"How can she not be real?" Marcello asked. "You mean Duncan's--" And then frowned at Black. "Oh, you mean the other kind of not-real? So she...doesn't have a personality, per se?"

"Very rudimentary and marginal," she said. "I mean, she has motivations and goals and methods and stuff, but she probably doesn't know what her favorite color is yet."

Marcello raised an eyebrow. "Do people's favorite colors have anything to do with their influencing Aspects?" he asked cheerily.

The girl laughed merrily. "No! Which is good, because no one's favorite color is ever black, for some reason, and if it is, they're usually just trying to make a fashion statement."

"Yes, but you don't have avatars like the others do, either," Marcello pointed out. "I like black. But mostly I like greens and reds and golds. All right," he said, rubbing his chin as he focused again. "So maybe if we engage with Dierdre of Cabhon, we'll be able to mold her personality in the way that would work to our benefit?"

"More like . . . I think if you tried to engage her, you might get to a point where she could be predicted, if not reasoned with." She frowned, looking doubtful. "Being more 'real' doesn't necessarily make people into better people. It just turns them into people you can understand."

"But there's a chance she could be a better person," Marcello pointed out hopefully. "She'd be a person and not an archetype at least, right? And most people have some sense of compassion. Unless they're Titania."

"As she is now, she's unpredictable," she said. "That whole freakin' family is unpredictable. Marcello, the entity of Clan Oisin was set up as an archetype of a family that is absolutely poisonous to itself and anyone who comes in contact with it. It's not a family. It's a lot of unfortunate people who happen to be related to each other by blood, who think every other person there is out to undo them. Leannan Oisin was the last good thing to come out of it, and even he was fundamentally crazy as fuck."

"So they're supposed to be that way?" Marcello asked. "You mean, like, someone decided on that? Why would anyone do that? It seems, well...counterintuitive."

"Counterintuitive to what?" she said. "The world's not kind."