cake and ice cream

[self_composed]

Bella finds Milliways next, too, on New Year's Day, and calls in Alice (he's not coming to Goldenworld even if they find a person who can take them there, but he might find someone interesting to talk to in the bar) and also Lazarus. She mentions the door to Libby, too, in case she and/or her wolf want to take an excursion and see if his friends and family back home can be visited.

Comments

[self_composed]

"Occupational necessity," says Bella, smirking.

[yourheartstrings]

"Ooh, this I gotta hear."

[self_composed]

"I'm making a habit of not explaining the details, but suffice it to say I plan for me and Alice to both live forever, and I wouldn't want that to interfere with his hobbies or vice versa."

[yourheartstrings]

"Aren't you precious," she says affectionately. "Can I see him pretty please, even though we're both awful terrible people?"

[self_composed]

"My Alice is not a terrible awful person," says Bella adamantly. "And..."

She pauses.

"Actually, what am I even thinking? My original objection is moot. I'll go grab Alice real quick."

Because if the Emperor and the Seer and the other ex-inhabitants of the witch dungeon are anything to go by, their sort of vampire is straight up immune to trauma.

Bella pokes her head out the door. [Hey Alice, want to meet another alt of you? She's a funky sorta ghost thing.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice appears.

"Hell yes!"

[self_composed]

Bella ushers him in. [I'm pretty sure your shiny new species is immune to being traumatized in any lasting way,] she says. [Although I wouldn't like you to go around taunting anyone with this information, the Emperor survived five years in small pieces in a dungeon believing his mate was dead and he is perfectly functional now. As long as I'm alive I don't think you can get to an irrecoverable state, and I have every intention of remaining alive.] "Alice, this is a female ghost version of you who has not introduced herself. Ghost, this is my Alice, as described."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice opens his arms. "Hi, me!"

[yourheartstrings]

"Hi, you," she says, hugging him so hard she nearly bowls him over. "Oh, look at you, you're such a little darling, let me—"

And she dissolves into dust that dissolves into smaller dust that dissipates into apparent nothing.

[nonbird]

Lazarus makes an incredulous sound, which was not his reaction the last few times she did this.

[self_composed]

"What's going on?" Bella asks. Lazarus or Alice or both could answer her, whichever one knows.

[nonbird]

"Ghosty Alice is inhabiting him the same way she was inhabiting those bodies she kept making out of and dissolving into thin air," Lazarus explains rapidly.

[edgeofyourseat]

"...I don't feel possessed, or anything," says Alice.

[self_composed]

"Does it feel like anything?" Bella asks, looking him up and down.

[edgeofyourseat]

"No-o..."

[yourheartstrings]

The ghost reassembles herself in front of him, tangles both her hands in his hair, and kisses him enthusiastically.

[nonbird]

Lazarus turns quite pink.

[self_composed]

"Huh," says Bella. "What was that about?" she asks the ghost. "Also, do you have any sort of nickname or should I just call you Ghosty or something?"

[edgeofyourseat]

With some reluctance, Alice stops kissing her so she can answer some of those.

[yourheartstrings]

"I wanted to see him," she explains, running her fingers through his hair. "I usedta be the Joker, but I don't think you're a fan. Ghosty works."

[self_composed]

"...Are you the same Joker I met before or a different one going by the same name?" The same Joker plus Milliways temporal fuckery would probably still remember her, but there's always lying or even, after long enough that asteroid confinement is a distant memory, forgetting.

[yourheartstrings]

"Different," she says. "Never seen you before. Never came here before I died, either, so you wouldn'ta met me then unless you were in my world, and I don't think you are, are you?"

[self_composed]

"I don't think we're from the same world," Bella agrees.

[yourheartstrings]

"Mhm."

She turns back to Alice.

"Sweet little me, can I take you somewhere and eat you?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"I think it should be the other way around," he says with a grin.