So here's a question. How many of you've- No, I'm not going to start with that.

[ It's too depressing, and he'd rather try and stay as upbeat as he can. ]

What've you got waiting for you back home?

[ Oh, he knows sometimes there's no getting around the difficult things, and that's not his point. He doesn't believe in sugarcoating anything.

And now that he's said this, he's just realized he's been a bit one-note with his transmissions, since both of them have had to do with their homes. ]

It's just that I've been thinking, it puts this war we're supposed to be fighting into perspective. Thinking about the people and places I want to keep safe does that for me.

[ Alright, maybe he'll get laughed off the network for saying what's on his mind, and really, he's okay with that. He just had to put his thoughts somewhere, so he did. ]

[ A backstage moment before he begins: Don's eyes roaming upward, amusement fidgeting on his features.

He settles back. He's dressed clean and simple. Rain streaks down the window behind him; his hair's slick as the streets outside.

The room's sparseness is accented in Hel's red. ]

One of the things I like about magic is that I have no vocabulary for it.

I come from a place where magic is plunging a hand into your pocket and coming up with exact change. A cab going your way at three in the morning, that's magic. The streetlight winking out as you step under it.

So. [ A pause. He raises his eyebrows, smiles. ] Show me what you can do.

[ Kaworu looks different today (and tomorrow). He is white and from his back several wings spurt out (if you look closely, they resemble a damselfly’s wings); it’s almost as if he’s surrounded by light, in a way. He is shirtless due to the wings and in the middle of his chest there is a red orb (his core). This would be called Kaworu’s angel form. Or at least, how he imagines it to be. In his hands, he is holding what it appears to be an embryo, encased in an amber-like substance - that is Adam. Kaworu received Adam some time ago, but he has kept it away for several reasons. Now that he is (temporarily) in his angel form, he couldn’t help but to reach for the embryo. ]

Angels desire to become one. It’s not love, not really. I do not love my children and siblings [ all 15 of them; yes, Kaworu has children ], just like I do not love Adam, my mother - but I still need them and wish to become one with them. It's a need humans don't understand. But becoming one isn't something only angels want. [ he smiles gently, red eyes turning to the embryo ]

Plato said that long ago, humans had two faces, two noses, two sets of ears, eyes, arms and legs. They were powerful, and the gods were threatened by them, so they decided to cut all the human beings in half. The humans were all divided in two; that’s how one became two, and it left a wound. After, the gods scattered them away, leaving them to find their missing half. That was the source of human’s desire to love each other. Love is born into every human being: it calls back the halves of their original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.

And so, when a person meets the half they are missing, the two are struck from their senses by love, by a sense of belonging to one another. To come together and melt together with the one they love, so that one person will emerge from two. ‘Love’ then became the name for the pursuit of wholeness, for the desire to be complete. That's what Plato said.

But what is love, to you? What do you call love, and why do you? What makes you say “I love this person”?


[ a pause ] Shinji-kun, I can’t leave the room, Tsuki and Zadkiel want to bite my wings. [ maybe that should be your priority right now, kaworu ]

[There's gotta be a better way to do this. There's just got to be. However he realizes that he's running out of time, especially with the appearance of certain people in the city of Asgard.

He doesn't bother to show his face. Instead he's setting up a text…somehow that seems much, much safer.]

Party's over, I'm afraid. Back to business.

Quick question for the masses:

A.) Would you consider yourself useful here?
B.) Why so? Or, I suppose, why not?
C.) Serious responses only.

[He's fully anticipating not-serious responses, but at least it gives him a bigger pool to work with.]

Additionally, you may very well know that Euridice Taverna's left the city which means that I'm short one business partner. I'm not precisely looking for a new partner, but perhaps a few new hires.

Serious inquiries only.

[ Satan is sitting on his bed, wearing a bra/bikini top and white dress pants with an annoyed sigh as he throws to the side some of his clothes. It's still too cold to walk around naked, the only clothes that fit him are things like this, and he looks terrible in those. He is the sort of guy to use white dress suits, not... that. Whoever said having wings is cool can go to Hell (see what I just did there?), because Satan has 8 of them on his back and it's biggest pain in the ass ever.

In any case, yes, he looks a bit frustrated. He went to Alfheim, learned nothing that interesting, he had to listen to elves swooning over the trees and he had to listen the Treepeople swooning over the trees some more. Just. Why. Goddamn hippies, that's what.

Finally, he turns to the bracelet ]

Does anyone know how to sew? Not things like this- [ he grabs a shirt as an example, before he throws it to the side. He is this close to burn everything, seriously ], but something more like a suit. [ he turns the bracelet to a white suit jacket, that matches the pants he is currently wearing ]


Now that is out of the way, tell me, what sort of weapons does this place have. Nuclear weapons, maybe? [ a small smirk ] I imagine not. [ else that would have been used by now ] I'm also planning to get myself one. The question would be "where"?. [ any kind. he likes to see his possibilities before choosing ]

[Eridan addresses the video with a slight frown, running one clawed hand through his hair before he begins to speak.]

After all this excitement wwith the giants an' the attempt to conscript the city into Asgard's military forces, I'vve been thinkin', I knoww it's a dangerous prospect, but bear wwith me.  I'vve been thinkin' about motivvations.

[He pauses then, leaning heavily on one elbow.]

If you had nothin' in your wworld left wwaitin' for you, wwhy wwould you continue to fight just to benefit a bunch a' strangers? Especially ones wwho don't seem to be that grateful. And wwhat about those a' us wwho don't evven havve a wworld left. Please, tell me wwhy I should givve a damn about the rest a' them disappearin'.  An actual compellin' reason because I'm beginnin' to groww bored wwith this selfless "lovve thy neighbor" crap.

[Now for the actual reasoning behind this waxing philosophical. Eridan was lonely, even if he was the one who had driven away his friends. And surely making a scene on the network was the best way to get their attention again, right?]

...Wwho's evven left here, from my univverse? Besides Sol. Because if I evver hear your disgustin' lisp evver again, it'll be too soon.

[Except at this point, even Sollux's company would be welcome. As a reminder that no matter how much Eridan may feel like a stranger in a strange land, there are more of his kind here.]

[Private to Equius]

You got my commission done yet? I'm gettin' tired a' wwaitin'.

[Hello, Asgard! Today, there is a face on the network that hasn't really been seen much lately. Granted, she's been kind of avoiding everyone because life sucks and nothing is new, but. You know. Today she kind of has a purpose for posting something here.

Staring at something just slightly above the camera, she'll be twirling a strand of hair between her fingers as she begins to speak.]

So... I want someone to beat the shit out of me. [Yeah. That's sure a thing that just came out of her mouth. After a beat, she adds:] Well — I'll be beating the shit out of you, too. But I mostly just want someone to beat the shit out of me.

[O...kay... She stays quiet for a couple of seconds after this, before she stops twirling her hair and looks directly at her bracelet. She looks like she's 100% uninterested in everything ever, but at least her tone is cheery enough as she prattles on.]

You can use knives, guns, sticks, your hands... whatever. If you feel like trying to kill me, just be sure to do it after I've had my fun. Otherwise, it's boring as shit. [SOMEONE HAS ISSUES TODAY, and she's pretty serious about all of this.] Reply if you're interested.

[And, that's it. Wow.]

[The video clicks on with Harry sitting in a seat in his office. The office itself seems a bit sparse, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that Harry looks agitated. He's pleased that Voldemort has slipped up enough, but it means he's careless; it means it will be difficult to stop him from hurting others. The fact that he's been outed the way he has been means that the individual who did so doesn't look much better.

Not that Harry's against things being carved into his skin. It's a dark thought, though, and one he's not acting on.]

Hello, everyone.

[A simple beginning, but he soon continues, as if he's reading a slightly prepared speech:]

I'm here to tell you about Tom Marvolo Riddle. He also goes by "Lord Voldemort" on this network, and had my bracelet not come off during the recent battles, I would have warned you all about him sooner. I apologise for that. It was a mistake on my part. I meant to do it sooner, even, but I worried that it would bring people greater harm. I ... er, I'm really sorry for that, too. [He settles into his seat.] He's someone who's very dangerous. Back home, I defeated him, but "defeating" someone is not always the easiest of tasks, you see. He's someone who fears death, and Asgard chose to hand him exactly what he wanted all along: immortality. Only at the same time, it stripped him of his power. So, he doesn't much care about that. He wants it both ways, and he came very close to achieving it back home.

[Harry isn't going to explain that part, though.]

What's important is that Voldemort is not to be trusted. He hurt a friend of mine, and that's why I decided to do this as quickly as possible. I don't even know who else he has hurt. I know about his life. He started as an orphan, and even as a little boy, he tortured people and scared them just because he could. He saw power as a means of opening up the world to him. But that wasn't all. See, he's someone who feels like he's entitled to what belongs to him. Answers, objects, and little things like that. He obsesses, he chooses "equals," and he doesn't care about anyone or anything. He has no real love for his "followers," also known as Death Eaters, and he uses them.

Well, actually, he's rather quite incapable of love.

He's young now, but he won't stop hurting people until he dies. He is very clever, and he would be a useful ally to Asgard if only because it would help him go home. After all, he has a future left for him where he kills a great number of people. Including my parents. [He pauses, gaze steady.]

He will seek means to become powerful. Tom's very fond of that, and he's already sought some of them here. My recommendation is that if you are helping him, you stop. You don't try to make him better. He doesn't want to be better. He doesn't want to love, and he can't. Don't see him as someone who can help you in a pinch. He sees power as a means of manipulating others. He gains followers so that they can die in his place.

I can and will answer any questions you have about him. My only request is that you call him Tom Riddle. He doesn't deserve to be known as "Lord Voldemort." He should be known as who he really is. He's ashamed of who he is, and where he came from. He's lived his life trying to be somebody else, but he will always be a boy with the same roots available to him.

[He stops speaking momentarily, looking somewhat weary. That was a lot.]

I will add one more thing. He's not more important than the war efforts or saving Asgard. I imagine he would rather like to be, but I think we should remember that we have more important things to worry about than him. Avoid him, disable him at all costs, but do not let him be more important. He is prone to hurting nearly everyone here, and he will do it if the opportunity presents itself. But he is not Thiazi, nor is he the grey sickness. And he'd agree, I think, but I guess not enough to keep others from finding him out.

I think we should all thank him for being so open about that. That makes our ability to overlook him much easier.

[Harry looks as if he's ready to cut the transmission, but he realizes one final thing.]

Er ... and I'm sorry to everyone he's hurt. Or anyone he will send Barty Crouch Jr. to hurt. The two of them are dangerous. While I say they're unimportant in light of the war efforts, that doesn't mean I don't ... I mean, I do care. A lot. If you'd like to talk about it, please let me know.

Right, that's all.

[edit, made about five minutes later]

[Most of the edit is is a link to a video where Tom Riddle is standing in his bedroom. The video lasts long enough to get a good view of his face.]

This is his face.

[Just in case that earthquake didn't do enough damage to the city, look who's baaaaaack! You know you missed him, Asgard.

Eridan addresses the video with a smirk that has to be practiced it's so smarmy, leaning on one elbow as he waves his other hand dismissively.]

So, I'm gone for wwhat, less than a fuckin' half perigree an' you imbeciles let the place fall to shit around you? Wwhy am I not surprised? Useless, the lot a' you.

[The trouble is that he probably actually believes that.]

By the wway, turns out losin' your bracelet really is a fuckin' serious issue. Gaudy piece a' refuse like that an' they expect a royal like me to actually wwear it continuously?

...Wwhatevver.

[A new face pops up on the network tonight, and anyone who's been to Sigyn's Welcome Hall can recognize the living area. Jane's curled up on one of the couches, and she certainly looks tired, but it's doubtful she's been able to sleep if she's awake now.]

Um...hi, Asgard. Or whoever's awake, I suppose. [She glances aside.] Geez, this is silly, why don't I just wait until morning? [Maybe because you're finally feeling right in the head? It's been two days, hun, time to bite the bullet.] Oh, whatever. I might as well ask my question.

I've been reading things on the network since I arrived, and I noticed that there are lots of entries about some sort of incident, and someone named Thiazi. What exactly happened? It seems like it was pretty awful, and I don't know whether I should be concerned or not. If I'm really to stay here, I should know what to expect, right? Not much else I can do.

That's all I really wanted to know. I understand if it's something difficult to talk about, and if you'd rather avoid it, but I can't fall asleep tonight, and if you happen to be awake anyway, I don't mind chatting for a while either. [And then, because she really should've introduced herself before,] My name is Jane Crocker, by the way. Some of my friends have been here for some time, to my understanding - Roxy Lalonde and Dirk Strider, if you know them - but I'd like to get to know the folks here, too.

[There's a red-head on the screen. She's got a half-eaten red apple in her hand. There is the most incomprehensibly sour look in her face as she's sitting there, staring at the screen with a mixture of emotions that war on her face.

Growling, she throws the apple like a grenade and scowls.]

They can all go fuck themselves. Seriously, every last one of them except for Riese. She gets a pass because she was dead at the time.

I'm done. Whoever's finding a way to stick around this damned heap of rubble when we're done screwing the pooch here? Yeah, I'm on board. I'm officially going on record and saying my home world's full of complete morons. Where's the damned whiskey? I need a drink.

[Someone had seen something just a minute ago that she couldn't take back and that she really didn't want to have seen. She found a bottle of something amber, checked the label and up-ended it before the feed cut.]

[Eridan gives a wide, cheeky grin to the video feed as he speaks, his joy almost palpable.]

I'm feelin' strangely magnanimous this wweek, Asgard. Wwhat do you say to a little soiree at Baldr's welcome house right noww to celebrate some pretty fuckin' amazin' newws I happened to just get!

[AKA Sollux is gone. And Eridan is going to throw a party. Literally.]

It's not evvery day you havve somethin' as serendipitous as Sollux fuckin' mutant freak Captor gettin' out a' your hair forevver to celebrate!

[He narrows his eyes at the screen, leaning forward.]

An' no one better think a' messin' wwith my good mood. Or I'll gut you wwhere you stand.

[He shuts off the video feed with a grin that's both happy and menacing.]

OOC: Eridan is throwing the biggest party Asgard has ever seen. He's even got some fireworks just for this celebration. So, come one, come all to Baldr's welcome house! Even if you have no CR with Eridan or any homestuck, the party is open to all characters. If there's interest in a log, I'll put one up, otherwise action spam in this post is fine.

[When Euri speaks up her voice is squeaky and uncertain. Even though she's using voice it's obvious she's fidgeting.] H - hey! So, uh, I know I've been seeing things lately. Completely not-real-things, but....

Those aren't Reapers wandering around the city, right? Because those things are stuck back home, but those awful scythe-wielding ghosts really resemble them. [She lets out a shaky laugh.] If I didn't know better I'd say they were actually Reapers! But they can't be, because those things don't exist here in Asgard. They only exist back home where Necromancers can summon them and wipe out whole villages and - and...

I was just seeing things. Right?

(OOC Note: TW - Mentions of death are possible, even likely in threads here.)

[She was avoiding the network a little bit, no plans to contact anyone. It had happened again, and she'd get in touch with Merlin or Draco in a couple days. The reaper spirits were a little disturbing though, and as she saw another shade slipping into the area around her apartment, she frowned. She'd wanted to wait a few days, but she had to know.

"Arya?" she said over an audio message. "A...Are you alright?" The message returned as undeliverable. Samantha tried again, and again. Her face went pale and she dropped to her knees. She tapped at the screen, wanting to turn it off so she could be alone, but her eyes were already brimming enough with tears that she missed and hit the video feed. "No..."

The feed begins with her there, on her knees face in her hands. Furniture is starting to move all around her, slamming into walls. A chair cascades into her, sending her crumpled against the wall. She grips her head as the howling begins to take on words, very audible words to anyone listening.]

Murderer... Monster... You killed her...

[She screams, clutching at her head and sobbing, the air whipping around her while she tries to focus, tries to remember the incantations to pacify spirits the old kings taught mortal men, the herbs her mother would hang before the door at Samhain. It won't come to her.]

Why are you still alive and she is not...? Why do you get to stay...?

Stop it! Make it stop! Leave me alone! I never wanted any of this! [Her cries are desperate and a bit close to half mad as her claws extend and she swipes, accidentally shutting the feed off, never knowing that it had been on at all.]

There are no gods, only men with delusions of grandeur.

<sub>[ he laughs a bitter little thing. he would be stuck in some strange, european world with gods and magic and other such ridiculous things.

even jesus would be wary. ]</sub>

And we're supposedly blessed with sudden powers. Pardon me if I don't leap at trusting the word of a faceless chamber maid and her trinkets.

_{[ the story he's told to believe is hard to take, simply put. judas would rather watch and wait before actively making a decision - but it can't be denied that his mind is leading him towards believing this whole thing is some strange, large and elaborate prank. because being telekinetic is ridiculous, and believing in gods is downright ludicrous. ]}

I'd like to reserve judgement, but this is all incredibly bizarre.

_{[ there's a pause, a quiet inhale of a cigarette, and then there's silence. ]}

Hey there sickies! No clue what's going around, but you guys sure are keeping it to yourselves! Which is kind of unfair of you, but that's okay because that means I can help.

And by 'help', I mean I'll put you out of your misery! Why suffer through a gross icky cold that you might die from anyway, when I can just kill you and fix the problem at it's, uh, source.

It'll be over so fast you'll barely get to savor the sweet, sweet release of death. And then you're off to a blissful few days until the gods get around to waking you up, good as new~

Just let me know, okay? If you're too sick to talk, just nod a couple times on video, and I'll come find you.

On a side note: what do you do with a room full of dead birds? Not a trick question, I really don't know!

[Cue Samantha in her lab over at Pinch of Sage. It's messier than usual, which is saying something. She's not known for being the most organized of workers on the planet. There's a few broken pieces of equipment and one of the lockboxes looks like someone's tried to break into it unsuccessfully. They tried pretty damned hard, but somebody'd put runic locks and worse on the thing to boot so it wasn't getting opened. A bunch of cabinets have been broken into behind her though.

She's muttering something and hollers an unintelligible statement up to the front. Something less intelligible can be heard and she nods, turning to the feed and growling.]

Someone around here is either really stupid, or ballsy. Pinch got broken into, and dumbass swiped a few of my experimental vials, along with a bit of the stock. So, whichever of you morons is on a revenge kick, good luck to you. However, just something you lot should know for future reference. I'm getting runic golems for security, and warding this place to hell and back. The next damned fool who tries to break into my lab's going to be more likely to blow himself to kingdom come than get anything.

[Her hand brushes over and starts to clean up something when she brings it back with a start, a small cut dripping blood and something that looks kind of green. For a second, her eyes widen and she looks nervous.]

Ohway uckfay emay. Atwhay ethay ellhay idday Iway ustjay ouchtay?

[... oh, that one. Just look at Sam's face. She's thrilled to death right now.]

(OOC: Feel free to reply. Sam is, however, currently subject to one of her own poisons for the duration of the post, which means she's speaking Pig Latin! If you don't want to deal with me using a Pig-Latin translator for all replies, note this in your reply header, I'll skip it and you can assume she's hard to understand.)