#crimeroyalty.

[quinnpedia]

 ⸻snapshots from the suburbs, a drabble from harleen's suburbs au.

harley hadn’t realized that there was a marriage to destroy until she’d done it.  she’d dug her heels in deep,  not let herself rely on joker any more than she absolutely had to. ( calm the babies down so i can get an hour of sleep between shifts.  make sure the house doesn’t burn down when i’m gone. the bare minimum. ) they share a bed,  but no more than that -- it feels like there’s an ocean between them,  each planted firmly on their own side.  she can’t remember the last time she touched him. can’t remember the last time she wanted to.  

motherhood is drowning her.  she’s wanted this for so long,  but she’s not made for it.  bryce and jackie cry and cry and cry ; they never stop for her,  only for joker,  only for bruce [human].  she feels like she has no connection to either of them -- like they’re somebody else’s babies,  living in her house.  she’s scared to hold them.  sometimes,  when joker’s gone,  she just sits outside the nursery and cries for hours,  babies wailing from behind the door.  every morning,  she drives too fast to work,  runs red lights,  takes risk.  part of her’s hoping a semitruck will come out of nowhere and end this.  she doesn’t think she wants to die,  just wants to spend a few months unconscious.  

harley’s only haven is the hospital,  but she can only spend so much time there.  they expect her to eat,  sleep,  be with her family.  she doesn’t know how to tell them she doesn’t want to do any of that -- doesn’t know how to explain all the walls she’s put up.  someone notices that harley’s not doing well,  tells someone else -- the whole thing spirals out of control so fast it’s a wonder she only gets put on leave.  she knows they’re right to do it.  if she continues like this,  she’s going to kill someone.  still,  she doesn’t tell joker,  doesn’t tell bruce [human] -- pretends like all her late nights are still spent in surgery instead of roaming the streets,  refamiliarizing herself with gotham’s criminal underworld.  what else is there?  she has a family,  a husband,  children -- and it’s not enough.  all she can do is go back to what she knows. 

it only lasts a few weeks.  joker’s got too tight of a chokehold on gotham for it to get any further,  and harley aims too high,  too fast.  she only means to target a corrupt politician,  an easy job.  in,  out.  her team makes the hit,  but somebody makes harley.  a few someones . . . joker’s goons find the warehouse she’s been operating out of,  and harley only just escapes without them seeing her.  

that night,  she sleeps with joker for the first time since before the twins were born.  it’s only meant to be a distraction -- to keep him from digging through the boxes she knows his clowns stole from her,  to delay him tracing the organization back to her.  that doesn’t make it any better.  she can’t look at him,  turns every light in the bedroom off,  and as soon as it’s over (she’s not sure either of them comes),  she locks herself in the bathroom and throws up for an hour. 

she thought she was in over her head then -- when her husband was the worst thing that could happen.  the next day,  somebody follows her home.  somebody outside of joker’s control.  harley shoots them in their driveway,  then,  for the second time in her life,  finds herself unable to let go of the gun because she’s considering putting a bullet through her own brain.  the only reason she doesn’t is because joker hears the gunshot,  comes outside.  she hands him the gun without a fight,  goes inside without a word.  the babies cry and cry upstairs,  but they’re safe in their cribs,  so harley just sits at the dining room table with her head in her hands. 

harley doesn’t know what joker does with the body,  doesn’t ask.  she’s spent all this time refusing to trust him,  only to realize that she trusts nobody more,  not even bruce [human].  when harley’s in trouble -- and she is in deep shit -- she’s wholly reliant on joker.  he tosses a tablet onto the table in front of her,  picture of the man she killed on the screen.  she takes it,  afraid to look at him,  reads the text underneath.  it’s worse than she thought -- he’s connected to the politician she killed,  which means somebody knows she did it. 

“ j, ” she whispers,  clutching the tablet so tight her knuckles are white. “ j,  i didn’t . . . ” 

she didn’t what?  mean to put her family in danger?  she didn’t,  but she didn’t even consider that somebody might follow her home.   didn’t realize she was putting anyone other than herself at risk. 

he doesn’t answer her.  won’t talk to her,  other than to get the information he needs to fix her mess.  she’s never seen him this angry before.  the worst part is that he doesn’t so much as touch her.  there’s no beating,  no breaking.  just an icy cold that terrifies her worse than violence ever could. 

it’s only once he stops that harley realizes that he had trusted her as much as he was capable of.  that she’d had him,  that she’d lost him.  he’d given her what she’d been asking for for the better part of a decade,  and she threw it away.  

harley extends her leave at the hospital,  hardly leaves the house.  the iciness goes on for months -- they live in the same house,  but they speak less than three sentences to each other a day,  all about the twins.  she cries frequently ; joker is never moved.  it’s a spiral without end,  and the darkness in harley’s head only gets worse.  she can barely get out of bed ( she sleeps in the guest bedroom now ),  only does when the twins need her.  she still struggles to hold them,  feed them,  play with them.  she keeps waiting for j to save her from this,  too -- but she doesn’t ask.  

it’s only bruce [human] that saves them -- eases tensions enough that they don’t completely blow up at each other.  guides harley towards help.  things start to get better,  slowly.  the darkness fades.  harley finds medication that works,  starts seeing a professional.  the line has been clearly drawn -- she’s not a fit mother,  cannot be in the children’s lives until she is.  by the time the twins turn two,  the worst of it is over.  harley can hold them,  can play -- settles into motherhood more comfortably.  

still,  her marriage is in pieces.  the twins will never remember this year,  but joker does.  she misses him more terribly than she ever imagined she could,  is reminded of her hurt every time she goes to lean on him only to find that he’s not there.  part of her wonders if this is on purpose -- him finding another cruel,  unusual way to hurt her.

another part thinks that’s been the problem all along.  she’s been trying to live a perfect little life in the suburbs,  all the while waiting for joker to start hurting her again.  it begs the question: why?  why stay,  why risk her children’s lives?  she wrestles with the answer for months,  knows she can’t go back to him until she has it -- until she’s ready to trust him or ready to leave.  she can’t have one foot out the door anymore,  can’t have one foot in their past. 

“ i didn’t think i could hurt you, ” she says once she finally thinks she’s figured it out,  whispering over a commercial.  the twins are asleep upstairs,  and joker and harley are on opposite sides of the couch,  bruce [hyena] between them,  real housewives playing on the tv.  it’s the only semi-peaceful space they’ve managed to carve out,  and only because there’s an unspoken agreement not to speak,  not to touch,  to only exist in the same space. “ and i didn’t think you could stop wanting to hurt me. ”

he doesn’t answer.  the commercial break ends.  she hugs a pillow to her chest,  so anxious the next few minutes pass in a blur.  she doesn’t hear a single word from the show. the words tumble out as soon as the next commercial starts. “ i’ve been horrible,  haven’t i?  to you? ”

it’s easier if she blames herself,  because she thinks it’s what he wants to hear. she still doesn’t get a response.  tears start to slip down her cheeks. 

“ i can’t do this with you anymore,  j.  i’m not asking you to trust me.  i fucked up.  i know that. i threw us away because i was bored and stubborn -- ”  and dealing with the worst postpartum depression her doctor’s ever seen,  but he knows that. “ and stupid.  i put our whole family at risk.  i wouldn’t trust me,  either.  but i can’t -- i can’t not trust you.  i’m tired of being scared of you.  i’m tired of keeping you away. ”

but that was the problem to begin with,  wasn’t it?  trying to be a family without trust?  now,  she’s just suggesting they shift that burden.  the realization is clear on her face,  if he looks.  his continued silence only makes her words rush out even faster 

“ can we go to bed? ” she asks,  dropping her face into her hands.  “ can we try again?  can we both try to trust each other?  i can’t do this without you,  and i don’t want to spend the next sixteen years fighting. i love you.  i want to do this with you. ”

she’ll still kill him if he hurts the kids,  but she thinks bruce just might,  too.  has realized that she’s dangerous,  too.  the risk is balanced,  but only when they’re together.  could this get more fucked up? 

❛  are  you  lying  to  me ?  ❜  it’s the first time he’s said something to her not about the kids since this all began,  and she looks up as startled as she would be if she heard a gunshot. 

“ no, ”  she says,  horrified,  extent of the damage finally sinking in. “ j -- i love you. ”

she loves him,  and she’s hated herself for that for years. how had she expected that not to cut into him? love has always been a weapon between the two of them.  they can’t raise children like that.  

“ what do you need from me?  what do you need for us to be able to fix this? ”  she’s handing over control,  doesn’t want it anymore.  “ anything,  j.  i just can’t do this anymore.  i’ll let you back in. ”

[har1een-arch]

[fferal-archive]

@crimeroyalty sent a meme: 𝐒𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐇   𝐎𝐑   𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒

"I'm stumped. This is the first time I really, really pass." A pause. "I mean, I'd do it if I had to, but I'd honestly seriously prefer not to."

[crimefightrmoved]

Shows up with his Arkham onesie remade to pants and a crop top for his court proceedings. Go on. Look at him. Oogle him.

       He’s talking into the special comms frequency he had with Jim. 

                 “ Is...that allowed? “

@crimeroyalty .

[crimeloyalty-arch]

[ txt: ] you never could sleep on your own to begin with, sugar tits

[ txt: ] enjoy your liar, B 🫀

that’s not true.  she slept just fucking fine on her own before she met the clown,  and he knows that,  so she resents him implying otherwise.  every single ounce of harley quinn clinginess can be completely attributed to that fucking clown,  and she won’t have him leading anyone to believe otherwise.  wait.  harleen frowns at her phone,  bringing it closer to her face.  oh no.  oh no,  oh no.  when did he learn to do that?!

[ sms ] he photoshopped those   [ sms ] i didn’t say that, he’s lying. he’s a LIAR.  [ ives 💚 has left this conversation. ]

“ god fucking damnit!!!! ” and . . . she’s calling little miss gordon to see if babs can hack into bruce’s phone before he sees any of this conversation. 

[crimelcrd]

︻デ═一             ———              @crimeroyalty

He stares blankly at a wall before him. Lip curls at the touch as if it would give him hives. He doesn't offer the clown another glance. He’s had these hallucinations before. They’re each terrible and grotesque. Ending with blood running down his head and no way to tell if it’s real or who it belongs to. He felt unable to move forward from this place. The worst parts of his mind. Thick with black tar leaving him sinking and drowning.

                  Face was snapped to look at the clown no matter how he tried to ignore him. responding to hallucinations only fed them. Though he has no idea if this is real. Or if that even applies to the Clown. 

                 His stomach twisted. Muscles crawl under his skin. Fight, flight, self mutilate. Stomach drops and rolls again. The clown was right. In a sick and terrible way he was right, saying what Jason was piecing together. He was free. Free from the bat’s overbearing control. He could do anything now. The perfect soldier now without orders. He hadly knew what to do with himself. Mind works itself over. He tries to pull his face away with a growl.

                ❝ Get creative. ❞       He repeats.      ❝ I am free to do as I please. ❞     Like a chant. He knows this. He’s thought it himself. Rebellion is in his bones, he’d do as he wanted to. Though he still looked at the clown in disgust. Why did his ID have to appear as the thing he feared and hated most. Why did their thought process have to be the same. The coronation was enough to keep him up at night more than he’d like to admit.

[king-crane]

WHAT’S PECULIAR ABOUT YOUR SOUL?

your soul is... bright

It glitters like a winking star... Occasionally it must be covered with a tarp, so that guests do not lose their vision to its splendor. Many wonder what causes it to behave in such a way... but your collector has no straight answer; even they are unaware. Are you grinning? You can not tell... You lie coiled there in your display, revealing every facet of yourself to marveled onlookers... Your face aches? Why does it ache? Are you grinning?

STOLEN FROM: @crimefightr

TAGGING: @babydxhl @white-bird-ripped-wings @rinnahtheskinchanger @vvithteeth (Talia!) @vxncesubprime @imperatore-falcone @crimeloyalty @crimeroyalty @neurowaltz @arcticrime @bigbadkillercroc @the-arkham-librarian @elisethetraveller @zataraa and ANYONE WHO WANTS THIS

[crimeroyalty]

Guess who has new icons again! everyone say thank you @crimeroyalty​

[goreverine-archive1]

@crimeroyalty​ sent an ask:

"So you are telling me... that your limbs grow back if I cut one off... same goes for all of you. And you expect me to let you out of here now? No. Nope that is not how this works."

“Firstly, I’d never ‘tell’ you anything.”

“Second: You’re not even the twentieth sadist to get off on my healing abilities. You don’t fucking frighten me, you irritating fucking pasty buffoon.”

[riddlethat]

@crimeroyalty asked: "it's not my fault Siri said take a left."

Edward has spent the last five minutes incoherently exasperated. His car sits at the bottom of an out-of-town neighbor's pool, the fence mowed down with a convertible-sized hole gaping through it, the tail lights blinking red. A terrier yaps, lifting off the ground. Onlookers rubberneck. He doesn't know whether to scream or cry.

"No…" Something decipherable as English just barely leaves him. Edward finally unfreezes from his stupor and staggers forward. "No... No. No. No. This isn't happening. It can't be. How! What did you—? Why did you—?" He strangles his cane, stomps hard against the ground, then screams.

Joker looks innocent as a kitten, blames it on Siri as if this were all a terrible, honest-to-God accident. Cross my heart and hope to die.

Edward turns around, fixing his hat, and grips harder.

"I'm always lost once and sometimes lost twice. You can come for thirds, but only at a price," he says, his smile taught and incensed. "What am I?"

Teeth. Edward throws his cane up and chases with a loud Stay still!, Joker, perhaps, laughing into the sunset.

Police sirens whir in the distance, and the dog is still barking.

[quinnpedia]

QUINNPEDIA, a sideblog to crimeloyalty collecting headcanons, graphics, and more.

NAV, graphics  ,  headcanons  ,  dash games  ,  source material writing

VERSES, criminal sanity  ,  white knight  ,  vampire  ,  suburbs

RELATIONSHIPS, crimefightr  ,  crimeroyalty  ,  dusktrip / punchline godblooded / bruce

[har1een-arch]

𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲⸻moodboards⸻     *  { @crimeroyalty​​​​​​​​​​​​​ sent​​​​ } ⸻ ALL THE MOOD BOARDS

just think it’s important that none of harley’s dreams with joker involve any kinda criminal activity :-) she’s very much lost in a fantasy where she can ‘save’ him & where they can run away and have a perfectly normal life -- big house,  kids,  all that.  it takes her a very long time to come to terms with the fact that he’ll never be kind or gentle with her like the version of him that she’s invented is.  this is the joker she convinced herself was underneath all the cruelty -- a man who adores her,  who makes her his priority,  who is so in love that he is entirely cured. 

[fferal-archive]

@crimeroyalty sent an ask: “Here kitty kitty” is heard from visibly just a shadow before hand stretches out, beckoning the mutant closer. “Come here you butt sniffing mongrel.”

Am I a cat, or a dog? Make up your fucking mind, you gaudy fucking lunatic.

He hates it, being the focus of the Joker's brutality. Intellectually, he gets it: He's an easy target and a biological punching bag, an easy victim to pull the hair of and the limbs off of like a fidget toy for something like him. It doesn't mean he's going to acquiesce to it. He has too much pride; he'll just have to be beaten down, every time, until he finds his end.

So. He obeys him, drawing closer to the shadows, leaning into that hand... and then he bites, trying to catch flesh and lengthened bone with a snap of his sharpened teeth. Get fucked.

[brokentoys]

@crimeroyalty​ SENT:

STD tests

“  no  one  ever  says  you  fail  an  STD  test,  dumbass.  how  would  that  even  make  sense  ?  ”

[crimefightrmoved]

he’s a creature of unfthomable horror TO YOU

[crimeloyalty-arch]

[ txt: ] now see that is a very offensive way of talking to someone. [ txt: ] one might even take offense. [ txt: ] might even want to take action for such a thing. [ txt: ] wars have been started for far less [ txt: ] 🙂 🙂 🙂

[ harleen quinzel has removed batsy 🖤 from this conversation. ]  [ sms ] i’m going to cut your fucking dick off the next time i see you  [ sms ] dont worry, youre not going to miss it  [ sms ] i can feed it to you if you want [ sms ] maybe you’ll choke 🙂 [ harleen quinzel has added batsy 🖤 to this conversation. ] [ sms ] b, he’s threatening me 🙁 [ sms ] i’m scared, i don’t think i can sleep by myself tonight 🙁 can you come over?