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.

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.

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.

Well, that's adorable.

She also signs some autographs, removes someone's mole, and takes pictures with a bunch of people.

Ripper wanders off again during an instance of picture-taking.

[Having fun?]

[Eh.]

[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.]

[The singing was fun. And watching you grant wishes is cute, I just don't want to spend an entire day on it.]

[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.]

He laughs. [That's my empress.]

[I am, it is true. After this thing is over we should do something less crowded.]

[I like the sound of that.]

[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.]

[Ooh. Yeah, let's check out the intergalactic gazebo.]

[And if they haven't set anything up, we can.]

[I like the sound of that.]

[Do you now.]

[You, me, intergalactic gazebo, delicious dinner, flower petals everywhere? Yeah, sounds like a date.]

[It does sound that way, doesn't it? I love you.]

[I love you too.]

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.