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Bella finds Milliways in the moon palace instead of one of her balconies.
"Huh," she says aloud.
Then, to Alice, Libby, Elena, and Mary, and Lazarus except he autoreplies with a busy message, [Hey folks, Moonstone Palace grew a bar that I don't remember putting in, come check it out.]
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self_composed
self_composed
[And because your thoughts did not include that information,] she replies, feeling prickly about it. [And because it was not discussed beforehand. Now it's been discussed, but... I don't like it. He's not safe - I don't just mean that in the obvious way, I mean he's psychologically dangerous. Today worked out. And he's exactly the sort of person to try something else next time for that reason. We do know your power prevents mental tampering. I cannot fix you if he breaks you. I don't want you broken.]
"Got it," Bella says to Roberta.
"Got it," Bella says to Roberta.
edgeofyourseat
"How the hell'd you know I was talking to her?"
[Bella,] Alice reminds her, [he's me. I don't want me broken either.]
[Bella,] Alice reminds her, [he's me. I don't want me broken either.]
self_composed
[Alice. You will notice that I do not drink blood and I am not married to a man a century my senior who always looks like he's auditioning for Most Angsty and I don't have a kid or theme my empire around my eye color. He's not you. He's like you. He could've been you, maybe. But he's not the same, and it wouldn't be great for you to grow up to be just like him. He goes around killing people.]
edgeofyourseat
He grins and shakes his head, ignoring the Joker for now.
[I love you,] he says. [Look, it's different. You don't think of you as you but we think of us as me.] A slight pause. [Fuck, that was incoherent as damn, did you get it?]
[I love you,] he says. [Look, it's different. You don't think of you as you but we think of us as me.] A slight pause. [Fuck, that was incoherent as damn, did you get it?]
self_composed
[She's me in different circumstances. I know a lot about her. But we've had different histories after roughly the point where we moved to our respective Forkses. We can respect each other's decisions even if we haven't had to make the same ones.]
edgeofyourseat
[So maybe it's not that different,] he says. [This guy is who I could be in ten years if I wasn't magic and in love with you. I get him, and he gets me, and I trust him. I know he's gonna hurt me, I know he's gonna mess me up, and I know he's gonna make sure I'm okay after.]
self_composed
[How do you know that last part?] Bella insists. [If I met someone with my face who'd taken up terrorism I would not trust her, even if I found her fun to talk to.]
edgeofyourseat
[You're not me!] says Alice. [You couldn't take up terrorism and still be you. I could take up terrorism and still be me. If you're not okay with him because he's the kind of person who might do that, then you're not okay with me, because the only reason I know I won't is it would make you sad and I love you and I don't ever wanna make you that sad.]
self_composed
[He's the kind of person who reacts to having feelings for someone by kidnapping their loved ones to see what they'll do,] Bella says. [Are you that, too? And he isn't just like you except for having not met me or found magic! You were eighteen when you met me and found magic and he diverged before that and I don't know why.]
edgeofyourseat
At first, the part about kidnapping loved ones confuses the hell out of him. He tries to match that image against his feelings for Bella, and utterly fails.
But then he remembers the very first moment he fell in love with her, before he really knew anything about her except for that single word she'd only just said to him. And he can see how, if she had turned out to be a completely different person, if he had turned out to feel differently about her than he does...
...well, he doesn't know it, but the picture building in his head looks a lot like the Joker's relationship with the Bat.
He likes what they really have better than that.
Except apparently they're not going to have it for very much longer, because she keeps trying to tell him the reasons she hates this guy aren't reasons that are true about him and they keep being true about him, and fuck he is just going to cry now.
But then he remembers the very first moment he fell in love with her, before he really knew anything about her except for that single word she'd only just said to him. And he can see how, if she had turned out to be a completely different person, if he had turned out to feel differently about her than he does...
...well, he doesn't know it, but the picture building in his head looks a lot like the Joker's relationship with the Bat.
He likes what they really have better than that.
Except apparently they're not going to have it for very much longer, because she keeps trying to tell him the reasons she hates this guy aren't reasons that are true about him and they keep being true about him, and fuck he is just going to cry now.
self_composed
[I think I'm going about this explanation all wrong,] Bella says after a pause. [I don't actually tend to judge people based on 'the kind of person' I think they are. Like, Libby is totally the kind of person who will run a criminal organization and spy on people and sometimes kidnap them. If I met an alternate Libby who had all that turned up to eleven, I wouldn't care for that one. That Libby would be dangerous to the people around her and I would be doing her world a favor if I removed her somehow. And finding her wouldn't astonish me based on what I know about the Libby in our world. But our Libby is, in fact, happy to have me take over the world and arrange it so none of those things are necessary and even hand me enough power that I can stop her if she changes her mind about doing them, and I am under no obligation to judge her based on how she could have gone if something different happened when she was - I don't know, twelve. I am under no obligation to judge you based on what the Joker has in fact done given that in fact you aren't going to do it, because I am not planning to dissolve our relationship over this, I am planning to take you home with me and kiss you and give you your present and we're going to live forever roaming around the universe doing magic to it and you will never have a reason to blow up a hospital or set a district attorney on fire and if you ever really want to do those things we can put mockups on Io and you can arrange it there because I love you. Okay?]
She didn't really plan to say that last bit, but it happened, and she's going to let it stay there.
She didn't really plan to say that last bit, but it happened, and she's going to let it stay there.
edgeofyourseat
...well.
That was unexpected.
[Okay,] he says. [I love you too.]
He really, really does. He's practically bubbling over with it. And still crying, but it's good crying now, snuggle-down-and-love-everything crying.
That was unexpected.
[Okay,] he says. [I love you too.]
He really, really does. He's practically bubbling over with it. And still crying, but it's good crying now, snuggle-down-and-love-everything crying.
self_composed
Bella is not crying. Exactly. She might have slightly watery eyes, which happen to be itching at this moment so she's rubbing them a little. She is smiling weakly.
[When do you think you'll want to come home?]
[When do you think you'll want to come home?]
edgeofyourseat
[Dunno,] he says. [Later.]
He kind of wants to be hugging Bella right now, but he doesn't just want to up and disappear on the Joker, and if they start talking again he just knows he's going to get distracted. With sex. Or feelings. Probably both.
He kind of wants to be hugging Bella right now, but he doesn't just want to up and disappear on the Joker, and if they start talking again he just knows he's going to get distracted. With sex. Or feelings. Probably both.
self_composed
[There's someone whose world I'm planning to visit briefly,] Bella says. [I don't wanna abandon you if you want me around right now, but if there are no circumstances under which I ought to pull you out of that room - especially since I apparently can't - then you don't need my supervision, and I wasn't doing it for my entertainment. Do you want to just meet up in Moonstone Palace?]
edgeofyourseat
[If you don't wanna listen, don't listen,] he says. [Sure, I'll meet you back home. Love you.]
self_composed
[Love you.]
Bella cuts the read.
She sits up straight. "Does now work for you?" she asks Roberta.
Bella cuts the read.
She sits up straight. "Does now work for you?" she asks Roberta.
self_composed
Bella gets up. "This might take me as little as half an hour," she says. "If you really don't have any magic there, I can send him to sleep and wake him up by magic by way of testing whether he goes to Milliways from the asteroid or not. If you don't want to hold the door that long, that's fine, we can wait for another door - how often do you find them?"
edgeofyourseat
"It varies," says Roberta. "But when I've let people through for a visit, it's been pretty good about coming back at a convenient time."
self_composed
"Okay. If I get held up, I will pop down and inform you. You want, like, a book or anything?" She waves vaguely.