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

[pythbox]

The kettle clicks.

"Tea's up," says Rayne. He goes and pours two cups, and brings Ripper his, and then he sits down with his own and says, "So how'd you two meet?"

[dark_light]

"He's dating one of my friends," says Amariah.

[tearingup]

Rayne glances at Ripper. Ripper smiles. Rayne raises his eyebrows. Ripper laughs. After a moment, so does Rayne.

[dark_light]

[What just happened?]

[tearingup]

[He wanted to know what this friend of yours thinks of the fact that I've slept with you. I told him she's fine with it.]

[dark_light]

[Reminds me of watching Sherlocks have entire conversations with their posture,] snorts Amariah.

[tearingup]

[Rayne can read me like a book. Always has.]

"Anything you two want to share with the class?" Rayne says dryly.

[Case in point,] laughs Ripper.

[dark_light]

"We're telepathic," smirks Amariah.

[tearingup]

"Ooh," says Rayne. "There's a trick."

"Do I want to know what you're thinking right now?" says Ripper. Rayne just laughs.

[dark_light]

Amariah snorts. [Do you think your alt would care if I looked in on him to see if he's almost here as reported?]

[tearingup]

[Yes, definitely, don't.]

[dark_light]

[All right.] She conjures her own cup of tea and sips it.

[pythbox]

Rayne studies her thoughtfully.

"Why are you here?"

[dark_light]

"Along for the ride. I can leave if I'll only be in the way."

[pythbox]

"Really," he says. "It's a bit much for me to believe that you came back from the dead just to watch my best mate fuck himself."

[dark_light]

"Wasn't planning to supervise that part. Also, wasn't dead."

[pythbox]

Rayne grins.

"Aren't you, though? I know I am."

[dark_light]

"That's between you and them."

[tearingup]

"That means, don't start selling tickets," Ripper says helpfully.

"Me? I would never," says Rayne, mock-offended. Ripper laughs and pets his lapful of purring cat.

Someone opens the front door and walks in.



And just sort of stands there, utterly stunned.

[dark_light]

"Hello," says Amariah. Her aura's still floating around her, magicmagicwitchwitchmagicmagic.

[tearingup]

"What," says the Ripper with the kingfisher on his shoulder.

"Ripper, Hec, this is... Ripper," says Rayne. "And Isabella Amariah, who apparently isn't here to watch you two have sex, can't imagine why, wild horses couldn't get me to pass that up."

"He doesn't—" the local Ripper says distantly.

"Kit doesn't mind, so why should you?" shrugs Rayne. "C'mon in, shut the door, say hello, steal his tea."

The local Ripper manages to shut the door.

[dark_light]

"People from other worlds don't, usually," says Amariah. Even within the sheaf Alethia is unusual; she's read sensationalist media screaming about it from fifty years ago.

[tearingup]

The cat in Ripper's lap looks at the local Ripper and sniffs.

He comes forward hesitantly, sits on the floor in front of his alt, and joins him in petting her.

Rayne bites his lip. It's the first time he's shown a visible reaction to Ripper touching his daemon.

"I have no idea what's going on," the local Ripper murmurs. His kingfisher leaves his shoulder and perches on a nearby clock, giving it an extra set of talon-marks on top of the many it already has.

[dark_light]

[Is this my cue to get out of here?]

[tearingup]

[Yeah,] says the nonlocal Ripper, [unless you want to join in.]