dead babies and mind control

[her_imperial_radiance]

[Grandma, Mama wants me to speak with you about what Harley said about the world he landed in when he vanished,] Elspeth says, shortly after it's clear that Harley's second vanishing was just him waking up. [He said it was run by one of your alts.]

Comments

[her_imperial_radiance]

[All right.]

[prima_sequentem]

[Anything else? Is Bella still going to be suspicious of me?]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[...Probably not enough to matter. She does consider this empire - from the sound of it - a case of failing really badly, not a form of succeeding, and I don't think that will change even if we confirm that Aelise was averting something else that was also awful. But Mama has no reason to distrust your ability to handle personnel as you have been, and Dad is still paying attention to everyone's thoughts for her so I don't think she'll expect sudden backstabbing so you can go ally with Aelise or anything given the chance. I think Bells in general might be more suspicious of new Libbies, once this information makes it to the peal, though. Like the reverse of the Voice template - the one from Samaria who lives here now is fine and harmless, the others are understood to be generally awful. Maybe Aelise is a one-off under extreme circumstances and we'll never see anything like it again, but we don't know yet, and an entire world under constant Chelseaing is just about the worst thing Mama can think of.]

[prima_sequentem]

[Worse things exist,] says Lizzie. [An entire world under constant mind control from someone whose obsession is with other people's suffering, for example.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[Yes, if you gave Mama a list of excessively horrible things she might not put this world at the top, but this one has more emotional repellence, considering.]

[prima_sequentem]

[I understand.]

She pauses, then adds, [It might be worth talking about why "go ally with Aelise" is a nonsense idea.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[All right, why is it?]

[prima_sequentem]

[If "ruled by all-encompassing mind control" is how Aelise ultimately prefers her world, then I disavow identity with her and I bet the rest of my template does too,] says Lizzie. [I'm going on the assumption that she wants to get rid of Chelsa, but has what she considers a good reason not to, and I would probably more or less agree with her that it's a good reason if I knew what it was. What I want to do is find out what that reason is and then find a way around it. I cannot ally with Aelise against Bella because my entire stake in this is that I want to bring Aelise's interests and Bella's interests into alignment. A world ruled by one of me could be a place Bella would love, if we got around whatever problem made her include Chelsa in the first place.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[What about a scenario where the problem can be fixed, but only to a point, such that Mama would rather go through with it and be rid of Chelsa and Aelise would rather stick with what she's got? Since we don't know what the problem is, it's not impossible.]

[prima_sequentem]

[Then who I tried to convince would depend on who I agreed with. But I will go on record as saying that I think it's premature to think of Bella and Aelise as already being in conflict.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[I don't think Mama's going to like her.]

[prima_sequentem]

[I don't think so either, but there is a wide range of possibilities between 'best friends' and 'open war', and I want to avoid tending toward the second extreme.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[For that matter, I don't think I'm going to like her,] Elspeth goes on quietly. [You may have to do most of the talking.]

[prima_sequentem]

[her_imperial_radiance]