why is there a word for that

[alicornucopia]

Finnah's just arrived at work to open the store for the morning shift; she has her apron on but hasn't put her hair up yet. She lets in the customer who always takes half an angle to determine that he wants four buttercreams, again, and then nips into the back to tend to her hair and check the overnight progress of the rock candy.

This isn't the back.

But that -

No, he's too tall to be Mial, if this is a Mial prank it's a stupidly elaborate one.

"Okay, I give up," she says, "what the hell?"

Comments

[gloriousdawn]

"She's been dead for two centuries, so not as such, no."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...Wait, if that's so, then how... do you..." Stalas waves his hands vaguely.

[isthisart]

"Are you doing a convincing Solvei impression based solely on historical records? If you haven't met I assume the solution to the puzzle isn't 'you're immortal for some reason'..."

[gloriousdawn]

"I believe I've mentioned objecting to that interpretation," says Solvei.

[unmarred]

"Perhaps you could explain just what it is you object to," says Mark.

[gloriousdawn]

"I'm not a 'convincing Solvei impression' any more than you're a convincing Mark impression."

[unmarred]

"I've been informed I'm not welcome in the Miles club, even under corresponding conditions."

[gloriousdawn]

"Not by me you haven't!"

[unmarred]

"...So... your assertion is that you currently are Solvei, foundationally, in a way that I am not correspondingly Miles when I am Miles?"

[gloriousdawn]

"Yes. There is a fake Solvei available at this address, but I am not she."

[unmarred]

"...Hence, perhaps, 'Sis' and 'we' and now 'outside view'?"

[middlingalong]

"Why would you need a fake Solvei too if you have a 'real' one?"

[gloriousdawn]

[unmarred]

"...How old are you?"

[gloriousdawn]

"Sixteen."

[unmarred]

"And, by whatever means you might have been created, it wasn't for a clone substitution plot targeted at your original. Because she has been dead for two centuries."

[gloriousdawn]

"You know what," says Solvei, "I am tired of being the center of attention here. Shocking, I know."

She goes back to the door and opens it. Not quite leaning through, she calls, "C'mere, I found a weird and potentially useful thing!"

[onceandforall]

"Is it weirder and more potentially useful than the furball?" calls back a voice.

[isthisart]

...Linya stands up.

[gloriousdawn]

"Emphatically yes on both counts!"

[onceandforall]

Here is a Bella.

Blink.

"...It's a magic mirror? With really good aesthetic taste?" she guesses.

[isthisart]

"It's an interdimensional bar, I'm you from an alternate universe, come in, come in."

[onceandforall]

Bella comes in. "If you're me from an alternate universe..."

[isthisart]

Linya hands her the napkin with the dense explanation of door mechanics on it.

[gloriousdawn]

Solvei wants a look at this napkin.