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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
tearingup
Just as long as he doesn't have to wear a shirt.
And since it turns out he doesn't: he sings.
And since it turns out he doesn't: he sings.
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.
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.
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.
bellfounding
She also signs some autographs, removes someone's mole, and takes pictures with a bunch of people.
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.]