Mirror was getting used to being a parent. In a way. In many other ways, she was sure she was never getting used to any of it.

The baby power roulette seemed to have settled to a comfortable number of forty powers, on a constant random shuffle. Some were easier to deal with than others. The day before had been Corrosive Sweat Day, which meant Iris basically spent the whole day in the bathtub, cheerfully burning through diapers and nappies. It had been a day. So when the midnight shift brought on nice green skin, both parents were very much relieved. And since photosynthesis meant baby feeding got a lot easier, Maya volunteered to take the kid out to the park, and let Becca take a much needed nap.

It was a nice day outside. Maya had used gloves to handle Iris, which meant that while the kid in the strolled was the color of fresh grass, Maya still looked human. Finding a sunny spot on a bench, she settled down, fishing a half-asleep Iris out of the strolled and unwrapping her bundle. The more skin got sunlight, the better fed the baby was going to be. Or something. Maya was fuzzy on the details. Irish made little cooing sounds and snuggled, with such force and she dug her nose into Maya's neck. Maya shivered, as her skin suddenly changed color, and she felt like her whole body was suddenly eating up the warmth of the sun.

"Come on Iris" she chuckled, holding her daughter in her lap "Oh, this feels weird... Do you feel weird?... You don't look weird. There's a good girl."

Green mom and green baby were definitely an unusual sight, even in Central Park...

“Please stand,” said the man with a gloriously long white beard and equally pristine white robes.

Zek hopped up off his bar stool even as the two dozen other people pulled themselves to her feet from where they’d been flattening the grass with their butts. Zek would’ve sat on the grass too, but he really wasn’t a fan of grass stains. The rest of the folks probably didn’t have to worry about ‘em, since they were all wearing long, flowing black robes and silver hoods, but Zek was wearing his hot pink bathrobe and didn’t want the green to clash.

Zek dropped a ball of light on his stool in the few extra seconds it took people to stand up. He’d totally forgotten that he’d swiped the stool from Sam’s trash heap bar but it had certainly come in handy at the day’s meeting. Nobody had said anything though - all their attention had been focused on Senor Longbeard for the last hour or so as the guy had proceeded to explain in meticulous detail proper table manners when eating at a Reptoid’s butcher table.

All in all it was shaping up to be a very good day. Who didn’t love hanging out with cultists? Especially ones that worshipped the Silver Celestial Orb, which Zek was kinda thinking was a weather balloon, but he wasn’t a theologian.

“Remove your hoods as we pray,” the man spoke gravely over the enraptured crowd.

Zek obediently took off his homemade tinfoil fez and bowed his head. The old guy had removed his hat as well, putting the antenneaed helmet on a little fold up table beside his podium. He began to chant. “Om, klaatu barada nikto.”

“Om, klaatu barada nikto,” Zek said along with everyone else. It seemed a bit familiar to him, but he reckoned that was just part of the charm.

“Owa tasi leegoo siam,” the man continued.

Zek and the others repeated. “Owa tasi lee--”

“Oh my Space Orb! Look!” screeched a man’s voice. Zek immediately twisted his head. One of the cultists was staring and pointing wide-eyed in wonder and awe in the space somewhere beyond the old guy. “It’s one of them! One of the Emerald Visitors!”

Zek followed the guy’s finger and yep. He was right. There was indeed a little green woman and child on a bench.

The old guy stopped chanting and a look of such bliss appeared on his wrinkle face. “Brothers and sisters! It’s a miracle! The Celestial Orb is smiling on us! We are being visited by one of Its chosen peoples! Let us go and pay them tribute!”

And that how a crowd of two dozen people in black robes (and one guy in a pink bathrobe) started rushing towards the lady and child, pulling their hoods back up and shouting in the Holy Tongue their greetings and salutations with fervent fervor.

“El gee ehm! El gee ehm! El gee ehm!”

Iris made soft cooing sounds as Maya held her, bathing in the autumn sunshine. She'd never felt sunlight like this before, in her whole body all at once. Photosinthetic skin. She'd have to tell Doc about it.

Even more marvelous than eating like a plant was the baby she was holding. Iris was beautiful, and she was her daughter. Maya sometimes forgot what she was supposed to be doing, and just basked in the fact that she was a parent not. The parent of a very special baby.

And then suddenly there were weird monks everywhere.

>>“El gee ehm! El gee ehm! El gee ehm!”

"What the sh*t?" Maya looked up, holding Iris as the hooded figures approached. They were chanting, which was never a good sign, and they seemed to be zeroing in on the two of them. Maya stood, holding the baby to her shoulder, which made Iris immediately fuss. "Um... what the hell is going on?" she asked, looking at the guy in the bathrobe. Ironically, he seemed like the most normal of the bunch.

The faithful flock of the Flying Cosmic Wheel converged on the green lady and baby and began circling them and their bench. Even the guy with the wicked kewl beard was in on it. The baby made some baby sounds, much to the delight of many of the people present. “It’s wisdom from beyond the seventh plane!” one lady whispered in awe.

Some of the people were already kneeling and/or bowing to the green people. Zek...didn’t. Again, didn’t want grass stains. He was kinda in the back of the crowd anyways - he’d settled for a light jog to get over there and besides, you could see more things from the back.

But the woman looked in his direction as she asked the question. Well, two questions really.

The crowd gasped and suddenly they parted, leaving a clear corridor through them between Zek and Jade Lady. “An emissary has been chosen!” the bearded dude cried out in reverent tones. Several oohs and aahs rustled through the crowd and one person nearly fainted from all the excitement.

Zek blinked. He spun his head around. Nope. Nobody else there. He swiveled his head back. “Oh, you’re talking to me,” he said. He smiled. “Hi, uh, ‘el gee ehm,’ I guess.” He glanced around to make sure he was doing the right thing. Mostly all he saw were big round eyes staring in awe. Ooookaaaay.

He coughed and cleared his throat. “Okay, well, so this is a...community event...put on by the cul--er, Church of the Silver Celestial Orb.” He paused and stared off in recollection for bit before nodding. “Yeah, that’s right. And I wanna say they’ve identified you two as….messengers? Of the Celestial Orb? Am I getting that right, guys?” he said looking around again.

“Yes, brother,” the white-robed dude said with a solemn.

“Cool. Cool, cool, cool,” Zek said looking back at the green folks as he started walking down the cleared path in the crowd of adoring cultists. He stuck a hand in his bathrobe pocket as he neared. “If I read the pamphlet right, I think they...we...want you to take them...us...to your leader?”

He pulled his hand out of his pocket and offered it’s contents to the woman. “Also, would you like an apple? Steve over here passed a bunch out earlier. Hi Steve!” he said as he waved to a bespectacled man in a robe and hood. Steve nearly fainted again.

The man in the bathrobe swiveled his head around. Maya blinked. Aaaaalright, then. At least one of them was a mutant. That could mean they were not anti-mutant cultists, or just that this guy was even more confused than the pink bathrobe let on. Also. Freaky.

>>“Oh, you’re talking to me. Hi, uh, ‘el gee ehm,’ I guess.”

Well, at least he spoke English.

>>“Okay, well, so this is a...community event...put on by the cul--er, Church of the Silver Celestial Orb... Yeah, that’s right. And I wanna say they’ve identified you two as….messengers? Of the Celestial Orb? Am I getting that right, guys?”

Maya blinked again. Iris fussed, trying to turn her head to blink in the direction of the funny sounds. If she had to fight with a baby in her arms, it was gonna be a disaster... Maya glanced around, trying to find the closest reflecting surface. She had not taken Iris mirrorwalking just yet, but in an emergency...

>>“Cool. Cool, cool, cool. If I read the pamphlet right, I think they...we...want you to take them...us...to your leader? Also, would you like an apple? Steve over here passed a bunch out earlier. Hi Steve!”

Maya glared at the man in the bathrobe.

"Is this some kind of a f*** prank? Dude. I'm from Seattle."

Zek blinked owlishly at the snappy green lady. “Um, no?” he said cautiously. He sniffed the apple and held it out again. “Pretty sure it’s a real apple. Not even a bit waxy or plastic. Do they not have apples in Seattle?” Zek thought they did. But what did he know? Maybe she actually was an alien and Seattle was the name of her home planet?

Apparently some of the other people in the crowd was thinking along the same lines (scary, I know). “Seeuh’toll,” came the whispers.

“Brothers and sisters! It is confirmation!” proclaimed the white-robed man as he reverently tapped his metal antennae hat. He turned in place so he could address as much of the flock as possible. “As our sacred text proclaims, the Emerald Visitors inspired so many of our modern and ancient cultures! Even our lands bear the names of their homes!”

He swept his arms out wide (nearly clocking Steve in the face) and spoke to the Verdant Lady. “O mistress from the stars, please forgive our unworthiness! We ask you but one favor: enlighten us with the words from the Celestial Orb! Tell us our next paths!” He made his way through the crowd and fell to his knees in front of the woman.

Zek pulled another apple out of his robe’s pocket and crunched into it loudly. “What he said,” Zek garbled around a mouth full of apple as he jerked a thumb as the white robed kneeler.

>>“Um, no? Pretty sure it’s a real apple. Not even a bit waxy or plastic. Do they not have apples in Seattle?”

Maya groaned, rolling her eyes. She was pretty sure the robed people were nuts, but the bathrobe guy... she was not sure if he was in it to win it, or just being super, hipster-of-the-century ironic about it. Either way, She did not want to have Iris anywhere near these people.

>>“Seeuh’toll. Brothers and sisters! It is confirmation! As our sacred text proclaims, the Emerald Visitors inspired so many of our modern and ancient cultures! Even our lands bear the names of their homes!”

"Oh for f*** sake..."

>>“O mistress from the stars, please forgive our unworthiness! We ask you but one favor: enlighten us with the words from the Celestial Orb! Tell us our next paths!”

>>“What he said,”

"Alright." Maya leveled a glare at the leader of the robed people, using her free hand to indicate a general direction. "OFF. Off is the direction in which you may f***. I don't have time for this. I'm a mutant, you idiots, not an alien. The kid is just havin' a green kinda day."

Iris, bored of the standing and talking, started fussing again, kicking her feet in the onesie. The kid needed more sunlight. And fewer cultists.

Soooo the apple was resoundingly rejected. Or at least super ignored. Zek shrugged and slid the apple back into a pocket dimension. Eh, more for him. And he had a lot of apples already because he’d snagged a few of the others when people weren’t looking. He took another big, juicy bite of his apple.

And the lady didn’t seem to be happy whatsoever. In fact, she was looking less Emerald and more Jaded. She gave a beautiful tongue lashing to the crowd and it honestly almost brought a tear to Zek’s eye.

“Amen, sistuh!” he shouted, vanishing his apple with a quickly formed orb before breaking out into applause. “Preach it!” That’s what you did in a church service, right?

Maybe not. Because now he was getting a lot of glares from the cultists. Zek casually tipped his foil fez in apology.

The bearded man was still on his knees, his face having gone through all the stages of grief. The shock, the deal-making, the anger--well, he seemed to still be on anger. “Brother...Zack, is it?” he said stiffly. You kinda got the feeling he was looking down his nose at you, despite kneeling on the ground with his nose roughly belly-button height.

“Close enough,” Zek bobbed his head amiably.

“Please...sit down.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Zek said before clomping down on the apple to momentarily keep his hands free. A red orb flashed and suddenly the stolen bar stool was behind him. He planted his butt on it and took another bite of this apple. “Carry on,” he said with a wave of his hand. “You totally got this.”

Zek then glanced at the green woman. He cupped a hand around his mouth and stage whispered, “He totally doesn’t got this. He might be a little crazy and/or easily befuddled.”

The cultists gasped and began murmuring. Some even shouted their objections at Zek. He….didn’t notice. It was a really good apple, okay?

(((Feel free to control any of the NPCS!)))

Dealing with cultists generally sucked, although it usually sucked a few degrees harder when they were anti-mutant. Or anti-power in general. These poor sods looked fascinated with the green family, annoyingly so, but at least they were not bringing out the pitchforks yet. The guy in the bathrobe, on the other hand... Maya had no idea what his deal was. Or whether he was more or less crazy than the rest.

Iris, upset by not getting all the attention, began to make wailing noises. Maya was not a practiced enough parent yet to handle baby fuss and cultists at the same time. Patting Iris on the back she was about to look around for the nearest reflecting surface, when the bathrobe guy decided to put on a minor show. There was a flash of light, and... a bar stool?

Okay, so she was not the only mutant here.

>>“Carry on. You totally got this... He totally doesn’t got this. He might be a little crazy and/or easily befuddled.”

The cultists were becoming indignant about the whole thing. Apparently wailing green baby was not really what they had signed up for.

"Alright, that's it" Maya snapped, running out of her short supply of patience "Get lost, there's nothing to see here. Go figure out your own lives instead of waiting for someone with green skin to tell you what to do. Trust me when I say this, it never goes well." she hoped they would take her word for it. She'd spent the whole day with a little green person telling her what to do. "And you... Zack" she turned to bathrobe guy "Please don't toy with them. Unless magic became a thing since I stopped sleeping eight hours a day, you're also a mutant."

The holy words of the Unjolly Green Nongiant swiftly quelled the swelling anger of the crowd. The voice of the Emissary of the Celestial Orb reclaimed their attention from righteous indignation toward the blasphemous newcomer in their midst, which was itself proof of the Emissary’s divinity. Who else but the Third Hand of the Great Round God could possibly overcome the magnetic appeal of the sexy, suave man who cut such a stunning figure in his dazzling robe? The man with the dreamy brown eyes and amazing hair who was just so dashing and devilishly interested on that bar stool.

Or at least that’s how Zek was interpreting the actions of the crowd. Again, he wasn't much of a theologian. Or a sociologist. He was, however, really good at eating an apple.

The crowd was silenced by the woman’s words and they drank them in hungrily. Many of them turned glares toward Zek, as he was once again singled out. At this rate, with the combination of all the hate from the people and this direct communication with an apparently holy person, Zek seemed to be getting fast tracked to becoming a messiah or something.

But that sounded pretty boring and un-fun so Zek decided to nip that in the bud.

“I prefer the term Awesometastic American, your Greenliness,” Zek said simply, before sobering. “But who am I to correct an Emerald Visitor, a member of the Heavenly Horses? Er, Hosts?” With his non-apple-wielding hand, he placed a hand on his heart and bowed his head. “Alas, your celestial wisdom has penetrated the heart of this unworthy mortal. From this moment forward, I dedicate myself fully to the teachings of the Silver Saucer - no more games, no tomfoolery or even jerryfoolery. I am a new man!”

Zek stared at the woman with such a recalcitrant and genuine expression that he could actually feel his eyes starting to fill with water. He even sniffed. Why, if this was on camera, there was a definite chance he’d be getting some kind of award for this performance.

And then clapping and cheers erupted from some of the cultists. Zek kept a look of such total sincerity plastered on his face for so many seconds before waving his hands and turning to face them all. “Come, brothers and sisters, let us sit at the Emerald Visitors’ feet, that we gain more wisdom and secret knowledge!” And then Zek smiled impishly as some of the crowd began pressing forward to do just that.

>>“I prefer the term Awesometastic American, your Greenliness. But who am I to correct an Emerald Visitor, a member of the Heavenly Horses? Er, Hosts?”

"Oh, for f..."

>>“Alas, your celestial wisdom has penetrated the heart of this unworthy mortal. From this moment forward, I dedicate myself fully to the teachings of the Silver Saucer - no more games, no tomfoolery or even jerryfoolery. I am a new man!”

The hooded people might have been on the far side of totally insane, but the bathrobe guy was making them pale in comparison. Maya groaned, patting Iris' back. She really just wanted to get out of this whole situation. Preferably without starting, or enabling, a tinfoil hat alien cult.

>>“Come, brothers and sisters, let us sit at the Emerald Visitors’ feet, that we gain more wisdom and secret knowledge!”

"No. No, do not..." Maya stepped back as they all began to approach to sit at her feet. Iris made some fussy noises again. Maya glared at the bathrobe guy. "You're enjoying this, aren't you. What the sh*t do I need to say to make you all leave us alone?"

Zek looked upon the lady with such a pious look of piety that he couldn’t possibly look more peaceful or even piecemeal. (He didn’t know that many applicable p-words). “O Holy Space Lady, I hang upon your word,” he sang as he reappeared the bar stool so he could plant his pious tuckus on it.

He pressed his hands together as if in prayer and just griiiinned at her. “I humble myself before your secret space knowledge. Every word you speak shall be written in the starlogs of my heart.” Zek had actually read that line in a trashy romance novel once. It sounded like the cultists would say so he threw it out there. Since he didn’t get many glares (other than from the green victim of course), it seemed like he’d been right on the mark.

But it seemed he’d stolen the show long enough.

“O Galactic Guardian, we are not worthy,” Longbeard cried theatrically. He was wearing his metal helmet-hat with two metal antennae again. His position from where he was bowing at the woman’s feet was just so that sunlight was bouncing off and hitting Zek in the eye, making him squint, blink, and continually get blinded.

“We beg your forgiveness! It was not our intention to slight you in any way!” the man cried, nearly slapping some faces with his suddenly outstretched arms. “How can we appease your divine wrath? What sacrifices must we make? Gold? Jewels?”

Zek pulled out another apple and starting chomping on it. Beard Dude was giving a pretty good performance himself.

“...blood?”

Wait, what now?

Zek stopped mid-chomp.

>>“O Holy Space Lady, I hang upon your word. I humble myself before your secret space knowledge. Every word you speak shall be written in the starlogs of my heart.”

Oh, he was clearly f**ing with her. And with the cultists too, but that was beside the point, because he was riling them up in the worst ways possible. Maya would have happily distributed some punches back in the day, but holding a baby gravely limited one's freedom to brawl in the park.

Maya stepped back, but now she was clearly surrounded, and also cut off from the diaper bag she had left at the stroller. She had a mirror in there just in case, but right now, there were cloaks and tin foil hats between her and the way out. She did not like that at all.

>>“O Galactic Guardian, we are not worthy. We beg your forgiveness! It was not our intention to slight you in any way! How can we appease your divine wrath? What sacrifices must we make? Gold? Jewels? ...blood?”

Okay, that last one was unexpected. Things escalated from funny to potentially dangerous. Maya hugged Iris closer; the green baby was still making fussy noises, but she could sort that out later.

She leveled a glare at the bathrobe guy. She probably should not have said what she said next, but mother instincts were not great at clear thinking.

"Him. I want him."

If Zek were an animal, he’d be a cat. But not just any cat. He’d be the cat who you know just ate all the cream and left the headless mouse in your shoe. The problem is, you have absolutely no evidence that can be linked back to him because even when you checked the security cameras, one moment the shoe was empty and the bowl of cream full, the next momen the shoe was full and the bowl cleaned out and the cat was asleep on the sofa the whole time.

That was the kind of smile Zek had been directing at Queen Chlorophyll for much of this encounter and that smile had only gotten stronger with each new glare she had hurled his way.

But now that smile was frozen, cracking, and about to shatter.

His playtoys offered blood. It really looked like the Verdant Vizier was taking them up on it.

THe crowd surged to its feet with cheers and exclamations and hallelujahs or whatever but honestly Zek wasn’t paying that much attention. He was too busy being grabbed and pulled through the crowd, undoing all that distance he’d placed between himself and Her Mossy Majesty, despite all his carefully crafted arguments and debates.

“Oh no, I really can’t accep-hey! Watch it! Not until the third date! You hug your mama with those hands? Ack, pain, pain! Hey look over there! It’s Elvis! Go fetch! Yikes, wrist burn! Ew, I just saw you pick your nose! That’s so gros--zoinks! Oh, do that again, that felt really goo- AAAAH!”

And then Zek was thrust forward at the Plant-ish Tree Lady and he fell to his knees. “You’re a real birch, you know that? Oh bloody elm, I got grass stains on my robe!” Zek gazed at the woman with pure murderous intent as he held out the bottom of his robe. “LOOK WHAT YOU DID!”

He didn’t notice Longbeard approaching with what looked to be...a butter knife!

Her words had the desired effect, even though she was immediately feeling bad about giving in to the temptation. What if they actually hurt him? What kind of an example was that for Iris? But it was too late now, as the cultists immediately swung into action, pushing Bathrobe Zack to the front. He did not seem pleased, and at least seeing his face was a little bit satisfying.

>>“You’re a real birch, you know that? Oh bloody elm, I got grass stains on my robe! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!”

"Look at what you did" Maya shot back, gesturing at the frenzied cultists "Now, if you please... What, what the f***?"

Okay, where did he even get a butter knife? Also, he was really willing to just...?

"Whoa whoa HOLD IT" Maya held up a hand. The cultists all turned to stare at her again. She sighed. Iris stopped fussing and now she was trying to turn her head to see what was happening.

"Alright, first rule... commandment, whatever. We don't sacrifice people. Just... no. Also, no animals either. Come to think of it... no sacrifices of any kind. If you want to show your devotion, um... donate to charity. Yes. Support charities that help at-risk youth. That's important. Just... give them money." Maya really wished Becca would be there to help. She was generally better at this stuff. "And you, Bathrobe Zack, get me a damn mirror."