"Okay," he giggles.

"In the meantime, look, there's Stella all through with her conversation over there - We're all mostly called Isabella or variants of that, but for here, we choose nicknames. Mine is Angela," says Angela. "Stella, look what I found!"

"What'd you fi- it's a baby Whistle, oh my word," says Stella.

Sue beams at her with maximum cuteness.

"Oh my word. Can I hug you?"

She scoops him right up for a hug. "You're so cute, you're a little prepubescent Alice. Where'd you come from, what are you called?"

"He's Sue," supplies Angela. "He comes from someplace called Battle School, which is in space, and he's already met a Bell there."

"Apparently you guys know two more of me and they're upstairs somewhere but Angela won't tell me what they're doing," he says, with utmost innocence, as he freely and affectionately hugs Stella back.

"They can tell you themselves when they're through," says Stella, implacable in spite of snuggles. "If they think that would be a good idea. I can tell Alice to hurry up, if you're impatient, but he might ignore me."

"Of course he'll ignore you," snorts Sue.

"If I tell him there's an adorable itty-bitty Whistle in Milliways who wants to talk to him? Enh, even odds," says Stella.

"Yes, she didn't mean literally telling him to hurry up," laughs Angela.

"Better than even odds, really, he showed up smart quick that time I stuck my head out the door to introduce him to Ghosty."

"Giving direct orders doesn't work well even with typical people, outside a crisis, and especially if the order sounds impatient, but if one wants a Whistle to do something there are certainly ways to make that something likely," says Angela serenely.

"Depends on the something," caveats Stella. "But not keeping an itty-bitty Whistle waiting is a relatively easy something."

"Wouldn't it be nice if your Bell - Aegis, is that how you pronounced her nickname? - were here too? We could complete a set," says Angela to Sue. "...But come to think of it, I don't remember hearing the door open. How did you find your way here?"

"...Angela, I can't pastwatch in here, but - the door didn't open?"

"...No. I don't think it did. Unless you've been here hours and just didn't make yourself noticed until now, Sue...?"

"Sue, pardon me for what is about to be a rude question please, but are you by any chance locked up or stranded on an asteroid or anything like that right now? Where by right now I mean not at this moment but where you last fell asleep?"

"Oh, you think -" Angela cuts off, and she too waits for Sue's reply.

"Huh? Yeah," he says, blinking at Stella. "Why?"

"There's one of you - not one who has a one of us to match, one we just met on his own - and he doesn't use the door," says Stella. "He just dreams about this place and shows up. I think you're dreaming right now, which is important to have figured out because it means we definitely should not try to visit you. That doesn't go well."

"Why, what happens?" he asks.

"My Alice went for a jaunt in the Joker's mindscape, didn't come home for a week, usually time at home does not pass while you're in Milliways so I thought he was dead, eventually I was able to rescue him but I think if I hadn't been able to force the door or hadn't had Lazarus with me to tell me how to do it he could've been stuck there forever. We now know that forcing the door doesn't always work, because Amariah tried it and got nowhere - and she was trying to go back to a world she'd already seen. None of us have been to yours before at all."