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.
"...After Jane comes back online. Assuming she does, goddesses all I hope she does. After she's back we should ask the various Jarvises if they want to network into some more worlds. For backup time-syncing and - communications. Time has to have gone out of sync because there's a Jarvis in Sunshine; Juliet could get a door any time, force the Milliways door to here - or to Peace to get Sue and send him, or to Atlantis, we've all been there now, since Shell Bell can make doors cooperate with aura."
"Why's she sad?" says Petaal, hopping up onto the bed as a small grey cat and nuzzling Path's feathers.
"She doesn't know how to be a daemon, and she doesn't like being part of somebody else, because Sherlocks have problems with thinking the point of them is to help somebody else," says Path, nuzzling back.
"Oh," says Petaal. "I want to hug her. Next time she's out, somebody should tell me so I can hug her."
"I upset her because I'm still just a touch more relaxed around people with daemons than without, and this constitutes a reason for her to exist, and that's bad," says Isabella.
"She believes her existence is a net loss, so anything that weighs in on the positive side complicates the issue," says Sherlock. "And she doesn't want to stop existing and have that make you less comfortable around me, because you are my friend."
"I'm not uncomfortable with you. Just, there's that little tickle of something's missing. Was, before, now I can just imagine you're separated and she's in the next room on the relevant level of cognition."
"Kas doesn't really have that problem, he's been more even-keeled about daemonless people from the start," says Isabella, reaching out to touch Kas's arm.
Path says, "I wasn't very good at helping Steph be a daemon. Maybe Petaal could do it better."