Author: bellfounding	[Thanks, everybody,] says Bella, later, to the local Jokers. [That was the best date venue ever.]
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[Of course it was,] says Queenie. [Did you like the food? Did you like the flowers? Did you like the view? Did you make out with him?]
Author: bellfounding	[I liked the food and the flowers and the view,] says Bella primly.
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[I bet you made out with him,] says Queenie. [Isn't he delicious?]
Author: bellfounding	[I decline to comment.]
Author: gunpowdergelatine	She giggles. [Okay, okay. But do you guys know if you're doing the exclusive thing or not? Because that is actually kind of my business.]
Author: bellfounding	[We didn't discuss it. I guess we should.]
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[Guess so,] Queenie agrees.
Author: bellfounding	[I'll get back to you.] [Ripper?]
Author: tearingup	[Yeah?]
Author: bellfounding	[So, Queenie wants to know if we're "doing the exclusive thing", and I do not currently have something to tell her.]
Author: tearingup	[That... is a good question,] says Ripper. [A very good question. Do you want to come talk about it?]
Author: bellfounding	[Yeah, sure.] She lands in the hallway. She knocks.
Author: tearingup	He opens the door and greets her with a hug.
Author: bellfounding	Hug!
Author: tearingup	Hug. Kiss. "C'mon in."
Author: bellfounding	She comes in.
Author: tearingup	He sits in a comfy armchair, with another nearby for Bella. "So - 'the exclusive thing'," he says, "I think I can guess why Queenie is asking - would it bother you if I kept seeing her?"
Author: bellfounding	Bella thinks about this. "Not - exactly. I do think I'd wind up dwelling on it. I think non-exclusivity would take mental energy to keep up with, not necessarily in a negative way but definitely in a way."
Author: tearingup	"'Keep up with' meaning...?"
Author: bellfounding	"I manage my own feelings, a lot," Bella explains. "I think non-exclusivity would generate feelings that would require management. They might not be bad but they seem likely to be intrusive."
Author: tearingup	"...well," says Ripper, "I don't want to date anyone else, but if sleeping with Queenie is an option, it's an option I want to take. Queenie and Ghosty and so on," he amends.
Author: bellfounding	"It's not a dealbreaker," says Pat.
Author: tearingup	"That's encouraging," he snorts.
Author: bellfounding	"Hm?"
Author: tearingup	"Nothing. Sorry. I'm having trouble imagining what kind of intrusive not-bad feelings you think might come up."
Author: bellfounding	"I think that when I do my processing for the day, it will keep coming up, and I'll process it, and it'll be fine, and then it'll be back again the next day. Just sort of - an extra mental errand to run. The majority of Bells wind up dating people who need to be polyamorous, and work it out okay, but I don't think it would have been any of our first choice."
Author: tearingup	"Well - tell me if it gets annoying, all right?"
Author: bellfounding	"Okay."
Author: tearingup	He smiles.
Author: bellfounding	"Thanks," she adds, smiling a little.
Author: tearingup	He grins. "And, you know, for the record, I don't much care if you sleep around. But if you want to take another boy out to the intergalactic flower palace, we might have to talk."
Author: bellfounding	"I don't think I'm liable to do either thing."
Author: tearingup	"Suits me."
Author: bellfounding	"Oh, but," she adds, snapping her fingers, "did Queenie tell you where coins come from or do I need to explain that to explain this thing?"
Author: tearingup	"Queenie did tell me where coins come from."
Author: bellfounding	"So, sometimes coinmaking is a cooperative activity, I have this thing called an agony beam," says Bella, waving a hand, "it's not anything but a way to get coins for me, but the Jokers, they enjoy it as Jokers are wont to do."
Author: tearingup	"Jokers do do that," he says, grinning reminiscently.
Author: bellfounding	"It is a thing with them, yes."
Author: tearingup	Ripper laughs. "'Agony beam', is it? How does it work? Can I have one? I bet Queenie would like it if I had one."
Author: bellfounding	"Stella designed it and it's part of the standard powerset now; it delivers the eponymous agony in integers of units called 'triangles', pretty much any flavor you can think of. I don't think just on general principles I should be handing out general-purpose ones that you could use on anybody, but one for use with Jokers I don't see why not."
Author: tearingup	"...What, but yours works on anyone?"
Author: bellfounding	"I have lots of abilities I wouldn't hand out without knowing someone - or at least their template - really well. I carry around ten-pointed coins."
Author: tearingup	"Nnno, that's not quite where I was going with that," says Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	"Oh. Yeah, mine works on anyone."
Author: tearingup	"Well, that's good to know," says Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	"Is it?"
Author: tearingup	"Yeah."
Author: bellfounding	"Noted."
Author: tearingup	Ripper grins.
Author: bellfounding
Author: tearingup
Author: bellfounding	Kisses?
Author: tearingup	Definitely.
Author: bellfounding	Good, because kisses are nice.
Author: tearingup	They are. Kisses! Mm, kisses.
Author: bellfounding	They are in separate chairs. Bella would rather be in his lap right now.
Author: tearingup	She can easily remedy that if she likes!
Author: bellfounding	And lo, it was done!
Author: tearingup	A lapful of Bella! Just what he wanted.
Author: bellfounding	A snuggly lapful of Bella. Kissing him.
Author: tearingup	Ooh. Even better. Is she feeling nibbleable today? He would like to find out.
Author: bellfounding	She is! She is pretty much always nibbleable, at least when she is already in his lap. He will learn this.
Author: tearingup	He's beginning to get an inkling. Nibbles ensue.
Author: bellfounding	Mmmmmmnibbles.
Author: tearingup	Yes. Mmmm. Nibbles are very mmmm.
Author: bellfounding	Ripper is also pretty mmmmm, and if she unmelts long enough to do any things she will take advantage of this fact.
Author: tearingup	As soon as she shows some indication of wanting to mmmm on him, he takes off his shirt.
Author: bellfounding	Nibble, nibble, nibble.
Author: tearingup	Mmmmm.
Author: bellfounding	Yes indeed.
Author: tearingup	It's nice how they are both such tasty people, isn't it?
Author: bellfounding	It is! It is nice. And Bella has perfect recall. She remembers what nibbling locations have gotten good results before, at least from among those she has tried.
Author: tearingup	There are many she has not tried! She is welcome to get around to them anytime she wants.
Author: bellfounding	She might just do that. It will be good to have a complete map.
Author: tearingup	Some places produce stronger reactions than others.
Author: bellfounding	That is only to be expected. Bella takes careful mental notes, of course, and is very thorough.
Author: tearingup	That is only to be expected. Ripper appreciates her thoroughness very much.
Author: bellfounding	And then snuggles?
Author: tearingup	Yes. Snuggles. Snuggles are an excellent plan. Not the only plan. But an excellent one.
Author: bellfounding	Oh, does he have competing plans he'd like to share?
Author: tearingup	He does! They involve kisses. Variously located kisses.
Author: bellfounding	Well, it is only fair that he also have an accurate map. Perhaps some objects should be gotten out of the way of his cartographic efforts.
Author: tearingup	That sounds promising!
Author: bellfounding	It does, doesn't it?
Author: tearingup	It really does. Ripper proceeds to map with considerable enthusiasm.
Author: bellfounding	That is nice. Also, he doesn't have perfect recall. She will of course understand if he needs to run multiple passes over complex locations.
Author: tearingup	Don't tell anyone, but he might be going over certain areas more times than is strictly necessary.
Author: bellfounding	Bella's lips are sealed. Well, not literally.
Author: tearingup	That is good to know.
Author: bellfounding	One would certainly hope so.
Author: tearingup	In conclusion: Snuggles.
Author: bellfounding	Mmmmm, snuggles.
Author: tearingup	Mmmm.
Author: bellfounding	"I could get used to this kinda thing," giggles Bella.
Author: tearingup	"Mm," Ripper says agreeably, nuzzling her ear.
Author: bellfounding	She giggles.
Author: tearingup	Nuzzle-snuggle-hum.
Author: bellfounding	Cuddle-squeeze-purr.
Author: tearingup	Nuzzle. Kiss. "...get used to what, exactly?"
Author: bellfounding	She makes a vague hand-waving gesture. "This entire class of thing."
Author: tearingup	"Huh," says Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	"Hm?"
Author: tearingup	He shrugs.
Author: bellfounding	Snuggle.
Author: tearingup	Snuggle. Kiss!
Author: bellfounding	Ooh, kiss.
Author: tearingup	Yes. Kiss.
Author: bellfounding	It is a bit later when Bella tells Queenie, [We are not going to be dating anywhere else but we're not doing sexual exclusivity.]
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[Works for me,] Queenie says cheerfully.
Author: bellfounding	[Thanks again,] Bella adds.
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[Noooo problem.]
Author: bellfounding	So that's that, it would seem. Back to work!
Author: gunpowdergelatine	Several days later, Queenie brainphones her. [Hey, you don't mind if I give Ripper an agony beam type thing, do you?]
Author: bellfounding	[If it just works on you guys, that's fine; on general principle I don't think it should do for arbitrary targets.]
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[...mmmmnot quite what I was thinking,] says Queenie. [Arbitrary consenting targets work for you?]
Author: bellfounding	[Yeah, that works.]
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[Great,] she says cheerfully. [So we're gonna borrow your boyfriend for a while now.]
Author: bellfounding	[Have fun.]
Author: gunpowdergelatine	[You betcha!]
Author: bellfounding	Bella presumes that fun will indeed be had. She goes back to sorting her list of dead people, and makes a catacomb-like structure that will hold them all on the far side of Titan from her palace.
Author: tearingup	Her boyfriend is borrowed, and returned in good working order several days later.
Author: bellfounding	The catacombs are now full of dead people - an arrow proved able to produce thirty thousand and change - and she now has a small department of suitably empowered staff who can check that they have places to go and that their loved ones are ready for them and transport and wake the dead accordingly. J helps. Bella steers for the first couple of days, but by the time Ripper is returned to her she isn't quite so busy anymore. [Wanna go ice skating?]
Author: tearingup	[Sure!]
Author: bellfounding	Pop. Knock, knock.
Author: tearingup	Open door; hug; kiss! He is even wearing a shirt.
Author: bellfounding	Hug, kiss! Shirt-wearing is not such an advantage in the general case, but for ice skating it could be important. She conjures a pair of skates that will fit him behind her back and then dangles them by their laces where he can take them.
Author: tearingup	...He looks at the skates. He takes the skates. He wraps his free arm around her waist and kisses her again.
Author: bellfounding	Kisses! She's not in much of a hurry.
Author: tearingup	Good. Because kisses.
Author: bellfounding	Kisses are excellent. She teleports them to an ice skating rink that is not currently hooked up to any neighboring bubbles mid-kiss.
Author: tearingup	He giggles.
Author: bellfounding	She conjures herself a pair of skates, kisses him again, and sits in midair to put them on in place of her boots.
Author: tearingup	"Showoff," he accuses. He has to sit on a bench.
Author: bellfounding	"Unabashedly so," she laughs. She gets her skates both on, and floats, waiting.
Author: tearingup	Ripper puts on his conjured skates and wobbles out onto the ice.
Author: bellfounding	Bella alights beside him and holds his hand. She doesn't actually know how to skate, and hasn't pentagoned it, either. Magic grace does give her decent balance, but everything more sophisticated she has elected to figure out from scratch, at least for now.
Author: tearingup	Ripper has reasonably good balance also. It doesn't always help as much as he'd like. But falling over is part of the fun, right?
Author: bellfounding	Of course! Especially because it turns out if he pulls her down with him she laughs and kisses him.
Author: tearingup	In the middle of a skating rink is a terribly uncomfortable place to make out. It is amazing how little he cares.
Author: bellfounding	Eventually she hauls him up again, and they skate on.
Author: tearingup	Whee!
Author: bellfounding	Whee! Bella starts trying to skate backwards. It's pretty hard.
Author: tearingup	Ripper decides to complicate matters by chasing after her and giving her a kiss.
Author: bellfounding	That complicates matters sufficiently that down they go! It's okay; Bella's invulnerable. Kiss kiss.
Author: tearingup	Ripper is not invulnerable, but eh, what're a few more bruises? Kiss!
Author: bellfounding	Although - [If you're going to keep falling over like that, d'you want me to ward you?]
Author: tearingup	[No thanks,] he says, very cheerfully.
Author: bellfounding	She giggles, insofar as she can without breaking the kiss. [As you like.]
Author: tearingup	Mmkiss.
Author: bellfounding	Mmm. She's on the bottom of this particular pile-up, so it's a little harder to extricate herself and carry on skating. She will stay put till Ripper is done.
Author: tearingup	...He is kind of having fun with this 'making out on ice' thing, with Bella as a nice warm comfy insulator!
Author: bellfounding	And the ice doesn't bother her! What a suitable symbiotic relationship.
Author: tearingup	Yes. Nibble nibble.
Author: bellfounding	Eeeeeeee.
Author: tearingup	Okay, Bella's a good insulator but she's not perfect. It's chilly down here. Ripper attempts to climb to his feet.
Author: bellfounding	She scoots out of his way and does her best to help.
Author: tearingup	"There we go." Skate skate! While holding her hand. For balance. Yes.
Author: bellfounding	That is obviously the only reason he would ever hold her hand. Not because she can warm up his chilly fingers or because it feels nice or because he likes her, certainly not.
Author: tearingup	Well, she does warm up his chilly fingers, and it does feel nice, and he does like her. Those are all true. He tries for the 'kissing while skating' thing again.
Author: bellfounding	They have the hang of skating a little better now! Not that well.
Author: tearingup	Hmm, Ripper appears to be on top of her again. Nibble time!
Author: bellfounding	Ooooh. Nibbles.
Author: tearingup	Yes. Nibbles. Now, about warming up Ripper's chilly fingers...
Author: bellfounding	She isn't uncomfortable with the cold; that doesn't mean she doesn't feel it. "Eep!"
Author: tearingup	"Sorry," he giggles, and kisses the affected area.
Author: bellfounding	"It's okay," she laughs.
Author: tearingup	Kisses?
Author: bellfounding	Kisses!
Author: tearingup	Kisses.
Author: bellfounding	As many as he likes.
Author: tearingup	Really? Because he likes many.
Author: bellfounding	Then many he may have!
Author: tearingup	Awesome!
Author: bellfounding	Many many many.
Author: tearingup	His chilly fingers are warming up some more.
Author: bellfounding	That is more comfortable for both of them!
Author: tearingup	Yes it is!
Author: bellfounding	Mmmm, comfort.
Author: tearingup	Mmmmmmm.
Author: bellfounding	Skating?
Author: tearingup	Skating!
Author: bellfounding	And maybe a little less falling this time.
Author: tearingup	Maybe a little. The skating part is fun too, after all.
Author: bellfounding	It is! Especially without the falling. They can skate a little faster now.
Author: tearingup	It's what happens after the falling that Ripper is keen on, not so much the falling itself. Skating a little faster is a little more exciting!
Author: bellfounding	Maybe after all this skating they can find somewhere more comfortable to fall.
Author: tearingup	That is also an option. Or they could figure out how to make out while skating without falling over, that's good too.
Author: bellfounding	What an interesting challenge! Bella's all for it.
Author: tearingup	They are getting better!
Author: bellfounding	But not all at once! There is some more falling on the way.
Author: tearingup	And therefore more making out on the ice. An acceptable loss.
Author: bellfounding	No complaints.
Author: tearingup	Bella continues to be extremely nibbleable.
Author: bellfounding	Sooooo nibbleable. Next time they fall over she is going to surprise him by tasting like vanilla sugar.
Author: tearingup	He is surprised! There may be licking.
Author: bellfounding	Ooh. Licking.
Author: tearingup	Yes. Cartographically, even.
Author: bellfounding	Ooh, cartography.
Author: tearingup	Well, he wants to verify which parts of her taste like vanilla sugar, you see. And how it interacts with her other available flavours. The answer, apparently, is 'all the parts' and 'really really well'.
Author: bellfounding	Yes. That is the answer.
Author: tearingup	Mmmmmm. "Well, now I'm cold," he giggles, sprawled out on the ice. "Worth it, mind you!"
Author: bellfounding	She laughs, rolls over onto him, and snuggles up. For warming purposes. "One of these days we might need to try actually making it to a bed of some sort."
Author: tearingup	"Eh, beds are overrated." Snuggle!
Author: bellfounding	"You wouldn't be cold in one," she points out, idly tracing shapes on his chest with her fingertips.
Author: tearingup	"Mmmm, true. Are we done skating? You could teleport us to a bed."
Author: bellfounding	"Your place or mine?"
Author: tearingup	"Depends. How nice is your bed?"
Author: bellfounding	"Very. And no one will chide us for not knocking if I teleport us directly there."
Author: tearingup	He snorts and kisses her.
Author: bellfounding	Kisses. By the time they break apart, they are in her bed. She doesn't use it as much as typical humans do, but she does use it, and it's nice, blue and white sheets of exquisite softness and plenty of room and snuggly pillows. She squares their skates off.
Author: tearingup	Ripper takes off his shirt, and then everything else for good measure, and snuggles up.
Author: bellfounding	What a fine idea. Off goes everything else currently being worn in this bed.
Author: tearingup	Slightly shivery snuggles!
Author: bellfounding	She will just have to warm him up, won't she? The long way around. More fun that way.
Author: tearingup	Ripper is all in favour of pretty much any way in which Bella would like to warm him up.
Author: bellfounding	Then he will find her plans satisfactory, presumably!
Author: tearingup	"We should do this more often," he announces, some time later. "The ice skating, and the you tasting like sweets, and the sex. Definitely the sex."
Author: bellfounding	"Okay." Snuzzle. "It'll be easier to schedule dates if you don't mind if I quietly take care of empire stuff by brainphone. I don't like to be unreachable for more than an hour or two at a time."
Author: tearingup	"...I would sort of rather you weren't empressing during the sex part?" he says. "But the rest of the time it's fine."
Author: bellfounding	"Do you have any plans for the sex part to last more than an hour or two at a time?" she inquires archly.
Author: tearingup	"Should I not?"
Author: bellfounding	Snuggles. "Oh, maybe. Some quiet day when nobody I should avoid snubbing is asking me to obliterate Israel or curse their wayward grandchild or eradicate pornography from the Internet."
Author: tearingup	"Can you not just tell people to fuck off when they do that?"
Author: bellfounding	"I can when it's some random nutcase, it's a little harder when it's the king of Saudi Arabia."
Author: tearingup	"Mm, remind me not to become an empress," he says, cuddling up.
Author: bellfounding	"Don't become an empress," advises Bella, chuckling.
Author: tearingup	"Okay, I won't." But he will kiss one.
Author: bellfounding	Kissing one is highly recommended!
Author: tearingup	He would be the first to recommend it.
Author: bellfounding	Kissing rock stars: also recommended.
Author: tearingup	Many, many people would recommend that one! But right now Bella is the most important of those.
Author: bellfounding	She is very important and is glad that he has noticed. After a while: "I fetched up a batch of dead people. Turns out a nine-pointed coin will do thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-eight dead people in a batch. Randall's in the one I currently have asleep awaiting processing."
Author: tearingup	Ripper sighs.
Author: bellfounding	"There's no longer an issue with covering it up, I can wake him if there's someplace for him to go," she adds. "Anybody whose requesting person doesn't concoct such a place still gets waked, I can always put them on Saturn, but I figured I'd ask you first."
Author: tearingup	"Honestly, I didn't even like him that much," he says. "I'm not really sure if he has family."
Author: bellfounding	"I suppose the department that's handling all the other dead people will look into it, then."
Author: tearingup	He shrugs.
Author: bellfounding	"Why were you moping so much about him if you didn't even like him?"
Author: tearingup	"I didn't like him, but I still watched him die," he says. "And I felt sort of responsible. Not for any good reason, but it's amazing how much that doesn't help."
Author: bellfounding	"Now you've got me wondering if I should go identify myself to the various people who saw me get hit by a car. I'm not confident they've all connected the dots."
Author: tearingup	"Maybe you should."
Author: bellfounding	"...Especially the guy who was driving the damn thing, I should have thought of this earlier."
Author: tearingup	"Yeah," he murmurs.
Author: bellfounding	Snuggles. "You okay?"
Author: tearingup	"I'm fine." He kisses her. "Just - thinking about all that again."
Author: bellfounding	"He'll be okay in the long run. Everyone'll be okay in the long run. That's my job."
Author: tearingup	"Yeah. But he still died," says Ripper. "And I still saw it. It didn't look fun."
Author: bellfounding	"I bet it wasn't. Wasn't fun how I did it either, and I'm fine," she says encouragingly. (Nuzzle, nuzzle.)
Author: tearingup	Snuggle hug.
Author: bellfounding	Snuzzle. (Discreet brainphone with J removing Randall from the special processing list so the regular staff can get to him whenever they get to him.)
Author: tearingup	Snuzzle! "Are you gonna talk to whoever hit you with a car?"
Author: bellfounding	"Yeah, I'll look him up - probably worth having the conversation in person rather than brainphoning him out of nowhere, though." She kisses the corner of Ripper's jaw. "And I will be sure to knock, too."
Author: tearingup	He laughs and kisses her.
Author: bellfounding	Kisses! These do not even slightly discourage her from continuing to treat the knocking thing as a running gag.
Author: tearingup	That is not even slightly the point of them.
Author: bellfounding	That is good.
Author: tearingup	A week later, Ripper brainphones her to say, [So I've done the photoshoot for that album cover. Wanna see?]
Author: bellfounding	[Of course.] Pop. Knock.
Author: tearingup	Door open. Kiss! Snuggle! Shirtlessness!
Author: bellfounding	Oooh, those are some of Bella's very favorite things!
Author: tearingup	"C'mon, you have to see this," he says, taking both her hands and gently towing her inside after a decent amount of kissing.
Author: bellfounding	"Okay! Let's see what you've been up to."
Author: tearingup	The photos are all on his computer, which has a nice big screen to display them with. He pulls up the first one: he is lying on a carpet of rose petals in every colour but red, naked, with more petals heaped up over the crucial area and scattered generally over his body, and one of those blood-red flowers lying across his neck looking like an open wound. "I might actually use that one," he says. "But there's some pretty great shots later on, too."
Author: bellfounding	"Ooooh. I love the colors."
Author: tearingup	"I know, gorgeous, isn't it? Thank Queenie, she conjured the roses. And violently dismembered them all over me." Next shot, Ripper is in much the same position but now cracking up, caught in the middle of dragging an arm out of a drift of petals to cover his mouth while he laughs. The gory flower has fallen off his neck into the petal-pile.
Author: bellfounding	"And then she did something entertaining?" hazards Bella.
Author: tearingup	"You betcha," he snorts. Next shot, Ripper is trying to control further giggles. Next shot, he has calmed down again and replaced the goreflower in a slightly different position. The shot after that, someone has freshened up the petals, replacing crushed ones with new. The shot after that, he is trying and failing to smother a smirk. "They kept saying filthy things, trying for a rose avalanche," he says, gesturing to the part of the picture where saying filthy things to him would have been most likely to disturb some rose petals. "And I kept laughing instead."
Author: bellfounding	Bella laughs. "You are too cute." She kisses his temple.
Author: tearingup	The next few pictures, during which he gives up completely on controlling his laughter and starts flinging handfuls of rose petals at the camera, are indeed pretty fucking adorable. Ripper grins and hugs her.
Author: bellfounding	Hugs!
Author: tearingup	For the next set of pictures, the lighting is much dimmer - more reminiscent of the Wretched album cover - and the petals are gone, replaced by a marble floor and a strategically located shadow. He plays dead pretty convincingly even in the first few shots, with no goreflowers; subsequently, a flower makes an appearance, moving from his throat to his chest to his stomach. He is very good at this Sexy, Dead, Covered In Flowers business.
Author: bellfounding	"I like this photo set," says Bella happily.
Author: tearingup	"I thought you might!" And now there is a familiar figure creeping into the frame, menacing him. Sexily. Ripper is particularly pleased by the shot where Aianon was leaning over him, mouth to his throat, wings mantled. "I don't think I'm releasing these," he laughs, "but I had to keep them, they're too perfect."
Author: bellfounding	Bella bursts out laughing. "You're making me wish I'd supervised the shoot, this is hilarious. Can I peek?"
Author: tearingup	"Go on then," laughs Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	She leans her head on his shoulder, and closes her eyes, and peers into the past.
Author: tearingup	Much of the conversation seems to have taken place via brainphone. There's Queenie, flinging rose petals over Ripper and giggling; there's Ghosty, appearing now and then to give Queenie a hug and a peck on the cheek, and perhaps causing the odd rose petal to straighten itself out or curl up more fetchingly; there's Aianon, working with the goreflowers and flirting shamelessly with Ripper. "Which part are you looking at?" wonders Ripper of the present.
Author: bellfounding	"Queenie is heaping you with petals and Aianon is making those red flowers. Looks like you were mostly talking by brainphone, though, and I don't catch that."
Author: tearingup	"Don't worry," laughs Ripper, "they said most of the fun things out loud." And indeed, after taking the first picture, Queenie looked speculatively at Ripper's crotch and said, "Wonder what happens if I turn you on?" To which Ripper replied, grinning, "Try it and see."
Author: bellfounding	Bella snickers. "Here we are."
Author: tearingup	Quoth Queenie, "I'm gonna fuck yooooou," in an extremely Jokerish singsong. Ripper started giggling helplessly, and Queenie took a picture. And then a few more, as he calmed down and Ghosty rearranged the vegetation. And just before Queenie took the next picture, a voice out of thin air chirped, "Remember that time you fucked me into a wall? That was fun," and Ripper failed not to smirk.
Author: bellfounding	"I was expecting more creativity," giggles Bella.
Author: tearingup	"They were just fucking around," laughs Ripper. "Why, what would you have said?"
Author: bellfounding	"I didn't say I could do any better," Bella laughs.
Author: tearingup	"Why not?"
Author: bellfounding	"I don't have the correct brand of shamelessness, I think."
Author: tearingup	He laughs and kisses her.
Author: bellfounding	Kisses! She is quite shameless within the domain of kisses.
Author: tearingup	In the past, Queenie did indeed get more creative, and that is approximately when Ripper started throwing petals at her. She dropped the camera; they implemented a few of her suggestions, to vocal approval from Aianon and Ghosty.
Author: bellfounding	[The photo shoot has been temporarily abandoned, in the past,] giggles Bella. [I think I'll stop watching.]
Author: tearingup	[Yeah, we did a lot of fucking in between takes. I hope you're not surprised.]
Author: bellfounding	[I am not surprised. It would be a sort of unpleasant surprise. Please don't spring it on me if non-Jokers are added to the circle of interest,] she adds.
Author: tearingup	[...Meaning what?]
Author: bellfounding	[If you want to have sex with someone who isn't me - in specific - or a Joker - anybody from the template - please let me know first.]
Author: tearingup	He blinks, then shrugs. "All right."
Author: bellfounding	"Is that a weird request?" She leans her head on his shoulder again.
Author: tearingup	"I don't know. A bit. But not a bad kind of weird, just - " He laughs softly. "What was it you said about extra housekeeping?"
Author: bellfounding	"Sounds familiar," she laughs softly. "Extra prompt to do a value-neutral thing."
Author: tearingup	"Yeah. That. Exactly." Snuggle.
Author: bellfounding	Snuggle. "Speaking of people who are me but not in specific, at least two of them would probably take you up on it if you hit on them," she mentions.
Author: tearingup	"Ooh. Consider them added to the circle of interest," he says, grinning. "Which ones?"
Author: bellfounding	"Cam and Amariah. Stella's a maybe, everyone else is probably a no."
Author: tearingup	"Why is Stella a maybe?"
Author: bellfounding	"I haven't discussed this with her, but she's got a something going on with Lazarus, her magic-seeing guy, and the only other ones of us who are engaged in anything other than Cam and Amariah's strictly casual activities with more than one person are with Sherlock-and-Tony sets. ...Did that make sense? I mean that there seems like there's, Cam and Amariah who have primaries but don't stay put to speak of, and then on the other end of the spectrum is, like, Golden, but most of us are sticking with one person or a Sherlock and the accompanying Tony, and Stella displays nonstandard behavior in that sense."
Author: tearingup	"...It makes sense now that you've explained it," he says.
Author: bellfounding	"It's kind of fun mapping out all the ways Bells handle any given thing, especially when you throw in the confounder that once we meet each other we tend to copy each other's strategies for anything and everything. When Aurora hit the peal she went around the entire Bellparty asking everybody except me and Golden how they dealt with polyamory."
Author: tearingup	Ripper snorts. "Did she get any good tips?"
Author: bellfounding	"No, she concluded that everyone but her had special circumstances at work, accidentally uncovered some kinda unsettling things about Stella's relationship with Alice, and wound up finding her own special circumstance."
Author: tearingup	"...Are these the sort of unsettling things that make good gossip, or no?"
Author: bellfounding	"It might actually make more sense to hear the story from one of the Jokers. I know Stella's side of it but most of the unsettlement was Alice's. The basic idea was that Stella surprise-turned Alice into an Aurum type vampire, on the grounds that this hurts beyond the ken of mere mortals - awesome Christmas present for a Joker, yeah? - and this comes with some adjustments besides hurting intensely during the transition, and she and Alice didn't communicate well enough about the significance to each of them about the 'eternal mate bond' feature. And the way Stella explained all this to Aurora made Alice kind of skeeved out and he went and torched away being a vampire."
Author: tearingup	"...What is an 'eternal mate bond'," Ripper wants to know.
Author: bellfounding	"Exactly what it sounds like. Aurum vampires mate for life and they take it really, really seriously. It does not go away. It is matey and bondy in nature. Usually monogamy is part of the package, but that didn't happen to Alice. Aurum werewolves do something a little similar but unidirectional and it's only male ones."
Author: tearingup	"Ouch," says Ripper. "I can't begin to imagine."
Author: bellfounding	"There are some pretty bad corner cases, but the typical case is a couple of vampires being adorably devoted to each other," says Bella.
Author: tearingup	"Forever," he says. "Immutably forever. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard about the corner cases."
Author: bellfounding	"It does go away if you stop being a vampire, which can be done via torching or just going through Downside."
Author: tearingup	"Well, that's... nice. Still. Remind me not to be a vampire."
Author: bellfounding	"Don't be a vampire," says Bella. "Also, maybe don't go to Aurum, because vampires can wind up mated to people who are not themselves vampires, that being the source of most of the awful corner cases. Golden has a precog who checks out visitors, but she's not perfect - I mean, she's really good, but people's decisions can throw her off, so if you meet anyone she didn't see you meeting there's a chance."
Author: tearingup	"Right. Never going to Aurum," he concludes.
Author: bellfounding	"Vampires who aren't mated already don't show up to Bell parties," Bella adds. "Except Addy showed up to one, but she isn't allowed anymore, and they're pretty sure she can't mate anyway, and I don't think Golden would hesitate to kill her on the spot and retrieve her out of Downside and not bother to turn her back into a vampire, if she did anyway."
Author: tearingup	"...Who in fuck is Addy, then?"
Author: bellfounding	"Her title is Imperial Factotum. Her witch power - those are random magic powers people are sometimes born with or get when they turn, in Aurum - is to copy other witch powers, so she's handy, but she's also kind of amoral and creepy."
Author: tearingup	"Yeah, tell me about it," snorts Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	"Yeah, Golden would have killed her after she usurped the previous vampire government if her husband couldn't read minds and make sure Addy wasn't doing any more amoral-and-creepy-things."
Author: tearingup	"What kinds of amoral and creepy things did she do...?"
Author: bellfounding	"On top of the part where all vampires besides about a dozen of them ate humans on a regular basis before Golden took over and she was one of those? Addy really likes copying powers. They taste like things to her," explains Bella. "Before the previous vampire government found out that she existed, she sort of wandered the earth, finding witches, checking out their powers, tutoring them in making them more interesting, playing with them, and then moving on. The Volturi - that's the previous government in question - then threatened her into working for them, and her primary job was to copy and use the powers of witches who they couldn't threaten into working for them. They kept those witches in small pieces in the basement, since keeping vampires in small pieces doesn't kill them. And in her spare time Addy badgered Golden's daughter Elspeth into working on making her own power more interesting, more than she wanted to work on it, and when Elspeth tried to stand up to her Addy sent her off to get tortured by the witch whose witchcraft did that."
Author: tearingup	"Euhhhhhhh," says Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	"Yeah. The fact that she's so interested in getting to taste powers makes her pretty easy to control, though. Golden doesn't really need her any more, since she has coins and enchanting and so on, which creates some tension, but - we're not big on revenge, us Bells, so as long as Addy behaves going forward and doesn't inconveniently mate to anyone who'd rather not be mated to she's probably just going to carry on as she has been."
Author: tearingup	"Yeah," says Ripper. "...Now I'm just imagining Rayne as a vampire, I should stop imagining that."
Author: bellfounding	Bella sporfles. "When Jane's back I'll tell her not to send him to Aurum, shall I?"
Author: tearingup	"Yeah, good plan."
Author: bellfounding	"Elspeth's witchcraft is really cool. She's basically so good at telling the truth that it's a superpower."
Author: tearingup	"...That doesn't sound like a useful superpower."
Author: bellfounding	"You wouldn't think so, but it's great. She can do it without talking if she wants, across a long range, really fast, with nested explanations of context for everything she's saying. She can do simultaneous translations into any language she knows. Sometimes she just randomly says things that are true that she has no way to know. There is a distinct, definite difference between when she says true things and false things, so you can tell if she decides to lie, which she only ever does as a demonstration of this difference anyway."
Author: tearingup	"Weird," says Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	"It's also weaponizeable! And it was usable in that form as a sort of faux resurrection even before Aurum had access to Downside. If she gave a human too many high-fidelity vampire memories, it was not a good day for the human's continuity of experience, and it became possible to convince the human that they were one of the vampires whose memories they had. Elspeth didn't wipe anybody herself - Addy did that. She also had all these memories in the first place because of Addy. There was another witch who copied the entire life histories of anyone he touched, and Addy touched him and then broadcasted everything she had with Elspeth's power later to a bunch of people, including some human bystanders."
Author: tearingup	"...That's a nasty kind of resurrection," says Ripper.
Author: bellfounding	"Yes. It was kind of a mess to sort out once there was access to Downside to be had, but it got sorted out."
Author: tearingup	"What happened to the... extras?"
Author: bellfounding	"Magic," says Bella. "Downside had the - this'll be easier to explain with an example - one of the people Addy blasted 'recognized herself' as a dead vampire without help. The human was called Paola and the vampire was called Didyme. Didyme's mate was still alive and the resurrection was high-fidelity enough to satisfy his mate bond, so they were all happy together and Didyme made nice with Paola's family insofar as she could and so on. Then, Downside was available, and as far as Downside was concerned, Didyme was dead, and Paola was the person who was going around calling herself Didyme. So the admin heard the entire story, imported the blast memories in the walking-around individual from since the blast into the dead version and took them out of the live version, and had a live vampire-bodied Paola and a dead human-bodied Didyme. Didyme went home, got turned over again, I don't think I ever heard if Paola in particular decided to go through Downside and be human again or stay a vampire but she got the option and a heap of reparation money."
Author: tearingup	"Magic," he concludes, shaking his head and smiling.
Author: bellfounding	"Yep. Isn't it great?"
Author: tearingup	"Better than the alternative, I guess. Anyway, want to see the rest of the pictures?"
Author: bellfounding	"Yes."
Author: tearingup	After the one where Aianon is pretending to nibble on Ripper, there is a long stretch of obvious silliness - first Aianon tickles him, and then they play-fight. Well, mostly play. Some blood is spilled. But everyone is laughing about it, so it can't be that bad.
Author: bellfounding	Bella giggles.
Author: tearingup	Ripper grins. And after that, he kept the scratches from Aianon's teeth and talons, and played attractively dead for a few more shots. 'Lightly mauled' turns out to be a good look on him.
Author: bellfounding	Bella traces her finger along a former site of a mark. "I guess they patched you up before they left."
Author: tearingup	"Yep." He kisses her. And indeed, the next series has him all freshened up - now in an artistically overgrown graveyard, draped over fallen trees or broken headstones or propped up against the walls of crypts, occasionally even wearing some amount of clothes in addition to the flowers. The lighting varies wildly, sometimes night and day and dusk and dawn in four consecutive shots; it is very likely that the entire set was conjured on an asteroid somewhere for just this purpose.
Author: bellfounding	Mmmkiss. "How much of the setup is your design as opposed to theirs?"
Author: tearingup	"I'm not even sure," he says. "It was all very collaborative."
Author: bellfounding	"Is that all the photos?"
Author: tearingup	"Nope," he says cheerfully. "The last set's even more fun." For the last set, he is floating in space, surrounded by various decorations - swirls of glitter in one shot, billowing fabric in the next, flames and stars and flower petals. In the very last one, Aianon is tackling him out of the middle of the field of carefully arranged floating water droplets from the last shot.
Author: bellfounding	"I know that these weren't Photoshopped, and my instinct is still to declare them all obviously Photoshopped," comments Bella.
Author: tearingup	He giggles.
Author: bellfounding	"Aianon's very photogenic, but not as much as you." Nuzzle.
Author: tearingup	"And I don't even have wings or a tail," he laughs, and kisses her.
Author: bellfounding	Kissesssssss! [Hardly insurmountable drawbacks.]
Author: tearingup	[Would I look better with wings and a tail, you think?]
Author: bellfounding	[Oh, I don't know,] giggles Bella, [it would probably depend, and they might just get in the way.] (She illustrates where they might get in the way. It is a hands-on demonstration.)
Author: tearingup	"All right, I'm convinced," he says, laughing. Is it time to stop looking at pictures and start making out instead? He thinks it is!
Author: bellfounding	It would sure seem to be that time! He did say that last set was, well, the last set.
Author: tearingup	It was. Now there are no more pictures of sexy dead naked Ripper to show her, and if she wants more sexy naked Ripper she will just have to content herself with the live version.
Author: bellfounding	A more than satisfactory substitute.
Author: tearingup	He'd certainly hope so!
Author: bellfounding	Bella herself is not substituting for any sexy photo shoots (there have been some, for press purposes, but all clothed and businesslike), but here she is regardless.
Author: tearingup	And Ripper is very fond of her, no matter what her photoshoots are like.
Author: bellfounding	Oh good. She likes that he is fond of her; this is fitting and nice.
Author: tearingup	Allow him to demonstrate his fondness!
Author: bellfounding	She will so allow.
Author: tearingup	In which case, he will so demonstrate.
Author: bellfounding	Lovely! He did say he liked it when she tasted like sweets, didn't he? Flavor of the day is... let's say raspberry.
Author: tearingup	Ooh. Raspberry.
Author: bellfounding	Delicious raspberry!
Author: tearingup	Most delicious.
Author: bellfounding	Bella is the most appreciative raspberry ever.
Author: tearingup	Bella is the tastiest raspberry ever.
Author: bellfounding	All this and she's not even a real raspberry! It's amazing! Must be magic.
Author: tearingup	The best magic.
Author: bellfounding	Later, Bella wonders aloud: "So which one do you think is most likely to be an album cover?"
Author: tearingup	"I'm not sure," he says. "Did you have any favourites?"
Author: bellfounding	"The ones with Aianon acting scary at you were hilarious, but perhaps that's not the right metric."
Author: tearingup	"I don't know, I thought they were kind of hot," he laughs. "Which definitely is the right metric."
Author: bellfounding	"Also, 'slightly the worse for wear' is a good look on you."
Author: tearingup	Cheerfully, "Don't I know it."
Author: bellfounding	She grins and nuzzles him.
Author: tearingup	He smirks and kisses her.
Author: bellfounding	Mmm. [Did the Jokers ever wind up installing that revised agony beam for you?]
Author: tearingup	[Yeah. And then we played with it. They like it much better than yours, did they never say so?]
Author: bellfounding	[Didn't come up. Why, what did they fiddle with?]
Author: tearingup	[Less 'fiddle with', more 'built from scratch', I think,] he says. [I don't know what yours is like firsthand, but the new one is... interesting. 'Agony beam' is really the wrong name, it's more like a... sensory synthesizer.]
Author: bellfounding	[I'm not sure I follow.]
Author: tearingup	[Well, for one thing, it doesn't just do pain - it does heat, cold, pressure, anything you can feel. And it doesn't just beam it all over, like yours does - it goes where you want it to. I'm not that good at it yet, but some of the things Ghosty can do with it are pretty incredible.]
Author: bellfounding	[Should I upgrade?]
Author: tearingup	Ripper grins. [Maybe you should!]
Author: bellfounding	[Sounds kind of like Aurora's thing, I wonder if it'll weird her out if the revision gets to be standard.]
Author: tearingup	[Aurora has a thing?]
Author: bellfounding	[Well, no, Brilliance has a thing. He was made from scratch with a built-in torture function, it's kind of fucked up, but has the obvious recreational applications, and she solved the Monogamy Problem by having that thing be just for them.]
Author: tearingup	[Huh,] says Ripper. [Yeah, that's fucked up all right. But I'm sure she won't mind if other Bells start using something like it recreationally, aren't you lot all about the sharing that way?]
Author: bellfounding	[We are about... I'd call it collaborating, but yeah. I'm thinking more about the scenario where everybody's playing with it at a party and Brilliance wants in and Aurora starts squirming.]
Author: tearingup	[That, I can't speak to.]
Author: bellfounding	[Yeah, I guess they'll have to work something out, but I'm not planning to apply any form of agony beam to Brilliance so I suppose my own upgrade possibilities are immaterial.]
Author: tearingup	[Go on then.]
Author: bellfounding	Bella snuggles up. She spends the hex. [Done.]
Author: tearingup	[Well, are you gonna try it or what?]
Author: bellfounding	[I dunno, this thing doesn't come with - convenient integer settings - what do you want me to do with it?]
Author: tearingup	It does not, indeed, come with convenient integer settings. The settings it has are fairly self-explanatory, though: she can point it at a person and it will show her their nervous system, mapped out by what kinds of sensation are deliverable where. There is also an associated number, currently at 0, which represents the total amount of pain he is feeling. He can tell when she points it at him; he bites his lip, which shows as a pretty little flare in the nerve map and an uptick to a total of 1 1/2. When the total clears 1, there starts to be a feeling of triangleness about it.
Author: bellfounding	"- Huh, not integer settings but numerical... results."
Author: tearingup	"Yeah," he says, "it goes down to sixteenths, I'm not really sure why."
Author: bellfounding	"Do you want me to do anything with it?"
Author: tearingup	"Yeah," he says, "I think that's what I've been getting at." He kisses her. "Play around a bit."
Author: bellfounding	"That's - okay, but at least give me a numerical range, guidelines, I don't want to do anything you wouldn't like," she says. "...Huh, there are all kinds of things in here."
Author: tearingup	"Yep," says Ripper. "I told you, not just pain. Although on that front, anything up to about a hundred and fifty is fun most of the time; after that it gets dicey."
Author: bellfounding	"This is definitely gonna percolate through the peal," predicts Pat, snuggling up. Where to start, where to start - Well, scratched up was a good look on him. She drags a trio of 'scratches' across his chest, slowly, keeping an eye on his body language. And then, parallel, interleaved, the negative image of those scratches - lines of nice.
Author: tearingup	...Ripper grins. "Ooh, I like it." (The total reads 12 3/8.)
Author: bellfounding	Bella smiles and traces the invisible lines. She deepens the scratches, and their neighbors, and repeats, watching the numbers go up.
Author: tearingup	Twelve, twenty, fifty - he snuggles up and kisses her, humming.
Author: bellfounding	Those will keep for now. Maybe there should be more scratches and unscratches elsewhere. Like from his shoulder down to his elbow.
Author: tearingup	He wriggles most becomingly and kisses her again.
Author: bellfounding	[God you're cute.]
Author: tearingup	Ripper giggles.
Author: bellfounding	He's also nibbleable. She nibbles him. In reality quite gently. With the magic illusion not so gentle. [D'you think I should mint you?]
Author: tearingup	[I dunno, should you?] he laughs. [It sounds convenient. Mmm.] You know who else is nibbleable, Bella is nibbleable, he is going to nibble her some.
Author: bellfounding	Bella is chocolate now. [Not going to get up to any awful mischief with your own coin supply, are you?]
Author: tearingup	['Course not. Ooh, chocolate.]
Author: bellfounding	[Good, mischief is so upsetting.] She spends the hex; if she's misjudged him she can torch it off him later. [To make a coin you just move the pain across your mind, in a way that should have just begun to make sense. Do you want your own coin sorter or do you want to keep them loose or what?]
Author: tearingup	He makes a square, in between nibblings. [Coin sorter sounds more convenient. Have I mentioned I like chocolate?]
Author: bellfounding	[I gathered.] She spends another wish on giving him a sorter.
Author: tearingup	The square disappears into it. Ripper nibbles her some more.
Author: bellfounding	This is very much distracting her from playing with the new and improved sensation-synthesizer.
Author: tearingup	But it's fun. And nibbly.
Author: bellfounding	It is both those things. And they will have plenty of time to play with recreational magic.
Author: tearingup	True. Nibbles!
Author: bellfounding	Distracting, chocolatey nibbles.