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]

"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.

[tearingup]

"Sure, why not."

[dark_light]

[Hey Jane, you want to see if you can find a Rupert in Alethia?]

[mind_game]

[Sure. Checking.]

[Yep, there's one!]

[tearingup]

[Really?] says Ripper. [A young one or an old one? Or can't you tell?]

[mind_game]

[Well, I could ask, but the sweep protocol doesn't give me that kinda detail. Lemme see if he or she's got an Internet footprint I can connect up.]

Checking, checking.

[tearingup]

Well, Alethia does contain a punk rock band called Wretched, with a singer called Ripper. The cover of the first album is remarkably similar, even.

[mind_game]

[Yep, here he is, here's his copy of Wretched, he is still going by 'Ripper' in band-related material, found his birth records and his driver's license though and it's a match. Twenty-one, pied kingfisher - would he not want me sharing her legal name either?]

[tearingup]

Ripper winces. [Look, I know you can see anything anyone has ever put on a computer, but that doesn't mean you should. We ditch our names for a reason.]

[mind_game]

[It's not that I can, it's that I do, I am those computers. It's significant attention that's optional - or being on them at all, like Syntropy. Don't send me to look at things you don't want me to pay attention to,] huffs Jane. [Okay, secret pied kingfisher legal name. He doesn't have it in his website bio as anything.]

[tearingup]

[Yeah, I didn't know how you'd be checking. Won't be making that mistake again.]

[mind_game]

[The checking for the existence of the template at all is just sending whitespace by text brainphone,] Jane says. [That part's very unintrusive.]

[tearingup]

[Great. Thanks.]

[mind_game]

[No problem. Should I say hi to him?]

[dark_light]

"What do you think?"

[tearingup]

"Maybe I should say hi to him," says Ripper.

[dark_light]

"If you want to come to Alethia you need a star, unless you want a kingfisher so your kingfishers can chat. And people from Alethia will have reactions to you ranging from Kas's 'you are a different way to be people' to my initial 'this bar is full of ZOMBIES, AAAAAH', and I don't know where the local Ripper will fall on this continuum. But you are welcome if that's understood and you still want to."

[tearingup]

"Well. Okay, maybe I shouldn't. But, hm - I feel like dropping in on him myself is the best way to get all the shocks over with as fast as possible without souring him on the whole idea of," he waves a hand vaguely, "things."

[dark_light]

"You can, it's just more complicated with Alethia than it would be if we were talking about someplace more like, I don't know, Eos, Rainbow, whatever. Although - consider the fact that I'm a mythical figure, have been for longer than he's been alive, would that help or hurt if I just went up to him myself?"