Hello, readers. For those of you who were expecting a story update, I regret to inform you this is not one - this is a little note to my viewers (whom I appreciate), and would like to speak primarily to the ones leaving negative reviews (and sending negative messages to me) about the main character, Elaine Morgan.

Firstly, I do genuinely appreciate people being passionate enough about this story to take time out of their day to actively express how they're feeling towards characters and events that are taking place. It means I'm getting somewhere as a writer (and have no fear, I have no intentions of going professional - we do not need my lack of writing skills in the publishing world) if I'm able to strike people this way.

Now, let's get to the main point - if anyone is familiar with the Batman comics, the Arkham video games series, the Animated Series, or "The Joker Blogs" (which is partially what this story is based on), you'll know that when the Joker goes to Arkham Asylum he is first treated by Dr. Harleen Quinzel (AKA Harley Quinn, who is easily manipulated, etc - you know the blonde chick who swoons over him and is the ultimate definition of a fan girl?). Assuming you all have that knowledge, you know this main character is like Harley Quinn in that regard.

Let's take the standard psychiatrist (or any sane person in the real world) - they would NEVER fall under any sort of "spell" the Joker casts on them. A person of this rank would not be that psychologically weak to let a murderer who wears clown makeup charm them and use them. Our dear and darling Elaine has to be mentally weak, and needs the little wall she put up in her head that makes her similar to the Joker crack easily, in order to make this story happen (if you read further, there's a point where she makes a comment about needing to play the empathy game in life - this is a play on accomplices like Karla Homolka, who is suspected to have lacked empathy in the rape and murders of young women done by her husband, Paul Bernardo - side note: to any Misha Collins fans reading, watch the movie "Karla" if you have a strong stomach).

Now, I could have bored you with her entire back story that led up to her mental crumbling (maybe mommy left and daddy drank too much, and she was one bad day away from being locked next to Joker in Arkham), but everyone is here for the Joker, and since I stuck this under the "romance" genre, some people are going to look for porn (That's just me? Whups), so let's skip the deep background analyzing and jump in.

I have debated re-writing this strictly through the Joker's point of view (once this story is complete - I am several chapters ahead of what's posted on here, and this story will be finished), and considered asking viewers if they would like to read this (Joker is an easy character for me to slip into - he's quite comfortable, and I mean that in the most non-prison movie type way) - at this point, I highly doubt this will happen, but it's still occasionally a fun idea to toy with.

Anyway - too long, didn't read: a realistic psychiatrist in Elaine's situation would not work, unless you all would like a 50 chapter story with painfully long chapters that would take me months to write in order to make her weakened mind make sense for us all (if this were real life, and let's assume we're not all attracted to the Joker because we have the image of Heath Ledger under that paint because this character is FAR from sexy, unless you're really into murderers/arsonists/hostage-takers, etc, then that's your own business... we'd want this person dead due to his crimes against humanity). In the real world, a doctor would immediately dump him off onto another therapist, or she would keep ignoring any inappropriate comments until she'd dump him off onto another therapist (or he'd just kill her). There's also capital punishment, and it's quite possible that there wouldn't be therapy sessions for the Joker, and instead he'd sit in a cell with the occasional court hearing until he was given lethal injection. Makes for a much less exciting story, I think (lethal injection is always fun, though - would anyone like to see a little of that? I can sneak that in here).

Also, between here and another location where I post this, I've noticed a lot of hate on Derek. That makes me happy because I hate him too. For everyone who's into this story and hates him, you're going to like how I play with him soon.

In the meantime, thank you all for taking time out of your day to read this, and leave your thoughts on this story. I hope you lovely people all have a nice day, and don't hate me too much for the long message to you all. This probably doesn't clear anything up or excuse this character and the way she is, but it gives a reason. I'd give you a story with her background, but let's be real here - we want Joker. Joker is much more fun to play anyway (winkwinknugenudge wtf that makes no sense - excuse me, I'm on new medication so it's messing with me. Wait. I'm always like this).

Personal note to self: I'm going to look back on this in the morning and question my judgment...

- permanentsmile