"People do just sometimes move to Saturn. You could run into any number of them that way."

"Yeah," he says, "I've run into an ex in a pub before, it can be awkward, it doesn't result in this. Rayne is the only person who results in this."

"Okay." She shakes her head, sighs again. "Why does he result in this, what is it about him?"

"He knows me, he knows how to talk me into things, and I keep falling for it," says Ripper, frustrated. "He's mostly benign about it, but you saw his definition of benign when you met me."

"Yes, harmless, killing a man to make you think he was dead so you'd get my attention."

"Exactly. He means well, but it's a very special kind of well. And he doesn't care about anyone but himself and me."

Bella shakes her head. "Well. He can't get in here anymore. If you run into him the next time a beach visits your bubble, or something - then what?"

"I'll tell you when I see him," Ripper promises. "And I'll try not to get drunk with him again, that seems like a bad plan."

"I know technically all I asked was that there not be surprises, but - Rayne in particular seems like a bad idea whether I wind up literally surprised or not."

"He is a bad idea," says Ripper, "but he's my bad idea."

"I know, it's terrible, isn't it? I can and will do my best to stay away from him for my own sake, but I just don't have it in me to promise not to go near him again."

"Why not?"

"It's been a habit for years," he sighs. "I'm trying to break it."

"Isn't there anything I can do to help besides keep him out of this one little bubble? I could keep him off the entire planet. The ground rules would allow you to block him."

"How do I..." he says, and trails off, and shakes his head. "My problem is that I can't trust myself around him. If I lock him completely out of my life with magic, that's not solving the problem. What I want to do is stop making such bad decisions when Rayne is involved."

"...That's fair. Do you have a plan on doing that, though?"

Wryly, "That'd be the hard part."

"I think - sometimes the best way to not make bad decisions about something is to make them in advance, in a way that doesn't invite later changing of mind."

"Meaning...?"

"Well, in this case, if you want to not make bad Rayne-related decisions, and have no idea how to do that while he's actually in the room, you could decide to not be in the room with him, till you have that figured out at least."

"How am I going to figure anything out without trying it? Not that I'm going to go looking for him, but..." He sighs.

"Well - the way I'd do it if it were me would be by thinking long and hard about exactly how he got to me. But I have perfect recall and when I didn't have that I had notes I'd taken about everything. Do you want perfect recall?"