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This isn't the bathroom, this isn't the bathroom at all.
"Excuse me I will be totally up for learning new magic stuff as is apparently required if someone will first direct me to a bathroom," Lexi says loudly to this bar full of people that is not even slightly a bathroom.
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lexicality
cardistry
Huuuuuug.
+...What about me, then?+ he wonders. +With what I said about you and the Joker. Am I messing you up any?+
+...What about me, then?+ he wonders. +With what I said about you and the Joker. Am I messing you up any?+
incanted
+...I don't think so. Like, I don't understand what it is to think not in priorities, but then if he has a different attitude to bad-things-happening anyway, if you have a decision algorithm I can understand anyway, I can work with that.+
cardistry
+Well, that's all true, but it - sounds more certain than I feel. I don't think me-plural are as absolute about things as you-plural are. But now I don't know whether to get into that, because what I said about the Joker is all true and maybe I'd just be giving you trust issues for no reason. And trust issues suck.+
incanted
+I only need to worry about it at all if I need to trust you. Like eight-year-old girls need to trust their parents. I don't interrogate random people about this sort of thing. But you're not a random person.+
cardistry
+I'm your device,+ he points out, hugging her some more. +You kind of do need to trust me at least about some stuff.+
incanted
+And I can about, you know, some stuff. You fixed Lexi when she fell,+ she offers by way of example.
cardistry
+Well, yeah. Because you would've been sad,+ he says. +I don't want you to be sad.+
incanted
More hugs! Yay! +Anything else you can tell me before I sit down with - well, not with a notebook, that's redundant, I have a perfect memory now but before I sit down and think?+
incanted
[I want to know about all those Bells who are with all those Jokers and what those relationships are like, what can you tell me?]
manofmyword
[I can tell you lots!] he says. [Should we meet up somewhere for storytime? I like storytime.]
incanted
[Yeah, sure. I'll go tell Charlie I'm going and meet you wherever you're at.]
She goes and tells Charlie she's heading out, and she teleports to where the Joker is.
She goes and tells Charlie she's heading out, and she teleports to where the Joker is.
manofmyword
The Joker is in a cute little cottage on a terraformed asteroid. There are two comfy armchairs; he's just sitting down in one. He gestures to the other as she arrives.
incanted
Bella sits and puts one ankle on the other knee and waits expectantly.
manofmyword
"Lessee," he says, "I met Stella first, so let's start with her and Alice."
He spreads his hands and the two figures appear translucently in the air.
"Funny story, how they met. Ended up in high school together when she moved to Forks. Alice was getting in trouble the way my bunch generally does," the scene changes to show teenage human Alice getting thoroughly beat up in the middle of a high school hallway surrounded by an indistinct crowd of onlookers, "so he did nnnnot make the best first impression in the world, but she didn't mind too too much." The scene shifts again, to show the two of them talking more or less amicably, although with some physical distance between them.
"Along the way, and I don't know how, she found out he re-e-eally didn't like to be called a freak." Imaginary Teenage Alice flinches uncomfortably as another student mouths the word. "And thennn one day he invited her over to his house," another scene change, this one showing the two of them having that conversation in the school gym, "and she, smart cookie that she is, decided a little test was in order. So she took out her phone," imaginary teenage Stella does this, "and got her dad on speed dial juuust in case, and looked him in the eye, and called him a freak."
Imaginary Teenage Alice falls to his knees and clasps both hands against his chest, staring at Imaginary Teenage Stella in adoration as tiny pink hearts rise off him like smoke from a fire.
"He asked her to marry him right then and there," the Joker continues, "and she declined, and they had some exciting adventures together and eventually found minting. She got hit by a van, he fixed her up, she took a trip to Europe, he went along for the ride, she kissed him on top of Mount Everest, he kissed her under the ocean on a Florida beach." (His aura provides stylized renditions of each of these moments.) "They're pretty cute together."
He spreads his hands and the two figures appear translucently in the air.
"Funny story, how they met. Ended up in high school together when she moved to Forks. Alice was getting in trouble the way my bunch generally does," the scene changes to show teenage human Alice getting thoroughly beat up in the middle of a high school hallway surrounded by an indistinct crowd of onlookers, "so he did nnnnot make the best first impression in the world, but she didn't mind too too much." The scene shifts again, to show the two of them talking more or less amicably, although with some physical distance between them.
"Along the way, and I don't know how, she found out he re-e-eally didn't like to be called a freak." Imaginary Teenage Alice flinches uncomfortably as another student mouths the word. "And thennn one day he invited her over to his house," another scene change, this one showing the two of them having that conversation in the school gym, "and she, smart cookie that she is, decided a little test was in order. So she took out her phone," imaginary teenage Stella does this, "and got her dad on speed dial juuust in case, and looked him in the eye, and called him a freak."
Imaginary Teenage Alice falls to his knees and clasps both hands against his chest, staring at Imaginary Teenage Stella in adoration as tiny pink hearts rise off him like smoke from a fire.
"He asked her to marry him right then and there," the Joker continues, "and she declined, and they had some exciting adventures together and eventually found minting. She got hit by a van, he fixed her up, she took a trip to Europe, he went along for the ride, she kissed him on top of Mount Everest, he kissed her under the ocean on a Florida beach." (His aura provides stylized renditions of each of these moments.) "They're pretty cute together."
incanted
"Wait, if he doesn't like it why did he - like it?" Bella asks.
manofmyword
"Well, that's the trick, see," he says. "Us Jokers are a tricky bunch. We like things we don't like, sometimes. And we fall in love for funny reasons. Sometimes we like people who scare us, or surprise us, or hurt us when we're not expecting it." He smiles sadly. "I don't think your Brill's like that, though."