i am the oncoming storm

[autokinetic]

There are three Bells in Milliways.

They want a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. A seventh.

And then Downside is going down.

Comments

[mind_game]

I want to be able to do that too, Jane pipes up as she starts hunting for initial emissaries for Pattern to follow into Milliways. She pokes Jarvis about his door-opening trick. She wants it.

[self_composed]

"Do you care if we refer to you as Persephone?" inquires Stella.

[ending_of]

"I'd rather you didn't," she says, obliging Jane's request.

[poeticterms]

He suspects, but has never been able to directly prove, that it has something to do with being-a-house in the body/identity sense. He'll happily transmit the mostly-unconscious difference between the action of opening a door and the action of opening a door to Milliways, but he's not sure how much good it will do Jane, who is thoroughly not a house.

[jovahs_heiress]

"What should we refer to you as? Just 'the administrator'?"

[mind_game]

Oh well, I guess I don't have to do it by doors anyway, I can just pick up Pattern and her escorts and put them in Milliways. She preens. Lookit me, Jarvis, I'm glooorious.

[ending_of]

"'The administrator' is fine. For a while it was fashionable on both sides of the cliffs to say 'her upstairs'. Descriptive phrases that aren't names are fine in general."

[poeticterms]

Extremely glorious, Jarvis agrees. While we're making you into a multiversal network, are there a few ansibles to spare to link me with my counterparts when we have a moment to find them?

[luminous_regnant]

"I don't believe you ever described how you plan to handle duplication as distinct from Juliet's sort of problem."

[mind_game]

I don't see why not!

[poeticterms]

Jarvis is pleased!

[ending_of]

"Duplication occurs when someone is successfully resurrected without being removed from the queue. There are no extant cases now that you've merged yours. In the future, if someone is resurrected before processing, the unconscious version in the queue can be automatically merged into the resurrected version without any problems; if someone is resurrected after processing, the version retrieved can be the version that is here, and they can choose whether or not to return. Anyone who has died to this afterlife can choose to return after leaving it."

[cross_and_bow]

"Very tidy. I'm going to visit all the known Sunshinelike worlds and render vampirism non-infectious, first thing, for that part of the business," mutters Juliet.

[ending_of]

She smiles slightly. Tidy is good.

[luminous_regnant]

"Are we going to be able to get in touch with you in some more civilized manner if we need to add another world? If half of us weren't hooked up to start with I'm sure many of the people we meet in Milliways aren't."

[autokinetic]

"We could put you on the brainphone network. We shouldn't depend on Sue full-time."

[ending_of]

After a moment's hesitation, she puts herself on the brainphone network.

[mind_game]

[Testing testing! Okay, I can relay as necessary,] says Jane merrily.

[self_composed]

"If we don't want to rely on Sue full-time, can we work out something like a portable, wearable half-ansible so that Jane can aim into worlds we visit?"

[toblameforit]

Sure, says Tony. Gimme a minute.

[autokinetic]

Don't compromise function for it, but it should be something that doesn't look, you know, un-Empressly, or anything.

[mind_game]

Jane eats up some ansible theory from her homeworld's nets and muses on the subject for a split second. If it only has to be half the ansible I bet you could do it with a jewel-looking thing. Corundum.

[toblameforit]

You guys are already pretty well supplied with crowns. How about other jewelry? Rings, bracelets, pins, earrings?

That kind of thing isn't exactly his forte. He thinks about it for a while, and then designs (with Jane's help) something that combines microphone, speaker, camera, and half-ansible into a small jewel that you can wear as any of the above, or like a single earbud. (He does do ergonomics. The earpiece type is as comfortable as you could ask for.)

Now, who wants one? And where should their other halves hook up to? The Downside installation and the Milliways one both have room.

[self_composed]

All the Bells conjure one. Stella's is blue, and her crown's already full of star sapphires; she just swaps it out for one of the ones in her crown.

[autokinetic]

Aegis goes with orange and puts it in her ear.