bellfounding: (apprehensive)
Author: bellfounding
Bella's mid-conversation with Jane when she cuts out.

[Jane?]

Jane... pretty much fails to exist.

[Jane.]

Nothing.

Bella goes to the Janepoint, and there's a message for her on the screen, something about lost ansible connection.

Well, shit.

[Queenie, Ghosty, Slipstick?]
gunpowdergelatine: Hand touching face, thoughtfully. (♥a/I don't know wrong from right)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
[Mm?]
prima_sequentem: (ℚ in the details)
Author: prima_sequentem
[What she said.]
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
[Jane's ansible cut out. Local stuff like the Saturn toplevel domain that she set up will still work, but we can't leave the universe without a conventional Milliways door, or talk to anyone outside it either.]
gunpowdergelatine: Half in shadow, looking up; sincerity, vulnerability. (♣7/got me on my knees)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
[Aww, that sucks,] says Queenie.
prima_sequentem: (ℂ say the sweetest things)
Author: prima_sequentem
[What she said!] says Slipstick.
bellfounding: (reading)
Author: bellfounding
[Yeah, seriously. Just letting you know. Slipstick, I would really appreciate your help figuring out how to backpedal on my claims of being able to raise the dead if anyone calls me on it, I don't know how long Jane will be gone and evil-based resurrection has its flaws.]
prima_sequentem: (ℝ long way to the top)
Author: prima_sequentem
[Now there's a thorny problem,] she says. [I'll think about it. For now, don't remind anybody.]
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
[Of course. Thanks.]
prima_sequentem: (ℚ all kinds of innocent)
Author: prima_sequentem
[No problem.]
bellfounding: (fretting)
Author: bellfounding
[And I would appreciate it if all of you would open perhaps more doors than you usually bother with and tell me immediately if any of them lead to Milliways.]
gunpowdergelatine: Grinning. (♠3/I'm all love)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
[Sure thing,] says Queenie.
prima_sequentem: (ℚ but seriously)
Author: prima_sequentem
[No problem.]
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
Bella scales back all her communications with world leaders, and manages to proceed without any of them asking her to produce a dead person or explain how it might be done.

She has the news on in the background while she designs herself a ninja costume. She might as well look the part, since her aura insists. Her seeing-through-things power means she could cover her entire face and operate unimpeded...
gunpowdergelatine: Leaning forward, hands together, elbows on knees. (♥8/traces of me in your veins)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
[Hey,] says Queenie. [You busy?]

She sounds... concerned.
bellfounding: (inhale)
Author: bellfounding
[Nothing I can't put down, what is it?]
gunpowdergelatine: Partial face, one eye and one hand visible. Sultry. (♥9/knows what she wants to be)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
[Some chucklehead's trying to take over Gotham,] she says. [I turned his nuke into a big fluffy rabbit and now he's having a tantrum.]
bellfounding: (right)
Author: bellfounding
[Thank you for letting me know, and thank you for fixing the nuke.]

Bella wishes up a version of her current draft of the ninja suit. It's black, fading to gray at a few places, covers her head to toe, and generally looks like she ought to have a couple of swords on her person even though she has not included swords.

She teleports to location of the ex-nuclear rabbit, stealth on, to scope out the situation.
gunpowdergelatine: Reclining, leaning back on elbows, shirt partly unbuttoned. (♦c/you will never break me)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
A large bald man with a strange mask obscuring the lower half of his face is wandering back and forth across the intact end of a mostly destroyed football field, roaring intermittently. Nearby is a smaller, more conventionally dressed, infinitely more anxious-looking person, edging nervously away from an enormous fluffy white rabbit with a tiny top hat perched between its floppy ears. There is general chaos in the stands, particularly the part of the stands that is a fresh smoking crater.

Queenie is the only person in the audience who is still calmly seated.
bellfounding: (ugh)
Author: bellfounding
Oh dear. Pattern whips up a quick wish that will prevent anyone from getting crushed or trampled in the chaos, and then she spotlights her aura - the stadium lights turn to accommodate her - and stalks in the direction of the roaring person. "Excuse me," she says, "but what do you think you are doing?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The roaring person whirls and tries to grab her.
bellfounding: (pealing)
Author: bellfounding
Super-speed is Bell standard. This Bella may not have much to boast beyond the standard, but she has that. She's not there anymore. "I asked a civil question," she says.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The roaring person continues to roar. It's a very impressive sound, really.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
"You're going to develop a respiratory ailment." She doesn't really want to come out with all her powers on what is undoubtedly national television.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
...at that, he actually starts to laugh.
bellfounding: (quizzical)
Author: bellfounding
"Seriously, dude, what's going on? Why did you want to nuke this place?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The laugh trails off into a chuckle. The person shakes his head.

"I did not want to," he says reasonably.
bellfounding: (inhale)
Author: bellfounding
Interesting voice. She must learn the name of his vocal coach.

"That's really interesting," says Bella, "do explain yourself."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Perhaps the voice and the mask have something to do with one another.

"My intention is not to destroy Gotham," he says, "but to free it."

That is almost but not quite true.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
"Try again," says Bella.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"Hmm?"
bellfounding: (pealing)
Author: bellfounding
"Close, but no cigar. A-minus. I would like a true explanation."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"That was the truth," he says, and interestingly, he believes it.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
"Wow, you have an interestingly twisty brain, don't you. At any rate. There will be no nuking, is that plain?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"I have no nuke," he points out, gesturing to the rabbit.
bellfounding: (lipbite)
Author: bellfounding
"Yes, I know. I'd hate for you to waste your time retrieving another one." She wanders over to the anxious fellow. "Hello there, what are you doing here?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The anxious fellow darts an anxious glance at the other man.

"I... am here to... explain," he says haltingly.
bellfounding: (inhale)
Author: bellfounding
"Great," says Bella. "I am in search of an explanation. Please, showcase your talents."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"The thing I am here to explain," says the anxious fellow, "is now a rabbit."
bellfounding: (right)
Author: bellfounding
"I already have an explanation for it being a rabbit. I'm looking for an explanation of why it was, previously, more threatening than a rabbit."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"He - he forced me to make it that way," the anxious fellow mutters. "Into a nuclear explosive device that only I could disarm."

The top hat falls off the rabbit's head. The rabbit sniffs it, nibbles it, then abandons it entirely.
bellfounding: (fretting)
Author: bellfounding
"So you were not on board with this project, you were coerced?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"That's right," he says. Truthfully.
bellfounding: (inhale)
Author: bellfounding
"Okay. You want to go home?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He nods rapidly.
bellfounding: (reading)
Author: bellfounding
"Can do."

She teleports him home, presuming there's a unique location corresponding to "home", and then teleports back to the Interesting Voice Guy.

"Forcing people to arm nukes people isn't very nice," she says pleasantly.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"I am not a nice person," says Interesting Voice Guy.
bellfounding: (quizzical)
Author: bellfounding
"Yeah, I'm getting that. If we hang out here till the cops show up, do you suppose they're going to be able to keep you in prison effectively?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He laughs.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
"I'm liable to take that as a no; do you want to find out what happens when I conclude that the answer to that question is no?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He spreads his hands.

"I am but a man," he says. "The revolution does not need me."

(He only partly believes these things.)
bellfounding: (inhale)
Author: bellfounding
"Okay, so you maybe have friends, there goes my afternoon, huh?" [Queenie, you want I should set this guy up somewhere other than the existing terraformed asteroid?]
gunpowdergelatine: Half in shadow, looking up; sincerity, vulnerability. (Default)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
[Please don't put him on the Joker's asteroid, we'd be sad.]
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
[Okay, I'll pick another spot, not like we're low on asteroids.]

"Do you have anything to say that might convince me not to put you in a space prison colony?" inquires Bella.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"Of course not," says but-a-man.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
"All right, don't say I didn't warn you," says Bella. She teleports him temporarily to an empty residential section of Saturn and then teleports to a good-sized Jovian moon (no point putting her prisoners right on top of her citizenry) and installs basic terraforming before going to fetch him. She decides to wait for a reaction before installing anything beyond atmosphere and livable temperature to the place.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"Comfortable," he rumbles.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
"Mm-hm. Any preferences on the accommodations beyond 'not instantly fatal'? I'm not interested in doing you harm, I just can't have people nuking stuff."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He shakes his head.
bellfounding: (reading)
Author: bellfounding
"Well, welcome to your not instantly fatal new home, I'm going to go round up some more revolutionaries, you'll have company," Bella shrugs. And she stealths and teleports to whoever may meet the description of this guy's second-in-command.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
There fails to be such a person.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
Who was the first other person to find out about the plan with the nuke-explainer, then?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
A very pretty woman walking along a mostly empty street.
bellfounding: (fretting)
Author: bellfounding
Bella follows her and faaaaaades slowly out of stealth mode; her aura cooperates as long as she's just withdrawing it instead of switching modes. She stops when she still attracts significantly less notice than she should; she doesn't really want passerby attention. But someone walking right behind you should catch anyone's notice, even if they've got a little magic suggesting you look away. Especially when they say:

"Excuse me."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The woman walks faster without answering. This is an entirely reasonable reaction if someone is following you closely on a Gotham street.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
"You know the guy who just brought a nuke to the stadium," Bella states.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
No reaction.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
Bella sighs. "Okay, we can have the rest of this conversation on Ganymede, maybe that will help."

She teleports the lady to Terraformed Prison Colony Ganymede, within eyeshot of but not right next to Bane.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox


Despite herself, she looks at Bane and gasps.
bellfounding: (ugh)
Author: bellfounding
"So yeah, I'm not a random person who decided to follow you down the street," Bella says, folding her arms, "I'm a powerful busybody and I have some questions."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The woman draws herself up and looks at Bella in cold silence.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
"I am completely prepared to leave you on Ganymede forever. Would you like to produce any reason for me not to do that?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
She says nothing.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
"Okay then."

Bella looks for the next person to find out about the plan in much the same way.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
A highly suspicious underground chamber that both looks and smells like it is part of a sewer system!
bellfounding: (quizzical)
Author: bellfounding
Well, that's gross!

Who all's here and what are they up to?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Lots of people, and they appear to be panicking.
bellfounding: (reading)
Author: bellfounding
That is interesting. Bella supervises the panic to see what the shape of this group may be.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Headless. Headless is the shape of the group.
bellfounding: (fretting)
Author: bellfounding
Do any of them appear to be communicating with anyone who's not in this sewer?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
No.
bellfounding: (lipbite)
Author: bellfounding
That's good, then, it should be safe to supervise a little longer and figure out who these people are, what they were trying to accomplish, etcetera.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
They are all very concerned about the disappearance of someone called Bane. No one can seem to agree on anything except that it is very bad that Bane is gone and they're not sure what to do now.

While she is watching them, another four people arrive with the corpse of the rabbit.
bellfounding: (inhale)
Author: bellfounding
There's a lot of people here.

Bella decides to unstealth.

"There was no call to kill that bunny," she says. "All it did was fail to be a nuke anymore."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
There is a general uproar.

Someone shoots at her. They miss.
bellfounding: (pealing)
Author: bellfounding
The guns in this room don't work anymore. Nothing much will happen if they shoot her - Shell Bell's nukeproof wish has percolated through the peal as a standard - but it might ricochet and hurt somebody she doesn't want hurt.

"Me, you may have slightly more reason to be upset with, but that's not going to help."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The occupants of the sewer tunnels mob her en masse.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
She sighs and teleports to behind the mob.

"I just want someone to talk to me," she says from over there.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
No one is interested in talking to her.

Many people are interested in doing her physical harm.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
She's not interested in staying put for it.

Eventually she picks them all up and puts them on Ganymede.

She hovers about twenty feet above the ground. And decides to hang out and wait for someone to decide to say something to her.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The people from the sewer all congregate around the first two prisoners she collected.

No one talks to Bella. At a word from Bane, no one even looks at Bella.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
Bella sighs, wishes them a food replicator with instructions printed in English on the side and some magic plumbing, and goes to see if anyone else may need fetching.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
One person, in the sewer tunnels, carrying the bunny's top hat.
bellfounding: (quizzical)
Author: bellfounding
"Hi. I don't suppose you'll talk to me?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He drops the hat and runs.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
She teleports in front of him. "You guys are really not friendly, are you."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He runs the other way.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
She sighs and takes him to Ganymede, too.

Who's next?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Next are some people at the bottom of a deep dark hole.
bellfounding: (fretting)
Author: bellfounding
What a curious sort of hole this is. Bella decides to find out more about it before she removes anyone from it.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
It appears to be a prison, in a desert, full of men speaking a language that is not English.

On casual inspection it almost looks like there is a handy way to climb out of the prison at any time, up the curved rock walls with the aid of a safety rope. This proves not to be the case. Or at least, there is an entire ritual centred around trying and failing to do it.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
Huh. Well, these people are already in prison. It's probably both less pleasant to be in and easier to escape than Ganymede's going to be once she's installed more than a handful of amenities; she might sift through it later, but it's not her immediate priority.

Anyone else?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Only people who are already in this prison. But not everyone who is in this prison.
bellfounding: (reading)
Author: bellfounding
All right then.

Bella goes back to floating above the prisoners on Ganymede, in case someone wants to address her, and meanwhile watches the news on a half-second delay via pastwatching.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
No one wants to address her.

The news seems to be... somewhat confused... about how to report on what just happened in Gotham. They do have several different angles on the nuclear device turning into a rabbit.
bellfounding: (heh)
Author: bellfounding
Heh heh heh.

Bella decides to leave Ganymede's new residents alone for the day and she heads for Tethys to continue newswatching more comfortably. She's kind of surprised the Batlady hasn't tried to brainphone her yet.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The news also reports that Gotham's mayor was killed in the attack, along with several more people who were nearby when the bomb that killed him went off.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
That's really a pity, but Jane is offline, so Bella can't fix it, not in any way worth doing.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The Batlady does not try to brainphone her about it.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
Well then.

Bella proceeds with her usual activities, evades when miscellaneous world leaders ask if she had anything to do with the thing in Gotham, and checks on Ganymede the next day.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Ganymede is extremely orderly. Bane stands guard by the food replicator, and ceremoniously allows any who approach to operate it and take their food away in peace. They have already begun a collection of nourishing non-perishables close by, and everyone who gets food from the replicator to eat right away also contributes to the stash.
bellfounding: (heh)
Author: bellfounding
Bella snickers. She hangs out for fifteen minutes or until addressed.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Everyone ignores her.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
Off she goes, then. She figures she'll let them go a week before she installs, say, houses and flora without being so much as shouted at for them.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
It should be fairly clear by now that none of Bane's people are going to say a word to her, shouted or otherwise.
bellfounding: (Default)
Author: bellfounding
She's not sure whether this is for fear of peer reaction of some kind, so all the houses - there are enough for everybody and then some, if terribly samey ones, each with their own plumbing and replicators, arranged in a circle - can be locked from the inside against any non-teleportative intrusion, and include little fact sheets (in the reader's native language, whatever that may be) to this effect. They are invited to summon her by folding up their fact sheets, along existing folds; if someone secretly wants to talk to her they have every chance, now.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
No one secretly wants to talk to her.
bellfounding: (right)
Author: bellfounding
That's okay too.

She spends most of her time curing diseases and convincing various prime ministers of this and that that she's here to help, but periodically she drops in on Ganymede and adds amenities - ground rules, a library (no Internet, not till Jane's back). On a whim she decides to give them a swimming pool. It's not like unfriendly possibly-cultists are liable to be the only people she's ever going to need to put out of the way.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
The people of Ganymede continue to be quietly civilized.
bellfounding: (bored)
Author: bellfounding
That's better than the alternative. Bella checks in once weekly like clockwork, by pastwatch often as not, and otherwise goes about her business.