Votecount
quinnr [1] - SirBayer
SirBayer [4] - Siquo, Halmie, spitfire684, quinnr
Not voting: HFS
A sidenote: day shortenings will generally be difficult to come by (unless you're actually cutting off a full day, though you can feel free to still request them). This is because my schedule is suddenly going to include massive amounts of intensive mathematical study per day (I will be holed up in the math library to keep myself away from distractions), so that I will only be online for a few hours in the evenings/early morning.
Please also note that I'm generally lax about prodding, so they will generally be on request only. If HFS does not post by Sunday evening/early Monday, however, I will issue one.
"They spoke at length that morning, of life and death and mourning," says Dakarian. "They spoke in whispers of what had come and what had gone, and it was as though Org the Leper's desperate words still resounded in their eager ears. They thought and remembered and listened."
"They filled their overeager hearts with his malformed ravings, and the villains among them played upon their greatest fears. They absorbed those careful, soft-spoken words like the finest claret wine, knowing not that what they sipped was poison," says Pandarsenic. "They swallowed sincerity as though it would stuff their aching maws."
"It had been but one day," says Dakarian, "but most were poor. They were thin and hungry, and pried the Eucharistic Hosts from the monstrances at the altar--but insubstantial wafers cannot fill an empty stomach."
"It had been but one day," says Pandarsenic with a smile. "They were ravenous, and thought of the men they had thrown down the stairs--but insubstantial dreams cannot fill an empty stomach."
Pandarsenic glances at Vektor's white face, and adds: "If only they had had some cats. Some fat little animals they could slaughter alive to keep their groaning innards warm. Then maybe they wouldn't be so cold. Then maybe they wouldn't be so hungry. Then maybe they would not have to see each other's hollowed cheeks and empty eyes."
"Please," says Aureliusz Vektor, swallowing, "please tell what happened next."
"In their hunger, they were still careful in their judgments," says Dakarian. "They did not kill thoughtlessly. They looked for the evil and cruel-hearted among them."
"In their hunger, they were still careful in their judgments," says Pandarsenic. "They did not kill thoughtlessly. They looked for the young and fat among them."
Pandarsenic glances at Vektor's shaking, snowburned hands, and adds: "Do you think you would be a better man, if you were starving?"
"Pandarsenic lies," says Dakarian. "They were good and honorable men, weren't they?"
"Not at a--"
"They were good and honorable men, strong of heart and gentle of mien. Their bravery shall be told throughout many lands, their virtue known to all. They were towers of strength against the whirlwinds of the world, souls lily-white--and each surely ascended to heaven in his passing."
"And were they such men?" asks Vektor. Dakarian cannot meet his eyes. "Do not lie for the peace of my thoughts. Tell only the truth."
"They lived in a flicker between light and darkness," says Dakarian. "The morality of our circumstances did not apply. They chided each other for being too gentle. They chided each other for being too kind. Each of them wanted only to live, and in ensuring that life they ensured that others died."
"They lived in a flicker between dank despair and unbridled hope," says Pandarsenic. "Their morality forgotten, they fought and hunted each other like wolves. They abandoned clean logic for the tremulous caprices of the heart. When we left them, they were less than human."
Apologies to the Donner Party, Joseph Conrad, and my gentle readers.
Author
Topic: Ex Cathedra [BMIX]: Sunrise (Read 98491 times)