sweeping changes

[mind_game]

Jane has finally been updated in all of the "extra" worlds with no Bells, Jarvises, or other routine visitors to the peal, and she is conducting template sweeps in them.

[Hey,] she tells all the Jokers and all the Bells. [There's a Joker in world number twelve who wasn't there before I crashed. Can't find him online at all, though.]

Comments

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth pats the Janepoint. "Our interworld transportation system, which also syncs up time between worlds, breaks sometimes. Before she broke, you hadn't been born. After she came back online, you were twelve."

[mind_game]

"But we think I'm fixed for good now," says Jane.

[inhispockets]

He eyes the Janepoint mistrustfully.

[mind_game]

"One of your alts is kinda my dad!" says Jane conversationally. "Well, sort of one of them. Sort of one of your alts is sort of my dad."

[inhispockets]

...He boggles.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It's true," adds Elspeth helpfully. "There are a lot of alts going around. You won't be seeing much of yours until you're older though."

[inhispockets]

"Yeah? Why's that?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Because," shrugs Elspeth, "adult Jokers - that's the template name - generally have sex with each other, so it'd be weird if you met them before you were at least sixteen or so. You could meet their kids, though - there's more besides Jane. And one of them has a little brother who's nice enough, although usually they don't turn out well."

[inhispockets]

He snorts derisively.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Hmm?"

[inhispockets]

"You tell me."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I can only produce sourceless truth on an unreliable basis."

[inhispockets]

"Fine," says the boy. "So what now?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Well," says Elspeth, "you can live with me. I'm not sure where yet. I brought Harley up in a village in Québec, but your alts think you're going to be really obnoxious for a while, and the werewolves can be kind of volatile, so that doesn't seem like a good idea at least to start. Vampires aren't necessarily any better if you decide you want to push their buttons. I'd consider Denali, but I don't think you'd get along with Irina, and maybe not Kate either. So right now it's mostly between Nebraska and Isle Esme, but I'll have to ask my grandfather if I can have the latter for the next four-ish years. And of course maybe you don't want to live with me and would rather be dropped off in a randomly selected not-world-number-twelve's-Chicago location with some money and the local language. That can be arranged too."

[inhispockets]

(At 'really obnoxious', he grins.)

"What are you gonna do with me, if I live with you?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Probably depends on how fit for company you are and how soon, but at minimum there will be me, and my wolf Jacob, around, so probably no pickup soccer but we can occupy ourselves. I'm not sure what hobbies you've picked up at this point. Cooking and sewing are popular, though."

[inhispockets]

"What's your stake, anyway?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"My stake?"

[inhispockets]

"What do you care, why are you the one kidnapping me?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I'm a good candidate for it. Particularly since there was Harley. And you needed help."

[inhispockets]

"What's the deal with Harley?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"What do you mean? He's grown up, now, he won't need me around as much."

[inhispockets]

He gives her an impatient look. "If the reason you're so perfect for me is 'cause of him, why were you so perfect for him? Where is he?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I last saw him twenty minutes ago in the backyard of the interdimensional hub, in the tower that my mother and her alts maintain, but he could be anywhere by now. I think he left his external shapeshifting soul with his wolf in Québec, though. I volunteered to fetch him and look after him when Jane found him when he was a baby. There weren't any other obvious candidates, I had the wherewithal to do it, and the existing group of Jokers okayed me."

[inhispockets]

"What's their stake?" he mutters.