Aegis wishes.

Aegis permits a brief hug, but not prolonged snuggling. "Better?"

"Much," he asserts, and scoops up Sue next.

Sue permits prolonged snuggling!

Belle will be quietly weeping with relief over here.

Aegis goes and sits next to her. "There's a bunch of us," she says. "You're ninth!"

Mmmcuddlycuddlycuddly.

"Ninth. And you're from a world where magic runs on - wishing?"

"Oh, no, that's from Stella's world," says Aegis. "She can share. My world doesn't technically have magic, although some of what we've got skirts pretty close."

"The mind-touching thing I do is from our world," Sue offers. "It's handy for talking to people, but there's some Bells it doesn't work on."

"Bells," says Belle.

"All of us have the sound 'Bell' in our names. I go by Aegis instead, but my real name's Isabella," says Aegis. "Same with most of the other, but there's one who's just named Bell."

"Well, I am named Belle," Belle says.

"You're going to need to pick a nickname," Aegis says. "What with there being so many of us, you see."

"Madame l'enchanteresse," suggests Beast, still cuddling Sue.

"Too long," says Belle with a weak laugh. "No, perhaps something like - Rose."

"Whatever you like, my love."

"I think so. Unless someone else has taken the same name."

"Nope. It's me, Aegis, and then there's Shell Bell and Stella and Golden and Amariah and Juliet and Pattern and Angela."

"Do you all have more of me, too?"

"Angela - you met her, right? - she has one, she's married to hers too, and then there's me and Sue, Stella and Alice, and Amariah and Kas. Golden has Jokes working for her but they're not together, she married this other guy. Pattern's got Queenie working for her, same deal except Pattern's not seeing anybody at all. And Shell Bell and Juliet have Sherlocks and Tonies instead."

"So many," murmurs the Beast. "I want to meet all of me."

"I'll just bet you do," Sue says cheerfully.

"It's a pity you missed the big party!" says Aegis. "Everybody - all the Jokers including a spare I didn't mention - was in one place."