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Jane alerts everyone to the existence of a new Bell, the nature of her wives and children, and the presence of her mother-in-law.
She stands ready to move in anyone who wishes to attend this new party.
Glass stands ready to receive them.
thaumobabble
thaumobabble
[I don't know any of you very well, but you have extremely strong attractors, even if they can be bent into a variety of shapes; a specific way to meet Bells just doesn't happen to be one of those attractors,] says Glass.
beheld_beauty
[There are some regularities. They are all older than us corresponding Bells,] says Rose. [By a little or by a lot.]
thaumobabble
[I think that's mostly a minor default thing, plus a combination of Bells tending to be young when we get into a life stage where meeting intended-people is part of our attractor set, and some of the Joker attractors being compatible with being very old - especially if a lot of that time can be spent in unpleasant circumstances.]
[I don't mean not having attractors makes sense for us in general,] says Jellybean. [Just that it makes sense we don't have strong ones for the way our relationships work, even when they're with a bunch of the same other template. Well... except for the retirees, you guys all had that thing with the Bat.]
thaumobabble
[I don't know you guys,] Glass reiterates. [This conversation, the I remind you extremely confusing stuff I can see about your attractors, and the contents of the Bellbook, are what I know about you. If this makes sense to you because of something about your personality, you are going to have to explain it. I'd have a much better chance at figuring out how you all diverge from the personality template than saying anything about what it's like without being perturbed.]
...Jellybean shrugs helplessly.
[I don't know, it's hard to put into words,] he says. [It's... kind of like what you said about us being portable? Somebody help me out here.]
[I don't know, it's hard to put into words,] he says. [It's... kind of like what you said about us being portable? Somebody help me out here.]
cardistry
[I think that how our relationships work depends a lot on details and circumstances,] Brilliance contributes. [And that that's not something you could change easily without changing who we are.]
manofmyword
[Me and Ghosty and Queenie are all pretty much the same story down to a sneeze, before I found Milliways,] says the Joker. [It's kind of a chicken-and-egg question whether that's because or why we all fell out with Batsy pretty much the same way, though. Does the Bellbook have Batsy in it, or do you want storytime?]
thaumobabble
[It mentions her only in brief summary. I'm not supposed to give her coins. Let's hear the story.]
manofmyword
[Once upon a time,] the Joker begins, [when I was younger and prettier, I met this lady who liked to dress up as a bat and beat and/or scare the shit out of criminals. I killed some people and blew up some stuff, all to get her attention so she'd turn some'a that lovely violence my way. Worked like a charm, too. She had me locked up and then I started dreaming my way to Milliways and I'm pretty sure the rest is history. Same deal for Ghosty and Queenie, but instead of finding Milliways they kept at it until they died.]
thaumobabble
Glass peers at the retirees again.
[Queenie and Ghosty differ by what happened when they died. Origin and the world Queenie came from were both hooked up to Downside all along, though - I think you found Milliways because otherwise you would have been a straight-up duplicate of Queenie. At least in terms of things that matter to your persons - she has a minor attractor that's on for her, she shares it with Micaiah and Beast so I assume that's the Voice attractor - but she didn't know about him, right? So it wouldn't have counted for much. I don't think our multiverse likes perfect duplicates, at least not interacting ones - you would never have run into each other till you'd accumulated distinctions, at least minor ones.]
[Queenie and Ghosty differ by what happened when they died. Origin and the world Queenie came from were both hooked up to Downside all along, though - I think you found Milliways because otherwise you would have been a straight-up duplicate of Queenie. At least in terms of things that matter to your persons - she has a minor attractor that's on for her, she shares it with Micaiah and Beast so I assume that's the Voice attractor - but she didn't know about him, right? So it wouldn't have counted for much. I don't think our multiverse likes perfect duplicates, at least not interacting ones - you would never have run into each other till you'd accumulated distinctions, at least minor ones.]
thaumobabble
"Your attractors have a different character from Bell attractors, some of them," muses Glass. "You've got the same, intense, invariable undercurrent through all of you. We have our necessities split up between - more traits, which aren't indivisible, which can interact in ways that weaken each other under difficult circumstances. The analogy I want to make is that Bells all cast the same sillhouette but Jokers are all made of the same material. Does that make sense?"
thaumobabble
"They..." Glass contemplates this, nibbling her lip. "Come out of the same mold. Their templates are making their circumstances do most of the work of pulling them into shape, instead of making them turn out the same way in spite of where they wind up; that might even be why so many of them come from that one worldfamily. If you kidnapped a baby would-be Tony and brought her up in atypical circumstances I have no idea what would happen, but I'm sure Harley's going to be one of you."
thaumobabble
Glass blinks at him.
"Being a girl is a strong Bell default, but the template works - obviously - just fine in a boy, too," she says. "You probably won't be the only one forever but I think you'll always be a minority."
"Being a girl is a strong Bell default, but the template works - obviously - just fine in a boy, too," she says. "You probably won't be the only one forever but I think you'll always be a minority."
thaumobabble
"I was looking at the Jokers first," explains Glass. "...Huh, Pattern, you and the Joker are from the same world but you are not at all attached. I think metacausally you being from the same place was almost an afterthought."
