Morec0 Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 (edited) Finally decided to write this thing... A Promise: My knees are soaked. I’m kneeling down. No, no I’m standing. I had been kneeling, but… but… I look around. Everything, everything’s like my knees: soaked, dripping down. My armor doesn’t absorb it, but underneath my armor, my shoes… it seeps into everything. Everything that’s not alloy or plastics. From my knees down, I’m drenched. How long had I been kneeling? I take a step forward; no, no I don’t. I try, but… My face? My face is wet? I bring a hand to my face and wipe it away, looking down at it. I look up. Only the sky; the sun a faint light in the distance. This place… so cold… my feet, my knees, my face… warm. Whose is this? Mine? I wipe my hand on my leg. My armor rejects it; barely any comes off, the little rest soaks into my glove. I… I look down. Whose is this? Mine? There’s?.. There’s? So much… my shoes, I kneel down and take them off… No, not better. My feet are still warm, still wet; it doesn’t cling to my skin like my soaked clothes had, but… I take a step forward. I slip. I catch myself. My hands, they’re soaked through the gloves, clinging to my skin. Some splashed into my face, I try to wipe it away but my gloves… I take my gloves off – no, no it’s too late. My hands, soaked, I only make it worse as I try to clean my face. I stand again. No, I’m kneeling. Now I stand. I… voices? I take another step, towards the voices, up the stairs. I almost slip again, almost, but I don’t. I take another step up… Another step… Another… Another… Another… No, no there’s not another step to take. I look down. I’m at the top. I take another step up- no, no, I’m at the top. I step forward. It’s drier up here, so much drier. My feet, they leave wet patches as I step inside. I… I should wipe them… I step forward; I stop; I kneel down. I should have wiped them clean before. I am sorry, I meant no… I am sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean… I want this! No, this is mine! I’m taking these. Fine, I’ll- I’m not speaking. The voices, I can make out the words. They are familiar to me. They are… I stand. There is a wet patch where I had knelt down. I’m sorry, I… I step forward. The voices. The speakers. I see them now. Their armor is soaked. They’re drenched. They’re like me, but they... They… What are you doing? What am I doing? What are you doing? You shouldn’t be here. What are you doing!? You need to stop! You need to stop! Stop! Stop! Stop- The voices are gone. The speakers are gone. I kneel down… I fall down. Its warmer here, so much warmer than outside. I… I move. I’m on my hands and knees. I’m on my feet. I’m against the wall. I’m looking down. They’re like me. They’re just like me. But they… Voices. Speakers. I turn. They’re here. More like me. I step forward, I… I fall to the ground; they knock me to the ground; they step by me. I bring a hand to my face. Warm. So warm. I hear them behind me; I try to stand; I hear one of them, I… I… I… I… I rise to my knees. They’re gone. They’re where I left them but, but they, the other they, they’re gone. They’re gone and they took what they had been after. The room is empty. My head, my hands, my clothes, no longer warm, no longer wet; dry, everything is so dry. Cold, so cold. Cold and dark. How long… I stand; they’re not here to stop me, no one is. They’re gone, they’re all gone, they took what they wanted, did what they wanted, and left; just like they had. I’m alone now. I step forward, I step outside. It’s cold, just as cold, and it’s just as dry as inside. I look to the floor. It’s different. It used to be beautiful, but now… Now it’s just brown. Like dirt. The beauty, hidden beneath… beneath the dry… I look around. Everything’s gone. Did they take it? No, they didn’t take it; they took it. My allies, my brother, they’re all gone; one way or another, they’re gone. I’m all that’s left. Why? Why me? I put a hand to my throat. I failed. I failed them all. Why am I still alive when I failed everyone? My face goes cold. I failed. I failed! I am not allowed to fail, we are not allowed to fail. There is a price for failure, a price I will have to pay. I… I will accept this fate. It is my duty. I was sworn to it and I failed, I deserve nothing less. I stand, and I wait. My face is cold, my heart racing, my entire body once again is soaked. Nothing. I wait. Nothing. I wait. I wait for nothing. There is nothing. There will always be nothing. There will be no punishment, my failure was that great. That is my punishment. My punishment is that no punishment will come. There will be no price paid, no fate to accept for my broken duty. I am alone. I am alone; I will be alone… My masters… I want to look around, I want to look and see what is around me, who is around me, but I cannot. I cannot look, I cannot move, I… I know what is there. Nothing. No one. My failure, my greatest sin, my fate. I’ve lost my honor, I’ve lost my reason to fight, I’ve lost my purpose. I sit. I sit amongst the remains of my failures, amongst the ruins. I have nothing else I can do. I failed here. I lost everything here. I will stay here. I will die here… … No. No, I will not die here. I will not be without honor. I will not be without purpose. I will not give up! I am without master, but I am not without duty; I am not without purpose. I know what I must do. I know where I must go. I know what I must risk, but this fate will not be mine: this solitude, this punishment, this death, will not be mine. I stand, and I travel. --- I come to the place where I must be. Beautiful. Pristine. I should not walk here, I am not allowed to be here, but it is here I must be. It is here I must walk if I am to do what I must. The halls are silent save for the hum, the chat, of the machine, the machine who watches this place, the machine that protect these halls. It does not recognize me, it does not know me, but it lets me pass. Why? Why does it let me pass? Why does it not strike me down as I know it is meant to do? I do not know. I do not care. It is not a part of what I must do, why I must be where I am not supposed to be. I pass through the halls, past everything they are and everything they speak to. Every wall, every pillar, every terrace, every pool, all a testament to them; to their greatness; to their glory. A testament to everything they achieved and everything they achieved. It is beautiful, like they were beautiful – gold as they were; cold as they were, as they are… I try not to look at them. This place reminds me of them, of my masters. My great emperors. I wish not to be reminded of them, not now, not before I can begin to undo my failure. Before I can begin to regain my honor. Before I can begin to punish their murderers… I am here. I am where I need to be. I approach the wall. It’s waiting for me, my way out of here, my way to turn back. All I need is enter into it and I can leave this behind. All I need is step inside and leave this place, this Void, and I can forget about everything that have done and failed to do. I can be free of everything. I can live. I put my hand on the wall, I press what I need to press; the escape pod flies away into the nothing. There is nothing now, nothing between me and what I must do. No way to turn back. No way to cower. No way to reject my duty. I stand on the edge. I hold my arms out. I fall into shrouding light. --- I sit alone, staring out into the black of pace. Wires dangle around me, electricity arcing from them, the last remnants of the ship’s cephalon zipping through them. But it’s gone. Removed, torn from the system by my hands. It would only get in my way. It would only slow me down when I must be quick. I listen to the radio behind me, in front of me, all around me, all tuned to a hundred different frequencies. I have been listening, I will continue to listen. They speak, they talk endlessly, speaking of people and places I know and people and places I know not. I cannot understand many of them, they speak a language I do not know, words I have never heard and never will understand. But I need not understand them. I need not know what they say. I need only listen. Listen for them to speak of atrocities only few could commit, listen for a reason, listen for them to speak the one word that will call me to action; for the call for retribution to be sounded with a single word. Listen for ‘Tenno’. Tenno… You may forget but you are not innocent. Edited December 24, 2014 by Morec0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morec0 Posted December 24, 2014 Author Share Posted December 24, 2014 Since I got two separate theories in regards to this, I have an alt. middle section in the works, I'm too tired to work on it properly, atm, but this post will be edited to accommodate it in the future. 'til then: enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalenath Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 NICE My own version of the Stalker is a bit like this. Lost and tormented by what he cannot -quite- remember. But driven to redeem his honor and the honor of the Tenno that was lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychicandroid Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 Super awesome. I like reading different histories of the stalker. I like the stream of thought feeling to it and you conveyed super well the transition from confused to horrified to angry to absolute certainty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morec0 Posted December 24, 2014 Author Share Posted December 24, 2014 NICE My own version of the Stalker is a bit like this. Lost and tormented by what he cannot -quite- remember. But driven to redeem his honor and the honor of the Tenno that was lost. Super awesome. I like reading different histories of the stalker. I like the stream of thought feeling to it and you conveyed super well the transition from confused to horrified to angry to absolute certainty. Glad ya'll like it ^.^ Also glad I was able to, at least for one person, get that sort of "shell-shocked" and progression through it vibe, I was worried what I was writing sounded more like gibberish than anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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