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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
her_imperial_radiance
"As long as we're comparing, you do definitely win on duration, and you're competitive on peak misery but Brilliance has you beat there," Elspeth adds. "I think emotional despair is still best embodied as a vampire with a dead mate."
cardistry
"Wait, what?" says Brilliance. "Peak misery like - pain? I win over the guy who got tortured by demons for two thousand years?"
her_imperial_radiance
"Well, you didn't spend two thousand years at it, so I'm not sure if you'd have been well advised to trade if that had been an option, but your worst parts were more painful than his worst parts," says Elspeth.
her_imperial_radiance
"Anyway," says Elspeth, "the baby one has not been rescued yet, and it's not unusually terrible yet but it's going to get that way any week now, so what else do we need to know before I go get him?"
manofmyword
"Pretty sure you're covered," says the Joker. "Enough to go get him, anyway. We should maybe talk about names and stuff, but that can come later."
her_imperial_radiance
Elspeth nods.
"Jane," she says, "can you drop me in that world, please?"
"Jane," she says, "can you drop me in that world, please?"
her_imperial_radiance
"Okay. Wish me luck," says Elspeth, and she cues Jane, and she's gone.
And she's in the unobtrusive underground Janepoint that Pattern made in this world back when she was doing her post-Downside-takeover tour.
And she teleports to where the baby Joker is right now.
And she's in the unobtrusive underground Janepoint that Pattern made in this world back when she was doing her post-Downside-takeover tour.
And she teleports to where the baby Joker is right now.
The baby Joker is asleep. His mother is standing in the doorway, watching him.
her_imperial_radiance
"Hello," says Elspeth. "I'm from another world. This isn't a good place for your baby. I'm going to take him away and look after him." She scoops the baby Joker up out of his crib. And she sterilizes his father, because no one needs an extra Voice.
"But... you... that's my son," says Judith. "Who are you?"
her_imperial_radiance
"My name is Elspeth," says Elspeth. "And I know he's your son, and if it were just you maybe I'd leave him, but it's not just you. Is it."
"I don't know what you're trying to imply," she says frostily.
her_imperial_radiance
Elspeth cradles the baby Joker. "If I leave him here your husband will hurt him. Badly. Often. He's already started, just a little, and it will only get worse. The entire mess is overwhelmingly likely to end with you and your husband dead," she adds.
Judith stares for a long moment.
"I'm dreaming," she says at last, and she leaves the room, closing the door behind her.
"I'm dreaming," she says at last, and she leaves the room, closing the door behind her.
her_imperial_radiance
If you still want your son, in a few years, you can send an email, Elspeth sends her, it doesn't matter to where, saying so. And one of my friends will find it, and we'll talk about it then.
And she cues Jane, and she goes.
And she cues Jane, and she goes.
The baby Joker continues to sleep peacefully in her arms.
her_imperial_radiance
"Here he is," says Elspeth to the deck and peal. "I told his mother that she could send an email to anywhere in a few years, if she still wants him then, and we could talk about it. Also there will be no Voices coming from that world."
