"Not bad at all... This should get us through the rent for the next 3 months and other necessities..." Luan Loud sighed looking at the income of her clowning entertainment business Funny Business from her laptop in her Metropolitan apartment. She was doing well and could find families and businesses to hire her services but she would be lying if she said this was how she pictured her being a full time clown performer in the big city of Metropolis when they moved there years ago.

Sure she knew that growing up she had to hone her craft and she did feel bummed losing friends when they left Royal Woods; but she hyped herself up by thinking of the possibilities that awaited her there in a big city like Metropolis.

"Cheer up toots; it took Joannie Sassafras time to become the comedy legend that she is! You have to be patient! Plus she went to school for it while you are self taught and going by your own instincts!" Mr Coconuts assured her right next to her at the table.

"I know you're right Mr Coconuts... Not helping how many of my gigs get cut short because of some superhero fight..." Luan sighed as superhero fights were something that you would just have to suck up and get used to in Metropolis; plenty of superheroes and villains in the city. She would be doing a gig and something goes through the wall and she would have to run for her life. "Plus the competition... I can't even call it that as they are not even competing with me..." Luan then said shaking her head thinking of the biggest entertainer in Metropolis: John Zatara who was one of Lincoln's favourite magicians and whose daughter became his best friend here in Metropolis.

Lincoln managed to call in a favour for Luan and have her given a chance be an opening act for one of Zatara's shows and she was thankful; the audience reacted respectably to her act but when Zatara got onto the stage...

Lincoln's admiration of him was well warranted and any hope to compete with him as an entertainer died off; how could she when the man somehow took his head off to juggle and that escapology act that he pulled off... What mirrors and illusions allowed him to pull all those off?

"It could be worse; we could still be stuck in Gotham..." Mr Coconuts told her and Luan glared at the reminder of that place...

She thought with the rich people there; she could try going there and it was the worst mistake she had ever made... The worst 2 weeks in her life.

She found a cheap room to stay in but it was a mess and even Lana would find it hard to live in; plus she found that the clown business wasn't so much dying in the city as... Actually so dead that it's wake had celebrated it's anniversary.

Thanks to some big Joker ruining clowning for all of them; it seemed that no one wanted to hire out a clown to entertain children or at events. They were all terrified of them; the few clowning businesses in the city were struggling hard.

Then she made another mistake in trying to lighten up the mood with her grumpy landlord by pulling some of her classic pranks; it ended up with the GCPD called and she was forcibly taken in on suspicion of working for the Joker since her pranks seemed like his work. The hours interrogated and the police had confiscated ALL of her prank stuff (a good few years worth that she had saved up) and she didn't get it back and was let off with a warning.

She high tailed out of the city as soon as possible seeing it as a lost clause for trying to do her career and that's not even going into how dirty the city looked and how there seemed to be a crime scene or a dead body or a mugging attempt on every street.

It made Metropolis look like Royal Woods!

Luan could only wish that her business would pick up at some point...

First of many possible chapters showing how the older siblings are getting on in Metropolis or new lives in Lori's case. The Gotham part of this was inspired by Batman: the Audio Adventures which pointed out how badly the clown businesses must be doing in Gotham with Blabbo the Birthday Clown. Plus I highly recommend the final episode of Season 1 which in the climax has what I no joke consider to be one of the best confrontations Batman and the Joker ever had in the history of the franchise... Right up there with the ending of the Killing Joke.