Author: bellfounding | Being Bella's consort has some perks of reflected fame; by the time Ripper's solo album is done, he has plenty of fans, enough to support a significant tour through even Earthly venues. |
Author: tearingup | A certain Celtic metal singer receives a signed copy of the album (which is titled Decadent) teleported into his mailbox the very second it officially comes out, and then Ripper goes on tour.
Touring, it turns out, is fun. Exhausting and occasionally frustrating, but fun. |
Author: bellfounding | Well, he can teleport to take breaks in the comfort of his own home. Or Bella's own home. No endlessly beige hotels. |
Author: tearingup | Breaks in Bella's own home are definitely a major plus of this teleportation business. |
Author: bellfounding | She agrees completely! |
Author: tearingup |
So, his tour goes through London (because how could it not?)
And on his second night in the city, late at night after a fantastic show, someone knocks on his hotel door as he's getting into bed and he goes and peers through the peephole—
And brainphones Bella.
[Guess who just showed up.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I'm going to guess the Easter Bunny. Am I right, do I get a prize?] |
Author: tearingup | [I love you. And, somewhat against my better judgment, I'm opening the door.]
He opens the door.
"The fuck, Rayne?"
"Miss me?" says Rayne, stepping forward. Ripper doesn't budge. Rayne (looks briefly surprised, and then) smirks at him. |
Author: bellfounding | [I love you too, and why are you neglecting your better judgment?] |
Author: tearingup | [Only somewhat.]
"Unfortunately, yes," he sighs.
"We should have a chat," says Rayne. "Catch up a little." |
Author: bellfounding | [There's a reason they call it better judgment and not worse judgment.] |
Author: tearingup | "By a chat do you mean a fuck?" he says bluntly.
"Well, if that's on the menu," laughs Rayne.
"When isn't it?"
"I seem to remember something about a girlfriend..."
"Yeah, she knows you're here," says Ripper.
"Good," says Rayne, and kisses him.
Ripper puts both hands on his chest and gives him a shove that sends him sprawling in the hall.
[So this two conversations at once thing,] he says, [turns out it's a little much for me even when I'm not drunk - I promise not to fuck him if he's transparently trying to make you jealous, is that enough to be going on with?] |
Author: bellfounding |
[Yeah.] |
Author: tearingup | [Love you,] he says. [I'll talk to you tomorrow.]
Rayne gets up. "The hell was that for, mate?"
Ripper rolls his eyes. "Oh, come in here already before somebody calls the press." |
Author: bellfounding | [Love you.] |
Author: tearingup | His busy message is a little I'm-going-to-regret-this sigh. |
Author: bellfounding | Bella leaves it alone. She spends a while tweaking J's email-handling protocols and then she appears at a tiresome ceremonial event in New Guinea and then she grabs Queenie to patch the enchantment on a bubble-cluster. |
Author: tearingup | Three hours later, Ripper brainphones her again.
[Didn't sleep with him. Did make out with him a little. Now he's gone and I'm gonna sleep. Love you.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Love you. Sleep well.] |
Author: tearingup | [Mmm,] he agrees, sleepily, and that becomes his busy message. |
Author: bellfounding | Aww.
Now it is time to argue with various people about international adoption laws between Saturn and other places. People have mostly been handling it so far as citizens from their countries of origin, but it's about time that Saturn had its own protocols. |
Author: tearingup | The next day, he brainphones her sometime around noon.
[Well, that went better than it could've.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Sounded like that, yeah.] |
Author: tearingup | [I don't even know if he'll be back. Anytime soon, I mean. I'm pretty sure there's no getting rid of him in the long run.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Not without drastic measures, maybe. He's awfully persistent.] |
Author: tearingup | [No drastic measures, please.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Okay.] |
Author: tearingup | He sighs. [Thanks.] |
Author: bellfounding | [You're welcome. I don't suppose you know why he's so interested in popping up in your life on a regular basis?] |
Author: tearingup | [Because he likes me?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Or something.] |
Author: tearingup | [Really, that's why. He likes me and he's Rayne and this is how Rayne likes people.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Why does he like people in this way?] |
Author: tearingup | [I'm supposed to know?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Well, I'm not planning to ask him.] |
Author: tearingup | [He'd lie, anyway.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Among the reasons I'm not planning to ask him. I mean, I could tell if he was lying, but that doesn't tell me what the truth is.] |
Author: tearingup | [Does there have to be something more to it than 'because he's Rayne and that's how he works'?] |
Author: bellfounding | [That doesn't tell me what the - moving parts are.] |
Author: tearingup | [Mm?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Well, impulses to do things are made of stuff, even if they're mostly just smaller impulses. I don't expect humans to have a 'like people by intermittent stalking' basic indivisible drive. Vampires maybe, the Aurum kind.] |
Author: tearingup | [Intermittent stalking isn't exactly how he likes people. But, I don't know, intermittent stalking is not a surprise coming from him. He just - he doesn't like very many people. I might be the only one, actually. I've never seen him get like this about anybody else.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Also vampiric. Have you ever seen him eat solid food?] |
Author: tearingup | Ripper laughs.
[Yeah, and I don't think he drinks blood, either.] |
Author: bellfounding | [A mated vampire wouldn't leave you alone for stretches as long as he does anyway, I guess.] |
Author: tearingup | [Right, definitely never let him visit Aurum.] |
Author: bellfounding | [He's already on the definite-no-list for when Jan'es back.] |
Author: tearingup | [Good. I'm all right with the intermittent stalking but I don't want it getting any less intermittent.] |
Author: bellfounding | [The real danger if he turned and came out all over Fated, Eternal at you would not be that he'd stalk you more, it would be that he'd bite you and you'd be all symmetrical.] |
Author: tearingup | [That would be hell. I don't ever, ever want to be Fated Eternal with anybody, least of all Rayne.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Yeah, it does not universally appeal. Golden likes it, but nobell else signed up.] |
Author: tearingup | [I love you and all, I don't plan to stop, but losing the option would be terrifying.] |
Author: bellfounding | [You could torch it off like Alice did, but yeah. And there's no guarantee you'd settle on me anyway, you can't conjure up illusions for it like you can with coin colors and daemons and it could just as easily be anyone else, we'd have to ask a precog.] |
Author: tearingup | [Which we're not doing, because I don't want to no matter who I'd get.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I understand.] |
Author: tearingup | He sighs. |
Author: bellfounding | [You okay?] |
Author: tearingup | [Yeah. Well, no. Well, mostly.] |
Author: bellfounding | [...Can I do anything about that?] |
Author: tearingup | [I can think of things, but they'd probably all make me late checking into the next hotel.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I eschew outright time travel, but time dilation isn't a big deal.] |
Author: tearingup | [So we can go have a cuddle and I can come back and it'll only be a few seconds? Deal.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Sure.] Wish. [C'mere.] |
Author: tearingup | Poof!
Snuggle. |
Author: bellfounding | Snuggle, snuggle. |
Author: tearingup | So much snuggle.
What's a flavour they haven't tried yet? Today Ripper will taste like... lemon drops. |
Author: bellfounding | Mmm, lemon drops. Bella replies with maple sugar. |
Author: tearingup | Bella is the nummiest empress! |
Author: bellfounding | She is! |
Author: tearingup | Ripper is so pleased with her numminess. |
Author: bellfounding | She is pleased with what he does when he is pleased. |
Author: tearingup | Well, everyone is pleased, then, aren't they! |
Author: bellfounding | Universal pleasedness and all the time in the world! |
Author: tearingup | Yes. They should've thought of this before, really. No interruptions! |
Author: bellfounding | Indeed! She might just leave the time dilation feature in place on this room. Indefinite recreational naps. Leisure activity. |
Author: tearingup | Sex. |
Author: bellfounding | That is the kind of leisure activity, yes. |
Author: tearingup | It is one of the best kinds of leisure activity! |
Author: bellfounding | It is! |
Author: tearingup | Mmm. Leisurely. |
Author: bellfounding | Also yummy. |
Author: tearingup | That too.
Cuddles? Cuddles. |
Author: bellfounding | All the cuddles he wants. |
Author: tearingup | Good, because this is one of those times he gets very very cuddly. |
Author: bellfounding | He does, it's great. |
Author: tearingup | Cuddles! |
Author: bellfounding | Cuddles cuddles cuddles.
Time passes. Ripper's album is not the only cultural item to come out of Saturn; it attracted a lot of starving artists, what with the free food and rent, and they produce art. The population starts to cohere more, turning from thrown-together bubbles full of immigrants to collections of neighbors who befriend each other in absolute confidence of their safety and no concern about lawn height or noise pollution or anything else the enchantments take care of for them. They form clubs and small businesses and bands and conventions and community gardens and impromptu schools and charitable organizations. (Residents of Saturn aren't much in a position to need charity, but they're in pretty good shape to deliver it to Earthlings.)
Bella, as the Empress presiding over all this activity, is invited to the grand openings of the first zoo of Saturn (she did not install one of those, but an all-purpose bubble allowed the conversion), conventions about comics and model railroads and quilting and astronomy and library science and biotechnology and video games, and the celebrations orchestrated by the unofficial Imperial Society of Saturn when the planet's population surpasses various round numbers. She goes to some of these things and does not go to others of these things.
The Imperial Society of Saturn (which is still unofficial, mostly because she doesn't want to manage it and they're doing such nice things even without her direction) puts together a big party for the fourth anniversary of Saturn's bubbleforming. (It is not called "terraforming"; it is too unterrestrial in construction.) She is invited, of course, especially if she wants to give a little speech. Ripper is also invited. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper is willing to attend! |
Author: bellfounding | Spiffy!
The Imperial Society wants him to sing. They're packing the schedule of the party-slash-patriotic-convention with Cronian performers of all sorts, in fact, but he's of particular note as imperial consort. There will also be many booths in which Saturn's various organizations and grassroots institutions and producers-of-things can advertise themselves and recruit and sell, and of course Bella will give her little speech. |
Author: tearingup | If they want him to sing, then he'll sing. Presumably by now they know what they're getting; his solo album has been out for months. |
Author: bellfounding | Well, there will be children present, so they have opinions about which songs, but they do want him to sing.
Bella's little speech is written by her speechwriter with fairly minimal edits from herself, but it is nonetheless sincere; she talks about how the entire bubbleforming project would have been for nothing if it weren't for her wonderful citizens coming in and bringing them to life, and how she is so glad to have them, and is so pleased with what they've done with the place. |
Author: tearingup | Just as long as he doesn't have to wear a shirt.
And since it turns out he doesn't: he sings. |
Author: bellfounding | The party is well-attended, well-recorded - Bella puts video of the highlights on the Imperial website - and well-received. It lasts three days, although most people don't attend all three. Bella's speech and Ripper's set are both on day one; on the second day Bella has a little booth set up for wish-requesting, and the line gets very long but there are things to see on the way and enchanted trays of food will fetch people snacks and beverages while they wait. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper mostly leaves it alone after his set. Massive parties aren't his favourite thing. He does drop in on Bella's wish booth every so often, though, to give her a kiss and see who's asking for what. |
Author: bellfounding | Some people are enjoying the comfortable complete lack of need to do anything when you live on Saturn and have, therefore, negligible income, but harbor desires for small consumer goods that cannot be obtained without money or magic. Some people want things about their bubbles edited. Some of them want Earth family coaxed into moving. Some of them want languages. (Bubbles tend to be monolingual, but this party distinctly isn't. Bella wonders to Ripper if Saturn is going to develop an interesting panlinguistic pidgin after some children have grown up on it.) Some of them are just lining up to thank her. |
Author: tearingup | Well, that's adorable. |
Author: bellfounding | She also signs some autographs, removes someone's mole, and takes pictures with a bunch of people. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper wanders off again during an instance of picture-taking. |
Author: bellfounding | [Having fun?] |
Author: tearingup | [Eh.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Not your thing? They're planning to do this every year, although maybe after a while it'll settle down into years divisible by five.] |
Author: tearingup | [The singing was fun. And watching you grant wishes is cute, I just don't want to spend an entire day on it.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Fair enough, I'm totally also remotely having a meeting with the disaster relief team and double-checking J's sort of the next resurrection batch.] |
Author: tearingup | He laughs. [That's my empress.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I am, it is true. After this thing is over we should do something less crowded.] |
Author: tearingup | [I like the sound of that.] |
Author: bellfounding | [That's not even what I meant, although it is admittedly an occupational hazard of spending uncrowded time together. I meant we could - watch a movie or go skating again or return to the intergalactic gazebo and see if any of the Jokers have quietly set it up for another visit just in case.] |
Author: tearingup | [Ooh. Yeah, let's check out the intergalactic gazebo.] |
Author: bellfounding | [And if they haven't set anything up, we can.] |
Author: tearingup | [I like the sound of that.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Do you now.] |
Author: tearingup | [You, me, intergalactic gazebo, delicious dinner, flower petals everywhere? Yeah, sounds like a date.] |
Author: bellfounding | [It does sound that way, doesn't it? I love you.] |
Author: tearingup | [I love you too.] |
Author: bellfounding | The party is all through on schedule, with a fireworks display and the orchestral version of the anthem, and then Bella pops into Ripper's hallway and knocks. |
Author: tearingup | He opens the door and kisses her, tasting of carrot cake.
[Hi.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Hi!] She is mixing things up today. She tastes like rosemary. |
Author: tearingup | Ooh. Fun! Nom nom. |
Author: bellfounding | Nom nom nom.
She pops them into place in the gazebo. |
Author: tearingup | Mmmmakeouts.
It's been long enough - have they really been dating for more than a year? - that the previous explosions of petals are nowhere to be seen, and the gazebo is not currently flowering. But it's still there, still in good condition, still enchanted. |
Author: bellfounding | Bella pulls Ripper down onto the couch-thing that formed when they stopped sitting in opposite chairs, in case anything happens when they do that besides the predictably obvious. |
Author: tearingup | The couch-thing assumes its snuggliest configuration, and Ripper kisses her some more—
And flowers bloom from the walls and the floor and around the edge of the uncluttered table. These ones have a collar of black leafy spikes surrounding a flower that starts red-orange at the base of each petal and moves through brilliant yellow to fiery yellow-white. |
Author: bellfounding | [So apparently we didn't see all the flowers last time.] |
Author: tearingup | [Or there's new ones. I wonder if it's going to - yep,] he says, as flamelike petals start gently raining on them. |
Author: bellfounding | [Very charming. Hopefully tentacle porn flowers aren't in its repertoire, that'd be a surprise.] |
Author: tearingup | [No, that's not what tentacle porn flowers look like.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I mean if it changes from this kind to another kind.] |
Author: tearingup | [I doubt it. Anyway, they don't just up and fuck you, you have to ask nicely first.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I feel so much safer.] |
Author: tearingup | [Well, it's Aianon,] he says. |
Author: bellfounding | [He might not have expected us to come back here,] says Bella. [Whatever.]
Nibble nibble. [Should I conjure up some actual food, do you suppose, since there doesn't seem to be any lined up?] |
Author: tearingup | [Maybe the enchantment just knows we're not sitting down to have dinner,] he laughs. [I am kind of hungry, though. For something other than you.] Nibble kiss. |
Author: bellfounding | [I'm not very filling,] she giggles. And she conjures up a few baskets of assorted fried things, ranging from breadcrumb-dredged avocados to plain old seasoned curly potato fries to churros. |
Author: tearingup | [Tasty as hell, though.]
But he does sit up (and snuggle her) and have a go at the Actual Food. |
Author: bellfounding | It is good and fried (in the sense of results, if not the process of its creation) and actual. Om nom nom. |
Author: tearingup | Nom nom! Nom snuggle. Nom kiss.
A flower petal lands in his hair. |
Author: bellfounding | Bella brushes it away for him. Nom. Kiss. Snuggle. Nom. |
Author: tearingup | Mm. Yes. This is a good date. Bella is a good girlfriend. |
Author: bellfounding | It is and she is!
[So,] (her mouth is full), [have you been up to interesting non-me-related things of late?] |
Author: tearingup | [This and that. Writing some more songs. I think I'll do another photoshoot with the clowns sometime soon.] |
Author: bellfounding | [The clowns,] chuckles Bella. [Any ideas for sets so far?] |
Author: tearingup | [Not yet. But I'm taking suggestions. Anywhere in particular you want to see me naked?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Oh, everywhere. You could take a few pictures here,] she suggests, [maybe angled so you can see you and also the Milky Way through the roof.] |
Author: tearingup | [I like that plan,] he says. [Want to take some pictures?] |
Author: bellfounding | She grins. [You don't think we'll get distracted?] |
Author: tearingup | [I'm sure we'll get distracted.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Aha. Well then, why not?] |
Author: tearingup | He laughs and hugs her.
Naked photoshoot time! |
Author: bellfounding | She does in fact take several photographs before becoming irretrievably distracted. |
Author: tearingup | Nothing is irretrievable.
"What do you think," he muses, cuddling up to her, "more pictures while the petals are still flying?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Sure," she laughs, "if we can disentangle ourselves. I do not wish to appear naked on your album cover." |
Author: tearingup | He giggles and kisses her. |
Author: bellfounding | Kisses! This isn't photographic at all, but it is yummy. (She has switched flavors from rosemary to blueberry.) |
Author: tearingup | Ripper decides to taste like cherries. He likes cherries.
Eh, they can take more pictures later. |
Author: bellfounding | They can! They can do that thing. First, they can do this thing. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper likes this thing. |
Author: bellfounding | So does Bella. It is a happy time all around.
Eventually she really does peel herself off of him and a few more pictures are set up and shot. |
Author: tearingup | He likes that, too. And they are very nice pictures. All those petals flying through space, and the flowers on the walls framing his floating body - gorgeous. |
Author: bellfounding | Space is pretty. Flowers are pretty. Ripper is pretty. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper is very pretty. |
Author: bellfounding | Yep. Pretty, pretty pictures. Pretty, pretty rockstar model. |
Author: tearingup | So much prettiness!
And now he keeps grinning irrepressibly between takes. |
Author: bellfounding | "You're happy," she hums, smiling herself. |
Author: tearingup | "How'd you guess?" |
Author: bellfounding | "The big smiles. They were kind of a hint." |
Author: tearingup | He laughs.
"I just really like being eye candy, what can I say." |
Author: bellfounding | "You are," she says, "absolutely eye candy." |
Author: tearingup | Ripper beams. |
Author: bellfounding | "Occasionally also other kinds of candy." |
Author: tearingup | He grins.
"Does that mean we should take a break for kisses again? I think it does!" |
Author: bellfounding | Bella giggles, puts down the camera, and holds out her arms. |
Author: tearingup | Cuddlepounce! With flavourful kisses. |
Author: bellfounding | This could be a very prolonged cycle. Bella time-dilated the gazebo when they arrived, though, so that's okay. |
Author: tearingup | It's so nice that she thinks of these things. It is one of the many reasons why he loves her. |
Author: bellfounding | She is very lovable.
So is he. |
Author: tearingup | They are mutually lovable! And loving. Mmmm. Love. |
Author: bellfounding | Delicious love. |