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

[keyed_up]

"I'm Soph," says Soph plaintively.

[eversomuchfun]

"She's your fucking sister, love."

[cross_and_bow]

"I don't have a sister. I have never had a sister. I am an only child, like all the other Bells except Aurora!"

[keyed_up]

Soph starts rubbing at one of her eyes unhappily.

[eversomuchfun]

"You are not and have never been an only child," says Sherlock. "And if we're going to have this conversation, I suggest we have it indoors."

[keyed_up]

"She was for, like, a year," says Soph.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella looks skyward. "What, you want to go talk about this in a Jarvis, I have no idea what she is, because she's not my sister, I have a completely coherent set of memories from where the perfect recall kicks in all the way through ten minutes ago with no sister, frankly I don't want her anywhere near a being I like that physically can't torch while we can't get Downside."

[eversomuchfun]

"And I have a perfectly clear set of memories from the day I met you that include your sister, and I assume your sister can say something similar, and here she is. Until ten minutes ago you've never had a problem acknowledging her existence. Something has changed, but before we find out what I am not going to advise treating Soph like a hostile fucking demon."

[cross_and_bow]

"Of the two of us I am not the one likelier to be affected by mind-affecting magic!"

[eversomuchfun]

"Fine, then let us extend this beyond the two of us," he says, and brainphones Tony and both Jarvises, with Soph and Bella included in the call.

[Indulge me for a moment: how many siblings would you say Juliet has?]

[toblameforit]

[...Is this a trick question?] says Tony. [One.]

[poeticterms]

[My sentiments exactly,] says a Jarvis.

[What on Earth is going on?] says the other.

[cross_and_bow]

[I am an only child! I always have been! None of you are mentally opaque, something must have happened to you.]

[poeticterms]

[We've met Soph,] says a Jarvis. [You can watch the video yourself. I don't know of any spell both powerful and sophisticated enough to alter my recordings. A mind-affecting spell might alter my personal memories, but the data I have on file is a separate matter, and I'm verifying the records as we speak.]

[cross_and_bow]

[Yeah, she's got a bunk bed in my room too, but why and how would somebody go through my memories - my protected memories - to subtract a sister?]

[keyed_up]

"I'm cold," murmurs Soph.

[cross_and_bow]

"If you were my sister I would've wished you up protections, like Aurora gave Lexi, and you would not be uncomfortably cold! We're only in Canada, not the South Pole!" Bella points an accusing finger.

[eversomuchfun]

"Your sister, like yourself, has a bloody magical immunity," says Sherlock. "To torching, interworld travel, and any coin above a pentagon, as well as a haphazard assortment of local spells."

[cross_and_bow]

"What? No, I could make her torchable right now, I can see it. I'm not going to because I have no clue what we're dealing with, but I could."

[eversomuchfun]

"Are you sure?"

[cross_and_bow]

"That's what the magic is telling me, anyway, do you remember me incredulously reporting this discrepancy before?"

[eversomuchfun]

"You raised an admirable fuss and went to the administrator, who said that what you were describing seemed impossible, but declined to come here to investigate. And if she's suddenly become torchable before now, you haven't mentioned anything."

Since the weather dispute is getting nowhere, he spends a coin to raise the local temperature to something Soph would find more pleasant.

[keyed_up]

"Thanks," Soph murmurs.

[cross_and_bow]

"Well, she looks torchable now, and I have no memory of her now, and I still think it would be easier to edit Jarvis's records and a handful of unprotected memories than to hack into my brain."

[eversomuchfun]

"Jarvis's records, the physical contents of your bedroom, and my internally consistent recollection of the past eleven months, all at once. Yes. Fucking trivial," says Sherlock.