"At least now that you're basically cured of Unhealthy Sue Behavior."

"Unhealthy Sue Behavior," says Aurora blankly.

"Oh, while I was at Tactical I got a little fucked up and started fucking anybody who felt like it even if I didn't really want to," he says. "But Aegis helped me fix myself and now I only fuck people I like."

"Should I worry about Brilliance doing that?"

"Far as I can tell, I'm the only Joker who did," he shrugs.

"I mean, is the setup that led to that something that might happen to Brilliance even if the others have avoided it."

"I don't think so. It wasn't the same guy or anything, he got the Earth standard version."

"That guy is a recurring template? Eugh."

"Well, how it happened for most of the Jokers s really similar, we're not sure if it was all the same guy or not," he says. "And we don't really care. Mine was really different circumstances."

"He was set up," growls Aegis, "as a psych test."

"Holy crap."

"The IF is kinda fucked up sometimes," says Sue. "I mean, they didn't pay the guy or anything, they just noticed and decided to keep the teachers off his back and see what I did."

"And they let him see how to get into rooms. Our room."

"What'd you do?" asks Aurora softly.

"I froze up, he beat up Aegis, I unfroze, he beat me up for a bit, then I killed him."

"Damn."

"And then the psychologists kept squabbling with each other, like, why they even set this up if they didn't have an idea about what it'd mean any way it could've gone down I do not know."

"Because they're assholes," Sue suggests.

"It sure sounds like it, yeah."

"And they raised us from age six!" says Aegis chirpily. "Which is why I'm so well adjusted."

Sue snorts and hugs Aegis.

Hugs!

"Well," says Aurora, "apart from the metaphor regarding toast - which might actually help - this has been about as productive as I expected, but thanks anyway."

"You're welcome!" says Sue.

"Anytime," laughs Aegis.