"You know," Jake remarked much later, "while I can't look back on that trickster interlude without feeling a complete ass, I sometimes wonder if our mad selves might not have had one decent idea in a sea of... of..." -- "Disney acid sequence?" "Horror?" "Complete bullshit?" Roxy, Jane, and Dirk offered, respectively, dropping words into Jake's flailing hands in hope that some might fit -- "of complete bullshit, yes, thank you, Strider."

Jane's stomach roiled at the memory of the things she'd said and done under the influence of Calliope's juju -- it had been a horror story, in her view; losing control of herself had always been a recurring nightmare, even before the game -- but she couldn't help asking: "That idea being?"

"Romantic angst is poppycock; instead, we should stop worrying about couples and boyfriends and whatnot and just all have sex together," Jake proclaimed, throwing his arms over Dirk's and Roxy's shoulders and beaming as if he'd found the answer to the ultimate riddle.

Jane facepalmed, but a treacherous part of her mind couldn't help wondering about logistics.