004 | stale donuts | video

[infomodder]

[The video flips onto Will, situated at an older, well-worn desk in front of a window that seems to have come standard with the building itself. Right outside the window, right behind Will, is one of those ads featuring Chrollo. It all looks very cramped, though Will has managed to take the time to actually shave and get a haircut and put in the basic effort to look socially presentable. He's even wearing a plain white shirt and dark blue tie, nothing plaid in sight. Like it's normal! Tiny space, business dress, a totally shirtless dude in a cologne ad if he looks over his shoulder, everything is fine.]

Good afternoon, imPorts. Two things. [Will's eyes occasionally lift from the camera, as though there's someone giving him cues.] My name is Will Graham, and I've just taken on the position of working as a liaison between the police and our imPort population. Ideally, there would be a clearer line of communication between the two. If anything happens and you're uncomfortable going to the police yourself, for any reason, that's what I'm here for. [Eyes flick up. Well.] And to encourage you to go to the police when the need for it arises—they can't help if we keep them in the dark and doing everything on our own without giving them any notice serves to only add onto later headaches.

[So basically don't be Miles Edgeworth with the whole Yuri Petrov is Lunatic thing. Be him in the way that he was right, don't be him going to the Network for vigilante justice without doing anything else first. Okay? Okay. Good. Not that Will's incapable of just telling them about by looking at his own communicator, but he's not sure that's the best thing to share. Not immediately. The eyes shifting stops as Will takes a breath. Too much talking, goodness.]

For the second, since she was always quite good at stirring the pot, I'd like to add that Freddie Lounds, the journalist behind Tattlecrime: Heropa, seems to have been Ported out as of the end of February. [Casually leaving out what happened to her before that, delivery matter-of-fact, void of any and all emotion towards her.] I assume the site will be left as is, but there won't be any further updates. ["Updates" being a loose word for it; the way he emphasizes it is the first slip in the neutral mask, Will sounding irritated above all else. Got a bad taste in his mouth about it all.] If you have any questions, let me know.

[No "thank you for listening," no "goodbye," Will leaves it at that, flicks the camera off. That's all, folks.]

Comments

encrypted | video / id reads "power girl"

[boobwindow]

Does a clear line of communication mean an honest one at that?

[ She sounds a little put-off, though she can also sort of see where Will is coming from. ]

yes. permathat. minus the id read thing, ew cat lover.

[infomodder]

[Shockingly used to people sounding put-off around him, it's not the tone that has her getting A Face.]

Ideally it would, yes. [Which means they got the perfect person for the job! Haha, no, no, not at all. Where is Clark.] You could say it's almost the whole point.

ew yourself

[boobwindow]

And omitting details about Lounds' port-out is honest?

AND WILL WE EVER END UP TOGETHER NO I THINK NOT

[infomodder]

[Can they both hang Chilton off a flag pole now. But, oh, for someone who's being accused of dishonesty (truly the worst thing ever, badum tish), Will's hackles get raised for a much different reason. What do you know and how do you know it? He's looking for her killer, after all, and Power Girl has been on that list since the moment he found out.]

What details are you talking about?

her cat is a monster anyway but it's her secret

[boobwindow]

[ Is this how he wants to play it? Her eyes narrow. ]

The details of her death.

spider-cat

[infomodder]

[It totally is how he wants to play it, watch the eyebrow. There it goes, oh no.]

Those aren't going to become public knowledge, however fitting it might be for Freddie's investigation to be compromised through information leaked when it shouldn't have been. [That eyebrow goes a little more, oh no. It's coming.] So many people had an interest in throwing that selfish tabloid reporter cow off a building, it's not a goal to give them a grave to dance on.

[Does she hear herself in those words? She should. Not only is Will throwing back what she'd said, his voice is decidedly taking on her tone, too. It's done more mimicry than mockery, natural. He doesn't adopt a higher pitch, just adopts her tone, her cadence, her timbre, her patterns of speech. It's what she'd sound like if she had Will's voice, essentially.]

does whatever a spider-cat can

[boobwindow]

[ Her lips curl with disdain, the corners twitching at his every word. Worse, they manage to seep under her skin. She knows now how those words sounded, but having them thrown back in her face is a super-powered punch to it. ]

I didn't like Lounds, but it doesn't mean she doesn't deserve justice, or that she deserved what happened to her.

the two most nightmarish animals combined

[infomodder]

[Just what her killer would say!!!]

I did like her, and she does deserve justice. I'm here for a reason. [He shakes his head, looking over the device, presumably out the door.] How did you find those details?

no that would be underwater sea cretin and a spider THE OCEAN HOSTS TERRIBLE THINGS

[boobwindow]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[ She means it; Freddie didn't always have integrity, but she knows what she's done for Chilton. She knows it means Freddie did have a heart somewhere.

Or maybe because she was forced to keep Chilton alive. Who knows. ]

Dr. Chilton informed me.

the most terrible of all being the catfish

[infomodder]

[He wasn't expecting that, and it shows. Her condolences, not her informant. That much, at least, seems to be expected. Blabbermouth!!! But still, that's a nice a salve, gets his hackles down. Pacifying.]

And have you told anyone else?

slaps you with catfish

[boobwindow]

One other ally.

Dr. Chilton has given me a name I'm planning on checking up on. Kaidan Alenko?

2 hot (hot damn)

[infomodder]

[what]

...did he say why?

[The incredulity is hard to miss. It's literally on his face, in his voice, his body language. Will had never put Kaidan on the possibility list. He was one of the first to be completely thrown off it, even.]

kinkshames your catfish kink

[boobwindow]

[ She takes note of the sudden change in his demeanor, confusion reflected back in her eyes. ]

Chilton says there was miscommunication between Lounds and Alenko. He took their fling as something more than that.

I'm not exactly sold myself, but better to rule him out sooner than later. Saul Goodman isn't around for questioning, unfortunately.

angrily blogs on tumblr about such an injustice

[infomodder]

[If, in reality, question marks could start popping out of the air all around his face, that would be exactly what happens right now. As that doesn't happen and Will does not have that power, he just looks like he deserves to be surrounded by them.]

Their fling? [Things Will didn't much care to consider: Freddie Lounds' sex life. Things Will had to consider now that she was super murdered: Freddie Lounds' sex life.] When did they—how would he know? She never, I...didn't hear anything about this.

[Saul Goodman is not very good when he's not around, Will already had fun with that dead end.]

[boobwindow]

How close were you and Freddie?

[ There's some skepticism that leaks into her tone, but a potential lead a is a potential lead. ]

Alenko is a patient of Chilton's. Not one he sees often.

[ Which is partly why she's not sold. ]

I know Lounds was concerned about Abel Gideon. Chilton said you were conducting your own investigation. Have you been able to determine anything yet?

[infomodder]

[Abel Gideon. This sounds like it's deflection time. Which Will does by totally not addressing it. Amazing.]

Freddie and I had our ups and downs, but I'd consider us close. Recently, we'd gotten closer. [But not in the fling context, Lord no.] I've only been able to work with what I've got, publicly, so far. People who reacted to her more harshly than others, the article she put on Tattlecrime about nearly being thrown to her death. That's been the start.

[Article. Article, he says. Yeah, he knows what sort of stuff Freddie wrote, but even with her gone, even with this private, Will is still so far up the ass of Team Freddie that he's talking about her profession like she'd want to hear it be talked about. Friendship.]

1/2

[boobwindow]

[ Baltimore you suck. ]

Again, I'm sorry to hear. She knew how to get under my skin, but I heard what she had done for Dr. ―

2/2

[boobwindow]

― oh my god.

[ She claps a hand against her face, gritting her teeth. ]

[infomodder]

[Look at this eyebrow, Power Girl. It don't do that when it's not legitimately confused, okay.]

...oh my god what?

[God isn't here, Hannibal's been gone for a while. That's rude.]

[boobwindow]

Can I get a link to that article?

[ Considering she had made very similar but empty threats, she realizes she's likely on a suspect list. Damn it, Freddie Lounds. No one is going to know her threats were all bark and no bite. ]

[infomodder]

Sure, hold on—

[There's some jostling as Will tries to do two technological things at once like a truly inept nearly forty-year-old. The feed almost cuts off before she'll find herself sent a link...straight to Tattlecrime: Heropa. He knows, though, he knows, so he adds:]

The one titled ImPort Attacks Innocent Journalist!

[How he says that with a straight face and absolutely no mockery, one might imagine a miracle happened.]

[boobwindow]

[ A part of her is relieved Freddie didn't retaliate against her, but this still isn't... good. ]

Spider-Man attacked her? I don't know the guy well, but nothing about him seems... inclined to do something like that.

[infomodder]

[Maybe she would have if she wasn't MURDERATED.

Anyway, there goes Will's hand over his face, because it all goes back to that file leak, the ones with some...wrong information. The most joyous sharing that ever happened on the Network!]

Kaine Parker. She said he was Spider-Man in her file leak, and he...immediately asked where she was so he could rip her head off.

[boobwindow]

[ She joins him in face palming. ]

Possible anger issues. Great.

Have you spoken with the guy yet?

[infomodder]

No, I— [am starting to understand that cat people and dog people are secretly the same, j/k] —can't just go talking to anyone without solid evidence, and I don't want her murder to become public. I'm...trying to do it more by the book than that.

[Announcing Freddie being gone in conjunction with this was supposed to serve multiple purposes, just like his file leak of her had been. The public, the ones who had no idea, could take relief or whatever else in the idea that she was missing, and Will wouldn't have to see people dancing on her grave. But, and more importantly, whoever did kill her might look at someone announcing his new role with law enforcement and draw the message behind it: I'm going to find you. Me. Assuming the bullseye for everyone involved without telling the whole world, that is his design.]