[Hey, Ripper,] says Pattern, a while later, [Amariah wants to borrow you.]

[For...?]

[Unless you've materialized specialized magical skills of some kind, I'm going to assume she wants to have sex with you, although come to think of it Jane did not actually specify in those words.]

[Maybe she wants me to write her an anthem.]

[That is also actually possible. Maybe Jane played her the Song of Saturn and now she wants one. But she doesn't have a formal empire yet, so the timing's peculiar for it.]

[Well, whatever. She can borrow me if she wants. As long as she returns me in good condition,] he jokes.

[She will certainly do so. Probably makes the most sense to meet her in the Belltower. Save the star. Unless you want a green kingfisher.]

[I'm fine without one, thanks. Got time for a kiss on my way out?]

[Yes.]

Kiss! "Have a good time. Don't touch her owl."

Amariah gives a little wave. Path flutters one wing, then tucks away in a whorl of golden sparkles. "Hi," Amariah says. "You must be Ripper. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too!" says Ripper. "So what are you borrowing me for? Pat says sex, I say you want me to write you an anthem." He grins. "Maybe it's both."

"I don't have a political entity that needs an anthem, though I'll keep you in mind for when I do, certainly. Or if, I suppose. In my absence my world seems to have slotted me into the role of 'inscrutable messiah' over that of 'incipient queen'."

"How's that going for you?"

"I have had a number of truly terrible movies made about me, there are several cults, someone tried to kidnap my daughter and kill my boyfriend and that probably wasn't unrelated to my relationship thereto, and I have a really dumb title, which people utter in moments of distress. I can't say I care for the setup, but I'll work with it."

"Whoa," says Ripper. "I'm sorry about your family - are they okay?"

"They're fine. Kas torched a couple of times and got cursed and my mother had to torch him again to undo it, Helen was freaked out but the kidnappers didn't hurt her, my clan queen got their clan queen to turn them over and now they're cooling their heels in my afterlife."

"Better than it could've gone, I guess."

"Yep. So rumor has it you're the same template as Giles and Merryweather and nobody noticed till Glass had a look at you. The resemblance is pretty subtle."

"I haven't met either of 'em, so I wouldn't know. It can wait until the party."

"Fair enough. We don't have a date set; some of us - mostly me - are dealing with lost time at home. I am taking a break, as you probably noticed."

"Taking a break, borrowing your alts' boyfriends..." He grins. "Or am I the only one?"

"I have borrowed other ones in the past. In a not-a-Joker mood today, though."

"Hm?"

"Sorry, probably none of my business, but - no, actually, I think it is my business, is your boyfriend okay with," he makes a gesture that encompasses the two of them, "this?"

"I didn't make a point of specifically asking him in this particular case, but he is in full generality okay with me borrowing anybody who makes themselves borrowable. Why?"

"I heard you guys were having a rough time and I don't want to be a part of making it any worse, that's all."

"We are, but you're not gonna make it worse," says Amariah. "Being borrowed is of course optional if you'd rather not for any reason, though."

He shrugs. "If you say it won't hurt anything, I believe you."

"Cool. 'Cause you look pretty borrowable." She starts untying knots on her person. This is a prerequisite for sex, but she occupies nudity and the transition thereto much more casually than the one of her alts Ripper is accustomed to.

He's quite nice to look at! Amariah looks at him. And proceeds with the borrowing.

He also hasn't lost the habit of rotating flavours. Today's is peach.

[Ooh, you are yummy.]

[I am! I do that.]

[You do. It is a nice idea. And a delicious one.] Nibble nibble nibble.

Ooh. Nibbles. Those are fun. This was a good idea.

Amariah has those! She is a clever person.

It transfers pretty fucking well. They're all built the same, even if the superficial details differ.

Oh. Awesome.

Amariah doesn't have that kind of advantage with Ripper, but she is prepared to try to compensate!

Her efforts are wholeheartedly appreciated.

She snuggles. For some reason she doesn't seem to relax into it as much as Pattern does - even as much as Pattern did early on - but she snuggles.

"...Are you uncomfortable or something?" he says after a few seconds of snuggling.

"Hmm? No, not at all, quite cozy, I'm just not - all here. You haven't got anybody for Path to snuggle up to, so he's away."

"Oh," he says. "Uh, okay."

"It's not a problem, or I wouldn't have borrowed you, just, Path is literally my soul, and he isn't being at all snuggled right now. The rest of me is doing fine. You've had daemons explained, right?"

"Sort of? Apparently I'd be a green kingfisher."

"Ooh. Yeah, I can see that," chuckles Amariah. "And if you had a kingfisher she - he? - would be sitting over there with Path and then I'd be one hundred percent snuggled instead of like eighty percent. That's all. If you had the kingfisher I'd insist, actually, I would really not like to be having sex with someone who had a daemon that didn't want to hang out with Path."

"I can... sort of see that?" he says. "But it's all abstract to me."

"Since you don't have one it's incidental. Like - hmm - if you were blind - or even if the lights just weren't working so we couldn't see each other, then it wouldn't mean anything that less seeing was going on. If you had one and she didn't want to sit with Path that would be the approximate equivalent of wanting me to wear a bag on my head, by comparison."

He snorts. "Got it."

"Cam doesn't have this thing with his Grace, if that was likely to come up. It doesn't make a difference to him. I don't think Shell Bell does either, but she's way less likely to hit on you than Cam is."

"Yeah, I've heard."

"And Minus may hit on you but last I knew of it he actively preferred to have Steph tucked away, and you'd know more about how Aianon and Ansharil have it worked out than I do at this point and my sweeties are probably more like them than not, same with Sue and Ivy."

"Aianon and Ansharil have it worked out interestingly," says Ripper.

"Yeah?"

"Eh. Should I gossip? How much gossip do you want? Pat rolls her eyes whenever I mention tentacles."

"I am less uptight than - Pat? That's cute - but I do not require R-rated tentacular detail."

"Well - Ansharil shapeshifts," he says. "He doesn't get in on things every time, but he likes to bring surprises when he does."

"Interesting. Petaal shapeshifts too, but nothing in her standard repertoire is tentacled."

"I guess Ansharil's more creative," he laughs. "Anyway, the tentacles are mostly Aianon's - he gets very creative with his custom plants."

"That's sort of disturbingly adorable."

"Right?" He laughs. "Aianon's great."

"I bet he and Sarion are having a much less complicated reunion than I did," says Amariah wryly.

"I bet they're having a lot of sex," says Ripper. "You all right?"

"I'm okay. Helen's actually really neat, which helps a lot, I'd be at my wit's end if it turned out I couldn't stand her. It's just tricky."

"I'd be in way over my head if I were you." He snuggles her some more.

Snuggles. "Hey, several thousand people think I'm a deity, I can't disappoint them by falling apart on account of unexpected offspring. Or, as Juliet was putting it when comparing my kid to her sister, 'spontaneous teenage relative'."

"Maybe I should write you a hymn," he jokes.

"Oh dear. It would have to be better than the samples Jane found for me from this one little church's online recording repository."

"I am pretty good."

"I have not actually heard the one you wrote for Pat."

"You should, it's awesome."

"You wanna sing it for me?"

"That is a pretty anthem. Maybe I will look you up for your songwriting services when I have anything to anthem. Unless there's one of you in Alethia, I guess." Pause. "I should, you know, actually check. For other templates too, I should do a full sweep, it's been a while and Kas wasn't really keeping an eye out."

"I think there's enough of me already," says Ripper. "...Although maybe I'd think differently if we found one who was my age."

Amariah laughs. "I can have Jane check right now," she suggests.

"Sure, why not."

[Hey Jane, you want to see if you can find a Rupert in Alethia?]

[Really?] says Ripper. [A young one or an old one? Or can't you tell?]

Well, Alethia does contain a punk rock band called Wretched, with a singer called Ripper. The cover of the first album is remarkably similar, even.

[Yep, here he is, here's his copy of Wretched, he is still going by 'Ripper' in band-related material, found his birth records and his driver's license though and it's a match. Twenty-one, pied kingfisher - would he not want me sharing her legal name either?]

Ripper winces. [Look, I know you can see anything anyone has ever put on a computer, but that doesn't mean you should. We ditch our names for a reason.]

[It's not that I can, it's that I do, I am those computers. It's significant attention that's optional - or being on them at all, like Syntropy. Don't send me to look at things you don't want me to pay attention to,] huffs Jane. [Okay, secret pied kingfisher legal name. He doesn't have it in his website bio as anything.]

[Yeah, I didn't know how you'd be checking. Won't be making that mistake again.]

[The checking for the existence of the template at all is just sending whitespace by text brainphone,] Jane says. [That part's very unintrusive.]

[Great. Thanks.]

[No problem. Should I say hi to him?]

"What do you think?"

"Maybe I should say hi to him," says Ripper.

"If you want to come to Alethia you need a star, unless you want a kingfisher so your kingfishers can chat. And people from Alethia will have reactions to you ranging from Kas's 'you are a different way to be people' to my initial 'this bar is full of ZOMBIES, AAAAAH', and I don't know where the local Ripper will fall on this continuum. But you are welcome if that's understood and you still want to."

"Well. Okay, maybe I shouldn't. But, hm - I feel like dropping in on him myself is the best way to get all the shocks over with as fast as possible without souring him on the whole idea of," he waves a hand vaguely, "things."

"You can, it's just more complicated with Alethia than it would be if we were talking about someplace more like, I don't know, Eos, Rainbow, whatever. Although - consider the fact that I'm a mythical figure, have been for longer than he's been alive, would that help or hurt if I just went up to him myself?"

"A little shy of a week is how long it took in the only case one's been allowed to wear off. Why?"

"Should be fine, then. I just thought, if he's got the name and he's got the band he's probably got the best friend too," he explains. "And I know Rayne'd be all over introducing two of me. But it might take us a while to get it all sorted out."

"Well, you are, as I said, quite welcome to visit the world."

"Right," he says. "Jane, mind popping me back home for a minute so I can tell Pat what's going on and pick up a star from the Jokers?"

"Hey you. Have a good time?"

"I really did." He kisses her. "And then Amariah found one of me in her world, so I'm gonna go say hi." [And I'm going to introduce myself to his Rayne first, because I bet that'll go much better, but going much better is probably going to mean having a lot of sex with both of 'em, and I figured you'd want to know.]

[Oh boy. Thanks for the warning. You want a star?]

[Was gonna get one from the source, but if you're offering, sure.] He kisses her again.

She passes one into his coinsorter. Kisses! [You make the wish before you go into Alethia,] she warns.

"Love you."

[You want Amariah's palace in the land of the dead, or her basement in the daemon-having subworld?]

[Daemon-having subworld, I guess, that'll be where I'm going anyway.]

Amariah's there already. "Hi. Am I joining you or are you going on your own?"

"...Ooh." He considers this. "You could join me, if you want, but you might not want. Rayne's trouble."

"What kind?" asks Path, out on her shoulder again, tilting his head. She's back in silks; he's got his talons around one of the twists of black.

"Complicated kinds."

"...Should I just ask Pat?"

"You can. I'm not sure what she'll tell you."

Amariah tilts her head, confers briefly with Pattern through Jane, and says, "I'll join you, if you don't mind, unless he's the going-to-tabloids sort? I don't mind minor rumor about the Second Coming of the Shade Dreamer, but firsthand reports to media outlets should wait."

"He won't go to the tabloids unless there's something in it for him, and I don't think there wil be."

"Okay then. Is this an uninvited teleportation situation or a brainphoning first situation or what? I will follow your lead."

Amariah follows. Aura billows out around her - the witchiness blurs her age; she could be twenty, ninety, eight hundred. And she's definitely magical enough to make a custom afterlife. If anyone who sees her in full aura has previously been taken in by an impostor, this will put a stop to that.

Amariah chuckles softly. Path turns his head around and around, taking in the room.

[Faking his death would have kind of different fallout here compared to Origin,] Amariah points out to Ripper, helping herself to the other chair.

Path looks impassively at her. His do-not-touch aura doesn't apply to the cat, but the fact that he's on Amariah's shoulder is probably sufficient deterrent.

The cat regards him steadily for a few more seconds, then turns and jumps to the arm of Ripper's chair and butts her head against his hand. He makes a startled sound, then pets her tentatively; she curls up in his lap and purrs.

Amariah watches this. Path watches Rayne himself.

Rayne is just coming out of the kitchen. He sits down in the chair his daemon just vacated and watches Path right back.

[So to what extent do you understand what just happened?] Amariah asks Ripper.

[Not very well.]

[His soul walked up to you and solicited petting. There are special cases - Jokers in particular are special cases - but the overwhelming majority of daemons literally never do that, and the ones that do save it for their very, very favorite people in the world. And he didn't ask and he did it in front of me, which suggests he's not just checking to see if it's okay - which it could have not been.]

[Yeah, I know all about Jokers being special cases. But... well, he's Rayne. It's not all that surprising when I think about it. Same reason I knew he wouldn't freak out too hard that I don't have a daemon. I'm not the me he knows, but I'm still me. Rayne lives a very me-focused life.]

[Okay.]

Path stares right back. Amariah, though, closes her eyes, and prompts Jane to deliver reading material by brainphone while they wait for the local Ripper.

"He's dating one of my friends," says Amariah.

Rayne glances at Ripper. Ripper smiles. Rayne raises his eyebrows. Ripper laughs. After a moment, so does Rayne.

[What just happened?]

[He wanted to know what this friend of yours thinks of the fact that I've slept with you. I told him she's fine with it.]

[Reminds me of watching Sherlocks have entire conversations with their posture,] snorts Amariah.

"We're telepathic," smirks Amariah.

Amariah snorts. [Do you think your alt would care if I looked in on him to see if he's almost here as reported?]

[Yes, definitely, don't.]

[All right.] She conjures her own cup of tea and sips it.

"Along for the ride. I can leave if I'll only be in the way."

"Really," he says. "It's a bit much for me to believe that you came back from the dead just to watch my best mate fuck himself."

"Wasn't planning to supervise that part. Also, wasn't dead."

"That's between you and them."

"Hello," says Amariah. Her aura's still floating around her, magicmagicwitchwitchmagicmagic.

"People from other worlds don't, usually," says Amariah. Even within the sheaf Alethia is unusual; she's read sensationalist media screaming about it from fifty years ago.

[Is this my cue to get out of here?]

[Yeah,] says the nonlocal Ripper, [unless you want to join in.]

[Will do,] laughs Ripper.

Amariah finds Kas. She flops on him. "There's a local alt of Pattern's boyfriend who's a younger and more interesting Rupert," she reports.

"Pattern's boyfriend is a younger and more interesting Rupert? I need to get out more," he says, snuggling her.

"Goes by Ripper, wrote her a pretty imperial anthem, rock star, tastes like peaches," says Amariah. "I borrowed him, then swept Alethia and found one here."

"Did you say hi?"

"Yeah, both Rippers and the local's best friend are presumably having sex now."

"That's cute. Maybe I'll say hi when they're done."

"Yeah, do. I'm not interested in the best friend, but the Rippers are cute."

"I love you too." Snuggle. "Ripper wanted to make sure you wouldn't mind, about the borrowing, I said you wouldn't - right?"

"Yeah, of course." Hugs.

"Thought so." Hug.

Snuggle hug.