Hard morning at DayJob. twice-per-year physical inventory. Started at 0730 and suddenly it was noon. Anyway, we learn a little bit more about Fusions and what they are capable of. Pai gives a short version of what she saw in Buenos Aires, followed by finally learning why Ildi and Doe were in the area.

A part of that is the old saw, “if you don’t believe in something, you’ll believe in anything.” In Chile, it appears their society is stable – tossing commies out of helicopters will do that for you – and so veneration of Ildi never took root there. The part about the Nazca Lines perhaps being a coded message was gifted to me late yesterday, just before I made dinner for some guests. With Graf being mostly back to health, but probably weak from lack of food, I need to ponder where they will be off to, next.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

“She’s a new friend, my beloved wife, so just calm down, please,” Graf sighed.

“I know who and what she is and you know nothing about yourself, beloved husband, so allow me my moments,” she growled right back.  Perhaps understanding the danger, Doe sat back and moved her knees from touching his.

“So,” he tried as his wife settled into his left side with her arm about his waist, “I’m guessing that even if you look like angels, you can die?”

“Absolutely.  We, like demis, are the same species but a new race,” Doe said with a cautionary glance to Pai.  “Demis age at about half the rate humans do and, while we don’t really know, to look at grandma, we’re even slower.  But, stick a knife in us?  We die.”

“Let’s hope no-one does,” he smiled at her, getting another low rumble from Pai, “as you are too cute for that!”

“Graf…!” Pai began.

“Yes,” he turned to kiss her, “I’m feeling much better.  We’re in Argentina?  Why?  And what have you discovered for our mission for the Empress?”

Not as propagandistic as around Fort Wayne, there were still plenty of posters of Ildi about in the city.  Pai admitted her surprise at the Presidential Palace, where a banner of their angel drifted in the light breeze.  Four stories tall.

“So, it’s going on here, too,” she said.  At a sound from the barn door, she looked up and smiled.  “And here’s the lady of the hour!”

Following his wife’s gaze, Graf looked to see Ildi coming back in.  This time her wings were furled, just barely visible.  I guess I can ask…

“Doe?”

“Hmm?”

He pointed over her head.  “I’ve seen you can, oh, what to call it, hide your wings.  What about that?  Your haloes?”

Doe grinned and Ildi chuckled.  Doe’s halo was gone along with her wings.

“You’d be surprised how much effort this takes,” the girl admitted, “but it’s possible.  We can move among you humans and you would never know.”

“That sounds a bit sinister,” Graf said, holding onto his wife.  “Kinda like androids, I guess.”

“Hah!” Doe exclaimed, with her halo and eight blue crystals suddenly back.  Pai stood and pulled Graf up with her.

“More relevant to why we’re here,” she said, now addressing Ildi, “is that there is no way, none, that you are unaware of what is going on related to you and your image.”

“Of course not, Pai,” she said, coming closer to touch the Machine’s cheek.  “So lifelike!  It was the reason my granddaughter and I were next door, in Santiago.  Rather interestingly, the meme of my veneration has not spread there.  Possibly due to their Falangist government.  They have something to believe in, so they don’t need me.”

“Which is why we were about to be on our way to see the Nazca Lines, before Pai asked us to help,” Doe said, butting into the conversation.  “It’s something I want to talk about with your eldest sister, Tay.”

Pai suddenly looked reflective.  “I don’t think she’s ever given them any thought.  They are not a language, per se, so not something she’d be interested in.”

“I disagree,” Doe said, now very serious.  These people change moods in the blink of an eye.  “They are there to tell a story and I want to know what that story is.  Just like all that Queen Alicia has learned about the Crabbies, I think a society was dropped there by accident and badly wanted to tell this world who they were and what was happening to them.

“Oh,” Pai said, touching her chin with a finger and looking adorable, “I get that.  I just let Big Sis know and she’ll wait for your assessment.”

She looked back to Ildi.  “Anything else on your agenda?  That me, a foreign national, can know, of course?”

“I wanted my own eyes on the Panama Canal,” Ildi said with a shrug of her shoulders and a flare of her wings.  “Then we’ll be back to Japan.  I’ve a grandson on the way and he’s one of us, so I’d like to welcome him.”

Pai let out a little squeal and jumped into the older Fusion’s arms, careful to not slice her hands and arms open on her wings.