we have a complex relationship with our sisters and our cousins

[dark_light]

Amariah is starting a circle in her yard - minting and enchanting can pull heavier duty than witchcraft, and faster, too, but they won't scale unless she wants to hand out copies of her trump cards; novel spells will, since there are many witches across the globe.

And then Jane asks if she wants to be visited, by Juliet's Sherlock - Minus - and Amariah's reply is "Sure, I could take a break." Because she's been at this for a while now and was just about to wish a crick out of her back for the second time this afternoon.

She puts down her pitcher of oil and waits for him to appear.

Comments

[dark_light]

"Awww," says Amariah. Path flutters from her shoulder to the bedpost for a closer look at the genet daemon.

[eversomuchfun]

"I'm prettier than you," Subtrahend says loftily.

[dark_light]

"You're lovely," says Path, "but no."

[eversomuchfun]

"Am too," she says.

Sherlock laughs.

[dark_light]

"Nope," says Path, and he extends a wing and preens.

"I feel like I'm in the sixth grade again," remarks Amariah.

[eversomuchfun]

"Were contests of this sort a frequent feature?"

[dark_light]

"Oh yes, but throw in all the daemons shapeshifting constantly to win."

[eversomuchfun]

"I don't need to shapeshift," says Subtrahend. "I'm naturally beautiful."

"You're naturally vain," says Sherlock.

"That too."

[dark_light]

"I recommend wishing the ability to tuck her away like Sue can - well, copy mine, since mine is under control and doesn't mess up while I sleep - although of course how often you avail yourself of the option is up to you."

[eversomuchfun]

"Brilliant plan," says Sherlock. He wishes. Subtrahend vanishes, then reappears on his other shoulder.

[dark_light]

"Useful for crowded situations," says Amariah. Path hops to the other bedpost to continue looking Subtrahend over.

[eversomuchfun]

"And doesn't start riots?"

[dark_light]

"Well - it would be more likely to if you did it than me. I'm a witch and I look it, everyone knows Path could just as easily be halfway across the world, but non-witches virtually never separate. Although at least you won't register funny to sensitivity now, so people will assume you're separated for some reason - accident, special ops military veteran," she smirks a little, "masochist - although a special breed of masochist, even Kas and Petaal didn't do it voluntarily."

[eversomuchfun]

"Which just causes me to wonder exactly what sort of masochist does."

[dark_light]

"I really don't know. You can see what it's like in small doses if you just experiment with her range, most people do that when they're kids."

[eversomuchfun]

"Hmm," says Sherlock.

Subtrahend bites his ear.

[dark_light]

"What'd you do that for?" Path asks her.

[eversomuchfun]

"Felt like it," she says sunnily.

[dark_light]

"Path only bites me if I tell him to steer me away from something I don't want to do," Amariah says, as Path flies to her shoulder again and tucks himself under some of her hair.

[eversomuchfun]

"Evidently your relationship and ours are very different," says Sherlock.

[dark_light]

"Evidently," snorts Amariah. "People work out all kinds of setups. Most of them don't involve unprompted biting."

[eversomuchfun]

"I don't think we've had time to work out anything much," says Sherlock.

[dark_light]

"I wonder if you'd get much mileage out of reading local fiction and so on. First-person stuff especially, the others don't usually focus a lot of narration on the daemons. Or you could just make something up."

[eversomuchfun]

"I don't see why we should care how other people do it," says Subtrahend.

"Evidently not," says Sherlock.

[dark_light]

Amariah laughs. "You don't even want to read Alethia's Sherlock Holmes books? Because we have those."