Evek
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Sophomore
They will make you cry once you discover them, the lies hidden behind that smile.
Posts: 41
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Post by Evek on Feb 23, 2009 16:50:31 GMT 1
Art sure is something, no? Doesn't it make you shiver with emotion? It encompasses the beautiful horror of the unexpected calamity striking one's everyday routine. Look at it, on the edge of the Golden Gate bridge, the chain collision of eighteen vehicle. Does the sight awaken something in you? The bright vivid reds splattered across the usually transparent glass, now cracked and shattered in a thousand pieces, just like the lives of those present and all who were related to them. Does the sound move something deep in you? The cacophonous symphony of horns high and low, of screams loud and faint, of car alarms near and of sirens distant. Does the smell trigger the most vivid of images? Burning fuel and, the timeless classic, charred flesh, forming a gaseous duo that is a telltale of tragedy. Does the feeling on your skin make you squirm? The smooth then cutting edges of twisted metal, a symbol of no matter how strong man's constructions, it is painfully easy to bring their destruction. And the taste? Yes, the taste. I bit my tongue, trying to emulate the incomparable flavor of blood as I enjoyed the completion of my most recent masterpiece. It is simply breath-taking to see what a simple, efficiently disguised, remote controlled spike trap in the middle of a busy road can do. I think I have a crush on traffic accidents, more on this at 6 o'clock.
Wiping a tear of genuinely twisted emotion I tore my gaze away from the memorable scene and walked towards the neighborhood in which my newest canvas was being set. Hircine High, an academy pitted against the Paragon Institute in a bitter fight to the end with a critical prize: survival. It had all the ingredients that one needed to write an epic poem in the likes of the Illiad, with emotionally unstable teenagers instead of mighty Greek heroes. But one must satisfy himself with the hand he has been dealt, and I don't mind holding a suited Queen and Jack. Yes, a queen. A peerless Asian woman with a limited but impressive mastery over my native language, leader of an influent information network aptly named 'The Network'. I had offered my services to her in order to aid her efforts in shifting her organization mission from a reconnaissance operation to a force of action, and was more than willing to introduce new members to my peculiar art circle, but more on that matter on the after-hours special at midnight.
With a flaming catastrophe in my background and a bloody massacre on the horizon, I had only one element of my personal time-line to take care of: do something of the present. Hopefully, San Francisco will amaze me once more with another surprisingly memorable encounter. I hope I'll cross paths with someone, or something, before I reach the confines of the school walls. Nothing kills one's muse like an uneventful walk in the morning, besides the twenty plus dead that I'm leaving behind me.
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Post by Tiao Lei Shen on Feb 23, 2009 20:40:19 GMT 1
The past few weeks have drifted by like a dream. You're aware of what's going on around you, yet you feel this strange sense of inurgency. No matter what you do, events will continue to transpire. They'll continue to shape around you, and you won't have a damned idea what's going on whether you've helped shaped them or not.
This was Tiao's life. He fought all his life to be the best, only to become the flexing muscle of Darren Blayne's student body. He did everything to keep Hircine under control, and he succeeded, only to be flung from power by MacMillan and the watchers. He was there when MacMillan was beaten. He played his hand, and once again he won. As a reward? He was thrown out the window to go to Paragon Institute, San Fransisco's own personal hell hole.
So what was there to do now? Should he fight for Paragon's survival? Hell no. Tiao didn't give a damn about that place. But should he fight for Hircine's? Better yet, why bother? Even if Tiao was to succeed, something worse was bound to be thrown his way. He might as well do nothing, because at the rate his life was going, it didn't matter. There was nothing and nobody to fight for.
So Tiao boarded his way to school once again, doing the same daily routine that barely even gained his notice. Sometimes it takes something big to snap out of one's apathy. For America, 9/11 worked for a while. For Tiao, the eighteen car pile up was sufficient. Tiao came to a slow halt, gazing with sypmathetic dismay at the sight. He stood there for several minutes, taking it all in.
Call it intuition if you will, but Tiao felt a sudden inclination to turn his head to the left. He gazed accross the other side of the bridged street, his eyes landing on a student probably a bit younger than he. He thought he watched him wipe away a tear, which gained more interest in the Tiger of Hircine. Tiao was unsettled by the sight, and couldn't help but feel there might be something more to it than just the crash.
He hopped back on his skate board, moving around the ever growing crowd. He trailed the boy, not finding it surprising that he was heading for Hircine High. He kick flipped over the curb, popping his board back into his hands as slowly came to Evek's side on the pavement.
"Hey, kid! I saw you on the bridge. Did you see what happened?"
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Evek
Newcomer
Sophomore
They will make you cry once you discover them, the lies hidden behind that smile.
Posts: 41
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Post by Evek on Feb 28, 2009 0:40:38 GMT 1
As I made my way towards my school, the voice of a stranger made me turn my head. It belonged to a young man that was around my age and it was directed at me. The lad wanted to know if I had seen the magnificently catastrophic result of my own work. As easy as it would have been to give in to the urge of providing positive answer with a proud smile - I'm an artist that loves recognition, after all - common sense and the desire to stay away from juvenile detention centers made me shy away from that choice of action, making me prefer the option of the half-truth. I offered him a sad smirk as I looked into his eyes. I was having trouble holding back my tears as I imagined the physical pain and emotional panic through which the drivers must have gone through as they realized that their lives were about to end. It was heart-wrenching, it was powerful, it was artistic.
"Yes, I did; but I'm trying to put it behind me." I took a deep breath, coping with the emotion triggered by the recollection. "I am forever marked with that image."
Was my performance convincing? I certainly hoped so. I had incorporated a little tip that my main contact in the States, Lenoir, had given me a couple of days ago, over a spontaneous online messaging conversation.
Systematic Slaying with the Sword of Social Sciences says: -Hey Evek! -Did you know that, according to psychology, if you force to smile all day long, you'd feel happier? -Same thing goes for frowning and feeling pissed. -I guess that's how actors manage to be convincing in dramas. They make the body fool the mind. -Awesome stuff, I tell ya. -Son of a bitch, you're afk. -You're lucky I'm on the East coast, or I'd come over there to kick your ass. -Actually... I could. -Hmm... Is kicking your ass worth the air fare? -Gah, gotta go check online ticket bargain sites. I'm too lazy. =_=
Okay, so maybe it was a monologue, since I was busy assembling the spike trap at that moment. Alright, I admit, it was no monologue, just the erratic ramblings of an eccentric at best. But that does not matter! Even the greatest of madmen can have his moment of clarity! And in this case, it was the acting tip. My heavy breathing, my head leaning forward, my eyes wavering, all those were voluntary actions. Hopefully they would be convincing. Still, I couldn't satisfy myself with my side of the story. I was curious to know more about his. Two words escaped from my lips. They were sufficient.
"And you?"
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Post by Tiao Lei Shen on Mar 2, 2009 7:03:20 GMT 1
A grimace began to expand on the face of Tiao Lei Shen. The ex-pillar never really knew how to console people when they were upset. Even in his former social glories it had been pride and anger. With just anger taking the lead this year, sympathy and empathy still hadn't made their way into the game. Tiao was just happy that the boy fought back his tears. If he saw the boy cry, he'd be even more at a loss.
It was hard to empathize with others. Tiao's father taught him less about feeling for others and more about climbing his way to the top, not looking back at them. It was that same sense of complete self-reliance that lead to Tiao having trusted only one man throughout his entire life. No matter how good of liars, or even cases of telling the truth, Tiao had some mild cases of paranoia.
"Just caught the tail end of it, myself."
Tiao sighed, clearing his head for a moment as he turned back to the boy who almost seemed too brittle. Or, then again not brittle enough to not be in shock. Looking between the lines, he was doing pretty well after seeing such a tramautizing event. Was he emotionally stronger than his presence gave off? Perhaps.
"You know, I've lived her for seventeen years. Not once have I seen a crash that bad. On that bridge, people tend to mind their speeds. I wonder what could have caused such a death trap. Did you happen to see how it all started?"
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Evek
Newcomer
Sophomore
They will make you cry once you discover them, the lies hidden behind that smile.
Posts: 41
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Post by Evek on Mar 7, 2009 15:56:58 GMT 1
I couldn't help but chuckle at the man's question. This lad sure had a peculiar way of amusing me. Whatever his instincts of way of thinking were, it sure didn't involve helping people who just went through a traumatic experience. Shaking my head, I looked up, straight into his eyes with a sad gaze, a pained half-grin on my visage. I spoke back at him with a mild, friendly voice.
"You do know that you're not helping me forget, right?" I released a resigned sigh before stifling another chuckle. With a shrug, I gave the man an answer. "What I can remember, mon ami, was the screeching of the wheels making me turn my head." I closed my eyes for a short instant and let a shiver run through me before continuing. "Then, I spotted a small truck losing control and swerving into the opposite lane." It was a half-truth. My head turned to follow the truck, actually. I was looking at it from the start. It was a bright red truck, colored perfectly to represent danger. Making use of the potential of a blatant metaphor was too hard to resist. I had to use the number 7 speed dial on my cell phone to trigger the trap. The rest was history, beautiful history. Good thing I wasn't under oath. My eyes looked down at his chest for a moment, staring at nothing in particular.
"You're a brave man," I added, staring back at his eyes once more. "Wanting to understand such a tragedy from the moment you witnessed it with your own eyes. Your spirit is hard to break." Another sigh. "How I envy your emotional fortitude." A half-smirk drew itself on my lips as I tried to learn more about the man in front of me through his body language. He was still a complete mystery to me.
"L... listen," my lips trembled. This artificial emotion was awfully potent. "I didn't get your name, I apologize." I offered my hand for a shake. "I'm Evek, by the way."
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Post by Tiao Lei Shen on Mar 9, 2009 8:01:59 GMT 1
As soon as Evek starting in his reply, a small frown crept its way onto Tiao's face. He felt a tinge of dissapointment in himself at the boy's words. Tiao was being very insensitive, something he was quite often. Usually, it didn't matter all that much, Tiao not blinking if he hurt someone's feelings. This time though, something actually tragic had occured. Just because he was tough-hided didn't mean everyone was. He had to remember that.
"Tiao Lei Shen."
The ex-pillar took the hand as he introduced himself as well, momentarily causing him to pause what he was about to say before Evek had introduced himself.
"I'm...I'm sorry. I wasn't exactly raised in a touchy feely environment. I'm not one of those guys that act more like robots but I was raised more to understand, than to feel. Lately its been...harder to connect with others. You'll have to forgive me for that."
Tiao was as sincere as possible, feeling genuinely bad for his lack of discretion when it came to the emotionally britle, like Evek here. Tiao hadn't been happy in a while, but he didn't want to start acting like he didn't have feelings. That was, assuming he still did have them. Perhaps he just needed to find that spark again. That purpose.
"I've seen a lot of violence in my life--been the cause of most of it. I guess that begs the question of whether it's my emotional fortitude or monstrousity that distances me away from the repercussions."
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