Post by Jet Somers on Jan 18, 2014 22:44:40 GMT -5
In an ancient time, the Dragon had his fill of the land, taking what he desired and destroying it utterly. This was his pleasure.
He made a mistake when he set his claws to grape the mind of the Saint.
Drawing the twisted and unfathomable warriors to her rescue, the Dragon's disgusting actions were it's ultimate downfall.
But rather than face the justice of her saviors, the Dragon absconded.
The sun set on their paths, all but the Crusader, who became a king in this land.
The years marched down. Families grew, dynasties were erected, legacies established, and unshakable bonds created. A brotherhood and an empire, separate but equally powerful.
And each harboring a secret but growing emptiness.
The defeat of the Dragon lay heavy on the hearts of those who had thwarted him.
The nights defined by bolting upright in bed, having to reassure oneself of their safety. The revisited horrors that intruded unbidden at the most unexpected moments.
The scars. The scars had reshaped them all, and not one of the gods they had become resembled the good but simple creatures they had once been.
The truth was that they had all barely escaped the clutches of the Dragon with their lives, and they knew it.
The truth was that they were still here, successful and 'happy,' because the Dragon had chosen to walk away.
The truth was that the Dragon was still out there.
When their power had reached nigh untouchable heights, and their ranks had swollen with new generals, formidable allies who carried their trust, the time to act had been decided.
They would not be satisfied with simple survival. The Dragon would have to pay for his crimes. He would answer for the mistake he made.
So they could finally rest easy, the Dragon would have to be destroyed.
But how to draw the cleverest mind to have ever existed from his sojourn?
Suffering.
The Dragon fed on Suffering.
And so Suffering they offered him.
Their own.
In the final month of the great deception, after they had openly torn one another's kingdoms from their moorings, sacrificing the things they loved most, the question on everyone's mind ate at them.
Was it worth it?
The answer is one they will have to be prepared to face, and it is an answer they each understand implicitly.
It will have to be, because the sacrifices, the blood shed, the trust destroyed, the betrayals, dark pacts, and demons released on the world... now that The Dragon has awakened, none of it is going to seem as painful as what is to come.
And the prices they will have to pay now will bankrupt their tarnished souls forever.
----------
"It's a little funny to me that as much as you two claim to care about her, not one of you thought to call and check up on her in the last month since she came back from Christmas Day."
"That's your defense, Ingalls? That you shouldn't have to let her family know about trouble she's having because it's our responsibility to keep tabs on her?"
"You were so hellbent on getting her back, and now that you have her, you expect me to run to your dishonest and manipulative ass everytime she stubs her toe?"
"No, Ingalls. I expect to know when her life is in danger. I expect to know when she is being stalked... no, visited... by psychopaths. I expect to know when there is a situation that we all know you can't handle and we need to step in to take matters into our own hands."
"If you cared that much, you'd be in Chicago. You knew she'd made her decision to stay here before you stationed your dog and pony show in LA, Jet. No one made you move half a country away so you could spend your days representing crackwhores and metrosexuals until you get your agreed on shared-custody day once a week, so don't bitch at me because you don't want to take a more active part in Edie's life."
"If the last year has taught me anything, Jase, anything people like you and Zane Scott have shown me, it's that the last thing Edie needs in her life right now is another megalomaniac narcissist trying to navigate her life. She was a success before she joined our family, and while she certainly grew under our care, she also suffered under it. She doesn't need us in order to reach her potential, and she doesn't need you at all."
"You seem to forget that it's under my care that she finally got her memory back, asshole."
"Yeah, it's almost laughable considering what I know about your hand in keeping her from getting it for so long."
"The fuck did you say? How fucking dare you! I hope you know one signature from me and you can be deemed unfit to compete. How would you like that, you overbearing prick?"
"Please, Ingalls. The PMN hasn't needed UGWC since the UGWC started needing PMN over a year ago. Your voice is getting irritating, so let me leave you with one last warning; I'm not Chaos. While I can understand the overwhelming urge to rearrange your face everytime I see you, I know a thing or two about sitting on something and waiting for the right moment. Horizons should have taught you that. So consider your petty insults and threats carefully, and realize that every single slight goes into the bank. When Edie realizes what a piece of shit you really are, I plan to cash in."
"What--"
~click~
----------
Setting sun at his back, his eyes rove the cityscape from atop the Piercing Media Network headquarters.
Merely three days from the premier of the new season of Synergy, and he has been reminded that somewhere out there, she waits.
He drives his gaze past the edges of the city, into the darkening east. In his mind, he can see all the way to New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, New York. Thousands of cities in between.
Somewhere between the buildings, beneath the smog, amongst the sheep, the she-wolf gnaws her bone.
She could be behind any face. For months she had hidden in Eden's shadow, watching the ritual of sacrifice as Mickey Dragon was drawn into the open.
If the scattered reports were to be trusted, she had found in him a reason to act, to show her hand. God help us if she figured him for a mentor.
He pulls the top of the lapels of his coat around his throat as he considers the succubus allied with the grinning phantom and fights back a shiver, but a chill wind from the northeast suddenly whips across the parapet on which he stands, throwing the tails of the coat out behind him in a strange winglike silhouette against the rising full moon.
If that unholy union was in their future, it would be the darkest of nights they had faced yet. If all the suffering he had caused in collusion with the Devil's Most Wanted had only served to double the power and ingenuity of their most hated enemy, it would definitely be the killing joke at the end of a long age of pain.
Hunting her down after all this time, after all she had avoided to get at him, would be a futile mission. He'd flushed her out once by correctly deducing the depths of her obsession--he'd found her sleeping in his own bed at his abandoned childhood home--he doubted if she'd make that mistake again.
He had to steel his mind, he couldn't be distracted by rumors and hearsay, like some hilarious conspiracy theorist investigating at Illuminati-esque conspiracies. But at the same time, he couldn't be afraid to let the darker side of himself, the screaming for vengeance inside his own head, lead him to dance when their song finally started playing. There was a way to have his cake and eat it too.
There would be a fine line to walk.
In order to have vengeance, he would have to live in the light and fight in the dark.
'I thought I could be a decent man in an indecent world. But I was wrong. The world is cruel.'
He made a mistake when he set his claws to grape the mind of the Saint.
Drawing the twisted and unfathomable warriors to her rescue, the Dragon's disgusting actions were it's ultimate downfall.
But rather than face the justice of her saviors, the Dragon absconded.
The sun set on their paths, all but the Crusader, who became a king in this land.
The years marched down. Families grew, dynasties were erected, legacies established, and unshakable bonds created. A brotherhood and an empire, separate but equally powerful.
And each harboring a secret but growing emptiness.
The defeat of the Dragon lay heavy on the hearts of those who had thwarted him.
The nights defined by bolting upright in bed, having to reassure oneself of their safety. The revisited horrors that intruded unbidden at the most unexpected moments.
The scars. The scars had reshaped them all, and not one of the gods they had become resembled the good but simple creatures they had once been.
The truth was that they had all barely escaped the clutches of the Dragon with their lives, and they knew it.
The truth was that they were still here, successful and 'happy,' because the Dragon had chosen to walk away.
The truth was that the Dragon was still out there.
When their power had reached nigh untouchable heights, and their ranks had swollen with new generals, formidable allies who carried their trust, the time to act had been decided.
They would not be satisfied with simple survival. The Dragon would have to pay for his crimes. He would answer for the mistake he made.
So they could finally rest easy, the Dragon would have to be destroyed.
But how to draw the cleverest mind to have ever existed from his sojourn?
Suffering.
The Dragon fed on Suffering.
And so Suffering they offered him.
Their own.
In the final month of the great deception, after they had openly torn one another's kingdoms from their moorings, sacrificing the things they loved most, the question on everyone's mind ate at them.
Was it worth it?
The answer is one they will have to be prepared to face, and it is an answer they each understand implicitly.
It will have to be, because the sacrifices, the blood shed, the trust destroyed, the betrayals, dark pacts, and demons released on the world... now that The Dragon has awakened, none of it is going to seem as painful as what is to come.
And the prices they will have to pay now will bankrupt their tarnished souls forever.
----------
"It's a little funny to me that as much as you two claim to care about her, not one of you thought to call and check up on her in the last month since she came back from Christmas Day."
"That's your defense, Ingalls? That you shouldn't have to let her family know about trouble she's having because it's our responsibility to keep tabs on her?"
"You were so hellbent on getting her back, and now that you have her, you expect me to run to your dishonest and manipulative ass everytime she stubs her toe?"
"No, Ingalls. I expect to know when her life is in danger. I expect to know when she is being stalked... no, visited... by psychopaths. I expect to know when there is a situation that we all know you can't handle and we need to step in to take matters into our own hands."
"If you cared that much, you'd be in Chicago. You knew she'd made her decision to stay here before you stationed your dog and pony show in LA, Jet. No one made you move half a country away so you could spend your days representing crackwhores and metrosexuals until you get your agreed on shared-custody day once a week, so don't bitch at me because you don't want to take a more active part in Edie's life."
"If the last year has taught me anything, Jase, anything people like you and Zane Scott have shown me, it's that the last thing Edie needs in her life right now is another megalomaniac narcissist trying to navigate her life. She was a success before she joined our family, and while she certainly grew under our care, she also suffered under it. She doesn't need us in order to reach her potential, and she doesn't need you at all."
"You seem to forget that it's under my care that she finally got her memory back, asshole."
"Yeah, it's almost laughable considering what I know about your hand in keeping her from getting it for so long."
"The fuck did you say? How fucking dare you! I hope you know one signature from me and you can be deemed unfit to compete. How would you like that, you overbearing prick?"
"Please, Ingalls. The PMN hasn't needed UGWC since the UGWC started needing PMN over a year ago. Your voice is getting irritating, so let me leave you with one last warning; I'm not Chaos. While I can understand the overwhelming urge to rearrange your face everytime I see you, I know a thing or two about sitting on something and waiting for the right moment. Horizons should have taught you that. So consider your petty insults and threats carefully, and realize that every single slight goes into the bank. When Edie realizes what a piece of shit you really are, I plan to cash in."
"What--"
~click~
----------
Setting sun at his back, his eyes rove the cityscape from atop the Piercing Media Network headquarters.
Merely three days from the premier of the new season of Synergy, and he has been reminded that somewhere out there, she waits.
He drives his gaze past the edges of the city, into the darkening east. In his mind, he can see all the way to New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, New York. Thousands of cities in between.
Somewhere between the buildings, beneath the smog, amongst the sheep, the she-wolf gnaws her bone.
She could be behind any face. For months she had hidden in Eden's shadow, watching the ritual of sacrifice as Mickey Dragon was drawn into the open.
If the scattered reports were to be trusted, she had found in him a reason to act, to show her hand. God help us if she figured him for a mentor.
He pulls the top of the lapels of his coat around his throat as he considers the succubus allied with the grinning phantom and fights back a shiver, but a chill wind from the northeast suddenly whips across the parapet on which he stands, throwing the tails of the coat out behind him in a strange winglike silhouette against the rising full moon.
If that unholy union was in their future, it would be the darkest of nights they had faced yet. If all the suffering he had caused in collusion with the Devil's Most Wanted had only served to double the power and ingenuity of their most hated enemy, it would definitely be the killing joke at the end of a long age of pain.
Hunting her down after all this time, after all she had avoided to get at him, would be a futile mission. He'd flushed her out once by correctly deducing the depths of her obsession--he'd found her sleeping in his own bed at his abandoned childhood home--he doubted if she'd make that mistake again.
He had to steel his mind, he couldn't be distracted by rumors and hearsay, like some hilarious conspiracy theorist investigating at Illuminati-esque conspiracies. But at the same time, he couldn't be afraid to let the darker side of himself, the screaming for vengeance inside his own head, lead him to dance when their song finally started playing. There was a way to have his cake and eat it too.
There would be a fine line to walk.
In order to have vengeance, he would have to live in the light and fight in the dark.
'I thought I could be a decent man in an indecent world. But I was wrong. The world is cruel.'