Endless Epitaph

The Players : Xander
Where : Chicago, IL
When : February 3rd, 2009.
Rating : PG-13, but could go higher. Depends on what goes down.
Notes : Forget notes, just give me some cowbell.

The day started out fine.

Xander had a good breakfast, worked out for a bit. He was starting his new job at The Tool Box, a local hardware store and home decour place, in a few days.

After the death of his boss from the bar, it was closed by his family who had no interest in owning a bar. So he and his friends were out of a job. It was just as well, Xander mostly worked there for a lack of anything else available at the time.

But when he got home from the grocery store, that’s when things took a turn.

He placed the bags on the counter and turned the police scanner on, he often listened to it, just in case anything sounded supernatural.

Wished it were this time. But it wasn’t.

The scanner went off with a loud siren sound. And it only took one sentence to give him pause.

“Attention all units, attention all units. We have a 187 at Hailey’s Comics. Suspect is a male, green hair. Believed to be the Joker and his accomplice Harley Quinn. All units be advised…suspect is armed and very dangerous. Proceed with caution”

187…Xander raced through some of the police codes he had written down so he’d recogonize them. He stopped cold when he realized 187 was a murder.

“Alli…” Xander whispered to no one but with fear in his voice.

He dropped the eggs he had been holding to the ground as he raced out of the apartment and headed to the comic book shop. It was about a mile away from his place. No way would he get near that place fast with all the commotion that would be surrounding the place.

It took about ten minutes, but he got there. Crowds were gathered around the barricades trying to see what was going on. Whispering to each other what they heard.

( Read more... )

The Players : The Joker and Alli
Where : Chicago
When : February 3rd, 2009.
Rating : PG13 – R just in case.
Notes : C sharp and F flat.



The Joker walked the streets of Chicago bundled up in a trench coat with a hat jammed over his head to cover his green hair from being seen.
Who the coat and hat belonged to, Joker had no idea but the evening news would have a report about a man found in the snow dead but with a large smile on his face.

Joker's search for the annoying reporter and his rebellious rag doll Harley had gone nowhere and he was getting frustrated. And a frustrated Joker was a dangerous Joker. Not that the Joker was ever 'safe' in the first place but right now he really wanted to kill someone, preferably Harley Quinn or Lois but they weren't around at the moment.
But Joker was the type of person that fully believed that if you couldn't kill the ones you wanted to, kill the ones you were with.

He had just about decided to randomly walk into a department store and start killing when he spotted a flash of blue hair in a comic book shop. Pulling to a halt, Joker stared through the window and tried to remember what was it about blue hair?

Suddenly an image came to him of the night the reporter Lois Lane had escaped from him the first time. He remebered a blue haired woman whom he had shot at and had called him....What was it again? Ah yes, Kermit the Clown.

Joker's smile grew even more sinister looking as he watched her through the window. He needed a victim to while away the time until he found Harley or Lois Lane and he had found his 'volunteer'.

Whistling slightly off tune, he opened the door to the comic shop and strolled in.

Who: Ryan Dallion or Ryan the Lion
Where: Curious Goods; Chicago, IL
When: January 29th 2009
What: Ryan reflects on the incident the day before…and finds a new mystery to solve.
Rating: PG-13 for now. Could go to R
Notes: Ryan’s card is uh…oh, The Tower. Fires springing up will be linked to the card. Only he doesn’t know it yet.

Ryan heads downstairs after a long night sleep sipping his coffee. It was his fuel for what would most likely be a long and exhausting day. Those were always the kinds of days they had around here.

He noticed an envelope on the floor. Someone must have been tossed in the mail slot last night because there was nothing there before he went to sleep the night before.

He picked it up and opened it. Inside, was a tarot card.

The Strength Card.

The guy that came with Alli the other day must have found the guy and gotten the card back. Guessing it didn’t end well. After placing the card in the vault, Ryan went out to get a newspaper.

His suspicion was soon confirned when he picked up and read the newspaper’s headline. A man had died of an apparent suicide. While there was nothing overly suspicious there was a mention of high testosterone in his system.

He made a note to try and find the guy later and thank him for getting the card back to the shop. Most people who know what that card could do, would use it to their advantage, but this guy did the right thing.

Also on the front page, there was a front page story about another fire in the downtown area. There had been several fires in that area over the last month. Strangely only a handful of the fires had no explanation.

He had checked the manifest, but there were few items that would fit the mysterious fires. Ryan thought for a moment, and a thought occurred to him. Maybe there was another tarot card out there that was causing this. He picked up a reference book off the shelf and found pictures of tarot cards.

One of which was a church on fire with figures falling to the ground. It would fit. But finding that card in the city would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

He’d have to figure out who would have motive to set these fires, how they were using the card, and most importantly…who was doing it.

Ryan placed a map on a tack board after calling the fire department and asking some questions about the fires he placed blue tacks and red tacks on the board. Blue tacks, fires that had easily determined causes. Red tacks being the buildings that burned down under mysterious circumstances and undetermined causes.

Fires happen, that was a thing you get use to in the city. But fires that seemingly are caused on their own were a different story. Looking at the map it looked like the red tacks were concentrated to one particular area.

Ryan picked up his camera to take outside photos of the mysterious fires…four in total thus far.

After a few hours, his pictures were taken and ready to be loaded onto his computer. But before heading back to the Curious Goods shop, Ryan made a pit stop.

He had been busy with Micki on acquiring some new antiques to sell for the store so he hadn’t been able to make it to the comic book shop for his new comics of the week.

So, he made a quick stop to his local comic book store to get his latest issues and say hello to Alli, his favorite worker at the comic book store. He’d have to remember to thank her and her friend for getting the card.

The Players : Xander Harris
Where : Chicago, IL
When : January 28, 2009.
Rating : PG13 – R for language.

Xander walked towards the bar with his Xander thoughts running around in his head. It had been a weird few days. Meeting both Lois and Alli had been great. Dealing with Simon had not.

Seeing Lois go was kind of sad though. Sure, he just met her, but it was good working with her. If it hadn’t been for the whole Joker thing, they probably would have had a better goodbye than the awkward one they had.

Xander headed downstairs to the bar and smiled at his two co-workers. “Evening ladies. How are my gals?”

“We should be asking you the same thing…we heard what happened. Kind of surprised you’re here. What the hell happened that you were thrown on top of a car,” Mary asked.

“Yeah. Piss off a Terminator,” Wendy asked.

“It’s a long messy story. Don’t worry about it. I’m fine. Still a bit sore, but otherwise fine.”

“And that girl you left with the other night? Made in progress?”

“Yeah. Like every other woman in the world I’ve met, she left as quickly as she came into my life.”

“Oh?”

“Went back to Metropolis…you know where she lives. I’m sure our paths will cross at some point again.”

“Right,” Wendy said placing a newspaper on the bar. “And Xand, we’re gonna need you in the back in a little bit to bring in the beer mugs.”

Xander took the paper and nodded as he started going through it. When a few articles caught his eye. The front page was all about the Joker robbery. It still made his blood run cold when he saw the Joker with that gun. Also made him nervous. Wondering if the Joker was still around and if he bumped into him, would he try to finish the job.

Xander turned to the back and saw an article about another death…a young woman. The same woman Simon was talking to the other night. Died of a suicide the article said. But something inside Xander was telling him otherwise.

“Looks like he made his third wish,” Xander thought aloud.

Crap. Now he can kill anyone now to get that card to give him strength. No more wishing required. Things just got a lot harder for him.

Why the hell was he even doing this? He’s not the superhero. He had no powers or anything that made him remotely special.

But he knew the answer. It was her.

She changed his life for the better…despite the hell he had both been through and fought. She gave him a purpose. Something to fight for. A purpose without ever having a purpose.

In the end, he did it because it was right. Because now with her being God knows where, he was alone in this city. He saw the things that lurked in the darkness.

He did it because no one else would.

He did it because the only thing that kept him from going crazy with being alone is saving lives, helping people. Ironically, he was still very much alone. Even with his new “sidekick”. That’d even be short lived cause it was how things were in Xander’s life.

“Xander,” Wendy said coming to the back. “Someone out front is looking for you.”

“Is it a pretty blue haired girl,” he asked standing up.

“No, its that guy you helped out a few nights ago. The guy that almost got beat up.”

( Oh FUDGE! )

The Players : The Joker (open to any who want to play)
Where : Abandoned meat packing warehouse, Chicago, Illinois.
When : January 28, 2009.
Rating : PG13 – R for possible language.
Notes : The Joker has a chat with himself.

The Joker stormed around inside the abandon warehouse and cursed to himself as he did. All afternoon he had traipsed around Chicago looking for Harley or that reporter Lois Lane but never once did he spy anyone that looked like them.
He held an image of Harley in her costume so tightly in his mind, he forgot to even look for her out of costume and didn't even realize he had walked right past her earlier in the day. Finally, he returned to the warehouse in the hopes that Harley would return there. To come back after making him so mad wouldn't be the smartest thing for Harley to do but hey, what woman in her right mind would have hooked up with him in the fist place?

"Where does that two bit hussy get off trying to save one of my playthings?" The Joker ranted. "Hell Harley herself is one of my playthings! You would think the ingrate would appreciate me bringing someone else into our play... Until they died of course."

The Joker paused for a moment in his pacing to stare off into space a moment before looking up and addressing no one. "Its days like this, that make me wish I hadn't already killed her family so I could do it again. Sometimes it's the little things that are enough to make my face hurt just smiling."

The Joker paced back over to where Harley had stashed her meager belongings in the warehouse, just to make sure they were still there, even though he had just checked them a few minutes ago. "Harley! Where are you?!" He shouted. "You are making me very cross. You are turning this Master of Mayhem into a Harlequin of Hate!"

The Joker paused and his grin grew a little. "Harlequin of Hate? I like that. Harlequin of hate... Harlequin.... Harley Quinn!" The Joker suddenly screamed in rage and hauled off and punched a metal locker door where meat used to be stored when the warehouse/plant was in operation. A normal man would have shattered his wrist doing such a thing, but the Joker had the strength and resiliency of a truly insane person so he hardly felt the blow. The door however, now had a huge dent where his fist had hit it.

"Go ahead and run my little rabbit. The big bad Joker wolf will find you sooner or later and when I do....Any and all around you are going to suffer as well. After all, it is the only sensible thing to do...."
The Joker began to laugh and his maniacal laughter echoed in the warehouse.

As the Joker's laughter died down to a few giggles, a noise caused him to glance up to see a stranger standing in the doorway to the warehouse.
The man was dressed in gaudy overdone clothing, in other words, fashion the Joker could appreciate.

"Ah, Mr. Joker. I have a card for you." The man said holding up a card for the Joker to see. The Joker could see that the card was the Fool card from a Tarot deck. While the Joker could appreciate the artwork on the card and even the subject matter he still frowned.

With a flick of his wrist he sent one of his own razor sharp Joker cards at the man hitting him dead center in the forehead.
The man with a surprised look on his face fell backwards letting his card drop to the ground at his feet.
The Joker walked over casually and looked down at the dead body. "Thanks. But I have my own cards."
Stepping over the body the Joker walked out of the warehouse.

The Fool card lay on the floor for a few moments after the Joker left until a foul smelling breeze swept through the warehouse picking up the card and carrying it out a broken window into the night.

The Players : Harley Quinn
Where : Lois's hotel room, Chicago, Illinois.
When : January 28, 2009.
Rating : PG13 – R for possible language.
Notes : Harley may seem a little confused, she is dealing with her issues.

Harley stood in the doorway of Lois's hotel room and peeked in. She was a little reluctant to walk into someone else's room when they weren't around. Finally blowing a huge bubble with her bubble gum she crossed the threshold of the room and shut and locked the door behind her.
She did as Lois had told her to do and quickly found Lois's bags and prepared everything so they could make a fast getaway if they had to. After all, the Joker was still out there somewhere and was now gunning for the both of them.

Having gotten Lois's stuff ready, and resisting the urge to prowl in Lois's private stuff. Harley found herself...Bored.

"Okay, what can I do now?" Harley asked herself before spying the room's phone.
"I could call....Um, who can I call? I could call Puddin and try to explain everything so he won't be so upset?"
Harley quickly realized that idea was stupid. Not only did the Joker not carry a cell phone but the idea was to get away from him. Not call him.

"I could call Arkham and see if they'll let me talk to Ivy?"

Once again Harley realized that was a stupid idea. Having been a shrink working there herself she knew that Arkham wasn't in the habit of letting their patients take calls and even if they did, they would recognize her voice and trace the phone call back to the room and Harley would find herself talking to Ivy in person as in being confined to Arkham again. Not something she wanted at the moment. Also there was the very real probability that Ivy had escaped from Arkham by now and wouldn't be to take her call, if Arkham was in the habit of letting patients take calls, which they didn't.

"Okay that's out. Maybe I could call my family."

The temptation to do so was incredibly strong but after a moment Harley realized it also was a bad idea. For one, the Joker told her if she tried to contact her family he would punish them for it, and some how the Joker always seemed to know what Harley did. And two, The police might have her family's phone monitored, since Arkham and the police knew her real name and history, and that once again would lead them to Lois's hotel room and Harley going back to Arkham not to mention possibly getting Lois in trouble too.

"Argh!" Harley cried as she flopped down on Lois's bed. "A phone and all the time in the world to talk and I can't use it."

Lying on the bed on her back with her head hanging over the edge, Harley watched the hotel's tv upside down for a bit before getting bored again. She was always a action kind of gal and hanging around was grating on her nerves.

Harley frowned, as lying on her back on the bed she spotted a envelope lying in front of the room's door. Somehow she had missed that when she came in. Getting up off the bed she walked over and picked it up and noticed it was addressed to Lois. And more importantly, it was in Harley's own handwriting. Ripping the envelope open she quickly scanned the page inside confirming it was indeed her own letter she had sent to warn Lois about the Joker hunting her.

Harley was an intelligent woman, really she was, but finding a letter she had lost clear across town in the room she had meant for it to go to startled her so bad she dropped the letter and spent the next ten minutes checking the closets, under the bed and even in the shower to make sure she was alone in the hotel room.

"Okay, that is just creepy. How did a letter I lose in the night get here?"

Having no answers to her mystery, Harley eventually became bored again and finally decided to take a nice long hot shower. Something else she didn't get a chance to do very often.

As the hot water cascaded down her body, Harley began to wonder how her life might have turned out if she had never met the Joker.

"I lost so much." Harley muttered to herself. "Contact with my family, friends, going on dates. I really don't make good decisions when I am left on my own."

Blowing a bubble again she climbed out of the shower and wrapped herself in a hotel robe before going back to sitting on the bed watching soap operas on tv.

Deftly moving the gum around with her tongue, she blew her hair out of her eyes and then blew another bubble. "Damn I hate being alone." She finally declared out loud.

The Players : Allison Warren, anyone crazy enough to go into her workplace. Like Xander Harris or something.
Where : Halley’s Comics, Chicago, Illinois.
When : January 27, 2009.
Rating : PG13 – R for language.
Notes : This is not my fault. I’m just saying that upfront. Even if nothing happens. Still not my fault.

Halley’s Comics was a simple little shop located a couple of blocks or so away from Curious Goods. It was only a couple of years old, but they did their best to carry everything a comic fan could want. They even held gaming tournaments for the pen and paper crowd, card games, and Halley the owner was even in charge of one of the local LARPing communities. It strived to be different than other comic shops, one way in doing so was to have employees dress as comic characters or in creative costumes.

That could explain why Allison Warren’s bright blue hair was pulled into a curly ponytail and why she wore a black sleeveless gothic Lolita style dress of synthetic leather, matched with a pair of blue fairy wings on her back, white lacy thigh high stockings, and a pair of black platform Mary-Janes on her feet. Of course one could also explain her way of dress because she was just slightly out there. One could never really tell with Alli. After all, she willing wore the Princess Leia slave outfit to work at least once every two months.

If the young woman were perfectly honest though. Today she was dressed up for a special occasion. It was her way of celebrating the fact that she had found a new path in life. A path that involved being a sidekick to solving weird and creepy things, but it was one she would happily take. The only thing better would be to discover that her other theories were right. Like Dr. Daniel Jackson’s work on how the pyramids were landing pads for aliens. She really wished he’d publish more papers, but sadly the man seemed to have been ridiculed off the face of the planet. Too bad too. Alli loved that stuff.

Still, she at least now had confirmation that at least the mystical mojo type of thing was real thanks to Xander. Speaking of which, she wondered if he was going to be in tomorrow. Tomorrow was Wednesday and that meant new comics day.. But then he did have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Alli reorganized some of the Warrior Angel comics on the shelf with a bored sigh. After have the best day (and night) EVER yesterday what with Xander and the Joker shootout, she was pretty sure today was going to be dullsville.

Maybe she could liven things up somehow… or maybe not. The last time she’d tried to liven things up her way in the shop Halley had taken the damages out of her paycheck.

Sigh. She was destined to be bored.

The Players : Lois Lane, the Joker, Harley Quinn.
Where : The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.
When : January 27, 2009.
Rating : PG13 – R.
Notes : Oh Lois, she just can’t stay out of trouble these days.

Lois stood in the Field Museum of Natural History’s Egyptian exhibit with a frown. She had an appointment with a curator, and yet he was at least fifteen minutes late. Her patience was wearing thin as she pulled out her cell phone. If she was going to be forced to wait she could at least kill some time. She dialed Chloe’s number but when she received her voice mail, she hung up. What was going on with her cousin? She tried the number to the Talon apartment, hoping that maybe she could catch her there. She was pretty sure Jimmy was on the mend enough to be moved back to Metropolis but now, so maybe they were in the process of doing that. Unfortunately, Lois got the answering machine. She sighed and almost hung up, but decided against it. “Chloe? Hey, it’s Lois. Just called to check in and find out how you were doing.” She frowned at how it sounded too simple. She was starting to worry about Chloe. Was she having some PTS from the wedding incident? Had Jimmy gotten worse? "Is there something wrong? ..Just call me back when you can, alright?"

She hung up with a concerned frowned. When she got back to Metropolis she going to try and sit Chloe down for a talk. Whatever was going on, she wanted to help. After all, Chloe was her family.

“Miss Lane.” Lois looked up at the cultured sounding voice and slid her phone back into her pocket as an older man in his forties walked over to her. He adjusted her blazer and then offered her a hand to shake, which she did. He gave her a sheepish smile as if embarrassed by his own tardiness. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”

“It’s not a problem, Dr. Jameson.” She replied, forcing herself to play nice and to ignore her own irritability. “So why don’t you get started and tell me about this new addition to your exhibit.”

“It’s a fascinating discovery actually...” He led her toward another spot in the exhibit as she tried not to roll her eyes. Somehow she highly doubted it was as fascinating as he thought.

It was moments like this when she would hope for something more exciting to happen. The sooner she got this over with the sooner she could be doing something useful, like helping Xander and stopping a supernatural psycho. She still wanted to make it to Curious Goods before it got late.

The Players : Micki Foster, Harry Dresden.
Where : Curious Goods in Chicago, Illinois.
When : Around January 27th or 28th 2009.
Rating : We'll find out soon enough.
Notes : Yeah, my Micki bites. Shush. Have a pancake, dearies.

Micki Foster checked the register of Curious Goods with a frown. Business was slow again. Luckily they were able to find rare items for collectors thanks to Jack's contacts. Between those and renting items out for other uses, they were at least skating by. Of course that only meant they used their time trying to stay alive and save the world. Two years ago Micki would have scoffed at the idea of the supernatural, but inheriting a shop full of items cursed by the devil and experiencing all the chaos they caused was more than enough to change her tone. Objects that couldn't be destroyed. Items that could give an owner almost anything and all they had to do was take a life with it to enhance their own. And for what? To only lose whatever bit of humanity they once had? It wasn't worth it and yet so many had done so and still were. Despite their efforts, sometimes Micki wondered if it would ever end. They'd all lost so much trying to do what was right. She wouldn't turn her back on it now, oh no. She was far too set on this path to give up. But sometimes... she had her moments of doubt.

She absently put the money back in the register and once it was locked, she headed for the bookshelf where her hand drifted toward the large old tome they knew as the manifest. It was filled with the names of her late Uncle Lewis's customers and the items they had bought and no doubt used for their twisted desires. But rather than pull it out she grabbed an art book to look at instead. After all, it was a slow day. Jack was gone, Ryan was who knows where, and she hadn't seen Johnny in a few days. The quiet was a little soothing. She figured she should at least enjoy the peace while she could.

The Players : Joker, (open)
Where : Chicago, Illinois.
When : January 27, 2009.
Rating : PG13 – R for violence.
Notes : A sharp and C minor

The Joker hugged the shadows of an alleyway as he avoided as much as possible the light of day. He usually had Harley to do these things for him but she was all tied up at the moment... And hanging from a meat hook in the abandoned meat warehouse like a giant pinata.

The Joker was searching for information. Information on the people who thwarted him last night.
A loud mouth, obnoxious blue haired woman, a guy with a patch over his eye like some pirate wannabe and most importantly the reporter Lois Lane.
Not because he had any reason to hold a vendetta against these people, only because they had crossed the Joker's path and had the nerve to survive the encounter.

As the Joker pulled a hood up over his distinctive features he crossed from the alley over to a hotel entrance. Nodding his hooded head at the doorman at the entrance to the hotel, he showed the man a copy of the Daily Planet.
The Joker had gone back to the home of the person who had a subscription to the Daily Planet in Chicago that Joker had found this morning and persuaded the man to find a copy that had a picture of Lois Lane in it. Then to thank the man for his time and effort he sprayed him with SimleX and then shoved him into his own refrigerator.
After all, didn't everyone want a 'cool smile'?

"Is this woman staying at your fine establishment?" He asked the Doorman.

The man glanced at the paper but shook his head. "We are not allowed to give out information on who stays here buddy." He said figuring the Joker was a rival reporter or something.

The Joker held up a hundred dollar bill, that was carefully folded so the man couldn't see that the figure on the bill was not good ol' Ben Franklin but was actually that of the Joker himself.

The Doorman snatched the bill and replied. "Nope. She's not at this hotel. She's probably at one of the fancier ones downtown being a reporter and all."

The Joker nodded his head and started to walk away but stopped. Turning he faced the Doorman. "It must be boring standing here all day, just to let people in and out. Do you ever take time to stop and smell the flowers?" The Joker then lifted the lapel of his jacket holding out the flower that was there.

As a fine mist sprayed out into the Doorman's face and he started to giggle, he noticed a smile gleaming from under the Joker's hood.

"I can see though that your job keeps you tickled!" The Joker laughed as he walked away as the Doorman fell to the ground outside the hotel and started convulsing with laughter as he died.