Author: she_sells_seashells | Everyone pops in. All the Bells, all the Jokers - except for the Joker, who is missing for some reason - and the Bells immediately, without having to speak, divide their tasks amongst themselves. Stella and Angela and Pattern and Cam start brainstorming solutions - not implementing them, yet, just generating ideas that might work depending on what they're dealing with. Golden, as the one who's actually had her mind read by a loved one - albeit under more controlled circumstances - is working with Shell Bell, the other previously broken-beyond-recognition Bell, on coming up with a plan to help walk Isibel through recovery after they fix this somehow. Cam eventually folds into this conversation from the other since he's the one with a talking notebook; if they can find Isibel's old books they might be able to turn them into something that could help more actively. Rose is peering into Isibel's mindscape, looking for visible damage that she can just heal directly. Amariah's popping back into Milliways and forcing the door to the elf's world so she can drop a Janepoint in the cave to keep it temporally synced, then coming back and joining Juliet and Aegis in interrogating the demon and the waking dragon about what exactly they have done to Isibel. |
Author: autokinetic | "What," says Aegis, "exactly caused this link between you - and what are its features?" |
Author: endragoned | The demon holds the sleeping Isibel in his lap and leans against the dragon's side.
"It's a Dragonbond," he says. "They happen through - fate, I suppose, or the Wild Magic. A unicorn came to Isibel, after she met me, and he told her that she must bond to my love - " he pets the dragon's folded wing " - to save the world. So she did, and she learned the elven magic that comes now only to those who bond with dragons, and we found who the world needed saving from and killed him." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "So this is leftover now, we can disrupt it and get her some fucking privacy and it won't ruin her world?" |
Author: autokinetic | "How do fate and wild magic and so on operate in your world, magic varies between worlds, we need to understand it," Aegis says. |
Author: endragoned | "The bond is meant to be for life," he says. "I don't know if it can be changed. I don't know if it can be broken. I don't know if she would live through it if you tried. I don't know if she would want to. It is made of - love, not just magic." |
Author: autokinetic | "For life - so if we kill her," begins Aegis. |
Author: endragoned | The dragon sweeps a wing protectively around his loves, hiding them from sight, and growls. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "No, dude, it's okay, I'm dead, we can get her back, it just might break the bond on the way," says Juliet. |
Author: endragoned | The dragon rumbles disbelievingly, then settles down, folding his wing again.
"It would not harm her?" he asks. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well, I mean, there's still the part where we'd have to kill her. There would be a corpse. But then we could get her out like me, or Pattern, or Shell Bell - we all died, we're fine now. You don't have Cam's and Amariah's problem that they can't hook into Downside from their worlds, and it looks like Amariah didn't jump the gun on making her torchable so it's an option. Not a pretty option, but if it's as indelible as, like, vampire mate bonds - we know those don't survive a trip through Downside." |
Author: endragoned | The demon closes his eyes and leans back against the dragon and hugs Isibel gently.
"If you're sure," the dragon murmurs. "If you're sure." |
Author: autokinetic | "It's not something we ever tried on purpose before," Aegis says. "But yeah, those three all died, and we can hook you into Downside. Hey brainstormers!" she calls. "Have you got anything better than sending her through Downside?" |
Author: self_composed | "I think we probably want to try, you know, basic mental defense wishes first," says Stella. "Failing that, wish away that aspect of the bond entirely." |
Author: endragoned | The dragon curls his whole body protectively around the demon.
"My love, my love," he says. "We are bonded too, my demon and I. Kill us if you must, though it break our beloved's heart, but do not make us separate." |
Author: dark_light | "...Guys," says Amariah, "in case there was doubt, we actually need to take that seriously, I am getting daemony vibes here, I don't think they're just being theatrical." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "I take it just putting them in different worlds wouldn't work. Isibel in one and the demon and dragon in another," says Angela. "That seems the least likely to be harmful. The most easily reversible." |
Author: endragoned | "Our beloved has been to your between-worlds place," says the demon. "We felt her there just the same." |
Author: bellfounding | "So that's out. Rose, are you getting anything?" |
Author: beheld_beauty | Rose emerges from her mindscape trance. "I can't find anything. I can appear to enter her mindscape, it doesn't refuse me outright the way some of ours do, but I can't find anything there, it's empty. I don't know if that's damage or simply how she's made." |
Author: autokinetic | "Fat lot of good her opacity did her, if it's that," snorts Aegis. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Apart from mindreading," says Shell Bell, "there's - I overheard something about it being made of love? I'm - wary of messing with that. Considering." |
Author: endragoned | "Love and magic," says the dragon. "A dragon loves their Bonded, and the Bonded love the Dragon. My demon and I are closer than most - we had ten thousand years together before our beloved found us, and we knew from the start that we were the same - so, loving me, she loves him too." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah, um, I'm not sure outright unbonding her is the first thing we want to try," Shell Bell says. "I like the sound of mental defense wishes. Let's do mental defense wishes. What's the state of the art?" |
Author: bellfounding | There is a brief conference about version numbers and interactions of various wish designs with native powers. Ultimately Pattern's defense is deemed likely the best choice, and Pattern expends a hex to give Isibel a copy.
"Did... that work?" she asks hopefully. |
Author: endragoned | "...I feel no difference," says the dragon. "She dreams yet." |
Author: dark_light | "We're going to have to wake her to test it. Ugh, I told her she'd wake up safe. Goddesses all, I hate this, I hate this," mutters Amariah, undoing her sleep-wish. |
Author: small_magics | Isibel opens her eyes, and then scrunches them shut again and shudders in the demon's embrace. |
Author: dark_light | "We're going to have to wake you to test things as we think of them, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," murmurs Amariah, and she sends Isibel back to sleep. |
Author: endragoned | The demon holds his beloved and cries into her hair. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Nothing, I take it. My aura does some - but no, she can't cast anything like this, can she." |
Author: self_composed | "What do we have, Bells?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Downside." |
Author: bellfounding | "Cutting the bond at the source - I know you don't like it, Amariah, but she's disintegrating -" |
Author: dark_light | "It would be kinder to kill her and then leave her dead," Amariah says flatly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "We can try Downside, then, if these things usually end when someone dies. Send her through. Will she need to avoid seeing you again?" Shell Bell asks the demon and the dragon. "Would that just stick you back together? I don't know how this forms." |
Author: endragoned | "It forms when she sees me, and knows me, and loves me," says the dragon. "It is possible to - choose not to accept the bond, even then. But those who do will carry a deep sorrow all their lives." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "But she could still visit the demony half of you?" hazards Juliet. |
Author: endragoned | The demon nods.
"We were friends - when she knew she could bond to my love, but did not know she had to. She saw only me, and it was... fine." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Magic in your world isn't mean, right? It's not going to destroy everything she sacrificed for if we try to cheat her out of the sacrifice being permanent?" |
Author: endragoned | "The Wild Magic is - not kind," he says, "exactly. But it is not cruel." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Are any of us going to think of anything better than Downside in the next - day, two?" Shell Bell asks.
The answer appears to be no.
"Who's already been looked over by the admin and wants to take Isibel there? I don't think we'd better wait around to find someone from her world to make torchable." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "I'll go." Angela holds out her arms towards the demon for Isibel. |
Author: endragoned | He kisses his sleeping love, then stands and settles her into Angela's arms. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | Angela has no trouble carrying her.
"Jane," she murmurs.
And Jane takes angel and elf Downside.
[Excuse me,] Angela says to the admin. [I need a world added and don't yet want to make anyone from it able to torch.] |
Author: ending_of | [The person you brought with you?] says the admin. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | [We need to actually kill her and then bring her back, not torch her, but I brought her here so you could use her to find the world to hook her in.] |
Author: ending_of | [Done,] says the admin, and indeed it is now apparent through Isibel that her world is linked to Downside. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | [Thank you.]
Angela does it, shivering, with a square, cleanly. There isn't a body, not with the death occurring Downside; the elf vanishes from her arms. |
Author: endragoned | Back in Atlantis, the demon throws his arms around the dragon's neck and cries. But the dragon sighs with relief. |
Author: mind_game | [Did it work?] Jane asks. |
Author: endragoned | "She is dead," says the dragon, with strongly mixed emotions. "I felt it. The bond no longer links us." |
Author: dark_light | "Tell Angela to wake her," murmurs Amariah. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | Angela gets this instruction.
And she wakes Isibel. |
Author: endragoned | The demon shudders and weeps helplessly; the dragon bows his head.
"She is with us again," he murmurs. |
Author: small_magics | Isibel doesn't even know what's happening. She keeps waking to find that she's still watched and she still hurts, and the winged mirror of her who seems so kind clearly wants to help but has not.
She offers up her love to her Bonded; there's not a lot else for her to do. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | When Angela hears this report she sighs and picks up Isibel again and asks Jane to take them both back to Atlantis; there is clearly no point to keeping Isibel away from the dragon. She puts Isibel back to sleep. |
Author: endragoned | When Isibel appears again, the demon is still crying too hard to notice immediately. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | Angela deposits the elf with her beloveds and steps back solemnly. |
Author: bellfounding | "That leaves -" |
Author: dark_light | "No." |
Author: bellfounding | "Don't interrupt me, that was uncalled for -" |
Author: dark_light | "It's an atrocity, unless I desperately miss my guess - sweeties, Sue -" |
Author: truthwright | Kas and Petaal disentangle themselves from the pile of Jokers that have until now mostly all been huddling up and feeling sad together. Sue follows, and Ivy instantiates as a mouse on his shoulder because why else would Amariah be calling for them?
"What is it?" says Petaal, wrapping herself around Kas's neck and shoulders as a dark grey snake with pebbled skin. |
Author: bellfounding | "I was going to say we can patch that part, Amariah," says Pattern. "We can hook them up to just each other and not Isibel like ten ways and throw in Sue for good measure and then go after the dragonbondy thing." |
Author: dark_light | "They want to take the bond apart but it's what holds the demon and the dragon together," murmurs Amariah to the daemoned Jokers. "I'm not sure if - there's no substitutions for daemons but maybe they work just differently enough?" |
Author: pythbox | "...well, I can ask," says Sue.
He touches the dragon's mind. |
Author: endragoned | The demon and the dragon show him what it is to be them: sharing every thought, touching souls even in dreams. One person with two experiences of the world. |
Author: pythbox | Sue swallows.
"They're a lot like us," says Ivy. "A lot, a lot. But - I don't know - if you linked them up every way you could, it might work." She shivers. "We can't see how it wouldn't, just from looking." |
Author: self_composed | "Bell standard with visual channel isn't going to cut it here," says Stella. "Maybe same basis, omit the visuals, just run it with everything automatically 'opened' as it happens." She hexes it up in both directions. |
Author: beheld_beauty | "And enchanter's mindscape-reading. If you're truly one I don't know how well it will work, but -" Rose wishes both enchanter power and enchanter skill and murmurs the instructions to the mindscape-reading spell she uses with Beast. |
Author: autokinetic | "And a link like Sue's, automated pushing - and Sue, you might wanna stay hooked in while we do it, if you can stand it, in case they need more bandwidth or something -" Aegis wishes them a facsimile of what Sue does just between demon and dragon. |
Author: dark_light | "And something like what daemons have with their people, not the drawbacks but the connection," says Amariah, and she takes a moment to work out a design, preemptive anti-intercision, and she wishes it into place. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "And something as near to the original as possible without incorporating Isibel or anything else, just - copied over with that edit," says Angela, and she wishes too. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Could throw in a limited target version of Edward, or - no, if you want it comprehensive you want Aro-at-range. Here." Golden wishes too. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Are we forgetting anything?" Juliet asks. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Not that I can think of." |
Author: pythbox | Sue links the demon, too, which echoes oddly in his head. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Wishing away mindreading feature of the bond - now," says Golden. |
Author: endragoned | The dragon slumps as though struck dead on the spot.
The demon screams. |
Author: pythbox | Sue hisses. Ivy whimpers and huddles against his neck. |
Author: dark_light | "What - what's happened -" |
Author: pythbox | Sue pushes the problem to every Bell he can reach:
The moment the wish was cast, the dragon's mind went away. Not sleeping, not unconscious - gone. Blank as empty air. There is nothing like a thought in him now, a fact which the demon is experiencing in sixfold clarity. He lives, but that is all he does. Magic still hums in his bones, his heart beats on, his lungs draw breath, but the part of him that does the thinking is a void. This is particularly obvious through Rose's contribution, because their shared mindscape - the island that was their home for ten thousand years - is full of ragged gaping holes. |
Author: dark_light | "Undo it - Golden, you know what you did, undo it -" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Isibel -" |
Author: dark_light | "It would be kinder to kill them all and leave them in the catacombs for eternity, undo it, now." |
Author: luminous_regnant | Golden reverses her wish, hands clenched at her sides. |
Author: endragoned | The demon sobs with relief.
The dragon gives a single all-over shudder and bends his head so the demon can kiss it frantically. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How did that happen?" asks Shell Bell softly. |
Author: endragoned | "I should have known," says the dragon, shuddering again. "The bond is the dragon. The dragon is the bond. The part of the bond that touches minds - is my mind." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Are we going to have to leave her like that? We can't do that, it's horrible," breathes Juliet. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "If he could just back off," murmurs Golden. "If he could just not pay attention, or if her shielding worked..." |
Author: self_composed | "...given that her shielding doesn't work -"
There is an abrupt chorus of nos from the other Bells.
"I know, I know, but -" |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Why is it that you simply can't refrain from reading her?" Angela asks the demon/dragon pair softly. |
Author: endragoned | "It would be like trying not to hear your own thoughts," says the dragon. "She is there, in our minds."
"I can do it if I stop thinking at all," says the demon. "But it's hard. I can't stay that way for long. And when I'm thinking of nothing but how much I love her, then her mind is full of my thoughts and she can't do anything else." |
Author: dark_light | Amariah clenches both fists in her hair. "There has got to be a way to do this. We just haven't been thinking hard enough." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "It's not even the case that we can tolerate zero mindreading. I routinely allow Edward to read me - it just has to be under my control, is all." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Can we edit the bond to - require consent, maybe, add a filter that the demon won't use but Isibel will...?" |
Author: self_composed | "Wouldn't that amount to the same thing? Maybe not. If we just knew how it worked... you know what, I'm waking up Lazarus, this is important enough to wake him up for. Jane?" |
Author: mind_game | Jane picks up Stella and puts her in Eos. |
Author: self_composed | Stella drops herself outside Lazarus's apartment and spends the triangle to wake him. [Lazarus. I remember giving you a no-need-to-sleep power, this is recreational, we have a disaster on our hands and I need you, please let Jane bring you to Atlantis to have a look at this elf Bell and her dragon.] |
Author: nonbird | [What?] he says, sleepily concerned. [What's going on? Um, let me get dressed...] |
Author: self_composed | [We found an elf Bell. She is wrecked. She's got this bond thing that's like a cross between being daemons and being vampire mates and something else, with a dragon and a demonic Joker, and it makes them read her mind, and we have no prayer of getting her patched up if they can't stop, but we tried sending her through Downside and as soon as she woke up it was back, and we tried wishing it away outright but that broke the dragon.] |
Author: nonbird | [Eeeeeeeep,] says Lazarus.
He gets dressed.
He emerges from his apartment. |
Author: self_composed | [Jane,] cues Stella.
They appear in Atlantis. Stella gestures expressively at the sleeping Isibel and her Jokers. "Help." |
Author: nonbird | Lazarus runs both hands through his excessively messy hair and makes a quiet spluttery sort of noise.
"That's a mess, all right," he murmurs. "Um, let me see. Have you had any bright ideas besides the ones that didn't work?" |
Author: beheld_beauty | "I can find nothing in her mindscape, so I could attempt nothing there - it doesn't block me, it's simply empty." |
Author: self_composed | "If Isibel has opacity it's not very good opacity. We could - theoretically - edit her. But no," says Stella, "I think she'd rather just sleep forever. Or would if she were still whole and was looking at her choices." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Editing the bond to not incorporate mindreading, even with half a dozen backup channels between the demon and dragon, flips the dragon off like a lightswitch," says Juliet. "But if we could just incorporate some kind of - filter, gate, toggle, something to give control to Isibel - but we don't know how the bond works, that's what you're here for, we don't want to wreck the demon-dragon-unit again in the process of trying to help Isibel, she loves them." |
Author: nonbird | "...It should be possible," says Lazarus. "But you'd have to be careful about it. Maybe I should be the one to make the wish. Everything in there," he gestures to the dragon's head, "is very - sensitive. Intricate. Tangly. This bond thing is fascinating, I'd be excited if it weren't so tragic." |
Author: self_composed | "What kinda coin do you need?" asks Stella. |
Author: nonbird | "I'm not sure," he says. "Let's say hex." |
Author: self_composed | "I'm not sure what kind of flexibility there is to edit this thing. What can you do?" Stella asks, extracting a hex from her aura. "Bare minimum she has to be able to think and keep them out at the same time; the exact design beyond that matters less." |
Author: nonbird | "If you give me parameters everyone can agree on, I can probably implement them," he says. "The tricky part isn't that a lot of things are impossible, it's that anything is complicated." |
Author: autokinetic | "Pushing thoughts only on purpose like in a Sue-link is probably the best mix of privacy and the kind of - intimacy, communicability, that she might want again when she's got anything left to push," Aegis says. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I assume there's no reason to block her from reading anything she likes in you?" Shell Bell asks the demon-and-dragon. |
Author: endragoned | "Of course not," says the dragon. "But she should be able to look away when she wants to." The demon nods. |
Author: nonbird | "So," says Lazarus, "how about this: a symmetrical barrier between her and the rest of you, where anyone can choose to 'speak' and anyone can choose to 'listen' but information only crosses the circle when those are both happening on the appropriate sides?" |
Author: endragoned | Demon and dragon both nod. |
Author: autokinetic | "I can tell when Sue's 'knocking'," Aegis says. "And he can tell when I'm reaching for him. Will they be able to do something like that?" |
Author: nonbird | "Oh, yes," he says, nodding. "Of course." |
Author: self_composed | "Can anyone else think of anything else?" |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "This is - obviously - less of a problem when she's asleep than when she's awake - but she should not, so to speak, 'talk in her sleep' - the actual talking doesn't matter, if she does it at all -" Isibel has in fact been quiet in her sleep for moonturns now - "but she shouldn't broadcast dreams unintentionally." |
Author: endragoned | "And she should be able to wake me when I am sleeping," says the dragon. |
Author: nonbird | "Okay," says Lazarus. "So - sending to sleeping people works, listening to sleeping people doesn't?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Unless the demon-and-dragon want her to be able to watch them dream." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "She might want to. There's a sort of - I wasn't broken this way, but before I glued back together there was an awkward period where I was sane enough to get bored again but not enough to do anything productive, so mostly I paid a lot of attention to my Sherlock." |
Author: lifes_sake | "This might be a little much to install in one wish, and it's not as fundamentally essential as getting them to quit reading her all the damn time, but it would be good if there were no chain reaction type possibilities - anyone spying on her bondmates should not be able to get at her through them even if she is somehow deceived about whether there is anybody spying like that." |
Author: nonbird | "As long as they don't sleep on precisely the same schedule, she can watch them dream through each other," Lazarus points out. "As for the other thing, cast a mental defense wish around all three of them instead of the one you've got on her. But in the meantime—"
Hex goes. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah wakes Isibel. |
Author: small_magics | Isibel opens her eyes.
Her lips part in silent astonishment. |
Author: endragoned | The demon hugs her.
"My love, my love, they fixed it," he says, stroking her hair. |
Author: small_magics | "Oh," Isibel breathes, turning her face into his shoulder and hugging him tight. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "We'll help you, if you want help," Shell Bell murmurs. |
Author: lifes_sake | "I can turn your old notebooks into a magic one that talks, like mine, that might do some good," Cam offers. |
Author: small_magics | "...I don't know." |
Author: endragoned | The demon just cuddles his love a lot. |
Author: small_magics | "Thinking is - still hard," clarifies Isibel. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You can take as long as you need. In perfect privacy," Shell Bell murmurs. |
Author: small_magics | "But," says Isibel, "I don't know if - if you were in time." |
Author: endragoned | Well, now he is going to cry some more. |
Author: small_magics | "Oh beloved," murmurs Isibel. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "We can try - drastic solutions, if we have to. Mental editing," murmurs Shell Bell. "By magic. But it'd be better if you could do it yourself, obviously." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "D'you want a perfect memory?" offers Juliet. "We switch to that from notebooks when we get it, generally - except Cam because his talks - and then you can remember everything you thought before, pull it back together." |
Author: dark_light | "Maybe something a little off-standard for her? We don't have all the automatic-ness of ordinary memory attached - we have recall, not extra connection to what we recall - if she's as wrecked as she looks maybe something easier that will prompt her a little? Mental assistive device." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Almost like an internal Grace, something with just a little more initiative," agrees Cam, "so she doesn't have to try to remember anything, she'll just have whatever she needs at her metaphorical fingertips." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Wearing off, though, slowly, as she re-learns to think on her own," Angela cautions. |
Author: self_composed | "Cam should wish it, if we're modeling the revision on his Grace." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Does this sound good, Isibel? It'll be easy to remember everything," murmurs Cam. "You'll be able to think what you thought about things back before you broke. And you can use that until you know how to make new thoughts again. Does that sound good?" He murmurs gently, like she's young or sick or - broken. |
Author: small_magics | "Maybe?" Isibel whispers. "I don't know." |
Author: lifes_sake | "...Are you going to be able to tell me to take it away, if you don't like it?" Cam asks. |
Author: small_magics | "...I can show my beloveds," offers Isibel. "I think." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes, that's how it works," soothes Juliet, "you can show them anything you want, and nothing else, only what you want them to see, we fixed it." |
Author: endragoned | The demon cuddles Isibel. |
Author: lifes_sake | "I'm gonna go ahead and make the wish," says Cam, "and you can show them what you think of it if you don't know how to say it, and if you don't like it then I'll undo it and we'll think of something else. Okay?" |
Author: small_magics | "Okay." |
Author: lifes_sake | Hex goes. |
Author: small_magics | Isibel shows her beloveds:
For a moment it's like drawing blackout curtains aside to get a faceful of sun, too bright, too much, she flinches but the light's everywhere.
And then she adjusts.
And then she can see. |
Author: endragoned | The demon beams and hugs her. |
Author: small_magics | Hugs!
Show-and-tell is over. She can just stop. She can! She can cease to show them what she's thinking and it works, she can tell. She could just cry. Or laugh. She's not sure which and it's not her highest priority right now.
She unhugs so she can sit up and look at the other ten of her.
"Thank you," she says. |
Author: lifes_sake | "You're welcome," says Cam. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "If it were one of us, you would have helped that one," Golden says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "How are you? I mean, obviously, better, but are you all fixed just like that or are you just functional enough to do your own repair work from here?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Because we have a lot of magical powers to hand out but it might not be wise to give them over right away if you're not all fixed yet." |
Author: small_magics | "I haven't used my own magic in moonturns," says Isibel. "I will reacquaint myself with that, first, and perhaps then I will have the stability to learn new kinds." |
Author: endragoned | The demon cuddles her. |
Author: mind_game | [There's an elf peering at my node in Isibel's world,] says Jane. |
Author: autokinetic | "Well, it would be bad if she wrecked it," says Aegis, "let's go introduce ourselves - Isibel, you want us all along, you want to pick an escort or two or three, what?" |
Author: small_magics | "You may all come if you would like to see the world," blinks Isibel. |
Author: lifes_sake | "I'm in," says Cam, and there's a chorus of general Bell agreement. |
Author: endragoned | The demon grins and hugs his beloved; the dragon curls affectionately around both of them.
"It will be a tight fit for all of us in the cave," says the dragon. "Perhaps I should remain behind for a little while, until you have all left." |
Author: dark_light | "Unless you would like to be shrunk," says Amariah. |
Author: endragoned | The dragon snorts and shakes his head. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Do you want to sit here in my palace, or go outside? We're out in the ocean, there's no one to be alarmed," Shell Bell offers. |
Author: endragoned | "I will go outside," the dragon decides. "And fly."
He looks around for a door big enough to fit him. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "The palace isn't really designed for a dragon. Here." Shell Bell teleports him and herself out to the floating island that supports her palace building. "Have fun." And then she rejoins the others. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Are you coming too?" Angela asks the pile of Jokers. |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Nah," says Queenie, as spokesjoker. |
Author: endragoned | The demon looks properly at the pile of Jokers for the first time.
"...I think I will also stay," he says, smiling. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Don't make a mess of my palace, please," sighs Shell Bell. And she cues Jane and all the Bells are in Isibel's cave. |
Author: self_composed | "Hi there," says Stella to the elf who has been peering at the Janepoint. "You a friend of Isibel's?" |
Author: beheld_beauty | "You should choose a nickname, when you're ready," Rose tells Isibel. "Something less similar to our names." |
Author: small_magics | "Oh. I - I'll think about it," says Isibel, laughing a little. "I See you, Magania." |
Author: pythbox | "I See you, Isibel," says Magania, raising her eyebrows slightly. "Many times over." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Hullo, I know I look like the odd one out but I'm cut from the same mold," says Cam, waving. "You didn't answer Stella." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Has the world got a name already or does that have to wait for you to recover some more, too?" Shell Bell asks Isibel. |
Author: small_magics | "Thilanushinyel," supplies Isibel. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "So you're Magania? What're you doing here? Isn't this Isibel's cave?" |
Author: dark_light | "Or the dragon-demon-pair's cave, I think Isibel has a house, she led me here when I wanted to talk to them..." |
Author: autokinetic | "They need nicknames too, we can't guarantee we'll never run into another Joker with horns and wings and whatever configuration of limbs," snorts Aegis. |
Author: pythbox | "I am indeed Magania," says Magania. "I have come to visit Isibel, and I have brought tea. Perhaps it would please you all to take tea with us, and to speak of such things as you may wish to discuss. I did not expect so many, but I am sure arrangements can be made for our comfort." |
Author: small_magics | "Ah," says Isibel. "Thank you, Magania. ...Elves do not like questions," she adds to the other Bells. |
Author: bellfounding | "But you seem cool with it - are you just that messed up? - oops -" |
Author: self_composed | "What do you do instead? I'm sorry, I just have no other idea how to find that out besides asking it." |
Author: small_magics | "I do not much mind being asked questions, anymore; I doubt they will ever feel intrusive to me again," says Isibel. "And - well, I have never been much good at this kind of delicacy, but you can state that you do not know something, or that it would please you to hear it, as a simple workaround." |
Author: dark_light | "All right - you bite me if I'm going to ask any elves besides Isibel questions, Path," says Amariah to her daemon.
"Okay," says Path.
"And I'm sure we'd all love to have some tea and explain ourselves." |
Author: autokinetic | "I don't like tea," says Aegis, conjuring herself an umbrella-decorated glass of juice instead. It has a crazy straw. She sips it. |
Author: pythbox | "It pleases me to see you so at home with yourself," Magania says to Isibel, taking a graceful step-and-turn back toward the entrance of the cave to invite all the Bells to exit it with her. "It would also please me to know how this came to be." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yeah, I bet it would. Oh man, if she can't ask questions I bet we could all just sit here staring at her cryptically and drive her nuts. That'd be mean, let's not do that. Hi, Magania, we're versions of Isibel here from ten other worlds. We helped fix her. She's gonna get better." |
Author: small_magics | "Perhaps you could introduce yourselves to her," Isibel adds. "For that matter, I do not believe I know all of your nicknames, as I was asleep for much of the time you spent trying to repair me." |
Author: self_composed | "Oh, yeah, sure. So, we're mostly named Isabella -" Stella, Golden, Amariah, Angela, Juliet, Aegis, and Pattern all raise their hands - "and some of us prefer Bella -" Amariah and Angela drop their hands - "and then there's Bell and Belle and Campbell -" The named individuals wave when named - "and when we're all hanging out together it gets really confusing, so we have nicknames. Mine is Stella." |
Author: autokinetic | "Aegis." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "Rose." |
Author: bellfounding | "Pattern." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Juliet." |
Author: dark_light | "Amariah." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Angela." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Cam." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Golden." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Shell Bell." |
Author: small_magics | "Perhaps for the time being I will go by Sarion in this company. I might think of something better later, I might not." |
Author: pythbox | Magania nods once to all of them, gravely, and leads them out of the cave. |
Author: bellfounding | "Where are we g- I mean, it would interest me to know where we're being led," says Pattern. |
Author: pythbox | "It occurs to me that there is a clearing in front of Isibel's home where we might all sit in comfort," says Magania, "since the weather is very fine today and it is unlikely to rain. I can also brew tea there very quickly, since it is where I left my tea-service when I came to this cave." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "It's beautiful here," says Belle, reaching out for a tree branch that obligingly bends to brush her fingertips. |
Author: autokinetic | Aegis lets her aura out too, since it will keep her drink in its glass for her while she dances along the path. (It will also casually remove the effects of gravity from her hair, which doesn't puff out as though staticked, but does float.) |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How far is - Amariah, how far is it, you walked it, right?" |
Author: dark_light | "It's not a bad walk, no reason to teleport," shrugs Amariah. She habitually keeps her aura out too; it's easier than reminding everyone she meets not to touch her owl, and she does like looking all witchy. "Besides, it is super pretty." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Speaking of walking, Sarion, you're not tripping," observes Cam. "Like, at all. Is that an - I suppose that could be an elf thing." |
Author: small_magics | "I once tripped often. These ribbons make it easier not to," says Sarion, indicating the bows around her knees and ankles. "Perhaps you have better solutions." |
Author: self_composed | "Yeah, that's a pentagon, you want me to wish it up for you?" asks Stella, apparently less concerned with avoiding questions, at least when speaking directly to Sarion and not Magania. |
Author: small_magics | "I see no reason why not." |
Author: self_composed | Stella's one who wears her aura out all the time, and it hiccups a little, a micro-flare of magicmagicmagic, when she extracts a coin to wish away Sarion's dose of Bell clumsiness. |
Author: pythbox | "It soothes my heart to know that Isibel's... other selves... are all so helpful," Magania remarks. |
Author: dark_light | "We are super helpful," agrees Amariah. "My boyfriend was the one who found her, he was so sad over her - he's one of her demon-and-dragon like we're ones of her - and he called me in and we all met up at Shell Bell's to figure out what to do. It was the obvious thing, I mean, she was broken, we had to fix her, she'd do the same for us if it was one of us and we needed her." |
Author: pythbox | "I thank Leaf and Star for your kindness," says Magania. "And for whatever magic you have wrought to leave Isibel so... whole." |
Author: lifes_sake | "I'm the one who made the wish that worked, after the false starts," volunteers Cam. |
Author: self_composed | "And the wishing kinda magic is from my world," says Stella merrily. |
Author: beheld_beauty | "And the auras you're noticing, if you're curious, are features of my world's magic," adds Rose. "Isibel will have one too when she's well enough to do the work an aura requires." |
Author: pythbox | "I would be pleased to know more about your magic," says Magania. "And the magic that brought you to this world, if it is of a different kind." |
Author: autokinetic | "Oh, the worldhopping is technically not magic!" exclaims Aegis merrily, twirling. "That's from my world, explaining in actual useful detail would require explaining computers and that would take a long time, I am definitely not getting a has-computers vibe from this world here, but basically there is someone from my world who can see out of our jewelry -" she pauses briefly in her moon-gravity dance and indicates her earpiece - "and out of things like the thing you were looking at in the cave, and when she can see someone she wants to move and someplace she wants to put them, she can." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Sarion should have a Janegem. Where d'you want it?" Juliet asks Sarion. "Mine's a necklace, there's earpieces and bracelets, Stella keeps hers in her crown." |
Author: self_composed | "No, I changed it, I keep taking my crown off for informal occasions and now I have a necklace too," says Stella, pulling from her shirt a silver thread with a blue star sapphire Janegem hanging from it. |
Author: small_magics | "I - perhaps a ring," suggests Sarion. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam bites his cheek for a square and hands it over. "Design yourself a ring, wish it up, one of us who knows how the Janegems work can turn the gem into an ansible-half and you'll be all set." |
Author: small_magics | Sarion blinks, takes the glowy silver square, and thinks as they walk. Eventually she appears on her right middle finger a ring with red cabochons, one large central one that will suffice to hold the miniaturized Jane hardware and trails of smaller ones twisting forward up to her second knuckle and spiraling around the first one onto her hand, all held in place with delicate white-metal webbing. |
Author: bellfounding | "Whoa." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "If that's the kind of design you can pull from nowhere without a speed boost while half-braindead..." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You're in charge of all our collective art projects from now on," laughs Shell Bell. |
Author: small_magics | "I - thought it would be pretty," murmurs Sarion, smiling. |
Author: autokinetic | "Super pretty. And poof," says Aegis, with a gesture, "it's a Janegem." |
Author: pythbox | "It is very beautiful," says Magania.
They arrive at a large clearing, which contains many smooth rocks and worn tree stumps that look as though they would make comfortable seats. Through no detectable work of any intelligent creature, all these seemingly natural objects are arranged in a pattern that is both convenient and visually pleasing.
Magania fetches a small, attractive bag from where it leans unobtrusively against a tree and begins setting up a tea-brazier on a flat stone in the middle of the clearing. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Isn't there supposed to be a house," says Golden, not quite asking. |
Author: dark_light | "I didn't really notice on my way out of the house - huh," says Amariah. "This is neat." |
Author: pythbox | Magania smiles. |
Author: beheld_beauty | Rose is fascinated. The plants act like rustly little tour guides as she circles the clearing, and ultimately they show her Sarion's door. "How clever," she says. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | Unlike standard chairs designed for humans, Angela can sit on a tree stump. She does, wings flung behind her. "If we are taxing your tea supply, we can easily supplement it." |
Author: pythbox | "My tea supply is sufficient to the task," says Magania, "but it would please me to know how it might be done." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I think we've been accidentally driving the poor No Questions Elf nuts," remarks Juliet. "Sarion, are we missing massive amounts of extremely polite subtext, here?" |
Author: small_magics | "Yes," says Sarion. "She wishes to know everything there is to know about all of this interesting magic." |
Author: pythbox | Magania laughs.
"Isibel Sarion has expressed the desires of my heart." |
Author: self_composed | "Everything about all of it will take all day. Unless we bring in Elspeth. Golden, you wanna bring in Elspeth?" |
Author: autokinetic | "Is Sarion your last name or something? Unusual last name for a Bell," Aegis remarks in an undertone to Sarion. |
Author: small_magics | "No. It means I am an elf and I do elf magic," murmurs Sarion. "None of you are elves; I presumed it a safe choice." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "My daughter," Golden says to Magania, "has a bit of her own individual magic, which allows her to transmit a great deal of information very quickly. Would - perhaps you would like to meet her and receive your explanation more swiftly than we're likely to be able to manage without inquiries to guide us." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Golden's daughter's power is a little like my aura," adds Cam, flaring, "she's basically so good at telling the truth that it's a superpower." |
Author: pythbox | "It would please me very much to meet your daughter, Golden." |
Author: luminous_regnant | Golden has a brief brainphone conversation with Jane, and then says, "She'll be along presently." |
Author: bellfounding | "I want to know what elfmages can do," says Pattern. |
Author: small_magics | "Nothing like what you can do, but we have certain talents," laughs Sarion. "I can - manipulate the elements, or living things, or search for things I wish to find. And before I was properly a sarion I was a practitioner of the small magics; that is how I made my ribbons." |
Author: dark_light | "You'll be able to do what we do," says Amariah. "Well, not all of it - my magic's not transmissible, neither is Cam's, although you can learn his magic language, just not do magic with it, and we can't replicate native-quality mental opacity, unfortunately - but you'll be an enchantress and a mint just like us, you have a Janegem now and she'll help you just like us, because you are one of us." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "I wonder if we'll be able to learn either of the elf kinds of magic," muses Angela. "It's always nice to have more kinds." |
Author: pythbox | "It has never before been possible for one who is not an elf to command the elven magics," says Magania, "but you are all capable of extraordinary things." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | Elspeth appears, crowned and smiling. "Hello, Magania! I'm Elspeth," she says to Magania. "It would be - useful for calibrating - if I knew approximately how fast your brain works relative to a human's." |
Author: pythbox | "I have never had occasion to observe such a difference," says Magania. |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "Okay, I'll go human-speed then," says Elspeth. And she pokes along a piecemeal summary of how minting, enchanting, wizarding, witching, Slaying, angels, Milliways, worlds, and Jane work. It's from and for the perspective of someone who's not going to do any of the above herself, on an overview sort of level, without going into detail about things like coins being made of pain or enchanting involving much of same or Jane being sort of Aegis and Sue's kid. And she throws in a nice pamphlet-sized history synopsis of how the peal came to be a peal instead of a lot of separate Bells. |
Author: pythbox | "That," says Magania, blinking, "is extremely informative." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "Thanks! That's what I'm good at," says Elspeth, beaming and helping herself to a rock to sit on. She's got a necklace of golden squares around her neck, perfectly visible, and it jingles. |
Author: bellfounding | "I volunteer to try swiping Sarion's magic-types if nobody else wants to go first," says Pattern. |
Author: pythbox | There is a sound in the distance, as of a deerlike creature deliberately making as much noise as it possibly can while bounding toward them at top speed. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Something on four legs is about to visit us," observes Golden. |
Author: small_magics | "Ah," sighs Sarion, "and I had believed that the part of my life informed by unicorn intervention was over." |
Author: bellfounding | "Does that add up to 'no, Pattern, wait, let's talk to the unicorn first'?" |
Author: small_magics | "Yes." |
Author: pythbox | The sound of the unicorn gradually becomes more apparent to the rest of them.
When he's well within earshot but still out of sight, Liselen yells, "The Wild Magic has a message for you, and I really hope that at least one of you is a virgin, because I really don't want to have this conversation at the top of my lungs or while itching out of my skin!" |
Author: small_magics | Isibel gets up. |
Author: autokinetic | "That sounds really inconvenient," Aegis hollers before the elf can go anywhere, "do you want us to fix it for you?" |
Author: pythbox |
There is a pause.
"What," yells Liselen. |
Author: autokinetic | Aegis doesn't really want to shout either; she conferences everyone including the unicorn on a brainphone call. [Do you want us to fix the virgin thing, because that sounds really inconvenient?] |
Author: pythbox | [Fix it how,] says the unicorn, [I'm a unicorn, that is how we work.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Magic,] supplies Shell Bell. [Maybe it won't work, but we can try.] |
Author: pythbox | [Well,] says the unicorn, [thanks, now I'm totally distracted from my original point. Um, my original point being that - I'm not even sure, I thought I would figure it out when I got here, but it still doesn't make sense, how were you going to steal magic from the elves?] |
Author: lifes_sake | [Uh, one of us was going to try copying it, would that do something bad?] |
Author: pythbox | [How were you going to copy it, that doesn't make any sense either!] exclaims Liselen. [You know what, first person who talked to me who sounds weirdly like Isibel, absolutely fix the virgin thing, maybe if I can actually talk to you people face to face instead of through this other weird magic thing I also don't understand then you'll start making more sense.] |
Author: bellfounding | [It's not like she has special virgin-thing-fixing advantages,] Pattern says. [I don't even know if she is, I might be the only one who is.] |
Author: autokinetic | [In the very most technical of technical senses, which may mean yes or no,] says Aegis archly. |
Author: small_magics | [I am,] says Sarion. |
Author: self_composed | [Oh, poor thing, and you had yours for how long - you must've just been too wrecked, I bet he never even thought of it - anyway, who's doing the wish?] |
Author: autokinetic | [He asked for me, he can get me, I'll do it,] says Aegis, and she wishes on a pentagon, fails, tries a hexagon, succeeds. [There, how's that?] |
Author: pythbox | Liselen picks his way carefully into the clearing.
"...Whoa," he says. "That's... that's new."
He looks around at all the assembled Bells, particularly Amariah and Cam, and then he walks between the artistically arranged seats and sits down next to Cam, folding his legs neatly under him. His sleek black fur gleams; his pearly white hooves and horn shine; the golden socks on two forelegs and one rear leg nearly glow. He is, without a doubt, the most beautiful thing in the clearing. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Hi," says Cam. "You are pretty, like, superstimulus pretty, how do you do that?" |
Author: pythbox | "I," says Liselen with immense smugness, "am a unicorn. And since being around you is not making me feel like my bones are melting, you can totally pet me if you want!" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Would I normally make you feel like your bones are melting? Because I thought you said itchy," Cam remarks, and he pets the unicorn. |
Author: bellfounding | "Explain this thing about how I should not wish for elf magic?" Pattern says. |
Author: pythbox | "'Itching' is a metaphor," says Liselen, leaning into Cam's hand a little. "'Bones melting' is also a metaphor. I don't think other species have the right senses to ever invent proper words for what being around nonvirgins - used to feel like, and doesn't anymore, because somebody here is really great, thank you, one of Isibel's mysterious and variously specied twins! Um, right, the elf magic thing." |
Author: autokinetic | "That was me, and we're her alts, not her twins." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "Except me, I'm her alt's daughter," adds Elspeth, pointing at Golden. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Uh, exactly how much of our sexual histories can you discern, here, like, Angela's obvious but she's not the one you sat next to," says Juliet. |
Author: pythbox | "It's not really exactly your sexual history, it's - this is really hard to talk about," says Liselen, twitching his tail. "Um," he nods at Golden, "I can tell you've never given birth, which makes me kind of curious now...?" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Why in the world," says Golden, "would that strike you as an appropriate question?" |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "Vampires can't get pregnant without magic that we didn't have back then, but before Mama turned into one she had some eggs taken out and I was conceived in a dish and kept frozen till she found a human friend who was willing to gestate me," volunteers Elspeth. |
Author: pythbox | "Anyway," says Liselen, "I don't get - detailed summaries, or anything, just kind of a... general tone. And even that is awfully blurred for some of you. And weren't you asking me about the elf magic thing?" |
Author: bellfounding | "I was. You didn't really answer." |
Author: pythbox | He twitches his tail again. "I was trying to think about it, but then you distracted me! It's hard to translate these things, I think when the Wild Magic calls on unicorns to be messengers it's usually not so directly. But I'll try. Um... you're not supposed to take elven magic because if you do, there'll be less for the elves. They already don't have very much of it at all. If you take enough elven magic to make one of you a proper Elven Mage like there were in the old days, without bonding to a dragon, there won't be any elves born with any magic for a really long time, not even the little stuff they've had since the time of Vairindiel." |
Author: bellfounding | "So I could maybe duplicate the effects but I'd have to fuel it some non-naive way?" |
Author: pythbox | "That... sounds about right," says Liselen dubiously. "What is it about you, anyway, the Wild Magic doesn't chat with people like this, maybe it's just because you can all do so many impossible things." |
Author: dark_light | "I wonder if we should just, like - is the Wild Magic something we could just go visit and have a chat with, if it's so eager to be in touch with us?" |
Author: pythbox | Liselen shakes his head.
"It's not that kind of a thing at all. It can't talk to you unless you're - well, it can't talk to any of you, except using me as a messenger. And fixing that is also something you could get wrong in various horrible ways," he adds, "a lot of them, apparently, depending on how exactly you tried, I don't have a list or anything." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Today seems to be a day for carelessly tripping over Thilanushinyel magic," remarks Juliet. "Maybe we'd better not do anything much here." |
Author: pythbox | "That is a good plan," says Liselen. "But thank you for fixing the virgins thing! The virgins thing was really annoying!" |
Author: lifes_sake | "With some of the luck we had working on Isibel earlier we're probably all lucky you didn't wind up magnetized to sex addicts or something." |
Author: autokinetic | "Oh, come on, there is no plausible mechanism for that." |
Author: pythbox | "Well, I did end up sitting next to the person who would've made me the most uncomfortable before, but only because I'm reckless and irresponsible and contrary," says Liselen. |
Author: lifes_sake | "What, am I really the most - tell me Amariah at least gives me a run for my money?" |
Author: pythbox | "It's kind of a toss-up," he says. "Why, is that bad?" |
Author: dark_light | "No, he feels gender-stereotyped," snorts Amariah. |
Author: pythbox | "Oh," says Liselen. "See, I don't know these things, because I'm a unicorn." |
Author: lifes_sake | "I guess that would tend to put you in contact with a skewed population." |
Author: self_composed | "So, no throwing around serious magic in Thilanushinyel till we have a better idea what's going on - maybe Lazarus will want to have a look at the place - but fixing unicorns' virgin thing is safe," says Stella, "is what we have learned today. Also that elves don't like questions for some reason." |
Author: pythbox | "A question is a demand for information," says Magania, "and is therefore considered rude. Except in times of great need or urgency, a civilized person does not demand, only suggest. But of course," she continues with a slight smile, "the elven way to be civilized is only one such way, and it is known to me that other folk find our indirection as maddening as we find their impatience. I am also pleased to announce that the tea is ready," she adds. "Perhaps if those who wish to drink it would create cups, I could pour for them." |
Author: self_composed | Stella creates a cup. The other Bells, except for Aegis who declined tea and made herself juice instead some time ago, follow suit. The cups vary; Stella's is a willow-patterned mug. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Darn right a question is a demand for information," mutters Juliet, creating a little teacup with a craquelure design. "Sometimes we demand information." |
Author: pythbox | "Sometimes you do," Magania agrees, pouring tea gracefully into Juliet's cup and then holding it out to her. "I hope that you enjoy the tea. It is one of my favourite springtime blends, and I thought it suitable to the occasion." |
Author: small_magics | Isibel laughs, helplessly, a little high tittering laugh.
(It is the first time she has laughed in over a year.) |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "What is it?" Shell Bell asks her. |
Author: small_magics | "She thinks," giggles Sarion, "that you are so, so spectacularly rude, and she is going to be very very polite to you by way of reply." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "It's probably a good thing one of us is an elf or we'd have an absolute disaster of a time trying to arrange any sort of diplomacy with them," observes Golden. She has not made a cup; she does not drink... tea. |
Author: pythbox | Magania smiles slightly and continues distributing tea until all those who wish to drink it are served; only then does she pour a cup for herself.
"It pleases me very much that my manners amuse you so, Isibel Sarion." |
Author: small_magics | "It's only - that I can understand both of you with perfect clarity and I might be the only person who could do it." |
Author: dark_light | "Man, I might be, like, slightly helpful if we were all trying to talk to witches, but yeah," snorts Amariah, "no question policy is probably the most stunningly unBellish cultural feature one could invent if one were going out of one's way to do it." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "I'm sure one could come up with some kind of particularly insidiously perverse anti-epistemology if one were really keen on it." |
Author: autokinetic | "We slot into all kindsa cultures from military brat to angel to Vaguely France," says Aegis, "I'm not surprised Sarion managed a compromise of sorts." |
Author: pythbox | Magania sips her tea and continues to smile. |
Author: small_magics | "It was not a particularly elegant compromise. Rania sometimes chides me for baldly stating that I do not know things. Perhaps I would have eventually learned the layers of indirection that are considered more seemly, but I cannot imagine that spending much time in the company of other Bells will lend itself to this development." |
Author: bellfounding | "That's your mom, I guess?" |
Author: small_magics | "Yes. My parents are called Rania and Cariel." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Bell standard is Renée and Charlie - short for Charles - but there's some variance," says Juliet. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "My mother is called Rinnah." |
Author: dark_light | "Mine's Ranata." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Ranae," says Shell Bell. "And my father's name is Sharles, I think it's a corruption of Charles, but he goes by Shark instead of Charlie." |
Author: pythbox | "...'Charlie' is longer than 'Charles'," Liselen points out. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "It's a diminutive," Golden says. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Also for some reason a lot of Renées marry some guy named Phil who mine doesn't seem to have even met," says Cam. "After divorcing when we're little." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I'd say it's Forks, but mine are one of the set. I'd say it's Earth that does it, but Shell Bell and Amariah are technically from Earth, even if they're weird Earths." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "My Renée just died when I was a child. I have been thinking of fetching her up again; I really should set aside a few days to reacquaint myself with her and do that." |
Author: pythbox | "I am sorry for your loss," says Magania, from behind her cup of tea. |
Author: small_magics | "Magania would like to know how you would go about doing that," Sarion says helpfully, giggling. |
Author: autokinetic | "Okay, so, the jewelry we have, the Janegems," says Aegis, "hooks us up to my sort-of-a-daughter, Jane, who does interdimensional travel, and one of the dimensions we can get at is an afterlife, which doesn't work for everybody," she points one finger each at Amariah and Cam, "but works for other places, either they were already like that when we got there or we've added them since, and we didn't like how the afterlife was being run, so we went and got the administrator to let us and Jane take over, and now we can get dead people from, y'know, participating worlds, whenever we want." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Three and a half of us are technically dead," adds Shell Bell. |
Author: self_composed | "Is there any- I mean, we have been known to jump people out of the usual queue in response to personal requests," says Stella. |
Author: pythbox | "I will," says Magania, "consider this." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Might have to have a different timing algorithm for a world with long natural lifespans. How long do elves and stuff live?" |
Author: small_magics | "About a thousand years. Unicorns sometimes a little longer. Dragons and demons - forever, unless killed, but the death of a Bonded kills - if my dragon died it would kill me and my demon; the other way around does not necessarily kill if there are two non-dragons in the Bond. Centaurs and so on - I do not have memorized." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "You cannot die again," Rose tells Sarion. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "That's been gotten out of the way. It was one of the first things we tried, to get you free of the mindreading. It worked only until we woke you again." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | Elspeth snaps her fingers and conjures a copy of the standard informational pamphlet on being dead and hands it to Sarion, who takes it in mild puzzlement. |
Author: pythbox | Magania sips her tea.
"...You seriously killed her to get her out of the Bond?" says Liselen, amazed. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "She was practically dead already, being mindread is bad stuff for us," says Juliet. "And two and a half of us were already dead. I got murdered, Pattern got hit by a car, Shell Bell got assassinated. We're all fine now. Angela took her Downside and did it quick and painless and clean and then woke her again and look, she's fine." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'm the half," Shell Bell says, taking pity on No Questions Elf. "My girlfriend resurrected me after I died, but then instead of removing me from the afterlife it just made there be two of me, one in and one out. After this was discovered I glued myself back together again." |
Author: pythbox | "It's surprising," says Liselen, twitching his tail. "I'm surprised. And I have a suggestion," he adds, with unaccustomed diffidence. |
Author: lifes_sake | "What's the suggestion?" Cam asks, still petting the pretty unicorn. |
Author: pythbox | "I think if you're going to keep doing impossible things like bringing back the dead and changing Dragonbonds and stuff, you should make sure to check with me before you do them, in case the Wild Magic has something to say about it." |
Author: self_composed | "You wanna be our Thilanushinyel Has Weird Stuff In It consultant?" |
Author: pythbox | "I guess!" says Liselen. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "It is curious that the Wild Magic should be able to speak to you but that anything we might do to make it able to speak to us directly is apparently perilous." |
Author: pythbox | "You're not unicorns," Liselen explains. "And I bet you wouldn't like being unicorns even if you could turn into them, which I'm not sure if you can or not, but it seems likely because you can do lots of impossible things. I like being a unicorn, but I've been one all my life. You haven't." |
Author: dark_light | "I wonder if Petaal or Ivy could be unicorns," muses Amariah. "I'm so tempted to interrupt my sweeties and suggest that they try it. Although unless the virgin problem was patched in advance, there could be a problem. Although since I'm sure they'd quite enjoy feeling as though they were melting perhaps not so much." |
Author: autokinetic | Aegis snorts. "Who counts as a virgin, anyway, what pops one's cherry as far as unicorns are concerned?" |
Author: pythbox | ...Liselen shifts uncomfortably. |
Author: bellfounding | "Oh, come on, you decided to announce Golden's lack of childbearing history in front of everybody including a near-stranger, you didn't know that the child she did not bear was going to be right with you in the indiscretion department," says Pattern, "now you won't even explain how this sense you currently have trained on all of us even works?" |
Author: pythbox | "I'm not good at talking to people who aren't unicorns," Liselen says unhappily. "I'm rude to elves all the time and I made fun of a human once for tripping and hitting his head on a log when he saw me and then it turned out he had to go to the healer and he almost died, and, I'm really bad at secrets which I think is why the Wild Magic wanted me to talk to you because you don't seem to like those, but this isn't about the Wild Magic it's just about unicorns and I don't know how much I'm supposed to say and I don't want Mom to be all disappointed in me. Again."
He hangs his head dejectedly. A dejected unicorn is quite a sight. |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "Well," says Elspeth helpfully, and all the Bells turns in her direction because that helpful voice means she's about to pull information from nowhere (and Sarion's following along), "it is a function of both physical history and mindset, neither feature discriminates by gender, sex, orientation or specific act, and consent is contributory towards the mindset part sliding in the non-virgin direction but many forms of related trauma and the resulting attitudes can do the same thing and on average it shakes out about the same. While your opacities are interfering a little bit here and now, in the paradigmatic case a unicorn can discern approximate sex drive and get a fuzzy coarse-grained feel for attitude towards the subject too; the paradigmatic case of a virgin isn't someone who's simply never had sex, especially if it's for lack of opportunity, but rather someone who doesn't think about it at all, like a small child. Somebody who was completely ace like Addy would probably also be relatively comfortable for a unicorn to be around even though she doesn't absolutely physically qualify. And unicorns themselves don't count and neither do nonsapient animals." |
Author: pythbox | Liselen looks slightly alarmed as Elspeth begins speaking, but once she has finished, he settles down again. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Thank you, Elspeth." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Is something wrong?" Shell Bell asks Liselen. |
Author: pythbox | He shakes his head. "No, no, everything's fine, I don't think I'm going to get in trouble for that at all." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "It wouldn't make sense to get you in trouble for something I magic-utteranced," says Elspeth. |
Author: pythbox | "I'm the nearest unicorn, it's still my responsibility." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Then it is fortunate that Elspeth's magic utterance has both satisfied our curiosity and not landed you in unjust trouble." |
Author: small_magics | There's a silence, and then Isibel says:
"I have met another one of my beloveds - I did not see him with the others, now that I can remember clearly what they all looked like." |
Author: dark_light | "Another one? Dang, did he have an us?" |
Author: small_magics | "I think so. He recognized me. I think I made him upset. I didn't meet her." |
Author: autokinetic | "Of course you made him upset - you were broke and he couldn't fix you," murmurs Aegis, "and he has a Bell and I bet he loves her to bits and you were like her. We should find them." |
Author: small_magics | "I don't know how to do that." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Through Milliways. You met him, you'll have the best chance at forcing the door," Shell Bell says. "I'll go with you." |
Author: small_magics | "All right." |
Author: pythbox | "Bye," says Liselen. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell waves at the unicorn and cues Jane, and she and Sarion vanish. |
Author: lifes_sake | "So if the new Joker recognized Sarion then presumably this one is a girl too. Are we all going to be girls except me? That could get really tiresome if there are ever, like, forty of us and I'm still the only boy one." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Relax," snorts Juliet. "Given that we come in boy at all we probably come in boy more than once per forty. If there are even that many Bells in the multiverse." |
Author: pythbox | Liselen eyes the assortment of Bells.
"There are an awful lot of you." |
Author: dark_light | "Used to be Golden and Stella met occasionally, and then I met Shell Bell and we set up a thing in the interdimensional hub to collect more of us," says Amariah. "It's worked pretty well, I guess Sarion didn't get gotten that way because she never went up to the bar." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Minus recognized me before I went up to the bar," says Cam. "I'm still pretty impressed by that." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "He's very clever," says Juliet comfortably. |
Author: pythbox | "Minus is a weird name," opines Liselen, who still hasn't told the peal his. |
Author: lifes_sake | "It's not his name, his name is Sherlock, but there are a bunch of those, too - Shell Bell's girlfriend and some others without Bells attached - and so they had to pick nicknames. And they are much worse at it than Bells are." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Minus's nickname refers to the fact that he didn't use to have a soul. Now he does, so it's not even accurate anymore." |
Author: pythbox | "Oh," says Liselen. |
Author: self_composed | "Have you got a name?" Stella asks Liselen. |
Author: pythbox | "Yes! It's Liselen," says the unicorn. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "We are mostly named Isabella, but we all have different nicknames to keep ourselves straight in particularly Bell-dense cohorts," says Angela. "I don't know if you'd get any use out of them or not." |
Author: pythbox | "I think I'd be better off learning your names one at a time," says Liselen. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I'm envisioning us doing a sort of regular rotation to hang out with Sarion and help her patch herself back up the rest of the way, so I guess if you come visit you could learn us one at a time," Juliet shrugs. |
Author: self_composed | "How about as we come off person-of-contact for Downside we go on person-of-contact for Sarion, with person-of-contact-ing involving visiting or not depending on what she's in the mood for?" suggests Stella. |
Author: dark_light | "I'll take it, but that leaves whoever's person-of-contact for Downside before me a long Sarion shift, we should rotate that around or drop me to a normal-length rota." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "I don't think there's much ongoing reason to leave you with an unusually long shift. Plenty of us now have rather quiet worlds and when we're busy we've never had trouble covering for each other, and Jane can handle virtually everything on her own now." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "All right, sounds like a plan." |
Author: mind_game | [Shell Bell's aura does Milliways doors, turns out,] says Jane. [Sarion couldn't force it, but Shell Bell got it to take her to the world they had in mind without a coin. They're waiting for the new Bell to disentangle herself from her Charlie and some friend of hers now. You want to all go congregate on the planet they're waiting on?] |
Author: beheld_beauty | "Yes, please!"
There is widespread nodding.
"And pass on the question to the Jokers, if you would," Rose adds. |
Author: self_composed | "I bet you this turns into a party. Maybe Sarion's friend Magania wants an invitation even though all our friends are going to have almost as much trouble as we do with not asking questions," Stella says archly. |
Author: pythbox | "Sarion's friend Magania thanks you for your very gracious invitation," says Magania, "but thinks that she would be lost among so many humans."
"Did somebody say party?" says Liselen. |
Author: self_composed | "We throw parties when we find new Bells, and now we have found two new Bells," says Stella, "you wanna come?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yes," says Liselen. "Yes I do." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Well then," says Angela. "Shall we? Oh, and Magania - please don't disturb the object you were looking at in the cave. It's not exactly easy to break, but if it broke anyway, time would not pass at the same rate here as in the other worlds we look at, and by the time we came back it could've been any number of years and that would be inconvenient for Sarion." |
Author: pythbox | "I will make this known to any who might visit here," says Magania. |
Author: autokinetic | "I don't think it ought to make the national news," says Aegis. "And Jane, if you see anyone looking at it funny, swoop one of us in, okay?" |
Author: mind_game | [Will do.] |
Author: lifes_sake | "Is that everything? Let's have a party," laughs Cam.
And all the Bells and Elspeth and Liselen disappear. |