friendly door

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth gets a door.

It's been so long she reels for a moment, and then she throws herself forward and almost lands in a peal of Bells. Yes, there's Shell Bell, there's Juliet and Aurora, there's Glass, there's some Matilda she hasn't seen before.

"Elspeth!" exclaims Glass.

"How long has it been?" Aurora asks.

"Seventeen years. Shell Bell - I need you to help me find Harley," says Elspeth.

Comments

[giftedandtalented]

Tab writes to Aelise: Would you please ask them if they can grab me down there like they did Harley?

[salus_populi]

Aelise glances at the screen and says, "Tab would like to be included in this conversation, if you wouldn't mind fetching her. And since she is not currently buried in the sun, it shouldn't be quite so spectacular this time."

[prima_sequentem]

"Turning your aura off would be conducive to reasonable negotiations," says Lizzie. "She means that she wants to know what we're doing here, what we want, and that we're not going to harm her or Tab or anyone else who might drop into the line of fire while we're talking it over. And there are probably some dicey secrets in the mix that she would rather we not mention to anyone without her say-so."

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet withdraws her aura. "Tab's safe if she's a Bell like it sounds like she is, probably safe even if she's not, and if she is a Bell this is her jurisdiction and we are just here to hand her the ability to do whatever she pleases with the place; if you're lucky, she likes you." She snaps her fingers and spends a pentagon, and here is Tab.

[luminous_regnant]

"In the interests of full disclosure, Elspeth is not a suitable repository for secrets."

[giftedandtalented]

Here is Tab, indeed. The auras didn't come through on the security feed; she blinks a lot, when she gets a look at them. "Wow."

[incanted]

"All this and more can be yours for nine ninety-nine," Aurora mutters under her breath. "Should any subset of us duck into Milliways?" she adds at normal volume.

[salus_populi]

Aelise is now looking analytically at Harley.

[prima_sequentem]

"Good question," says Lizzie. She is looking analytically at Aelise.

[salus_populi]

Aelise says, very definitely to Harley: "Chelsa is retired."

[pythbox]

He bursts into tears and clings to Elspeth.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Just retired?" mutters Elspeth.

[luminous_regnant]

"World's Downsideable," reports Golden in an undertone.

[giftedandtalented]

"I don't know what that means, but it sounds murdery; don't just up and kill her, please," says Tab, "she still has enough contact with the population for it to be a sharp shock."

[luminous_regnant]

Golden's aura is still out, like all of them except Juliet's; her hiss is very nonhuman, but she doesn't disagree aloud.

[salus_populi]

"And Corona is dead."

[pythbox]

Harley pulls his face away from Elspeth to give Aelise a look of astonishment.

Hoarsely: "What?"

[salus_populi]

"He denied Kers's protection and died about a minute later, a little while after you dropped yourself into the sun," she says. "We never found his body."

[pythbox]

He stares some more - frowns - licks his lips - shakes his head and hugs Elspeth some more.

[salus_populi]

"Corona was Harley's local alt," says Aelise, in case anyone might find this clarification useful.

[thaumobabble]

"World's Downsideable," says Glass. "We can pick him up on our way out. We were going to Origin next anyway." She nibbles her lip, then says, "World's related to Eos and Aurum, in that way they have."

[salus_populi]

"...Pick him up," Aelise echoes.

[prima_sequentem]

"From the afterlife," says Lizzie.

[salus_populi]

"Well that's a game-changer," Aelise says thoughtfully.

[luminous_regnant]

"And is also some, although admittedly not most, of why I sounded murdery," Golden adds to Tab. "If we eventually come up with some way to safely store Chelseas - perhaps we accumulate a few hundred of them and can store them far away from anyone who doesn't produce informed consent in triplicate after Elspeth's gone over them - then they won't be irretrievable."