[Hello!] says Janine. [What is it?]

[I have encountered an alternate universe version of you.]

[...I am surprised,] says Janine.

[Yeah, I was, too, I didn't you know you were a recurring theme, but she looks like a thirteen year old version of you with wings and her name's Junia.]

[I contine to be surprised! Where did she get the wings?]

[Born with them. It's a thing where she's from. The version of me from there has a set, too.]

[That is fascinating. How do they work?]

[...The wings? Or the alternate universe people?]

[The wings. The alternate universe people too, for that matter.]

[I do not know how the wings work mechanically. They look like you'd expect angel wings to look, pretty much, twelve foot wingspans on adults, angels aren't lighter than humans but they are stronger, and I know they were genetically engineered on with a few other perks. The alternate universe people are mostly a mystery as to the why, although we have met enough of me and Alice and some other people you haven't met to give us an idea as to the what - basically doubles of people, some more than others, crop up in all kindsa places and are us-as-we-would-be-if-we'd-been-them. And templates have these things we call 'attractors' so our stories sometimes run in suspiciously similar ways even when they needn't necessarily.]

[That is extremely peculiar,] says Janine. [And angel wings sound fun but inconvenient. Are they less inconvenient in that world?]

[Well, the angels seem to like them. Apparently they make it inconvenient to dance or ride horseback or swim.]

[Yes, that would make sense.]

[So anyway, in a week or two or three a lot of my alts and our miscellaneous friends will probably all have a party, and Junia appears to be friend with one of Angel Me's daughters so she might be there, do you want to come too? I can give you a more detailed invitation when I know when it is.]

[That sounds potentially interesting! If I am not busy at that time I think I will go.]

[Cool. It is, I warn you, a big party, there's fourteen of me - maybe fifteen by party time, there's another one we have to swing by and connect up.]

[Oh my. Where do they all come from?]

[Bunch of different worlds. Not all the worlds have mes in. Mes are called Bells, by the by. We met some people who are templates but aren't from worlds with Bells and they get to come to our parties too.]

[Do people who are not templates get to come or are they template parties?] she inquires.

[People who are not templates get to come, although it appears - according to the template expert who can magically see template stuff - that being a template is contagious. You may have caught it from me.]

[Should I will be worried that I will pass it on to all of my friends?] she jokes.

[Only if you don't think more worlds could benefit from having copies of them.]

Janine giggles.

[One of the Bells who goes by Glass when there are lots of us around can check them over for templatehood if it does concern you, certainly.]

[I think I will pass on that. I do not want to explain to everyone I know that I am friends with an empress.]

[Is that not generally known? Am I embarrassing?]

[Embarrassing is not the word I would use.]

[Disproportionately attention-getting?]

[Yes. Yes exactly.]

[Yeah. Being disproportionately attention-getting is kind of a Bell thing. We are not all Empresses, but we are all powerful busybodies.]

[I am okay with knowing a powerful busybody but I am not okay with everyone knowing that I do.]

[Understood.]

[So how has your empressing been going?]

[Pretty well, but I am behind several of my alts who have had longer at it than I have, especially since we recently had a temporal de-syncing and I lost way less time than many of the others. On the other hand, now I can steal more of their ideas.]

[That sounds like a win to me!]

[Quite likely!]

[It is always nice when someone else goes first to make all the mistakes for you,] Janine says wisely.

[They didn't make that many mistakes.]

[That is also nice!]

[Anyway, how are you doing, how's school?]

[School is good! I am doing well. I continue to be good at things. I also have not dropped anything irreplaceable in some time, that is nice.]

[Not dropping things is great. If you do drop anything irreplaceable, lemme know, I'll replace it.]

[You are handy to have around!]

[I try!]

Janine giggles.