unreliable doorstop

[temporal_affairs]

Here they are, having a cute post-death reunion!

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[manofmyword]

Laughing, he produces a knife—whether by sleight of hand or magic is anybody's guess—and hands it over.

[temporal_affairs]

"You want to do the honors, Eights, or shall I?" Timer inquires.

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Mmm, gimme," she says, and takes the knife and gets out of bed and cuts her throat. Carpets are easier to clean than mattresses, and blood lingers after a—

Very real-looking flames spring up, consuming her body while leaving everything else untouched. The knife drops to the floor. She coaelsces again in exactly the same spot, exactly the same pose, but intact and spotless.

"Torch," she says, with a ta-daa sort of gesture.

[manofmyword]

"Well," says the Joker. "I bounce back pretty fast, too, remember?"

[temporal_affairs]

"I do remember, babe, but now you know what it should look like if you wanna fool somebody," shrugs Timer.

[manofmyword]

"Should I wanna fool him?"

[lookingforwardtoit]

"...How fast do you bounce back, exactly?" inquires Eights. "Because if you're not dead but you're difficult to kill, he is so gonna take that as a challenge."

[manofmyword]

"Oooooooooh."

[temporal_affairs]

"Very fast," says Timer, "when he's not deliberately suppressing the regen. Very, very fast. I dunno what would happen if Chainsaw tried to cut his head off or something, though."

[manofmyword]

"Well, now I wanna find out," he says brightly.

[temporal_affairs]

"I have no idea what happens if you die in Downside, babe, but there's some chance that you and Nathan and the munchkin don't like the answer," Timer says. "I don't know of anybody else hereabouts with magic. Might be a reason."

[manofmyword]

He waves a hand. "I unkilled you, remember? Goldie's got the coins. If I don't come back, they can fix it. Bell's girlfriend fixed her, and she was atomized."

[temporal_affairs]

"Uh, you unkilled one of me. I'm doing okay here, sure, but d'you want to split in two, one of which never gets to see Kerron again?"

[manofmyword]

"Sweetie," he says, "I love you, but you really don't get it about me and risk, do ya."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I get it," volunteers Eights.

[temporal_affairs]

"I never did fully understand that," concedes Timer, shrugging. "Your life, do what you wanna do with it, split in two or julienne yourself like matchstick fries, as you like."

[manofmyword]

The Joker giggles and hugs him.

[temporal_affairs]

Mmm, hugs.

"Time for me to go," he announces. "Babe, you coming with me or loitering in case the reason it's time involves Eights's next visitor being all over pointy or somesuch?"

[manofmyword]

"As fun as that sounds, I think I'd rather catch up with you," he says, giving Nathan a quick kiss on the cheek. "Is it a good time to gimme the grand tour?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Scale of days, yep," says Timer, and he kisses Eights goodbye and meanders out through her preposterously large house.

[manofmyword]

Off they go! Can they be holding hands? The Joker would like to be holding hands.

[temporal_affairs]

Timer will hold hands. Anything more than that and maybe some kissing is going to require turning him back into a vampire (although, how would that work, now, with another him already mated to this particular individual?) or a presto-changeo. He'll bring that up later on when it comes up. (Of course it's going to come up.)

[manofmyword]

Damn right it's going to come up.

Holding hands is just perfect for now, though. The Joker has feelings about Timer. Big warm cuddly lovey feelings.

[temporal_affairs]

"It is good to see you again," remarks Timer, as they get to the transit station, and he consults his eponym and then taps in the necessary data to take them to his neighborhood. "My place is kind of a thimble, but a nice thimble. 'S contingent on how much mourning gets done. It's the kind of place you get when exactly one person is so sad they jump off a cliff and only spend about a minute being sad, except in my case I guess you only spent a minute on it 'cause there's the live one."

[manofmyword]

"Mhm," he says. "I was veeery sad. But Goldie fixed you right up."