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

[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.

[eversomuchfun]

"I don't hate you either," he adds. "But I'm not the right person for you to talk to about Soph. The situation feels very personal for me in exactly the wrong way."

[cross_and_bow]

Bella nods.

[eversomuchfun]

"But Tony can listen to you, I promise."

[cross_and_bow]

"...Okay."

[eversomuchfun]

He hugs her.

[cross_and_bow]

Hugs.

Check on Ben/Glory.

Teleporting to Tony.

[toblameforit]

Tony is sitting by himself in his room in the original Jarvis.

[cross_and_bow]

"...So apparently you signed up to listen to me process my feelings aloud, but I don't think Jarvis did, and I'm going to wind up saying a lot of things I don't endorse so I'd rather limit the audience."

[poeticterms]

The door closes.

"I won't listen," says Jarvis.

[cross_and_bow]

"Okay."

Bella rearranges her hair edgily. "How much did you hear about how Soph and I, er, met?"

[toblameforit]

"Apparently you found her in your room and freaked out and teleported her to Canada?" says Tony.

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah. And I guess she brainphoned Sherlock for help, and - to the extent that there were sides he was not on mine - and I'm talking to you instead of him now because I guess he identifies with her or something? But like - I feel like I've faceplanted into an expectation that I treat my mental opacity like it is the problem here, like, we'd all be a happy Soph-including family if only I'd had the courtesy to be brainwashable? And instead I am the only person I know who has not been brainwashed, and the problem Sherlock chose to address first after concluding that I wasn't crazy was that I wasn't being nice enough. Like - is it just me or is that a complete failure of perspective-taking - what would he do if he woke up one morning and discovered that - I don't know, that his cloning retroactively yielded an extra that everyone remembered but him? Soph was alternately defensive and quiet, I have no actual personal beef with her, but - Sherlock."

[toblameforit]

"Aww, man. It's not your mental opacity that's the problem!" he says. "Do you want me to explain Sherry? I can, I'm good at that."

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah, explain me some Sherlock."