What-what-WHAT are you doing?

[gotthesescars]

Who: Lois Lane and The Joker
Where: Just outside the Capes' safe house
When: Forward dated to late thursday evening
Summary: Superman's the only one who'll play Joker's little games anymore, and Joker's worried that the other heroes might be an influence in the wrong direction in that regard. So once a lever shows up, Joker decides it's time she gets

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[by_lois_lane]

Superman hadn't let her out of his sight much since she arrived, not that she was complaining. But it was some of his other friends that made her antsy. They were not the sort of heroes Superman was and their methods...well they were sometimes ambiguous to say the least. Lavender eyes gazed out into the rushing wind that had whipped the sand into a tan blur outside the window. She could hardly see to the other side of the street. It was no wonder Superman was out looking after people, that man...

But, there was movement out there. Lois squinted and leaned closer to the window. Someone stumbled and nearly fell, righting themselves by holding on to a pole. They looked like they were in bad shape, Lois moved for the door but remembered the warning to not be seen entering or leaving the safe house.

She scrambled around the back, taking the time to wrap her face against the sand before she darted out. The wind hit her full force but she ducked down and cut through it at an angle rather than head on. "Hey! Hey hang on!"

She hoped her voice had carried through the wind as she neared the western figure. Her hands took hold of shoulders and helped shoulder the man against the wind. "In here!" She ushered them both out of the sand and wind and into a small frontier type store. She hauled the door closed behind them, to secure it from the storm. "Are you ok?" She called over her shoulder fastening the door.

[gotthesescars]

Needless to say, the Joker was surprised when he actually was grabbed, and kept his hand up over his eyes to 'protect from the wind' as he was led into the store. When Lois turns her back, he steps forward, knife sliding out of his sheath. He's sure she sees it as she turns back, and he reaches up with his other hand towards his mask.

"Alright, you could certainly yell, or something, and we'd both be dead. I don't want to die, and I don't particularly want to kill you."

He tugged off the mask, and dropped the hat to the floor.

"So I'm sure that we can both be reasonable, yes?"

[by_lois_lane]

So much for staying out of trouble. Light gleamed off the wickedly sharp looking edge of that knife and caught her eye as he gestured with it.

"Call me Miss Reasonable."

She wasn't exactly without means to defend herself, but at this moment in time her best course of action was to see what the hell he had in his deranged mind.

"You look a little rough, miss you day spa appointment?"

Reasonable didn't mean polite, civil or nonsnarky, did it?

[gotthesescars]

Joker laughed, combing back his unkempt hair with one hand.

"Ohhh, and here I thought I was a kidder. Well, if you must know, this place does tend to... ah... be a little rough on a person."

He sits down, gesturing to another chair, not too far away that Joker couldn't lunge and get to Lois, but not close enough to be that uncomfortable.

"And that's exactly what I wanted to talk about. That... " He leaned back, cracking his neck back and forth, grinning. "Gentleman of yours. They're getting very rare you know."

He raised his eyebrows.

"Do you know what kind of people you're living with? Would you feel safe in a house with me? How about...if I wore a mask?"

[by_lois_lane]

Lois had brass, even in this situation she hadn't cowered. It wasn't in her nature to back down, how would he react to that?

"I'll remember that."

Lois took the chair, dragged it back a couple feet and took a seat, arms folding over her chest.

"There aren't other men like him. And the others.. I don't know them yet. Some of them seem ok."

She cast a glance back at the door, it still shook with the sand storm. Her gaze turned back to him, they might be here a while.

"I wouldn't feel safe with you in a mask, a straight jacket and a concrete cell. Nothing personal, but you're psychotic."

[gotthesescars]

Joker smiled.

"See? Easy. No need for theatrics. We can discuss this like reasonable human beings."

Joker set his hand down on the arm of the chair, still holding the knife loosely, but not threatening with it.

"No offense taken, by the way. I mean, I don't bother to hide what I am. No point.

But...Some of those others..." He sighs.

"I don't feel safe around them. That... Midnighter fellow. Had a week where we had trouble with...inhibitions... and he was killing kids. His special... power, if you can call it that. Little computers in his brain, telling him the best way to kill everybody he looks at." He giggled.

"I mean, even I'm not that dedicated."

[by_lois_lane]

"Always good to be comfortable with what you are."

Humor him, she could keep him talking and maybe she'd find a way out of this. In the meantime she could get some more information about this place.

Her eyes went wide at the mention of Midnighter killing children. Wider still at his special ability... How could anyone cope with constantly analyzing and finding the best way to slaughter other people. But that didn't sit with someone that would be involved with Apollo. The man seemed so nice.. but the other had been crude... what if?

"Are you honestly expecting me to believe that those men are cold blooded killers? You? Of all people?"

[gotthesescars]

"Like you just said. You should always be comfortable with what you are, and... how's that saying go?

Takes one to know one?"

Joker frowns.

"Though, you're right. They certainly do a good job covering it up. I could certainly tell you some of the more gruesome threats leveled at me, I've got those on here." he holds up the 'berry.

"But other than that, it's just a few things. It just- it makes me worry, you know?"

Joker slumps in almost overexaggerated sadness, looking at her plaintively.

"I'm not such a complicated guy, when it comes right down to it. There's little...rules to the game, things that make it fun and satisfying for both sides, and it's like coming here the heroes immediately threw them all to hell! I've seen the way they talk to Superman, trying to convince him they've got it all figured out and that he's a fool for sticking to the old way of thinking. And I'm sure they're not happy you've shown up. Or maybe they are, who knows? Either way, you're not safe. They'll probably... kill you in your sleep, paint a couple smiles on the wall and say I did it to get Superman to go along with things. It's not like they're hard to predict anymore, it's like going up against more of me in tights." He gives her a profoundly bored look.

[by_lois_lane]

"Superman has explained that this place isn't like Metropolis, things work differently here. The experiments and people being drawn from other worlds."

She'd seen other worlds, seen how people can change, but even Superman had been able to break that darkness and become the good man he's meant to be. But if other places are fundamentally different then they might not follow the same laws of character at all.

"I expected.. something different. Threats, attacks. Seeing you like this is almost worse."

She hated the fact that she felt a creepy sort of sympathy for him. She'd already had run ins with some of the so called heroes here, many did indeed express their disappointment or outright dislike of Superman and his methods. If that was how they looked a t a good man, what were they saying to an admitted psychotic?

"Superman would never let them hurt me." Had it come to that? She was less than 24 hours in and dependent on him? More over, if she wasn't safe in a place full of heroes, where the hell could she go?

[gotthesescars]

"Miss, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you're hoping muscleboy can keep you safe from everything just look at the situation you're in right now. Here I'm the guy he knows about, probably the guy he's on watch for, and it took what... A little change of clothes, hell, a superhero and he got fooled by a mask?" Joker waves the bandanna a little.

"He sleeps. I know he sleeps, I've been locked in a room with him tied to a chair facing his bed for a week. No offense meant here but I've probably seen the inside of the guy's bedroom more than you have.

Ahhh, but this...Bucky character. And the kid who moves quick, a couple of the people I don't even recognize from Gotham, it...it gets like a cage filled with animals in here. I mean..."

He fiddles with his 'berry for a minute in one hand, holding up one finger for Lois to wait a second.

"I mean look at this, they even take jobs on each other."

He shows her this: http://a-facility.livejournal.com/3890523.html

[by_lois_lane]

"I'm still not exactly sure what it is you're after. As messed up as you are I have to admit you are brilliant, you always have a reason for anything you do. So you could be casting suspicion on others making them look bad, making me question Superman."

Ok so she's partly on the right track, and she's telling him straight up, that might not be so good of a call. But she sighed.

"The truth is that I don't know word one about this place, and I don't know what you want. But I don't know what anyone here wants. I trust Superman, with my life."

But he could be too trusting of others, too willing to believe that everyone was as good and kind and noble as he was. He was good to a fault...could that fault be her own death? Her brow furrowed with this obvious line of thought, ok so now she was getting concerned. She was known to be someone important to him, which in turn made her a potential weakness, weaknesses are exploitable by anyone. Even Joker. Especially Joker.

Oh, yeah that little remark about the Man of Steel's bedroom, that stung too, and her sour face passed quickly but it did make an appearance.

"Good thing I'm a light sleeper then. If powers go haywire here and people go randomly crazy then I wouldn't be safe no matter who I knew."

Given what he'd said about Midnighter's powers once going crazy* what did that mean for anyone's safety really? But it was the video, that was what made her jump back from her chair, kicking it over in the process. She gasped and her hand covered her mouth as cold blooded murder played out in front of her. It was Bucky, the one who had told her to avoid Joker in the first place. Was this why? Was he afraid Joker would show her something like this?

Worst of all...Superman had to have known! He knew and yet he still trusted the man. Lois felt violently ill, not just at the gore but at the idea that somehow this was made alright with Superman, that her one bright and shining spot of truth, justice and goodness had condoned murder.

The foundations of Lois' world were just shaken.

*(Due to OOC info crossover the reveal of the exact nature of Midnighter's powers are did not happen,it was just stated that they were dangerous enough to make people stay away from him, implied extreme violence)

[gotthesescars]

"You look surprised. This is a place where death is only temporary, where people pop back up like daisies when they go down."

Joker smiled, a little lopsided.

"I kill people. I know what I am, and how that puts me in the perspective of the world. But see, it's not people like me that really do the damage.

It's the people who become like me, and don't realize it. It's the people that decide they're going to wipe someone's mind and put back the parts they like, the people who're going to actually destroy somebody in a place where they can't do that by killing them."

Joker reaches up to pat her on the shoulder comfortingly, but backs off, giving her a little apologetic gesture with his non-knife hand.

"And I know how this looks, ok? Big bad Joker's just out to get something, you know, I am, I'll be honest. But it's not what you think. See, I'm not in this to kill people. I mean, sure, it's part of the game, but that's the thing. I just want to go back to how it used to be, you know, me and Batman. He wouldn't kill me because he was too good to kill me, and I wouldn't kill him because I was just having too much fun. In here, Superman's really all I get for that. I don't wanna see him become like the others, really. Funny as life is, looks like I'm on your side here.

But thing is, muscleboy isn't going to listen to me. Or anyone but....well....maybe..."

He pauses, and points at her, a little questioningly. He's not sure, Lois, could you change Superman's mind?

[by_lois_lane]

They..heroes had taken it upon themselves to essentially lobotomize him? Even if he was a psychotic killer did they have the right? Was this some court? Had he been given anything like a fair trial? Or had they just decided to become vigilantes that measured out justice as they saw fit? The idea was unnerving to say the least.

He was being so reasonable, but that was what they always said about the devil right? Silver tongue and all charm. While she couldn't accuse the Joker of being charming she surely was not dead.

"So you'll let me walk out of here, unharmed. Because you want me to convince Superman that the other heroes are dangerous people? I'm not sure I can, not sure I can believe it. I know what you've shown me and I admit I have my doubts. But I'm not going to say anything I don't feel is right."

But she was questioning things already, he'd planted the seed.

[gotthesescars]

"That was the...well, what I was going to do right now, anyway. I don't do plans." He leans back in his chair, and points at the door.

"It's right there, if you're feeling antsy. I mean, it's not like the storm's going anywhere, I'm actually thinking of sticking around for a little dinner if you want to join me.

If it's a comfort, try not to think about how easy it was for Valerie to supply me with this."

He tilts back his neck, tugging down his suit's unusually high collar.

Underneath is the thin band of metal that all people wear in the facility, though his isn't red...or black... but bears a hint of a distinctive green.

Yeah.

She recognizes that.

"Just one little favor. Val makes people into weapons, it's what she does, it's what this place is for. Maybe it'll be collateral, just a tool for the job, for...well, whatever people like that want, I guess. Freedom to go home? Loved ones dangled in front of their noses like a carrot on a stick?

That's the plan for you, you know. A pretty little carrot for Val and whoever else to use against him. Unless, of course, you were planning on doing something about that."

Joker waves with the fingers of one hand.

"ta."

[by_lois_lane]

"Yeah, hate to wear out the hospitality." Lois backed toward the door, he hadn't made a move yet, but she was definitely passing on the dinner invitation.

She tensed when he pulled at his collar, who knew what he had hidden under there. What she was was the last thing she expected. Lois shook her head, her mind screaming that it couldn't be. Even without Dr. Klein to confirm it she knew that was Kryptonite. Nothing else had that look, that texture, that glow. He had enough in that collar to kill Superman outright.

But, he hadn't. Was that further proof of what he said? Just because the psychotic had not chose to use a weapon yet did that me he might never?

"I won't be used. And I will never let myself be a pawn to hurt him." Ahh the nobility of love, and the stupidity of a strong will.

Lois needed to leave, she needed to be away from him, she needed to think. Forgoing the usual pleasantries she grabbed her scarf and opened the door. If he made no move to stop her she would be out the door in a moment.

[gotthesescars]

Actually, it was only the tiniest bit Kryptonite, just enough to keep Superman from tracking him with his powers, but probably not enough to give him a significant nosebleed. Joker hadn't gone out of his way to test it out. Not that Miss Lane needed to be told that, by any means. Joker grinned at her back as she left, sitting in the gathering dark.

When the door shut, Joker sat there for a moment, one leg folded over another, in the relative silence of the building. There wasn't much light from outdoors, and what little did exist just made the shadows in the room longer, the rattling from outside more eerie, like some beast clawing to get in.

It started out low, as all his favorite laughing fits tended to, just a little chuckle, a titter even, gurgling wet in the back of his throat, but eventually it built itself up until it just wasn't getting out of him fast enough, the relentless cackling pouring out of his mouth and into the repressive, muffled silence of the deserted building. He tipped his head back, not caring about the twinging pops of the stitching in his throat, hardly even minding as his throat grew raw and a small trickle of blood dribbled down the side of his mouth.

Oh, it'd been a long time since it had been like this. Whatever Sasha'd done in there...it certainly hadn't dulled the comedian in him.

This particular laugh went on for nearly three quarters of an hour, before trailing off into a satisfied, hoarse little noise. At that point, Joker licked his lips and set about making dinner for himself, as if nothing had happened at all.

If you'd asked, he might not have even remembered the episode.

Funny old world.