Departure

http://forums.station.sony.com/mxo/..._id=36300012365 

History as it were.

====

The dreams had returned, it had been about a week since he'd once again found himself drowning, choking on the black tar-like substance that surrounded his entire body. He had found himself in alley-ways and dark corners of the old city chasing whispers and voices that remained body-less. Blurred images and scattered fragments of eventsm dreams and memories seemed like the scattered ashes of a body strewn across his mind. More times then they could count his cries would wake her and even the others on the ship as he tried to fight the goo. They'd even found him wandering the ship in a comatose like state, whispering inaudible things and speaking nonsense.

It was this evening that things changed, he sat within the tea house he always went, and sipped lightly at the green tea. The restaurant was empty and the weather outside was drizzly and grey. He rubbed his eyes and sighed aloud as he leaned back into the chair, his coat draped across the back of it. His mind felt cleaved in two, he couldn't place what had been happening to him, these strange thoughts that seemed to stockpile in his head, but scatter when he tried to collect them. He breathed in deeply to the aroma of the tea in front of him and opened his eyes, he surveyed the room around him and his eyes caught a strange crack in the wall.

He stared at it for a while before he noticed it seemed to almost pulse, considering how often he came to this place, he was surprised by it's pressence, getting to his feet he moved towards the wall and stared into it. It looked familiar, this strange dark pulsing hole in the wall, and he raised a hand to it. Peeling away at it slowly, the wall paper ripped a little and some of the plaster from the wall fell to the ground - and then more - the crack began to grow and the wall started to crumble,  the cracks extended outwards from their origin, like twisting roots that crawled across all the walls and the cieling, he could only watch transfixed on the growing lines that began to widen. The veins in the cieling seemed to swell and within a moment burst - spots across the room exploded as the goo poured out of ceiling and the walls - immediately the floor was covered and tried to move towards the door - something gripped his leg.

He stared down to the shallow goo that was slowly rising, it was ankle deep and covering the floor of the room, but to his own horror an arm covered in the black substance emerged and gripped his leg, he shook violently and began to kick at it as he looked around the room and took in some more detail - the roof was completely black, and was oozing down the walls, every surface that had changed to the syrupy tar now writhed and moved on its own as shaking and shivering bodies and limbs moved within the confines of the liquid. More and more arms emerged and sought to hold him down, each and every one of them slowing his movement, his panicked and desperately searched the room, his eyes fell upon the window and he did his best to move towards it. Now knee-deep in the tar his fingers slipped over the cracks and edges of the window trying desperately to budge it or open it, he yelled at it and banged on the window uselessly as the tar ozzed down over the wall covering it, he slammed his fists into the muck over and over and froze as he sensed something behind him.

Turning towards the center of the room, he froze - a torso seemed to sit more elevated then the rest, it's body hunched forward on it's knees, slowly the back arched and a head emerged from the viscous liquid surrounding him and filling the room. He watched as the goo seemed to peel from it's face and the black details of it bearly came into sight. Vague outlines of lips and a nose, no hair was present but the liquid hadn't left the top of it's head. The goo dripped off it's face and outlined a brow- underneath it, the dark liquid stained skin spread and yielded two milky white eyes without pupils, it's mouth opened to an unhuman size and it screeched loudly, so loudly he covered his ears with his hands and grit his teeth. More arms and bodies emerged from the room as the figures reached out and grabbed him, the thick tar staining his white shirt as a wall of bodies seemed to grow out of the muck now up to his waist, more and more of the blank faced screeching things reached out to him and soon he felt him self forced under. Kicking and screaming against a dead mass of thick liquid and bodies pressed against him, on top of him, weighing him down beneath the surface. He tried to hold his breath for as long as he could but eventually he screamed and when his mouth opened the oil flooded in, filling his lungs.

He screamed out loud, his hands clasped to the side of his head, and in the same moments he'd found himself buried he found himself on his knees in the dirt, a dark wasteland around him, the ruins of a city that once was, the broken and decayed world around him causing sharp pains to run through his mind - he'd been jacked in, he'd been in the matrix. His breathing was heavy and he collapsed into the dirt, his fingers clawing at the ground beneath him, he ripped up part of his sleave as he gasped with his head against the ground and his eyes fixated on the plugs in his arm. He shivered on the ground as he rolled onto his back, coughing and spluttering, his body trying to force the goo from his lungs that wasn't there. His head seemed to pound as he was sure it filled with a humming that almost caused his eyes to go back into his head, he forced his head upwards and grunted as he looked above him to see a hovercraft descending slowly. Every moment he lay there was agony and all he could do was watch as the ship landed and the ramp came down, the light from inside the craft seemed to singe his retinas as he closed his eyes and tried desperately to make them focus. Two people descended the ramp of the hovercraft, he could only make out their outlines as he tried to move.

He felt himself being grabbed and dragged up the ramp and felt his fingers bouncing along the metal ramp as he tried desperately to stop his movement, to regain control, the people dragging him passed words he could bearly undestand as he passed out.

"Think he's still going to be any use to us?"

"We'll see what Marble thinks."

....

My eyes break open sending the sleep from them, as i try to realize what the painful little pulse within me is, my eyes fall upon the familiar and yet strange medical bay, and worse still the IV, the black bag filled with the tar like substance and i watch it drip down the small clear tube and see that each drop curls - it doesn't just descend down the tube, it slithers like an inky black serpent into my skin, it's crawling beneath the surface, twitching beneath my skin and burning. My eyes shift back to the bag and i can see the little things crawling and creeping over one another, trying desperately to be the next one into my skin, and it burns, it aches like a fire without the flame, like liquid embers  rolling into my flesh. I groan and try and move, but i cant, i can't feel anything except the burning, and then shes there, the same gal i've seen before but never knew, her pale skin beneath those silver eyes and soft lips. She runs a hand down the side of my face and makes sweet little sucking noises at me, i try to grin but it fades as the snakes seem to creep beneath my skin.

"How's my favorite little patient?"

I'm her favorite.

"I feel like death, what the hell are you --"

I swear i can feel my brain squeezing within my head, like a vice clamping down on my brain, my eyes roll back in my head and i can feel the warm crimson trickle out of my nose, i groan aloud and my hands as useless as they are try to grip the sheets below me. She leans down and kisses my forehead. The moment those lips touch my skin the pain is gone and everything seems to fade as i find myself beneath an ancient willow and my head rests in her lap, she runs her hands through my hair and whispers things to me, i'm a puddle as she smiles at me.

"Tell me your secrets my sweet."

I want to tell her everything i've ever known, everything i've ever touched, tasted or felt, i want to her to envelop me, i even begin to feel ashamed to show her the side that lurks beneath.....that lurks........ my eyes move from the silver of hers to the tree and i watch as the leaves continue to fall to the earth, my head turns as she tries to say something else to me but my eyes are locked on the tree - the leaves have all fallen and the branches are aging and cracking, the tree is withering behind us, and the grass is dieing, i try to get to my feet but can't move, the roots have wrapped themselves around me, my sweet Mercury is gone and i'm being gripped as more of the ancient limbs rip from the earth and wrap around me, dragging me towards the dead wooden behemoth, up the tree i can see a knot that seems to swell and throb - suddenly it bursts and the black ichor pours out of it. I try to struggle but i'm pulled towards the beast and watch as it's limbs like ancient arms reach down to help it swallow me, and suddenly im in the backseat of a car.

My head is pounding and i look around the car, the big guy with the braids just smacked me in the back of the head to wake me up, mercury is looking in my eyes and the pail skinned Marble is in the drivers seat, his tight leather gloves rest atop one another as he stares back at me with his arms crossed, and a sickly grin pasted on his lips, all i want to do is force my fingers into his eyes to the back of his skull, but the more i think about doing it, the more i can feel my blood boil.

"Go to it Darminian."

I blink at him and try and figure out what he's talking about, and like a wave washing over me i snap to conciousness somewhere else, i'm holding a scrawny bald headed runt of a man by his tie near a series of computer terminals, he's yelling inaubibly about not knowing the over-ride and i look around the room. Through the window i can see two huddled masses of flesh where there once stood security guards an the door to the room i'm in now is splintered. I turn my attention back to the bald one, and watch as i fling him into the monitor smashing it and watching him fall to the floor leaving a snail trail of blood. My body tries to move to the keyboard but i refuse, it feels like my muscles are going to tear themselves apart as every inch of me tears against my movement as i move though the splintered door out to the lobby.

The spinning door plays its part as the big guy with the braids moves through them and starts yelling at me as he makes his way over, and i can almost feel something within shatter. Amidst midnight darkness, i can feel it, i can see it - a hand breaks through the tar-like substance, it claws it's way out, a being rips it's way through the goo his hands tearing it apart, his lungs rejected their innards. Slowly a head breaks the surface and with his mouth open he sucks in a breath of air, it's enough to continue fighting and kicking, and it's enough to resist for a moment.

"Hey you idiot - why aren't you getting the files?"

The highlight of this whole day is the few minutes of self control i manage to generate as i feel my hand clench into a fist and send it his way, it seems as though the thought of me acting against them was the furthest thing on his mind, and in a minute the furthest thing from his head are the teeth i detach from his mouth. The blood splashes outwards from his mouth and he goes off balance, the next punch i throw lands him on his *CENSORED* and in the same moment i'm on top of him driving my fists into his face as fast as possible, i lose count of how many punches i throw at him when i feel the sharp shooting pain in my neck, Mercury snuck up behind me. She's so great.

While keeping my head above the surface i hear the familiar screech, pulling myself to the top of the goo, i get to my feet when i feel the weight of a torso impact against me. I get pushed down onto the hard liquid black ground and begin to grapple with it - as the goo covering it's body drips over me, covering me, covering my face and mouth. Soon all i can feel is the same burning pulse, and hear the same sound.

Drip.........drip..........drip...... 

Im only concious for a few minutes this time, my sweet gal has upped the dosage, but  know i hear the sweetest words of all leave her lips today, betwixt mutters and arguements i hear her loud and clear.

"Immunity"

A hellish heaven? A heavenly hell? 

Another week, the big guy gets to beat the ever loving hell out of me in a 3 by 3 room that smells of blood - my blood, so iron and the black tar that's grown to be little more then a bad taste in my mouth. He smiles when he hits me, but the grins fade when he sees i'm smiling too. I think his hands take more damage then i do since i don't feel much, he wants revenge but they need to keep me of the good stuff, so be it.

Marble's working some wicked plan out, some overly-detailed short quick step to greatness, hopefully im only muscle and nothing more, though with the level of comprehension i seem to have regained it's merely a combination of waiting for the right opportunity and playing dumb. Miss mercury seems to be overly tense and frustrated lately, her continual attempts to cling and rub up against Marble get blown off as he's become obsessed with the planning and tactics, and security contemplation - his loss - another step for me.  

=====

Earlier in the 3 by 3 room.

=====

Heavy chains suspend my wrists from the cieling, and i can't tell if i'm jacked in, in a construct or locked in some dark room of the ship, the bruiser whose got a few brusies on his face is pacing back and fourth shaking his hands to get my blood off of them. He likes to talk smack to me while his fists follow up with more punchlines, the foreplay to the inevitable KO, problem is it's still a long way off. He's a doctor in this session whose taking me apart piece of flesh by piece of flesh, i think he enjoys the color of my eyes as a reference point in the dark, i think he said something about them, but that was during a punch that left my ears buzzing.

I've grown so used to the taste of the black tar and the iron in my blood i can't help but wonder if it's better or worse then tastywheat-  i try to ask him what he thinks as i offer him some to taste, his reply is little more then a hand gesture..... well a few of them. I don't think my jaw was meant to take this much of a beating, but somehow i still manage to spit out something along the lines of looking better then he does, to my own amazement my teeth are left in tact while he continues to tear me apart. It's the body shots that truly get annoying, the cracked ribs just make it harder to breathe..... if i'm actually breathing..... i can't imagine that the sounds of the big hands smashing the piece of meat before them don't disturb most of the ship, but between the impacts and the grunts and groans of agony i'm surprised no one comes in to at least see what the fuss is, silly me for thinking about the people who'd check in.

The appointment comes to a close as his knuckles have a strange cocktail of my blood and his and he's breathing as heavy as i am, though he's exerted and i'm just trying to find the air to power another statement, i don't get to spit anything out as i black out at the sound of Mercury's voice.

"What, you and marble aren't having some play time?" He asks amongst heavy breathing.

"No, he's still caught up in his plan, he told me to come get you - and then told me i should clean up your mess."

"Well, get to it then." He chuckles as he walks past her into the hallway.

She shakes her head, i can tell she's tense, far too tense, especially since she's barely noticed me eyeing her up and down, but that's probably also because she can't see them amidst the swelling. I'm sure before she takes most of the swelling down there's enough of that crap in my system that i spout out words of appreciation and wonder and amazement for her, more strange is that amidst it all, i'm actor, puppet and audience - and she seems to appreciate some of my complements. Off to the medical bay for some more treatment i wonder.

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Later in the med bay.

=====

Reverse stock-holm syndrome, i guess that's what you could call it, or maybe a simple crush for how wrong and fowl it could be and is, i suppose she was Marble's girl, but like so many other people who come into power, they tend to lose sight of the ones around them who care and would do the most, a woman scorned is a wrath to be avoided, a woman unnapreciated goes hungry in certain departments, certain departments i might spend too much time in. It's a combination of the latest dosage and my dopey devotion to the magnificent mercury that drives her to hover around me more often then not, and it's my dizziness that delays my inevitable infliction of revenge on her and leads to the focal point of some of the more interesting situations i've been in. Near as i can tell, Marble and the guy whose teeth i removed are debating risk versus reward and aren't able to hear the clash of the medical tray as it collides with the wall when i slam her into it.

It's a ferocious battle of claws and teeth as poorly sewn threads are torn from our frames and instruments from the medical bay go flying in every direction. She's a delicious poision i taste every inch of and in turn she enjoys running her fingers along my scars, scrapes and cuts - ocasionally digging into them for her own amusement, but it's a favor i'm more then happy to return as she collides with another hard surface and the real internal conflict begins. It's utterly amazing that in all the sounds that come from the medical bay no one comes to see, between pain induced growls feral grunts and borderline screams it's impressive that sentinels can't find our immediate location.

It's when she's inclined over the operating table that she get's so loud i need to restrain her, she kicks and claws and bites and it becomes difficult to differentiate between a fight to the death and working towards the finish, strips of flesh feel torn from my back when finally the two of us collapse and the silence that follows is a mix of awkward and hateful, she resents and is disgusted by me, hates what she's just done, and to me the whole affair is amusing, but i maintain a straight face, what's really amusing is that for the same reasons she hates it, she's enjoyed it.

After the chaos of our sparring session, she manages to round up the remnants of what was once clothing and leaves the bay, i pretend to slip off to unconciousness as i manage to round up a few sharp instruments and a tar filled syringe that was sent flying earlier. The big guy is going to come around later to help me re-locate my jaw for his own amusement, it's only really a question of if i kill him now, will i be able to get another session with the nurse. I also can't help but wonder if it would be better to kill Marble, or strip everything away from him.

Decisions, decisions. 

(I love it. More please.)
<3

She'd made the mistake of leaving the door unlocked, strange girl, i found my opportunity to sneak around the ship and check it out, the terminals and mainframes were all encrypted, and with my current level of patience and sanity as is, i didn't feel like doing much more then smashing the terminals, apparently there's only the three of them on this ship, but there were more terminals, there'd been others, for the life i couldn't figure out where we were or where we were going, but that's not surprising when there's no windows. It had the same feel and structure of so many other crafts and yet something about this ship as a whole was disturbing and unnerving, the seemingly swirling shadows and that creapt and seemed to remind me of the black ichor like substance that stung much more lightly at my blood these days..... days - i'm still not sure how long it's been, it's been a long time but it's gone fast - there's been so many botched jobs and plotting, marble's big plan is comming into fruition soon, i haven't figured him out. He wants power but not glory, not control but obedience, not respect but dominance, he's been so lost in this master plan i don't think he even knows what the nurse did with the patient, then again i don't think she does either..... something about her eyes - the silver esque hue of them stands out.

I hadn't noticed it until she was pumping me full of some new concoction that still didn't do the trick but certainly made it hard to stand - beneath the hardened and dark exterior and pale skin, there was something greatly amiss with this one i'd not noticed before, something i couldn't have seen until i'd become able to fight back the tar.

Tidal waves that had once buried me now felt like rain drops as i tore my way through the white eyed beasts that could do little but drag their fingers along my skin as i forced my fingers into those sockets and watched them shreak, after what they'd done to me - i'd begun to enjoy it. The last thing i recall was standing before a tree that writhed and shivered as the tar seemed to receed into the roots, roaring and raging i was the one grabbing the beasts and dragging them back towards me to stomp them and tear them to pieces, i don't know if it's sane to torment and torture your inner demons, but it's certainly a good stress reliever.

I remember making my way to the helm of the ship and finding Marble and the big guy jacked in, Mercury was no doubt piloting the thing as i simply watched the two of them, their life signs and status - the onboard operator and ejp's were engaged and i stared down at the two of them for the first time. Marble was a lot less pretty then he was in the matrix, he's skin less perfect less flawless, the big guy was just as ugly though - my hand creapt along the neural port for the big one, contemplating how easy it would be to end them here and now and free myself, my fingers closed around it and i stoppped...

Between the two of these bastards, i'd been twisted and mutilated, ruined and crushed and beaten, bruised and broken - a demise so simple wouldn't be right, wouldn't be fair, wouldn't be just. No, no these two have to suffer for what they've done, and i'm going to make sure they do.

I've always been fond of meticulous plans, things that worked out every bloody detail with a perfect science that result in the absolute devastation and destruction of an enemy and all he's come to know and live by. Fine tuning things so perfectly that you push the single dominoe and watch the rest tumble down, and while everyones eyes watch the moving line falling one after the next, the conductor sits with his eyes closed waving a finger knowing that his orchestra won't miss a note. How twisted and sick my mind must be to wish for such things, to wish and seek for the perfect string, the perfect thread that can be plucked to send a world spinning out of control for so many and be little more then a game of cats cradle for me.

That's not my department, that's not my forte, i don't dwell in deep seated details and perfect arch-typed mapped out deals, i can't craft the threads of fate and prediction into some kind of tapestry of deciet and control, in fact more then likely i've been weaved in and out at someone elses will, in fact a so called master of this craft is the same person whose been puppeting me for his own devices, the problem is this conductor should have his eyes open, because i'm more then content to ruin the symphony.

I don't flick dominoes, i pull triggers.

=========

It's been a week of prep, mindless bloodshed and busy work for the morons so they can think i'm switched off while i learn as much as i can, while i sit and wait, learning how i can find my opportunity. It comes this night, the one where the two of them - Marble and the big guy, have to jack in, to sort some meeting out where they can't just send their gun-toting sock puppet. The two of them are running around international when a nearby pay phone beckons them over with a familiar ring. I watch on the monitor as Marble motions to the phone and our mutural large friend picks it up, he dissintegrates from the code with a blur and Marble cocks his head in confusion. A second phone attached to the same set of phones goes off and i watch him try and figure out what's going on, he seems to re-assure himself as he reaches over to the phone and he too slips away line of code.

The look on their faces when they reaize it wasn't their means to get into the meeting makes the agony of this week all worth while.

=========

Theres that subtle sad look that she wears so much more now then when i was drugged, but perhaps it was all just the drug, shes slipping back into her clothes when i ask her where the other two are this evening, she doesn't even try to hide it from me, lets me know all the details of where they are going, she seems so astray so lost in the darkness of the med bay, it surprises me when she draws in close and seems to breathe my air from my lungs as within a flash i'm staring into those dark eyes and a thick single tear runs down her cheek as the words-

"do it tonight."   

Whisp rapidly to my ear before i shake my head to catch her leaving the room and she looks back, theres no tear on her face but her eyes, her gaze burrows through me and like staring into the eyes of a corpse there seems to be nothing left to her, nothing left of her.

I shake my head and reach for the stash i've been biding my time with, the syringe and the scalpel are what i take with me as i get out of the room with ease, she didn't even leave the door locked as i move to the bridge, shes hovering over a terminal watching the two of them in the car, the big guy driving and Marble sitting in the back typing away at the keyboard, i can see from another monitor she has a monitor zoomed in on Marble and for a moment i watch as she drags a finger across the screen and sighs. The point of the scalpel opens a tiny wound in her neck so she knows i'm not kidding around, i get her to sit down in the chair and play 20 questions with her.

She gives me no resistance at all, i try to convince myself she's just scared for her life but something isn't right, something isn't normal - not normal for her and the way she usually operates, i keep waiting for a hole to spring in the wall and tar to leak in as this is going too well but it doesn't come as i strap her into the chair and force the cranial jack into her head. She lands in a white abyss, and simply sits down staring blankly into the bright nothingness. I don't have time to analyze her, to figure out why she gave so much so easily, without panic let alone a fight - i don't have time to worry about it, about her.

10 minutes pass and i've downloaded the construct outline i've got in my mind, some more downloads from some databases i shouldn't know about let alone use and the show is good to begin, i strike the keys needed and the monitors pop - i can see the two of them strolling through international about 20 meters from a block of payphones.

Let the games begin.

The big guy -

He seems to almost pop out of the phone booth as he finds himself up to his ankles in a long sewer system of sorts, dim and dying lights cling to the cieling as light is cast to the wet walls, the sound of rodents screeches and the water splashing around isn't enough to distract him from the sickening smell of decay that burns his nostrils. He looks around with scowl on his face and tries to figure out where he is - he turns to grab at the phone and finds the reciever detatched from the phone. He makes a guttural grunt and turns back around in the tunnel and stares at a dark silouette, i chuckle as i grin at the screen and watch him move toward it, he can't see what it is, not that if he could he'd know what to make of it, my allucinations in code, my nightmares turned to his. I grin wickedly as i watch the start of the show -

He tries to word something intimidating and hostile but he's cut short when the empty milky eyes open and the bone chilling screech leaves it's mouth, the sound made more intimidating by the gunk leaving it's lips and mouth opened far too wide. He recoils in surprise and slight terror and the thing lunges at him, the thick tar coat it wears oozing over him as he fights to get it off of him, they grapple and fall into the muck beneath them and in the midst of it all he manages to toss it off of himself and get back to his feet, whiping the thick tar off of himself the same type of screech echoes down the tunell, many of them do - he turns in horror to find himself staring down a path with several of them rising to their feet from the watery floors and his skin crawls as they twist and rigedly pull themselves from pipes and holes all around - he can't stand it and begins to run. Thats the problem with the big guys, they can fight and they can go for a while, but stack the hand and it's a war of attrition they'll never win.
 
He fights his way through the tunnels for what seems an eternity for him, as i simply enjoy the show with my feet on the reciever ocasionally leaning forward to monitor his vitals and of course to twist the sewer system to lead him where i want him. His heavily winded when i finally get him to slip off an edge and into a large room filled with pipes that pour the rancid water down onto him. He spits it out of his mouth and whips his hair about trying to maintain his vision, trying desperately to lose that which is hunting him, problem is, this little playground itself is hunting him. The water leaking from the pipes thickens and changes color and it's at that time he feels the bony fingers grip into his ankles and he struggles uselessly, i watch him scream and try to fight as one by one the heads pop out of the goo and move in on him, like a plague of zombies in a horror flick they wrap themselves around him and drag him beneath the water and he screams fighting to keep just his head above it. I watch as the goo floods into his mouth and overtakes him, i grin and prepare for the next step.

====
 
Marble is sitting in a large room, there's only one door and of course it's locked, i watched him go from being paniced to calm and docile, no doubt trying to prepare for what's comming his way or thinking of how he can get out of this. I watch the familiar simulacrum of myself walk through the door and i pause only a moment to take in the concept of puppeting myself.
 
I must give you credit Darminian, i didn't think you'd be so bold.
 
One's over confidence can often lead to their own demise.
 
You think this is one of those situations?
 
We'll find out.
 
Why not just pull my plug?
 
Because i want to enjoy this.
 
He looks confused as he cants his head to the side and i motion to the door, a bulky individual with braids steps through the door with a glazed look on his face, especially his eyes. On the deck of the ship i'm making sure the IV is working as i watch the goo pour into someone else.
 
My sim gets to his feet and moves towards the door, Marble get's to his feet as he recognizes the new guest, i place my hand on his shoulder and tell him how much better things will be when he mashes Marble to a pulp. If possible the pale skinned man goes more ghost white and a look of horror seems to wash over him as he looks into the hollow eyes of his old friend now moving slowly towards him.
 
Oh, by and by Marble, i didn't pull your plugs, just disabled your EJP's.
 
My chuckle echoes through the room as the door closes behind my simulacrum and from the bridge of the ship as i watch the large man with the braids start laying into Marble. It's a good 10 minutes of begging and pleading for some form of conciousness from his friend before he begins to fight back.
 
Blows land back and fourth, the hulking one slow and beaten from his sewer run, and yet seemingly immune to the damage done to him, but all walls fall, and as Marble manages to break away and grab a splintered piece of wood from the former couch he bashes the braided one enough times to let fourth the pressure of the crimson dam, he falls to his knees as the warm blood washes over his front and Marble drops to his former comrade and tries desperately to wake him, but he slips off to a sleep from which few have ever awoken.
 
His screams of anguish and sorrow are enough for me to decide to end the game, the room peels away and he finds himself in a white abyss with a flat floor, I'm leaning on the wall, or rather my handsome sock puppet is as he turns to look up at me, hatred fills him from top to bottom and it's palpable, he gets to his feet and staggers into a run towards me, his cries are useless as the sock puppet dissintegrates from the world around it and he collides with the wall.
 
He turns and freezes in place, his eyes widening in horror as i stand closely behind a second guest, one arm around her neck, the other around her waste, a twisted grin painted on my face as i watch him try to weave and work, try to find a string to pull or a move to make.
 
This one is really going to be fun.
 
You son of a *****, leave her out of this, this is between you and me.
 
Hardly, the good nurse gave me my dose, and now it's time for yours.

==

He watches as i reach into my coat and withdraw the revolver - i toss it onto the floor between the two of them and the thud of the weapon silences all others, i keep Mercury in my arms for a minute longer before whispering sweet little words into her ear and release her, she seems to lean for a moment before almost falling over but she slowly waltzes forward and with gentle nimble little digits she wraps her fingers around the hand grip and lifts the cannon from the floor.

On his knees across the room, i see the world that was once so solid finally give out, the cracks in the marble if you will, the very fabric ripped at the seems of what he knew to be solid, to be immobile. Tears fill his eys and he mouths out words to try and disuade his 'love' from pulling the trigger, he raises his hands to her only to find them covered in the blood of his former ally and the rest of him breaks as his head falls limp from his shoulders and the tears slip from his cheeks to the floor beneath him. He hears the hammer click and my mind wonders if the crimson that splashes the floor next is visible to him if for only an instant, the lifeless body crumples on the ground, and the second life signal falls flat on a monitor nearby.

====

There's a chill that fills the air in the real, as i watch, she turns to face my puppet, finally i realize it, realize how truly broken this world can be, those silver eyes, those shiny eyes that reveal so much pain and death, tears adorn her face to, but they aren't clear, aren't simply salt water, the same jet black tar that's been the source of all this blood and death leaks from her eyes, and her hand shakes with the pistol.

'I've been a prisoner for so long......'

'And the means to my freedom comes with a new cage....'

'We are all forever puppets of fate Darminian......'

'Forced to action at the whim of one or another......'

I'm at a loss for words, but it's not as though i have anything to say.

'Your prize is in Marbles room, it will only bring you to death though.....'

'We'll see.' - I manage as my mind begins to weave the details into place and then it happens -

'Thank you for freeing me.'

She lifts the cannon a last time and place the barrel into her mouth and another blast fills the air, it echoes across the abyss so loudly that the impact her huddled mass makes with the ground goes unnoticed. The third vital stat goes blank on the ship and the code seems to fade to black, all the light on the bridge seems to fade as i sit in complete darkness.

For a long time i stood over her lifeless body in a state of confusion, the empty husk that was once the tormented soul carrying the flag of Mercury, the puppet whose strings were cut by another man using her. I ran a hand through her hair and sighed, allowing myself a moment of contemplation, to allow myself to slip away from the cold necessity that was this life and just think about the strangeness of this whole affair, those few moments blur the time inbetween when i've sent the appropriate transmission and unplugged her body. A few klicks out from the ship i find a suitable plot and with some wreckage and scrap build and mark her resting place, something about this tormented being strikes a vein with me, we've all been puppets to something, we've all been controlled and manipulated by something - sometimes without realization sometimes completely aware of it.

As i let the dust pour through my fingers and cover her pale and soft frame I can't help but wonder what kind of life one can lead when he has no control over it, no ability to define his own path - a person who lives and dies at the whim of another has never once lived for themselves, and this caged bird who rests beneath my feet, in a cruel and twisted irony found her one act of freedom was her own destruction, her own demise.

How tragic.

My prize is strapped to my back and i've donned some old familiar and new rags to fight the cold, I mark her grave appropriately and mutter some silent nothings to the torn to pieces world that lays beneath the lies, and move to the top of a hill, perhaps once an office building-  one can never be sure. In the distance i can see Marbles ship, the behemoth which served as my prison for the last.... however long it's been. It'll be a few hours before the ship arrives to pick me up, Oblivion and the others will no doubt have more questions than i myself can answer, and as i stare across the dead plains of the world we all swore we knew, i watch in silence as the grounded craft explodes in a silent inferno leaving only flaming wreckage, i hold tightly onto my prize as i seat myself down on the edge of the cliff and wait.

The air sweeps embers and ash out across the ruins of a world that once was, and i sigh staring at the remnance of a prison, while i contemplate the one i'll inevitably return to.

What is your life, if you aren't guiding it.