manofmyword | (no subject)

(no subject)

There is a man in the bar, sitting alone at a table for four with the Observation Window directly on his left, close enough to touch. He has an enormous glass jar of jelly beans and he is methodically sorting them by colour into a number of smaller bowls laid out in front of him.

Other things about him that might come off as odd include: the fact that he is wearing a ferociously lilac button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows under a muted green vest; the fact that he is not wearing any shoes, and his socks don't match, one of them yellow with a black pattern of bats and the other black with little yellow smiley faces; and, finally, the scars on his face, extending the sides of his mouth into a permanent crooked smile.

He might welcome company. Or he might not. It's not always easy to tell.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Nnnnow you're speakin' my language," he says, winking again.

Tony wags his eyebrows at him.

He cackles, bouncing delightedly in his seat.

. . . Uuuuh.

That was more enthusiasm than he was expecting.

The Joker is entirely unselfconscious about both his laughter and Tony's reaction. Still giggling, he picks a jelly bean out of the jar—black—and eats it.

"Liquorice!" he proclaims. "Ooh, that's strong."

"Way better than the alternatives."

He giggles again, not so extravagantly.

How about he steals a red one-- actually, no, he can think of a lot of red things he doesn't want to taste.

How about a green one? Green should be pretty innocuous, right? Even if it's vegetables?

Munch munch munch.

"--Waow, that's lime."

His tongue touches his lips. "Really. I want one!"

"Good luck." He taps the bowl and tags a swig of beer to wash the taste out of his mouth.

He picks out another green, maybe a little brighter than Tony's.

"...I have nnno idea what that is," he admits, "but lime it ain't." He licks his lips again. "Good, though."

"Sweet or sour?"

"Sweet," he says. "Very sweet."

"Weird."

How aboooout yel-- no, how about purple.

He crosses his fingers ostentatiously as he pops the bean in his mouth.

Attentively: "Well?"

". . . I got no idea." He spits it into his palm and eyes it. "Kinda fishy."

He makes a beckoning give-it-here gesture with one hand. "Can I see?"

Ew?

"Sure."

The Joker does, indeed, eat the secondhand jelly bean.

"I dunno either," he says, wrinkling his nose thoughtfully.

Tony is already laughing.

"Fuck, man, gross! You don't know where that's been!"

"Sure I do!" he says cheerfully. "I saw it and everything!"

"Well, you don't know where I've been."

He sticks out his tongue.

"Sweetie," he says. "I've got a pretty good guess."

"Pffft."

His tongue flicks out over his lips; he grins.

"Takes one to know one, you know?"