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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[manofmyword]

"The girl I like threw me off a building last month," he says dreamily. "Caught me on the way down, but you can't have everything."

[self_composed]

"Why, were you hoping to splat? If you had Wolverine powers like me and Alice I think you'd be less visibly damaged. He burned off all his scars by setting himself on fire without fully thinking it through, and hasn't put them back so far."

[manofmyword]

"He have any good ones?" he inquires. "Or didja not see 'em all?"

[self_composed]

"I didn't personally lay eyes on all of them in person," Bella shrugs, "but I can read his mind and we also have perfect recall, so, if I'm ever curious, the information's there. There was one on his neck he sometimes touched as a nervous habit." She peers at the Joker, looking for a match. "The others had less... interesting... stories."

[manofmyword]

He tilts his head to the side and rubs at the makeup along the underside of his jaw, revealing a thin line. It's not quite the same scar, even accounting for age, but it's obviously a close relative.

"Like that?"

[self_composed]

"Similar. Not exact."

[manofmyword]

"And what was the story?"

[self_composed]

"You know, I'm not actually sure of the status of that story as a secret or not, and it's the sort of thing that might be. Are you interested enough for me to check in with him?"

[manofmyword]

"Betcha I already know," he says. "I'm surprised, though. I got that one after I left home. It had a friend, too—if you ever got his pants off you woulda seen it for sure."

[self_composed]

"I bet you already know too," Bella says, "but in case you don't, or in case he'd mind regardless, I'm not sharing without checking."

[manofmyword]

The Joker makes an exaggerated face.

"Are you sure he likes you?"

[self_composed]

"I can read his mind," Bella repeats. "Anytime I like. Information comes in a pretty visual channel with borders around the content according to how much he likes it and my name appears bordered in white every time."

[manofmyword]

"Does your fancy mind-reading tell you why?"

[self_composed]

"When I tell it to. Why do you ask?"

[manofmyword]

"'Cause I wanna know," he says, "duh."

[self_composed]

"You looking for storytime or something more list-shaped?"

[manofmyword]

"Storytime," he says immediately, perking up in his chair. "I like storytime."

[self_composed]

"After we'd known each other for a few days and had a handful of casual conversations and I'd broken up a fight between him and a random classmate in the cafeteria, he invited me over to his house. Before I said yes, I told him I was going to conduct an experiment. I put my dad the police chief's number into my phone, hovered my finger over the call button, and called him a freak. And he asked me to marry him." She pauses. "I said no."

[manofmyword]

He tilts his head and, very slowly, smiles.

"Well. Now I think I'm kinda in love with you."

[self_composed]

Bella snorts.

[manofmyword]

"My story isn't nearly that sweet."

[self_composed]

"Storytime," Bella prompts softly.

[manofmyword]

"To start with, I kinda had a thing for her before we met." He smiles reminiscently. "Girl dresses up as a giant bat and starts beating up criminals, what am I supposed to do? Not fall for her? I was fucking smitten. So, y'know, some other guy might write a love letter in that situation. Me, I rob a bank."

He cocks his head and grins.

"Actually, I robbed five, but who's counting? Anyway. It's the last one that counted. I walked out with a chunk of change belonging to several mob bosses, they got all riled up, I taunted 'em a little, and thennnn they hired me to kill 'er."

[self_composed]

"She dresses up as a bat?" Bella says quizzically. "And mob bosses hired you to kill her? Okay... what're you planning to do with a job like that?"

[manofmyword]

"She makes a terrifying bat," he assures her. "If you're thinkin' cheap Halloween costume, stop. And this was ages ago, we'll get there, don't worry."

He rubs his hands together and continues.

"So I was never gonna kill her, obviously, I like her too much. I got myself caught instead." He smiles wistfully. "You ever been in a police interrogation room? You should take your boyfriend to one sometime, they're fun. She cracked a safety glass window with my face."