Gratuitous Epilogue

13 - December

December 25

Merry Christmas

I got to do a projection of my family this morning, and catch up on what’s happening back home. Thankfully some behind-the-scenes manoeuvring has made the Crummies' Inquiry less invasive now that it’s coming to its end, so the question of bringing my family here hasn’t been publically debated, and a special (and very closed-mouthed) committee can approve my projections without any suggestion that everyone on three planets needs to know what I’ve been doing. The Inquiry’s recommendations won’t be made public for a while, and then the laws will be formalised.

Jules is getting so tall – it’s really disconcerting. He makes me feel like I’m a stranger. I’ve been gone more than two years now, and I’m very different inside my head, and home has become the place I used to live. Kaoren knows enough English now to catch a little bit of my conversation with my Mum, but not to have more than a disjointed idea what we talked about. If the gate aligns according to schedule, I’ll be able to send a letter to Mum in February trying to arrange Operation Move-to-Muina, and I wanted to discuss with fake-Mum things I should tell real-Mum about in the letter. Whether it needed to be a complete secret, how extensive the Move-to-Muina invitation was, whether it was possible for anyone to just visit. Whether it was okay to bring our cat.

Then Mum floored me by telling me Dad had gotten married! And I’m going to have a new brother or sister in a few months. I am so not dealing with that. I have a step-mother named Sharon. Mum didn’t properly answer when I asked what she’s like, but, argh, I guess it means Dad’s happy, which is a good thing. I suppose I might meet her in a year and bit.

Kaoren and I have been starting to put together proper ideas for our wedding. Neither of us are particularly traditional, or devoted to a particular image of what the wedding should be like. I want to wear something resembling one of the less over-the-top Earth wedding dresses, and Kaoren is going to wear formal robes in colours complementing the girls' dresses. He’s very against me being blindfolded and picking him out from a bunch of other guys, but does want to do the exchange of patterned cakes. We both very strongly want to make our wedding day adoption day as well, though we haven’t discussed this with the kids yet. Basically, we want to have an additional stage of the ceremony where we’ll formally adopt them. And, after much pressure from Sen, we’re going to see about producing one of these babies she’s so keen on.

The idea having a baby myself is pretty scary. Alay let me feel her daughter kicking, and I had to restrain myself from making Chestburster comments, because it just weirded me out having something which wasn’t Alay moving beneath her skin. Very normal and all that, I know, but just…weird. Kaoren told me on his birthday that he’s a little nervous about having babies too, but more because even with all Tare’s technology, it’s still one of the most dangerous things women do.

My big amusement of the moment is a new program from the same producers who are behind The Hidden War. The Hidden War will wind up after this season – and all the kids except perhaps Sen are extremely pleased about that because they despise the way they’re being depicted (they opted to not communicate more than their ages and the scriptwriters – perhaps trying not to offend – came up with these tremendously brave and noble children who are a little too good to be real). But just as we’re coming into the final throes of The Hidden War (next episode is the one where I get sucked into the Cruzatch’s trap), this new show has started called Muina Ez (Into Muina) which follows two settler families (one from Tare and one from Kolar) from the acceptance of their settlement applications onwards, showing all the minutiae of what average people are encountering when moving to Muina.

It’s interesting and well-produced, and really gets the feel of the process right, I think. But it’s truly funny to me because of the way my family is depicted. They don’t get actors to portray us – or show images or anything – just long-distance shots of Arcadia and the other islands as this near-mythic goal on the horizon. Both sets of settler kids are shown as completely fascinated by me and Lira and Kaoren (and Setari in general), except for the primary heroine of the story, who is fixated on Ys. Ys, Rye, Sen and Lira’s personalities and traits are better known now, and the primary heroine of Muina Ez is this smart, slightly socially awkward Kolaren girl whose head is stuffed full of stories of epic derring-do, and Ys has been her hero since saving me after I projected the dragon. She has a counterpart (and obvious future love interest) in a brainy Taren boy and it looks like they’re going to play up Kolaren-Taren-Nuran culture clashes for all it’s worth. It’s a fun show, and very informative about the settler process.

Ys' reaction to the first couple of episodes has been priceless. She’s used to the focus being on Lira or Sen, but Ys is definitely the mythic heroine of this plot so far and she’s trying to be infuriated but it’s hard for her to withstand such a high compliment. Lira teases her a little about it, but not too much (most of the other kids on the show are severely Lira-worshipful, which she’s loving).

I probably shouldn’t be enjoying it so much. Being such public figures is a whole extra strain on them, but so far the kids are handling it better than I expected. The last episode had a long discussion about House Renar and just what was going on inside it, and the whole issue with Sen’s parents – and even just who Ys and Rye’s parents are too (a subject too touchy for them to discuss even with me). All pure speculation – according to Maze they’re not going to present anything as fact about us which isn’t known as fact, but they’re certainly willing to argue through all the rumours. Both families are based in Pandora (with parents with exotic jobs which mean they get to visit other settlements) and the characters' absolute aim is to get canoes and paddle to Arcadia – exactly as two Kolaren teenagers attempted to just recently, except they don’t want to be intercepted by greensuits as the teenagers were. The show’s entirely produced and created here and Lira’s very curious to try and spot the actors whenever we go into town. Muina’s gradually accruing more and more personalities and celebrities, and famous people from Tare and Kolar seem to be constantly migrating here. It fortunately takes some of the focus off me and the Setari (although a lot of the famous people are just as much Setari-fans as the next person).

There’s whole heaps of rumours going around about my wedding plans now. All wildly wrong except for the obvious guess about it being held on Arcadia. Kaoren’s parents will be coming back to Muina a little beforehand – they’ve decided to emigrate, but to my relief don’t want to be based in Pandora. Arden’s going to visit, but not emigrate as yet.