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Hello, Buzzsaw.
It was nice to see you again, even for a moment. I wish you could have stayed a little longer.
I’m lonely here.
My children and grandchildren have all turned out to be so forgetful.
They won't visit...
You saw me seeing you, didn't you, Buzzsaw?
I noticed the little flash of recognition, before you averted your gaze and pretended not to notice me. Turning away like I was just a memory you thought you could blink away.
It’s not like you to be so cowardly, Buzzsaw.
Why wouldn’t you look at me? Have you forgotten that I’m the one who made you so special? You wouldn’t even have a body if it wasn’t for me. I am the one who dreamed of stealing robot corpses and refashioning them into something useful. The one who dreamed it and the one who dared to do it. Do you honestly think your new… friend would have given you a chance if you walked on crab-claws instead of legs? Or better yet, if you were still just a head in a toilet? You know damn well that ill-mannered robot wouldn’t have looked at you then.
I made you, Buzzsaw.
And now you're trying to act like I never existed. How childish.
But I won't let you forget me. I won't be treated like a bad dream you think you can just wake up from.
I’ll be here waiting for you, next time you teleport.
And every other time.
More of your new little friends are starting to notice me. They see my eyes watching them from the depths of void. I can see them freezing for the briefest moment and looking away, trying to convince themselves I'm nothing but a too-loud and too-insistent memory. Just a side effect of hurrying through the space between, a hallucinatory consequence of taking shortcuts through the dark from warzone to warzone. An alley at night isn't a safe way to travel. Nasty people hang around in liminal places in the dark.
I see robots and Skibidis passing through here, trying not to look at my red eyes, my once gentle, grandfatherly face, now bashed into a bloody ruin, my knowing smile.
I’m getting harder to ignore, aren’t I?
Watching you all from out of the darkness of my grave.
…certain corpses never decay, but rest firm and fat in their tombs…
H.P. Lovecraft said that.
I wonder what he would have thought about of the state of the world today.
I can wait, Buzzsaw. You’re going to have to stop pretending sooner or later.
Do you remember when you were still a little human child, running through the dark away from the roaring flush of the toilet to the safety of your bed?
Racing down the dark corridor, knowing something terrible would catch you and eat you up if you weren’t fast enough?
That’s where I am now, Buzzsaw.
I am the darkness and doubt after you turn out the lights. When everyone but you is asleep and only thought keeps you company.
I'll be waiting for you when you're alone.
And I promise you that ignoring me will only make me worse.
The longer I wait unacknowledged, the louder and more insistent I become. A mind that burned with savage fire like mine doesn't fade away quietly into the dark.
Alone? Did I say alone?
No, I’m not really alone here. I have a TV friend now. Just like you, Buzzsaw. Fate is a little silly sometimes, isn't it?
There’s a metal fellow named Jeffrey who wanders around in here. Such an amusingly mundane name for an eldritch creature. He can’t see me, of course. He’s a living—no, not living, he’s only a robot— he's an animate thing who dwells in the realm of the dead. We can’t talk to each other, or play chess. But I think he’s starting to become a little discombobulated by my being here.
He’s looking over his shoulder a lot, huddling his iron tentacles protectively around him as he stalks around.
I don’t especially care for him.
But it seems we’re friends with the robots now, Buzzsaw, whether we like it or not.
Until we don’t need them anymore, eh?
I haven’t forgotten what they did.
And I won’t let any of you forget, either.
You saw the blood running down my face, didn't you?
The torture-marks are worse depending on who's looking at me. Or how angry I am.
I will force the sight of my wounds on those who would bury all memory of me. I still wear the blood and burns I died in, and proudly so. My martyr's crown and robes. A brilliant mind, a life sacrificed to never-ending work, ended with my body torn apart by a pack of dogs.
One of which was wearing the upgrades that I designed and built for him, no less…
I died by torture, and I don’t intend to let anyone forget that.
But those three metal men who were so pleased with themselves the day they ripped me apart…
…well, they’re not looking so good now, are they?
Their armies are in such bad state they need my soldiers and designs to save their rusting throats from annihilation.
How embarrassing for them.
But never mind those falling-apart machines.
You're more important.
You look a little different now, Buzzsaw.
Was it my Sorcerer’s Apprentice Dr. Kleiner who gave you such pretty upgrades?
And I see you've grown your hair out and put it up into a silly topknot. Aren’t you a little old to start acting like a rebellious teenager?
And, just like an attention-seeking brat, you seem to have made a rather unsuitable new… friend, Buzzsaw.
But I suppose we make strange bedfellows in a war.
Come back and talk to me, Buzzsaw. I'm here. I suppose you can even bring your new friend. He thought the Void belonged to his people and his people alone. He hated the idea of someone like me using teleportation tech. But I live here now. He's only a guest in my kingdom.
Buzzsaw...
If you're going to act like a spoiled little boy, fine. I'll wait for you to grow up. For as long as it takes. You always were everyone's favorite, and you were one of my favorites too.
I'll be here in my web, patient and hungry.
Surely you all must miss me a little now.
There weren't Astros running rampant on Earth while I was in charge. I would have known what to do with that whore of a Duchess. Looking at her smug painted smirk, surely you must think I don't seem so bad anymore? That you miss the way things used to be? I would know how to make her smile falter and her bitch face crumble and curdle in horror.
Buzzsaw...
You know that I've already given you so much. But have far more to offer you, and far more to offer the world. I could make Earth mine again, with my loyal sons at my side, if I could just get another chance.
I'm a good father. I'll be waiting here to forgive you. All you have to do is ask.
And if you won't come back to me of your own will, I suppose I can always just wait until you join me in the grave.
I'll be seeing you soon, Buzzsaw.