Hallowe'en 2008 3

The Joker sidled up to the queen ans whispered, "Honestly, I thought you looked like you could take care of yourself. But this may be more fun."

"I know," the Queen said, hoarse voice full of glee. Outwardly she looked mainly bored, but a little contemplative too. "Perhaps I should defuse this situation..." Or maybe not. This is fun.

"Or maybe you should give your handkerchief to the White Knight, and see if your lord husband blows a gasket," the Joker suggestted cheerfully (and quietly).

"I toyed with that thought already," said the Queen, adjusting her grip on the scythe. "That would have been perhaps a little too cruel, even by my obviously perfect standards. There's procedure to follow -- we only just got started here, after all."

The Knight and King had been glaring at each other throughout, the former looking quite stern and the latter looking extremely sassy and secretly trying not to laugh.

The King looked towards his doom beast, which was out of action (sabotage! treachery!), and his minion, who was no help at all. Pah! He was far from defenceless.

"Not this time, horseman," he cried, and threw down a flash bomb. There was a modest light, not enough to hurt the eyes, and a lot of smoke of the doomic variety. Admittedly there was also glitter, but it was black.

Knight threw an arm over his face. "Curses! The wily fiend!" he narrated.

The King and his cape moved to safety, 'safety' in this case also happening to be where the herbal cordial and spiced milk were.

"So, have your majesties divided work into offensive and attacks for you, and defensive and retreat for him?" the Joker asked the Queen through the smoke.

"Oh, very. I swear, he's so short-sighted sometimes. Just no far-reaching aims, no foresight," the Queen said, waving off the air and smoke in front of her face with a gloved hand. "Men," she sighed.

"Closest thought always something like drink or the next meal... Oh, well, not always a bad idea." With that, the Joker wandered over to the table to pick out something sweet and a drink for herself.

In consultation with a horse-headed attendant, Black King found some leaves that were bitter and non-poisonous enough for him to eat with no guilt. He was somewhat wary of the meat hearts and what seemed to be poached snake served with bladderwrack.

The doom beast was not, so the Black King found himself thoroughly begged from. He further decided that he would never keep dogs, should the opportunity happen to arise.

Once the doom beast had a dish full of cloyingly sweet stuff and meat, the King swished his cape aside and sat down on a pewter-faced top hat. It seemed tolerably thronelike.

The White Knight shepherded the smoke out of the way as soon as most of the attention was elsewhere. There was now some black glitter in his hair.

Over a small pastry decorated with a marzipan rose, the Joker watched the White Knight, fragmented thoughts about masquerade chasing each other in her mind. There was a wide, narrow smile on her face when the knight was finished, and she tried to get his attention with a for her habits rather contained wave.

The White Knight answered with a smile and a wave of his own before coming over. He was walking carefully to avoid bashing things, including himself, with his spurs.

"Forsooth," he remarked to the Joker, with eyes figuratively scintillating.

"No, I think you cleaned the smoke out nicely."

He bowed in acknowledgement of the compliment.

"I have to admit that I'm better at playing a conjurer than a cavalier," the White Knight smiled. "So, then. Have your jests taken you anywhere interesting since last we met?"

"Decent cavalier you are, anyway," she said, then nodded at the question. "Hell's kitchen. Got a great recipe for steak marinade, very spicy. Yourself?" She was falling out of her role.

"No, I've never been." This was said in a tone of phony absent-mindedness.

Meanwhile, the doom beast talked with his mouth full. It was incomprehensible.

"And here I thought a knight errant would see interesting places occasionally."

"Not, thankfully, quite that interesting. A few dragons, a few chalices; and if you have seen one poison lake, I assure you, that's ample."

"Yeah, and those give me rashes to boot," the Joker answered, grimacing, then looked up at the knight with contemplatively tilted head. "Ever run into Gchrachkra?"

"Who or what is that?" asked the Knight, plainly fascinated.

"A dragon who's been collecting chalices for ages. Thought you might have talked to him to get one estimated, or something like that."