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

[eversomuchfun]

She nuzzles back.

[dark_light]

"I wonder why you're a genet," murmurs Path.

[eversomuchfun]

"Good question," says Steph. "I'm not sure I even know what a genet is."

[dark_light]

"It's not a common daemon species or I'd have more to say about it. I think genets are related to mongooses," Path adds. "You could look yourself up. That's what everyone does when they settle in high school is look up their species. There are daemon specific books for the more common things that include statistics about the people they belong to. The Big Book Of Daemonic Mammals would be where you'd want to look first. I don't know if you'd be in those books or not. We've seen a fossa and a linsang but never exactly the species you are, and they don't cover everything."

[eversomuchfun]

"I'm probably too rare for the book," she says gloomily.

[dark_light]

"I don't know, there were some remarkably specific shrews in there."

[eversomuchfun]

Steph giggles.

[dark_light]

"We didn't read the whole thing because we knew I'd be a bird," says Path, with the winged equivalent of a shrug.

[eversomuchfun]

"That makes sense," says Steph.

[dark_light]

"I tried every single thing in the bird book, though, seeing how they all felt."

[eversomuchfun]

"Of course you did," says Steph.

[dark_light]

"Ironically, despite Charlie's last name, swans didn't suit me at all."

[eversomuchfun]

"I think you'd look very dashing with a neck as long as my tail," giggles Steph.

[dark_light]

"And twice as flexible. But no, it was all wrong. I could be anything and feel all right when we were little but by the time I was close to settling some things were definitely not me. I mostly liked nocturnal things, especially when I was restricting myself to birds so we could be a witch properly."

[eversomuchfun]

"Is it really that species-restricted?"

[dark_light]

"For witches? Birds. Flying birds, not ostriches or kiwis or penguins. Not bats, not bugs, not miniature dragons. Everyone else can be anything. The commonality isn't much correlated with how frequently something is found in the wild, though. Only a handful of unlucky people have fish."

[eversomuchfun]

"Huh," says Steph.

[dark_light]

"So if another Bell got a daemon I don't think he'd look like me. They might not even match each other, although I guess some of them could."

[eversomuchfun]

"I bet he'd fly," says Steph.

[dark_light]

"Maybe. Not necessarily. I could see Juliet with some kind of snake," Path says. "Or a lynx or a tiger, maybe."

[eversomuchfun]

"Well, maybe. But a general Bell? I bet he'd fly."

[dark_light]

"Angela's would," says Path, "no question. I bet you Shell Bell's would swim. Might do both - puffin or gull or something. Stella's would probably fly, so would Pattern's and Aurora's and Rose's. Not sure about Golden. Aegis's might not have wings - flying squirrel, maybe. Cam's might not fly but I could see him with a hawk. Sarion's might not fly, but if it did I bet you she'd have a dove of some kind."

[eversomuchfun]

"Yeah, maybe," says Steph.

[dark_light]

"There's kind of a sense for these things. I bet you could be really good at reading daemons if you practiced."

[eversomuchfun]

"Probably," says Steph, but she doesn't seem excited about it.