delicious bubbly

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth is glad that Milliways likes her, because she likes it. Jacob at her side and a glass of this nice golden stuff in her hand (she's tried the other synthetics; they're nice for an occasional change, but only humans care about dietary variety that much and this one is her favorite) and hubbub from a hundred worlds around her: lovely. A lovely break from work that keeps no one waiting, that doesn't even throw off her sleep cycle because her sleep cycle cares about the sun. (It throws off Jake's, a little, but his is more flexible than hers.)

Comments

[manofmyword]

The Joker snorts.

"Oh, is that all," he says; the words are scornful but the tone is soft.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Why would that Bell have left the note, then?" Jake asks. "Or put him on that asteroid? This is the asteroid one, yeah?"

"Yes, he is. And I'm not sure. We can ask the next time we see her," she says, patting Jake's arm. "In the meantime I think I'm okay. You can scoop me up and hustle me out the door if you don't like something he says."

[manofmyword]

"She put me on the asteroid because I'm a mass murderer," he says casually. "That's not a big mystery. The mystery's why she leaves little warnings telling people not to talk to me. Not that I don't have a theory or two."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"What are your theories, then?" asks Elspeth.

The woman who had much of the raising of her from three days to six months was a serial killer, and several of her other family have worse records still, and then there's the inside of her own head. She's not fazed.

[manofmyword]

"Could be she's mad 'cause I fucked her boyfriend," he says. "But I don't think that's it. She is, but she's not usually that petty."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I don't think any of the Bells except for Mama are monogamous," says Elspeth.

[manofmyword]

"Oh, she's not mad that I fucked him. She's mad about how."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I'm surprised she wanted to know enough to find out," remarks Elspeth.

[manofmyword]

"She was reading his mind the whole time. If you wanna know why, you better ask her."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I might, I guess. I might not."

[manofmyword]

"If you don't," he says, "how are you gonna find out?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Well, I guess I wouldn't," Elsie says reasonably. "I'm not as curious as Mama is."

[manofmyword]

"Hon," he says, "I don't think that's saying much."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Well, no," agrees Elspeth. "And I'm not sure if Mama is even the most curious of the Bells. Although I haven't met all of them, only read the book."

[manofmyword]

"I liked the one I met," he says. "But it, ah, wasn't mutual."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I don't think it can possibly just be that you killed people. Most of my mother's friends and family have killed at least a few people. She must have thought you were going to kill more of them."

[manofmyword]

"Of course she did," he says. "She knows me. Mmmmbut it's never really that simple."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"No?"

[manofmyword]

"Course not," says the Joker. "Here I am on this asteroid. Maybe I could leave if I tried, but maybe I couldn't. And if I don't, I'm gonna be there until I die, all alone, thousands of miles from anybody I could talk to." He closes his eyes. "Some days, I'd rather she'd just killed me."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Can you not even go into another world from here?" asks Elspeth.

(Her mother would have had this idea, and then, most likely, would have refrained from voicing it. But it is not in Elspeth's nature to hide her thoughts.)

[manofmyword]

"That's the thing I haven't tried," he says. "It might kill me, and some days I don't want it to."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It won't kill you," says Elspeth absently, and she takes a swig of golden bubbly.

[manofmyword]

"...And you know that... how?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I sometimes just say things, and they're true," says Elspeth. "Usually they're things I actually have some way to know, but sometimes they're not. That's why Jake wanted me to tell him if you were dangerous or not. That works pretty well because Jake cares a lot about the answer. I don't think I can reliably do Milliways physics questions, but I did that one."

[manofmyword]

"Heh," says the Joker. "Now I just need somebody who'll let me visit."