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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.)
mind_game
manofmyword
Upstairs, in the biggest available room, the deck of Jokers has been having fun for a while. But now they seem to have encountered a lull.
"Hey," says the Joker, lifting his head from where it's pillowed on Queenie's shoulder, "anybody wanna meet my daughter?"
"Hey," says the Joker, lifting his head from where it's pillowed on Queenie's shoulder, "anybody wanna meet my daughter?"
dark_light
"Ooh, you have another kid now?" asks Amariah from her heap of bedaemoned Jokers who are serving as a four-body pillow.
manofmyword
"Yep!" he says, beaming. "And she's cute as a button. I meant to introduce her earlier, but I, uh... got distracted."
manofmyword
"Mmkay, everybody get decent," he says, giving Queenie a kiss and wishing himself some clothes as he gets to his feet.
manofmyword
"Hiya, pumpkin," he says, giving her a hug and a kiss. "Everybody, this is my little pumpkin pie, calls herself Aedyt. Pumpkin, this iiiis—"
pumpkin-pie
"Alice," she says, pointing, "Kas, Micaiah, Sue, Beast, Queenie, Ghosty, Brilliance, Jellybean, and the demon." She pauses, lowering her hand. "And you must be Amariah," she adds.
dark_light
"That's me," says Amariah. Path is out again, sitting on her shoulder, warning everyone but Kas and Petaal and Ivy to back off.
pumpkin-pie
"I stand by my descriptive phrase," says Aedyt. "It's nice to meet you all, anyway. Mum, are you going to - yes, obviously you are," she says as her mother hugs her again.
manofmyword
"What, get all sappy and emotional? How could I resist? Look at you. I made a person, everybody!"
gunpowdergelatine
"Awww," says Queenie. She decides she would be a positive addition to this hug.
pumpkin-pie
Aedyt also giggles.
"Well, this is exactly like I expected meeting ten more of my mother to go," she says.
"Well, this is exactly like I expected meeting ten more of my mother to go," she says.