IC CONTACT.

[osreborn]

(555 - 888 - 3010)

"Norman Osborn. If you're calling about a job interview, hang up now and call [ business phone number ]. Otherwise stay on the line and leave a message. I'll get back to you when I can."

beep!

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Comments

[enigmaestro]

I wanted to check in. [There's a measure of menace, in those five words.] How are you faring?

[osreborn]

[ That pause is noted. Norman responds a bit more warily: ]

Better.

Why? Heard anything?

[enigmaestro]

Well, yes, in fact. Aren't people always talking about you?

[osreborn]

When there's something to talk about, they are.

I wouldn't say there's been news.

[enigmaestro]

On the contrary, Norman, you're always up to something.

[He knows about the serum, of course. How else could he have diluted it with substance, if he hadn't known?]

Or -- perhaps something is up in you.

[osreborn]

[ A bit brusquely: ]

What would you know about that?

[enigmaestro]

You've been much too quiet, Norman. Silence talks.

[osreborn]

Why don't you get right to the point, Nygma?

[enigmaestro]

Not how I do business. [A beat.] Or have you the wherewithal to draw your own conclusion?

You know what they say -- things come in threes.

[Or multiples of threes -- alluding to his own syllable count (or have you the whereWITHal to DRAW you own conclusions).]

[osreborn]

You realize I'm regarding this call as a confession.

[enigmaestro]

Did you more recently get ordained?

[osreborn]

I find priests worthless.

[enigmaestro]

Let's make no mistake -- you find most people worthless.

But not your immediate company, naturally.

[osreborn]

Naturally. I wouldn't waste my time.

[ A pause. ]

I had this idea about you, Nygma. Came to me in a dream, in fact.

[enigmaestro]

[Now that invoked some hesitation.]

What sort of dream?

[osreborn]

You were there. And you'd done something.

Returned to the scene of the crime, it seemed like.

[enigmaestro]

A dream is but a dream, Norman. A collection of the dreamer's subconscious continuum. That has nothing to do with me, aside from my position as the object of your obsession.

[osreborn]

Sometimes dreams may still be enlightening.

[ And Norman may just be more paranoid. Constantly paranoid. ]

You sounded nervous just now.

[enigmaestro]

Just now? Just -- at what word? What syllable?

[In a faked tone of concern:]

You're losing it, Norman.

[osreborn]

You paused.

I'm not. You have to have been calling for a reason.

[enigmaestro]

And perhaps that was a mistake on my part.

[The pause? Or the call?]

It's difficult to consider that you have not missed me, given our meaningful history.

[osreborn]

Should I take that to mean you were calling to finally arrange a date?

[enigmaestro]

"Finally"? How long have you been waiting for me to ask you to the prom, Norman?

[osreborn]

How long have we known each other again?

Well, not that long.

[enigmaestro]

First you accuse me of unlikely crimes, then you scorn me for procrastinating on your corsage. What is it you want me to do, Norman?