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Bella's empire settles down, grows, expands, produces art and music and designs for interesting lamps. She works doggedly at getting the populations of both planets torchable and the former population that she didn't get to back up and running. She goes on a charming television spot with a little old man who managed to avoid or staggeringly misinterpret every reference to magic and Saturn he ever heard until the other day when his son-in-law put in a request for his wife to come back, and she shows him a few little tricks and then presents him with his wife. (Bella did not just resurrect her on TV. She was prepped a few hours ahead of time.) The Imperial Society puts on annual parties, then shifts to years-divisible-by-five. Bella puts in more bubbles. She and Ripper test out some of these, from the trampoline playground to the slightly less buggy encapsulation of a mock rainforest to the large self-cleaning white room supplied with crayons and paint. (This last is ostensibly intended for children, but so what?)
(Ripper and the Jokers have a few rounds of paintball in it. They are messier than paint fights with Bella, on a number of levels.)
[Still playing paintball?] she asks Ripper, from her palace, where she is sifting through e-mail.
[Ooh. I bet I can do something about those. Is anyone going to scream if I teleport to you without getting dressed first?]
She's dressed, but he's welcome to fix that. She holds out her arms and tastes like key lime pie.
There is the sound of a door, and the sudden pour of aura, and a voice exactly like Bella's, saying, "Eep!"
Key lime Bella smacks herself in the forehead, squares clothes back whence they came, and says, "Hi, guys."
"Hi, Pattern! We're collecting everyone and then we're going to try to retrieve Aegis and company from wherever they went. Who's the boyfriend? How long's it been?"
"This is Ripper," sighs Pattern, "it's been sixteen years, and we need to take Aianon and Ansharil with us and bring them home first thing."
[Peal's here. No Jane, just Shell Bell.]
"Next stop is Thilanushinyel," says Shell Bell. "Does Ansharil do the Joker daemon shapeshifting thing or do we need to get him through a door another way?"
"You wanna come?" Pattern asks Ripper softly. By brainphone she perfunctorily informs everyone else who knows about worlds - Queenie, Ghosty, Slipstick.
Isibel clears her schedule.