I wanna take you for granted, yeah, yeah well I will - Phone

[ceasetoexist]

[Phone]
[There's a small, throat-clearing sound on the other end of the phone before Pokey finally begins to speak.]

I found something in the ghost town that opened up during the fight with that stupid robot. You jerks have fifteen seconds to get a pen and paper, because when I start reading? I'm not stopping.

Alright. Hope you're ready, cause here we go.

[And Pokey will proceed to recite what's written on this note. He goes at a moderate pace, not super fast but not particularly slow or meticulous either. He doesn't stop, aside from one time. He pauses a bit before the last paragraph, and that one he reads noticeably slower then the others. And then a short pause after he finishes.]

I hope you losers caught all that, or at least one of you did, cause I don't want you bugging me to repeat.

[Filtered to Legion of Doom Members]

Alright listen up. The Riddler's droned, probably not for good, but we should probably elect someone to act as an impromptu leader with him gone if he hasn't done so already.

That being said, I'd actually like to do something now that we're settled down after all the bullcrap of the last few weeks. We were supposed to have a meeting last week but, uh, oops, understandably that didn't happen. So I suggest we have one this week, or try to. If no one else can host it, we can use my place because there's only drones here aside from myself, so if you have family members you don't want finding out about this, you don't have to.

I also want to suggest that everyone brings some kind of list of what they saw, what happened, and who they met during this mess. It's going to be best to try and understand this crap from all angles and, because of the mess it was, if any of us have info on the other people in this town we're stuck with, it'd be a good idea to get it out now so we can compile it in case we have to go against these jerkoffs sometime.

[Filtered to Mindy]

Hey squirt. I just...wanna make sure you're alright, after all that went down last week. That's all. Just making sure you didn't go and somehow get hurt.

[A pause. And then, he asks, slowly.]

...You wanna do something today? Like play a game?

[And after these phone calls, Pokey prepares to put the phone up. And stops. And for a long moment, he hesitates between putting it up and dialing one last number.

In the end? He chooses to dial that number.]

[Filtered to Lucas]

[When Pokey starts speaking, his voice is low. Trying to force calm. Struggling to say what he's trying to say.]

Stup-

Pig's bu-

Lucas.

[It was a struggle just to get your actual name out. THink that was hard? It's even more strained when he says the next part. Strained, and somewhat angry, but oddly enough? There's an odd sincerity in his tone. He means it.]

What you said about other people. About needing them. About some of them actually being good.

You were right.

I was wrong.

[And he just stops. He'll stay on the phone for a moment or two, waiting for a reply. And if none comes, he puts the receiver down.]

Comments

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh.

Hey, couldn't hurt. BUt, uh, good luck sorting her out from all the crazy ladies here, if that's all you got.

[yournewoverlord.livejournal.com]

Whatever. All I'm getting at is that you should have seen it instead of shuffling off to some weird safehouse pocket dimension.

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

I did see it. I woke up to hearing the friggin' thing stomping around town.

Yeah, I would've come and helped you fight it but, you know-I was tired after dying twice already this week opportunity knocked to actually get some info.

And hey. You guys had it covered.

[yournewoverlord.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, now we know more cryptic crap from letters people wrote about being scared. What a breakthrough.

By the way...

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

We know more then that. If you'd like, I can make a colorful graph with pictures to help you understand it better.

Yeah?

[yournewoverlord.livejournal.com]

You hereby need my permission and/or escort to do anything that might get you killed. The last thing I need is to lose track of my vassals, got it?

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

What?

That's stupid! As far as we know skipping down the street on a bad day could friggin' get you killed!

[yournewoverlord.livejournal.com]

Don't be an idiot! Obviously I meant anything with an elevated chance! Like if you'd fought the robot instead of running around collecting your pointless intel. Jeez.

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

Yeah, whatever. Look, it's nice that you apparently care about my wellbeing, for some reason. Thanks, I guess.

But I'm not a friggin' baby. You don't need to hold my hand, dad.

[yournewoverlord.livejournal.com]

Don't flatter yourself! I just don't want to be short on manpower when everything goes crazy!

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

You don't want to be short on manpower, but you also don't expect that manpower to pull their own in a fight.

Makes a lot of sense there, champ.

[yournewoverlord.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I need you to be my water boy. Do you have any idea how dehydrating it is to get slapped around by some bastard giant robot that keeps getting lucky just when you're about to blast a hole in the cockpit?

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'll get you some water.

I'll hold your head right friggin' under it.