Stranger in a Strange Land: Comfort from the Strangest Place

Yesterday was not a good day for me, meaning it was not a great day for the kids in my head. My turmoil is their turmoil and when I'm upset, they tend to do one of two things: freak out and get upset with each other for no good reason at all, or try to make me feel better. I think yesterday, they were a little afraid of me. This morning less so, but still enough so that they decided to vote on a representative and send him or her to raise the white flag. It was a little surprising to see Elas popping up to sit quietly beside me as I typed what I wrote yesterday. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, he smiled, and went patiently back to waiting until I was done.

"And to what do I owe this delightfully surprising visit?"

"I was just dropping by to say hi. See how the chapter's coming."

"Uh huh. You're one of the worst liars I know, Elas. Seriously, what's up? If you've come to complain about your blue hair you can forget it. Not really easy to find a Medieval dollmaker, let alone one that lets you put dragon scales on a person."

"No!" He reached up to touch the blue spikes of his hair. "I actually kind of like this. You should give me blue hair in the book, too."

"Yeah?" I'm actually kind of surprised at this. Not many people would volunteer to have blue hair. Well...besides me. "So who sent you to complain, then? Tasarin? Merrik?"

Elas shakes his little blue head. "No, Tas likes looking likes looking like he came straight out of the Matrix. He even likes how you changed his hair and since no one has read this new chapter yet and doesn't even know him, thinks you should keep it like that instead of what you wrote here already."

Now I'm confused and a little bit nervous. If he didn't have something to complain about, what was this niceness for? Not that my kids are never nice to me, they just don't set out to do it on a daily basis. "Oookay...."

"And Merrik....well, he kinda enjoys looking like a pimp. But doesn't want you to change book!him."

"Okay, so what's going on?"

He purses his lips and glances over his shoulder. I see several pairs of eyes peering over the edge of my desk at me. Yes, they've decided since they can have their own blog, they can run rampant in my apartment as well. "We were just wondering if, um, you were all right. Like, if you were going to have a mental breakdown or something and we should vacate the premises."

"What? No! Listen, guys...come on out. I'm not going to eat you or anything." I wait until everyone is sitting down, looking like a bunch of little kids waiting for storytime in Kindergarten. "I'm glad you're all worried about me in your own selfish ways, but I'm not cracking up. Really. You're fine. I'm fine. Life is peaches and cream."

Luella raises her hand. "I like strawberries and cream better."

"Fine...Luella...strawberries and cream. Whatever. It's all good is what I mean."

"Does that mean you're going to start writing more fluff?" Jaryn waggles his eyebrows. "My fandom is waiting and it's been nearly a week since I've had any panties tossed at me.