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"The Bells mostly seem to mint people who'll work for them. Or date them, in some cases."

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Glass reappears. "Sandy's purple, and surprisingly unfazed about having me appear to him and suddenly name a color."

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"Well, I'm not a Bell," Anna is saying as Glass arrives.

"Does this mean Chainsaw is also purple?" says Eights. She touches the site of the formerly broken rib and smiles. "Ooh, thanks, Anna."
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"Yeah, templates are all within the same moiety. I actually started noticing this when I spotted two people whose templates are not identical but are unusually close together, standing near each other. What about you not being a Bell?"

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Eights laughs.

"Apparently nobody's minted Eights yet? I'm gonna fix that," says Anna.
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"Uh," says Glass, "in this particular case I'm not aware of any reason not to except a vague nervousness about her hanging out with Chainsaw, but in general don't just up and mint people without checking with some Bell, in your case Stella will usually be handiest."

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"Seriously? She's Eights," says Anna.

Eights shrugs.
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"And you can mint her, as long as she's not going to mint Chainsaw or give him coins," says Glass, "but that's her, in particular. Don't just mint all your friends."

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"What are you on," says Anna. Eights becomes minted.

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"Did Stella actually hire you without warning you about not minting people?"

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"No," says Anna. "Which is why I find it weird and kind of insulting that you're telling me it's okay to mint Eights but I shouldn't do it to just anybody, like wanting to mint my alt who has spent more time being a Downside contractor than the Bells have collectively been alive somehow means I'm going to start flinging hexes at people I pass in the street?"

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"Some templates vary more than others and Bells are holding some information that doesn't necessarily percolate to everybody for assorted reasons. And I don't know you and Stella's not here, and I can't tell by looking if your algorithm is 'she asked nicely' or 'if one member of a template is minted they all should be' or 'I felt like it' or what you said."

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"Okay," says Anna. "Well, next time, try leading with the part about Bells having secret information nobody knows about, because that actually makes sense. Let's go meet our dragon alt, Eights."

She heads for the nearest dragon-sized doorway. Eights doesn't follow immediately.
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Glass shakes her head, shoots an apologetic look at Eights, and moves on.

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Nathan takes a couple steps following Anna, waiting for Eights.

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She starts walking as soon as he does.

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"You guys okay?" he asks, once they're all moving as a group.

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"Annoyed but fine," says Anna. Eights just shrugs; she seems unaffected.

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"Minting has got a lot more casual over time. When Golden imported the Joker it was this complicated negotiation with a precog and Stella."

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"Well, and the Joker was under some kind of suspicion at the time, wasn't he?" says Eights.

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"Stella had stranded him on an asteroid for terrorism."

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"That's a kind of suspicion!" says Anna.

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"He's seemed like a total sweetheart the times I've met him," says Anna.

"People are complicated," says Eights.
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"Jokers more than some. Now new Jokers are minted as a matter of course, but I'm not actually sure how much of that is because the Bells couldn't stop the minted Jokers from doing it if they wanted to."

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