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Katherine grabbed the bottle of cooking bourbon out of Kass' hands and set it on the table. "Kass! Did you drink any of that?!
Kass was stunned, but somehow managed to gasp, "Uh."
"Did you?" insisted Katherine. When Kass didn't reply, Katherine took Kass' hand, and held it in her own, staring at it for a second.
It didn't shake.
"Kass!" Katherine fussed, dropping her paw like a hot potato. "You're going to mess up royally someday with this stuff. What happens when you kisspop and have a child you don't want? Or hit someone you really care about?"
"I-" she gasped, fighting back tears. "I don't know... It's just so hard. I don't think anyone understands..."
"Enlighten me." Katherine offered.
Kass took a breath. "It's sort of like ... oh! I can't describe it. It's a little like a prescription drug for the hand shaking."
"But the drug is what's making your hand worse." Katherine corrected.
"It also makes it feel better for a little while." Reminded Kass.
"If you stopped taking it," Katherine tried again, "your shakes would stop permanently eventually."
"True..." Kass shrugged. She had been beaten.
"Now, are you ready to admit whether or not you have a problem or not?" Katherine pushed. Hey, they were on a roll, why not?
Kass thought for a moment. So, she'd probobly loose all respect and most likely visiting rights to her own daughter if she admitted she was an alcoholic. She could live with the loss of respect, possibly anyway, but if she could never see Lydia again then she wouldn't even admit her hair was blonde. "I still get visitation and parenting rights to Lydia, don't I?"
Katherine sat there for a moment. Visitation? She HAD to stop letting her norns watch Days of our Lives with her. She was getting the wrong ideas from that Lucas/Sami/Baby Will storyline. "Kass," she started, "I can't take Lydia away from you. I wouldn't do that unless you were a danger to her, and so far, you aren't."
"OK," Kass thought to herself, "maybe, maybe I can do this." She opened her mouth, then shut it again. This was harder than she thought. Maybe she could do it one word at a time. No, that would sound silly, 'I, I have, I have a...'. She decided to try again, and not shut her mouth until some audible word that could be found in an English dictionary came out. She lowered her jaw, took in a breath, and very, very slowly, said those five words that were gonna pull her out of this:
"I... have... a... drinking ... problem." She half-whispered. Then she lowered her head, ready for some sort of mean comment, or at least physical abuse. She felt her body being ... hugged?
Kass opened her eyes. "Wait a minute!" She thought. "I'm an alcoholic, darnit, am I not supposed to be hated or teased or something?" No, there she was, being hugged, by Katherine. Blip was sort of floating nearby, and you could almost tell that if he had a mouth, he'd smile, and if he had arms, he'd be helping Katherine hug.
"Now," Katherine started, pulling back, "Are you ready to admit that in front of everyone else?"
"Yeah," Kass replied, brushing herself off a bit, "I suppose.."
Back in Katherine's room, Karr was watching Lydia, who had found her way back, while Jenna was playing Creatures.
"Hey!" Jenna exclaimed. "This one looks like me!"
"Dad," Lydia asked, crawling up into Karr's lap, "What's... Al-co-hal-iz-im?" She stumbled over every syllable.
Karr looked at his daughter. She did have a right to know, he figured. "It's where someone can't stop drinking Hootch, or Hootch-like drinks, even though it's bad for them."
"Mommy can't stop drinking hootch?" Lydia asked again.
"She's trying to stop." Karr defended.
"Is that what made her hands shake?" asked Lydia, once again.
"Boy, you're just full of questions, aren't you?" Karr replied. "Yes, that's what makes her hands shake."
"How does she get better?" Lydia asked, looking at Karr with that little innocent look that she was so good at.
"First, she has to admit that she's sick." Karr answered.
Karr's timing couldn't be better. At that moment, Kass walked into the room with Blip and Katherine following her. She looked around for a second, then swallowed. "If I did this once," she thought, "I can do it again." Swallowing hard, she repeated those fateful words again, for her family to hear:
"I have a drinking problem."
She then winced, ready for the disrespect she felt she deserved. She wanted to feel someone being rude or harsh to her, anyway. It just felt like it should be natural. But wait-she felt something different- a tickle, a hug, and a paw on her shoulder? This wasn't right. Not at all. Wiggling free, she stared at everyone for a second before asking, "What is going on?"
"What do you mean?" Jenna asked.
Kass shook herself. "I messed up! Aren't you supposed to hate me?"
Katherine tried to hide a smile. "'Looks like someone found out what unconditional love is."
"This is about the weirdest thing I've ever heard." Kass argued. "No matter what I do, you'll always like me?"
Everyone nodded. "It's not really weird." Jenna offered. "But I just have to ask, how did your problem start?"
Kass swallowed hard. She knew how her problem started, and hated the story very much. But they did have a right to know...
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Kass was a baby, and had just finished learning out of Encyclopedia Nornica. There was a sneezing noise, and the hand hurried off, leaving the newborn alone.
Kass, being a baby, began to crawl off. She got all the way to the garden, which is a long walk for a baby norn. There were some carrots there, and they were hard to chew, but she managed to push one or two anyway. She crawled around a bit, enjoying the sunshine and such, when she spied a little green cup. Apparently the hand forgot to clean up after itself. Anyway, she picked the little green cup up, and looked inside to see what was there. A clear, thin liquid filled the cup. Kass looked for a minute at the cup, and then pushed it. The liquid tasted very nice, and was refreshing on a hot Albian day like that day. She pushed it a few more times, until she was licking the stuff out of the bottom.
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"And... that's just about how it all began..." Kass half-whispered, her voice trembling. She put her paws to her face and rubbed it, trying hard not to cry.
"Wasn't your mom or dad there to tell you any better?" Questioned Karr.
"My parents died when I was born, so I'm told." Kass responded. "Besides," Jenna reminded, "most mommies and daddies don't look after their children. They just go off and make more kids."
This was confusing Karr. He was used to earth culture, where a child at least had caretakers. He just sort of shook it off, and silently thanked hand that his mom had stuck around with him. But something occurred to him. Where was his dad? He wanted to ask, but decided the question was better left unsaid.
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"Hey, can you four help me for a sec.?" Katherine called to the four norns sitting in the floor of her room.
"With what?" Jenna asked. She had learned that you should always question Katherine about these things, or else you could end up in a sticky situation.
"With Terria Nornia." She answered.
"Say what?" Jenna replied.
"It's a new world that Slink and Lis made. You know, two of the a.g.c goddesses?" Katherine stated.
"Oh... I heard about that trinity thing they had going. There was another goddess.. Ruler of Ettins or something... Can't remember her name, but she writes some weird story." Recalled Karr.
"Ha! I heard it was about this girl who invents a link from Earth to
Albia. Can you imagine?" Jenna laughed.
"Yeah, I can." Katherine frankly replied. "Anyway, would you help me see if the HoloDeck works with Terra Nornia?"
"Will we die?" Kass asked.
"Shoudn't." responded Katherine.
"I suppose we can give it a go then." Volunteered Jenna. Katherine dragged out the HoloDeck and one by one, they each beamed themselves into
Terria Nornia.
"My gosh, where are we?" Kass questioned, taking a good look around. Lydia crawled up to her, hugging her leg.
The hand flew over their heads. "Welcome to Terra Nornia!" It typed. "It's winter right now, so it'll be kinda cold. One little side note, then you can roam around and do what you like. This," it said, pointing to an arrow, "is a door. You push it, and you can get past barriers. Now, you know the rules, don't smack anyone, no eating the deathcap mushroom, ect, ect..." And it flew away.
"What's a Death Cap Mushroom?" Lydia thought aloud.
"It's a red and blue and yellow mushroom that you should never, NEVER push," Kass offered, "unless you want to die."
With that, everyone sort of went their separate ways.
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Well, one minute turns to two, two to three, an