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[dark_light]

The Earthlings native and adopted stay in Marlatia, hiding uneventfully in the guest room, for several days. Isabella immortalizes king and queen both when they sneak her to a sufficiently large, empty, and unoccupied room to do it in. When Adarin has enough mana he makes mirror pairs for each of their majesties to contact their counterpart - Isabella's portal bag is kind of accumulating mirrors at this point. And when he has more mana still, Iobel finds a slightly-bigger-than-door-sized plank and a set of hinges and some screws and combines all these objects on the ceiling of a lockable room on the first floor but out of the way, currently serving as storage for a lot of broken musical instruments that someone once probably identified as probably repairable. This plank gets a portal on it, and the Earthlings go home.

After catching up on business - and allowing time to recover mana, again - and getting their Marlatian alts a laptop each, and putting a router and chargers within easy reach of the portal on their side, which is also on a sheet of wood but is kept in their basement propped up against a wall -

Isabella snuggles up to her husband and suggests searching the planes for more of themselves.

Comments

[prodigal_miser]

Of course, her husband is completely up for searching the planes for more of themselves.

He has a bit of trouble with it, this time around, though. Not the scrying itself, that's easy, but there's no sign of any more sets of them, or even one of them alone, nearby. So he has to start checking places that aren't so easy to reach - more than one teleport required, with a break in between.

With this expansion, he finds one. Of him, with no alt of Isabella in sight. Adarin almost misses him entirely, the age difference is immense. He's got wrinkles and looks to be somewhere in his forties or fifties. But the hair is recognizable - as is the plane. It's hard to tell, there are differences, but under the surface - it's an exact copy of New Kystle.

".... Well that's interesting," pronounces Adarin once this is discovered.

[dark_light]

"He looks just like you only old, and - duplicate planet, or close enough, I wonder if there are more of Earth or of Iobel's world? I guess that makes as much sense as there being more of us."

[prodigal_miser]

"I suppose so, though none of it actually makes sense. Planes are weird. Is it just - the same basic plane, or does it have the same history behind it?"

[dark_light]

"What do you think would be likely to last until you looked - yea old without my spell on you?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Er. ... My house, maybe? Considering that it would have to be - three, four centuries at least for me to look that age without your spell."

[dark_light]

"Let's have a look at the house then?"

[prodigal_miser]

He checks the house. It's different, the windows have been replaced with some kind of opaque glass... thing, and the lights outside of it are the same sort of 'obviously magic' lights that Adarin had in his household, but made differently. Other than that, it's recognizably the same house. Same layout and coloration and everything.

"Might be coincidence, might be the same history," he says, frowning.

[dark_light]

"I guess we can go ask him sometime?" Snuggle.

[prodigal_miser]

"I guess so," he agrees with a laugh. Snuggle. "... I didn't see you anywhere with him. I do hope your - other you isn't dead. Or something. If she exists."

[dark_light]

"I mean, you and I aren't from the same plane to begin with the way Iobel and Edarial are," says Isabella. "He might just not have one. He went looking for chamomile and his nearest neighbor with the plant was not - Chamomile or a duplicate."

[prodigal_miser]

"True. That's kind of depressing. Never meeting you."

[dark_light]

"Aw, sweetie. He's had centuries to find something maybe half as awesome as me, that's not so bad."

[prodigal_miser]

Nuzzle. "But if the magic system's the same, it's probable that he will or has outlived them. But maybe he is less blatantly depressing than Edarial, and maybe he's got a large and happy family. I've got no idea. Hoping that he's less depressing than Edarial."

[dark_light]

"Yeah, Edarial's pretty depressing. Even meeting a me obviously does not guarantee non-depressing-ness."

[prodigal_miser]

"That one was through no fault of Iobel's, that was more... The situation itself. I don't see how I could have met you and not been less depressing afterward."

[dark_light]

Isabella nuzzles him. "I am so glad to have helped. Do you suppose if this possibly lone you is in fact depressing meeting us will help, or will it just be weird and grating like it is for the Marlatians?"

[prodigal_miser]

"I have... Absolutely no idea. I don't know what kind of life he's lived. It could be either, depending on if he's been playing celibate for four centuries or not."

[dark_light]

"Well, I'd be kind of depressed if that happened to me, but you're not wired quite like me."

[prodigal_miser]

"Right. But if he was in love with someone who died and you immediately bring him or her back - I can't imagine he would be bothered by our presence at all. If it was the 'playing celibate for four centuries' thing then he would be kind of depressed."

[dark_light]

"So we should definitely make the trip with enough stuff in my portal bag to handle a couple resurrections in case he's got a dead spouse and also a Veron. Maybe three, to be safe, in case there's more than that."

[prodigal_miser]

Nod. "That's the smart move, yeah. If we bring Veron back I can't imagine he would hold our - coupleness against us."

[dark_light]

"More than three and I'm kind of pushing it on the bag's capacity, what with the ash and the copious quantities of parsley I need, but three should do it for the first trip and we can always go back if he needs more people. When should we go?"

[prodigal_miser]

"When our workload allows us a month trip or so, considering I can't get there through one teleportation. Which also means there would be a - plane in between where a couple of portals would go."

[dark_light]

"Wow, a month. I guess we can administrate remotely with mirrors. Maybe your alt will help out with the return trip?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Hopefully, yeah. If the magic system's the same, I don't see why he wouldn't help us out. Especially after resurrections."