Again & Again

Red Hood

' "Go." was something they never even said; they just pushed an already unstable, pretty frail, pretty pretty man - not old, by the way, just weak - towards something or somewhere. Memory fails to serve anyone what that man was meant to do other than be a distraction.

What they did say, was probably a warning, something like "Don't fail or else." Funny how that seemed such a scary threat once, but heck, what do I know?

So, black suit on and everything - was there a tie? No, not exactly, it was a bowtie, wasn't it? - that poor, poor man, walked down further into Ace Chemicals. What an innocent man he was, clueless, sort of, really.

So on he goes, shaking in his boots. No idea what was going on in that mind of his even if I try to remember, and believe me, I've tried. A lot.

There was a point when he reached a part where the chemicals burned his nose simply cause of the stench, that ridiculous headgear only making it hard to see, not block out any of that... air.

I don't know if it crossed his mind that the railings were pretty eroded, courtesy of those chemicals, but I know that it must've slipped his mind at some point.

Truth be told I don't really know how it happened, just that it did. The Bat himself showed up, pulling punches and handing out hits. Seeing the infamous Red Hood he goes after that poor man, who tries desperately to explain "I'm a decoy!! Get away, you monster!!" and you see the fear was the problem.

He tried to take off the headgear, backing away from what seemed to be an imminent threat, and whoopsy-daisy, he trips. I think that's when he forgot, because the surprise when he fell, so so fast, was incredibly all-consuming.

Batman reached out to save the innocent man, but he failed.

Down, down, down he fell and with a SPLASH there's burning. Pain. But the face of that Bat seared into his head much more deeply than the chemicals painting his skin and hair, permanently.

I remember staring into a puddle with my new face - well, to me, it's just my face - and laughing. Laughing because it's such a joke. I understood things people would never even begin to believe, know things people call me crazy for.

And that's perfectly fine - it's all how fate has it planned out.

Knowing what I know, there's possibly thousands of other ways this has happened - isn't that funny?? '

Joker rambled to one of those side-characters at Arkham, doctor, psychologist, who cares? They simply wrote something down into their notebook - psychologist then - and sighed. 'No, Joker, it isn't funny.' His grin only widened. 'You just haven't got a sense of humour, doc!'

The psychologist - what was their name again?? - stood up and walked over to the door. 'The session ends here.' Joker shrugged, relaxing on his bed. 'See ya next time.' He trilled.

✦✧✦✧

AN: I don't really know what I was thinking whilst writing this - then again, I never really know what I'm thinking!! Either way, I was listening to that song, 'Again & Again', and, just as I said in the description, spontaneity took over and WHAM here we are. It's short on purpose because, again, I don't know what I'm doing, but hey, I hope you at least found some semblance of enjoyment. Or interest. Or something.