114. A Miserable Life, A Tragic Death & The Birth Of A Monster.

Disclaimer: The story takes place on an Alternate Earth with a slightly different timeline of events. Therefore, people may be born earlier, later, or not at all. This gives me more freedom to write about the characters as I want.

Additionally, the characters in my story are not accurate portrayals of their real-life counterparts. Please remember that this story is just a wish fulfillment tale set in Urban Hollywood with some fantasy elements due to the system's shenanigans, so please don't take it too seriously.

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Opening Author's Note: I am really happy to upload this chapter guys, as with this chapter we are officially once again 3 chapters ahead of the public release of this book.

At this pace, soon tier one (Ramen Lover) will be completed, but I've decided when this will happen. I will start posting 5 and 6 chapters ahead of the public release. I still wouldn't be making the second year until I had accumulated enough chapters to complete it fully.

This is because I gave you guys only two chapters when I created this Patreon page, and you guys still subscribed even though you were getting fewer chapters. So I think giving you guys more now is the right thing to do.

Now, in this chapter, I will be jumping POV's between the audiences to give different kinds of reactions from different people but unlike what I did in Chapter 112 I'll be maintaining continuity so the plot of The Killing Joke will have a start, mid and end.

In the last chapter 113 we saw Mark give the perfect introduction to the Joker which he took out of the book of Christopher Nolan himself. Except for making the scene more bloody and gruesome, he didn't really make much changes.

And chapter will pick up right where that one left off, and it will show an original story arc that I wrote myself in an attempt to mesh together The Dark Knight and The Joker. Two of my favourite movies. Anyways let's begin with the chapter.

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Quote of the chapter.

"My mother always tells me, to smile and put on a happy face."

"She told me I had a purpose. To bring laughter and joy to the world."

"I used to think that.. my life was a tragedy. Now I realize.. it's a comedy."

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After the title scrawl went away, the screen was shrouded in darkness once again. Before they are able to see anything, they hear something first; it sounds like a bell, or maybe it was a doorbell.

But it sounded muffled, so they couldn't make out properly what it exactly was; thankfully, though, slowly it cleared out. And finally, they are able to make out the sound of a buzzer.

The screen was lit up again from the projector's light, and they saw a police precinct. Grace just nodded her head, as it is normal to see a police station after a crime has happened.

But it was the next sound she heard that both confused and intrigued her.

"Daddy!" A young girl, probably in her preteens, squealed in excitement as she ran up to the father's desk in the police station.

"Detective Gordon. Your daughter's here." A police lady announced, with a kind smile, as she dropped off the little ball of sunshine and made her way to the dreary crime scene.

"Thank you, Amanda." He called out to her.

She just waved it off, as she was already late.

"Did you say thank you to her for picking you up?" Detective Gordon asked his daughter as he broke off the hug.

"Of course, dad. What do you think I am? Six?" She asked with an impish grin.

"No, of course not. My little princess is twelve years old. I remember it." He replied playfully. Grace could tell that Mark was using this young girl and her dad to create a contrast with the darkness of the Joker.

"Are you still looking into the Joker?" She said, as her eyes fell on the scattered newspaper clippings and evidence files.

"Yeah.." He replied sullenly, his eyes lowering in shame as his mood immediately dropped.

"Dad, you never tell me about him.. no matter how much I ask and whenever anyone even brings him up in front of you."

She leaned forward and whispered so that nobody could hear her, "You always have this guilty look on your face.. this thing's eating you from the inside."

"You really need to tell some about this, talk it out, talk about what happened.." This time she looked upset that she couldn't help her papa.

"If not to me.. then maybe a therapist." She said at the end with a few tears in her eyes, sad that her father felt she wasn't mature enough to handle hearing about the Joker's story even after what they had gone through together when her mother died.

She wiped away her unshed tears and tried to put on a smile for her dad as she said, "Anyway, let's go, dad."

"We need to be at Bruce's cabin by 6 p.m., and it's 1; did you have lunch yet, dad?"

He shook his head; she sighed and said, "I knew it, so I've already packed some lunch for you to have on the way."

"But we need to leave now if we want to reach the cabin before it's completely dark outside."

"Okay, okay, I am coming." He said with a proud smile, seeing her take charge and be confident.

He turned back towards the files one last time, and his look of reluctance slowly turned into a look of determination.

The audience understood, with that look of Detective Gordon's, that maybe he was finally ready to share the story of the Joker with his daughter.

Turning back towards his daughter, he replied with a smile, "Let's go."

Then, in a few quick cuts, they see how the detective and his daughter boarded their car and made their way towards the outskirts of the city.

Brooke rolled down the window of the car and drew in a deep breath. She smiled as she turned towards her dad and said, "See how wonderful this is.. Dad."

"We should do this more often; it's not like if you take a few days off, the city will set itself on fire." She said in a sassy voice.

"Yep, she definitely jinxed it." Rian muttered to himself as he winced when he heard Brooke's line. Now he was sure things were going to go to shit.

Meanwhile, Gong didn't really understand, so she asked Rian what it meant, and he explained in simple terms that it was a blind belief that people had and needed to be followed, especially in movies.

"Brooke, do you really want to know about the Joker?"

She sat up straight in her seat, as she knew her dad was serious whenever he used her name to call her.

"Yes, dad. I think sharing this man's story with someone else will really help you, and I'm curious to know his story."

"Then it isn't just his story; you must know," her dad replied solemnly, understanding that it was time to come clean.

"You remember about your OCD?"

"Yeah, the doc said that it is a mental disorder and that I will have to learn to live with these urges." She said, remembering the time the doctor had diagnosed her condition.

Gordon just nodded and decided to tell it to her straight, like ripping off a band-aid.

"Just like you, the Joker also suffers from a mental disorder.. his is called multiple personality disorder."

And they watched as the detective began to explain how the Joker was basically a persona borne out of the excessive mental trauma that Arthur went through.

"The story of the Joker is actually the story of the miserable life Arthur Fleck lived, how he tragically died after being betrayed, and from that event a monster was born.."

"A monster who called himself the Joker." The detective said his eyes were on the road, though they had a forlorn look on his face.

And the screen went black again a few brief seconds. The audience took this moment to breathe. The first scene that established the Joker was over 4 minutes long, and they had watched it with bated breaths. It was a cinematic masterpiece.

The second was much simpler, grounded and pure: a youthful girl meeting her dad for a trip. The detective whose involvement with the Joker still remained yet to be revealed, and lastly, the reveal that the Joker wasn't just a criminal mastermind but a mentally ill person.

That he had been this person named Arthur Fleck, they eagerly waited once again with bated breaths for the story to begin. These scenes felt like they were short chapters in a story they were reading.

The few seconds of darkness after each chapter gave them a proper moment to digest what they had just seen, and prepare themselves for what was to come next. It was a style of editing that definitely wouldn't work in the modern day, but it did perfectly here and now. 

Mark was trying to make history with his film.

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.

The screen didn't light up immediately, just like the last time they first heard the new environment they were in before they saw it. 

It sounded like a man's voice playing over the radio as it narrated the constantly worsening situation in the city. 

'Wait, isn't that Marc's voice?' Some people in the audience thought to themselves, though a few amongst them like our fanboy Rian, knew for certainty that it was in fact Marc Spector. 

The radio host narrating the events in the city on the radio in the background had actually been him. It was his way of making an unseen cameo in his films; in Knives Out, he had been a BG character who had his back to the camera the whole time.

After a few seconds, the screen lit up, and it showed a dimly lit room. The focus was definitely on the man who was sitting in front of the vanity mirror, but the camera was too far away. 

Though it was slowly closing in, as Marc's voice droned on in the background, A woman went past it and sat down near a small sink to begin washing off her make-up. 

Though the attention of the audience was gripped by the man who was applying face paint to himself, and they got a close-up of him applying the red to his lips, and then he switched brushes to apply some blue for his eyes. A side-angle shot of his face is all they see; it perfectly captures his frown.

The sense of sadness and misery just oozes from every shot of the scene, and the man suddenly stopped for a moment and looked himself in the mirror. He tried to smile, but all he was able to do was a half-smile that faded away in his sadness. 

As the heads of the various cinema chains in America watched the scene play out in front of them, they got goosebumps. 

The attention to detail that the various critics noticed was that whenever the man pulled his lips into a smile, the sound of police sirens, honking cars, and people shouting would start to get louder, and the background color seemed to pop more. 

But the moment he let go, and his face settled back into a frown, the sounds would fade away, and the colors would lose their vibrancy.

It was a very subtle change, but noticing these subtle changes was the bread and butter of these critics. Decoding and understanding the hidden meaning behind these subtle details that the director is trying to communicate to his audiences is their job.

And some of them did it quite seriously, like Hadrian Black, who was constantly scribbling notes whenever he spotted any such great details that he felt like deserved a mention. 

Though even while his fingers were neatly making notes on the notepad below, his eyes were stuck on the big screen.

After he snaps his lips back, the short make-up scene ends with a single drop of tears rolling down the man's right eye.

The screen fades to black, but for a second or two, as they hear the sounds of the crowded streets of a city, the accent of the people allows some people in the crowd to make out that they were in New York or some adjacent state.

But Marc had already shown that the story was taking place in the fictional city of Stygian Springs, though it might be modeled after New York. It was the most crime-laden city in the US in the past decade.

They saw him once again as he walked out of a shop with a signboard in hand, with Gordon's voice narrating the events transpiring on screen. 

The way Arthur spun the signboard so skillfully that it showed the hours he must have put into it to make it look that effortless. After all, he was supposed to be a professional who had been doing this for years.

But then some teenagers came along. They knocked him down, stole his board, and made him chase after them for a few blocks. There was a chase scene in which Arthur almost got hit by a car, and the crazy thing was that this entire chase scene was done by River. 

When Keanu saw him nearly get hit by the car on screen, he winced, and he couldn't help but turn and ask his friend the question that came to his mind.

"River, that was all you, wasn't it?"

"Yup." came the reply, as the man of hour just lounged back and relaxed in peace. 

"How many times did you have to get hit by the car?" Keanu asked dreadfully, hoping for a smaller number.

"One." River was writing down a few things that he thought he could have done better or could be better. It was a pastime of his to review and criticize his own films.

He must've looked confused because River answered the question that was brewing in the back of his mind.

"Mark was satisfied with the first take and said that it isn't worth me to risk breaking a few bones just to get a better shot."

"He was right. Just look at the scene; it perfectly captures your panic, and the awkward fumble you did there where you staggered only made the scene look even more authentic." Johnny chimed as he sipped iced lemon tea spiked with a splash of vodka and some light rum.

"Hmm, that's true."

The duo of friends then winced as they saw his friend get beat up by a bunch of teenagers. Unlike the original Joker movie, Mark took the beating a bit further, with Arthur actually breaking a rib and coughing up blood because of his injuries.

But what came after that seemed like life just taking a piss on him. Gordon narrated how Arthur's mother who was suffering from a mental illness as well got taken out of the benefits program of the White Lotus Foundation.

Though Arthur didn't give up, he brought her back home, took care of her himself. Making sure that she ate, bathed her, dressed her, got her medicines from the ever shrinking savings.

But he didn't lose hope, he kept trying to be selected for a gig, worked two shifts so he could barely afford his mother's medical bills. Even gave up on buying his own, just so that his mother could have hers.

But not everything was bad in his life, he made a friend, a lady friend from next door. She was kind and didn't mind listening to his woes as he practiced the piano in his apartment. 

Maybe things were looking up for him, but it was then that tragedy struck for Arthur once again. His mother's condition had worsened, he needed to get admitted to an ICU, but he didn't have the money. So he sold his most prized possession, his piano.

Even after doing so, he could barely afford to pay for her bed in the ICU for a week. Upon routine check-ups, the doctors found a tumor that needed to be operated on; it had to be quick, or his mother wouldn't make it.

Arthur immediately went around asking for money from anyone who knew, but unfortunately, he was running out of luck. As he was about to give up hope, a man contacted him about a job; he had heard of Arthur from a few loan sharks.

He was preparing to rob a chemical plant. Arthur might be a clown by profession, but by education, he had a bachelor of science degree in chemistry. After seeing the list of chemicals they would be stealing, he understood what their motive was for robbing the place.

But it wasn't the time to let his ideals come in the way of saving his mother.. so he did it. He decided to help them rob the place. Though it seemed like Marc had other plans, as before he could give his reply to the man, the screen went dark again. It looked like the end of another "chapter."

After a few seconds, they heard sounds of heavy impacts, of fists hitting flesh, and of a man shouting and grunting in pain. This time the camera's perspective was quite unique; the screen lit up as a hood was lifted from their eyes, and they could finally see.

The picture was blurry at first but it slowly came into focus as the eyes of the captive got used to the lights. They saw the Joker sitting in front of them shuffling a deck of cards, and standing beside him was a tall hulking brute.

And with the way his knuckles were bloodied, they could tell that he was the man who must've been punching the captive whose eye they were now viewing the movie from. The perspective shifted again, this time from behind the Joker's shoulder.

"To think he would think of such an ingenious way of using the combination of forced perspective and camera blur to imitate the human eye." Mr. Spielberg muttered under his breath as he watched the film with rapt attention.

"Well, you did say he was gonna put on a Masterclass in film direction with this one. If Knives Out was a clean, bright, technically perfect film," George replied as he sat back on his reclined seat, thoroughly enjoying the movie, with a bucket of buttered popcorn in his lap.

"Then the killing joke just might be its antithesis, a character study made with a raw and real feel to it."

"If he keeps this pacing and gives a satisfying ending to the film, then an Oscar nomination is a done deal." Martin Scorsese chimed in as well. Marc had sat the directors in a closed-off area with their loved ones or families.

"Just his second year in show business and he's already on his way to a second Oscar nomination." Mr. Coppola spoke with a tone of marvel.

"What do you guys think about his chances of winning?" Robert Redford finally spoke up, with a sly smirk as he asked the question that maybe they were avoiding. He wanted to see if they would address the Oscar judge's prejudice towards the younger generation.

"From what I've seen so far, I only have praise for the young man's movie. I'll let you know after the end of the movie if I think it is a shoe-in for the Oscar."

"Nice dodge." Robert muttered while pretending to cough, but he wasn't done yet.

He really liked messing with these cowards, who had already thrown their towel against the Big Six.. or rather the soon-to-be Big Five Studios, with Warner slowly selling off more of its assets to keep itself afloat.

Meanwhile, a good chunk of the shareholders were dumping their shares and cashing out. It truly was a dumpster fire, and he was having the time of his life, roasting his proverbial marshmallows in the fire as he watched them burn.

"What do you think about Knives Out's chance of winning an Oscar this year?" Robert asked again.

"It's still too early; him still being just 20 years old isn't doing him any favors." Martin finally replied after a brief silence.

Then, as if the floodgates had opened, the others added their own two cents as well.

"Don't forget, Knives Out is a comedy movie, and while, I have nothing against comedy movies. But I think we all agree that they are sidelined when it comes to the oscars."

"Thankfully, for the judges, there is a movie on the nominations list that is objectively better than Knives Out and another that is just as good."

"You mean [Silence of The Lamb] and [Dances with Wolves]?"

"Yup, and I am willing to bet you money, Bob, that most of the academy judges will vote on these two films."

"I find myself torn between deciding whether to vote for Silence of the Lambs or Dances with Wolves for the movie of the year."

They all nodded their heads at that statement

"If he's lucky, Marc might win one or two of the technical and less prestigious categories. But I think that will be his limit for this year."

"Hmm, I agree as well."

With that, the discussion ended, as silence prevailed once again, even while they were discussing Marc's prospects and the current Oscars. None of them took their eyes off the big screen, spellbound to see the Joker waterboarding and electrocuting the captive.

The brute kept beating him with his fists until they heard the ribs crack and saw his nose get smashed in, and this was all filmed between long takes. There were hardly any takes to cut out the actual hit, so they were left puzzled as to how Marc achieved this level of realism.

The way the captive screamed and cursed like a sailor made them laugh, at least until the Joker turned around and went batshit crazy on him. It was surreal to see him go from a calm criminal mastermind to just absolute insanity at the flip of a switch.

But River pulled it off effortlessly; they got goosebumps when they saw his outburst against the captive. And the dialogue he delivered as he left the captives' way of dying to be decided by his henchman was bone-chilling.

The screen went black as they heard Gordon's voice narrating the past events again. The next scene showed him narrating how brilliant Arthur truly was when he put his mind to something.

The screen came to life as a new chapter began, this one showing Arthur improving the original plan of the heist so that they wouldn't need to put anyone at risk. Though it was also the thing that ultimately became his undoing,

The very man who had recruited him into this operation decided to take him out in a fit of jealousy and insecurity. As they were making their escape through the facility, they were running through walkways.

Arthur was pushed into a huge vat of toxic waste by him in the struggle of his fall. He somehow managed to unmask the criminal, and the Audi gasped to see it was the same captive Joker had been torturing.

The puzzle pieces finally clicked inside their minds; this was the reason why the Joker thanked him while he was torturing the man. It seemed odd at the time, but now it makes perfect sense.

After all, the Joker would definitely thank the man who was the reason behind his creation.

They watched Arthur fall into the vat; the liquid was so viscose that he knew he wouldn't be able to swim out of it. So before he hit the surface of the liquid, he drew in a deep breath, but it made no difference as he fell onto his back.

The force of the fall knocked the air out of his lungs, and the blunt force trauma to his head knocked him out. His eyes were still open, but they were glazed over as he just slowly sank to the bottom of the vat. An outlet valve opened up, and he was thrown into the river with the other waste.

The view of his back as he just sank into the bottom of the sea, with the moonlight shining from above, was just gorgeous. The angle changed to the close-up of his face as Arthur, for the first and last time in the movie, genuinely smiled.

He was happy that his suffering was finally coming to an end.

As he was sinking deeper, slowly, they could see the darkness creep in from the edges of the screen. It was a beautiful effect, though mixed in with the darkness of the black was an inky green, but they didn't give it much thought, chalking it up to artistic choice.

The screen once again went dark, as all they heard was the sounds of water and the slowly dying heart of one Arthur Fleck. At the 13th second, they heard his heart stop. It was surreal to see the death of the main character in a movie.

Especially in a movie that is so grounded in reality, usually this is the moment in the movie where the audience prays and hopes for the main character to stand back up again, to defy fate and death.

But almost all the people in the audience wanted Arthur to die peacefully. They had seen the kindness of the man and the sacrifices he made for his mother. It touched them; they didn't want to see such a good man become the monster they had seen at the start of the film.

Cold. Callous. Calculating. Indifferent.

But their prayers went unanswered as the heart that had stopped beating started again right at 9th second. They heard the frantic sounds of someone wading through, the screen lit back up right as Arthur broke through the water.

Only it wasn't Arthur, at least not completely. His haggard breaths as he breathed in the sweet oxygen, hearing him gave many of the people in the audience goosebumps as he suddenly broke down, laughing as he laid on his back.

They still held on hope that maybe this was still Arthur as Gordon didn't give any confirmation so the crowd were left guessing whether what crawled out from the river was Arthur or the Joker.

Arthur went back home after catching his breath, he took a shower and seemed very happy despite having a near death encounter and losing the opportunity to earn the money for his mother's operation. After the bath he redid his face paint as he practiced faces in front of the mirror.

But this time instead of practicing to put on a fake smile he was practicing to put on a fake one. He practiced his lines of giving his mother the unfortunate news of him not being able to get the money for her operation. But every time he would burst out laughing mid speech.

So, he gave up trying and made his way to the hospital. As Gordon was narrating the scene comes back to the present day, they see that they are almost at their destination and can make out a big log cabin from afar that even had a chimney.

"What do you think Bruce would be doing, dad?" Brooke asked, trying to get a small break from the story, as it was getting a bit too dark for her taste.

She knew she would have to soldier on, but a little break now and then didn't hurt; no one.

"Most likely hammering away at a piece of metal." Her dad replied with a fond smile on his face as he remembered the face of his younger brother-like figure that he had taken into his life.

"Yeah, that sounds like him," she chuckled as the shot cut off and then they were inside of a wooden forge.

They saw the wide back of a man, hammering away at something; his muscles rippled at each strike of his hammer. The women in the audience swoon at his physique, though unfortunately, only his back is shown.

But from the steady deafening blows of his hammer, they could infer that this was a man of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will.

A bell was heard as the man faltered for a split second, but then continued with the strike. After which, he puts his hammer aside and lifts the thing he had been hammering all along.

It was revealed to be a metal bar, slowly taking the shape of the sword.

The man sighed and gently lowered the half-finished blade into a large drum of water. It immediately bubbled and steamed as the angle changed, and they thought they might finally get to see his face.

But between the steam and shadow, only his piercing blue eyes can be made out before the perspective again goes back to the past, with Gordon narrating how when Arthur visited his mother at the hospital, he found that his mother had been cleared for surgery.

"But how did that happen dad? Didn't he have any money for the surgery?" Brooked asked, confused at this new development.

"He didn't.. it was the [White Lotus Foundation]. They had expanded their network of hospitals that they covered and the one where Arthur's mother was added into the list as well."

"And thankfully because of a kind doctor her case was fast tracked due its urgency so she was going to be able to get her much needed operation for free."

"That's great, dad." She cheered in happiness at the seemingly happy ending Arthur was getting. Though it also made her feel skeptical as he was supposed to have led a miserable life, one that would eventually lead to his tragic death.

"Wow, these White Lotus guys must be angels' dad, now Arthur's mother will be saved."

Gordon almost didn't have the stomach to tell his daughter the truth so he decides to soften the blow he tells her the Joker's version of the events. He tells how when Arthur visited his mother later the same day she was found dead.

As Gordon was explaining the details of the event from the Joker's perspective, they had reached their destination. He got out and rang the bell as the duo of father and daughter waited outside patiently.

Meanwhile back in Stygian, Joker had led another robbery this time targeting one of the biggest jewelry store in the city. His men had already tipped off the police of this operation so they were busted but the Joker didn't want make it obvious that he wanted to get captured.

So, Joker had some of his men led by punchline get away with most of the loot while he got caught and put in jail. His real target was finding the mob's accountant who had also been arrested and was squeezing the hell out of to get him to talk.

Joker knew that the banks weren't the place where the actual money was kept, he wanted to cripple his competition. To do that he teamed with the Japanese Yakuza who wanted to build a base of power in Stygian Springs.

So, they gave the Joker the resources to cause as much damage to the existing mob in the city. But before that he would have to prove himself that he was capable of pulling off such a thing.

The bank heist at the beginning of the movie was exactly that, he had used unknown people and double crossed them so that he could be the sole owner of the loot. It was also a subtle warning to the yakuza that if they were to not keep up their end of the bargain he would double cross them as well.

As Joker found the guy he had been looking for, he sent a signal to one of the guards stationed outside his cell. The guard smiled for a brief second, but then he put on a poker face as he turned and told his colleague that he'll be back in a few minutes.

He rushed into the bathroom, he went to the stall at the very end and took out a small bag. It was opened to reveal bars wrapped together. It read: Plastic Explosive. Joker really wanted to get out with a bang! It seemed.

The man activated the bomb and put it on the toy car in the ventilation shaft and used the remote control to drive it forward. While this was happening to distract the police and thin their numbers, the joker's men and the yakuza had set fire to multiple buildings around the city.

Funnily enough one the Joker's men who was an expert arsonist and was prominently shown setting the buildings ablaze; and he looked just like Michael Eisner. He had been made to look even more like the tyrant through the help of a wig that was his exact hairstyle with the same receding hairline.

The only thing that was different between him and the arsonist was that the criminal was a little bit on the shorter side compared to him. But he still couldn't help but grit his teeth and grind them as he cursed Mark from the bottom of his heart.

Back with the movie, the Joker calmly stood up and went to the very edge of his cell as he just stared down the clock waiting for the moment of action. In a few seconds the wall behind him blew up in a shower of debri.

He immediately ran into the smoke cloud, while the officer behind him demanded that he stay put. The Joker muttered under his breath, "and why the f*** would I do that? Sometimes I think they are the ones who are crazy."

Just behind his cell was the cell that was adjacent to the accountant that he had been looking for. In the cell behind him Punchline was already in place and he got them out of their cell and together they kidnapped the accountant - Lau.

With the help of the insider that was a plant at the police station, all three of them changed into police attire and easily made their escape, amidst the chaos of the explosion and the multiple cases of fire going throughout the city.

After few hours of creative torture the accountant finally begin to sing, he gave up location of the illegal staches of money of the mob to the Joker. With his goons and the Yakuza teaming up, they were able to hit multiple locations at once and catch the mob off guard.

And before the mob that had ruled over Stygian Springs for decades with a bloody iron fist even knew what was happening their money was already gone. The scene changed as they saw Shigaraki, the second in command of the Yakuza walk into a building.

Both his and the Joker's men were posted on every door and staircase, and as he made his way into the room on the top floor.

The crowd couldn't help but gasp as they saw a huge pyramid of just 100 dollar bills stacked on top of each other, with the Joker standing on top with Lau the accountant beside him tied up in ropes.

It looked over 3 meters tall (10.9 feet) as many people in the crowd had just one thought in mind.

'How much is that?'

But before they could ponder further, the scene continued as Shigaraki, the yakuza head bosses' most trusted right hand man entered the room.

"Not as crazy as you look." He said, stepping out of your shadows, as he congratulated Joker on his successful heist.

"I told you I am a man of my word." Joker replied from the top of the pile, giving him a performative bow."

"That you are, my boss is very impressed." The Yakuza replied with the smile.

Joker slid down the pile of money like he was a cartoon character, and as he reached the bottom.

He bowed with a flourish imitating a stage magician and asked, "where is he? I had such a great show planned for him."

"He is busy with something else, so he sent me."

"I see, well it looks like you'll have to do."

"Mr. Joker, what do you plan on doing with all this money?"

Joker, who was throwing the stacks of money at Lau to annoy him, stopped, he turned around and straightened up.

He took a step towards Shigaraki and said, "You see.. I am a man of simple tastes."

"I enjoy dynamite and gunpowder and gasoline." He said signaling his men, the moment they heard gasoline they immediately stepped towards the pile and started pouring gasoline all over it.

"What the fu—" Shigaraki exclaimed and stepped forward but he had to back off as Joker immediately pulled the gun on him.

"Uh tut–tut." He gestured for him to step back.

"You know the thing that they have in common?" He asked, stepping towards him, and for the first time there was a genuine look of fear in Shigaraki's eyes.

He shook his head.

"They are all cheap."

"You said you were a man of your word." Shigaraki said, angered that the Joker was betraying them.

"Oh I am," he said stepping back as he took out a lighter. It was the very one he used when he used to be Arthur, but it was time to let go.

"I am only burning my half." He said nonchalantly as he threw the lighter and started burning the money, Lau's muffled screams can be heard by the audiences in the background.

"All you care about is money.. this city deserves a better class of criminal." The Joker stepping up to Shigaraki and getting in his face.

"And I'm gonna give it to em." He grinned from ear to ear said he delivered his final line and gestured for his men to drag Shigaraki away.

When Shigaraki struggled and his men looked like they were going to intervene Joker's men gunned them down. As they were about to kill Shigaraki as well, the Joker stopped them.

"I need him alive, if he dies then none of this will have any meaning."

"After all it's not about the money it's about sending a message."

..

~ A few moments ago ~

..

The question regarding the pyramid of money was something that Mark's friends asked him as well.

He was in a private viewing booth so he didn't have his mask on and was just relaxing after pulling multiple all-nighters to get this film finished before the Oscars.

He turned towards Sarah and said, "It's exactly what my net worth was when we were filming this scene."

"Is it completely made out of 100s?" Sarah asked back, with a blank stare as she was already making calculations in her head.

Mark nodded in confirmation.

"I don't write stories or make movies to earn money," his and Joker's timing were completely in sync as the two said together.

"After all, it's not about the money, it's about telling a story."

"After all, it's not about the money, it's about sending a message."

"Around 4 to 5 billion dollars. If I had to guess a closer number.. around 4.6 or 4.7 billion dollars.

"And that's why I'm always in awe of that beautiful mind of yours. You're correct Sarah, it's 4.68 billion."

Sarah blushed slightly and looked ahead.

The Joker's men executed Shigaraki's men that tried to fight back, though they left two of them alive and told them to take Shigaraki to their boss. The scene of Joker and his men just walking out of the building with corpses lying behind them.

As the Joker exited the building he look back at the burning building and it brought a gleeful, manic grin on his face as he said, "The child who is not embraced by their village will burn it down to feel its warmth."

Mark could've used the iconic shorter line but he wanted to use the story as a device to carry forward if a few messages that he wanted to spread in society.

He knew with the amount of marketing that he was going to do, along with his skill "Word's Worth," at the very least millions of people were going to watch this film.

He wanted it to be a cautionary tale so that even if a thousand out of those millions of people would understand what he was trying to say, he is job would be done. And also because the Academy judges were big on social messages like these.

And our protagonist wanted a to win the Oscars for himself. He wasn't obsessed with them like River or Tom Cruise, but he wanted to win them at least once in his life. And this was it.. his first and last genuine attempt at trying to win the Oscars.

Because after this, most of the movie that he will be focusing on making will be franchises like – John Wick, Godzilla, Lord Of The Rings, Conjuring, Star Wars, the MCU, the DCEU, Harry Potter, Transformers, etc. He didn't think that he would be getting Oscars for any of these movies.

— To be continued…

In the next episode of F̶A̶L̶L̶O̶U̶T̶

*Cough* *Cough*

I meant in the next chapter of Hollywood: Head-Hunting System.

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Word Count: 6652 words (after excluding the disclaimer, opening Author's Note and the closing Author's Note.)

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