To Tix_Scaedu‘s prompt.

Fae Apoc has a landing page here

The city’s counter-culture had never been so counter.

Unfortunately for Gillian, what it was being counter to, this month, was her wishes.

All right, large portions of the social circle she called home were often counter to her wishes, but she’d never had trouble before bulling her way through, reshaping things (and people) to what she needed.

Until this. Reegan was a good kid, and it wasn’t a bad Change, such as things went. Toothy, but then, the person Gillian had always assumed was Reegan’s father had been pretty toothy.

So what if she’d given another man Naming rights? The creep who’d probably fathered Reegan was, well, a real creep, and Matt had as much of a statistical chance of being the dad as Mr. All Mouth.

That had been fifteen – nearly sixteen – years ago. Now Reegan had Changed, and was looking, as was proper, for a Mentor.

Matt turned him down first. “Sorry, kid. But it’s just…” He wouldn’t explain more than that, although Reegan seemed to understand something Gillian didn’t out of this.

Then Connell, Sharp-Hands-Flying, who also had had some time with Gillian back around then. He could have taught Reegan combat as well as the Law – but he wouldn’t even answer Gillian’s calls.

Then Kit, Maria, The Doomchaser, Abbot and the Monk, Red Rhoda and Blue Betty all turned Reegan down. Lame excuses or no excuse at all, and no amount of haranguing on Gillian’s part would sway them.

“It’s ridiculous. I’ve been part of this group for years. Decades.” Gillian paced back and forth, muttering and swearing. “It’s a disgrace, an outrage. Horrible.”

“Mom. Mom. Mom!” She didn’t know how long Reegan had been trying to get her attention. “Look, I’ll handle it.”

“I’m your Mother. This is my last duty as your Mother.”

“Well… as my Mother, maybe you ought to trust me. I can handle this better on my own, okay?”

Gillian didn’t know what he meant, but she was willing to let him screw up on his own if it would make him listen. “Fine, go ahead and try. Then I’ll move on to plan B.”

He didn’t need her approval or sign-off to choose a Mentor, not by the Law. She should have remembered that before she sent him out the door.

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