repealing

[mind_game]

Time has passed.

Inconsistently.

Jane's network has kept all the Bells' worlds - and every other world with a Janepoint stuck in due to its being attached to Downside - in temporal sync, but when Jane spluttered for just a moment, that was shot to hell.

Peace lost three seconds, because it was where Aegis torched; after that process was complete, Jane was there again. And as soon as a door between Peace and Milliways appeared, she could sync to her ansible hub in the Belltower and, from there, to everywhere else.

Atlantis and Sunshine each stand at about a minute apiece: Shell Bell's aura and Juliet's local copy of Jarvis both enabled them to get to Milliways immediately, pausing their homeworlds as standard for occasions when someone walks into the bar. Shell Bell's the one who connected Peace.

Everyone else was running on luck.

Luckiest is Rainbow, which lost only five hours.

Next is Alethia; in spite of Sherlock's mishap, it's fared reasonably well, spending only six weeks isolated.

Syntropy's just a little worse - seven weeks.

Origin waited two months.

Eos waited three.

Thilanushinyel, ten.

Everyone else is out a decade at least. Samaria's ten years, almost ten and a half.

Aurum is out eleven.

Rêverie has been separated for sixteen years.

All the Bells - and Elspeth, who was stuck in Downside for a day and a half on her end and whose mother was very upset - are collected in the Belltower, as are two Bell-attached Sherlocks who happened to be along for the ride. They all memorize this list of numbers. Aegis replaces her earpiece. And then they all go home to notify their loved ones and staff that there's a party cooking in the Belltower.

(Shell Bell, who has no particular cause on her own account to be distressed, sends her Sherlock to invite Tony in while she refits the Belltower to suit a party of a peal of Bells and their larger-than-last-encountered families and circles of friends.)

Comments

[eversomuchfun]

[Yes, thank you,] says Sherlock.

[cross_and_bow]

[Okay. Love you.]

And Juliet is gone.

Bells are assembling at the tower, mostly looking confused.

[mind_game]

When they're all there, Jane says, [Those of you with Jokers might want to get them out of the upstairs. I think I found a baby one.]

[jovahs_heiress]

...Those of the Bells with Jokers (including Pattern with her staff and Golden with hers) invite them to finish up and come discuss this. Issue.

[pythbox]

The Jokers, with varying promptness, finish up and teleport down.

[endragoned]

Aianon even remembers to put on pants!

[lifes_sake]

"How old is he?" Cam wants to know.

[mind_game]

[Coming up on his first birthday in two weeks. I don't have baby pictures - the world's internet isn't that developed, barely a nibble when Pattern hooked me up to this and the other places that developed it while I was out. But I have his name and his parents' names and they match the most common original names among Jokers.]

[manofmyword]

"Damn," says the Joker. "Now what?"

[self_composed]

"Is there any reason not to just - kidnap him? I mean, after checking for template matches. We have a great big stack of evidence saying he's not in for a good childhood."

[manofmyword]

"Mm," says the Joker.

[edgeofyourseat]

Other members of the deck

[truthwright]

also

[yourheartstrings]

look

[gunpowdergelatine]

conflicted.

[small_magics]

"It would be necessary to decide what to do with him after the fact," Sarion points out.

[dark_light]

"...And I can think of some reasons it'd be weird for him to get raised by, say, one of his own alts." Amariah peers at Shell Bell and Juliet.

[cross_and_bow]

"I am not set up for that."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I could do it if there were no other options but I'd want to talk to Sherlock and Tony first and there probably are other options."

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth slowly, looking puzzled at herself, raises a hand.

[manofmyword]

The Joker gives her an inquiring look.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I don't know why I think this," she says, "because sometimes being a fountain of truth isn't the same as being a fountain of reasons behind it? But I think I would be a - possible caretaker?"

[manofmyword]

He considers for a few seconds.

Then he says, "Yeah, I'll buy that."

[luminous_regnant]

Golden is peering dubiously at her child.

"Do you want to bring up an infant Joker?" she asks.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth thinks about that.

"I think," she says slowly, "that it could be fun. If I do it right. And I think I have a better chance at doing it right than - well, anybody else at this party who'd take him."