[And I'm sure you now know each other very well. Has he been disclosed of things?]

[Some of 'em. And Rayne picked him a nickname - you can call him Keth if having two Rippers around is too much for you.]

[Sure. Where'd that come from?]

[They didn't say. So I'm betting it has something to do with Hecate.]

[That's his daemon?]

[Yeah. Keth's. Rayne's won't admit to a name.]

[Huh. Do you want me to help disclosing any things?]

[None that I can think of. Do you want to have sex with me and Keth?]

[Sounds like a good time. Rayne out of the picture, yeah? Pat told me to avoid being in any situation where it mattered to me what he did.]

[Pat's smart. Yeah, Rayne fucked off a while ago, it's just us now. Oh, I minted Keth and gave him some goodies, by the way.]

[Fine by me but I wish you'd asked. Gimme a minute to wrap up this other conversation and I will appear.]

[Sure.]

"Sorry about that," says Isabella, fixing the cup of tea for him with a triangle, "thought he would have warned you I said I was going to appear."

"Oh. Okay, noted," laughs Amariah. "Well, hi. I'm Isabella, apparently at this point you're more likely to have heard of me under the title 'Shade-Dreamer', and every single one of the movies is drastically wrong."

"Yeah," says Keth, "so I've heard. So what is the story?"

"You know those little magic coins you can make now? They come in many sizes. I used some really really pointy ones. After conquering some angels, making sure God wasn't going to be a problem, and getting the harpies to cooperate."

"Right," says Keth. "Conquering angels. All in a day's work."

"I had help."

"Aianon is totally real," agrees Amariah. "And my boyfriend, and one of my alts - there was another one along but she went home early - and a few other people who weren't with me through the whole business."

"Your boyfriend's another Joker, right?" says Keth.

"Yes."

Keth grins at Ripper. Ripper grins back.

"He mentioned maybe looking you two up, actually, when I mentioned you to him."

"Ooh," says Ripper, grinning some more.

Amariah laughs and addresses Keth. "So you're up to speed, sounds like, and you're invited to the Bellparty, which I'm thinking of offering to host, except in my afterlife palace so not everyone has to burn coins avoiding daemon acquisition."

Hecate rustles her wings. "'Avoiding daemon acquisition'," says Keth, "there's a phrase you don't expect to hear often. You have an afterlife palace?"

Hecate is perched in her customary place on top of a somewhat battered clock. She takes wing and heads for the bedroom; Keth puts down his tea and follows.

Rippers are nice. The one she has already sampled has changed flavours by now - he's dark chocolate, and Keth is caramel.

"Oh, I thought the peach was a stable thing, silly of me."

Nibble nibble nibble.

Ooh, nibbles. Would she like some of those back?

Why yes, she is somewhat undersupplied!

Lucky for her, she gets a two-for-one deal!

That is very lucky indeed. Keth may not have his alt's years of experience with operating a Bell, but that does not make him significantly less enjoyable.

And it's possible that Ripper may be giving him a few helpful pointers.

Isabella does not object in the slightest.

Good! That is good. That is a good thing.

Ripper notices and appreciates this! Keth doesn't even think of it.

It is probably most obvious during the afterglowy snuggles.

They are some good afterglowy snuggles. Rippers are a cuddly bunch.

Yay!

Snugglyay.

"It really was," says Ripper, snuggling up to Keth. "Mmm."

"I'll see you both at the party if not sooner, yeah?" laughs Isabella.

"Yeah!" says Keth.

"Awesome." She blows them a kiss - Path waves a wing at Hecate - and then she's gone.

He lands right in front of Pattern, who is inspecting some of Saturn's bubbles but currently unaccompanied.

"Hi," says Ripper. He kisses her. "I've just had a lot of sex, want to go have some more?"

She laughs. "Is that all you were doing? You were gone a long time, I figured Amariah decided to take you on a tour of half her worldsheaf or something. But regardless, yes, absolutely." Sometime during this utterance they cease to be on Saturn and begin to be in her bed in her tower.

Kiss! "Very eventful."

"Yeah. Like I said. A lot of sex. And a few cups of tea in between."

"I love you too."

Snugglesnugglekiss.

Kisskisssquirm.

Ooh a squirm! Bella has the cutest squirms. They must be vigorously snuggled.

That is one of several things you can do with a Bella-squirm, certainly.

That's true. There are more.

He should go through all of them in some kind of sensible order!

Yes. He will do that thing.

Oh good! She is so pleased. More squirms are generated.

Perfect.