Dinah leaned against the doorframe, looking vastly more patient and calm than she felt, while she waited for Jason to answer the door. She hoped what little mask of calm she could draw up would fool him at least enough to open it. Truthfully she was pissed. Absolutely livid with him. But she knew enough that if he could sense that, he probably would just pretend he wasn’t home and sneak out the window and into the night. So she stood calmly, knowing she wouldn’t get any answers any other way. She could hear the deadbolt sliding back and the chain jingling as he undid the other lock. He opened the door and for a moment, she was struck by just how old he looked now. He hadn’t shaved in a few days and his beard was mostly grey. The white streaks in his hair had taken over, now looking more natural. His eyes though, they were always alert, still filled with that iron will.

“Well…Hi, Dinah. To what do I owe the pleasure?” He seemed on guard, even with her. But she supposed that was just his default, what had kept him alive all these years. She smiled at him, a slow lazy thing, before she began to whistle, which was his first clue something was wrong. She felt the song rather appropriate to convey her intent, even if her powers behind it would make it rather abundantly clear. The whistling song from Kill Bill was one she didn’t like to use, but it was all that was coming to mind as she took a step toward Jason. His eyes went wide as he tried to fight it. But he would slam his head into the door one way or the other.

“Ah…I see you and your boyfriend…had a chat…” He grit his teeth and strained his neck as she put more force into her whistle. His neck strained and his arms stiffened as he gripped the door, trying to hold back, But it was contest of wills and he was losing. His head smashed into the door, making a sizable dent in the hard surface. He stumbled backwards, dazed and while she kept whistling, she wasn’t satisfied. She threw a right hook and sent him tumbling inside, kicking the door closed behind her, the loud slam signaling the end of her little song.

“What. The. F*ck. Did. You. Do?!”

“Dinah…” Jason slurred as he got back onto his feet.

“Do you have any idea what you did to me?! To him?! How f*cked up it all is?!”

“Now hold the f*ck on, Juliette. It was for your own good, and you f*cking know it. Don’t give me that bullshit.” His disorientation faded fast the moment she started tossing accusations at him, but she didn’t care. She had more. So much more. She had spent years thinking Owen had just disappeared, been black bagged or erased because he was just some street kid with no family and the police didn’t want to fill out any more paperwork. All record of him had been erased when she looked back, like he’d never been there and now, of course, she knew it was Jason’s handiwork. All that worry and stress and depression was his doing.

“NO! You don’t give me that bullshit! You made a decision for me that you had no right to make. My own good?! Do you even understand what you’re saying?”

Jason put himself on the other side of the room, glaring at her over a table. He set his jaw, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You…got arrested. You were drinking and doing drugs and that only got worse around him. You’re damn right I made that decision for you. Your mother would have been appalled.”

Dinah didn’t care there was a table in the way, she just jumped over it, turning her scream into a high G note and effectively freezing him in place as she tackled him to the floor. Pinning him down, she just started to sing any random note that came her head, an impromptu aria of rage. He had to have known that would set her off. Jason wasn’t stupid. Whatever he was playing at, she didn’t care. It had been years and she thought she was finally ok with it all, but one word from him and she was a rage filled teenager again, with no proper target to aim at. She punched him a few times before he was able to fend her off, striking at her throat. She gasped and choked and he shoved her off. She kicked at him as she struggled to breathe, but he easily blocked her strikes as they grappled on the floor.

“He…was the only…person that let me grieve. You…asshole. I had…to put on a façade…for everyone. I had just…started to get better, to accept my life without her and then you took him away because you thought you knew better!” Her voice was angry and still raw, raspy and full of pain. “I have the hardest time letting anyone get close because of your f*cking choice. Because I think they’re just gonna die, or disappear or get taken from me so I sabotage every relationship I’ve ever had! Yeah, I got ‘better’ but I also got worse! I’m so f*cked up any chances I had with anyone are gone.”

“Dinah…it’s still better than being dead. We all lost your mom. I wasn’t about to watch you die too. So yes, I made that decision for you. For him too. You two were distractions to each other. I thought I’d let it play out then you ended up in jail. That’s when I put my foot down.” Jason leaned over and put an awkward arm around her shoulder, unused to providing such a comfort to anyone. She gathered her legs up to her chest and hugged them, leaning into him, exhausted.

“Feel better now that you’ve punched something?” she nodded slowly. “Ok, good, now-“ whatever he was going to say was cut off as the door exploded inward and he moved to put himself between her and whatever was coming in. Between the bursts of gunfire she could hear the distinctive mad cackle filling the hallway outside. Dinah knew they were in trouble then, and she still couldn’t use her voice. She looked at Jason with worry just before pain exploded on the left side of her head and all she saw were stars.



Tags: Josephine Lawler Owen Merlowe

Then I throw your corpse on top of the pile

Now this was exciting. So very exciting. Josie had been wanting to make the little Hood pay for quite some time now but she'd never thought she'd get quite an opportunity like this. It started with a little note. Not necessarily a love letter but she'd certainly hugged it tight after reading it like it was one. She'd been so excited, tried to turn to Melody to show it to her, before remembering she was gone... Right. That almost made her frown. She missed her little Harley far more than she cared to think, but that wasn't something she needed to worry herself with at the moment. It didn't take long for her to get into her best suit and get her make up done before gathering around her group of petty clowns. "Alright, boys, we need to get you all dressed and ready to go. I got news from a birdy where we can find us a Hood. I think it's about time we get a little bit of payback, don't you agree?" she said with a grin. There was a bit of cheering going on around them, making her grin all the more. Oh this was going to be such a delight. It might not be the Hood she wanted, but it was a Hood that could get her to the asshole she wanted a bit of revenge on. Petty revenge, yes, but revenge none the less. No one was ever going to try and call her out as though she was simply some sort of copy cat ever again.

He'd wanted a Joker. He was going to get one.

She didn't want to waste any sort of time. She got her arsenal ready and handed the address off to one of the driving clowns before heading into the back of the vehicle. While she had guns on her belt, she wasn't doing much to show that she cared for them. Rather, she was brandishing a nice metal bat with little ha's and smiles spraypainted onto it. She'd considering going for the crowbar, her father had told her a nice story about that once, but that was reserved for a very special guest, she couldn't go using it too soon, now could she. Josie couldn't stop grinning the whole drive there, occasionally smacking the bat into her gloved hand for fun, occasionally petting it as though it were nothing more than a cherished pet. If that were the case, though, she would have brought her darling children along. Baby and Otis were probably going to be starving when she got home, they could have used the juicy snack. Though she wasn't sure she wanted Jason properly dead. Just dying. Someone was going to need to come home with her, after all .

Once they got there, she had her goons follow her up the stairs quietly. No one batted an eyelash. Perhaps they didn't actually notice her, or perhaps they were too petrified to give her little gang a second glance. If anyone had gotten in her way, they were left with a silenced bullet through her ehad, a pretty corpse to decorate the hallways. The explosives were set up on the door and she waited for just a second while doing it to listen in. It took all of her strength to not giggle wildly hearing a woman on the other side. The scream she'd made was nearly deafening, but it was special, something she was certainly she'd heard before. Oh ho ho, she was getting something far better than just a little Red, she was getting the pretty bird that Hood was seen with, wasn't she? Oh, what joy! She waited until the right moment, stepping far away from the door with the switch in her free hand, bat in the other. The cold metal was resting gently on her shoulder as she watched, as she waited. Three. Two. One. Click.

Boom.

As the door blew in, bullets began to fly, and laughter erupted from the Clown Queen. Clowns moved forward and she giddily moved past them. They paused in their bullet rain to let her move to her target. Jason was on the ground, a few holes, but nothing that was going to kill him. Yet. However, her new target didn't seem nearly as incapacitated. She was going to need to change that. "Night night, Birdy," she cooed before roughly bringing the bat against the side of the woman's head. Another loud cackle escaped her as she watched the woman fall to the ground. Well that was easy. She used her foot to nudge the body. Out cold. Good. "Buddy! Bozo! Pick this up and take it to the car. The rest of you, clear out, I have some business to finish here first." The amusement that had been in her voice a second before had vanished quickly as she barked the orders. Everyone was still for a moment, making her turn to glare at them. "Did I say in a minute? No? Then get your asses moving! You don't want me to lose my patience, do you?" One hand moved away from her bat to hover over her gun for a moment. That got them moving.

Soon, she was alone in the building with Jason. "Good. Now that that's taken care of, I think it's time we had a chat." She stepped over to him, setting the bat down on a table nearby so she could grab her gun from it's holster. He tried to move, but she wasn't going to have any of that. Her foot found a spot to firmly press down on his chest so she could keep him pinned. "Ah ah, don't make me kill you. I need you alive if this is going to work out for me. You're going to send your little prodigy a message for me, alright?" She pushed more of her weight onto her boot before leaning down as best she could to get her face somewhat close to his. She placed the end of the pistol right against his chin so he knew that she would shoot him if he tried anything. "When you wake up again, and you will wake up again, he's going to find you. I can guarantee it. I want you to tell him that if he ever wants to see her alive again, he's gonna have to play a game of find the birdy. And, before you try it, tracers aren't gonna do much to help you." She smirked down at him before getting off of him. She delivered a quick shot to his knees so he couldn't run before putting the gun back where it belonged and headed for the door. "Oh, I almost forgot!" Turning quickly back, she grabbed her bat and smacked him as hard as she good upside his head to knock him out. Giggles escaped her again as she did one last thing. Using as much of his blood as she could manage, she wrote a message on the wall.

Catch me if you can, Hood

---

Josephine was all set up in her little warehouse. It wasn't her usual place, of course, but she'd had it at the read for when she finally managed to get her hands on that Red Hood issue of hers. She'd had a plan to broadcast his death to the world when she finally got him to send a message. She was real, she wasn't a wannabe, and she was ready for everyone to know the terror that the Joker could be once again. They might have thought the nightmare was over before, but oh boy, it was never going to be over. The room was padded with sound proofing material, spray painted with all manners of madness everywhere. She really hoped that her guest was liking it. Oh, but was her guest awake yet? She wasn't too certain. She'd gotten her ready as it were. Stripped down so that she could make sure she didn't have any gizmos or gadgets on her. Any sort of tools of the trade had been left dumped far away from here. She'd let her keep some small dignity with a bra and underwear, but aside from that? Nothing. She also found herself tied up as much as she possibly could to a nailed down chair. Duct tape, rope, zip ties. She wanted to make sure that her victim wasn't getting away. She hadn't even realized how useful her shock collar was going to be. She'd just had it for a torture device, but now? Oh man, was it going to be so much more useful here. It was back with red diamonds around it. A small homage to her Melody. She would have loved to be in control of it, she was sure.

Oh well.

Turning the music on, she started whistling along to the song she'd chosen. Funhouse. It'd be followed by Circus and that was it. Two songs repeated over and over. It was set up to occasionally have spikes in the volume, to throw the woman off a bit. How wonderful was that, right? She had all the toys she was going to need in the room already set up, and in her hands was a remote to control the shock collar a bit better. One wrong move, and she'd get a nice little zapping from it. She was certain she could hear the woman starting to stir finally as she walked around her. Good. She needed her awake, not asleep. Still whistling, she pressed the button so that the collar would release a warning shock to the woman's throat. She couldn't wait to hear what sort of noises she might make from it. After that, she came up close behind the woman, placing a hand on her shoulder before leaning down towards her ear. "Good morning, sleepy head. You know, I'm a big fan. Dinah Gray, rock legend. Who would have ever thought that she spent her nights the way she does. Gallivanting with with worst company." A bark of laughter escaped her as she pushed away. "You know, I can't believe I never saw it before. You need a costume upgrade, something more cape and cowl. Really hides the identity better." She shrugged that thought of rather quickly as she started circling the woman again, gently pressing the button again for a quick second before she went backc to talking. "You can expect that a lot more often if you try to use your voice for anything but answering questions. And don't think I'm the only one controlling one. I've got back ups, Birdy, and they have their orders."

xxx	Dinah Grayson Owen Merlowe
I'm thinking owen should probably come a bit later, yes? So a few rounds of these two first. I'm also really sorry for the length >///< if you want me to change anything, just say the word.

Because anything goes on the Joker's Wild

✿

The pounding in Dinah’s head just seemed to get worse the more awake she became. It took her a moment to even remember why her head hurt. She remembered fighting with Jason, but after that things got fuzzy. Had he knocked her out so she wasn’t trying to punch him? No, because that didn’t explain why she felt so restrained. He would have at least tossed her ass on a couch or something much more forgiving than a chair. A chair that she seemed to be practically glued to with how many different ways she seemed to be tied to it. She had no room to move at all.

Then there was the music.

That should have been her biggest clue as to what had gone horribly wrong in her day. But her brain was still trying to reboot. Picking her head up with a painful groan, her eyes took in the room she was in. And then the panic started to flood her system. She tried to move, tried to see if there was any way to wriggle free or reach anything, but she was locked down tight. And there was nothing to reach. Her clothes were gone. She let out a pained shout as the collar shocked her and
realized she was so very, very, very f*cked. And if Joker had her here, Dinah had to wonder what happened to Jason.

It took everything she had not to jerk her head away from the Joker practically whispering in her ear. Every word out of her mouth just made the knot in her stomach get bigger. She felt like she was going to be sick. She was trapped, tied down by a psychopath and said psycho knew her identity. Worst nightmare confirmed. She winced and grit her teeth at the second shock, trying not to scream again. That seemed to be what she wanted to hear anyway. And even after the warning about the shock collar’s use, she had to say something.

“You know, I’m usually all for some kinky bondage, but don’t you think this is taking it a little far? Didn’t even buy me flowers or take me to dinner first.” Always with a snarky comment, even in the face of possible death. Had to be a family thing.

Then I throw your corpse on top of the pile

Ah, the blissful sounds of screams had been so worth the wake up call she'd given the woman. Though she was somewhat disappointed she didn't get to hear it twice. She had hit such a wonderful pitch with that first one. Though she really shouldn't be all that surprised. After all, this was a musician she was talking about, a singer, someone who used her voice for two very different professions. It was beautiful, really, and she was just getting started. Shocks, that was just step one. She'd have some time to kill before her mouse steps into it's trap. And once it did, things were going to become a very different story. But until then, she had the canary in a cage. She wondered how far she could push it before she made it sing her the sort of songs she wanted to hear? Metaphorically speaking of course. She didn't expect that the Bird was going to make this easy on her, and that was half of the fun, wasn't it? Oh, she really hoped that Dinah didn't make this too easy for her. She was expecting hours of entertainment before the main show got here.

If not, she might have to make this toy expendable and find a better replacement.

Joker sucked in on her teeth as she heard the woman talk back, not wasting a second in pressing down the button again and holding if down for a few seconds. Well, she clearly needed to learn her lesson. Though, actually, she supposed the statement wasn't that bad. It was the exact sort of cheekiness she expected out of someone apart of the bat family. "Oh, you mean you didn't get the bouquet? Dammit, I really meant to, too. Oh well, silly memory. I guess it messes up sometimes." She brought the remote to the side of her head, giving it a small tap with the plastic edge before chuckling. She might as play back a little, it was the only way she was going to entice her to get more snark. The more, the better. It meant she had more of an excuse to ruin this poor dear.

She stopped in front of Dinah again, giving her a bit of an appreciative look over. Not bad for a bat, she supposed. Certainly not her style, though. She felt like she didn't take nearly enough away from her. Her victim didn't seem vulnerable enough, didn't seem to have enough missing. Should she fix that? Maybe later. One arm came across her chest, moving to hold her elbow while the hand that held the remote stayed up by her cheek, tapping it gently. "You know, the bondage look really does suit you. Maybe we can make the paralysis look suit you, too. What do you think? I hear it runs in your family?" She giggled again before shaking her head. "No, that's too obvious. Oh, I know!" She twisted around on her heels, holding the remote up almost victoriously as she headed towards her little table of toys. Soon the remote found it's way into her pocket while her hands found two things on the table. One was a scalpel, the other a gun. Real? Fake? Who really knew, but it certainly looked it. "Let's play a game! I'm sure you'll wing it," she joked. "I want some answers to some pretty important questions, and you're going to answer them for me. If you don't... well, you don't wanna know what I can use either of these for."

xxx	Dinah Grayson
<3

Because anything goes on the Joker's Wild

✿

She tried, she really did, but a shout came out eventually, a high pitched keening that increased in volume the longer Joker held the button. It may have only been a few seconds, but it felt like minutes, hours to Dinah. And though she did try to put any sort of power behind her scream, trying to get Josie to drop the remote, her throat still burned from Jason's strike. The most she could probably muster was a gentle mental nudge of a suggestion.

"Nah, my secretary throws out most flowers that get delivered," Dinah huffed out, out of breath, her head pounding and her throat screaming in pain. Still, she felt like being chatty. Not helpful, but chatty. "My office would be a jungle if she didn't."

Dinah eyed Josie carefully while she tested her bonds more methodically, trying to find some sort of weak spot, something exploitable. But there was duct tape, rope, zip ties all manner of things. Some part of her brain was only slightly disappointed there was no hand cuffs, but they would have been the least of her worries anyhow. There was a veritable smörgåsbord of things she could see on a table, all laid out in a haphazard manner. She was fairly sure some of it was there just to psych her out, but with the Joker it was always hard to tell.

Dinah grit her teeth to keep from responding to the dig about her mother. She couldn't show too much, just had to be flippant about everything lest Josie found something to really dig into and poke at. Seeing the gun and scalpel made Dinah go still. She knew she flirted with death and dismemberment every time she put on her mask and ran around fighting for justice. However being faced with it while tied to a chair practically naked was an altogether different matter. And yet the knee jerk instinct to antagonize the one holding the very literal gun remained. Possibly became even stronger as a defense mechanism against all this insanity.

"What? You want answers? Well I have the answer to the most important question in the universe. 42. The answer is 42. Ta-da. We're done with the question and answer portion of our evening. What's next?" She smiled expectantly at Josie.