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]

"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?"

[tearingup]

"...Ooh." He considers this. "You could join me, if you want, but you might not want. Rayne's trouble."

[dark_light]

"What kind?" asks Path, out on her shoulder again, tilting his head. She's back in silks; he's got his talons around one of the twists of black.

[tearingup]

"Complicated kinds."

[dark_light]

"...Should I just ask Pat?"

[tearingup]

"You can. I'm not sure what she'll tell you."

[dark_light]

Amariah tilts her head, confers briefly with Pattern through Jane, and says, "I'll join you, if you don't mind, unless he's the going-to-tabloids sort? I don't mind minor rumor about the Second Coming of the Shade Dreamer, but firsthand reports to media outlets should wait."

[tearingup]

"He won't go to the tabloids unless there's something in it for him, and I don't think there wil be."

[dark_light]

"Okay then. Is this an uninvited teleportation situation or a brainphoning first situation or what? I will follow your lead."

[tearingup]

"Uninvited teleportation," he says. "Spying on him first to make sure I'm not interrupting anything important."

He does that. Rayne is at home, alone - even the flat is familiar, although not completely.

Poof.