Joker

"In my dream, the world had suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shut out the sun, and the darkness was alive with the moans and screams of wounded people. Suddenly, a small light glowed. A candle flickered into life, symbol of hope for millions. A single tiny candle, shining in the ugly dark. I laughed and blew it out." "Every clown loves kids, captain. Just ask Sarah-Essen-Gordon. Oh, that's right, you can't!" "So... I see you received the free ticket I sent you. I'm glad." "I did so want you to be here." "You see it doesn't matter if you catch me and send me back to the asylum... Gordon's been driven mad. I've proved my point. I've demonstrated there's no difference between me and everyone else! All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy." "That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day." "You had a bad day once, am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else would you dress up as a flying rat? You had a bad day, and it drove you as crazy as everybody else... Only you won't admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there's some point to all this struggling!" "God you make me want to puke. I mean, what is it with you? What made you what you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob, maybe? Brother carved up by some mugger? Something like that, I bet. Something like that..." "Something like that happened to me, you know. I... I'm not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha!" "But my point is... My point is, I went crazy. When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot! I admit it! Why can't you?" "I mean, you're not unintelligent! You must see the reality of the situation. Do you know how many times we've come close to world war three over a flock of geese on a computer screen? Do you know what triggered the last world war? An argument over how many telegraph poles Germany owed its war debt creditors! Telegraph poles! Ha ha ha ha HA!" "It's all a joke! Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for... it's all a monstrous, demented gag!" "So why can't you see the funny side?" "Why aren't you laughing?"

Information
Background= ''A skilled chemist and engineer, he quit his job to focus on his dream of being a comedian. Failing this miserably and with a child on the way, he needed to make money. When approached by two criminals to break into his former place of employment, he agreed. He would have backed out when his wife and unborn child were killed, but they forced him to continue forward. Disguised as the Red Hood (a criminal who was pure fiction to cover up the identity of the insiders used by the two criminals), he ended up in a vat of chemicals when Batman thwarted the robbery.''

''His mind already fractured by the stress of recent events and the death of everything he cared about, his mind broke. Even as the chemicals changed his body chemistry and warped his intelligence beyond anything it had been before, so too was it being twisted by his own dark thoughts. When he finally emerged, bleached white.. hair green and lips a flaming red from the chemical burns, the final bit of who he was snapped. Staring into his reflection in the water, seeing the twisted clown staring back, he couldn't help but laugh as it all came together. The whole world was one big joke and he was the punch line.''
 * -|Likes & Dislikes=

Likes
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Dislikes
Dislikes go here. Any other tidbits of random information you may wish to add to your page such as Reputation, Personality, etc.
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The Sheet
Powers= Intellect | Superior | ''Already very smart by nature, exposure to the same chemicals that altered his appearance altered his mind. His intellect expanded into a very unique variety of genius. When he is in the right frame of mind to apply his skills, he does so with amazing prowess. When learning something new, he can go from completely lacking in understanding to mastery in a few short years.''

Agility | Advanced | ''What he lacks in the durability and brute force of his favored foe, he more than makes up for in agility. He is measurably faster and more agile. This allows him to perform extremely death-defying feats without losing his balance or missing his mark. It also adds to his fighting ability greatly when properly applied.''

Healing Factor | Weak | ''So minor it has never been documented as even being there, Joker has a subtle version of healing factor. He doesn't heal any faster than anyone else, but what he does do is heal completely from things that would permanently cripple anyone else. Every bone in his body has been broken more than once, yet he has no real signs that any of them healed wrong and even when his mind has been forcibly reconfigured, it eventually returns to it's original state.''

Chemistry | Exceptional | ''An incredibly skilled chemist, Joker is capable of concocting drugs and toxins undreamed of by others. This is most evidenced by the many variations of Joker Venom that he has managed to create.''
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Genetics |Studied | ''Certainly not the world's best geneticist, he is reasonably good at playing around with genetics when given the chance. Understanding what is going on with genetic codes or devices that manipulate them.''

Engineer | Skilled | ''While he very rarely creates very complicated devices himself, he often modifies the devices of others. This is highly evident when he steals any form of robotics or takes over abandoned amusement parks and the like. He shows a knack for weaponizing just about anything.''

Nuclear Science | Basic | Good enough to poison a city or make a bomb, that is about as far as his skill extends in this area.

Electronics | Skilled | ''Much like Engineering, his ability to fidget with the inner workings just as readily as the outer shells. While engineering skill tends to focus on death traps, he turns his electronics on sabotaging devices, subverting systems and fudging the controls of electronic devices.''

Computers | Skilled | ''Originally very weak in computers, he kidnapped more than one computer genius and has studied what they do. Even before he was capable of handling modern computers, he was already skilled at hacking into all sorts of communications devices. Even into the present, he seems to be able to get control over almost anyone's communication system unless it is military level encrypted. Sometimes even then.''

Sleight of Hand | Exceptional | ''Sleight of hand is nothing special in most cases. He falls into the global magnitude only because of just how very few are able to take it to the extreme that he can. Short of being made of rubber and wormholes, most people can't manage to pull out tricks from thin air as well as this man. Even so, for those who are capable of doing so, he falls a little above average.''

Hand-to-Hand | Exceptional | ''When he actually applies this skill, he has managed to go toe to toe with Batman. What he lacks in strength, he makes up for in dirty tricks and agility. Despite this, when it is time for him to lose, he seems more than willing to throw his own fight.''

Explosives | Skilled | ''A little more skillful in this area than with Nuclear tools, there isn't much to know about explosives that he doesn't already understand. Press the button,? BOOM!!!''

Master of Arms | Exceptional | ''He can be impressively accurate with a broad range of guns and blades. He employs any number of melee devices with effective skill and if you aren't a Superhero or Batman, you aren't probably going to get to avoid one of his aimed shots. With this said, he often comes across as incompetent because of his tendency to fire wild and let the person running decide which bullet hits by which direction they pick to run.''

Jokes | Basic | ''While he can indeed tell a good quip, manage a great one liner or even make a twisted joke that gets someone to smirk, the Joker really isn't that good of a comedian. Between his generally bad sense of humor and his intimidating nature, very few people find any joke he makes all that funny.''

Joker Venom | Galactic | ''The effects of this toxin are nearly identical regardless of form. It's strength, delivery method and the rate at which it takes effect can be highly variable. One variety kills the target, one version causes permanent laughter until a counter toxin can be administered and one more creates a permanent smile to become fixed on the targets expression if not resolved quickly enough. The two most common forms are a breathable gas or a sprayable liquid. Another form is a powder that can be mixed with other substances. Only Joker is known to create and employ this toxin and he alone knows how it is created.''
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Quickshots | Local | Generally thrown weapons, bladed or explosive, though some are acidic. These are the kind of things that do property damage and can harm or kill a normal human easily if they score a direct hit. By and large, once used, they aren't very useful again. Even with bladed cards and the like, he would have to go out of his way to collect them again.''

Lingering Toys | State | These are things like his trademark clattering teeth. The objects are tossed out and remain viable until destroyed or they find a target. Sometimes includes exploding objects or odd messages.''

Heavy Hitters | National | ''Gag Guns that actually shoot after the gag, impossibly large mallets, and his joy buzzer of death all fall into this category. While not particularly complex, they pack a wallop and can severely injure even metahumans when employed properly.''

Robots | Multinational | ''More than once he has taken to using robots, either modified from someone else's design or unique creations of his own. These robots often have multiple functions, noteworthy strength and advanced AI systems.''

Hypertech | Galactic | ''While he very rarely creates his own hypertech, he regularly steals it. Once he has it, unless he finds its function particularly funny, he tends to modify these into strange new devices. The appearance of these devices in his bag of tricks is somewhat rare.''

Mundane Weaponry | Local | ''Explosives, Knives, brass knuckles, crow bars, tommy guns, machine guns and overly long handguns aside, Joker has access to one form of mundane weaponry that remains far less available to the common person. He gets ahold of high grade explosives as easily as one might pour water from the tap. While he has no shortage in the ability to create fancy bombs, he seems to favor more archaic forms of explosive. For situations not requiring a detonator, his item of choice is dynamite.''

Pain Resistance | Racial | ''Several aspects factor into this, the most obvious being the changes in his body thanks to the chemical burns that bleached his skin. Most of his nerve endings are simply non-functional. Those that still function are given a boost to resist pain from the nature of Super Sanity (or madness depending on your perspective) making him have a very different view of things like pain. It is there, but he just doesn't acknowledge it unless it suits his mood and the nature of a conflict.''

Poison Immunity | Years of chemical exposure and abuse, along with his altered biochemistry have led to a general immunity to almost every form of drug or poison. While this means the vast majority of toxins and poisons simply have no effect on him, of course, most of the positive drugs are of no use in helping him.''
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Pain Resistance | ''Several aspects factor into this, the most obvious being the changes in his body thanks to the chemical burns that bleached his skin. Most of his nerve endings are simply non-functional. Those that still function are given a boost to resist pain from the nature of Super Sanity (or madness depending on your perspective) making him have a very different view of things like pain. It is there, but he just doesn't acknowledge it unless it suits his mood and the nature of a conflict.''

Madness Unending | ''It is possible with an effort to change the Joker's mind with magic, science or psychic manipulation. Changing how he thinks isn't the problem. Keeping it that way is. The chaotic mind of Joker refuses to stay sane for long and even the best effort will only last a minute or two at most. More often than not you only get a few seconds of change before the chaos of his mind returns to turmoil. For all intents and purposes, this acts like full immunity on a delay.''

Run of Arkham | ''Not the most meaningful thing, but once he calls a place home, he somehow manages to gain abnormal access to all sorts of means of escape. Candy factories somehow end up having underground passages he finds that can let him get away. Fun houses turn out to be incredibly effective even before he modifies them. And of course, most notable is his presence in Arkham. Unlike other criminals who have to work hard at escapes, Joker seems able to just come and go as he pleases. No one can figure out how he escapes unless he goes out of his way to make a show of it. Sometimes, outsiders end up bringing him out, but sometimes he just seems to slip away. Even within the facility, he has shown an ability to get in and out of his cell without anyone seeing it happen and do things within the facility for his own twisted sense of humor.''

Cheat Death | ''Over and over the Joker has fallen from cliffs, been blown up, been beaten to literal death. Each time he somehow manages to either evade inevitable doom or be brought back from his death. If this is an effect of his seeming knowledge of events he shouldn't know or simply the chaos of luck is unclear.''

Envenomed Blood | ''The same thing that makes him immune to poisons also has led to his blood having a permanent infusion of Joker Venom flowing through it. Blood to blood contact or Joker's blood in something ingested will lead to a non-lethal variety of the Joker Venom effect. While not deadly, it will incapacitate whoever has been exposed until an anti-venom can be administered.''

Atop the Fourth Wall | ''While he doesn't go so far as to utterly break the fourth wall in the way characters like Deadpool do, Joker is fully aware of the fourth wall most of the time in one degree or another. His knowledge goes beyond a single cannon. He can be aware of things from just about any source, even cross-overs or side media. He knows it is all just a show for the entertainment of someone else, but accepts his part in it. Oddly, the only person he ever really tries to bring into this same view is Batman. Even Harley isn't really aware of how he pulls information out of thin air. Batman though, he wants to see the truth. He wants batman's insanity to match his own for just one moment so that the one person who is so close to understanding him can understand him fully. Even then, he isn't willing to just explain it. One must go mad enough (super sanity) to see it on their own or no amount of explanation is going to work. This said, he is not above talking directly to his audience or referencing things that he should have zero knowledge of.''

The Right Tool | ''An outcropping of his breaching the fourth wall, Joker seems to always have things set up just right in advance of a situation. Running away, seemingly at random, his timing can be incredibly perfected. Worse, he can land just right in the only safe spot and somehow already have a rope waiting for when he needs to swing away. Some unexpected element appears and there is a chance that he already happened to have just the right weapon sitting on hand for the situation. This is not every time though, since it is often an extension of the story. If plot dictates he gets away, he happens to have just the right things. If instead he is at the end of the 'story' he tends to only have what it takes to extend the fight in a climactic manner before going down.''

Fearless | ''Joker has an absolute disregard for his own well being. If he lives or dies doesn't matter to him any more than the life or death of anyone else. It makes him both effective and ineffective at the same time.''

Obsession | ''He refuses to actually kill Batman or even allow others to do so. So much of who he is is caught up in batman's existence that in the absence of batman he gets listless and just acts like a normal person to escape from his depression. Even when faced with nearly infinite power, he could not bring himself to completely destroy his foe.''
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Super Sanity | ''For all intents and purposes, this is insanity. Genius of the sort Joker possesses is so divergent that he breaks the fourth wall. He sees things not in terms of good or bad, but in terms of story. Cause and effect without judgment. A man shoots another man in the head while trying to rob him. We would see a killer and their victim. Joker sees a man pulling a trigger and a bullet going through the head of the other who fails to evade. Both are guilty, both are innocent. Events played out the way events were going to play out because that is how it had to be. The 'victim' was guilty of doing things that led them to that point. The 'killer' was drawn into this point in life by events they don't really have control over. Free will is an illusion and everything that happens is done for the sake of interesting story on behalf of some other world. It doesn't matter, it isn't real and even if it was, free will is an illusion anyway. One can regret killing someone, but there is very little real regret in erasing something from a piece of paper or deleting a bit of text on a screen.''

Fearless | ''Joker has an absolute disregard for his own well being. If he lives or dies doesn't matter to him any more than the life or death of anyone else. It makes him both effective and ineffective at the same time.''

One Man Show | ''He is utterly unwilling to share the stage with others. Most aren't foolish enough to try. His sense of humor sometimes fades when others try to be the jester around him. It has gone so far that he has very nearly killed his girlfriend Harley when she dared to try take the initiative on a 'gag'. While it does make him more dangerous, it also makes him sloppy.''

Relationships
Personal= Batman | Frienemy | ''"You can't kill me without becoming like me. I can't kill you without losing the only human being who can keep up with me. Isn't it ironic?!" ….. "I could never kill you. Where would the act be without my straight man?"…."They could put me in a helicopter and fly me up into the air and line up the bodies head to toe on the ground in delightful geometric patterns like an endless June Taylor dancers routine — and it would never be enough. No, I don’t keep count. But you do. And I love you for it."''

Harley Quinn | Girlfriend | ''There is no clear way to know if the joker really does care about her or not. If anyone could be called family to him, it is her, but at the same time he is fairly abusive. More than once he has shown a complete disregard for her safety and well-being and has put her at greater risk of death than anyone else around her. Perhaps it is just a matter of who he is at any given moment that determines if he cares or if it is a show.''

Bub & Lou | Pets | A pair of heavy-bodied hyenas dosed with a very special joker venom to create a broader grin than is natural on such an animal.
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The World | Target | Who knows, maybe you're next!
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Media
Music= Joker's Song by Miracle of Sound Circus Apocalypse by Vermillion Lies Greatest Show Unearthed by Creature Feature That Boy Needs Therapy by Avalanches
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Logs
First Player= Log | Summary

Log | Summary