Harley emits an untintelligible mumble and hugs her.

"I love you too, Harley."

Snuggly hug. Where is his poof? His poof is cuddling him. He cuddles it back.

And Elsie is holding him and everything else can wait.

"You were in the sun for five years in Gift. Here it's been only a few more months since you dreamed here," says Elspeth, petting his hair.

"Five. Years," he echoes, leaning his head into her hand. "Long time."

"Yes." Pet. Hug.

"—Zeus okay?"

"Asleep in your bed until you're ready to wake him."

"I - not," says Harley. "Until. Until I can come back."

"What do you mean?" asks Elspeth gently.

"I went," he says. "I couldn't come back. I won't - wake him up - until I can."

"You can have a Janegem. She's working again now."

"Okay," Harley murmurs. "Later."

"Do you want something to eat?"

She doesn't burden him with the effort of deciding what. She produces a sandwich with approximately everything on it, the kind of messy thing he'd make on lazy afternoons when sandwiches were called for, and holds it out for him.

Elspeth patiently deploys triangles where triangles will be useful. When the sandwich has been used as thoroughly as possible she chooses something neater to follow it up with. (Apple slices, devoid of complications such as apple core.)

Harley munches contentedly on the apple slices.

And Elsie holds him, and when they are gone, she supplies cookies. (Soft cookies that won't get crumbs everywhere if they are clumsily handled.)

"I love you too." Hugs.

Elspeth waits. After a while, she conjures up some bubbly for herself.

[Sue's free to attempt porting lessons,] Jane tells them both, after considerable time has gone by.

[okay,] says Harley. [Elsie, come with?]

[Sure.]

Yoink. Here is the room with Celo in.

"...Should I know what's going on or am I just here to be a lap?" asks Elsie softly. (She is fine with being a lap. She signed up to be a lap sometimes.)

"I'm pretty resilient. If it would be good for me to have it I'll take it, that way or judgesight-wise, whatever."

Elspeth does not have to go through Sue to return the favor in high-fidelity, gently enough for a human brain but only just.

Elspeth conjures up two ansibles, twists them apart, gestures with them in Jane's direction; Jane swipes half of each. She puts one of the remaining pieces on Harley's finger as a ring and offers the other to Celo. "Backup," she murmurs. "Extra layer of redundancy."

Elspeth waits, hands clasped in her lap.

"It's hard to judge how to count the sun time. Harley's still younger than you if you don't," Elspeth says quietly.

Poofs are nice.

Elspeth nods.

Whisk.

Elspeth smiles.

Harley flickers over to Elspeth and hugs her, too.

Hugs!

"Thank you," says Elspeth.

Hugs, hugs. "Let me know when you're comfortable enough with it to wake Zeus."

"As long as you need."

Nod. Hug.

Aether comes up the stairs to see how Celo's doing.

"Aether," says Aether. "I'm sorry my world broke your kid."

"Thanks," Sue says wryly. "Yeah, I had to get elected world ruler, it was fun times."

"Your world rulers get elected?"

"Yeah. Well, technically I don't rule the whole world, but I'm working on that."

"Cool. I was thinking maybe I'd ascend to godhood without pausing at the 'politics' step."

"Ascending to godhood is a thing on Materia. Although it's possible my aura will get in the way of it, I don't really know how it works."

"You could withdraw your aura and hope she doesn't notice. I think the door will take us right back to that part of Emily whatever we do, though we can teleport to your field immediately after going through if you like."

"I guess we can do it that way. At least the epic part of my aura does withdraw. I wouldn't want to be brandishing that around Callahan either."

"I know, right?" laughs Celo.

"Whatever Glass says about torching having absoluteness that would stand a chance against even the causal irregularity. Yeah."

Aether rolls her eyes and raises her hand.

"I haven't tried it personally, but I have many negatively valenced memories of it and very few positive ones," remarks Elspeth.

"And let me guess," says Sue, "most of those are from us?"

"Most of them, yes."

"Who are they from that's not us?" wonders Celo. "Should I be meeting any of those people? - Stop me if this isn't a thing you want to talk about."

"Not wanting to talk about things is not usually a thing with me. There's a case of triumph from a fellow who managed to commit seppuku before the vampires got him and was only barely alive when Aro reached him, a case of pain asymbolia, and one masochist who might have approached your level."

"No, I don't think she was a template."

"What was she doing getting stabbed in the gut?" says Celo.

"Fighting off Mongols. She even succeeded, survived the stabbing, and lived another three years before being eaten by vampires."

"She was cool. I hadn't had cause to think about her specifically until I checked for happy stabbings."

"Glad I asked, then!" says Celo.

"D'you want me to inform you once resurrection on Aurum gets that far back?"

"Yeah!" says Celo, and Sue nods.

"Noted," chuckles Elspeth.

"I have fallen into a social circle that has really peculiar conversations," remarks Aether.

Celo giggles, and freecasts across the room to hug her.

Huggles.

"Sure, why not."

Sue also freecasts directly to hug.

Aether giggles and hugs him too.

"I'm a subtle artist - psion - I can defend really effectively against other subtle artistry but it doesn't work on arcane or divine mind-affecting magic from home so I really doubt it works on much outside Materia unless it's very similar to what I do. And Harley may also hug me."

Hugs. "Can do that, or I could shallow-read him directly."

"Linking also comes with some boosts," Sue adds, and demonstrates by adding her to the link. With him, Celo, Harley, and Elspeth already there, the cognitive speedup and expansion is very noticeable.

"Oh, that's nice."

"Ain't it just?" laughs Sue.

"As long as we're all extra brainful - right now my best idea for having a Janepoint in Materia that I can ever leave is 'acquire daemon, separate to split aura, leave him home' - I don't even know yet what I'd get. I might wind up having to skip a lot of parties and stuff if I don't want the place desynced. Which is not the worst thing that could have happened, but isn't tremendous fun."

"Amariah did it the long way around, I might be able to get it over with quick by walking through a Milliways door or having Jane put me somewhere, almost like Cam did. It's doable if necessary. I might just not have a Janepoint, only my gem that I'll wear all the time - if it turns out Emily can do doors like Jarvis. And then Materia will be synced when I'm home, and not synced, but paused, when I leave it."

"That also seems like a pretty good workaround," says Celo. "Assuming it doesn't just decide to unpause because fuck you. Can worlds do that? If worlds can do that, I bet ours can."

"I might need to ask Glass to come in well within the protection of my aura and see if she can tell. I don't think I really want a - I don't even know what I'd have -" She spends a square to get an illusion. "...I still don't even know what I'd have, what the hell."

"Ooh, pangolin," says Sue. "Those are cool."

"What is it though?"

"...Possibly a mammal?" says Sue. "And they look like that. And they're cool. And they're called pangolins. That's pretty much what I know."

"They're a mammal, sort of like armadillos with the armor," says Elspeth, "and that kind is a long-tailed pangolin and it lives in Africa. At least on Earth; I don't know about your world."

"Is getting animals you've never heard of common?"

"Beats me," shrugs Sue. "Jokers don't settle."

"Fair enough. Well, I don't particularly want a long-tailed pangolin on its own merits, but if Emily can't door, or I can't rely on dooring pausing the world, I might get one just for the aura split, I s'pose."

"How much do we actually care if Materia goes on without you when you're out?" wonders Celo. "Actually, if I'm there and my field's in Chronicle that'll probably keep us pinned down anyway, so the question is how much we care if Materia goes on without both of us."

"My parents probably care if Materia goes on without us while I'm out. See also: 'plan to maybe stay in school' - especially if my alts are going to keep operating under the assumption that I'm a therapist. We'll both be out when it comes time for Bell parties, unless you want to miss all the associated carousing."

"I am a pretty big fan of carousing," laughs Celo. "Well, we'll see, I guess."

"Yeah. Best case scenario, I bring Glass home while she clings desperately to my arm, she tells me Milliways logic is not subject to Materia unlogic and the pausing will behave itself, and Emily says she can door whenever she would like to door. Less good case scenario, I bring home a pangolin, find an out-of-the-way extraplanar corner to tuck it in, and build a Janepoint there."

Elspeth sends him a list.

Aether sends an approximation of applause through the link. She doesn't push anything automatically - Bells never do - but she's more comfortable with playing with the extended features of the thing than anybell save Aegis.

Aether laughs.

"Why thank you."

Harley hugs her.

Hugs.

Aether speculates, but doesn't get anywhere.

"It's a very cute cave."

"It is!" says Sue. "I love it."

"What is this cave exactly?"

"It's a little cavern full of glowy crystals in Chronicle, with assorted friendly harmless animals. Harley took one of them home with him."

"Harley seems to like it there," says Sue. "I think it helps with the - sensory depressurization thing."

"What exactly," says Aether, "happened to him?"

"He spent five years in the sun," says Sue. "And felt it. There was some other stuff before that, but that's what's screwing him over so badly right now."

"Which group?" laughs Sue.

"The peal and all our friends, seems like, given the number of obvious applications for therapizing I've encountered in the last hour."

"So between that and the fact that a pentagon for subtle arts only helped a little I think I'll finish my degree, maybe accelerated or something."

He nods. "Sounds like a plan to me."

"Yeah. So - Elspeth, I hear you're good at summarizing things? Can you get me up to speed on all the things?"

Elspeth commences getting her up to speed on all the things.

"Can do. Let me get Glass for a second peek at the world without so much vomiting this time. Sue, can you keep me in link just in case?"

"No problem," Sue says cheerfully.

"Thanks. Jane, can you ask Glass -?"

[Yep!]

"I don't need you to go very far or leave my aura at all," soothes Aether. And out they go to the door, which Aether opens - discernible aura snugly withdrawn.

Callahan is just visible at the end of the hall, walking away. She doesn't seem to have a reaction to Aether's return.

Glass's aura is visibly out. She stares at Callahan.

"What?" murmurs Aether.

Callahan makes a rude gesture in their direction without looking back, and then she turns the corner and she's off.

"...Don't cross her," Glass mutters, and she slips back out the door.

Aether blinks, and teleports to Celo's garden, and informs the link that she has done so.

[Yes, it's -] and she sends the place Marianne picked out.

Hugs! "You are a pretty garden."

Yyyyyes. Or at least, if it doesn't, it will be for Milliways reasons and not for Materia reasons. Also THAT WOMAN IS TERRIFYING.

Terrifying how? says Sue.

I wasn't really planning to bother her, and now I really plan not to bother her, says Aether.

I mean, on the other hand, if she's hireable, she could be handy if we run into anything that needs to die that we can't handle? Maybe? I don't really want to go near her and Chronicle doesn't have any of those things but if someone else needs to hire a metacausally potent assassin.

Celo apparently finds this suggestion hilarious.

I have no idea if she's remotely hireable and I am not going to test the hypothesis, just throwing it out there. I am snug at home in my cotton candy world with my lovely wives and daughters not antagonizing anything that glows like that.

Sue and Celo are both there! Sue waves cheerfully, kisses Celo, and freecasts back to Harley.

Now it is Aether's turn to kiss Celo.

It is! It really really is.

Elspeth is still hanging out in the part of the Belltower they have been using to practice freecasting.

Elspeth will go home to Aurum and wait for Harley there.

Hugs.

"I love you too."

Harley snuggles her.

Pet pet pet.

Practically speaking, he is much too big to fit in her lap, but he has never been inclined to let that stop him from the moment it started being true.

She is not concerned with his weight. The length of her arms is more of an issue, but she can still prop him up with one hand.

Anyways, even if all of Harley will not fit in her lap at once, he can sit next to her and flop over into it and curl up. That is a winning strategy.

That works too. And he is pettable this way. Pet pet pet.

That is cute. The poof was a good idea.

Elspeth pets Harley. (She also sneaks a pet of the poof.)

Harley giggles.

Harley does not glow when petted, but that is okay.

He doesn't, it's true! But he does smile and make contented snuggly sounds.

Those are good sounds. With any luck they mean he is feeling better.

Also, snuggles. Must not forget the snuggles.

The snuggles are extremely important.

"Yeah," he says. Look! A word!

It's a word! It is a meaningful word. She is not sure if he is up to utensils, so it's chicken fingers and fries.

Harley totally succeeds at eating those things.

And a milkshake. With a straw.

Elspeth doesn't have to sleep anymore. She stays right where she is, dims the lights, and reads her book.