Rex has flopped down at Michael's feet now that everyone seems to have decided to get along.

Prometheus smiles. "I would be delighted to provide you with a machine suitable to your needs. Never mind asking Bar for it." He seems honestly excited at the prospect. "I rather assume it would need to be in-keeping with your world's aesthetic, and for preference not obviously too advanced for the time."

"It would need a self-contained recharging power source, adaptors are a possibility but it would be better if it needed no external charging."

"Yes, yes, I was already working on that. Excuse me please."

With that, he heads back towards the rooms.

"Did you have to encourage him?" It's not entirely clear whether that is aimed at Isabella or Epimetheus, but it sounds more amused than irritated.

He sits and listens, absently petting Rex since he's right there.

"Any computer you give us should be disguised as something much lower-tech," he contributes without looking up, "or else we will not be able to keep it."

"Somehow I have the impression that Prometheus does not especially require encouragement," Raven says with feigned innocence. 

She nods reluctantly at Cat's words. "Much as I would enjoy bringing our world into the age of computer technology, I do not think it would be possible to do so without revealing Milliways."

Rex pants happily and his tail starts to wag.

Epimetheus looks at the pile of books around Isabella, then tilts her head, seeming slightly distant for a moment.

"I think, on balance," she says when she seems back, "that disguising it as a book would be the logical way to go about things. It seems to me that you would rarely be found far from a book. Is there any specifics we should consider for the jacketing so that people are less likely to suspect it?"

"Did you have Ada Lovelace?" Joss asks, asking Bar for information on her. "She was a Victorian, hailed as the first female computer scientist. Worked on Babbage's difference engine. No reason you can't..." she waves a hand vaguely. "Be the Ada Lovelace of your generation, world, only...with a little bit of a cheat?" She's teasing there, grinning.

Raven investigates. "She exists, and - lives in London! But she is a mage, not a computer scientist. Unsurprising, since I would expect to have heard about anyone accomplishing a project such as those in which she seems to have participated in other worlds."

"Makes sense. I don't really think there was much else interesting going on in the eighteen hundreds in our time? And, well, if she was supernatural, no-one knew about it."

"And to backtrack, no, 'Metheus really doesn't need encouragement. He does that even when he doesn't have a challenge."

"...And I forgot to introduce myself again, didn't I?" he sighs, before complaining, "Epime!"

Epimetheus just looks over at him impassively as if to say 'You're a grown adult'.

"'Sidora," he says, pointing at himself. "Pleasure to meet you all."

"Likewise," Raven says distractedly. "Cat, could you please secure me an invitation to meet Baroness Ada Byron?"

She begins writing something on a clean sheet of paper, in a more elegant hand than she has been using for notes.

Cat rolls his eyes, but borrows paper and pen of his own to draft a letter.

Joss stares for a moment. "...Uh. You- You're in a position where you can...just...acquire an invitation to meet a Baroness?" She looks a little bit shell-shocked. "Uh. I suddenly feel a little... inadequate. I am a through and through pleb."

"...Should I have been bowing or something? I was pretty bad at social protocols even when I knew I was meeting nobility?"

"Only minor nobility," Cat clarifies, "and that only by adoption. Don't worry about it."

To Raven, he says, "I think working through Father's Academy connections is the more worthwhile avenue, since Lady Byron seems to be a scholar."

He frowns. "Rae, do we care whether Father finds out about Milliways? He would probably like to know..."

"I...have no idea. I was assuming you would know; you do not usually trust my judgement above your own when it comes to secrets."

He rubs his temples, looking slightly pained.

"Normally, I would be in favour of telling Father immediately. But..."

He trails off, and sighs.

"I'm missing something. I don't know what. But it points in the direction of not telling him anything."

"But apparently a respected scholar?" Joss points out. "If she's working outside the Academy -- is she? -- I would suggest she'll be a better bet? Sometimes distance from something, even a commonly held belief, allows for a more rational stance on the possibility of that belief being incorrect when confronted with evidence." It sounds like she has personal experience with that.

"If it were me," 'Sidora says carefully, "I'd go with my gut. Even if you can't put your finger on it, there's normally a reason your instinct is to do something or not. People are more aware of things sometimes than they realise."

"Oh, I definitely plan to contact Lady Byron before anyone else," Cat clarifies.

"My question is over the best approach, and I think the advantage of calling on Father's standing in the Academy is outweighed by the disadvantage that he will certainly want to know what we are discussing."

He discards the letter and starts a new one. "I'll ask Nick for an introduction, instead. He'll listen if I tell him not to ask any questions."

Joss has gone back to her book, finger tracing the rim of her cup. (Rex, now he's sure Michael is thoroughly distracted from petting gives a displeased huff and goes and dumps his head in her lap.)

Prometheus chooses that moment ro reemerge into the main bar. His movements are very precise and steady, but he is smiling, and there is an impression that he would be bouncing if he was not trying to be dignified.

He sets what appears to be a leather and brass bound journal, with a brass clasp, on the bar-top near Isabella.

"I require the young lady's thumb print to finish," he declares.

Raven sets her book down and marks her place with quick, precise movements.

Grinning, and bouncing a little in her seat, she turns to Prometheus and holds out her thumb.