"Free rent and magical healthcare definitely sound promising," says Roberta. "What's the catch?"

"There isn't one. It's magic. I can offer all that stuff on the cheap. I want people to have a nice place to live and not die or worry about paying the landlord. I get to call myself Empress and lay down magical laws-nigh-unto-physics around Mars so people don't stab each other or set anything on fire, and they get to live in a place where those things don't happen and they get the necessities without a hassle."

Roberta smiles wryly. "Maybe this is my cynical Gotham roots showing, but that sounds too good to be true."

"Gotham?" Bella asks. "I wonder if you're from the same one that my boyfriend's alternate lives in. I don't think there even is a city by that name on my Earth."

"There isn't in a lot of worlds," she says, looking slightly unsettled, perhaps because of what Bella has told her about said alternate. "One of those weird Milliways things. I haven't met very many people here who do have one."

"Weird. I got the impression it was a big place. Do you know anything about how it was founded?"

"Sorry," she says. "All my historical knowledge is a little more recent."

"Oh well. If Gotham is so cynicism-inducing, why is it a big place? Why doesn't everyone pack up and move to someplace nice? You don't have a magic door to a terraformed Mars, but I imagine you have a California."

"A lot of people don't have the option," she says, looking a little withdrawn. "Some of them like it just fine the way it is. And some of the rest of us would like to see it get better."

"That probably accounts for at least half the population. But a big city with organized crime and thriving businesses and stuff in it has to have a decent-sized middle class who mind their own business mostly. Why are they still there?"

"Denial?" she suggests. "Inertia? I really don't know."

"Fair enough. What's your angle on the seeing it get better thing? I must be too used to having magic; I'm blanking on other strategies right now."

"Money," she says wryly. "Money and time. It's not working out as well as I'd hoped."

"Sure, but doing what with the money? Throwing it at the educational system? Funding the volunteer fire department? Renovating the libraries?"

"Orphanages," she says distantly.

"Not bad," says Bella. "Er, you okay?"

Bella makes a bit of a face at that and then shakes herself off. "It's okay, you - just don't look like you're particularly happy."

"And now neither do you," says Roberta. "Quick, let's start talking about... puppies or something."

"Sorry, I'm just - not comfortable leaving them unmonitored, but I am not that kinky," Bella says, pointing at the ceiling. "Nothing to do with our conversation. Puppies! They're so cute! I have never had one myself. You?"

"Me neither," she admits. "But they are very cute."

"There aren't any on Mars. No one has brought pets up yet, and the ecosystem I designed doesn't include any predators."

"There's bunnies," Bella says. "No shortage of nice fuzzy bunnies. They're modified so they don't, er, breed like rabbits, though, since nothing's eating them. If people develop an interest in hunting in my wilderness I'll fiddle with that."

"People are probably going to want cats and dogs," she says. "But nice fuzzy bunnies are a good start."