"Come to think of it, where do you guys actually live?" Teto wanted to know. "Somewhere in California? I notice that's where the car is registered."

"We don't really live anywhere," said Rin.

Teto's head tilted in puzzlement. "Why not?"

"Well... 'cause we can't," Rin replied, and then, with mildly dark sarcasm, "It's not allowed."

"We're kind of... caught in a bureaucratic loop," Gumi explained. "See, we came into the country as touring musicians, right? And then the Fog happened, and... some things got a little out of whack. The State Department in Washington is sort of barely working. So every year we have to renew our visas, and every year they only let us re-up the same kind we already have. Touring entertainers."

"So we can't establish a fixed residence," Rin put in. "If we stay anywhere more than 30 days... problem."

"But... that's ridiculous," said Abhi.

"Tell us about it," Rin replied with a hollow laugh.

"So..." Abhi calculated in her head. "You've been on tour for fourteen years?!"

"Coming up on it in August," said Gumi.

"And no one can do anything about it? What about Mr. Valentine? He has connections..."

Gumi chuckled. "Nicky's a private detective in Boston who moonlights for Section 44," she said. "He's a pal and a stand-up guy, but he's got no pull in Washington, least of all at State."

"We've tried everything we could try, believe me," Rin said. "We even risked a Fog bombing to punch an HW to Sapporo long enough for Miku-nee to send over a recorded plea on our behalf for the guy who was President at the time."

"I guess he's not a fan, because he didn't do shit," Gumi remarked.

Rin shrugged philosophically. "At least they keep letting us renew," she said.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Hopefully we might see Len again...

I've always wondered how immigration to Zeta Cygni works in story, because it seems like all the cool people get in instantly, but most of the bad guys have no chance. It feels almost like private college admissions, where knowing a guy is enough to overcome the bureaucracy, but how could that possibly scale to handle planetary populations? There seem to be a lot of planets in the Corporate Sector where most everyone would want to leave, so how do you fit all of them on the pseudocontinent, or do you even try?

But the more I think about it, the question I really want to ask is how does immigration in Zeta Cygni work so we can somehow steal the idea and implement it in reality. Which is not really how these things work. Probably the ZC bureaucracy uses Malthusian compensators to avoid overuse of resources. I seriously need to stop trying to find realism in space opera.

I got to thinking about this in the context of, well, the whole Abhi plotline and all, and wondered if the whole group of them ever thought about leaving Earth themselves with the intent of reuniting on another planet.

Then my imagination went a bit further than that.

Rin, talking about the five-season TV series about her and Gumi wandering North America, righting wrongs in between putting on shows,
(loosely based on the book they wrote afterwards):

Yeah, we did talk about it a few times, but not nearly as often as the show did.

Also, there was a lot less kissing.

-IA.

(who was being kissed by whom is left as an exercise for the reader)