- IC CONTACT POST FOR MASKORMENACE -

[slightlyoffchilt]

"Hello.

You've reached the direct line of Doctor Frederick Chilton. As I am not available at the moment, you might assume I'm quite busy with something pressing. State your name and business, and I will return your call."

Comments

[slightlyoffchilt]

You might say I get around.

[Evasive. Chilton didn't want to commit to illuminating how he conceived Crane's action. Not unless he was forced to do so.]

Non-consensual, I'm sure. Did he use you as an experiment? The abuse of the epinephrine system within a demon case study? Or was it more... Intimate?

[abduxel]

[With exaggerated, mocking evasiveness:] Oh, hm, you know, I hardly remember. Maybe a crumb of what you know about it might jog my memory.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Are you saying that Pinkman abandoned you?

[Phrased as a question. Psychic driving could be a small, subtle guise for clarification, and perhaps nothing more granite than that.]

It's all right, Walt. It's all right, you've come back to me now. I can make this better. [So Jesse was the final straw. Of course -- of course he would be.] I'll get you out of there.

[kingpawn]

[ Had Jesse abandoned him? Well, yes. That was certainly what it felt like! Jesse, who claimed to love him and be by his side would just go on and not even extend an invitation to him.

His silence lingered, and he listened to Chilton. ]

I...

[ A pause. ]

I knew I could count on you.

[ Except Walt didn't exactly have an idea of what Chilton had in store for him and when he did, this tune would change. ]

[slightlyoffchilt]

You can always count on me, Walter.

[Count on him to act the opportunist, count on him to have you awaken in a few hours strapped to a patient gurney in a padlocked hospital.]

I'll see you soon enough.

6/22

[sizetwelve]

do you know the fable about the serpent and the eagle?

[slightlyoffchilt]

Would this make me the eagle, the serpent, or the countryman?

[slightlyoffchilt]

A crumb.

[As if Abduxel would stop at that.]

We both know you're just as likely to bite out whatever those lips touch, isn't that so? No use in sating a demon. [A beat.] He did it to me, too. Crane attacked me, restrained me.

[abduxel]

Good move, Doctor; now I'd loathe to prove you right by asking another question. [He grins just briefly, but his expression mellows as he goes on.] Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that. I know myself that it's a terrible experience. Oh, but it was only an annoyance to you, wasn't it?

[slightlyoffchilt]

In hindsight, it's but an annoyance. I know the makings of a fracturing mind; his has so little left holding it whole.

[A quick incline of his head.]

Which I don't doubt you've taken notice of, too.

[abduxel]

[Dryly,] With humans like him around, it's a wonder anyone bothered to create Demons.

[slightlyoffchilt]

For the sake of contrast. You haven't the same weaknesses as he does -- or rather, the same singular Achilles Heel.

Have you ever heard of Batman?

[abduxel]

[The contrast comment gives him a laugh, but his expression falls seriously curious when Chilton says Batman. Is it a coincidence that Abduxel turns into a bat? (Spoiler: yes. But he doesn't know that!) Whatever momentary over-inflation of his ego happens now, as he wonders if he's somehow Crane's Achilles Heel, will be quickly corrected...]

No, I've never heard of Batman. His singular Achilles Heel?

[slightlyoffchilt]

His obsession. His narcissistic love. Batman is the only thing that inspires fear into the man that would fancy himself a master of fear -- surely I don't need to illustrate how Crane must find that mentally arousing.

[Chilton smirked, tilting his head by the other side, with an eyebrow persuasively cocked. He would set the lure, the bait, the imagery -- the association. Crane was mistaken in thinking that Chilton favored Freudian theory above all else, and that put Chilton at an advantage unknown to Lucifer's pet therapist.]

Batman completes Crane. The latter craves that wholeness.

[sizetwelve]

that would have been my next question
it might depend on if you ever get me that drink
considering our plans were interrupted

[slightlyoffchilt]

I can't say I'm really in the mood. Crisis control, you understand.

[Does he blame Will Graham for enabling Crane, however unintentionally? Blame him for brushing off his initial warnings about Crane? Blame him for what happened to Raina? Oh, yes, yes he does. Does he regret extending a hand to help Will Graham?

Absolutely.

Will was the serpent after all.]

[sizetwelve]

is that how you show gratitude?
are you sure that's something you want me to understand?

[slightlyoffchilt]

What is it that you want?

[abduxel]

[Abduxel falls for the imagery and it shows in his expression; he shakes his head with a little smile, like Oh, creepy Crane! It does become rapidly clear to him that this is not secretly a discussion of himself. He'd never made Crane so much as flinch, let alone aroused any fear. There must be some... other... bat-shifter?]

Is Batman here? An imPort? I'm dead curious what kind of person or creature moves that man to fear.

[sizetwelve]

more

your girlfriend wasn't in much of a sharing state
well
nothing lucrative at least
but who knows what else would have happened if i hadn't been there
some other murder attempt maybe
or just incredibly rude instagram uploads of the thorny import
those nosy rubberneckers

how is she?

[slightlyoffchilt]

[How curious. Chímaira was quick to throw that punch -- which indicated that she 1) had nothing else to hurt Chilton with and 2) needed something from him. Compliance, probably. She likely fancied she had a few moving pieces at play, and compliance was required. Aggression and concern threaded through the other, that was her tactic. Like the slap before a kiss, both were intended to unsettle, to unbalance, in coordination together. To force Chilton onto his haunches.]

You may ask her yourself. She is a resilient and capable individual.

[He wasn't about to play along.]

[slightlyoffchilt]

He is here. [Chilton's eyes flickered back tot he screen, and his grin sharpened.] I haven't met him, not personally. But perhaps you ought to? Curiosity isn't a sin, after all.

[abduxel]

Meet him, I don't know about that. Are you trying to send me to some sort of doom, Doctor? Anticipating that he arouses similar fear in me?

I like to watch people a while before I get to know them. Peer into their lives, taste their memories, get inside. It provides a certain level of intimacy that you never get from smalltalk and introductions.

[That isn't really true, not the first part, anyway. Impulsive, headstrong, and more outgoing than he ought to be given his often abrasive personality, he gets to know people usually based on coincidence and whim. But he's not under oath, here; he never is. It's just a needle.]

[sizetwelve]

i'm sure she is
but i'm starting to wonder if you are
you're getting too emotional because of crane's attacks
too quick to burn bridges that could lead to beneficial sources

you're the one i had the meeting with
this is partially why

[slightlyoffchilt]

You think I'm being emotional?

[He laughed at her, outright. At least this was over text, no awkward apologies to follow.]

A pity you're not as good at reading people as you are saving them.

[So she either still underestimated him, or was simply bad at gauging his motivations -- perhaps Chímaira didn't check her sources thoroughly, perhaps she couldn't filter through the bias of jilted associates. Chilton's decisions (when concerning anything short of Hannibal Lecter) were analytically based, and while he could be vindictive and petty, his concern over Will began in a universe she had no sound knowledge of. If she didn't think Chilton resilient or capable, then she didn't understand him.

And really, that was proof enough for the psychiatrist.]