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Joseph Carpenter.

Joe-car.

Joker.

Anyone could have taken his codename to refer to that infamous wild card.

Why yes, he did have an unreadable poker face.  Why yes, he did have a very sharp and dry wit.  Why yes, he new how to stack the deck, or bring it down.

Everything he did seemed to attribute itself to a single card.

But the name's origin was humble and unoriginal.

Joseph Carpenter.

A man with a simple name and very big ambitions.

One could even exaggerate and say that his ambitions were of biblical proportions.

Of course, Mr. Carpenter would smile wryly and think that, in the absurdity of the statement, it was true.

By far, he was not a religious man and he did not have some messianic complex of martyrdom, because preserving his life is essential to synthesize the second coming of Mr. Gentleman.

He was only the deliverer of the world's saviour.

The most important men, men who could change history and the world by simply existing and could live on and on forever... those men needed someone to serve them.  A herald to prepare the way, a nurturer to help the saviour's transition.

He was a simple man, with a simple name, and he knew his role was second to Mr. Gentleman. The role that was most likely not big enough to fit him, but he accepted it and pursued it relentlessly anyways. He did not hesitate not because of the praise and recognition (because he would not receive any nor be remembered for it in the new world), but because it was necessary.

In the grandest scheme of things, within a new world, men like him would take a background role to the true revolutionaries. Preparing the tools was less noble than actually using them, but he was content and humble with that.

After all, Joker knew that Joseph was a carpenter.

Author's Notes: My first attempt at a drabble, or some sort of short length fic. Written around the same time as I put together "Paradise Lost," hence the Biblical allusions. I forgot about it and rediscovered this stowed about in my hard drive. Consider it a companion piece to "Paradise Lost." In this, I tried to encapsulate Joker's ambition and the undertone that he wants to pull the strings behind the scenes.