"I also had Shell Bell reassuring me about the ability of Sherlocks to effectively divide your time between Bells and Tonies," says Juliet. "I was willing to trust her on that one."

"Her I haven't talked to yet."

"She got," says Juliet, "a surprise that narrowly escaped qualifying as being cheated only by the barest of technicalities. And she fetched up okay."

Sherlock snorts.

"They're seriously adorable," adds Juliet.

"I've heard. So basically your mechanism for dealing relies on things that don't apply to me, again. Grand."

"Common theme, is it?"

"Utterly. I'm not even trying Aegis because she met hers when they were six. Amariah has unique parental example. Angela was particularly motivated. Cam was, until he started reading Jellybean's mind ten minutes ago, 'not as serious as the others', which whatever it means going forward means that he has as part of his basic equipments a capacity for less than serious relationships. Rose and Beast spent months with no company besides each other. Stella was apparently closest to feeling like I feel and she wound up doing something creepy that I would not and possibly cannot duplicate. I'm not even touching the question of Sarion because her circumstances are so blisteringly special that she was ninety percent braindead when the peal found her and we still don't know what's going to happen in the longer term."

"Ugh, I know, poor Sarion, she's not even together with hers anyway and even if she gets good results later no one will blame you for not wanting to condition your brain into blankness like that."

"Was not even considering it, the idea makes me want to puke, I'm frankly impressed that she could do it even to save the world."

"Well, the unicorn your sister's riding around on apparently can communicate with something called the Wild Magic about upcoming apocalypses, so she did have the world-ending thing on good authority, I guess."

"Even still. You guys don't do mindreading, right?"

"...No. It's under discussion."

"The possibility exists, we just haven't gotten around to trying it."

"When Cam started reading Jellybean he apparently was consumed with the desire to seize him and haul him off to privacy right then," says Aurora.

"Hmm," says Sherlock.

Juliet giggles and shifts her weight. "That's cute."

"Oh, adorable."

"Hmm," Sherlock repeats, grinning.

"What?" laughs Juliet. "It's not like it's hard to haul me off to privacy as it stands."

"Should I go preemptively find Shell Bell?" inquires Aurora.

"Oh, if you like."

Juliet giggles again.

"Right then, off I go."