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]

"...Seventeen."

[cross_and_bow]

"I do not have seventeen years of experience of being her sister."

[eversomuchfun]

"Develop a counterfactual pastwatch. Study up. I'll spot you the hex."

[cross_and_bow]

"Those monks who were casting this spell wanted me to protect something. This was exactly what they were hoping for, except they didn't expect me need to do homework on the subject. Shouldn't we find out what she is first?"

[keyed_up]

"I'm not anything! I'm not - anything, I'm just - I'm Soph," says Soph. "Lie-detect me, I'm Soph, I'm Soph, I'm not going to hurt anybody!"

[cross_and_bow]

"You're not going to try to hurt anybody. What if you're just - rigged to explode? We don't know."

[eversomuchfun]

"Fine, then," says Sherlock. "I agree that finding out where she came from is the more urgent priority. Let's do that. In the meantime, however, I commend your paranoia but suggest you temper it with empathy."

[cross_and_bow]

"Do you have any practical, object-level suggestion on how to do that?"

[keyed_up]

Soph shifts uncomfortably. "I dunno, you could - pretend I'm somebell else's little sister? And you have to look after me for - for her, because I'm stuck here. You want to look after me for the one who had a - me. And you should - expect me to know about that many things about how you are and that I grew up in a Sunshine family world and that sort of thing but - I dunno. That's the only idea I have."

[eversomuchfun]

"It's effectively true," says Sherlock. "With one small alteration: Juliet is the one who is, for most purposes, stuck in the world of another Bell who is like her in every way except for having a Soph. This means that, for example, if Soph is rigged to explode and does so, you can expect a funeral at which your parents will cry."

[cross_and_bow]

"Well," says Bella, looking up at the sky, "...that would be bad. I mean, I can sometimes door Downside, but not always - she looks torchable but if I torchable her I can't undo it if it turns out to be a bad idea -"

[keyed_up]

"I've survived this l- I mean, um, if I were on a tight schedule I'd have exploded already, right? I can wait while you figure me out."

[eversomuchfun]

"It also seems unlikely that the mystery monks would have gone to such trouble to protect her just so she could turn around and blow up," says Sherlock. "Not impossible, but unlikely. Shall we do some more spying, then?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah." She turns her pastwatching on Bath Lady And/Or Shower Dude as of when the former slaughtered the monks, and follows from there.

[eversomuchfun]

Bath Lady killed all the monks, then threw an enormous tantrum in front of her cowering minions about how the monks had managed to conceal the Key before she got there and now she'll have to find it and she doesn't know where on Earth they could possibly have hid the thing. Around the time that Juliet was discovering her new sister, Bath Lady was just winding down her tirade.

[cross_and_bow]

"So, Soph is something called the Key. Doesn't sound explodey, I guess." She watches.

[eversomuchfun]

"Yes," says Sherlock, "that was already reasonably clear from the chanting and so forth."

Bath Lady and her scraggly minions returned to her luxurious apartment, where she is now lounging on a couch while her minions bring her food and fashion magazines.

[cross_and_bow]

"Bath Lady does not appear to be looking very hard, but maybe she can multitask with the snacks and the issues of Cosmopolitan."

[eversomuchfun]

"Or maybe she's not in a hurry. Or maybe she would rather have her demon friends do all the looking."

Meanwhile, Bath Lady's minions are bringing her a human, who seems generally confused about where he is and what he is doing there.

"For me?" she exclaims, clasping her hands together. "Oh, Minion, I could just kiss your yucky face!"

She stands up, dusts her hands off cheerfully, and grabs the man's head. Her fingers sink into his skull as though it's partially insubstantial, doing no obvious physical damage but causing him to scream.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella stiffens. She turns invisible, and she teleports to Bath Lady.

[pythbox]

Bath Lady is just in the process of releasing the human, who staggers back looking even more confused than he was a minute ago.

"Clean that up," she commands, waving her hand dismissively at him. The minions rush to obey, taking the man's arms and steering him out of the room while he wobbles and moans. She sits down on her couch with a pleased little sigh and goes back to her fashion magazines.

[cross_and_bow]

[What happened to him?] Bella asks Bath Lady casually, not letting on that she's in the room.

[pythbox]

"...Minion!" she yells, scowling and throwing down her magazine.

A minion scurries into the room, cringing preemptively. "Yes, mightyful Glorificus?"

"Did I schedule confusing telepathic questions?" she demands of him. "Because I don't remember doing that!"

"Um... no, your worshippableness?"

[cross_and_bow]

[The guy whose head you just put your hands through. What happened to him?] Bella clarifies.

[pythbox]

"I don't like telepathic questions," says the mightyful Glorificus. "Do you know what I think, minion?"

"I - I could never hope to understand the workings of your powerful mind, your awesomeness!"

"I think someone is spying on me," says Glorificus.