"I mean," says Alice, "if we tell her he's twelve years old and fresh out of hell and he's gonna be dealing with that by being a total little shit to everyone in sight, will she get it, or will she walk off thinking he should know better?"

Glass lifts her hands. "What do you mean, 'get it'? I can pass on recommendations about what to do, and she'll more likely follow them than not. She is also more likely than not to privately think that she emerged from hell and promptly conquered the world."

Alice sighs.

Ghosty disintegrates and rematerializes to hug him.

Glass sighs.

"It's not like it's your fault or anything," says Corona.

"Not exactly hers either," says the Joker.

Harley sighs.

Glass looks at Harley questioningly.

"...I feel weird 'cause I'm on the other side of this from most of us," he says. "I was never the kid they're talking about. But I wish there was a way for Golden to understand it better than that. But I get what the Joker's saying about her, too; she's the way she is because that's the life she's lived and the way she's lived it, and you can't just wish people would stop being themselves."

"I mean, she will probably follow reasonably well-operationalized advice about how to interact with Felicity. I just can't promise she won't feel smug while she does it."

"Fuck it, then," Corona mutters.

"How about 'don't ever talk to him, 'cause he can smell smug from a mile upwind and he'll hate you for it'," Corona suggests, "is that operationalized?"

"'Don't ever talk to him' is operationalized," says Glass. "The rest of it would probably only serve to make her defensive."

Corona opens his mouth, and then shuts it again.

Queenie hugs him some more.

Glass looks at Corona, but doesn't actually formulate a question.

The Joker nods approvingly.

"So - am I telling Golden not to interact with her new grandfosterling?"

"If she's going to be smug about him—" says Corona, and then he stops himself and takes a breath and continues more calmly, "yeah, that's a pretty good plan."

"I don't know that she is!" exclaims Glass. "She's in a position from which smugness is easy, that doesn't mean that she'll react to everything that way."

"Well," says Corona, "if she's smug about him, and if he notices - and I'm pretty sure he'd notice - then either he won't give a shit about her any which way, or it'll hurt him and he won't deal well. So maybe better just to avoid the whole problem. Unless she wants to take the chance, I guess. But you said telling her what's up would make her defensive, so..." He shrugs.

"Putting it the way you put it would. I'm trying to think if there's - I mean, if one of my daughters were bringing up a fosterling, I'd want to meet the kid," says Glass. "If the kid needed particular care in handling, I'd do my best to accommodate that - but then my eldest already requires care in handling, so maybe I'm just used to it."

"Yeah?" says Corona, slightly hopeful. "Do you get it, then?"