how are you feeling?

[small_magics]

[It seems that perhaps we should speak,] Isibel says to Lycaelon. She wishes him a cup of tea, wherever he is, hovering in the air waiting for him to take it. [Though I confess I do not know where to begin.]

Comments

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Anyway," says Elspeth. "There's still a Kolya and a Libby to talk to, although I probably shouldn't fetch them here unless more possible Bondings are intended for today. Should I do that now, or do you have questions, Sidanar?"

[pythbox]

"I don't think I have questions," she says.

[nonbird]

"...I'm not sure you should talk to the Kolya," says Lazarus.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Why not?"

[nonbird]

"Well, I know that if there were hypothetical strangers from another world considering whether or not to contact the Kolya I am most familiar with, he would much rather they went away without bothering him."

[thaumobabble]

"This in spite of the fact that this one has a dragon probably ready to dragon-thing at him if they get within eyeshot of each other? He wouldn't want a heads-up?"

[nonbird]

"I don't know this Kolya," says Lazarus. "But I know a Kolya. And I don't think he or I could honestly tell you which one he would prefer. But we'd both be absolutely sure he won't thank you for showing up out of nowhere to tell him things."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay... Elasirae, what do you think about the likely-Bondable human wandering around, do you want us to see if we can enforce some space while you think about it, leave it up to metacausality, what do you prefer?"

[pythbox]

"Well... I was already going to leave the matter of my future Bonding up to fate and the Wild Magic," he says. "I don't think any of this new knowledge changes that, except that it seems my likely future Bonded and I are already good friends in another world. So I don't think I need to do anything different."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay then. Elspeth, you want to go surprise the Libby?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Sure."

Pop. (Behind the nearest door. On which she knocks. She has known her Grandma Lizzie long enough to make this guess.)

[neverbeatme]

The nearest door happens to be the front door of a small cheerful cottage.

A familiar-looking person opens it.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Hi! I'm Elspeth, your alternate universe granddaughter, and I am here to tell you a lot of things."

[neverbeatme]

"...Go on," says the local Libby.

[her_imperial_radiance]

(This is how the granddaughter thing is, complete with a footnote about vampires in Aurum and Elspeth's princesshood, and how Isibel Sarion figures into it, and how alts work, and also they are about 60% confident that there is a dragon the local Libby could Bond to...)

[neverbeatme]

"Is there now," she murmurs.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yep. We're not as sure with you as we are with a couple others, because the templates aren't that tightly connected - plenty of you and plenty of her appear by yourselves. But there's enough to guess at."

[neverbeatme]

"I think I should meet this dragon," she says.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Lemme see what the dragon thinks of that." Elspeth tilts her head. [Hey Sherial, the Libby wants to meet you.]

[pythbox]

[I am reasonably tempted to meet the Libby,] says Sherial. [They're not dangerous, are they?]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[Not usually. One of them took over the world with the use of a helper who does relationship-editing mind control, and I am not equipped to defend her if you want to hear that defended.]

[pythbox]

[Hmm,] says Sherial.

To Glass, she says, "What can you tell me about Libbies?"

[thaumobabble]

"Most of them work for Bells - one of them moved universes to work for a Bell when her existing plans didn't pan out. They make good personnel officers - they're good at reading people, figuring out how to arrange them so they have what they need. They set priorities - actually that's probably why she wants to meet you; if she runs into you when having a dragon enshrined in her priorities would upset something then that will be inconvenient, so she may as well incorporate you now if it's going to happen. The connection between your templates isn't that strong. You can easily spring up alone completely independent of each other, neither of you is 'leading' or 'following' there, but when there's the both of you in a world you'll eventually wind up being important figures to each other - there's a certain set of books you're both attached to, in worlds where the books exist, and the characters in question are enemies but there's none of that necessarily spilling into reality. There is one who took up world conquest with the use of a template Bells do not like, who has the power to make people like or stop liking each other - the Bell in that world has yet to produce her explanation of why she didn't do more about this than she did, but the regime is being phased into something more palatable now they have coins available, anyway."

[pythbox]

"Set priorities?" inquires Sherial.

[thaumobabble]

"I don't have one in my world even though I have - am married to, actually - a Sherlock," says Glass, "so this is hearsay and a smidgen of looking-at-templates, but it has sounded to me like they organize things - especially people - in their lives as more or less important in a way that's legible to us as opposed to sort of... haphazardly not doing that, the way that, say, Jokers do."