Tony is eating lunch with Candle out front of the tower.

Bella lands. "Hi, Tony! Renée lost interest after four sweaters," she says. "Well, three and three quarters, I finished the last one for her because it seemed a waste, so it has one sock in a tasteful color but badly knitted."

"Oh man," laughs Tony. "Go on in and show 'em the goods if you want, I'll be there in a minute. Or you can hang out with us first."

Bella opts to go inside and fit Porygon to sweaters. "Hey Porygon!" she calls. "I have four sweaters for four lucky 'mon!" And she starts unpacking the sweaters. One of them is burnt orange and white, with the adorable little hood finished in green because Renée ran out of white yarn. One is in three shades of teal, with puffballs in variegated pastel yarn. One is black and yellow and appears to have been designed as a sort of Umbreon costume for a Porygon, complete with ear attachments. And the last is red, pink, and purple, with one badly-knitted sock-part.

"Hey guys! Who wants to dress up like an Umbreon?" she asks, brandishing that sweater.

"Porygon! Porygon!" says one at the rear of the pack, hopping up and down. The others make way for it and it scoots up to her.

Bella helps it into its new sweater. "Who wants this one?" she inquires, holding up the one with the inferior sock.

"Pory," says one Porygon, and "Pory! Pory!" says another. The two argue back and forth like this, gently headbutting each other; then one scoots back and lets its friend have the first turn.

Bella sweaters the winning Porygon and offers up the orange-and-white sweater with the green... accent.

About half the remaining Porygon become very excited about the puffballs.

Bella laughs and waits for them to sort it out amongst themselves.

Eventually they seem to come to an agreement, and one Porygon zooms forward and stops right in front of her, looking up, while the rest back off.

Bella puts it in the fourth and final sweater.

It bumps affectionately, and now puffily, against her shins.

She scoops it up and pets it. "There," she says. "That should alleviate the pointiness problem."

"Porygon in terrible sweaters getting cuddled?" laughs Bella. "It's pretty cute, but I dunno, you saw Dusk's baby pictures."

Bella laughs. "Where's Sherlock?"

"Sleeping!"

"Well, I guess the sweaters aren't going anywhere. Who are the lucky four?"

"Orange, white, and green is Flob," says Tony. "I'm holding Butterfingers," he gives the Porygon a pat, "you're holding one of the -obs but I'm not sure which one, some of them don't answer to their names anyway."

"Who's cosplaying an Umbreon?" Bella asks.

"I can't tell under there!"

"How do you tell them apart anyway?" Bella asks, gazing at the sea of less-distinguished Porygon.

"Um... I dunno," says Tony. "I just kind of do. I mean, there's distinguishing features, I just don't really think about them much anymore? Like, when you look at somebody you know, you don't go 'oh, she's dressed like a trainer on the road and she has a cute nose and her jaw goes in a little at the sides, she must be Bella'."

Bella feels her nose. "I have a cute nose?"

"Aww." Bella pats the Porygon. "Thanks."

Tony giggles and hugs his armful of besweatered Porygon.

"The sweaters may be fashion disasters - well, actually the Umbreon one is kind of cute - but they sure solve the pointiness problem, huh?"

"Renée will be pleased she could help. And hey, I have the pattern, if either of you guys wants to take up knitting and outfit more of the flock."

"Ooh," says Tony. "That would be awesome to have around, even though I'm totally not going to take up knitting."

"Sure," says Bella, and she calls up the file on her Pokétch. "Where do you want it sent?"

"To the house!"

Addressed, and, sent.

"Thank you," says the house.

"...You're welcome."

"And polite, too," the computer says approvingly.

"...Nice to meet you. I don't believe you've talked to me before, what changed?" Bella asks, helping herself to a chair and setting the pompomped Porygon on her lap.

"I'm very shy," the computer says dryly.

"His name is Jarvis," Tony says helpfully.

"...Hi, Jarvis."

"Hello, Bella. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise. This explains all of Sherlock's odd remarks about his house."

"Doesn't it?" agrees Jarvis.

"Very. Erm, pardon me if the answer is 'enough that this question is rude', but how smart are you?"

"Pardon granted," says Jarvis.

Bella laughs. "Thanks."

"One rude question is still taking it better than expected."

"What do you usually expect?"

"I usually don't. You're the first human I've spoken to outside the family."

"Oh!" says Bella, surprised. "I'm - flattered, I think, why me?"

"You seemed all right."

Bella snorts. "Well, good, I aspire to seem all right. Er, to what extent are you the house? 'Cause, I've stayed over here before."

"All the electrical systems in the tower are under my control."

"But you don't, like, have cameras in the bathrooms or anything?"

"No. Although it's most often safe to assume that if something is happening in the tower, I can hear it."

"...Noted. Thanks for letting me know."

"I can also, by request, stop listening," he adds.

"That's good to know."

"Any other exciting revelations?" Bella inquires, of either Tony or Jarvis, it's not clear since Jarvis has no obvious eyes to make eye contact with.

"...um... maybe," says Tony.

"...Maybe?"

He sighs. "Sorry. Just. Some things are not really mine to tell."

"Whose are they, then, you've got me curious."

Tony shakes his head. "You'll find out or you won't."

Bella sighs. "Yes. That is the case."

So... awkward silence, then?

Meh. "So did Sherlock tell you about the results of his conversation with my dad's Noctowl about boxing?"

"Yep! I'm glad it seems like it doesn't suck for them."

"Yeah. Although it probably doesn't compare that favorably to running wild for anything without natural predators."

He shrugs.

"Sherlock is awake now," Jarvis mentions.

"I'll go show him the sweaters," says Bella, and she carries the Umbreon-garbed Pory up the stairs.

"Isn't it just? This is the cutest one, although the one with the puffballs is a close second. Did Jarvis tell you he introduced himself to me?"

"He did, yes. May I hug the... Umbrygon?"

Bella bursts into a fit of giggles and hands over the Umbrygon.

"I'm gonna take a picture," giggles Bella, "unless you object."

"Go right ahead," giggles Sherlock.

"Smile!"

He grins.

Picture taken! It is adorable. She shows him and the Umbrygon.

"Gongon," says the Umbrygon. Sherlock puts it down, and it trundles away.

"So now I understand all the odd remarks you made about your house," says Bella, patting the Umbrygon as it goes but not impeding its progress.

"Yes."

"It's really amazing. And I bet it makes living all the way out here less lonely."

"Something on your mind?"

"And have you observed that I don't appear in any existing records of Tony's childhood?"

"I did notice that. I remarked on it."

"I don't appear in records of Tony's childhood because I did not exist at the time," he says. "I am three and a half years old, and I am not Tony's twin; I am his clone. Patched with a little bit of Ditto DNA."

He quirks a smile. "Apparently so."

"You're very tall for a three year old. Tall and also articulate."

"I had the normal amount of childhood in an abnormal amount of time, and caught up to Tony about when he turned fourteen."

"Is it the patching DNA that lets you understand Pokémon? - Is it rude to ask questions about this?"

"That's my best theory, yes. And no, at least so far it is not."

"Does it do anything besides that?"

"Oh, no, not a thing," he says, in an exact copy of Bella's voice.

"It did sound exactly like you," he says, resuming his normal voice. "I can do that. With anyone I've ever heard speaking."

"That's awesome. Does it do anything else? Not that that's not plenty."

"Nothing so obvious. It might have had an influence on this or that other characteristic."

Bella nods. "Well, this certainly explains a bunch more odd remarks. I might actually be out of weird things about you to explain, now."

"It is very likely that you are."

"I -" Bella frowns, starts counting on her fingers. "I can't remember when you said your - Tony's? How does that work? - parents died. Did you overlap with them at all?"

"I never met them. And yes, they are Tony's parents and not mine. Insofar as I have parents, I suppose they are Tony and Mycroft, but Jarvis has filled that role more than either."

"Mycroft. Wow." She glances up at the ceiling. "So Jarvis predates you?"

He nods.

"Does Mycroft get that this happened?"

"More or less. He's not very interested in what you might call the wider social implications."

"That's fair, yeah. Wow. Why did Tony clone himself, or would I have to ask him?"

"He was an extremely lonely child with a talent for making things and a poor grasp of long-term consequences," Sherlock says dryly. "He did it more or less to satisfy himself that he could."

"...How are you on the 'wider social implications'?" Bella asks.

"I don't suppose there's anything I can do about that, is there?"

"I can't think of anything, no."

"Well, if you do, let me know?"

"I think it's cool, though."

"Really?"

"Yeah! You can talk to Pokémon! You can sound like anybody you want! You managed to be a perfectly convincing teenager in three and a half years!"

"None of which sound like very exciting accomplishments to me, but I suppose I take your point."

"Come on, how is that not exciting?"

"Now you are just reminding me of Tony."

"What, really?" laughs Bella.

"He also gets very excited about things."

"I don't get excited about everything, but about this, heck yes. Although there goes any hope I had of just straight up learning to understand Pokémon."

"Hah. Yes."

"This is not information for public consumption, I assume, as far as my parents are concerned you understanding Pokémon is 'just one of those things'?"

"Correct."

"Okay, I can do that."

"Good."

"Wow," says Bella again.

He smiles.

"...Have you ever told anybody before?"

He shakes his head.

"I feel all special."

"Oh, this is probably why you have a Unova accent, isn't it, if Jarvis basically brought you up?"

"Yes."

"If you never met Tony's parents, did he name you, or did Jarvis, or what?"

"I did. Out of a book."

"What book?"

"Several, actually. They are collectively 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'."

"Are they good, should I read 'em? I've never heard of them before."

"I like them. Obviously."

"You could have just liked the sound of the name. It's a cool-sounding name," Bella points out.

"True. But no. I am also fond of the books."

"What does the book character do?"

"Solve crimes. Annoy everyone around him with his factually justifiable but socially inappropriate arrogance."

Bella giggles.

Sherlock grins.