i_jest Hostiles being... cordial? Or not? (Lex)
Jack strutted around his newly aquired asylum. Cock of the walk. King of the mountain. It was his. Everybody who had disagreed with him were now dead. The others were... well. Marked. Clearly his now. Their faces carved in grusome ways. Some with hideous smiles. Some missing parts of their facial anatomy. Scarred. Ruined. Jack's.
The inmates who hadn't wanted to stay had been set free upon the city. Allowed out to roam as they pleased. They'd taken the clothes of the dead so that they might blend in better. They'd also taken with them the bodies of the dead, to place around the streets willy nilly. Jack knew some of the corpses would find themselves in compromising positions. He knew for a fact that at least one was going to be flung from the roof of a tall building, just to see what would happen to it, and whatever it landed on.
Whatever pleased them.
There were some who stayed, however. Ready to do as he wanted. They too had been ruined. Because he had to distinguish those who he could expend from those who he wanted to keep around. The more scars they had, the more mutilated they were, the more worthless to him they were.
Not a theory that worked with everybody, of course. On the outside of these walls were ones he wanted to keep forever and scar. Like Maxine and Barbara. And some who he wanted to just kill and be rid of without touching with his hands. Like Jesse and that Terry kid.
He whistled as he walked. Happy and satisfied.
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/16/2006 15:01:51
Lex had been getting used to the new reigns at The City's division of LexCorp. There were minor differences between this one and the one he was familiar with in Metropolis, but all in all he was quite pleased with his corporate takeover. Not that it was much of a takeover, really. Everyone treated him as though he had been there since it's open. Was he? Well, of course not. He'd just gotten off that damned island. He had a theory. Something about it not even appearing until he got there. But that didn't make much sense either. He didn't have all those people on the island with him.
Another one of the multitude of mysteries to be filed into the Luthor Vault for later inspection and devious plannings.
But for now he had other things on his mind. At the foremost being a certain asylum at the other end of town.
Now, granted, Lex never took much stock in crazy people. It wasn't reliable, too up and down, very erratic. But it always was interesting when one found out that the majority of the psycho center's employment was on his payroll. Evidently he, or someone at his corporation before he got there, -- which could have been him in some bizarre interdimensional glitch -- thought there was something intriguing enough about Arkham to try and buy it up share for share from the local government.
Intrigued? Of course.
And then when someone decided to throw a corpse off the top of his building, well, that was grounds for at least a conversation with the new Head of Operations at the torn apart facility.
So against the will and better judgment of his personal assistant, he took a trip to the suburbs.
From: i_jest Date: 07/17/2006 13:08:55
Jack was having too much fun sitting in Amedaus Arkham's seat and having complete control of the building. It was his now, so there were no fires, and no corpses laying about. It was clean. It was not falling apart.
"I need you to find me a truck full of black hair dye." Jack said to one of the mutilated gopher monkies he'd collected. There was a box in his hand, but it was only one. "Do you hear me? Black. If you bring me any other color, I will feed you your own genetalia."
With a shove, the figure loaped out of the room, on it's way to hijack a truck for Jack.
He took a deep breath in and before he could let it out, somebody else entered the office.
"Jack..." a small voice said. "There's somebody here."
"Somebody like cops?" Jack sneered.
"No. Just. A guy. In a suit."
"Oh." Jack thought a moment. "Well. Don't hurt him. Let him in."
There was a brief nod, and then that body was gone too.
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/17/2006 13:43:39
A guy in a suit. A guy in a suit with a bazillion dollar industry and a nice Benz parked out front of what should have been a dilapidated building. Honestly, is this what his tax dollars were funding? Looney bins run by looney toons? That better not show up on his next bill in the mail, because he wouldn't pay it.
Now, how he got out of the house without his brand new state of the art cadaver bodyguard was a curious question. But this was Lex Luthor. Greatest criminal mind of all time. If he couldn't avoid a corpse, then he didn't have the right to live. Well, live but not to be known as the greatest criminal -- yeah, yeah. Everyone gets it.
He walked into the office as if he owned the place. Lots of Luthor zeal, placing his ego before all. Another untouchable maniac. The two of them should have gotten along very well.
"So I was little disappointed this morning to find out that someone decided to throw a rotting corpse off the top of my building without telling me. Not that I care about the body, but I have an image to uphold. And now I have reporters roadblocking my street."
From: i_jest Date: 07/17/2006 13:52:15
Jack's lips twisted into a confusing sort of smile. The infamous fellow before him had been in many a Gotham news story. He was a big face.
"Well, I'll be doubly damned, if it isn't Mr. Lex Luthor." Jack remembered the face mostly because this extremely rich man had, at one point, funded the rebuilding of Gotham.
"I apologise for the body, I didn't know what they were going to throw it from. Just that they wanted it and wanted to throw it off of a building. Who am I to say no? All fun and games, right?"
Jack grinned now. "Hopefully you can see the humor in it."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/17/2006 17:41:06
"Humor, yes. Surely. Why not? But am I to be expected for the clean up? And for ending up on tomorrow's City Scandal page? And for something I didn't do! If I'm going to be in the tabloids I want it to be for something I actually did. Even if no one believes it ... Not because some ex-straight jacket junkie likes to get his kicks off of double murder post death."
A rebuilding of Gotham that he had yet to be a part of. That would come much later. In a different Luthor time. When he was older and more hateful, full of vengeance, and on a certain political track.
Right now he was still getting his boundaries on his new home.
"I think I remember you from Gotham's most wanted rap sheet that got mailed around last year. Named after a card or something. Spades, was it? No, no. Something else. Oh right! The two useless cards I throw out. Go fish."
From: i_jest Date: 07/17/2006 21:15:29
"Oh you won't be held accountable for anything. Don't worry. They're likely still up there, giggling at what they've done. Just go up there and bring them down to face the media. It'll all be over with. And quit blaming me for it. I didn't tell them to do it. It was their idea."
Jack bowed low to Lex and looked up, grinning, from that position. "The Joker, Clown Prince of Crime, Harlequin of Hate, Red Hood, Ace of Knaves, Joe Kerr, at your service. Only here, I go by Jack Napier. My name, no games. A face any mother could love."
His grin took over more as he stood up.
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/17/2006 21:20:47
"I doubt my mother would have taken any sort of fancy to your face."
Then again, she hadn't quite approved of Lex's either. So it was all one in the same, he supposed. Everything was relative.
"Right. Joker. That's the one. No need to continue on. One name is enough. You get too many and people forget who they're supposed to be associating with it."
He tapped a finger against his chin. Contemplation abundant. Then he shook his head. Displeased.
"No, no. Not going to work. They'll think I had something to do with it anyway. Pesky reporters. Always distorting the truth. Or not ... depending. But it would be nice to have my face in the papers again."
He always loved to tell a good story. Especially when it involved himself.
From: i_jest Date: 07/17/2006 21:27:09
"Many a mother has enjoyed my face and other bits." Jack cocked his head, that grin staying plastered where it was. He'd already given Lex his full list of aliases, there weren't any more. So he didn't bother to say so.
"Well." He put both hands behind his back and clasped them togethere. "I'm a ..... fairly... somewhat... reasonable guy. There's many a way we can get you off the hook for the death, but get you in the paper for being a victim of the horrible act."
Jack sighed. He so didn't want to give up one of the pretty things in his collection. But he turned to a filing cabinet that once opened revealed a complete lack of any sort of actual filing going on. He fished out a tape.
"This." He said, holding it out to Lex "Contains the actual death of the body that was thrown from your building, and the excited gleeful plan of the toss that was to be made. You can sell it to the highest bidder if you like. I don't care. Hype it all up and say they tormented you with the corpse too. Those two are the kind that pretty much go with whatever fanciful thing is being put before them."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 09:30:46
Lex just quirked a brow. Apparently there wasn't much communication between one madman and another. They were on different planes of insanity. He wasn't quite getting Jack's and vice versa.
He shook his head and waved a hand at the tape.
"Inconsequential. It's a minor thing, really. I've been associated with worse things. One suicide jumper or another isn't going to harm my reputation any."
He could do that on his own.
"Suppose we talk about something else I've had on my mind. This new place of yours. What exactly are your plans with it?"
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 11:38:03
Jack put a loving hand on the wall.
"My plans?" His eyes went first to the building he so hated and loved and then to Lex. "Mr. Luthor, I have many a plan for this place. Now that it belongs to me.." Here he pointed to the deed on the wall with his name scrawled in crayon across it. "I plan to make it fully and completely mine. I'm done with amusement parks and fairs. This will be the place now. No more abandoned warehouses. No more carnivals. Arkham will harbor me and mine."
Jack's eyes flashed dark. "And pity be to the one who tries to take it from me."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 13:16:28
Lex had this terrible habit of looking at everyone like they were crazy. And Jack was no exception. He also had the tendency to appear above the rest of the world. Mostly because, well, he was. But also because he liked feeling like everyone was on a rung below him.
He had a power issue.
"Ah."
It was one of those one syllable sigh-like breaths that only fueled the whole I'm talking to a crazy person disposition.
"Don't you think you ought to have that notarized?"
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 13:22:39
"I've got a lawyer." Jack replied. "It can be done. And it will be done. Not like it matters. Nobody is going to take Arkham from me. I know it inside and out. I know it's secrets and it's horrors. I am a part of Arkham, just as now, it is a part of me."
And that was the damned truth. He'd been in Arkham so many times, for so long, that he knew it better than anybody. It was in his blood, in his mind.
Jack didn't care if Lex thought he was crazy. He was. And the court had just proclaimed it for all to hear. Jack didn't mind being crazy. It made things more fun.
"Can I get you a drink?" He'd converted one of the file cabinets in the room into a bar. Of course, currently, there was only mouthwash, rubbing alcohol and a flask of something he'd found in the nurses station. He opened the drawer for Lex to see.
"They uh. Haven't gotten back with the alcohol supply yet..." Jack looked at his hand. "Or the cigarettes. I'm starting to think I should have divided those tasks." He wondered if there were inmates out there drunk and smoking... it was likely.
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 17:44:51
Lawyers. Bah. Lex had a particular grievance against lawyers. Not against the system so much. As long as the men in red capes kept up their poor attendance record for case meetings concerning parole, then Lex would remain quite pleased, but lawyers? They were dirty. Even the good ones. Dirtier than the rest.
Not that he really had room to talk.
"No thank you. I don't make drinking and visiting asylums part of a combined effort. I've found it to be an unwise decision. I will, however, offer you a cigar if you wish."
Spoken as he removed one from his inner coat pocket, still nicely packaged and everything. He held it out to Jack.
"I was wondering ... You've been here a bit longer than me. Know the ins and outs. The goody two-shoes and such. Any familiar unwanted faces in these woods?"
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 17:50:18
Jack accepted the stogie and unwrapped it carefully. The end was bitten off and he stuck it in his mouth. Then it was lit using a small pocket-torch he'd found in the maintenance closet.
A puff. Then another puff.
"Oh. Yes." Jack nodded and then sat behind the grand desk. His feet went up on it and he offered the chair opposite him to Lex.
"Batfornicator is here. Along with a Robin and some other black haired blue eyed boys that we both know get it from behind." He thought a moment. "There's been two seperate sightings of your man in blue, but they've been different in small ways. Not quite sure how. He's not here now though. There are of course, various other goodie goodies that ruin all the fun, some of them BatFamily, but a lot of them aren't."
A quick smile passed over his lips. "And Harvey Dent. He's recently had an accident. I do so hope Two Face makes his showing soon."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 17:56:01
Lex accepted the chair, but not without a grimace, slightly afraid that there might be some blood traces on the fabric. He cleared his throat with a cough.
Bat-this, Bat-that. He had little care about those Bat-People. He did quirk an expression of intrigue at the comment concerning the man in blue.
"Superman? Here? In this city?"
An immediate change to contempt. Not the words he wanted to hear.
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 18:01:56
"Was." Jack swiveled in the chair a bit. "Was, my overly angry friend. He's not here now. He's not here to stand in your way. But you will have to worry about the others. They seem to be ready and willing to put their shit stained noses anywhere they can."
His eyes grew hard and he glared off into the distance. "There's one out there who can make you do whatever he says. Nothing you can do against it. He got to beat the shit out of me because of it. Jesse Custer."
Oh the things he'd do to Jesse Custer some day. If he could get Lex to do it, it would be even better. Unexpected. Oh yes. Custer would never expect it. And then Jack could have Max all to himself, and what pretty things he'd do to her.
Jack snapped out of his momentary daydream. "There are also a few here who might be willing to play along with us."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 18:05:20
He was in a daze for a moment. His thoughts were on that illustrious pain in the steel neck. Stupid blue tights and stupid red cape. He needed kryptonite. Just in case. Backup supplies were necessary. He wondered if LexCorp had some for him already.
He pursed his lips in contemplation. Then he blinked, drawing himself out of his thoughts to look back at Jack.
"Custer? Sounds like a dessert."
Lex waved a dismissing hand.
"I have no worries that aren't Man-O-Steel related. I'm sure I have the resources to handle this Batfinks and Custard-folk."
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 18:10:29
"I'm sure you've got plenty of resources, but you'd be a fool to underestimate any of those here. Just keep your eyes open and be ready. Kryptonite won't stop them, they couldn't care less about it. You'll have to be clever, which I know you can be."
Jack was very familiar with Lex. Or at least a Lex that was a little more ruthless, bitter, and older.
"We should work together, Lex. With what I know of this place and the people in it, and what I know about certain Batfolk, and what you've got at your fingertips, this entire city can belong to us. Just look at Arkham, my friend. It's on an island, gated. There's one bridge. We could make it a fortress. You keep your shining popular face, and I'll do all the dirty deeds. Of course, you can have your hand in the nastiness if you like, but I assume you'd like to have the sly underhanded bits of the evil."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 19:11:27
Sly underhanded bits of evil.
Lex was considering swapping Jack out for his new Public Relations assistant. He liked the way this man complimented his great genius.
He gave a proud grin.
Although, he wasn't quite comfortable with being on a first name basis with the recent addition to the psycho ward. That was a little too intimate for villains, he thought. But that was just a personal preference.
"What? Like an Alliance of Evil? I don't know. Maybe I'm walking the straight and narrow these days..."
As if that were ever possible.
"And I think I'll keep my mainland headquarters. I've been trapped on islands before. I find they aren't too pleasant. Coconuts or not."
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 19:25:15
"I'm not saying you have to stay here, Lex. But all the pretty toys you don't want everybody else to know about can stay here. All safe and away from their grabby hands."
His feet slid off the desk and he grinned. "An Alliance of Evil. I do like the sound of that. Think of all the wicked things you can have done when you've got a fellow who is more than willing to sully his hands."
Jack held up his hands. "You scratch my back, I scratch yours. You do the clean dirty, I do the filthy dirty. What do you think?"
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 19:30:49
"I think I have no desire to touch your back," Lex replied with no hesitation.
He leaned back in the chair, one leg crossed over the other, fingers tapping together in his contemplation. Oh, ponder, ponder.
"All of my pretty toys, you say?"
His toys were all worth too much money to be hidden on an island, that for all intensive purposes looked as though it could be taken by a strong enough police force in a matter of hours. Of course, if there was any pretty living toy that he wanted out of his hair -- just not completely defunct -- this might not be such a bad whole to keep them up in.
"Hrmm..."
He scratched the side of his nose.
"It does have its conveniences..."
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 19:33:37
"It does. And the rooms can be locked. Locked up tight. Things could be safe here. I could give you keys to certain rooms, you'd be the only one with access. Think about it. And once this place is reinforced, nobody will be able to get in. Think about it. All the glass is already bullet proof safety glass. There's only the front door and roof access to get inside."
His eyebrows raised, tempting. "We could make it a bastion. Nobody could get in. Infuse the walls with kryptonite, and not even flyboy can get in."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 19:45:39
Sure. Locks. Bolts. Keys. Yadda, yadda. But Lex had all of that at his corporation too. Not to mention his private home. And any other possible secret hidden location that he may have acquired since arriving in The City. So why should he put so much stock into a deadbeat asylum?
It was kind of off the broken path anyway. Which normally was his way of going about things. But he was considering that maybe it was time to change his thi--
"Excuse me? Did you say ... reinforced kryptonite walls?"
Well, the expression on his face was simply ecstatic. Now his attention was perked. A sickly sadistic grin creeping across his lips.
"Why ... that would be just ... thrilling!"
Yes, he was resisting the urge to prance and giggle.
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 19:50:52
Jack leaned back again. A smile on his face. "The entire outside of the building. Lex, the City provides. You want your kryptonite, you've got it. Just go look, and it'll be there. As much as you need."
Oh yes, he did like Lex. Especially this Lex. So alive and full of new ideas. He'd already changed Dent into what he'd wanted. Lex could be full of so much potential he'd not tapped because of the bitterness that had seeped into him. Just look at the way the joy filled his eyes now. Here, he might be able to succeede in all the things he'd never been able to before.
Old tricks could become new tricks here, where nobody had ever experienced them. And failed experiments could be made to work. Jack knew about all the possibilities.
"We'll put it everywhere. In the concrete on the building, a coating over the windows. Shards of it stuck into the glass at the top of the wall I plan to build. Coat the iron bars of the gates in it. Mop the floors with it. Spandexpants won't be able to come anywhere near this place."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 20:01:54
"Yes, yes!"
Lex couldn't contain his enthusiasm any longer. He was out of that chair, pacing back and forth, and waving his arms around like the scheming genius that he was.
"Even better! In the water system! I tell you what ... You don't know what that stuff can do! Pour liquid form in The City's piping? Hell! Red-Cape will be slurping it down with his eggs and bacon and won't even know what hit him!"
He paused, a sudden devious glow to his excitement.
"Oh, it's too simple. Too simple. And if he could be stopped so easily ... Then Batcrap would be cake. No! Not even. Icing! Smeared on top of the superhero cadaver cake!"
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 20:15:16
Superhero cadaver cake. Now Lex was speaking his language.
Jack stood too. He couldn't help it.
"Let's start with the building here. I'll find the way to the City's main water source, and then we can dump it in. But if we get the building done first, then he won't be able to ruin the fun we have in the mean time. If he shows up unexpectedly, like they all do. But this will give us time. You can set up your melting pot in the basement. There's such a lovely basement here."
Jack clapped. He was joyous. "We'll take care of Stuperpants and then Batfuck will follow. Nobody can stop us together, Lex."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 20:30:28
Lex rubbed his palms together. It was a strange anxious agitation. He wanted to do this now! No. He wanted this done yesterday! He hadn't thought much of Arkham when he first walked in. But with a green touch to it?
Why, it would be a palace!
"What a partnership that would be ... Hmm. And being the two greatest criminal masterminds that this place has ..."
Obviously. No one could beat him. He was at the top. Jack, with his comical commentary, was in second place now. That put them at the top of the food chain.
"Rallying others to the cause wouldn't be too difficult."
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 20:38:12
"Oh, I've already got plans for rallying, my friend." Jack walked to the desk and tapped a piece of paper. "All I need is a chipper shredder without the chipping or shredding. Just the blow power. Blast this little beauty all over the City. Or a helicopter, but I'll be honest, I don't actually know how to fly one of those. I mean I can, but usually somebody gets hurt, and often times it's me."
Jack shrugged.
He moved to Lex and put an arm around his shoulders, turning him to face a great scene of the City down below them. "Think of it. It will all be..." Jack leaned closer. "Oh wait." He moved Lex over two steps and then looked out at the real city, not the photograph he'd had pasted next to the window. "It will all be ours!"
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 20:45:56
Lex rolled a concerned expression towards Jack when he found himself staring at a pretty crappy enlarged photograph of The City. And it wasn't even very accurate, considering how everything kept changing.
"Eh..."
Hugged and moved over a few feet to the actual window. It was a rather grimey view.
He cleared his throat.
"Ah. Yes. Ours."
And then one day, his.
"I have a helicopter. I might be persuaded to lend out my pilot."
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 20:48:43
"All in the name of fun, my friend." He leaned toward Lex. "You can be the figurehead. The face of The City. The ruler of us all. You just let me have my fun, and do as I please. Partners up to a point, but you get to do all the bossy stuff."
Jack grinned. He knew his Lex, and this Lex seemed the same. Plus he had no desire to actually run the city.
"We'll rename it. Lexity." No. That was gay. "Or. Lexton." Less gay, a good start. "You will be king here. King. I will be... me."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 20:51:34
Lex straightened his posture after that. A little more relaxed and confident about it all. He didn't like to share. So it was good that Jack was handing over the keys to diplomacy now.
"I think that can be arranged."
Because he did desire to run and control things. He always had.
"King? Nah. Too medieval. Mayor, maybe. Or governor."
He paused.
"Would this City be considered a country? I'd like to try my hand at something a little more presidential..."
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 20:56:08
"Hell, I think it counts as a planet."
Jack removed his arm from Lex and sauntered back to the desk.
"So you have a helicopter. Do you think you'd let me borrow it for a couple hours? Just three. Just long enough to paper the city with my pretty little... papers."
His head was reeling from all the wonderful ideas. He felt like giggling madly. But he'd wait until Lex left. No need for his new partner to see him at his least controlled.
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/18/2006 21:00:04
President Lex? Hmm. He liked the sound of that. Yes, indeed. He liked it a little too much, perhaps.
"Hmm? Well. You're not going to murder my pilot, are you?"
They weren't exactly a dime a dozen. And the last time he flew himself he ended up in a precariously sandy position.
From: i_jest Date: 07/18/2006 21:03:10
"Cross my heart and hope to fly. I won't murder your pilot." Jack crossed his heart with his finger and grinned.
"What fun would it be, anyway, to kill a guy who can fly a helicopter. The only way that I can think that it would be fun would be to poison him so he dies slowly, jump out of the thing right when he's about to keel over, and watch as the whole thing crashes into many tall buildings and causes fire...."
For a long moment Jack just stared out into space. Imagining the glorious fire.
Sweet, wonderful flames engulfing things, and people.
He snapped out of it and looked sheepishly at Lex. "I promise to not kill your pilot."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/19/2006 13:25:58
Now, granted, Lex was often times prone to random rambling verbosity of the grotesque means of death and destruction. Especially when it concerned a certain Superfellow. But even though Jack could be considered a sort of cohort in evil and crime -- not an equal, oh no, Lex Luthor had no equals -- he wasn't to be trusted. The only person Lex Luthor trusted was himself. And sometimes that was a little on the iffy side.
He returned Jack's oddly sheepish glance with one of feigned indifference.
"Alright. Three hours. You can have him for three hours. But then I want him back, in once piece mentally and physically."
Because who knew what Jack's interpretation fo returning someone alive actually was.
From: i_jest Date: 07/19/2006 15:50:37
"Fine fine. Untouched and unharmed. Unmaimed and unspoiled. I'll do nothing to him at all. I won't even say hello. He'll take me up, I'll spread my papers and then he can set me down again."
Jack rolled his eyes. Like he would have done anything too horrible. Probably. Maybe.
This was the beginning of what Jack saw as a very beautiful friendship. Lex could lead the people of the city in any direction that he wanted, and he could leave Jack to do whatever he wanted. Oh, it was wonderful. No responsibilites, and all the enjoyment. If he had to do a little work on the way to get Lex into power, then so be it. He could do it.
"All we need now is that pretty pretty kryptonite to make a part of the building. Then we can really start rolling."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/19/2006 17:02:01
"Yes ... Pretty pretty kryptonite indeed," Lex repeated, half in a daze as he considered his favorite radioactive meteor rock. It always gave him a thrilling shiver up his spine. He loved that green stuff so much. It was like an addiction. Only worse.
He stepped away from Jack for a moment, walking closer to the window and peering out at the view of the cityscape. He knew where to get it when he was in Metropolis. But here? He didn't know enough about this place.
"Finding it is a dilemma though."
From: i_jest Date: 07/19/2006 17:16:24
Jack followed. "Not here."
His grin was wide and wicked. "Here, here, my doubting friend, all you have to do is want it. Need it. It will be where you need it to be. Hell. Perhaps if you wanted hard enough, this whole building would be filled with it. You could probably change the structure of Arkham itself to have been built with it down to the foundation."
That was the beauty of the City. Want, and it provided. Need, and it gave.
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/19/2006 17:31:36
Lex narrowed his vision. Lips pursed and he glanced over at Jack with a great amount of disbelief. His forehead even wrinkled at the theory. Because that's all it could have been, right? A theory. A madman's hypothesis. Nobody could just wish things into being.
Could they?
But what about his corporation? And what about his home? And all of the people who apparently knew and worked for him? That was a pretty amazing coincidence.
That and the fact that his wig collection had been in tact.
Hmm.
"Well I want it and I need it and I have yet to see it anywhere."
From: i_jest Date: 07/19/2006 18:01:00
"Go home and look for it, Lex. I'll bet you a pretty young girl that it's there." He eyed Lex. "HEY! Did you know Snow White is here?"
Jack left Lex standing at the window and returned to the desk where he sat down.
"I had dirty childhood thoughts about Snow White."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/19/2006 18:05:57
Lex blinked.
"Who didn't have dirty childhood thoughts about Snow White?"
He paused.
"Alright. I lied. I was always more of a Sleeping Beauty and Red Riding Hood fan."
Shifty side glance.
"They had the better villains."
He cleared his throat.
"Anyway ... Hmm ... I wonder just how much merit there is to that idea? The hoping and wishing and dreaming that whatever you dream of can appear idea, that is. Perhaps I will consider this when I get home."
Even though he thought it was a load of crap. If he had kryptonite in his basement, he'd know about it.
From: i_jest Date: 07/19/2006 18:09:03
"When I got here, I wanted my warehouse, and it was there. I wanted my toys, and they were there. I wanted my hyenas, and they were there. Everything is here that I want, Lex. Everything. Stop doubting."
Jack wondered briefly if Lex had a thing about red. But wasn't going to voice it.
"I've never had to do laundry, all my clothes are always clean. When I needed money and I didn't feel like stealing, it was in my wallet. Lex. Trust me. Want the kryptonite. Need the kryptonite, and it'll be yours."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/19/2006 18:11:26
Lex just stared at the man.
"You sound like a self-help book."
Or Lex's last psychiatrist. She, bless her medicated soul, was no longer with the world however. It seemed to be a common tendency with doctors who paid the multi-millionaire a visit.
He had a serious anger management problem.
From: i_jest Date: 07/19/2006 18:12:59
"Blah. Fuck that. I'm just telling you the truth."
The chair whirled with him in it, and he spun until he thought he might vomit. When he stopped, he was grinning.
"Chin up, Lex. The City is going to be yours."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/19/2006 18:16:21
"It had better be. I didn't spend all that fuckin' time on that goddamn island just to be transported to an alternate dimension full of idiots and psychopaths for nothing. I'm getting something out of this mess."
And no matter of superhero, red caped or not, was going to stand in his way.
Hopefully Jack would be easy to please and keep under control. He foresaw no current reason to just let the man do whatever he wanted. So long as it didn't intrude upon Lex's life.
He glanced down at his watch and started for the door.
"Mmm ... Going to have to explain that body soon."
From: i_jest Date: 07/19/2006 18:30:05
"Have fun with that. I know you will. If you like, you can kill the two who did it. I don't care. They're not mine anymore. Hell, do whatever you want."
He waved a dismissing hand. Jack really didn't care about those two. They hadn't wanted to serve him, or entertain him, and a falling body could only do so much.
"I'll be seeing you, Lex."
From: i_kryptify Date: 07/19/2006 18:40:43
On the whole, Lex should have been thanking Jack for getting rid of some of those people. Saved him some money on payroll. Although, he wasn't quite sure why he had Arkham prison guards on payroll for LexCorp. That just seemed ridiculous, and not at all in his style.
Eh. Must have been the weird dimension of The City. Nothing made much sense.
"Let me know if you find any green rocks lying around. And nothing painted with water colors, mind you."
He didn't bother to wave, just headed on out of the office, shrugging his jacket more over his shoulders as he went.
All in all not an unpleasant conversation. He'd go home and ponder the benefits of this new friendship over a bottle of scotch.