"Sad," Harley Andrea observes.

"Glass is telling us about some grownup things," Elspeth murmurs to Harley, petting his hair. "It won't help you to hear them right now."

He yawns agreeably.

[I was so young then, so sheltered,] Angela says. [It was a challenge to adjust even to you. I was always on the - naiver end of the Bell spectrum, especially back when I saw Jovah's hand on everything.] She swallows. [If you had been any farther away from - me, my understanding of the world - then I might have found the glow in our Kisses as incomprehensible as I later found Ithiel's deformities, I might have come to my crisis of faith earlier, and I don't know what I would have done about you, then, if I hadn't loved you as quickly as I did and then I didn't believe that we were divinely intended.]

She hugs him. [I'm so sorry, my love.]

Hug. Hug hug hug. Hug hug cry hug.

[...Maybe I should be more. Judicious about saying things? No one should rely on anything I say, I'm bewildered about everything, I just keep being inclined to say stuff.]

[Go ahead and say stuff,] says the Joker. [We wanna hear it, even if it's gonna do - that.]

Micaiah nods, sniffling.

[Okay... you three,] she gestures at the Joker and Queenie and Ghosty, [are all a cluster up to a point, then you branch off, I think most everything after you two died and you met Stella is regular causality and not meta-causality except for the fact that you all did get to meet everyone else. The meeting each other thing is mediated by meta-causality but since I only seem to be able to make pronouncements about people I'm looking at I don't think I can help us locate more of anybody... Insofar as you're the same you're all also template-y. I think Harley was going to go through a story like yours but the attractor is thwarted, more thoroughly than the other ones I mentioned.]

[Yep,] says the Joker. [Peas in a snuggly little pod, that's us.] He gives each of Queenie and Ghosty a kiss on the cheek.

[The rest of you don't cluster much. There's a little bit, with the ones from Earth, but not a lot; I think you're - very portable, so a lot of pull is going towards putting the ones outside that template cluster in places where you can meet Bells.]

[You two,] says Glass, pointing at the pair, [are weird. Kas and Petaal are two because that's a thing in the world, Sue and Ivy are two for regular-causality reasons, I think you're two because the template couldn't decide which species to land in!]

Ansharil laughs. The ground shakes a little. Aianon giggles along.

[What's up?] Amariah asks, appearing beside her boyfriend.

Glass absently explains the exercise underway while she peers at Amariah and Kas. And then she chews her lip a bit and says, [There's a weak attractor in Bells to find our - intended significant others - attached to useful resources; I think that's why Kas can read the alethiometer like it says in the Bellbook. It also plays to some template strengths - he didn't have to be as good at it as he is, but even if he weren't a true intuitive reader he'd still be good at it.]

Kas grins.

(Micaiah has slowly stopped crying and is now just snuggling his angel.)

(Angela is snuggling right back.)

[Do the rest of you with Bells want to get them so I can see more about how the grouping works?] Glass asks. [You guys are more popular among the Bell template than my wives are, and I'm not sure why... it might be because you're so portable, but it's not like the Sherlocks and Tonies are inflexible...]

"Sure," says Alice, and he brainphones Stella. [Hey, Glass is finding out about template stuff, wanna come get stared at?]

Brilliance likewise summons Aurora.