And last of all, so does Alice.

[It's... I don't want to ascribe emotions to this phenomenon. It's not mad about being thwarted, it doesn't hate him, but it's - circling. I think his childhood is blocked off as safe, now, but the attractor was - changed, postponed, it doesn't look absent, it looks patient.]

[Sounds about right to me,] says Brilliance.

"Can I do anything about it? Can anyone?" asks Elspeth quietly.

[...I don't think you can. I think he could. I don't think it's in his - nature, to do it, though. He's safe at home. He's safe anyplace you'd bring him. I think he's eventually going to wander away and get into trouble and you won't make anything better by trying too hard to stop him,] Glass murmurs.

"Love you Elsie," says Harley Andrea, snuggling into Elspeth's arms.

"I love you too," murmurs Elspeth.

Glass shivers once and turns her attention to the deck-in-general. She pauses her eyes over Jellybean and Micaiah again. [...You've got different... reasons on top of the commonality,] she observes slowly.

[Whatcha mean?] wonders Jellybean.

[I think you got out of it just because you landed in a world where if you get magic it happens young, and then you got magic,] says Glass. [It's almost completely causal, not whatever I'm seeing - I mean, I can see the attractor, but I don't see signals about why it's not in operation on you. Micaiah's is being held off for higher-layer reasons.] She peers at him. [Which aren't here.]

[Well, where are they, then?]

Angela drifts over and puts her wing around her Micaiah. [Hmm?]

Glass peers at the pair of them together, occasionally looking at the other Jokers for points of comparison.

Micaiah snuggles contentedly into his angel's wing, flaring his aura (innocence innocence innocence) a little.

[...I don't know your story and I'm sure I could put this better if I did, but what I see is a lot like - Shell Bell's special circumstances. Angela was a certain way, and you were supposed to meet and be together, and you needed to - suit her.]

[...What did I miss?]

...Micaiah hugs himself and leans on Angela and appears Generally Upset.

Glass summarizes for Angela what she missed.

[I - oh, love,] sighs Angela, hugging her Micaiah and peering into his thoughts to see what the matter is in more detail.

Does that mean that if he had been she couldn't have loved him because that is terrible, that is the worst thing, why is that true.

[I think,] Glass says, picking her words carefully, after she's heard this story, [that something about - the ways it would've changed you, the person it would've made you - would have - thrown off the way Angela's template attractors are trying to interact with stuff about your world. I'm not sure if you couldn't have wound up together. It could have affected something else. But I don't think it would've been as easy for you to be together, if you'd fallen into the attractor.]

[Imagine,] says Elspeth softly, [if instead of you, she'd met another Joker under the exact same circumstances. How do you imagine that would've gone?]