[Public]

I'm happy to inform you that I've been wasting my breath over the past week. [Secretly, he's not actually happy about this. But he's doing a fabulous job of keeping it out of his voice.] The Joker has vanished from my item, and appears to be gone. I did monitor the device and did a late search of port for him before we were summoned, and there was no ice-entombed escaped corpse to be found.

I don't know if the Admiral will pick him up again, but I would still be willing to take him on in the circumstance he would even if I doubt that I will be the primary choice in that event. However, everyone may breathe a bit easier that there's one less clown skulking the corridors of the Barge.

[There's some muttering about him having left his greasepaint before he cuts off the entry. He's actually a little confused at being upset about this, but maybe because for some deluded reason he feels like he was sure he'd found what made him tick and could have worked with that.]

[Private to Self]

Alone again, alone again, jiggety jig.

Tim Drake attacked my inmate in Zero, and accordingly as my inmate was unarmed and in confinement, and the attack was forthcoming upon my arrival I have decided that he should spend a week in Zero immediately following the Joker's incarceration. His warden item will be turned over to a substitute of his choosing, which he will select and prepare for in the meantime.

No matter what the Joker's crimes, there is something that must be understood here. He is the equivalent to a gateway drug in terms of rage. Oh, you may certainly feel that he deserves whatever he has coming to him, but he's rewarded when you show him violence. You do exactly what it is that he wants most. Then the next one becomes a little easier. And the next. And the next. And then you don't stop to think about what you're doing before you destroy a man's life.

I know this because I've been there. I will be there. Planets crumbled and civilizations have died because I did the right thing. Someone was bad enough, and that made it fine for the next person that was almost as terrible, and the one not quite as horrible as him. So on. So forth. I will not advocate this.

[And now he begins to sound tired.] I'll make no excuses for the Joker's actions. He's a terrible man, and I can see how his redeemability might be a matter of speculation, but I ask for you people to have the good sense not to feed him. If he attacks you, yes! Defend yourself. That's how it's expected to work. If he's sitting there having a meal and spontaneously you're overcome with the desire to bowl him over a table and embed your fists in his face, all you create is a more satisfied monster. You're feeding the parasite. And you give him an excuse to create more carnage.

Of course I could leave him dead. But who is to say the Admiral won't bestow upon us an even more unstable version. I could hold his memories behind a mental grip, force him to live a life as someone fresh. But wouldn't that be easy? And again, easier still to do to the next inmate. And the next. And the next. We really would be tools of the Barge then, wouldn't we?

The Joker's punishments, outside of delivery to Zero, are to be left to me. I am his warden. I understand his intentions best. And I am forced to reprimand a good friend for the sake of tainted soul. I'll see this infection spread no further from either side. Anyone else who acts in retribution rather than defence against the Joker without consulting me will have to answer to me in kind.

[Warden Filter]

[He is so very much not happy about all of this.] The Joker has been sent to Zero.

I want to make this very transparent. I want no one to speak with him. If your inmate is a friend of his or Shego's, I would rather they not speak with him whether in kinship or in hostility. Acknowledgement of this act serves as nothing more than a reward for his misbehaviour. If you're angry, turn it toward positive attention in favour of Shego.

Also, if the Joker dies, no one is to ask for him to be returned to life. This is now my solely my obligation and up to my scrutiny.

[Filtered from the Joker]

Due to recent events, once the Joker is released from Zero I expect that he won't be killed in any act of misguided vengeance when he is released. As I mentioned before, he sometimes demands violent action which I abhor, but do see its necessity. However, I expect the line between "a thread of his life" and "dead" not to be crossed no matter how terribly you resent him. He's only encouraged by it, and you feed his need for destruction and chaos. You may believe that you're teaching him a lesson, but all you're doing is giving him what he wants.

Unfortunately this means also that he is under my protection. It's not a terribly enormous request that I'm making, but if it's not respected I will take measures to enforce it.

[Doctor Filter]

I am most decidedly not fine.

[Time Lords, fortunately, heal pretty quickly once they get going, and he already looks worlds better] I apologize for my absence. At least my fear of human hospitals has been relatively extinguished, which I greatly appreciate.

[Private to the Joker]

We need to speak, as promptly as you are available. And in person. I want to know what happened with the butcher.

[Private to Donny and Tim]

Your assistance with my inmate is greatly appreciated. I'll owe you a favour, Mr. Donowitz. And Tim? I would like to speak with you at your earliest convenience.

I would like certain specific provisions made in monitoring the Joker.

First, I would like to see his private messages. I don't want them stopped. I simply wish to see them.

Second, can you make the pool cues unbreakable? It's a bit primary school, but as it is one can lob someone over the head with a sock and a pool ball and that's bad enough. The cues can be used in all manner of horrible ways.

Third... I'll remember the third later. [Another coughing fit, and then a pause as he takes a drink of some tea. So much tea lately.]

[(OOC: Sorry for all the spammy-ness. I needed to get this post up officially.)]

Well, I suppose we ought to become better acquainted than a fleeting meeting. It seems according to this novel little bit of reading and correspondence passed along by the Admiral, I'm your warden.

[And honestly, after what just happened, he would rather be your warden than the Master's right now.]