Chapter 4: The Reunion

 

(Art from InvertColor)

Normality has never been part of the equation.

Enid didn't even try to contain the smile that formed on her face as those words ran through her head again. Her wife was right, certainly, and the lycanthrope wouldn't trade it for the world. Normality and the Addams rarely went hand in hand. Hell, the mere fact of being a werewolf already put Enid in the eyes of many into a category of weirdness by default. Being an Addams had only accentuated it further.

And then there was being the Volvaugr.

That one she really tried not to dwell on too much. It was a title that, according to the incarnation of Grandmama from Wodnesdæg's universe, carried with it a number of responsibilities and future challenges. Apparently, everything that had happened with The Bright One was just the beginning. But nearly a decade had passed since then and neither she nor Wednesday had had to face anything on that scale.

For the moment, she thought.

It was better to focus on the here and now. An afternoon of preparations with her family before the arrival of their guests. Preparations already conveniently ready thanks to Grandmama's intervention (the one from her universe, not the other, it's complicated) in ensuring a feast fit for the palates of any Addams, no matter where they came from.

Enid was still deep in thought as she finalized the preparations when a sound similar to a ship's horn made the whole house shake.

Oh, the doorbell...

“Weds? Could you...?”

“I'll take care of it, querida.”

“Don't make it sound like it's a mafia job!” said Enid, laughing.

Wednesday simply smiled back at her, one of those damned half-smiles with which she always seemed to be hiding something and which made Enid melt a little inside. Without further ado, she went to the main door to receive the first visitor of the evening.

The house they lived in started out as your typical suburban home. And on the outside it still looked like one, although shades of gray were starting to predominate. The interior had already become larger and more twisted than the outside. Nothing on the level of the Addams' ancestral mansion, but close. Any location where an Addams resided for a time or which they considered home became an Addams Place.

And yet the house was, in a way, cozy. At least on the ground floor where the living room and the large reception room that connected to the entrance atrium were located. Decorated in equal parts by Enid and Wednesday, it was a place that could only be described as eclectic.

Wednesday finally made it to the front door, just after another blast on the horn, and opened it, instinctively looking down to come face to face with little Atticus Cartwright, wrapped in warm clothes too big for his small frame and carrying a backpack.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Addams,“ the boy said.

“Good afternoon, young Atticus,” Wednesday replied cordially, before glancing around, “Didn't your mother accompany you?”

The boy shook his head, ”Nah, she's confident I won't get lost finding the house next door.”

“Well, don't let me keep you at the door,” said Wednesday, gesturing for the child to come in. Attie responded with a smile that, as always, puzzled her a little.

The universe and life are full of surprises and unexpected turns. As a child, Wednesday was seen as a weirdo, creepy and strange by her peers. As a teenager, to this perception was added that of being perceived as potentially psychopathic, even by the few who could consider her a friend. But now, as a young adult, there was the strange phenomenon that among the children of the same generation as her daughters, Wednesday was seen as a “cool mom”.

For some inexplicable reason, most small children liked her. Wednesday found it disturbing. Enid thought it was endearing as well as hilarious.

Atticus had barely crossed the threshold of the door when he was rammed by a humanoid missile called Friday Saturday Addams.

“Attie!” exclaimed the girl as she lifted her friend in a hug that made his ribs creak, “You came, you came!”

“Well, you invited me...” the boy managed to mutter, squeezed by his friend's arms.

Rissa appeared shortly afterwards, accompanied by Enid.

“Hi Attie!” said the werewolf. “Day, please put him down. He's not one of your stuffed animals.”

“Mom, if Attie were one of my stuffed animals I wouldn't hug him, I'd dismember him,” replied Day, putting the bewildered boy down, although without letting go of him.

“It's okay,” said Atticus, trying to convince himself that the blush on his cheeks was due to going from the cold outside to the warmth inside the house.

Still smiling, Enid turned to her other daughter, “Rissa, could you and Day take Attie to your room so he can leave his stuff and then come back to the living room? Our guests should be arriving soon.”

Rissa nodded silently and with her everlasting smile full of serenity. She took her sister in her arms, even though she was still holding Atticus, and carried them both with an unusual show of strength for her age. When the three children disappeared at the top of the stairs, the smile disappeared from Enid's face, giving way to a worried expression.

“Weds... Attie is always welcome here, but today of all days...”

Wednesday placed a hand on her wife's shoulder, even though Enid was much taller than her, making her turn until they were face to face. “Nothing will happen,” she said, with a soft and gentle tone in her voice that few souls had heard. “Come on, the others are about to arrive.”

A few minutes later, the whole family was in the living room. Wednesday and Enid had settled down on one of the couches, watching their daughters play acupuncture with dolls with their friend. The tranquility of the scene was interrupted when suddenly a gust of wind began to stir up inside the room.

There was a flash of light and suddenly a kind of luminous “door” formed out of nowhere in the middle of the room, a vertical rectangle of energy that oscillated between green and gold colors, illuminating the room with radiance. Wednesday and Enid got up at the same time as a silhouette crossed the newly opened dimensional portal.

She was a young woman, barely out of her teens, with grayish skin, long black hair and completely white eyes. She was dressed in an outfit that wouldn't have looked out of place in an old-school rock band: black T-shirt, spiked necklace, leather bracelets, black pants, heavy boots...

Day and Rissa were the first to react, rushing straight into the arms of the newcomer, who greeted them with an impromptu hug.

“Cousin Varadi!”

“Rugrats!”

Varadi Addams-Needler, the adopted homunculus daughter of one of Wednesday's dimensional variants... who had just walked through the portal.

Needler, as this counterpart was known, walked through the door hand in hand with her wife Parker, before closing the portal behind them. Unlike on other occasions, she was not wearing her white scientist's coat but a discreet and sober black dress.

She still wore her hair in the classic braided pigtails worn by most of Wednesdays throughout the multiverse, and she was still one of the palest.

“Greetings,” she simply said in a monotone, serene voice, although her eyes shone with obvious affection. At the same time, Parker came forward to greet Enid and Wednesday with another exchange of hugs. Well, more like an exchange of hugs with Enid.

“Attie, Attie!“ exclaimed Day, dragging Varadi along until she was standing in front of the boy, “This is my cousin Varadi! Cousin Varadi, show him the trick!”

Varadi looked at the boy with a friendly smile. “Nice to meet you Attie,” she said, holding out her hand. Attie shook her hand in greeting...

... and suddenly found himself holding Varadi's hand in his, completely severed from her body.

“Oooh,” he muttered, looking at the amputated appendage with his eyes wide open behind his glasses.

“Aren't you scared?” asked Varadi, between surprised and concerned.

Attie shook his head, “It's a little scary, yes... but Rissa and Day already told me that you could dismember yourself.”

Varadi smiled, taking her hand again and grafting it back onto her arm before rubbing the boy's hair, “Thank you for being friends with these two, I know how much patience they require.”

“Hey!” Day protested.

Rissa made an almost imperceptible gesture that made Varadi laugh.

“That's right! Day is the one who requires patience!”

“HEY!”

Soon, another portal much like the previous one formed out of nowhere. Two figures crossed it at the same time. The one on the left was a young Wednesday, with a pale and severe face. Her hair was also in braided pigtails, but she was wearing a black dress more similar in style to those worn by Morticia. Next to her, an Enid with brown hair, green eyes and much more informal attire, smiling from ear to ear at the sight of everyone else.

“LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!”, exclaimed Enid Saint-Clair, also known as...

“Auntie Nid!” Day shouted as she leapt towards the werecat, extending her little claws. Saint-Clair just laughed, letting herself fall to the ground with the girl, while the others watched the scene with amusement.

Rissa approached the newly arrived Wednesday and greeted her with a nod.

“It's a pleasure to see you again, little Larissa,” she replied, before her gaze fixed on the local Wednesday and Enid, “Wednesday, Enid.”

“Woe,” Wednesday returned, nodding slightly.

Two other portals opened while Day was still trying to bite her aunt's jugular, who was still laughing as she playfully struggled with the little werewolf.

From one of them emerged a middle-aged Wednesday, wearing simple black jeans and a pink sweater embroidered with a black cat. Unlike her dimensional counterparts, her long black hair was pulled back into a single ponytail. Her companion was a tall, muscular man with blond hair and beard who greeted those present cheerfully.

From the other dimensional doorway emerged a Wednesday, once again with her classic pigtails and dressed in a dark blue dress and black and white striped tights, holding the hand of a taller, more gangly woman with long curly brown hair.

“Friday! Pup!” exclaimed Enid, running to embrace the two Wednesdays, whom she would never cease to see as a pair of little sisters, even though due to the whims of the multiverse they were now older than her

“Enid!/Miss Enid!” replied both Wednesdays as the she-wolf squeezed them in a hug not unlike the one her daughter had given the young Atticus a few minutes earlier.

Friday's husband, Eamon, couldn't help but laugh at the scene. Pup's companion, Taylor Galpin, simply shook her head in exasperation, although a poorly concealed smile adorned her face.

“Welcome, Eamon, Taylor,” Wednesday greeted them, after casting an amused glance at her wife still clutching the other two women, “I trust everything went well.”

“No problems,” the lycanthrope replied, ”It took a while, but we've finally managed to calm things down with the other packs. The old guard of the Sinclairs won't be a problem anymore.”

“Weds and I are fine too,” Taylor added, “Although the year has been so calm that for a moment I thought she was going to go mad with monotony... by the way, Eamon, what on bloody earth is that?” asked the Hyde, pointing to her friend's face.

Eamon put his hand to his beard with a satisfied smile, “What? This? My moon likes it, she says it tingles pleasantly when...”

“There are children present.”

“...we kiss. When we kiss. You have a very dirty mind, Galpin,” laughed the lycanthrope again, ”By the way, Wednesday, Enid... Theo and Dora send their regards and are sorry they can't come, but this year they had already made plans with their campus mates and...”

“We understand, Eamon,” said Enid, “Now give me a hug, twin brother from another universe!”

“Hey! What about me?” exclaimed Saint-Clair from the floor, lying with a triumphant Day standing over her, “I'm almost identical to you!”

“Your brown hair marks you out as the evil twin!” Enid joked.

“Oh... cool!”

“Although wrong, since given his moustache Eamon is clearly the evil twin,” interrupted a new voice, simultaneously monotonous and teasing in a way that was not easy to describe.

Another Wednesday had emerged from another doorway that was closing behind her. She came alone, wearing a blue dress, dark pink tights and sporting a serene expression on her face betrayed by the animalism of her smile.

“Shark!” exclaimed the others, welcoming the last of the group that Enid's friend Yoko had dubbed the Wednesday Six.

The Wednesdays who, almost a decade earlier, had accidentally ended up in that universe. A mystery and an adventure arising from a failed attempt at revenge against Wednesday that was the first stage of a journey that marked and changed the lives of all those present. Some of them in a way they would never have imagined in the past, as was particularly the case with Enid.

But in their last great (and dangerous, desperate and sometimes nightmarish) adventure, the Wednesday Six had technically become the Wednesday Seven…

“SALUTATIONS! THE HOUSE OF ADAMO IS HERE!”

The shout signaled the arrival of the last guests. Emerging from a portal, in this case circular and with golden edges, were a trio of newcomers.

The woman was clearly an Enid, even taller and more muscular than the local one, a human mountain dressed in elegant furs, like a barbarian princess. Her companion was a male version of Wednesday, with his hair tied back in short, thick, braided pigtails, and clad in a suit of black metal armor as dark as a moonless night, covered in spikes and sharp edges.

“Eneit! Wodnesdæg!”

Between the two of them was a small child with an annoyed expression who completely ignored the adults' greetings. He was about six or seven years old, although tall for his age, dressed in a simple robe and a fur cape, with strawberry blonde messy hair and a pair of blue eyes that instantly fixed on Day.

A gaze that Day returned with a lupine growl.

“Geraint,” the girl murmured.

“Cousin Friday,” replied the child, extending the claws that gave him away as a little werewolf, ”MY SWORN ENEMY! THE TIME FOR RECKONING HAS COME!”

And with their respective howls, they threw themselves at each other, ready to spill blood.

Rissa facepalmed.

 

NOTES

You already knew Varadi from Kooky Spooky. Now meet Geraint from the House of Adamo.

And don't worry, the children aren't going to kill each other. Maybe. Perhaps...

Oh, and as a bonus, a review of the current ages of our cast:

 

Wednesday & Enid: 27 years old.

Rissa (Larissa Tuesday) & Day (Friday Saturday): 6 years old.

Woe & Saint-Clair: 26 years old.

Friday: 48 years old (same age for Eamon).

Dora & Theo: 26 years old.

Needler: 44 years old (same age for Parker).

Varadi: 19 years old.

Pup: 28 years old.

Taylor Galpin: 29 years old.

Shark: 24 years old.

Wodnesdæg & Eneit: 34 years old.

Geraint: 7 years old.