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

[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?"

[tearingup]

"...Could work," he says. "Thing is, he's not going to like it if you just teleport in front of him and say hi, and I don't think he'll think much of the brainphone as a surprise either. Actually..."

He pauses, contemplating something.

"Those stars, how long do they last?"

[dark_light]

"A little shy of a week is how long it took in the only case one's been allowed to wear off. Why?"

[tearingup]

"Should be fine, then. I just thought, if he's got the name and he's got the band he's probably got the best friend too," he explains. "And I know Rayne'd be all over introducing two of me. But it might take us a while to get it all sorted out."

[dark_light]

"Well, you are, as I said, quite welcome to visit the world."

[tearingup]

"Right," he says. "Jane, mind popping me back home for a minute so I can tell Pat what's going on and pick up a star from the Jokers?"

[mind_game]

[Sure.]

Pop!

Pat's location is one of the places Jane can put him, and she's not doing anything private at the moment, so that is where he goes.

[bellfounding]

"Hey you. Have a good time?"

[tearingup]

"I really did." He kisses her. "And then Amariah found one of me in her world, so I'm gonna go say hi." [And I'm going to introduce myself to his Rayne first, because I bet that'll go much better, but going much better is probably going to mean having a lot of sex with both of 'em, and I figured you'd want to know.]

[bellfounding]

[Oh boy. Thanks for the warning. You want a star?]

[tearingup]

[Was gonna get one from the source, but if you're offering, sure.] He kisses her again.

[bellfounding]

She passes one into his coinsorter. Kisses! [You make the wish before you go into Alethia,] she warns.

[tearingup]

[Yeah, figured.]

Kisses kisses.

"I love you," he says, and kisses the end of her nose, and makes a wish. "Guess I should put some clothes on, too." Another wish. "All set. Jane, could you put me in Alethia?"

[bellfounding]

"Love you."

[mind_game]

[You want Amariah's palace in the land of the dead, or her basement in the daemon-having subworld?]

[tearingup]

[Daemon-having subworld, I guess, that'll be where I'm going anyway.]

[mind_game]

[Okay.]

Pop.

[dark_light]

Amariah's there already. "Hi. Am I joining you or are you going on your own?"