"Too true. I don't think much good would come of the circus. If we really want someone to look into how you got here, far better to quietly bother carefully-selected academics later, after you're settled in. Probably you tell the cops about Eva and Topaz, then. It would be too odd of a coincidence for there to be a Sable who raised you and a different one who found you, and naming parents you feel attached to will probably help."

"I can put feeling into loving Eva and Topaz, for sure. Both of them are lovely, even if they had a little less time for me than you did. Or, well, than - the other Sable did. Sorry, that's still tripping us up, it seems like far too much of a coincidence." 

"I can see how it would throw you off. Do you wanna tell me about her? Either now or after we deal with the cops?"

"She raised me very gently and lovingly. She was always there when I needed support or help. Just incredibly patient and sweet. And she always had time - well, except for weekends when she had her dates with the rest of the polycule, but that's entirely to be expected. Usually she'd have me on weekdays and I'd see Eva in the kitchen or Topaz in the study when I was feeling more put-together. She was really an excellent mom, even if she was only my mom's girlfriend. I say "aunt" but - I think that's actually not what it means in this language? I have a feeling like it doesn't quite fit. The word I'd say on Terra comes out as - 'sister-wife'? That feels clunky. 'Metamom', maybe?" 

She giggles. "I have no idea how I'm speaking this language or how it's on most of my documents by the way, it feels weird to be able to talk to people from a whole other planet!" 

"Whatever the case... She was so patient and kind. Sometimes she would be her shield Maya, who was a battleship-woman, and who would hug me really tight as her solution to everything. It worked, too. Or on worse days when she was angry about things going on in the world she'd be her other shield, Hailey, who was more irritable and willing to be fierce but still had a really good heart. She had a couple sparks too - Ruby and Neo - and they would sometimes tease or play with me. Ruby baked really good cookies. Mostly I saw less of them though because they were less... mom-like. And I think I'm forgetting something more, but I don't know what it was..." 

Oh, that's so sweet and good.

That... makes her feel some kind of way, though.

Parts of the description of the other facets feel... weird.

Not the time, though.

That really does sound like what she would do, how she would raise a cute daughter in a world like that.

"Awww. It sounds like y'all had a really great relationship, and she sounds like exactly what I'd aspire to be as a parent. Which is really weird, and starts to make me wonder if people repeat on other worlds ever. But well, that's very good. I'm really glad you had her, and that she was so good to you. And I'm sorry you're apart from her now. You must miss her, and your other parents, an awful lot."

"I haven't really had time to yet, you know? It's been what, an hour? But I'm sure I will if I stay here too long. So... for now, let's try to focus on taking it one day at a time, you know?" 

"Wise. Clever girls, the lot of you. Well, I haven't met Foxbox yet, but I'm sure she'll be just as delightful."

"Okay, so I think that sounds like a plan on the parent situation. As for how you got here, what if we go with something like... the last thing you remember is yesterday, when you were taking a test — which is an Earth-incompetence-friendly oversimplification of the voting certification you remember, and looking forward to telling your parents that you passed. Then the next thing you know is you found yourself on my street and I happened to step out while you were getting your bearings. And just say you don't know your address, don't know your parents' last names, and so on. How's that sound?"

"Sounds sensible to me. And we're just pretending my bag wasn't with me?"

"Yeah, just going to fail to mention it at all. If the cops want fuller disclosure than this, they can invent an Exception Handling department or at least be more trustworthy."

"Okay."

Then she pauses. 

"You do have the internet here, right, it's not - locked down or doesn't exist or something -"

"We do! It's great. We're even starting to get new things like touchscreen phones with internet access and things like that, just the past year or so."

"Those were so common as to be a fact of life on my world. Everyone had one except extreme asrai luddites. I think between that and my version of you looking older we might be a little bit ahead of you, time wise." 

She exhales. 

"Still. Some internet is better than no internet at all."

"In any case, we should probably get the authorities out of the way before they start messing things up for us."

"Which they can absolutely be counted on to do if we let them. Okay. Off to the car with us."

Sable takes the empty bowl and glasses back to the sink, rinses them out, and sets them into the dishwasher, then leads the way back to the entryway to put her boots back on.

Lillian troops obediently after her and puts on her flats. At least looking princessy is likely to make her more underestimated, right?

It totally will. Into the car they go, Sable makes sure Lily's buckled up, and then she starts the car. "Wanna listen to music on the way over?"

She gets into the car and nods. "Sure! What do you have?"

"A big collection of bands and possibly even genres you haven't heard of!"

She pops open the glovebox, pulls out her big binder of CDs, and starts flipping through. "Tell me what kinds of music you like and we'll figure out if I've got anything similar."

"I prefer electronica and when possible electronically-influenced classical, but I'll take regular classical in a pinch, especially anything with violin or cello. Foxbox likes pop punk and anything with electric guitars. Audrey likes folk and storytelling songs, plus electronica again."

"Or I could try to sing you some folk songs from my world, though I'm not that great at singing."