adrift again

[luminous_regnant]

When the Aurum Janepoint pops up with the error message "error 99: bottles of beer on the wall" and will not respond to any sort of prodding or magic, Bella makes a general announcement to the majority of adults on the brainphone network.

[Jane has encountered a new and different form of error, and we are stuck here until someone finds a door or until further notice. Elspeth, please begin looking for doors.]

[Will do,] Elspeth replies into the conference call.

Comments

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Harley has a refined sense of taste for cuteness," says Elspeth, petting the toddler's hair.

[pythbox]

Harley beams and hugs her.

"Takes one to know one," Nathaniel dares to observe.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth laughs. "I think Nathaniel thinks you're cute, little nibbler," she tells Harley.

[pythbox]

"He's right," Harley announces. Nathaniel laughs.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yes, he is. You are very cute." She puts the book she was holding down, and she hugs Harley back, and then she lets him go, in case he'd like to wriggle out of her lap and go investigate his alt's brother more closely.

[pythbox]

He does that! He almost falls over on the way, but Nathaniel catches him by the hand.

"You're tall," Harley observes.

"You're short," Nathaniel counters.

"I'm little!" says Harley. "I'm a little nibbler!"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"You'll grow," laughs Elspeth. "You will get to be six foot one and then you will stop."

[pythbox]

"How tall is that?" wonders Harley.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"A little bit taller than Nathaniel is."

[pythbox]

Harley looks up at Nathaniel.

"I'm gonna be a big nibbler."

"Yes you are," says Nathaniel.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth laughs.

[pythbox]

Harley is still holding Nathaniel's hand. He looks speculatively at it.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Harley, if you bite him, he will not like it, I will not put you back in biting distance of him or other humans again while you have that habit, and Renata will hiss at you and be very upset," says Elspeth.

[pythbox]

Nathaniel gently takes his hand away. Harley scowls and sits down on the floor.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth is unapologetic.

[pythbox]

Well, Harley is just going to... sit there... and feel thwarted.

[her_imperial_radiance]

He may do that if he chooses.

"I hope you won't be stuck here longer than you'd prefer to stay," Elspeth says to Nathaniel, "but I didn't find any doors yesterday, and I tried for hours, which worries me. I used to find them very frequently."

[pythbox]

Nathaniel shrugs.

"The Joker gave me an asteroid. I don't really miss Samaria that much."

[her_imperial_radiance]

Renata nuzzles his neck happily.

"That's good then," says Elspeth. "At least this time everyone who lives here is here."

[pythbox]

"I don't remember the beginning of the last time that well; I was just a kid," he says. "How long was this world cut off, that time?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"About a decade. I wasn't here, though, I was Downside and experienced less than two days of outage. And this was one of the harder-hit worlds. Rainbow only missed a few hours even though it has no special characteristics like Atlantis or Sunshine relative to Milliways doors."

[pythbox]

"So I guess we just have to wait and see," says Nathaniel.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yes. By the same token Samaria could have a wildly divergent amount of time lost."

[pythbox]

"I'll miss my nieces," he says thoughtfully. "But I'll see them again someday."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yes. Although they may be full grown by the time you do."