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Bella goes on TV with Pat. It goes pretty well. She doesn't have a PR person yet, but running at 5x and thinking carefully means she doesn't trip over herself when called on to talk enough that most people would notice. She takes questions-slash-requests from the crowd, and winds up healing an amputee, showing off a pretty illusion of terraformed Mars over the crowd, and flying around. She gets to talk about the nice features of Mars, including the fact that any further amputees could just make their way there and sit in one of the medical devices for a moment to clear that right up. Pat gets to look like she "discovered" Bella. It's a decent arrangement.
Then the time designated for the spot is up, and Bella bids everyone goodbye and teleports away over the shouts of investigative reporters, and it's not currently baseball season so she goes ahead and extends her protection-from-media over Renée and Phil in case someone figures out who she is despite having only her first name to work with.
She goes to Moonstone Palace. She has nothing in particular to do. She decides to read Alice.
self_composed
edgeofyourseat
Alice, unusually, is not sewing or baking or listening to music or making recreational coins.
Alice is in his lair, curled up in bed, thinking. About Bella.
It's hard for him to figure out exactly what bothers him about what went down with the Joker. Until he knows, he doesn't want to go bugging her about it; it's not like yelling at her is a thing he does for fun. It's really upsetting and he wants to do as little of it as possible.
So, he knows it has to do with her not telling him what she was going to do before she did it. At the time he pointed out the obvious asymmetry of her concealing a plan from him because he'd find it upsetting, when if he did the same thing to her she would probably, well, stick him on an asteroid. But that's not even the main problem, just the first one he saw. What he is actually hurt about, and not just vaguely uneasy, is the part where she took someone he loved away from him - to somewhere they might very well not have come back from - and didn't give him the chance to say goodbye.
Oh.
Hi, Bella.
Alice is in his lair, curled up in bed, thinking. About Bella.
It's hard for him to figure out exactly what bothers him about what went down with the Joker. Until he knows, he doesn't want to go bugging her about it; it's not like yelling at her is a thing he does for fun. It's really upsetting and he wants to do as little of it as possible.
So, he knows it has to do with her not telling him what she was going to do before she did it. At the time he pointed out the obvious asymmetry of her concealing a plan from him because he'd find it upsetting, when if he did the same thing to her she would probably, well, stick him on an asteroid. But that's not even the main problem, just the first one he saw. What he is actually hurt about, and not just vaguely uneasy, is the part where she took someone he loved away from him - to somewhere they might very well not have come back from - and didn't give him the chance to say goodbye.
Oh.
Hi, Bella.
self_composed
[Hi.] Pause. [There was a risk that he wouldn't come back, but as it stands you aren't any less likely to encounter him again. He can still appear in Milliways, you'd still need to meet someone from his world to get there but once there you can teleport to the asteroid.] Pause. [There are a lot of asteroids with a lot of names. The one he's on is called Alice.]
edgeofyourseat
That is a cute place to put him. Bella is cute.
Alice sighs.
[Okay, but do you understand why that doesn't really... help? He still might've died, even though it turned out he was fine. And I just kind of, you know, if it's an option, I want to be able to talk to him first.]
Meaning: to let the Joker know he is sad that the Joker is going to die, and to receive and understand the feelings the Joker has about that, and to hug him and kiss him and and love him and share in the knowledge that they are doing those things for the last time.
He doesn't really expect to be able to do any of that, in the normal course of things, given that they live in different universes. If it turned out that the Joker died somehow or other and Alice wasn't there, he'd miss what he couldn't have, but he'd be okay about it. But if the Joker's death is something that Bella is causing on purpose, then she has the opportunity to bring Alice into it, and as far as he can tell she wasn't going to. As far as he can tell, she didn't even think of it.
Alice sighs.
[Okay, but do you understand why that doesn't really... help? He still might've died, even though it turned out he was fine. And I just kind of, you know, if it's an option, I want to be able to talk to him first.]
Meaning: to let the Joker know he is sad that the Joker is going to die, and to receive and understand the feelings the Joker has about that, and to hug him and kiss him and and love him and share in the knowledge that they are doing those things for the last time.
He doesn't really expect to be able to do any of that, in the normal course of things, given that they live in different universes. If it turned out that the Joker died somehow or other and Alice wasn't there, he'd miss what he couldn't have, but he'd be okay about it. But if the Joker's death is something that Bella is causing on purpose, then she has the opportunity to bring Alice into it, and as far as he can tell she wasn't going to. As far as he can tell, she didn't even think of it.
self_composed
[Yeah.] Bella sighs, too, but Alice doesn't know that. [If I meet any more of them - or anyone else you like - that I find it necessary to strand, and you're around or I'll have the chance again even if I run home and fetch you, there will be an opportunity for goodbyes first.]
edgeofyourseat
[Okay.]
He hugs his pillow, comforted. Bella might not always be able to tell what he's going to want, but once she gets something and says she'll do it, he trusts absolutely that she'll follow through.
He hugs his pillow, comforted. Bella might not always be able to tell what he's going to want, but once she gets something and says she'll do it, he trusts absolutely that she'll follow through.
self_composed
[That would be the weirdest goodbye ever, though. 'My girlfriend might be about to kill you. That's sad. Oh well.']
self_composed
[Yes, yes you are,] she laughs. [Anything else you wanted to talk about?]
edgeofyourseat
[...I guess n... actually yes.]
Specifically, why Bella kept assuming that the Joker was likely to fuck Alice over, even though Alice knew he wouldn't, and said so. He feels like this is the one subject where he can really be considered the ultimate expert.
Specifically, why Bella kept assuming that the Joker was likely to fuck Alice over, even though Alice knew he wouldn't, and said so. He feels like this is the one subject where he can really be considered the ultimate expert.
self_composed
[I talked to him, before you and he met. And he seemed to find me interesting, and he told me about how he handles his crime-fighting vigilante crush, and it involves violence and so on. And he told me that if he wanted to fuck with me, he'd kidnap my boyfriend and my boyfriend would like it. And I pointed out that if you liked it, there would be no problem, would there, you'd just teleport away when you stopped liking it - and he said: "Wanna bet?"]
Pause.
[And of course the person I met who let me into their world had a few things to say on his being a psychological hazard, too.]
Pause.
[And of course the person I met who let me into their world had a few things to say on his being a psychological hazard, too.]
edgeofyourseat
Alice giggles a little, because despite everything, 'Wanna bet?' is pretty funny.
[He was fucking with you, Bella. And anyway, look what happened: there were sure as hell parts where I didn't like it, but I didn't teleport away, because I wanted to be there.]
[He was fucking with you, Bella. And anyway, look what happened: there were sure as hell parts where I didn't like it, but I didn't teleport away, because I wanted to be there.]
self_composed
[I understood he was fucking with me, I just didn't know where the fuckery was located, and I didn't share your confidence that it wasn't aimed at your head,] Bella says.
self_composed
[I would not claim to know that. But I do know how you want to handle situations like that one.]
self_composed
[I can think of reasons a me might take up terrorism,] Bella says after a silence.
self_composed
[Really. It's a big multiverse. According to a sample size of two, I don't take over so much as a hamlet without magic - I could see doing the same thing with a tech advantage, just the same way. And I know that if I have no particular advantages and I'm reasonably comfortable, I occupy a holding pattern at least until my late teens, because that's what me and Golden Bella did until we located our respective magical edges. If I started out at a resource disadvantage, and was not reasonably comfortable, and there was a big, obvious target painted on some class of people permitting that? I don't think I'd be a particularly ruthless terrorist, but I might blow shit up.]
edgeofyourseat
[Huh.]
He kind of approves!
[But would you still not trust the blowing-shit-up you?]
He kind of approves!
[But would you still not trust the blowing-shit-up you?]
self_composed
[It might depend on how I evaluated her object of explosives. I'm kind of selfish, when I don't have infinite everything to throw around; I'd imagine one of me who grew up with less would be more so, and might overweight her own comfort or ascribe too much motive to whoever she perceived as being responsible.]
edgeofyourseat
[Huh,] Alice repeats.
Bella is still his favourite Bella, but a blowing-shit-up Bella might be fun to meet.
Bella is still his favourite Bella, but a blowing-shit-up Bella might be fun to meet.
self_composed
[She'd try to get coins out of you,] predicts Bella. [Heck, I might not even mind, I think it's pretty clear that I am a nicer and more generous person when I have more stuff. I think I turned out nicer than Goldeneyes.]
edgeofyourseat
[She can get coins out of me if she wants,] he says, deliberately construing the phrase to mean generating them rather than asking him to hand over some of the existing surplus.
self_composed
[Yeah, if she's desperate that'll overcome some amount of squeamish, however much squeamish she has if and when we find her,] Bella supposes.
