Yue

 4th February

22:46 GMT

Jade raises her steaming cup of.. some sort of red coloured sap distillate, and regards it contemplatively. "I think this is the strangest thing about living here."

I reach across her apartment's small table, take hold of her left hand and raise it to my lips. "The endless tracts of space separating you from your one true love?"

She regards me with a look of affectionate contempt. "No. The food."

I take a small sip from my own cup. "Doesn't taste that strange to me. I expected it to be sweeter, but that's probably because-."

She nods. "Because you're thinking 'maple'. And rubber would be thicker. Whereas this tastes like tea."

"Only tea doesn't come in this colour."

"Or this texture." She takes a sip, and I watch her throat as she swallows. "I traveled all over Earth when I was a Shadow. I could fit in on every continent. But I haven't tried more than a tiny fraction of all the different food in this city alone."

I turn, looking out of her window towards the… Well, the apartment block opposite. Maltusian cities are built very high rise, and at the edge of the city the cut off is so severe that it looks a little like someone cut along the streets around the central business district of a much larger city and plonked it down. Every apartment has access to holographic displays if the residents want a view, but you don't get much in terms of a 'real' view.

"We could live here indefinitely and not manage that."

"Oh?" She raises her right eyebrow and takes another sip. "Planning on moving in?"

"Pushing the Reach back will take a while. You might decide that you want to live here, rather than back on Earth."

"It's.. possible." She looks thoughtful. "But I don't think I will. It's too… Artificial. Too planned. It almost doesn't feel real."

"There are-."

The door opens, and Jade's flatmate walks in. I've seen her in the background during Jade's calls before, but this is the first time we've met in person. Green skin, black hair, face is.. slightly oriental in its configuration. From Tillettit, though since both her eyes are organic I'm going to assume that she's from one of the other continents.

"Oh." She takes in Jade's pyjamas and relaxed demeanour, looks me over, gives me a friendly smile… And then blinks as she spots the rings. "Oh."

"Good morning, or… Whatever time zone you're working on."

"You're-. The Illustres."

I turn back to Jade. "Jade, did you just not mention me at all? Are you too ashamed to talk about me to your friends?"

"No, I mentioned you."

"She did. I just.. wasn't sure that I believed her. You're-. Could you just make a construct or something, because I'm having a hard time-."

I raise my left hand and generate a construct globe of Tillettit.

"I'm really sorry. Um, My Lord Illustres. I am Darkstar Cadet Caccanah."

I dismiss the globe. "I asked Lantern Coutara not to call me that. Please, 'Illustres' if you must, but my name is fine. I'm not in your chain of command."

"No, but because of you my people have space travel now. And you wiped out a religion that was blinding all the women living wherever it infected."

"Lanterns Coutara and Taranna did most of the work."

"But it wouldn't have happened without you being there. It was always… Everyone else hated it, but the only way to change it would have been an invasion and.. so many people would have died, it.. just…"

"I understand."

"How long.. have the two of you..?"

"We've been 'together' romantically for less than half a year."

"I didn’t think Orange Lanterns-."

I hold out my right hand and call the Staff of Love to me, laying my right palm over the crystal on the end and generating a violet sigil with it at the same time as generating an orange one over my left hand.

"Orange Lanterns can feel love. Banning Orange Lanterns from feeling anything is counterproductive on several levels. It's just that below a certain level of self-mastery, feeling one emotion strongly enough to use a power ring usually precludes feeling another emotion strongly at the same time. And most of the current generation of Orange Lanterns are so focused on being the most powerful Orange Lanterns they can be that they're.. not looking for other sorts of emotional connection at the moment. There's no actual ban."

She makes a minor gesture of obeisance. "I will.. bear that in mind. Do you want me to leave the two of you alone?"

I look at Jade. "Don't think I haven't noticed you putting off speaking to Zatanna. Go. I'm not being deployed for another two days. And it's not as if it's harder for you to reach me in the Periphery than it is here."

I stand, nodding. "You're right." She tilts her head back as I lean down and gently press my lips against hers. "I'll see you in a few hours."

4th February

17:49 GMT -5

Ah, Shadowcrest. Good to see you again. I deposit the Staff of Love into a subspace pocket and take out Zatanna's birthday present: a near-complete record of magic as practised on Euphorix in the Vega system. They don't appear to have ever really adopted a scientific approach to it so I doubt that the record has much practical value, but I hope that she'll find it at least somewhat interesting. I walk up the path and…

Ring, dial 'Zatanna Zatara'.

Compliance.

"Ah, hello?"

"Good afternoon."

"P-Paul?"

"That's me. I'm walking up your front path now with a.. belated birthday present."

"I'm.. not at home right now. I… Wasn't expecting-."

"No, of.. course." I stop. "When are you… Free..?"

"After dinner?"

"Okay. Um. Do you… Want to meet up in the Mountain?"

"I've… Ah, hang on." There's a beep, then her phone goes silent. I turn around and walk back down the path, returning my present to subspace. "Sorry, right. Um, I've been avoiding the Mountain? You said-. I mean, you're right, but you said we should avoid each other, and-."

"I didn't-. I wasn't banning you from the Mountain. I'm not living there myself."

"Oh."

"Being in the same place.. with other friends, that's probably… Fine? And Kara's been wanting to show us some Kryptonian cinema for a while. I mean, if you're interested."

"Yes, that… I'd like that. I'll… See you later?"

"I'll see you later."