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Slayer of Dogs

Jul 28th, 2019
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  1. [02:03] Dan Dogslayer says, "I see that Isaac has murdered the regent."
  2. [02:04] Dan Dogslayer asks, "Pray tell, Siegfried. How did that occur?"
  3. [02:04] Siegfried says, "A lot of blood has been spilled on the soils. Most of it isn't our enemy's."
  4. [02:04] Siegfried asks, "I came at the tail end. But from what I gathered, right?"
  5. [02:04] Dan Dogslayer says, "Go on."
  6. [02:04] Dan Dogslayer says, "I have been feeling dazed, lately. Confused."
  7. [02:05] Siegfried says, "The regent said 'I'm not going to do whatever you say, Isaac Shimasu' and promptly exploded into ashes. His corpse was then robbed."
  8. [02:05] Siegfried says, "It was quite the spectacle. And just what I've began to expect from people."
  9. [02:06] Siegfried asks, "Where's your helmet, Mr. Dan?"
  10. [02:06] Dan Dogslayer says, "I left it."
  11. [02:06] Dan Dogslayer says, "I saw the face of God, Siegfried."
  12. [02:06] Siegfried asks, "What'd he say, Dan?"
  13. [02:06] Dan Dogslayer says, "There are forces in this world that are utterly beyond our comprehension. I saw the other side, Siegfried."
  14. [02:06] Dan Dogslayer asks, "Do you know what I saw, Siegfried?"
  15. [02:07] Siegfried says, "I..."
  16. [02:07] Siegfried says, "Can't even begin to imagine."
  17. [02:07] Dan Dogslayer says, "Nothing."
  18. [02:07] Dan Dogslayer says, "I saw nothing."
  19. [02:07] Siegfried says, "Something bey-"
  20. [02:08] The boy's brow furrows. That couldn't possibly be right. Civilizations bled, and fell. The people rioted in the streets, screamed to the bloodied heavens.
  21.  
  22. For naught?
  23.  
  24. "Are you certain?"
  25. (Siegfried)
  26. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  27.  
  28. [02:08] Dan Dogslayer says, "Yes."
  29. [02:08] Siegfried says, "I see."
  30. [02:09] Dan Dogslayer says, "I met something. It raped spirits for eternity."
  31. [02:09] Siegfried says, "........"
  32. [02:09] Dan Dogslayer says, "It was something worse than a demon, Siegfried."
  33. [02:09] Siegfried asks, "r-raped, sir?"
  34. [02:09] Dan Dogslayer says, "Raped."
  35. [02:10] Dan Dogslayer says, "And then I met a part of myself that I didn't know existed."
  36. [02:10] Siegfried asks, "b-but r-raped?"
  37. [02:10] Dan Dogslayer says, "Raped, Siegfried."
  38. [02:11] Siegfried asks, "I...are you okay, Dan?"
  39. [02:11] Siegfried says, "This is all so sudden."
  40. [02:11] Dan Dogslayer says, "I've never been better, Siegfried."
  41. [02:11] Dan Dogslayer says, "The way forward is more than clear."
  42. [02:11] Siegfried says, "Yeah. I've felt the same way, lately."
  43. [02:12] Siegfried says, "I think I know exactly what I need to do."
  44. [02:12] Siegfried asks, "What are you gonna do?"
  45. [02:12] Dan Dogslayer says, "I plan on visting an old friend, soon."
  46. [02:12] Dan Dogslayer says, "You wouldn't know him."
  47. [02:12] Siegfried asks, "Is he a man in Dusk, Dan?"
  48. [02:12] Dan Dogslayer says, "Yes. An associate of mine."
  49. [02:13] Siegfried asks, "Is that smart? After everything that's happened?"
  50. [02:13] Siegfried asks, "You'll still go?"
  51. [02:13] Dan Dogslayer says, "I no longer fear death."
  52. [02:13] Siegfried says, "...Yeah. None of you ever have."
  53. [02:13] Siegfried says, "Taiga's gone, Dan."
  54. [02:13] Dan Dogslayer says, "Yes."
  55. [02:16] Dogslayer stares at Siegfried, his face unmoving as stone; no longer was he the once expressive, lively man that the boy had known - to some, a good orator, and good company. He stares, and behind his eyes there is nothing. Only the slightest hint of grief.
  56.  
  57. "I'm afraid that people die sometimes, Siegfried. That's the nature of things."
  58.  
  59. He smiles. It is not a good smile.
  60.  
  61. "The soul is immortal, Siegfried. Mankind is cursed to live ten-thousand lives full of abject humiliation and suffering - I'm sure you'll meet Taiga again, someday."
  62. (Dan Dogslayer)
  63. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  64.  
  65. [02:24] Eyes that'd once been expressive, bright and lively and green with all the naivete in the world, once gateways into the soul of a vibrant young man who'd wrote for the paper and went on fanciful journeys of merrymaking and excitement, were now a pale blue, not quite unlike the eyes of a corpse.
  66.  
  67. "People die sometimes, but he was the only dad I've ever known."
  68.  
  69. There's no smile in return. Only grim resolve, the kind a soldier has marching to his end.
  70.  
  71. "I hope to spend all ten thousand of those lives making the world a better place - so that no one has to live like Taiga Rowan ever again. And when I see him, I don't look at him and say, 'I'm sorry.'"
  72.  
  73. His fist clenches.
  74.  
  75. "I want to look him dead in the eye and say 'I did it.'"
  76. (Siegfried)
  77. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  78.  
  79. [02:30] He doesn't cease smiling - it only stays there, plastered to his familiar yet all too different face. He listens as Siegfried speaks. He feels as though he'd heard it before, somewhere.
  80.  
  81. "Fathers die. Mothers die. Sometimes, I die. I told you I met with a part of myself, Siegfried - he's old. Ancient. Nearly a thousand years old, dear friend. I have been crushed. I have been stabbed to death. I have been impaled. He tells me these things, Siegfried, and I feel them. He talks incessantly. He is me. I am him."
  82.  
  83. Abruptly, the smile falls from Dogslayer's face.
  84.  
  85. "He was like you, once. And then he met other people. He saw corrupt men lead nations to war. He saw white-haired tyrants castrate children. He saw men die, choking on their own blood, from a disease that we can now treat in a matter of weeks."
  86.  
  87. "You can change, Siegfried. Become stronger. Live forever. Fly. Rule the world. You can't change human nature. This world is overflowing with blood - you're trying to treat a severed artery with a band-aid."
  88.  
  89. He smiles again, looking down at Siegfried. He approaches him, slowly, in some ridiculous facsimile of a man walking. Gently, he places one large, calloused hand on his shoulder.
  90.  
  91. "But you can try. I'm rooting for you."
  92. (Dan Dogslayer)
  93. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  94.  
  95. [02:42]
  96. {LOAD GAME}
  97.  
  98. [02:47] You can try.
  99.  
  100. There is no one in this hallowed world who believes in heroes. No matter where he roams and to whom he speaks, those who he preaches his ideals are met with, at best, hesitant admiration. The support that he seeks is nowhere to be found in most, and even those who smile upon being told what he sought to sell to the poor...they know better.
  101.  
  102. That was why he'd ran away. Three hundred and sixty five days, and he came no closer to understanding. But when he stepped back out into the world, and the streets were on fire, and yet, within him burned a flame that'd been there all along, and Taiga's death had served the spark that ignited a wildfire that blazed brilliantly in those eyes...
  103.  
  104. He looks to Dan, and quotes something he'd read once.
  105.  
  106. "Each of us, for himself or herself, by himself or herself, and on his or her own responsibility, must speak. It is a solemn and weighty responsibility and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government or politician. Each of us must decide for himself or herself alone what is right and what is wrong, what's worthwhile and what isn't. You can't shirk this and be a man, to decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor. It is traitorous both against yourself and your country.
  107.  
  108. Let men label you as they may, if you alone of all the nation decide one way, and that way be the right way by your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head, for you have nothing to be ashamed of.
  109.  
  110. It doesn’t matter what the press says. It doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. It doesn't matter if the whole continent decides that something wrong is right. There's only one expense to truly living : The requirement that we stand up for what we believe in. no matter the odds or consequences.
  111.  
  112. When the people and the paper and the swords and the staves demand me to move, my job is becoming to plant myself like a tree beside the river of truth and tell the whole world: No, you move."
  113.  
  114. Listlessly, he shrugs after that, like the theatrics had been simply obligatory.
  115.  
  116. "...Dan, I don't need to be told that what I want is damn near impossible. I knew that from the start."
  117.  
  118. And yet, the smile that spreads across his face as Dan's burly hand descends onto his still-dainty shoulders is positively radiant.
  119.  
  120. "Corruption is what seeds cruelty into justice, that drips contempt into compassion, that poisons love with grains of doubt. There's nothing left for me to say - I have to do things that no one thinks I can."
  121.  
  122. His eyes close.
  123.  
  124. "...And in that dumbass goal, your support means, and always has meant, the world to me."
  125. (Siegfried)
  126. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  127.  
  128. [02:47] {Item} You drop Hair #9.
  129. [02:47] {Item} You picked up Gift Bag (Subscriber)..
  130. [02:47] {Item} You picked up Hair #9. Dropped by Siegfried. .
  131. [02:58] Dogslayer listens, idly, as Siegfried recites to him a quotation from somewhere. He had once stood for those same ideals. He had tried to stand up and spit in the face of a seemingly indomitable, undefeatable evil. He had assembled a militia, rallied magi to his cause; he had, against all odds, convinced almost the entirety of the Legion's high command to betray the oath they had sworn.
  132.  
  133. He felt blameless. The others refused to act - why not inspire them, he thought? Blood ran across cobblestones like a thousand miniature rivers and screaming filled the air for the next week. Purges, summary executions, more...
  134.  
  135. He had stood up and found that the rest of the world had turned it's back on him. Deported from Levengard. Hiding in Obsidia. Political grandstanding, declarations of war, dreams of genocide, religious persecution...
  136.  
  137. It was the end of the world.
  138.  
  139. "Don't talk to me about justice," he said, starting to almost laugh. "Justice was designed by a cowardly god who hides himself away in Heaven. Justice was those children being castrated, those cities being razed, those men being slaughtered. Our world is inherently unjust. There is no such thing as justice, Siegfried."
  140.  
  141. He turns away from Siegfried; the temple smelled of flowers and of flesh, sacrificial altars stained with blood.
  142.  
  143. "You've elected to quote from something, somewhere; I'll do the same. An ancient Valmasian play."
  144.  
  145. He speaks, and he speaks with venomous, horrid sarcasm.
  146.  
  147. "What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty. In form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god. The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals."
  148. (Dan Dogslayer)
  149. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  150.  
  151. [03:22] "If he's justice, I'll take that God and feed him his spine. He sounds like a little bitch."
  152.  
  153. Dan Dogslayer reprimands him like a child, and in the face of that, he hardly flinches, despite the respect that the man has commanded from Siegfried since he was a literal child. Because he was a man, now, and if he couldn't even change those he sought to fought alongside, how would he change his enemies?
  154.  
  155. "There's a fundamental difference between us now, Dan. It wasn't always there, when I decided to follow you, and join the rebellion. When I thought you and Taiga Rowan were the coolest people I'd ever met."
  156.  
  157. The beauty of the world...the paragon of animals.
  158.  
  159. "You hear that our world is inherently unjust, that those children were castrated, those cities razed, those men slaughtered, you look at a world that turned its back on you...and you sound halfway there to turning your back on it."
  160.  
  161. At that moment, he turns on his heel. His back is to Dan - not toward the exit, but at the board. He smells blood.
  162.  
  163. "I hear that the mantle lies on the rack, ready to be worn, that no God nor King endeavors to help man - and I see it as a change ready to be made. The people are restless. Their souls scream - can't you hear them? Can't you see it in tired eyes, and slouched backs? In swords that hesitate before they sink into the hearts of their enemies?"
  164.  
  165. No longer does he run, not from this, not from anyone, and certainly not from Dan. He turns back to one of his idols and stares dead at him.
  166.  
  167. "The world wants to be saved, Dan. It just doesn't know how."
  168.  
  169. Pressure makes diamonds. Forged in the flames of adversity, emerging from the end of the long road, a man must now sink under the weight of hissorrows. Every man holds these sorrows - or else he'd be too shallow a soul to have ever mattered. This pain I feel...that's what makes me human. And I know now that this pain isn't a weakness. It's mankind's greatest strength. Pain shows us where we're weak. And with that knowledge?"
  170.  
  171. His arms outstretch, grandstanding at it's pinnacle.
  172.  
  173. "Human beings are strong because we can change ourselves."
  174. (Siegfried)
  175. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  176.  
  177. [03:25] Dan Dogslayer says, "We're weak because we can only change ourselves. Nothing else. Everything a man does in this world is temporary; his legacy is built in sand on the shore."
  178. [03:25] Dan Dogslayer says, "I must sleep. Goodbye, Siegfried."
  179. [03:26] Siegfried says, "..."
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