[How was it?]

[Saturn looks great. Lots of neat bubbles of enchanted residential area and enchanted commercial area and enchanted resort area, floatily intersecting and splitting off in a lively fashion.]

[That sounds very charming,] he says. [And the other main objective of the expedition?]

[We've all got auras now. We don't know what all of them do apart from being auras - turns out the wind and plants are a Rose thing, not an everybody thing.]

[Juliet,] he says, [dear Juliet, did you by any chance acquire an aura of obtuseness?]

[Thaaaaat is not the word that Stella picked to describe it when she looked me over, no. I don't really like what I got.]

[I would be ever so grateful if you would tell me what word she did pick.]

[...Do you just want to see it?]

[Yes, that is also an acceptable solution.]

"Yeah. Um, the flames don't catch - at least not by default, they might do if it was convenient for me somehow. Auras are supposed to be convenient. Just, I wouldn't've asked for this one."

"Yes," murmurs Sherlock. "I can imagine you wouldn't."

"I could see it coming in handy if I have to convince demons that I'm a force to be reckoned with. Which I'll probably have to do. So there's that. But I think I'll probably just keep it withdrawn otherwise."

"I am sexually attracted to your aura of menace."

"It is rather obvious in retrospect, isn't it?"

"It is a bit. I probably still don't want to walk down the street with it on, but, um, what are your preferences for when it's just us?"

"I think I would be quite fond of it in small doses."

"I didn't even turn it up all the way. It's like having my eyes open or closed, apart from there being no equivalent to blinking - I can also flare it, like opening my eyes extra-wide." Pause. "Wanna see?"

"Yes please."

Mmmmkisses!

Yes. Yes indeed kisses. Considerably kisses.

Eeeeeee yay kisses!

"I think it likes me," he announces, between kisses.

"Huh?" (Kiss.) "What's it -" (kiss, kiss, talking with mouths is silly) [doing?]

[It's being... protective,] he says. [It's very sweet, actually.]

[...Awwwww.]

[I love you too.]

[Good. That is a good thing.]

Kisses.

Love and kisses and little flickers of harmless fire and a growly dangerous aura warning all the nonexistent supervision that Sherlock is hers and she will back up its protective claim with firepower.

It's seriously growing on Juliet too!

Well isn't that lovely.

[Me! Me!]

[Am I going to regret this?] says Giles.

Bella goes and visits James, aura withdrawn to start. [I bet you clean your glasses at least four times,] she tells Giles.

[Oh dear,] he says dryly.

"I didn't love it at first - like, I don't think I would've wanted Angela's instead, she's got this aura of benevolence that made Shell Bell nearly cry - but I know, right?" She flares it a bit, then draws it back in.

"I kinda want one," says James. "Although not one like that."

"Ours are all different. We don't even know what Stella's does. And some of them we only know some of it - they mostly seem to do two things apiece, so, Shell Bell does water but we don't know what else, like I do the menace and the fire. If you want one, there's a lot of Saturn left, I'm sure Pattern would let you put in a new wing. Or I could think of something for you to do here if you give me long enough. You'd have to arrange for a channel though."

"A channel being...?"

"Somebody to funnel the enchanting through. Enchanting hurts, but as a side effect, not a fuel source like for minting. You can do it yourself but you have to maintain control of the spell at the same time so it's not a great idea. We were all using Jokers."

"Jokers seem pretty handy," says James. "Think I could borrow one?"

"You'd have to ask one. I imagine Jane would happily transmit the request. I borrowed the eponymous Joker, since Golden didn't want to use him - they do have the drawback of finding the entire thing sexy and that discomfited her so she got Eights out of Downside instead, don't know if you met her at one of the parties."

"I think I remember something about her," says James. "I don't mind if they get off on it as long as they don't expect me to do anything about that."

"They don't," Juliet confirms. "Although I think it helped them be relatively professional about it that there were, you know, eight of them present and they could keep each other company when they wanted breaks."

"Noted," she says. "Maybe I should borrow three. Rotate 'em out."

[Go ahead.]

Bella withdraws the aura. "I didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me," she says. "Stella calls it an aura of menace. You know I did almost literally come out of a Hell recently, right? I can show up in a place that till the other day thoroughly earned the name and implement policy changes."

"But you are not," he says, "a hell-demon of the most traditional variety."

"I am very nontraditionally hellish," agrees Bella. "But I think it'll work nicely for convincing various demons that they want to listen to me and not piss me off without my having to actually threaten them and periodically follow through."

"Ye-es," Giles says slowly, "I imagine it will."

"Auras are supposed to be convenient," says Bella. "Maybe that's why I have this one. They don't all match. Angela got so angely that Shell Bell almost cried. I bet it would freak people out to have me and Angela obviously working together with our auras out."

"I expect it would," says Giles.