Gotham needs a Smile

^ Saturated and desaturated coloured suit

Saturated and desaturated white suit

Saturated and desaturated blood rose

Saturated and desaturated smile

I have an entire rant post from the Suicide Squad days about how Mad Love is a fundamentally abusive and unhealthy relationship, and I maintain this view to this day. I’m happy to do Harley/Joker threads, but I will not do domestic or romantic threads without an exceptionally good reason, and any good reason will always involve a very different AU and likely still be fucked up to at least some extent. (e.g. a Night Job Harley and Joker equivalent may go on romantic dates and what-not, but even then, will likely have an unhealthy and twisted element to their relationship.)

Unless we work out otherwise, as seen above, my Joker is abusive towards Harley, and treats her less like a person than an object that’s occasionally useful at times while other times she’s more in his way than anything else (in his eyes, not necessarily reality -- she tends to be his scapegoat more than actually at fault). He’s more likely to treat Dr. Harleen Quinzel better, but even then, he mostly just views her as a break from the boredom of Arkham, and/or as a ticket out of the asylum. I’m happy to tone down the graphicness of the abuse, but it will pretty much always be present between Joker and Harley.

Please understand: my portrayal and interpretation of Mad Love is not meant to be a healthy relationship or #relationshipgoals or whatever else -- to quote my summary from the rant, slightly modified:

Dear new and/or returning people: I’m going to assume you’re seeing this either because I’ve gone on a following spree and followed you, or because we used to RP and I poked at you and you were like, “Who the fuck is this dude?” and decided to look at this blog.

Well, this is your tl;dr version + helpful links! I do recommend reading the full versions of various pages at some point, but this is a good starting point.

Mainverse: Canon-ish Joker based loosely on comics/cartoons/Arkham games, with a dash of a few movie jokers.

Night Job Verse (Frequent AU): Jack J Napier is a ridiculously average man by day, unassuming and plain. At night, he puts on the costume+make-up and becomes the Joker, committing crimes and generally doing Joker-y things.

Main Ships: Joker/Batman (unhealthy, details here), Joker/Harley (abusive, unhealthy, details here), open to others but those are the ones I will almost always say yes to

OOC: Writer (Alex) prefers multi-para to novella (exact length matching not expected), doesn’t use images/icons, uses light formatting (small text, bold/italics, rarely anything else). (Your formatting/icons/images are fine; I just don’t use them myself.)

Triggers: Most triggers will be tagged tw: trigger, mental illness will not be tagged ICly but will be tagged OOCly.

Very selective on follows, potentially less selective on RP.

Helpful links:

Rules (Required)

Verses (Suggested)

FAQ (Not required)

Open Starters & Askmemes (Not required, but if replying to a starter, please read the info carefully)

Okay, so after more thought than I expected, I’ve decided to make my mainverse a more normal Joker again, with my Night Job ‘verse again being a side ‘verse, albeit a much-loved one. I’ve also decided to stay indie for the time being, and if I end up with no interest, then I’ll try joining a group blog. (Nothing against group blogs; it’s just not in my comfort zone at the moment.) In a little bit I’ll be putting out a “Hi, here’s the basics” post to summarize, since it’s been a while.

Other things I need to do:

find the countdown comics again since I don’t remember enough about the Jokester for that ‘verse

hopefully find at least one Batman, and bonus points if I find one who likes the same kind of batjokes ship that I do

hopefully find a few Harleys?

revisit my Verses page and clean that up a bit.

check for anything else that needs fixing. >_<

This is probably the worst possible time to restart my old Joker blog, given the recent movie and probable flood of Joker blogs, but an old muse song came on my spotify a week or two ago and my Joker muse pretty much crawled out of his grave and hasn’t left me alone since, especially after reading through some old meme answers and even older threads.

In general, I’m not 100% sure how I’m reviving this blog yet. I’ve been an independent RPer for... well, basically as long as I’ve been RPing. But frankly, the appeal of (hopefully) having easier access to RP partners in an RP group is something I can’t deny. So I’m kind of looking into that, though I admit I’m quite a newbie when it comes to groups & etiquette therein.

[ Most of you are probably aware that this blog has been pretty dead for a few months, if not longer. I wish I could say that I was changing that, but sadly, the muse I had for Joker appears to be permanently gone. I had been hoping that seeing the Lego Batman movie would re-inspire me, but as much as I loved it, it didn’t rekindle my desire to RP as the Joker, and so I’m finally putting this blog to rest. To everyone who stuck with me, thank you, sincerely. This blog was a great distraction from some RL difficulties that I don’t know how I would have overcome otherwise.

An especially big thanks to Callie, to @offearitself, and @the--redacted--of-hellskitchen for being both amazing RPers that created threads I still love to this day, and for being great friends when I absolutely needed it the most. Thanks to everyone who ever interacted with me (even the few trolls who bothered to give me the time of day), who ever followed me, or who ever thought my writing was worth a damn.

Maybe I’ll be back someday with another character, or who knows, maybe something will spark up the Joker again, but for now, I’m finally retiring this blog officially. I’m listing various ways of contacting me below the cut, in case you want to keep in touch, but it’s by no means required. Pictures listed to avoid spambots.

Seriously, thank you to everyone who ever was involved with this blog -- you mean the world to me. ]

Being nice felt good. He’d spent a lot of time being an asshole. Plus, this guy seemed like he needed a dose of nice. 

“Lucky me,” he smiled, taking a sip of his coffee as he–Jack–introduced himself. Matt was about to give his name when the shriek hit his ears something fierce and it was everything in him to keep from wincing. 

God damn, that kid had a set of lungs on her. 

“Of course. Good luck,” he said, nodding. Matt heard Jack go over to the table and listened between bites of his muffin to him entertain the child. That was sweet, he was very good at that. He smiled to himself, making a mental note to talk him up to whoever owned this place because that customer service was impeccable. 

Matt left pretty soon after Jack did, not wanting to give him any more work to do (he’d done more than enough). He put his dishes in the bus bins, gathered his things and walked out towards his apartment. Matt grabbed a relatively short nap before waking up and having a protein bar and some coffee. 

Now to negotiate his way into that suit…

He’d gotten rusty at this in his time off. 

The suit fit well enough, it was a bit loose in the stomach and chest. Matt–Daredevil–was sitting on the roof trying to figure out how he had been able to listen to anything despite it not being that long ago in the grand scheme of things. If Stick were around, he would have been pissed though that could be said for any one of the behaviors he’d taken up since Elektra died. 

Fuck Stick. Matt wasn’t doing this for his approval. 

Normally he would have been able to pick out Joker’s sinister voice right then and there but between his time off and his unfamiliarity with the man it slipped by him completely. He wasn’t listening for it, so of course he couldn’t hear it–

That scream tore him out of whatever haze he was in. As he darted in its direction, he heard gunshots (which muffled the sound of the victim actually getting away) which only made him run faster towards the noise that was practically still ringing in his ears. 

It wasn’t too far away, though the hero of the hour was still a bit winded when he got there. He jumped to the fire escape on the wall that the unfamiliar man was leaning on and then it hit him–there was no body. Daredevil furrowed his brow. There was no way he’d had enough time to stash it, even if he was quick about it, and that lady definitely died…didn’t she? 

This didn’t make any sense. Unless this was a trap–then it made a lot of sense. Why bother to go the lengths to trick him, why not just commit a real crime? Wasn’t that what bad guys liked to do? 

Whatever this was, it was happening and Daredevil had to act like it was part of his plan all along. Thankfully, that was something he was good at. He racked his brain idly for tips he’d heard, for newcomers whose MO it was to trick vigilantes with a flair for the dramatic and–fuck. 

One name came to mind. One name who probably was itching of boredom since the death of Batman. One name he didn’t really want to fuck with right off the bat but–it wasn’t like he could leave now. 

“I’ve heard legends about you.” The Daredevil voice was like riding a bike; he couldn’t forget. His hand went to the club stashed in his pocket as he stepped out of the shadows (which seemed so close to intentional one could practically doubt he was really blind.)  “They were all out of Gotham though. What brings you to my city?” 

     If there was one thing he missed about the bat, it was that he had always been prompt. Sure, the batmobile was a ridiculous case of compensation and the fuel of so many jokes, but it had always brought its owner to him quickly, and he'd not had to wait for anyone in years. He’d have to teach the devil to be quicker—or get rid of him and find someone else. Either worked, really, though he was genuinely hoping this one would have promise.

    And then, what seemed like forever to the Joker’s impulsive, easily bored mind, the devil of Hell’s Kitchen finally showed, stepping out of the shadows in a way so reminiscent of the Bat that it was almost familiar. Why, if the horns were a bit less pointy, and the mask and suit dyed black... It could almost be close enough. Almost.

    He was drawn from his comparisons finally by the hero’s words—words which drew a squeal of pure joy from him. Of course, he knew he was (in)famous, but no one had ever referred to them as legends. Him! Legendary! It was enough to make a villain blush. On any other day, he’d have played it up, but he still did have some sense; enough to tell him that against an unfamiliar opponent, he’d be best off not abandoning his gun to clutch his cheeks and pull a southern belle act. Maybe in a few weeks, if the devil could keep up such flattery.

    And then—and then the million dollar question. The Joker’s face fell serious once more, as he deadpanned, “I'm on a religious mission to take down the devil.” Less than a second later, his control broke, the serious face melting into one of mockery as he laughed uproariously as much for show as genuine mirth.

    Still, he had been asked a question, and it would be rude not to answer. The laughter stopped abruptly as a deadly grin spread across his face. “Oh, you know, the usual,” he began, his tone conversational, contrasting heavily with the murderous look that he didn’t realize the other man wouldn’t appreciate. “Not enough bats in my belfry anymore. No, I'm afraid the one I had just didn't make the cut.” There was a momentary pause, as if he were considering something, before he added quickly, “Or maybe he was made into too many cuts, depending on your point of view.”

Still to do: 

commission art I can use of Jack Napier

figure out new URL

decide whether or not I’m redoing my theme pls god no.