#ghostofagrin

Jack looked up from detangling the last string of Christmas lights in the box and shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I’m happy to.” He followed her gaze up to soft glow of lights with a faint smile. “It’s been a long time since I did this. It’s kinda nice.”

At her suggestion he perked up, rubbing his hands together and breathing on them against the chilly air. “That’s not a bad idea. Think they’d let you have one of those ones with a heater in it?”

To be honest, she was grateful for the help. Despite her insistence that decorating would liven the place up and make for a happier work place, she’d been hoping more people would be on board to help her with it. There were some who would have been willing to pitch in, of course, but they had the important jobs that she couldn’t pull them away from. Not for Christmas lights.

“Tell me about it. I live in an apartment complex that will only let me decorate if it can be contained to the windows on the front of my house. Not much room for creativity there.” Of course years of severe, depression, anxiety and paranoia due to ptsd certainly didn’t help matters.

With a graceless flop, Harley fell face-first onto the bed in their tiny hotel room. The last few days performances hadn’t been quite as popular, leaving her a little disheartened. Twas the nature of showbiz, though. Can’t expect to be popular forever. Sitting up with a sigh, she reached over and swiped up a menu from the cheap Chinese place on the corner and waved it in Jack’s direction. “Food time?” She asked. As he took the menu, she adjusted herself again to hang off the edge of the bed. It would take her a moment before she was willing to broach the subject of their travels, after all, they hadn’t been there long, and this whole arrangement was still fairly new. “So J, where d’ya think we should go from here..?”

@ghostofagrin

I drew some Alice and Jack interactions

Not for the first time,Harley had found herself sitting at the Joker’s grave. It’d become a bit of a habit over the last few months. Ever since her release from Arkham. She never said much, maybe a hello, if she could manage, but for the most part, she would sit there in silence, just thinking. Remembering. The doctors didn’t approve. Thought it would send her into a relapse. And Bats was rarely ever far behind when she came around. Occasionally she’d see a shadow, or hear a swish of a cape. The sight always brought a bitter smile to her lips. She didn’t blame him, per-se. But she still held a bit of a grudge for the part he’d played. He hadn’t known him like she had. None of them did. All they ever saw was the crazed clown. They didn’t know about the rest... they didn’t see the softer side. The saner side. They didn’t realize that those times were the reason she stuck around. And the closer it’d gotten to the end...the more those moments.. that side of him... came out. And that was what she missed. Not the chaos, or the insane plans or destroying the city and certainly not the abuse. She missed those quiet moments, Those moments where they laughed and danced.. where they were just together. Happy. Where things felt.. almost normal. As those memories drifted through her mind, she dropped her gaze to the single flower sitting in her lap with a sad smile and a sigh. Already, she could feel her throat grow tight. “I really miss ya, J...” She croaked.

Nibbling on a bar of stolen chocolate, Gemma shuffled her way along to boardwalk. One thing about being homeless, she'd learned, was that there were no time constraints. You could take your time going places because you didn't have anywhere to be. The realization had been bittersweet, but just this once, she had decided to enjoy it. She had just arrived, after all.

The weather was nice; nice enough for her to do away with her trademark duster, having stuffed it into the large pack on her back, but it did little in the way of helping her look normal. The jeans she wore were full of holes, and the old band t-shirt-- one she'd managed to save from her brother's things-- had become threadbare at best, but being near the beach and had meant that such things weren’t completely out of place; not to mention the fact that she was at least able to shower in one of the stalls located in the bathrooms there. All in all, this place didn’t seem too bad.

As she wandered on, a small crowd had caught her attention. Curious, she inched a bit closer to see what everyone was so enthralled with. Though her height was against her (Stupid fuckin' genetics.) She managed to catch a glimpse of cards being shuffled. Another moment later, the crowd would gasp and applaud. It didn't take long to realize a magic show was taking place. Gemma smirked a little at the thought of how Danny would have been so excited. He lived for shit like this. Performances of any kind seemed to interest him. Though she never did admit it, Gemma had been interested as well; and so, despite the poor view, she stayed. Most of the crowd would disperse after a couple tricks, all of them clearly in a rush to go elsewhere, allowing her to get a better view.

The man performing was tall-- not that that was saying much, everyone was tall compared to her-- and extremely pale... but the oddest thing about him was his outfit. Most performers-- the ones she'd seen anyway-- were usually flashy. They wore bright colors, and shit that sparkled... usually to get attention. This one was different. His clothes were dark and plain, and he never once removed his hood. It was as if he was trying to hide rather than stand out. Weird..

A dog collar

As a joke, Alice picked up a cheep, shiny dog collar when she picked up a sweater and safety harness for her little dog. It was only after she’d paid for it that this seemed like... A weird thing to get someone. But it was an inside joke and she was committing to this so what the hell right?

So, the next time Jack came in for his appointment Alice smiled and offered him a Christmas gift bag filled with colorful tissue paper. 

“Merry Christmas. Never say I’m not a woman of my word.”

The plan behind her transfer to Arkham was this: The safest place to hide from the Rogues is where they spend the least amount of time. Meaning: Arkham. Because, let’s face it, they break out a hell of a lot. Plus, when they’re brought in they very rarely get checked in at the reception desk and Batman usually just takes them right to their cells. So, in reality, she barely ever even sees them during her work day.

Working there has done tremendous things for her condition and her healing process. She works in an environment with people who understand what she’s going through and she can talk to her coworkers about it without coming off as a “downer” or “weird” because a lot of them are doctors and understand the struggles more than your every day average person. For the first time in years she was able to feel free to be herself and just breathe and even make friends at work again. Because, let’s face it, that was something she would have struggled with for a long time after what happened to her. 

Plus, while working there she can keep tabs on her stalker- Knowing when he breaks out so she can plan for any possible appearances of him in her life. She has a support structure she didn’t have before. If Tetch breaks out on a day she’s not at work, she can trust someone to call her and tell her what happened because they are all very aware of what might happen to her if they don’t.

But in regards to rogues that aren’t Tetch? They don’t bother her much. There are a select few other than tetch, that really scare her  in any way. Joker and Crane mostly. But on her most petty days when she is super pissed at Tetch (every day) if she had to drop something off and had to walk through the cell blocks for any reason, she would say hello to Joker and completely ignore Jervis’ existence. For the most part, as far as rogues go, she believes the system will work if you let it. They can heal if they want to and if given the right treatments and time. She wants them to get better and there are some she thinks could do a world of good if they just had the chance to do something worthwhile with their talents.

Send me 👤+ a character name for my muse’s opinion on that character

“The Joker is....” She inhaled deeply, putting her hands together in contemplation. 

“A special kind of terrifying. He kills indiscriminately, he has no rhyme or reason behind his different plans, each one is drastically different from the last- He doesn’t care who he hurts, how or why, he just does it- And he doesn’t even care if his plans get him killed! He just wants to burn everything down and he doesn’t care if he gets caught in the flames! And... Because it’s funny to him for some reason?? He’s complete chaos and impossible to predict and that’s why not even Batman could stop him a hundred percent of the time!”

“Let me put it this way: Who in Gotham has heard of any of the mob bosses from Metropolis? A couple hundred people maybe? Even fewer are actually scared of them i bet.. But everyone- Everyone in the freakin’ country is scared of the Joker. Because there’s no way of knowing if he’ll randomly select your town from a hat and make it a part of one of his schemes. You always think ‘oh, he’d never do that. That would be CRAZY-’ And then you realize... YEAH. It WOULD BE. That’s the point.”

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