ᴀ ᴜ ᴅ ɪ ᴏ

[craftpunk]

[ It's a hyper-synthesized laugh -- it doesn't sound like a Wario sound-effect this time -- that clicks on. There's no video, he won't give his location away that easily. Not when he knows how this is going to play out. ]

Oh, things got interesting while I was gone, didn't they? I'm honestly surprised anyone was intelligent enough to make the logical leaps -- and forthright enough to come forward. I guess that means I won't get to come to any family dinners anymore.

[ A pause, and there's a click, and a sound that some will recognize as Woden's Bifröst opening up, if you've been in contact with it. ]

I'm sure you all have plenty of petty grievances to air. You might as well get them out of the way now, so I only have to hear them once, and we can all move on, yes? It's alright, you can let it all out. It's a "Safe Space".

[ You can even hear the air quotes, and the sarcastic lilt to his voice. ]

Comments

voice;

[photophobic]

You know where to come.

voice;

[craftpunk]

Now, now. Is that an invitation?

Will I find the lit end of a lightsaber, if I step through?

voice;

[photophobic]

As amusing as I might find it, to watch you walk into my blade– no.
When I decide to kill you. I assure you.
You will see the moment coming.

audio ;

[setmatch]

Still hiding behind that mask, Professor Blake?

audio ;

[craftpunk]

Hm... [ It sounds pensive. ]

Now, now, David -- [ He wields his own name like a weapon, double-edged though it is. ]

You should know me better than that. Is it hiding, if everyone already knows my identity? I would call it embracing all sides of myself.

audio ;

[setmatch]

[ Embracing all sides of himself.
Something twists in his gut, memories of the night before the flood surging forward. Of telling Blake everything. Who he was destined to become. What he was destined to be. ]

... If you aren't in hiding, I suppose you wouldn't mind revealing your location to me.

video;

[notgood]

As a public notice, if anyone would be interested in suing Dr. David Blake, I'm taking pro bono cases in this one instance.

video;

[craftpunk]

Wow!

Free cases, just to see me suffer? I must have really gotten under your skin, huh?

[notgood]

Let's not make this about me, when you wanted this post to be all about you.

[slightlyoffchilt]

[oh HEY GIRL. Guess who's also back? Guess who's also back, and with a new power? Guess who's infuriated at being victimized by your godly schemes twice now.]

I never regretted calling your doctorate in theology something fraudulent.

[And so Woden would "hear" the intrusive thought in his own head, "spoken" in his own mind-voice, however that might sound naturally to him: he's right, I am a fraud. I don't know how to be anything else.

Guess who doesn't have any moral qualms about abusing his own new power.]

[craftpunk]

Oh yes, I suppose you would say that.

[ His words slow as he says it, the dismissal of the insult seems to not quite make it, like he's realizing just how true it was. David cleared his throat, and it sounds like a blender mixing rocks. ]

I'll have you know, I worked very hard for my degree, and my place as the world-respected expert.

[ who is he trying to convince? Chilton, or himself? ]

[slightlyoffchilt]

Are you trying to convince me? Or yourself?

[Uncanny.

He knows, says the little voice in David's head. He's onto you.]

[grandtheftequine]

And here I was starting to think you weren't coming back.

[craftpunk]

Oh, Logan... [ Said with that unerring confidence. ]

I'm really rather resilient. You shouldn't have worried.

[grandtheftequine]

Who said anything about worry? You owe me a favor and haven't paid up yet.

[ After a moment's deliberation, he switches over to private. He has appearances to maintain now, after all! ]

Also, I've been stuck buying drugs off teenagers while you were gone.

video

[girlybruiser]

[ And here she was kind of hoping he wouldn't reappear. Poor Cassandra is going to have a hernia over it, isn't she? ]

This is all a twisted game to you, isn't it?

voice

[craftpunk]

[ He laughs. ]

Oh good, you're catching up! It takes some time, I suppose, when you're kept in the dark. You shouldn't beat yourself up too much.

video

[girlybruiser]

[ She truly hates the way he laughs and the way it makes her feel as if dozens of spiders are crawling up her skin.

But her eyes narrow instead, unimpressed. She doesn't convey her fear that easily. ]

You truly have no shame. [ How disappointing, but somehow expected. ] The trouble you caused and the people you preyed on... and all for what?

text

[knaval]

hey

text

[craftpunk]

Oh boy
What's on the docket for today?

private;

[herrstory]

Where did you vanish to? I waited for two hours before I went searching. Did you stand me up?

private; video

[craftpunk]

[ For you, Starr, you get video. ]

By no intention of my own, I assure you. [ A pause. ] I... Had an encounter. They wiped my memory, and -- [ his tone, even with the vocabulator, sounds angry. ] dumped me in a nursing home.

I only recovered a few hours ago.

audio;

[legionnaires]

You're going to run out of rope eventually before you hang yourself.

[ A slight pause.]

What do you intend to do now you've been unmasked?

audio;

[craftpunk]

Oh, I suppose I may, but I suspect that's far and away from me right now.

[ A laugh. ]

You'll have to wait and see. No story unravels with the reveals do close together. You'll have to wait like the rest of them.

not here

[queenofseers]

[ But maybe Woden would be happy to know that this is the point at which Cassandra's communicator goes from "badly dented" to "completely and utterly destroyed."

The mental link still exists, though. And despite how skin-crawling it is to have Woden's voice playing in her brain? She needs to know. Needs to. Even now.

She's watching him. Far more closely than she should. ]