Palace Game 6/3

[fujimaru]

The Dreamer In The Grand Temple
Humanity Foundation Value: ????

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Comments

[cultfavorite]

Love?

[Casually. Conversationally. These are normal things to talk about while you trudge through a sea of putrid blood, surrounded by shadows in the dark.]

[fujimaru]

"What does an Avenger know of love?" It sounds like a genuine question, somehow. "I am what I am, and I cannot be anything else. My existence is based in my hatred. What room is there for love in the very fabric of my being?"

[cultfavorite]

I don't know about that. You might think love and hate are opposite things, but truly they aren't. They weave together quite nicely into one fabric. A man who wanted only to live with the woman he loved . . . yes. That isn't so very different.

[fujimaru]

"That man is long dead." His voice is still calm, close to dismissive. "There is nothing left that is the same between the two of us."

At this point, there is a definite upward slant to their path, getting steadily steeper. Somehow, the blood sloshing at their ankles does not subside.

[cultfavorite]

Perhaps not.

[Lightly, and watching him.]

What can I do to help?

[fujimaru]

"In this place? You cannot." There is something almost like pity in Avenger's voice. "You cannot simply reach in and pull this rot out. The roots go deep, and so long as she continues on her path, there will be no end to the supply."

He finally comes to a stop. There is no light ahead, but he points.

"So if you wish to be of any help at all, keep going. Until the end of the line, and beyond that! Keep moving, no matter if your skin splits, your bones crumble, your body fades to dust! Continue on beyond even that!"

[cultfavorite]

Then this is as far as you go? All right. I'll accept that . . . I'll continue on. Thank you, Avenger.

[He turns to him, offering his hand.]

[fujimaru]

He does not take the hand, a seething and faintly glowing figure in the red-tinged darkness, his eyes glowing. With each passing second, he fades more and more from sight.

"Continue on, then, and see where the path leads you. With luck, it will be what you wish for."

[cultfavorite]

[Thanks for LEAVING ME HANGING, BRO. Saturn shrugs.]

With luck . . . yes.

[He turns in the direction indicated and shuts his breathing off to avoid any recurrence of the smell choking him, and reaches up with one hand to take hold of Crobat's tiny foot and follow her into the dark in that direction.]

[fujimaru]

UNFORTUNTELY... 2edgy5eva.

Honestly, in spite of what he was told, the remaining walk seems to take an inordinate amount of time. The air is still cleaner than it was, but there are the sounds of voices again--louder now, more openly hostile. He can make out words now, in the mess:

"--no! Stop! No, no, no, no, no... I haven't even accomplished anything yet--!"

"--I can't stand it. I spent every one of those thousand and one nights wishing for nothing more than to not die. Every fiber of my being is terrified of death!"

"This... This can't be how I die! I was... I was going to destroy...this entire world...!!!"

They're getting louder. There are so many of them.

[cultfavorite]

[The curses . . . he doesn't stop for any of them, or call out to answer them. He maybe twitches here and there. But he walks. He just walks, looking straight ahead of him, holding onto Crobat, trusting in her to alert him if anything out there in the dark actually does make a move. Walk forward . . . just keep going.]

[fujimaru]

They get louder, and louder, and louder--

And then they stop.