Nowhere near the other Chicago., What with being on a ship and all.

[Earthworm Jim]

"Oh wait, yes, this is the other Chicago."

The Marquis smiled his clever little smile.

"Dear me, I never would have realized it if you hadn't pointed it out. The low buildings made of red sandstone and the frigid desert surrounding them did not tip me off in the slightest."

He was displeased by the batch of Real dwellers he had received. But hey, it was his job, and they wanted to open their eyes. He scanned the small group in front of him. Pish. They all looked just like regular, ordinary, law-abiding citizens. Hopefully he'd have the pleasure of finding out one of them was a real whack-job and his task would be made so much easier.

Didn't look that way, though.

"Alright then. I need a volunteer."

One of the members of the group raised their hand. Maybe he did get a nutcase after all. Best not to get one's hopes up too soon though.

"Very good. You, come here and stand right where I am."

The Marquis shuffled a bit.

"Good. Now, look over that way and tell me what you see."

He pointed off to the north, far across the frozen red desert.

[Jontar]

The man, though somewhat shabbily dressed (and his odor made the Marquis' nose crinkle just a touch), stood perfectly straight in the Marquis' former position. This placement put him almost an entire foot taller than the Marquis, to general (and swiftly repressed) amusement. (Whoops. my bad.)
(A fleeting instant of blurred vision reveals...)

The man, though somewhat shabbily dressed, came forward promptly and peered in the direction the Marquis indicated. In a professorial tone, he answered, "I believe that I see a magnificent city of worked metal and stone. Gleaming walls of slow-moving liquid shine like brightest daylight, but those within can see without (but not necessarily very clearly). The lowermost levels appear to be channels through which metal boxes on wheels move at high velocities-- (Analogous to blood vessels, perhaps? Interesting indeed.) though some of the channels appear to go higher than others. The city is absolutely teeming with peoples of all kinds, within a basic set of constraints-- doubled eyes, ears, nostrils, arms, legs; a single mouth, and reasonably consistent skin coloring. Within that framework, the peoples appear to be almost unique."

(Don't forget to mention the great big stepped pyramid looming over the entire city, Kee.)

He glanced over at the Marquis. "Is that what you had in mind?"

[Earthworm Jim]

This guy worked. The Marquis took the strange man and steered him away, leaving the others standing aimlessly in the middle of the red barren desert.

The Marquis would not be around to see them again.

A phone jingled. The Marquis made a phone with his hand, putting the thumb up to his ear and his pinky towards his mouth.

"Debt Consolidation."

A chuckle from the other end followed by a reply.

"Gambling."

It was Time. Oh goodie.

"I have someone here..." The Marquis gracefully twirled himself over to the other side of his companion and inspected him again. "...that you would be delighted to meet."

Time was pleased.

"Oh do you now? Bring him in."

The Marquis clenched his phone hand into a fist and let it down. He spun in front of the strange man and held his hand out in the gesture for 'stop'. The Marquis's phone hand fluttered down to the ground and pulled back. The dirt itself peeled back like shaved cheese to reveal a hole of dull gray light.

"Have a nice trip, mate!"

The Marquis sent his foot into the man's rump, startling him into the hole. After a few moments the Marquis rubbed his hands together, held his nose, and dove in after him feet first.

((What happens next is entirely up to you. Have fun with it; write as little or as much as you want and use/make up any characters you would like. I'll pick up again when you're done. Anyone else is free to take up the reigns at this point as well.))

[DianaDreamer]

Hehe, heh.... ehee hee hee!
*Twitch* ...What's it laughing at now? What's it going to do?

Poe Try had been sitting in Time's waiting room, reading a book on wars, an ancient joke according to many in the realm of the surreal. As he read, Itch hopped out of one ear, whilst his misunderstood partner in crime, Twitch, appeared on her other shoulder with a POOF! Upon the realization that the demon twins had arrived, Poe put the book down and flicked Itch off of him. "I don't know what you're up to, Itch, but you're annoying the hell out of me, so knock it off."

Hehe, heh... I shall win you over this time for sure, Poe! You shall quoth the Raven, never again, once I'm through with you!
*Twitch* ...not... not the ravens again...
Indeed, the Raven! My scheming will have paid off, if when Time opens the door, reality is thwarted by nonsense!

"May I remind you that at present I am at least six times your size? Twitch, pull yourself together! I think we are going to have company, if my ears do not deceive me..."

Just then there was a great thud, and the next thing Poe knew there was someone on top of him. He couldn't tell much else, save for the fact that Itch was gnawing on the newcomer's shoulder, and Twitch was trying to persuade his twin against it in vain. Poe tried moving, but for some reason could not under normal circumstances. So he freed a hand, snapped his fingers and disintegrated. Then with a magnificent pull of existence, he pulled himself back together and appeared before the figure in front of him...

[Jontar]

Kee(Riist) looked around the room he had so ignominiously fallen into. There was no trace at all of the Marquis (but I suppose that's to be expected, neh?). The person in front of him seemed relatively unimportant-- a single member of an astoundingly long line that stretched into the middle distance. He squinted. (Yeah, it's curving. Don't worry about it-- you'll go nuts.) "Oh."

A figure who seemed to be repeating throughout the line tossed a wave and winked, if one can be said to wink through mirrored sunglasses. (Well, at any rate, I saw it.) Kee walked over to him, completely ignoring the person he had fallen into (almost like he was unnoticed entirely), and produced an unfolding chessboard from a pocket of his pants. The board had a game set up on it already, noticeable when Kee flicked a switch on the side.

The board hummed to life, generating the standard pattern of figures-- knights, pawns, rooks, and others scattered over the board's surface. The two sides glared balefully at one another, once more committed to the slaying of mortal enemies.

"Your board or mine, sir?"

(This game bores me. Does this really have to happen now? Oh, forget it, I'll wander around while you play.)

(The room is gigantic-- I can't see the ceiling, or the walls! There's those giant doors, and chairs and tables and stuff, but they're kind of hazy sometimes-- that bastard is stealing cycles! ...well, I suppose it's not that big a deal, no one else is using them, and who cares if the furniture is gone while no one's home? Maybe Erwin Shrodinger. Wonder if he's around here somewhere. Or his schizo cat. Is it behind me? No. Ok. Hmm...)

(*zip*)
(who are you, and why do you carry your demons around? Isn't it easier just to say, 'fuck off'?)

This last was addressed to the nonplussed figure who had cushioned Kee(Riist!)'s landing so well.

[DianaDreamer]

"Oh so now you'd like to talk to me, after you've ignored me since the minute you so rudely landed on my back?"
*Twitch* Please forgive him. He's been ill since he died.
Ha! If you could call THAT moment death! Poe has been dead dead deadskies since... OW! Knock it off! I can be irritating!
"Of course, we are not always what we say we are..."

During all this talk, Twitch had composed himself for the first time to talk to the newcomer. His long black hair was held back by a dark crimson ribbon, his usual attire of straight jacket and blue sweat pants melted into a black trenchcoat and blood red robes. He grew to half his own height, which amounted to a little taller than Poe. He pulled out of the void an infinity symbol and placed it above his head, then bowed to the newcomer.

Simultaneously, Itch was also undergoing a type of transformation. He also grew to his full height of skyscraper proportions, draped in a death shroud and a cloak to hide the nothingness that was his face. He touched the sky with the tip of a deteriorating bony finger, and at the touch lightning struck him, revealing that the only parts of his being that was substance were his hands. From the lightning there came a rod that landed perfectly by Itch's side. The rod seemed to sprout gold branches and silver leaves, and even some blood red roses. Then with another crack of thunder, spikes shot out from the rod, and the plants withered and melted into a sharpened blade at the edge of it. Itch wiped away the ash from the scythe, gave it a few personal touches, and nodded to Twitch.

As you can see, friend, we are not demons. Well, Vellan (nodding to Itch) is questionable, but we (Itch, Poe and I) are a part of a whole that broke away from the "real" long before death did us in. And because of this, Poe broke us away from each other into three parts.
"I must confess", Poe admitted, "it was indeed my fault. I was very creative, and my insatiable lust for a good story has turned me inside out. My name in life was Edgar Allen, and secretly I had a power, thanks to my sworn alliance to both the Heavens and the Depths. For many reasons, I cannot remember much about life... I can't even remember my own heritage crest or weapon of choice. I guess about such things. In truth, because of past transgressions against whatever gods and demons that exist, I have split myself into three parts to keep myself sane throughout eternity."
And in truth, the creation of two other souls has virtually killed Poe for the most part. He rarely speaks or acts with decency and respect for others.

Vellan (Itch) nodded, then with one great swoop of his scythe all returned to its original state.

[Jontar]

(*applause* I see, you're imaginary! That's why Kee didn't react to you. Don't worry about it-- he couldn't see anything if you waved it in front of his face. Dude needs glasses, seriously. Well, that's not the entire explanation, but that would take Time. *chuc--)

Everything stopped. A vast shape roared overhead in no time at all.

(--kle* I'm so funny, I could kill myself with laughter. No, wait, I couldn't! Ahahahahahahahahahaha! AhaHAHAhahaHAHAHAH! Ha. Haha. Hah. Hm.)

The nonentity gazed up and down Poe and his compatriots, and considered. (What could possess you (ahaha. ha.) to ally yourself with Heaven (*thunderbolt*) and... the other places? (*very mild earthquake*)

--------------------

The line had gotten shorter, somehow-- those who had business with Time had completed it, and returned to their respective realities or surrealities, or different ones, if Time was feeling capricious, which it so often was.

A distinctive figure appeared high above the others, black beaded braids whipping wildly with his pernicious passage through thin air, pantaloons and boots upended over the broad ruffled shirt and vest, muttering, "Oh bugger," before winking out again.

The room blurred as the pirate disappeared, shifting to the deck of a ship-- a great big ship! Three giant tubes launched themselves high into the air from the solid metal decking, towering (Ahahaha.) over the new land?scape. People were milling about like lost sheep, some a quite remarkable shade of green. (Interesting tidbit: The only known occurrences of Orions landing on Planet Earth happens at sea. Hmm.)

It is quite cold in the new setting-- various furred creatures lounge about in complete comfort, unseen by standard vision settings (Y'know. 'Real'), but the skin-based entities are either shivering or below deck.

Below deck, the party to end all parties is being thrown.

[Earthworm Jim]

The Marquis took a pit stop to check on Real. He's been feeling under the weather lately.

He entered the stuffy 1920's office with a low and extravagant bow, then violently stood straight and stiff and marched his way over to the desk and slammed his hands down on the wood surface. Smoke from Real's cigar twisted and churned around De Carabas's face and up into the ceiling fan.

Real, the Clint Eastwood-esque man he was, sat leaning back in his office chair with his black lightly smudged but otherwise polished shoes upon the desk's surface. He was wearing the usual; a tan trench coat with matching tan slacks and tan fedora. It looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks. His dull green eyes displayed no emotion as usual, but his mouth was wrought in a frown around his slim brown cigar. He looked older than usual.

Poor guy.

"I have for you-"

The Marquis reached into his jacket pocket. It was as drawn out and flamboyant as he could make it.

"-a card."

He withdrew his hand, bearing in it a card from Hallmark featuring a very depressed looking beagle with a hat. The words, 'Get well soon' were proudly displayed in large silver letters at the top.

The Marquis placed the card on the table. Real eyed the card idly, then pulled out the center drawer of his desk. His hand wrapped around the handle of a .38 revolver, and moved it from it's resting place. In a slow, deliberate motion, Real raised the weapon and shot the Marquis directly in the forehead.

He stumbled backwards into a file cabinet and slumped to the ground.

---

He was now on a ship. Joy.

He took notice of two people. One was the man he was chauffeuring about, and Edgar Allen Poe.

He addressed Poe first. A large stride in his direction followed by a quick waltz brought him uncomfortably close to the poet.

"Sir Allen Poe! Huge fan of your work, dearest, huge fan."

The Marquis' attention quickly shifted to the other. Using Poe's shoulders as a platform, the Marquis lifted himself up and into a sort of mid-air cartwheel, landing behind the man.

"And YOU."

The Marquis spun him around to face him and contorted his face into one of scolding. His hand came up clenched in a fist with his pointer finger extended as rigidly as possible, trembling with anger. As quickly as it came, the anger quickly dissipated into that of joy, his hand releasing it's pent up aggression into the air.

"Come, both of you. Time is a very busy man."

With a hop, a skip, a leap, another skip, and several jumps, the Marquis was off, threading through the ship's interior. His destination was the brig of the ship.

((Still on you guys.))

[DianaDreamer]

"Imaginary is hardly the word I'd use for THOSE two," Poe sighed. "I had signed on two factions for two different reasons... First I had asked God for love, and when he gave it to me I rejoiced. My dearest Virginia... I thought I had it all. Then she was taken away from me, and I gave the Heavens my cold shoulder. I sought other things to live, such as the perfect story. Through and through I spent my time conjuring demons in order to get the perfect story... and at the pinnacle of my existence my dear Virginia came to me in a dream. The sight of her made me lose all hope in life, and the next night I went out for a drink. There I met Itch and Twitch, powerful characters that I literally brought to life by the magic of word... Itch led me down a darkened alley, and there I fought him. I fought as hard as humanly possible, both fists bloodied and bones protruding. Yet with one terrible swing Itch grabbed my heart, stole half my soul and pushed me into a garbage dumpster. My soul, my true soul, remains separated from me, inside Twitch."

*Twitch* I don't even remember the warmth of an entire soul... it's so cold here...

Just then, Itch noticed from the corner of his eye that they were not only on a ship, but the Marquis had appeared.

Hehe, heh! The Marquis has returned! Should we toy with him?
"From the looks of things he might've had a little too much toying dealt upon him for one day..."

Ehee hee, what the hell? Might as well cast an Inner Spell!

As the Marquis offered his praises to Poe, Itch possessed the man's body and glared at the man before him. Inside, Poe was trying to take control of the demon twin, but was incapable of doing so as he screamed to get out.
" You love my works, huh? Did you enjoy the The Masque of the Red Death? I enjoyed that one immensely. I can do a splendid impression of the Red Death himself, especially in this party scene. Come, dance with me in my rooms of magic, stare into my face, see what kind of creature you really are..."

Itch stared him down for a time, then chuckled to himself as he let Poe out at last.
Suddenly the body of Poe started screaming incomprehensible curses until he realized he was free. He recomposed himself, sighed, and smiled. "Let's go, shall we?"

[Lithium]

Below deck, in the brig, a party was in fact going on. The mostly fighting sort of party. Many of the people locked in the brig were not happy to be there, so they passed the time by beating the shit out of everyone they saw. Only a few of them knew they could actually leave the brig at anytime, but those few chose to stay there. Near the front of the cell of seemingly infinite size, there sat Todd and three other men, playing a simple card game.

"Bullshit."

Todd eyed the man on his right who said that, and slicked back his greasy blue hair. "Are you sure?". The man nodded. Todd smiled, and flipped the card over. It was an eight, just like he said.

"Please don't."

Todd let out a short giggle, "Rules are rules." He grabbed the man by the back of the head, and slammed the mans face into the edge of the table. The man let out a yelp, and then straightened himself back up. He set a card on the table. "Nine."

"Ten."

"Joker."

Todd gently tossed his final card into the pile. "Queen." The man to his right smiled, and said, "Bullshit." Todd let out a loud laugh this time. "We all know it's a queen!"

"If you're so sure, then flip it!"

Todd sighed, and did so. It was an eight. The card had changed. "What?!"

The man wasted no time in grabbing Todd by the back of the head, and slamming his face into the table. Todd sat there for a moment, stunned, but still thinking.

"Let's play a new game..." Todd picked up the small table, and threw it at the wall, causing cards to go flying everywhere. "Fifty two pick up!"

He stalked off, heading for the way out of the Brig when he ran into The Marquis. "Uh oh. Um...what brings you to this fine side of the universe, Mr. Marquis? You here to play another game?"

[Earthworm Jim]

The Marquis pulled a cigarette and a lighter out of an unseen pocket. He placed the cigarette in Todd's mouth and lit it. Then he continued walking.

He passed through the brig's lively party to a hatch in the floor. Opening it revealed a very dark room.

The Marquis leaped into the room and landed with a thud at the bottom. A light flickered on somewhere above.

The Marquis was standing in the middle of an open baseball stadium, right on the pitcher's mound. The stadium was otherwise empty. The clear blue sky could be seen above, all except where the hatch in the boat was directly above him. Birds and clouds could be seen in the air; it was an ordinary baseball stadium on a crisp Monday morning.

It had to be a Monday, because Time (standing at home plate) was wearing his paint-stained overalls. The Marquis greeted him with a curt two-finger salute and a big cat-like smile.

((Still on you.))

[Jontar]

Clapping and yelling his head off in the stands, Kee(Riist) followed baseball's finest traditions with a vengeance, and heckled.

"You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with that thing!" (Um. Kee?)
"Hah. shut up, Riist. Swing away, batter! Yeah! Knock it out of the park!"
(Kee, really. That's probably the guy we're about to meet, and the one you're yelling at shoved us through an interdimensional tear to a completely other space. What are you doing?)
"...I bet you've got an arm like my grandma, and she couldn't throw a cat off her lap if it killed her!" (Oh gods. Well, if I believed in any. Hmm...)

(Alright, look. I know that was a bit of a dicey situation, and I was impressed by the sleight you used on that guy in the brig, but seriously. This is embarrassing.)

Kee reached into his chest pocket and pulled out two playing cards. "I don't think that guy'll like the new game, either. He's not playing with a full deck. (Heh. Heheehoo. Wow. Good one, Kee.) Thought so."

He stood up, tottering crazily down the short flight of stairs and vaulting the railing to land just on the lip of the dugout, wavered uncertainly, and then strode forward to third base.

He bowed reverentially to Time, assuming the bearing of one in the presence of a master; then to the Marquis, he asked, "Who's next?"

(...which cards did you take? I missed it.)
sotto voce: "Wouldn't you like to know. One's a queen."

[Lithium]

Todd had followed them into the baseball stadium. With The Marquis something interesting was always bound to happen. When he saw Time, he smiled, and blew smoke out of his mouth from the cigarette.

"It's always you."

He reached into the pocket of his trench coat, pulling out his deck of cards. He went through them, counting each. Fifty one.

"I'm missing a card."

Todd pulled out a switchblade, and pulled back one of the arms of his trench coat, revealing his pale skin full of scars. He then cut himself. After putting away the switchblade, he once again reached into the depths of his trench coat, pulling out a bottle of vodka. He poured some on his wound, and drank some. He tossed the rest of the bottle to Time.

[Jontar]

"My apologies, sir. You may have the card back, with my compliments. 'Twas a strange game indeed you played."

Kee frisbee'd the Queen toward Todd, slipping the other back easily into a pocket, then relapsed into inactivity.

(...Where'd that Poe person go to? Time usually likes to play against a couple people at once, in my experience.) "You've never met him." (Oh, right.)

[DianaDreamer]

Meanwhile, Itch had been setting off fireworks from the rafters, Twitch running wildly behind trying in vain to blow each out. Suddenly there was a great explosion from midfield, and before the dust cleared, green lasers struck and a grand organ began to play. From there acolytes in purple and green robes flooded the seats like zombies, chanting Poe's Dreamland:

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime...

"Out of SPACE... out of TIME!"
Poe finished with a note so impossible that the acolytes in the nosebleeds took off their hoods and cheered. The song continued as Itch continued the fireworks. Out of breath, Twitch suddenly appeared in front of Kee and the others, and noted out loud,

Well, *twitch* not quite what I expected from him, but you know how he loves to make an entrance when visiting old friends.

Poe was unusually dressed for someone of his time period. He had let his hair grow out a few more inches in the six would-be months that he had disappeared, and had put it back in a mangled ponytail. Besides that and shaving off his moustache, Poe wore metal gauntlets over his black trenchcoat, and combined with his buckled boots and burnt sienna peasant shirt, he looked like he was fifteen years younger than he did at time of death (age 40). In fact, the only thing that would've been ordinary about his outfit would've been his black pants, which sagged ever slightly over the boots before being neatly tucked inside.

When Dreamland-- The Song had finished, Poe jogged down a path that had been made for him by parting acolytes. It led straight to Time, and when Poe reached the figure before him, he took a bow and shook hands.

"I see you still love a good joke," Poe chuckled, "for clearly you are not here to play a game of baseball with us."