#isabelxjerome

[jokerfic]

2 bits of news for the crush/jerome valeska/fox gotham fans

first, barring death, taxes, or a complete crisis of productivity, I'll start posting the sequel to Crush at some point in December, it's called I'm Your Man and it's on track to be over twice the length of Crush

second, I've found faces for both isabel and jane

devyn garcia for isabel

kathryn newton for jane

more to come soon!

[jokerfic]

Oh okay more relevant things — is Jerome’s family going to play a significant role in the sequel to Crush, do you think? I imagine Isabel would be curious in spite of herself. I wonder just how much XW was stretching the truth — was it a Peter Wiggin type deal where he threatened and bullied but proooobably wouldn’t have done anything but you never know? Or had it gone further than that, or had it not even gotten that far yet?

Yes, at least in a less physical, more abstract sense. Jerome's family haunts him the same way Isabel's family haunts her. Canonically, Jerome is shockingly casual with the gory details of his former home life-- I suspect it's a case of offense as defense; if he rattles off a story about how his uncle once held his hand down in a pot of boiling soup like it's no big deal, then nobody can tentatively address the topic with him as if he's to be pitied for it. He'd much rather weaponize his history-- use it to shock people or win their sympathy before jerking the rug out from under them-- than drag it around like an anchor around his neck.

It continues much this way in Crush's sequel. He and Isabel are never far from the topic of what happened to them, in part because they have it in common and there's more safety in talking it over together than in talking it over with someone who couldn't begin to understand. Touching on the ugliness of their families helps them vent, process, and understand one another better, and in a lot of ways it feels like draining infection from a wound.

[jokerfic]

anyway this is a jerome/isabel jam