Editing Eternity (Warhammer High) (section)

=== Remember That One Time ===


Jake tapped his finger on his knee, nervously staring at the camera.  “I’m still not used to those,” he muttered.

“Holocams?” Venus asked.

“Yeah.  When have I ever needed to be filmed, before?” Jake asked.

His wife rolled her eyes, probably.  “Don’t worry about it,” she deadpanned.  “We’ll be fine.”

“I don’t want to embarrass you,” Jake said quietly as the excited reporter shuffled some cards with questions on them.

Venus smiled.  “You won’t.”

The reporter sat down across from them and gestured to the sound technician to start their microphones.  “All right, your Highnesses, I’m ready if you are,” he said, steadying his hands as he did so.  It was a rare day that a member of Lord Primarch Vulkan’s family consented to an interview.

“Sure, roll it,” Venus said, straightening up.  Jake glanced sideways at her to see how she was sitting, and she looked relaxed.  Her eyes were focused on the reporter, and her hands were crossed in her lap.  The interviewer’s clothing was incongruously casual from the waist down, he noted with a grin.  Then, if the camera only recorded from the belt up, who would know?

“Welcome back, my friends, and tonight we have a very special guest, or two,” the interviewer said happily.  “It is our profound honor to welcome Lady Primarch – and Princess of Nocturne – Venus, and Bond Prince Jacob.”

The camera facing them lit, and the two newlyweds smiled.  “St’eng, it’s a pleasure,” Venus answered for them both.

“May I be the first to say, your Highnesses: you have my earnest congratulations,” St’eng said, inclining his head for a moment.

“Well, I’m afraid a few of my cousins beat you there, but thank you kindly,” Venus chuckled as Jake held back a laugh.  At least half of the crew of the ship they had taken in the way from Terra to Nocturne had said nearly the same exact thing.

“I see, of course,” the anchor said.  “Does your recent move to Nocturne precipitate a permanent move here?”

“Sadly not, actually,” Venus said.  “We both have some educational obligations back on Terra.”

“I see.  Would you be willing to speak of them?” the reporter asked.

“Well, I have one year left in my Masters’,” Venus said.  “A Masters of Science in Inorganic Chemistry.”

Jake spoke up next.  “I’m in for a Bachelors’ of Fine Arts in Consumer Design,” he added.

“Interesting choices, my Lady, Lord,” the interviewer said.  “No politics?”

“Having a Primarch for a parent sort of prepares you for that on your own,” Venus said drily.  “I’m quite well-versed.  Besides, I won’t be assuming actual control of the system for several years; Regent No’dan will be ceding his authority gradually as I take up the reins.”

“If I may, Princess, you’re referring to yourself only.  Does this mean, Lord Jacob, that you will not be taking a role in the system’s governance?” the interviewer asked.

Jake shrugged awkwardly.  “I will be quite happy to do so if I feel needed, but I don’t have Venus’ training.”

The reporter nodded again.  “Where will you be basing yourselves, your Lady and Lordship?”

“Venus and Jake work fine, actually, it’s less of a mouthful,” Venus said.  “And Themis is the answer.  We’re going to take up residence in the city Castle for now.”

St’eng smiled at the apparent lowering of formality.  “I appreciate that.  Might I ask why you selected Themis as the city of choice for your residence?  Traditionally, King Vulkan selected Hesiod as his home.”

“And I respect that choice, but I’m not my father,” Venus said.  “We want to make a fresh start.”

“I can certainly understand that,” St’eng said.  “What was your life on Terra like?”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly describe it all in one sitting,” Venus said.  Jake nodded, not adding anything yet.

St’eng turned to him, oblivious to his nerves.  “And you, Prince Jacob, what was your own experience on Terra?”

Jake shrugged awkwardly.  “Well, I was born there, that was a highlight,” he said.  He coughed as Venus rolled her eyes.  “But if you meant later on, well, we lived together for four or five years before now, ever since the end of high school.”

“What is the high school system like on Terra?” St’eng asked.  “We don’t have them here.”

“Essentially, from the age of around twelve or thirteen to sixteen or seventeen, you attend the same school, and take sequentially more difficult classes, usually in a pretty diverse array of fields,” Jake said, picking up steam now that they were discussing something safe.  “After the end, you graduate, and go on to the military, a job, trade, university, a professional school, what have you.”

“And am I to understand that you were not a member of the Imperial nobility, like Princess Venus?” St’eng asked.

“No, far from it,” Jake said.  He shifted a bit as the conversation turned to his own origins again, despite his best attempts to avoid it.  Trolling college buddies was one thing, but this?  Technically, St’eng was one of his subjects.

“Truth be told, it came in handy once or twice,” Venus said, detecting his discomfort.

“It did?” Jake asked, turning to her in confusion.

“Yeah.  Remember the movie theater near the campus?” Venus asked slyly.

Jake laughed, breaking his tension.  “Oh, wow, that was insane,” he chuckled.

Venus turned to the bemused interviewer.  “See, Jake and I both love riffing terrible old movies.  You know what riffing is?  Well, there was a movie theater near our college home that had a habit of running movies long after the audience had already moved on, and so there would be times when the theater would have completely empty rooms.  We would use that opportunity to go watch movies together, and if we had the place to ourselves, we would just riff the hell out of it.”

St’eng raised his eyebrows.  “Really?  They let you do that, your Highness?”

“Well, if nobody’s there, sure,” Venus said, smiling.  “Except…”

“Except for that one time,” Jake finished.  “That was pretty hilarious.”  He turned to the newscaster and continued.  “See, one time, Venus and I were watching a movie, and a guy in the projection booth overheard us.  He was really confused by all the talking, so he came down into the theater and found us sitting there, just laughing our asses off at each other.”

“We thought he was going to be so mad,” Venus laughed.  She shook her night-black hair in amusement.  “Instead, he grabbed a video camera and joined us.”

“So it was just me, Venus, and this random employee, sitting there in the theater, recording ourselves riffing this awful movie,” Jake said, grinning at the memory.  “The recording is still floating around out there, somewhere.”

“Ah, that was fun,” Venus said cheerfully.  “Can’t do that here, sadly.”

“We can’t?” Jake asked.

“Nope.  I’d get recognized in an instant here, even with my disguise,” Venus said.

“Ah, true,” Jake said dolefully.

St’eng shook his head, chuckling as well.  “I see.  I’m glad to see you had fun, at least,” he said.  “Did you ever try anything like that again?”

“No, but occasionally, my cousins and I would turn our powers against one another,” Venus said, glaring at Jake with mock resentment.  Jake affected surprise.  “Really?  The clock?” Venus deadpanned.

“Oh, right, the clock,” Jake said, as if he had just remembered.  “The clock was great.”

“See, my old alarm clock had a port on it, for firmware upgrades or something,” Venus said to St’eng.  “And I went to bed after he did and woke up after he did for classes.  So one evening, my dearest fiancé here decides that my clock wasn’t good enough.  So, he and my cousin Cora put some batteries in it, unplug it from the wall, connect it to his computer, and load a selection of animal noises onto it,” she continued.  St’eng gaped as Jake held back a gleeful giggle.  “Then, she puts it in a hamster ball or something like that, along with a mousetrap, and they put all this at the bottom of my laundry hamper.”

“So, the next morning,” Jake said, picking up where Venus had left off, “when her alarm goes off…” he had to pause to bite back another spate of giggles.  “We take a trip to the zoo in our laundry basket,” he said, and lost the battle.  He clamped a hand over his mouth, laughing into his hand.

“As you can imagine, I was so incredibly confused,” Venus sighed.  “And when it went off, I had to go rooting around in the laundry hamper, trying to figure out what the hell is going on, all while trying so hard not to wake him up.  So hard!”

“See, I was supposed to be asleep,” Jake said.  “Of course, I’m wide awake, and I’m struggling not to laugh and give up the game.”

“And then, when I find the damn thing, the mousetrap goes off and launches it clear across the room,” Venus said.  “It caromed off the walls a few times and lands under the bed.”

“So I’m lying there, shaking with laughter, just dying inside, while she’s rooting around under the bed, trying to find the damn clock and pry the ball open,” Jake said, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye.  “And when she finally digs it out, and turns it off, I sort of raise my head and go ‘what happened?’” he said, miming exhaustion.

Venus sighed as Jake broke out in laughter again.  “I was ready to kill Cora after that.  And you too,” she said, glaring at Jake.

“Ah, you’d miss me,” Jake said, playfully squeezing her hand.  She jerked it away, pretending to grumble.

“So…you had an eventful college career, I take it?” St’eng finally managed.

“Oh yes.  Especially when I found a way to load the animal sounds onto his vox,” Venus said.  “I made sure to call him at work the next day.”

“Yes, that was a confusing few seconds,” Jake laughed.  “I’m standing there in the lab, and pawing frantically at my pockets, while all sorts of baffling noises are happening, and everyone’s staring at me.  And then, I whip it out, and press ‘talk,’ and I just ask, ‘Hi, Venus, what’s up?’” Jake said, miming a vox to his ear.

“Isn’t that still your ringtone for when certain people call you?” Venus asked.

“Yes, my parents and one of my old poker buddies,” Jake said.  “Good times,” he said with a rueful chuckle.

St’eng looked from one laughing Royal Family member to the other, slowly picking his jaw up off the floor.  “Well…this will be an interesting reign, won’t it?” he asked aloud.

“One hopes,” Venus said happily, as Jake squeezed her hand again.  “I’m certainly looking forward to it.”