Author: cross_and_bow | Bella goes to Mercury to do her forking.
She decides - since she can order up a custom fork at all - that her fork might as well have a copy of all her memories since she found Soph. To understand, to know what she's doing in the world, to not instantly want to punch Juliet in the nose for mishandling Soph in some way. To know what day it is, if nothing else.
Wish.
And then there are two.
And the new one cocks her head, and says, "Don't worry, we can merge - well, I will, anyway, who knows if the crystal ball was lying - but first why don't we surprise Sherlock?"
And the not-new one smiles, and says, "Why not?"
And at precisely the same time, they teleport, wearing matching smiles. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock looks at one Juliet. Sherlock looks at the other Juliet.
Sherlock grins. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Hi," they say at the same time.
"Hey, can you tell us apart?" giggles one of them. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Trivially. Two different ways. I have not yet chosen to make either experiment." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "What're your ideas?" says the other one, as they sidle up to him in a snuggly manner. |
Author: eversomuchfun | He grins and snuggles both of them.
"Method one: I suspect one of you is carrying significantly more coins than the other. Method two: You do not each have a complete record of my interactions with the other, but I have a complete record of my interactions with both of you. So if I were to make some trivial statement that references a memory one of you has and the other does not, I would only need to observe who understood it." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You're very clever," observes the first one, and she nibbles his ear.
"The coin thing is fixed now," adds the second, and she kisses his neck. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock laughs. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Juliets grin. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I think," says Sherlock, "there has been an inefficient distribution of nibbling here."
He kisses a randomly chosen Juliet.
"Shall we remedy that?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes," says the randomly chosen Juliet. "That sounds like a lovely idea."
The other one repositions accommodatingly. "You'll have room for seconds, won't you?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Of course. I wouldn't dream of neglecting either of you." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Oh good," purrs Dessert.
"Much fairer that way," says Dinner. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Dinner gets a kiss, and then she gets collected into his lap, and then she gets bitten. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Is that what it sounds like from the outside," comments Dessert impishly, when Dinner makes a noise.
"Nnnnshutup," moans Dinner, "we're gonna - Sherlock - gonna be the same person in a bit - fuck -" |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock snuggles Dinner and hums contentedly against her neck. [I think it sounds lovely,] he tells both of them. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You ought to," giggles Dessert.
"Nnnnnnn," whines Dinner. |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Lovely. Endearing. Delectable. Some combination of those.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [I am feeling the delectable,] manages Dinner.
Dessert chuckles. |
Author: eversomuchfun | [You certainly are, love.]
Mmmmmmmmm. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Eventually predictive squirming gives way to telltale shaking and Dinner goes half-limp in his arms.
Dessert smirks. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock gives Dinner a kiss and a snuggle. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Dinner accepts both - and then gets out of the way.
Dessert slides into Sherlock's lap. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Dessert gets a snuggle and a kiss! |
Author: cross_and_bow | Dessert gives as good as she gets. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I love you," he says, hugging her close and pecking her on the cheek.
And then there are nibbles! |
Author: cross_and_bow | Dinner snickers helplessly when the noises in question emerge from her counterpart's mouth. Dessert is also doing something helplessly but it is not snickering. |
Author: eversomuchfun | They are both lovely darling creatures. |
Author: cross_and_bow | And they love him and Dinner has obtained one of his hands to nibble on. |
Author: eversomuchfun | That is a delight. She is a delight. They are collectively a delight. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Good. They aim to delight. That was the point of showing up here. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Their aim is magnificently accurate. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Oh good.
Meanwhile Dessert is pretty fucking delighted over here in Sherlock's lap. |
Author: eversomuchfun | That is good, because Sherlock also aims to delight! |
Author: cross_and_bow | He has lovely aim. The metaphor is particularly apt when sharp objects are involved, isn't it?
Dessert quakes in his arms, whimpering. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Dessert is delicious. |
Author: cross_and_bow | That is the idea, is it not? |
Author: eversomuchfun | Yes. Yes it is.
And how is she enjoying herself so far? |
Author: cross_and_bow | Quite.
She collapses onto him very happily. "I love you," she sighs.
Dinner has his hand still. She bites, smirking. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I love you too," says Sherlock, cuddling Dessert with his free arm. "Something on your mind, morsel number one?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Maybe," says Morsel Number One.
"Yes," giggles Dessert breathlessly, and she kisses him. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock grins and kisses back.
[Oh, do let's,] he says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | And they do!
And later, in a cuddly row with a Sherlock in the middle of it, one of the morsels says, "Do you want to see if you can get us to react interestingly to some kinda shibboleth before we are one and the same?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You seem to be assuming that I haven't already found you out." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Did you?" the other one asks. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "At some point in the last half hour, yes." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "What did you conclude?" inquires the first. They have developed a habit of taking turns to speak; when the one whose turn it is not speaks forgetfully, they generally say the same thing. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "New," he says, indicating one, "and old," the other. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Knew you'd figure it out," says Old, forbearing to choose a pronoun.
"What was the giveaway, or did little discrepancies just add up?" asks New. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Little discrepancies." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "We should pick a merging protocol," yawns Old.
"Nothing too sophisticated with muffling or anything, though, we're both sane and the same mental age and so on," says New.
"Yeah." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Is 'full access with equal weighting to both sets of memories' not suitable? That's what I have," says Sherlock. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "We'd like them a little more readily distinguished."
"We'll be able to figure out which memory belongs to which, but having to do figuring doesn't sound ideal."
"Also I got ordered up with copies of everything she did since meeting Soph for the first time up to my existing, and doubling that up seems like it might have weird knock-on effects that mere cases of serendipity between our histories wouldn't."
"Also unlike you I'm actually eighteen and I'm not sure what this will do to my mental age."
"I think I have a protocol I like, though."
"Should I bother checking it?"
"If you want, but why bother?"
"All right," shrugs Old. "Kiss us goodbye, Sherlock, we're gonna undergo some changes." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Happily."
He kisses each of them. |
Author: cross_and_bow | And one of them makes a wish, and then there is one, and she snuggles up. |
Author: eversomuchfun | He snuggles her right back.
"All right in there, love?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yep. I'm us, we're me, I contain multitudes, etcetera. I love you." Nuzzle. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I love you too."
Snuggle! |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I should probably go talk to Soph at some point." Cuddle. "But not riiiiight now." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "There is time to snuggle first," he agrees.
Snuggly snuggle. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Snuggliest snuggle. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Mmmmsnuggle. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Before Bella has decided that snuggle time may be temporarily recessed, she sits up abruptly. "Dammit. Glory's out and I can't pentagon her away anymore and she's whining for a snack." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Oh dear," says Sherlock. "To Mercury, then?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yeah. You want to come?" She squares into her clothes. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I might as well." He does likewise. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Right then."
This seems like an occasion for aura. Juliet lets it pour out of her and teleports them to Glory and an instant later teleports them all three to Mercury. |
Author: pythbox | Glory scowls thunderously. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Humans are not snackfood," Bella says.
Glory may recognize the voice. |
Author: pythbox | "Says the girl hanging out with a vampire," sniffs Glory. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "All right," concedes Bella, "nonconsenting human minds are not snackfood." |
Author: pythbox | "You know," Glory remarks, "I don't think I like you very much." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I don't need you to like me, but I need you to quit brainsucking people." |
Author: pythbox | "Too bad for you," says Glory. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Is it? Do you have a way off this planet?" asks Bella, gesturing. |
Author: pythbox | "Of course I do." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "How long would it take, is I guess the next question." |
Author: pythbox | "Which I should answer because... why?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You answered my last question," Bella shrugs. |
Author: pythbox | "How about: if you don't put me back on the right planet right now, I'll kill you," says Glory. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "So you can do it, but not in less time than you're imagining it'd take to kill me." |
Author: pythbox | "That," says Glory, "depends how much you annoy me first." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "My goal isn't to annoy you, but that seems to be an unavoidable side effect. I don't suppose we can come to some kind of compromise? You want to go home, right?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yes!" she pouts. "I want to go home!" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "If I liked the idea of you being home, I could take you there. What would you do if I did that?" |
Author: pythbox | "I'd have a big party with all my scruffy little minions," she says dreamily. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "A party consisting of what?" |
Author: pythbox | "What do you care? You're not invited." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "So I know whether I feel like enabling that party or not." |
Author: pythbox | Glory tosses her magnificent curly hair over her shoulder and hmphs. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I can do it, you know, I'm in and out of demon dimensions all the time, and you wouldn't have to do much to talk me into it." |
Author: pythbox | Glory eyes her suspiciously. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella regards her impassively. |
Author: pythbox | "Wouldn't have to do much, like... what?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You'd have to convince me you weren't going to hurt anybody," says Bella. "But then, that's what you'd have to do to get off this planet for more than fifteen seconds in the first place, so I don't think it's a tall order." |
Author: pythbox | "And what, starve? Ugh," says Glory. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "So you're saying you have to hurt people to survive?" |
Author: pythbox | "I don't suck brains for fun, you know!" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "And you have to do that even at home, it's not some side effect of being in this dimension?" |
Author: pythbox | Glory makes a 'yes, duh' face. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella makes a broad gesture. "Supposing I fixed that?" |
Author: pythbox | Glory makes a disbelieving face! |
Author: cross_and_bow | "No, seriously, indulge me, if I fixed that and you weren't going to starve without brainsucking people and I extracted you from your human host and brought you home. Would you hurt anybody?" |
Author: pythbox | "Um... do you know who I am?" Glory wonders. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You're a hellgod named Glory who's been fucking around in ways of which I do not approve. I would like that to stop. I am investigating ways to stop it. If I can do it by giving you nice presents instead of killing you, that's grand, isn't it?" Her aura ripples a little at "killing you", then subsides. Her aura is more interested in advertising that she can kill people than that she can give them nice presents. |
Author: pythbox | Glory pouts.
"I really don't like you," she says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "That's a terrible pity." |
Author: pythbox | Glory scowls. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Are you going to answer my question about what you'd do if I sent you home and you didn't have to brainsuck people?" |
Author: pythbox | "No," sniffs Glory. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Then I guess I can't send you home," sighs Bella. "I guess I'll have to set something up to box you in here, or maybe someplace else." |
Author: pythbox | Glory seems annoyed, but not overly worried. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "At least Ben'll be happy when I've got you out of him," mutters Bella, thinking of wish designs. |
Author: pythbox | Glory snorts and shakes her head. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella runs her confine-Glory-to-this-area-of-Mercury wish by Sherlock for double checking, by brainphone. [Look good?] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Entirely.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Alrighty.]
She implements that; it goes. She tries to wish Ben directly to where his car's parked on Earth - but apparently he's not budging that far to start with. She can send him away if she can just extract him -
Wish goes - |
Author: pythbox | Ben and Glory appear next to one another.
At the exact same instant, Glory giggles and Ben screams.
And then Glory reaches for Sherlock. |
Author: eversomuchfun | He has just about had time to observe that Ben is dead when Glory's hand darts into his chest and rips something out of it.
Whatever she's doing, it hurts. It hurts an evil's worth, in fact. He just barely has enough attention left over to make the coin. His body is outwardly unmarked, but it feels like whatever she just tore loose was something he should dearly miss. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella's at max brain clockspeed and kicking Glory in the sternum, away from Sherlock, before anything else happens. [Sherlock what happened -] |
Author: pythbox | Glory stumbles back a few steps and then punches Bella in the throat.
It's like being hit by a small train. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock is still apparently offline. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella can handle being hit by a small train; she's invulnerable and the planet arrests her motion quick enough to let her kip up and return blows while she starts trying wishes.
They're not going, not yet, but she can keep Glory's attention while she works on designs. [Sherlock. Sherlock.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Oh,] he says distantly. [She appears to have torn out my soul. How magnificently ironic.]
Before he can really think about it, he uses the evil she so handily gave him to pin the change to his torching.
And with the aftershocks still worth a star every time he moves, he joins in the fight against Glory. |
Author: cross_and_bow | ...
Okay then, Bella can worry about that later. She sends Sherlock a list of what she's tried wishing so far. Glory is apparently a bearer of some serious godhood; she might not be able to dent Bella's invincibility, at least not via punching, but she can sure resist some extremely concerted attempts to end her. |
Author: eversomuchfun | [The long way round, then?]
With two against one, the fight is starting to turn in their favour. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [It would be bizarre if I couldn't tenner her dead but could punch her to any useful effect, but yeah.] Bella continues punching her, in the absence of any better ideas. |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Invulnerability to magic is a property some people have been known to have.]
Sherlock also continues to punch.
The effect on Glory mainly seems to be annoying her. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Besides Soph's cover story to explain why she couldn't come into existence with all the powers I tried to give her? Yeesh.]
It's been a while since they've gone toe-to-toe with anything together. If the circumstances weren't so distressing maybe it'd be fun.
[I wonder if I can put her in Downside without killing her first. The admin can handle her, she's locally omnipotent. Not through a Jarvis, I wouldn't risk them, but I teleported her just fine...] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Try it.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella tries it. She starts with the stars, in case it can be done with stars. Nothing doing. She goes up the coins - |
Author: pythbox | On the tenner, Glory vanishes. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock glances at the smoking remains of Ben and then rubs his face.
"Well, that was a bit of a fuckup," he remarks. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Just a bit. Ugh. I'm going to go try dooring Downside and see if I can get him and make sure Glory didn't wreck anything from her vantage point forty astronomical units away from the nearest Downside settlement." She eyes Sherlock. "...But that is not urgent on a scale of minutes. Are you okay?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "For some values of 'okay'. Still dripping hexes," he says wryly. "Losing my soul again is probably to my ultimate benefit but, alas, that didn't make it any fun." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "...You're talking more like you used to," she observes, smiling faintly. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Am I? Yes, I do believe I am."
He laughs. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I didn't realize I missed it, but I kind of did." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You know," he says, "so did I, a little." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Hugs? |
Author: eversomuchfun | Hugs. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella's aura wraps itself around Sherlock and purrs.
Bella reports to Giles. [Glory was gonna eat a guy, I couldn't shove her down and get her host like I could before, brought her to Mercury, she didn't want to compromise, I was going to just trap her but when I got her host separate she killed him and also relieved Sherlock of his new soul before I could react. Sherlock is OK. She shrugged off all the magic I could think of, but I banished her alive to Downside, and expect the admin to be able to handle her. I'm gonna try dooring Downside to check on that and get the host.] |
Author: pythbox | [...Good luck,] says Giles. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Thanks.]
"You feeling better?" she asks Sherlock. Dooring Downside may not even work; it can wait until he's okay. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Increasingly," he says, snuggling her. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Snuggles. "I love you." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I love you too."
Kiss! |
Author: cross_and_bow | Kisses on Mercury standing in one of the pits in the ground left by the fight! Lovely. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Going to found your colony on the spot where you more-or-less killed the demon goddess?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Palace grounds," says Bella. "The colony will be a little farther off." |
Author: eversomuchfun | He laughs and kisses her again.
"You're a darling." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I am. I'm the best." |
Author: eversomuchfun | He kisses her some more. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Kisses kisses.
"I should probably check out her house, see what all she left behind, come up with something to do with the minions." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Yes," he says. "All that. After we are done making out on the site of your future palace."
Kisses! |
Author: cross_and_bow | Makeouts! Bella feels positively about makeouts. |
Author: eversomuchfun | So, unsurprisingly, does Sherlock. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Delicious soulless boyfriend. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Mmmmmmakeouts. |
Author: cross_and_bow |
Eventually, Bella makes it down to Earth, and to Glory's house, which she stalks through, still trailing bits of flame she has yet to remember to calm. |
Author: pythbox | A nervous minion peeks out from behind a door. Another comes up behind him. They hold a short whispered conversation. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes, hello," says Bella to the minions, "Glory's dead," (or near enough), "what do you lot plan to do next?" |
Author: pythbox | The minions look at each other.
The minions look at Juliet.
One of them says, "...Do you need some minions?" |
Author: cross_and_bow |
"...You don't have anyplace to go and see no particular issue with minioning for the person who killed your previous god?" |
Author: pythbox | "It certainly establishes your qualifications," says the second minion. The first one nods. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella runs a hand through gently flaming hair. "...You don't have anywhere else to go?" she repeats. "Glory didn't, like, steal you out of a peaceful agrarian dimension to which you would like to return?" |
Author: pythbox | "Oh, no, your flammableness," the first minion says earnestly. "We came with her from her original dimension."
"We like this one much better," the second chimes in. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Flammableness what - oh. She's still got her aura out. She puts it away again.
"And what you would most like to do with yourselves in her absence involves minioning some more, only this time for me?" |
Author: pythbox | They both nod. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "How many of you are there? What do you guys know how to do?" |
Author: pythbox | "Oh, well, let's see," says one, and he starts counting on his fingers while murmuring under his breath.
"We're not good at very much," says the other, apologetically. "But we try!"
The first concludes, "Sixteen! No, wait. Seventeen? Did I count myself or not? I forget." |
Author: cross_and_bow | [...Sherlock, I accidentally inherited Glory's minions, do you have any clever ideas for uses for unskilled demonic labor?] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [...Groundskeepers on Mercury?] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [...Yeah, okay, I guess that'll keep them busy.]
"How does gardening sound?" she suggests. |
Author: pythbox | "That sounds perfect!" says a minion, and the other one nods enthusiastically. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay, I've been putting off setting up a palace and grounds on Mercury, but I can do that later today after I take care of some other business, and you can... prune topiaries and water flowers and mow various kinds of grass and stuff. I want," she adds, "a list of your living requirements and any amenities that you'd like to have, so I can set up someplace to put you too. I'll be back in an hour to fetch you; pack any personal effects and tell the other fourteen or fifteen minions what the story is while I'm gone. Okay?" |
Author: pythbox | "Okay!" says the minion on the left, clapping his hands together and beaming.
"We look forward to working for you, your menacingness!" the other one adds. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Are the titles strictly necessary?" |
Author: pythbox | "Well," he says reasonably, "what else should we call you?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Bella is fine. If that would be uncomfortable you could get a jump on calling me 'Your Majesty', although a colonial population of sixteen or seventeen is pushing it on the accuracy thereof." |
Author: pythbox | "Your Majesty," the minion echoes. The other one nods. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay. Cool. See you in an hour."
Bella pops into a Jarvis. "Hi, Jarvis, can I get a door?" |
Author: poeticterms | "Absolutely."
Door! |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Thanks!"
Door in, door closed, fingers crossed, star gone -
Downside.
Bella sticks her head in. [Hey, I sent you a present, did that go okay? I tried really hard to kill her first but it wasn't happening.] |
Author: ending_of | [It was mildly irritating,] says the administrator. [Please don't make a habit of it.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Uh, there might be more of her in other Sunshine family worlds, and I don't immediately have any better ideas, but I'll try to think of alternatives or at least warn you?] |
Author: ending_of | [Thank you,] she says. [While you're here, are you aware of the interesting special case from your world?] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [...Besides Glory? No. What is it?] |
Author: ending_of | A ghostly image of a curled-up sleeping genet appears in front of Juliet.
[She changed characteristics shortly before your present arrived. Dead people usually don't change characteristics while they are nonexistent. They also usually don't have intrinsic connections to people who are not dead.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [...That's Steph. She was my Sherlock's daemon but he torched without attaching her to it. And... then my present ripped out his soul, and she sort of is a representation of his soul.] |
Author: ending_of | [Interesting. What would you like me to do with her?] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [...Keep her sleeping for now. I'll ask Sherlock. Circumstances may have relevantly changed; we might be back to pick her up. I do need the guy my present killed, though. Are you still of the opinion that if Jane were dead, she'd turn up here in a way you'd notice?] |
Author: ending_of | [Yes. If Jane dies, she will become available to me. It might not be immediate, but it will happen.]
The image of Steph disappears.
[The man you speak of is in the catacombs. Should I deliver him to you?] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [I wonder if it wouldn't keep Jane from glitching so dang much if she were, in fact, deceased... And yes please.] |
Author: ending_of | Ben appears in front of Juliet, floating upright and asleep the way people do in the catacombs. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella decides to take him home so she can explain what's going on in familiar surroundings. [Thanks.] She tows Ben back through the door, and then back into Jarvis, and then checks his home, wherever that may be, for supervision. |
Author: pythbox | His home is unsupervised. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Port.
She sits him down on a couch and wakes him up. |
Author: pythbox | He lets out a little shriek and flails around for a few seconds. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It's okay, you're okay, Glory's gone," says Bella. "I'm really sorry about that, I tried to appear you out of the way but you were stuck on but good." |
Author: pythbox | He winds down over the course of this speech, until he's just huddling unhappily on the couch. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "She's gone, you're okay," repeats Bella, "I went and got you, I apologize for the unpleasantness, I can owe you three wishes if that'd make you feel better." |
Author: pythbox | Ben shudders.
"I will feel better if I never have to see either of you ever again," he says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay," shrugs Bella, "bye," and she pops into place on Mercury to start working on her palace.
She leaves a standard pamphlet about how to be technically dead a la Downside on his pillow for him to find later.
An hour after she accidentally inherited the minions, she pops into Glory's house. |
Author: pythbox | The minions are all collected up in the living room with a neat stack of luggage. Several of them are eating chips out of a large bowl on the coffee table, one has a cup of orange juice, and one is reading a book - I Had Trouble In Getting To Solla Sollew, by Dr. Seuss. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Is this all of you?" Bella asks. |
Author: pythbox | "Yes, your majesty!" says one who might be the youngest, with a big smile on her face. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay." Bella teleports them all to the new Mercury palace, which is tall and made of assorted pretty rocks she has encountered in demon dimensions. The flora she's put in is also mostly demonic - although all magicked nice and nontoxic - although there are some roses, some wisteria, and one variety of tree that she completely made up. She's made the gardens a bit more extensive than planned to give all the demons things to do, with paths winding between and spiraling loosely through little ecosystem-neighborhoods. "Welcome to Mercury. Do you have that list I wanted?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yes, your majesty," says one of the two she was speaking with before. He hurries forward with the list. It is long, and in fairly terrible handwriting, but neatly organized and fairly complete - including necessities for survival (food and water), comforts and luxuries (shelter, books, candy - M&Ms get a special mention), and long-term requirements (visits from Bella at least once yearly; clear feedback on whether or not they are being good minions). |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay," says Bella. "I don't have a good impression of how your social structures interact with housing, or for that matter what they are at all; how many dwellings do you collectively want of what sizes?" |
Author: pythbox | The youngest minion - if she were a human, she might be about sixteen - says wistfully, "It might be nice if we all had our own rooms."
"If that's all right, your majesty," adds the one who gave her the list. "One building, with enough rooms for all of us? And maybe... for a few more, in due time?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Sure," says Bella, and she speeds up and designs a dormitory-style building with twenty-five bedrooms on two floors, and a common space with a TV and some computers and a kitchen and a replicator, and a library in the basement with copies of the entire current contents of the Los Angeles County public library system (absent duplicates). The whole thing's a pentagon; she puts it at the edge of the gardens, perpendicular to the main line of the palace. "There you go. I'm gonna put you all on my telepathy network so you can let me know if something comes up; it'll let you talk to each other too -" [like so.] |
Author: pythbox | "Oh, thank you, Your Majesty!" beams the littlest minion. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "No problem. So, the plants -" She gestures at the plants. "The red-bordered sections get watered once a week, the blue-bordered ones twice a week, the white-bordered ones every day, I hid a little garden shed with tools in that enormous white-leafed tree over there, the replicator in your dorm will make plant food as well as stuff for you guys, I don't really expect a weed problem because there weren't exactly any seeds on this planet when I conjured the garden up but some stuff might turn invasive I guess, feel free to mess with the locations and shapes of stuff or expand things past the current area if you take viable cuttings or stuff goes to seed, none of this will kill you if you eat it but I can't promise it'll taste any good because none of it's from your dimension and most of it isn't Earthly either so maybe don't try it." |
Author: pythbox | The minions all nod on hearing this set of instructions, and someone gets out a pen and paper to write it all down. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You can divvy up the work and the dorm amongst yourselves assuming that's all amicable; if you need me to settle disagreements let me know. As long as you're here you can also let me know if anyone shows up on the planet who isn't with me or one of these people -" She conjures up illusions of Sherlock, Tony, Soph, James, Minnie, Virginia, and, what the heck, Giles. "These folks are all allowed, anyone else might not be and I will want to investigate." |
Author: pythbox | "Yes, your majesty!" says the one who handed her the list. The rest all nod. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Excellent. Anything else we should go over before I go do other stuff?" asks Bella, clapping her hands in a businesslike manner. |
Author: pythbox | There is a general shaking of heads. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay. Welcome to Mercury."
And she pops back down to Earth to find Soph, because she has not seen Soph since her fork-and-merge. |