"Might make a difference, yeah."

Boots shows up. "Where's the - is that her? I can't even read a signature off her."

"I've been keeping her in a coma for a few years now. She'll wake up in about twenty minutes if I don't refresh it but then you can fix her, right?"

"I can try..."

"And you can keep her knocked out? She doesn't like it when I let her wake -"

"I can keep her knocked out for a little while, my version doesn't work sustainably particularly on Elves, you'll have to do your version when I take breaks."

"I'll have to bring her home for that but I can do that."

"- I can do some basic stuff, next few hours, and get back to you with the rest of my schedule. What's the level of consent I'm working with here -"

"As long as she doesn't wake up until everything's okay it's fine - I can do more detailed questioning in counterfactual if I take her home -"

"I can do enough that she'll probably be willing to wake up off that and alt consent. I'll be in my office - looks like this -"

And she and Maitimë teleport away and Boots waits for her to wake up to be switched over to subtle arts means of unconsciousness, and she tells the Maitimos about the situation.

They come in girl. Weird. Also horrible things end up happening to them no matter how hard the original timeline is deflected, also weird. (Is Mitros okay?)

Mitros is fine and thinks it's probably an Elf thing. Sucks to be you, Elves.

Anyway were they asking about counterfactual consent because, yes, it sounds like this Maitimo is totally retrievable.

And still has her whole family intact and atrocity-free. Yeah, she'll be fine.

Isabella passes the interim getting introduced to things by T'Mir and then naming her world (Eclipse) and her Arda (Ithil) and writing up blurbs about them for the files.

"Should she meet people or should that wait -"

"Don't see any reason to wait on it."

"Want to go say hi?"

"Sure, why not."

Warpwards!

Isabella-who-doesn't-have-a-nickname-yet is parked in a garden finishing writing up her explanation of roles, since that seems not a thing anywhere else.

"Hi, good time?"

"Sure. You must be Kib, and presumably you're Kib's Maitimo?"

"What gave us away."

"I think it's how none of the rest of me have a Bell, being all inconveniently gay."