Sometimes, I feel like going down I'm so disconnected

[osreborn]

WHO: Norman Osborn and you!
WHERE: NoHoPE
WHEN: Visiting hours (let's say between 1 and 4) on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Specify the time and date in your comment.
WARNINGS: Hmm.
SUMMARY: Isn't it obvious?
FORMAT: Whatever is your pleasure.


It wasn't even a week since he'd been incarcerated in his hospital. Norman was far more stable than he had been when he was arrested thanks to the medications he was inundated with -- pills he tried not to swallow, injections that he couldn't avoid. He was calmer thanks to sedation, but the other affects would take longer to kick in fully. His body rebelled, trying to fight them.

He scratched at his neck, chewed his nails, slept poorly. One of the worst things about being here was the inability to have private conversations; Norman was missing them already.

The other things he might miss weren't things he would ever consciously admit to himself.

Comments

[osreborn]

"Do you think that I'm going to forgive this? Do you? Because I've killed people for far less than your offenses and they did not come back."

He leaned his forehead to the glass, slickly grinning. His gaze was fixed on Eddie.

"I've had worse. Times Square is nothing. Tony Stark and whatever he's decided to believe today are nothing."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

"Mmm. I wasn't talking about Stark's end of that deal," Eddie practically purred the word. His volume dropped to a stage whisper.

"How do you think the tin can was inspired in the first place, Norman? Come now."

[osreborn]

"Oh, I know. Why do you think I said 'believe'? Stark may be stupid, but he isn't stupid enough to work off of imaginary information. It wasn't difficult to piece it together."

His eyebrows wrinkled, but his eyes remained locked. "Hence my threatening you. Not with death, though. That's just a little more than useless here, murder."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Eddie tapped his fingers along the glass wall, musing.

"Good that you're aware, that's encouraging. I hate to waste my time you know, some of us don't have endless amounts on our hands," he said with a wink. Eddie was a man who carried salt for this sheer purpose.

"I'm not afraid of you, Norman. Never was. Do you know what I got out of that deal, with Tony?" Eddie placed two fingers against his pulse, watching his company. "No more nanites. Funny, isn't it? My freedom for your imprisonment. Or, rather, ignition for imprisonment, I assume Spider-Man came through for the conclusion."

He shrugged, not aware of the full set of details on that scene. But oh so willing to entertain them.

[osreborn]

"Lucky you. It is rather empowering, hm? Freedom. Did Stark ever activate them on you?" Norman tilted his head, baring his teeth at Eddie. "Make you seize? Convulse? Vomit up foam? Or did he strictly play your guardian?"

At that, Norman sat back again, removing his hands and face from the glass. "Imagine, Nygma, if this hospital had been around when Stark first declared you insane." He folded his hands together. "If something like that ever were to happen again, hmm. I wonder what would become of you."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

"Did he ever do that to you?"

The thin whiteness under the skin of his face belied a growing fury, evident despite the smile Eddie so easily wore. It was dangerous, weaponizing what Stark had so recently told Eddie. But danger was not without its benefits, especially when Norman wasn't pulling any punches. His eyes narrowed after Norman's next breath.

"Pity you're the only one to remember that absurd detail, Osborn. It seems that some of us can live down our pasts. Some of us," he dropped his tone to a low snarl, hand clutching at the glass, mirroring where Norman's had once been.

"Would you be here, waiting?"

[osreborn]

Norman's eye twitched; any satisfaction he got from Eddie's very clear reaction was met with an equal degree of anger, of indignation. He exhaled slowly, fingers curling against his palms in tight fists. He felt the nails bite his skin.

"We'll see," he said, not answering Eddie's question. "Nobody is bulletproof."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

The impulse to hurt surged. He grinned, the corners of his eyes a bit too manic.

"I told my Thunderbolts to bring you down. None of them questioned -- they followed my orders easily."

[osreborn]

Blood dripped from Norman's palms, unnoticed by him. He kept his glare leveled at Eddie, though his smirk was ever present.

"I didn't care about the Thunderbolts anyway," he snapped.

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

A heated beat followed. Eddie's eyes flickered at Norman's dripping palms. Hie eyebrow cocked.

"And Spider-Man? Did he follow my advice?"

[osreborn]

Norman raised his own eyebrow, frowning slightly. Spider-Man...? Another layer of slick outrage coated him, but he outwardly didn't show it save for opening his hands, lacerated palms smeared red.

"What do you think?"

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

"I just wanted to hear you say it."

He savored that color on Norman, that broken red. It was his triumph painted, his warm victory smeared.

"He's really not that bad of a fellow. Theatrical, you know I like that." Eddie tapped on the glass, mocking without words. The point was drilled, each second digging deeper. "And so willing to be guided."

[osreborn]

"Of course he isn't bad. He's a hero. He prides himself on his nobility and responsibility," Norman said, derisively. His teeth ground together.

"Manipulating him isn't hard if you know which buttons to push. And I'm probably his biggest button of all."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

"Don't flatter yourself, Norman. I think he finds a few choice others more important than you."

Eddie could barely repress his giggle. His eyes glanced sharply at his watch, reminding him of the time.

"But don't take such things personally."

[osreborn]

Norman's eyes widened, and again he lunged for the glass. It trembled against the force, hands marring it crimson.

"It is personal. Trust me, Nygma. I'm the top of his priorities."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Although he had jerked back when Norman rushed forward, Eddie took a moment to lean in, hands folded behind his back.

"Do you want me to tell you?" He hissed. "If that is true, or not?"

[osreborn]

Hissing back, teeth still bared, Norman relaxed away from the glass. His handprint remained.

"No. I know that it's true."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

He merely smiled in return.

"Still clinging onto such ideas? It's nearly noble, your dedication, I must say."

He stepped away from the glass, watching Norman and his handprint. Watching with expectation.

"Well? Don't you have any parting words to a game well played?"

[osreborn]

"Just one question," Norman said, leaning forward, hands on his knees.

"About Harry."

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

"I'll humor you," came the sardonic reply. "Shoot."

[osreborn]

"Who enabled him toward sabotage? Harry is a lot of things, but resourceful is not one of them. Surely someone gave him the idea and the means with which to enact it," Norman said, deadpan.

"Wouldn't you think?"

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

"Is this what hurts you most?" Eddie adopted a mocking tone. "Surely not. Though no doubt that hypothetical someone was one clever fellow, to use your nearly-son so deftly."

He grinned again.

"Harry was instrumental in your fall."

[osreborn]

"I know what he did. He told me. He told me what he did." Norman narrowed his eyes, leaning forward.

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

"He told you." The disappointment dripped. "Really. He couldn't wait? You must have provoked him."

[osreborn]

"Alluded to it, more likely. But it wasn't hard to pick up what he was saying."

Norman's fingers dug into his palm again.

"So it was you."