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Jane tells everyone what happened regarding the Alethian afterlife.
And little tidbits about surrounding events, too.
Bella has been hanging out in the Jarvis she knows better, mentally composing a treaty for the Vxaabli demons, and as she hears the story she slowly, slowly tenses up like a spring.
cross_and_bow
cross_and_bow
"There's that."
She closes her eyes.
"I wasn't comparing with the Jokers who have daemons because - they are obviously not a comparison point. I've been near enough Petaal to know that she wouldn't mind me petting her, let alone Amariah. But it's - a thing Bells do, seems like, to compare with each other where comparisons are at all applicable, to want to keep up with each other and learn why if we can't. I'm not sure why Pearl's daemon's apparently so well-adjusted compared to Steph, since presumably Pearl has a soul and everything. But I have a guess about why he'd preen Shell Bell where Steph didn't even want to meet me, and I hate it, and it's a past event, not some ongoing - trait, condition, circumstance, I can't undo it, and I hate that. That I can't undo it, make it never have happened - that I keep getting reminders."
She closes her eyes.
"I wasn't comparing with the Jokers who have daemons because - they are obviously not a comparison point. I've been near enough Petaal to know that she wouldn't mind me petting her, let alone Amariah. But it's - a thing Bells do, seems like, to compare with each other where comparisons are at all applicable, to want to keep up with each other and learn why if we can't. I'm not sure why Pearl's daemon's apparently so well-adjusted compared to Steph, since presumably Pearl has a soul and everything. But I have a guess about why he'd preen Shell Bell where Steph didn't even want to meet me, and I hate it, and it's a past event, not some ongoing - trait, condition, circumstance, I can't undo it, and I hate that. That I can't undo it, make it never have happened - that I keep getting reminders."
eversomuchfun
"You have a partly incorrect guess," says Sherlock. "If that were the only factor, she would've gone for Tony. She didn't. The main reason she didn't want to meet you is that she was wildly uncomfortable with her own existence and any amount of interacting with people was too much for her."
cross_and_bow
"Ah."
She swallows.
"That still leaves the question of why Steph was so miserable and Tinia's - not."
She swallows.
"That still leaves the question of why Steph was so miserable and Tinia's - not."
eversomuchfun
"Steph was an unwanted surprise to both herself and me. Steph knew what it was like for me not to hate myself and considered herself the cause of the difference. Steph turned up under what were already unhappy circumstances, not in the short term as for Pearl but in what might have been a very long one."
eversomuchfun
"Speaking of things that are likely to make you unhappy, I think my needless perfectionism about the design of that mindreading power is a sign that I'm not as keen on it as I think I am."
cross_and_bow
Later, when hugs are concluded, the treaty has been written and conjured and sealed with the largely invented symbols of Bella's status as a foreign negotiator and sent to the Vxaabli, and Bella is alone -
she goes down to the basement in which there is a Tony.
she goes down to the basement in which there is a Tony.
toblameforit
Tony is doing something that involves pouring molten metal into a mold! He will probably be available for conversation in a minute when he's finished.
toblameforit
And indeed, as soon as the thing he's making no longer requires his immediate attention, he turns to her and waves.
"Hi!"
"Hi!"
cross_and_bow
"You going to power something in particular with it or is this mostly an exercise left to the reader out of the Being A Tony Textbook?"
toblameforit
He laughs. "Well, I mean, who wouldn't want a cute little cold fusion reactor to take home and feed and play with?"