plotting to unnerve her

[self_composed]

Bella finds Milliways in the moon palace instead of one of her balconies.

"Huh," she says aloud.

Then, to Alice, Libby, Elena, and Mary, and Lazarus except he autoreplies with a busy message, [Hey folks, Moonstone Palace grew a bar that I don't remember putting in, come check it out.]

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

"Why doesn't your personnel manager have a title?"

[self_composed]

"I haven't been an empress for very long, and getting her one hasn't been a huge priority," Bella shrugs.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Where did the empire come from, if you don't mind my asking?"

[self_composed]

"I went to Mars and terraformed it and declared myself the empress thereof," Bella says. "With magic. I have a fair amount of magic."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Has anyone immigrated?"

[self_composed]

"A handful of people, so far. We're still working on breaking it to Earth that it's an option, so it's personal friends at this point, but I think the free rent and magical healthcare and teleportation-based subway and stuff are going to get attention."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Free rent and magical healthcare definitely sound promising," says Roberta. "What's the catch?"

[self_composed]

"There isn't one. It's magic. I can offer all that stuff on the cheap. I want people to have a nice place to live and not die or worry about paying the landlord. I get to call myself Empress and lay down magical laws-nigh-unto-physics around Mars so people don't stab each other or set anything on fire, and they get to live in a place where those things don't happen and they get the necessities without a hassle."

[edgeofyourseat]

Roberta smiles wryly. "Maybe this is my cynical Gotham roots showing, but that sounds too good to be true."

[self_composed]

"Gotham?" Bella asks. "I wonder if you're from the same one that my boyfriend's alternate lives in. I don't think there even is a city by that name on my Earth."

[edgeofyourseat]

"There isn't in a lot of worlds," she says, looking slightly unsettled, perhaps because of what Bella has told her about said alternate. "One of those weird Milliways things. I haven't met very many people here who do have one."

[self_composed]

"Weird. I got the impression it was a big place. Do you know anything about how it was founded?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Sorry," she says. "All my historical knowledge is a little more recent."

[self_composed]

"Oh well. If Gotham is so cynicism-inducing, why is it a big place? Why doesn't everyone pack up and move to someplace nice? You don't have a magic door to a terraformed Mars, but I imagine you have a California."

[edgeofyourseat]

"A lot of people don't have the option," she says, looking a little withdrawn. "Some of them like it just fine the way it is. And some of the rest of us would like to see it get better."

[self_composed]

"That probably accounts for at least half the population. But a big city with organized crime and thriving businesses and stuff in it has to have a decent-sized middle class who mind their own business mostly. Why are they still there?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Denial?" she suggests. "Inertia? I really don't know."

[self_composed]

"Fair enough. What's your angle on the seeing it get better thing? I must be too used to having magic; I'm blanking on other strategies right now."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Money," she says wryly. "Money and time. It's not working out as well as I'd hoped."

[self_composed]

"Sure, but doing what with the money? Throwing it at the educational system? Funding the volunteer fire department? Renovating the libraries?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Orphanages," she says distantly.

[self_composed]

"Not bad," says Bella. "Er, you okay?"

[edgeofyourseat]

She shakes her head and summons a rueful smile. "Sorry, did I just make this conversation uncomfortably personal? Forget I said anything."



Meanwhile, in the Joker's room: The Joker observes that it's a pity he doesn't have a gun with him.

Alice fixes that.

[self_composed]

Bella makes a bit of a face at that and then shakes herself off. "It's okay, you - just don't look like you're particularly happy."

[edgeofyourseat]

"And now neither do you," says Roberta. "Quick, let's start talking about... puppies or something."