Let the Games Begin I: The

[Thechosenone]

(Decided to do a new crew. Here's the intro piece. Expect more and narrative battle reports too. I took a unique view of the Guild and now i take another unique take here too. They'll be my "hero" crew." As always enjoy and please leave comments too.)

Storm winds besiege the city of Malifaux. Dust carried from the barren wastes outside cloak the metropolitan scar in umber haze. The clouds hang low and rumble with thunder. Their insides flash constantly like the silent pulsing glow of deep sea abominations.

A child’s hand points.

It picks out the largest structure in Malifaux and even from this distance on Mount Cairn the object is clear to see. The Pinnacle Tower of the Guild impales Malifaux through the heart like an ebony spear tip sent from the hand of a cruel god to punish the lives of man.

“What is it?” The child asks. A boy who’s lived only a brief life compared to that of those around him. Nine years, nine short mortal years. Not even trite clichés like “blink of an eye” can accurately put to words how insignificant a time that is.

Nine years lived. Nine years at the mercy of frail flesh and callous reality. That was but a dream.

“A tower.” A whispered answer comes from the shadow wracked darkness behind the child. The boy frowns. It’s not enough to be considered an answer. His friend is often annoying like that.

A sound resonates beside him, like piping flute music in the form of a lullaby. A rosy red wisp of light births from the sound and sparks with its own joyful lightening as it dances around the boy. He laughs and swats at the color before it settles beside him. The light darkens and stretches; it takes a shape and solidifies into a thing of bubblegum matter. Octopus like with a grinning Jack ‘o Lantern face and eyes. It pulls a purple hat from nothingness and sets it upon a bulbous pink head.

“All hail the Chosen One!” The tentacled creature greets the boy, its voice deep and powerful. It’s the voice of a man the boy remembers from a long time ago. The Butcher from his home spoke like that, with a voice deep like a thunderstorm. He always wished his voice sounded that way.

“Mr. Shatter, stop being such a pain! I’m trying to learn!” The boy chastises through his laughter. The creature nods.

“Of course, of course. What are you trying to learn?”

“About that!” The boy points to the tower again. “What do you know about it?”

The blob like shape of the living dream quivers noticeably. Its form buckles and bobbles. From its mouth a smog of rosy vapor flees. “That, anointed one, is the Twilight Pinnacle of the Guild. Or so they call it now. That is where the evil wizard known as Governor General lives with his equally evil partner The Secretary General. Did I mention they are evil? Because if that was skipped master then let me say it now. They are evil.”

“Governor General is a strange name for an evil wizard? And what’s his friend the Secretary like?”

The whisper in the dark returns “They are as one. They are body and they are soul. The Governor’s greatest servant is the part of himself that understands humanity enough to manipulate it. One is the wood from which the fire burns, the other is the fire. Do you see?”

“I’m hungry.”

“As… am… I.” The darkness answers back both agitated and eager.

“Tootsie roll?” The boy produces a tiny wrapped candy from the folds of his tiny yellow blanket and offers it up to the dark.

“Look at the tower, Chosen One, and tell me what do you see?” The whisper’s tone is particularly icy.

The boy tilts his head curiously. He wonders why his friend needs him to explain what’s in plain sight. “The tower isn’t a tower really. It’s just pretending. It’s like a… a… em?” He searches his vocabulary for the right words. “It’s like when animals pretend to look like something… or like when ghosts haunt your house. Or, or oh oh oh it’s like when you’re really sick. The thing on the outside isn’t what the thing is? The stuff hidden inside is what matters. The tower isn’t a tower, it’s a monster and its heart and soul play dress up all the time.”

“Yessssss” The whisper carries on the wind. It’s a delight to hear such truths spoken from a mouth lacking the right terms. But even though the words are simply they are still entirely accurate.

“Ha ha! From the mouth of babes!” The new voice, spoken like a school teacher the boy once had, is deliberate, accented and each word sharply spoken. Even its laugh seems calculated and controlled. The voice is nothing like the form that speaks it. Dressed in a long red top coat is a gaunt slippery skinned nightmare. Its shape is human like aside from the exaggerated limbs but the resemblance to a mortal ends at the neck. Long greasy lengths of gray hair hang over a tentacled face. The facial limbs loop and coil as it speaks with perfect human words. “You are very bright. And you have beautiful eyes you know that?”

“Yes I do Mr. Coppelius sir.”

“Beautiful stubborn little eyes that just refuse to leave their roost no matter how hard I try.”

The boy giggles “You are such a silly man. Of course my eyes don’t come out? Eyeballs are meant to stay in the eyeball hole.”

Coppelius raises a stiff blackish finger and waves the digit “Common misconception my delectable deity, eyeballs love nothing more than to get out every once and a while for a stroll. Let me just see if I can show you…” The creature reaches for the boy’s face. Mr. Shatter shakes his egg shaped head. The whisper in the dark sighs heavily.

“Again with this…” Mr. Shatter groans. “We have an entire world to save you know?” But Copplius waves off the urgent pleadings of Shatter with a sickeningly large hand.

Coppellius’ long fingers pluck at the socket of the boy’s head but only briefly. His hand bursts into colored sand and beautiful shiny streamers billow where blood would be. The display is fun. The pain is real. Coppelius recoils into the dark screaming about his limb.

Mr. Shatter laughs, even his expressions of happiness are infinitely baritone. “Too funny.”

“Silly guy.” The boy laughs. He turns back to the Pinnacle again. Its ugly veneer casts a shadow across the entire city. The storm light that flashes from the clouds seems to avoid the tower as well. Like the clouds knows the futility of trying to strike it… or the price to pay for doing so. The boy can feel the place as well. He can feel the oppression, the rules, the structure, the awful confusing order it imposes. It’s rather itchy too.

The boy looks away from the tower and across the wastes below Mount Cairn. His eyes see more than just the wastes though. They see a land that suffers under the veil of Pinnacle. Its darkness blankets the sky, infects the land and pollutes the soul. He can see across the wastes to the great forests, the deep oceans and the secret places. He can feel everything. Not like the nightmare place he was before. There he could feel nothing but the hurt in his body and the absences in his heart. There all he had was his invisible friends and they showed him to a place where there is no pain and where he is loved infinitely. This world loves him. It calls to him to be rescued.

Here he is a savior.

“We should break it.” The boy says with all the seriousness of a legendary hero.

The whisper hisses. “A grand idea yes, bring it down. Drag out the heart and soul kicking and screaming. Consume their panic and build a throne of terror that will endure as long as the universe knows fear!”

“And a slide Lord Chompy Bits. There will be a slide too.” Still very serious.

The whisper seethes in the darkness unseen. The mountain trembles with the aetheric resonance of its rage but the voice maintains civility. “Yessss, of course. Why wouldn’t there be a slide at the epicenter of our everlasting nightmare?”

Mr. Shatter nods. “I like slides.”

With the boy’s attention away from Coppelius the streamers and colored dust have reverted to real ichor that spews from his wound. He squirms on the ground clutching the stump. Pain seasons his otherwise studious accent “Brilliant idea. The slide to eternal suffering ratio should be balanced. I’ll make a graph, or pass out from pain. Both sound lovely.”

The boy smiles, his serious face vanishing and his innocence returned now. “Magic trick! Everyone look!” He bounces over to Coppelius and drapes his blanket over the stump. “Abrakadabra!” When he pulls it away the missing hand is returned.

Coppelius stretches out on the rocky ground relieved. He’d smile if he had lips. “You delightful, delicious delicacy you. One day I will eat you up kicking and screaming. I loathe you. Truly.”

“Silly man.” The boy then points to Malifaux. “Let’s go there. I wanna play a game with them.”

The whisper in the dark stirs. Its hunger echoes through the mountain and into the night. The city beyond is filled with fears to feed upon.

An old god returns home after so long.

“Let the games begin!”

Edited October 31, 2011 by Thechosenone

[Chucklemonkey]

I enjoyed it. The atmosphere and tone of the piece was very nicely done.

I look forward to seeing the crew develop.

[Thechosenone]

Glad you enjoyed it Chucklemonkey. I liked writing it. It was different from my Guild stories and lighter in a strange way.

[Ozz]

"The boy giggles “You are such a silly man. Of course my eyes don’t come out? Eyeballs are meant to stay in the eyeball hole.”"

Think this was my favourite line in here, there were a few others but that made me laugh the most loving your dreamer stuff so far

[Thechosenone]

thanks so much ozz. much appreciated