plotting to unnerve her

[self_composed]

Bella finds Milliways in the moon palace instead of one of her balconies.

"Huh," she says aloud.

Then, to Alice, Libby, Elena, and Mary, and Lazarus except he autoreplies with a busy message, [Hey folks, Moonstone Palace grew a bar that I don't remember putting in, come check it out.]

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[edgeofyourseat]

At a table very close to the other door, the one that leads to Milliways-outdoors, Alice spots someone reading something familiar.

He teleports across the room.

"Hey, that's my favourite book!" he says excitedly.

[prima_sequentem]

Libby glances after him; Mary doesn't even bother doing that. The pair of them return to Bella's palace.

[self_composed]

Bella decides she had better not leave him alone in Milliways, but as long as nothing actually happens there's no reason to insert herself into the conversation between Alice and the random girl reading Harlan Ellison. She glances around for someone interesting to pass the time with.

[manofmyword]

All the way on one of the other other sides of the room, sitting alone at a table for two with his back to the Window, a man with straggling greenish-brown hair and poorly maintained clown makeup is playing Solitaire.

[self_composed]

Now, wait just one...

Yeah. Bella's got good eyes. That's interesting.

She meanders in that direction, peering at the clown-Alice-clone.

[manofmyword]

He's wearing a lavender shirt and wine-red pants, both custom made, and there's a purple suit jacket hanging from the back of his chair that came from the same tailor. Under the liberally applied red lipstick, his face is impressively scarred. He licks his lips in a snakelike fashion when he thinks about his next move.

If he can tell she's looking, he isn't letting on.

[self_composed]

"You - well - your underlying bone structure - looks familiar," she tells him, when she's gotten within a few feet of his table.

[manofmyword]

"Really," he says, glancing up at her with his face tipped forward as though looking overtop of imaginary spectacles. "Never heard that one before." He gestures invitingly at the empty seat across from him.

[self_composed]

She sits. "Mine's younger, not as scratched up, and makes different aesthetic choices, but yeah. I'm Bella. What're you going by?"

[manofmyword]

He hmms and tips his head from side to side, consideringly.

Then he puts his finger on a card sitting face down on the corner of the table to his left, out of the way of the solitaire game, and slides it sloo o o  o   o o  o  o o oowly across to Bella.

[self_composed]

Bella peers at the card and at the game. She picks up the offered card, inspects it.

[manofmyword]

The game appears to be going poorly.

The card is a joker.

[self_composed]

"Joker?" Bella asks. "I suppose that goes with the thematic makeup."

[manofmyword]

"Mm-hmm," says the Joker. "So. How old's yourrr," he licks his lips again in that disquietly reptilian way, "friend?"

[self_composed]

"Nineteen. Little older than me," Bella says. "And he goes by Alice, if you were wondering. Or sometimes Whistle."

[manofmyword]

"Alice," he says musingly. "Montreal?"

[self_composed]

"Montreal?" Bella asks, puzzled. "If he's been to Montreal, I don't know about it."

[manofmyword]

"That's where I was," he explains, "when I used that name. But then, I never had a - friend like you."

He examines his game for a moment, and then moves a card from one place to another, apparently at random.

[self_composed]

"He told me it could've been any of a number of possible names," Bella says. "I think I may've been the first person to ask him what I should call him. Whistle, on the other hand, I made up. He needed a code name a while ago. Came in handy recently when there was another Alice around."

[manofmyword]

"How'd you kids meet?"

[self_composed]

"High school gym class."

[manofmyword]

He turns his head to one side slightly, leans forward, and peers suspiciously at her.

"When?"

[self_composed]

"Not quite a year ago, when I moved to the town he'd also recently moved to." And if that's not what he means: "February 2005."

[manofmyword]

The Joker blinks. Twice.

With mild incredulity: "He was still in school?"

[self_composed]

"Occasionally," says Bella.