in which the bells have a lot to think about

[subtly_artistic]

Amariah recites the entire conversation she and Callahan had to the assembled Bells and Jokers that evening, after Aether has gotten back from the dining hall.

Comments

[lifes_sake]

"You remind me of me when I learned magic existed," laughs Cam softly. "Yeah. Everywhere else, science."

[pythbox]

"Maybe we should just forget Callahan," Celo sighs. "I dunno. I still think she wants you to kill something big."

[dark_light]

"If we touch this universe again later it will be because we can kill whatever stops it being plausible to kill big things," says Amariah.

[autokinetic]

"Which of us grew up in military school, again," says Aegis absently.

[pythbox]

"...Do you guys not come from worlds where legendary figures are hard to kill, isn't that the definition of a legendary figure, do you just not have any?"

[lifes_sake]

"Hard to kill, yes," Cam says. "So hard to kill that causality stops working to cheat so you fail at killing them, no."

[dark_light]

"Not even necessarily hard to kill," shrugs Amariah, "I almost killed Alethia's god by accident."

[autokinetic]

"Peace barely has legendary figures and they go down as easy as anybody of the relevant skill level. My Sue beat the shit out of Mazer Rackham one time."

[pythbox]

"Who's Mazer Rackham?" asks Celo, predictably.

[autokinetic]

"Won the war before the one me an' Sue won. Figured out how the buggers worked, took out one ship, disabled their whole fleet like that," she snaps her fingers.

[pythbox]

"Cool," says Celo. "...Sorry, did I distract us from talking about our helplessness in the face of the perverse cosmos?"

[dark_light]

"The point is this is just a perverse little corner of the broader cosmos, and 'hubris' is relegated to fiction as a concept there," says Amariah. "Aether will be much happier. She should probably shadow one of us for a while to get used to the idea that Bells can do the things that Bells are wont to do, though."

[lifes_sake]

"...You're a field," Cam says to Celo abruptly. "A garden. Do you transplant?"

[pythbox]

"Uh - no," he says.

And pauses.

And says, "Fuck."

[subtly_artistic]

"...Oh."

[autokinetic]

"...Well, you can go away from it, though, right? You went to Milliways before. Do you need to be in your garden a certain amount or can you just go wherever as long as you have enough sex, because, I mean, there are ten and three daemons of you. Plus Nona apparently."

[pythbox]

"...Fucking at Milliways does help my field... so far," he says dubiously. "I don't know if it'll always work that way, I don't know if it'll work if I go through to another world, I don't know I won't just suddenly die if I stay extraplanar too long."

[autokinetic]

"This world is such bullshit," says Aegis.

[dark_light]

"Maybe you can room at Milliways, and Aether can hold the door so you can go check your field occasionally..."

[subtly_artistic]

"Cheating," says Aether, shaking her head, "that would be cheating."

[lifes_sake]

"I hate this fucking place."

[pythbox]

Celo shrugs. "I'm willing to try visiting other worlds, anyway."

[autokinetic]

"Yeah, 'course you are, but - I dunno, you don't look torchable, maybe your field would if we looked at it, maybe the admin could make it work regardless? I dunno."

[dark_light]

"Or he could stay and Aether could go and they could see each other as Milliways allows," says Amariah. "There's options. I just - maybe you can just be a mental healer clamping down on every third thought you have, but you could do more than that, Aether."

[subtly_artistic]

Aether squirms.