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

[manofmyword]

The muzzle of the gun comes to rest under Alice's chin. The Joker kisses him softly.

"That scares you," he murmurs.

[edgeofyourseat]

Breathlessly: "Yeah."

[self_composed]

He still likes it. As long as he still likes it this is just her being squeamish. Bella grits her teeth and forces down a sip of milkshake. It's melting. A triangle can fix that.

"I am going to feel much better when I get him home," she mutters.

[edgeofyourseat]

Roberta looks concerned. "Are you sure he's okay? Are you okay?"

[manofmyword]

"I'd do it," he says, his breath warm on Alice's lips. "You know that, don't you? I would."

[self_composed]

"There is a gun pointed at my boyfriend. He will survive getting shot and he's having fun with it. That doesn't mean I love it," Bella explains tightly. "I am glad I have a my-boyfriend instead of the alt, in my world."

[edgeofyourseat]

Roberta looks appalled.



"I know," he says. His voice catches a little. All of a sudden it's too much, the pressure against the softness of his throat, the fear and uncertainty and everything he was loving a minute ago.

[self_composed]

[You can leave,] Bella tells Alice urgently. [You can teleport downstairs and we can go home.]

[manofmyword]

She isn't the only one who's noticed, though.

The Joker clicks the safety on and tosses the gun off the bed, reaching for a blanket in the same movement and wrapping them both in it.

"Shhhh-hhh," he soothes. "I gotcha, baby."

[edgeofyourseat]

He curls up and buries his face against the Joker's chest and cries.

Words are utterly beyond him, but perhaps Bella will be able to deduce from context that he does not want to go anywhere.

[self_composed]

Okay. That's better. Bella calms down. For the moment.

(But she does not let up that read for a second.)

"I'm sorry, I might not be very good company for the next unknown period of time," she tells Roberta apologetically. "I can just conjure a book if you'd rather go talk to somebody else."

[edgeofyourseat]

It's good, it's good, he wants to be here. It's not safe, but it's something else. He's going to be hurt and scared and suffer in all kinds of ways, but eventually, he'll be okay. He believes that. He will be okay.



"No, but now I'm worried," says Roberta, frowning. "Tell me more about this... alternate."

[self_composed]

"My boyfriend's name is Alice, but the alternate's significantly older and he told me he's going by 'Joker'," says Bella, rubbing at one of her eyes. "He's locked up in an asylum right now, which he claims he can escape at will and only hasn't because he likes his shrink, but Milliways lets him in in his dreams since he got put away even though he never came here before. He told me that he gets kicked out of here if he does anything too 'unfriendly', but I'm not sure where the line is or - actually - whether that's true, so I buffed Alice's regeneration just now." She shrugs. "What else do you want to know? He has a twisted sense of humor and a crush on a lady who dresses up like a bat for some reason and if I ever find myself in his world I'm going to strand him on a habitable asteroid or kill him because he is dangerous and he would never give up trying to get around any other measures to make him safe."

[edgeofyourseat]

"The Joker is—dangerous," Roberta says, looking like she wishes she could come up with a stronger word. "You need to get your boyfriend away from him."

[self_composed]

"My boyfriend can teleport," Bella says. "There was one moment where he wasn't having fun anymore but the Joker backed off, that time. I don't think he'd appreciate being yanked down here. It hasn't gotten bad enough that I'd do it anyway. My boyfriend can take -" she laughs softly - "a lot."

[edgeofyourseat]

All of a sudden Roberta is looking significantly more grim.

"The Joker doesn't just hurt people," she says. "He... twists them. Even good people."

[self_composed]

"I am reading Alice's mind. I am monitoring the situation," Bella says, chewing on her lip but shifting nervously. "So you've got one where you're from?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yes. He videotaped himself torturing someone and sent the video to the media. It was horrible."



Meanwhile, Alice is still crying, and the Joker is still comforting him.

He's kind of in love.

[self_composed]

"I don't doubt it," Bella says. "Hence the asteroid-or-death thing. If I ever encounter him out of Milliways and can do that sort of thing."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...I'm.. not sure death is really the answer, either," says Roberta. "Although if you plan on whisking him away to an asteroid, don't let me stop you."

[self_composed]

"He'd rather be dead than on the asteroid unless the asteroid still afforded him chances to visit Milliways," Bella says. "I asked. If this ever happens, I will put him on an asteroid, wait for him to nap a few times and see if he can get here or not, and if he can't, I will either kill him or, if I can't stomach it, be there while he does it himself so he doesn't have to die alone. There's no point in being cruel. That won't help protect anyone."

[edgeofyourseat]

Well, now Roberta is looking unsettled again.

And Alice... Alice is slowly falling asleep in the Joker's arms.

[self_composed]

Bella calms down somewhat as Alice falls asleep. There is a limit to how much psychological shit the Joker can pull on a sleeping Alice. She's pretty sure that talking to sleeping people doesn't tend to do worse than maybe influence what dreams they're having, and two can play at that game if she sees any dreams she doesn't like flitting across her vision. Non-psychological behavior might squick her but she doesn't think it'll do Alice prolonged harm.

"Something wrong?" Bella asks Roberta. "I guess eighteen-year-old girls don't routinely announce their willingness to kill terrorists?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"They usually don't, no," she says, with an attempt at a smile; it rings a little more false than usual.



Upstairs, Alice is dozing, half-aware of his surroundings and mostly not thinking about anything much. In a half-aware dreamy way, he kind of wishes Bella were there, perhaps because in his half-aware dreamy state he doesn't have to consider her (probably quite low) level of desire to add to this cuddlepile.

[self_composed]

"More of them should," Bella says. "Admittedly, I don't know how old the bat lady he's sweet on might be, but she had the chance and didn't take it and anyone he kills after he gets out of the asylum is a predictable result of that choice. He's been trying to get her to kill him the entire time, and he isn't doing it by mocking her ancestry or something, either, he's not innocently radioactive, he goes around murdering people."

Bella doesn't want to be in that room. She might consider it anyway, if it were physical rather than mental damage that had her concerned - because her window into the events in the room is Alice's mind and it's falling asleep. But she's pretty confident that any random physical damage can happen to Alice and he will still come home with her good as new.