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Elspeth is glad that Milliways likes her, because she likes it. Jacob at her side and a glass of this nice golden stuff in her hand (she's tried the other synthetics; they're nice for an occasional change, but only humans care about dietary variety that much and this one is her favorite) and hubbub from a hundred worlds around her: lovely. A lovely break from work that keeps no one waiting, that doesn't even throw off her sleep cycle because her sleep cycle cares about the sun. (It throws off Jake's, a little, but his is more flexible than hers.)
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luminous_regnant
Nathan very, very carefully presses his lips to the top of the Joker's head.
"The actual priority here is not and has never been what you'd rather except insofar as that interacts with the priority of not having you murdering people," Golden says. "What you'd rather only matters within a given level of probability of mayhem happening."
(Me first, me first, not my Afton, she's thinking, but this is not something she chooses to share.)
"I care what he'd rather," Nathan says. "I thought you cared what I'd rather, Your Majesty, or am I just your timer after all this time?"
"Anyone mated to a wild card is a wild card, Nathan, you know that, you helped me when Zafrina mated. I care what you'd rather, but if I can't expect you to be putting mayhem-reduction first anymore -"
"I think," says Nathan, "that if you could trust me to do that - that if Edward'd tell you to trust me to do that - then that'd make him safer - so you can."
"Only if the Joker lets you escort him around," Golden says, "instead of ditching you."
"The actual priority here is not and has never been what you'd rather except insofar as that interacts with the priority of not having you murdering people," Golden says. "What you'd rather only matters within a given level of probability of mayhem happening."
(Me first, me first, not my Afton, she's thinking, but this is not something she chooses to share.)
"I care what he'd rather," Nathan says. "I thought you cared what I'd rather, Your Majesty, or am I just your timer after all this time?"
"Anyone mated to a wild card is a wild card, Nathan, you know that, you helped me when Zafrina mated. I care what you'd rather, but if I can't expect you to be putting mayhem-reduction first anymore -"
"I think," says Nathan, "that if you could trust me to do that - that if Edward'd tell you to trust me to do that - then that'd make him safer - so you can."
"Only if the Joker lets you escort him around," Golden says, "instead of ditching you."
manofmyword
The Joker bestows a radiant smile on Mary.
"Here's a possible cause for you," he says. "People trying to control me."
"Here's a possible cause for you," he says. "People trying to control me."
Mary makes a disquieted noise.
manofmyword
"So this is how I think it should work," he says. "If you really don't want me causing trouble. Don't make rules. Don't threaten me. Don't spy on me every minute to make sure I'm behaving myself. Don't make it hard for me to cause trouble, or I'll want to. Just let me know what you'd rather, and leave me alone. And I'll play nice as long as I don't have to go too far out of my way to do it."
luminous_regnant
"I am an empress. I make laws. And associated standard sentences for their breakage. I'm not going to add exceptions to them for you."
Mary winces.
her_imperial_radiance
"It would be problematic to publicly except him," Elspeth says. "Other people would start looking for leeway. But I can keep a secret if I have to. Can you just forget about the ones that don't carry the death penalty, Mama?"
luminous_regnant
"Keeping that sort of thing secret would itself constitute a rule," Golden points out.
manofmyword
"I don't care if you have laws," says the Joker. "Lots of people have laws. It doesn't bother me. What I want you to understand, if we're gonna work this out in good faith, is that laws don't keep me in line. Nothing keeps me in line except me deciding to stay there. And I can do that. I don't need an official exception."
luminous_regnant
Golden doesn't have her alts' lip-chewing habit. It would be too easy to bite straight through her lip. But she ruminates, and finally she says:
"What sort of coin output could I expect?"
"What sort of coin output could I expect?"
"Not very consistent," says Mary. "Sometimes as much as Alice's, sometimes nothing for a month." She chews her lip for a moment. "But he's generally likely to come up with coins you ask him for when you ask him for them. Note that the difference between 'ask' and 'demand' is crucial here."
luminous_regnant
"Can I get a starter array?" Golden asks Stella.
self_composed
"Of course. Unless that means you won't funnel me nice little packages of 2030 tech anymore."
luminous_regnant
"I see no reason to stop. And it's 2031, now." She closes her eyes and thinks.
Nathan is murmuring something into the Joker's hair - too quiet to be heard, but his lips are moving.
Nathan is murmuring something into the Joker's hair - too quiet to be heard, but his lips are moving.
luminous_regnant
"Reminding myself to trust my timer," mumbles Nathan.
"If you do this the way he suggested," Mary says to Golden, "and keep to his terms, it works out fine. He barely ever annoys you. No big disasters. There's a certain amount of flexibility there, too. Just... don't get heavy-handed. It's when you get that way and stay that way that things start going south."
luminous_regnant
"In what ways am I likely to cross the line?" asks Golden tiredly. "For that matter, I'm not sure I fully understand the terms. It might be easy to do by accident."
manofmyword
"If you do it by accident, I can ask you nicely to quit that," says the Joker. "I'm not out to get you, here."
luminous_regnant
"Will it be a problem if Siobhan asks for and gets permission to kill you if you enter Ireland?" asks Golden. "How much spying is too much spying, especially since my favored methods don't involve any way for you to notice without minting yourself relevant detectors? Does it help any if I primarily communicate with you through Nathan?"
manofmyword
"Don't care who gets permission to kill me when," he says, "as long as I know about it. Doesn't make a difference either way if you talk to me through Nathan. Too much spying is enough spying to make me feel like you're expecting me to fuck up and waiting to catch me when I do."