{There are ten Peaceables coming over the bridge from Temereen to escort you.} the context advisory agent sent. {And twelve more docking now at the lower spires.}

“Squell . . . needs an Idyll,” Frill said.

“I know,” Ellix said. “But they’re full. There’s a beyond-the-sky returnee absorption center; Squell qualifies for placement as an asteroid worker. I know it’s not the same thing, but it’s the best we can do right now.”

At the bottom of the stairs, people were crowding forward.

“Fift Brulio!” someone shouted. “If you think consensus will support your irresponsible acts—”

“Where are you going?” someone else shouted. “You stay right here! You stay right here!”

“Leave zir alone!” A wide-eyed Staid tried to push past Emim. “Fift, take my hand, I only want to be near you—” Bojum and Emim closed ranks, hustling Fift past.

“Thurm is secure,” Grobbard said. “Is that correct, Ellix? Ve said ve could find a place for me—”

“That’ll do,” Ellix said, nodding, “that’s solid. Ve could even take another.”

“Ah . . .” Grobbard cleared zir throat. “Miskisk is already there.”

“Admit it!” an old Vail with bright purple skin and hair. “Admit you’re working with Andibol Marm! Admit that this is a hoaxgame launch! My viewers deserve to know!”

“You unsluiced toadclown! Chasing after that rioter and smashing your squishy hot bodies together for the world to see. . . !”

“How did you bring down the feed? How?”

Bojum linked arms with a Vail who darted out of the crowd—lookup showed vem as Honti Pikipo of name registry Nameless Desert 3, and yes, when you looked for it, there was the team-tag, [Embracing Fift and Shria]. And there was another Staid with the same tag, coming in on Morinti’s side.

“‘Make room,’” Morinti shouted, jubilant. “As Shria said: ‘We’re coming through!’”

Once you were looking for them, team-tags were everywhere: [Swallowers of Light], [Never At Rest], [Revanchists of the Tumbling Lover], [Mothers Against the Unraveling], [Panaximandra’s Million] . . .

Everyone had found something new to belong to while Fift was trapped in zir apartment.

While ze was losing everything ze belonged to.

“Nupolo,” Ellix said, “you’ll come to our cohort as well, of course, with . . . ?”

“Arevio,” Nupolo said.

“If I might,” Arevio said.

“Your ex-parents should be dispersed around the world,” a ragged old blue Vail tagged with [Orderly Birth of Order] shouted, “and banned from all occupations! They should have their feed access removed! How anyone can support such irresponsible—”

“Fift,” a portly, diminutive, bone-white Staid shouted—ze was tagged with both [Take the Babies] and [Prologue to the Honest Foundations of Fift’s Joy]—“try my soup! This barbiton soup might help you feel better; it’s artisanal and very restorative! Hey, quit shoving, Vidix!”