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Larsen #5: Who Is Poker Face?

DateLarsen #5ViewRead the...
12/30/13Who Is Poker Face?(Blog) (Forum)Disclaimer
RatingRating ExplanationGet Caught Up
MViolence.Larsen #4
Back at the Police Department…

“Poker Face! Who the hell is Poker Face?” yelled the police chief.

One of the rookies spoke up. “Well, apparently Chief, he’s the new mob boss in town. He...”

The Chief turned on the rookie, who had been standing nearby, and leaned close to his face. “Oh, really? Are you sure about that, Muldoon? ‘The new mob boss?’ Gee, I’m so happy that you cleared that up for me. The bulletholes in the back of these victims’ heads had me thinking he was a circus clown!” The Chief slammed down the photos of the victims he had been waving around when he was yelling at Muldoon. “Now! What I want to know is who Poker Face is, people! I seriously doubt that his mother gave him that name at birth. If we don’t find this guy soon, he’s going to tear this town apart, looking for that ding dang vigilante, ‘The Face!’ These two have got some sort of war going on, and I want it stopped!

The Chief punctuated his sentence by slamming his fist down on the desk again. A full coffee mug jumped off the desk, shattering on the floor, sending coffee in all directions, and a spoon skittering across the floor. The room was totally silent, and everyone seemed to be holding their breath, looking wide-eyed at the Chief, waiting to see if he was going to blow up again. He stared at the broken mug for just a minute, and picked up a napkin off the desk. He picked up his foot, and laughed to himself, as he started wiping coffee off of his shoe. Nobody moved, staring in disbelief, wondering that the Chief was laughing, and not turning beat red in anger. Suddenly, the Chief’s head jerked up, and he barked, “What the hell is everyone staring at? Didn’t I just give everyone a job to do? So hot dammit! Hop to it, people!” He took three strides towards his office, spun on his toe, and thrusting a stubby finger back in the direction of the desk he’d been standing at, he hollered, “Muldoon! Get that mess cleaned up!”

“Y-yes sir, Chief!” Muldoon jumped into action, kicking a roller chair as he half ran around the desk, and knocking over a cup of pencils, as he reached out to steady himself.

The Chief scowled at Muldoon, and spun on the balls of his feet, striding back to his office in a huff. As he went through the doorway to his office, he grabbed the doorknob, and flung it behind him. Just before it shut, his hand snapped out, and caught the edge of the door. Flinging it open again, he pointed back into the room, at no one in particular, and yelled, “And another thing: From now on... I don’t wanna see anything but paper cups in here!” With that, he slammed the door, and let down the venetian blind over his door. The office was suddenly abuzz, and everyone went back to work.

To be continued.

.

Please let me know what you think, and thanks! -cb

Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

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cbishop

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Edited By cbishop
OC Names:
Column HeadColumn Head
Characters:
  • Brown, Carlin
  • Face, The
  • Muldoon
  • Poker Face
Teams:
  • Larsen Police Department
.Fic-O-Pedia: cbishop. (My library of fics)Fic #024
About this story (spoilers)

As I tell Imp' in the comments below, this story changed a few times as I was writing it, because as I wrote it, I realized what all I could do with Chief Brown. Since I don't see me getting back to this story anytime soon, I'll give you some SPOILERS here:

Chief Brown is the chief of police, yes, but...

He's also running around town in a costume as the vigilante The Brown Spider. Sort of my Phantom, because he uses his Brown Spider Brand to mark the criminals he stops on the street. He doesn't go around shouting "I'm your friendly neighborhood Brown Spider" though, so no one knows who he is. This puts him unexpectedly in a third role, because the gangsters he's been fighting start calling him...

The Recluse. They call him this because of the Spider Brand, and the fact that they can't find him, and don't know who he is. When Chief Brown realizes this, he turns the Recluse into a shadowy figure that has moved in to unite and take over the city's gangs. He claims the Brown Spider works for him, and speaks for him, naturally.

This is all very much inspired by some movie serials I've watched along the way. A triple role like this is a bit ambitious, and I'm frankly unsure if I can pull it off or not. It'd either make Chief Brown one of the smartest strategists in town, or it'd come crashing down around his ears.

Oh, and all of this is born from one simple wordplay: "brown recluse spider." Yeah, I really do have fun with this stuff.

I write him as very highstrung in this story, because he's not just looking for Pokerface as the Chief of Police- he's looking for him as the Recluse/Brown Spider too. Pokerface threatens to undo all his roles, and he needs him found. In my mind, the enraged outbursts in this scene were his gangster role seeping through his police role. He's kind of compartmentalized these roles, but the truth is they're all the same person, and if something burns his plans badly enough, he'll have to reconcile the roles as all being himself, or he'll break. I'm really not sure which would be more fun for me.

Thanks for stopping in! :^D

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ImpurestCheese

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Poor Muldoon. I guess some guys get all the S$!t detail. Really like this (series?). Hopefully other people will too

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cbishop

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@impurestcheese: Yeah, Muldoon really gets it. I'm actually not completely happy with this scene. As I was writing it (years ago) I kind of went back-and-forth between wanting the chief to be some dark personality to writing him a little bit like the jerk officer in the Police Academy films, who was the brunt of most of Mulhoney's jokes. The scene kind of shifted again when I realized what all I could do with Chief Brown, and I started trying to work hints of that in. Hopefully it will all work out in the end. Thanks for checking them all out. :)

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ImpurestCheese

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