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

[edgeofyourseat]

...Well. Alice was not expecting that flashback.

It's not even exactly the right wording, and practically everything physical about the situation is wrong, but it still works just the way he's sure the Joker meant it to. All of a sudden he's seventeen again, in a dim New York alley, every detail of the scene crystalline in a way only eidetic memory can achieve.

[self_composed]

[Are you okay?] Bella asks him, sitting bolt upright. [You can leave. You can leave without notice at any moment.]

[edgeofyourseat]

She hits a busy message midsentence.

The busy message is [Fuck off!]

[self_composed]

...

Bella keeps reading.

"He blocked me," she mutters. "I asked him if he was okay because he was having a flashback and he blocked me, and now I can't talk to him unless I brute-force it..."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice and the Joker are flat-out brawling now, and the knife does damage to both of them in the process. So does the floor. And the frame of the bed. And the nightstand. And a wall.

He is more pissed off than he normally ever gets. At the Joker, at the man he was just reminded of so viscerally, at Bella; also, in a weird complicated inexplicable way, at himself.

[manofmyword]

The Joker laughs and laughs.

[edgeofyourseat]

"People having flashbacks do strange things," says Roberta. "Although I still think you should get him out of there."

[self_composed]

"Yeah," Bella says. "Yeah, at this point I agree with you. He'll be pissed, but he's pissed now..."

She still doesn't want to go up there in person. She wishes on a pentagon.

It stays on its chain.

Bella blinks, and swallows, and asks in a trembling voice, "Bar, was that you?"

[edgeofyourseat]

No, says a very apologetic-looking napkin.

[self_composed]

Bella tries a hex.

Bella uses that stubbornly undisappeared hex to declaw a star, and she tries the star.

"Fuck," Bella says. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, Lazarus did not warn me about this -"

[edgeofyourseat]

"What's going on?" says Roberta, rather urgently. "Who's Lazarus?"



Alice does not even know she is trying anything. He gets the Joker pinned, rips the knife out of his hand, and slashes open the side of his neck almost exactly over the scar they used to share.

[manofmyword]

His giggles are somewhat muffled by the floor, but the way he relaxes when Alice cuts him is perfectly clear.

[self_composed]

Bella makes a strangled squeaking sound. She does not want Alice to be the sort of person who cuts people's throats when he could just teleport away. She doesn't want that at all.

(Couldn't he teleport away? He hasn't tried, but could he, if his ingot power has reason to object to her doing it...?)

"Lazarus sees magic. We thought Alice was immune to - to mental tampering, but if Milliways isn't doing it then the only thing going on that could block me pulling him out is Alice's own native power. And teleportation isn't mental tampering. So now I don't even know what his power does and I don't know how to get him out." She's speaking very rapidly, and she's trying now to pull the Joker out, but he won't go either. "Fuck. Where's the lady who dresses up as a bat when you need her, I bet she could distract the Joker and maybe then I'd have a shot..."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice drags his fingers along the cut, then licks it, shoving the Joker down against the floor.

It occurs to him that the Joker probably has flashbacks, too.

He lets him up.



...Roberta is looking kind of torn.

"How would the Bat get into this situation in the first place?"

[manofmyword]

The Joker rolls onto his back, pulls Alice down, and kisses him fiercely.

[self_composed]

"Well, if I saw a lady in a bat outfit - I'm assured it's terrifying - I'd ask her. But I don't," Bella says, cradling her head in her hands. Is the Joker in danger of dying? Alice is still the one with the medical expertise and right now she doesn't think she can stand to sift through it. A pentagon will do that no problem. Nope. Not a signifcant blood vessel there. He'll bleed, maybe enough to feel woozy, but he won't die. Alice has not just killed a man.

[edgeofyourseat]

He kisses back, then ducks his head and pushes his tongue into the cut again.

"Fuck," he says on a soft, shuddering exhale.

[manofmyword]

"You okay, sweetie?" says the Joker, hugging him.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah. You?"

[manofmyword]

He laughs. "You betcha!"

[self_composed]

"Things've calmed down a little again," Bella says, shuddering. "But I don't think I can count on them to stay that way. I need to think of something. Can you think of anything?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Do you know where they are?" says Roberta, frowning.

Alice snuggles down on top of the Joker, lets his scratches and bruises fade away, and traces the cut with his fingertips. "Want me to fix this?"

[manofmyword]

"Sure."

[edgeofyourseat]

It only takes a square. He kisses the spot where the cut was; it's left a track of unblemished skin through the scar underneath.

[self_composed]

"In the Joker's room. Alice teleported them there, or I'd have the room number or whatever is used here. Maybe the Bar would tell us. Why? Would that help?"