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

[cross_and_bow]

"That's Shell Bell, I'm Juliet," adds Juliet.

[withmypowers]

"I'm Matilda," says Matilda. "For redundancy purposes you can call me Agent Honey."

[cross_and_bow]

"That works. I assume Aurora already told you the other two are 'Tilly' and 'Matilda'."

[withmypowers]

"She mentioned as much, yes."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I actually met Matilda when we were both six, in Milliways, and we conducted experiments with her magic until I got spooked by a giant squid in the lake," says Shell Bell, "and ran away and didn't find her again until I was older."

[withmypowers]

"That sounds adorable."

[she_sells_seashells]

"It was," laughs Shell Bell. "And then it turned out she has contagious magic, but it didn't like me. I got some other magic later, though, I was the second Bell to mint."

[withmypowers]

"Contagious magic, you say?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yeah. Cam tried it too, and he got a little bit, enough for small telekinesis but nothing huge. Glass was going to schedule an appointment to try it too but then Jane broke."

[withmypowers]

"I will have to try her contagious magic," says Matilda.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Tilly got plenty, but it's not consistent within our template so we don't know about yours," shrugs Shell Bell.

[cross_and_bow]

"Although you can be sure that if any of us get more than enough to just barely pour milk into our cereal in the morning we'll have the distributors' calendars booked till we've all got it."

[withmypowers]

"We'll see, I guess."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yep. If you're impatient, I can get you a door to Wellspring."

[withmypowers]

"I'm patient. But I'll take the door anyway if it happens to be convenient."

[cross_and_bow]

"It's Shell Bell's aura power. Doesn't even need a coin," says Juliet.

[she_sells_seashells]

"But," Shell Bell says, "getting contagious magic can take a while - if it was just a minute per person we'd have all tried it by now - and we'd have to all come with you so nobody would be stranded without me. I have a design for an anniversary festival to work out; do you guys have stuff to do?"

[cross_and_bow]

"I have books on my to-conjure-and-read list about various demons. Always with the various demons. And also I need to catch up Aurora on what's happened in Sunshine since Jane went down."

[incanted]

"I apparently need to be caught up, and Agent Honey recommended me some books on local magic - apparently we are 'mages', not 'sorceresses'," says Aurora. "Sounds like we're all set, let's have a door."

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell flares, and opens the door, and lo, it is Milliways. "After you," she says, and the other Bells file in.

[withmypowers]

Matilda follows.

"Ooh," she says, peering around the bar. Adularia shimmers.

[she_sells_seashells]

Aura still unfurled, Shell Bell closes and then reopens the door to Wellspring. [Hey, Matilda!]

[withmypowers]

[Fancy seeing you here,] says Wellspring's Matilda. [Do you know anything about "error 18920: cannot connect to monitor lizard"?]

[she_sells_seashells]

[Jane broke. Worse than last time. I can't fix her, but I can door places. Rainbow turns out to have one of you and she wants Wellspring magic.]

[withmypowers]

[I see,] says Matilda. [Well, why don't you all come visit? I'm at home and Jenny's at work. It'll be just us.]