You spend your time enjoying the scenery of your mountain home. The tranquility of snow drifting down over the reddish-brown cliffs. The gentle slopes that the snow forms from the rough-hewn walls and faces as it gently piles up against them. The warmth of your body heat fogs the glass at the edges as you sit patiently.
Eventually, the time arises, and you emerge from your meditation. After you double-check your appearance in the mirror, you make your way to the amphitheater. Emma is waiting for you backstage. She smiles when she sees you, but it's forced. She looks exhausted, her usually clean and shiny hair disheveled. There are bags beneath her eyes.
"Ready?"
You nod, breathing out a sigh and composing yourself. Squaring your shoulders, setting your jaw, and loosening your body. A crowd stands on the other side of the stage door, packing the amphitheater to the elevator, as usual.
[15 vs. 14] There isn't fire in your words, but there is will. Your fury is cold, detached, and your willpower sweeps over the front of the crowd.
[18 vs. 12] "My citizens, I come before you today to assure you that rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. That I am alive and well, no worse for the wear from my combat with the wretched Plague. Do I seem ill? Do I seem injured? The people who have spread these false rumors should be ashamed. Our culture values the importance of honesty, the importance of holding one's tongue -- yet these people have the gall to spread falsehood! To lie -- to slander, to lead you to the belief that Pheonix of Sol could be so easily killed. That the unholy Plague could ever truly harm me. That the light of your holy star, your god, could be so easily extinguished."
The crowd gives a cheer, but you don't let the smile you want to wear come to your lips, keeping it set in a tight scowl as you lift a hand in the air to quiet the crowd.
[11 vs. 3]"I have given my word that I will defeat this Plague, that I will rid it from this world and bring about Paradise. As SEED has promised, so have I! If there are any foolish enough that think the word of their God can be so easily broken by trivial injuries, let them speak now. Let me hear your arguments. They are none, are there? Because these fools are heretics, baseless lairs, tricked and misled. Worse than heretics, they seek to halt progress on the Great Work! Denounce them. Denounce them as you have done the Demons and malcontents for years."
[6 vs. 1]"I have not only come before you to call out these liars, these naysayers but to inform you that our war is going well. We have reclaimed many Industrial Districts and removed many heretics from their positions of ill-gotten power. Surely you have seen the results of these wars? All foes, Demon and Human alike cannot stand against our combined will, they cannot stand against the true ruler of this world. As it has been, so it shall be again. We rise from the ashes of our enemies, stronger, determined to reach our Paradise. I thank you for your time today. Hail Pheoni--"
"Mother Pheonix!" Somebody calls, breaking through the rapt silence as the sound of a scuffle echoes through the hall, "Mother Pheonix--" Three people break through the crowd, dragging a thin young man, who struggles and fights against them.
They throw him down roughly in front of the stage, circling around him. A sinewy man with a single arm calls up to you from the crowd. "One of the Malcontents, Mother! One of the Liars! He's been spreading falsehood about you for weeks! Talking slander!"
[15 vs. 13]"I'm innocent, I swear!" He cries. He's not being truthful with you.
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Topic: McCreary's Planet -- (FINISHED) (Read 259267 times)