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Post by Jon Osterman on Mar 17, 2011 2:58:27 GMT -5
"I do."
He straightened from his attention to Bubastis.
"Do you want to accompany me?"
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 17, 2011 2:59:45 GMT -5
Adrian jerked his head to face Jon.
"What?"
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Post by Jon Osterman on Mar 17, 2011 3:00:40 GMT -5
"You could come with me," he said passively, "to Laurel. You could watch the world grow.... you could even assist me in shaping it, in guiding them. You have awakened my interest in such guidance -"
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 17, 2011 3:03:18 GMT -5
Adrian stared at him, his breath growing faster and faster until he rushed over to the shelf, picked up a bust that had to be some three thousand years old, and hurled it at Jon.
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Post by Jon Osterman on Mar 17, 2011 3:04:17 GMT -5
Jon couldn't even be said to stare; he just looked on. The bust passed right through him, which was the only sign that Jon was paying attention. It could even appear to support the notion that he wasn't, as though Jon was only solid when he remembered to be.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 17, 2011 3:06:43 GMT -5
As could be expected, the bust merely shattered on the floor. Adrian, enraged, began pulling object after object from the shelves, heedlessly hurling them at Jon and inevitably shattering them on the ground.
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Post by Jon Osterman on Mar 17, 2011 3:08:13 GMT -5
The last one did not shatter. Jon held up his hand, and it slowed and then stopped midair. Jon reached out and took it in his hand.
"Your relics, Adrian... I thought that you loved them. A sign of humanity's greatness, of the greatness of this ancient culture. A sign that humanity might once again be great..."
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 17, 2011 3:09:46 GMT -5
"Just go- go tend to your damned deer-"
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Post by Jon Osterman on Mar 17, 2011 3:10:21 GMT -5
"Will you remain on Earth, then?"
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 17, 2011 3:12:51 GMT -5
He looked at Jon in disbelief.
"I don't know, Jon, will I? Am I there with you on your alien nightmarescape right now in the future?"
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Post by Jon Osterman on Mar 17, 2011 3:15:21 GMT -5
Instead of vanishing suddenly, as he usually did, Jon appeared to almost be fading out. His body unnervingly seemed to dissolve, slowly, the usual glow of him starting to seem less like an aureole and more like a fog of dissipating mass. "No," said the echo of Jon's voice. "But that's not how it works, Adrian."
Then he vanished entirely with the accompanying sound and wind. It ruffled Bubastis' fur. The only sign that he had been there at all was the pile of broken relics behind where he had stood.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 17, 2011 3:18:44 GMT -5
And with that, Adrian was alone, save for Bubastis rubbing her head against his thigh in concern.
He sighed, and nodded to her, and lead her out of the great hall.
The door shut.
It was not to be opened again.
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Post by Megan on Mar 17, 2011 3:24:41 GMT -5
In the owlship, Megan cleaned the blood from her face, and sighed bitterly at the realization that she would probably be scarred for life, and made coffee that none of them really wanted to drink. Her ribs ached, her eyes were sore. They were almost to New York again when she approached Dan with the only thing she could really offer him in consolation. In her hand, Rorschach's mask still swirled a little in reaction to the warmth of her skin, black-and-white patterns forming and fading even without their owner living and breathing beneath them anymore. ***
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