a profusion of whistles

[self_composed]

"I didn't wind up interacting directly with Micaiah much," says Stella, after returning home from a certain visit. "Does he deviate from template significantly? He didn't have wings, so I imagine it was by less than Angela deviates from my template."

Comments

[truthwright]

"...Hi!" says Kas. "Yeah, that's us. Which one are you?"

[self_composed]

Stella's wearing her crown. It has the star sapphires, although since they are magic star sapphires they radiate in seven directions instead of six. "Guess," she says, tapping it.

[truthwright]

"...well, you're probably an empress of something," he says slowly, "but it's not like that narrows it down..."

[self_composed]

"I'm Stella," she laughs. "Stars, Empress of the Stars, hence the crown design. Golden's is gold, Shell Bell's is all ocean-themed, your Amariah's entry mentioned something about permanent ice."

[truthwright]

Petaal ducks her head behind Kas's so that just the tip of one ear peeks out around his jawline.

"...Nice to meet you, I guess," he says, fiddling with the card in his hands. (Six of hearts.)

[self_composed]

"Is Amariah around?" Stella asks.

[truthwright]

"Nah, she's at home," he says.

He doesn't seem delighted about this, for some reason. Maybe he just misses her.

[self_composed]

"...Are you okay?"

[truthwright]

He wrinkles his nose slightly. "Do you care?"

[self_composed]

"I asked, didn't I?" She sits down opposite him. "What's wrong?"

[truthwright]

Petaal crawls behind Kas's neck to his other shoulder, turns into a glass-winged butterfly, and perches in his hair.

"I'm scared of you," he says softly.

[self_composed]

"I'm not gonna hurt you," she says, sitting back and blinking. "- Is it the coins? Are you scared of Shell Bell now too?"

[truthwright]

"Maybe I should be," he says, dropping the six of hearts into his lap and pressing his hand down on top of the house of cards so the whole thing collapses onto the table. A few stray cards spin off the edge onto the floor.

"But you're the only one who's done the thing I'm afraid of."

[self_composed]

"...The asteroid thing?" hazards Stella. "Alice isn't afraid of me. He was mad for a while but not afraid. Micaiah wasn't either. Why are you?"

[truthwright]

"Alice is the one who's fucking you, I'm pretty sure that buys him a pass," says Kas. "The worst thing Micaiah's ever done to anybody is steal their wallet and run away laughing."

[self_composed]

"Is Amariah tolerating you doing nasty things to people?" asks Stella. "Because that seems unlikely on the face of it. Although I still haven't met her directly."

[truthwright]

"I killed a guy for her," Petaal pipes up, with a defiant flutter of her wings. "And I'd do it again."

[self_composed]

"And Amariah killed a guy for Shell Bell, Golden killed somebody who hurt her particularly badly, the fact that I've never personally found it necessary doesn't mean I can't see the occasional necessity for people with fewer resources than I have," says Stella. "If Amariah wanted you to kill a guy I'm pretty happy to accept the explanation that this was the best idea."

[truthwright]

"Well, I'm still scared of you," says Kas, looking away. "Maybe I shouldn't be, I don't know, I didn't decide to be, I just am."

[self_composed]

"Do you want me to leave you alone?" asks Stella doubtfully.

[truthwright]

"I don't know," he sighs. Petaal flutters her wings again.

[self_composed]

"...I'm gonna go up and check the Belltower for updates," says Stella, and she teleports up.

She reads very fast and she's through Amariah's update about "Juliet" in a few seconds and Shell Bell's report about having talked Angela into taking mint powers in a few more. But she flies down the stairs instead of teleporting down again. If he wants to bolt, he can bolt.

[truthwright]

Kas and Petaal are at the same table; Petaal is viscacha-shaped on top of the pile of cards, and Kas has his arms around her and his face buried in her fur.

[self_composed]

Aww.

Stella eyes him as she walks past to an empty seat at the bar. Why's he scared of her? Amariah's witchy and he's not, Amariah's a version of her, she has every reason to count on Amariah to keep her own Whistle contained. The Joker didn't have one. (That's the problem; the Joker is what happens when a Whistle doesn't encounter a Bella soon enough.)

[truthwright]

She could always ask him. He hasn't gone anywhere. He's just over there snuggling his daemon.