several kinds

[thaumobabble]

Glass appears in the Belltower, where the Jokers less Felicity are still assembled.

"There are," she announces, "kinds of you."

Comments

[manofmyword]

"Well, sure," says the Joker.

[cardistry]

"You mean metacausally?" says Brilliance. "Like how?"

[thaumobabble]

"Like," says Glass, "Corona and Felicity are the same kind as each other but not anyone else, and you and Aianon and Ansharil and Nona and Celo are either representatives of yet more kinds or one-offs, and the rest of you are all of a kind."

[gunpowdergelatine]

"How 'bout that," says Queenie. "Makes sense. But if you asked me to divide us up into kinds, that's not how I'd do it."

[pythbox]

War looks thoughtful. "Yeah, I see what you mean," he says. "You three on one end," this evidently referring to the retirees, because without any visible signal they freecast together to one side of the room, "and then the middle bunch, and then Alice and Nona at the other end. And me and Sue and Aianon and Harley all off to the side in our own directions."

The Jokers arrange themselves as described; the 'middle bunch' consists of Brilliance, Micaiah, Jellybean, Kas, Beast, Corona, and Celo. War and Sue come as a unit, but Sue stands closer to the central mass.

[thaumobabble]

Glass squints at them. "When you're all standing like that there's kind of - but that's not kinds, it's... amounts? No, not amounts. Um. Gosh, I don't know what that is at all."

[pythbox]

"They're something about how we think," says War. "I couldn't begin to put it in words - I'm not even sure I could summarize it in link. But I see a lot of it 'cause I'm the hub when we link up. The retirees are one thing, and me and Sue are another thing, and the middle bunch are all different flavours of a third thing, and Alice and Nona are a fourth thing, and Aianon and Harley are fifth and sixth things."

[manofmyword]

"We grow through 'em, some of us," says the Joker. "That might be where you're getting 'amounts'. I used to be a lot like Alice, and after that I used to be a lot like Kas. And then there was Gotham, and now there's me."

[truthwright]

Kas studies Alice thoughtfully, then turns the same look on the Joker.

[thaumobabble]

"Like..." Glass starts tracing lines between the clusters of assembled Jokers. "Yeah, that's why 'amounts' popped into my head even though it's wrong... Anyway, Felicity is that 'amount'." She waves in Alice and Nona's direction. "But Corona's kind. And a new face - I'd tell you where he looks like he's from but it wouldn't mean anything to somebody who wasn't from Chronicle."

[gunpowdergelatine]

"Well, what's he look like?"

[thaumobabble]

Glass conjures up a little illusion of Felicity.

[pythbox]

The Jokers examine it.

Then: "Phases," says War. "That's what I'd call 'em."

[thaumobabble]

"That's," says Glass, and she peers at them all again, "a serviceable word for it, better than 'amounts' anyway."

[pythbox]

"Harley got rescued before he was any phase," War continues, "he's been off course for most of his life. Me and Sue... I'm not sure, it's harder to see from the inside. Aianon, I feel like he got off course just about when he hit his island; the way he remembers being before then is like middle-phase with more fear. Ansharil is weird, he was never on course in the first place but when he met Aianon he got to be the same phase right away before they went off to the island."

[gunpowdergelatine]

"You and Sue had that Battle School thing," says Queenie. "Pretty sure that's where it starts for you."

[thaumobabble]

"I wonder what affects when you move from phase to phase."

[manofmyword]

"It's pretty obvious how you become a retiree," says the Joker. "Not gonna say that's the only way, but there's only the one we've seen."

[gunpowdergelatine]

"I'd almost say... but Nona killed her dad, and she's still not in the middle," says Queenie. "For us old folks it was definitely that."

[growcrooked]

"...I killed him," she says slowly, "but I didn't leave home. We're still living in the castle. I didn't - wander."

[thaumobabble]

"Hmmmmmm."

[yourheartstrings]

"Mmm?" says Ghosty inquiringly.

[thaumobabble]

"Just, wandering seems like an apt word for the middle bunch. Fits aesthetically."

[manofmyword]

"That it does," the Joker agrees.

[pythbox]

"I don't wander," Celo points out.

"Nah, you go to school instead," says Jellybean.