[Gotham] Valeska Observation Log

Gotham is a stage too vast to comprehend, a hall of madmen. Jerome Valeska had never cared about cherishing life. He embraced a self-destructive optimism. He neither gave love nor received it.

Until one day, he discovered a familiar face in his mind. She was a complete thorn in his side, always trying to grab him by the collar in front of Satan and drag him back to the world of the living.

Things started to get interesting.

So, are there good-hearted angels in Gotham? There are, but she won't survive past five in the morning. Just kidding. When he starts falling in love, she'll kick him right back into hell.

Not long after moving, Lin Li discovered that a lunatic lived next door, letting out a bone-chilling laugh at exactly the same time every night. After getting nowhere with complaints to the property manager or pleas to the landlord, she finally lost patience, knocked on the neighbor's door, and prepared to offer the nutcase a few kind words.

But before she could even make her complaint, the next second she found herself at a crime scene, reporting the news. And as luck would have it, the criminal onstage was her neighbor. As she embarked on a journey with the Gotham backdrop character plus cannon-fodder-who-dies buff, she began to ponder things while watching the crazed, rabid dog who showed up before her every time she was reborn.

The work undertaken by the female lead, a reluctant Gotham wage slave, includes but is not limited to: circus python / bar security guard / bakery cashier / cheerleader on a hijacked school bus / host at a live broadcast of an explosion / charity ball server / little Gypsy witch / Arkham cleaner / beat cop with the GCPD

◆ Reading Guide ◆

① The main story isn't told in chronological order. It features jumps through time and space, follows a traditional plot, and contains dense stream-of-consciousness psychological analysis. The pacing is slow.

② An interactive narrative of tangled love and hate, and an unconventional kind of redemption. The female lead's perspective unravels the mysteries; the male lead's perspective is full of obsession and resentment.

③ The male lead is Jerome Valeska from the TV series Gotham. He's not the real Joker, just a cannon-fodder character. Later in the story, though, the author may write some Heath Ledger Joker content, blending in traits from multiple versions of the Joker. The female lead's only buff is immortality; she's a hard-to-read, detached INFJ.

④ The author's collection includes short and medium-length works in the same series, which can be read as prequels or extras. One is a side story about a Miss Orderkeeper who toys with everyone.

Theme: Love is dancing barefoot over flames