling? Who is your favorite pro-wrestler?" He asked, filling time as they headed towards the beach.

Iris nodded at Lin and Mr. Gysbourne, "Oh, that's nifty. I think that's a cool name. Iris is from Greek mythos as well, you know. That's where I got the name from; that means I may be biased." She explained, "Iris was a messenger who traveled along rainbows, so I don't mind. And there's this absolutely gorgeous painting named Iris that even looks a little bit like me! Dr. Svekna had a theory about reincarnation and he used to tell the others that I was obviously the original Iris reincarnated. I have not yet developed a theory about that." And to Mr. Gysbourne, "I'll try any food, provided that I can prove that it's edible. It's my metabolism's fault, you know?"

In reply to Chuck Edwards (msg #75):

  The boy shook his head, and said something, then tried again.  "No wrestling?  No cable?"

  Lin cocked her head, and asked Iris "Would you like to find out if you ARE the original Iris of the Greek Pantheon Incarnate?"  She glanced at Oswald, and he felt the telepathy spell as he heard {{After all, we have Zeus, and we have a demigoddess-Fury.}}

"Ooooh. Yeah, they wouldn't watch that fake crap here, dude. This is Greece, the home of Greco-Roman wrestling! This is where it all started. Those pro-wrestlers may be athletic, I'll give 'em that, but if an actual wrestler, like the kind at the Olympics, challenged 'em? I would put everything I had on the actual wrestler. Hell, I could probably kick a pro-wrestler's butt. I've fought bigger an' stronger dudes than them, I could do it." said Ozzy, smirking. As he talked about kicking the butts of pro-wrestlers, he made a few punching motions in midair, grinning widely.

=================================================================================

{{At this point? It would not surprise me. She has super-speed and a love of rainbows, it fits the bill.}} replied Oswald via the telepathy spell. He remained silent for now, wanting Iris to make her own decision on the matter. It WAS her that they were talking about. Still, if she wanted his advice, he'd give it, but only if she asked.

Chuck's eyes widened considerably, although whether it was the lack of cable, the history of wrestling, or the idea of Ozzy beating up pro wrestlers (or more likely a certain pro wrestler) that caused this reaction was uncertain. He nodded slowly, wracking his brains for conversation topics that did not rely on knowledge of cable television.

His mind touched on videogames, but he passed on that as well. After all, if the poor guy didn't have cable, he probably didn't have a Playstation, either. Then he skipped to movies and followed the thought-train to the same conclusion. Well, he was out of conversational topics.

"What is school like in Greece?" Chuck finally asked, hoping that the shore was approaching fast because he couldn't keep up questions about that for long.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:37, Tue 16 Nov 2010.

  They grinned, and said "Laid back.  Relaxed."  And then he heard the first couple hit the water, laughing.  The soft sound of the surf sweeping in was steady and repetitive.

Iris looked between the two adults contemplatively. When she spoke, it appeared to be thinking out-loud, "As I was explaining to Meg, my belief structure has been disproven so many times in recent weeks that I find myself unsure of what is real and what is not. What the doctors at the facility told me does not exist so often has proven to simply be outside of current scientific understanding. That's why I've set up a surveillance system at the house to catch irrefutable proof of Saint Nicholas. It's a shame that one can't tag souls or I would be tempted to research the validity of reincarnation; there is certainly an historical and cultural base of support."

Iris continued, shifting the focus of her thoughts, "With this thought in mind, it would be against the spirit of scientific inquery that I have decided that I must have in order to learn fact from fiction to refuse any test you might choose to try on me. I don't know what to believe about polythiestic deities incarnate from whichever culture you'd choose, but I won't know until I try things. Right?"

  Lin nodded, and said "I can certainly check that, because there ARE ways to check that, Iris.  I just prefer not to do it right here, because Demetrious' Greek relatives don't know he married anything other than a normal Chinese lady."

"Sounds awesome. Freakin' American school is always rushing. Tests, tests, and more tests. It never ends! I'd like to find the asshat who thought up that 'No Child Left Behind' crap, make 'em go through a few years of that torture, and see how they like it!" said Ozzy, punching a fist into an open palm.

"Still, no sense in wasting this chance, yeah? Cowabunga, dudes!!!" said Ozzy as he started running towards the water, laughing.

=================================================================

Oswald smiled, pleased to hear Iris' very rational decision. For a twelve year old, she sometimes seemed to be very mature and wise... and at others, she seemed to be just like any other little girl. She *was* setting traps for Santa Claus, after all.

"Very well, Iris. Then once we are in a proper place to do the test, then it shall be done. As for the nature of certain supernatural entities... it can get confusing, I will admit. But I will do my best to explain it to you, if you wish."

Chuck rushed after the others, dived in hooting, and began dog-paddling around.

Iris nodded and watched the others dance some. She grinned as they spun in circles and jumped around, "Does the dance mean anything? Aside from that Meg's dad is here?"

  She chuckled, and said "It means that his sisters talked him into dancing again.  Demetrious is a very good dancer."