"Oh, sure, Bella made it so I can teleport, I can leave whenever," says Lexi. "This sucks, though, they'd be adorable, I bet, if having me around made her not able to do that thing that everybody else apparently did I'd feel bad."

"Aww," the Joker says sympathetically. "Yeah, that'd suck for everybody, I hear ya."

"So your boyfriend doesn't mind either?"

"Nathan's a special case," says the Joker. "First of all, he's Golden's kind of vampire, and they get very serious about who they fall in love with - 'till death do us part' kind of thing." He smiles wryly. "But then he died. I brought him back to life, but it turned out doing that didn't take him out of the afterlife, and now there were two Nathans running around. Vampire one got jealous; dead one still loved me human-style but wasn't sure what to do about it. Now, it turned out the same thing with the afterlife had happened to one of the Bells, so she helped 'em do what she'd done, which is glue themselves back together with magic. And the new Nathan kept the dead one's attitude to me fucking around, so then it was fine."

"Why'd you bring him back to life if he was jealous and you didn't like that?"

"It hadn't come up yet," he murmurs. "I'd told him I was a great big slut, and he wasn't comfy but he didn't seem to worry about it much, and then for a while I just wasn't hanging out with anybody else I wanted to screw."

"I don't think Bella will want to glue herself to anyone else. Or even just change how she feels about anything," remarks Lexi.

He shrugs.

"I dunno what to do. Like, the actual thing that will happen if Bella gets indifferent to Brilliance is that you will spirit him away to be debauched or something? Right? No actual blowing up of anything is actually going to happen."

"Well, with a variable ratio of debauchery to hugs and crying, yeah."

"So Bella shouldn't feel threatened, exactly, because there isn't a threat, the threat is that if she stops caring about Brilliance somebody else looks after him and that's not much of a threat."

"Mmm... when you put it like that, yeah."

"So then it's a tossup between maybe if we tell her she will feel like this is something she doesn't like about the template - which all the other Bells managed to get over it looks like - and if we don't tell her she'll itch with not knowing till somebody tells, which I bet you they haven't managed to get over and be Zen about."

"Mhm. And all the other Bells got over it after they were already doing fine with their Jokers," he says. "I dunno what she'll think of it if she doesn't love him already."

"Me either, I've never seen her in love with anybody," sighs Lexi.

"Mm. Well, we could wait around and see what she decides," says the Joker. "Tell her then, whichever way she jumps."

"It'll really bug her, though."

"And we don't want that," he says agreeably. "Got a better idea?"

"Uuummm... I dunno, how about, 'Bella, there is this thing about Brilliance's template where if you knew it it could make you act funny and then Brilliance'd probably be sad and you don't want that 'cause you like him, but the reason it could make you act funny isn't actually a problem, cross our hearts, can you do that thing where you make your brain do what you want and promise not to act funny if we tell you'?"

"Think it'll work?"

"Well, I dunno, I'm not as smart as her, but it looks like maybe the best idea we have, do you have a better one?"

"Nope. Okay. Let's try it."

Lexi sets up a little conference brainphone with her and Bella and the Joker and repeats approximately what she just suggested.

[- what would...? I know he doesn't want to go around being destructive, he was crystal clear on that, if he's been lying to me I make no promises about continuing to like him because that is not on, but, lemme think.] Bella thinks. [Okay, Lexi, if you're vouching, I will not 'act funny' - beyond possibly talking to Brilliance once or twice about whatever this is - assuming he has not been telling me lies. Is that good enough?]

[He hasn't been telling you lies,] the Joker contributes. [He doesn't know this thing, unless he's guessed it since he met me, and I don't think he has.]