[Yes?]

[...Yes?] he repeats.

[He's from Origin,] says Juliet merrily, and a giggle is creeping in around the edges of her messages. [Pattern found him.]

[Ye-es...?]

[He was confused that he had an alt who let me call him 'Giles',] singsongs Juliet.

[For his own part, he went by Ripper, he's dating Pattern, apparently he's a rock star!]

['Rock star' is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?]

[What d'you mean, a bit of a stretch? He has albums and tours and stuff. Pattern was trying to get me to quit laughing at her. He wrote her a planetary anthem. How come you never wrote me a planetary anthem, Giles?]

[I haven't written a song in about twenty years, and the ones I did write weren't all that good,] he says. [I was in a band, but we were never big enough to tour.]

[Well, this one went differently, it would seem. He wanted me to stop describing you.]

[I wonder why. Well, this has been a charming look at my misspent youth. I do hope he didn't say anything I'm going to regret.]

[I don't know about say, but do you regret the fact that when Shell Bell doored into Pattern's palace her and Ripper were in flagrante delicto?]

[And this was after we walked into Alice's lair and he was stark naked, so Shell Bell just said 'not again', and we didn't find out he was even a you - I thought he looked sorta familiar but I didn't quite get it - until Glass asked me 'why I was looking at Pattern's Rupert like that'.]

[I imagine he wasn't pleased. About the name, that is.]

[Did not seem so, no, he was all, 'Pattern's what'. Are you guys going to be able to come to a consensus about what to call your template?]

[Oh, I'm sure he'll come round.]

[Maybe. He didn't tell Pattern he was ever called Rupert Giles - I'm assuming it's 'Giles' since he reacted to that more than 'Merryweather' - and I'm not sure exactly when she acquired him but it could have been as long as sixteen years ago, Origin was out for a while.]

[That is a bit odd. But then, with his music career taking off, maybe he just never - I want a phrase slightly less condescending than 'grew up' and I can't honestly think of one.]

[You will have to ask him for his story. Pattern was definitely filtering to make me stop giggling. I do apologize for the giggling, I really, really couldn't help it.]

[Was there any particular reason for the giggling? Or is this going to offend my librarian sensibilities?]

[The fact that she managed to accidentally wind up dating a one of you. Also it caused some pretty bizarre mental juxtapositions when we left him in Rêverie so Beast could borrow him.]

...Giles starts giggling.