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

[self_composed]

"And you... stand around looking important? Sit in a corner office and stamp your signature on things? Golf?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"How did you guess?"

[self_composed]

"I'm running on pure stereotype. But come on, this is making you sound boring, and I didn't think boring people were invited in here."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I know defining people by their careers is a longstanding American tradition, but I'd hope the Martian empire would be a little more enlightened," says Roberta.

[self_composed]

"I'm not. I'm judging you for the golf. Golf is mind-numbing," says Bella, smirking.

[edgeofyourseat]

"As long as you don't comment on the size of my balls, I think I can survive your disdain," says Roberta.

[self_composed]

Bella snorts. "I guess not everyone can jump out a window and fly around when bored."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yes. Gravity: a tragic human limitation."

[self_composed]

"I'm a human. It's the other Bella who's a vampire."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Silly me," says Roberta.

[self_composed]

"Very." Bella takes a long drink of milkshake. "At the risk of sounding both like a cliche and like I'm hitting on you, neither of which is the case: come here often?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Not very," she says. "But I appreciate the break when it happens."

[self_composed]

"I've only been here four times, this being me on my way home from a round trip," Bella says. "And the first time, my personnel - officer? manager? I need to pick a title for her - found the door. I found it the time after, though. My alternate doesn't encounter it often; it's usually her kid."

[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?"