"Some of the people I met there could be said to embody their respective universes," she adds. "Others could not, at least not obviously, and I would say no such thing of myself. I believe they all shared my ability to observe any part of my world to which I might direct my attention, but I did not confirm it before I left. It was long enough ago that recalling specific details about individuals would require more effort than I care to apply."

"Hmmmm. Why didn't you like it?"

"It was... unaesthetic," she says.

"This place sounds interesting even if it's unrelated to shininess; what else can you tell me about it and the people in it? Without the," Glass waves, "excess effort, anyway."

"It did not have a fixed physical reality."

"That's interesting - did it have a fluctuating one? What controlled it?"

"It was mutable. Responsive to the influence of anyone present."

"What's it for?"

She shrugs. "Its purpose is not obvious to me."

"Huh. I guess I'll tell Lissa to keep an eye out. Anyway, what changes to torching did you have in mind?"

"To the ability to distribute it," she says. "It's irritating to bestow it individually on your alts and their friends. I would rather make it replicable. And you seem to do enough editing of which characteristics persist that it would be worth including that capacity. To distribute the effort even further, you could optionally make the recipient able to modify their own persistent characteristics."

"That sounds like a great idea. I can take that to the party and propagate it to all the other Bells and most everyone else who'd need it now."

She doesn't take any visible action, but: "You are updated."

"Thanks! Anything else while I'm here?"

"No."

Lissa is admiring the flowers that have bloomed on one of the huge archways.

"Remember how I said you were shiny?"

"Yes I do," she says, looking away from the flowers toward Glass.

"The Downside admin is also shiny, but more-shiny like Callahan and not less-shiny like you, and she had a guess about what that could mean, although it doesn't fit perfectly, since her guess doesn't really come in amounts." And Glass describes as best she can the place that the admin mentioned. "Have you seen anything like that?"

"I definitely haven't," says Lissa. "It sounds memorable."

"It does. So maybe you're going to find it, or something. If you ever do I would love to hear all about it."

"Sure," says Lissa.