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.]

Comments

[self_composed]

Bella gets up. "This might take me as little as half an hour," she says. "If you really don't have any magic there, I can send him to sleep and wake him up by magic by way of testing whether he goes to Milliways from the asteroid or not. If you don't want to hold the door that long, that's fine, we can wait for another door - how often do you find them?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"It varies," says Roberta. "But when I've let people through for a visit, it's been pretty good about coming back at a convenient time."

[self_composed]

"Okay. If I get held up, I will pop down and inform you. You want, like, a book or anything?" She waves vaguely.

[edgeofyourseat]

She smiles wryly. "No, thank you."

[self_composed]

"Thanks." She sighs. "Oh, Alice is gonna be mad at me..."

And then she walks through.

And pentagons herself some astronomy.

And there are many asteroids, with many charming names -

Including a cute little one called "Alice".

"Heh," Bella says, and she goes there.

It's little. Not The Little Prince sized, but just a few kilometers in any dimension. She turns out to be able to do the entire terraforming job - gravity, atmosphere, pachysandra and moss and clover - with a few pentagons. She puts up a little house with a food replicator and plumbing in it.

And she grabs the Joker as soon as that's done with from where he sleeps in the asylum.

[manofmyword]

Out here, he has no makeup, and his hair is softer and less green, and he is indeed wearing a very unattractive beige jumpsuit.

A few seconds after he appears, he stirs and yawns.

[self_composed]

"You made yourself my problem," says Bella darkly.

[manofmyword]

"Oh, it's you."

He smiles up at her.

"Hiya, smarty pants. What'd I do?"

[self_composed]

"I'm not really interested in having a prolonged conversation. I'm going to send you back to sleep, and give you about ten minutes, and then wake you back up, and all I need to know is whether you went to Milliways or not."

That's square territory. She feels a little bad about using Alice's coins for this. She makes her own square.

[manofmyword]

He frowns, perplexed.

"No, really, what'd I—? Is this about your boyfriend?"

[self_composed]

"That pissed me off, but I was going to do this if I found my way into your world before you and he even clapped eyes on each other," Bella says. "G'night." Square goes.

[manofmyword]

...and there he is, right where he was before he woke up on an asteroid.

"Huh."

[edgeofyourseat]

"The fuck?" says Alice.

[manofmyword]

"Your girlfriend's jealous," says the Joker, smiling crookedly.

[edgeofyourseat]

He rolls his eyes. "She is not. She really doesn't like you, though. 'Cause you're a murderer and stuff."

[manofmyword]

"Well, that's her prerogative," says the Joker. "Did she tell you what she's gonna do about it? I bet not."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...No...?"

[manofmyword]

"She stuck me on a little asteroid," he explains. "And then she put me to sleep again to see if I'd come here, which I do, so that part's okay. She said earlier that if she did it and I didn't get Milliways she'd kill me, but the way she was looking just now, I bet she wouldn't. Too nice. She's pretty mad at me."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Mad about what?"

[manofmyword]

"Guess."

[self_composed]

A triangle suffices to wake him. Bella's sitting on the roof of his new little house. "Well?"

[manofmyword]

"Yep," he says, and leaves it at that.

[self_composed]

"Grand. If you do get bored, your food replicator is more flexible than the standard model, it'll make you hemlock or whatever - it's voice operated. The glowy air is controlled by thought. You should be able to keep occupied. Ask for avocados and grow more from the pits, build a castle out of your dishes, whatever." She shrugs. "And there's nobody for you to hurt up here. Questions? Comments?"

[manofmyword]

"If you don't wanna talk about why you're mad at me, then nope."

[self_composed]

Bella doesn't even say goodbye. She flits back down to Earth, to where Roberta's door is.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long," she says, sidling back in grimly. "He's alive, by the way."