Danika wasn't entirely unmindful of Underneath's concert, even though she was doing chores instead of watching it, because she and Shinichi exchanged a series of quick messages during each of their intermissions. She was reassured by his silly asides. If he had the energy to come up with such things, then he wasn't feeling as worn out as she half expected.

She did wish that he could have returned home to rest afterward, but she reminded herself, again, that he was an adult with commitments of his own. She knew that he wished that she could go with him when they left again in a few days for the movie production, but she had her own commitments too.

She had just finished the chores she had tackled, and flopped herself onto the couch in front of the entertainment center, when Ryuske came down the stairs. It had been a long time since she'd watched one of her shows instead of playing, and she looked up at him a little warily. He grinned at her and casually sprawled on the other couch.

"You might not like it," she warned him.

He looked so relaxed that it was difficult not to compare him with Tora. "I might not," he agreed, "but you never know."

He seemed amused by things that didn't make her laugh, and confused by some of the things that did, but he stayed for the whole thing. When it ended, she asked, "What's it like being the one on stage?"

"Worried about Shinichi or just curious?" he asked softly in return.

"Mostly curious?" she replied.

Ryuske was silent for a while. "Addictive, energizing and exhausting, triumphant and bitter. And…"

"And?" Danika prompted when he didn't continue.

"I always doubt myself when Shinichi is having a rough time with his career. I wonder how much I pushed him in this direction," he admitted.

She objected, "I think if anyone pushed him, it was Naoki."

He laughed, but then he told her, "I was just thinking about how we all try to create bubbles of safety around our children when I was upstairs."

"When you heard the breaking noise?" she asked wryly.

"I didn't hear that," he admitted with another grin. "What did you break?"

"Just a bottle I dropped, it was already empty though," she replied dismissively.

"Maybe safety is the wrong word. Maybe I mean normalcy," Ryuske said hesitantly.

"I'm not following you," Danika admitted.

"Hikaru and Kiri have done a surprisingly good job of letting their kids maintain normal lives," he told her. His eyes were locked on hers and his expression was serious despite his earlier grin.

"Shinichi's not a kid anymore," she pointed out.

"Mmm," Ryuske made a noncommittal noise. "I hope that you can live happily."

"I am not a kid anymore either," she replied dryly.

His eyes narrowed with amusement. "Adults can't live happily?" he questioned facetiously.

She childishly threw the small soft couch pillow at him, and his laughter filled the room.

--

The bards of Endless Song had a larger audience than the Sugar Wings had the day before. Over half of the audience had an accumulated level below 10. The crowd that had gathered for the Sugar Wings had also had a high proportion of obviously new characters, but not so many who seemed to have whisked through the beginner's vale within the minimum time that they could manage.

Their elegant elven bard, with sungold hair and leaf green eyes, enchanted them with her guqin. Melodious played his set with an incredulous but dazzlingly happy expression. The bright grin of the dark haired elf who followed him was no less blinding.

Dozens of cute, low level, human girls in the audience literally screamed when Ryullusion took the stage. Even more of them shrieked and giggled. Danika even spotted a familiar face among the audience, Grandma Girl. She remembered the way Eyes on the Sky had reacted to meeting Ryullusion and she suddenly laughed.

Kit and Shrubbery both turned toward her questioningly. "It's their impossible fantasy!" she explained laughingly to their increasing confusion.

"Zippy dear," Nao1 scolded, "stop speaking in little dragon and use human."

Danika only laughed more. She waved her little clawed hands at the crowd, and spluttered, "They're all old!"

A cute girl seated just below them turned and glared up at her. "I'm only middle aged!" she insisted.

Quicksilver, who was in the audience with them this time, and had been watching with a wistful expression, blinked and grinned suddenly. "The live that they never got to go to, right? Or, the new song that they knew he must have written?"

"Yeah!" Danika agreed.

"I've already heard all of these," Penname complained.

"It's easy to forget that he's also a real star," Kit said softly.

Nao1 looked at Kit for a moment, but then turned her attention back to the stage and declared firmly, "I'm going to be that good!"

"Dream on," muttered the girl who'd insisted that she was only middle aged.

Quicksilver gave them both incredulous looks. After a moment she suggested to Nao1, "You mean tonight, right?"

Nao1 flashed a grin at the little nadia, but replied seriously, "I figure about twenty years maybe, if I'm lucky." Danika turned and stared, and Nao1 added, "Not that I'm not amazing already!"

The little section that Endless Song occupied created an audible bubble of laughter within the crowd, that was quickly ringed by hissing noises. Ryullusion looked right at them, but his song didn't falter for a second.

--

In the morning, Shinichi reported that Underneath's final concert in the series had been completely sold out. Very few members of the audience seemed disappointed by the modified format, since he said that a nearly endless queue of admirers kept the entire band shaking hands and scribbling signatures until well after dawn. They didn't often hold open signings any more, but it was part of their current publicity efforts.

Shinichi's last two days at home vanished like a dream, but Danika was happy, because the last trace of his cold seemed to have vanished just as quickly.

Sakurai went with Underneath, and Danika promised not to go anywhere until she returned in a couple of days, because half of their security team had come down with the same cold.

Jade's demo continued to develop, and Danika took a hint from MatchlessMinion and created dozens of test characters and had them start the game in its rough and unfinished state. It wasn't as good as having a bunch of different people trying it out, but she was actually amazed by how well Jade did at filling in things they hadn't thought to cover.

There were also appalling problems, of course. Jade's logic was… logical. But the space themed game would be fighting a lot of preconceived conceptions, ones that Danika hadn't even realized that she held until Jade produced things that seemed utterly bizarre, but were actually very consistent with the guidelines they'd given him so far.

A lot of detailing was taking place. They took the rough descriptions of things that characters should be able to do, and started defining actual skills to match. They started filling in the solar system where the characters would play until the demo became an actual game and was expanded, if it was successful.

When they were feeling overwhelmed, Devon suddenly reminded them, "Most people have never seen more than 500 species, and have difficulty naming even a hundred. We come from a world with incredible variety, far more than a limited human memory can ever hold. Even if we stopped right now, people would still be impressed by the variety and complexity of this place. Focus on the story, all of these things are just tools for telling stories."

Danika felt inspired by his words, but she was shocked somehow when Lin Hao, who always seemed like someone who was often oblivious to the rest of humanity, added, "And the point of all stories is change. How people can change, how they can change things, so don't forget what you said you wanted to show them in the first place."

Devon winked at her, and she grinned sheepishly. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the programming and the design of the game were inextricably intertwined.