| Koyaanisqatsi; [single post] | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 24 2017, 12:36 PM (194 Views) | |
| Czernobog | Feb 24 2017, 12:36 PM Post #1 |
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Best Influence.
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Shin had gone to the office early in the morning. Even though it was the second day of Golden Week, his work didn't cease. It never did. He had put aside recent events and settled in to make progress on the mountain of paperwork that dominated his life these days. Then he had received notice of an incident of vandalism in Ruwashi park. He had informed dispatch that he would be heading to the scene and to have several uniformed officers meet him there, and that the public works department should be informed. They would, after all, need to clean the side of the tower and the plaza, restoring everything to its proper order. He had made his way to the underground parking garage beneath the police station, and walked to his car. When he climbed in, though, he saw that he was not alone. "Surprised to see me?" his mirror image said, smiling at him from the passenger-side seat. It had a bullet hole in the middle of its forehead, but other than the long trail of blood that streamed from it, down and around its mouth, dripping on the lapel of its charcoal-colored suit, it seemed fine. "I thought I was done with you," Shin said. "Get out of my car." "No." He sneered at it, bu climbed in. He took a moment to buckle his seat-belt and check his blind spots. "Fine, then you'll just have to ride along with me. I don't have time for a heart-to-heart. People are in danger." When he went to turn his key, though, its hand grabbed his. For a manifestation of his internal psychological dissonance, it seemed remarkably solid. He grimaced and said nothing. "That's just it. People are in danger," his shadow said. "And you're a contributing factor." Shin jerked his hand back, and placed his hands on the wheel. He didn't look at the shadow, just fumed looking out in front of his car at the concrete wall of the parking garage. "What do you mean?" "I mean that what the black hood said to you rings true. They're angry at things that were done by children abusing their power, yes, by Fyodor Heavy Industries, certainly, but they were also incensed over police corruption. By you hiding things." He remained silent, staring straight ahead. "Come on, detective. Detect." "What was I supposed to do? We would be discovered and the situation would spin out of control." His shadow "tsked" at that, shaking its head. The trickle of blood changed course, now going down the other side of its nose. "You were supposed to uphold your vow. You made a promise to protect the public, and you've been failing. I know you think that when I first showed up I was telling you to quit running away from your problems. And I was. But you know what? I wasn't telling you to run alone towards them. Think, Shin. You've been kind of a raging asshole for a while now." "I have not! I've been doing my job!" he protested, shouting at what, to an observer, must seem to be an empty car. He opened his phone, and held it out in front of him as if he had been talking into the speakerphone, raising it up just slightly so that any onlookers would be able to see it. "If you had been doing your job, this situation wouldn't be where it is." "So, what, you just want me to admit that I've fucked up and that I'm going to try to be nicer to everyone?" Shin said, looking away. "No." "No?" Shin looked at his double and raised an eyebrow. Its smile was gone, and it rubbed its forehead where he had shot it previously, believing with all his might that vanquishing his double would set him free of it. "I would have told you that if you hadn't been out of contact for two months. I thought that going away would straighten you out, but it hasn't. It just hasn't. You're not changing, and you're not growing. You can't admit your faults. You've fallen too far to one extreme, prioritizing justice so far above mercy. You're just..." It shrugged, and looked at him with an expression that was both confused and mournful. It reached out, and Shin jerked back, but the shadow merely adjusted his collar, then pulled back. "You're just not worthy anymore. If you ever were to begin with." And with that, it faded. Yellow eyes going first, then the rest of it, with the trail of red blood flowing over nothing being the last to vanish. Shin felt the world snap back into place, and dismissed the event. He checked his rearview mirror, and noticed that he had a bloody nose, and that the blood had dripped down the side of his face onto the collar of his shirt. With the help of a small bundle of napkins that he found in the glove compartment, he stanched the flow of blood. It was then that he realized that there was a silence in his head where he normally felt the presence of Solomon. He gripped the steering wheel again, his knuckles turning white from the force of his grip. He felt the gut punch of the lack in his whole being. Why now? Why rob him of his tools when a big fight was so clearly coming? He took a deep breath. There was still the situation in Ruwashi park to handle. He still had a job to do. Now, if only his hands would stop shaking. |
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2:31 AM Jul 11