Exploring Hypotheticals

[DanielH]

This thread was inspired by the Make My Characters Talk To Each Other thread, but I realized that one of the things I wanted to request there worked better in longer form than a single conversation.

So, a hypothetical: What would an unprotected Bell do if befriended by a Chelsea? I figure she would know what was going on relatively quickly even if the Chelsea didn’t tell her, but I’m not sure what she’d be able to do or want to do about the situation. Does anybody, especially Alicorn, have thoughts on how that would play out?

[Aestrix]

The way it plays out in my head is the Bell screeching incoherently and then stabbing Chelsea, but I likely don't have an accurate picture.

[Alicorn]

Stabbing is pretty unlikely unless we get specific about the Bell and her violent upbringing. The Bell's ability to figure it out depends on how smart the Chelsea is and how her Chelseaing works, and the Bell's reaction to the situation depends on a lot of other factors.

[DanielH]

Huh. What could a Chelsea do to prevent the Bell from figuring it out? Just the lack-of-free-time thing that the raveller one was doing? I got the impression that her power is more comprehensive than the original Volturi one's.

[Tamien]

What about a Bell who was befriended by a Chelsea *before* she started notebooking?

[Alicorn]

Lack of free time, extremely slow and conveniently-explicable ramp-up in the liking. Chelasi's power wasn't strictly better than Chelsea's.

Bells start notebooking at (the equivalent of) age six. So a very smol Bell could be very thoroughly warped by sufficiently cunning application of Chelsea that early.

[jalapeno_dude]

(I asked one version of this question on DW a while ago, and there was some good discussion, but I still think it's worth talking about more:) What happens to Eos, and Effulgence-in-general, in these hypothetical cases:

A) Stella is actually killed by the van, but manages to make the hex first.
B) Stella is instantly killed by the van, and does not manage to make a hex.

(Recall that it requires eight-pointed coins, not just stars, to resurrect people.)

Specifically:
-What does Alice do? Obviously the answer is very different between A and B. In A: to what lengths does Alice go to resurrect Stella, and what does he do when the first several attempts to do so fail? In B: does Alice attempt to seek out other sources of wishcoins? If so, how does he go about doing this?
-If Alice and Libby end up interacting, what happens?
-If the broader Effulgence continuity is not a thing, what does the long-term future of the world look like? Does Libby manage to bootstrap her way far enough up the power ladder to cure death (at least her own)? Libby assisted by Alice (or Sandy or Anna, potentially)?
-If it *is* a thing, does the Peal form without wishcoins? If so, it's dramatically lower-powered--does it manage to discover Downside? To fix it?

[DanielH]

The start of tht Belltower didn't depend on Eos, at least. The Belltower and laler Jane would still exist.

[Tamien]

I would be super interested in reading about a smol Bell who grows up having an Aunt Chelsea or a classmate Chelsea or the like (oh god; now imagining a Bell dating her childhood best friend Chelsea) and goes on to do standard Bell things but now with added Chelsea. Especially the reaction when she peals, and what the aftermath of that is.

[Alicorn]

I mean, is this a magic Chelsea or a non-magic Chelsea? It matters. A magic one will severely warp a non-immune Bell; an immune Bell won't be her friend for long; a nonmagic situation they could be friends and just argue a lot about fantasy novels (although they would be more likely to just fail to get along without some strong reason they ought to).