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[cross_and_bow]

Jane tells everyone what happened regarding the Alethian afterlife.

And little tidbits about surrounding events, too.

Bella has been hanging out in the Jarvis she knows better, mentally composing a treaty for the Vxaabli demons, and as she hears the story she slowly, slowly tenses up like a spring.

Comments

[cross_and_bow]

"...That's all you know?"

[toblameforit]

"That's the summary. Why, was there more?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Just - details. I was trying to figure out how many of the details you got, though."

[toblameforit]

"...I don't know, which details do you want me to have got?" He scratches his head. "I mean, Sherry told me stuff. I just don't remember it all exactly."

[cross_and_bow]

"Nothing specific. Just, Steph seems relevant to him being - not too okay. And I have been thinking about that lately and it occurs to me that you might have relevant insights."

[toblameforit]

"Yeah, I bet I do," he agrees. "But I don't know what they are yet. What're you thinking?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Ineffectual guilty thoughts," says Bella. "I don't know what to do. I hate having things that are bad that I don't know how to fix."

[toblameforit]

"Oh boy, do I ever know that feeling," Tony says sympathetically.

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah?"

[toblameforit]

"...So you know the part where the majority of his problems are basically my fault, right?"

[cross_and_bow]

Bella shakes her head. "I know you cloned yourself and he's what you got, I don't know many of the details about what happened after that. I mean, for most of my relationship with him you were dead and I didn't like to poke at sore topics, so I got into a habit of not inquiring too deeply into his childhood."

[toblameforit]

"Oh. Well - I was twelve," he says. "And I cloned myself. And I didn't really... have any idea what to do with him, so mostly I just left him alone with Jarvis, I didn't even give him a name or anything, it was actually kind of a hilariously ironic exaggeration of my own childhood. And now he has mega issues, which: no shit he does. I mean, I grew up, he grew up, we worked it out... but I definitely know the score when it comes to ineffectual guilty thoughts."

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet nods.

"Did he tell you what happened after - Vampire Me woke up?"

[toblameforit]

"Yeah. Well - yeah."

[cross_and_bow]

"I don't remember it - I wasn't there - my continuity of experience has a discontinuity when I died and picks up again after Golden swung through the Downside catacombs to wake me up. I'm not even sure it makes sense to be guilty. But I'm not sure it doesn't, either."

[toblameforit]

"I'm pretty sure I know what Sherry would say."

[cross_and_bow]

"Yeah. I know too. But that doesn't leave me confident that he's right."

[toblameforit]

"I'm not seeing where you're gonna get a better expert."

[cross_and_bow]

"Maybe. Anyway, now he's - not okay. And either I'm seeing a lot of it because on some level he's connecting me with her even if he wouldn't endorse that intellectually, or he's just - generally traumatized, but then you have special-properties-as-relate-to-Sherlock and he's not traumatized at you as far as I know, that's why you're the one who's doing minting here, and meanwhile the other Bells with Sherlocks don't have this going on, and I keep kicking myself for being jealous because that is in no way healthy, helpful, or an appropriate focus for anybody's emotions about the topic, but I am."

[toblameforit]

"...Do you want a hug?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Might as well."

[toblameforit]

Tony takes off his work gloves, drops his safety goggles on top of them, and hugs her.

[cross_and_bow]

Hugs.

If hugs were going to fix the problem it would already be gone, but even ineffectual hugs are pleasant.

[toblameforit]

"Yeah, I really don't know what to do about the jealousy thing," he says. "Us Tonies get a little of that, but it's about cool shit the other usses have invented and we fix it by inventing more cool shit."

[cross_and_bow]

Bella's floating crosslegged in midair again. "Shell Bell and Pearl have daemons now," she says.