Pattern is over here, inserting herself in an exchange between Stella and Golden about how to take advantage of suddenly easier commuting between their worlds. Amariah has been listening in too, but it's mostly a Stella-Golden conversation.

"One of my handiest inventions. What about it?" inquires Stella.

"It has a serious flaw," she says. "Every call should come with identity information, especially conferences."

"The voices do sometimes get confusing," acknowledges Amariah, "with so many alts."

"There aren't actually discrete calls, though. Every individual message is sent to everyone it's meant for; who one's talking to can change moment to moment. If this is about people tapping your phone, so to speak, you don't have to worry about that - well, you do, but only in the sense that someone could be relaying what you're saying without you knowing about it."

"Yes," she says, "that is in fact what I'm worried about. That and voice impersonation. And it's just not convenient to have to keep announcing that you're in a conference and how many people it's with and who they all are. The way the brainphone works now is great for a small community, but," she gestures around at the party, "this isn't a small community anymore."

"Okay, impersonation's potentially a problem. I guess we can propagate a majority of the change from here, considering the guest list, and patch any stragglers on our ends or make it viral or something. But it won't solve your privacy issues. If you're talking to me and I'm talking to Golden, I can have you and Golden on separate calls and tell her everything you say if I feel like it, and there's no interaction of that with this feature."

"People feel differently about doing things when they're less explicitly supported by the system," she says. "Supplying identity information for all direct speakers and listeners will at least stop anyone from spying on me by accident."

"Listeners too. Hmm. You realize that's just the equivalent of a blind carbon copy in an email," says Stella. "If I want to talk to the completely imaginary Albert and Bess and Chuck, and Chuck doesn't want the other two to know he exists, then you're saying I shouldn't be able to do that all at once? Mind Chuck won't be able to hear anything Albert and Bess say without my manually relaying it even under the existing system, since they won't be sending to him."

"Uh, do I have the same brainphone you two have?" Amariah says. "I can set up any call so that Path gets a copy of what I get whether the person I'm talking to thinks about him or not, and I didn't have to wish it special."

"...You should have the same brainphone I have. Wishes sometimes fill in gaps, I might be mistaken about how it corrected for some vagueness in my specification - I made it up before I was boosted all the way and there was some wiggle room. Maybe the way Golden and I have been using it is just what makes sense to us."

"So," says James, "now would be a good time to straighten that out. And I think making the change viral makes the most sense. But make sure to design it so that if you have to roll out another update later, they won't start fighting."

"Yeah, sure. Version numbers," snorts Stella.

"So conferences that behave like everyone is in the room will list who's in the metaphorical room, and individual messages will have sender information to prevent misrepresentation," says Golden. "I don't think we ever have reason to impersonate each other, do we? For impersonal purposes trusting one of us tends to propagate to trusting the others and for personal purposes we'd never want to."

"Yeah, I might not be thrilled with being completely indistinct but identity theft isn't my solution of choice," sighs Pattern, "and nothing else is coming to mind."

"All right, viral patch to brainphone, version 2.0, ready to roll unless someone has last minute design input," says Stella.

"Nope, sounds good to me. Thanks," says James.

[Bam!] says a message clearly labeled as from Stella.

"...Ooh," says Pattern. "I'm not really in a position to pay anybody yet. I don't even have a mint-helper..."

"Libbies do personnel," says Stella. "It might make sense to get a Libby even before a mint if you're having a personnel issue."

She's by the desserts!

"Hi, Slipstick," says Pattern. "James says I should talk to you about maybe working for me?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of at loose ends at the moment," she says. "And since you also seem to be kind of at loose ends, it occurred to me that maybe we could make each other's lives easier."

"Possibly. I'm running some afterlife-related errands for the peal, but I should be done inside a week or two - it's just running a few Upsiders from each world who can most readily pretend never to have been dead back home and inserting Jane into their worlds so that we can transport everywhere without having to wait for doors to Milliways. But then I go back home and work on my world. And alas, I do not have a mint-helper nor, as far as I know, any local magic."

"Well, I know where to find some candidates," she says, glancing at the orgy chamber, "if they ever come out again."

"Yeah, I caught a brief exchange with Eights and Chainsaw before they went in," says Pattern, "but didn't get anywhere. I think they're a package deal and I have the impression that Chainsaw's not as manageable as his alt is for Stella."

"Huh," she says. "What about the Whistles? I don't have a roster; are there any going spare?"

"Two. And the one that Golden imported turned out to be from my world, so if I wind up having to work with largesse for any extended period of time I have a better excuse for leaning on her than any of the others, though I imagine they'll all help."

"Do we know anything about the spare Whistles?"

"One of them's a rescue from Downside, the other is some kind of ghost but not the same kind as the one Juliet brought. First one's probably the better bet."

"A rescue? Is that a general term, or...? I was under the impression that Whistles and Downside would get along pretty well, ceteris paribus."

"Stella grabbed him from the same guy who got Shell Bell. I imagine he held up fine under the torture part, but not the being in a box never seeing or being touched by another human being part - from my admittedly limited understanding of Whistles."

"Ooh." She winces. "Ouch, yeah. I see."

"Yeah, Stella brought him straight here for soothing by her Alice."

Slipstick nods.

"Stella employs a precog, and so does Golden. I was thinking of trying to catch one of them to talk recruitment strategies, what do you think?"

"Good plan. I don't know either one of them personally, so I can't tell you which one would be a better shot."

"Go on, then," says Slipstick. "Two-for-one deal."

"You coming, or not?"

"Nah."

If Alice mentions Pattern's approach aloud, is Mary just going to say that she already knows?

Actually, no!

"We're expecting company," observes Alice. "The Bell calling herself Pattern."

"Huh," says Mary. "What's she want, besides the obvious?"

"A Whistle, or possibly the alts of Stella's staff, maybe a stray Sherlock in a pinch, to help her mint," Alice says. "So she wants approach advice. You'll probably be better at the useful kind of detail than me."

"I probably will," Mary agrees.

Here's Pattern. "Hi. Do I even have to explain what I want?"

"I'm from the Joker's original world - I've named it Origin; I might change that later, I'm not going with my original distinguishing nickname. But Golden's got him and he's all attached to an Aurumite, so that means I need another mint. There's two spare Whistles, one from Downside after having lived in a world that doesn't match anybody's here and one from another world that also doesn't match anybody we know, and the one is just a dead person and the other is also a ghost with odd powers. My naive guess is that the first one of those would be easiest to hire on but I'm not sure how we'll get along or what I'll have to do to get him on board. There's also Eights, but she seems to come with Chainsaw, who seems determined to creepify them out of a job. And I don't think the Sherlocks are actually ideal for the purpose, so I haven't tried any yet, but I would if one of you said it was a good idea."

"You don't really look happy to me in any future conversations with Chainsaw," observes Alice.

"Sherlocks are categorically a long shot," remarks Mary. "The forecast on Chainsaw is creepy with a chance of disaster. Downside Whistle's your best bet out of the listed options; the ghost one's only a tiny bit worse. I defer to Alice for when you'll be able to catch either of them out here socializing."

"Ghosty's in and out before the formal conclusion of the... proceedings," says Alice. "A few times, various possible whens, never for very long; you could catch her to say hi but probably not an extended conversation. The proceedings in question are reasonably likely to last less than 24 hours."

"So I might wanna ask Stella if I can stick around a bit," Pattern snorts. "Okay, what's the best way to talk to Downside Whistle when the proceedings are over with?"

"Name some options," says Mary.

"I could just walk up to him and be like 'hi, I'm a Bell, you're a Whistle, want the obvious job?', or I could lead in with small talk of some kind, or I could ask the Whistles who are already dated-and-or-employed if they'll introduce me, or I could get one of the other Bells, probably one with her own Whistle, maybe Golden or Amariah, to ask for me."

"Presence or absence of small talk doesn't have a consistent effect on the result," says Mary. "Approaching through an intermediary doesn't either. If you catch up to her by herself and you're friendly and straightforward, you won't have any trouble."

"That one's a her?" Pattern asks. "Okay, can do. Thanks."

"Anytime," says Alice cheerily.

"You're welcome," Mary agrees.

"Is she going to hit on me or anything?" Pattern asks suddenly. "Because that would be weird."

"...She's virtually guaranteed to be a little bit flirty," says Mary. "And huggy. Flirty and huggy. Conversation in general goes better if she's in physical contact with someone the whole time, but someone doesn't have to be you."

"Another Whistle?" suggests Pattern. "Do they disperse after 'proceedings' or might she be with another one at the time?"

"Also virtually guaranteed that she is," says Mary.

"Okay, that works out then. Which one?"

"Any of them, in approximately equal proportions, slightly more likely to be Alice or Ghosty, slightly less likely to be Sue who's apparently got some highly interesting conversation coming up with his Bell and slightly less likely to be Micaiah who gets invited to perform with the angels and the Sherlocks."

Mary laughs.

"Okay. Thanks, thank you both, please tell any talented alts of either of you that you meet to give me a call, through Jane if need be," grins Pattern.

"Sure thing," says Alice. "I bet there'll be a bidding war, though. Mes will be particularly swayed by the opportunity to plan parties," she adds. "Like, if Stella were trying to hire me, she'd have been well served to let me help her with this shindig. If Golden ever hosts one it'll be mostly my handiwork."

"Mes will be particularly swayed by job offers that don't directly involve fortune telling," says Mary, "although as you can see we're okay with doing a little on the side."

"You don't fortune-tell for Stella? What do you do?"

"I run her bank."

"That's cute," laughs Pattern. "I'm reasonably likely to copy her empressing pattern wholesale insofar as I can. I might start with not-Mars, though, just to not be completely derivative."

"Mars is the most straightforwardly habitable option," says Mary, "but you could set up something interesting in the gas giants or the asteroid belt if you put your mind to it."

"Or maybe I'll just jazz up my Mars. It could use a set of rings and not-exactly-this-sea-level and a different color sky."

"I'd sure have fun living on a floating terraformed island on Saturn and swimming around in the gas. You might have to rig up scuba gear for human citizens."

"If you do the gas giants right, people are going to be very appreciative of the aesthetic," says Mary. "I'm not sure of the details. A lot of it seems to depend on finding the right... is 'architect' even the word?"

"Designer," suggests Pattern. "Maybe I'll ask Slipstick to find me one."

"Good odds there," says Mary.

Pattern smiles. And she bids them goodbye and goes to find Slipstick again and ask about designers for Saturn islands.

Slipstick is snacking!

"I'm probably going to be able to snag Queenie," reports Pattern. "And in order to not be too derivative of Stella I'm considering starting my space empire on Saturn, but may want design help."

"Interesting," says Slipstick. "I'll look into it."

"Thanks!"