i'm almost sixteen

[autokinetic]

Aegis has her Sue back. Sort of.

She also has her Jane back, less sort of, and right now that's way less complicated and way less sad and Aegis doesn't, actually, have anything to do apart from reading to catch up, which she can only do so many hours in a row.

So she's dug up her old save file and she's playing with her animal-people. With Jane, although Jane says she's mostly running the original software, not inserting her mature personality. (She does commentate, for color.)

Clearing the jellyfish for the seahorses.

She remembers it like it was yesterday.

Her bird stopped playing before she did, so she doesn't even slightly expect him to show up all candleflame and join her, when she's doing this.

Comments

[pythbox]

[Thanks.]

Sue is not going to do this; he has his own solution. The point is to fork a double who isn't up to date on his life in full depth, after all. But arbitrary amounts of linked rapid summarizing have yet to turn Sue into Aianon or Ghosty or Brilliance or Corona.

He thinks.

He decides to pull his copy from the exact moment that would make him the same age relative to Aegis that he was when Jane went down - the moment of discontinuity, plus the amount of subjective time Aegis spent out of the world, plus the amount of time it has been since she got back. He doesn't have an exact count of how long that is, but there is no time in that ballpark he could pull from that won't be a busy moment. So he leaves Ivy floating in space as an anchor - can't be too careful - and freecasts to the Gentle Cave in case Past Sue is startled.

'Sue' and 'Past Sue' is going to get confusing fast. The past version can keep 'Sue'; the older one decides he will be Admiral War.

He spends an evil.

It's not clear who links who first, and for a few seconds thoughts are roaring back and forth, but Sue stabilizes fast. He hugs War hard; his Ivy instantiates to join the cuddle. It's like she's wrapping her coils around two of Sue, appropriately enough.

Still linked, Sue does a brief freecasted tour of all known worlds just to make sure his skills there are as up-to-date as War's.

He ends this tour standing in front of Aegis with Ivy perched on his shoulder as a candleflame bird.

[autokinetic]

Aegis has been idly sweeping up jellyfish while Sue - Admiral War - did all this.

She looks up when Sue appears.

Bird? she asks, tentative.

[pythbox]

Sue hugs her. Yes, bird, definitely bird, it's so sad what happened, War is sad and Sue is sad but now he's here and everyone can stop being sad because he absolutely wants to kiss her.

[autokinetic]

Oh good.

[pythbox]

So he's just going to be in her lap now, that sounds like an awesome place to be, did she miss him? Because he missed her! He missed her a lot!

[autokinetic]

She missed him so much and he should definitely be in her lap.

The desk where she was playing the fantasy game quietly drops into standby mode.

[pythbox]

The desk can do that. Sue has way better uses for Aegis's time.

[autokinetic]

Oh yes, she agrees completely.

[pythbox]

Good. That is good. That is a good thing.

[mind_game]

Around when Aegis turns off her Janegem, Jane reports to everyone who is presently open to receiving general peal-news-blurbs that Sue has forked and why.

[cross_and_bow]

"Aww."

[eversomuchfun]

"Aww," Sherlock agrees. "Clever solution to a tricky problem."

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah. Um, so if Amariah looks murderously in Aegis's direction - I still don't think this is likely but it remains a good idea to distract her."

[eversomuchfun]

"Noted once again." He kisses her on the cheek. "Why, did Aegis's bragging rights just expand?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Aegis went home to a relatively more minor discomfort than Amariah did and even that has now been fixed, so yeah."

[eversomuchfun]

"What an odd lot you Bells are."

[cross_and_bow]

"We make sense to us. Is it really that strange?"

[eversomuchfun]

"I've never spared a moment's envy for Pearl or Steel, and I don't imagine they have for me."

[cross_and_bow]

"At all? About anything?"

[eversomuchfun]

"I can wish I had escaped certain things that never happened to them in the first place, but that doesn't make me angry with them. And in the other direction - I'm sure every Sherlock has spent an idle moment or two wishing to hate themselves just a little bit less, but they wouldn't take it at the price I paid. I remember."

[cross_and_bow]

"Inter-Bell jealousy doesn't usually result in anger. Amariah is just in an extreme situation of thing should not have happened, no appropriate fixes or outlets."

[eversomuchfun]

"What does it result in, then?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Competitive furor."

[eversomuchfun]

"Hah. Yes, you won't get a lot of that from us."

[cross_and_bow]

"In theory I should remember what it was like not to want to show up to a party going, 'Look at what I did! Look at what cool stuff I have! Look at how totally together my personal life is! Look at what clever ideas I have had! Am I not an excellent example of this thing we all are? Beat that!', but the things I did before this kicked in were relatively less interesting."