Author: she_sells_seashells | The Bells are assembled, except the ones missing into the unknown world.
Shell Bell opens her aura up as far as it will go. (Back in Atlantis, Neptune glows with the spillover, snuggled up to Tinia.)
She reaches for the door.
She gets Atlantis.
She tries again and gets Downside.
"It doesn't look like I can get it," she says softly. "It looks like they're stuck until -"
The door opens, again.
"Thank fucking everything," Aegis says, "hello. Aether, Celo - these are - everybody and then some."
"Tab," supplies Tab.
Meanwhile, Glass staggers in the direction of the bathroom. [THAT IS NOT A NICE WORLD.]
[We fucking KNOW,] says Aegis, [how broke is Jane?]
[Very broke,] says Juliet, [tried a tenner, didn't go.]
[I might be able to do something now you're here,] Stella says, [with aura.] |
Author: pythbox | "Wow there's a lot of you," says Celo. "I mean, I'd heard, but wow."
He steps through with the rest of them; Jellybean follows. |
Author: incanted | "I don't think nudity's allowed in the bar, do you want some clothes or should we just stash you in the Belltower or what?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah, something, we have run into too many naked people dooring around today," says Shell Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "Fuck you, I'm a nymph," Celo says mildly. "'Stash' isn't a word I necessarily like; define 'stash'."
"Can I just - fix this," says Jellybean, and Celo glances back at him and shrugs agreeably, and Jellybean snaps his fingers for effect, and Celo acquires an opt-out censor bar. Any observer can want it to be there or gone for them according to their preference, and Celo can tell who is seeing him censored and who is seeing him uncensored at any given time if he cares to find out.
"Better?" says Jellybean. "Fuck, I love being able to wish for things again." |
Author: thaumobabble | [Is that door gone? Can I come out?] asks Glass plaintively. |
Author: incanted | "Nicely done," Aurora tells Jellybean. [Yeah, you're safe, Glass. It's that bad?] |
Author: thaumobabble | Glass pops back out, pale and trembly. "It's nauseating. You're well rid of it, whatever-your-nickname-is." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "I might want to evacuate my parents or something later, and it might be that Celo can't stay out forever," says Aether. "...Aether. I'm Aether." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "You won't have heard of me. I'm Tab, I'm new. I have a timesyncing alternative to Jane but apparently I don't want to get it anywhere near where you're from." |
Author: pythbox | "Wow, are you okay?" says Celo to Glass. "You look like you need a healer. Or maybe a hug." |
Author: thaumobabble | "I need to never look directly at that world again, is all. I see - metacausality - and I'm astonished a Bell lived to adulthood in that." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "I would really like it if people would stop being surprised I wasn't suicidal. It's not like a relatively unambitious life is so awful as to be not worth living." |
Author: dark_light | "Sorry. Ugh. I want to go home. I want Jane fixed and then I want to go home. How long has it been?" |
Author: self_composed | "We didn't check your three worlds," says Stella, shaking her head. "Aegis, let's you and me see what we can do." She teleports the entire group out to the Belltower, and lets her aura loose. |
Author: pythbox | Celo looks around in fascination. Jellybean snuggles him affectionately. |
Author: autokinetic | Aegis - is present. And contains Jane. |
Author: mind_game | The Janepoint sloooowly reassembles itself. "Moooooom, what'd you doooo to me," she says plaintively. "And who's plugged in? There's somebody plugged into me." |
Author: autokinetic | "I'm sorry. I didn't know." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "That's Kers. She's your time-sync backup now," says Tab, distributing the remaining Kersibles to the Bells who don't have them in their own worlds yet. "Hi. I'm Tab, I'm new." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "My sincerest apologies for my apparently nauseating world." |
Author: incanted | "I was thinking maybe Jane should have her own body. Maybe not a biological body. Devices are lower-maintenance and might interface better." |
Author: lifes_sake | "That sounds like a job for you, maybe Brilliance, and Aegis. I want to go home," says Cam, peering at the Kersible Tab gave him. "We can have a party later." |
Author: dark_light | "Seconded. Narrate the executive summary to Jane and she can send us emails about it," says Amariah, waving a hand, "I'm out."
And she teleports to the bar door. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Hi, Jane, bye, Jane," says Tab.
Bells disperse. |
Author: autokinetic | Except Aegis and Aurora, both of whom want to contact their respective Jokers promptly but don't plan to go home. |
Author: subtly_artistic |
"Want to go get auras and stuff in Chronicle?" Aether asks Celo. "I don't know if they'll help, but they're supposed to be generally - helpful." |
Author: pythbox | Jellybean heads home with Cam.
"Sure," says Celo, smiling crookedly. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Jane?" |
Author: mind_game | "Yeahhhhh can do just give me a sec, that was some disorienting hardware failure and now I have a Chris attached to me, hello Kers nice to meet you I am Jane... okay, Glass's palace, coming up, oh it has a Jarvis in it now - here you go."
Yoink. |
Author: guessguess | Glass's youngest is near the Janepoint in the castle.
"You're naked," she giggles. |
Author: pythbox | "I'm a nymph!" says Celo, grinning friendly-like. "We do that." |
Author: guessguess | "But you're totally naked," giggles Kiawen. Her piano bear is batting at her hair from his position on her shoulder. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "I didn't actually get a coin supply before everyone scattered or I'd have perfect recall by now, but you must be one of Glass's kids." |
Author: guessguess | "I'm Kiawen. Do you need to talk to Be- to Glass? She doesn't have all that many coins." |
Author: mind_game | "I'm awake, I'm awake," says Jane, "hang on, lemme ask around - okay, Pattern's gonna spot you a starter set - I'll just drop them over there - you can fish around for an evil and get your standards all in a batch and coinsorter them up." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "...Okay," says Aether, and she does indeed fish around in the resulting pile of assorted coins for an evil, tentatively wish for state-of-the-art Bell standards, blink, and slurp up the remaining heap into her sorter. |
Author: pythbox | "What'd you get?" wonders Celo. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Teleporting, perfect recall, enchanting, invisibility - apparently the state of the art agony beam is updated from what the visitors told us about - flying - all kinds of stuff - I'm going to need to go Downside too to be able to torchable people, I guess, even if I can't get you. That magic language Jellybean was speaking, I have that now. Lots of stuff. And of course it'll all probably go haywire if I ever go home." She sighs and leans on Celo. "...So there's a Jarvis here? Hello, Jarvis, can you point me at someplace private me and Celo can go for aura-getting?" |
Author: poeticterms | "Certainly," says the local Jarvis. "Just out the door and down the hall to your left, then up the stairs, the first door on your right will be a guest room which you may occupy for whatever purpose you like." |
Author: subtly_artistic | Aether follows these instructions. "Thanks."
She flops onto the guest room bed.
"So apparently I just dump enchanting energy into the forest, and this will probably take a few hours," she tells Celo. "You wanna be my channel?" |
Author: pythbox | "I really do!" says Celo, flopping onto Aether and snuggling up. |
Author: subtly_artistic | You lemme know if you need a break or for me to tone it down. And she starts up. |
Author: pythbox | "Ooh," he murmurs, wriggling. "I like it." |
Author: subtly_artistic | She nuzzles him. "Oh, good."
Pour pour pour. |
Author: pythbox | Mmmmmmmmsnugglesnugglemmmmm. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Snuggle enchant snuggle enchant snuggle. |
Author: pythbox | So many snuggles. Extremely snuggles.
"I love yooou," sighs Celo. "Fuck, this is incredible." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "I can go faster if you want," chuckles Aether. |
Author: pythbox | "Ooooh yes please," he says, nuzzling her cheek affectionately. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Pouuuuuur. |
Author: pythbox | "I love you," says Celo, and then he commences having a predictable reaction to all this gorgeous pain. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Bella flicks her Janegem off and says Can you shoo? to Jarvis.
And snuggles up. |
Author: poeticterms | I have not been watching that room since you entered it, says Jarvis. |
Author: pythbox | Celo kisses her. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Good, thanks.
Kisses! |
Author: pythbox | All kindsa kisses.
Better watch it, says Celo, apparently losing control of an enchantment fucks you up good - you okay on that front? |
Author: subtly_artistic | Can kiss you, dunno about anything more intense on my end. I am a subtle artist and have excellent mental control, she replies merrily. |
Author: pythbox | Mmkay, I'll be over here getting intense, he says, continuing to kiss her. I love you. You're awesome. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Nuzzle nuzzle pour kiss. |
Author: pythbox | Nuzzle nuzzle kiss mmmmmmmm. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Time passes. Lemme know if you need a break. |
Author: pythbox | I really really don't, he hums, snuggling up. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Good, good. |
Author: pythbox | Love you so much.
And soon there will be honey. |
Author: subtly_artistic | I cannot believe I forgot to mint you.
She does that.
It's a hex. He's not torchable and she can't torchable people anyway. |
Author: pythbox | Mmkay, I'll figure out coins, gimme a sec—
It is somewhat more than a literal seconds, but he finishes doing the thing that is occupying him right now, and then (licking purplish honey from his fingers) he makes a coin.
It is a pentagon, and it is... purplish. It is, in fact, exactly the colour of this particular round of honey, down to the slightly smoky translucence and the way it glistens in the light.
Celo giggles. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Aether giggles too. Cute. |
Author: pythbox | "It's better than cute," he laughs, "it's wonderful, it's fucking amazing."
He makes another hexagon; this one shades into blue. The original is slowly reddening. Actual emitted honey doesn't do that, but apparently coins are different. Celo likes the effect. |
Author: subtly_artistic | They're pretty.
Pour. Pour. Pour. |
Author: pythbox | "They are! I love 'em," he says, curling up closer and licking his fingers some more. |
Author: subtly_artistic | She steals a taste. (Delicious and nutritious.)
Poooooour. |
Author: pythbox | Aww. Celo grins and kisses her.
"Want some more?" he offers. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Oh, but what about my appetite for dinner, she teases. (Kiss. Pour.) |
Author: pythbox | Kisskisskissmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I'm better than dinner, he assures her, and sets about making some more. |
Author: subtly_artistic | You are, it is true. |
Author: pythbox | Celo giggles affectionately.
It doesn't take as long this time - only a few minutes. A few extremely nice minutes. This time it's amberish, a proper honey colour. It mixes oddly with the remnants of the purple. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Licking might be called for. It won't do to make a mess on these nice guest sheets. And licking isn't cognitively taxing enough to prevent her from continuing to pour-pour-pour. |
Author: pythbox | Celo is all in favour of licking. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Oh, good. |
Author: pythbox | Mmmmmmmmm. |
Author: subtly_artistic | And on they proceed.
Time passes.
Aether's aura is not one of the unflavored kinds.
It's a little subtler than Juliet's. She's not a hellgoddess. She's an unspecified form of - Power. She's something you don't want to cross, not because she is threatening, but on general principle.
In terms she used to describe her home world to her alts:
She's something big.
(She goes on pouring; she's not sure if she's done yet.) |
Author: pythbox | "Nice," says Celo, cuddling her some more. "My epic-level girlfriend." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Is that what I'm getting?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah, you've got 'don't mess with this one' written all over you, it's hot," he says. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Probably just makes you want to mess with me," she snorts. |
Author: pythbox | "Depending on your definition of 'mess with'..." He grins. |
Author: subtly_artistic | She giggles. "When it's in at full strength. I'll compare with Glass, I guess." |
Author: pythbox | "'Kay," says Celo, and he nestles close. He's feeling more snuggly now, not so much with the honey. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "She'll be able to tell what else it does, too." Snuggle. "I think I might be coming up on done, based on the estimates..." |
Author: pythbox | "Wanna go check? Or give it a little more first? I'm good either way," he says, snuggling. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "I'm gonna check. Wanna come along?" She tapers off the channeling. |
Author: pythbox | "Nah," he says, "you go, just don't be too too long with it, okay?" He grins. "I might get lonely." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "And that would be terrible." She nuzzles his throat and pops out of the room. "Hi, Glass. Hi - person." |
Author: thaumobabble | "This is Tony. One of my wives. Nickname Iron," introduces Glass. "Tony, this one's Aether. Looks like your aura's all full up and -" Glass peers at it. |
Author: allthebrightest | "Hi!" says Tony, waving. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Hi," waves Aether. "Celo called me 'epic level', so I guess that's one thing?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yes and - and - I think - you can go home," says Glass. "I think this is - the opposite of the thing that is horrible about your world. I think you cancel it out, near yourself." |
Author: subtly_artistic |
Aether bounces this to Celo. |
Author: pythbox | ...okay but like what does that mean, says Celo. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Can you be more specific?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "Your world is - anti-causal. Not all the time, but much more often than is healthy. Your aura won't let that happen within -" Glass squints. "A mile or line of sight whichever's farther. Even if you withdraw it. That's an always-on feature - well-behaved causality. It doesn't make you invincible, but - you can take actions and rely on their effects and nothing can cheat to stomp on you." |
Author: subtly_artistic |
Bounce. |
Author: pythbox | That is pretty fucking helpful, says Celo. I want one. |
Author: subtly_artistic | You're not going to get the exact same thing probably, but you'll get something. "I can go home," she says slowly. "I can do my Belling at home." |
Author: pythbox | Yeah, but if that's how helpful they get, I want something that's that helpful to me, says Celo. I don't really give a fuck about causality the way you do, but I've got my own shit, you know? |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yep, you can! And I won't throw up again if I look at your world while I'm close enough to you. And it won't break Jane if you take a gem home as long as you keep it on or near you," says Glass. |
Author: mind_game | [That's nice to know.] |
Author: subtly_artistic | Still bouncing everything.
Yeah, I get it. D'you want to call in one of your alts to channel for you? |
Author: pythbox | That'd be awesome, he says cheerfully. Wanna come mess with me first? |
Author: subtly_artistic | Sure do. "Thanks so much, Glass," she beams at her alt, "nice to meet you, Tony," and she pops back into the guest room. |
Author: pythbox | Where Celo proceeds to - mess with her. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Hurray!
She leaves her aura out. Why not? |
Author: pythbox | He loves her so much.
He tells her so, in every conceivable way. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Mmmmmm psychic powers are good to have. Celo is good to have. She has him. More than once. |
Author: pythbox | He is so there for that right now. Mmm. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Good, good. |
Author: pythbox | And eventually, when she has had him as many times as she wants, he can summon another Joker. Corona happens to volunteer. |
Author: subtly_artistic | Aether goes Downside to collect torchabling (it is on her checklist) and makes a Janegem with a chain that tucks under her hair and hangs on her forehead. It'll look like a psionic enhancer, hanging over the third eye location like that. She reminds Shell Bell that she should find Etty at her earliest convenience, though Glass remarks vaguely that the amount of time it takes to get around to visiting a place doesn't affect how much time will have passed there at the time one arrives, so there's not a particular hurry. She writes a Bellbook entry and learns about the history of the template. And when she has done all of these things, she checks in on her boyfriend's aura progress, since handling it through Corona's supposed to be particularly swift. |
Author: pythbox | Come see, come see! he says delightedly.
Celo and Corona are snuggling; Corona has his aura turned on low, projecting warm snuggly contentment that makes the whole room a nicer place to be, and Celo...
Nymphs have a divine nature. They can express it if they choose, and glow with the gods' own light.
Celo is doing something very like that.
His aura says that he does not just have a divine nature; he is divine. There's a slight sunny glow rising from his skin, and a hint of his name in the air, the ripe-grain scent and impression of summer heat mingling pleasantly with the comfort/warmth of Corona's aura. And he loves Aether, and his aura tells her so; he literally radiates it, in a way similar but not identical to the way he used to glow divinely when he healed someone.
"My aura," says Celo, "took Mama Kh out of me and put me there instead." He takes a breath. "And I think I figured out how to get my field out of Materia." |
Author: subtly_artistic | "You did? How?" |
Author: pythbox | "Jokers do this thing - Sue does it, and Harley did it," he says, "we pick ourselves up and shift worlds. I'm gonna see if I can learn it. And if I can, my field's part of me—I can just pick it up and put it somewhere! I wanna talk to Sue and Harley about it, though, and it sounds like they're both busy. And I'm not sure where I'd put it, anyway. Maybe this world. This world's nice. Would that be okay by the locals, you think?" |
Author: subtly_artistic | "I can ask Glass for you. This world is definitely nice. I'm not sure how your field's magic would interact with the forest magic if you were inside this country, though, so Glass should maybe stare at you for a while first." |
Author: pythbox | "I'm fine with Glass staring at me," Celo says cheerfully. Corona giggles and kisses him. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Should I call her in here or should we go to her?" |
Author: pythbox | "Either one," shrugs Celo. "Might as well go to her, I guess."
"Now that the interdimensional thing is up and running again, I'm gonna go say hi to some more Jokers," says Corona. He gives Celo another kiss, and a snuggle, and wanders off in search of the local Janepoint while he thinks about who he wants to visit first. |
Author: subtly_artistic | "Bye," says Aether to Corona, and she teleports herself (with Celo) back to Glass. "Hi, Glass. If Celo figures out how to transplant his garden can he put it here? Asking both on the subject of permission and magical compatibility." |
Author: thaumobabble | Glass sets about peering at Celo. "I'll have to consult Marianne about permission but I don't think she'd mind - there's the question of how, if at all, you want the place signposted or warded, since people here won't be familiar with nymph fields - and - There will be magical interaction between nymph stuff and the forest, but I think it will be friendly interaction, I don't expect it to do you any sort of harm." |
Author: pythbox | "Cool," he says. "What can you tell me about my aura?"
His aura is currently informing her that he has friendly feelings towards her. And is a god. |
Author: thaumobabble | "It says you're - at some point I should go starred into Alethia and look at some of the angels there for comparison, but I think it's claiming you're divine. Also friendly, at least to me. And if Aether didn't mention it, you're torchable now, do you want to be torchable? You're more - self-contained, now, than you were when I first saw you, you used to be attached to something that wasn't you and now you aren't. That perception power you have turned way down right now is more under your control now, I think, in convenient auraly fashion - aaaaand - did there used to be - things you couldn't touch without hurting them? I don't think that's a thing anymore, I think your divine energy is more about your preferences than categorizations of things as divine or not-divine or anti-divine now." |
Author: pythbox | "...That... makes a surprising amount of sense," says Celo, "and will come in handy if I ever need to heal a demonblood, I guess. Uh, I'll skip being torchable until I've moved my field, I think. And I might not want it even then - if it's just gonna make this body immortal, well, there's plenty of uses for a nymph corpse and I'll just pop out of my field again anyway." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Torching in general is more - absolute, than the respawning thing you do. I'd give torching good odds even against the nauseating anti-causality in Materia, I don't think the welcoming committee could have been permanently destroyed there no matter who they bothered - not that I'd advise trying it. Your field would be quite safe here, but if you do hope to be properly immortal that's a lot of time for small chances to add up, and Materia isn't Downsideable. It might make sense to consult the admin to see if there's a way to make your field torchable instead of your body." |
Author: pythbox | "Good idea," says Celo. "Potentially. What's the admin like?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "She's - locally omnipotent, kind of apathetic, willing to let us run her afterlife so she doesn't have to do it, quite amenable to requests." |
Author: pythbox | "Okay, then sure," says Celo. "As long as she doesn't randomly decide to eat me." |
Author: thaumobabble | "I do not know her to have ever eaten people," says Glass. |
Author: pythbox | "That's promising!" says Celo. "I mean, not that I've never been somebody's snack, but usually only when I'm having fun or getting paid or both." |
Author: thaumobabble | "I did not really need to hear that," says Glass pleasantly. "I'll ask Marianne about hosting your field, how about."
[Marianne, new Bell Aether has a Joker who is magically attached to a field. It's not normally transplantable, but he may be able to learn a template teleportation thing that would allow him to move it. Do you think it would be all right for him to put it in the forest?] |
Author: pythbox | [...In what way is he magically attached to this field?] says Marianne. [How big is it?]
"You didn't?" says Celo, blinking. |
Author: thaumobabble | "The only reason I'd need that information was if I was thinking of putting you in contact with someone who would eat you. How big is the field?"
[I haven't seen the field, so this is going off what I can see looking at his non-plant-part, but he is the field. If his body's killed, he'll appear in the field - like torching but he moves in the process and I think it's slower. If the field is destroyed so is he.] |
Author: pythbox | "Never mind," says Celo. "Uh, it's - kind of garden-sized, I don't know, I've never measured it. I could walk it out for you if we were outdoors, though." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Bigger or smaller than this room?" asks Glass. |
Author: pythbox | "Bigger, or I'd just walk it out here," he says. "Like - if you start from this corner, it'd go out past that wall a ways, and out past that one a little less, and there'd be a house just about over there that's not part of it."
[Assuming his field is not significantly larger than the palace, I can find a place for it fairly easily,] says Marianne. |
Author: thaumobabble | [It sounds smaller than the palace. Do you want exact dimensions?] |
Author: pythbox | [It would make finding a place for it much easier,] says Marianne. |
Author: thaumobabble | Glass puts herself, Celo, and Aether out in a nice flat place for walking out the dimensions. "If you don't mind." |
Author: pythbox | Celo closes his eyes and thinks, and then he paces the perimeter of a garden that is more or less rectangular and not all that much smaller than the palace, with a bite taken out of one corner where a small house apparently sits. |
Author: thaumobabble | Glass composes a little diagram of it for Marianne, with dimensions attached, in the text brainphone feature. |
Author: pythbox | [Thank you,] says Marianne. [I wonder if someone should upgrade the brainphone to do pictures? I'll look for somewhere nice to put it.] |
Author: thaumobabble | [I'll bring it up after things have settled down a bit. Some of the worlds lost a lot of time and there might be other upgrades to propagate before we add anything like that.]
"Marianne is looking for a nice place to put your garden," Glass reports to Celo. |
Author: pythbox | "That's nice of her," says Celo. "I wonder if it'll come with the wall? I don't actually know." |
Author: thaumobabble | "No idea. Sue doesn't register as magic when I look at him, except for stuff of known provenance like minting and aura. So whatever - moving around thing he does is not something I can help you with the details on." |
Author: pythbox | "Not even to tell me if it really is all of us or not?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "I might need to watch one of you actually doing it." |
Author: pythbox | "Is Sue still busy?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "Good question. Jane?" |
Author: mind_game | [Sue's snuggling with Aegis in Peace, I can pass him a message if you like. And, hey, Aether, Amariah wants to talk to you.] |