Laughing American comics, I am becoming more and more like a clown

So Lucien didn't question it.

"Do I need to say goodbye?" he said suddenly.

Say goodbye to the Silent Bat.

Then I thought, that indifferent bat probably didn't need to say goodbye either, not to mention...

"He's definitely watching me, with his satellites, surveillance cameras, infrared imaging, telescopes, whatever."

Chapter 227 Arkham Asylum

Someone had sprinkled a circle of salt around this famous insane asylum, a mixture of white and yellow sand. It was probably some kind of ritual, but from a magical perspective, it had no practical use.

Police cars with red and blue flashes and piercing sounds surrounded Arkham Asylum.

Gordon leaned out of the car window, the lens reflecting red and blue light, and shouted to Batman: "We can rush in anytime!"

"Commissioner," Batman said, "they want me."

A riot broke out without warning, the Arkham insane took doctors and nurses hostage, and the Joker called the police station and asked Batman to come to the asylum in person.

Under the clear moonlight, every piece of glass in Arkham Asylum was covered with black cloth, not letting in any light.

The door opened and closed, like a beast swallowing Batman, and this Gothic building with a long history stood here silently.

……

One thing that's often unbelievable about Batman is that he weighs over 200 pounds and yet is as silent as a cat.

Even though he didn't need to hide now, he still kept silent.

The colorful LED light strips hanging on the wall create a festive atmosphere here.

And at the end of the light strip, standing there was the clown.

The character smiled broadly at him, and his left and right hands performed many enthusiastic and welcoming gestures as if they were out of control - including hat-docking, skirt-lifting, hand-kissing, dance invitation... There were many, various, repetitive and even contradictory gestures, and there was no real object.

Watching Batman approaching, the Joker even had a shy look on his face: "Oh... finally here, dear."

The voice was interrupted: "Where's Hannah."

"Here, perhaps? I saw her just now."

In order to force Batman to come alone, the Joker tore up Hannah's paintings over the phone and blinded the eyes of the little girl who loved painting.

Batman, who was eager to confirm her safety, saw the Joker waving at him - Hannah walked out timidly - her eyes were intact.

After all, it was just a voice call, and the Joker could fake it without much effort and make Batman think that Hannah was blind at the right time.

Looking at the silent Batman, the Joker said: "Have you forgotten what day it is today? - Happy April Fools' Day!"

"Where are the rest of the people?" Batman looked behind the Joker - where the light strip continued. The reason he came here was not just Hannah, but also the doctor and nurse who were held hostage.

"Are you worried about them?"

Unexpectedly, the Joker didn't make things difficult nor said anything mysterious. He led Batman forward very easily and sincerely, through the long lighted corridor. Batman could calculate that they had reached the depths of the asylum.

Arriving at the room, we saw the hostages sitting in rows of chairs with peaceful expressions.

"Do you think they were forced?" The clown leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "Most of them volunteered to be hostages here."

Batman: ...

The hostage sitting at the head of the group was Batman's trusted attending physician. He raised his hand and adjusted his glasses: "Batman, good evening."

He was clearing the Joker: "We did this voluntarily."

This wasn't the right time to wonder why they were doing this, but Batman asked it.

But neither the Joker nor the doctor obviously wanted all this to be decrypted and ended so quickly, so: "I'm wondering one thing, Batman, will you try your best to save the life you have already given up?"

Before Batman could answer, the Joker said again, "You will."

Just like the Joker degenerates into a criminal, but Batman always tries to turn the Joker back to a normal person, and like Batman saves the mentally ill - he does not refuse to help some people because they do evil or give up their lives.

The Joker pulls a switch from the doctor's pocket, and underneath the doctor's clothes, there's a bomb wrapped around it.

"So I'm using this willing hostage as a threat, Bats—and I'm inviting you to a big party."

……

There are no colored light strips or incandescent lamps in the corridor, it is pitch black - the light here used to be on 24 hours a day, but now the light bulbs have all been broken one by one, and then there is darkness.

Dark, winding, and deep, like the intestines of this monster.

Batman had expected the End to be a piece of performance art—a killing device or an entertainment attraction.

But at the end was a large curtain, and in front of the curtain were two chairs and a table. A faintly burning white candle on the table was the only source of light.

……

They sat at both ends of the table, and the light from the middle made their shadows wide and long, as if their shadows merged with the darkness - the darkness was their shadows.

The curtain behind the clown was crimson, and faint sounds could be heard from behind the curtain in the silence.

Like rodents chewing meat, or worms gnawing at tree branches.

According to the Joker's original habit, he would probably start with a long speech as a preface, and then after arousing Batman's emotions, he would suddenly lift the curtain and let the show begin.

But now the clown suddenly fell silent.

Batman thought this was the plan, and after waiting for a while and seeing that he still didn't speak, he took the initiative to speak: "What are you going to do."

But unexpectedly, the clown seemed to react suddenly:

"Oh, yes, yes... Bat, what did I call you here for?"

The Joker puts Batman first. He will only procrastinate or forget other things because of Batman. He is fully focused and enjoys every Batman game.

There's no way he'd appear in front of Batman while he was in a trance.

Batman senses something's wrong with the Joker.

The clown's face was sunken in darkness, his hands crossed into fists, and then he supported his chin: "I seem to be here to discuss fate with you."

"It seems to be telling you about personality? Composition? Mixing in some old stories or magical tales, using Cthulhu or ancient American mythology as material to tell you a story?"

"We planned to tell you this."

“We” here refers to patients and caregivers.

But it seems that the Joker has a different opinion... Just like he would backstab others without warning when working with them, he suddenly betrayed his partners.

Fortunately, the Joker at least did not reveal his plan this time. He just did not perform his own part and talked about irrelevant things:

"Remember that flashlight joke I told you?"

There are two lunatics in a mental hospital. They decide to cooperate to escape from the hospital. They support each other and go through many difficulties and reach the last level.

There was a deep ravine. One of the madmen bravely crossed it without hesitation, while the other madman was too timid to move forward.

The madman who had crossed over then came up with an idea. He took out his flashlight, used it to illuminate the ravine, and said, "You can come over here by following the light."

But the madman who stayed behind said, "Do you think I'm crazy? You will definitely turn off the flashlight when I'm halfway there and let me fall."

……

Batman didn't know what the Joker was trying to do by bringing up the past, but he listened.

"You know what the biggest laugh is—you can understand my cowardice, but you mistakenly think that false light can save me. Even if I believe you step on the light, you will fall because the light does not exist."

That's the punchline to the flashlight joke.

"But that's not what I want to say." The clown knuckles tapped the table: "You can understand most people and are willing to save the lives of those who want to die... What I want to say is..."

"The doctor cured Harvey."

He was referring to the man who had volunteered to be held hostage: "He replaced Harvey's coins with dice, and then, after Harvey got used to the two-choice questions, he switched to six-choice questions, and then he replaced the dice with tarot cards. Now Harvey's mind is in chaos, with more than 60 choices competing in his mind. He even has to add going to the bathroom to his choices."

"This also means that sometimes he is lucky enough to get more than ten toilet options a day, and sometimes he can't get one for a long time, so he wears adult diapers."

"--This is indeed a good way to cure Harvey. He will never be able to commit another crime again."

"He'll go crazy with the conflicting choices—yes, the next course of treatment is to have the I Ching replace the Tarot."

The "Book of Changes" is, to some extent, a fortune-telling book. The results shown by different hexagrams vary greatly, far exceeding the number of sixty. By then, Harvey will really become a useless person who can do nothing.

But it has to be said that this is indeed a good way to prevent crime.

A strange smile suddenly appeared on the Joker's face: "Batman, they all said that I can't be cured - but what if there is a way to cure me now?"

"Don't worry about any hidden dangers - I will definitely have more personal will than Harvey does now. I will be a normal person, not a criminal, not crazy, a normal person in the sense that the public knows."

The clown's green eyes reflected the red flames of the burning white candles, and he repeated:

"Now there is a way to cure me, Batman, what do you think?"

……

The mask seemed to be Batman's face. After listening to the Joker's confession, Batman also kept the same expression as the mask.

He didn't answer directly, but just said, "Where's Harvey's coin?"

This is also an answer. He said that even if there is a way to completely cure the Joker, the core is no different from disrupting Harvey's brain and turning him into an incontinent fool. Batman will try his best to save the Joker.

This made the Joker feel regretful and sorry: "Then tell me, what do you think I will look like when I am cured?"

Has Batman ever thought about this?

Probably thought about it.

Just like his origin in the Joker's story - a decadent middle-aged man, with nothing special about him except his misery, the kind that would be lost in a crowd.

So what will the Joker look like after he's cured?

……

Pathologically speaking, the Joker's brain structure was irreversibly damaged. There were problems with both his left and right brain. The chemicals made his neural network a mess. If the same injury happened to someone else, they would either become a fool who couldn't take care of themselves, or become a vegetable, or become brain dead and become a corpse.

But not only did the Joker not die, he also became a highly intelligent criminal. This, in addition to distorting his three views, was a naked gain.

But no matter what, irreversible is irreversible. The Joker's disease is difficult, or even impossible to cure through pharmacology... It is even more difficult to turn the Joker into an ordinary person with a normal mind.

But if there is a little more damage, and his fragile brain nerves are damaged, the Joker may become a harmless fool.

Obviously, this is not the right way to treat the situation. Similarly, Batman cannot remain indifferent when he sees the Joker suddenly become normal.