Isabelle slowly takes another bite of the ice cream, eyes staring into the mid distance. 

" ... I think I'd like to meet your bisabuela some day. She sounds ... nice." she mutters after a while, cheeks pinking at the implication of finally meeting her girlfriend's family.

"And no, my mother is not all-seeing." she says, and quashes the small, younger, part of her mind that deeply believes it. "She'd be hard to get to though, even if your bisabuela could find her. I mean, she'd need to first locate her room in either one of the mansions, or when she's travelling for work. I guess her itinerary could, in theory, be reached through public sources ... but finding out which room and what hotel she'd be staying at would be a more difficult proposition. Maybe if she bribed, or just cajoled, one of the staff at wherever she was visiting. Sweet talked them into sharing the hotel. But then she'd need to find a way to infiltrate its premises and either smuggle in or locate some accelerants. Then she'd need to find a way to lay it out at the main exit points. I'd like to think bisabuela could escape in any ensuing panic once the fire alarms go off, and --- and [i]why the heck am I spending this much brainpower on problem solving this scenario??"[/i]

Isabelle pinches her nose, trying to bring her thoughts back on track.

[i]Is it weird that I don't feel ... worse about the mental image of mother dying in a fire?[/i]

[i]... is it weirder, still, that the mental image of an old lady going through so much effort to incinerate her in the name of family is kind of sweet? In a rather messed up way, I mean.[/i]

She takes a more substantial bite of the cone, chewing the minty goodness for a moment as she considers the sheer scope of mental damage she's probably dealing with here.

[i]Maybe I just really want to set something on fire too.[/i]

"Aanyway." Isabelle continues, deciding not to unpack [i]that [/i]just yet. "You're touching on a couple of important things with that idea. Firstly: for all her power and threats, mother really wouldn't know what to do in a physical fight. She'll threaten, she'll scheme, but she'd still be caught off guard if we just walked up and punched her in the face."

"N-Not that I'm suggesting we do that - or rather, that [i]you [/i]should definitely not do that. She'd have a response if you did it. But if [i]I[/i] punched her then I think she'd mostly be too surprised to react and [i]ohgodimdoingitagain[/i]"

Isabelle hunches in on herself, blocking out the world and eliciting more backrubs from her awesome girlfriend. She takes care not to drop the icecream through all of this - she only wants to hide from everyone forever, not lose Mr Minty.

Eventually, slowly, the rhythmic circles coax her into unfurling once again. She takes a moment to look at Asil with gratitude, before continuing where she'd left off.

"Secondly: She's a bully. But she'll never pick a fight she knows she'll lose - and there are only a few people in the galaxy that she really fears. Adriana Teresio is one of them and, thanks to the factory contract we have with her, we have her in our corner. I'm also thinking Mira Fisher might also be one - given that mother hasn't retaliated against her yet after that show at the Gala. Maybe she's still figuring her out. In any case, it gives us options on how to defend ourselves once the tournament is over."

Asil - Throughout all of this, Isabelle has been deftly ignoring your last comments about how much she's carrying, or how strong she might be. Is that something you'll call her out on? Push harder? Or just lean into the denial?