Isbaella packs lunch and dinner, tells the person she recently promoted to manager that she'll be gone for no longer than a day and to continue business as usual and raise the price by five K if they get swamped, and then just because she feels like being cute she links elbows with Adarin.

"Is New Kystle not in a solar system, or does it somehow manage to be the same one?" wonders Isabella.

"Point. But within this plane, at least," he snickers.

"Yes. Yes we are. Well, I'll fall over if I try to walk around in this mess, you want to fly with me or split up a little and explore?"

"Flying, please. Splitting up makes me nervous and if there turns out to be invisible giant spiders I'd like to face the menace together."

"Hmm, yeah. If it holds up to investigations it's probably smart to use this planet. Even if we can't use the buildings, we can probably salvage them for materials to build our own."

"I can make it move, but warn me first if you're going to fly away," he replies softly. He continues telling reality that the shield exists. It exists, it exists, it exists. "It's harder to keep this up if we move. Maybe we can try diplomacy?"

"... Think I should drop the shield?" asks Adarin, in English.

"All right," he replies, giving the robot a look that says, 'I won't break you. This time.'

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she says. "Just scared. Geez, Path's probably freaking out at home and has no idea why..."

"I... Do not have a way to do that, I'm just being really paranoid. I can't think of a good reason that it would do that either, but I was not expecting them to come to life and ask us questions, so obviously I missed something."

"Well, the coming to life and asking questions I can explain, they were some alien faction's side during a war when all the aliens died and they have really good batteries. They ignore wildlife, I guess, but we don't look like wildlife, and they expect a decent chance we're invaders. And I guess the unpronounceable invader scum have a thing about not verbally denying their allegiance."

"Come back when you have a full tank of mana?" she asks. "In case you need the shield again. And - talk to the robots and see what they have to say when I'm not thirty percent adrenaline."

"Yeah. I can do another shield now if we need to, it's not expensive, it just keeps draining as I hold it. And of course, the more I use the shield, the longer we have to be here until I can teleport us home, or wait for Ana to do it."

"Exactly. They don't seem to be - like - trundling out here to surround us or anything, though."

Adarin nods. "Thankfully. Do you think if we went to another city, there would be another set asking us if we were part of the faction that decided to point weapons at us?"

"The robots might know," she points out. "...This probably isn't comforting but I'd be surprised if opposing factions used the same basic design of robot."

"Great. So if the rest of the world had robots, they will probably point weapons at us and make us pronounce incomprehensible things."

"If they do voice recognition at all. Maybe we can get some of these robots to work for us and send them as scouts into places that might be inhabited by other robots."

"... True. I think I'm still paranoid and on edge."

Isabella pets him.

He is pet. "I'm extremely glad you're safe," he murmurs.

"Me too. You were very quick with that shield," she says.

"Thanks. It wouldn't be much use if it took forever to get up, so... I worked on my reflexes for that one. A lot. You probably saw with the gummy worm training."

"I saw you hoarding them, what does that have to do with shields?"

Adarin laughs. "I was - I was practicing with them. What, did you think I was just - grabbing the gummy worms and running off for no reason? I had a stopwatch, if I could get the layout of a completely unique spell for a shield in under three seconds, with all of my parameters, I got a gummy worm."

"I had no idea what you were doing. That's adorable, why are you so adorable?"

"Thank you, I didn't realize I was adorable so I couldn't give you a reason why. You must have thought I was insane, with my stopwatch and my book of cheatsheats and a bag of gummy worms that I would eat at strange times."

"I wasn't about to judge, I have been known to have notebooks and do non-transparent things with them while eating candy!"

"Pfff... The stopwatch didn't seem strange at all? I don't know what else I would even use it for!"

"I didn't use a stopwatch, but I've been curious about how long it takes me to do certain mental tasks..."

"You time how long it takes you to do certain mental tasks?" asks Adarin curiously. "... That's adorable. Also useful, but really adorable. Technically I was doing exactly that, but for a very specific purpose of reflexes."

"So we are both adorable and now I know what you were doing with a stopwatch and gummy worms."

"Yup. Now you know what I do if I slink off somewhere quiet with a bag of candy. I'm practicing magic."

"You will not ever be making me cunning Valentine's Day crafts?"

"... I might now, but I will need you to explain to me what Valentine's Day is!"

"It is a holiday characterized primarily by a red, pink and white color scheme, heart- and lace-themed decorations, and couples being obnoxiously coupley. And chocolate, chocolate's a thing."

"'Obnoxiously coupley,' huh? That's a thing I can do. Bwuahahaha!"

Isabella cackles.

"Birthday first, though," he says, once the evil laughter of shared obnoxious couplehood is complete. "Right? Wait, when is it in the year, is it before or after your birthday? Because planned birthday presents aren't couple-based at all, just things I think you will like."

"...Valentine's Day is before my birthday in the calendar year but after it in terms of what things happen next. It's February 14."

"Aha. Thank you, my plans are safe. I don't have to scramble in order to get obnoxious couplehood prepared."

Isabella giggles.

"I can plan, months in advance. Bwuahahahaha. It will be glorious! I can check Wikipedia to get the traditions right!"

"Should I be afraid? Is it going to be like six florists nested in my house?"

"Possibly. I have plans, you see. Well, I mean - I will have plans. Eventually. In the future, at some point."

"You plan to have plans. Gotcha."

"Yup. That. That is what I have."

"I love you."

"I love you, too!"

"Good. That is the thing intended to be celebrated by Valentine's, you know."

"Good, good. Otherwise it would be terribly awkward. I'd go trying to be obnoxiously coupley, and you'd say, 'What, no, Adarin, I meant we should actually be obnoxious to each other.'"

"Wow, that sounds like a terrible holiday. If it existed I wonder what would purport to justify it?"

"Hmm. Probably made and kept active by those that are sick of anyone being obnoxiously coupley. So, they just want the couples to be just obnoxious, instead."

"But how would they get the couples to observe the holiday, is the real question."

"Bribery, I assume. Bribery and blackmail."

"Oooh, could we be obnoxious to each other and apologize later and collect valuable prizes?"

He laughs. "Hmm. Maybe, but do you know anyone that would give out prizes for that?"

"No, I do not. Alas."

"Ah, then I'm afraid we have no reason to. It will remain an option if the holiday is ever made."

"Yes, that's reasonable. I knew there was a reason you were a priest of the Church of Sense."

"You doubted me? Goodness, it's almost like you don't jump into making opinions without making sure you have all of the facts. Carry on, Inquisitor."

"I love you," she sighs happily. "Right, since we're probably too spooked to do much more exploring today, remind me how long until you can teleport us back? I don't think we're spooked enough to demand it of Zeviana."

"I love you, too. I think it should just be four or five hours, shorter if I nap, but eh - kind of makes me nervous to fall asleep here."

"I can stay up - do you wake up any faster in emergencies?"

"Somewhat, yeah. I mean I don't think any spells I do will be cutting edge or well-done immediately after waking up, but adrenaline is a powerful thing."

"Okay. Well, if you want, you can nap and I'll sit up and not go too far, but it's not essential."

"... I'd prefer to stay up. Not comfortable enough to fall asleep here, sorry. I am 'spooked' and they had weapons pointed at us."

"Okay." Pet pet.

Hug! "Is there anything we should do while we wait? I don't think I'm up for going to a city, but maybe there's some interesting wildlife around here."

"Sure, we can have a look at the less inhabited places - you're not worried about robots there?"

"I am worried about robots everywhere but I'm trying to do constructive things while we're here," clarifies Adarin.

"Okay. We'll fly slow - how much does scrying drain you, do you want to keep a lookout ahead?"

"It drains a bit, it would mean we're here longer regardless, I'm not sure how willing you are to do that?"

"I'm pretty calmed down and inclined to believe the robot about all units having been alerted that we aren't unpronounceable-scum. As long as we don't go too far from this city we're not at much risk of straying into unpronounceable-scum territory. And I packed both lunch and dinner."

"All right," he says carefully. "I'll avoid scrying if I can but use it if something seems suspicious. Should we -" (He winces.) "use the limited time we have here to investigate the cities? I am kind of uncomfortable with it, but we do need to be economic with mana."

"I want to go talk to at least one robot some eventually, and if you're up for it being today it can be today. It did stop aiming weapons at us after we repudiated those no-good unpronounceable scum invaders blah blah."

"Do you want another few minutes to calm down a little farther?" Isabella asks gently.

"That might help. I need to logic my emotions into submission."

"Okay." Snuggle.

Isabella gives him a kiss, and gets on the cloud-pine.

Kiss! Then, onto the cloud-pine. Snuggle. "I love you."

"And I doubt they have a version of Wikipedia," sights Adarin. "That's a bit annoying."

"Which direction is it? Please point," says Adarin.

The robot extends a pokey sharp thing and points it in a direction.

In English: "Well, that works. Do you want to ask it more questions, or should we try going there?"

"That helps, a bit. Do you want to be the senior equipment maintenance specialist, or should I declare it? We could maybe pull something where we both have authority, but I'm worried any leftovers of the other type of robot would figure it out and we'd have to blow them up rather than trying to recruit them, too."

"There's no guarantee that the invader scum left security holes so big you could drive a truck through them," Isabella points out.

"True. But I can dream," says Adarin wryly.

"Hm. Okay, that helps. Guess we can drive the metaphorical truck through the huge holes in security without much trouble, then. Do you want an army of robots, or do I get it?"

"And how many robots to each of those factions have, as of four hundred years ago?" asks Adarin. Hey, if they can both get an army of robots, even better. He might need them.

"My heart, it breaks," Adarin deadpans. "Oh well, I have at least three hundred years to figure out how to reverse engineer these robots to make more. I suppose I'll just have to make my own legion of robots. Bwuahahaha."

"If you really want to field-promote yourself instead of me I will let you."

"But what if I like that thing even more than a robot army, will you be able to handle the puppy eyes?"

"I will have to try," says Adarin gravely. "Or we could decide to switch. Either."

"UNITS ARE EQUIPPED WITH SUFFICIENT INFORMATION TO CANNIBALIZE DAMAGED OR SACRIFICIAL UNITS FOR PARTS - UNITS ARE INCAPABLE OF GENERATING NEW UNITS OR NEW PARTS FROM RAW MATERIALS"

"Are you capable of giving me information to cannibalize things for parts?"

"YES - THE INFORMATION CAN BE RENDERED VERBALLY"

Adarin grins. He tells Isabella, "I think I'm going to make that another side project of mine. 'How does the robot army work'?"

"Okay, but don't make too many of them disassemble themselves for you, please."

"Of course not. It would ruin your army. I want to understand how they work so I can make more."

"I love you."

He giggles. "I love you, too."

"You wanna go see about hacking into the command center or do you have more questions for Juniper?"

"No questions I can think of, let's go hack the command center!"

"All right then!" Isabella flies in the direction Juniper pointed. "If I got the math right, it's gonna be fiftyish miles - to the island, I guess we'll have to track down the command center from there."

"Yeah. We can probably ask other robots for directions to it. They don't seem particularly smart, though I should probably interrogate one on its intelligence. If they're sentient... Eeeeh."

"I'm not getting a sentience vibe, but it's probably worth asking, yeah."

"I'm not getting one either, but - paranoid. It continues to be a thing that I am."

"What if you ask one and it gives you a non-answer like, I dunno, 'this unit is not programmed to contemplate the philosophy of personhood'?"

"I'd feel obliged to treat them nicely, because if they're alive, in any form, I would not want to - casually tell one to disassemble itself for my curiosity. It would be killing it. So I should ask first, it should have occurred to me earlier..."

"They seem to have a shared consciousness, and they take each other apart routinely, it sounded like."

"That helps. I'll have to see, if it's a shared consciousness thing, then I guess morally I might be fine. I'll check, though."

"Yeah. We'll see if the ones around the command center remember the conversation with Juniper, that'll be a clue."

Adarin nods. "Thanks. Wow, I was not expecting to tackle the moral issues of robotics when I woke up this morning."

"Exciting surprises!"

"Very! So do you think the inevitable huge revolution from this will be filed under me travelling here to begin with and the revolution that came from that, or is it another category just because I didn't personally have anything to do with it?"

"What, you mean stolen tech from our noble robot-army-having predecessors and their wicked enemies? I think it's close enough in time to the other revolution that it'll be in the same history book chapter."

Adarin giggles. "Pfff. I wonder how they'll manage to write it. 'And then a guy from another plane showed up, teamed up with a gorgeous witch, they made lots of money and found some robots that they used to their advantage in miscellaneous ways.'"

"They'll probably be a touch more long-winded than that."

"Almost certainly, yes. But you understand my point, right?"

"'In the year 2007, several exciting discoveries all happened at once due to the activities of witch Isabella Amariah and her consort Adarin Evaniel Sorelas. Together, they brought portal magic to the world, revolutionzed robotics, and applied the proceeds from these activities towards dozens of others. In this chapter we will limit our focus to...' Like that."

He snorts with laughter. Adarin teases, "What, I don't get an entire footnote to myself? I'm reduced to consort? I was the one who made the portals!"

"I do consort with you a lot," she says merrily. "Do you want to take credit for the portals sooner rather than later?"

"I will take credit for the portals eventually," he says loftily. "When we have a proper stranglehold on the transportation economy."

"So between now and then somebody might write a textbook, in which case you probably don't even get a line item, I suppose, you'll be in my little biography insert."

"Awww. Such is the price for patience, I suppose. I only get a small note in a little biography insert. But eventually, my dear, I'll get a chapter to myself. Bwuahahaha."

"I will be very happy when you have a chapter. Then I can get proper credit for the things I actually did. Captain of industry! Co-founder of colony! Senior equipment maintenance specialist!"

Adarin takes a little while to be lost to giggles. He'll need a minute.

Isabella grins. She likes it when he laughs.

He manages to recover enough to breathe and says between giggles, "Yes, that's -" (Snicker.) "- definitely the main thing history will remember you for." (Giggle, giggle.) "Nevermind the possible immortality, or anything. Senior equipment maintenance specialist."

"It's a very important title! It's gonna get me a robot army!"

"True! But it still sounds... Quite absurd."

"I actually like it, what with the fact that it's a robot army. Equipment maintenance seems appropriate. But yes, eventually, one day, after 'senior equipment maintenance specialist' in my textbook it'll read 'developer of immortality'."

"Yeah. If all goes to plan we will be horrifically famous, you realize. For the rest of eternity."

"Yeah. Probably people will want to interview us on television and ghostwrite our autobiographies."

"I actually have no idea what I'd do with that. Maybe stammer out my personal history and flee. Or something."

"Well, I assume you can refuse to talk to ghostwriters, if you really prefer and I don't think anyone can compel you to appear on the Daily Show."

"True. So I would just be horribly embarrassed and flee."

"I can issue any public statements you want to make for you, if you like."

"Nah, I'll do them, it just weirds me out a little after reading history books when I was a kid and now realizing that there's probably an extremely large chance I might end up a bigger deal than people in those. Er. Not to sound arrogant."

"Arrogant is fine. We are standing on another planet that's full of alien robots, you have earned it."

"Pfff. That we are! I mean, I hope I've earned it, honestly most of it's just me lucking out and then not using my magic to conquer things and instead choosing to do other stuff with my free time. Like go to planets full of alien robots."

"Thank you for not conquering things with your magic. Gold star."

He snickers. "Thanks. I hope I get more of them. 'Did not use power to screw people over' 'Did not blow up a city'..."

"You could probably fill a book with those. 'Did not commit genocide', 'did not torment small animals', 'did not kidnap the children of political figures'..."

"I will keep it under my pillow and take it out every night and see all of the terrible things that I didn't do."

"In case you forget. Or need to cast a spell that refers to them all."

"Yes, it wouldn't do to forget a terrible thing that I didn't do. I might forget that it's terrible and then do it! And then I wouldn't have the gold star anymore."

"You would be downgraded to silver star. It would be so embarrassing."

"I'd take out my book of stars, open to that page, and bam. Silver star in an entire page of golds. Like a scar upon my perfect record."

"And then you would have to invent time travel! Just to fix it and undo your horrible thing."

"Yup. My book of golden stars must be exactly what it sounds like. No silver stars allowed, I am picky."

"Now, wait, before you go composing yourself a star book, are you sure you have not done any horrible things ever?"

"I might be cross with you if you have, be warned."

"I would expect nothing less. Oh, oh! Did I tell you about the time that I walked past a kitten in a tree... And didn't help it?"

"Oh! Adarin! How could you!" exclaims Isabella in mock horror. "That poor kitten. How it must have cried itself to sleep, still in the tree, wondering what could possibly be wrong with it that you wouldn't help it down! How it could have disappointed you and whether it would ever get another chance!"

"I know," says Adarin solemnly. "I am a terrible monster. I don't deserve the book of gold stars, I left that poor kitten to fend for itself. Please, Isabella - forgive me."

"It's not my forgiveness you need. It's that kitten's. You'll have to track it down, hat in hand, and offer it amends."

"Of course. It deserves nothing less - it may even be an adult, now, weary and cynical because of its misfortune in early life. Because of me, Isabella."

"Adarin, I just realized - cats don't live that long - how long ago did you commit this atrocity?"

"Oh heavens. Oh heavens above and planes eternal, time is of the essence, it was years ago, my hidden, secret shame - Isabella, Isabella if I'm too late you need to make something to bring back the dead. I can't live like this, I'm a monster. I have to make it up to that cat."

This is too much for Isabella. She bursts into peals of giggles.

Adarin joins her, laughing uncontrollably. "It's - so terrible, if cats find out they will protest."

"You will be known to cats everywhere as -" (cackle) "Adarin the Unhelpful."

"It will -" (Giggle, snicker.) "go down in the history books as my title. My eternal shame, cats will never -" (Snicker.) "never be able to respect anyone that even looks like me, they'll be so disgusted."

"Wherever you go cats will hiss at you. They will privately approve of the handful brave enough to offer violence! And none of it can ever accumulate to the point of making up for what you did, you cat-nonhelping evildoer."

Mad cackling as they pull into view of the lovely island of NNSARXPHAGLURVVRTW.

It takes him a while, but eventually he recovers, still giggling a little. "Oh look, here we are. To the island of unpronounceable."

"Everything in this language is unpronounceable, some of it more than other things... lemme know if you spot one of Juniper's friends, 'kay?"

"Well it's a non-mana based project, at least. So I'll have something to do while I wait for my metaphorical batteries to recharge between feats of fantastic magical prowess. Also, I think I see a robot." He points to it.

Adarin snickers. "I vote that it becomes a naming scheme that we name them all after plants. Pretty plants."

"That's the plan! Plant robot army. Next one I have reason to name gets 'Wisteria'." She flies after Rosie. Rosie is not all that fast.

"I love you," he laughs.

"I can probably manage! But you get to go first, I am the walking battery. Slowly charging myself up," he says dryly.

"REPHRASE INQUIRY FOR LANGUAGE PROCESSOR" suggests Wisteria.

"Do you have intelligence or conscious thoughts?"

"UNITS ARE PROGRAMMED TO RESPOND DYNAMICALLY TO NOVEL INPUT FOR CORRECT DECISION-MAKING ON BEHALF OF NOBLE NNSARXPH"

Head-tilt. Okay, that's... Kinda intelligence? Sort of? "Do you have opinions on things? If something broke you, would you feel anything about it?"

"UNITS ARE PROGRAMMED TO SELF-SACRIFICE FOR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES OR TO ENABLE THE FIELD MAINTENANCE OF OTHER UNITS - UNDER OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES PRESERVATION OF UNITS IS WORTHWHILE"

"IN THE ABSENCE OF MISSIONS UNITS REMAIN AT THEIR MOST RECENTLY ORDERED POSTS EXCEPT WHEN RENDEZVOUS FOR CANNIBALIZATION IS NECESSARY OR TO REPLACE A UNIT AT A MORE HIGHLY PRIORITIZED LOCATION WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED" says Wisteria.

"That's really not helpful," mutters Adarin in English. Then, back to addressing Wisteria. "Is there anything you would like to do as a unit? A goal to accomplish?"

"THE PROGRAMMING DIRECTIVES ISSUED FROM THE COMMAND CENTER AUTHORIZED BY THE HIGHEST RANKING MEMBER OF THE MILITARY OF THE NOBLE NNSARXPH WILL BE OBEYED"

"Yes, but what if - what if it gave an order that doesn't make sense to your current programming?"

"THE PURPOSE OF REVISED ORDERS IS TO SUPERSEDE PRIOR ORDERS" says Wisteria.

Adarin sighs. "If one robot were destroyed - is anything lost? Aside from the unit itself, anything like programs, memories - anything?"

"DATA WHICH WAS NOT YET BROUGHT INTO THE NETWORK DUE TO DELAYED CONNECTIVITY OR LOSS OF COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT MAY BE LOST"

"Right," he says in English. "Okay, so - I have no moral problems with you taking over the robots, they don't seem to have intelligence or self-awareness, but um... Please treat them nicely?"

Adarin smiles a little. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. So time for my promotion?"

"Yup! Have fun with your lovely robot army, I'll keep poking them for sentience but I highly doubt it at this point."

Adarin follows! "Hopefully they don't look at me and say, 'No, you're not allowed in, you're not the Senior Equipment Maintenance Specialist.'"

"Awww. Thanks, love."

Adarin helps with investigations, as well as he can. "Should I start scrying things, or should I hold off on that?"

"I'm not doing anything major yet, just getting a feel for the system - how's your battery?"

"Better, but not up for teleporting us home, definitely."

"Yeah, I don't think you need to scry this. Lots of interesting files to read."

"Alright," agrees Adarin. He shall help with file reading - this is interesting and he is curious!

The files are interesting, but mostly because they belong to long-dead aliens; the human equivalents would be dryly written war intel with a lot of mentions of 'the disease'.

"I'm suddenly extremely glad I'm paranoid and I checked with magic to see if there were horrific diseases that could kill us before we came here," says Adarin when he notices this.

"Yeah. I guess this one was really, really thorough. The noble Nnsarxeph thought it was the invader scum," she adds, pointing at one of the (diagonally written) lines of text. "Engineering it on purpose. I guess if it was it got out of hand."

"... Wonderful. That's completely terrifying."

"Yeah, remember when I was explaining germs, I mentioned bioweapons? This is the horror story, this entire planet is the horror story."

"Completely terrifying. Not to mention short sighted, but -" He shudders. "Ugh. Germ theory is great and horrifying."

"Some computer stuff operates in hexadecimal! The base ten is reportedly because of the fingers." She waggles hers at him.

He snickers. "Ah, yes. The noble art of counting on our fingers."

"Very noble, very ancient, predates the abacus," giggles Isabella. She goes back to browsing the captioned images.

"There is a pun I could make here but I shall spare you," he says loftily. He browses, too, but focuses more on the dry literature.

"But now I want to know what it was."

"Pffft. And to think not long ago you'd never even heard of English."

He giggles. "I try to be a quick study with things! Also, translation spell. If for some reason I removed it I think I'd be okay and mess up several words, but I able to get by."

"Are you saying you deliberately designed your translation spell to allow puns? Why would you do such a thing?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Hmmm... Maybe? I think I'd need to learn some kind of programming language first, but uh - possibly? There's absolutely no precedent for it, but I can always give it a shot."

"Okay, I think I want to know more about what I'm looking at before I touch any of this. Besides, the robots seem pretty keen to do what I want just on the grounds of my being the senior equipment maintenance specialist."

"Yes, but we have to use the unpronounceable language of abused vocal chords to tell them things. If that's fixable it would make me happy."

"That's true. Although I don't want to manually input an English dictionary in here, either."

"Fair point. That would be annoying and tedious, English has lots of words."

"... I love you. You're amazing," says Adarin. "Did I say that? I think I said that. My throat is saved."

"I love you too."

Adarin smiles at her affectionately, then goes back to reading things. It's kind of dry, but he can deal with it.

"Mmm, lemme finish this one paragraph-equivalent... okay, done, let's leave a portal marker and get out of here."

"Yup! Any place you want it to go, or should I just pick an openish area with a big wall?"

"This room's good - that wall?"

"Sure," he says. Then he walks over to the wall in question, and pokes it. "Boop! Okay, done."

"Boop!" giggles Isabella. She collects her cloud-pine, makes sure all her stuff is tied to it, and tucks herself under Adarin's chin for the largely imaginary improvement it might confer on his teleportation of her.

"Robot army! Hurray! Dead civilization to study! Kind of tragic but hurray!"

"Yeah. I mean, maybe we can save some of their culture and put it in the history books or something, but it's still rather sad. On a completely separate note, may I borrow your pocket library so I can call my sister?"

"Sure, but your sister doesn't have a phone so you're betting on her being nearish Ranata." Isabella hands over the pocket library.

"Hello?"

"Hello! Sorry to bother you, Ranata, but could you let my sister know we made it home all right? I don't want her to worry."

"She's with Luzia, so I'm not necessarily sure she'd welcome an interruption."

"I'll tell her you called!"

"Thank you very much. Have a lovely day!"

"You too!"

He hangs up, then returns the phone to Isabella. He continues to blush. "Sooo. Programming?"

"Wanna walk to New York and find a library where you can start your read-up on Wikipedia? You can look up feminism while you're there. And while we are walking you can tell me why you're bright red."

He laughs, looking flustered. "Uh, sure. It's nothing, Ana was just um - occupied. She is apparently getting along well with being part of your clan."

To the portal they stroll. "Occupied, huh. Mom introduced her to someone?"

"I think that's what happened! Or she met her on her own. Either way, hopefully she's happy."

"That's cute."

"Very. Just kind of - awkward to hear about my sister probably getting er - I have no idea how to word it politely. Help?"

"I dunno, is she the 'girlfriend' type or the 'friends with benefits' type or what?"

"Er. Yes? I think she tends to go with it being about as casual as her partner wants it to be, and she's not personally very clingy. So probably leaning towards the latter. Though she's had several of the former and I'm not ruling that out, either."

"Slightly fewer polite words if it's casual. Mostly people talk around it or aren't firetruck red when they say it directly."

"I am not firetruck red," he defends. He's really more of a bright crimson.

"We can compare you to Pantone samples while we're in New York too if you like."

"I have no idea what that is but I can tell from context that you're teasing me."

"Me? Tease you?"

"Completely out of character! I am very serious."

"Oh, definitely. Why, you're also very somber."

"I'm no fun at all, it's a wonder you can tolerate my company."

"Ravishing good looks and the cloud-pine. It's very convenient."

"Aww, I'm hurt. In an entirely somber serious no-fun non-teasing way, Adarin, I am hurt that you are using me for my cloud-pine and my stunning beauty."

"Yes. I do that because I am as shallow as a puddle. Your pain means nothing to me, because you see...." He leans in close. "I have a silver star in my gold star book."

"You monster! You fiend! Villain!"

He cackles. "I am all of those things! Bwuahahahaha!"

"Will anyone save me from your wicked clutches?" she asks as they enter the parking garage.

"Probably not, no. You see, I'm fiendishly evil. So obviously no one will show up to stop me, ever. You're just doomed."

"What, no heroes? Knights in shining armor? Superman?"

"Nope. None of those. Sorry. They're on a lunch break."

"Well damn. I guess I'm pretty stuck, then."

"Yeah, you are. Be strong, Isabella. Soon my world take-over will be complete and I'll invade the sun. It'll make a lovely vacation spot."