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

[nonbird]

"...I feel like that is already too much information," says Lazarus, "but it also tells me nothing about why Alice's power would have cared. Unless the... um, event... was very important to you in some way," he says, managing to look at Alice with only a slight blush. "Life-changingly important."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yep," he says, a little defiantly.

[self_composed]

Bella plants the heel of her hand on her forehead. "Alternates," she mutters.

[nonbird]

"...What?"

[self_composed]

"We were in Milliways. I met an alt of Alice. For some reason, I decided to introduce them," she says.

[nonbird]

"And you...? Okay," says Lazarus, blushing again. "That makes a lot more sense, actually. I wonder... I wouldn't mind seeing the two of them in the same room," he says. "To see what Alice's power thinks of the other one."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice gives Lazarus an appraising look.

"Yeah, not sure that's a great plan," he says. "He'd eat you for breakfast. The nice way, if you're lucky."

[ignorable]

Kolya snickers.

[self_composed]

"And he's currently stranded on an asteroid in his own world," says Bella tartly, "as he was going to escape from his mental institution any day and go back to terrorizing his city to get his crush's attention, and I met someone from the same world who was more than happy to get outside assistance towards not being blown up or set on fire. Maybe we'll find another one, one of these days, a less... like that... one."

[nonbird]

"Yeep," says Lazarus.

[self_composed]

"Yeah. I'm not going to say it's strictly impossible for you to meet him, since he can go to Milliways from his asteroid, but it wouldn't be the best idea."

[nonbird]

"And I am now kind of hoping I don't."

[self_composed]

"Yeah."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice sighs.

He misses the other him. Even though the other him is nasty.

[self_composed]

"Maybe we'll find a nicer one who met a me or some reasonable facsimile early on," Bella says. "Or otherwise turned out better. Anyway. Without that particular test, is there anything else you know, Lazarus?"

[nonbird]

"No..." he says slowly. "No, I don't think so. No."

[self_composed]

"So... Alice's power wants Alice to be Alice, and while this most obviously extends to defending against mental tampering it will also block any attempts to remove him from experiences that, in its estimation, are making him Alicier," Bella says. "And we don't know what Alicier means exactly."

[nonbird]

"We don't," he says, gesturing between himself and Bella. "Or if I do, I can't explain it usefully." He points at Alice. "You should have no such trouble."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...I guess," he says. "I mean, if it wants me to be me, it makes sense that it wouldn't want me taken away from... me."

There's more to it than that, but the more resists words.

[self_composed]

Bella peers at it to see if she can make any wordless sense of it.

[edgeofyourseat]

It goes something like this:

What the Joker was doing—what they were doing, together—was helping Alice understand himself better and accept himself more. It was important to him to do it, not just because he wanted to have that experience, but because he wanted to learn from it. Well, 'learn' might not be the best word. Try: he wanted to change in the ways that that experience made him change.

Apparently, his power was backing him on that.

[self_composed]

Bella chews on her lip. "How smart and/or prognosticatory is this power? Is it liable to start steering him towards things instead of just resisting attempts to remove him from things?" [I'm planning on turning him into a vampire,] Bella adds privately to Lazarus, [for Christmas, it's a surprise - sometimes vampires have magical improvements after they turn. So if it doesn't do this now but that looks like a way it could change...]

[nonbird]

"...Well, it can't do what Alice doesn't or wouldn't want it to. Can't or won't, it's the same thing. So... that might be reassuring?"

[self_composed]

"Some," Bella acknowledges.

[nonbird]

"Okay."

[It doesn't look to me like this power wants to change what it can do,] he says. [But I wouldn't have said it would protect experiences he was having, either, and then it did.]