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

[pina_colada]

Kerron peers at some flying colorshapes. "Well, in case there's any of it left and you wouldn't want it to suffer some awful fate later, I should probably warn you relatively upfront that I'm chronologically twelve, in case that affects any... ice-cream-related interests... I may wish to hear lots more about."

[sailorheavymetal]

"...But this is some kind of weird magic-and/or-science thing and you're as developmentally twentyish as you look, right? Because you look developmentally twentyish," says Darcy, looking.

[pina_colada]

"Oh yeah," says Kerron, "half-vampires do that." He winks. "I've been legal for five years now."

[sailorheavymetal]

"Awesome," says Darcy. "In that case, let's talk about ice cream."

[pina_colada]

"Might melt," he says, speculatively picking up one of her hands in his. "I'm warmish, you see."

[sailorheavymetal]

"You are warmish," she agrees. "But I think I can deal."

[pina_colada]

He takes a step into her personal space, although not so close that he can't regularly have a look at flying colorshapes, and laces their fingers. "You think? Sounds messy."

[sailorheavymetal]

"Nothing wrong with a little mess, right?"

Darcy sure doesn't think so!

[pina_colada]

"You know, I think I agree with you."

[sailorheavymetal]

"It's so great when that happens," beams Darcy.

[pina_colada]

"It is! Somebell set up a buffet," observes Kerron, "but I don't see any ice cream at it. Might be a do-it-yourself project. I've got squares," he adds, winking. "If you wanna go upstairs."

[sailorheavymetal]

"I would love to go upstairs," says Darcy. "And eat ice cream."

[pina_colada]

Kerron's still holding her hand. He pulls her stairward. "Of foods," he says, "ice cream is one of the better ones."

[sailorheavymetal]

"Ice cream is my favourite," says Darcy. "Especially when combined with other tasty things. Apple pie, funnel cake, hot guys..."

[pina_colada]

"So, I'm detecting a thing for temperature contrasts here," he purrs, squeezing her hand and pulling her up the first few stairs.

[sailorheavymetal]

"You might be onto something there!" says Darcy. "Good thing you're warmish, huh?"

[pina_colada]

"I am very conveniently warmish!" he agrees. Up they go. Yep, somebody prescient has separated this floor into "airlocked" chambers. This is the Belltower and pastwatching doesn't work at Milliways, so there is no feature inviting people to donate their bodies to pornography, just indications of vacancy or lack thereof.

[sailorheavymetal]

"You're very convenient in general," says Darcy.

[pina_colada]

"I try. If for some reason you opted to cease to wear your hammer would it fall through the floor and hit somebody on the head?" He peers at colorshapes, and reaches for a door labeled "vacant".

[sailorheavymetal]

"Nope," says Darcy. "When I put it down, it stays put. It's still heavy, I wouldn't drop it on something fragile, but most floors'll stand up to it just fine."

Her colorshapes at the moment mainly revolve around combining Kerron and ice cream in predictable ways.

[pina_colada]

"You know what I bet I go with?" he says, opening the door and ushering her in. "I bet I go with pineapple and coconut."

[sailorheavymetal]

Darcy puts her hammer down by the door.

"Let's find out!"