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

[pumpkin_pie]

"Ee-dit," she corrects patiently. "Like Edith with a T."

[campanas]

"Eeeeeeedit. I'm Keziah!" says Smaller Cherub.

"I'm Céleste!" says Smaller Rosebud.

[pumpkin_pie]

"And you are Dominique and Damaris," she says to Bigger Rosebud and Bigger Cherub respectively.

[carillons]

"That's right!" says Bigger Cherub.

[campanas]

"They didn't name their template yet but we're going to be Griffins!" says Céleste.

[pumpkin_pie]

"And why are you going to be Griffins?" asks Aedyt. "I see one set of wings, but no beaks, paws, or tails."

[campanas]

"I have a pet griffin," says Céleste.

"I want one but our mommy won't let us have magic in front of people," grumbles Keziah. "Griffins are neat!"

[pumpkin_pie]

"You could have an invisble griffin," she hypothesizes.

[campanas]

"I don't think she would let me," says Keziah, shaking her head.

"My griffin is named Rainier!" says Céleste. "I had to leave him home. He doesn't like it crowded."

[pumpkin_pie]

"You could ask for an invisible griffin," says Aedyt.

[campanas]

"Maybe I will!" says Keziah. And she closes her eyes and tilts her head and then says, "No, Mommy says it would still be too conspicuous."

[pumpkin_pie]

"Maybe you could keep him somewhere out of the way," says Aedyt. "My mum gave me an asteroid for my unbirthday once. I keep a lot of my stuff there that won't fit anywhere else."

[campanas]

"But then he might be lonesome!" says Keziah.

"Unbirthday?" says Céleste.

[pumpkin_pie]

"Hybrids grow up too fast to just have birthdays once a year," Aedyt explains, "so I have unbirthdays every other day of the year instead, and as long as it's my unbirthday people can get me presents whenever they feel like it."

[pythbox]

Dominique laughs.

[campanas]

"My Rainier wasn't because of a birthday or an unbirthday or any holiday at all. I just asked for him," says Céleste. "I guess it was not my birthday then."

[pumpkin_pie]

"Then he can be an unbirthday present if you want him to be!"

[campanas]

"I guess he is!"

[pumpkin_pie]

Aedyt smiles.

[campanas]

"So who are you? Besides your name?" asks Céleste.

[pumpkin_pie]

"I'm your cousinoid! My mum's the Joker, he's an alt of your dads, and my dad's Nathan, the Imperial Minister of Temporal Affairs in Aurum."

[campanas]

"Ooh!" says Keziah. "We don't have any regular cousins. Mommy is an only child. Daddy's not but Uncle Nathaniel doesn't have any kids."

[pumpkin_pie]

"You have an Uncle Nathaniel? That's weird," she laughs.

[campanas]

"He's Daddy's little brother," says Keziah. "He's pretty okay."

[pumpkin_pie]

"I guess I've heard of him, but Mum never told me his name. Is he fun?"