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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.)
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mind_game
withmypowers
"We don't actually like nicknames," says Tilly, with Matilda nodding agreement. "I just put up with 'Tilly' because - Jellybean."
withmypowers
"Should I meet this 'Jellybean'?" inquires Matilda.
Tilly looks thoughtful. "It's weird that you don't have one," she says. "I don't know what I'd think of him if I met him now."
Tilly looks thoughtful. "It's weird that you don't have one," she says. "I don't know what I'd think of him if I met him now."
lifes_sake
"I have no idea either," snorts Cam. "Bells are demonstrably able to cozy up to Jokers at nearly any age but I don't know about you guys."
withmypowers
"Well, now I'm curious," says Matilda.
"Okay," laughs Tilly. "Cam, do you know if he's...?" She makes a vague upstairsward gesture.
"Okay," laughs Tilly. "Cam, do you know if he's...?" She makes a vague upstairsward gesture.
lifes_sake
"He is most definitely," upstairs gesture, "but he might be between R-rated acts and willing to extract himself, you want me to find out?"
[Not right now,] says Jellybean dreamily. [Maybe in a bit.]
lifes_sake
"Jellybean is nnnnnot available at this moment," snickers Cam.
lifes_sake
"I for one am astonished, who could possibly have predicted that after two months without access to any other Jokers that would be the first thing he'd do."
withmypowers
"Does he really," Matilda makes the upstairs gesture, "that often?"
"Oh yes," says Tilly. "That's Jellybean. If you don't know where he is, 'having sex with someone' is always a reasonable guess."
"Oh yes," says Tilly. "That's Jellybean. If you don't know where he is, 'having sex with someone' is always a reasonable guess."
lifes_sake
"Template thing," says Cam. "They're all like that. Bells vary more and the high end does nnnot keep up with Jokers for long."
withmypowers
"I wonder what our template variance is on that...?" says Matilda.
"Low," says Tilly.
"Low," says Tilly.
lifes_sake
"Well, we know two of you," Cam points out. "If the only Bells who'd ever met each other were, say, Stella and Pattern, I imagine they'd tentatively conclude low variance too."
lifes_sake
Cam tilts his head at a word from Jane. "Important peal business of some kind," he reports, "off I go." And he wanders to the growing cluster of his alts.
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