badclown

[badclown]

First week back to school, everything is hectic and I'm exhausted. Be back once I've adjusted. <3

[badclown]

Drafts: 10 Starters: 2 ( @devilswill && @broose-wayne ) Inbox: 2 ( @corvidamned && @qu-tipie ) Threads: 18 Notes: 4 drafts not on the tracker ( @optimisticrobin, @dr-crxne, @jesytr, && @auroradicit ) To Do: I'm working on a new google doc for Joker, but it will probably take a long time to complete.

thread tracker.

[badclown]

♠ — IF YOU WERE A DEITY, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DOMAIN?

TRICKERY && DARKNESS. You are the divine incarnation of darkness, trickery, and deceit, and of all things concealed and impermissible. You lurk in those deep-delved and far-flung places beyond the reach of inquisitive minds and prying eyes, and you shelter outsiders and empower those forced to dwell in the shadows. Mortals often spurn you or brand you as an evil deity due to your association with criminals and plotters; however, it would be more truthful to say you represent a natural antithesis to the status quo. Those who most revere you—thieves, revolutionaries, forbidden cults, and secret societies—merely seek to challenge the established order and reveal its cruel imperfections. Your mythological equivalents are Greece’s Nyx and Hermes, Scandinavia’s Loki, Eurasia’s Veles, and the Navajo’s Coyote.

tagged by: @auroradicit tagging: @horrificways, @dr-crxne, @corvidamned, @spybiote, @iiingenious, @qu-tipie, @batisms.

[badclown]

The Joker’s Origin && Her Relationship with Batman

A lot of people ask me about my thoughts on who the Joker was before she was the Joker, and my answer to that is twofold: Firstly, I think what people want out of this question is to unmask Joker, to reveal her humanity in a way that would take power away from the idea of the Joker, which is the reason V never removes his mask in V for Vendetta– you can’t kill an idea. Ideas are bulletproof. Secondly, I understand that in a superhero genre it’s customary to have a secret identity, but given Joker’s retrograde amnesia, she’s been essentially robbed of hers. She doesn’t know who she was before she was the Joker, which renders that entire personhood ultimately irrelevant to her as she is now. Subsequently, I’m disinterested in revealing any ideas I have regarding whomever Joker used to be before she was Joker.

The Joker was born like Athena, fully grown and aware of the world. She came into existence in a vat of mystery acid in an Ace Chemical plant, and her first memory is being fished out of this vat by the Batman– which, without context, is kind of a terrifying first memory. She doesn’t remember it well. Her first clear memory is waking up in the hospital. No one was able to identify her or explain how she came to be in Ace Chemical, and obviously Batman isn’t available for comment. I’ve written a separate but relevant headcanon previously about Joker having toxic encephalopathy resulting in various symptoms and health problems, all of which she was experiencing acutely in the hospital while doctors asked her a million questions she had no answers to. She has no idea who she is, where she lives, or who her emergency contact is.

Following an arduous recovery, the hospital releases her with anti-seizure meds and a huge medical bill. Joker has no identity, no money, no place to go, and no one to turn to. From the second she left that hospital, she was homeless and in tremendous debt. Not only that, but she was obviously bleached, and her albino-like appearance was extremely off-putting for others, making it difficult for her to make friends or form allies. Life in Gotham has never been easy, even if you’re the Waynes, you could get shot point blank outside the opera house, so for a homeless outcast, life was intense, merciless, and increasingly violent. In order to survive, Joker had to toughen up and toughen up quickly.

One can see direct parallels between Joker’s general psychology and this time period in her life: the all-importance of power and control, the unwillingness to ever be a victim again or to be powerless or at someone else’s mercy, and the idea that she owes the world nothing. Joker learned to fight and steal when the stakes were basically to learn this and learn it well, or you go hungry and can’t defend yourself. All the while, she’s increasingly isolated and coping with brain damage, so she’s strongly motivated to apply all of her intelligence and ruthlessness toward becoming an accomplished criminal and manipulating others into helping her. As soon as she makes any headway, she starts hearing about a masked vigilante called the Batman who is beating the shit out of anyone trying to commit crime in Gotham City.

Joker knows that she is supposed to fear Batman, she’s aware that others fear him and that she should fear being caught by him, and she resents the hell out of this, just as she resents any fear in general (or any other emotion that attempts to control her). The stronger she becomes, the more traction she gets in the criminal world, the more settled she is in her new identity– that of the Joker, in which she uses her physical deformity to channel fear in others, and also uses it as a tool to help others underestimate her. She is building this concept from nothing, and sees Batman as her only link to a past she doesn’t know or understand, which is extremely disturbing to her. She knows she literally would not exist if he hadn’t pulled her out of that acid bath, but she also has no context or explanation for that memory. Furthermore, she’s afraid to even ask about it (although she would never admit it) because she’s afraid to know who she was before she became the Joker. There is an identity crisis there where the thought of being someone else before being the Joker directly  threatens her current sense of identity and self because she is only able to build the concept of the Joker specifically because she lacks any societal ties (no family, no teachers, no friends), and therefore has nothing anchoring her to reality.

This means that Joker’s first connection with Batman is one based in fear: the fear that Batman represents, the threat to herself and others like her, and the fear of herself and her true identity. Confronting Batman is a surrogate for confronting Joker’s fears, and in that confrontation, she finds something that she can respect: another psycho acting out of the courage of his own convictions. The more he doubles down on his pseudo-noble nonsensical bullshit, the more Joker wants to challenge and derail those beliefs, to see how tightly he holds onto them. If he had buckled and realized his own folly, she could have dismissed him outright, but it is his firm belief that what he is doing is not only necessary but compulsory that really fascinates Joker. She respects his commitment and therefore sees him as the only real force in Gotham City to contend with, the only real equal she has.

Secondarily to his ties to her identity-related fears, Joker also recognizes that Batman essentially birthed her, and therefore blames him for her own pain-filled existence– which is reason number two that she would never let him die, and why she would certainly never kill Batman herself. She wants to punish him for bringing her into the world and for simultaneously making it impossible to live through his crusade to fight the disenfranchised for just trying to get by however they can, and on a more personal level constantly getting in her way. Letting Batman die at any given time would still be too quick for Joker because her goal is to inflict the maximum possible amount of pain on him, to torture him slowly. To her, death would be an escape she can never allow him. So long as she has to live her own tortured existence, so must the Batman. For her, it is a kind of suicide pact, or perhaps even the opposite of that.

[badclown]

honestly joker hates brat taming. you know what she likes? a good pet. someone loyal and well behaved who aims to please her and has little to no expectations in return.

[badclown]

[badclown]

She doesn't make a move immediately, and as his gaze lifts to her features, he might realize she's studying him. It's possible he smirked at her when she first spoke, but she'd wiped the expression cleanly off his face since then, demanded his full and complete attention. She can practically feel his pulse underneath her, but it's anyone's guess if that was fear or arousal. Perhaps both in equal measure.

A pupillary response could be an indication of arousal, or a shift in light. Or maybe he was testing his own work again. Hard to say. He didn't look glassy or unfocused, though. He's having trouble meeting her gaze, and it could be the way he's adjusted himself underneath her, or it could be that he's trying to extricate himself from the situation without offending her.

He's chattering on, trying to ascertain her purpose-- don't be an idiot, Jon. She made her purpose very clear. His denials only made her want to fuck with him more, to watch him squirm for her. There was something inherently rewarding in the thought of his suffering for her amusement, even if only emotionally.

"Not the PLACE ??" she asks, leaning her face into his. "This is MY lab. I paid fer it... are YOU sayin' I can't fuck MY scientist in MY lab ??"

Her voice tempted a small smirk onto his lips, her sudden movement did catch him off guard. As she slid into place Jon let out a small hum of concern. His hands rested on the arms of the chair waiting, studying her face his head tilted slightly. His body ignored his protests to remain stoic, his heart raced underneath her fist. Her aggression didn’t surprise him, her choice of action over it did a bit, “It seems you have a lot of your mind,” his pupils dilated when their eyes met. One hand twitches tempted to grab her waist, his jaw flexed scolding himself for entertaining the thought. “I don’t believe this is the place for such discussions,” he offered leaning back into the chair, his hips rose slightly pressing against her, a thoughtless action that made his eyes dart away for a moment.

“I’m going to guess business wasn’t good today,” he finally met her eyes again. His pulse raced in the veins of his neck as a small blush formed at the base of his neck. Every cell wanted to react lean into the pheromones that seemed to pour off the woman as she stared down onto him.

[badclown]

That much was true. Joker had never really existed outside of the city limits, had she ?? She had been born in Gotham, fully grown like some Greek goddess born from ocean foam (if a vat of chemicals could be called an ocean). Her earliest memories were the streets of Gotham, and the permanent bitter taste in between her metallic teeth is whatever blood was left over after her first night there.

Bleached fingertips trace feather-light along the other woman's jaw, almost a ghost of touch. It's not enough. It never was. Joker wanted to close her fist around Gotham's throat, wanted to sink her lacquered fingernails into that perfect skin. She wants to determine where her body goes, to put her there, keep her there. She wanted to own every intimate crevice of her.

"Of course not, kitten. Ya know I LIVE fer you."

@badclown said: this is like coming home.

Her laughter is full-throated, the rasp of factory smoke and cigarettes keeping it low. There's a certain amount of adoration in the city's gaze. A certain amount of calm expectation--the blood of others is an old sacrifice, this devotion nothing less than she's due.

"You never left. You never will."

Not in any way that matters. As far as Gotham is concerned, that much is settled. One day, in the end, she'll cradle all that is left. She'll keep and treasure a scar or two--or maybe those ravening eyes.

"You've carved quite a space in my bones."

[badclown]

The most minute facial twitch indicated how dismissive she was of the issue. It didn't matter what they ate. She was asking for the other woman's company, all other considerations were secondary.

"Boqueria it is," she replied.

@corvidamned is looking at her directly now, and Joker returns the gaze. Kira was nice to look at-- this had never been up for debate. There was always an extra layer of pleasure in seeing her return from a job aside from the assurance that she would say the mission was complete and never once gave a problem without a proposed solution. Maybe that was it-- Kira didn't irritate her the way most people did. Her presence wasn't unwelcome, wasn't a grating distraction. On the contrary, she was competent, well-coifed, and more importantly, deadly. Joker liked that in a woman.

No, none of that was an issue. The issue wasn't in the room with them. He was presumably on the other side of town, but even so-- the Penguin was the reason Joker didn't take the assassin's face in her tattooed fingers and level their faces an inch apart.

Music or dancing? She could take her back to Feste after, if that was what she wanted. A quick glance at the gold timepiece on Joker's wrist, some math to calculate how much time it would take to get ready and to the restaurant. "Seven?" She makes it a question, gives the option to make adjustments as needed. It's a rare consideration. "We can go dancing after, if ya like."

 Kira quickly interpreted an invitation from a brief misunderstanding. She was used to working overtime and go-getting for other people’s last minute affairs, not engaging in her own. She retained a calm veneer over a brewing paranoia stemming from the mentioned entrées. Whether a coincidence or a calculated effort to a greater truth, time would tell. She leaned over the counter, and clutched her ribbon tie while she delivered the bad news to the table top. “I can’t do garlic. I hope that’s not a deal breaker.” Her entire body shifted with interest as she looked up, eyes trailing up J’s always interesting custom ensemble to meet her gaze with an intense seriousness.

 A need to demonstrate and a rare if turbulent consideration gave off the impression this wasn’t just a spontaneous change of scenery, but perhaps a proper occasion, maybe even an endeavor if she was pushing her luck. Never one to assume, she smiled and pried, “What time, and will there be music or dancing?”

[badclown]

open starter

It’s anyone guess what set her off, but it didn’t matter because Joker was on the move. She crossed the club floor, patrons parting the moment they saw her coming or dragging one another out of the way. Her eyes were a little wide and tight, and she was sucking metal teeth as she approached the lower level bar. Her jaw extended as she reached for the male patron leaning towards the bartender. Poor sap had no idea she was there until she took a fistful of his hair and yanked backwards. The rest of his body followed helplessly, and the pulsing beat of club music was still playing when she shoved him onto the floor. 

He hardly had any time to catch himself before he went skidding across glossy tile, and then she was on top of him, thighs on either side of his waist as she took hold of his hair again in order to smash his face into the floor. When she was satisfied he wasn’t getting up, she rolled him over so that she was straddling him. Then the beating truly began. She hit him again and again, until the music had stopped and the din of conversation had fallen nearly silent, until he was no longer trying to spit up the blood in his mouth but instead was merely struggling to breathe. Only then did she let his head fall back and slowly get to her feet, spitting on him for good measure. 

Wild blue eyes rose to meet the staring crowd, her gaze fixing on one witness in particular. She inhaled through her nose as she walked towards them, then flashed an intense and mirthless smile before dusting off their shoulder like they were old friends. 

                                            “Ya got a little somethin’ there.”

[badclown]

The Joker’s Criminal Organization

Joker’s criminal organization is collectively referred to as Clown Alley and is divided largely into three main branches: laundering, smuggling, and terrorism.

Clown Alley is one of the leading criminal banking organizations in the northeast. Particularly in Gotham City, where there are many competing criminal organizations producing dirty money, there is a strong demand for reliable laundering services to convert dirty money into legal tender. Thus, Joker does business with many if not most criminals in the area as an integral part of their operations. Her laundering is done primarily through cash intensive businesses owned by Clown Alley (such as dungeons, sex shops, parking structures, and even Feste), as well as through trade-based laundering largely done through auction. The latter of this is tied to the second branch of Joker’s organization in that many of the items that see their way through the auction house (art, antiquities, etc.) have been obtained through less than legal means. For example, Clown Alley is heavily involved in robbery and heists, which obtain high value and rare items and sell them to Gotham’s rich and elite. Joker also uses bank capture and occasionally bulk cash smuggling to diversify the means of cash so that the organization isn’t dependent on any one method.

Aside from laundering, Clown Alley is well known in criminal circles as an arms dealer. A good portion of their smuggling operation deals with the sale of any and every kind of weapon imaginable. Weapons trafficking, robbery, counterfeiting, and extortion make up the bulk of Clown Alley’s self-generated revenue, all of which is cleaned through their own laundering organization and is accompanied by the percentage profits made from cleaning the money of other criminal organizations. Clown Alley also offers loans at an exorbitant rate of interest, adding usury to their lineup of criminal endeavors. Because of Joker’s banking services and arms dealing, she has solid relationships with most of the larger criminal organizations in the surrounding areas, which means she is often viewed as an impartial third party in disputes between these organizations. For a fee, Clown Alley will broker negotiations between organizations and also offers dispute resolution, for which they have an excellent reputation (in fact, dispute resolution and brokering accounts for one of Clown Alley’s top five renevue streams).

The third branch of Joker’s organization deals exclusively in terrorism. Some of the activity in this branch has an overlap with her other business dealings, but for the most part, everything else Clown Alley does is a means to this end; that is, to realize Joker’s political aims through murder, arson, blackmail, bribery, and the insane public stunts she pulls on a regular basis. She manipulates the systems in place to her own end, or to destroy them or their integrity as it suites her and whatever purpose she pursues at any given time. It is often very difficult to understand what her machinations are aimed towards because her motivations tend toward a state of absolute chaos. However, this chaos is often a mask for removing competition, solidifying her power base (typically through fear), eliminating threats, etc.

When it comes to putting together a criminal empire, one can’t just hire anyone to get the job done. This is a lesson Joker learned very early in her career– if your people are only motivated by money, then they can be bought. The foundation of her empire, therefore, is information. Don’t mistake Joker for a broker, she’s never willing to sell, but always willing to buy. She keeps spies everywhere and hackers on retainer. If she hires someone, she knows exactly what their situation is, their talents and skills but also their weaknesses. It’s the weaknesses that are the most interest to her, if she has a man who can be threatened, who owes debts or has certain dependencies (chemical or otherwise), this is what’s important. She makes it certain henchmen’s jobs to keep an eye on everyone’s wellbeing, because any weak link can be exploited. Whether Joker chooses to exploit this herself to ensure loyalty, or conversely to fix the issue in what might be perceived as an act of beneficence, is entirely up to the person’s usefulness to her or potential threat to her long term. Of all the criminals in Gotham City, Joker pays the best– but it’s the benefits of her employ that keep her people in line. Nobody fucks with Joker’s clowns without her say so. If she hires somebody only to kill them later, it’s because they cannot be of any further benefit to her. If someone is in trouble, it’s taken care of. It might not be health insurance, but it’s a guarantee.

Of course, she’s also a firm believer in employing both the carrot and the stick. Anyone out of line or who can’t keep their shit together, anyone who might be taking advantage of clownly kindness is an opportunity for her to make an example, and she does. Creatively. Everyone in Gotham knows when someone’s crossed the Joker because it’s usually a public spectacle aimed at a particular and relevant audience.

[badclown]

The Joker’s Club && Base of Operations

Joker’s club is called Feste (after the jester from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night). It is a hugely popular nightclub in Gotham and I headcanon that the club featured in Suicide Squad as well as the one in Rick Ross’ Purple Lambo music video are simply different areas of Feste. The vibe is essentially Mardi Gras meets BDSM, and Joker fosters a culture of all misfits being equally welcome, so long as they play by the rules. The club plays predominantly trap music and anything featuring a heavy and addictive beat, and often features a variety of displays on stage as well as hired dancers stationed throughout the club. Most nights, Feste is open to anyone willing to pay the cover fee, and one can often pay one’s way into the VIP lounge as well, but the club does regularly host fetish nights, invitation-only parties, and can even be rented (at exorbitant expense) for private events. Although Feste is not a strip club, it does have a highly sexual and fetishized reputation (as well as strongly sapphic), and attendance is not for the faint of heart. It’s even rumored that the basement floor houses a dungeon, and that some of the dominatrices who regularly perform on stage are available there to fulfill some of the more wealthy patrons’ darker fantasies.

Joker runs a lot of her business from the VIP lounge (overlooking the dance floor below) where she has her own designated booth (as seen in SS), although she also has an office with a proper desk in the back that she rarely uses. Admittance to the VIP area is either very pricey or by reputation only. Certain figures in Gotham city keep regular booths there, but no one gets to Joker’s table without passing through at least three security checkpoints. The building that Feste occupies is in almost the exact center of downtown Gotham, and Joker’s penthouse apartment takes up the top two floors. One could go down to the county office to look up what businesses the other floors are leased to, but even government records aren’t that reliable. The structure is widely known to be Joker’s primary base of operations, although its host isn’t always in attendance. Even so, security is tight, bordering on extreme. There are cameras everywhere and nothing happens in that club that Joker doesn’t know about. Rest assured, if someone notable walks through the front door, security will be notifying Mr. J within the minute, regardless of her presence within the club itself.

[badclown]

thread tracker updated.

+5 drafted starters I can't track yet.

[badclown]

sorry guys i lowkey gave myself heat exhaustion moving classrooms in 90f weather over two days (i also dropped a filing cabinet on my finger) so i've just been sleeping, hydrating, and watching chinese dramas.

my to do list includes:

asks from @corvidamned and @qu-tipie.

drafted replies for @auroradicit, @corvidamned, @jesytr, @dr-crxne, and @qu-tipie.

BUT keep in mind i really need to update my thread tracker and check it to make sure there aren't any missed replies (if your name isn't here and it should be, just reach out and I'll fix it).

[badclown]

@qu-tipie asked:

"When tha' world is set on fire... when or what is meant to put it out?"

Joker turns to regard the other woman, making a short study of her face. The wild mop of blonde hair, the slender curve of her face, her doe eyes painted with makeup. Sometimes it was like they shared some kind of telepathic link, like their minds were both connected to some preternatural wavelength that made them each extensions of the same mentality-- but other times...

A sharp inhale through her nose and she takes a step toward Harley, tattooed fingers reaching for her chin. Why was it so difficult to open up someone's mind ?? Infuriating when the possibilities were so obvious to her, but others remained blind to them. She thought she had taught Harley better than this, but that was the problem with healthcare workers, they were always trying to fucking help.

"Ya got it allllll BACKWARDS, gumdrop." Dark lacquered fingernails bite gently into the pale flesh of Harley's chin as she literally holds the other woman's attention. "Ya see--" a wide, metallic smile proliferates across Joker's face, "YOU AN' ME, we're here to START the fire."

[badclown]

Shipping with the Joker && Joker’s Sexuality

Joker essentially views people as mostly objects (she possesses very little if any human empathy), and therefore any person is a potentially sexual object insofar as they fulfill certain prerequisites (ie: physical attractiveness, flexible morality, willingness to take direction, threshold for violence, etc.). Subsequently, Joker can instantly become sexual with any person who hits these particular buttons for her– it doesn’t necessarily mean she plans to fuck this person, or even wants to fuck this person. I mean, it could mean she wants to fuck them, or it could mean she’s using her sexuality to manipulate them, OR it could mean she’s briefly considering how they might look suspended from the ceiling in a studded leather harness getting publicly gang banged by men in clown masks for her viewing pleasure. Who can say?? Joker’s sexuality is a bit like Schrodinger’s cat, in that she both does and does not want to fuck someone… until the time comes to open the box, and it is what it is.

Hence, Joker is likely to be sexual, or sexually intense, or say dirty things, or inappropriately touch (with the mun’s permission, ofc) another muse. It doesn’t necessarily mean she’s trying to get with them or start a ship or what have you. So I guess heads up (pun fully intended).

This brings me to my next point: on shipping. Joker may take a shine to someone and start fucking them regularly, but it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s developed any sort of emotional attachment to them. Often, her sexual partners are just talking sex toys to her.

If she does develop affection towards another human being (which does happen on occasion), sex does not necessarily have to be involved (it can, but it isn’t necessary). It really only means that this is her person now, and if anyone fucks with her person, it would be like someone threatening to key Joker’s car. I mean, can you imagine if some asshole was like “heyo, I’m gonna key your car”?? They’d have about six bullets in them before they hit the ground. Don’t fuck with her shit. Don’t fuck with her people, don’t fuck with her business. It’s not really out of a sense of chivalry so much as it is a bizarre ownership, and it may often extend to people within her employ.

Joker is capable of loving someone. It would be a very shallow love, though, and it would never, ever be healthy. I did originally develop this blog to ship with a Harley Quinn that no longer exists, so I do largely have that understanding of how a relationship, a real romantic relationship, with the Joker could theoretically work.Joker could love someone: if they were persistent, if they were absolutely devoted to her, if they would do ANYTHING for Joker and still were smart enough and deadly enough not to have to rely on her. But it would take a very twisted mind with an appetite for (self) destruction in order to get there.

[badclown]

"You could say that."

She is not one to be ignored. To be fair, maybe he didn't realize his visitor was the clown prince of crime, but ignorance was no excuse in her eyes. A swift kick to the wheel of his office chair offers enough space for her to step between him and his desk, and his necktie is a convenient handle for her to push his back against the seat. She lifts one leg and slides smoothly onto his lap, straddling him as if it's the most natural thing in the world. He feels warm underneath her, and her body is already responding to that heat, something low in her coiling tighter. She exhales a low sigh, almost a growl. There is something almost animalistic in the way she wants to sink claws into him, to hear him cry out for her, for his body to buck against hers of its own volition, in desperation for her. Cold eyes appraise his expression, noting his every response.

"Thought ya might make some time fer me."

@badclown

"I didn't have another appointment-" he didn't bother to lift his head, "Personal call?"