the history channel

[her_imperial_radiance]

It's something of a truism that "it's not like the Empress is going to make a speech or anything" when the Masquerade folds up. Regardless, there comes a time when the incessant requests to be allowed to make a documentary about the Golden Coven are met not with "absolutely not", but instead, "let's talk".

Elspeth does a fair amount of the negotiating for this - she does run PR. Harley, presently thirteen, is allowed to sit in on a few of the storyboarding discussions - the documentary will not be fictionalized, but they still have concern for narrative flow. It's going to be very long, after all.

Significant portions of the documentary will be conjured recordings of events, from outside or even first-person perspectives, but an entire segment is devoted to personally profiling members and peripheral associates of the Golden Coven, one by one. Harley's not on the list - it's mostly a history documentary, with younger generations present almost entirely for 'where are they now' color, and he's not, technically, her son - but Elspeth and most of her family is. And Harley is permitted to lurk around the studio setup while various people prep with their interviewers, or eavesdrop, or - if they are sufficiently non-vampiric to allow makeup to stick - get that applied. It's a big production; the supernatural community would have found it just as convenient to spread it out, but the film people want everything taken down, edited for a consistent look-and-feel, and released according to schedule within a certain time frame.

So there are a lot of people around. Mostly vampires, but plenty of hybrids - there are most of Emmett and Rosalie's kids, over there, with the proud parents themselves - and wolves; Jacob is over with Elspeth - and even a few humans, ranging from imprints to Lizzie who's with Carlisle, Esme, and Lily, and also Alice and Jasper and their son Brandon. People not normally seen around the Golden Capitols have been hauled in. There's Marcus, no longer as craquelure thanks to magic, and Didyme at his elbow, literally radiating happiness. (Bella rendered her power opt-in along with several other mind-affecting abilities that can't be turned off, but it's very inviting, so people usually do so opt.)

And of course Bella and Edward themselves are present, flitting around, mingling. Their interviews aren't until later.

Kerron waves to Harley when he shows up.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Ah-huh. I'm saving up for my own restaurant; I'm going to call it Piecemeal."

[pythbox]

"That's cute," says Harley.

[alicornucopia]

"It wasn't actually my idea, it was Cara's, but she said I could use it."

[pythbox]

Harley shrugs.

[alicornucopia]

"I'm calling it that because it's going to be about deconstructed food," says Lily. "I've been really into it lately, taking standard dishes apart to see what makes them work."

[pythbox]

"How does that work?"

[alicornucopia]

"People have got taste-memory; if you eat something it's still vivid for a little while after. If you separate something into all its parts, and then have them in sequence instead of all muddled together, they're all sharper, and you can do the blending in your head, and even if you don't want to eat that way all the time it'll make it easier to pick out the flavors next time you eat the regular thing. I don't just take apart ordinary food, though, I've been trying some experiments, I came up with a soup I really like."

[pythbox]

"How do you do taken-apart soup, though, isn't that like the opposite of the point of soup?" he wonders.

[alicornucopia]

"Well, obviously it's not soup anymore once you've done it," says Lily, "but it can have its basis in soup - if I deconstruct clam chowder, you wind up with potatoes and clams and celery and so on on a plate, arranged nicely, spiced correctly, and I turn the broth into a reduced cream sauce, but it's still clam chowder even though it isn't clam chowder, you know what I mean?"

[pythbox]

"N...o," says Harley, "well - yes, but it's still not soup, it's like - unsoup. You've taken all the stuff that goes into a soup and made it into something that is definitely not soup."

[alicornucopia]

"Right," says Lily, "but the kind of soup that it isn't, is clam chowder, you'd never mistake it for a lasagna."

[pythbox]

"The kind of soup that it isn't," giggles Harley.

[alicornucopia]

"You know what I mean!"

[pythbox]

"Well, yeah," he says, "that's why it's funny, it wouldn't be as funny if it didn't make any sense."

[alicornucopia]

"I actually really liked the deconstructed trifle," says Brandon.

"I like deconstructing foods that are normally conceived as inherently layered. Arranging them horizontally instead of vertically," says Lily happily.

"I mean, it was some cake, and some custard, and some fruit," Brandon says.

"Yes, that's what trifle is."

"But then there was also this side dish of excessive philosophizing that I thought had a weird aftertaste -"

"You don't have to eat my food if you don't like it!"

[pythbox]

Harley giggles again.

[alicornucopia]

"What, would you like if it people took something you made and didn't care about it at all and didn't want to talk to you?" Lily demands of Harley.

[pythbox]

"Um, no?" he says. "But that doesn't make it not funny. I mean, I also think it's funny when I fall out of a tree and break my arm."

[alicornucopia]

"What's funny about that?" asks Brandon.

[pythbox]

"I dunno, it just is," says Harley. "What's not funny about it?"

[alicornucopia]

"No joke setup, no clever wordplay, no comedic timing, I'm not really seeing elements of humor in falling out of a tree and breaking your arm unless you, like, fled into the tree to escape vengeful mobsters who wanted to break your arm and you have irony to lean on," Brandon says.

[pythbox]

"And yet, I did it, and I was giggling for like ten minutes," says Harley.

[alicornucopia]

"High on endorphins," suggests Alice chirpily.

[pythbox]

"And it was funny," says Harley.

[alicornucopia]

"You have some crossed wires," snorts Brandon. "I guess we knew that."

"Your reputation precedes you," whispers Lily loudly.