"I don't think you could make it worse if you tried," he says. He doesn't necessarily believe it, but then, that isn't always a factor when Jokers say things.

"Well - I'm not as sure. Anyway, maybe I'm more qualified than I think I am, except it's beyond me how."

"I don't get why people keep acting like they care, anyway."

"Why, though?"

"Because you're a kid who had some lousy shit happen and that sucks and most people are not totally void of empathy?"

"I don't get it," he says. "It doesn't make any sense. It sucks for me but it doesn't suck for you, you don't have to care, why would you?"

"Well - I guess I might regret asking this, but if against all probability I - I don't know - tripped and wound up accidentally biting off half of my hand and for some reason didn't have any coins on me and had to wait for it to heal the long way and was thoroughly unhappy about that? Would you care?"

"I was going to say what if I picked a fight with the Princess and the Imperial Alpha decided to rip my arm off but that's less likely on a couple levels. Anyway, if it was that it'd be me doing something stupid, which makes it different. You didn't do anything to deserve it."

"He rips people's arms off?"

"No, that is one of the ways in which this is unlikely."

Felicity giggles.

"Anyhow, most people care when lousy things happen to other people and this comes to their attention. And the ones who don't aren't too popular with the rest of us, by and large."

"Well, not if they can't fake it," he says. "But almost everybody can fake it."

"Okay," concedes Kerron, "people who don't care and don't fake it effectively aren't very popular, but there's enough non-fakers for it to be the standard thing, yeah?"

"You sure?"

"I see what people want to do, remember? I'd notice."

"...huh," he says, and gives Kerron a thoughtful/suspicious look.

"I mean, I guess you could decide I'm full of it."

"Guess I could," he agrees. "Are you?"

"Nah. Ask Elspeth if you want, she's got a million people's memories in her head and magic sorting so she can find facts about them whenever she wants, she could probably cough up an actual percentage breakdown. Ask the Imperial Alpha, wolves have collective consciousness when they're phased and basically the same psychology as humans most of the time. Ask the Emperor, when you meet him, he reads minds. Meet Addy and notice how weird she is next to everybody else, she really doesn't care."

"Maybe this world's just weird."

"Couldn't tell you. I've been to others, but only for Bellparties. Oh, and once I wandered into Milliways when I was little, met Mum's Batlady."

"Batlady?"