Title: Laughter
Author: jordannamorgan
Fandom: Joker (2019)
Characters: Arthur Fleck.
Setting: General.
Rating: PG.
Length: 200 words.
Summary: His laughter was agony to him.
Notes: Also written for the prompt of “Pain” at genprompt_bingo.



The triggers always came so easily.

An accidental jostle from a passerby on the crowded streets of Gotham. A crosswise glance of suspicion or contempt, looking down upon a shambling scarecrow of a man in shabby clothes. A smile from a girl—even if only a pitying one.

When Arthur broke into one of his laughing fits in public, the strangers around him would far too often become indignant, believing that he was enjoying some private joke at their expense.

On the contrary, his laughter was agony to him—and it wasn’t only the emotional pain of embarrassment and helplessness. It was the physical pain of the uncontrollable spasms that wracked his entire being.

No one else would understand how much it hurt. His muscles tightening like a vise until every inch of his rail-thin body shook; his chest heaving, his throat constricting until it choked him.

Given the suffering his own laughter caused him, it was a vast and hilarious irony that he aspired to be a comedian…

Or maybe not so much.

Deep down, maybe what a part of him really wanted to achieve by making people laugh was to make them feel the same pain he felt.

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2021 Jordanna Morgan