”It’s only fair. I hope you get better, and I’m sorry for that” Await the punching
”
It’s only fair. I hope you get better, and I’m sorry for that.”
He steps back, enters a fighting stance, winds up his fist, and punches you in the gut. For a few seconds, the only thing you know is pain, followed by the unmistakable sensation of falling over and hitting the ground. The World stays like that for a while. Then you feel a hand under your shoulder, and within a few seconds, you’re in an upright position again, being patted down by the titanic Monster that just used Its powers of pure pain inducement on you. The Titanic Monster seems to be speaking, in Its Titanic, Monstrous voice. It says that Its name is Tom.
‘Yeah, that’s more or less what you did to me, except you left a bigger mark on Me when you did it. I don’t think I left a mark at all.’
He’s inspecting your stomach, under your ragged clothing. You did not consent to this, and you let him know with a well-aimed whack to His hand.
‘Alright, sorry. It’s just that more like punching a block of cheese than I expected. Anyway. Follow me, I’ll do this in the Tower. There’s chairs in there.’
Before you can reply, he grabs your wrist, and begins a fast walk to the small doorway leading into the Tower. Inside, after a climb up a ladder, through a trapdoor, and an unlocked doorway, you find yourself in a small, circular chamber with a wooden ceiling. There’s a fireplace in one side, with a peat fire burning steadily. The walls re covered in hooks, and rolled up hammocks attatched to some of the hooks. He gets two wooden chairs and fetches a pitch black candle, which he lights in the fire. A warm, yellow glow fills the room as he placs the candle in a clay candle-holder. He begins to speak.
‘I shouldn’t’ve gotten angry at you. That was probably the worst thing I could’ve done there, honestly. But I’m not going to apologise, and I’m going to explain why. Calmly. Calm.’
He’s reassuring himself again.
‘Right. So the night before last, I come down from the Tower. It’s been a long day, and I’ve been working my arse off fixing th’ roof. I come to the Inn, and there’s a Blue-skinned Vagabond with a massive bag there. So I’m there asking questions, since it’s my job, and you refuse to say anything. I take a look in the bag, since if there’s a weapon in there, I want to know, and there’s a big black orb in there. And I say what’s that, and I say it quietly, because it looks Private, but I still have a job to do, and then you get up, and you punch me.’
He stops talking for a second, and stands up.
‘Only before you hit me, time stops. Nothing can move, but I can still move my eyes, and my mouth, and I’m still breathing. And you look at me. And you start to talk. You say that if anyone asks me what startes the fight, I’m going to tell them I asked your gender. And you say that I’m not just going to tell the others, more People’ll come, and they’ll come asking about th’ orb, and they’ll come asking about You. said they wouldn’t look like you, they’d look more like me. And you said that you were sorry, and that you promised you wouldn’t come back. And I agreed. And then you punched me for real. When I got home, I was bleeding.’
He throws a sod of peat into the fire, and a shower of sparks fly up the chimney.
‘Now you’re obviously in a state, so I’ll tell you this for free. I’m not stupid. You’re trailing bullshit. In the Reach, there’s no army to come out and help you, no King to ride out and rescue you if something happens. You have th’ weapons you can make, and th’ Towers you can rebuild. Bullshit means death out here, death for everyone you know and care about. No-one’ll care if another Village disappears. Every moment you spend here is more bullshit that’s getting closer. So I’m not going to say sorry for getting angry at you. But I am going to ask you to leave. I’m going to say it politely now, but if this keeps up, I’m going to say it much less politely later.’
Tom points to the door through the dim light. His expression is complicated enough to be unreadable, but he’s definitely not happy at you.
Author
Topic: Of Ghosts and Whispers: a Suggestion game (Read 30762 times)