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Jada's smile was small, tense. "My mother was having an affair. My father found out and divorced her when I was 17. The twins were born about 3 months later.Their father can't-" she paused, considering her next words carefully. "Their father can't care for them." Giovanni was a horrible man, and Jada wouldn't let him have a dog, after how he had hurt his older sons. Elzo was helping keep them safe by playing the role- but Jada wouldn't say she'd trust Elzo as a single parent for more than a couple weeks. "My father can't see them for long without remembering whose they are, though he tried. Zora and Lucas... still too young to be responsible for kids. She just turned 21, he's 19. That leaves me- even if I didn't love them."

She'd been newly 20 when motherhood had been thrust upon her. It mattered little, now.

"Krakens, footwear- I'll be asking him where all my lost socks go, if he starts cracking too many awful jokes." it was a lazy, playful joke. "I forget my keys all the time too, though I'm not sure I need a trouble-making young man to go looking for my keys." the halls seemed longer, when she was in a hurry to go somewhere, her heels a dull click against the runner on the second floor, until she stopped and pushed open the door to the study she had taken over from her father. Light wood, large windows looking out over the garden, the fireplace and mantel- and most importantly, the crystal decanters filled with some drinks of choice.

"Brandy, scotch, port, a nice Kentucky bourbon." there was a couch in front of the fireplace, a chaise, some chairs in front of the heavy wooden desk, a TV, her laptop haphazardly chucked across the desk. not plugged into the docking station. "Really, you can pick your poison. Just grab a few and we can take them to the library with us."

Her lips quirked. "As fr what you may, if we lose track of time, I do hope you'll spend the night. I have a guest room." Guest rooms. "No sleeping bag required."

Kallic- Christa- put more faith in Scylla than she did in herself. Perhaps that was how the senshi of madness had found her peace- through positibity, and calming down anxiety. Hope? Faith? Or maybe it was the naivete of her former hero worship.

Regardless of what caused it, Jada appreciated it. A little bit of faith in Jada herself, or... Well.

"I have a couple younger people on payroll. Everyone needs a way to make money. My main mechanic is only about 18 or 19, but he's got a hand with cars. I've got a high-schooler who comes and helps keep the windows clean, and the army of high-school babysitters grows every time Giulia finds someone who entertains her. I'd be more worried about him getting lost in the garden." though, her last gardener had been attacked by a Corrupt, so maybe he could just help pull weeds, and go home before it got dark. "Honest pay for honest work." her lips quirked.

The bottle that Christa grabbed wasn't one of Jada's favorites, with their tea, but Kalli didn't strike her as enough of an alcoholic to really know or care about the minutiae of optimizing booze and tea. "It isn't temptation," she assured the other woman, gripping a bottle of her own, "I have enough space, and you've loaned me your bottle for... a while. Loaning you a base while you invade my library is the least I can do. It isn't like you'll be taking up a lot of room."

Ah- something she had said had caused a small smile, and Jada felt warm with success. She liked making people happy, liked seeing them smile. She had so little of it anymore, herself. Whatever happiness she could bring to the world, however accidental... she would take that small victory.

"Thank you," she told Christa, and she meant it. The bottle had been a lifesaver- she might have told Kallichore that, she might not have. What had Jada called it earlier? Magical Xanax? She couldn't deny it. "I've gotten better about needing to use it every night." she tried not to sound too embarrassed or ashamed of her own weakness.

Books-- Books were a safer subject, and Jada took that cue to begin to guide her friend out of her office and down the hall towards the library. "I have a lot of favorites. Mostly older ones, and terribly expected. Inferno, 1984, Lord of the Rings. I collect the Bond books- autographed editions. I like to dig up rarities. Someone asked me about books bound in human skin before- I don't go quite that rare or exotic for my personal collection."

She had kids, after all.

"You're welcome to come over any time, just let me know you're coming so we can make sure chef prepares a plate for you. Joining us for dinner is your library rental fee." her smile was quick and easy, and she pulled to a half before two heavy wooden doors.

Since that Dream. Sounds like it had been one hell of a useful dream. Her own planet hadn't offered her any consolation like that- just tried to get her to drown herself poking around some coral. "I could have used it that freqnenty. I want to. But I've never been one to like medicine. I know I should take it, but I'll sit there and try and out-stubborn whatever I need medicine for. Headaches, backaches..." depression. "I use this, and go talk to Caedus a lot." Every Thursday, at the very least.

"I do collect Bond books!" the change was well-received, and Jada reached out for the distraction gratefully. "Mostly as a curiosity, really. They sell for a lot of money, if you want autographs; I'm only missing a couple, now." she considered the books, and the question, then admitted, "I don't really like the books as much as I like the movies, really, I'm weird like that. I do enjoy the books, though." It wasn't like she was just collecting them for the shits of it. And finding autographed Fleming books was a bear and a half.

Shifting the alcohol to sit in the crook of her tea-holding arm, she used the other to push open one of the library doors, wondering what the other woman would think. The inside was probably Jada's favorite place in the house. The library was on multiple floors, with open windows and bay seats that over-looked the gardens. On the bottom floor there was a fireplace and 'family area' where she read with the twins before bed, and then of course there were rows of shelves, and more lining the walls. It wasn't full, by any means- there were places clearly meant for artwork, some of them standing empty. She'd decided to fill the gallery before the library, and it wasn't like they had enough guests to really care about the fact it was a little bare.

"I'm not sure I have a lot on theology or philosophy. My tastes run to fiction, but I also didn't pick all the books in here. Some of them were my grandfather's collection, or my parents. My father kept most of his. As for feeling like Beauty and the Beast, I'll give you the same rule I gave Giulia. You break it, you're googling someone for me to pay to fix it."

A brief pause, then the admission- "I used to swing around the library all the time as a child."

Jada gave Kal- Christa- a glance from the corner of her eye. "Caedus is the alien living in the park." Had Kallichore not heard of him, or had she been so sidetracked by the seductive lure of literature that she just hadn't thought to make the connection? Yeah, it was almost definitely the lure of literature. Christa didn't strike her the forgetful sort.

"I wasn't a fan of Moonraker, though From Russia with Love was certainly interesting. I'd have to go with Thunderball as a favorite- I always liked Fiona Volpe, and find myself constantly indignant about the way Sean Connery got her killed. Well, James Bond." Sean had been the best Bond, okay? Well, he had also been problematic, but as a whole they all were.

She was making her way into the library when she realized she might have accidentally left her companion behind. Turning, she tried not to grin at the look on the other woman's face- if she had known it would be this much fun to see the other senshi so shocked, she would have made sure Kalli got into the library ages ago.

It was lucky there was an end table nearby, as the woman caught sight of something and reacted with a suddenness that made Jada blink, watching as the woman pulled something off the shelf. "I have some. My English tutor when I was younger used to try and make sure I had a wide variety of things to read. Then I wandered across a couple quotes from Paine when I first became a senshi, and... just sort of started collecting what I could get." It wasn't easy- most of her stuff with his writing was more modern, nothing original, if she recalled. "I have a friend- he pretty much has officially nicknamed me BrainyQuotes because of the things that kick up my collecting sprees."

Jada waved her hand. "Touch all you want. I trust you to treat them well. Maybe make a list as you're wandering of books you note might need a little TLC? I don't get to all of them as often as I'd like, I'm sure there may be a couple that need some cleaning up on the bindings."

Jada paused, blinking at Christa. Caedus had been living in the park for.... over a year now. Almost two. "You did," she wheezed out, and managed to turn her face back to the library as a whole. Chances were- they had to be. Did people not realize he was still around? then again, perhaps not as many people cared that there was a former Negaverse prisoner living in the park as he suggested there were. He was getting extra care in his care-package this week.

"From the outside they would be right. Until I was saved by Ophelia, I had not a care in the world. How could I? The battles were fresh, and new. No one knew how long this would go on. No one had any idea of the foothold that darkness had taken in our world. I like to think that we all had hope, then. Thought that maybe allies were coming- Helen, Alex, Laocoon, Gaia, Ares. Then Lina came to the light, and then we lost her back to darkness. Alien trees, fighting Justin Bieber after a concert, Tartaros, Elysion, the rainbow crystals." She paused, thinking of all the things- "Seven and a half years." she told the other woman, "Give or take. But I'm alive, and still in a position to help people on both sides of the henshin pen. My life isn't a Disney movie, or charmed, but it is blessed. Not everyone is so lucky."

She exhaled, gave Christa a firm smile. "I have guest rooms prepared constantly. Never know when life will drop something in your lap." she pulled the booze and teas over to a larger table, setting them down. "Looks like you are my bookkeeping prisoner, now. I'll make sure we keep the room nearby kept up for your intermittent invasions."

Jada took a seat, opening one of the drinks and pouring a healthy dollop into her chosen teacup. "Anything specific you would like to know about him? He's a good man, for an alien." Probably the best man consistently in her life that wasn't related to her.

It was, she supposed, just nice to have someone to babble at. Who, perhaps, recognized Scylla was becoming wistful in her senshi dotage, missing friends and allies and 'good times' long past. Or... whatever these times had been. Memories, now. Irrelevant. The tactics and lessons that could have been learned from them were long-gone, along with the others who had fought in the battles. Kallichore did not meet Jada's eyes, and so the tiny senshi simply spoke- emptied the weight of that sad resume neatly from her chest.

It seemed that it was only once she finished that Christa began to collect her prizes, maintaining that respect- or the illusion of such. Whether she had paid attention and properly understood or not, Jada couldn't say. Wasn't sure if it mattered. Kalli had always struck her as a bit smarter than Scylla herself- perhaps she would see a path and a pattern that Jada had not, a way to use those long-gone battles and friendships, forging the shards into a weapon that could be used. She could be putting too much credit where it was not due, of course, but she hoped not.

"Caedus was a prisoner for a long time," she responded with, "And he's from... another place, and pretty much another time." How to explain he'd been a prisoner for a thousand years? Say it? "I visit him at least once a week, yes. He enjoys the books I bring him, and he's really very intelligent. Really tall..." Probably might even be oddly attractive, if he didn't cover it up with rags. How he kept them all clean, she wasn't sure. "He's been teaching me some of his language. I figured that maybe he'd appreciate someone to help keep it... familiar-ish for him. My accent is probably horrible, but he's patient about it." her lips quirked in a smile. "I think he's a good man. For an alien."

Did he like living on Earth? She couldn't imagine he did. He'd experienced none of the pleasures of modern day, beyond the literature and the music, and his homesickness was probably acute. Would Jada enjoy living in the woods with nothing but the clothes on her back and the kindness of friends? Always on the lookout for danger?

"He is... incredibly interesting." Jada admitted, smiling wryly. "He's... well. He's an alien." her violet eyes watched the other woman collecting an armful of books, laying them on a table and taking a seat. Really, she thought that Christa had ascended beyond such mortal cares as alien men in the park, but what did Jada know?

The rest made her smile though, and shake her head. "You give me too much credit. I did my share of running. My whole career is based around running away." Always moving, avoiding problems- modeling had been a busy way for her to forget the powered life as best she could. "Hiding from the Dark Mirror- from Ares. Most of us were in hiding for a long time. There is nothing to forgive."

She inhaled. "If anything, I should be asking you. Birhan and I had hoped, for a time, that... but the court was fractured, and I was a coward. You may think you were a hermit, but you found something I haven't. Peace, and your place in this fight. I could take some lessons from you."

The model looked away, clearing her throat. "I see him every Thursday," she assured the other woman, "And I am sure he can use company more frequently. We can stop by whenever you'd like. For now? Read. Enjoy your tea. I'll go make sure a guest room is ready and see if I can find you something to sleep in."

And with that, she slipped from the room.