"I'm surprised she wanted to know enough to find out," remarks Elspeth.

"She was reading his mind the whole time. If you wanna know why, you better ask her."

"I might, I guess. I might not."

"If you don't," he says, "how are you gonna find out?"

"Well, I guess I wouldn't," Elsie says reasonably. "I'm not as curious as Mama is."

"Hon," he says, "I don't think that's saying much."

"Well, no," agrees Elspeth. "And I'm not sure if Mama is even the most curious of the Bells. Although I haven't met all of them, only read the book."

"I liked the one I met," he says. "But it, ah, wasn't mutual."

"I don't think it can possibly just be that you killed people. Most of my mother's friends and family have killed at least a few people. She must have thought you were going to kill more of them."

"Of course she did," he says. "She knows me. Mmmmbut it's never really that simple."

"No?"

"Course not," says the Joker. "Here I am on this asteroid. Maybe I could leave if I tried, but maybe I couldn't. And if I don't, I'm gonna be there until I die, all alone, thousands of miles from anybody I could talk to." He closes his eyes. "Some days, I'd rather she'd just killed me."

"That's the thing I haven't tried," he says. "It might kill me, and some days I don't want it to."

"It won't kill you," says Elspeth absently, and she takes a swig of golden bubbly.

"...And you know that... how?"

"I sometimes just say things, and they're true," says Elspeth. "Usually they're things I actually have some way to know, but sometimes they're not. That's why Jake wanted me to tell him if you were dangerous or not. That works pretty well because Jake cares a lot about the answer. I don't think I can reliably do Milliways physics questions, but I did that one."

"Heh," says the Joker. "Now I just need somebody who'll let me visit."

"Well, if you'd kill a lot of people wherever you went, you might have some trouble finding takers," says Elspeth.

"It's not exactly a hobby of mine," he says. "Try getting you-know-who to believe that, though."

"If I took you through my door now, you wouldn't hurt anybody," says Elspeth. She blinks. "Well, since I can say that, I'm allowed to take you through, if you want a change of scenery."

"I'm not sure I believe you," he jokes. "Sure, let's go! That sounds like fun."

"Okay. Bar, two cases golden bubbly and a six of the blue for Uncle Jasper?" Elspeth asks politely, waving a shiny gold credit card in the bar's direction. She collects her purchases and she and Jake lead the Joker doorward.

He bounces as he walks. New people! New places! New places, oh, how he's missed those.