"To be honest, Sir Ebsen, I don't appreciate the comparison. There is quite a difference between Elizabeth and me. She murdured virgin girls and bathed in their blood because she thought that was the key to eternal youth. While I, on the other hand, do so because I don't ever want anyone to think Elizabeth was any cooler than I am."

the only thing Lucy ever said to the media other than "no comment"

(they thought she was kidding)

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The elderly Emporer Saint George Washington Bush of Angelsey, while he *technically* oversees personally the very Capitol of the Empire, New World Center, can be reduced to tears by the threats of a girl the same age as Blythe...

Lucy appeared at the table with King William of Angelsey, wrapped in her agendas, giggling to herself.

She wore long black hair, ruby red lipstick matching her velvet red dress, jewelry, gold, gems inlaid in rings, a and necklace. Whatever Lucy's mood was was always written all over her in the jewelry.

Almost oblivious to William, she appears there and sits down at the table. William didn't quite smile, but it was evident that he was a good deal more entertained by Lucy than anything in his pane of glass.

“What’s new?” He asked her, already knowing where she’d been and why.

Lucy held out her hand to the table as a very ancient looking golden challace appeared, inlaid with the same jewels she was wearing. She held her fist over it, then extended her fingers, allowing thick black crude oil to pour out of her palm. When it was half full, her palm returned to skin, and match appeared between her fingers. She lit it with her extended obviously plastic red thumbnail and dropped it into her challace, as it ignited all at once.

William tried to force himself not to watch this, but watched anyway, squinting a bit, trying to hide his discust, while trying to comprehend this weird little ritual of hers.

Lucy drank of her cup and set it down, looked up at her father and smiled… “Lee nailed that girl Blythe today. She serves Mickey Mouse now.” She giggled to herself, one of many fans of Lee's ingenuity.

King William looked into the pane of glass on the table before him, searching with his pupils. “That one?” He looked at the fast moving simulation which, at that particular instant, was labeling, categorizing, and filing snapshot observations from the satalites while simultaniously buying the various fantasies, colors, pleasurable sensations and mixed-up forms of entertainment with the credits this was earning her. "Blythe..."

William saw the Mickey behind her and the others, looking vigilant, and far more defined than the drones. He nodded to himself and took a sip of the wine in his glass, bored, as Lucy poured more of her beverage into herself.

Lucy lit a long, thin menthol from a ruby cigarette holder, and held her golden challace up high:

"To the Empire!"

King William lifted his wine glass. They toasted and drank.

My Empire she thought to herself, and grinned.