Author: incanted | There are now one dozen Bells.
They and most of their friends are all here on Planet Rainbowsand II, to celebrate the addition of Sarion, the elf one, and Aurora, the one with a sister. |
Author: deslandes | Although most of the Jokers are already in the orgy chambers with Brilliance, there is one - fluffy, uncothed - straggler. |
Author: incanted | Aurora peers at him, then identifies Rose and catches her by the elbow. "Hey, Rose?" |
Author: beheld_beauty | "Mm?" |
Author: incanted | "Can I talk to you and your husband? About - I think I'm wired funny for a Bell because of having a sister, and I'm not having as easy a time as it sounded like everyone else did coping with non-monogamy, and it'd help to - see what you do." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "Mon cœur," Rose calls in Beast's direction. |
Author: deslandes | He ambles over and gives her a fluffy hug.
"Yes, ma belle?" |
Author: beheld_beauty | "Can what were you about to do wait a short while? Aurora wishes to interview us about how we manage your tendency to do such things," murmurs Rose, smiling slightly. |
Author: deslandes | The Beast giggles and licks Rose's cheek. "All right." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "But I am not sure I understand what the problem is," Rose tells Aurora. "Or what your sister has to do with it." |
Author: incanted | "Well, I don't know if it's Lexi, or maybe something about how I met Brilliance, or what, but Lexi's the obvious difference," says Aurora. "And - Lexi is my favorite person - and now I'm dating Brilliance which is like inviting him to take that spot, eventually, and meanwhile -" She trails off, gesturing hopefully at Rose. |
Author: beheld_beauty | "And you are - unsure of your priority?" Rose asks. "Because of his - we could call it physical inconstancy?" |
Author: incanted | "Unsure of my priority, yeah, like, he said the other Jokers would probably not take precedence in a saving-people situation, but that only goes so far and it's not for the most comfortable of reasons." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "I'm unsure that we're the best pair to interview," says Rose. "For months we were each other's only company at all. I was his rescue from an eternity of loneliness. I am his wife. I do not think mon cœur is likely to abandon me for any newer interest unless the first abandonment is mine. It would certainly have been a terrible surprise, had it been a surprise, had I been assigning more significance to where he takes his exercise than to the rest - but it was not a surprise." |
Author: deslandes | The Beast snuggles his wife. |
Author: beheld_beauty | "I can also read his mind," Rose says, lifting her hand to touch Beast's cheek. "Most of us do - I don't believe Cam or Amariah do, though. And Aegis's version is considerably more under Sue's control than Angela's or Stella's is under Micaiah's or Alice's. But it helps. There is - really no understanding of how they love until you have seen it, I think." |
Author: incanted | "If there's no understanding without looking and they don't mind being looked at why don't Cam or Amariah?" |
Author: beheld_beauty | "People from Amariah's world have their own sort of particular intimacy, which may suffice for her. I don't know about Cam. Possibly it's relevant that the two of them are by far the most likely to follow suit with the behavior that has you so concerned," Rose suggests. |
Author: deslandes | The Beast laughs. |
Author: incanted | "So I should try one of them?" |
Author: beheld_beauty | "Perhaps. I am sorry I cannot be of more help." She pauses. "And it might be unnecessary to extract these Bells' respective Jokers from their activities, considering that it turned out mon cœur had so little to say." |
Author: deslandes | "I have no wisdom to offer about being a Bell in love with a Joker, ma belle, because I am not one." |
Author: incanted | "I thought you might be able to reassure me about prioritization, but apparently Rose has you figured out well enough to do that all by herself," sighs Aurora. |
Author: deslandes | He shrugs. "My love is my love is my love."
|
Author: incanted | "Of course she is." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "I am," shrugs Rose, smiling. "I do recommend mindreading. It - helped." |
Author: incanted | "I guess I'll talk to Brilliance about that when he. Emerges." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "They're having fun, Aurora. He will still love you." |
Author: deslandes | "He will always love you," says the Beast, hugging Belle again. |
Author: beheld_beauty | Snuggles! |
Author: incanted | "Okay," says Aurora, "so, we've established that you're adorable even when one of you is a cat monster, I guess that's non-negligibly helpful especially since mine turns into a deck of cards and a magic wand, and I should talk to Cam or Amariah. Thanks." |
Author: beheld_beauty | "You're welcome," says Rose sunnily. |
Author: deslandes | The Beast grins.
"I'm going to go and be borrowed now, ma belle," he says, nuzzles Rose's cheek, and wanders off to the orgy chambers. |
Author: incanted | Aurora goes looking for Cam or Amariah. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam's over there! |
Author: incanted | Aurora summarizes her project. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Yeah, um." Cam scratches his neck awkwardly. "I might be a little less serious with Jellybean than the others with theirs? Like, he's my boyfriend, he tells me he loves me all the time, I'm not really there yet, he doesn't really seem to mind, so it's not like I'm entitled to have a problem with it if he tells Tilly he loves her too or if he gets up to bizarre things with tentacled aliens. Let alone screws his way through the deck of Jokers, because I did that too, it's worth a go if you're into it." |
Author: incanted | "I don't think so," says Aurora delicately. "I'd give you my blessing to tick Brilliance off your checklist too but it's manifestly clear you don't need it. Do you suppose Jellybean'd have input here? Beast didn't say much but then Rose reads his mind..." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Dunno, let's find out." [Hey Jellybean, Aurora's having a polyamory soul-searching Very Special Episode, you wanna help her out?] |
Author: pythbox | [Sure, one sec,] he says.
A second passes.
Jellybean teleports to right beside Cam, wearing his customary red-and-white schoolgirl getup, and pecks him on the cheek. He has his aura out; the air fills with fruity sugary smells. |
Author: incanted | "Wait, do you guys do the anime magical girl thing too, I thought you were wizards?" |
Author: pythbox | "I am a wizard, I just dress like this because it's fun," says Jellybean. "Why, do you have a pretty skirt you're not showing me?" |
Author: incanted | "It's called a Barrier Jacket, it just - yeah, it is a pretty dress, basically, but Brilliance has to do it, I dunno how interruptible he is right now for participating in a fashion show." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Oh, lord," mutters Cam. |
Author: pythbox | "He was cuddling Queenie last I checked, he is totally interruptible," says Jellybean. "Lemme see." |
Author: incanted | +Hey Brilliance, Jellybean wants to see the Barrier Jacket.+ |
Author: cardistry | +Okay!+ says Brilliance.
Aurora's clothing glows in his ever-shifting many-hued mana colour; the glow changes shape, then fades, revealing her Barrier Jacket. |
Author: pythbox | "Oh, cool," says Jellybean. "That's gorgeous." |
Author: incanted | "I wouldn't wear it around just all the time, but it's pretty neat, yeah," says Aurora, twisting her arm to look at one of the arm-warmers that stretches from her hand to past her elbow. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Magical girl, what next," mutters Cam. |
Author: pythbox | "Something wrong with that?" inquires Jellybean. |
Author: lifes_sake | "No! No, I just didn't think it was - for me. And apparently it is for at least one of me." |
Author: incanted | "It's a standard person-with-a-device thing," says Aurora. "I should really come up with a name for my kind of magic user, is 'sorceress' taken?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Sometimes used in lieu of explaining minting, but otherwise no." |
Author: incanted | "Standard sorceress thing, then." |
Author: pythbox | "It's super cute," says Jellybean. "I kind of want to make out with you now." |
Author: incanted | "Uh, no thank you? Is this want going to distract you from helping me deal with - what you were summoned to help me deal with?" |
Author: pythbox | "No," he says. "I mean, I want to make out with Cam too, kind of perpetually, but here I am standing around talking about stuff instead of dragging him into the orgy chamber and pouncing." |
Author: lifes_sake | "After I've properly met the new Bells, Jellybean," laughs Cam. "And helped this one. So - you think it's your sister's fault? That's weird that you have a sister, I'm not actually sure if that's any less off-standard than me being a guy is." |
Author: incanted | "I don't know if it's her - and fault would be the wrong word - just - priorities, they're a thing, they're more salient to me than most maybe because if you guys have favorite people before you have significant others I'm not sure how you'd go about it." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Yeah, I kind of muddled along with that box in the mental paperwork occupied by 'Renée I guess' for most of my life." |
Author: pythbox | "What's a favourite person like," says Jellybean, "I don't even know." |
Author: incanted | "Well, I don't know what it's like not to have one - or not to be anybody's, for that matter, and if I'm going around boyfriend-acquiring Lexi could start anytime. I guess the only-child Bells could count on your parents that way, but -" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Shit, and you couldn't, could you," murmurs Cam. "I bet they wouldn't tell you even if there was an answer." |
Author: incanted | "Yeah. I'm gonna have to talk to Golden, about her husband and her kid..." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Oh, I know that one, Elspeth wins but then Golden has to go into retirement and be depressed forever," says Cam. "I think Angela's going to have multiple children and I have no idea what that's going to do to her." |
Author: pythbox | "...You know, that's kind of fucked up," Jellybean remarks. |
Author: lifes_sake | "You're telling me, but I don't know how to operate the way you operate, I don't really get what the way you operate is," shrugs Cam. |
Author: pythbox | "Um... I love people," says Jellybean. "For a while 'people' was pretty much Matilda, and I guess that's kind of like having a favourite person, but only superficially, because now I love you too and it doesn't make sense in my head for that to be a competition. I mean, I'd rather fuck you than Tilly but that's because Tilly's not interested in fucking me. If I had to choose between rescuing the two of you from something I wouldn't be thinking about which one I liked more, I'd be thinking about which one I had a better shot at rescuing, which one could probably take care of themselves without me, which one would be better at helping me rescue the other one after, stuff like that." |
Author: incanted | "Well, yes, obviously that all factors in, but I - maybe we, I'm still not sure how off-center I am in this department - need to know what we'd do if it was really one or the other. If somebody's going to die and somebody's going to live - and it's for good, not 'oh we can just get them resurrected tomorrow' - and you have to pick - I have to know that. And - and I want to know what anybody who might pick me would pick. Lexi and I worked it out between ourselves, and I'd given up on our parents ever telling, and then - there was Brilliance." Her voice gets mousier as she proceeds through this paragraph. |
Author: pythbox | "...well now I want to hug you," says Jellybean. |
Author: incanted | "That won't actually clarify matters," Aurora points out, but she holds out her arms. |
Author: pythbox | "I know, but," he says, and he hugs her. |
Author: incanted | "You smell like candy," mumbles Aurora as she hugs him back. |
Author: lifes_sake | "He does that. He's a Jellybean. He did it before too, but now it's enchanter's aura. You should get one." |
Author: incanted | "Yeah, I will, I just - have to figure stuff out. Order of operations. Aura is nice but not urgent." Aurora disentangles herself from hug. "Also 'Aurora's aura' will be a terrible tongue twister." |
Author: pythbox | Jellybean giggles.
"Well," he says, "if you want to know stuff about Brilliance's priorities, have you tried just coming up with hypothetical situations and asking him about them?" |
Author: incanted | "It's not just that, it's a whole tangled constellation of things of which that's the easiest to explain. And I did sort of try that anyway. And the answer was good enough - I mean, I'm dating him now, not just sort of awkwardly ogling him and getting needled by Lexi about it - but I'm still sort of bewildered is why I'm interviewing all the Bells with Jokers one at a time. Might talk to Shell Bell and Juliet too, they're not mono either." |
Author: pythbox | "So... I dunno, what are you looking for, here?" says Jellybean. |
Author: incanted | "An understanding of how everybody else managed." |
Author: lifes_sake | "I don't know if I'm any help. I pretty much - was presented opportunities and evaluated 'em on their own merits roughly one at a time," shrugs Cam, draping an arm around Jellybean's shoulders. "Which does not look like what you're doing even slightly." |
Author: incanted | "Not on an ongoing basis," says Aurora, "no." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Maybe I should get around to reading your mind," Cam says to Jellybean. |
Author: pythbox | "Maybe you should!" says Jellybean, snuggling up and kissing his cheek. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Standard-issue? Enchanter's? Is there a wizard kind the manual never told me about?" |
Author: pythbox | "There's not any good wizard kinds," he says. "I don't really care if it's standard or enchanter's or what." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Let's go with standard," says Cam, and he wishes, and has a peep, nuzzling the side of Jellybean's neck. |
Author: pythbox | Jellybean leans on Cam comfortably, and - loves him. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam sifts idly through visible thoughts, and pokes at the emotion blob, and,
"sorry Aurora we need to get a room right the fuck now," he growls, mostly in Jellybean's ear. |
Author: incanted | "...Good stuff, huh?" says Aurora, backing away. |
Author: pythbox | Jellybean grins, kisses Cam, and teleports them to an otherwise unoccupied node of the orgy chamber. |
Author: lifes_sake | [I should have done this fucking months ago, damn,] says Cam, by brainphone so he doesn't have to unseal his mouth from his boyfriend's. |
Author: incanted | Aurora has been abandoned by Cam and Jellybean, so she goes looking for Amariah. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah is over here! With Path the Don't Touch Me Shoulder Owl too. |
Author: incanted | "Hey," says Aurora, and she summarizes her difficulties. "So far the consensus seems to be that I should read Brilliance's mind, but - you don't read yours, do you?" |
Author: dark_light | "I do not," agrees Amariah. [Hey sweeties, you wanna come meet Aurora for a bit?] |
Author: pythbox | Jellybean giggles a little, mostly over brainphone, and wishes them both out of their clothes because who wants to bother doing it the long way around.
[I love you,] he says gleefully, [what did you think I meant by that?] |
Author: lifes_sake | [I don't know. Not this. I thought - that it sounded casual or something, I don't know, I wasn't paying enough attention obviously.] |
Author: truthwright | [Sure!]
Her sweeties appear, Kas fully clothed, Petaal as a white ferret on his shoulder. They have their aura out; Petaal appears extremely pettable to Amariah, and moderately so to Aurora. |
Author: pythbox | [Well, now you know better.]
Kisses. Lots of kisses. |
Author: incanted | "How come you guys don't have mindreading set up?" Aurora asks. |
Author: lifes_sake | [I know better and I am kind of high on knowing better. Damn. I love you.] |
Author: truthwright | "Didn't ever feel like it, I guess," shrugs Kas. |
Author: pythbox | [I love you too!]
Cuddly snuggly affectionate candy-flavoured kisses! |
Author: dark_light | Amariah reaches out to scritch Petaal. "It hasn't been a problem for us." |
Author: incanted | "I can imagine - well, not in much detail, but approximately imagine, looking in on Brilliance's thoughts and finding something staggeringly unassailably special to the point where everything else is a triviality. But I have no idea what you're doing." |
Author: truthwright | Petaal wriggles happily.
"She's petting me!" she says, turning up her aura of pettable. |
Author: dark_light | "There's that," says Amariah, "although it's not - I'm not sure. I can think of key events but they're not timed right to be causative instead of just emblematic. Like, I know I'm intensely important to my sweeties - they separated to save Path, to a first approximation humans just don't do that..." She taps her chin. "...It could have to do with my parents. They're still together and they shouldn't be, everybody else is divided between divorced and happily married. Maybe I have something un-standard installed about lack of - relationship freedom." |
Author: truthwright | "...Lack of relationship freedom meaning what?" says Kas. |
Author: dark_light | "Oh, Aurora's having more than Bell standard trouble adjusting to nonmonogamy," says Amariah, "so I'm thinking aloud about that a little." |
Author: incanted | "Your parents are - stuck somehow and that's bad and you don't want to be stuck or to get anyone else stuck?" Aurora hazards. |
Author: dark_light | "My mother's a witch like me, and witches in general are keenly aware of human partner mortality. As long as Ranata likes Charlie, she can't bear to leave him, because then he'd die at some point without her - I don't even have my afterlife figured out yet so I can't reassure her on that - and she'd never have the chance to change her mind. I don't have this problem because I have pretty much always considered the correct solution to be to research immortality. Which I successfully did even before getting minted." |
Author: truthwright | Kas hugs Amariah.
"Because you're awesome," he says happily. |
Author: dark_light | "I am awesome! So, maybe that's why I'm off-baseline on comfort-with-poly? It's not even just a matter of whether I need to mindread my sweeties to know they love me - I also sleep around more than a standard Bell, I need to give Cam a spin one of these days, I have this habit now of testing boys out for the rest of us. And that has nothing to do with reading anybody's mind, it's just fun and I see zero benefit to choosing not to have that kind of fun." Amariah nibbles her lip. "I wonder if you'd get much mileage out of talking to Golden. She's got to have some model of us in her head; she can't pull it off because, vampire, monogamous-as-hell husband, etcetera, but she's got a monogamous Bell's perspective on the poly ones." |
Author: incanted | "I guess I'll try her," laughs Aurora. "I ought to meet everybody anyway, right?" |
Author: dark_light | "That's the spirit. I got in on the ground floor of the Belltower, it must be kind of overwhelming to get pealed and find yourself one of a dozen, huh?" |
Author: truthwright | "Being one of lots is fun," Kas contributes. Petaal nods her small fuzzy head. |
Author: incanted | "I'm glad no one's trying to, like slow-drip all the new stuff into my life lest my head explode, but it's a bit much, yeah," laughs Aurora. |
Author: dark_light | "We might need some kind of procedure for slow-dripping when there are still more of us," says Amariah. "A smallish welcoming committee to go through the Bellbook with the new Bell and so on. And then a party." |
Author: incanted | "The Bellbook?" |
Author: dark_light | "Goddesses all! You haven't even been to the Belltower, have you, you've never left this world, you don't have a Janegem - we need some kind of checklist," mutters Amariah. "Jane, the book, please?" The Bellbook appears before her and Amariah catches it out of the air and hands it over. |
Author: incanted | Aurora reads the entire book, and then she writes in it. |
Author: truthwright | Kas reads over her shoulder.
"What's a device, anyway?" |
Author: incanted | "Brilliance is shaped like you when he's being a human, but he's also a deck of cards and a staff thingamabob sometimes," says Aurora, "and he was made by some people, who were seriously shitty, to have a lot of magic and destroy planets with it, which he was not on board with. And he attaches to a sorceress - me - in some way that I do not fully understand, but we have some magic privilege sorts of things with each other, like, this classy dress I'm wearing, that's a thing devices do is outfits. Not wardrobes, just specific magical-girl-type outfits called Barrier Jackets and this is mine." She tilts her head. "He sort of is also the Barrier Jacket, but not in a lot of detail, he said." But she pets the material of her skirt anyway. |
Author: truthwright | "Awww, that's cute," says Kas. |
Author: incanted | "He's kind of skittish about it because the people who made him were so shitty, but we're managing," shrugs Aurora. |
Author: truthwright | "People who make Jokers usually are. We deal." |
Author: incanted | "Do you usually have to spend four hundred years hopping around the universe in deck-of-cards form unable to pay significant attention to anything but not blowing up whatever planet you're visiting because you've got a control program installed after having only coincidentally escaped attempts at torturing you into being an obedient weapon? Or, not that exactly, but I was really hoping that was worse than the usual, because it's bad." |
Author: truthwright | "...I think the other new one's the only one who comes close," says Kas. "You'd have to ask them which one's worse." |
Author: dark_light | "For reference, we think Shell Bell's got the lousiest history of us, I think that holds even versus Sarion, but Sarion's competitive, so's Golden for a bit of it, but Sarion's got a trickier fix ahead of her and Golden was patched as soon as she found out her husband was alive, everybody else has had lesser or briefer shit happen to us. You?" |
Author: incanted | "...I think I'm basically untraumatized. I mean, the preventing Brilliance's control program from destroying the world when it turned out to have possessed Lexi was bad, but it didn't last long and I didn't find out Lexi was involved till it was over." |
Author: truthwright | "There's a pretty big gap for us between Brill and the demon with all the torture, and the next bunch down," says Kas. "Micaiah and Jellybean are the closest we've got to 'basically untraumatized', and, you know, they still had dads."
"We're probably a little ahead of the pack, actually," Petaal points out, and Kas nods.
"But Queenie might be ahead by more, after that thing with Voice." |
Author: dark_light | "Voice is the one who got Shell Bell," Amariah explains. "That template is - we're not sure about it, or at least there's no consensus. It's a Joker's-little-brother template, cropped up three times, Beast has one and Queenie's is Voice and Micaiah has one. Angela got Micaiah's little brother out young, though, she thinks he'll turn out all right. But he does not get to be in a room with Shell Bell." |
Author: truthwright | "It's really sad," says Kas. "I don't think we should have brothers." |
Author: dark_light | "Sweetie," says Amariah, "the kind of people who make you shouldn't have children, period." |
Author: truthwright | "But then there wouldn't be us, and I like that there's us." |
Author: dark_light | "Well, yeah," says Amariah, "frankly my parents should never have gotten married to begin with but that doesn't mean I don't like existing." |
Author: truthwright | "I like you existing, too!" |
Author: incanted | "I bet you do. Thanks for your help, I'm gonna find Golden," laughs Aurora, and she goes looking for Golden. |
Author: pythbox | Golden is over there! Coincidentally, so is Liselen, who is walking around the party with an adoring Lexi on his back. |
Author: incanted | "Hi, Lexi, hi, unicorn," says Aurora. "Hi, Golden." |
Author: lexicality | "This is Liselen!" says Lexi brightly. "I am riding a unicorn and this is the best day." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Hi, Aurora." |
Author: pythbox | "Hi, Aurora!" says Liselen. "Your sister is really excited about unicorns, it turns out!" |
Author: incanted | "There was a period when we were twelve when she pretty much wallpapered our room with art of unicorns," says Aurora. "I'm not particularly surprised. Anyway, Golden," and she summarizes her quandary yet again. "And Amariah thought I might want to talk to you just to figure out how you're modeling all the poly Bells." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "I'm not sure I'll be very helpful. I am mostly accomplishing the feat by modeling them as not vampires." |
Author: pythbox | "What's the difference with vampires?" wonders Liselen. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "It's an imperfect difference. Stella's Alice is a vampire; I'm not sure if it's his ingot power or sheer template attractor that leaves him capable of non-monogamy while mated. The literal original succubi who mated settled down when it happened and it doesn't seem to have affected Alice at all. But for the most part, vampires acquire mates and then no one else interests us." |
Author: pythbox | "Oh," says Liselen. "'Template attractor'... is he one of the ones like Isibel's demon?" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Alice is, yes. The template calls themselves Jokers, now." |
Author: incanted | "Now? Was it something else before?" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Whistles. As in 'bells and whistles'. When enough of them collected they objected to being - subordinated to our template in this way." |
Author: pythbox | "Huh," says Liselen. "'Bells and whistles'. Sounds like something you'd hear in Armethalieh." |
Author: incanted | "It's an expression on Earth. It means nifty little add-ons to something that's functional without them but better with. And it's super cute. I'm glad I wasn't already used to it, that'd be annoying to switch away from." |
Author: pythbox | "That is kind of cute," Liselen agrees. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Anyway, I don't think you can possibly be as monogamous as I am or you'd be repelled by the very question," says Golden. "I can live with gatherings of this sort only with some difficulty, and you'll notice I left my husband home." |
Author: incanted | "You have the standard history, though, so if you're different it's because you're a vampire, or because of Edward in particular, and if I'm different it's probably because of Lexi," says Aurora. |
Author: lexicality | "Just you wait till we find some Lexis without Bellas and I start explaining all my characteristics by talking about how I have a sister and it's all her fault," says Lexi. |
Author: incanted | "I'm glad I have you! It just means I wasn't plucked whole from the Standard Bell Mold," says Bella. "And I want to know how. You know I'm self-obsessed like that, I have to know how I tick, you're part of how I tick." |
Author: pythbox | "...What's the difficulty with gatherings like this?" wonders Liselen. "Is it all the people having sex in that room over there?" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Not exactly. Cam is the one Bell besides myself my husband can tolerate being around for any length of time. He finds the others unsettlingly like me while not being me, and has comparable problems with the fact that they are dating people who do not stand in a similar relationship to him. To be fair, Edward is not particularly popular with the other Bells or their loved ones either. Or did you mean me?" |
Author: pythbox | "I meant you," laughs the unicorn. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "While I can logically appreciate that if I had never met Edward, and if I were not a vampire and therefore subject to various features of vampire psychology, I would most likely not have been alone forever, it's somewhat difficult emotionally to observe eleven might-have-beens not one of whom comes home to anything like my husband." |
Author: pythbox | "Oh," says Liselen. "I guess that makes sense." |
Author: luminous_regnant | "It would be different if we were all dating unique people. It wasn't so bad when Stella was the only alt I knew about, although her Alice did not make a particularly good first impression. I'm the only one with a unique person, until and unless Pattern picks up someone who doesn't match," says Golden, shrugging. |
Author: incanted | "Is she looking?" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "If she were actively looking I'd expect her to loiter around the bevy of extra Sherlocks more than she does." |
Author: pythbox | "Not the extra Jokers?" wonders Liselen. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "The extras are significantly older than her - which has never been a problem for us, even me, but is not an enticement. And also both default to female pronouns, although I'm given to understand the underlying situation is more complicated." |
Author: incanted | "Also, don't they work for her?" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Queenie does. Ghosty is - helpfully visiting. I don't believe that would be an obstacle were Pattern interested, but she doesn't seem to be." |
Author: pythbox | "...What do female pronouns have to do with anything?" wonders Liselen. |
Author: luminous_regnant | "Except for Cam, and sort of Amariah but she claims it's only because daemons don't count in the same way, we're all straight," says Golden. "Shell Bell's special circumstances." |
Author: pythbox | "And straight means... you don't want to date female people?" the unicorn hazards. |
Author: incanted | "Given that we're female," clarifies Aurora. "If Cam were straight he wouldn't want to date male people." |
Author: pythbox | "Oh," says Liselen. "This sex stuff is complicated." |
Author: incanted | "It gets worse," laughs Aurora. |
Author: pythbox | "...How's it do that?" |
Author: incanted | "...I'm not sure how close to zero you're starting here." |
Author: pythbox | "Really, really close!" |
Author: luminous_regnant | "I don't believe I'd contribute particularly effectively to this conversation," remarks Golden, and she wanders off. |
Author: incanted | "Uh, well," says Aurora. "...Can't you magically sense sex things, is that not helping you out any here?" |
Author: pythbox | "Being able to feel pain doesn't make you a good healer," says Liselen. "I sense things, but I don't really have context for them; before one of you fixed me, I couldn't even be as close to you as I am right now without feeling like there were bugs under my skin." |
Author: lexicality | "I'm perfectly unicorn safe," says Lexi smugly. |
Author: incanted | "Yes, Lexi, sometime you can visit Thilanushinyel and see if any herds of unicorns want you to frolic amongst them and be fitted for flower garlands. Meanwhile, um. Okay. So, a majority of people - at least humans - are only interested in having sex with people who are not their same gender. Some people don't care either way, some people are only interested in people who are their same gender, some people don't want to have sex with anyone even after they grow up, and this is all complicated by the fact that gender is only usually a one-or-the-other thing." |
Author: pythbox | "Wow," says Liselen, blinking at her. "How do you sort it all out?" |
Author: incanted | "Look," says Aurora, "this is weird, where do little unicorns come from if unicorns can't be anywhere near nonvirgins unless they're patched like you?" |
Author: pythbox | He sidles uncomfortably away from her. |
Author: incanted | Aurora shrugs. "Never mind, then. I'm going to go talk to Angela." |
Author: pythbox | "Okay," says Liselen. |
Author: incanted | Angela's not hard to find. There she is! She gets the same explanation. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | [Love, have you met Aurora yet? She's trying to figure out how Bell-Joker relationships tend to work,] Angela tells her husband. |
Author: yovahs_kisses | [I haven't! I was distracted,] he says merrily. [Should I come and help?] |
Author: jovahs_heiress | [If now's a good time.] |
Author: yovahs_kisses | [Just a moment,] he says, and there is a pause, and then Micaiah appears and gives his wife a hug and a kiss. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | He gets these back in equal measure, and a wing wrapped around him. "Specifically, Aurora doesn't seem to understand how I'm so calm about you sleeping with other people." |
Author: incanted | "And I pretty much expect at this point to hear, 'But I don't know how much help I'll be, because I had a special circumstance that isn't like anyone else's special circumstance yet still made it particularly natural for me to fall into that pattern'," says Aurora, sighing. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Well, that's not exactly what I was going to say, but I did start out particularly motivated and with a general understanding of Edori habits. Though I believe many Edori are faithful to single lovers while they have them, it's not the norm, and they don't generally marry." |
Author: incanted | "Motivated because of the god thing?" |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Yes - not only did I expect that Micaiah had been chosen for me by someone smarter and better than myself," Angela snorts ruefully, "I also found that he'd be my requisite partner if I ever wanted to be Archangel. I later learned differently, but not before I was thoroughly attached by other means." |
Author: yovahs_kisses | "I love you," sighs Micaiah, snuggling his angel. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "And I you." |
Author: incanted | "You are just preposterously cute. But - like, alts are one thing, putting Jokers in a room together is apparently like putting magnets in close proximity - but other people?" |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "There was that time with Phebe... that was a problem," murmurs Angela. |
Author: yovahs_kisses | He presses his face into her shoulder and sighs unhappily. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Phebe is another angel at the Eyrie who doesn't like me," Angela explains to Aurora, settling her wing more snugly around Micaiah. "She interpreted Micaiah's - availability - as an opportunity to hurt me. And for political reasons I can't just announce to everyone that it isn't. Angels are often inconstant, but associated mortals, not so much. She believes that I forgave him for a betrayal, and her too, and I managed to present this in a way that so far doesn't have her telling the tale far and wide." |
Author: incanted | "My question is more about why it isn't a betrayal. I mean, maybe he never promised not to, that takes care of the technical sense of betrayal, but - you guys are married, you're going to have a baby, and you're not - keeping yourselves to yourselves. I don't completely get it." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "As it happens I do keep myself to ourselves," says Angela lightly. "Several of us do. I don't think Rose has looked outside her marriage for company, and I have no certain information either way about several of our other alts." |
Author: yovahs_kisses | "Cam fucked all of us a while back," Micaiah offers. "He's fun, I like him." |
Author: incanted | "Are there any Bells you don't like?" |
Author: yovahs_kisses | "Nah, don't think so," he says. "But some of them I haven't talked to much, so I don't have an opinion about them one way or another." |
Author: incanted | "Fair enough. I guess that's all I'm getting on my quest for information here, huh?" |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "I'm sorry I can't be more helpful." |
Author: incanted | "It's all right. I'm not sure I ought to even bother with Aegis, I know she and Sue grew up together and that's the mother of all special circumstances, but maybe Stella will have something to say. Or either of the ones with Sherlocks." |
Author: jovahs_heiress | "Stella and Alice met when she was your age and I don't think they began with any special circumstances at all," agrees Angela. |
Author: yovahs_kisses | Micaiah hugs his angel and grins. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | Angela wraps him up in arms and feathers and beams. |
Author: incanted | Aurora goes and looks for Stella. |
Author: self_composed | Stella hears the standard spiel.
[Hey Alice, Aurora is confused about how Bells manage to go poly and wants examples to go by.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Mmkay,] says Alice, and appears almost instantly. As is starting to be a pattern, the first thing he does is cuddle his Bell. |
Author: self_composed | "But I don't know how much help I'll be," says Stella, snuggling her Alice back. |
Author: incanted | "Because you have some kind of special circumstance?" |
Author: self_composed | "No, because I was not quite secure enough for my liking and my reaction involved turning Alice into a vampire. I mean, there were other reasons, but that one was in there." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice sighs. |
Author: incanted | "...Oh." |
Author: self_composed | Stella kisses Alice's cheek. "Sorry," she says, and it's not clear which of them she's addressing. "You'd think being able to read his mind would've done it, and it did, mostly, it jollied me along for months, I probably could've done with nothing but if I'd had to." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "...no, hang on," he says, "didn't you say you didn't make me a vampire so I'd be in magical vampire love with you forever?" |
Author: self_composed | "I made you a vampire because I thought you'd like it," Stella repeats. "...It occurred to me in the first place because Golden seemed. Like she felt - safer." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Did you not think about maybe telling me that," says Alice. |
Author: self_composed | "I probably should've. I probably would've if - no, I just should've, plain and simple," sighs Stella. "It's not like you were doing anything that made me feel unsafe." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Would've if...?" |
Author: self_composed | "If you hadn't wanted it to be a surprise and there'd been a conversation about it first. We spent the next several days pretty distracted." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "And then you just... kept being distracted," sighs Alice. "Until now."
He hugs Stella.
"I love you," he says, less happily than usual. |
Author: self_composed | "I love you too, I'm sorry," Stella murmurs. |
Author: incanted | Aurora's going to take a couple steps backwards now with a very uncomfortable look on her face. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "I liked that the hurting part was a surprise," he murmurs, "but maybe - not the rest of it." |
Author: self_composed | "I'm sorry," repeats Stella quietly. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He sighs again, and cuddles her a little. |
Author: incanted | Aurora thinks she has learned a potentially valuable lesson here. She leaves. |
Author: bellfounding | Pattern is milling around over here with a cup of that tea the elf made. She likes it. |
Author: incanted | Aurora's headed for Juliet, now, who already has her boyfriend on hand. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Hey Aurora, what's up?" |
Author: toblameforit | A Tony appears! His nametag says she can call him Fusion.
"Hi," he says. "So, you're the single one, right?" |
Author: incanted | "Uh, I set out to learn how Bells handle nonmonogamy and I'm less than evenly thrilled with the curriculum, but I guess that only makes it more essential to pick up, huh." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "And what have you learned so far?" inquires Sherlock. |
Author: bellfounding | "Well, for four years I was in this extremely committed relationship with being dead, but I dumped it," says Pattern. "Why d'you ask?" |
Author: self_composed | Stella's not so readily disentangled from the situation. She pokes at Alice's thoughts, when enough of a silence has elapsed to make her nervous. |
Author: toblameforit | ...Tony cracks up.
"Mostly because there are now twelve of you and I'm not totally sure about all the distinguishing features?" he says, still giggling. |
Author: incanted | "Mindreading is recommended, but apparently doesn't necessarily finish the job, depending on individual template instance," sighs Aurora, "and most of us have extremely convenient special circumstances." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He loves her. He loves her a lot.
But that's kind of the problem, isn't it? He loves her, and he can't ever stop doing that, and that is something she made happen on purpose, and when he asked her if that was why she made him think it wasn't, but then it turned out to be part of it after all. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "And now you are here to assess the Bellish reaction to sluts of a different feather?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Well! Yeah, I guess that is, sort of, my distinguishing feature, is that I am the single one, although I kind of wish it were something flashier," says Pattern. "I'm basically a standard Bell stripped down of everything warranting particular categorization. I don't even have a mental opacity because that'd commit me to a magic system. Let alone a boyfriend to let me pick a team if we ever play pickup softball, although I guess it'd just wind up being Joker-Havers versus Non-Joker-Havers." |
Author: self_composed | [I'm sorry,] she says again. |
Author: toblameforit | "At least you guys have distinguishing features," says Tony. "One of my alts had to name himself after the paint job on his favourite car. I mean, because it was his coin colour, but also: his coin colour is the paint job on his favourite car." |
Author: incanted | "If that's how you want to put it, yeah, I mean, Brilliance obviously comes with that installed out of the package, it's the Bells more than the significant others I'm trying to figure out here." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You could have Amariah test-drive him for you," says Juliet. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I know,] he says, hugging her gently. [I just don't know if—I don't know what to do about it, I don't know what you can learn from this, what you can do differently to make me not so sad about it, it's not like this is the kind of thing that happens twice.] |
Author: incanted | "That's - no, I don't think that's necessary, although it's been made very clear I had better not form an opinion about it if they decide to do it anyway." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well, no - I think Amariah would discreetly steer clear if you wanted her to - and even in general you can have opinions, you just can't expect them to do anything or land frictionlessly." |
Author: bellfounding | Pattern bites her lip and produces a triangle. "Notebook paper," she says dryly. |
Author: self_composed | [It's - ugh - it's not logically impossible to stop being a vampire. If you want to stop your ingot power will probably help, even though we can't send you through Downside like Nathan.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I tend to welcome opinions, even," says Sherlock. "Although mine is of course not the most immediately relevant preference." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [...okay,] he says. [I - don't even know if I want to, but I kind of feel better knowing it's an option.] |
Author: toblameforit | "I feel ya," laughs Tony. "Mine looks the inside of an arc reactor. My dad built one, and so did the dad of every other Tony who was born on the right kind of Earth." |
Author: self_composed | Stella shivers and hugs him. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He cuddles her. [What's up?] |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yeah, like - the paragraph uttered when we had our non-monogamy conversation started with the words 'unless you object', and to me that made a big, big difference," says Juliet. "I don't think that's what you're looking at with a Joker. I think the closest you're going to get is 'unless you want me to ineffectually pit myself against a fundamental part of my identity till I wind up breaking your heart anyway', which, you know, not a grand start to a relationship. Also our non-monogamy conversation happened while Sunshine's Tony was being dead and we were having a visit from another one, and I would have felt like a tremendous heel interposing myself there." |
Author: bellfounding | "Oh yeah, I remember hearing something about that being how you guys settled on nicknames. At least you have different coin colors from each other? Nobody seems to outright match, although the Bells with opacities all get solid glowy colors and the ones who don't all get more complicated designs." |
Author: self_composed | [I wanted it for fucked up reasons. That doesn't mean I didn't want it.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | "So I recall," says Sherlock. "And I do think I would've had some trouble if you'd objected to Tony, but you did not, and here we are." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I also had Shell Bell reassuring me about the ability of Sherlocks to effectively divide your time between Bells and Tonies," says Juliet. "I was willing to trust her on that one." |
Author: incanted | "Her I haven't talked to yet." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [You can have feelings about that,] says Alice, dropping a kiss on her shoulder. [And, you know, all things considered, I'd rather know about them than not.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | "She got," says Juliet, "a surprise that narrowly escaped qualifying as being cheated only by the barest of technicalities. And she fetched up okay." |
Author: toblameforit | "Yeah, if we all had arc reactors or something I would feel tragically generic." |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock snorts. |
Author: self_composed | [I think I freaked out Aurora. I think she's glad she heard that story because it means she's got fair warning against turning into me. I don't like that. I don't like that you might want to stop being a vampire specifically because you don't like the bond effect as opposed to any of the other effects.] |
Author: bellfounding | "Maybe you should see about getting an enchanter's aura," suggests Pattern. "Mine's not that great - it basically lets me switch between ninja and movie star, which, I really could have covered that with wishes if I needed to, but at least no other Bells have the exact same thing." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "They're seriously adorable," adds Juliet. |
Author: toblameforit | Tony laughs. "Knowing me, I'd end up with one that plays AC/DC all the time. ...Which would be kind of awesome, maybe you're right." |
Author: incanted | "I've heard. So basically your mechanism for dealing relies on things that don't apply to me, again. Grand." |
Author: bellfounding | "The Jokers get soundtracks, Angela gets accompaniment when she sings, I bet you'd wind up with something else," laughs Pattern. "The auras don't seem to lend themselves to repetition except for the soundtrack thing, the Jokers all have different other effects." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I still love you,] he says. [I still would love you, if I stopped being a vampire. I just - wouldn't - be forced to.]
It is an interesting fact of Aurum vampire physiology that they do not cry. |
Author: toblameforit | "That is kinda what I was getting at," he says, "with being all generic and stuff." |
Author: self_composed | Stella is silent. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He hugs her.
[C'mon, I know you're thinking something in there, it's not like you ever stop,] he says gently. |
Author: bellfounding | "Which Sherlock is yours?" Pattern asks. "I don't think I ever got, like, a chart, and the nametags don't say worlds, maybe they ought to." |
Author: self_composed | [Today of all days I am doubly glad that you cannot read my mind,] Stella murmurs. [Everything I'm thinking makes me feel like a terrible person and I am glad I can be a terrible person in private so it wouldn't hurt to look at myself more than it does.] |
Author: toblameforit | "Mine's Plus," he says. "The vampire with a soul who's not dating Juliet, since 'vampire with a soul' isn't unique anymore." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I don't think you're a terrible person,] says Alice. [I love you. And I don't want you to hurt yourself, but - I want to know.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Common theme, is it?" |
Author: self_composed | Stella swallows.
[I love you too,] she says first, because that's easy and definite.
And:
[Everything I can think of to say sounds defensive like I'm trying to have a fight and I don't want to have a fight.] |
Author: bellfounding | "I think all the other Bells expect me to feel at loose ends without a boyfriend and start loitering around the Sherlocks," muses Pattern. "Or possibly you Tonies, since Shell Bell has a thing with her Tony too." |
Author: incanted | "Utterly. I'm not even trying Aegis because she met hers when they were six. Amariah has unique parental example. Angela was particularly motivated. Cam was, until he started reading Jellybean's mind ten minutes ago, 'not as serious as the others', which whatever it means going forward means that he has as part of his basic equipments a capacity for less than serious relationships. Rose and Beast spent months with no company besides each other. Stella was apparently closest to feeling like I feel and she wound up doing something creepy that I would not and possibly cannot duplicate. I'm not even touching the question of Sarion because her circumstances are so blisteringly special that she was ninety percent braindead when the peal found her and we still don't know what's going to happen in the longer term." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Ugh, I know, poor Sarion, she's not even together with hers anyway and even if she gets good results later no one will blame you for not wanting to condition your brain into blankness like that." |
Author: incanted | "Was not even considering it, the idea makes me want to puke, I'm frankly impressed that she could do it even to save the world." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well, the unicorn your sister's riding around on apparently can communicate with something called the Wild Magic about upcoming apocalypses, so she did have the world-ending thing on good authority, I guess." |
Author: incanted | "Even still. You guys don't do mindreading, right?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "...No. It's under discussion." |
Author: toblameforit | "But you don't?" says Tony. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "The possibility exists, we just haven't gotten around to trying it." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Okay,] he says. [So now I know you don't want to have a fight.] |
Author: bellfounding | "Feel at loose ends? Not especially. I think they're ignoring the fact that all their boyfriends got pretty much dropped in their laps. I don't think any of them were actively looking at the time, unless you count Angela's general openness to divine command." |
Author: incanted | "When Cam started reading Jellybean he apparently was consumed with the desire to seize him and haul him off to privacy right then," says Aurora. |
Author: toblameforit | Tony shrugs and grins. "Maybe that can be your distinguishing characteristic someday," he suggests brightly. "'Bell Who Actually Went Out And Got Herself A Boyfriend On Purpose'." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Hmm," says Sherlock. |
Author: self_composed | [Okay, um. I am pretty good at having many reasons for doing things. And things that aren't exactly reasons but are positive features of the decision, or negative features of the alternatives, that I note. If the only facts of the situation had been that you would like turning into a vampire and I could be sure that you weren't going to wind up mated to anyone who wasn't me, then that would've, honestly, I swear, sufficed to induce me to turn you, if it had occurred to me. But yes, the reason the thought entered my head was because I wanted to be surer than I was that I could trust you, and that wasn't even all for personal relationship reasons even though that was there what with all the conversations we kept having about how you couldn't be sure you weren't going to fall for someone else as hard and suddenly as you did for me. We had only recently met the Joker and I did not get along with him and I didn't have Mary repeatedly explaining to me about how harmless Jokers with coins are or nearly a dozen other examples of the template telling me how harmless Jokers with Bells are. All I had to go on was you and him and the idea of you turning into what I knew of him made me sick and Golden was so completely secure. She knows like she knows arithmetic that she has Edward forever and always so long as they both shall live. His actual personality might not be my cup of tea, but you, you I love, and all I knew was that I had you as long as your brain didn't do anything else sudden and unexpected like it had already been shown to do. When you fell for me. Or anything unpleasant. When the Joker - existed.] |
Author: bellfounding | Pattern laughs. "Maybe. I don't know where to look, though, since so far it doesn't seem I'm inclined to loiter around the Sherlocks. They don't seem to be loitering around me either. Although, here you are." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Juliet giggles and shifts her weight. "That's cute." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [That is kind of fucked up,] he sighs, hugging her gently. |
Author: incanted | "Oh, adorable." |
Author: self_composed | [Yes. You asked.] |
Author: toblameforit | "Here I am!" he agrees. "Kind of flirting with you!" |
Author: bellfounding | Pattern laughs. "How come?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Yeah, 'cause I wanted to know. And now I do. And it's kind of fucked up,] he says. |
Author: self_composed | [Yep.] |
Author: toblameforit | "Uh..."
He shrugs.
"Felt like it?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He cuddles her some more. |
Author: bellfounding | Pattern laughs again. "I guess that's a good reason." |
Author: self_composed | Stella clings. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Hmm," Sherlock repeats, grinning. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "What?" laughs Juliet. "It's not like it's hard to haul me off to privacy as it stands." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice hugs her and pets her hair.
He loves her, too, but he's not sure that helps right now. |
Author: incanted | "Should I go preemptively find Shell Bell?" inquires Aurora. |
Author: toblameforit | Tony beams. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Oh, if you like." |
Author: self_composed | It's better than the alternative. She keeps up a shallow read, looking for anything else to grab hold of. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Juliet giggles again. |
Author: incanted | "Right then, off I go." |
Author: incanted | Aurora is now in search of Shell Bell! |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He doesn't like feeling like Stella wants fucked up things, but the fact remains, those were some pretty fucked up reasons for wanting to turn him. And he's glad he knows what they are, now, and glad she's not trying to tell him they're not fucked up, but it still doesn't feel resolved. He doesn't really know what he wants. Maybe he wants Stella not to want fucked up things, but she's still Stella and he still loves her, fucked up things and all. He doesn't want to change who she is to make himself feel better; that seems like a bad, and also terribly ironic, solution. |
Author: sicaria | Surprising exactly no one, Shell Bell is with her Sherlock! |
Author: self_composed | [I would offer to turn into a vampire too but I don't think you want me to become more monogamously inclined than I currently am.] |
Author: incanted | "Hey guys," says Aurora. "I am on an increasingly futile-seeming quest to figure out how Bells learn to handle open relationships." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I don't know how much help I'll be," says Shell Bell. |
Author: incanted | "Of course you don't. Nobody does. Humor me?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Well, it's just that I agreed to it on the strength of hearsay about Stella having done it, and then just - failed to have an actual issue about nonmonogamy per se after that." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I really don't!] he says. [That would be worse.] He sighs again; hugs her some more. [I think I'm gonna stop being a vampire. It doesn't feel right anymore.] |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock smiles brightly. |
Author: self_composed | Stella swallows.
[Okay.] |
Author: incanted | "...But Stella wound up turning Alice into a vampire for reasons that appear to be at least partly motivated by insecurity." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Are you having feelings again?] he asks, snuggling her. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...I did not know that. Um, but I still wound up doing all right, even if my original reason for suspecting I'd do all right turned out not to be so sound?" |
Author: self_composed | [Constantly.] |
Author: sicaria | "I did not know that either," says Sherlock. "And yet here we are, seemingly untroubled." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I love you. I want to know about your feelings. Even if they're sad feelings that are going to make me sad.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah, I don't especially want to turn you into a vampire, that would be really awkward whichever way the bond wound up shaking out." |
Author: incanted | "Okay, but, how did you do it, you didn't just go 'Stella did so I can too' and then leave the contents of 'can' completely blank, did you?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I guess the timing on my special circumstances might have contributed?" says Shell Bell. "I was already trying to get into a headspace where I could be with Sherlock, and then that turned out to be part of the deal unless I wanted to make a fuss, and I still wanted her and didn't find myself motivated to fuss, so -" She shrugs. "I didn't find out about Tony until later. The actual nonmonogamy conversation made it sound like it was much more up to me than it probably would have been if I'd registered an objection to him in particular and Sherlock didn't have him on her mind right then." |
Author: sicaria | "I would not have been able to give up Tony," says Sherlock. "Though I suppose I would also have been mildly reluctant to give up other Sherlocks." |
Author: self_composed | [Mostly variations on the theme that you've already heard. I am not as sure as you are that you will still love me. If I were we wouldn't have this problem in the first place.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Then I'd better stop being a vampire,] says Alice, ['cause then you'll know.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "And if you'd had to pick you would have been upset, and I didn't want you to be upset," says Shell Bell contently. |
Author: incanted | "I'm sure you hear this about thirty times every time you show up to one of these parties," says Aurora, "but you guys are really freaking cute." |
Author: self_composed | [If you're right. If it stays.] |
Author: sicaria | "I have yet to tire of being reminded," says Sherlock, pecking her Bell on the cheek. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell beams and kisses her Sherlock back. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [If what stays? Me loving you? I'm a Joker,] he says. [We love. I loved you before; I'll love you after.] |
Author: incanted | "Okay. I'm planning to skip Aegis, since she grew up with Sue and if that doesn't scream special circumstances I don't know what does." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "They were just friends for almost a decade," offers Shell Bell, "you could try her anyway just for completeness." |
Author: self_composed | Stella swallows. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I will,] he says, [I know I will, why are you the only one who gets to know things about yourself?] |
Author: sicaria | "It is always possible you might learn something," says Sherlock, hugging her Bell. Because she feels like it. |
Author: self_composed | [Years of practice, template specialty. If you're going to do it do it and I can stop holding my breath.] |
Author: incanted | "Aww." Aurora nods. "Okay. Thank you," she adds. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell nuzzles her Sherlock. "You're welcome!" |
Author: incanted | And now Aurora's looking for Aegis. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I don't know how - I'll go figure it out,] he says, and he teleports somewhere. The Joker's asteroid is the first place that comes to mind.
Awww, the Joker must've been here already in this universe. That's cute. |
Author: autokinetic | Aegis listens to the spiel, agrees that she's probably not much help, but regardless birds at her Sue, Hey, want to meet Aurora? |
Author: pythbox | Sure!
And lo, there is her Sue. |
Author: self_composed | Stella finds an unoccupied corner of party, and turns invisible just for completeness, and holds very still, and reads. |
Author: autokinetic | "Hey my bird. Aurora's confused about how Bells do poly and we don't think I'll help much but she's asking us anyway just for completeness." |
Author: incanted | "Bird?" asks Aurora. |
Author: autokinetic | "When we were kids we played this game and his avatar was a bird," says Aegis. "We spent more time together in it than out of it and when I needed to work at it to let him link me I had to concentrate on him being the bird." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | It's going to need an evil to dig vampireness out of his torching template. He doesn't have any on hand, and it would feel vaguely weird to ask Stella to give him one, since she's so unsure about this in the first place. So he sets himself on fire.
It takes him a few tries, about thirty stars' worth, but he manages an evil in the end. He uses an existing star to declaw the new ones - ever since the Jokers were let in on the secret, some of them have taken to carrying all their coins declawed, even the hexes - and then uses one of those to declaw the evil.
Then he designs the wish.
He wants to stop being a vampire. He can get rid of his also-permanent air filter while he's at it. He should also be immune to vampire venom, because it seems not-impossible that he might want to get bit at some point; he'll take the Joker's version of immunity, which is linked to his regeneration and therefore hurts a lot, that's always fun.
He can go either way on the brainspace available to vampires, but the depth of emotional processing - he's keeping that, in some other form that won't lead to him still having a mate bond by accident. He bets his power will help sort that one out. He wonders what Lazarus would say about its attitude to his mate bond now. They are probably not snuggling so happily anymore.
Is that it? He thinks that's it. |
Author: self_composed | Stella can't think of anything else. |
Author: pythbox | Sue helpfully squares up an illusion of his bird-avatar, with its candleflame wings and many-hued body. |
Author: incanted | "Pretty." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Okay.
Alice wishes.
Then he sets himself on fire again. |
Author: autokinetic | "So anyway, we were kids, and then I figured he was gay, and then I found out he wasn't, and you'd have to swallow a lot of vacuum not to think he's cute," says Aegis, wrapping her arms around his arm. "And I knew perfectly well by then that sleeping around is just a Sue thing. Asking him not to would make about as much sense as asking him to boycott, like, toast, he is not going to feel any different about me if he has toast for breakfast." |
Author: self_composed | He may or may not notice the read flickering away for a split second.
After that she recovers her resolve and forces herself to watch. |
Author: pythbox | "Also I like sex more than I like toast," Sue says brightly, squeezing Aegis's hand. |
Author: autokinetic | "At least now that you're basically cured of Unhealthy Sue Behavior." |
Author: incanted | "Unhealthy Sue Behavior," says Aurora blankly. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He burns; he torches.
He comes back human-shaped and human-brained, although a somewhat bigger human brain than most, and bigger in unusual directions. It's a good shape for his mind to be. He likes it.
And he still loves her, just like he knew he would, but now loving her doesn't hurt anymore. It doesn't feel like something that was forced on him. It's all his, all him, all real.
He loves her a lot. |
Author: self_composed | [I love you.] |
Author: pythbox | "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." |
Author: incanted | "Should I worry about Brilliance doing that?" |
Author: bellfounding | "So you're an engineer, right? What are you working on?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I love you too,] he says happily. [Oh, I know what I forgot - sensory stuff, wow, being a human is so muffled. Wanna come make me another evil? Better start out at pentagon, though, my pain processing's gotta be back to human levels too.] |
Author: self_composed | Stella obligingly appears, de-invisibled, and takes one of his hands in hers, and starts in medium pentagon range. Flavor of the day: mock vampire venom. She thinks he might appreciate the irony. |
Author: pythbox | "Far as I can tell, I'm the only Joker who did," he shrugs. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I love yoooou,] says Alice, hugging her. And hey, now he can hug her and she won't squish! |
Author: incanted | "I mean, is the setup that led to that something that might happen to Brilliance even if the others have avoided it." |
Author: self_composed | They already had that patched. But yes, he can hug her.
She slides up the positive integers, head pillowed on his chest. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He gives her the squishiest hug his human body is capable of delivering and loves her a lot. |
Author: self_composed | Up-and-up-and-up. He smells a little different now; she hadn't particularly noticed the change the other way, it was so gradual, but there it is. It's not disagreeable or anything. She doesn't mention it. |
Author: pythbox | "I don't think so. It wasn't the same guy or anything, he got the Earth standard version." |
Author: incanted | "That guy is a recurring template? Eugh." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Through pentagons to hexes, through hexes to stars. He keeps right on snuggling her. It feels different, moving around in this body. He likes it a lot. |
Author: self_composed | Snuggles and agony beam and her own simmering-down anxiety. Stella closes her eyes. |
Author: pythbox | "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." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He loves her, he loves her, he loves her he loves her he loves her. There's not much room in his head right now for anything else. |
Author: self_composed | She carries on right up into evil range. |
Author: autokinetic | "He was set up," growls Aegis, "as a psych test." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice produces evils. Evils and love. |
Author: incanted | "Holy crap." |
Author: self_composed | She stops there unless it is suggested that she should do otherwise, in either direction. |
Author: pythbox | "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." |
Author: autokinetic | "And they let him see how to get into rooms. Our room." |
Author: incanted | "What'd you do?" asks Aurora softly. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | After three, he says lazily, [Okay, I'm done, back it off.] |
Author: self_composed | Half-half-half-half-until she's in pentagons again and shuts the beam down. |
Author: pythbox | "I froze up, he beat up Aegis, I unfroze, he beat me up for a bit, then I killed him." |
Author: incanted | "Damn." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice wraps his arms around her and kisses her on the cheek. Snuggly snuggly snuggly. |
Author: autokinetic | "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." |
Author: self_composed | Snuggles. |
Author: pythbox | "Because they're assholes," Sue suggests. |
Author: incanted | "It sure sounds like it, yeah." |
Author: autokinetic | "And they raised us from age six!" says Aegis chirpily. "Which is why I'm so well adjusted." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Snuggles!
[I love you,] he says, and designs himself vampire-level supersenses to work with his human body, and uses one of his new declawed evils to both implement them and add them into his torching template.
Mmmmmmm, snuggles. Also, kisses. They should definitely be kissing right now. |
Author: self_composed | Kisses. Kisses are good. Stella approves. |
Author: toblameforit | "Some classified stuff... a laser pointer Sherry can keep around without setting himself on fire by accident... restoring an old car... I dunno, stuff," he says. "Iron Man built himself a particle accelerator, I'm kind of tempted to try that." |
Author: bellfounding | "Ooh, classified stuff. What are particle accelerators for?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Kisses! Lovely kisses. Many lovely kisses.
[Do you still not want to fuck on the Joker's asteroid even when it's not technically the same one?] he asks. ['Cause if so, maybe we should go somewhere else.] |
Author: self_composed | [I am too relieved right now to care.] |
Author: toblameforit | "They are for accelerating particles!" laughs Tony. "Um - physics stuff. He used it to synthesize an element that makes a really efficient catalyst for cold fusion." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Awesome,] says Alice, and kisses her again. |
Author: bellfounding | "Nifty. Does it scale? That's the advantage science has over magic, pretty much, is that it scales better." |
Author: self_composed | Kisses kisses kisses! |
Author: toblameforit | "Tech...nically yes," says Tony, "but you'd have to ask him about the details, I still haven't actually seen this stuff." |
Author: bellfounding | "Gonna collaborate or figure it out for yourself as a puzzle?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Figure it out, of course." |
Author: pythbox | Sue snorts and hugs Aegis. |
Author: bellfounding | "No of course about it, depends on whether you're interested in the solution or the process and whether you're in a hurry." |
Author: autokinetic | Hugs! |
Author: incanted | "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." |
Author: toblameforit | "It's an of course for me." |
Author: bellfounding | "Well," says Pattern, "I guess that tells me whether you're usually in a hurry and whether you usually care about process or results more, then, doesn't it." |
Author: pythbox | "You're welcome!" says Sue. |
Author: autokinetic | "Anytime," laughs Aegis. |
Author: toblameforit | "I'm not never in a hurry, but if I was in a hurry to have Iron Man's arc reactor I'd have one already," he explains. |
Author: incanted | Aurora wanders into the throng of party guests, at a bit of a loose end. |
Author: bellfounding | "Ah. I should have been more specific. Whether you ever attend parties while in a hurry." |
Author: toblameforit | He snorts. |
Author: bellfounding | "What all do you do besides engineering, or is that your all consuming passion?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Um... engineering and Sherry," he says, "pretty much. And cars. But cars are related to engineering." |
Author: bellfounding | "I suppose they are. I sort of have a car. Charlie never got rid of the station wagon I had, when I died, so it's still around." |
Author: toblameforit | "Guess you don't have much use for one, with all the magic, huh?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Right, I mostly teleport places now, if I feel like indulging in sheer travel-related delight I fly." |
Author: toblameforit | "Driving's fun," says Tony, "but I think that's a me thing, not a general people thing." |
Author: bellfounding | "I think flying's pretty universally compelling, except for people scared of heights," says Pattern, hopping a few inches into the air. |
Author: toblameforit | "Flying sounds awesome!" says Tony. "But I wanna do it myself, you know?" |
Author: bellfounding | "And having a stable magic superpower for it doesn't count?" |
Author: toblameforit | "It'd still be somebody else giving it to me. I want to invent it myself - well, build it at least, Iron Man did the inventing already." |
Author: bellfounding | "But if you had a magic system where you could do your own detail work that'd do it?" |
Author: toblameforit | "I don't know, what do you mean by detail work? We have a magic system, it's kind of shit," he says. |
Author: bellfounding | "I don't know, I just have the standards. Enchantress, mint, stack of utterly Bell-typical wished powers, I was going to copy Sarion's elfmagery but the unicorn over there said that would be a bad idea. But if there was some magic system as fiddly as the laws of physics and not actively awful like the Sunshine worldfamily magic is would you like that?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Maybe, I dunno, I guess I still wouldn't feel like it was mine," he says. "...Which the laws of physics totally are, of course." |
Author: bellfounding | "Are they really." |
Author: toblameforit | "Yep." |
Author: bellfounding | "Extravagant Christmas present? A kickass find on your most recent archaeological dig? Inheritance? Built them yourself out of spare parts?" |
Author: toblameforit | He giggles helplessly. |
Author: bellfounding | "Ah, I see, you annexed the laws of physics, stuck a flag in them, and gave the natives smallpox." |
Author: toblameforit | "That is terrible," snorts Tony, "that is a terrible joke, also isn't that what you guys do to your entire universes?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Stella's the only with an actual flag design, and Mars had no natives," says Pattern, waving a hand. "Golden and Shell Bell are revolutionaries against unjust governments, Angela plans to take office in a manner perfectly typical for her planet, I think Aegis actually plans to try getting elected, Rose is licitly a marquise by marriage and if she's annoyed her monarch yet I haven't heard about it, Amariah's doing diplomacy to witch clans, Cam and Aurora and Sarion haven't taken anything over yet, I guess Juliet is being sort of annexy but I'm taking a leaf out of Stella's book except for Mars read Saturn." |
Author: toblameforit | "Okay, sure," he says. "Like, I don't think it's bad necessarily, I just definitely get the impression that you guys are kind of proprietary about your worlds." |
Author: bellfounding | "We talk about jurisdiction and not stepping on each other's toes and so on, and we do feel entitled to name them, but that's pretty much just to cooperate more effectively. If Sarion never recovers enough to take care of her world, she'll let us help. If Golden's husband kicks it and she has to abdicate in her daughter's favor, we'll help Elspeth. We don't have it worked out yet what we're going to do about worlds that haven't got Bells in when ours are running smoothly. Especially since it's not impossible that the other worlds will have Bells crop up in them later. I have no clue what we'd do if we found a very small Bell, come to think of it, it's not impossible, Shell Bell found Milliways when she was six." |
Author: toblameforit | "...Or, like, a world that's doing fine without you guys," Tony suggests, "I'm pretty sure that's theoretically possible." |
Author: bellfounding | "Yeah, sure, one of those we'd want to, like, talk to it, set up trade and a Janepoint and so on, but we wouldn't have to run it if it was really fine and populated by happy peaceful immortals." |
Author: toblameforit | "Do you know what you'd do if somebody popped up in one of your worlds who was better at running it than you are?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Would probably depend on the world and the other person. If somebody popped up in my Origin who was honestly a better person for the job, I'd probably move, there's like seventy worlds hooked into Downside with no Bells, I checked them, I could go set up there. If somebody showed up who could do all our jobs put together better than us, we'd, I don't know, read a lot, get kind of antsy, I'd probably start looking for a boyfriend on purpose around then." |
Author: toblameforit | "A boyfriend to, what, distract you from the excruciating boredom of not running a universe?" he teases. |
Author: bellfounding | "Yes!" |
Author: toblameforit | He laughs. |
Author: bellfounding | "I mean, perhaps I could've settled into something less grandiose if I'd never met the peal, if I were just stuck in a nonmagic world and didn't know there was anything else, maybe I'd go to med school or do engineering like you, I don't know, but now it'd be such a step down." |
Author: toblameforit | "That's cute," says Tony. "And possibly unhealthy. But cute." |
Author: bellfounding | "Which part of what scenario here would be unhealthy?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Uh... it would kind of suck if you couldn't deal with not being world dictator or whatever?" |
Author: bellfounding | "We need things to do. We can entertain ourselves, to a point, but I want to accomplish stuff, not just mess around." |
Author: toblameforit | "...Isn't that going to really suck in like a thousand years when you don't have any problems left to solve, though?" |
Author: bellfounding | "So far we're finding stuff faster than we're accomplishing it!" |
Author: toblameforit | "...That's terrible, though!" says Tony. "Either you spend the rest of forever knowing you have so much work to do you will literally never get it all done, or you finish it all and then get bored? Oh my god that's so depressing!" |
Author: bellfounding | Pattern laughs. "The work is good, though, the work is fun, never getting it done is only a problem insofar as a lot of the work involves helping people who ideally wouldn't have to wait on us but as long as we're the only game in town we can live with it if they keep coming. And, you know, in the course of all this finding-stuff we are also acquiring more things to do with downtime, I might get antsy but I wouldn't technically be bored with a few million universe's supplies of books and movies and games and people and tourist destinations, you know? They make those faster than we can use 'em up, even boosted for speed. Besides, does your endgame look any less depressing than that, do you think there's literally infinite things to invent?" |
Author: toblameforit | "...You know, I haven't thought about it before," he says, "but I actually think I do. I mean, technology isn't just about planting a flag in the laws of physics - it's not about what you can do, it's about what you want to do and what you need to do, and people's wants and needs don't stay static forever. I don't think there's some kind of ceiling on what we can do with technology, and even if there is, if I ever reach the point where I literally can't think of anything else I want to invent because all of the cool shit exists already, I will be totally willing to retire and play with my toys for the rest of ever." |
Author: bellfounding | "The fact that people's wants and needs don't stay static applies to us, too," Pattern points out. "People are going to go on having cultural shifts - maybe not as fast once we've got Downside emitting dead people as smoothly as we're hoping and cultural shifts can no longer happen in the form of old people dying, but we'll still have stuff to react to." |
Author: toblameforit | "...I don't know, if I were you, I'd be working towards a society that could handle itself without me," he says. "Like, and then I wouldn't abandon it or anything, but the optimal system is the one that's self-maintaining, you know?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Sure, I agree," says Pattern. "But that doesn't mean we'll have nothing to do, it just means we'll wind up doing something that's - scaled a little differently. We like inventing things too; we're more magic geeks than engineering ones but I'd consider it a satisfying day's work if I determined that my society could really use, like, a system that sprockles the widgets, and then I concocted one. Especially if for legacy reasons I get to wear a crown while I'm doing it." (Pattern doesn't in fact wear a crown yet; no one has moved to her Saturn so far and she considers it premature.) "Our gig isn't ruling - that's mostly cosmetic and practical. And also vanity. Our gig is finding things that don't work well enough and making them work better." |
Author: toblameforit | "Okay, but I dunno, I feel like if that was my goal I would be actively looking forward to eventually having everything work perfectly," he says. "...Man, I'm such an engineer." |
Author: bellfounding | "Of course everything working perfectly's the goal," says Pattern. "But exactly what constitutes perfection might change over time." |
Author: toblameforit | "Well, then you just need meta-perfection," he suggests. |
Author: bellfounding | "That could keep me busy for a long time, figuring that one out." |
Author: toblameforit | "Probably, yeah!" |
Author: bellfounding | "And I have a long, long time to think about what to do with eternity, anyway." |
Author: toblameforit | "Also true," says Tony. |
Author: bellfounding | "And we both have a long time to pick up distinguishing features!" |
Author: toblameforit | He giggles. |
Author: bellfounding | "My world isn't exactly standard Earth, so there's that, I have a Gotham and most places don't. It's just nonstandard in a way unrelated to my pre-pealing backstory." |
Author: toblameforit | "A Gotham?" |
Author: bellfounding | "It's this city. It's not very pleasant or safe, several Jokers come from there. I think the nearest equivalent elsewhere is New York City, except we also have New York City, it's just not very big or important." |
Author: toblameforit | "Oh, huh," says Tony. "Okay. That's weird, to have one city different between the worlds like that." |
Author: bellfounding | "I think it's just the one. I mean, there's suburbs, too, but I haven't run into anyone talking about other major geographical or political differences that aren't chalked up to Bell activity." |
Author: toblameforit | "That is really weird, which worlds have it and which ones don't?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Origin does, Ghosty's original world does, Queenie's original world does. I didn't check all the miscellaneous unbelled Downside-attached worlds for it - Jane?" |
Author: mind_game | [Two of the miscellaneous unbelled Downside-attached worlds have Gothams, the rest don't.] |
Author: toblameforit | "Weird," says Tony. |
Author: mind_game | [If Jokers are going to appear in them it won't be soon. One is currently experiencing 1877 and the other one 1908.] |
Author: bellfounding | "I guess we have time to figure out what in the world we'll do if we become aware of a baby Joker. I should ask one of the grown ones about that," laughs Pattern. |
Author: toblameforit | "I, uh, haven't had a lot of social contact with the Jokers," says Tony, "except at that one party. Would a baby one be some kind of problem?" |
Author: bellfounding | "They have terrible dads," says Pattern seriously. |
Author: toblameforit | "...Like, 'my misery will make a funny story in ten years' terrible or 'take the kid away right now' terrible?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Um, considering how Jokers are, those are not wholly incompatible, but I would pretty much not feel right about not kidnapping any baby Joker of whom I became aware." |
Author: toblameforit | "Gotcha," says Tony. "Okay." |
Author: bellfounding | "...Now I'm wondering what to do if Jane notifies us of some world's Renée and Charlie getting married. Like, the standard Earth version get divorced. We don't have unhappy childhoods really, but it seems like it would be nice of us to warn that Renée and Charlie." |
Author: toblameforit | "...If you did warn them, though, would that mean a you not existing who could've?" |
Author: bellfounding | "Presumably, yeah, but, like, all kinds of people could exist who are not existing for good reasons, most saliently it not being a good idea for their theoretical parents to have a kid, and whether 'you are overwhelmingly likely to get divorced' is a good enough reason or not shouldn't necessarily change based on whether they'll get a Bell if they have a kid before doing that. Besides," Pattern shrugs, "Aurora has a twin sister, so maybe they sometimes get a Lexi instead." |
Author: toblameforit | "I don't know," says Tony, "if I heard there was a twelve-year-old me about to clone himself, I would, like... probably give him a hug, but I wouldn't stop him. I don't think Sherry'd want me to." |
Author: bellfounding | "Okay, but, like - Angela's pregnant. They're probably going to have a bunch of kids because of angel cultural stuff, let's say it's six. And based on what we know about how templates work, that's a very good piece of information for all the other Bell-Joker pairs about how they'd have kids if that happened. I bet Jane doesn't count, although if Angela manages to have a little winged biological Jane I will be super impressed with template attractors, like, as a force in the multiverse. So say Rose meets all of Angela's kids and she doesn't get along so great with kid number three. And say that Rose would've had three kids, but decides to stop at two because she doesn't like Angela's third kid. I think that would be a good thing for Rose to do, to stop at two, even though somebody who presumably likes existing doesn't get to exist a second time. I think it would be good for us to warn a standard Renée and Charlie. But they could decide from there." |
Author: toblameforit | "I guess," says Tony. "Man, this shit is complicated." |
Author: bellfounding | "And you were worried about me getting bored," scoffs Pattern. |
Author: toblameforit | "Bored or depressed!" says Tony. "Don't forget depressed." |
Author: bellfounding | "All right, I guess we haven't precluded 'depressed'," laughs Pattern. "But I feel pretty okay so far. Kind of annoyed about the distinguishing features thing but something will crop up eventually." |
Author: toblameforit | "I bet it will!" says Tony. |
Author: bellfounding | "I really wonder how templates work. It's so peculiar. We all seem to have different sorts of attractors. Like, Atlantis Sherlock and Tony are actually twins, but the Sherlock name appears even without the usual explanation. Our names don't seem to work the same way. My parents even told me once that if I'd been a boy they'd have named me Alexander - I guess that's where Lexi's name came from, but for some reason Cam is named Campbell and not Alexander. And then Rose has a last name that means 'swan' in her pseudo-French but the first name seems to center around the sound." |
Author: toblameforit | "And if you look at the Tony-and-Sherlock pairs," says Tony, "it kind of seems like Sherry's the one who matters and we're just along for the ride, and then you have the one Tony who's never had a Sherlock and the one Sherlock who's never had a Tony and Iron Man is basically a Tony but Strat actually was Sherlock Holmes, like, in the 1800s." |
Author: bellfounding | "Yeah, I have no idea what's up with that, the way Sherlocks vary so much more," says Pattern, shaking her head. "It's like, you've got the Tony template, being its own thing, and that can work on its own, observe Iron Man. And if you reach into templatespace in a particular way by cloning yourselves, or if you're a twin, then you get a version of Strat, who also works on his own, and the templates sort of know who to be well enough to spot and deliberately emulate fiction about him, which, don't ask me, did Pearl even have access to the books?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Nope!" |
Author: bellfounding | "So the name can, causally, come from the books, but doesn't have to, it will fly out of nowhere and attach to the template however it can. The template features can, causally, come from deliberate emulation, but they don't have to." |
Author: toblameforit | "Yep, sounds about right," says Tony. "...I wonder what happens if a Bell clones herself." |
Author: bellfounding | "Probably not a Lexi. Although maybe a Lexi, if genes don't matter that much, she'd just look different, it's not like you could mistake me for Cam. Even Rose looks different from the rest of us without any obvious reason to, she's super pretty. I should wish up a genome sequencing lab and attach Jane to its outputs and have her tell us how we all match up." |
Author: toblameforit | Tony laughs. "Well, don't try it," he says. "The cloning thing, I mean. Totally try the gene sequencing." |
Author: bellfounding | "Yet you wouldn't stop a twelve-year-old you who was going to try the cloning thing," observes Pattern. |
Author: toblameforit | "Yeah, because I know Sherry, and I know the clone would be a Sherry. We don't know who a cloned you would be. And even though it turns out well when it's Sherry, 'for science' is a bad reason to have kids." |
Author: bellfounding | "Golden didn't exactly have Elspeth for politics, but she had her when she had her because she needed an explanation for removing one of the Volturi's human servants," Pattern volunteers. |
Author: toblameforit | "...That seems kind of sketchy, but I wasn't there, so maybe it was the best idea going," shrugs Tony. |
Author: bellfounding | "Well, the alternatives were leaving Elspeth's surrogate mother to die, or delivering some sort of speech to the people-eating paranoid trigger happy vampire rulers of the world about the value of human life." |
Author: toblameforit | "Yep. So, best idea going." |
Author: bellfounding | "I mean, people have kids because of accident all the time, I'm not sure scientific motivations are worse than 'whoops' and 'whoops' kids routinely turn out fine. I have no imminent plans to clone myself, though." |
Author: toblameforit | "I dunno, like, the danger with cloning yourself for science is that if you're doing it for science and not for the kid then you might end up caring about the science more than the kid, or not knowing what to do with them once you've got 'em, and I mean I fully acknowledge that I'm projecting here but it just - it could have been so not worth it." |
Author: bellfounding | "I'm not going to produce any kids I don't plan to rear in an appropriate and caring manner, regardless of ulterior motive." |
Author: toblameforit | "Well, then maybe you're safe," he says. "But I still don't think you should clone yourself. ...Although come to think of it, that would make a pretty good distinguishing feature." |
Author: bellfounding | "It would! But I'm still not going to do it, at least not in the near future. Golden kind of had to have her kid when she was seventeen, that doesn't mean I should even if that were the only reason to avoid it. Even if I was chronologically born twenty-one years ago." |
Author: toblameforit | "Being dead makes everything weird," says Tony. |
Author: bellfounding | "So weird! My parents took my return with surprising aplomb, really." |
Author: toblameforit | "I'm glad!" |
Author: bellfounding | "Your parents are dead, right? Did you want them fetched? I haven't heard about you asking but if you asked somebell else or went through Jane directly I might not have been told." |
Author: toblameforit | He sighs. "...I don't know, whatever, it's complicated." |
Author: bellfounding | "...Don't wanna talk about it?" |
Author: toblameforit | "They kind of ignored me for most of my life, so you know, while I'm glad they're not going to stay dead forever, I don't really need them to be dragged out of the afterlife ASAP." |
Author: bellfounding | "Okay." Beat. "Rose is going to fetch her Renée soon. She died when Rose was a kid for some reason. None of the rest of us have dead parents." |
Author: toblameforit | Tony shrugs. |
Author: incanted | +Hey Brilliance, you interruptable?+ |
Author: cardistry | +Pretty much,+ he says in a contented snuggly sort of tone. +What's up?+ |
Author: incanted | +I have now talked to every Bell except the single one and the broken one about how Bells do poly and it didn't help much.+ |
Author: cardistry | +Oh,+ says Brilliance. +...I thought we had that covered, did we not have that covered?+ |
Author: incanted | +Enough to be getting on with. Not perfectly, so I wanted some help, but there's none to be had, everybody has circumstances that don't apply to anyone else working for them.+ |
Author: cardistry | +Technically,+ says Brilliance, +so do you.+ |
Author: incanted | +Yes. So I get to be unhelpful to the next Bell who wants tips, joy and rapture? Anyway. You having fun?+ |
Author: cardistry | +Lots! I'm snuggling Queenie,+ he says. +Everyone should snuggle Queenie.+ |
Author: incanted | +Is this a feature of Queenie individually or is she just relevant right at this moment?+ |
Author: cardistry | +Her enchantress's aura does... it's hard to describe, but when she cuddles you, she is like the essence of cuddle.+ |
Author: incanted | +Interesting.+ |
Author: cardistry | +So I am feeling very cuddled right now and it's awesome and if you're interested you should try it!+ |
Author: incanted | +I think I'm going to pass for the time being, but I'm sure there will be plenty of chances later.+ Aegis wanders by to remind her to design a Janegem; she puts another charm on her hair elastic and Aegis ansibles it for her and wanders off. +I have a Janegem now.+ |
Author: cardistry | +Okay,+ he says agreeably. |
Author: incanted | +You pretty thoroughly glommed on to Queenie, now, or...?+ |
Author: cardistry | +Did you want me to snuggle you instead? That could happen,+ he says cheerfully. |
Author: incanted | +I would like that.+ |
Author: cardistry | Suddenly cuddles! |
Author: incanted | Eeee, cuddles! Aurora needed cuddles. She melts right into cuddles. |
Author: cardistry | Mmmm snuggly cuddles.
+I want an enchanter's aura,+ says Brill. +I wonder if I'll get a cuddly one?+ |
Author: incanted | +No idea. I don't know what I'll get either.+ |
Author: cardistry | He giggles and hugs her. +I want a cuddly one! Cuddly ones are nice.+ |
Author: incanted | +You're pretty cuddly already. Maybe it'd be redundant.+ |
Author: cardistry | +You only say that 'cause you've never hugged Queenie.+ |
Author: incanted | "What do the rest of them do?" |
Author: cardistry | "You've seen the Joker... Kas and Petaal have cuddly auras too, but theirs tell you how much they want you to touch them... actually, all of them can have cuddly auras. Except the demon, he doesn't have one at all yet. But Jellybean's probably my favourite," he says, beaming. "He tastes like candy." |
Author: incanted | "I can see why he'd be your favorite," laughs Aurora. And then she accidentally has more mental image than she wanted of Brilliance finding Jellybean to taste like candy and changes the subject. "There's a page in the Bellbook about what everyone's auras do, apparently they only figured out Shell Bell's second effect today when she was able to get a door to here because it wasn't in the book when I read through it. I wonder what I should enchant. I guess I could just work on Origin Saturn like everyone else, but it's gotten pretty huge and no one is even really trying to live in it yet." |
Author: cardistry | "You have your own planet," Brilliance points out. "You could enchant this one!" |
Author: incanted | "I guess that'd be unique, at least." |
Author: cardistry | "Yep," says Brilliance, beaming. |
Author: incanted | Snuggle. |
Author: cardistry | Snuggle snuggle!
+I love you.+ |
Author: incanted | +You're cute.+ Pause. +Apparently mindreading is highly recommended - in the one direction, obviously not the other. But we haven't even known each other very long.+ |
Author: cardistry | +...I kind of want you to read my mind about how much I love you,+ he says. |
Author: incanted | +I have no idea what wanting that could possibly be like.+ |
Author: cardistry | +Well - I know how I feel about you, but I'm not sure you do. And I want you to.+ He laughs. +Maybe I should just get Sue to bounce it to you.+ |
Author: incanted | +Sort of a trial run? Maybe. Sue's push-only, no pull, right? Or Aegis wouldn't tolerate it.+ |
Author: cardistry | +He can push, people can push back, nobody pulls anything.+ |
Author: incanted | +I'm up for it, then.+ |
Author: cardistry | [Hey, Sue,] says Brilliance, [can you show my girlfriend how much I love her?] |
Author: pythbox | Sue links them. |
Author: cardistry | Brilliance hugs Aurora and sends... all of it.
He's still a little scared of her, but he knows he doesn't have to be. She gives him all kinds of nice warm snuggly feelings. He wants to cuddle her forever, or maybe fuck her, or maybe eat all her food, or maybe make all her food. But 'forever' is definitely in there any which way.
He was never supposed to need a wielder; he was made to be controllably autonomous. But feeling her there on the other end of his magic is comfortable in a way he has never been before. Maybe this is what a properly matched connection is like, or maybe it's because he was cripplingly lonely for four hundred years, or maybe not having this is why he was cripplingly lonely for four hundred years. Or maybe it's just her. All he knows is, he likes it. |
Author: incanted | Aurora melts into him with a warm sigh.
+Oh.+ |
Author: cardistry | Thanks, he says to Sue, and cuddles Aurora some more. |
Author: incanted | +Oh oh oh I can see why this was recommended.+ |
Author: cardistry | +...Do you wanna go hang out on this planet's original for a bit?+ he inquires. |
Author: incanted | +Yeah that would be good yes please.+ |
Author: cardistry | He casts a dimensional transfer to bring them to the first Planet Rainbowsand, and when they get there, he conjures them a big tent made of translucent white fabric and floored with a thick comfortable blanket. |
Author: incanted | This is a very good place for them to be right now. So good. |
Author: cardistry | They should also be out of clothes! Out of clothes is a good place to be.
Brilliance decides that he prefers to get there the fun way. |
Author: incanted | Aurora's mind is not even on the array of clothes-getting-out-of-options. It is on that lovely lovely memory. +I feel half like I'm dreaming.+ |
Author: cardistry | +Do you want Sue to just keep sending that at you while we...? Because I bet he would,+ says Brilliance, wriggling out of his shirt and pouncing for kisses. |
Author: incanted | +I do not think I want Sue involved. I could just hex up the standard if you wouldn't mind though. Or pentagon it for a test run.+ Kisses! |
Author: cardistry | +Standard on your end but more like pushing to Sue on mine?+ he suggests. |
Author: incanted | +Standard interface push-based transfer protocol, or something else?+ |
Author: cardistry | +Yeah, that.+ |
Author: incanted | Simple enough. She pulls a hex out of her "coinpurse", spends it, kisses him again. +There.+ |
Author: cardistry | Brilliance pushes love some more. |
Author: incanted | Aurora picks the packet of affection open when it hits her interface and melts all over again. +It's like I'm on really fucking good drugs or something, god...+ |
Author: cardistry | +Awesome,+ he says cheerfully, and keeps it up while he continues scattering clothes all over the floor of the tent. |
Author: incanted | Aurora is enthusiastically helpful with this project! |
Author: cardistry | Just for fun, he also pushes physical sensation.
The physical senses of his human body aren't anything particularly special, but the amount of attention he pays to them is something else entirely. |
Author: incanted | Aurora opens that up too. Curiously.
+Fuck, I have to boost processing if we're going to do this like so, I didn't even do that yet,+ she says dizzily, running a fingertip along the length of his arm with her eyes heavy-lidded. She swallows and pulls her hand back and closes the sending - and spends her hex - and then opens it again and pounces. |
Author: cardistry | Ooh, pouncing. Brilliance feels very delightedly pounced. And what the hell, he pushes that too, it's a nice fizzy giggly feeling and deserves to be shared. |
Author: incanted | Aurora giggles with contagious amusement and sets about inducing interesting sensations for her to borrow along with her cocktail of emotional drugs. |
Author: cardistry | That is awesome and she is awesome and he loves her so much. |
Author: pythbox | After Cam and Jellybean have been enjoying Cam's new mindreading capacity for a while, and then snuggling for a while longer, Sue brings Jellybean into a link with the rest of the deck. Communication zips back and forth, mostly wordless.
Jellybean giggles, flares his candy-flavoured aura, and kisses Cam's cheek. "Did you catch that?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Something about porn. Hard to catch when I'm not linked and it's that fast and nonverbal and I'm blissed out." |
Author: pythbox | "Well, you might've noticed that the Jokers have a lot of sex at these things," says Jellybean. "And somebody pointed out that a bunch of Bells have past-viewing powers, and they could totally watch us whenever they wanted, and we all decided we're fine with that. From anybody, not just Bells. Now we wanna announce it so people know, but we don't know how to find out who wants to." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Well, we could just start with people who have past-viewing powers and skip Golden," says Cam. |
Author: pythbox | "I guess," says Jellybean. "As long as we eventually get around to telling the people who don't have past-viewing powers but might want some if it meant they got to watch the Jokers fuck each other." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Could just put up a sign on the door in the future. I bet you anybody who'd be interested at least glances speculatively at the door during a party sometime." |
Author: pythbox | "Ooh, sure," says Jellybean. He grins and gives Cam a kiss. "But for now - who-all's got past-viewing powers?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Stella, Angela, Juliet and everybell who pealed after her except Sarion who doesn't have her standards yet because she's not fully repaired. I suppose Aurora might not have gotten to it but it is in the standards list now. Shell Bell and Amariah may or may not have gotten around to picking it up but they won't mind particularly if we mention it anyway. Doesn't matter for this purpose if Golden has it." |
Author: pythbox | "Mm, okay," says Jellybean, and he conference-calls Cam, Stella, Alice, Angela, Micaiah, Amariah, Kas, Aegis, Sue, Rose, Beast, Juliet, Shell Bell, Pattern, Aurora, and Brilliance.
[Hi, everybody! So the Jokers decided we're okay with anybody who has a past-viewing power watching us have sex at Bell parties, and we wanted to let you all know in case you were interested. Next party we'll put up a sign on the door or something.] |
Author: dark_light | [Mmm, noted.] |
Author: self_composed | [Sign on the door is a good idea. Maybe include signs on each sub-node's door that say 'yes' or 'no' or 'only for this short list of people' depending on the preferences of the occupants.] |
Author: pythbox | [...It might get kind of complicated trying to watch a bunch of people have sex but not watch a bunch of other people in the same room have sex,] says Jellybean. [Probably better to just have the sign say either 'yes you can watch' or 'no you can't watch', and if everybody inside has picked 'yes' it'll show that, otherwise it's no.] |
Author: self_composed | [Short list of potential supervisors,] Stella clarifies. |
Author: pythbox | [Oh,] giggles Jellybean. [That makes more sense. Yeah, that might work. But people who only want specific people watching them fuck could just tell them, couldn't they...?] |
Author: self_composed | [Only if they're comfortable having the conversation.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Speaking of which, thanks for letting me know, I don't think the rest of this conversation needs me,] says Shell Bell. She drops out of the call. So do Juliet and Angela and Rose and Aurora. |
Author: pythbox | Jellybean snorts. |
Author: dark_light | [The shortlist option would probably be most comfortable for the people who'd use it if it just looked exactly like "no" to everyone not on the list,] Amariah observes. [And indicated listhood to people on it so there's never an awkward case of "hey, did you see that thing the other day" "what thing, I didn't think that was for public consumption".] |
Author: pythbox | [Someone who cares about privacy more than Jokers do should probably design it, then,] says Jellybean. |
Author: self_composed | [Yeah, I'll give it some thought and install it for whoever hosts the next party.] |
Author: pythbox | [Okay, thanks!] |
Author: self_composed | [No problem.]
The remaining Bells exit the call. |
Author: pythbox | Jellybean goes back to snuggling with Cam. |
Author: incanted | Aurora is now hunting for Minus. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Minus is standing in a corner, drinking tea. |
Author: incanted | "Hey," says Aurora. "Is that the funky elf tea that Pattern likes or something else?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Plain Earl Grey, I'm afraid." |
Author: incanted | "You know," says Aurora, "there are ways to do mindreading that aren't quite as, I dunno, free-roaming, as the standard or what Rose does. Brilliance didn't want to be quite an open book so it's like Sue-linking on his end. If that's what got you and Juliet delayed, if you don't want her just looking at arbitrary things." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Yes. I've been thinking about the optimal design, but it's not coming along as quickly as I'd like. What exactly do you have with Brilliance?" |
Author: incanted | "I read with standard interface, but only what he pushes me, or leaves deliberately open if it's a memory; by default I don't get anything. And this is still quite enough," she adds dreamily, "to get me high as hell on being adored, because damn." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "What is it with you lot and recreational telepathy?" |
Author: incanted | Aurora laughs. "It's... hmm. Good question. It sort of pushes a lot of buttons all at once. Satisfies curiosity in more depth than would be naively expected possible, makes it clear we're in agreement with someone whose opinion we value about how great we are, intense expression of trust with a vulnerability we can't bear to throw around ourselves so it's especially touching to get - well, not in my case, there's no problem with just pushing chosen thoughts, if I ever want to set that up, but I bet the standards get an extra rush for that. And - we're fairly good at intellectually believing things just on the basis of reasoning them out or having indirect, but there's an emotional difference between 'someone told me this thing existed' and 'I can see it in motion'. Like the difference between getting a postcard that says 'wish you were here' versus an actual hug." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Aha," he says. |
Author: incanted | "It's just really really nice." Aurora closes her eyes and says more seriously, "And if you copied my version you could pick and choose what to send." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I see that Juliet has given you the warning," he observes. |
Author: incanted | "Yeah. I'm sure plenty of Bells have been and gone offering hugs and support and whatnot, you can add me to the list." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Amariah is the only one who has actually hugged me," he says, smiling. |
Author: incanted | "Do you want another hug?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I've nowhere to put my tea," he says, gesturing with the cup. |
Author: incanted | "I'll take that as a 'no' instead of a 'please conjure a table' till further notice. You should probably be aware that the first thing Juliet is going to want to go looking for is how to take care of you, she still seems kind of - I lack adjectives, but that is what I expect her to want to read, even before delicious telepathic expressions of love om nom nom." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I don't believe there is much to be found about how to take care of me. Love, however - plenty of that." |
Author: incanted | Aurora shrugs. "That'll be good too. But she'll look. She wants you to be okay. If she has any reason to guess that you are not okay she will carry on looking for ways to render you okay." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "So I have observed." |
Author: incanted | "So there's that, I hope my and Brilliance's setup is a useful template or inspiration or something." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Thank you." |
Author: incanted | "You're welcome." |
Author: cardistry | A while after the Jokers have their conference about being everybody's porn, Brilliance wanders out of the orgy chambers with the vague notion of finding Aurora. |
Author: incanted | Aurora is over here! She has just finished up touching base with Lexi, who has discovered that riding a unicorn isn't infinitely fascinating if the unicorn doesn't happen to wander near the conversations you want to participate in and is now on her own feet, over there, investigating some Tony. |
Author: lexicality | "Hey," says Lexi to a lone Tony. "Do you actually want me to call you Sapphire or did you just sort of get stuck with that?" |
Author: cardistry | "Hey, you," says Brilliance, hugging his Bella. |
Author: toblameforit | "I just got stuck with it," he says. "Call me Tony, please, unless you desperately need to pick me out of a crowd of... other... me." |
Author: incanted | Hugs! "Hi." |
Author: cardistry | Hug hug.
"Alice stopped being a vampire," he mentions. |
Author: lexicality | "Yeah, okay. If I meet more mes at some point - which I better, it's freaky that there's all these only child Bellas - we'll probably just pick different nicknames for Alexandra. Or I could go by my middle name, that wouldn't be so bad, Phyllis." |
Author: incanted | "Oh. Well. That's probably my fault." |
Author: cardistry | "...Fault?" |
Author: incanted | She waves a hand. "Causal responsibility, I didn't mean to imply, like, a value judgment." |
Author: toblameforit | "I have a middle name too, but it's Edward," says Tony, "and I hate pretty much all available permutations of my first name that aren't 'Tony', so when the Tonies and the Sherlocks were picking our nicknames we went by coin colour when we ran out of better ideas." |
Author: cardistry | "It would've happened eventually without you," says Brilliance. "He kind of needed not to be one. He just didn't know it yet." |
Author: lexicality | "Yeah, isn't somebody married to an Edward," says Lexi vaguely. "My coin color is Peach, hey, if my Bella starts going around with a crown on do you know if that makes me a princess via sisterhood or would one of our parents have to be in on the royalty thing? Because then I would be Princess Peach." |
Author: incanted | "If he needed to not be one I'm kind of surprised his native magic thingamabob didn't just completely shut down the process." |
Author: toblameforit | "...I will totally call you Princess Peach if you want," says Tony, grinning. |
Author: cardistry | "I don't think his power knew," says Brilliance. |
Author: lexicality | "I think I'll be Lexi till there's enough of me to be confusing at all. Like, more than one. Besides, maybe all Lexis turn out peach coins," laughs Lexi. |
Author: incanted | "Why did he need it? I mean, Stella's reasons turned out to be partially sketchy, but didn't he know what vampires were and how they worked first anyway?" |
Author: toblameforit | "I don't think there's actually been a straight duplicate yet," says Tony. "Maybe the next Lexi will be, like. Princess Nectarine." |
Author: cardistry | "The sketchy reasons are why he needed not to be one." |
Author: lexicality | "But that wouldn't be funny," says Lexi. She picks at a hangnail just enough to get a coin and shows it off. "So do yours look like sapphires?" |
Author: incanted | "How does that work?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Nope, they look like a car I have that's painted in a colour called Sapphire Black." |
Author: lexicality | "Huh. I have no idea why I got peach. It's not even my favorite color," shrugs Lexi, "my favorite color is red." |
Author: cardistry | "Because it just - he was okay with it in the first place because he asked her if the sketchy reasons were her reasons and she pretty much said no," says Brilliance, frustrated. "That shit matters, you can't just force somebody to be in love with you forever, there's lots of ways it can be okay to turn somebody into a vampire, even one of us, there's parts of it he liked, but he couldn't stay one when he knew that was why." |
Author: toblameforit | "One of us got red!" says Tony. "The dead one, I think. With Minus and Juliet." |
Author: incanted | "...Uh, I'll tread carefully, and I agree it was sketchy of her, but unless she outright lied to him, and given that all the features of vampirism are a package deal and there are plenty of other reasons to want the other parts, doesn't that just about boil down to penalizing her for having the wrong thought cross her mind? It would've been good to bring it up, it sure seemed like she had been misleading in some way, but - like, if she literally just thought he would have fun turning, if nothing else about it occurred to her except for basic safety checks, if she did not notice that particular thing that she was inclined to identify as a perk - then it would've been fine?" |
Author: lexicality | "It is super strange that there are dead people walking around. Not even strange-amazing like there being a unicorn here, just strange." |
Author: cardistry | "...I'm not sure," he says. "It's - well, it's not complicated exactly, but it works the way we work, not the way you work. I think... as long as she was going to think about it the way she thought about it, then someday he was going to have to stop being a vampire. And maybe even if she wasn't. And I wasn't there, but if he asked her a question and she made him think the answer was something it wasn't and that's why he was okay with it, I don't really think any of us would care whether you'd call that lying or not. It's still not okay." |
Author: toblameforit | "The unicorn is awesome," says Tony. "The dead people are - enh, I'm kinda used to it by now." |
Author: incanted | "Okay." Pause. "Does Jellybean know about how Bells define lying, because Cam's got that aura..." |
Author: lexicality | "You been hanging out with -" Lexi waves at the party setup. "This crowd for a long time?" |
Author: toblameforit | "A while, I guess. I dunno, I kind of lost track a little." |
Author: lexicality | "I didn't know magic existed, like at all, even the kind we have in this world, till like a week ago, and you know the very first thing magic did? It tricked me into letting it possess me to destroy the world. So not cool." |
Author: cardistry | "I don't know," says Brilliance. "I don't think it matters that much. How you define lying is not the problem, the problem is that tricking somebody into agreeing to something they wouldn't agree to if they knew the whole story is a really shitty thing to do, especially when the something is big enough to change how your whole mind works." |
Author: incanted | "I would not have Charlie's permission to skip off to uninhabited planets with you if he knew the whole story," Aurora points out. "I mean, you could say that he wouldn't be entitled to stop me regardless, but I am technically a minor child under his custody and the fact that he does not have the wherewithal to prevent me isn't relevant to whether it's his business. And obviously that's a smaller issue than changing someone's species, but the general 'tricking' thing..." |
Author: cardistry | "You don't make any sense," says Brilliance, wrapping his arms around her waist and dropping his head on her shoulder. |
Author: incanted | "I make sense to me," Aurora says. |
Author: cardistry | "You don't make sense to me. I don't understand why - I don't understand anything about this weird thing you have with Charlie, where you pretend we're not fucking so he won't tell us to stop, but if you know he would tell us to stop and you're not stopping then why would it matter if he did?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Wow, that sucks," says Tony. |
Author: incanted | "As long as he hasn't actually said it," Aurora says, "then I'm not actually defying him. What he has actually said is we can't be in my room with the door closed. So we don't do that. He hasn't been more specific - he doesn't even want to be, he doesn't want to produce a list of actual things he doesn't want done, he doesn't want to live with me demanding to know why and having a long pseudolegalistic argument with him, he mostly feels like it is the duty of the fathers of teenage daughters to usher them into adulthood without any practical understanding of sex. He hasn't bothered to update his model of the world that says that people have sex in bedrooms and not on uninhabited planets they teleport to, so that's what the rule is about. If he changes the rules so it's actually about something I care about being able to do - well, it'd probably depend on how he tried to justify the rule, he's decent enough not to attempt anything serious by pure fiat, especially since I could move back to Renée's anytime and he probably suspects she'd be fine with it. But anyway, things would become so much less pleasant in my relationship with Charlie if that had to be an actual conversation we had. And I will not actually lie to him - I will not tell him 'Yes, Dad' if he lays down a rule that I'm going to ignore. So that rule would turn into a mess. I am avoiding that mess." |
Author: lexicality | "I know, right? But Bella fixed it. Bella's smart. The way it tricked me in the first place was it was all 'I can offer you limitless power' -" Lexi does an impression of the robotic voice of the control program - "and I was like 'cool, let's hook my sister up with that, because if I get instead I'll be lucky if I get Christmas off, she will guilt me into using my powers for good, like, constantly' and it was like 'I cannot wait' and I was like 'oh fine'." |
Author: cardistry | "That is weird," says Brilliance, "but I think it's mostly weird because of my trust issues, so whatever, not the point. I forget what the point is. Do we still care about the point?" |
Author: incanted | "I think I know enough about your end of the point to not mess it up with you, at least not about anything important like altering your species. Up to you if you want to quiz me about my end of the point." |
Author: cardistry | "...I don't really know what your end of the point is," says Brilliance. "What's your end of the point?" |
Author: toblameforit | "How'd she fix it?" |
Author: incanted | "Lying is bad. Not the worst thing ever, but bad. Lying by omission - isn't the same thing. People have a right to limit what information exits their heads, if they want to. And 'I refuse to answer that question' is information, 'let's change the subject' is information, and if that kind of information is something you want to keep to yourself, then you get to dance around it to keep it safe, I think. It's not always a good idea. It was sketchy for Stella to do what she did; considering that she's supposedly in in love with Alice it was especially bad. But - I wasn't there but I seriously doubt he asked her point-blank and she responded with a sentence that was in fact false." She closes her eyes. "Obviously it was an issue anyway since it turned out to matter very much to Alice what she was leaving out. With this cautionary example, I'm going to be more careful than she was. But that doesn't mean a complete open book policy, I can't do that, it would destroy me, we know that now -" She gestures vaguely at Sarion. |
Author: lexicality | "I don't know all the details, 'cause I was being possessed and couldn't see what was going on, but I think she picked up Brilliance-being-a-staff-thing and shot at it a lot or something. And then I woke up and she was wearing her magical girl outfit." |
Author: cardistry | "We need to know stuff sometimes," he says, "not a lot of the time, not all stuff, but. My end of the point goes something like. If somebody knows something, and they think that if I knew it that would change how I act in ways that I'd like better but they'd like worse, so they make sure I don't find out, then they're not my friend and if I trust them I need to stop." |
Author: incanted | Aurora thinks about this.
And then she says, "That puts a floor on how much goal structure you have to share with anyone you want to be friends with." Pause. "But basically I agree with you." |
Author: toblameforit | "The magical girl outfit is kind of awesome." |
Author: lexicality | "It kind of is! Very tasteful, very if Bella's going to wear a magical girl outfit it should obviously be this one." |
Author: cardistry | "Oh. Good," says Brilliance, and he hugs her again. |
Author: toblameforit | "Almost makes me want one." |
Author: incanted | Hugs!
"Of course," Aurora murmurs, "if telling people true things routinely makes them act in ways I don't like, then they aren't my friend, and I shouldn't trust them." |
Author: cardistry | "Well - yeah," he says. "That too. But, I dunno, there aren't a lot of ways people can act that I don't like that aren't about trying to control me." |
Author: lexicality | Lexi giggles. "Apparently they come with having a device? Like, Brilliance is Bella's device. But he doesn't seem to think people should usually have devices. Or maybe it's that people shouldn't make devices. Or something. He made her a little tiny one that doesn't talk, maybe that's different, but it doesn't have a dress that comes with. So I don't have one and I don't know how you'd get one either." |
Author: toblameforit | "If I want a magical girl outfit," he says, "I bet you I can get a magical girl outfit. Maybe not exactly the same kind, I guess." |
Author: incanted | "I'm curious about that," says Aurora, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I don't want to be controlled either, but it sounds really - fundamental to you." |
Author: lexicality | "Yeah, not a magically designed one, you could wear whatever you want but it wouldn't just get pulled out of noplace like Bella's." |
Author: cardistry | "It is really fundamental to me. It's really fundamental to all of us, but I'm far and away the most fucked up about it." |
Author: toblameforit | "Wonder if I could get one of the Jokers to make me one, I hear Jokers and clothes is a thing." |
Author: incanted | "What else can you tell me? I'm worried I'll - say something wrong about something important and you'll wind up feeling like I'm trying to control you, and then we'll be stuck with a terrible situation where I've gone and misframed the whole thing and all the okay results for me are no longer okay results for you because of that framing." |
Author: lexicality | "Is it? Brilliance seems to just go around in that T-shirt with his deck of cards design on it and jeans." |
Author: cardistry | "...I mean, I'm not saying that it would be fun if that happened," he says, "because it really wouldn't, but I've stuck around this long through you saying a couple of scary things, I think we can figure it out. I don't know exactly what you mean by 'framing', but I don't think you can make something that would've been okay be unfixably not okay just by saying the wrong thing." |
Author: incanted | "I don't have an example in mind to explain what I mean about framing," Aurora sighs. |
Author: cardistry | "I don't think I could end up feeling like you were trying to control me and then stay that way unless you were actually trying to control me," he says, "and I don't think you'll do that, because I think you've figured out by now to try asking nicely instead." |
Author: incanted | "If I were - scared or angry or I misunderstood something you said or if I correctly understood something alarming you said, I might not remember to try asking nicely first," says Aurora. "If it was sufficiently desperately important and asking nicely didn't work, then - I don't have an example, but it's not like it couldn't happen, I have been handed the keys to the universe and you've got a grip on the other end of my keychain, I will be handling high stakes sometimes." |
Author: toblameforit | "I mean," he amends, "there's a bunch of Jokers who like, make and design clothes, it's a common hobby with those guys, I don't know if Brilliance isn't into it or just hasn't gotten around to it or what." |
Author: lexicality | "Huh." Lexi scuffs her foot on the floor. "I should have a hobby. I don't really, I used to do whatever Renée was doing, crafts and exotic kinds of yoga and whatnot, but nothing stuck." |
Author: cardistry | "...it needs to not happen, though," says Brilliance. "It needs to not happen or I need to get out of this universe and never come back." |
Author: incanted | |
Author: toblameforit | "Can't help you there, unless you want to take up engineering," says Tony. "Or video games." |
Author: lexicality | "I might like video games! We could never afford a system since Bella doesn't like them enough to ever pool our Christmas or birthday wishlists for it, but I used to like going over to friends' who had 'em," says Lexi. "Oh man, that's probably not even a problem any more, I can just," she brandishes her demo triangle, "magic up whatever." |
Author: cardistry | He hugs her gently, shaking his head.
"That's what happens," he says softly. "Not if you just make me scared of it by accident once in a while, I get scared a lot, I can handle being scared, but if you force me to do something, or force me not to, I'll leave. I'll be really sad about it. And I will run away as far and as fast as I possibly can." |
Author: toblameforit | "Okay, let's conjure a Super Nintendo and play Mario Kart," says Tony. |
Author: incanted | "So - what does that leave us with, just hoping really hard that you don't run into any of my dealbreakers where given the choice between you bolting or whatever you'd be doing if I didn't use force I prefer the former?" |
Author: lexicality | "Yeah!" Lexi picks a little more aggressively at her hangnail, gets enough squares to produce the TV and the console and the cartridge and the controllers, wishes them all into existence, and then makes two more squares so they can have a sofa too. She turns the whole setup on with her triangle, just for fun. |
Author: cardistry | "If I thought that was ever going to happen, I would've run away already," says Brilliance. "I don't know what I could possibly want to do so badly that I'd still do it if you asked me not to, that would also be the kind of thing you'd fuck me over like that for if it came down to it. I don't think there's that many things you would, and most of that's probably stuff I already don't wanna do all by myself, like blowing up planets." |
Author: incanted | "It admittedly does help my comfort around this that you demonstrably don't want to blow up planets." |
Author: toblameforit | Tony beams and flops onto the couch and picks up a controller. |
Author: lexicality | Lexi, predictably, plays as Princess Peach. |
Author: cardistry | "Like - I could see us arguing about you not wanting me to do stuff," he says, "sure, probably. But I don't think there's anything I need to do that you need me not to." |
Author: toblameforit | Tony giggles uproariously, and plays as Mario. |
Author: incanted | Aurora nods slowly, once. |
Author: lexicality | Lexi is reasonably good at Mario Kart considering her inexperience; she is a crack shot with green shells and after one false start rarely drives off the track. |
Author: cardistry | "And arguing isn't going to make me run away," he says. "And as long as we're arguing about something, I'm not doing whatever it is and you're not forcing me not to. And if you decide you really can't stand whatever it is happening, and I decide I really can't stand that you really can't stand that, then - I can just go hang out with Queenie until we both calm down. Okay?" |
Author: toblameforit | Tony is... kind of unfairly good at Mario Kart. |
Author: lexicality | "You must play this, like, constantly," complains Lexi, although she seems to be having fun anyway. |
Author: toblameforit | "Driving games are kind of my thing," he says. "Sherry bakes himself a cake every time he beats me." |
Author: lexicality | "How many cakes is that now?" |
Author: toblameforit | "I'm not actually keeping count, but less cakes than he's had birthdays." |
Author: lexicality | Lexi laughs. "Wow. Well, at least I can beat all the computer guys. Eventually." She's mostly coming in third or fourth. |
Author: incanted | "'Cause she's so cuddly?" asks Aurora weakly. |
Author: cardistry | He laughs.
"She is, I can see why the Joker wanted me to hang out with her if things got fucked up with us." |
Author: incanted | Aurora snuggles up to him. "So the emergency procedure, if there's ever a desperate hurry and no more time to argue, involves having Jane banish you to Origin?" |
Author: cardistry | "That's... probably the best emergency procedure if you really feel like you absolutely have to do something right away. I won't like it much, but... I'll hang out with Queenie and wait for you to come explain." |
Author: incanted | "Okay. And with any luck it won't come up." Snuggles. |
Author: toblameforit | "Coming in second to me in a Mario Kart race is an accomplishment!" says Tony. |
Author: lexicality | "Cool, that's, like, my new life goal for the next hour." |
Author: cardistry | "...The only way I can think of for it to come up is if we were arguing about something and got interrupted by something else," says Brilliance, "in which case you probably don't want me to go hang out with Queenie, you want me to stick around and help you deal with the emergency." |
Author: toblameforit | "Good luck," Tony says cheerfully. |
Author: incanted | "Would you do that? With the argument still unresolved?" |
Author: lexicality | Lexi sticks her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and drives Princess Peach around with a will. |
Author: cardistry | "Um, yeah?" |
Author: incanted | "Okay then." |
Author: toblameforit | Tony continues to win! It's lots of fun. |
Author: cardistry | He hugs her. |
Author: incanted | Hugs! |
Author: lexicality | "Is there any game you like that you aren't, like, the patron saint of?" Lexi asks, when they've tried all the tracks at least once. |
Author: cardistry | Huuuuuugs. |
Author: toblameforit | "Lots! Anything that's not a racing game, pretty much." |
Author: lexicality | "Let's play one of those, I don't know what's good, recommend me something?" |
Author: toblameforit | "You know what," says Tony, "we should totally play Super Mario." |
Author: lexicality | "Okay." Lexi makes another square, and with it makes there be Super Mario. She swaps cartridges. |
Author: toblameforit | This one is not so competitive! But it is so fun. |
Author: lexicality | It is! Lexi giggles when giggling is called for, and dies a lot, and picks up from there. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah wanders by and conjures a little golden trophy, cup-shaped on a wooden stand, and deposits it into a bewildered Aurora's hand and wanders away. |
Author: toblameforit | Dying a lot is kind of how it goes.
It is possible that Tony might be dancing along to the music. Well, he's sitting down, so 'dancing' is an overstatement. It's more... wiggling. |
Author: cardistry | "What the fuck," giggles Brilliance. |
Author: lexicality | "You're wiggling," accuses a smirking Lexi. |
Author: toblameforit | "I totally am." |
Author: incanted | Aurora peers at the trophy, then checks for an engraving.
It says For Excellence In Grownup Problem Solving.
She sporfles. |
Author: cardistry | Brilliance also sporfles! |
Author: lexicality | "It's cute." She sways a little to the music, herself, but it's much more dignified. Or so she tells herself. |
Author: incanted | "Wow," says Aurora. |
Author: toblameforit | "You," says Tony, "are waggling." |
Author: lexicality | "No! I'm not waggling, I'm swaying." |
Author: cardistry | "Should we maybe ask her to explain that," wonders Brilliance, "or should we just put it on a shelf somewhere and admire it occasionally?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Waggling! It's like wiggling but slower!" |
Author: incanted | "I have no idea. I don't even have a shelf that I would consider suitable to hold an award of this magnitude." |
Author: lexicality | "Nope. Swaying. Very dignified." |
Author: toblameforit | "Sure, okay." |
Author: cardistry | "Also," says Brilliance, "important question for Amariah who is apparently eavesdropping on us, is that award for us or just for you." |
Author: lexicality | "I can dance, though, I'm not clumsy like Bella is - used to be - I can totally dance. Just not on a sofa so much." |
Author: toblameforit | "I can dance!" says Tony. "Not exceptionally well, but I can dance. There should be more dancing at these things." |
Author: dark_light | [Both of you,] says Amariah from her just-barely-within-earshot vantage point. |
Author: cardistry | "In that case, thanks!" |
Author: lexicality | "I heard Angela talking about singing like she did at the first party. So maybe she will. I hope she's a better singer than my Bella - than, what'd she call herself, Aurora - if she's going to do that." |
Author: incanted | Aurora laughs and puts the trophy down someplace out of the way - it's not like anyone's going to steal it - and then gives Brilliance a kiss. |
Author: toblameforit | "I heard her sing before, she's pretty awesome." |
Author: cardistry | Brilliance kisses back. Mmmmmmkiss. |
Author: lexicality | "Huh, I wonder how, is that, like, an angel thing or would my Bella be able to sing too if she worked at it?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Beats me," says Tony. |
Author: lexicality | Lexi's sprite dies again. "Rats. Maybe I am not good enough at video games for it to be my hobby." |
Author: toblameforit | "I wasn't good at video games either when I'd been playing them for like an hour." |
Author: lexicality | "I mean I haven't just never played video games before, just not on the regular." |
Author: toblameforit | "Well yeah, still, you get good at them by playing them a lot, the question is are they enough fun for you to play them that much." |
Author: lexicality | "I think I might have to try more kinds before I know." |
Author: toblameforit | "Cool," says Tony. "Secret of Mana it is." |
Author: lexicality | Lexi makes a square and makes a copy of the game. |
Author: toblameforit | The game is also lots of fun. Or at least Tony thinks so. |
Author: lexicality | Lexi likes this one more than the first two, although it doesn't make her actually giggle as much. |
Author: toblameforit | "This one's my favourite for the SNES," Tony confides. |
Author: lexicality | "It's really cute," affirms Lexi. |
Author: toblameforit | "It's awesome, I love it." |
Author: lexicality | They carry on playing Secret of Mana. Then Angela starts singing.
"Whoa, she is good." |
Author: toblameforit | "I know, right?" |
Author: small_magics | Sarion has been pretty much standing around, people-watching, letting her memory-crutch bubble up old thoughts to stand in for her diminished ability to generate new ones. Some of the thoughts are new, though, just because so many of the people are so unlike what she could have expected. It's a novel sensation, frightening but pleasant, like diving from a high cliff into a pool on a hot day.
Every few minutes a Bell comes to check on her, make sure she doesn't need anything, that she's still responsive to conversational stimuli. She is not improving instantly, but she is better, and she is glad to have her alts, and she is finding this party nicely stimulating. |
Author: lexicality | "Seriously. Bella - Aurora - doesn't sound a bit like that when she sings in the shower." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | A-Joker-who-you-can-call-Queenie wanders by, nametag pinned to the front of her little black dress. She looks like the cuddliest person imaginable, not through any obvious physical quality but as an effect of her aura.
She spots Sarion.
She changes course immediately, approaches, and hugs her. |
Author: small_magics | "I See you," says Sarion. "And am hugged by you, as well." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Yep," says Queenie, releasing her from the snuggliest of hugs. "Hi! I saw you before, I'm glad you're feeling better now." |
Author: small_magics | "I am much improved," Sarion agrees. |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "I can tell!" |
Author: toblameforit | "I think most people don't," says Tony. "Maybe it is an angel thing." |
Author: small_magics | "I hope my beloved is also recovering from the mishaps before a solution was found." |
Author: lexicality | "It's a cool angel thing. D'you wanna dance?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Sure!" |
Author: lexicality | Lexi pauses their game and pops up off the sofa and holds out her hand. |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Your sweeties are fine," Queenie assures her. "I was snuggling the little one a minute ago." |
Author: small_magics | "It seems that this is one of the more soothing things that could have happened to him." |
Author: toblameforit | Tony follows! |
Author: lexicality | There is dancing, and singing, and Lexi is plainly enjoying herself very much. |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "I have an aura of cuddle," beams Queenie. "It's the best. Wanna hug?" |
Author: toblameforit | So is Tony! |
Author: small_magics | Evaluating her own wants is one of the harder things, and the memory-crutch doesn't help very much. Sarion considers this question carefully.
"Yes," she concludes. |
Author: lexicality | Yay! It is more fun that way. |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | Queenie envelops her in snuggle. |
Author: small_magics | Snuggle!
It's almost like falling away into unthoughts like when the demon concentrated, before, except she's lucid. |
Author: toblameforit | That is true. That is a true thing. |
Author: lexicality | "You're not bad," Lexi comments.
(But she's better. She likes dancing, clearly, and she's completely unselfconscious about letting her motor cortex have its way.) |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | Cuddly cuddly hug!
Queenie could do this all day, really. |
Author: toblameforit | "I'm not as good as you," Tony correctly observes. |
Author: lexicality | "Practice, practice," she teases. |
Author: toblameforit | He laughs. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion's not going to start objecting any time soon.
"I have read your nametag, and know that you are an alt of my beloved, but I have learned little else about you." |
Author: lexicality | "Maybe I should just be serious about dancing, but it's not like there's a blues club or anything in Forks. Maybe I can teleport to Phoenix twice a week or something." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "I'm the snuggly one," she says cheerfully. "Which is why the aura, not because of the aura. The aura does things other than cuddly. Did anybody tell you about Voice?" |
Author: toblameforit | "You can teleport to wherever you want! You are magic now," Tony says wisely. |
Author: small_magics | "I have - heard the name. In connection with Shell Bell. I do not know the story." |
Author: lexicality | "I am!" agrees Lexi, spinning along his arm to close. "Oh wow, I don't even need to, like, worry about getting a job, I'm magic enough to magic anything I need, I could just live on this planet and conjure sandwiches and do whatever I wanted. I might need two hobbies." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Sometimes Jokers have brothers," says Queenie. "They tend to turn out pretty fucked up. Voice is mine. He was a serial killer when he was alive, and when he died he took to keeping people in a box in his basement, one at a time. He got Shell Bell, and then a while later he got me." |
Author: toblameforit | "Dancing and video games?" |
Author: small_magics | Sarion thinks about this.
Then: "This is why I am referred to as being broken 'like Shell Bell was'," she concludes. |
Author: lexicality | "Yeah! I will dance and play video games and hang out with Bella being a sounding board for all her fixing-the-world ideas if she doesn't just always talk to Brilliance about that stuff." |
Author: toblameforit | "Sounds like a plan." |
Author: lexicality | "It is a plan. I planned it. Now it's my plan." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Probably," she agrees. "I'm not broken like Shell Bell was, but it fucked me up pretty bad. It's better if I touch people a lot, so - cuddly." |
Author: toblameforit | "It's a good plan!" |
Author: small_magics | "I am happy to help." |
Author: lexicality | "That's 'cause I'm super," says Lexi, beaming. "I dunno, though, after I'm out of school I might have to learn more than one kind of dancing. Or get a third hobby." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "I'm glad!"
Hug hug. |
Author: toblameforit | "You can figure that out when you get there, I bet." |
Author: small_magics | "I was not kept in a box. It seems unlikely that my form of breakage is the same as Shell Bell's." |
Author: lexicality | "I can. It's true." She sways, bluesy. "I like this song, but it's funky-sounding, I guess Angela's one of the ones who's not from an Earth even though apparently the one with the owl is from an Earth and I think having an owl for a soul is weirder than just having wings. What kinda music do you like?" |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "I dunno exactly how she broke," says Queenie with a snuggly little shrug. |
Author: toblameforit | "Classic rock. AC/DC." |
Author: small_magics | "Perhaps we are simply the only two Bells who have broken at all, and there is more than one way to do it." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Sounds about right." |
Author: lexicality | "Cool. I like everything, and most people say except rap and country but I like those too." |
Author: small_magics | Sarion considers for a long moment, then says, "I do not think I am irreparable." |
Author: toblameforit | "The music I listen to is pretty much a subset of the music my mom listened to." |
Author: lexicality | "Me too! Except Renée listens to everything!" |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | Queenie snuggles her. "That's good." |
Author: small_magics | "It is. Someday I will be able to think, by myself."
There is a double meaning to by myself. |
Author: toblameforit | "Mom was into rock and, like, melancholy folk music. I picked up on the rock." |
Author: lexicality | "Don't like the second thing because of the melancholy or because of the folk music?" |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Aww, sweetheart," says Queenie, snuggling her some more. |
Author: small_magics | It is a good snuggle. Sarion is glad to be in it.
"I do not know how much my beloved has said about how I came to be broken." |
Author: toblameforit | "I don't really know if it was the melancholy part or the folk part or if she just had bad taste in melancholy folk bands, I just know it never got me going the way AC/DC did." |
Author: lexicality | "It's not supposed to get you going like rock music, it's supposed to be all, like, soulful and wistful and stuff. If you got amped listening to somebody singing Danny Boy there would be something the matter with you." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "I was there when they fixed you; I caught a bunch." |
Author: small_magics | Sarion nods.
She glances around the room.
"It seems that each Bell who found herself in company with a Joker is romantically involved with him. Except for me."
She doesn't know what she thinks of this - well, she doesn't think anything of it, yet, thinking is still hard - but it is on her mind. |
Author: toblameforit | He snorts. "No, I mean like, I barely noticed it, it didn't make me anything except slightly bored." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "You love your sweeties," Queenie points out. She has spoken to the sweeties in question. She knows. |
Author: lexicality | Lexi swaaaaaays, going from half-beats to full beats and deepening the motion to accommodate it. "When I think songs are boring I go look up the lyrics and make sure I know what they're talking about and that helps." |
Author: toblameforit | "I did not care enough to do that," says Tony. |
Author: small_magics | "Yes. Of course, always." |
Author: lexicality | "'Cause the songs bored you?" Lexi asks archly. |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "So what's the difference? Sex?" |
Author: toblameforit | "Yep!" |
Author: lexicality | "That's all circular, though," she points out. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion blinks. "I - do not know about other races, but elves can - recognize a connection, soul to soul. I do not know if I have it with my beloved - it is - muddied." |
Author: toblameforit | "So? It bored me, so I didn't care about it enough to actively look for ways to make it bore me less. I am comfy with my classic rock, I don't need to like every song I hear." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "You've got time to figure it out," says Queenie, patting her on the back. |
Author: lexicality | "I guess that's fair. I don't like every single song there is," says Lexi. |
Author: small_magics | "Yes." She shrugs. "He has not thought of me in that way. Beyond a single vulgar remark, once." |
Author: toblameforit | "Yeah, see?" |
Author: lexicality | "I try especially to be fair to stuff people recommend in particular, though." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "He'd fuck you now, if you wanted," says Queenie. |
Author: toblameforit | "Nice of you." |
Author: small_magics | "Perhaps. I do not think it would clarify the question. It does not seem to be a distinguishing characteristic of mine." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | Queenie giggles.
"Yeah, I'll give you that. But your sweeties love you. In a way the rest of us recognize." |
Author: small_magics | "A - a clarification of that would make good hearing." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "It's weird that there's only the one word," says Queenie, "when there's more different kinds of love than there are people. But the way your sweeties love you is a little like the way they love each other, and a little like the way we all love each other, and a lot like the way we love our sweethearts - those of us who have 'em." |
Author: lexicality | "It'd bug me if I recommended somebody a song I really liked and they listened to it for three seconds and then was like 'nope'," shrugs Lexi. |
Author: small_magics | "I have not previously heard the assertion that loves are more numerous than lovers," observes Sarion. "Nor am I familiar with attempts to compare the kinds to one another." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Yeah, and?" says Queenie. |
Author: small_magics | "And so my puzzlement has not been much clarified." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "If I knew what you were puzzled about, maybe I could help." |
Author: toblameforit | "Yeah, I guess." |
Author: small_magics | "If I am told that I resemble my mother, and also my father but less so, partial lists of the resemblances are often forthcoming." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Can't really help you there. Just 'case I know what it feels like doesn't mean there's words for it." |
Author: small_magics | "Oh." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "You could always ask your sweeties." |
Author: small_magics | "I know how they love me. They've shown me. I do not know what else this should tell me. Perhaps nothing." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "But they know how the rest of us love our sweethearts, and unlike me, they can show ya." |
Author: small_magics | "Oh. That is true. Perhaps it would be instructive." |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | "Could be," Queenie agrees. |
Author: small_magics | Snuggle. |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | Snuggle-hug! |
Author: endragoned | And Sarion's sweetie emerges from the orgy chambers. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion decides it is time to try her new and much improved connection to them. She broadcasts a greeting to him, and a summary of her conversation with Queenie so far. And she opens up her listening. |
Author: endragoned | He shows her love, coming over to hug them both; that much isn't new.
He shows her his love for Queenie, and that is, a little. |
Author: small_magics | It is different. Sarion turns over the differences in her mind, tasting them, thinking in her slow careful way about them.
"Queenie has said that your love for me is recognizable," she says. |
Author: endragoned | "It's a lot like - well, you saw," he says. "But it's even more like—"
Alice and Stella. The Joker and Nathan. Kas and Amariah. Micaiah and Angela. Sue and Aegis. The Beast and Rose. Jellybean and Cam. Brilliance and Aurora. Each and every one of them is different from the rest, but they share some points in common.
Jokers love. Openly, easily. They love people. They love people for who they are, and they love watching their people be who they are. They love being with their people. They love making their people feel things, especially strong things, especially strongly positive things. If their people love them back, it's wonderful.
They love with touching - snuggles, sex. They love with presents - a cake, a castle, an alethiometer. They love with words and actions. For those whose sweethearts read them, they love with love itself.
Sarion's beloveds love her the way Jokers love. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion leans into her demon, smiling.
"I love you," she tells him. |
Author: endragoned | "I love you too," he says, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her head. |