universal template sweep!

[incanted]

Bella's checks for templates other than herself, Brilliance, Matilda, Libby, and people attached to them like her and Lexi's parents or Libby's Chris turns up nothing - no friends, no villains.

Before Libby contacts her, she gets visitors.

"Shell Bell! Juliet! Wow, how long has it been for you guys?"

"At home, no time," says Shell Bell.

"Longer for me. I can get to Milliways anytime, but Jane is really fucking broken," says Juliet. "Not years, though, just a few months, and for a while nothing I urgently needed offworld help for came up. I finally had to force the door to Atlantis to get Shell Bell so we could go to Yggdrasil - the Jarvis there lost connection - and then we swung through all the other Jarvised worlds to quarantine a certain transmissible spell from Sunshine, and then we figured as long as we were together and Shell Bell can door near anywhere we'd stop here. For your charming company and also coins. Next is picking up Glass and trying for the world where Aegis went."

"Yeah, sure," says Aurora, "you can have coins, no problem - I'm not down much time, more than before but only about a week. It turns out I have a Matilda and also a Libby, but my Libby is less than impressed with me, I think, Juliet, can you run and get yours?"

"Working with Shell Bell's doors instead of Jane means the best way to do that without losing any time is going to your Libby and opening a door there," says Juliet. "Will she be up for that?"

"She said she'd call me today when she wasn't busy, I can bring you guys," nods Aurora. "If you don't mind waiting around a little."

"Well, in the meantime we could maybe meet your Matilda? Is she busy?" asks Shell Bell.

"I'll check."

[Hey, Matilda! Guess who's here!]

Comments

[she_sells_seashells]

"Am I taking you back to Rainbow right now, or do you want to hang out a bit more?" asks Shell Bell of the Matildas.

[withmypowers]

"I'm good to go," says Agent Honey.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Okay." Shell Bell reaches for the nearest door, flares, turns the handle.

[incanted]

In Milliways, Aurora opens the door back to her own world.

[prima_sequentem]

And the local Libby brainphones her.

[Hi.]

[incanted]

[Hi! Guess who showed up!]

[prima_sequentem]

[I couldn't begin to imagine.]

[incanted]

[Shell Bell and Juliet dropped by. Shell Bell does doors and Juliet has a Libby, you want us to come by and show you Milliways? And Agent Matilda Honey is here, too.]

[prima_sequentem]

[Agent of what?]

[incanted]

[The Time-Space Administration Bureau, they go around making sure no one is damaging spacetime. Matildas are a friendly template.]

[prima_sequentem]

[I approve of no one damaging spacetime! All right, you can come visit.]

[incanted]

"Porting to Libby," warns Aurora, and poof!

[prima_sequentem]

"Hello, everyone," says the local Libby. They are in her living room, which is very similar to the Eos Libby's, not that anyone present has ever been there. It's clean and tidy and sparsely but exquisitely decorated.

[cross_and_bow]

"Hi," says Juliet. "I'm Juliet, this is Shell Bell, the one you've been talking to is Aurora. If you'll follow us to Milliways I can stick my head into Sunshine and get James, is that the idea?"

[incanted]

"That is the idea," confirms Aurora.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell's aura, calm but powerful, flares, and she reaches for the nearest door, and here again is Milliways.

[prima_sequentem]

"Well, that's intriguing," says Rainbow's Libby, who really needs a distinguishing nickname of her very own.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yep! I love my aura."

[cross_and_bow]

When everyone is inside and the door is shut, Juliet opens it again. [Hey James! Rainbow Libby exists, c'mere!]

[neverbeatme]

James appears.

"Ooh, a me."

[prima_sequentem]

"Ooh, a me!" agrees the Rainbow Libby.

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet ushers James into the bar. "James, Rainbow Libby yet un-nicknamed; Rainbow Libby, this is James."

[prima_sequentem]

"I decline to be named 'Rainbow Libby' any longer," says the referenced person. "Aurora, would you be so kind as to pick a non-redundant nickname for 'Elizabeth'?"

[incanted]

"Nobody's using Betty yet?" suggests Aurora after a moment.

[prima_sequentem]

"Hmm, I'm not a fan. Is anyone using Beth?"