Wyatt Thompson

“You’re infuriating and I hate you.” Rue huffed, but there was no bite in her tone. “I mean but dweeb fits you so well. I guess I could go with nerd or weirdo.” She shrugged. “Less talking, more eating.”

“Whatever you say, sweetie pie,” she said, quickly planting a kiss on her head before she could protest as she finished her plate of pancakes and sipped at her smoothie. “You don’t make for good conversation in the morning--a right shame.”

“Sounds like a busy time ahead. You sure you have time fo a short break?” Gwen replied, seeing the cafe in the near distance. She nodded along to Wyatt’s words, a short hum leaving her lips. “Yes, I’d like that too. I grew up an only child and never had any siblings, it was just me. You’ve got brothers, haven’t you? Outside of us Ares lot, I mean.”

“Yeah, of course! Anything for family,” she said with a grin. She’d only ever grown up with brothers, so it was really nice to come here and find out that she had so many more sisters to meet and get to know. There were just some things Noel didn’t understand, no matter how much he tried his best to. “Yeah, I’ve got two older brothers who practically raised me together, well Noel more than Finn. They’re both Big Three kids, so it was kinda tough growing up with their big egos,” she said with a laugh.

“Nope, no tasks, no responsibilities, no need to eat or drink or even sleep. Time was – and I guess still sorta is to some extent irrelevant. It was a void. A white void but a void.” she said shaking her head as she paused, “As far as you could see in every direction it was just – white. Of course there could be cool things to see if someone wanted to but in general.” She shrugged her shoulders. It was so strange to explain without being able to just show someone. If she got to see one of the nyx kids anytime soon she would demand a door if for no other reason than to show others what it was like. “Hurt – was also sorta…. Relative? You could technically get hurt but it’s not like it stayed hurt for more than a second.You just reverted back to healthy. Trust me, I tried a lot of things to test the limits of the Meadows.” Her lips formed a tight line. There were – some things she’d have to work through one day, but that was not today. Not now. A smile quickly reformed. “But I never found one that gave me much of a sense of time or anything else. Literally – the only way I kept track of time was when new people arrived. I’d ask them what day it was and go from there to figure how long I had been gone from this world.” Noreen shrugged and took a swig of the beer she twirled in her hand as she tried to figure out how to word her answers. “It was basically if we knew about it we could easily reconjure it. So like – I found out that there was a show called the Good Place when I got out. I never knew about it before. Never could have asked for it or wished it into existence when I was there. But if I went back now I could.” She chuckled, “So yeah, its limited to what you know about or find out through the mirror. I mean – I did learn about some things, like the new Marvel movies, through people who came but otherwise…” She had spent a decent amount of time watching old movies, but she was really excited to catch up on five years of shows and movies she didn’t know about. When Wyatt pulled her phone out she scooted a bit closer and took the phone. Her eyes lit up as she listened, “Chinchillas?!” She said suddenly, head popping up “You have chinchillas?” eyes darted around looking for the little furballs. “I want to watch all the videos you made but also – fuzzy little creatures. Need to pet.” She muttered. And she would make a point to watch all the videos Wyatt had made but she REALLY wanted to see the chinchillas.

“Huh,” she mused, wondering if such a place was as great as she imagined it would be. A place without a lot of rules, routine... not to mention that fact that she wouldn’t be plagued by bodily functions to cut her time short. But she’d also be losing all sense of time and reason--purpose. No more deadlines, no more structure. It all sounded like a whimsical, beautiful nightmare. Sure, the novelty of it all sounded great, but she imagined that if she ever decided to leave, she’d have trouble coping in the real world, again. She wasn’t sure if Noreen saw it yet, but 5 years in that void probably wasn’t all that good for her psyche. Wyatt started to worry that she might have brought in a possibly mentally unstable person into her household without thinking, but shook the thought away. She had spent years being the object of ridicule and prejudice, and she wasn’t about to kick her out of her apartment on a bias with no basis. She tried her best to listen with an open mind, but she couldn’t help but feel a bit terrified as if she was listening to someone tell her a horror story--only this had truly happened to her. This had been her life for a while, and it only seemed all the more scary as though she had been there with her even though she hadn’t. She put on a bright smile and tried not to let it get to her as she prepared her food and listened. “Well, thank you for sharing all that with me. I love learning about new people, and I’m glad our paths have met,” she said with a smile. “Yeah, chinchillas! Why don’t you watch that pot for me while I go grab them?” She said as she walked to their enclosure and scooped them both up. “Here they are! I’ll show you some of the videos I’ve made on my phone,” she said as she pulled hers out and handed it to her before setting the boys on the counter in front of her. “This one’s Soba, and this one’s Udon.”

“Kombucha?” Isobel looked over at her cousin and smiled, sending off a text before putting it away. “I’ve never had it. What if we don’t like them and then we have all these bottles sitting around, getting even more alcoholic?” They’ve never been one to not drink alcohol because it tasted bad, but there was a first time for everything. “God, I’m down for all of that. What kinds of cheeses?” Bel rolled over to face her. Wyatt was only a year and two months older than them, and Bel had always seen Wyatt as the cool cousin. When they video-chatted, Bel was always jealous of all the freedom she had, and now that Bel did have the freedom, they could hardly believe it. “I’m excited to be here. I hope your liver can keep up with our plans tonight,” Isobel gave a devious grin. “Okay, which one’s an alcoholic one? I’m just going to dive right in.”

“Yeah, so it’s pretty much bubbly sweet tea with probiotics! So you’re getting a treat for your taste buds and your gut!” She said excitedly as she set the bottles on the table. She pretended to think about it for a second as she stroked her chin before she rolled her eyes and nudged her shoulder against her cousin’s. “We’ll get there when we get there! Haven’t you heard about trying everything you possibly can at least once to see what all the hype is about? If it sucks, at least we’ll know not to get them, next time,” she said with a grin. “Besides, we’re here to have fun, possibly get wasted, and not worry about things that haven’t happened yet.” She pulled out a wooden board with her name engraved on it and set up the cheeses, fruits, nuts and cold cuts as she set the bottles on the counter. “We’ve got Brie, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Gruyere and Feta.” She blew her cousin a kiss. “The real question is, is your liver ready? The ones on the left are alcoholic, while these ones aren’t.”

“That is an excellent idea. I’ll ask her next time I see her,” Mike decided. He took a strategic break at that point, shoving three cheese cubes into his mouth to give him time to figure out how to answer the first of Wyatt’s questions without lying or getting extremely uncomfortable. With just about anyone else he would have dodged the question entirely, but she was family. “So other people’s dreams are pretty much always a no-go, since it turns out people don’t really like someone dropping in on their subconscious,” he answered with a shrug before quickly moving on. “That’s the crazy thing though - I can control what’s happening in the dream and a lot of the time I do because why settle for an average dream, right? But I didn’t lift a finger - or stretch my noggin? At all for that juice surfing dream, it just decided to go that hard on its own.” 

“Ooo, may I come with? It’s been a while since I got to talk to her, and I’d really like to know, myself,” she said excitedly. Aside from her siblings, Wyatt absolutely loved her cousins. Isobel would have to be her favorite, of course, because they just seemed to understand each other best, plus they were the same age, but she wasn’t going to tell Mike that. The internal competition their parents seemed to have about how many gods they slept with never really seemed to phase them much. If anything, it seemed to bring them closer together because they understood the absurdity of their rivalry. “Oh, I see. But if you popped right in, technically they wouldn’t be able to tell if they were just dreaming about you or if you actually used your powers, right? Not that I’m encouraging you to invade people’s privacy like that, but they wouldn’t know, though,” she said curiously. “Man, you have cool ass dreams.”

“Of course not, I only associate myself with the best.” Rue joked before pulling a face at Wyatt’s compliment. “You sound like an even bigger dweeb than before.”

“So that implies you think I’m one of the best,” she said with a grin. “Look at you complimenting me,” she said in a sing-song tone. “Sweetheart, you’re going to have to get more creative with those insults if you want to keep up,” she teased.

Making a face, Tori shook her head. Maybe she should stop wearing perfumes if that was going to be the case. “Ha, I definitely don’t look twenty-five anymore. I can pass along what products I use, but maybe it’s just genetics.” Tori’s smile was more for her than anyone else. She had no idea whether she had known before that Noel was scared of cats, but it was just as well. This was another weird detail that she filed away, hoping it would never come up again- other than the times that she imagined what it would have been like if all five of Lilith’s kids had grown up together. That idea never failed to make her a little upset, but she kept her expression neutral enough. “Chinchillas are cute- ferrets are trouble. Glad that you enjoy the nightlife too… There’s something that feels sadder about going to a bar before four.” Tori was not 100% sure what had happened in Michigan, but she was not sure she wanted to ask.

“Oh please, don’t sell yourself short. You’re absolutely gorgeous! I don’t have a reason to lie to you,” she gushed, smiling as she rested a hand on her upper arm. “Man, you really lucked out on genetics. If I weren’t on estrogen, I don’t think my skin would be this supple. Then again, my mother’s gorgeous and kept rounding up gods left and right, so hopefully I took after her. I’m not really sure what Ares really looks like, but if he could snatch up the goddess of beauty, I’m guessing he must’ve been pretty good looking,” she rattled on, oversharing being one of her specialties. “I’d love for you to meet my boys! I know we just met, but really, you can stop by my apartment after work or something. I trust you. I don’t know what it is about you, but I trust your vibe,” she said, grinning as she nodded. “I couldn’t agree more! Oh, flowers, right! I came here for flowers. Sorry,” she said with a laugh. “You’re just really fun to talk to.”

( Open starter - @icariastarters​ )

Apropos of nothing, Mike launched into a description of his latest dream. “So I was having this dream where I was flying to work in these fancy duds, right? Which was super weird because I don’t have a suit like that, but I looked great so why change? But anyway, then all of the sudden there was like, a tidal wave of juice and I had to surf it, and the Kool-aid guy declared me king of the beach. Think it means anything?” He actually hadn’t done anything to change the dream this time, which made the direction it had taken all the more intriguing to him.

“I’m not the best at dream interpretation, but we can totally ask Millie to see what she thinks! You know, it makes me wonder, like can you hop into other people’s dreams at will or control what’s happening in your dream, or do you just let it take it course because during the dream, you know, it all makes sense as it’s happening even though if you weren’t dreaming, it wouldn’t?” She asked, as she popped another cube of cheese in her mouth. She’d prepared a charcuterie board for this sleepover, since the recording session had taken a little longer than expected. 

“Oh my, I’m eating with a true expert then.” Rue rolled her eyes, but smirking the whole time. Wyatt was one of the few people who got a genuine smile out of Rue. 

“Were you expecting any less from me?” She said with a wink as she pecked Rue on the cheek. “You should smile more often. You look really cute when you do.”

“Gordon Ramsay would roll in his grave if he saw my technique. Yes, I know he’s still alive. But I’m down,” Lark said, assuming this was just a joking suggestion. She definitely did not think there were enough similarities between geoduck and sashimi for her to want any part in this mess. “Oof, okay, well as tempting as it would be to see your brother’s face reacting to that, why don’t you tell me how you liked it after you’re done?” There, now she didn’t have to hang around with weird dick shellfish any longer than she wanted to (i.e. never). Looking down at her list, Lark had to frown a little. “Uh, well, it exists, and we’re trying to persuade Noel to finish it off for you right? I think we’re good enough. We can rope him into doing it and call this mission accomplished.”

“Gordon Ramsey can eat his heart out. I’m sure you’ve got a unique vision like no other. Besides, the Asian community pretty much roasted him for making shitty egg fried rice, so he’s not a cooking god or whatever. Just another cis, white man who thinks he’s all that,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “Oh yeah, we can totally talk about it when I do try it out. I’m probably just going to ask my agent to order from the place Emmy got it from,” she said with a smile, completely unaware of how the talk about phallic shellfish made Lark uncomfortable. She leaned over and glanced at Lark’s handwriting and chuckled. “Right, that’s a good list. I have to say, you’re handwriting is worlds better than anything Finn can come up with. Don’t sell yourself short.”

Tori winced, upset to recall that some people had never known that Icaria had been a wonderful place without the threat of danger looming. Well, there was always little chance for danger anywhere, but it had been much quieter before. “Working here is great. It’s comfortable and interesting, and I’m not allergic to flowers.” This was probably a really weird thing to say, but Tori was somewhat overcompensating for the fact that she had no idea how to deal with this situation. It was not the same as with Finn at all. “Yeah, since I was a baby. And I’m thirty-five so… been here a while.” Tori did not usually make it a secret that she was happily adopted, but decided it would be awkward to explain that in detail. “ I mostly just hang out with my ferret and enjoy Icaria’s nightlife. Good bars, you know?” 

Wyatt was glad that the bad things have sort of simmered down. Sure, Fink was still an asshole in power, but she was sure everything was going to sort itself out. There was no way the town was going to let a funeral crasher go. She smiled as she looked around at the flowers. There was just something about the smells and the colors just made her feel better. “Oh, that’s nice! This place seems like a great place to work at. It must be nice being surrounded by all these beautiful flowers. Plus, if you’ve got a date right after, you’ll be smelling like a fresh flower field,” she said with a smiled. “You’re thirty five?! You don’t look a day over twenty five! What’s your skin care routine? I’d love to still look fresh and gorgeous at your age,” she said. “You’ve got a ferret? Oh, that’s awesome! I’ve got two chinchillas because my brother, Noel, is terrified of cats, so chinchillas are just as soft, low-maintenance and fluffy, in comparison to dogs,” she said excitedly. “I hear ya’. I love Icaria’s nightlife. It’s a lot more fun than Michigan, that’s for sure.”

Gwen took the files into her hands, surprisingly happy to help out. She didn’t mind Wyatt - one of the only people on the island that she could say that about, other than Gianna. “You seem like you have a lot of work to do.” she replied, glancing down at the small pile in her own hands, and the large one in her sister’s. “Yes, I’d like that too. Gianna said that she’d task you with checking up on me, and I’d rather it be us chatting and getting to know one another instead.”

“Yeah, so I just gotta finish checking those portfolios, plot out my filming schedule and queue a few videos to post through the week just to tide my fans over while I get back footing in the Animation community,” she explained, not really sure if Gwen had wanted her to expound on her plans, but she didn’t mind sharing. “Really? Oh, well I just thought we could hang out and get to know each other, better. Before getting here, I never had any sisters, so having you guys around is a welcomed change.”

Was that such a good idea? Maybe, probably. As long as Lark didn’t poison anyone by accident with food, it was probably a win. “Yeah, sure. If I disappoint you, don’t say that I didn’t warn you that it’s not to everyone’s taste.” Lark knew exactly what Wyatt was talking about, and she did not like that idea at all. Her face showed her distaste for the very thought of it. “I’ve seen geoduck before, yeah, a bit back from when I lived in Canada. But, uhm, I’ll pass on trying that. Maybe someday you’ll get to, but I’m eked out by shellfish in general.” At least the other woman was honest, even both of them were obviously not in consensus on what was a good idea to eat. Also she had had enough people get mad at her for trying to force her opinions on dietary restrictions on them. When it came to that, Lark had a pretty accepting approach to food choice.

“I’m open to trying new things, don’t worry. Maybe we can whip something up together, one day. We could pretend we have our own little cooking show and impersonate Gordon Ramsey,”  she said with a laugh. She glanced at Lark and listened intently to her experience, as she took another bite. She hadn’t known that Lark had previously been from Canada. Their similar accents seemed to make a lot more sense, now. “I’m a big fan of sashimi, so I was thinking maybe I could get it shipped here and try it out for myself. I may have to call in Noel to maybe help me out, and we could have a good laugh about how the thing is probably bigger than anything he’s packing,” she said with a laugh. “I think I’m more inclined to the novelty of the idea, of trying new things, even if they may seem rather odd. Life’s just too short, you know?” She said with a shrug. “Oh, we went off tangent for a bit. How’s that list coming along for the kalimba?”

“100% i got so much stuff done there. There’s no beating it honestly.” she said letting out a sigh, she really did miss it. She didn’t think it was any form of stockholm but – maybe she should look into it again. Make sure. “No, sadly, no wifi. Would have been nice…” she grumbled, “I mean, we could technically  watch anything, but its not like we really had – wifi? Its hard to explain.” she paused though, “Followers?” she asked cockng her head to the side, only to nod a moment later as she started to explain who she was. “Oh a youtuber! That’s cool! So you – make animations. What sort of animations do you make? Can I see some?” she asked to many questions – but she was curious and Wyatt was interesting damnit! “You’re – a very interesting person. I like it. And you. You’re fun.” she said bluntly. Noreen… had no filter. She had lost that a long time ago, about two months of being in the meadows by herself, beyond the nyx kids… the first person that showed up she talked their ear off and had no filter anymore. “I hope I can be around more to get to know you.”

“Did you actually have any responsibilities there? Like tasks or a sense of time? Could you get hurt in there? Did you eat and do biological functions?” She asked in succession, not really being able to stop her curiosity. She always wondered how much time she could cut off and use to be more productive if she didn’t have to go to the bathroom, eat or sleep. That was the thing about being human, she supposed. Everyone is given 24 hours in a day, but there was no way of effectively using it all up, efficiently. “Oh okay, but like say there’s a new show or something, and you didn’t know about it. So are the things you conjure up limited to what you know about?” She couldn’t imagine watching the same sitcom for ages, she definitely needed the variety. “Yeah!” She said as she pulled up her phone to bring up her Youtube channel. “I usually do short comedy skits about demigods, some Greek stuff, my dumb life experiences and stuff about my chinchillas! I get ideas from my fans too and my family,” she said with a smile as she handed Noreen her phone. “Thank you, I like to think I’m a gift to humanity,” she teased with a cheeky grin. 

“I’ve literally seen every one of your videos. I may have stalked you way back when. You’re just absolutely brilliant.” She spoke truthfully with a warm smile. Youtube was something Kira was active with, but most of her content there involved streams she posted, question and answer videos, behind the scene videos to cosplay, and collaborations. But her instagram, tiktok, and twitter were what she worked on mainly for day to day things. Kira had finished going to school and had her Master’s for when she chose to try and really settle into video game design. But for now, she wanted to travel and cosplay and game.

“Well, I do want to do at least one charity thing with you. Not for nothing, but my almost two million isn’t anything compared to yours. Now, I’m still in the mindset that even one hundred followers is a lot, so my mind is constantly blown. But monthly charity things are important to me. I was thinking, maybe we could do design? Take commissions for things like.. D&D characters, book characters, fandom requests, mini comics? I was thinking we could take requests starting at the beginning of the month, for two weeks. And have tiers. Regular price, digital file. Extra, a digital file, plus two printed copies; one signed by us both, and mailed out? For even more, maybe some animations, costume designs even? And every such and such amount spent, is one ticket into a draw to get a giveaway?” She had many ideas. “I also like the idea of initiating a beach.. slash ocean slash environment clean up. You know, a cool hashtag, getting people to take pictures of themselves next to the garbage they cleaned up. Even just tidying up a local park. A small paragraph on maybe why that place means a lot to them? What they’re doing to help the environment? And charity of your choice. I’m thinking alphabet mafia charity this time around. There are some excellent choices. What do you think so far?”

A whole day sounded absolutely perfect. They could probably get some things filmed today. Just rough clips of things like planning and pictures. “We could go sailing after lunch?” She asked. “I have my boat here. And I’d love to do my Twister challenge with you!” It was like regular Twister, except.. blue paint went on the blue circle, red on the red, etc. And you played with the slippery paint on the mat. “But my brain isn’t nearly as organized as yours seems to be.” She commented with a laugh.

Wyatt blushed profusely. After all these years, she was still amazed that she had grown quite a following, with loyal fans that have stayed with her ever since she had started out. It was honestly such a humbling experience since she started out as just a little girl born in the wrong body, just hoping that she could make entertaining content with her art and humor. She didn’t think she’d blow up the way that she did, but she was just so grateful that all her time and effort were put into the right place with her following her dreams to fruition. “Thank you, it’s people like you that really make it all worth it. I’m just really grateful to all of you and my team for making this all happen, for me,” she said genuinely, trying not to tear up. 

“Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to do a “Draw with Me on Twitch while I do commissions. We can put it in the contract and ask them whether or not they want their commissions to be streamed, that way we can do a whole, 24-hour fundraiser stream where people can send in bits or donations,” she suggested, glad that she chose the right streamer to do this collaboration with. They had a similar mindset with wanting to give back to the community. “Then we can do the other commissions together on a Youtube Video while we do a Q and A?” She added. “I think we have to narrow down our ideas to more feasible ones and sort of set a time limit so we can achieve our goal while still providing quality content. I was thinking a span of a month for each cause, this way we can get our regular programming done along side commissions and charity work. I was also planning to do a thing in November, like I always do, for Trans Visibility Month,” she said with a smile. She pulled out her phone and pulled up her transcriber app. “My secretary couldn’t be with us today, but I hope you don’t mind if I have our conversation transcribed, this way I can have all our ideas in one place. Don’t worry, only my secretary and I will be able to see this, so all the demigod stuff will be redacted for our safety.”

She laughed at the thought of a boat. “I’ll have to stop by my apartment to get a few things, but I’d love to go boating with you. I’ve been meaning to try on some new, cute bikinis. I really like your enthusiasm and all of your ideas, so just keep them coming, and I’ll try to plot them out,” she said as she began plotting out their schedule on her tablet. “Do you want a coffee or something?”

“Jesus Christ, who are you, my mother?” Finn replied as he felt the swat on his arm, obviously being told off. “Remember who’s older.” He warned playfully, wagging his finger at her before he turned his attention back to his drink. “ Twenty-four, where does the time go? I remember when you didn’t even exist, what an easier time that was.” The teasing flew out of his mouth, followed quickly by a loud laugh. Noel was the easiest one of the lot of them, Wyatt and himself had always been trouble. Twenty four though, that meant that he would be thirty soon. That was not fun. “I’m all right, I missed you mental lot though. It was odd, not having you guys around to talk to. That was probably the worst part.”

“Oh please, our mother would never,” she said with a roll of her eyes as she shooed him away. “Remember who’s taller and makes you food!” She challenged back as she stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh please, I was a gift to our family. You’d have less of us keeping you in line, if it weren’t for me,” she countered as she popped a cheese cube into her mouth. She didn’t realized how much she had missed these banters until they met up a lot less and when Finn had inevitably gotten himself kidnapped. She remembered how it only took watching a few WWE episodes to whop his ass when he teased her as kids. Poor Noel had to be the one to pry them apart. “Awww, you missed me,” she teased. “See, you can’t live without me. You love me too much.”

“Yeah. Definitely a few too many monsters here. I miss when it was an island paradise, safe from the rest of the world.” She missed her mom badly, but was a little relieved that that the woman had not needed to live through Icaria at its most dangerous. The escalation of the kidnappings were just a little too much. And the part where all of these strange siblings of hers had showed up. Being an adult sort of sucked sometimes. The threat of having Wyatt talk to her for too long sounded wholly stressful. All Tori kept wondering was why Wyatt didn’t get sent off halfway across the world too- why didn’t most of the others? “Uh, no. New hire. I’m still in training. Art pieces, though. Very cool. I’m told it can be difficult to get me to shut up too, honestly.” Tori had literally no idea what she was doing with the flowers, and fervently hoped that Ezra didn’t walk in to find her making stuff up.

“Well, the monsters and the kidnapping were all I’ve ever known ever since I got here, so I can only imagine,” she said with a shrug. It wasn’t entirely true, but Wyatt couldn’t really remember time when it wasn’t all over the news that someone had just gone missing or attacked. Icaria wasn’t all her dad told her it would be. “Oh, that’s so cool! How are you liking working here so far? I’m sure it must be real nice what with the Suttons being really kind and being surrounded by all these pretty flowers,” she said with a grin. “I’ve been told the same thing, so you don’t have to worry about that,” she said , waving a hand dismissively. “So tell me about yourself! Have you been on this island long? What do you like to do when you’re not working?”