Author: bellfounding | Bella keeps her empire humming. Her staff swells; her population booms. Earthlings solicit more and more tweaks here and there until it's nearly as safe and pleasant as Saturn in some places, although the realities of economics, prejudice, and politics mean that Saturn continues to be particularly inviting to certain classes of people. Bella receives Earth's tired, its poor, its huddled masses yearning to breathe free. There are political cartoons with spikes on her halo-crown, a torch in her hand, and her telling Uncle Sam, "Well, someone ought to do your job."
People on the Internet complain that she is technically an absolute monarch who has not, in fact, limited herself with a Constitution of any kind, only posted about what she does and does not expect to want to do on her website. Other people on the Internet point out that she seems to want and not want to do those things just as predicted and that it doesn't really affect anyone's quality of life if she happens to wear a ringcrown while she does it. Still other people point out that even if she wrote up a Constitution and swore to uphold it, this would not, in any way, shape, or form, cut her magical power in such a way that anyone could make a practical objection should she change her mind.
A lot of dead people come back to life. She does not make a particularly big dent, but it's enough to give hope, and the fact that the resurrected immortals don't suffer unusual levels of existential dread or lose their ability to appreciate classical music leave a lot of those who have never died more willing to try immortality.
Time passes. The Empire of Rings is the new normal. She still gets attention, but she's not nearly as memetic anymore. Her spotlight continues to shed spare interest on Ripper and his musical career. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper keeps making music. He does more tours. Around the time of his third solo album, he figures out the logistics of touring completely by teleport and stops needing to spend any money on airplanes or hotels. And he has money, now; his musical career is actually starting to pay for itself. Which is probably because of his imperial girlfriend, and he is okay with that.
There are things he likes and things he doesn't like about being somewhat more famous. Being able to teleport away from overeager fans is a big plus. Living on a planet that actively guards its inhabitants against unwanted media intrusion is an even bigger one. Without those, he thinks he might quit - but he has those, and he likes getting on stage in front of thousands of people who want him to be there.
So, all in all, he's okay. |
Author: bellfounding | Bella is glad that he is okay. And that he can teleport away from overeager fans. It would not do if he were helpless against a mob of people who have seen him mostly naked and want to correct the "mostly" without undergoing accepted procedure. |
Author: tearingup | Yes. That would be bad.
And plenty of people have seen him mostly naked by now; his album covers are still distinctly... themed. Not to mention the fact that performing shirtless is so routine for him that he has been good-naturedly booed for wearing a jacket to an outdoor venue on a cold day. |
Author: bellfounding | When Bella hears about this, she offers him a copy of her Bell-standard comfort in arbitrary weather. |
Author: tearingup | Ooh.
[I love you,] he says. [Yes please.] |
Author: bellfounding | Poof. [Poof. I love you too.] |
Author: tearingup | [Now I can be shirtless more often! My fans will also love you.] |
Author: bellfounding | [As well they ought.] |
Author: tearingup | He laughs.
[You up to much presently?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Talking to the speechwriters. Whyever do you ask?] |
Author: tearingup | [Take a guess.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Mmmm, drawing a complete blank, here.] |
Author: tearingup | [Well, I'll be at home, playing the guitar, shirtless, while you figure it out.] |
Author: bellfounding | [It is times like this that I am most tempted to ignore your knocking thing.] |
Author: tearingup | [We-ell. Just this once, if you warn me first, you can skip the knocking.] |
Author: bellfounding | [But if I warn you how will I sneak up on you with kisses?] |
Author: tearingup | [If you sneak up on me with kisses I might drop my guitar, and that would be tragic.] |
Author: bellfounding | [It's fixable.] |
Author: tearingup | [Or you could wait until I'm not holding my guitar,] he suggests thoughtfully. [Don't you have that superspy power?] |
Author: bellfounding | [That is true. I could just be imperceptible until you happened to put it down.] |
Author: tearingup | [This is a strangely appealing plan.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Well, then I believe I shall not tell you when this meeting is scheduled to end.] |
Author: tearingup | Ripper laughs. [Ooh. Suspenseful.] |
Author: bellfounding | [In a good way?] |
Author: tearingup | He thinks about it, then says, [Yeah. I mean, as long as the meeting isn't going to run for a day or something. Somewhere between a few minutes and a few hours?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Somewhere in that range, yes. My speechwriters still have to eat and sleep. Well, most of them.] |
Author: tearingup | [Brilliant, then. I'll see you at some unspecified time in the next few hours. Love you.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Love you.]
About half an hour later, there is absolutely no sign of Bella in his apartment. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper has finished playing the guitar, and has apparently decided to tempt fate, because he's having a cup of tea while he goes through his archive of mostly naked pictures of himself. (There are a lot of them by now. He thinks he might go back to that original graveyard shoot for his next album cover; he hasn't used any from it yet.) |
Author: bellfounding | Bella insinuates herself into his lap. There is still no sign of her. She watches pictures go by and leans her head on his shoulder and is a snuggly ninja. She waits for tea to be put down. She decides to see if his earlobe tastes like anything right now. |
Author: tearingup | His earlobe tastes like a certain delicious chocolate cake. Apparently he was feeling nostalgic for their first date.
He puts down his tea. |
Author: bellfounding | There is now some sign of Bella.
Not a complete complement of signs, but he can feel her on his lap now. And her teeth on his ear. |
Author: tearingup | He shivers.
"Ooh, hello, love," he says, wrapping his arms around her. (He is, of course, shirtless.) |
Author: bellfounding | She snuggles up. She renders herself audible, breathing near his ear. "Hello." |
Author: tearingup | "This was a good idea," he murmurs. |
Author: bellfounding | "Mm-hm."
She decides to remain invisible. And commences neck-nibbling. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper mmmmmmmaybe whimpers a little bit. |
Author: bellfounding | Bella has not played a lot with finer control than "per sense, per person", but she decides to see what her aura will do.
And it turns out that it will hedge out all experience of her that isn't those nibblings and her hands. No weight on his lap, no tickling hair on his unshirted parts, just nibbles and slightly wandery hands. |
Author: tearingup | It further turns out that this makes Ripper get kind of squirmy! In the good way. The extremely good way. |
Author: bellfounding | She is still sitting on his lap, and will find that this limits his squirming, despite the fact that he can't detect her weight. That could be interesting. |
Author: tearingup | That - yes, that is interesting. And a little weird. He's not sure if it's in a good way.
The nibbles and the wandering hands are definitely good, however. |
Author: bellfounding | Wander wander. Nibble nibble. She fades the rest of her tactility back in, but not all the way.
She is also smellable. She smells like cinnamon-sugar. |
Author: tearingup | "I love you," he says dreamily. |
Author: bellfounding | "I love you too," she murmurs against the part of him she is currently nibbling. |
Author: tearingup |
Squirm. |
Author: bellfounding | Bella has decided that this is Induce Maximum Positive Ripper Squirms Day. |
Author: tearingup | That is a good day for it to be!
Many positive Ripper squirms are had. |
Author: bellfounding | Oh, good. Bella does like to succeed at her goals. |
Author: tearingup | She is succeeding the hell out of this one. |
Author: bellfounding | Good, good.
Eventually she decides her purposes are no longer served by ninjahood, and she flips her aura the other way, since it's so nice and flattering. |
Author: tearingup | Lapful of movie star!
Ripper kisses her. There are extremely kisses. |
Author: bellfounding | Mmmm, Extreme Kisses. Best kind. |
Author: tearingup | Mmhmm. |
Author: bellfounding |
Bella tries to catch up with Sarion a minimum of twice a year if nothing she just has to tell a fellow Bell about comes up in the intervening time. After about six months have elapsed, she asks Aianon and Ansharil if either of them (and, of course, Sarion herself) are free for such a catching-up. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon is! |
Author: small_magics | So is Isibel. |
Author: bellfounding | Excellent. They meet in Bella's palace and Bella conjures elf tea and she starts talking about the latest batch of escapees from Arkham - the Joker's old prison-asylum - who got out, started causing trouble, eluded local police, and now live on Ganymede. |
Author: small_magics | Isibel listens, and replies with the enchantments she has been doing - and also what Lycaelon and Liselen have been doing to help. Lately she has adjusted the parameters of her enchanted village to accommodate the needs of centaurs, a few families of which have moved in. It sounds like both of their worlds are doing quite well. |
Author: bellfounding | It's a few weeks after that when Bella says to Ripper, [Renée wants to meet you. Charlie probably does too, but Renée is the one who thought to ask.] |
Author: tearingup | [...well,] says Ripper. [All right.] |
Author: bellfounding | [It took her this long to ask because I was kind of dead for kind of a long time and I think she has some sort of weird hybridized view of me where I am only partially real and only partially her kid, but yeah. When's good?] |
Author: tearingup | [Anywhen, really, I don't have any commitments in the next few days.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Okay. She moved to Saturn the other week, so she's on your time zone, does lunch tomorrow sound good?] |
Author: tearingup | [Sure! Any horror stories I should know first?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Huh?] |
Author: tearingup | [I'll take that as a no.] |
Author: bellfounding | [What'd you mean?] |
Author: tearingup | [Some people's parents come with warnings attached.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Oh. No, not mine particularly, they're not particularly interesting. Renée's been divorced twice now, broke up with my stepdad while I was dead, is that a relevant warning?] |
Author: tearingup | [Not the kind I was thinking of, but it's good to know.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Golden's identical stepdad also eventually ceased to be married to the Aurum Renée but under somewhat different circumstances. Even though that Renée totally thought Golden was dead for like five years,] hmms Bella. [I wonder why.] |
Author: tearingup | Ripper laughs. [You and your analyzing. Different times in their lives, maybe?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Not by much. Me and Golden share a birthdate; I died the February I was seventeen and she faked her death the subsequent October. I suppose it could be relevant that she was pretending to have died in a fire and I kicked it in a hospital after getting creamed by the same car that got Stella and almost got Golden. Might be relevant that Golden was married and telling her mom that she was pregnant at the time, I guess, although I can't see how that would help.] |
Author: tearingup | [It doesn't have to help; it just has to change things.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Well, I mean help the relationship stay together. I never liked Phil all that much but Renée sure did at one point.] |
Author: tearingup | [Right, no, I mean - did yours actually break up because you were dead?] |
Author: bellfounding | [It's the most obvious difference between my case and Stella's. Or Juliet's. Juliet also died, but she came back way quicker than I did, her parents didn't find out. Stella got hit by the car, didn't avoid it altogether like Golden, but Alice patched her up before she would've died.] |
Author: tearingup | [Sure, but that doesn't mean you being dead was what broke them up, directly. So whatever it was about you being dead that made the difference, it just might not have come around like that with Golden. Or, I don't know, maybe it did and half the time when that happens your mom gets a divorce and half the time she doesn't and you're seeing one of each.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I suppose. Or, I dunno, maybe it's some knock-on effect of the magic in the other worlds that didn't take place here, or conversely something about Gotham, or some different template that appears here or there but hasn't made itself obtrusively relevant yet. But it's not as tempting an explanation - we have disturbingly similar childhoods, we can recite the exact same conversation about why blue raspberry exists as a flavor from when we were six, and that seems much easier to perturb than anyone's marital status.] |
Author: tearingup | [Eh. Wait'll you can ask Glass, I guess.] |
Author: bellfounding | [I did. Renée was already divorced when I came back from the dead. Glass said she'd have to look at her to get an idea why, and I haven't told my parents about alts and stuff yet. They actually have pretty much only common knowledge about what I can do.] |
Author: tearingup | [Why's that?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Different reasons per parent - I think Charlie would find it overwhelming and Renée would want to meet everybody I mentioned as examples. I have no idea what her and any one of the Jokers in the same room would do. I might get around to it eventually, if it comes up, if they ask prying questions.] |
Author: tearingup | [Has no-Bell else introduced her mum to a Joker?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Oh, sure they have. All under very different circumstances - in particular most of them were combining the 'hi, Mom or Dad, this is a Joker' visit with the 'hi, Mom or Dad, this is my boyfriend' visit. Sooner or later, anyway - Aurora went the other way around but she has a noticeably different parent-child relationship from everybody else because of her sister. Stella was friends with Alice first, but Alice was a fellow high school student at the time, not her mysterious magical staffperson, and also Stella's Charlie was friends with his family's housekeeper.] |
Author: tearingup | [Aha. Well, no rush, I guess.] |
Author: bellfounding | [It's maybe possible I can explain alts without getting her interested in meeting any Jokers, I suppose. I probably should. It's been years, and none of the other informed parental figures insist on showing up to Bellparties.] |
Author: tearingup | He laughs. |
Author: bellfounding | [Which is good, because that would be really weird.] |
Author: tearingup | [Would it?] |
Author: bellfounding | [Foreign Renées and Charlies milling around with miscellaneous otherworldly species, gossiping about us with each other, Charlies being conspicuously uncomfortable, Renées wanting to go visit each other without getting how a lot of us are working under secrecy constraints, both of them trying to be parental at Bells who don't belong to them? Yes. Weird.] |
Author: tearingup | He laughs. [All right, I'm convinced.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Good. So I guess that's a warning of sorts. Hmmm, I wonder if there's anything else.] |
Author: tearingup | [Couldn't tell you.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Well, I can urgently relay information to you by brainphone if something comes up.] |
Author: tearingup | [It's a deal.] |
Author: bellfounding | The next day, Bella announces at about lunchtime, [Lunchtime.] And there is a knock at Ripper's door. |
Author: tearingup | He opens it. Wearing a shirt! |
Author: bellfounding | "Ah, good, you are clothed." And she links elbows with him, and they pop into Renée's dining room; apparently Renée does not have a knocking thing. "Hi, Mom!"
"Hello, Bella! And this must be Ripper," says Renée, "it's good to meet you! I'm Bella's mother Renée." |
Author: tearingup | "So I've heard!" he says. "Hi!" |
Author: bellfounding | "Sit down, sit down - I actually cooked today, not that the magic food isn't a lovely convenience -" Renée fetches a dishful of pasta with chicken, and a bowl of salad, and a pot of broccoli cheese soup. "So how have you been, Bella?"
"Pretty good. Spent most of yesterday in Lebanon. But I also took enough of a shine to a historian who kept emailing me that I pastwatched some things for her, that was fun." |
Author: tearingup | "Ooh, what'd you watch?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Key scenes from the battle of Troy. Very gruesome."
"I'm sure she appreciated the help, though. Maybe you'll do more of that sort of thing once the politics are all sorted out," says Renée.
"Yeah, probably my focus'll shift over time when politics settles down. Politics and also the bottleneck in torching, I'm hoping for demographic shift to cut the birthrate so I can eventually get everyone who wants in. Bigger groups of people are signing up for torching now and just because I can do as much as I want doesn't mean it's instantaneous. At least I've offloaded most of the screening process and can basically fly down a line every time I do a batch."
"Why do you call it torching?"
"It looks like going up in flames," says Bella. |
Author: tearingup | "That it does," says Ripper. "It's sort of pretty." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Have you done it? Goodness," says Renée. |
Author: tearingup | He laughs. "Well, I've seen what it looks like." |
Author: bellfounding | "Why does it look like that?" Renée asks.
"Why not?" says Bella. [I actually have no idea,] she adds to Ripper. [Should maybe ask the admin when I can.]
"I suppose. Well, go on, eat up," says Renée, and she takes some salad and then starts ladling soup into everyone's bowls. "And leave room for cake."
"Mmm," says Bella appreciatively. |
Author: tearingup | "Ooh, cake," says Ripper.
He commences eating up. |
Author: bellfounding | It is all nice home-cooked food. "This reminds me of being eight," remarks Bella.
"Well, of course," laughs Renée. "I used to make these recipes all the time - and then I started trying to eat less fat but it doesn't matter anymore, does it?"
"It does not," agrees Bella. |
Author: tearingup | "'S good," Ripper says cheerfully. Nom nom nom. |
Author: alicornucopia | "I'm glad you like it. I asked Bella if you would want anything specific but she told me you were an omnivore," says Renée. "I know you sing - I love the Song of Saturn, I haven't looked into your other work - what else do you do?" |
Author: tearingup | "I also play the guitar," he says, laughing. |
Author: alicornucopia | "And write songs - but I meant nonmusically?" |
Author: tearingup | "Honestly, nothing much," he says. "Music's enough to keep me busy." |
Author: alicornucopia | "What bubble do you live in? Have you and your neighbors named it yet or is it still going by number? When I moved in here it was already called Shipley for some reason, I should ask Agatha why." |
Author: tearingup | "No name yet. And I'm not gonna think of one; I'm terrible at naming things." |
Author: bellfounding | "It also seems to slow people down that they have to be unique names and no one living in the bubble at the time can strenuously object before the transit system will officially log it." |
Author: tearingup | He laughs. |
Author: bellfounding | "And I wasn't going to think of a hundred thousand names for neighborhoods and common-areas, so. A little project for inhabitants."
"I think Shipley is a fine name. I didn't know how else to pick from the list of places with open homes that had people living in them. And I didn't want to move in somewhere empty," says Renée. |
Author: tearingup | "I don't even remember if I checked the population of my bubble before I moved there," Ripper admits. "Too long ago. It's pretty full now, though." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Do you talk to your neighbors much?" Renée asks. "Mine were very friendly. Agatha came over the day I moved in with a nice little cross-stitch to hang in my window and we talked about setting up a nice group visit to the zoo." |
Author: tearingup | "That's cute," he says. "I don't see mine much. Every so often when we hit a skating rink or a park or something." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Introvert?" inquires Renée, taking a second helping of pasta. "Or do your friends just all live on Earth or in other bubbles?" |
Author: tearingup | "Introvert. More or less." |
Author: alicornucopia | "More or less?" inquires Renée. |
Author: tearingup | "I get gregarious moods, but they don't last long." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Ah, fair enough. And I believe you still perform? In front of lots of people!" |
Author: tearingup | "That's different." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I believe I'd be quite terrified to be on stage in front of such an audience," confides Renée. |
Author: tearingup | "I actually love it. But yeah, it's not for everyone." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Nobody here knows that Bella's my daughter," confides Renée. "I don't know at all what would happen if they did." |
Author: tearingup | "If anyone in my bubble knows I'm dating her, they don't pester me about it, which I'm very thankful for." |
Author: bellfounding | "That's good of them," says Renée contently. "Famous people are just like everyone else and like to go home to peace and quiet. And I'd go out of my mind if I had a moon all to myself like Bella."
"I like my moon," says Bella. "Besides, people visit it." |
Author: tearingup | "I like Saturn. The bubbles thing is a good design. Well done, Bella." |
Author: bellfounding | "Thanks." [I had help. Sandy - one of Stella's staff mints.]
"I particularly like how the common areas will visit of their own accord. It's very whimsical," says Renée. |
Author: tearingup | "Yeah, that's the best part."
[Do I know this Sandy? Anything interesting about him? Eh - tell me later.] |
Author: bellfounding | [He hasn't come up before except in unremarkable passing. Will do.]
"Two days ago," says Renée, "we got a trampoline park, I didn't know there were any of those floating around but apparently there were, and we got to meet people from three other bubbles that were also attached to it and jump around like five-year-olds, it was lovely." |
Author: tearingup | "That's beautiful," laughs Ripper. |
Author: bellfounding | "And of course the trampolines were magical, so they were enormous and didn't need to be supported in the middle. It was tremendous fun."
"Glad you like it," says Bella. "Yeah, there's only the one of those so far, next time I expand I'll put in another one or two." |
Author: tearingup | "I want to visit the trampoline park," Ripper declares, grinning at Bella. "We should go there sometime." |
Author: bellfounding | "Then we shall," grins Bella. "We can jump around like five-year-olds. It'll be hilarious."
"Awww," says Renée. |
Author: tearingup | He giggles. |
Author: bellfounding | After everyone seems to be done with pasta and soup and salad, Renée brings in a sheet cake, with clumsy pink icing rosettes on a background of chocolate buttercream, and cuts slices. Ripper and Bella both get corner pieces.
"Mmm," declares Bella. |
Author: tearingup | "Mmm!" agrees Ripper. |
Author: bellfounding | "I'm so glad you like it," says Renée. "I almost forgot the salt, but then I added it in time."
"Can't have unsalted cake," laughs Bella. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper giggles again.
Om nom cake! |
Author: alicornucopia | "Have you met Charlie yet?" Renée asks Ripper. |
Author: tearingup | He shakes his head. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Are you likely to?" |
Author: tearingup | He shrugs. "Maybe." |
Author: bellfounding | "He hasn't asked, Mom. You did. Are you talking to Charlie much?"
"Occasionally," shrugs Renée. "Not a lot."
Eventually cake is gone, and coffee is offered, and there is chat about other common-area bubbles that may visit Shipley or Ripper's bubble at some point, and then Bella and Ripper take their leave. She teleports them to his hallway, and knocks on his door, smirking at him. |
Author: tearingup | He laughs. "I love you," he says, and kisses her. |
Author: bellfounding | Mmmkisses. Hallway kisses. He might want to "answer the door". |
Author: tearingup | Or he could just teleport them directly into his bedroom. |
Author: bellfounding | That also works! Kisses kisses. Bella is mocha-flavored. |
Author: tearingup | Ripper tastes like hazelnut! Together they are some kind of delicious dessert. |
Author: bellfounding | They are the most delicious dessert. Mmmm. |
Author: tearingup | Tasty. |
Author: bellfounding | They are intensely tasty.
Months go by. The waiting list for resurrection is long; she torchables a lot of people but there are billions of them and they keep dying. Bella gently wheedles Aianon for niners as often as seems prudent. She revamps the interplanetary transit system when enough people have significant quantities of stuff they want to import and export. Another Olympics happens; a Cronian skier wins silver in two events. Bella is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize over her objections, gives all of the prize money to a Cronian charity that does social work on both inhabited planets, and wears her medal to formal occasions. There are more political cartoons; she starts collecting the cleverer ones, trading small magical favors for the originals, and keeps them on walls in her palace. She catches up with Sarion again, newsy little exchanges of how their worlds are going (Sarion is not an "empress", so it cannot be "empires").
And then:
[Charlie wants to meet you, now.] |
Author: tearingup | [No special warnings for him either, I guess? Sure.] |
Author: bellfounding | [You might or might not get a "if you hurt her, insert vague threat here" speech. He can't do anything, he's a small-town cop and you are magic. Okay. Dinner Thursday?] |
Author: tearingup | He laughs.
[I'm okay with vague ineffectual threats. Dinner Thursday sounds good to me.] |
Author: bellfounding | [That's our time zone, mind, his time zone will be claiming that it's brunch, so we're looking at breakfasty food.] |
Author: tearingup | [Oh no,] he says dryly, [breakfast at dinnertime. The horror. I may never recover.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Be strong, love.] |
Author: tearingup | Ripper giggles. |
Author: bellfounding | Thursday, at dinnertime, Bella knocks on Ripper's door. |
Author: tearingup | He answers, shirtfully, and gives her a hug. |
Author: bellfounding | Hugs! Bella drops them in front of Charlie's house and rings the doorbell. "He doesn't mind if I teleport in myself," she says, "but doesn't want me bringing people."
Presently, Charlie opens the door. "Bella," he says, and he hugs her. "And - 'Ripper'? Everyone calls you that?" |
Author: tearingup | "Yeah," he laughs, "everybody does." |
Author: bellfounding | Charlie shakes his head. "All right then. Come on in."
Breakfast is conjured - Charlie says, "Wouldn't inflict my cooking on a guest". Bella gives him squares so he can do the honors; he supplies omelets for everyone, and also bagels and fixings, and bacon. Plenty of bacon. |
Author: tearingup | "Ooh," says Ripper. "Bacon."
Om nom. |
Author: bellfounding | "You like bacon?" inquires Charlie. "Good."
"Bacon is one of Charlie's favorite things," Bella tells Ripper. |
Author: tearingup | "I can tell," says Ripper. |
Author: alicornucopia | "So tell me about yourself," Charlie tells Ripper. |
Author: tearingup | "What's there to tell? I make music. I like bacon. I live on Saturn." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Yes," says Charlie, mouth twitching slightly, "I looked up some of your music. What genre would you call that?" |
Author: tearingup | "I've been described as 'punk rock'." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Those kind of lyrics typical for the type?" |
Author: tearingup | "More or less. Well, depends which songs you heard." |
Author: alicornucopia | "First few on each album. A sampling." |
Author: tearingup | Ripper laughs.
"What'd you think?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "Would've quit after the first one if you weren't dating my daughter," says Charlie frankly, cream-cheesing a bagel half. |
Author: tearingup | "Eh, and? I know I'm not for everybody." |
Author: bellfounding | Charlie shrugs. He bites his bagel.
"Don't be judgmental, Dad. I like his music. Besides, he wrote the Song of Saturn too."
"I do like the Song of Saturn," Charlie admits around bagel. |
Author: tearingup | "I'm proud of that one." |
Author: bellfounding | "It is," says Bella, "the best anthem. When Saturn gets crowded and I start putting bubbles on Jupiter, I will have you write a Jovian anthem too." |
Author: tearingup | "Sure," he says affectionately. |
Author: bellfounding | Charlie smiles slightly.
Bella nibbles her omelet delicately.
"You've been together a while now," Charlie observes.
"Yep," agrees Bella. |
Author: tearingup | "Yeah," says Ripper, smiling. |
Author: bellfounding | "That looking to continue for a while?"
"We don't have a breakup scheduled for next November," says Bella, "if that's what you mean, but we aren't engaged either." |
Author: tearingup | Ripper nods. |
Author: bellfounding | "Hrrmph," says Charlie.
Bacon. It is time for bacon.
"You ever going to move to Saturn, Dad?" Bella asks.
"Maybe if cops become obsolete," snorts Charlie.
"I do seem to be improving the Earthly crime rate, although perhaps not in the department of graffiti and shoplifting." |
Author: tearingup | Bacon!
Ripper decides not to voice any opinions about the obsolescence of cops. |
Author: bellfounding | [Penny for your thoughts.]
"I haven't seen much dent in either. Maybe an uptick in vandalism. People move offplanet, they leave houses empty to be taken apart, you've messed up the real estate market some."
"I'm not gonna apologize for that, I don't think," grins Bella. |
Author: tearingup | [Ask me later.]
"You could apologize a little," says Ripper. "Not everybody wants to move to Saturn." |
Author: bellfounding | "And now they have all these vacated Earth houses to choose from," says Bella. "The people who significantly lose out are the ones who were using real estate as an investment, not people who want places to live." |
Author: tearingup | "Can they get the vacated Earth houses, though? |
Author: bellfounding | "I don't think I'm making it harder for people to get houses by indirectly rendering more available for the getting."
Charlie shakes his head, smiles, sighs, eats a bite of omelet. |
Author: tearingup | "All right," he concedes. |
Author: bellfounding | Brunch-dinner continues in a similar vein, until they're picking at the last crumbs of bagel and bacon and Bella's agreeing to go with Charlie to see some movie the following Saturday. Eventually she and Ripper make their goodbyes and she teleports them to his hallway. (And knocks.) "What was it that I was supposed to ask you later about?" |
Author: tearingup | "Oh - not actually that interesting, sorry. I was thinking unkind thoughts about cops, that's all."
He teleports them into his living room.
"As adorable as this 'teleporting me to the outside of my own flat and then knocking on the door' thing is, it got old a while ago," he adds. |
Author: bellfounding | "Okay, I'll stop." She flops into a chair. "I'm now imagining you and Rayne committing assorted medium-sized crimes and encountering cops." |
Author: tearingup |
"Really?" |
Author: bellfounding | "What should I be imagining instead? Why do you think unkind thoughts about cops?" |
Author: tearingup | "I think unkind thoughts about cops because they'll give you shit whether you break the law or not, that's—how do you run a planet and not know that?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Saturn doesn't have cops," she points out. "And my interaction with Earth cops is mostly Charlie; it is probably fair to say that I'm biased, I guess, but still. There are bad cops, but there are also bad kindergarten teachers and bad retail workers and bad doctors and people don't think unkind thoughts about those professions as groups." |
Author: tearingup | "There are good cops. Seems like your dad might be one of them. But when you live where I've lived, how I've lived, you mostly can't afford to bet on that." |
Author: bellfounding | "I know very little about UK law enforcement. Mostly when I interact with them we are talking about how I can make them more redundant, I mean efficient." |
Author: tearingup | "It's not just a UK thing. Whatever, this probably isn't an argument we need to have." |
Author: bellfounding | "Yeah, I guess." |
Author: tearingup | He sighs. |
Author: bellfounding | "You okay?" |
Author: tearingup | "Yeah."
He sighs again, and then he hugs her. |
Author: bellfounding | Hugs. |
Author: tearingup | Hugs. Hugs are good.
Snuggle time. |
Author: bellfounding | Snuggles. |