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

[tearingup]

"Yeah, so I've heard."

Okay, two kisses.

Then, "Right, I'm off. Jane...?"

[mind_game]

[Putting.] Pop! Here is the Belltower.

And a moment later, Amariah joins him.

[dark_light]

Amariah gives a little wave. Path flutters one wing, then tucks away in a whorl of golden sparkles. "Hi," Amariah says. "You must be Ripper. Nice to meet you."

[tearingup]

"Nice to meet you too!" says Ripper. "So what are you borrowing me for? Pat says sex, I say you want me to write you an anthem." He grins. "Maybe it's both."

[dark_light]

"I don't have a political entity that needs an anthem, though I'll keep you in mind for when I do, certainly. Or if, I suppose. In my absence my world seems to have slotted me into the role of 'inscrutable messiah' over that of 'incipient queen'."

[tearingup]

"How's that going for you?"

[dark_light]

"I have had a number of truly terrible movies made about me, there are several cults, someone tried to kidnap my daughter and kill my boyfriend and that probably wasn't unrelated to my relationship thereto, and I have a really dumb title, which people utter in moments of distress. I can't say I care for the setup, but I'll work with it."

[tearingup]

"Whoa," says Ripper. "I'm sorry about your family - are they okay?"

[dark_light]

"They're fine. Kas torched a couple of times and got cursed and my mother had to torch him again to undo it, Helen was freaked out but the kidnappers didn't hurt her, my clan queen got their clan queen to turn them over and now they're cooling their heels in my afterlife."

[tearingup]

"Better than it could've gone, I guess."

[dark_light]

"Yep. So rumor has it you're the same template as Giles and Merryweather and nobody noticed till Glass had a look at you. The resemblance is pretty subtle."

[tearingup]

"I haven't met either of 'em, so I wouldn't know. It can wait until the party."

[dark_light]

"Fair enough. We don't have a date set; some of us - mostly me - are dealing with lost time at home. I am taking a break, as you probably noticed."

[tearingup]

"Taking a break, borrowing your alts' boyfriends..." He grins. "Or am I the only one?"

[dark_light]

"I have borrowed other ones in the past. In a not-a-Joker mood today, though."

[tearingup]

[dark_light]

"Hm?"

[tearingup]

"Sorry, probably none of my business, but - no, actually, I think it is my business, is your boyfriend okay with," he makes a gesture that encompasses the two of them, "this?"

[dark_light]

"I didn't make a point of specifically asking him in this particular case, but he is in full generality okay with me borrowing anybody who makes themselves borrowable. Why?"

[tearingup]

"I heard you guys were having a rough time and I don't want to be a part of making it any worse, that's all."

[dark_light]

"We are, but you're not gonna make it worse," says Amariah. "Being borrowed is of course optional if you'd rather not for any reason, though."

[tearingup]

He shrugs. "If you say it won't hurt anything, I believe you."

[dark_light]

"Cool. 'Cause you look pretty borrowable." She starts untying knots on her person. This is a prerequisite for sex, but she occupies nudity and the transition thereto much more casually than the one of her alts Ripper is accustomed to.

[tearingup]

"I am very borrowable," he says cheerfully.

It turns out that Ripper also occupies nudity and related states pretty casually! But it's somewhat different in his case. He just really, really likes it when people find him nice to look at.

[dark_light]

He's quite nice to look at! Amariah looks at him. And proceeds with the borrowing.