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

[prima_sequentem]

"Ooh," says Libby. "Profiles."

[dark_light]

"Sounds like a plan to me," says Amariah. "Do you think we need the whole peal for making revisions?"

[thaumobabble]

"We should probably at least invite everyone, although I don't suppose they'll all drop what they're doing, I think Cam may be in a pile of Tonies at the moment based on where I last saw him."

[prima_sequentem]

Libby laughs.

[thaumobabble]

Glass invites Bells. A few show up - Shell Bell and Angela and Rose - and the others all pass along their confidence that their alts will come up with something satisfactory.

[dark_light]

Amariah reads through Glass's original profile, first. "I like the idea of including aura. Maybe since we turn out to vary in sexuality more than we thought we should have a field for that, too, and optionally throw in how interested we are in, say, being dragged into a heap of Tonies."

[thaumobabble]

Glass giggles. "And there are now four of us with children, that belongs in here too."

[jovahs_heiress]

"And something about how readily visitable our worlds are. Mine is safe but magic isn't generally known, for example."

[beheld_beauty]

"Coin color. Since it seems to track mental opacity so closely, in particular."

[she_sells_seashells]

"And this won't be part of the profile but as long as we're talking about how to get new Bells slotted comfortably into the peal there should be some sort of standard checklist. Minting and the safety lecture; enchanting and the skill and the cautions about that; Janegem and an introduction to her."

[thaumobabble]

"And I'll be happy to pop briefly into newly found worlds as long as they're safe, and check out the character of the place. I've seen everywhere but Alethia now, and I'm happy to go check Alethia too if someone will spot me a star."

[prima_sequentem]

"What kind of character assessment do you do on a world?" wonders Libby.

[thaumobabble]

"It apparently falls under my metacausality-sensing aura feature," says Glass. "I can tell things about templates, and apparently entire worlds count. This one is by far the nicest; Aegis put it as 'made of cotton candy'. Sunshine is particularly appalling."

[prima_sequentem]

"I wonder if the worlds should get profiles too," she muses.

[thaumobabble]

"Maybe, but I get very indistinct senses, and I don't think Cam can talk to the worlds themselves for us. I might get better at reading what I sense over time and then I could potentially generate enough information that it doesn't make sense to just fold it into the Bell profiles."

[prima_sequentem]

"I was thinking that world profiles would run more along the lines of - a name, your impression, a list of templates known to be present, important safety information, details about technology and magic levels... they wouldn't only be useful for worlds containing Bells."

[thaumobabble]

"If some other people want to invite me to have a look at their worlds, I'll be happy to," says Glass. "But we're talking about the Bellbook, not a hypothetical Worldbook."

[prima_sequentem]

"I'll design the Worldbook later, then."

[thaumobabble]

"Cool, let me know where I need to show up and what format you want my results in when you've got that. Anyway. And to avoid confusions like the one Aegis had about my mother-in-law being the queen, maybe an entry for tentative expected approach - or past approach, for when you all update your old profiles."

[jovahs_heiress]

"And perhaps we no longer need an entry for people with keys to the Belltower, with Jane operating it at her informed discretion. Although literal keys should probably still be kept on hand in case something happens to her again."

[thaumobabble]

"And local magic is worth knowing about, and inventing terminology for recurring species is a good idea - I think we're only ever going to see more than one sort-of-thing that needs an invented name if they're named in English. I think English is on some level a meta-language for our multiverse. 'Witch' needs clarification; 'sarion' doesn't."

They continue to fiddle with their profile template until they have something they all like.

[prima_sequentem]

Libby thinks this template is very reasonable!

[thaumobabble]

Glass inaugurates it.

[jovahs_heiress]

Angela follows.

[dark_light]

Amariah takes the book next.