"We are all friends here, are we not? My name-private is Jonathan, though people-few call me that." He smiled. "We all seem to like 'Kenneth' better. ...ordan, what is the Princess's name-private?"It could have been a gross insult, asking someone besides Catheryne herself to reveal her private name, but she saw that Moya Tilmitt was trying to even the score, so that neither of them had done something the other hadn't. And it had been a true embarrassment to slip like that. If she must be publicly. .." Rory," Jase said gently. "It's okay; look, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I think I will, given it's the only way you're going to understand. What you heard me fighting with Eddie about, wasn't just that picture. That's what he was angry about. What I was upset about, was the way he moved all of my things out of our bedroom after he found that picture."Oh.Shit.And... I had absolutely nothing to say."He knows what he did was wrong," Jase continued. "He's sorry for it, I. Her hand abandoned me.“No. And anyway, I’m not in the mood.”“Can I still sleep with you?” I asked. “Please?”She was silent for a long time then, still lying on her back, looking up at the ceiling, she said, “Someday I’m going to have a daughter and she’s going to come home from a bad date crying, and when I ask her what’s wrong she won’t tell me and I’ll tell her about this.”“About what?” I asked.“I’m going to say, ‘Honey, it’s not as bad as you think. When I was your age your Uncle Bobby. .." I am an avatar," said Virgil. "The avatar I represent is a machine intelligence that is no less real than you. And the place where we are is also no less real than the world you come from. But you may recall our earlier discussion in Nudeworld. What is real? How real am I? And how real is this world?" Well," said Paul who thought he deserved rather more than just philosophical speculation after having just heard the devastating news that the space ship Intrepid no longer existed. "If you.