yes, there is beauty

[jovahs_heiress]

Angela stops at Milliways on her way home, Micaiah in tow. She cannot force the door to Beast's world, not with any coin she carries, but she leaves a note at Bar for him, asking that he go to the tower out back and identify himself to Jane. There's nothing else they can do for him. Belle, of course, will get a key if she goes to the bar.

Comments

[deslandes]

"Whatever you like, my love."

[beheld_beauty]

"I think so. Unless someone else has taken the same name."

[autokinetic]

"Nope. It's me, Aegis, and then there's Shell Bell and Stella and Golden and Amariah and Juliet and Pattern and Angela."

[deslandes]

"Do you all have more of me, too?"

[autokinetic]

"Angela - you met her, right? - she has one, she's married to hers too, and then there's me and Sue, Stella and Alice, and Amariah and Kas. Golden has Jokes working for her but they're not together, she married this other guy. Pattern's got Queenie working for her, same deal except Pattern's not seeing anybody at all. And Shell Bell and Juliet have Sherlocks and Tonies instead."

[deslandes]

"So many," murmurs the Beast. "I want to meet all of me."

[pythbox]

"I'll just bet you do," Sue says cheerfully.

[autokinetic]

"It's a pity you missed the big party!" says Aegis. "Everybody - all the Jokers including a spare I didn't mention - was in one place."

[deslandes]

"Ma belle enchanteresse," he says, turning to her, "can we throw a big party?"

[beheld_beauty]

"...How would they all get here?" asks Belle.

[autokinetic]

"You'd have to let me install a - a piece of a friend of mine," Aegis says. "She can pick people up and put them down, as long as she can see the person and the destination. She's not a human, she's a - you don't have computers here, do you."

[deslandes]

"What's a computer?"

[autokinetic]

"It's a machine that - well, in some cases, thinks, but there are simpler ones that don't think and just do lots of math so fast that it's almost like magic," says Aegis, gesturing vaguely. "Jane thinks. She's a person and her body is made of metal and stuff instead of bones and guts. And it's in lots of worlds, and if I put some of her here, she'll be able to bring in lots of people to attend a party if you throw one. I'm not sure how we'll find Ghosty again, though."

[deslandes]

"We should invite Jane here, then," Beast asserts. "And throw a big party."

[beheld_beauty]

"All right. I suppose. How many people does this all add up to?" Belle asks.

[autokinetic]

"Well, Stella's party had sixty-five guests after the belated ones showed up," says Aegis. "I don't know if the same friends and family tagalongs will want to come to another so soon, though."

[deslandes]

"We should put in a ballroom," laughs the Beast.

[beheld_beauty]

"It sounds like it," laughs Belle.

[autokinetic]

"And make sure there are rooms for people to abscond to," says Aegis. "Certain templates are the absconding type." She elbows Sue.

[beheld_beauty]

"There is plenty of room. This is a castle," says Belle archly. "Even after I tell my student that he may come back there will be only three people living here."

[autokinetic]

"No kids, huh?"

[beheld_beauty]

"Not so far. I found a spell to postpone it, years ago - it may be time to reconsider - why, do many of us have children?"

[autokinetic]

"Golden has a daughter, Angela's pregnant, the rest of us are un-child-having," says Aegis. "But it does seem to correlate with being married, so."

[deslandes]

The Beast laughs, kisses Sue's forehead, and hugs his wife.

[beheld_beauty]

"I suppose I will get to meet all these people after we've made - party arrangements, and you've put a... a part of your friend somewhere in our castle."