many people move here to start families

[cross_and_bow]

Bella is hanging out in a Jarvis - the familiar one - handwriting a nonaggression proposal-slash-bribe. Has to be handwritten. Damn fussy demons. At least it's okay for her to conjure rather than personally harvesting the weird ink she's supposed to use.

Comments

[eversomuchfun]

She is correct.

[cross_and_bow]

Ayep.

Where's Sherlock, then?

[eversomuchfun]

In this world's original Jarvis.

[cross_and_bow]

"...Hi."

[keyed_up]

"Hi, Bella."

[toblameforit]

"Hi, Bella," says Tony. He is cuddling Soph.

[keyed_up]

Soph is cuddling back.

[cross_and_bow]

"So, I can poke the hellgod into turning into her mortal host with a pentagon, the mortal host doesn't trust me and doesn't know much, I've got Giles looking up Glory and - relevant topics, and I'm going to check on Glory-or-Ben every few minutes so I can intercept if she's about to eat somebody else."

[eversomuchfun]

"That sounds... tolerable," says Sherlock. "I think I'll go and see if Giles would like some help."

He disappears.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella looks at Tony and Soph where they are cuddling.

"And I will be on Mercury," she mutters. (Because where else is she going to go? Soph's bedroom? The other Jarvis?)

And she goes to Mercury. She's gotten as far as putting a nice breathable atmosphere and temperature and humidity on it, she's just been waiting till she has a look at more demon dimensions she might want to model aspects of the place after before she commits to any architecture or landscaping that would be expensive to replace. It's habitable.

Just boring.

She sits on Mercury and looks at the sky and looks in every few minutes on Ben/Glory.

[pythbox]

Ben drives home, takes a shower, and goes to work at the hospital.

[eversomuchfun]

After an hour, Sherlock appears on Mercury.

[cross_and_bow]

"Hi, Sherlock."

[eversomuchfun]

"Would you like to hear about the Key?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Yes, please."

[eversomuchfun]

"The Key is a kind of magical artifact with no fixed physical form that can be used to open a gate between worlds. Glory's home dimension is unusually difficult to access; she wants to use the Key to go home. The monks we saw were trying to keep it from her, and when she discovered them they cast a spell to hide the Key in the safest place they could think of: under the protection of that undead ex-Slayer with mysterious powers who's been making diplomatic overtures to so many demons lately."

[cross_and_bow]

"Do we know why they didn't want her to go home?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Because once she opens the gate, she is under no obligation to close it, and may instead choose to lead an army of demons out of it and conquer the planet."

[cross_and_bow]

"Ah. That would be bad."

[eversomuchfun]

"I agree. Not relatedly, Tony wants to know if you'd like someone to talk to about all this."

[cross_and_bow]

"That would be spectacular, but I'm skeptical that anyone wants to listen to me unless there is someone I know well enough to pour my heart out to but not well enough that I ever 'mentioned' having a sister." She shakes her head. "Is there a reason to want Glory not to be home that is unrelated to the gate? Like, should I not give her a lift if that seems expedient?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Tony wants to listen to you and has explicitly offered to do so. I suppose it's up to you whether or not you know him well enough. It's possible that if Glory goes home she might make life even more unpleasant for the demons who live there, but it's very unlikely that anyone from that dimension could leave it again without the Key."

[cross_and_bow]

"So that's an option if I get a nasty surprise about how difficult she is to manage at some point, I guess. I kind of expect that if I talk to anyone who likes Soph and I'm not self-censoring to the point of rendering the exercise useless they will quietly hate me."

[eversomuchfun]

"Tony is not going to hate you."

[cross_and_bow]

"Maybe."

Right now she's not sure if her boyfriend hates her.