fandomtownies | Parents Weekend Meet & Greet, Friday Afternoon

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Parents Weekend Meet & Greet, Friday Afternoon

It was one of those insufferably nice seasonal afternoons, the type Fandom only broke out for major events: the temperature was charmingly brisk, the trees an autumnal red-and-yellow, and birds sang their merry fall songs in the trees - when they weren't tussling with the squirrels.

A glittery banner hung over the entrance to the park, drawing in all newcomers:

Welcome to Parents' Weekend 2022!

Welcome, friends, family, and other hangers-on! We're glad to see you! As far as you know!

[[ all PW guest applications have been accepted! ]]

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"Ah, that Liz!" Layla said, with recognition. If Liz had ever expected some kind of condemnation from Layla over what had gone down between her and Steven, Layla genuinely showed no signs of it. After all, Layla could sympathize with how quickly someone could develop a crush on Steven when meeting him, even if you were in a relationship with someone else at the time.

"Steven tells me things are going well with you two," Layla said, by way of giving Liz a hint that things were fine with her and Liz as well as far as Layla was concerned. "Marc says hardly anything but he's mentioned your name a few times."

Your actual name, Liz. From Marc. Be honored.

Liz hadn’t been sure what to expect when she met Layla or how much she would know but she relaxed a bit when it seemed that Layla wasn’t going to judge about the whole Steven …situation and the mess she had created there.

“They are …it was a bit awkward for a while,” she admitted, “but we’re still good friends, I’m glad we’ve been able to stay friends,” she added.

“Marc’s mentioned me?” she was a bit surprised by that revelation and actually she did feel rather honoured that Marc had taken the time to mention her to his friend.

"Amazingly yes," Layla said. "He might consider you a friend. Though it's Marc. He doesn't use feeling words."

Very tightly wound, that one, Taweret agreed in Layla's mind.

Liz smiled at that, “Marc’s a good friend as well,” she said, “he’s been a big help with …everything,” she gestured to her small but noticeable bump, “so has Steven, I’ve been lucky to have them as friends,”

Ohhh that did it. Taweret had known Liz was pregnant, of course, but if Liz was going to introduce the topic well she just had to pop in to say hello, didn't she?

And thus Liz would see Layla's eyes glaze over, and her start to move with larger gestures as though a nine foot hippo was trying to use the body of a 5'6" woman, because yeah. The movements were oddly graceful in spite of this.

Layla's voice, when she spoke - well it wasn't her voice. It was there, yes. But there was another, lighter, British accented voice laid on top of it, lightly echoing like it was coming through a tunnel from distance away.

"The boys' pregnant friend!" Taweret said, clasping her hands to her chest in delight. "It's so lovely to meet you, dear. Steven's told us so much about you!"

Well Steven had told Layla and Taweret didn't understand boundaries, but it was much the same thing.

Even with everything she had seen, this was definitely new territory for her, Liz's eyes widened, "oh, hello ... it's um ... nice to meet you?" she stammered.

She wasn't sure if this was the correct thing to say or if there was a formal way of greeting a goddess, she did remember that Layla was the avatar of Taweret but she still hadn't been expecting to be meeting an actual Goddess.

Yeah, this was also an offshoot of how Layla kept hoping Taweret would stop doing this, and thus she never thought to warn people it could happen. Layla was in denial about a lot of things with her and Taweret's relationship, including how temporary Layla wanted it to be.

Taweret for her part kept going. She nodded her head in a movement far too big for Layla's body as she made an expressive gesture, like a magician flourishing their hand over the result of a trick, in the direction of Liz's stomach. "That one there's growing nicely, isn't she? Don't you worry, dear. She's healthy as a horse. You'll find out when you meet her."

Liz relaxed a bit, she knew from the ultrasound that her daughter was healthy but it was another thing to hear it from the goddess of children and mothers and it was always nice to have that extra reassurance.

She smiled brightly, "she is really doing okay then?" she placed a hand on her stomach.

"I can't tell you too much, dear," Taweret said, putting both of her hands on her hips. "Not my jurisdiction. Rules are rules. Of course if you moved over to our universe - "

"Taweret!" Layla managed to interject, gasping. This was easier than it was the first time she'd become Taweret's avatar but that didn't mean it wasn't tiring to go through.

"Right! I'll leave you girls to your gossip." Taweret leaned in closer to Liz, which was an odd movement given the various height differences. It was like the bowing equivalent of reaching to pick up a carton of milk that turned out to be much lighter than you anticipated. In what was Taweret's attempt at a whisper, which of course was nothing actually like a whisper other than it was somewhat quieter than her normal speaking voice, she said, "She's doing wonderfully. It'll be so exciting when she comes out! You'll be delighted with her. So exciting, just you wait!"

And with that it was Layla in control of her own body again. She leaned heavily against the table and looked around for anything resembling a drink of water.

Liz blinked as she tried to follow that exchange and then noticed that Layla looked like she needed some water, which did feel a bit odd being in a position where she was getting someone else water and she managed to find her a bottle.

“Here you go,” she said, handing the water over to her, “are you okay?”

"Thank you." Layla took several swigs from the bottle then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Sorry. I keep telling her not to do that."

She's pregnant! I can hardly call myself the goddess of mothers and children if I didn't say hello.

"Hopefully she didn't say anything upsetting?" Layla asked. She knew exactly what Taweret had said, she wasn't unconscious for the conversation. But Layla knew that Liz's situation had a lot of things going for it which could be upsetting, so she checked on Marc and Steven's behalf.

"She didn't say anything upsetting," Liz assured her, "it's ... it's nice to get that extra reassurance that my daughter is healthy, it ...that it's..." her voice trailed off.

"Sorry," she said softly, "it's been quite a rollercoaster of emotions these last few weeks,"

"I've heard," Layla said. Not in minute detail but enough that she'd gotten the gist. "Your - um, the father is back?" Liz wasn't sure how to refer to Prompto. "I know a little bit about what that's like."

Marc abandoning her for two months wasn't the same thing as the much longer time Liz had dealt with, let alone dealt with while pregnant, but Layla could at least sympathize a little with what it was like to be alone and wondering what the hell happened to the man you loved.

Liz nodded, she did remember Steven and Marc telling her what happened, even though they both had very different accounts of it, "he came back last week, there's been a lot of going on with telling him about the baby and everything, especially since ten years has passed for him since he left Fandom," she added.

"Well shit," Layla said, appreciatively. She hadn't heard that detail about the time difference yet. "At least with Marc two months was two months. I'm sorry."

Liz nodded, “it’s been hard for him, adjusting to coming back with everything going on,” she said softly, “even though selfishly I’m really happy he’s back, I - I’m still finding it hard to believe that he’s back, I’m scared he’s going to disappear again, or that I’ve been dreaming this past week,” she admitted.

"I know what that's like," Layla said. It hadn't been helped by how distant and closed off Marc had been when Layla found him again. "Know a few people who had relationships screwed up by time differences too. Marc tell you about the blip?"

Yes, Layla was fully aware of how low the odds were of Marc telling anybody anything. But on this particular topic she knew for certain Steven wouldn't bring it up. Not with any level of information that mattered.

"The Blip?" Liz repeated as she tried to recall if it had come up in conversation, he had talked a bit about the world that he was from but the blip didn't sound familiar, "I don't think so, the name's not familiar," she admitted.

Layla gave an apologetic look to indicate she knew what she was about to say wasn't exactly party conversation. "About five years ago half the population of our universe vanished. Last year they all came back. Marc and I - we made it through. A lot of others didn't. You can imagine what it was like for some people to come back like no time passed but their families and loved ones had grieved and moved on."

“Oh,” Liz’s eyes were wide, “that must have been dreadful to experience, I’m - I'm so sorry that happened in your world,” she said, “I imagine that would have been extremely hard for everyone involved to cope with,"

"Steven knows almost nothing about it," Layla told her, with a serious look that strongly suggested Liz keep it that way for Steven's sake. "I don't know if Marc and I would've gotten through it without each other."

Or Konshu keeping Marc alive but Layla would die herself before ever admitting being grateful for a single fucking thing Konshu ever did.

"But I get it," Layla said. "I saw others go through it. They come back like it was no time at all and they don't know if there's a place for them with the ones who lived the five years. I can't tell you it was easy for any of them. But it's not impossible."

Liz nodded, showing that she understood the need to not tell Stephen, "I'm glad you and Marc had each other, I can't imagine what that would be like," she couldn't imagine what it was like for Prompto or for Nell coming back and adjusting after being so long away.

"I definitely want to help Prompto adjust, I know he's been through so much and now I've told him he's going to be a father in five months ..." she said softly, "everything's a lot right now," she admitted.

"At least he didn't miss that," Layla said. "That will be the important part, seeing his little girl grow up."

Layla had been close to her own father, she could appreciate the importance of that relationship.

Liz did smile at that, placing a hand on her bump, "I kept records of everything for him while he was gone," she revealed, "so there's photos and everything and, he was in time for my four month check up," she added.

"Four months? So you haven't even known that long then," Layla said, pointing out the positive. Of course she didn't know that Liz had the benefit of a psychic who had told her about the baby much sooner than most people would've known they were pregnant. Layla smiled at the mention of photos. "Steven told me you were a photographer. I've seen some of the results of your lessons."

There'd been the one lesson but Layla assumed there'd been more and Steven just hadn't mentioned them. It wasn't like they gave each other detailed itineraries of their days.

Parents Weekend Meet & Greet, Friday Afternoon

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