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]

"Mm, well, that's the thing," he says, tipping his chair back on two legs and glancing up into the rafters, gesturing expressively with one hand. "It's fun, sometimes; I'm not saying it's not. And it's fun-ny. But it's not an end in itself, like... oh... sex."

[self_composed]

"You just do it to see how people react, is that it? And nothing else guarantees such a very strong reaction, or you'd content yourself with property damage and white-collar crime and provocative graffiti and dumping trucksful of jellybeans onto the freeway."

[manofmyword]

"Oh, you do know my favourite book."

[self_composed]

"It's the same as Alice's," Bella says, leaning back.

[manofmyword]

He puts his hands on the table, drops his chair level again, and grins.

"It's not all about the reactions, either," he says. "Some. You know who you should talk to? You should talk to Quin. I bet you guys'd get along. Don't tell her you're planning on yanking me off the planet, though; she wouldn't like it at all." He leans forward across the table, glances side-to-side, whispers: "I think she likes me."

[self_composed]

"Is she fully informed?" Bella asks.

[manofmyword]

"She's my officcial headshrinker at Arkham Asylum," he says. "So yeah, pretty well."

[self_composed]

Bella snorts helplessly. "Your shrink has a crush on you. Oh lord."

[manofmyword]

"I never said she had a crush. She doesn't wanna fuck me, or we woulda already," he says with an easy shrug. "But she likes me. I like her, too."

[self_composed]

"Maybe she has some residual sense of professional ethics," Bella suggests.

[manofmyword]

"Mm, could be. Could be she's put off by what happened to my first shrink, too."

[self_composed]

"Which was what?"

[manofmyword]

"Well, he decided he did want to fuck me," the Joker says matter-of-factly. "I put up with it for a while because he was funny, and then I killed him."

[self_composed]

Bella's not particularly fazed by lethal responses to things that fall under the umbrella of "rape". "Yes. I'd imagine that would remind people of their professional ethics, if that were an event in recent memory."

[manofmyword]

"She should know better, though, she's known me for long enough." He shrugs. "But maybe you're right. Maybe it'll be different when I get out."

[self_composed]

"I'm pretty sure her professional ethics are supposed to last even after you are no longer her patient, although she might not be technically at risk of losing her license at that point," Bella says.

[manofmyword]

"But why is it against professional ethics to fuck your patients?"

[self_composed]

"Issues of vulnerability and abuse potential," Bella says. "Of course the rules were designed because of that potential in one direction, but you know, I'm not so sure that there's not something sketchy about you having sex with someone who's spent any amount of time having it be her job to listen to you talk."

[manofmyword]

"Do tell," he says, giving her an unimpressed look.

[self_composed]

She shrugs. "What else is there to tell?"

[manofmyword]

"Why."

[self_composed]

"Because with a captive audience - mind you I say a captive audience, someone whose job is on the line if she just gets up and leaves, I'm not saying you're mistreating arbitrary people who can go as they please if you have sex with them - I think you could be unduly fascinating, at least to a certain kind of person who might be disproportionately likely to become a shrink. When the only winning move is not to play, anyone who has to play - loses."

[manofmyword]

"Mm," he says. "Nah. I don't buy it. I could be playing her, sure. But I'm not. I just—" he smiles briefly, there and then gone "—like her."

[self_composed]

Bella shrugs. "I am not infallible. I am Space Empress, not Space Pope."

[manofmyword]

"Like I said, though, I bet you guys'd get along. Doctor Quinzel," he says. "Harleen Quinzel. Funny, right? Keep an eye out."