Author Topic: Events in a new world  (Read 1962 times)

thunderforce

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 264
Events in a new world
« on: June 27, 2013, 06:51:41 PM »
(This is written from a point of view where neither the black dawn of the game shutdown nor the i23/i24 plot has happened. It's short, just to feel it out. Comments welcome.)

Dr Jameson slipped the mask from his face and into his pocket, unobserved in the corridor outside his lodgings; he unlocked the door and stepped through it, reflecting ruefully that one good kick would burst it free of its hinges, as he always did. His eyes lingered momentarily on the wardrobe, wanting to strip off the rags he wore and don his uniform once more, before he checked himself. "Sentimental nonsense, Andrew. That's what you used to tell the rookies," he muttered. "No time for self-indulgence."

Two steps took him to the only chair; he seated himself at the table and pulled his journal from his coat, making methodical notes of the day's work. "Three Skulls. One dead. One crippled. One fled", reproving himself again for sloppy work just as he had when he let the punk go. "Half a dozen Thorns wizards, all destroyed. Victim appeared shaken but unharmed. Advised her to seek medical attention. Refused to give name." Note followed note until he pushed the chair back, muttering to himself again.

"That's enough, Andrew. You're putting it off." Sighing, he put the journal away, taking paper from the shelves. His lips quirked as he reflected he had never yet before written in friendship to someone he had tried to kill when last they met. He set the first words down: "Interrogator Kang", considering briefly expressing his relief at the news Kang had survived, but dismissing it as trite. "I have every reason to believe this will reach you from Primal Earth."

thunderforce

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 264
Re: Events in a new world
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2013, 04:09:42 PM »
Once started, the words came pouring out, the frustrations of the last weeks being set down. "It is typical of their extravagant irresponsibility that, where only a few of us even knew the secret of Primal Earth, only a small favour done here lets me send a letter through the portals to Praetoria. They explore the universes with gay abandon - a private company poking into portal after portal, like children playing with grenades, never thinking what horrors they might unleash. The Emperor planned to wipe out all their Powered individuals; and Praetoria is by no means the worst threat they have uncovered."

"I get enough news to infer you have not yet revealed all. I hope this means you have come to doubt the wisdom of such a decision. I do not really believe, as once I did, that the Emperor prepared that plan merely as a last line of defence against a possible threat; but I know that such a revelation would plunge our world into screaming chaos, and every day I spend here convinces me more that that must be prevented. Scum bubbles to the surface here, uncontrolled; we had the Syndicate, but they have a dozen bastard sons of the Syndicate, from organised crime to street gangs destroying things for the sheer joy of it. People are homeless here, or hungry; they starve, or die because they cannot have medical treatment without money. We both know that sometimes the individual must be sacrificed for the common good, but this is sheer waste, serving no purpose."

"It is not that our system is wrong, but that individuals like Tilman and Cole have betrayed it; we should sweep them away and make Praetoria what it should be; and not destroy this Primal Earth, but lead it by example; show them a truly ordered society, where all work together for the good of all. You know as well as I there are other like-minded individuals; that the majority of us serve the Praetorian ideal, even if we have come to think of it and the Emperor as interchangeable. I still serve, even if here, rather than impose order, I am merely taking pot-shots at chaos; but I implore you, consider that we might work together once again."

"Yours, Dr Andrew Jameson".

thunderforce

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 264
Re: Events in a new world
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2013, 02:56:48 AM »
I would invite another person to reply as Kang. It may not end well, with us restoring Praetoria; it might better end badly, with joint despair.