#rose-musing

It would be very cruel if one thing the siblings were never told about Rose's lineage is that witches of time don't die naturally or don't age past a certain point. What if Rose just suddenly stopped aging, and it slowly dawned on Shadow that his sister isn't changing at all? What if it wasn't her choice?

Ultimately that would mean that Rose would eventually find herself alone, if they couldn't find or didn't pursue a way to help her age naturally...

Maybe the only person with a familiar face would be Phoenix, if he'd ever visit Earth after Joker's passing.

Eternal youth and life, something coveted by most of humanity, is a miserable curse for Rose. As far as eternal life goes, Phoenix doesn't feel so strongly--but he deeply relates to some aspects of misery in an eternal life. It is exceedingly rare to meet a human who hates the idea of it.

Rose believes in goodness and values life, but I think she has the potential to be truly scary.

Rose, who would balk in horror at the idea of hurting any innocent living creature, may eventually grow to dehumanize both her and especially Shadow's enemies.

Rose doesn't ever want to see her brother almost killed again, so if she thought that Shadow's life was in danger... Maybe she'd lose herself briefly. Shadow would witness the anger and darkness buried deep inside his sister's heart...

Her mind goes back to the time of her brother being shot and her being unable to save him or herself. Shadow sacrificed himself for years for her sake, going through things that she can't truly imagine... Rose won't ever put her brother through that again. She's determined to be strong... Evil people who threaten their lives don't deserve to continue living--they're just like the monsters who took their village and childhood away.

As Rose's bitterness, own guilt, and trauma begins to manifest in visible ways, she develops such worrying thoughts.

Now that's a title.

So, after watching that second Coro Coro All-Star episode, my friend and I were joking about Joker being this (headcanoned) 16 year old surrounded by a bunch of elementary schoolers, and we started to talk about how funny pathetic Joker is because I can ABSOLUTELY SEE Joker hanging around and getting along with elementary schoolers because he's just so immature... well of course, until he doesn't get along with them, which is also inevitable.

For whatever reason, he's stuck hanging with some elementary schoolers for a period of time, and some of these kids think he's SO COOL, some even know him from TV broadcasts and news, so he might even be their bad influence idol.

Joker loves it when people worship and praise him--yes, even if they're kids because his personality is terrible--so he'd act like he doesn't care so much but he is LOVING the praise, and probably shows off a trick or two to the kids since they're being so insistent (he's annoyed, but not too much. Yet.)

Eventually one of the kids teases him or insults him because that's what kids do, because Joker inevitably does something that isn't COOL or the kid wants to be contrary about, and Joker, on the same level of an elementary schooler, gets into a 'I know you are but what am I' level of argument and petty squabble--

"Why do you wear a cape? Can't somebody grab it? What if it gets caught in something? Are you stupid?"

Joker gets INCREDIBLY offended, because capes are cool and he wouldn't make a rookie mistake like that. It's for the aesthetic. The cape is an incredibly important part of his outfit.

This kid basically calls his get-up cringe after that, 'it's worse than what a preschooler would make up', and that's when the argument completely breaks down.

The kid's just teasing him and saying kid things and Joker is trying to tell this kid how DISRESPECTFUL HE IS TO THE HISTORY OF PHANTOM THIEVES, DON'T YOU KNOW ALL THE BEST PHANTOM THIEVES WORE CAPES!?

and now you have a division of some ten year olds on his side nodding and going 'YEAH' and other ten year olds who are either completely disoriented or think it's really funny to tease Joker.

Initially the joke had started as 'Joker hangs with elementary schoolers because elementary schoolers understand him best' because his friends his age are SUCH A DRAG read: more mature and trying to hold him accountable and I do think he has much more shame and pride than to outright say he prefers to hang with elementary schoolers, but... Joker ends up indirectly saying this. dfjgiofgh

But of course he ends up actually around kids and they want to do kid things that he actually has grown out of a little bit, or they hit him back with his level of maturity, and then suddenly kids are AWFUL.

And if Hachi isn't there yet to do damage control, he arrives on the scene like JOKER'S MOM to pick up his disrespectful and terrible 16 year old child that is .5 seconds away from duking it out with a first grader.

And then of course when Joker's back on the Sky Joker he gets The Earful from Hachi where he's lectured for a good thirty minutes about accountability and maturity, Hachi who is probably no older than 11 but easily three times more mature in any given circumstance.

Below is what was originally a conversation that I had with a friend, cleaned up to be slightly more comprehensible and easy to read. With that in mind, it may read slightly oddly or stilted in some areas. There is messiness in the writing due to it originally being written collaboratively in a conversational context. Still, I hope the idea is clear and can be enjoyed!

(Also, this one's pretty angsty, so heads up for the usual Shadow-related angst. There's some violence and a close main character death, but no actual death or bad end.)

Instead of Jack finding the witch village and the village being raided that day, Jack is allowed to bond with Cyan and Rose over a period of months. Secrecy is incredibly important in this case, but Rose has taken such a liking to the boy that she urges Cyan to welcome Jack and similarly wants him to visit again... And so, when Jack can manage it, he sneaks away to the witch village and spends time with Cyan and Rose. Cyan's dream is to one day travel the world... Of course, Jack has such a plan ahead of him, too. Together, having started to form something of a genuine friendship, they make a lighthearted pledge to one another that when they get older they’ll travel the world together.

I kinda have a lot of headcanons for joker.

Another one i have is that joker has cousins, it felt weird that we never seen any family member besides his parents, so that's where i got it from. They're like besties so when joker was declared missing as a kid of course it's heat shattering to his entire family. Until they're like older (maybe around his age but one of them is adult and have a family?) They started to speculate that joker is jack, their cousin.

Also, i realized i once headcanon that his grandpa has a rough relationship to all his family, especially joker's. Cus he doesn't approve his dad's marriage with his mom.

I still want them to reunite, so maybe captain blue (if you remember that guy) started a conversation with joker and akai (don't ask why i put him there, i don't know either) about his grandpa and stuff

Blue: that's basically about him, how about you? Is he still around?

Joker: i don't know, i didn't get to meet him for years, not even the rest of my... Family.

Blue: ... Meet them now.

So that's basically why he decides to reunite with them... Well not really but uhm.

Hello! If you mean my blog, I'm incredibly flattered, wow... thank you! It's just me posting some drawings and simple thoughts from time to time. I wasn't sure if anyone would really appreciate my KJ scenarios, but I'm very thankful that at least a few people do. My ideas are not for everyone as the things I explore tend to veer more towards dark and offputting premises and exploration of morally grey character psychology (I especially love to explore this in 'good' characters). Still, I have many more things to share, and I hope you might enjoy those scenarios eventually, too. ^^ (My creation process is just extremely slow unfortunately) As for your idea... I've explored Joker potentially having more family, too! This is one of those anime protagonist things that I've otherwise shrugged off, you know how families outside of mother and father don't usually get talked about... one time I explored the idea that Joker had actually been adopted at a very young age, or that there was some kind of secret in the family that Jack would really never know about, maybe in relation to the time-telling goddess, where their family was very secretive and disconnected.

I really, really like the idea that Lupin is Joker's ancestor too, so their entire family is just full of all sorts of secrets. If you're curious about this, I've gone more in-depth here.

I wonder what Joker thinks about all of these secrets and odd little things that he only identifies in retrospect once he gets older? Time naturally fades his memory, but certain things that went right over his head suddenly don't seem as simple as they once were... Did Joker actually ever know his family? If his mom and dad hadn't been taken from him at such a young age, would they have told him more about themselves later on?

I think once he reaches an age where he begins to have these realizations, he would go through a more subtle second wave of grief.

---

But if Joker found out that he had living family, especially if he finds this out when he's older and already a well established phantom thief... What does he think about in such a circumstance? I think his initial reaction is disbelief, because of how many people there are who would want to deceive him. But beyond this, I feel like his reaction wouldn't be as simple as just him being overjoyed once he's convinced it isn't trickery.

Of course Joker is happy.

...But another part of him, the part who thought that he had 'moved on' from that chapter of his past, is terribly conflicted. He went through the steps already. He grieved and moved on and came out stronger.

But now he has family again?

With family comes emotional obligation and also the stress of protecting that family, of the potential grief of losing that family... of connecting with that family being dangerous with his way of life, where hundreds of people would be incredibly happy to hear that 'Phantom Thief Joker' has something that can be used as blackmail. He puts that family at risk.

It's never as simple as being 'overjoyed'.

Not when you're also a boy who's grown up with complicated feelings on emotional vulnerability, where being too vulnerable or too personal is far too uncomfortable, and being too emotional risks him developing weaknesses that will get him killed on heists. (I've talked about this before but I mention it a lot because of how much I think this impacts so much of Joker's actions and his personality, especially with how thoughtless he can be with people around him).

I think that Joker might find his own conflicted emotions offensive to even himself... where he wonders what's wrong with him to some extent, not being totally happy that he has surviving biological family.

What kind of person would he have to be to think that that's a pain, in any way?

Joker isn't the type to dwell on things but he'd stew in it ever so slightly.

I do like that they remain distant in a way, because considering the stakes for Shadow, it makes a lot of sense. I like to imagine that even though Queen is also distant and grieving what she believes her reality to be, she still approaches Shadow with a sense of curiosity... and Shadow completely closes her off. He makes it clear that he has zero interest in building a bond with her, or talking at all.

It has a lot to do with the fact that if Shadow talks too much to Queen, lets anything slip at all that could turn Queen against Clover, it could put his and Rose's life at risk...

...and Queen's.

Shadow 'doesn't care', but I don't think he wants to be responsible for Clover slaughtering this girl because he let himself become too talkative.

Sometimes I also think about, long after season 2, maybe Shadow is in a situation where he's with Queen and others in a lower stakes, casual situation where they're not fighting for once... and Shadow looks at Queen while in a bit of a strange mood--and he feels a sense of relief wash over him, seeing this bright and cheery girl with such beautiful, shining eyes and incredible energy. In this way, she's a bit like Rose, which he can always admire and appreciate.

She's relatively untouched--Clover never really tainted Queen.

And with this thought he feels an unexpected wave of violent envy... it rattles him and makes it hard to breathe. His entire body stiffens and he freezes.

Why did she survive untouched? Why is she different? Why did Queen cross paths with Clover but come out of it fine?

The torment that Shadow has gone through bubbles to the surface and threatens to choke him. He's so broken and his sister has lost years of her life and most of her childhood and yet Clover manipulates this girl, the granddaughter of Silver Heart... to almost no true damage to Queen herself.

Clover could have been rougher. He could have easily been more hands on. Clover was so perversely obsessed with trying to kill Silver Heart in the most emotionally destructive way--one method being by making his own granddaughter kill him--that he went through such trouble to keep her naive and on his side.

But he could have been crueler.

...And of course, just as soon as his mind has filled with this venom, maybe Rose or someone else gets his attention. Maybe he looked uncomfortable or upset. Queen is completely unaware of the way that Shadow was staring at her. Even though it isn't effortless, he pushes these thoughts aside in a practiced way.

Of course, these thoughts still linger, even as he's distracted himself with something else...