28.3 Mommy (Ain’t An) Issue

"Your mother?"

At Natalie's words, Ezraphel's expression underwent a strange metamorphosis, becoming unreadable.

Natalie continued "I'm guessing she never came up in conversations."

"A few times though they were brief anecdotes and Stanley would shut down whenever I tried to broach the subject subtly."

"Not surprising they didn't exactly part on good terms from what I remember."

"What happened?"

"Not my story to tell" Natalie answered, but upon seeing the frustrated look on Ezraphel's face she continued "let's just say mom disagreed on his lifestyle choices and they had an argument. He walked out and as far as I know he's cut all ties with her."

Ezraphel's brows furrowed at the vagueness but she understood.

"What about your father?"

"Different fathers," Natalie revealed.

Ezraphel looked taken aback by that "oh."

"Truth is we're not ah, actual siblings."

Ezraphel's head tilted in disbelief "eh?"

"Yeah we're actually cousins. Stan's actual dad is my father's brother and they passed away in an accident. My parents adopted him in the family."

"Oh, um m-my condolences"

"It's fine, I barely remember them and I don't think Stan really cares since he was a baby when they died. Don't mention it to him though or that I told you about" she added.

"Ah…" she trailed off looking incredibly awkward but forging on "t-then what of your father, that is Stanley's uncle?"

"Oh, dear old dad?" Natalie asked

Ezraphel nodded.

"Fuck 'em."

The Lilim looked vaguely uncomfortable now, "um..."

"Oh! Pardon my language," she said, though she did not seem overtly concerned about it.

"It's…fine" Ezraphel brushed off or at least tried to, but in the ensuing silence, the awkwardness rose.

Not for very long though as it was broken by Natalie who very much wanted to move things along.

"Yeah, so anyway I think I can swing having mom pay a visit."

Taking the out for what it was Ezraphel latched onto it "truly?"

"I actually keep in touch with mom and I don't really want to keep my situation a secret from her" She added hesitantly.

"Is that wise? Informing her, I mean."

"Probably not," Natalie admitted, "but hey, that's what memory spells are for, right?"

Ezraphel's frown became more pronounced "Stanley frowns upon using magic to influence the mind."

"How very noble of him" she conceded "but I'd rather keep my relationship with my mother than burn that bridge permanently."

"Would it be alright though? If your mother doesn't accept you—"

"We were talking about Stan's issues with mom, not mine," Natalie interrupted forcefully.

"Very well, though from what you've just said would she accept Stanley's changes... or me?"

"Let's uh, take it one step at a time huh? Stage an intervention to bridge their relationship before putting a torch to it."

Ezraphel didn't think this was something to be brushed off however she knew pressing the other woman now would be futile.

"Alright then moving on, do you think the relationship is salvageable?"

"I wasn't there when the two of them fell out but I can definitely say that the relationship is definitely salvageable. If he stopped being a stubborn jackass and actually talk to her they'd be fine."

"That is wonderful news," Ezraphel smiled, though it had a strange quality to it.

"So is that going to be part of the birthday surprise?"

At this, Ezraphel's joy-filled expression lessened "no, I already had something in mind and..." She trailed off.

"And what?"

"And I believe Stanley is making a genuine effort to change himself. I am certain thoughts of his strained relationship with his mother have occurred to him and I believe he is mature enough to recognize what needs to be done."

Natalie blinked as she mentally chewed on Ezraphel's words.

"You know on the one hand I'm happy you have so much faith in him, but on the other, are you sure about giving him the benefit of the doubt like this? It might take a while for him to commit unless he's reminded."

In response Ezraphel gave her a mysterious smile as her eyes seemed to almost literally twinkle "oh, I don't think that should be a problem."

"What do you mean by that?"

Ezraphel disregarded the question entirely "in the meantime I believe your aid in preparing Stanley's gift will greatly benefit your training."

"Hey now, wait just a damn minute-"

But before Natalie could finish Ezraphel grabbed her shoulder and the two disappeared in a flash of light.

.

.

.

Stanley entered the kitchen with a garbage bag in hand and a complicated expression on his face. Ezraphel had declined his demand for her to enchant his office mini fridge to automatically refill when empty and his garbage to empty itself when full. Her reasoning being that without it he would be forced to actually leave his office more often, which is always a good thing in her book.

It was a coincidence that he ended up eavesdropping on them. He'd like to say he wasn't the kind of person to do such things normally but it's more like he's never been in a position to do it. He could totally see himself listening in on people's conversations if the topic of discussion piqued his interest or was about him.

It's safe to say that this particular topic most certainly ticked both boxes.

After dumping the garbage bag in the trash bin (that too wasn't equipped with an auto dump feature but rather a stay clean feature because Ezraphel would take any chance to go outside), Stanley returned to his office. For the second time that morning he sat in his chair to ruminate in his thoughts.

'So clearly Ezraphel knew I was there.'

Whether Natalie picked up on Ezraphel's obvious (to him) cues was up in the air, but it didn't really matter. What really mattered to him was...

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?"

'This' being the fact that Ezraphel expected him to make an honest attempt at mending his relationship with his mother.

"Ugh~"

Now to be clear it wasn't so much the idea that made him groan as it was the effort he would have to put in and the drama that will definitely occur because of it. Natalie was only partly right when she assumed that it was just general stubbornness that prevented him from making the leap. Hindsight is 20/20, and Stanley has had a lot of time to ponder on the events that led to him cutting ties with his mother.

But before that, let's set up the background:

It's the late 2000s and Stanley was a bright well-adjusted young man in middle school when his parents got him his first computer for personal use. At the time, he was the type of kid whom his parents could trust with his own computer. They figured he would use it to study or help with his schoolwork. So not only did they give him his own PC but also unrestricted access to the internet.

The naïve fools.

Between YouTube, anime, the burgeoning social media platforms and forum sites, online gaming, and porn the real world became real boring real fast. It wasn't long before he found himself being more reclusive as he stayed inside to indulge himself in the cyberspace. It didn't help that a lot of his interests were part of that era's nerd culture which had a stigma for being liked by weirdos and was generally seen as uncool. Once he foolishly outed himself as being into that stuff he gradually became ostracized from his friend group.

He had the choice to salvage his social standing but chose not to do that because it would mean giving up his newfound hobby. He suffered for that decision in the way only a teenager of the late 2000s and early 2010s could. Yes there was some bullying involved which combined with being an outcast made Stanley develop anti-social tendencies.

Natalie's attempts at rekindling his social life had the opposite effect in high school and he ended up developing a particular disdain for large groups of people and parties in general. By the time he got to college he was a full-on anti-social outcast. Combined this with the mounting pressures of academia and his general disillusionment with the system and Stanley was 100% done.

By this point he was living on his own renting a cheap apartment (to avoid sharing a dorm room) which gave him the freedom to shirk his academic responsibilities and actively look for a way out of his situation. He saw his out through content creation after visiting various forums that held stories about how to maximize YouTube monetization.

Having observed the platform's evolution, he could see the way the winds were blowing and wanted to get in on it before it became too popular and was subjected to gatekeeping. To that end, he dedicated time to setting up his moderately successful channel to take advantage of this monetization scheme.

He saw progress which made him devote more time to making content and less time on his studies. Fast forward a few months later and he was seeing some returns on his investment. Subscribers were up, views were way up, and he was being e-mailed by potential sponsors. He figured a few more months of this and he'd make enough to feel confident about making his case to his mother because he already made up his mind to quit school.

Unfortunately things didn't go to plan because Stanley overlooked one detail. In his effort to find success on the internet, he neglected college, and as the progress continued to show positive results, he spent less and less time on his studies. It was to the point where he took any chance he got to miss classes and neglect course work. Such things become noticeable over time and without any changes, despite the warnings and concerned inquiries issued, the school administration ended up contacting his parents out of concern.

Now throughout this endeavor he's had contact with his mother. He obviously didn't tell her about what he was doing and worst-case scenario if she ever caught wind of it he expected her to bring it up over a phone call. What he didn't expect was for her to make a surprise visit to his apartment.

And now we get to the confrontation.

He was standing at the doorway looking like a deer caught in headlights while his mother stood before him looking very displeased. She didn't ask to come in and he was too shell shocked to bar her from entering the apartment. Right off the bat he did not impress her with how he maintained his apartment so before they could even talk she demanded that he clean up the mess.

Half an hour later, she confronts him about missing classes and failing grades. He, having no desire to anger her further with a half-baked lie, decides to tell the truth about his experiments. He failed the charisma check so he wasn't convincing her through his own merits and his 'speech' was way down so a lot of his explanations ended up flying over her head giving her only a rudimentary understanding of the entire process.

What did succeed to get across were the results which he supplemented with proof via bank statements. Since his first bank account was being heavily monitored and managed by his parents he made another one at a different bank to receive his wired earnings. His mother looked genuinely surprised at the amount he earned. Sure, it wasn't as much as a regular job given that it took months of setup to achieve but with his channel getting bigger and sponsorships on the table it would only get better.

The thing is Stanley was fighting an uphill battle.

His other saw the attempts as a doomed endeavor. To her content creation as a full-time job is a fad that will ultimately collapse at best and straight up scam that would land him big trouble at worse. This was likely due to a combination of a lack of true understanding, the untested nature of it all, and general mistrust due to its online nature.

Then there was the heavy skepticism of his own efforts because, while his mother was impressed with what he managed to achieve she was overall dismissive of said efforts. She assumed it amounted to him just indulging his hobbies. It didn't count as 'work' which would translate into a 'career' to her which was why she gave an ultimatum.

She was willing to overlook everything and allow him to continue with his project so long as he started attending classes again, got his grades up (and maintained at a certain level) and graduate college. In hindsight this was a completely reasonable thing to ask of him as a parent worried about her child's future and wanting for him to have something tangible to fall back on if this risky venture doesn't pan out.

Unfortunately Stanley at that moment in time was not a reasonable person. He hated to use the term angsty teenager but he was tired of capitulating to public pressures and traditional conceptions of what he needed to do to succeed. At that point he already made up his mind that he wasn't going to finish college or get a regular nine-to-five job.

He'd do his own thing and he'd succeed…or die trying.

He wanted his mother to see what he saw, but he couldn't explain it to her in a way that was calm, succinct, and in a mature enough manner that would assuage her worries and make her believe in him. Instead he ranted his gripes about his own issues poorly, denounced the education system as useless and doubled down on the path of content creation.

With how unreasonable he was being and not being able to dissuade him his mother ended up calling in her husband to help convince him. That was a mistake as things kind of devolved afterwards because Stanley despised the man who was supposed to be his uncle and the feeling was mutual. By the end of it the bastard cut him off, froze him out of his old bank account and basically disowned him.

That was fine by him, Stanley decided he wasn't going to have anything to do with either of them and went with his plan to drop out of college. Natalie helped him out during this time making arrangements to move his important belongings out of the family home and into temporary storage because he wasn't going to give the bastard the satisfaction of showing his face to him.

Natalie also provided a place on her couch for him to crash at rent free until he got on his feet. Later he struck it big with some investments and moved out to rent his own apartment for a bit then bought his own house. Throughout it all he never got back in contact with his mother, stubbornly ignored her attempts to reach out and never looked back.

He thought he wouldn't be dealing with her for a long time to come. He even expected the likeliest time they would ever meet again would be at a funeral. Who would be the one getting buried was up in the air but he was pretty sure that's the only way he imagined they would see each other again in any capacity.

Then Natalie informed him that she was getting a divorce and the piece of shit wanted to take everything from her and bleed her dry through court proceedings. She needed help paying the lawyer fees and Stanley was happy to meet that demand, if only out of pure spite for the bastard as well as personal vindication. He agreed to help with the caveat that his name be kept out of it and Natalie would pretend that the money came from her.

Natalie completely ignored his request and even went so far as to give her his number. At least she didn't give her his address so all Stanley got was a call he came very close to answering followed by a text message thanking him. She would send him messages from time to time that he recognized as her attempts to reach out but he couldn't bring himself to reply to or acknowledge them beyond looking. Eventually she stopped trying, but she did send the occasional text, sending her love and regards.

She never stopped saying she loved him... and he couldn't bring himself to block her.

And now, after ghosting her for years he was expected to reach out to rekindle their relationship?

"This is some fucked up shit."

Yet regardless of what he thought a decision needed to be made though at this point he was just stalling. He knew deep down that he was always going to reach out to his mother; he just didn't know when as basically procrastinating. Now that it was practically shoved in his face like this with the expectation that he would recognize what needed to be done, he found himself hesitating...again.

'Sometimes I really hate this having to change myself so drastically thing I just needed to do for the sake of a healthy relationship.'

With a grumble he grabbed his wireless earbuds and phone. Finding and navigating his way through the contact list was a simple affair as there weren't many numbers on there, so he found her number in mere moments.

"Hrm…"

His finger hovered over the call button until the screen turned black from inactivity.

"Fuck"

This was harder than he thought, and a part of him yearned for Ezraphel's reassuring presence. Hell, he'd even take Natalie ripping into him for being such a coward but his pride wouldn't allow such a thing on both counts. What kind of punk bitch would he be if he had to have his girlfriend or sister literally hold his hand just to talk to his mother over the phone?

Fuck. That.

The hesitation was strong in this one but it's hard not to think of the repercussions of opening Pandora's Box. He shared the same worries as Natalie, believing that their changes wouldn't go over well with their mother. You don't need to be a genius to figure out how it would go over telling a devout Christian woman how an interdimensional sex demon corrupted one of her children into a monster and was in a relationship with the other.

Obviously he wasn't about to spring that on her off rip and would be keeping that nugget of information as a secret for however long he could, but that secret is going to come out later, and he dreaded her reaction to being lied to for however long it would be. Believe it or not, Stanley didn't like lying to his mother. It left an especially sour taste in his mouth in this situation where it was a pretty shaky foundation for him to be reestablishing their relationship on.

Call it a side effect of being raised by the woman who did her best despite being married to an absolute bastard.

'That's a very convoluted excuse for trying to weasel your way out of this Stan.'

"…"

A swipe, several taps, and a press later, and the phone was ringing.

*Beep*

"Hello?"

"…hey mom."