intelligent nametags

[thaumobabble]

Jane alerts everyone to the existence of a new Bell, the nature of her wives and children, and the presence of her mother-in-law.

She stands ready to move in anyone who wishes to attend this new party.

Glass stands ready to receive them.

Comments

[manofmyword]

The Joker snorts.

[luminous_regnant]

Golden casts an exasperated look in her employee's direction.

[thaumobabble]

"I don't know what template strength means," Glass hastens to add. "Not with so few examples, not when I'm so new at this."

[self_composed]

"Do you see anyone here who has a strong template and isn't duplicated so far?" asks Stella.

[thaumobabble]

"We're the strongest template here. The Jokers are second, I don't know how to interpret the gaps but I don't think it's a particularly wide margin... Sherlocks-and-Tonies-as-sets are next, the singlets aren't particularly strong-looking to me... Actually, no, Sherlock singlet looks like there might be something major on a high layer, but this particular sort of Sherlock singlet doesn't have a lot of force. Libbies are strong but not as strongly magnetized to us as either of those, but they are a little bit... and also to Sherlocks..." She has to look harder to get the other results. "Chainsaws, Annas, Matildas, all reasonably strong templates, not too attached to us... Matildas have a weak magnetism to Jokers, I think Harley was slated to meet one, should keep an eye on that world..." She squints at Lexi, where she's hanging out with Liselen. "We might find more of us with twins. If we do they'll be Lexis." She scans the room again. "...And I'm not sure, but I think... Kanim and Lazarus could appear again."

[lifes_sake]

[Hey Tilly, Glass thinks a Matilda's going to appear in the world Elspeth got Harley out of. Should any intervening happen?]

[pythbox]

(Jellybean grins a little.)

[withmypowers]

[Um... probably not,] says Tilly. [We seem to manage pretty well on our own. I'd worry if she turned seven and hadn't met a Jenny yet.]

[lifes_sake]

[Okay. I'll ask Jane to keep an eye on that.]

[withmypowers]

[Thanks.]

[luminous_regnant]

Golden is chatting pleasantly with Juliet, over here.

[calendarofcrime]

Steel is eavesdropping.

[cross_and_bow]

"...so I think there must be something weird about how translation interacts with magic, because otherwise there's no reason for whatever Glass speaks to translate a word for particular sort of magic user as 'witch' - hi, Steel, what's up?"

[calendarofcrime]

"Oh, do continue."

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet laughs. "So Amariah's a witch, and Golden's a witch, and Glass is a witch among other things, and the first two you can explain by the fact that they're both from Earths where English is spoken, but your language - super pretty, by the way - is matching up one of the kinds of magic user Glass is to the same word, and other kinds to other words, and I popped into Milliways for a second to check and started talking to a random person about it and he heard 'witch' in both cases too even when I used your language. It's weird. And Cam's a wizard, which matches word-wise with a kind of magic you have here, too, even though the execution is different, and Aurora's a sorceress but she just made up calling herself that so I don't know how to count it."

[luminous_regnant]

"Translation magic is indeed a mystery," says Golden. "I'm not sure how to go about solving it."

[calendarofcrime]

"Interesting," says Steel. "Does it need solving?"

[luminous_regnant]

"Well, otherwise we won't know why it's happening," laughs Golden. "It doesn't seem urgent for any practical reasons."

[calendarofcrime]

She contemplates the question.

Then she says, "Why not ask Glass?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Do you suppose that's the kind of thing her aura-sense can do?" wonders Juliet.

[calendarofcrime]

"I think there is one obvious way to find that out, and no obvious downside to trying."

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah, fair enough. Hey, Glass!"

[thaumobabble]

Glass appears and kisses her wife and says, "What's up?"

[luminous_regnant]

"There are some odd regularities in how various languages are magically translated into one another and we were wondering if you could shed light on the subject," says Golden.

[thaumobabble]

"Uh. Hm. Say some of the words?" Glass asks.