festive rainbow mirror summoning!

[incanted]

There are now one dozen Bells.

They and most of their friends are all here on Planet Rainbowsand II, to celebrate the addition of Sarion, the elf one, and Aurora, the one with a sister.

Comments

[self_composed]

Stella swallows.

[Okay.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Are you having feelings again?] he asks, snuggling her.

[self_composed]

[Constantly.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I love you. I want to know about your feelings. Even if they're sad feelings that are going to make me sad.]

[self_composed]

[Mostly variations on the theme that you've already heard. I am not as sure as you are that you will still love me. If I were we wouldn't have this problem in the first place.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Then I'd better stop being a vampire,] says Alice, ['cause then you'll know.]

[self_composed]

[If you're right. If it stays.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[If what stays? Me loving you? I'm a Joker,] he says. [We love. I loved you before; I'll love you after.]

[self_composed]

Stella swallows.

[edgeofyourseat]

[I will,] he says, [I know I will, why are you the only one who gets to know things about yourself?]

[self_composed]

[Years of practice, template specialty. If you're going to do it do it and I can stop holding my breath.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I don't know how - I'll go figure it out,] he says, and he teleports somewhere. The Joker's asteroid is the first place that comes to mind.

Awww, the Joker must've been here already in this universe. That's cute.

[self_composed]

Stella finds an unoccupied corner of party, and turns invisible just for completeness, and holds very still, and reads.

[edgeofyourseat]

It's going to need an evil to dig vampireness out of his torching template. He doesn't have any on hand, and it would feel vaguely weird to ask Stella to give him one, since she's so unsure about this in the first place. So he sets himself on fire.

It takes him a few tries, about thirty stars' worth, but he manages an evil in the end. He uses an existing star to declaw the new ones - ever since the Jokers were let in on the secret, some of them have taken to carrying all their coins declawed, even the hexes - and then uses one of those to declaw the evil.

Then he designs the wish.

He wants to stop being a vampire. He can get rid of his also-permanent air filter while he's at it. He should also be immune to vampire venom, because it seems not-impossible that he might want to get bit at some point; he'll take the Joker's version of immunity, which is linked to his regeneration and therefore hurts a lot, that's always fun.

He can go either way on the brainspace available to vampires, but the depth of emotional processing - he's keeping that, in some other form that won't lead to him still having a mate bond by accident. He bets his power will help sort that one out. He wonders what Lazarus would say about its attitude to his mate bond now. They are probably not snuggling so happily anymore.

Is that it? He thinks that's it.

[self_composed]

Stella can't think of anything else.

[edgeofyourseat]

Okay.

Alice wishes.

Then he sets himself on fire again.

[self_composed]

He may or may not notice the read flickering away for a split second.

After that she recovers her resolve and forces herself to watch.

[edgeofyourseat]

He burns; he torches.

He comes back human-shaped and human-brained, although a somewhat bigger human brain than most, and bigger in unusual directions. It's a good shape for his mind to be. He likes it.

And he still loves her, just like he knew he would, but now loving her doesn't hurt anymore. It doesn't feel like something that was forced on him. It's all his, all him, all real.

He loves her a lot.

[self_composed]

[I love you.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I love you too,] he says happily. [Oh, I know what I forgot - sensory stuff, wow, being a human is so muffled. Wanna come make me another evil? Better start out at pentagon, though, my pain processing's gotta be back to human levels too.]

[self_composed]

Stella obligingly appears, de-invisibled, and takes one of his hands in hers, and starts in medium pentagon range. Flavor of the day: mock vampire venom. She thinks he might appreciate the irony.

[edgeofyourseat]

[I love yoooou,] says Alice, hugging her. And hey, now he can hug her and she won't squish!

[self_composed]

They already had that patched. But yes, he can hug her.

She slides up the positive integers, head pillowed on his chest.

[edgeofyourseat]

He gives her the squishiest hug his human body is capable of delivering and loves her a lot.

[self_composed]

Up-and-up-and-up. He smells a little different now; she hadn't particularly noticed the change the other way, it was so gradual, but there it is. It's not disagreeable or anything. She doesn't mention it.