Darkness all around him. An empty, lifeless void. Where was he? More importantly, who was he? He couldn't remember a thing.
He looked down at himself, finding the slender body of a young boy, shirtless and kneeling. On the left side of his chest, just below his collar bone, was a purple, heart-shaped mark. There were letters in the design, but they were positioned to be read by someone in front of him and he couldn't read upside down easily. Before he could puzzle out what they spelled, a shaft of light cut through the dark.
Once his eyes adjusted, he made out a hooded figure standing by the bright gap. The figure gestured impatiently and spoke in a deep voice. "Come along. You can't stay here indefinitely."
The boy climbed to his feet hesitantly. "Who are you?"
"The Spinner of Tales," the figure answered. "Hurry up, Joker."
"Joker... Is that my name?"
"It is now," the Spinner of Tales said, sounding irritable. He muttered, half to himself, "You should feel lucky I didn't just erase you from existence. But I might still be able to find some use for you." He waved Joker forward again. "Off you go now."
Joker didn't understand, but he obediently walked past the Spinner of Tales into the light. He found himself in a large hallway with no one around. He looked behind him, but the darkness and the Spinner of Tales were gone.
He placed one hand over his heart, and the skin where the purple mark was stung a bit under his touch. What did it mean? He felt lost, knowing only a name, which didn't feel like it belonged to him, and that he still existed in spite of having done something to irritate that strange hooded figure.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
He turned back around, startled, to face a boy about his own age with purple hair and an eyepatch over one eye. The other boy was pointing a sword at him.
"I don't know," Joker answered simply.
"Don't be ridiculous!" barked the other boy, stepping forward and shoving his sword closer to Joker. "You don't just show up in the middle of the Castle of Heart without knowing what you're doing here!"
Joker took a step back to avoid the shining blade and stumbled, falling on his rear. He dropped the hand he'd been holding over his mark to brace himself against the floor.
The purple-haired boy stopped his advance. "You're..."
Joker looked up at him expectantly. "I'm what?"
The glare directed at him seemed even angrier than before. "You're a criminal!"
Joker followed the other boy's gaze down. "Oh, is that what this means?" He lightly traced the mark, trying once again to make out the letters. The stinging sensation wasn't so bad anymore. "Exo...ria. What's exoria?"
The boy stopped looking so angry, his face taking on a more wary expression. "It means 'exile'. You've been stripped of your role. That would only happen if you broke one of the Rules of Wonderland... a really important one. The Spinner of Tales doesn't make just any rule-breaker into Joker."
"Oh..." Joker thought about this for a moment, then suddenly brightened. "Hey, I remembered something!"
"Remembered?"
Joker acted as if he had forgotten the other boy was there. "He took my memories... He said it was part of my punishment..."
The purple-haired boy seemed to relax slightly. "If your memory's been taken, I guess there's no point in treating you like a criminal now." With a flicker of magic, he made his sword disappear, then offered his hand to help Joker up. "Come with me."
Joker frowned at him suspiciously. "Why?"
"Because without memories, you won't be able to find your way. I'll show you around. Besides, you need a shirt."
"Okay..." Joker let himself be hauled to his feet. "But who are you?"
"Ace Spade, the Lord of Spades."
Joker scowled at Ace.
"Don't look at me like that."
"...Why don't I have a last name?"
Ace snorted. "What do you want one for?"
"I just do. Most people have them, don't they? Just because I have to be Joker instead of whoever I was before, does that mean I can't have a last name?"
"Fine. Your name is Joker Braze. Happy?"
"Yeah. Why Braze though?
"I figure you must've been pretty brazen to break a rule that would get you made into Joker."
Joker grinned. "I guess I must have, huh."
"Why were you..." Ace seemed to want to ask something, but he paused. Finally, he shook his head. "No, I suppose you don't remember why you were crying, do you."
"Huh?" Joker reached up to touch his cheek, then stared at his damp fingers. "No... I don't..."
Ace flipped through yet another book, scanning the lines of ink intently. He paused, gloved finger tracing the branches of a family tree. Perhaps he had finally found what he was looking for. There were his parent's names, and his own name below them along with his younger brother's. Next to his mother's name was the name of her brother.
Ace's father had been the Lord of Spades before him, until he was killed in the Tragedy of Suits a few years ago, along with all the other Lords. At that time, Ace's uncle had been the Lord of Clovers. Ace's mother had also been killed then, but his aunt had died several years earlier.
However, beneath the names of his uncle and aunt, in the spot for a child, there was another name. A name blotted out with a streak of ink as black as night. Yet Ace could not remember ever having a cousin. He cautiously poked at the smear, sending out a tendril of magic... but the name that had once been there was not just covered over, it was completely erased.
Ace sat back. It made too much sense. He had succeeded his father immediately, but it was only recently that his brother Jaiden had been made the Lord of Clovers. Someone must have been holding the role for all that time. And for Joker to suddenly show up where he did...
"You are far too inquisitive for your own good," a deep voice said suddenly.
Ace jerked, then turned to face the Spinner of Tales. "I'm not hurting anything." He calmly picked up one of the books he had been looking through, then carried it over and returned it to the shelf.
"If you insist on meddling..."
"You assume too much, sir," Ace said harshly. "Even if I find the truth while trying to satisfy my curiosity, why tell anyone? So what if he's my cousin and the rightful Lord of Clovers? It's not like he can return to that role." As he spoke, Ace placed more books back on their shelves.
The Spinner of Tales snorted. "So you say. But people have an inconvenient habit of revealing things-"
Ace interrupted. "As if. He doesn't need to know about his parents. They're dead, just like mine. He doesn't need to know about me and Jai. What would it change? He's Joker now. The outcast of the Kingdom of Playing Cards."
Ace picked up the last book from the table, the one he had found his answer in, and gave its spot on the shelf a stern look. It was just high enough that he had been barely able to reach it when he got it down, and putting it back would be tricky.
"Without a role, Joker can't take care of himself. If you want him to be around when you finally find a use for him, you'll need someone to make sure he doesn't starve, or freeze to death in the winter. I'm volunteering, and the only thing I'm asking is that you humor my... inquisitiveness."
After straining to get the book up to the shelf, Ace gave up and nudged it with a bit of magic. The book slid neatly into place, and he turned back to the Spinner of Tales. "I won't say a word about this to anyone." With that simple promise he went silent, awaiting a reply.
"...Very well." In a wave of black fog, the Spinner of Tales left as quickly as he had arrived.
Ace sighed. He might recall nothing of his cousin before now, but he would look out for Joker. This was one outcast who would not be cast aside.
Joker stared at the twin toddlers, who gazed back at him adoringly. This was a new experience for him. It had been a few years since he woke up with a bad reputation and no memory of his past, and although the Lord of Spades had made sure no one actually mistreated him since then, there was nobody who really wanted to associate with him.
"Why are you guys following me around?" he asked finally.
"We like you!" chirped the girl, pink ponytails flopping with every joyful bounce she made.
"Yes, yes, we like you a lot!" The blue-haired boy voiced his agreement.
"Your parents won't like you hanging around me," Joker warned them. It wasn't that he wanted to scare them off, but he had gotten used to people avoiding and ignoring him as much as possible.
"It's fine," insisted the girl. "We asked them why nobody likes you, and they couldn't tell us."
"Not an answer that made sense, anyway," the boy put in. "So they gave up and said we could play with you if we're careful."
"Yes, yes, we'll be very careful!" The girl paused and looked a little puzzled. "Though I still don't know why we have to be careful..."
The boy shrugged. "They think Joker is a bad guy, I guess. He isn't, but we can be careful for them anyway."
Joker almost tuned out their chatter. He was wondering if he dared to hope for a friendship with these two. Even the Cheshire Cat, who lived by himself in a house in the woods, wouldn't play with Joker. That didn't upset Joker much though, because the young cat boy didn't play with anyone and rarely even talked. When he did talk, it was always about Alice coming to Wonderland... Certainly everyone else also wanted Alice to come, but nobody talked on and on about it like the Cheshire Cat did.
Joker pulled his attention back to the twins, who were still jabbering. "What are your names?"
"Oh, oh, we forgot to introduce ourselves..."
"Sorry, sorry! Please forgive us, Joker!"
Joker chuckled. "It's okay, just tell me now."
He thought they might never get around to it, but at last he learned that the girl was Tweedledee and the boy was Tweedledum. Of course, Joker immediately shortened those to Dee and Dum.
The twins nearly went into happy hysterics when he gave them nicknames, and Joker couldn't get them to calm down until he offered to take them into town and buy them sweets. After that they got more excited for a moment, then realized that the sweets were dependent on their behavior and managed to quiet down a bit.
Heading to town followed by the two munchkins, Joker had a feeling that his life from now on was going to be anything but boring. Which suited him just fine.