Milliways Again

[her_imperial_radiance]

It lurks. Oh how it lurks.

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[her_imperial_radiance]

"Martians?" he laughs.

[prima_sequentem]

"My world's Bella founded her empire on Mars," Libby says serenely. "It's very pretty there. I'll show you sometime."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"O-okay," he laughs. "Wow. And Martians are immortal?"

[prima_sequentem]

"There weren't pre-existing Martians, but she plans on eliminating death eventually and she's starting with her subjects. Who are all emigrating from Earth. Including us, eventually, but I have too many responsibilities to abandon my planet just yet, no matter how enticing the alternative."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Oh. Okay then. Wow. Her Majesty's working on death too but her plan doesn't involve Mars anytime soon." He grins a goofy grin. "Heh, I'm gonna live on Mars in the past."

[prima_sequentem]

"By the time we live on Mars, it might not be the past anymore," she says merrily.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Oh. Okay. I'm still gonna live in the past."

[prima_sequentem]

"Barring catastrophe, yes," she says. "This alternate universes thing does have its upsides."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Have you been to lots of them?" he asks. "I've been all around the world but I've never seen the inside of Milliways. Everything I know about it is secondhand from Jake."

[prima_sequentem]

"I haven't gone visiting like this before, but I've had some bizarre encounters there. The most bizarre was definitely the time I met Elspeth, though."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Just because her mom is a duplicate of your Empress of Mars?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Empress of the Stars," she corrects absently. "Mars is just the first stop. No, in fact, there was some coincidental timing too. Milliways likes its coincidental timing. See, when the door caught me, I was in the middle of having coffee with my Bella for the first time, and she wasn't empress of anything yet, but I was trying to find out what she wanted and I'd joked about giving her the planet for Christmas. And then I met Elspeth, whose mother actually does rule the world, and I chatted with her for a while until I felt like I had enough of a handle on the inner workings of Bellas in general to be confident that mine really did want the planet for Christmas and would be likely to take extremely good care of it."

She grins reminiscently.

"At which point I told Elspeth that she had been unknowingly interviewing for world dictator on my Bella's behalf, and had passed. Oh, and then we found out Elspeth's dad's mom was probably an alternate of me. Which is why you may occasionally hear Elspeth call me Grandma."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"You don't look like Esme," says Orfeo quizzically.

[prima_sequentem]

"Biological," she explains. "Her name—well, her maiden name—was Elizabeth Kirsch, same as me. And she looked reasonably like me and acted reasonably like me, as far as I can tell."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Oh. Interesting. But you don't actually have a little His Majesty running around at home, do you?"

[prima_sequentem]

"No," she confirms. "No kids. I am toying with the notion of naming a hypothetical eventual son after him, but he probably wouldn't like the idea, so maybe I won't."

[her_imperial_radiance]

Orfeo laughs. "I don't think he would, no. A few supernaturals have named kids Isabella - I think there are three, now, a puppy and an adopted human and a quarter-vampire - but no one has tried naming anyone after Edward."

[prima_sequentem]

"What would you name your kids, if you had any?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Haven't really thought about it," he said. "Would be up to my - well - heh. I didn't exactly forget you were my imprint when I started that sentence, but I have a script for this kind of question, you know? And wolf guys are pretty much not supposed to date apart from imprints. Too much potential for predictable heartbreak and drama. So I've always figured if I ever had kids at all..." He shrugs. "Then by that point I would be pretty thoroughly bossable on that or any other question."

[prima_sequentem]

"I don't intend to be particularly bossy," says Libby. "I never exactly said why I run a massive international organization, did I?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I don't think you did," he agrees.

[prima_sequentem]

"Well, there are a lot of reasons, but the most relevant one is this: I like to find where people fit, and put them there. Not just in terms of location, but in terms of what they're doing, who they know, the whole situation of their life. Which is also why I am doing all the recruiting for Bella's new government. I'm your imprint; where you fit, the place you'll be happiest and most productive, is with me. But there's a lot of leeway for fine details once that's settled. And even though I bet you'd be satisfied with pretty much anywhere I decided to put you as long as it was nearby and doing me some good, I don't just want you to be satisfied because it's what your imprint wants. I want to find where you fit, as yourself; the best place you can be, given the obvious constraints."

She smiles slightly.

"Does that make sense?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Maybe?" he hazards.

[prima_sequentem]

"Can you tell me what parts don't make sense, so I can try again?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I don't mean partly, I mean maybe," he says. "I have a working mental picture, I just don't know if it's sensible or not."