Steeply intercepts and interviews Joelle — the hunt's edge; fate and outcome left open

pivotal · ~20 November YDAU

• When: ~20 November YDAU (outside St. Elizabeth's; Joelle's return to Ennet House)
• What: Outside St. E.'s, Steeply — a "grotesquely huge woman whose hose bulged with stubble," face and head four times the largest woman Joelle had seen — grabs Joelle's arm and warns her she is in "almost mind-boggling danger," then interviews her about her two scenes in the Entertainment (the glass revolving-door recognition-loop; the crib's-eye "auto-wobble"-lens monologue of permutated apologies) and the fate of the Masters. Joelle deflects — she never saw a finished Master, doubts one exists, and if it does it's buried with JOI in a grave now inside the Great Concavity ("It's not even your territory"). Released, Joelle assumes they let her loose to see where she'd go. This is Steeply's last attestation on this timeline; what he ultimately wins from the operation, and his own final fate, are left open as-written.