"So give me a better answer. ...Please?"

"Shit, magic word and everything. Alright, Charlotte, if I could do anything, and I wasn't going to blast myself to shit doing it, I'd probably bring the gods back." (You roll your eyes.) "Hey, fuck you. As far as we know, they knew what they were doing. Do you?"

"Of course I will," you say. "And I'm not doing that. Something else."

"Okay, fine. Then I'd probably blast the Pillars down. See how all those sky-high assholes like being on an even— oh, sorry, you're a rich bitch, aren't you? So whatever divine fucking proclamations you make are going to entrench the—"

"You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, Ell." Anthea leans over his shoulder. "Maybe you should get back to her when you're in a better mood?"

"I'm in a fine mood."

"He's restless," she tells you, like that explains everything. "If you want to know what I'd do, I'd try to help Headspace's poor— old Headspace, Ellery." ("I know," he mutters.) "Headspace's poor victims. Not the ones you— not the ones you took care of, Charlotte, but their doubles. The ones with locitis? As far as we know, they're still out there, with, um, varying levels of functionality, and there's not a whole lot we can do. I'm having the Collective look into it, but, um... yeah. Madrigal was helping out the other day, actually. She brought in..."

Anthea's smoke goes green-blueish. Ellery's face sets. You rapidly detectivate. "Fake Ellery was here?"

"Don't call him that."

"I'm not calling him whatever you call him. Did you shoot him?"

A long silence. He swivels the chair back and forth. "No. We had a productive conversation."

Well, that explains the mood. "Would he have better ideas for what to do with God powers than you do?"

"Worse ones." (You contemplate. That's almost certainly true.) "I came up with a good one, though. Why don't you fix Thea's face?"

Anthea swats him. "I'm fine! I don't need anything."

"She's not fine, Charlotte. And it was my fault, so, you know, use my wish on that."

"It was not his fault. It was an accident."

"It was my accident, and I know it fucked up your face, Thea. Just because I haven't seen it— seriously, Charlotte, add it to the list. It shouldn't be tough for God."

"Maybe." But his sentence made no sense. "You haven't seen it?"

"He hasn't been out to see me in person. You haven't either, have you, Charlotte? It's really nothing. I just can't move it." Anthea waves her hand through her smoke. "Help the doubles, won't you? At least help Ellery's. I don't think he really deserved anything that happened... not that Ell deserved it either, but at least he knew."

"Yeah. I agree. There only needs to be one of us, Charlotte, and—" Anthea swats him again. "We've talked about this. You know what you owe me."

"I'll think about it," you say uncomfortably. "Can we go suck my blood out already?"

(2/4?)