Author: giftedandtalented	Tab goes home by door, right into Aelise's office. "Hello again."
Author: salus_populi	"And did you have fun on your trip?" says Aelise.
Author: giftedandtalented	"If I have to say 'I'm Tab, I'm new' one more time - which thankfully I don't expect to - I will become very consternated with my situation of being both Tab and new. But otherwise all is well. There are Kersibles on their way to everywhere and the welcoming committee has been found and they're going to patch this particular Jane-related problem, although I don't know if that will get all possible Jane-related problems, they don't exactly dare experiment on how to break her."
Author: salus_populi	"Yes, I can see how that might be a thorny problem. In the meantime - still running with the 'resurrect Toronto' idea?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Ye-e-es, but first I'm going to see if I can't hire a Joker, either one of the two from Origin or maybe entice Corona back on the condition that he doesn't have to be anywhere near Chelsa. If I can't get one of those I need to live off the largesse of other Bells, which I can do - Pattern's been acquiring more coins than she uses for sixteen years from three and a half Jokers, and Brilliance is really high output, and Stella has spares too. Anneia and Sandre would also make good mints, Stella has alts of them on payroll, but I don't think I can convince them to work for me, at least not for the next few hundred years."
Author: salus_populi	Aelise nods. "I'd like Anneia and Sandre made Harley-style immortal, if you don't mind and can get it done without letting them know you exist; I think they're good candidates for replacing him. And I expect I could probably get them to work for me, if all they had to do was funnel coins in my direction. So you're not without a local source even if you can't get a Joker to touch this world with a ten-foot pole."
Author: giftedandtalented	"It's called 'torchable'. I can sneak up on Anneia, I think, if she's alone - I don't know about Sandre - we've never tested whether he can sense me through my Gift, and a Gift will cut through coined wards like butter most likely."
Author: salus_populi	"Point," says Aelise. "I don't suppose I could have the distribution? That would solve a few problems."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Involves traveling Downside and getting it from the admin - I only have torchability one meta level up, not two. D'you want to do that? She has the ability to read all the thoughts of the lifetime of anybody who gets near, especially if they're torchable - doesn't do it to Bells anymore, but I don't know about you. She's also generally omnipotent but that's the one thing she has a history of doing without asking first."
Author: salus_populi	"Is there any reason to think that she will be interested in reading my thoughts in particular, or do anything about it if she does?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Interested not necessarily, do anything about it almost certainly not - she's not much for doing things, reportedly."
Author: salus_populi	"Then I can probably risk it."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Jane can take you there and back right now if you want."
Author: salus_populi	"That would be convenient."
Author: giftedandtalented	Tab reaches for her Janegem, then pauses. "Do you want your own one of these?"
Author: salus_populi	"That... would also be convenient," she says. "Potentially."
Author: giftedandtalented	"She can see and hear out of it but you can turn that off, there's a little switch," says Tab, "and then she can't do anything with it except mind the clock, and brainphone people in the relevant world even if there aren't other nodes. She has no yoinking-people-without-permission habit."
Author: mind_game	[I'm very well-behaved,] agrees Jane.
Author: salus_populi	"Good to know," says Aelise. "All right."
Author: giftedandtalented	Tab hands over a square. "Unless you want me to make it? I don't know what you want the gem part to look like."
Author: salus_populi	Aelise thinks for a moment, and then conjures an Imperial seal - a cylinder with the stylized globe from the Empire's flag, showing no continents and circled by the orbital ring, embossed on one end. This particular seal is made of silver, with a faceted black glass sphere enclosed in the upper part of the cylinder, showing through diamond-shaped cutouts all around the top. She hangs it around her neck. "Does that work?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yeah, sure." Tab makes an ansible with a matching gem as half; she twists them apart, Jane whisks away the ungemly half, and she swaps it in for the non-ansible one.
Author: salus_populi	"Great. Okay. In that case - Downside?"
Author: mind_game	[Coming right up.] And here is the Bell office in the catacombs.
Author: salus_populi	She brainphones the admin. [Can I have the power to distribute torchability, please?]
Author: ending_of	[Done.]
Author: salus_populi	[Thank you.] And to Jane, [I can go home now.]
$mind_game: (fractal)$ Author: mind_game	Pop!
Author: giftedandtalented	"So, at the risk of too much information, I'm probably going to sleep with Cam. That's the boy one of me," Tab clarifies.
Author: salus_populi	"Is there some particular reason for this or is it an act of pure whim?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"I'm not badly socialized in the same way as Aegis - she's a Bell who was raised in military school - but I did kind of grow up with only you, Kers, and briefly Harley for in-person company and had to lie a lot to everyone I talked to on the internet. So if I want to be rid of my virginity with someone who isn't approximately a total stranger, I can comb through a lot of people - probably dead Torontonians or something, since I still have to lie a lot to local Earthlings - learning how to be a social primate properly, or I can skip that part and proposition the conveniently-shaped version of myself who escapes strangerhood on that basis."
Author: salus_populi	"Reasonable strategy. Go for it," says Aelise.
Author: giftedandtalented	"Plan to. But he was on the stranded welcoming committee, so I think I'll let him settle in to where he lives first."
Author: salus_populi	"Yes, that could be an awkward proposition to get out of nowhere while busy."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Rather, yes. Jane, what's Corona up to?"
$mind_game: (fractal)$ Author: mind_game	[In Origin. Doesn't have a gem on him, so I can't be sure about what he's doing, but I can offer an educated guess!]
Author: giftedandtalented	"Of course. When he asks you for a lift out of the world can you tell him I'd like to talk to him?"
Author: mind_game	[Okay!]
Author: salus_populi	"So. What's your plan for reviving Toronto?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"After I figure out coin sourcing, one way or another, I terraform a planet, possibly in another solar system so astronomers around here don't notice anything if I'm careless invisibling everything, and ask the admin to instantiate it whole cloth less Delphi and company, where Jane can see it, and Jane puts it where I want it."
Author: salus_populi	"Another solar system would be a nice touch. And probably enticing to Corona, as a bonus."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yeah. I think I'll take my guided teleporting for a spin and see if it finds me a nice place!" Tab teleports - somewhere!
Author: pythbox	'Somewhere' turns out to be a planet. It has a purplish blue sky, a breathable atmosphere, and - where Tab is standing - a beachful of glittering silver-grey sand. Some distance away, the sand gives way to scrubby pale purple grass, which in turn heralds the beginning of a forest. The trees are huge. Their craggy black trunks grow in thick, majestic spirals up to at least a few hundred feet, with branches spreading out in wider arcs from the corkscrew trunks, sparsely near the bottom but in thick sprays up top. The end of each branch has a wide pointed leaf with blotchy zigzag stripes of colour banding from the base to the tip, almost like they were tie-dyed. Colourful vines twine around trunks and branches and dangle like leafy ropes all the way back down to the forest floor. But there's no sound except the rustle of vegetation in the slight breeze - no squirrels, no mice, no birds. No mobile life of any kind.
Author: giftedandtalented	[This place is awesome! Also this air appears to be pretty airlike, want to come see?]
Author: salus_populi	[Ooh.] Aelise teleports. "...Very nice," she says, tipping her head back to squint up at the treetops.
Author: giftedandtalented	"No kidding. I will hunt up a good place to put a Toronto." And Tab kicks off the ground, clears the treeline, and zooms.
Author: salus_populi	Aelise laughs. The planet turns out to be heavily forested, but there is one low-lying plain nearby - covered mostly in various purple grasses - that happens to have a configuration of lake and rivers very similar to pre-nuking Toronto. The city could be plopped right onto the edge of the lake with only minor adjustments to the surrounding landscape.
Author: giftedandtalented	[Guided teleportation! It is awesome!] whoops Tab.
Author: salus_populi	[You found a good spot, I assume?]
Author: giftedandtalented	[Even the water is very nearly right. I'll have to level a little terrain and nudge the mouth of that stream and otherwise I can just plunk the city down, looks like.]
Author: salus_populi	[Good for guided teleportation,] says Aelise.
Author: giftedandtalented	[Hip, hip, hooray! I need to name this planet, hmmm.]
Author: salus_populi	['Spiral',] she suggests. ['Arborea'.]
Author: giftedandtalented	Tab flies higher for a better view of the broader landscape, the global climate. Up-up-up. [Maybe.]
Author: salus_populi	The global climate varies almost as much as Earth's, but those huge spiral trees are definitely a theme - there must be hundreds of species with the same basic shape. [Got any better ideas?]
Author: giftedandtalented	[I just wanted to see if the big spiraly trees were all over the place, and they are. Arborea it is.]
Author: salus_populi	[All right.]
Author: giftedandtalented	[Awesome awesome awesome. Hey Jane, can you star chart this place and figure out where we are?]
$mind_game: (fractal)$ Author: mind_game	There is a pause, and then Jane says, [I have definitively determined that I have no clue at all! We are probably not even in the Milky Way!]
Author: salus_populi	Aelise laughs. "I wonder if asking Demauri would help. With time and math we could probably figure out what direction this solar system is from ours, anyway."
Author: giftedandtalented	"You want to explain to Demauri that you have traveled to a planet you have no idea where the heck it is, please find you?"
Author: salus_populi	"Hmm, point. But he's Demauri. He's used to my bizarre requests."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Fair enough. Golden recognized him, apparently on her world he was a vampire, they do this mating-for-life but he spun the mate-for-life roulette wheel and wound up with a half-vampire and they don't do that, he wound up kind of mad-stalker until she - the stalking victim - killed him."
Author: salus_populi	"Interesting," she says. "I can see how that would work Gift-wise - did the alt have the same power? - but Demauri's never been the stalking type."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Same approximate power, yeah, less powerful as seems to be the theme - he had to have met the person and couldn't triangulate very effectively. Golden thinks he thought he was playing some elaborate game of hide-and-seek game with her till the very end."
Author: salus_populi	"Well, that's unpleasant," says Aelise. "Is that a common feature of Aurum vampires?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"No, usually they wind up symmetrically attached to other vampires, or they meet humans, bite them, and then are symmetrically attached to other vampires."
Author: salus_populi	"But the - potential," she says, "to react badly to the asymmetrical case. That seems like a major flaw."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yeah. It's not invariable, and also being a vampire is no longer permanent, you can fix it on a nontorchable by sending them through Downside or on a torchable with an evil. Werewolves from Aurum do something similar but they don't go stalkery, just kind of dependently depressive, in the worst case."
Author: salus_populi	"Good to know," says Aelise.
Author: giftedandtalented	"One of you has a werewolf," Tab adds. "Libby from Eos. Wandered in among some wolves and one of them imprinted on her and she brought him home and turned her Kers into a werewolf too because it's not a great idea to have one wolf all by themselves - the alphas can take it, Elspeth can bring hers places, but Libby's wolf isn't one of the alphas."
Author: salus_populi	"Also good to know," she says. "Aurum species seem to have a lot of drawbacks."
Author: giftedandtalented	"A lot of perks too, though, I can see why Golden wanted to turn when that plus witchcraft was the magic she had going. Also she was already in love with her associated mated-for-life vampire."
Author: salus_populi	"That would be a major plus, under the circumstances."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yep. It does seem like the vampire thing selects for personal compatibility as best it can. The wolf thing - does not. They've been having a precog help out the wolves for a while now."
Author: salus_populi	"But the personal compatibility factor clearly isn't infallible, or it wouldn't result in stalkers."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Golden theorizes that Demetri and his lady love would have gotten along really well if her power had worked on him. She does a kind of - not-mattering thing, where you can technically see her but you can't think she's important. And Demetri could not think she wasn't important, so she had his attention constantly and couldn't stand it and was scared of him."
Author: salus_populi	"Aha."
Author: giftedandtalented	"She didn't get along that well with Golden either, except Golden could blanket her - she calls it shielding when she does it - so Demetri couldn't track her, so they worked something out."
Author: salus_populi	"Now that's interesting."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yeah. If Golden had been more reliable about the shielding back then they could have taken over the world together, because Allirea could share, too - only with one person and only while she was faded out herself, but Golden would still be able to see her, and Golden blocked everything that got past Allirea. They could've walked into the throne room of the previous rulers and casually disassembled everyone while their next victims were trying to figure out how to blame the weather. But Golden kept slipping so they had to go with something more complicated involving Elspeth and Nathan and a straight-up fight."
Author: salus_populi	Aelise laughs. "Now there's a mental image."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Blaming the weather? Yeah."
Author: salus_populi	"Still, congratulations to Golden, not that she wants them."
Author: giftedandtalented	"I think it's probably best if you and Golden don't directly talk to each other very much. Go through Lizzie or me."
Author: salus_populi	"That's about what I figured."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yeah, I didn't think she was hiding it very well."
Author: salus_populi	"I don't get the impression she meant to."
Author: giftedandtalented	Tab nods. "Okay. So here's Toronto on the planet Arborea which is probably not even in the Milky Way. Home?"
Author: salus_populi	She shrugs; she teleports back to her office.
Author: pythbox	Somewhere else, Corona tells Jane, [Think I'll head out now.]
Author: mind_game	[Tab wanted to talk to you about minting for her.]
Author: pythbox	[...Seriously?]
Author: mind_game	[Yep. It would not, most likely, involve setting foot on Gift's Earth at all.]
Author: pythbox	[...okay,] he says. [Where would I be setting foot instead?]
$mind_game: (fractal)$ Author: mind_game	[Tab found a planet that is not even in the Milky Way probably and she's going to put Toronto on it.]
Author: pythbox	[That's just about far enough away,] says Corona. [Okay.] And he teleports to the local Janepoint.
Author: mind_game	[Tab is on the planet in question, want to just go there?]
Author: pythbox	[Yeah.]
Author: mind_game	Pop! He appears before Tab has left.
Author: giftedandtalented	"Oh! Hi, Corona. Welcome to Arborea."
Author: pythbox	"Hi," he says, glancing around at the planet. "You wanted to talk?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yeah. I need a mint. I can try to hire away Pattern's spare, but I thought I'd try you first, in case 'probably not even in the Milky Way' is far away enough from Chelsa to suit you. I'll be resurrecting Toronto just about as soon as I have coin influx sorted out. I'm gonna put it there." She points at the place.
Author: pythbox	"You know, I wouldn't have thought I'd want to come back, but a galaxy away is actually far enough," he says. "Surprisingly."
Author: giftedandtalented	"I hoped so! Anything else we should work out? I'm probably going to install ground rules on Arborea not unlike what other space-colonist Bells are doing, I hear this might annoy you, will routine vacations out of the world do the trick or do we need to think of something else?"
Author: pythbox	"...Define 'ground rules'," says Corona.
Author: giftedandtalented	"They will basically make all kinds of antisocial behavior physically impossible. Nonconsensual violence, propagation of unwanted noise, harassment, etcetera - I'm copying the state of the art from Pattern. If you would like to be specially excepted so people can attack you, harass you, and keep you up at night with saxophone practice, that can be arranged."
Author: pythbox	Corona laughs. "I'll think about it. Vacations out of the world should help, anyway. And consensual violence still works, right?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Of course."
Author: pythbox	Corona grins. "That's good. I'd really have a problem if it didn't."
Author: giftedandtalented	"No reason to ban it if everyone's having fun," shrugs Tab.
Author: pythbox	"Some people would just ban it anyway," he shrugs.
Author: giftedandtalented	"Those people are stupid."
Author: pythbox	He laughs. "You're okay."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Thanks!"
Author: pythbox	Corona grins fondly at her.
Author: giftedandtalented	[Hey, Jane, can you check with the admin for me that I can get Toronto-minus-Delphi-and-his-cohort?]
Author: mind_game	[Tab would like to resurrect an entire city that was nuked into oblivion a few centuries ago on her world,] Jane reports to the admin, [and would like to know if she can get it back all in one piece, without the people responsible for the nuking - a fellow named Delphi and the people who were working with him. Can we do that?]
Author: ending_of	[Yes,] says the admin. [You'll have to move it out, of course - I assume you can manage if I give you a view of the city?]
Author: mind_game	[Yep! I am such a big Jane these days, I can fit a city.]
Author: ending_of	The admin instantiates the city, very far away from any existing settlement, and provides Jane with a view.
$mind_game: (fractal)$ Author: mind_game	[That's paused, right? Tab doesn't want it right this second.]
Author: ending_of	[It is, yes. At this rate local development shouldn't overtake it for about a thousand years, and if you haven't claimed it before then, I can move it.]
Author: mind_game	[I do not think it will take a thousand years,] Jane says merrily, and she reports to Tab.
Author: giftedandtalented	"Alrighty," says Tab, and she cracks her knuckles and brainphones Aelise and Kers. [Corona's on board. I'm going to start figuring out the best M.O. for reviving a city, it should be alive again inside an hour.]
Author: queensidecastle	[Have fun.]
Author: salus_populi	[Let us know if you need a sounding board.]
Author: giftedandtalented	Tab thinks. She thinks about how old cities used to work (she has read a lot about them, especially now that her entire to-read list was slurped up when she got near enough to her computer) and what things about them will need to be tweaked. She lays down state-of-the-art ground rules. She contemplates mechanisms for informing the citizens of Toronto. They will appear afraid; the city was in tension for a long time before the nuke fell, and she wants to calm them down, although by the same token she doesn't want to wake anyone who is asleep or overly shock anyone who managed to live sufficiently under a rock that they weren't freaked out already. There's several revelations to cover - the bomb fell, it's been a long time, they've been brought back, they're all torchable now, this isn't Earth, they're under new management, anyone they knew from other places will have to be fetched up separately, the new management is - she's going to start out calling it 'extremely Gifted'. She composes a public address that covers the "everything's okay, you're safe, remain calm" part - everyone will hear it in her voice, and all people will also get writing on the subject of the more complex topics to read at their leisure. She composes the address and the pamphlets both in the Speech for convenient general dissemination; Toronto was not a monoculture, after all. She sets up some more wishes, pentagons herself old-timey English - she'd be mutually intelligible without, or in the Speech, but just for completeness. The people of Toronto are going to have enough to get used to anyway. It'd be pretty hard not to notice the trees on Arborea.
$mind_game: (fractal)$ Author: mind_game	When Tab cues her, Jane picks up Toronto, and puts it down.
Author: pythbox	"...Nice," says Corona. "Wow, it was kind of pretty."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Kinda, yeah," says Tab. The streets of Toronto say soothingly in the Speech, "It's okay. You're all safe, Delphi and company are gone, please remain calm. Further information has been delivered in writing." Further information is, in a timely manner, delivered in writing.
Author: pythbox	People more or less fail to panic. There is definitely some more and some less, though.
Author: queensidecastle	Kers says, [You remember those presents you got me?]
Author: giftedandtalented	[Yeah. Why, did Toronto just absorb some of them?]
Author: queensidecastle	[All four, actually.]
Author: giftedandtalented	[That is an interesting coincidence. Thanks for letting me know.]
Author: queensidecastle	[No problem.]
Author: giftedandtalented	After people have had an hour to read the pamphlets and talk amongst themselves, there is a second flurry of notices, this one inviting people to list any people they would like to have back who were not in Toronto at the time of the nuke and therefore will have to be fetched separately, in writing on the back of the notice. This will magically copy to Jane, who will then put these people into some sort of sensible order, vet them, and send them up. They may also issue other requests, statements, or complaints on the back of the notice, which Jane will also take up and sort for Tab. [Hey, Luhan, this is Tab - I'm the resident version of the person who teleported over to you a while back.]
Author: areyouabeer	[Yeah?] says Luhan.
Author: giftedandtalented	[I thought you might want to know that I have recovered and instantiated Toronto as it was before it was nuked, minus the causes for said nuke, on another planet.]
Author: areyouabeer	[Huh,] he says. [Which planet?]
Author: giftedandtalented	[Named it Arborea. I don't think it's in the Milky Way.]
Author: areyouabeer	[Seriously?]
Author: giftedandtalented	[Yep. I have a guided teleportation magical thingamajig and I let it pick me a place and it found me this great planet that already had breathable air and plants but no animals and water in almost precisely the right layout to plop Toronto on it, so I nudged what needed nudging and plopped Toronto.]
Author: areyouabeer	[Wouldn't mind seeing that,] says Luhan.
Author: giftedandtalented	[I can come fetch you if you like, are you by yourself?]
Author: areyouabeer	[As usual.]
Author: giftedandtalented	Pop. "Hullo."
Author: areyouabeer	"Hi," says Luhan. He picks up his beer and gets up out of his chair.
Author: giftedandtalented	"I was hovering over Toronto when I left; do you want any particular non-hovering vantage point?"
Author: areyouabeer	"Top of the CN Tower, of course."
Author: giftedandtalented	Pop.
Author: areyouabeer	It's empty of people up here, which is mildly unusual. Luhan looks around, inhales, and nods. "Yeah," he says, "you brought back Toronto, all right. What are you gonna do with it?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Well, I'm taking requests on who else to bring back and will be making places to put them, since I imagine plenty of people from here had friends who died later - or earlier - in unrelated ways. So I'm using it as a jumping-off point to populate this planet with. It's possible the actual structures here won't be inhabited for that long; I mean, Toronto comes with its own micro-economy, I'm not going to interfere directly with it except to ensure that there's food and water incoming despite the lack of farms, really, but I'm not planning to build anything that requires rent paid or what have you. Anybody dead you want back?"
Author: areyouabeer	"Not especially."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Okay. And the people here can know what all has happened since they've been gone," she waves at the cityscape bordered by its alien trees, "but if you want to go back to Earth please don't spread it around. Aelise knows, obviously."
Author: areyouabeer	"Obviously," he agrees.
Author: giftedandtalented	"Do you want to go back to Earth anytime soon?"
Author: areyouabeer	He looks past the edge of the city, to the treetops that average a little higher than eye level from here. "The forest is interesting, I gotta say."
Author: giftedandtalented	"I like it, yeah."
Author: areyouabeer	"There's really no animals on the planet?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Possible there are sea creatures, I didn't check." She checks. "Nope."
Author: areyouabeer	"Bizarre."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Well, there are animals on it now," she says merrily, gesturing at Toronto.
Author: areyouabeer	He snorts.
Author: giftedandtalented	"Actually, I should probably worry about invasive species nibbling up all the cool alien plants." She snaps her fingers; the nonhuman life of Toronto is stuck within its borders until she thinks of something else. "There."
Author: areyouabeer	"Good thinking."
Author: giftedandtalented	"I am rather good at thinking."
Author: areyouabeer	He chuckles.
Author: giftedandtalented	"You didn't say if you were staying or going. You can decide later, if you want to just brainphone me if you need a lift."
Author: areyouabeer	"You don't have better things to do than be the interplanetary taxi service?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"I have lots of things to do, but I can do a lot of them all at once."
Author: areyouabeer	"Because on the one hand, I want to climb those trees, and on the other hand, I want to get home sometime today."
Author: giftedandtalented	"I really will take you back when you want to go back. If you don't believe me I can introduce you to someone else who can do it."
Author: areyouabeer	He shrugs. "There's always Aelise, if I'm that hard up."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yeah, she can teleport now too."
Author: areyouabeer	"Figured."
Author: giftedandtalented	"D'you want a copy of the factsheet everybody got when I woke them?"
Author: areyouabeer	"Sure."
Author: giftedandtalented	Poof.
Author: areyouabeer	That sure is a factsheet. He skims it idly.
Author: giftedandtalented	"The thing about torching doesn't apply to you, but I can make it do if you like," says Tab casually. "Or Aelise can."
Author: areyouabeer	"Any horrifying drawbacks I don't know about?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"If you are stuck somewhere that will not stop trying to kill you, it gets a lot of tries."
Author: areyouabeer	"That's not much of a change. Sure, hit me."
Author: giftedandtalented	Tab flicks her fingers illustratively in his general direction. "You're all set."
Author: areyouabeer	"That was easy."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yep. Very simple procedure. All you have to do is go to the underworld and receive it as a gift from she who commands the fundament of reality. Piece of cake."
Author: areyouabeer
Author: giftedandtalented	Tab laughs.
Author: areyouabeer	Luhan snorts.
Author: giftedandtalented	"No, I mean I did literally have to do that but it's pretty straightforward, I didn't have to beat her at chess first or anything."
Author: areyouabeer	"And she gave you Toronto as a bonus?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Yep. And will supply any other departed people or things I want as long as I have my trusty way of moving them out of there."
Author: areyouabeer	"Nice of her."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Well, most of them she wouldn't have to call up special like Toronto, most of them Jane can get for me without the admin's intervention. And in return she does not have to actually run the afterlife on a day-to-day basis, which apparently she didn't love doing."
Author: areyouabeer
Author: giftedandtalented	"You keep looking at me like that."
Author: areyouabeer	"Yep."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Why?"
Author: areyouabeer	"You keep saying things like that."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Like that how?" laughs Tab.
Author: areyouabeer	"Casually unbelievable," he says, after a moment's thought.
Author: giftedandtalented	"You met Glass, I figured that'd make the rest of it credible."
Author: areyouabeer	"How's that?"
Author: giftedandtalented	"Well, I don't know all the contents of your conversation with her, but I gather she showed up and made a lot of arcane pronouncements and then left. And here I am and I look like a younger version of her not in a witch costume, right? Which is one arcane pronouncement down, so more of them shouldn't be such a stretch."
Author: areyouabeer	He snorts.
Author: giftedandtalented	"Also here is Toronto, so that's another pronouncement demonstrated."
Author: areyouabeer	"Sure. I'm not saying I don't believe you. Just that if you're going to talk about going to the underworld and exchanging favours with the administration, you're gonna get some funny looks."
Author: giftedandtalented	"I wouldn't with random people but you're cleared pretty high."
Author: areyouabeer	"Yep," he agrees.
Author: giftedandtalented	[Aelise, anybody I invite to a Bellparty who's been Chelsa'd is going to have the option of getting Elspeth to clear that up for them if they want, is there anyone I should not invite, like Luhan?]
Author: salus_populi	[Luhan in particular is extremely low-risk,] says Aelise. [Anyone else who habitually lives on Earth, I'd ask you to check with me first.]
Author: giftedandtalented	[Okay. Apart from you and Kers I don't have any other Earthly invitees in mind, although the newly wakened Torontonian templates might get asked just since they have alts in the circle-of-knowns.] "My alts throw parties occasionally and there'll probably be one in a couple weeks. You can come if you want," Tab says.
Author: areyouabeer	"Not usually my kind of thing," he says. "I'll think about it."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Sure, no hurry, we don't even have a date and time picked out."
Author: areyouabeer	He shrugs. "Guess I'll go climb some trees, then. And let you know when I want to go home."
Author: giftedandtalented	"Sure. See you whenever. You want a lift to the trees or can you get there from here?"
Author: areyouabeer	"A lift would be nice."
Author: giftedandtalented	Pop. "See ya." And off she goes to address the concerns of the Torontonians, as relayed by Jane, and to think about what an appropriate palace would look like. Maybe she should have a treehouse.