Author: thaumobabble	Glass appears in the Belltower, where the Jokers less Felicity are still assembled. "There are," she announces, "kinds of you."
Author: manofmyword	"Well, sure," says the Joker.
Author: cardistry	"You mean metacausally?" says Brilliance. "Like how?"
Author: thaumobabble	"Like," says Glass, "Corona and Felicity are the same kind as each other but not anyone else, and you and Aianon and Ansharil and Nona and Celo are either representatives of yet more kinds or one-offs, and the rest of you are all of a kind."
Author: gunpowdergelatine	"How 'bout that," says Queenie. "Makes sense. But if you asked me to divide us up into kinds, that's not how I'd do it."
Author: pythbox	War looks thoughtful. "Yeah, I see what you mean," he says. "You three on one end," this evidently referring to the retirees, because without any visible signal they freecast together to one side of the room, "and then the middle bunch, and then Alice and Nona at the other end. And me and Sue and Aianon and Harley all off to the side in our own directions." The Jokers arrange themselves as described; the 'middle bunch' consists of Brilliance, Micaiah, Jellybean, Kas, Beast, Corona, and Celo. War and Sue come as a unit, but Sue stands closer to the central mass.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass squints at them. "When you're all standing like that there's kind of - but that's not kinds, it's... amounts? No, not amounts. Um. Gosh, I don't know what that is at all."
Author: pythbox	"They're something about how we think," says War. "I couldn't begin to put it in words - I'm not even sure I could summarize it in link. But I see a lot of it 'cause I'm the hub when we link up. The retirees are one thing, and me and Sue are another thing, and the middle bunch are all different flavours of a third thing, and Alice and Nona are a fourth thing, and Aianon and Harley are fifth and sixth things."
Author: manofmyword	"We grow through 'em, some of us," says the Joker. "That might be where you're getting 'amounts'. I used to be a lot like Alice, and after that I used to be a lot like Kas. And then there was Gotham, and now there's me."
Author: truthwright	Kas studies Alice thoughtfully, then turns the same look on the Joker.
Author: thaumobabble	"Like..." Glass starts tracing lines between the clusters of assembled Jokers. "Yeah, that's why 'amounts' popped into my head even though it's wrong... Anyway, Felicity is that 'amount'." She waves in Alice and Nona's direction. "But Corona's kind. And a new face - I'd tell you where he looks like he's from but it wouldn't mean anything to somebody who wasn't from Chronicle."
Author: gunpowdergelatine	"Well, what's he look like?"
Author: thaumobabble	Glass conjures up a little illusion of Felicity.
Author: pythbox	The Jokers examine it. Then: "Phases," says War. "That's what I'd call 'em."
Author: thaumobabble	"That's," says Glass, and she peers at them all again, "a serviceable word for it, better than 'amounts' anyway."
Author: pythbox	"Harley got rescued before he was any phase," War continues, "he's been off course for most of his life. Me and Sue... I'm not sure, it's harder to see from the inside. Aianon, I feel like he got off course just about when he hit his island; the way he remembers being before then is like middle-phase with more fear. Ansharil is weird, he was never on course in the first place but when he met Aianon he got to be the same phase right away before they went off to the island."
Author: gunpowdergelatine	"You and Sue had that Battle School thing," says Queenie. "Pretty sure that's where it starts for you."
Author: thaumobabble	"I wonder what affects when you move from phase to phase."
Author: manofmyword	"It's pretty obvious how you become a retiree," says the Joker. "Not gonna say that's the only way, but there's only the one we've seen."
Author: gunpowdergelatine	"I'd almost say... but Nona killed her dad, and she's still not in the middle," says Queenie. "For us old folks it was definitely that."
Author: growcrooked	"...I killed him," she says slowly, "but I didn't leave home. We're still living in the castle. I didn't - wander."
Author: thaumobabble	"Hmmmmmm."
Author: yourheartstrings	"Mmm?" says Ghosty inquiringly.
Author: thaumobabble	"Just, wandering seems like an apt word for the middle bunch. Fits aesthetically."
Author: manofmyword	"That it does," the Joker agrees.
Author: pythbox	"I don't wander," Celo points out. "Nah, you go to school instead," says Jellybean.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass nods. "That's a sub-phase."
Author: pythbox	"Mm, more like a variant," says War. "Sub-phase would be like it's something everybody goes through. Did I do school instead of wandering that way? Guess I did." He and Sue both glance thoughtfully at Jellybean.
Author: thaumobabble	"As you like. I'm only getting this very faintly," says Glass.
Author: pythbox	"So what do we call the other thing?" says Jellybean. "The kinds. Just 'kinds'?"
Author: thaumobabble	"Clusters, maybe?"
Author: pythbox	"'Clusters'. Sure," says Jellybean. "What are they? I mean, can you tell us anything about the way that Corona and the new kid are different from the rest of us are different from the extras?"
Author: thaumobabble	"Not just by looking at you. Maybe if I looked at you next to whatever's different, or something. I mean, I can make guesses. It's near the requisite-amount-of-suffering attractor..."
Author: pythbox	"It could be the obvious thing," says Corona. "It almost has to be the obvious thing, at least partly, doesn't it?"
Author: thaumobabble	"Er, what obvious thing, should I know the obvious thing?"
Author: manofmyword	"No, I don't think you do," says the Joker.
Author: pythbox	Corona sighs. "The big group of us that you said was one cluster, they all grew up with a dad who hit them," he says. "Or would've, in Harley's case. I grew up with a stepdad who raped me. He hit me, too, but it's the other thing that's different."
Author: thaumobabble	"Oh. Um, should Elspeth know?"
Author: pythbox	"I dunno, should she?" says Corona. "I don't know her as well as some of you guys."
Author: thaumobabble	"Of people in this room probably Harley knows her best, but mostly I mean - will it affect how she ought to interact with him? Is it likely to be important to him to have the chance to say or not say himself?"
Author: pythbox	Harley and Corona glance at each other. "...yeah," says Corona, "don't tell her. Yet, anyway. If she finds him so impossible to handle that she comes to us for advice, we can tell her then."
Author: thaumobabble	"Everything seemed calm when I left."
Author: pythbox	"Give it time," says Corona. "Now that we know he's one of me and not any of the rest of you."
Author: thaumobabble	"I'm wondering now if I should warn Golden, only I'm not sure what there is to warn about."
Author: pythbox	"Yeah," says Corona, "except that he'll do his damnedest to piss her off if he ever meets her, I guess." He adds after a reflective pause, "Probably. He'll probably do that. Might decide not to. We're not a hugely predictable bunch that way."
Author: thaumobabble	"I imagine she will meet him. I mean, her daughter is being his guardian. She met Harley, didn't she."
Author: pythbox	"She did," says Harley. "We get along okay."
Author: edgeofyourseat	"...But it might be better if she hears what she's gonna hear about it before he pisses her off," says Alice. "I dunno."
Author: thaumobabble	"Bells in general tolerate things with known explanations better than things without," says Glass after a moment's thought.
Author: edgeofyourseat	"Yeah," says Alice. "But would that even be enough of an explanation for her?"
Author: thaumobabble	"Well - what do you mean, 'enough'?"
Author: edgeofyourseat	"I mean," says Alice, "if we tell her he's twelve years old and fresh out of hell and he's gonna be dealing with that by being a total little shit to everyone in sight, will she get it, or will she walk off thinking he should know better?"
Author: thaumobabble	Glass lifts her hands. "What do you mean, 'get it'? I can pass on recommendations about what to do, and she'll more likely follow them than not. She is also more likely than not to privately think that she emerged from hell and promptly conquered the world."
Author: edgeofyourseat	Alice sighs.
Author: yourheartstrings	Ghosty disintegrates and rematerializes to hug him.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass sighs.
Author: pythbox	"It's not like it's your fault or anything," says Corona.
Author: manofmyword	"Not exactly hers either," says the Joker.
Author: pythbox	Harley sighs.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass looks at Harley questioningly.
Author: pythbox	"...I feel weird 'cause I'm on the other side of this from most of us," he says. "I was never the kid they're talking about. But I wish there was a way for Golden to understand it better than that. But I get what the Joker's saying about her, too; she's the way she is because that's the life she's lived and the way she's lived it, and you can't just wish people would stop being themselves."
Author: thaumobabble	"I mean, she will probably follow reasonably well-operationalized advice about how to interact with Felicity. I just can't promise she won't feel smug while she does it."
Author: pythbox	"Fuck it, then," Corona mutters.
Author: gunpowdergelatine	Queenie pops across the room to snuggle him. "Thing is," she says, "I don't think we have advice. We just have - feelings."
Author: pythbox	"How about 'don't ever talk to him, 'cause he can smell smug from a mile upwind and he'll hate you for it'," Corona suggests, "is that operationalized?"
Author: thaumobabble	"'Don't ever talk to him' is operationalized," says Glass. "The rest of it would probably only serve to make her defensive."
Author: pythbox	Corona opens his mouth, and then shuts it again.
Author: gunpowdergelatine	Queenie hugs him some more.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass looks at Corona, but doesn't actually formulate a question.
Author: manofmyword	The Joker nods approvingly.
Author: thaumobabble	"So - am I telling Golden not to interact with her new grandfosterling?"
Author: pythbox	"If she's going to be smug about him—" says Corona, and then he stops himself and takes a breath and continues more calmly, "yeah, that's a pretty good plan."
Author: thaumobabble	"I don't know that she is!" exclaims Glass. "She's in a position from which smugness is easy, that doesn't mean that she'll react to everything that way."
Author: pythbox	"Well," says Corona, "if she's smug about him, and if he notices - and I'm pretty sure he'd notice - then either he won't give a shit about her any which way, or it'll hurt him and he won't deal well. So maybe better just to avoid the whole problem. Unless she wants to take the chance, I guess. But you said telling her what's up would make her defensive, so..." He shrugs.
Author: thaumobabble	"Putting it the way you put it would. I'm trying to think if there's - I mean, if one of my daughters were bringing up a fosterling, I'd want to meet the kid," says Glass. "If the kid needed particular care in handling, I'd do my best to accommodate that - but then my eldest already requires care in handling, so maybe I'm just used to it."
Author: pythbox	"Yeah?" says Corona, slightly hopeful. "Do you get it, then?"
Author: thaumobabble	"I still don't know what you mean by 'get it'. I think maybe all I get is that I don't get it."
Author: pythbox	"Well, that's a start," says Corona.
Author: thaumobabble	"I keep thinking about Carinna. Probably Felicity isn't anything like Carinna. Carinna's not traumatized, she just - she got all my malcontentment and most of Sherlock's depressive tendencies and none of either set of coping mechanisms."
Author: pythbox	"Yeah. Well, if Felicity is anything like me at that age... he hasn't really figured out people yet," says Corona. "The way he sees the world is - everything is dangerous, everything is going to hurt him, it's just a matter of when and how. You get so you don't even feel scared anymore, you don't notice it as a feeling, but even when you're not feeling it it's still there. Under everything. It's exhausting. Sometimes it's almost comforting to just sit there and feel it for a while, and sometimes it's the worst thing in the world and there's nothing you can do to get away from it." He closes his eyes and leans into Queenie's arms. "Like when I was in the sun," says Harley. "But with fear instead of pain." "Yeah," says Corona, "a lot like that." Harley piles on to the Queenie-and-Corona hug.
Author: thaumobabble	"I hestitate to - but - Golden has that empath brother-in-law, is this the sort of thing that could be usefully addressed directly?"
Author: pythbox	Harley and Corona both shake their heads. "He'd never agree to it," says Corona. "And I'm not sure how much it would help even if he did."
Author: thaumobabble	"Yeah, long shot. Should I bring him a poof?"
Author: pythbox	...Harley giggles. "You know what, yes," he says. "Bring him a poof. And a poof fountain." Corona nods slowly, looking thoughtful.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass looks at Corona, again without forming a question.
Author: pythbox	"I think it might be good for him," says Corona. "To have a happy fuzzy little thing that couldn't hurt him if it tried, to take care of."
Author: thaumobabble	"Okay. I'll get him a poof. I'll try to think of something not-counterproductive to tell Golden. Anything else?"
Author: edgeofyourseat	"...About talking to Golden," says Alice. "The way being terrified all the time is like being in the sun, it's also kind of like turning. Might make it easier to think about, that way; she knows what turning's like."
Author: thaumobabble	Glass does a momentary double-take to see who's speaking. "I will," she says, blinking, "convey that."
Author: edgeofyourseat	Alice shrugs. "I hope it helps."
Author: thaumobabble	"It seems likelier than other methods of presentation, anyway."
Author: pythbox	"Are you gonna talk to her first, or give Felicity his poof first?" wonders Harley.
Author: thaumobabble	"Poof first. Felicity can have a poof either way," shrugs Glass. "Do you suppose the color matters, or should I just teleport into the Gentle Cave and pick the one that most insistently follows me?"
Author: pythbox	"Is there any reason you can't take him to the Gentle Cave and let him pick one?" says Harley.
Author: thaumobabble	"Oh, that works too," agrees Glass. "I'll do that, presuming he wants to come."
Author: pythbox	Harley smiles.
Author: thaumobabble	"All right. Here goes, unless there's any last-minute advice - he's not going to be offended or anything if I teleport him right away from the Chronicle Janepoint rather than run any risk of him interacting with Carinna, is he?"
Author: pythbox	"Nah," says Harley. Corona shakes his head corroboratively.
Author: thaumobabble	"Okay. Aurum, please, Jane." And then she is in Aurum, and then she is where Felicity is.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity is lying on the ground beside one of the paths, eating an apple. He looks up at her. "Where'd you come from?"
Author: thaumobabble	"The Belltower. Via Janepoint. Harley and Corona think you might like to have a poof - they're a cute little animal my world has. Want to come with me and pick one out?"
Author: inhispockets	"...sure," says Felicity, after a moment's thought. He climbs to his feet and wipes apple juice from his hands onto his pants.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass taps her Janegem, and they're in the castle for the briefest instant and then they're in the gentle cave. "The poofs are the featureless round ones, but if something else catches your fancy I don't see a reason to restrict you."
Author: inhispockets	A pale pink poof rolls up to Felicity's foot and meeps. "...awwwwwww," he says, crouching down to pet it. It whmmmmms and glows. He sits on the cave floor and scoops it up, hugging it to his chest. "They don't bite or anything, do they?"
Author: thaumobabble	"Nope. They don't even have teeth."
Author: inhispockets	"How do they eat, then? Do they even eat? Or do they just - cute all the time and that's it?"
Author: thaumobabble	"They need the flavored water from those springs," Glass points, "I can magic up a little fountain for you, and they manage to eat plants in very small bites. Any kind of plants, and they don't need much."
Author: inhispockets	Felicity snuggles the pink poof. "It's really cute," he says.
Author: thaumobabble	"They are. Is that the one you want?"
Author: inhispockets	He nuzzles it. It makes its happy sound and glows some more. "Sure," he says.
Author: thaumobabble	"Okay. Jane?" And they are back at the Aurum Janepoint, and then they are where Glass found him on the island, and then she produces a little poof-fountain for him. "Here you are."
Author: inhispockets	"Aww." He grins happily at her. "Thanks."
Author: thaumobabble	"You're welcome. Where's Elspeth?"
Author: inhispockets	He shrugs. "Doing something."
Author: thaumobabble	"Huh. Okay. Well, enjoy your poof."
Author: inhispockets	"I will," he says, hugging it.
Author: pythbox	Elsewhere, something occurs to the Jokers: "Can I be there when Glass talks to Golden?" says Harley.
$mind_game: (fractal)$ Author: mind_game	Jane confers with Glass. "Sure," she says.
Author: pythbox	"Okay," says Harley. "Is she there already, or going soon, or are they still in the Gentle Cave...?"
Author: mind_game	"She just gave Felicity his poof fountain and is currently waiting in the active capital for Golden to get out of a meeting. Golden's not going to be at the entire meeting like Elspeth is, just the overview, so she'll be done in a couple minutes."
Author: pythbox	"Okay," says Harley. He freecasts to Glass.
Author: thaumobabble	"Hi," says Glass. "What are you thinking you'll add to the - I mean, I'm totally on board with having you there, but what wasn't covered when I was asking for advice?"
Author: pythbox	"I don't know," says Harley. "But if I'm there, then if something comes up..." He shrugs.
Author: thaumobabble	"Okay. So, Felicity has a poof and a fountain now. It's sort of rose-pink."
Author: pythbox	He smiles. "Aww."
Author: thaumobabble	"Wanted to know if they bit."
Author: pythbox	Harley smiles again, wryly. "Yeah. I'm not surprised."
Author: thaumobabble	"But he seemed to believe me that they don't, anyway."
Author: pythbox	"That's good."
Author: thaumobabble	"Yeah. I mean, where would a poof even keep teeth? Did you ever name yours?"
Author: pythbox	He laughs and shakes his head. "Nah."
Author: luminous_regnant	Golden emerges from the meeting room. "Hi, Glass, Harley. What did you want to talk about?"
Author: thaumobabble	"It looks like the twelve-year-old Joker that Jane found is going to be living with Elspeth," says Glass, "but, since he's twelve and not a baby, he's probably going to be harder to deal with than Harley was."
Author: pythbox	(Harley grins wryly.)
Author: luminous_regnant	Golden looks at Glass. "You think I'm going to upset him somehow," she guesses.
Author: thaumobabble	"It's possible," says Glass. "The possibility that you shouldn't interact with him at all was floated."
Author: pythbox	Harley... decides not to say anything.
Author: thaumobabble	"He's twelve. He had enough of a dose of Terrible Childhood that the minimum-suffering attractor is all done pulling on him. And Corona's concerned that - Corona's particularly relevant here, he's metacausally clustered closer to Felicity than the others - that he'll be able to tell if there's any hint of 'smug' going on, on your end, when you evaluate how he deals with having recently been traumatized. How he deals with it is probably going to boil down to 'not well'."
Author: luminous_regnant	"I am aware that most people do not cope as well as me with devastatingly unpleasant events."
Author: thaumobabble	"Yeah, that's not quite the - not quite it. Alice says," Glass adds, "that the state Felicity is in right now, where he's sort of background terrified of everything, is comparable to turning."
Author: luminous_regnant	"On what axis?"
Author: pythbox	"It's like... whiteout," says Harley. "Like being in the sun. Turning actually wasn't like that for Alice - he didn't ever not like it. But we can imagine that if you started out not liking it, it would be similar." He considers his next words for a moment, perhaps also conferring with Alice and/or Corona. "The way they're all like each other is... there's something you're feeling, and it's bad, and you can't get away from it, and it changes the whole landscape of what it's like in your head. Anything else you were going to think about, anything you were going to do, it all gets that much harder. Being in the sun was the worst for that - I couldn't think at all, most of the time. Turning we guess is somewhere in the middle, but we can't be sure where it'd be for somebody who didn't like it the way Alice did. Being scared all the time like Corona was, like we figure Felicity is... well, it's not as bad, Corona could still walk and talk and do stuff most of the time, but it's the same kind of thing. Inescapable pressure."
Author: thaumobabble	When Golden doesn't reply immediately, Glass puts in, softly, "You're not better, you're luckier. Not the same way as me, but still -"
Author: luminous_regnant	"Mm."
Author: pythbox	Harley shrugs.
Author: thaumobabble	"He'll need a while. I don't know how long a while. The resources don't exist yet in a - usable way."
Author: luminous_regnant	"I believe I take your meaning."
Author: pythbox	Harley nods, relieved.
Author: luminous_regnant	"Carinna may yet grow better coping mechanisms," Golden adds to Glass in what only sounds like a topic change.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass sighs. "She may. She may not. She wants me to tell all the other Bells with Sherlocks to skip her. I can't expect it to get any better. At least there are test cases demonstrating a light at the end of the tunnel for Felicity."
Author: pythbox	"Yeah," says Harley. "Jokers even out. I think... if you give us enough time, we might all get to that last phase."
Author: thaumobabble	"Even the off-course ones?" Glass asks. "Oh - Golden, when they were all in the Belltower they were dividing themselves into phases. Sort of the Joker version of the Bell life-cycle."
Author: pythbox	"The off-course ones I'm less sure about," says Harley. "But I still feel like we're all headed to something like the same place, even if no two of us are getting there exactly the same way. I mean, I'm never gonna be a retiree, right, I'm not planning to go back to my Gotham and blow a bunch of things up and then die, but... I'd like to get to where Ghosty and Queenie and the Joker are, someday. That way they have of just being okay, even when they're not. I don't know, maybe it doesn't make sense if you're not a Joker."
Author: luminous_regnant	"Maybe not."
Author: pythbox	He smiles crookedly. "That happens."
Author: luminous_regnant	"Anyway. Have I satisfied you that I won't be conspicuously self-satisfied at Felicity?"
Author: pythbox	"Yeah," says Harley. "Thanks."
Author: luminous_regnant	"You're welcome."
Author: thaumobabble	"Time for me to go home, I guess."
Author: pythbox	"Guess so," says Harley.
Author: thaumobabble	Glass taps her Janegem. She goes.
Author: luminous_regnant	"Regardless of this conversation I think I'll give him a little longer to settle in before I pay him a visit," remarks Golden.
Author: pythbox	"Probably a good idea," says Harley. "Glass gave him a poof; I bet that'll help."
Author: luminous_regnant	"Ah, poofs."
Author: pythbox	Harley giggles.
Author: luminous_regnant	"How have you been doing, anyway?"
Author: pythbox	He shrugs. "Better. I can, like, move now." Demonstratively, he opens and closes his hands. "I might go get my aura soonish."
Author: luminous_regnant	"I wonder what you'll get."
Author: pythbox	Harley shrugs.
Author: luminous_regnant	"Anyway. If you aren't letting Edward read you today he'll be wondering what's kept me. I'll see you later, Harley." And off she goes.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	When the rest of the meeting has concluded, Elspeth teleports to Isle Esme. She lands in the house, first, to see if there's any sign of Felicity having picked one of the bedrooms.
Author: inhispockets	None whatsoever. Felicity, however, is curled up on a couch with his poof.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Oh, did Glass bring you a poof? That's a good idea."
Author: inhispockets	"She did! It's cute and snuggly," he says, snuggling it.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Poofs are both of those things, yes. Do you care which bedroom is yours? Jake and I will take the other."
Author: inhispockets	"The white and yellow one, I guess," he says after a moment's thought.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Okay. Did you see much of the island while I was gone? Do you like it?"
Author: inhispockets	"I saw some," he says. "It's a nice island."
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"My grandpa Carlisle bought it for my grandma Esme a long time ago." She snaps her fingers. "I said I'd get you a computer." And she conjures up a tablet laptop for him and bounces an overview of how to work it in simple enough terms for a twelve-year-old from the nineteen-eighties. "The hookups to the internet from Origin will roll out in a week, and Gift will take a little longer, and once the kinks have been ironed out we're going to add Atlantis too."
Author: inhispockets	"...huh," says Felicity. He ruffles his poof and turns on the computer.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	It's a nice computer, fast and sleek and with standard software already installed. And it has Internet, albeit only the Aurum internet as of this day.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity is entranced.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"If you have any questions I'll answer them," Elspeth says, and she makes sure there is a fountain for the poof and then conjures herself a bottle of bubbly. "Jake will be here to introduce himself around dinnertime."
Author: inhispockets	"Okay," he says absently.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth finishes her bubbly, makes a couple of teleporting trips between the Québec house and the island for personal effects, arranges them where they belong, and then sits on the other sofa with her own computer.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity messes around on his computer and snuggles his poof. It's pretty obvious when he discovers the games, because they make sounds.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth remains quietly in place, following him with her eyes when he gets up to fetch snacks or visit the bathroom but making no particular comment. Eventually, dinnertime rolls around, and Jacob opens the front door, and Elspeth hops over the back of the couch to traipse over to him and give him a hug.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity... observes this interaction.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Felicity, this is Jacob, my wolf. Jake, this is Felicity." The way Jake looks at Elspeth would make it pretty obvious he was her wolf even if Felicity had not been previously introduced to the concept. "Hi, Felicity," says Jake. "Huh, this one's not white." "He is not," agrees Elspeth. "Just barely not the first discovered case - the elf Sandy looks Asian, I'm not sure what the equivalent phenotype in Thilanushinyel is called." "Huh," says Jake.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity has no comment on any of this, apparently.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Jacob starts rummaging in the kitchen. "Did you just tell it to make like Harley just made a grocery trip?" he asks Elspeth. "As a shortcut. Yeah." "Heh. Well, at least I know what's around. Lots of ingredients." "Feel free to conjure a pizza," chuckles Elspeth. "Might just. Felicity, you want pizza?"
Author: inhispockets	"Sure," says Felicity.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"What do you eat on yours?" asks Jacob, around the banana he is eating as a stopgap food for apparently very impatient hunger. "Man, I can't even remember what pizza toppings were popular seventy years ago. I think pepperoni's traditional, they had pepperoni, right?" "Pepperoni is more than seventy years old as a pizza topping. Felicity is more likely to be puzzled by the availability of mashed potatoes. Or fig slices."
Author: inhispockets	"Fig slices? You know what, go for fig slices," says Felicity.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"All right, one with fig slices, coming right up." Jacob conjures two pizzas, on platters rather than in cardboard boxes; his is covered in assorted forms of meat and cut into very wide slices, Felicity's is dotted with sliced figs and has more standard cuts. Jacob proceeds to sit in front of and eat his pizza. He gives Elspeth a bite when she leans over his shoulder.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity eats his pizza and snuggles his poof.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth is satisfied with one bite of pizza, but she sits next to her wolf and continues computing.
Author: inhispockets	Most of Felicity's pizza goes by before he slows down. (He manages not to smudge the computer any more than slightly.)
Author: her_imperial_radiance	When he does slow down, Elspeth takes five triangles out of her coin sorter. Two of them are the same color as her hair, one of them is Harley's white-and-streaked-with-color, and two are a warm, chocolate brown sort of like the weird magnet-clasped uniform Jacob's wearing. "Here are some little wishcoins. They'll make little wishes - they'll clean off your computer screen or braid your hair or flick a lightswitch from across the room, that sort of thing."
Author: inhispockets	"Cool," says Felicity, inspecting them.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"If you run out, let me know."
Author: inhispockets	"Okay."
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"They're different colors depending on who makes them. These are mine, those are Jake's, this is Harley's."
Author: inhispockets	Looking at the coins and their respective sources that he can see, he asks, "Does Harley wear a lot of funny rainbow shit?"
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Not especially. And Jake's uniform is brown because his fur is brown, when he's a wolf, so that's the Imperial pack color. His sisters' packs wear black and white respectively."
Author: inhispockets	"Uh-huh," says Felicity. "So where's Harley's coin colour come from?"
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"A lot of the Jokers do rainbowy coins, actually. The eponymous Joker, the one who works for my mom, makes these -" She pulls out a clear triangle, also streaked. "It's not always clear why coin colors are what they are, though. Sometimes they're obvious." She tugs at her hair. Then she pulls out one of her mother's triangles, gold and glowy. "Bells' coins glow if they have native magic for defense against mental spying and tampering, in all different solid colors, and they're other, non-glowy patterns if they don't. Do you want to see what yours would be?"
Author: inhispockets	"Sure," he says.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth puts away excess triangles and spends a square.
Author: inhispockets	The illusory square that appears in front of Felicity is black - almost like Alice's colour-glimmering obsidian - but instead of those now-you-see-it-now-you-don't highlights, or Harley's more substantial but still wispy streaks, it has thick veins of red and blue and green and gold and violet and pink chasing each other across its surface. "Pretty," he says admiringly.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"It is!"
Author: inhispockets	He smiles.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Jacob finishes his entire pizza. Then he rummages in the freezer for ice cream. Elspeth flops onto the sofa again.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity scoops up his poof and wanders out of the house with it. He takes his supply of triangles.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Neither of the adults present follow him. Unrelatedly - really! - a giant brown wolf with a half-vampire on his back may be seen making a lazy circuit of the island while the sun sets.
Author: inhispockets	...Yep. That sure is a wolf. They're kind of cute together.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	They're very cute. Elspeth waves at Felicity while they go by.
Author: inhispockets	He waves back.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	And on go the wolf and his imprint along the beach. Afterwards they go back into the house.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity stays out for a while. He creeps back in very very quietly, for a human.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	She can totally hear him, but has no special reaction. Jake is napping in the bedroom Felicity didn't pick. Elspeth is up and on the couch; she isn't planning to sleep for a while with the Internet thing underway.
Author: inhispockets	He goes straight to bed without looking for either of them.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Do you need a set of pajamas?" Elspeth calls when he heads into his bedroom.
Author: inhispockets	He comes out and finds her. "Uh, sure."
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Any preferences?"
Author: inhispockets	Shrug.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth shrugs too, and conjures him a light set of pajamas to match the warm climate, white with yellow edging like the bedroom he picked out. "Here you go. I'll come up with a few outfits to magic into your closet overnight, if you don't have any requests."
Author: inhispockets	"Okay," he says, bundling up the pajamas and letting his poof tumble onto them so he can carry it all back into his room together.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth continues her work.
Author: inhispockets	And Felicity sleeps. For a value of 'sleep' that includes rather a lot of quiet crying.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth doesn't think - in spite of the fact that most people feel like they've known her for a long time after only a little - that her presence would be a comfort right now. She doesn't go into the room.
Author: inhispockets	In the morning, he stays in the room a long time, curled up with his poof and his computer. He emerges in search of food around lunchtime.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	The kitchen is full of ingredients, and Elspeth is eating grapes and tapping away at her tablet. "If there's some sort of food you'd like around that isn't here let me know," she says.
Author: inhispockets	"Mnh," says Felicity. He stares meditatively through the fridge door, inventories all the cupboards (again), and then makes himself a sandwich and disappears back into his room.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth does nothing to interfere.
Author: inhispockets	He appears again a few hours later, dressed in clothes from his closet instead of the pajamas, and silently begins making spaghetti.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"If you're planning to let Jacob have any, you'll want to make about four times as much for him as you would for a human," says Elspeth. Jake isn't in the house at this time. "He can fend for himself if you weren't intending on sharing, though."
Author: inhispockets	Felicity glances at her. "Okay," he says, and goes back to what he was doing. He does not make a fourfold portion.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	When Jake comes home for dinner, either Elspeth tells him privately the spaghetti's not for him or he figures it out, because he fixes himself a plate of sandwiches and eats them between items of pack gossip that he catches Elspeth up on. Apparently she owes Kim a visit and Alice found an imprint for Sawyer who he'll meet in two weeks and Pamela's thinking of moving to Becky's pack and teaching third grade there.
Author: inhispockets	When the spaghetti is finished, Felicity eats it, leaves the dishes scattered haphazardly, and takes his poof for a wander around the island.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	When he comes back, the kitchen is clean, and Elspeth is sitting on the roof to do her work for no obvious reason, and Jake has fallen asleep again.
Author: inhispockets	Elspeth is sitting on the roof; therefore it is possible to get to the roof. But Felicity can't see how. Maybe she used magic. He puts his poof back in his room next to its fountain and circles the house, looking for the best place to climb.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	There is, in fact, a way to climb up the back between the edges of the window and the lip of the roof, if you're very nimble or very determined.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity manages an adequate combination of the two.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	And then he is on the roof. "Hi there," says Elspeth, looking up from her tablet.
Author: inhispockets	"Hi."
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"I like the view up here," she comments.
Author: inhispockets	He looks around. "It's nice."
Author: her_imperial_radiance	And until he asks her something else, she will remain quiet and talk to Pattern's PR people about rolling out the interworld ansible service.
Author: inhispockets	He finds himself a reasonably comfortable seat, and sits quietly for a few minutes, and then says: "Whatcha doing?"
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"I'm talking to the people who do the nearest equivalent of my job in Origin. We're talking about how to reveal other worlds and the upcoming general interworld ansible services to the populations of Aurum and Origin. They'll be able to talk to each other soon enough, so we need to match reasonably well."
Author: inhispockets	"Huh," he says.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Typety typety.
Author: inhispockets	He sits there for a little while longer. Then he pursues strategies for getting down off the roof.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Do you want help getting down?" she asks.
Author: inhispockets	"Nah," he says. After some time spent figuring, he climbs down successfully.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Okay then.
Author: inhispockets	Once inside, he makes himself some more food and goes back to his room with it.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth jumps down off the roof and lands on her feet, after a while, and puts her tablet on her pillow while she takes a break (she brushes out her hair by hand, and braids it with a triangle, then sits with her eyes closed and her hands clasped to sort through the many thousands of years of unprocessed memories she still holds).
Author: inhispockets	Felicity does not emerge from his room again that day. He grabs breakfast early the next morning, and then spends almost the whole day wandering around the island.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	He is quite allowed to do that. Elspeth puts a few cookbooks on the kitchen counter but draws no special attention to them. The following morning, Jake leaves first thing in the morning. Elspeth says a couple hours later, "Felicity? I'm going to be out for a few hours. Do you need anything before I go?"
Author: inhispockets	"Nah," he says.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"All right. You can brainphone me, or if that doesn't work, you can go through Jane." And then she is gone.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity does some more wandering. He takes his poof. He takes his poof's fountain, too. An hour after Elspeth leaves, he goes back in the house. It takes a little time and ingenuity to set an empty cereal box on fire - he's already out of triangles anyway, and hasn't asked for more - but he manages it, and then he carries it around to as many flammable things as he can, and then he curls up on the living room floor and waits.
Author: alicornucopia	The house is not particularly flame-retardant.
Author: inhispockets	Good. Unfortunately for Felicity's grand plan, even when the house collapses around him, he doesn't quite torch. And, pinned flat under a smoldering chunk of ceiling with what feels like more bones broken than not, there's not much he can do to change that.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	In the complete absence of any information on this subject (Jokers give Alice headaches) Elspeth doesn't find out until she comes home. She puts out the remaining fire, first, and then she picks through the wreckage calmly in search of Felicity.
Author: inhispockets	Perhaps the faint whimpering will guide her.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	It helps, yes. She sits down next to him. She's not sure if his ears are working, with this extent of damage. But Elspeth can talk to the comatose, and he's not that far gone. I can heal you. I can torch you better. I can leave you alone. What do you prefer?
Author: inhispockets	[heal me?]
Author: her_imperial_radiance	It's a hex. She spends it.
Author: inhispockets	He whimpers some more, and drags himself out from under the wreckage.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Did you have fun?"
Author: inhispockets	"...No."
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Oh." She spends a pentagon to restore the house; it's surrounded by enough space that not much surrounding flora has been damaged. She gets up and triangles away the soot.
Author: inhispockets	Somewhat disbelievingly: "Did you just magic the house back?"
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Yes."
Author: inhispockets	"Wishes, huh?"
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Yes. It actually took a bigger one to fix you than the house. Living creatures are complicated, and the house didn't have any inherently magical installations."
Author: inhispockets	He is quiet for a moment. Then: "Is... is that why you're not mad?"
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"It's a little more complicated than that. I wouldn't have left you unsupervised near anything both destructible and irreplaceable in the first place. Had I done so for some reason, I would probably mourn the loss of whatever was destroyed. But in reality I have plenty of magic and I was warned to expect destruction of property, so there's nothing to be mad about."
Author: inhispockets	"Oh," says Felicity. He looks contemplatively at the restored house. Then he turns and walks away.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth goes out and inspects the smallish amount of damage to the plants around the house. She fixes it as she finds it.
Author: inhispockets	He's back a few minutes later, with his poof and its fountain.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Aww. You took them out first."
Author: inhispockets	He shrugs, cuddling the poof.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	"Poofs," she adds, "emit an anti-injury field. It works on them and anyone nearby."
Author: inhispockets	He smiles crookedly.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Elspeth fixes a tree.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity carries his poof inside.
Author: her_imperial_radiance	Eventually there is no remaining fire damage or ash that Elspeth can see. She goes back inside and picks up her tablet from her pillow where her wish restored its existence.
Author: inhispockets	Felicity and his poof remain in his bedroom.