8. Wildcat (public video)

[heisrisen]

[About an hour and a half after the conclusion of this thread, the Emperor's communicator turns on. In the stark light and deep shadows of the floodlights in the engine room, he sits surrounded by parts and tools. He's drenched in blood, and his clothes are rent in a few places, although there are no visible wounds. He is utterly, preternaturally still, not as though he is controlling himself, but simply as though there is nothing in him with intent to move. His eyes are not quite vacant, but very, very distant. After a long pause, he takes a breath - his first, so far in the message - and uses it to speak, in a soft impassive tone.]

Victor Creed came here some time ago. He killed Barbara Gordon and ourself.

[He seems to go very far away again. Then, without bothering to turn the communicator off, he returns to his work.]

Comments

[mistconduct]

For fuck's sake, I just talked to her, are you FUCKING kidding me?!

[heisrisen]

[He does not look up.]

No.

[mistconduct]

Shit. Shit, what the fuck?!

Fuck Creed. I cannot fucking believe this.

[heisrisen]

Do you want to see the evidence.

[He sounds mild, bored more than anything. Chris is a minor distraction as he welds intricate circuits with a tiny white-blue torch flame, but not a particularly irritating one. The Dead do not get irritated.]

[mistconduct]

No. I don't want to see the fucking evidence. Gross, no. Never. I'd vomit.

I'm just. So pissed about Barbara.

[heisrisen]

She is admirable.

[Still flat, unconcerned, as though he were stating any trivial but incontrovertibly true fact: two plus two is four, stars are hot, space is silent. Not the sky is blue. That's false under many circumstances.]

[mistconduct]

You're goddamn right she is.

Fuck, I wish she were back right now.

[heisrisen]

What would she say, if she were here?

[He thinks this might be a slightly more productive thing to say than wishing is not useful. He hopes, vaguely and without much investment in the outcome, that it will lead Chris to the realization. Or at least spur him to something that is useful. She is a very pragmatic person; it's one of the things he likes best about her.]

[mistconduct]

She'd...probably say stop being an asshole and man up and she'll be back soon and don't do anything retarded.

Except in Barb-speak.

[heisrisen]

You aren't being obnoxious at the moment. Distress is a natural response.

But yes.

[mistconduct]

Yeah, thanks, I get that. Christ.

I am distressed. But I'm also in pain, and if I get TOO distressed I get in more pain. Okay?

[heisrisen]

She'll be back soon.

[A deliberate echo; it seems as though it has more emotion that anything else he's said so far, because it's repeated with a little of Chris's own cadence, but slower and steadier, with untroubled conviction.]

[mistconduct]

Yeah.

Yeah, within a week.

[heisrisen]

She'll want to know what else happened.

[Because she always wants to know; this is another thing he likes about her.]

What do you want to be able to tell her?

[Because Chris should do that. Whatever it is.]

[mistconduct]

Well, I mean. She knows I graduated. And that Creed kicked the crap out of me.

And that I'm going back to my world to take names and kick ass.

[heisrisen]

Mmm. What else?

[mistconduct]

And that I love her and I miss her and she's a great Barge mom.

[heisrisen]

If you don't, we'll show her the footage.

[As mild as ever. That doesn't mean he won't follow through. She should hear it. And it's the sort of light-hearted threat that might ease the hollowness of her temporary absence.]

[mistconduct]

I can't tell if you're making fun of me or not.

[heisrisen]

We don't consider love worthy of mockery. If you do, then you may assume we are mocking that belief.

[TLDR: both.]

[mistconduct]

Who's 'we'? Are you the Borg?

[heisrisen]

We are the Risen Emperor.

Who is the Borg?

[mistconduct]

Oh, so not the Borg. The Borgias.

[heisrisen]

The Borgias were a corrupt, self-indulgent mess, and we have never been attracted to our sister.

[Still serene! But cannot resist talking about history, oops. He closes one panel and moves on to the next.]

If we must be compared with a squabbling Italian Renaissance power family, the Medici are obviously superior.

[mistconduct]

Haha, wow, I didn't mean literally. I mean, no judgement if you are fucking your sister. We've all done shit we regret.