April 27, 2010

If you ever need help here, don't run to the cops. They're just as corrupted and likely to throw you back to the sharks, but only after they've screwed you over. Don't go to friends. In Gotham, there's just no such thing. The guy who saved your life the other day may use you as a human shield tomorrow. It's best to stick it out and deal with it yourself.

Take today for instance. I was on my job, delivering food to what few elderly are still alive, and some guys tries to stick a sharp object up my ribs to take the food. I managed to deliver it anyways, and punched him a few for good measure. I didn't give much thought until some guy from an opposing gang thanked me for pretending to be one of them and beating up the other guy. Turns out, my seven-year-old jacket sports the same colors as the opposing gang. So I bought a new jacket. Black, gold, red. Kinda bold, but I liked it. Today must not have been my day, though, because black and gold with at lest two stripes happens to be the colors for the first gang. Now I'm the target of a full-fledged war, and I still don't have a good jacket.

Go ahead. Laugh. You're not living here. If you were, you'd understand how dangerous this is. I contacted the cop who'd helped me before, and he advised that I cover my tracks. 'Don't let either side know where you live or who you deal with' he said. When I told him I didn't 'deal', he acted surprised, which surprised me. 'Don't worry' he said, 'you will'.

Also found out today that the rumors about the big names here? True. I was two blocks away from the bank when the Joker came out, right after blowing the place up. He was on his bike, and passed by me so close I could have touched him. Not that I would. He's everything people say, and more. That visage is, quite frankly, terrifying. And I've seen quite a few horror movies.

For those of you who haven't heard about this maniac, let me describe him. He's tall, but very thin. He wears a purple pinstripe suit with green trim and a tiny flower on the lapel. His face is frighteningly inhuman. Pale skin so white it must have been chemicals, green hair pulled harshly back, and a very bad makeup job. His eyes are sunken, and there's black painted around them, which, paired with his obnoxiously creepy grin, makes him look quite skeletal. In fact, I didn't even know it was the joker until someone near me shouted out his name. The maniac grinned in the guy's direction, pulled out a gun, and shot him. The laughter that erupted from him sent more ice down my spine than anything else I've ever heard. I've sworn off horror movies, too. Living in Gotham is like living in a horror movie.

Batman exists, too, or so I hear. He didn't come sweeping by to arrest the Joker, though. Quite a few people were upset, and the newspapers were full of critics. Whatever. I'm sure the Batman is quite a busy figure. I won't knock him for not doing one job, if what people say about him is true.