caughtinanetwork | Sermon Two

[Signless has chosen his location carefully; when he turns on the video function, there's a wall of water behind him, and a school of brightly colored tropical fish swimming past. He's very clearly in the bubble again.]

My friends, today I want to talk to you about fear.

[His voice is low and soothing, his story-telling voice.]

I have known great fear in my time. In my world, the color of my blood was a source of fear, something that drove me into hiding for a long time. Then, when I dreamed of the world that could be, rather than the world that was, I was afraid again... afraid that I would never see what I knew we were capable of come to pass. I was afraid to speak out, afraid to make a ripple in the still, stagnant waters of our society, and tried instead to live my meager little life underneath the notice of the highbloods.

But then I saw what my silence was doing, what those in similar positions were suffering, and I knew I could not stay silent. I could not sit idly by while our world rotted away from its very core, while its corruption bled away the talents and very lives of so many trolls who had done nothing beyond being hatched the wrong color. I could not wait for another to come along and demand change, or I would wait the rest of my life. I needed to cast aside my fear, to find a reserve of strength within me, and rise to what my world needed me to be.

[His voice falls, becoming hushed and soft, almost painfully honest, and he looks down, his cloak hiding his eyes.]

I was terrified. Casting off fear is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Fear is something I knew, its cold comfort as familiar to me as my guardian's face. It would have been... easy to live my entire life in fear, I thought.

[He looks up then, and his eyes are burning, his voice strong once more.]

I thought that fear was a cloak to hide me, but it was a chain I wore around my neck. When the fear was gone, when I made the decision to cast it aside, I have never felt so free in my entire life. It was how I imagine it must feel to wake up one morning with wings, and look out the window into an endless sky. When the fear was gone, I could breathe a deep breath for the first time in my life, and look to the future not as an ominous, foreboding thing, but as a path bathed in light and redemption.

I am not afraid any longer, Vatheon. This is my home now, and it is worth fighting for. I will not be driven out of my home again. I will not let fear control me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[So that's what happened to his shoulder... Grand Highblood.]

Did he hurt you? I mean, besides those scratches and whatnot?

[He actually chuckles at that, smiling wide.]

That really doesn't matter, Signless, really.

[Since he won and all, BAM]

[That good mood is a dead giveaway.]

So I take it you won?

Checkmate. [Smile.]

But he certainly took a few pawns and maybe a bishop and rook with him.

You can still fly and everything, right?

I would not be up in this tree if I could not, heh.

[Not that flying doesn't hurt like a bitch right now...]

All right. Just promise me you'll take it easy for a few days, okay? No more fighting until you're healed up.

I think that's a promise I can make.

Good.

[Teasing grin.]

Go stay with Darkleer if you have to.

Uh.

Yeah, we'll see. [Uh, no... probably not.]

[Should he do that?]

[...Uh.]

Talk to you later, Goalpost.

Not so fast.

Plans for Chucklefuck, lay them on me.

There really aren't any, so far. I think Karkat has found a solution to get him drugged again, but that just doesn't seem like a long-term solution. I can admit it, we got lucky last time.

We're-

[Eyes slim.]

We're not doing that again. It's... it's just plain fucked up.

Do you have a better idea?

[Said in genuine curiousity, not the least bit condescending.]

[A breath.]

I propose we make a deal with him.

But uh, we'll still have to drug him. Just- just that first time. I'm just not all right with doing this to anyone. It's cruel.

Do you think he'd listen, if we made him an offer?

I think once he feels what sopor does, he'll want to make a deal to not feel it again...

[He's not sure he'd like to admit it, but Summoner knows subjugs well, they LIKE feeling everything, they like their senses to be perfect, and sopor definitely took that away from them. Best way to deal with your enemy is by getting to know more about them.]

[Signless nods in agreement; he too has known his fair share of subjugglators, and what Summoner is saying makes sense.]

I'd certainly be willing to try it.

All right.

Drug him first... just, let him be aware of it. But after we'll bring it up as a deal, ready to down him with it again if need be.

I'd just, uh, prefer if we didn't constantly do it.

I don't think doing it constantly is a realistic plan anyway. The only way Gamzee remembers to stay sopored is because Karkat keeps after him about it, and he wants to stay mellow and harmless.

That's why it's all right for Gamzee, he wants to be that way. It's different when the party isn't willing.

Otherwise, do as you must to drug him the first time. [Not that he really wants that either.]

That's where we're running into the problem, I'm afraid; Eridan can't aim because of his eye, and it's not clear where Dualscar's loyalties lay. It's problematic, to say the least.

But leave that to me. Who do you think should try and talk to him, to make the deal, once he's been drugged?

I don't know what good it will do to, uh, talk to him while he's still high. But if someone has to bring up the wager to him, I can. I don't really care who does what or anything, as long as it's a one time thing.

Uh, unless he continues to mess up after the potential deal. Then I guess... Yeah.

I'll come with you when you do.

And that is something we need to be prepared for, I'm afraid. Even if he accepts the deal, there's a good chance he might slip up, and we'll need to drug him again. Is that something you are okay with?

Video; filtered

rebull - 2012-03-03 13:22 (UTC) - Expand

withoutasign - 2012-03-04 08:45 (UTC) - Expand

rebull - 2012-03-04 10:13 (UTC) - Expand