"It's good that he gave it to you before he died - remembering's always easier with a momento. If you want I could reinforce it for you, by the way."
At Jesse's question, Tömas goes quiet for a while.
"Sticking around's a different question, but being around? I don't even know why I'm ... existent is the best word, I suppose. I can't think of any reason I'd have stuck around after I died, but I did. I sure remember my death well enough though..."
As Tömas recalls the scene, Jesse kinda views it as well, due to them being fused.
In Lordgeonome's throne room, two men are arguing while a circle of others hang back. They seem tiny in comparison to the two by the throne, who are each at the least 9 feet tall. The shorter of the two, possessed of long, curly reddish/orange hair, and wearing an iron cap that seems to have the suggestion of spikes somehow despite being smooth, a kilt, and a vest made out of steel overlaying a cloth tunic reaching down to his waist, is shouting at the other, who Jesse would probably recognize as Lordgeonome.
"...and I say again, no! No to this outright stupid proposal of yours! We've been at war with the Anti-Spiral for centuries and now you want to capitulate because of some far-off event that we had no evidence for? Bullshit I again say! I wonder if some spineless bureaucrat stole yours while you were sleeping, Lordgeonome."
Lordgeonome is ice to Tömas' fire, keeping utterly still as the scots-viking wildly gesticulates. He speaks in a quiet, level tone that somehow carries around the room.
"Enough. I have made my decision, and you will abide by it, Tömas. The Spiral Armada will stand down and let the culling process begin. It is the only way humanity will survive."
"Or what? Huh? What will you do, if, no, when, I refuse your sheep's bile? Because sure as shit none of my soldiers are going to stand down and let the aliens we've been fighting for longer than I've been alive come down and cull our population down to near nil! In fact, you can take yer 'order', and shove it up yer a-"
Tömas never finishes his sentence, as one of Lazengann's drills erupts though the floor and impales him straight through the chest, stopping just short of bisecting him. Depending on how absorbed she's gotten into the memory, Jesse might experience an incredibly deep, burning pain as Tömas remembers the sensation of the wound.
Back in the memory, Tömas is looking down at the drill coming up through his chest in shock. The other figures have drawn back in fear. Tömas looks up as Lordgeonome approaches him, and only manages to gasp out "Eh?" before Geonome's fist, encased in a drill made out of red energy, punches straight through his face. The memory ends there as Lordgeonome turns upon the others in the room. The last thing he heard was the Spiral King's proclamation.
"This is all for the greater good."
Tömas stays silent for a while after the memory ends, letting it fade properly.
"Of course I didn't end there. Instead I had to watch as Lordgeonome butchered the rest of his Generals - men and women I'd fought and bled with for more than two hundred years, my brothers and sisters in all but blood. I watched all that with eyes I didn't have anymore, shouted for them to escape with a mouth that was nothing but a smear over his fist, not that they heard me. I was far less than I am now - barely even a wisp, hardly even existent. And then I followed him when he left his chambers, and I saw that which followed. Everyone I knew - friends, enemies, drinking buddies, old lays, my foster father, all butchered by the newly crowned Spiral King and his beastmen."
Images flash rapidly before their eyes, a tableaux of blood and death.
"Not even the woman I loved escaped alive."
This image linger a little longer before Tömas forcefully pushes it away - a woman in a Gunmen. Not much detail can be seen of her - in fact she's barely an outline. What's in far greater detail is Thymilph's lance beam splitting the cockpit in half.
"I was happier than I'd ever been when that bastard died."
And then I had to lay about and think about that for six and a half centuries. Do you even comprehend how long that is? You're what, 18, 19? You don't even know what fifty years feels like, much less six hundred on top of that. I had to wait around doing nothing for that length of time with nothing but bad memories and the sight of my people being oppressed for that long. More than anything else the boredom nearly killed me - you run out of thoughts to think without proper interaction with others. I slowly forgot details, no matter how much I tried to bolster my memory. I forgot the name of the man who raised me. I forgot where I was born. I forgot my love's face. I forgot almost everything, I think, except for the look in Lordgeonome's eyes when he killed me. That look that said, 'I know I'm right, and I'm going to prove it.' That's all I had to keep me going - it's a wonder I didn't go completely insane."
Tömas sighs and relishes the feeling of smoke coiling around his body.
"You ask me why I want to be around if there's so much shit I hate, and I can only tell you this: I want to prove him wrong. I want to see humanity grow across the cosmos with the use of Spiral power, strong and free, and I want to solve the Spiral Nemesis without any anti-spiral bullshit and prove to that spineless traitor coward deadsheepfucker that what he did was wrong.
After that? I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try to find something of worth in this flawed society you lot have built. But I'll focus on that once we've gotten the apparent end of existence out of the way."
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Topic: Gurren Lagann Gaiden [IC]: Anti-Spirals (Read 82701 times)