aurum tourism

[temporal_affairs]

There is a Janepoint in each of the capitals, including this one in Forks. It has its own building, and in it two vampires are waiting - Nathan, because his mate is incoming, and Alice, because she's supposed to check if the guests are going to need to avoid meeting anybody for matey reasons (Jellybean, and Cam, are both coming and both in potential danger of being mated to).

But she can't see anything till they show up.

Cam arrives first, despite having been a later addition to the expedition - no one was distracting him with last-minute goodbye makeouts - and she clears him and he waits around for Jellybean.

Comments

[lifes_sake]

[So I guess that's a no?] Cam asks weakly.

[pythbox]

[No,] says Jellybean, [it's a bunch of feelings I don't wanna have in front of a telepath, I'm sorry about her daughter, I get it about her daughter, I'm kind of mad that she was talking like she expected that to be incomprehensible to me.]

[lifes_sake]

[Yeah, I get it about Edward, I would've left long ago if he could read me but he can't. You could ward up against that too. Unless you want me to read your mind. And even then the standard option comes with a workaround for wards.]

[pythbox]

[I wouldn't mind it from you,] he says fondly. [You I like. Edward I don't know from a hole in the ground.]

[lifes_sake]

[As far as I can tell, he's Golden's extremely beloved radio.]

[pythbox]

Jellybean laughs.

[lifes_sake]

[But like, absurdly beloved, she lets him read her mind sometimes and that's a really big deal for Bells. So there's that.]

[pythbox]

[Does anybody seem to care that I fucked off?] he asks idly.

[lifes_sake]

[No, not really. All the Bells seem to have a sort of polite incomprehension about what any of us see in templates that don't match our own significant others, except maybe Amariah, so she's probably just filing this under "apparently that's something that Bells with Jokers get used to". If Edward has any reaction to anything that isn't whispering in Golden's ear I haven't seen it.]

[pythbox]

[Should I bother talking to her about why I left, or does she probably not care about that either?]

[lifes_sake]

[She hasn't asked me to explain it, so either she thinks it was reasonless and there is no answer to the question, or she doesn't care. I'm sorta curious about how you'd put it.]

[pythbox]

Jellybean is quiet for a few seconds.

Then he says, [...I kind of feel like I've been set up here? I mean. Nobody warned me ahead of time that I'm not supposed to give magic to Addy. I figured it out on my own 'cause she talks like she's on a leash and she's pretty overtly creepy, but if she'd acted like it'd be fine for me to give her the Speech, I would've had no reason not to think so. And I might've just done it. And it makes me fucking itch to have Golden come along after the fact and say 'by the way, if you'd done this thing I never asked you not to do, I would've been mad', especially because when she finally got around to coughing up a reason it was a really good reason and the way she said it made it seem like she expected me not to care. Maybe I'm wrong about that part, I dunno. But the whole thing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.]

[lifes_sake]

[There's getting to be a whole lot of stuff to know when people get pealed,] Cam observes. [She might've figured someone else told you. And figured that Edward would notice if it turned out someone hadn't and you were going to Speechify Addy and she'd be able to interrupt. She wasn't trying to set you up, though. More likely she expected Sue linked you and gave you the complete rundown of everything at some point. At the first Bell party Addy had to go around wearing a sign after the other Matilda touched her - it didn't work but it was close - so it's something Sue would know.]

Pause.

[But she might also have thought that you wouldn't care, because she doesn't know you individually, just the template, and not too closely, and Jokes doesn't seem to lose any sleep over having personally done a lot of screwed-up crap, and she can work with him but she can also work with Addy, so.]

[pythbox]

He sighs.

[And 'have words with you' is something my parents used to say. I'm trying not to get too fucked up over that, but... I'm getting pretty fucked up over that.]

[lifes_sake]

[That, she definitely didn't know. You want me to tell her? Or just end the conversation and come hug you?]

[pythbox]

[You can tell her if you want,] he says. [And you should definitely come hug me.]

He establishes gravity, atmosphere, and a big pile of cuddly blankets.

[lifes_sake]

A few seconds later Cam joins him and pulls him into a hug. "She's going to have Elspeth coordinate with everybody to write 'before you visit this world, here's what you should know' pamphlets, Aurum first, Alethia next because of the spontaneous daemon thing, and so on. And she's not going to let Addy leave Aurum without an escort anymore."

[pythbox]

Jellybean snuggles up.

"I love you," he says contentedly.

[lifes_sake]

Cam kisses his cheek.

[pythbox]

He closes his eyes and smiles, nestling closer.