clever.

Hari wasn’t so much clever, as he was wiley.

To me, it’s that being clever implies a sort of chaotic neutrality into a situation involving pranks, antics or gags pulled on a target. At the heart of it there is nothing malicious, not really, besides a joke at someone’s expense. That’s something I could abide by, even if it wasn’t in my personal nature to pull stunts like that.

But Hari wasn’t clever. He had a mean streak, and one might have almost called it downright evil. I mean, in the grand scheme of this big old universe through which we found ourselves cruising in a space freighter was he the meanest thing around? No. But inside this little ship, the tricks he had thought up to play on Mitch were leaning towards wicked.