The Joker

[The Joker]

[font=Trebuchet Ms]

[size=medium]Joker's Asylum

Location: Uknown

The Thugs are entering the ready-room aboard The Asylum in a swift pace, all of them with different expressions on their twisted masks. The Joker sits in his large green chair. He seems to be enjoying the interior of his long-expected mobile madhouse.

"My sweet, sweet Thugs. My Thugs. My sweet goons. Oh, I wish there are girl Thuggies among us. That would be so nice. Higher morale and everything."

"This is our first meeting on my The Asylum so... What do you think? I still lack patients but..." - he stops talking for a second, trying to gain momentum in order to gather enough force to try start spinning his heavy laugh-chair. "I can't have 'em before Cryer gets me a very special delivery of medications that I ordered. Junkers did a pretty good job with tech specs on this Slaver but I had to decorate interior myself. Sadly, three decorators died in a process by trying to force their own set of colors. Their corpses are in cell number 11, please dispose of 'em after we're done with our meeting."

"Now, let's get into business, shall we? The most of you are aware of the recent events, activities and whatnot, but let me summarize for those who're new around here, and we have a lot of those, don't we."

"The situation after bombing Corfu and Freeport seems calmed now" - says the clown prince. He is spinning around his chair now whath obviously gives him some kind of childish pleasure. "I think that most of them probably realized by now that I really did 'em a favor. Of course, none of them approved my... method but I can understand that. I'm wondering though... will that Zonie, William Cross, after and if he wakes up out of a coma, go on a rampage against people who let that tragedy happen?"

"You've noticed that we're having more fun in Liberty lately" - and he stops his chair by putting both his hands on a huge table. "Interesting thing to notice is that we better deal against bunch of cappy-boats escorted by bombers/fighters/gbs than against smaller, more agile squadrons of vessels that attack us without any capital ship support. We need to do something about it. I've got an interesting tactic in mind that should minimize our losses against these types of law-fools' attacks, and all you have to do is to stick to what I tell you prior to combat."

"I was surprised that BAF decided to drop in. We never pirated in Bretonia nor did we ever pirate their companies before. That surely changed since they pulled their little stunt on us. I imagine you were surprised as well when they first came to greet us as far in Cortez even, along with Libby idiots who came later in their big cargo-boxes saving the day for the Baffies who were loosing that one. Strange though..." - he glances at a spot on a ceiling which seemed to be missed by one of the workers. "One of these two sides were definitely operating out of their Zone of Influence." The Joker stands up and climbs on a table, inspecting the unpainted spot with obvious annoyance. "How lovely, they broke their own rules only to come honor us with their presence. Oh, I like that a lot."

"Damnit... Do I even have to paint my walls myself nowadays?" - and he jumps off the table. One of the thugs quickly gets up of his chair and tries to wipe off the shoe traces off the table left behind by the painted man. He uses his left arm sleeve.

Mister J starts walking around his seated thugs.
"As I'm sure you also noticed, we've increased our presence in Bretonia since then, engaged BAF few times. I expected more from you, although we were outnumbered. Hell... It seems they fight the different way than those officer-idiots in Liberty. We have to play differently next time against those cunning tea-worshipers. I think I got an idea how. So fun!"

"Outcasts seem to like us less lately. Actually, they seem to less like me, at least some of them. Ah. They really don't understand; they say that we pissed off their allies for what they claim to be as one of the reasons for them trying to claim their Tridentes back. That's silly because I've bought those gunships legally from them. Tricky reasons are hidden behind all of this. You don't have to know about it, it's good enough that I'm aware of it. One of the reasons that I will tell you about lays in our presence in Liberty - that's what's bothering Rogues and Hackers. They think we're there to compete with them which is silly thought as well. I expected to team up with these two factions sometimes in a future considering that we share the same enemy. They don't want that, officials don't want that at least, because we've all seen on more than several occasions how independent Rogues and Hackers eagerly join us in fight against Libby law-fools."

The Joker stops by a huge window, glancing at the glimmering stars through his multi-colored reflection.
"The most interesting development is actually related with Mollies; I've offered them an Alliance. I really can't predict whether they will accept it or not, but it's worth trying. As you've seen, they helped us against Brets in our last joyride in London. It ended up bad for us that time due to capital ship support they had. That will change. I give you my word, but at least we had our first action alongside Mollies. That is a good thing" - he turns back, approaching the table. The thugs were paying attention, not missing a single word. "Irish... I simply adore the way they talk."

"We've gotten a lot of help lately from our new recruits, who already proven to be efficient enough for now, as well from our outside associates. Inferno-Drone and Frosty are to be respected, treat 'em nice as before. Also, let's not forget Shade who is a funny, whispering, quite brutal killer I also adore watching fighting on our side. I still owe him a delivery of several of dozens of people for his experiments."

"We spoke last night about promotions, so let me repeat it; Drunky is my number one from now on in, and Happy will be my number two. As for other spots... I still have to think about who's getting which one. As I've promised - those who show more initiative will be rewarded. Drunky and Happy are not expert tacticians but they're above average. And there's a lot of potential for progress, for them as for others of you as well."

He walks back to his chair and takes a seat.
"Be careful, be aware, my Thuggies. I've heard rumors that some people, who just envy us or who simply don't have any sense of humor, want to set us up. Imagine that. So, open your eyes and don't do anything stupid. No one... No one will stop me from having my fun on this stage called Sirius."

Then the painted man leans toward. For the first time the thugs seem to notice that he was not laughing. Not laughing at all.
"No. One."

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