-- VIDEO --

[craftpunk]

[ Guess who's back who's back again? ]

Heh. So I'm back again. Thankfully, I don't think you call can get rid of me quite so easily.

[ For those new to the party, Woden's helmet is in full view of the screen, his camera the only reflection. He's sure to take up the whole thing, so his specific location can't be defined from the helmet's reflection. His tone is musical and amused, like he's just experienced something funny. ]

You know what the amusing thing is? I'd already been punished for my earlier transgressions. I'd been killed and beheaded for the things I had done. Beyond that? I've been quiet. I've lived my life, I didn't even interact with the people who felt so... betrayed by my actions. I kept my nose clean -- [ A beat, and a tip of his helmet. ] -- relatively.

Do you know what being good? What being quiet and diminuitive got me? It got me murdered in my own home. [ He leans back, now, and he's most certainly not at home. He, in fact, looks to be in the middle of nowhere, a dark room, other than the bright whites of screens that illuminate from behind the camera. They are all static in his helmet. ] Let me reiterate, for no reason. I did nothing, and because of my reputation, or my odiousness, someone thought it would be fun to murder me.

I would like you all to think on that, the next time someone speaks ill of another person's reputation here. We are... the sum of our actions, yes, but for some, those actions are immediately forgiveable. For others, it doesn't matter how many times we are killed, or punished. It's never enough, to try to change our lives, and make up for it. It's ironic, how easily manipulated you all are, isn't it? How you all don't even question the people you trust?

I digress. I suspect I'm only complaining into the void, regardless.

[ A pause, and he lifted a finger, as if he had another point, his helmet tipped. ]

I suppose I should wish all the other fellow fathers out there, a happy father's day, shouldn't I?

Comments

[youresovein]

It's all about the spin, you know. People love a complicated antihero, as long as they've adequately self-flagellated.

[craftpunk]

Quite! You understand entirely.

They also love a villain. It's the role I'm the best suited for, if I do say so myself.

[youresovein]

Is that right? I daresay few men would admit to that so proudly.

[craftpunk]

It's what I am to them. Why would I be ashamed?

I spent a long time hiding who I was, playing nice. More so than these past few months. Why should I just so they feel I'm "safer"?

[ Airquotes and all. ]

[youresovein]

Oh, I do agree. This above all: to thine own self be true.

I mean, as long as you can own it.

[craftpunk]

[ An electronic laugh that sounds like a sound-effect from a video game. ]

Oh, my friend.

I can do nothing but own it. It's a part of what makes me... well. Me. Why do you think I am so universally despised?

[youresovein]

[ lestat laughs too, head thrown back as he drapes himself over the back of his sofa. ]

Surely not universally.

[craftpunk]

[ An odd sound comes from the helmet. ]

Well!

Perhaps not, it seems, but nearly universally.