Title: SHARP TEETH
Rating: G
Length: 349
Character: Joker
Summary: Rumors and whispers around town about the mysterious Joker, who they say can grant your wishes.
Warnings: spoilers for Persona 2: Innocent Sin (that are fairly common knowledge by this point I believe?)
Notes: I thought it would be fun to borrow not just the title of Toby Barlow's SHARP TEETH, but also its free verse poetic stylings.

“Hey don’t you wish you could get rid of that mole?”
“My aunt got rich overnight!”
“I mean if I could only get a girlfriend…”
“Yo, fuck that school!
I mean seriously, fuck ‘em!”
If only, if only,
You want, you want.
So-
Dial your own number
No busy sound, no voicemail, no waits
“Joker-sama, Joker-sama please come here!”
Merciful monster
Horrid Harlequin
He brings you your wish with a ceramic grin
And the only price is that you help him grant his
No one knows what that is,
but
“It’s gotta be bad, right?”

They say he contracts with demons
That behind that mask is a face full
of sharp teeth
Believing is being
Is it any wonder how the rumors take root?

A city full
of anxiety for the coming new millennium
Who you’re taking to the dance
Is just as important as whether aliens really built the pyramids
Is just as important as rumors that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is having an affair
Is just as important as hearing that the Death Boss at Kasugayama is starting a visual kei band
And didn’t he, like, pants a bunch of people back in middle school?
That’s so lame.

Dance of pleasure, feast of shadows
Song of a foreign land
The flames of Atonement light the heavens
Isn’t there supposed to be some like weird astrological thing this summer?
Like Mercury in Retrograde on steroids
Maybe Kurosu could tell you? Doesn’t he like that crap?

When the wishing is done,
He’s no longer legend
No longer imagined sharp teeth and limitless power
He’s a lonely apartment
where through the closed bedroom door he can hear
his mother watching a movie. An old movie
—older than him, at least—
where her younger self shines on the silver screen
before her career went up in the flames
called getting married fresh out of high school.
Can’t grant a wish that isn’t spoken
So he goes to their barren pantry
and eats the same
cheap
stale
instant ramen that he always eats,
Choking it down with blunted teeth.