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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.]
self_composed
manofmyword
He tilts his head to the side and rubs at the makeup along the underside of his jaw, revealing a thin line. It's not quite the same scar, even accounting for age, but it's obviously a close relative.
"Like that?"
"Like that?"
self_composed
"You know, I'm not actually sure of the status of that story as a secret or not, and it's the sort of thing that might be. Are you interested enough for me to check in with him?"
manofmyword
"Betcha I already know," he says. "I'm surprised, though. I got that one after I left home. It had a friend, too—if you ever got his pants off you woulda seen it for sure."
self_composed
"I bet you already know too," Bella says, "but in case you don't, or in case he'd mind regardless, I'm not sharing without checking."
self_composed
"I can read his mind," Bella repeats. "Anytime I like. Information comes in a pretty visual channel with borders around the content according to how much he likes it and my name appears bordered in white every time."
self_composed
"After we'd known each other for a few days and had a handful of casual conversations and I'd broken up a fight between him and a random classmate in the cafeteria, he invited me over to his house. Before I said yes, I told him I was going to conduct an experiment. I put my dad the police chief's number into my phone, hovered my finger over the call button, and called him a freak. And he asked me to marry him." She pauses. "I said no."
manofmyword
He tilts his head and, very slowly, smiles.
"Well. Now I think I'm kinda in love with you."
"Well. Now I think I'm kinda in love with you."
manofmyword
"To start with, I kinda had a thing for her before we met." He smiles reminiscently. "Girl dresses up as a giant bat and starts beating up criminals, what am I supposed to do? Not fall for her? I was fucking smitten. So, y'know, some other guy might write a love letter in that situation. Me, I rob a bank."
He cocks his head and grins.
"Actually, I robbed five, but who's counting? Anyway. It's the last one that counted. I walked out with a chunk of change belonging to several mob bosses, they got all riled up, I taunted 'em a little, and thennnn they hired me to kill 'er."
He cocks his head and grins.
"Actually, I robbed five, but who's counting? Anyway. It's the last one that counted. I walked out with a chunk of change belonging to several mob bosses, they got all riled up, I taunted 'em a little, and thennnn they hired me to kill 'er."
self_composed
"She dresses up as a bat?" Bella says quizzically. "And mob bosses hired you to kill her? Okay... what're you planning to do with a job like that?"
manofmyword
"She makes a terrifying bat," he assures her. "If you're thinkin' cheap Halloween costume, stop. And this was ages ago, we'll get there, don't worry."
He rubs his hands together and continues.
"So I was never gonna kill her, obviously, I like her too much. I got myself caught instead." He smiles wistfully. "You ever been in a police interrogation room? You should take your boyfriend to one sometime, they're fun. She cracked a safety glass window with my face."
He rubs his hands together and continues.
"So I was never gonna kill her, obviously, I like her too much. I got myself caught instead." He smiles wistfully. "You ever been in a police interrogation room? You should take your boyfriend to one sometime, they're fun. She cracked a safety glass window with my face."
manofmyword
"And then, y'know, I bombed the place and took a hike, and it was all very exciting for a while, and at the end..." he looks distracted for a moment, smirks secretively, then shakes his head and continues, "We fought it out in a half-built skyscraper and she threw me outta the top floor. And like I said, caught me halfway down." He shrugs. "Now I'm locked up, and she's out there somewhere hating my guts, and someday I'll get out and we'll do it all over again."
self_composed
"And as long as you have access to some door you can sometimes pop into Milliways for a bit," Bella says. "Interesting. Is it satisfactory for her to hate your guts? Wouldn't you rather she liked you?"
manofmyword
"She's never gonna like me," he says. "She couldn't. I mean, even if I hadn't killed a girl I'm pretty sure she was fucking, she is ve-e-ery much about law and order and I... am very much not."