self_composed | plotting to unnerve her

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

edgeofyourseat

Roberta looks... withdrawn.

"Maybe fewer people should consider murder a solution to their problems."

From:

self_composed

"If he were innocently radioactive - hell, if he didn't have a blatant, admitted deathwish - then I'd be much less cavalier about it," Bella assures her. "He is a special case. I haven't ever actually killed anyone. I don't know if I could if I were not backed into a corner about it, and I have enough magic that I probably never will be."

From:

edgeofyourseat

"Don't," Roberta advises. Which is odd advice to give, for the kind of person she claims to be.

Alice rubs his face sleepily against the Joker's chest.

From:

manofmyword

He giggles and strokes Alice's hair.

"Better, sweetie?"

From:

edgeofyourseat

"Mhmmm."

From:

self_composed

"My current plans don't include it," Bella says. "You have... stronger opinions on this subject than I expect random businesspeople who golf to have. Military background?" she guesses. "Maybe?"

From:

edgeofyourseat

"I'm... afraid of making our conversation uncomfortably personal again," says Roberta.

From:

self_composed

"I will be really impressed with you if you do anything more discomfiting than what I'm using you to distract me from," Bella says.

From:

edgeofyourseat

"My parents were shot in front of me by a mugger when I was eight," Roberta says flatly.

From:

self_composed

"I'm sorry," says Bella. "That's awful."

From:

edgeofyourseat

"So you can see why I'd be not so keen on killing people in general."

From:

self_composed

"No," Bella says. "I mean, yes, that's a possible reaction to that experience, but it's not the only one. You could have turned into some pro-death-penalty tough-on-crime reactionary."

From:

edgeofyourseat

Upstairs, Alice snuggles up and kisses the scar at the corner of the Joker's mouth.

"Where'd you get 'em?" he wonders.

From:

manofmyword

"Lemme show you," he suggests, producing a knife from somewhere. It is a little bit amazing how good the Joker is at coming up with knives.

From:

self_composed

Well. Even in the unlikely event Alice decides to keep creepy duplicate scars by suppressing his regen, his present when they get home will get rid of them, Bella has that on good authority.

From:

edgeofyourseat

"The boyfriend again?" guesses Roberta.

Alice, meanwhile, is experiencing the sudden and obvious understanding that of course the Joker gave them to himself. He laughs.

From:

self_composed

"Alice asked about the..." Bella traces the scar locations on her own cheeks. "The Joker has offered to show him. The scars won't keep even if Alice lets them form to begin with, but... yeah." Pause. "Alice, who I guess would probably know, thinks the Joker gave himself said scars."

From:

edgeofyourseat

Roberta frowns, more interested than disturbed. Although she is definitely also disturbed.

From:

manofmyword

The Joker slides the knife into Alice's mouth and rips it out again. It bleeds quite beautifully, and even more so when he does it again.

Time for a kiss?

From:

edgeofyourseat

Hell yes.

He lets himself heal somewhere in the middle of it, because he likes the tension between his cheek trying to come back together and the Joker's tongue pushing on the edges. It doesn't even hurt that much, but it's hot in a way that plain old pain can't compete with.

From:

self_composed

"He's letting himself heal," Bella reports. "So that's good. And of course they haven't gotten anywhere near the edges of his actual pain tolerance, which I don't think nonmagical humans can even approach without dying..."