[Yes?]

[Alleluia's youngest, Naamah - have you met her before? - has just learned that magic and so on exist, and she's a little overwhelmed, and wanted to know if there was anyone she could talk to who'd been familiar with the facts for longer but wasn't so immersed. Do you want to talk to her?]

[Um - sure,] says Nathaniel, a little tentative but cheerful.

[I'll send her to you.]

A few minutes later there is a knock at Nathaniel's door.

He opens it, also tentatively.

At the door is a short, soft-faced angel with wings that are almost butter-colored in the gaslight. "Um," she says. "Hello. I'm Naamah. Are you Nathaniel?"

"Yes," he says, smiling a tentative smile.

"Oh, good, I've been away from the Eyrie for a long time and barely know my way around anymore - did Isabella tell you I was coming? Can I come in, is that okay?"

"She did, and you can," he says, standing out of her way.

Naamah smiles and steps into the room. "So - how long have you known about - how very large the world really is?" she laughs uncertainly.

"Um - a long time," he says. "Since I was ten. I was... well, it's a long story, I guess."

"Will you tell it to me?"

Naamah looks around for an angel chair. There's one; Nathaniel's sister-in-law and nieces sometimes visit him. She sits down and clasps her hands on her knees.

"Well... you know who my brother is, right?" he starts.

"He's to be the angelico. Yes."

"Okay," says Nathaniel. "Do you know anything about our parents?"

Naamah shakes her head slowly.

"Well, they're... not good," he says. "So when I was just a little kid and Micaiah was meeting Isabella for the first time, and she heard how not good his parents were, she went and looked them up to see if they had any more children, and she found me. And she thought they probably weren't being good to me either, so she brought me here to join the Eyrie children's choir to sing for the Gloria that year. And when I was talking to her after the Gloria, she opened a door and there was Milliways on the other side of it, so she took me in to show it to me."

"Milliways is - I don't think I understand that one, Isabella couldn't seem to make up her mind if it was a - world hub - or a restaurant."

"It's both of those. It's a world hub, with a restaurant in it," he says. "I've only been there just the once, though, so I can't tell you very much about it."

Naamah nods. "Isabella offered to show it to me but it sounded - kind of overwhelming."

"It was," he agrees. "I didn't stay very long."

"My parents have known about all this for more than ten years - they've known about Jovah since before I was born. They kept so many secrets."

Nathaniel shrugs. "I guess I didn't really mind all that."

"I'm barely suited to living in a world the size of Samaria. I like to fly and I still never liked to really travel. And now there are so many more places than I knew about. Can I just - live how I have been, do you think?"

"Of course," he says. "That's what I do. I mean, I don't go to their parties or do much magic or - do much of anything, really."

"I just live at Cedar Hills - I tried to foster with Delilah here when I was little but the singing all the time even on through the night was unbearable; I was used to the quiet at Sinai or at least the bustle of Father's workshop. So, Cedar Hills. And I do - angel things." She shrugs. "Father thinks I must have an imagination somewhere but he's given up on finding it, I think."

Nathaniel laughs softly. "I don't think anyone's ever looked for mine."

"I sometimes wish I were interesting, like my parents, or Ezra, or even Zibiah - but I'm not," shrugs Naamah.

"I don't really wish I were interesting," Nathaniel says wryly. "Micaiah is welcome to my share of the family allotment of interesting and then some."

"I don't know very much about him," says Naamah. "Except that he's to be angelico, but with what I've learned about Jovah - I don't even know what to think because of that."

"He's very - himself," says Nathaniel. "And about a thousand times more interesting than me. And, as I said, welcome to it." He smiles. "I'm sorry, is that a confusing description? I've never had to describe him before."

"If I knew more about him then saying he was himself might be a very useful description," says Naamah. "But I don't."

"Well, he's... sweet," says Nathaniel. "And kind of silly, but not when it really matters. And he cares a lot about the people who are important to him. And he's very good at solving problems."

"He sounds a little like my father," muses Naamah.

"Does he? I don't know your father very well," says Nathaniel.

"Father's an engineer, and he's fascinated by problems, and he has a - Mother calls it zest for life. And he is very intense about our family. He and Mother thought for a while that they wouldn't be able to get married, before they knew about Jovah, before they knew Delilah would be Archangel again, before they knew that Jovah was trying to name Father Mother's angelico but couldn't because of his broken Kiss. And they didn't like that, and then they could after all, and he's still glad about it."

"Oh. That sounds very nice," says Nathaniel, smiling a little.

"My parents are good role models," says Naamah. "I'm sorry yours weren't."

"It's okay," he says, and then looks mildly surprised.

"It is?"

"Well... not really," he says. "But I'm okay. I guess I wasn't expecting to be."

"I'm glad you're okay," smiles Naamah.

"Me too," he says, smiling back.

Naamah stays a while longer, and then off she goes to start flying back to Cedar Hills.

[Of course. What is it?]

[Not especially. I don't know them that well. I'll ask Micaiah, I guess.]

[Sure. And he can take you up to the ship so Jane can send you wherever you decide to go.]

[Okay. Um, thanks.]

[You're welcome.]

"Hi, Nathaniel," says Jane.

"Hi," he says. "I want to visit Aurum, please."

He nods.

Yoink!

Nathaniel wonders how it is that he will be hanging out in space.

He smiles and nods.

"Maybe one at a time," he says, smiling tentatively.

"You got it," he says, and squeezes Nathan's hand, and then they are standing just outside of a cute little house on a cute little asteroid.

Aedyt waves from the doorway. "Hey, uncleoid," she says. "Is that the right word? Whatever. Mummy made cupcakes, come have some."

[Hey babe, where are you at?] Nathan asks. [Kerron's crashed for the night and this is a good time to cheat at cross-country road trip by skipping out overnight.]

[At the pumpkin's place. Micaiah's brother Nathaniel is visiting. You wanna come see him? He's a sweetheart. Kinda jumpy, though, so I better ask him first.]

[Yeah, sure, I'll be up when the time is right.]

"Okay," says Nathaniel. "They're not really all that similar except when you write them out, though."

The Joker gives his sweetie a hug and a kiss. "Pick me up, honey," he suggests.

Scoop! Nathan is highly obliging about this sort of thing.

Aedyt sighs the sigh of one whose parents are unspeakably cute.

Nathaniel giggles quietly.

"So what'd I miss while I was listening to Kerron make the case for the cultural importance of the World's Biggest Rubber Band Ball?"

"Aedyt was telling me about her hobbies. She has a lot of them," says Nathaniel. "What is the World's Biggest Rubber Band Ball? How big is it?"

"It's a ball of rubber bands - pumpkin, have you got rubber bands, I don't know if they have 'em in Samaria - and it's a little smaller than this house, after a while it starts using these massive industrial ones."

Aedyt produces a rubber band.

"It's... sproingy," says Nathaniel, fascinated.

The Joker giggles.

"Yup," says Nathan. "People use 'em to keep things bundled up. If you use 'em to keep other rubber bands bundled up and then you keep going, you get a ball."

The Joker helpfully conjures a ball of rubber bands and hands it to Nathaniel.

He adds the one Aedyt gave him onto it, then starts carefully disassembling the thing.

Nathan laughs. This occasion, like the overwhelming majority of occasions, calls for him to nuzzle his mate.

...That is really cute.

Awwww. Nathaniel smiles at his slowly diminishing rubber band ball and the neat pile of rubber bands in his lap.

Nathan hangs out on the asteroid with mate, daughter, and visitor until it is a good time to bid everyone goodbye and pop back into the car with Kerron and resume roadtripping.

In this time, Nathaniel pulls the rubber band ball apart completely and then puts it back together again. Seven different times.

"I think we found you a new hobby," giggles the Joker.

"Can I keep it?" he asks shyly.

"Sure you can," he says, grinning. "So while you're here, wanna see any more of the world? We could go hang out in an emptyish capital site for a while."

"Sure," says Nathaniel, smiling a little. He tosses his rubber band ball into the air and catches it.

The Joker waves to Aedyt and then teleports himself and Nathaniel to a random capital site not currently in use.

"Um, hello," Nathaniel says, blinking back at her. "I'm Nathaniel."

Yes. Nathaniel can see that. He is not sure how to feel about it, and therefore defaults to 'vaguely worried'.

The Joker... observes the proceedings.

"You're pretty," says Renata to Nathaniel after a long silence.

She smiles.

He smiles, too.

Renata appears perfectly unselfconscious about just sort of staring at him. She's mostly looking at his face, although occasionally her eyes make lazy sweeps down and back up.

Nathaniel's blush is slowly developing into a blushier blush.

"Well, this is adorable," the Joker remarks.

Renata tilts her head when the Joker talks, but she doesn't look at him.

Heh. He smiles.

Nathaniel glances at the Joker and dares to observe, "You know something."

"I do!" he agrees.

Renata has met the Joker before and apparently knows everything she wants to about what he knows. She has a question for Nathaniel. "Do you have all those magic wards on you?"

"...um, what?" he says nervously.

"There's a curl on your forehead and I want to put it with your other hair, but I don't want to accidentally hurt you," she explains.

He gives the Joker a pleading look.

Renata moves her hand almost comically slowly, nonetheless, like she's trying to adjust for human tracking speed but doesn't know how much. She sweeps the curl from Nathaniel's forehead in among his other hair. She smiles again.

"She's sweet on you," he explains.

"I don't know," says Nathaniel, defaulting to Vaguely Worried again.

"Oh." Now Renata looks Vaguely Worried too!

(Renata fixes it again.)

"That is cute," asserts Renata.

[Her name's Renata and she's mostly boring. She's got a witch power that means nobody can attack her. I think Nathaniel's a little sweet on her right back. They're giving each other dopey looks as we speak.]

[Thanks,] he says cheerfully.

Nathaniel continues giving Renata what the Joker has described as a dopey look.

Renata's looking dopily right back at him, a spacey smile on her face. He's pretty! She is trying to think of a reason to touch him. She doesn't seem to have one.

"Where is that?" asks Renata.

"Samaria. Another world," he says. "I came to visit the Joker because he's my brother's alt."

"Oh," frowns Renata. "Can I go there?"

"If you're invisible to anybody who doesn't know about magic," says the Joker. "And if you 'stay out of the way'. You'll have to ask Angela what that one means."

"I'm good at staying out of the way," says Renata.

"Me too," murmurs Nathaniel.

Smile!

Yay! She is petting his hair and he is happy about it and that is just the best thing and Renata is brimful with pleasedness.

Aww, pleasedness! That is cute. She is cute.

He's cute and his face is cute.

Awwwwwwwww. Cutes.

Yes. Cutes. Dopey smiles.

Those things. Yes.