[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

[Enter 'Professor Craig'. He's a middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed goatee, glasses, salt-and-pepper black hair and the accent of a British foreign national that's spent several decades in America. Of Bruce Wayne, there is absolutely nothing, not the voice or the poise or the bearing. Even his eyes are another colour, and the structure of his face is altogether different.

This post goes up several hours past the executions, and Bruce is basically waiting on the results of his blood samples and fabric analyses from the three dead kedan. So, the Network gets his attention for now, and his primary cover persona on Keeliai gets some exercise.]

Is everyone all right? God, I can't even imagine-- if anyone needs anything, please ask. We're all in this together.

Comments

[video]

[littlecousin]

Professor Craig! Are you okay?

[You are a baseline you are fragile.]

[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

I could ask the same of you, Nita. You were very brave out there.

[Do you see this, Nita? His expression is totally relieved that you're safe!!!

way to confirm you're from some alternate universe analogue of Arthur Curry's Atlantis, though. RULE 63 IS A POSSIBILITY HE'S CONSIDERED, OKAY.]

I'm all right, I think. I made it to one of the cafés. And no one attacked me or anything of that sort.

[Well, that's a lie. But being attacked by a pair of kedan doesn't really register on his 'shit that's remotely important' batmeter.]

[video]

[littlecousin]

[Nita shrugs it off.]

All they had was blades.

[This isn't about her. This is about your tender, human body.]

Look, it's probably going to be a riot for the next few days. Are you--you know what? Why don't you come stay with me?

[Awareness that that sounds like a come-on: absent.]

video; anonymous

[cowled]

I don't know about you, but the rest of us have plenty of reasons to be unsettled by blades.

[That's another notch in the 'oh my god you're basically just girl!Aquaman, aren't you' post, thank you.

and this is the story of how Bruce chokes a little on the cup of coffee he's drinking. It's actually not entirely feigned.]

I appreciate the offer, really I do, but I'd much rather not be an imposition. I'm well stocked where I am, it's probably easier to, um, 'batten down the hatches', as they say.

video;

[littlecousin]

It's not an imposition or I wouldn't have offered.

[Sigh, puff of air up into her bangs.]

Okay, but yell if you need help. I can be anywhere in the city in a couple of minutes, outside.

[video]

[repelled]

'We're all in this together'?

[a derisive snort. someone's not impressed.]

Speak for yourself.

[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

[Hmm.]

I was, in point of fact. But you can't deny that there are only about thirty of us here, and many thousands more of these 'kedan'.

[video]

[repelled]

True enough, but that's no reason to think every one of us wants to stand strong alongside our ... kin.

[it's as good a word as he can find, at the moment.]

[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

[Oh, Chase. You're reminding him of Jason.]

And why might that be?

[video]

[repelled]

Because I never do, the threat of immediate extinction of the universe aside.

[video]

[mistyoldworld]

That was awful! Why would they do things like that?

[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

I'm not certain.

[He's just a university professor and what is this. :(]

[video || anonymous]

[mistyoldworld]

This is why I do not like being around so many people. It was so much better in my forest.

[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

'Your' forest?

[just sum anthropological interest here, move along.]

[video || anonymous]

[mistyoldworld]

Mm! It is a vast, beautiful forest, with many different kinds of trees and animals. With Crom finally gone, it is also finally safe and peaceful. I would show it to you if I could, so long as you promised not to disturb it at all.

[video]

[withoutaworld]

[ Rikki waves a hand at the camera wearily. ]

Reporting in as alive and in one piece, if... anyone out there cares.

[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

Well, I care, if no one else does.

[Disgruntled professor is disgruntled.]

I'm sorry, I don't think we've met? I'm Craig.

[video]

[withoutaworld]

[ Vague smile. ] Thanks.

And no, we haven't. I'm Rikki.

[video || anonymous]

[cowled]

It's very nice to meet you, Rikki. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call on me, yes? I'm not sure how much help an anthropology professor can be, but-- at the very least, I'm willing to give it a try.

[video]

[withoutaworld]

[ Okay, that gets an actual grin. ] Thanks. I'll keep it in mind.

[video]

[storm_warning]

[Ororo has one foot propped against her desk, the other folded under her chair. Her expression is very much not impressed, but there are no traces of trauma about her.]

Today's a good sign that you should start imagining a little more.

[Everything she says comes out so normal, because this is something she deals with too much at home. The only question in her mind -- the only doubt -- is whether anyone's really going to be together like he's saying, or if they'll splinter off the way everyone does in a tight spot.]

[video]

[cowled]

[HE LOOKS PROPERLY TAKEN ABACK.]

I'm sorry if some of us are unaccustomed to such displays of violence, and react accordingly.

[Sayeth Batman.]

[video]

[storm_warning]

[Oh no, call the Dean. She's upset the professor! Ororo doesn't look too put out by the fact, shrugging her shoulder up.]

I didn't ask to be accustomed to it, same as you. The difference is that I know how to react 'accordingly' when people start getting killed so that it doesn't happen to me.

[Okay. Partial lie. She stands around a gapes a lot.]

[video]

[cowled]

So what would you recommend?

[His information fishing is the most subtle.]

[video]

[storm_warning]

Horror movies are your best bet. Then you can enjoy the chill it sends up your back without worrying your head's on the block next. A couple of slasher marathons in and you'll be desensitised.

[She pauses and scratches the side of her head.]

Unless you're talking about what to do when the body count starts rising? [She shrugs.] Hide.