we travel far and wide

[dark_light]

It has been - a few days. There are long silent snuggles with Kas. There are tentative chats with Helen, which go encouragingly. There are difficult and uncomfortably revelatory conversations with her parents. There are heaps and heaps and heaps of things to catch up on, read, check, look into, so she can regroup, reappear, resume work.

She hasn't slept with Kas since coming home. She loves him, and she'll be feeling like it eventually, but not right away.

She's sort of restless after a few days of not having sex, though. Let's see. There's a couple new Jokers she hasn't tried, although one is not shaped in an Amariah-amenable way. And maybe that's a little too close to what she's waiting on, anyway.

Pattern's boyfriend isn't a Joker and is amenable to being loaned out, she has heard.

[Hey, Jane...]

Comments

[dark_light]

"And Minus may hit on you but last I knew of it he actively preferred to have Steph tucked away, and you'd know more about how Aianon and Ansharil have it worked out than I do at this point and my sweeties are probably more like them than not, same with Sue and Ivy."

[tearingup]

"Aianon and Ansharil have it worked out interestingly," says Ripper.

[dark_light]

"Yeah?"

[tearingup]

"Eh. Should I gossip? How much gossip do you want? Pat rolls her eyes whenever I mention tentacles."

[dark_light]

"I am less uptight than - Pat? That's cute - but I do not require R-rated tentacular detail."

[tearingup]

"Well - Ansharil shapeshifts," he says. "He doesn't get in on things every time, but he likes to bring surprises when he does."

[dark_light]

"Interesting. Petaal shapeshifts too, but nothing in her standard repertoire is tentacled."

[tearingup]

"I guess Ansharil's more creative," he laughs. "Anyway, the tentacles are mostly Aianon's - he gets very creative with his custom plants."

[dark_light]

"That's sort of disturbingly adorable."

[tearingup]

"Right?" He laughs. "Aianon's great."

[dark_light]

"I bet he and Sarion are having a much less complicated reunion than I did," says Amariah wryly.

[tearingup]

"I bet they're having a lot of sex," says Ripper. "You all right?"

[dark_light]

"I'm okay. Helen's actually really neat, which helps a lot, I'd be at my wit's end if it turned out I couldn't stand her. It's just tricky."

[tearingup]

"I'd be in way over my head if I were you." He snuggles her some more.

[dark_light]

Snuggles. "Hey, several thousand people think I'm a deity, I can't disappoint them by falling apart on account of unexpected offspring. Or, as Juliet was putting it when comparing my kid to her sister, 'spontaneous teenage relative'."

[tearingup]

"Maybe I should write you a hymn," he jokes.

[dark_light]

"Oh dear. It would have to be better than the samples Jane found for me from this one little church's online recording repository."

[tearingup]

"I am pretty good."

[dark_light]

"I have not actually heard the one you wrote for Pat."

[tearingup]

"You should, it's awesome."

[dark_light]

"You wanna sing it for me?"

[tearingup]

"Sure," he laughs.

And he does.

It's beautifully evocative.

[dark_light]

"That is a pretty anthem. Maybe I will look you up for your songwriting services when I have anything to anthem. Unless there's one of you in Alethia, I guess." Pause. "I should, you know, actually check. For other templates too, I should do a full sweep, it's been a while and Kas wasn't really keeping an eye out."

[tearingup]

"I think there's enough of me already," says Ripper. "...Although maybe I'd think differently if we found one who was my age."

[dark_light]

Amariah laughs. "I can have Jane check right now," she suggests.