[Hey, where'd you wander off to?] Pattern asks after he has been wandered for a few minutes.

[Up top,] he says, and he comes to the railing and looks for her. There she is, next to some other Bell - Juliet? Probably Juliet.

[Is the view nice?]

[It's not bad.]

[Incoming. Put down your tea.] And then she is beside him, peering over the railing with him.

He snugs an arm around her waist and kisses her cheek. "Not tea for once, actually," he says. "Some kind of juice that I suspect comes from an Aianon fruit."

"Ooh." She steals his glass and tastes a sip. "Yeah, I have no idea what that is, but I bet it would make a really nice shortcake."

Ripper laughs, kisses her cheek again, and steals it back. "Say that where a Joker can hear you; I think I want to try that cake," he says cheerfully.

"Ooh, will do. Yum."

Someone emerges into the room from the archway at the back, and says, "Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt—"

—at the same time as Ripper glances back to see who it is—

—at which point Giles drops his tea.

Pattern rescues the tea. "Hello there," she says.

"Hello," he says. "Sorry." He sets the rescued tea down carefully on one of the small convenient tables, never taking his eyes off Ripper.

"...You all right?" says Ripper, concerned. "You look like I'm about to explode. Or you are. You look like at least one of us is about to explode."

"Pretty sure neither of you are gonna explode. Ripper, this is Giles. Giles, Ripper; I'm sure Juliet managed to explain him in between uproarious laughter."

"She did mention something, yes. I'm sorry, I didn't expect—I didn't realize—" He shakes his head and trails off.

"Sit down," Ripper suggests. "Take a minute."

He installs himself on the nearest cozy bench and picks up his tea.

Pattern glances between them, curiously.

"Is this the sort of thing you want to talk about or the sort you want to ignore until it goes away?"

"All right."

"Do you two want me around for this, or should I wade back into the throng and leave you be?"

"...You must be—er, Pattern?" says Giles.

"That's me, yeah."

"Good to meet you," he says, not without irony.

"Yeah, we've been at the same parties before but never really talked," she snorts.

"I'm sure I've made a wonderful first impression."

"The tea dropping? Nah. I am accustomed to occasional tea-dropping." She elbows Ripper, a little.

Ripper giggles and gives her a little one-armed hugsquish.

Giles observes this interaction.

Pattern flops her head onto Ripper's convenient shoulder.

Ripper beams.

Some combination of the tea and the adorable definitely seems to be calming Giles down.

"I was not informed that there would be two of you," says Giles.

"Do you not talk to Jane much? Amariah found this one on a template-sweep after she met mine," says Pattern, gesturing illustratively. "I think that's all of them, except Merryweather, of course."

...Giles is now looking between Ripper and Keth with an expression that might be best described as dawning realization.

"I second the question."

"Nothing whatsoever," says Giles.

"Ohhhhhhh," says Keth. "...Well, wouldn't you have done?"

"I can't say that it's crossed my mind, no!"

"Oh, that," Pattern snorts.

"Ooh, it's crossing your mind now, isn't it," giggles Ripper.

Giles sniffs primly. His delivery is really quite impeccable.

Neither of his alts is buying it for a second.

"Is it time for me to leave you guys alone now?" inquires Pattern archly.

The Rippers grin at Giles.

"In all seriousness," says Giles, although he is not entirely successful at looking the part, "I really think we have more to discuss than, than idle recreation."

"Want me to grab Merryweather for you? Little template convention? You can agree on a replacement collective noun."

"Wait five minutes, I'm sure he'll turn up," says Giles. "Given recent trends."

Pattern laughs.

Giles looks up from the remains of his tea in startlement.

"Yeah, those are a thing."

"...Mine and I," says Giles, sounding as though the 'mine' part doesn't quite fit, "...drifted apart. Much as tectonic plates might, with considerable disturbance to the environs and an occasional volcano."

"I'm gonna register the prediction that Merryweather doesn't talk to his, either, being of the one sort and not the other. Presuming he has one, but I'm also going to register the prediction that he has. Maybe Glass should go look at some of them to figure out what it is with you guys."

"I'll introduce her to mine," Keth offers.

"I'd rather mine went undisturbed by any reminder of my existence whatsoever," says Giles.

"If I have the right read on them, reminding him won't make a lot of difference."

"He hasn't troubled me anytime in the last decade and I would prefer to have that state of affairs continue."

"Yeah, that's fair."

"But yes, returning to the subject of template names. I observe that neither of you is wearing your name tag," says Giles.

"It said 'Rupert' on it," says Keth.

"Is that really so terrible?"

"Yes," chorus the Rippers.

"I'm curious, Giles, how old were you when you resumed the name?"

"Oh... thirty?" he hazards. "Thereabouts."

"So that can't just be a chronology thing," Pattern says, glancing at her Ripper, who is older than he looks.

"No," he agrees.

"I'd hesitate to call it a maturity thing, but..."

Keth rolls his eyes. "Right, that must be it."

"Yeah, pretty tempted to fetch Glass, at this point, make her line you up and squint at you."

"Go on then," says

"Is that so," says Merryweather. He pauses in climbing the stairs.

"Yup. You're actually en route already, they're all over there, see, making each other drop beverages." She points.

He snorts.

They arrive just in time to see Merryweather give Keth and Ripper a look remarkably similar to the one Giles was giving them some time ago!

"Oh, now this," says Glass, "is remarkably like the Joker phases, now I've gotten a look at those to compare."

"Jokers come in phases?" says Ripper.

"They come in phases and also in kinds, yes. This -" (she gestures at the Ruperts and then at the Rippers) "is more like the phases."

"All right," says Keth, "and that means...?"

"That you can grow from one into the other. I don't think it's obligatory and I'm not sure if you can go backwards."

The Rippers look consideringly at the Ruperts.

The Ruperts look back. Merryweather starts to say something, stops, and shakes his head; Giles pats him on the shoulder.

"You might also want a look at one of their Raynes. They seem to come with them - Merryweather, have you got one of those?"

"I haven't thought about him in years," says Merryweather. "They're attached?"

"Well, they're four for four - which one should I go look at?"

"Mine," says Keth, "definitely mine, I will introduce you."

"Okay, now or later?"

"Okay. Lemme just prevent incipient flying squirrel..." Glass wishes on a star, then taps her Janegem, and then they are in Amariah's house in Alethia. "Do you teleport, do you want to lead the way?"

"Another one?" says the local Rayne.

"There's lots," says Glass. She peers at him. "Oh yeah, that's - about as attached as you get, these are not optional."

"Tell me something I don't know," snorts Rayne.

"And the - template we don't have a name for -" (Glass waves at Keth) "are the 'leader' template here, except that's less meaningful than it is in some cases because you're just always going to appear together, one for one. Oh, wow, you are so attached, but apart from always showing up in the same place it's almost totally unidirectional... Also I think everyone should be glad there aren't a set of you in Aurum, that would get potentially gross very fast... Thilanushinyel could do the same thing, come to think of it..."

"Template you don't have a name for?" inquires Rayne.

"Yeah," says Keth, "we were hoping you could help with that, actually."

"Kingfishers," Rayne says offhandedly. "What's this about potentially gross?"

"Oh, Kingfishers, that works. The gross is potentially unreciprocated eternal bonding. Aurum has two kinds of it, and if you landed there..."

"Yeah, that could get ugly," says Keth. Hecate flutters behind an armchair.

"The Rayne in such a world would inevitably wind up stuck on the Kingfisher, and there isn't a shred of metcausality enticing it to be all sewn up the other direction. Metacausality has no interest in making sure Kingfishers like their Raynes, the Raynes have to do that themselves."

"Naturally," says Rayne, eyeing his Kingfisher.

Keth smiles at him. It is a smile full of communication not meant to be intercepted.

"...I - huh. Can your daemons come out where I can see them?"

Hecate zips out from behind the armchair.

A stripey ginger cat follows her just a moment later.

Glass peers at them. "I think they're helping you with the not-having-a-falling-out. They are, however, not a guarantee."

The cat begins washing herself unconcernedly.

"Yeah," says Keth, "I think we guessed that part."

"Anyway, I think that's all I have to say unless it ever becomes worth everyone's while to collect the other three Raynes and line you all up."

"Even I don't think that's a good idea," says Rayne.

Glass snorts. "Back whence we came?" she inquires of Keth. "Or is there anything else I should look at while I'm here and already covered versus flying squirrel?"

"Not that I can think of."

"And I don't think any of them had better be allowed to visit Aurum, just on principle, as vampirism is transmissible."

"Agreed. Are you all kingfishers...?" Square.

"Hey, Glass, which one is the template?"

Glass points at Giles.

Giles blinks. "Really?"

"Yep, pretty clearly too, none of the vagueness there is around Golden versus Stella. You aren't modal like Pattern - I actually think we're more likely to run into more Ripper-phase Kingfishers in the future - you're just the template."

"Is one of them modal like me?"

"Nah. Yours is closest, but too - serendipitous."

"I'm serendipitous?" inquires Ripper.

"Oh, not very, but just a little -" Glass holds her fingers pinching a little bit of air. "You're right next to Pattern, who is perfectly modal in terms of her - original setup - or I don't think I'd be able to tell. You have small but noticeable effects from being from Origin in particular, and she doesn't, maybe because she was dead while the Joker and that bat person were up to what they were up to. You're less serendipitous than - Merryweather, say, who was set up to interact in a specific way with Aegis - if he has other setups it's with people I haven't gotten a look at. Juliet is actually serendipitous relative to Giles; he is exactly where he would have been anyway and she showed up in that place."

"Huh," says Ripper.

"And yet," says Giles, "I was sent to Sunnydale because the Council had such trouble finding her. I suppose, metacausally speaking, if not for Juliet there would have been some other reason?"

"Yeah. Juliet's also the only Bell who lives in Sunnydale - maybe the only one who has one, though it's a smaller town than Gotham so we'd have to actually look it up instead of just knowing. Sunnydale was collecting the next Slayer, far enough in advance for her to be born there; if it hadn't been her it would have collected whoever it was instead."

"The notion of Sunnydale collecting Slayers doesn't surprise me in the least," says Giles.

"There you go. It's the sort of place that collects things. It collected you, but not because of Juliet in particular."

"Right. Where is Juliet? I expected her to turn up and laugh at us at some point."

"I could go get her, if you are finding her absence problematic."

"No, not at all," he says, grinning.

"I'm sure she's made at least some token effort not to laugh."

"I'm sure there's plenty else to amuse her than the motions of templates through neighboring worlds."

"She was inordinately entertained by the existence of Ripper," says Giles. "Someone should really tell her we've found another one, if she doesn't already know."

Glass peers over the railing into the crowd. "She's talking to Amariah. It could easily come up that way."

"Ah, then all we have to do is wait," says Giles. "My favourite."

"Aegis didn't seem to find it nearly as funny. I guess she hasn't done as much in-person interacting?"

"Very little of it," agrees Merryweather. "She mostly knows me from my paperwork."

Pattern snorts. "I guess that would do it."

"I wonder if we'll ever find the reverse setup. Someone who more often appears as a partner turning up in some basically incompatible capacity and the new Bell looking at the rest of us askance."

"Like what?" says Keth.

"Oh... I don't know, the obvious way would be if somebody got adopted into somebody else's family. Although since Aegis and Sue wound up together despite meeting at age six maybe that wouldn't do it."

Pattern pats him on the arm.

He hugs her.

Juliet pops into place. "Hi, Alethia instance of - was Giles right that you'd 'come around' to calling the template Ruperts?"

"Kingfishers," says Hecate, from Keth's shoulder.

"Oh, that's cute. I'd have a tiger, if that's the sort of thing you'd rather know. A really big tiger."

"Firefly," says Pattern, disdain for possible firefly obvious.

"Oh, the kingfishers are a very definite template thing, you'll all have them," reports Glass. "And I already said, flying squirrel - cute little gray one."

"And you can call me Keth," Keth adds. Since he is not wearing his nametag.

"Do you want your nametags back now they won't say Rupert on them?"

"Yeah, all right," says Ripper. Keth nods.

Glass snaps her fingers. Nametags appear.

The Rippers look at each other, then at Giles.

"Is there anything else to discuss?" he asks of the assembled Bells.

"Not especially, I don't think."

Juliet tries and fails to get herself under control. Finally she teleports away.

...At that, Pattern too laughs.

Glass snorts, vaults over the railing, and wafts (robes billowing) down into the main party.

"Yeah. Have fun. Let me know if and when you want me to introduce you - singular or plural - to Cam." She kisses him, and then follows Glass over the railing.