[Nah, what's up?]

[What she said.]

[Me either.]

[Guess who made nine-pointed coins.]

[Not you!]

[Not me! It was the Joker. Shell Bell has them. There is an afterlife, she went there and deems it shit, and it's got admins of unknown power running it so we want to storm the place - only with several of us on the job, and interdimensional travel under our control more than Milliways, and big coins with which to present an overwhelming force behind our platform of stop-torturing-everybody-please-you-horrible-afterlife.]

[Well, sign me up,] says Alice.

[What he said,] says Anna.

[Not you, Sandy?]

[Well, I'll help,] he says. [But I'm already not keen on evils.]

[All right, no big deal. FYI, I really don't know if it's possible to do the trick without agony-beaming, although maybe you and your inside friends and Anna can work something out. The agony-beam threshold is just what you'd expect - one million triangles.]

[Bet you we caaaaan,] says Anna.

[I want to be at this party,] says Alice.

[Heheheh. You guys have fun,] laughs Stella.

[You bet we will,] says Sandy.

[Giant chess set? Is it about time I came and had a look at Amalthea, or should I save that for when the party's over?]

[Nobody's partying now,] says Alice. [You're safe.]

To Amalthea!

"Sure, yeah!"

"Great! You have nice design sense and they shouldn't all look the same anyway. I'm probably going to add a new city soon. Maybe a bunch of them, or just a really really big one. Olympus isn't full, but of all the Bells I'm probably in the best position to take an immigration influx when we conquer the afterlife."

"I am a magic space empress. It comes with the territory." And she lifts off into the air and zooms around, looking at more of the buildings. [Lemme know when it's time for me to clear out.]

[Never, unless you have something against group napping,] laughs Sandy.

[Well, let me know when I should quit reading Alice's mind, then.]

Stella beholds Sandy's architectural handiwork, contentedly flying about and peering into Alice's happythoughts.

Doesn't especially. Bella backs off and continues touring Amalthea.

Cool. Bella starts debating names for a city of the undead. She'll probably put it on a different continent from Olympus. The Downsiders might have a hard time integrating and should be allowed to do it at a comfortable pace for everyone. Maybe she'll call it "Brightside" or something like that. Is that too twee? Maybe it's too twee.

[Congratulations! Please never tell me how!]

[But it was so much fun!]

[Well, if you really must, I suppose I'll live. And I might want to be able to explain it to my counterparts' assorted minty helpers.]

[I think the methodology is pretty much 'intensify your pain processing by a factor of ten or so and then tell six sadists to go to town'.]

[Oh, is that all. Thank you for the protective layer of abstraction.]

[You're welcome!]

[Just the one?]

[Gearing up for a repeat as soon as I catch my breath!]

[I shall claim you as a point of pride in my portfolio the next time a bunch of Bells all get together and compare empires.]

[Ooh, you're makin' me blush.]

[I'm actually surprised we haven't started explicitly holding contests yet. I guess that wouldn't be fair to the ones who are just starting out.]

[You're kind of great, you know that?]

[I do know that! I am glad that it is clear.]

[Mmm, remind me later,] he says. [Busy with Anna now.]

Oooh, hugs! She's quite interruptable. Email is an asynchronous form of communication. "Hey, you!"

"Anna made three before she decided to take an actual nap," he says. "She's cuddling Sandy, it's adorable. You wanna make arrows off me now?"

"That could be arranged. You want me to stomp on your off-switch out of nowhere or ramp up from someplace?"

"Mm, ramp up," he decides.

"From...? Shell Bell started at minimum evil and spent three minutes getting to minimum - 'arrow', why arrow? - will that work for you?"

"They look like three arrowheads cuddling," he explains. "Kinda, anyway. Sure, go for it."

She peers at his thoughts, ready to abort if necessary.

Nope. Loving it.

Half-half-half-half till she's in squares and quits outright, she knows how to gentle him down. Hugs. "I love you."

"Okay. I don't expect to need a lot of these anyway." She collects and declaws them, and the preceding evils.

Alice kisses her.

Oooh! Kisses! Bella approves.

He's in that mood that Bella's agony beam always puts him in. It is a snuggly mood, and also full of kisses.

Ah, one of many beneficial side effects, along with fascinating facial expressions and the coins themselves.

Mmmm. Kisses.