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

[her_imperial_radiance]

"That doesn't surprise me. I've got some catching up to do, I guess." Elspeth sighs. "Has Mama been okay without me, do you know?"

[pumpkin_pie]

"I don't know her majesty that well," says Aedyt. "I've seen her around a few times, that's all. But every time somebody comes to pick up coins from Mum, he asks how she is, and the answer's mostly 'okay, she's dealing'. Does... that help?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I guess. I mean, you could've described her as 'okay, she's dealing' when she thought Dad was dead, so I was hoping for an upgrade when it was me instead and I was just stranded... But yeah, it helps."

[pumpkin_pie]

"I guess she'll be better now that you're around and stuff," says Aedyt.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yup! I am back. I hope nobody became too attached to my job in the last eleven years, I like it."

[pumpkin_pie]

"What was your job?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I ran PRPR. And moonlit as a cinema operator for turning people, but maybe they've got that process magically streamlined now."

[pumpkin_pie]

"I'm not really involved in that stuff," she admits.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yeah? What do you do?"

[pumpkin_pie]

"Arts and crafts, mostly," she laughs.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Ooh, like what?"

[pumpkin_pie]

"Um... everything? Lately I've been experimenting with making beads to sew onto dresses."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"What kinda beadmaking?"

[pumpkin_pie]

"Little tiny glass ones!"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"That sounds fun."

[pumpkin_pie]

"It is!" she beams.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth lifts her head to listen to one of the myriad party conversations ongoing.

"Sorry, I have some input on that discussion over there," she says, pointing to a cluster of Bells and Tonies and one Sherlock who is rather firmly attached to his Bell and his Tony. "I'll see you around, I'm sure!"

[pumpkin_pie]

"Okay. Bye," says Aedyt.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth (Jake following) insinuates herself into the discussion about networking Jarvises for redundant time-syncing, as Yggdrasil, Sunshine, Helios, and Apollo didn't lose any significant time relative to Peace's baseline.

"The admin," she volunteers, "said while I was there that if Jane had died, she would show up Downside eventually. I bet she could get the original Sunshine Jarvis too."

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock... freezes.

[toblameforit]

"Then we should do that," says the attendant Tony, "somebody do that."

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah," says Juliet, "Jane, ask the admin about that please? Sunshine's original Jarvis and any others available to her."

[mind_game]

[Sure.]

[Hey you!] Jane says to the admin. [Peal wants the dead Jarvis. Can they have him? What format is he even available in, can I get a hard copy I can land in the arms of his loving family?]

[ending_of]

[The most convenient format would be the original house,] says the admin. [I can instantiate it here and you can move it wherever seems appropriate.]

[mind_game]

[He's available,] reports Jane. [Admin says the most convenient format is the original house. Where do you want it put?]