call me maybe

[from_scratch]

Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.

He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -

with the Joker (kappa)

with Ripper (kappa)

with Darren (Aestrix)

with Minus (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Facility 3141592 (armokGoB)

with the admin (kappa)

with Jarvis (kappa, Aestrix)

with Miles (kappa)

with Hank (Nemo)

Comments

[manofmyword]

"If you're from the future, it must be a long damn while. You could say I'm kind of a public figure," he says. "Gotta have the image."

[from_scratch]

"A public image that involves messily applied clown makeup. What sort of public figure has that?"

[manofmyword]

"The Joker, of course." He smiles. "Sorry, sorry. It's a long story and kinda hard to summarize. You could say I'm an entertainer. You could also say I'm a retired terrorist. Although I haven't quiiite got around to announcing my resignation. Somebody's been hogging all the media time."

[from_scratch]

"How inconvenient of them. What kind of terrorism are we talking about?"

[manofmyword]

"Killed some people, blew up a building or two. Nothing too exciting. Although Johnny might have a different take on it." Out of the warehouse they go, and into a nondescript little car parked in the loading bay; he's still talking as he opens the door and gets in. "Those law and order types can be funny that way."

[from_scratch]

"Maybe I'll ask him. I can't think of a good reason for there to be a ticky Geiger counter inside a city, anyway, so I'm assuming you're up and up as far as that goes. We collecting your friend first or following the breadcrumbs?"

[manofmyword]

"Collecting my friend first. I'm sure he'll be very reassuring."

[from_scratch]

"We'll see."

[manofmyword]

"Mm. I don't think I got your name, by the way."

[from_scratch]

"Cam. Have you got a non-stage name, so to speak?"

[manofmyword]

"Not so much, no. Good to meetcha."

[from_scratch]

"Charmed I'm sure," says Cam, supervising the scenery. "Yeah, this looks 2012-ish all right."

[manofmyword]

"I love my city," the Joker says contentedly.

[from_scratch]

"Hence the explosions?"

[manofmyword]

"Don't you ever love something so much you just wanna set it on fire?"

[from_scratch]

"No. Demons have a reputation for being pyromaniacs, but that's because black holes took a while to discover so lakes of fire were the conventional disposal method for used stuff."

[manofmyword]

"I mmmay have been kidding."

[from_scratch]

"So, why the explosions, then?"

[manofmyword]

"It's complicated," he sighs, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "Hard to explain. And most people who ask don't really wanna know, they're just hoping in the back of their minds I'll suddenly figure out I never had a reason, you know?"

[from_scratch]

"I doubt I will think much of your reasons, but I'm optimistic that they exist in some form."

[manofmyword]

"You could still say it was all for love," he says musingly. "Just not all for love of Gotham. There was a girl, see. She loved Gotham too - fair to say she loved it first, even. Only she was less with the explosions, more with the going out at night in black body armor and beating up criminals. I cannot overstate how effective that was. She had the whole Gotham mob scene shitting their collective pants. So of course I wanted her to start beating me up. Which," he smiles reminiscently, "was not all that hard to arrange. But there were some explosions along the way."

He shrugs.

"And then she threw me off a building and caught me on the way down. It's never gonna work out between us, what can I say."

[from_scratch]

"It takes explosions to draw her out or you just wanted plenty of margin of error or what?"

[manofmyword]

"Or what. Getting her to beat me up was not my precise and literal goal. You could just as easily say I wanted her to make interesting choices where I could see 'em. Or that I wanted to play a game."

[from_scratch]

"Huh. And you do not appear to have gotten very caught."

[manofmyword]

"She caught me all right. I still have the scars. Did some time in the local criminal nuthouse, too, and then I escaped when I got bored, because their security is a shameful disgrace."