That's a new one. He didn't know that one. The Man Who Became God and the God Who Became Man? It doesn't answer anything, but it cracks something open in his head, some seizing paranoia— this whole time he's been afraid he'll stop being him, that he's the ghost of a guy who doesn't exist anymore, and he was fucking right—

Maybe that gets to him, or it's the look of disdain in flat-yellow eyes. John's smile has dropped, and there is a beat of silence, a hard stop.

"Careful, or I'll canonize that." His tone still pretends at levity, but there is no more joke in his voice. "Nice to meet you, Gideon."

But what else can he give her, right? He doesn't turn people inside-out on command, that would be weird and creepy. Waking every skeleton in the graveyard would be a dick move. He's trying not to scare her, trying not to give "tyrant mad with power." She's Cohort. He's her commander-in-chief. That's all.

So John blows out a breath, drops the tension, and starts past her into the hedge maze.

"I'll take 'John' if you're not in a 'my lord' kind of mood. You coming?"