Playing around with dialogue, working on script writing. Tell me what you think, and I'll share some more. These are small excerpts of the bigger story. Enjoy. ----------------------------------------------------- THE DEVIL: "They call Him the rock because he will not move... But you will come to view me as the stone. I will pull you down, and when you strike the rocky earth that is my wrath, no freedom will you know from that moment forth." MAN: "As it was said, 'He who is without sin may cast the first stone,' it is more than of character that you should thrust yourself into the world, as the world is a heretic. Though, it cannot be the world's heretical nature for which you vow to destroy it, lest you incriminate yourself. And so I say this, of great sense I can only make, that you do it simply to spite Him who they call the rock... But do not forget: The solid, but lean rock may walk over water when it's Handler releases it upon the murkiest of waters, while the fat and stubborn stone sinks in the most calm abyss. You can only attack the intangible. This in mind, I will make my soul seen, heard, and felt. When I have done this, you will possess no power over me." THE DEVIL: "And a fine job of this you have done, I see. Terrible thing, though, that only those who see it, hear it, and feel it, but do not FEAR it make such a thing tangible. Men make disappear the things they fear, and so goes the human soul into the depths of God's own heart. By your own words, you cannot escape of your own doing. Without thinking, you've made necessity of woman for the salvation of man's soul. And if you've come to fear anything more, as of late, it's the heart of a woman." MAN: "How can a being so clumsy as man not fear grasping something so fragile as the heart of a woman..." THE DEVIL: "What's really going to get you later is the fear that you may have come across truth. I make a simple observation for you, then, that if all of man should fear the heart of woman, what woman on Earth would have left a heart at all? Men make disappear that which they fear... You feared her heart, and what has come of it... Where has it gone...?" ---------------------------------------- THE DEVIL: "That went well." MAN: (upon hearing The Devil's entering words) "Damn it." THE DEVIL: "Might never see you again, and it was as if you weren't even there. For a moment, it even sounded like there was some amount of concern for whether or not you'd be staying, coming back, or leaving for good. But then, of course, maybe the latter was the favored. Do you have any idea how entertaining you are when you don't know whether you're angry or happy? Really you're just nervous, but it's fun to watch your life play out as if you're two opposing emotions at once." MAN: "As is a popular necessity with this kind of thing, I'm going to ask you to make your point...soon." THE DEVIL: "Also appears your other little friend is opening his brain a bit to the idea that I might actually be around..." MAN: "Speaking of which, isn't he a more appropriate person for you to be hanging around? Not to be presumptuous and biased, heavens no, but I would think he's a bit more your style." THE DEVIL: "I don't have a style. And if I did, it wouldn't be as basic as his. Though, as you may have noticed, I take a particular fondness for his taste in women. So I suppose that means I'm not all that uncommon from you, either. Anyway, I need never pay attention to those already treading softly along the long and winding road to my door. I'm not here to make friends with God's little mud dolls." MAN: "Spare me the friendship. My caliber of misery despises company. There are millions of others that have done far more terrible things than I have, why don't you draw some names from a hat and drag them under." THE DEVIL: "Another fatal flaw of the human nature that I adore...Everyone thinks evil can be gauged. As if there's a dial on the dashboard of God's desk that rates how bad one act is over another. Evil is evil, my friend. And the truth behind it lies in a human generated phrase, actually. Shit rolls downhill. Also knows as the snowball effect, or even the butterfly effect." It goes on from there, but it gets a bit too blunt. Enjoy the parts I can actually bring you. Goodbye.
THE DEVIL: (sitting down at the stool next to the man.) "I can see you're already getting settled in. You don't seem to be as devastated to see me this time." MAN: "The more I settle for my situation, the easier it is to settle for you. I've got an inexorable feeling that you aren't going away." THE DEVIL: "Since I've been here, I've not left. Like so many other issues, I tried to warm you. Swearing this was a recurring dream only postponed the recognition necessary to move through certain lessons you were in desperate need of learning." MAN: (taking a drink of his scotch) "Fighting your insight didn't seem to get me far. Though, you haven't been as correct about everything as you seem to profess. Though you were fairly vague regarding the end result of the long, devastating altercation, I don't believe the note that it ended on was quite as bitter as you made it seem it would be. Though, I will admit, while the second to last time I saw her, (before I left the first time), was incredibly close, the last night before I left was horrendous. What she said at the restaurant threw a wrench in any amount of pleasantry that took place before it." THE DEVIL: "It was a bit of a show stopper, wasn't it? So close and kind. Really seemed to be an honest night for the two of you. But, as I said before, for every close moment you have with her, there will be an equal and opposite moment of bitter frigidity. They don't make women like they used to... That is to say, for every ounce of great passion you disgorge, a hail storm of cupidity is the best you may get from her. I've been watching you quite a bit lately, while you're awake, and I would actually like to say something a bit reassuring. Don't let it go to your head, I don't do this regularly. But you seem to think, at least at times, that it has something to do with a lack of physical attraction. I CAN say, though it holds no weight on your chance of reconciliation, that she does find you physically attractive. What it DOES regard, quite directly, is your over-zealous level of passion. I know you don't have any amount of psychotic obsession about you at all, but it's not me you have to prove this to. Though your love is pure and kind, your actions tend to expunge the appearance of your love's kind nature. What I'm telling you is simple. Don't feel like you have to forcibly vomit amorousness every time you see the object of your desire. It's too much for any one person to handle." MAN: "That might be the most helpful you've ever been to me. And I'll be damned if I know why, or where it came from." THE DEVIL: "I've told you, I like you. We could use someone like you back home. It gets nauseatingly monotonous. Everyone's the same. They're either murderous or hedonistic. That's it. Everything goes back to one of those two character traits. No one of interest. No humans, only animals. It's been quite some time since we've had a real human down there. All the ones that could have been of interest lacked vision. Which is ironic, when you consider the fact that they relied on it so much to create ideals." MAN: "Flattered, but spoken for." THE DEVIL: "A bit over-confident, aren't we? How are you to be so sure of your destination?" MAN: "Assuming you aren't something I simply created out of high anxiety, you said yourself that you have no need to spend time on those that are already well on their way to Hell." THE DEVIL: "That I did, but it certainly doesn't follow that you aren't in limbo. Did it occur to you that you aren't on either list as of this instant?" MAN: "Well I suppose I can mark predestination off my list of possible truths." THE DEVIL: "That you can. You never believed in all that Calvinist crap anyway, so I don't see any relevance." MAN: "I just find it interesting that I'm receiving information from you regarding the state of the after life, when I was under the impression that humans weren't supposed to be sure of anything following death until death." THE DEVIL: "True as that may be, who's it going to aid? All you have to go on is something 'the devil' told you in a dream. Good luck finding someone that believes you." MAN: "Touché." THE DEVIL: "Have we spent enough time off topic?" MAN: "What IS the topic we seem to constantly need to make conversation over?" THE DEVIL: "Why ask questions you already know the answers to?" MAN: "Well sometimes it seems to be more about me, and other times it seems to be more about my relationships with certain people." THE DEVIL: "Who are you, if not defined by your interaction with others? You wouldn't very well be who you are now if it hadn't been for outside influence." MAN: "And if I wished to end my interaction with others? If what you say is true, then that seems like a palatable solution to my problem. The person I am today has brought be very little pleasure, only comfort in the amount of will power it's taken to get this far unscathed." THE DEVIL: "You wish to eliminate the world, or yourself?" MAN: "Why does it have to be one or the other, why not neither?" THE DEVIL: "Why not both?" MAN: "I don't wish to kill anyone and I don't wish to die. I simply wish to leave society." THE DEVIL: "You've spent your entire life trying to not be human, and your solution to that problem is to eliminate the rest of humanity from your life? Seems a bit counter-productive." MAN: "I've tried to grasp onto the impeccable example of humanity...the most proportionately developed image of mortality, and it was the greatest disaster of my life. I'm quite done working toward being more human." THE DEVIL: "You think she was the only human on a planet full of people? That doesn't seem a little naive? A bit unnecessarily dismal?" MAN: "There are a lot of humans on this planet, but so few people. She was a person. It doesn't take much to be human, but it takes humanity to be a person." THE DEVIL: "Well said. But you haven't seen much. Granted, you've seen quite a bit more than most people your age, and been through more personal and intimate strife than most in your culture who've lived a short a life as you, but there's still quite a bit out there you haven't seen." MAN: "Are you telling me that there's a place where people are people, and not just humans, because as far as I've noticed it's the same shit no matter where you go." THE DEVIL: "And yet, so early in life, you found someone you've considered for years to be of circumferential beauty. Someone who you love simply for their casually oblivious method of dealing with life. Passion over humanity. Something she never had to try to be, she simply was. Though I can see why that may seem so rare, it's not an endangered state of mind." MAN: "But at the same time, you know as well as I do that there's some undefined level beneath all that makes her human. Something basic. Some inner aura that can't be explained or described." THE DEVIL: "Most people don't truly understand what you speak of. Many dream so violently of it that they allow themselves to believe they now what they're looking for. And furthermore, they place those of undeserving standard into that position desired. You should know well what I speak of. Your friend was not only exposed to it, but she fell victim to it in one of it's most vicious forms. ...And she may very well be thrown under the bus once more. I'm sorry, I truly am, but this time, if you wish to maintain common standing, your only option is to let it play through." MAN: "And if my standing isn't important?" THE DEVIL: "What are you going to do about it? Do you honestly think you're in any position to help? All you'll do is add undue stress, which is exactly what got you into the position you're in now. You can't save everyone." MAN: "If I knew it was for the better, it would be easier to leave well enough alone." THE DEVIL: "Then believe it." MAN: "How can you make such a promise? Was it not you that swore not only my destruction, but hers as well?" THE DEVIL: "I like the old idea of killing two birds with one stone. I need the two of you together one more time, if I'm to take the both of you." MAN: "Why are you telling me this? Why risk ruining your plan by telling me what I have to do to fulfill it?" THE DEVIL: "Because I don't believe my plan is in any danger of failing simply by telling you. I know your weakness, and I believe you'll be in her arms the moment they open, regardless of what danger I tell you it poses." MAN: "Because I believe I can beat you at any point in the process of my life, regardless of how closely it adheres to what you've planned in order to destroy me." THE DEVIL: "Precisely." MAN: (taking a drag on his cigarette) "Well then, since our pieces are in play, I suppose it's your move."
(The man sits alone in the bar. He drinks the last bit of scotch in the bottom of his glass, then takes a drag on his cigarette. He drops the glass on the table. It shatters.) THE DEVIL: (Rising from behind the bar.) "How about another. (He pours the scotch over the shards of glass. It hits the table, and rises outwardly in the shape of the glass. The glass reforms around the liquid.) This is going to be a fun one.... The tension is becoming great. Thicker and thicker. Tighter and tighter. It's suffocating you, I can see it. The noise. The taste in the air. The blinding light. How does it feel to be driven insane by an odor that you cannot smell?" MAN: "I may not be able to smell it, but I can feel it's profuse musk." THE DEVIL: "Humanity carries a viscid aura." MAN: "It's more than that. It's something dark and encompassing. It's...existential. Lonely. It's embedded into every facet of the universe. Space. Time. And it even seems to be seeping through whatever lies beyond all that. Time especially. It becomes overwhelming when contemplating time. Realizing that events from my past fall in line with all those that others have no memory of." THE DEVIL: "Enveloping an adiaphoristic mentality. And yet..." MAN: "And yet I find simple things to care about, in spite of the domineering stolidity. But no happy ending in any venture to pursue those simple things." THE DEVIL: "And with every failed interest, a debilitating crash. A fulminatory descent beyond the prior low point of your existentialism. And you're finally starting to notice how wishy washy your own emotions really are." MAN: "My emotions are far from wishy washy. It isn't my emotion that changes, it's my reaction to the emotion." THE DEVIL: "Well since you seem to already know this, what's the issue? You've never had trouble dictating what is and isn't worth the time of spent emotion." MAN: "True. But those that I feel are extremely worthy pose extreme threat." THE DEVIL: "Have you considered the possibility that you might pose a threat to those you feel are extremely worthy? It's no surprise that it never works out. Most don't want to see what you have a habit of forcing them to see. The parts of themselves that they hide from. It's a talent that must be wasted if you are to live in their world. You cannot simply expect people to have a moment of epiphany about themselves and think all will be better as a result. The human mind doesn't work that way. Left to it's own devices, it naturally reasons in a direction that makes the person more comfortable in society. Following this, they act accordingly, and suppress the morals that bound them to an unsatisfying lifestyle. ...It's pleasure versus control." MAN: "Most don't realize that they've lost control. They feel they've remained in control because they've made their own decisions, but those decisions were pressed heavily upon my society. ...Really, everyone BUT they have had the control." THE DEVIL: "You are no different. You made a decision to change your moral compass to align more fittingly with the common moral compass that she had adapted to restore comfort in her life. To maintain an accepted identity that would allow for less personal responsibility. Less personal responsibility means less stress. And as we know, the more stress she can lift from her already ponderous burden, the better." MAN: "Is it not understandable?" THE DEVIL: "Oh, come now, you never believed that level of reckless abandonment of responsibility was justified, and you had good reason. You know she's stronger than she leads herself to believe. She'll never remember what it means to be herself. She too far gone." MAN: "That's a damn lie. You can't start in on your manipulative mode of conversation without me noticing, and that's all this is. She's not gone, she's in a social rut." THE DEVIL: "A social rut that will become the death of that which exists inside her to preserve the ability to read herself correctly. And following not a far distance behind the death of this, comes the death of the self. She will become nothing but another face in the crowd. A disgruntled, dissatisfied, disinterested pawn of society. Another-" MAN: (Interrupting) "Bullshit-" THE DEVIL: (Finishing, and drawing closer to the man) "-Another squeak in the choir of vociferations that fill every level and every corridor of Hell-" MAN: (Dropping his cigarette, knocking his scotch over, and rising furiously, he stares the Devil down, two inches between them, for a few moments before speaking.) "...Don't think that simply because you know how to get a rise out of me, that I don't know exactly what you're doing when you're doing it. For you, this moment has nothing to do with what might happen to her. It has everything to do with what you need ME to do in order to get both of us to destroy each other. You have no power that we don't give you." THE DEVIL: "True as that may seem, so often you give me power without realizing it. I am in no danger of stealing a certain amount of control from you. A certain amount of control over you. She's weak. And no one will aid her, because no one is capable. She doesn't love you, therefore your word is of less consequence than is necessary to awaken her sense of righteousness. I don't need you to get to her." MAN: "But you do need her to get to me." THE DEVIL: "No. All I need is someone you love. The way you love her. And at this moment, she is the only person in possession of that part of you. You would have moved past the others, over time. But this is different. A crucial moment in your life, and your moment of most susceptibility. This I can promise. If I don't get you, I will get her." MAN: (Drawing even closer) "That will never happen. If I have to destroy myself in the process, it will not happen." THE DEVIL: "Then go on and destroy yourself. I'd be glad to escort you home." (The man growls violently, and pushes off the bar. He breathes heavily, paces once, and steps back up to the bar. He picks up his tipped over scotch, tries to drink from it, and upon the irritation over it's emptiness, he yells and thrusts the glass over the bar, and into the mirrored liquor shelves on the wall. When he turns around to speak to the Devil, he finds no one is there. He sighs, sits back down at the bar, lights a cigarette, and puts his head in his hands.)
The man is alone at the bar. A small girl with little horns and bat-like wings timidly approaches the stool next to him. MAN: "Eris...I thought you'd left. Get out! Get the fuck out!" (He throws his scotch glass at her feet. It shatters, and startles her.) ERIS: "I-I....I thought I might talk to you. F-For a moment, that's all, just a moment." MAN: "And just what the hell do you want..." ERIS: "I know....I know how often you think about him. The boy, that is. What you've wanted to do. The vindication. The...The vengeance. And I was thinking...maybe there's a place for it here, where consequence isn't as bad as it may seem as though it should be. Perhaps not simply for his acts against you, but his overall person. Maybe you have the right to do what you want to do. After all, you know, who is it you answer to? Well it's no one who's opinion rests here, or there." MAN: "Ah. I see something poking its little head through." ERIS: "Perhaps thinking about all he has. What has he done to earn any of it? There's no fairness in it. No fairness at all. Everyone finds their own strife, no matter what the life. He has chosen to make himself his own strife, though things are never as terrible as he makes them out to be. And his competitive nature allows him to feel that his wrongs are incomparable to those that have wronged him. As if his love is more powerful than others'. But your love is more pure, we both know this. The difference in actions is enough proof of that. The understanding of its nature. The comprehension of moral placement as it affects effect. You deserve the opportunities that he takes for granted." MAN: "Hm. I've just come to an understanding about you, Eris- you truly are of two sides. But unlike the modern expression of a two sided character, one side of good and one of evil, you are of two evil sides. On one side, you are of the strife of war. Loud. Explosive. Violent. Wrathful. And on the other, you are of competitive strife. And I thought it was just a clever name. His death may be of no consequence to me, but I'm not going to be the one to kill him." ERIS: "Oh, but its consideration doesn't go without merit. The brutal nature of his action has constituted a far worse fate in the past. Of what consequence would come to you for making nothing more than an outdated judgment?" MAN: "Caesar never punished his Brutus. Neither shall I." THE DEVIL: "That's because Caesar was dead." MAN: "Surprise surprise." THE DEVIL: "Not because he thought it wrong to kill a man for betrayal. You have a hand over Caesar. You're still alive and capable of justice." MAN: "It's not my justice." THE DEVIL: "Of course it is! It's you who was betrayed, he who claimed the diadem of protector from you. He who led himself to believe he was in some greater understanding of your situation, and of hers. He who convinced her of common interests, that we both know likely do not truly exist. At least not to the extent I'm sure he expressed them to be. So why should it not be your face he sees just before mine? Oh....I see. What is it that's holding you back? What is it that worries you? Who is keeping you in check?" MAN: "It is no man's place to judge ano-" THE DEVIL: "HA. Just the cop-out I was expecting from you. It's not God that has you tied to some righteousness, no, not the Alpha and Omega, Emmanuel, Lord, King, Man Upstairs, Big Guy, Big Cheese, huh uh. In fact, it isn't even above certain basic morals." MAN: "Murder is-" THE DEVIL: "What would she think? God knows you'd never see her again." MAN: "You think you can make me believe I'm crazy because I've had thoughts of such a thing, but it's not above anyone to have those kind of thoughts, it's whether or not you react to them that separates the sane from the insane." THE DEVIL: "Oh, but the pleasure of it. Have you forgotten the felicity of your hands around his neck? The scruff between your index fingers and thumbs. The skin under your fingernails. The grease on your fingertips, the scratching at your arms, squeezing and squeezing until you can no longer feel the moisture of his breath on your wrists...And nothing but dead weight. ...Even the cigarette following." MAN: "Yes. I remember. I have not forgotten the intensity of it." ERIS: "And then he would be gone." THE DEVIL: "Never to fool another person again." MAN: "To allow so many to believe that he's so terribly complicated. That he's so beautifully passionate. It's nauseating." THE DEVIL: "And to refute it all, you are considered nothing more than invidious." MAN: "Invidious?" THE DEVIL: "Envious." ERIS: "He's a thief. He steals from his own imagination. An image of himself as he would like to be, rather than who he really is. If he were to become this image, it would be different, but he has not, and cannot. He cannot because he will never be able to refuse those pleasures that allow him to forget the line between himself and the image of himself." MAN: "Alright, don't drag me into your vituperation." THE DEVIL: "Why not? I find no melange of opinion over the boy." MAN: "The relevance has nothing to do with differing opinions. I just wish not to elaborate on a despondency that has already been made quite clear." THE DEVIL: "You honestly consider it a despondency? I'd thought there was a bit more fervor behind it. A bit more...wrath. No, despondence isn't the state of mind I'd have chosen to describe it. Far too many paroxysmic fits of rage. It's much more liken to acrimony. You like to give yourself less credit than you deserve when regarding the amount of hatred that you're capable of. I only assumed that these little conversations may be a sort of catharsis for you." MAN: "The necessity for a catharsis has passed. All you're trying to do is galvanize my rage. I might not have noticed quite as much if you hadn't brought Eris with you. You must've known that I'd taken an interest in the mythology of the character not long after that familiar name resurfaced itself." THE DEVIL: "Of course. But remember, it's mythology. Eris is not the mythological character you read about." MAN: "The only difference between the two is the word 'mythological.' Her personality is what would be expected from a modernized version of the ancient Grecian Eris. Now I don't know whether or not Eris has shown both sides to ****, but after this, I'm quite sure of who she is. Or at least who she represents. I think it's time her use to you be expired." THE DEVIL: "The knowledge of her identity may have allowed you to develop a resistance to her methods, but her contact with you is not where her power against you resides. Regardless of your own personal ability to neutralize the emotion that Eris here might incite, it is ****'s renitence that will always come to define your standing with Eris. ...And even your standing with ****." MAN: "My standing with **** will never be in the hands of a Cruger-esque eidolon." THE DEVIL: "Believe of her what you will, but though her verges seem clear, you've given her far too little credit. She's affected you and your friend far beyond the realm of dreams. Eris has affected you both mentally and physically in the conscious world." MAN: "She has no power." THE DEVIL: "She has great power." MAN: "She will not destroy her." THE DEVIL: "She will be her end." MAN: "****'s life has improved. I've left. Her stress has reduced dramatically." THE DEVIL: "You give yourself too much credit. Though your disappearance has aided the reduction of her stress, you are not the cause." MAN: "Regardless, I've seen no activity from **** that would merit the idea that Eris has been at her again." THE DEVIL: "You haven't seen **** in two months." MAN: "Irrelevant. She no longer lives with him. She's dating someone else. Someone that she likes a great deal. Someone that will treat her well enough. She has a job that she enjoys. She has friends that will take care of her. She has no reason to fall apart at the feet of Eris." THE DEVIL: "You feign solace well. You haven't felt comfortable with this new lover since you met him. You tried, as you always do, but at the core of you, you see the same lack of initiative that made you leery of C***. The same apathy that characterizes the type of boy that she feels she relates to. The type of boy we both know, in the end, will find himself overwhelmed by her, and succumb steadily to introversion and irritation. Eventually, leading to anger." MAN: "I refuse to develop a pretense against him. Regardless of my history judging well the result of her decisions, it is wrong of me to presume that experience trumps equity." THE DEVIL: "You only say this to allow yourself to put her out of your mind." MAN: "I have to put her out of my mind. I am not her keeper." THE DEVIL: "But you're the only man that will do it unconditionally. Or effectively, for that matter." MAN: "She'll find someone." THE DEVIL: "No one like you." MAN: "Well she'll have to!" THE DEVIL: "She won't. You also worry about the general state of that house." MAN: "It isn't my house to clean." THE DEVIL: "Or purge?" MAN: "I never went there with any intention of becoming some religious zealot." THE DEVIL: "But on a number of occasions you've shaken your head at the fact that they drink regularly at her house." MAN: "I shake my head not because of some judgmental 'shame on them' attitude. I shake my head because I worry that it's becoming another method of escape for her. ...But who am I to talk of alcoholism. The last time I visited her, all I did was drink her beer and attempt to minimize conversation with her." THE DEVIL: "And why do you suppose you did such a thing?" MAN: "Confusion. I didn't know whether-' THE DEVIL: "Bullshit. You did it out of fear. You were afraid that if you reestablished a connection, you would return to Cincinnati and relapse into another depression that might leave you cripplingly underweight and physically ill. Stop trying to hide from the fact that she affects you so much." MAN: "It's unhealthy for a person to be affected in that way by another. It's a sign of dependence." THE DEVIL: "It's a sign of love. You couldn't control what happened to you following the incident. Hell, you had every reason to be affected the way you were. Stop underplaying the truculence of what occurred. It was despicable. You were within every understandable right to feel murderous rage. And I know you need that to be legitimized by her to feel as though it were true, but your friends knew that those thoughts ran through your head, and they backed you up. They believed you had a right to feel the way you did." MAN: "Still, I wonder if they really knew the intensity of it. The truth in my comfort over the idea. For the first time in my life, I felt empowered enough to kill someone." THE DEVIL: "But you didn't. And damn you, you did the 'right' thing. Though even God may not have blamed you for such a minuscule, albeit condign indiscretion." MAN: "It's not my place to say what is just and what is not." THE DEVIL: "You say this now... ...but when he returns..." MAN: "What do you mean, 'When he returns'?" THE DEVIL: "Precisely what I said." MAN: "He won't come back for-" THE DEVIL: "Oh, he'll come back alright. And when he does, he'll be looking for the same thing he was looking for the first, and several times he fucked her." MAN: "How about some discretion? A euphemism here or there would be appreciated." THE DEVIL: "I apologize, but there is no word to more properly describe what took place between the two of them. As I was saying, he will come 'round again. And when he does, where will you be? A great distance away. But a word will travel as far as it needs to. When the next incident occurs, it may be irreversible." MAN: "What do you mean 'irreversible'? Pregnant?" THE DEVIL: "Haha. I can't tell you that. Consider it somewhat like job security." MAN: (he rises quickly) "You tell me what the hell is going to happen, or so help me God I'll tear you to pieces where you stand." THE DEVIL: "Oh? Tear me to pieces, will you? Eris, come here for a moment, dear." ERIS: "Yes?" THE DEVIL: "Why don't you show the man what it is you've kept yourself busy with while you were away from the bar... Remember that you begged for it..." Eris approaches, with her wings wrapped around in front of her, covering everything below her shoulders. She turns to the man. She opens her wings slowly, and reveals a wide-eyed fetus, covered in blood, struggling to breath. The man's eyes grow wider, as his brow turns sharply inward. MAN: (with a quiet intensity) "No. This isn't foreshadowing...you're just torturing me. What do you want? ...Why are you here? ...What are you doing to me? ...What is your purpose? What do you want?! Why are you here?! What are you doing to me?! WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?! aaaaaAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" (he clenches the fetus by it's little body and thrusts it over the bar. It hits the shelf with explosive impact, tossing bottles of liquor in the air, which shatter over the floor, and splintering the mirrored shelf backing.) (A few moments pass. The man slowly returns to near composure.) MAN: "What have I done...I've killed a child. An infant." THE DEVIL: "That child was dead long before you laid your hands on it. You didn't kill it. ...A decision was made."
THE DEVIL: (singing) "Hey Mister Sandman...bring me a dream...make her the cutest that I've ever seen...give her two lips like roses and clover...and let her know her lonesome nights are over... Hahaha. Things looking a bit grim, it appears. Have you considered suicide? Hahaha. No. You've never been the type. ....Now MURDER on the other hand..." MAN: "Go away. Please. Just get out, and leave me be." THE DEVIL: "Now you know I can't do that. And after all we've been through together? How shameful. How devastatingly ungrateful. Now, I'm not sure how 'in the loop' you are on all of this, but a little birdie told me that there's a sweet little something a'lingerin' inside your little friend. And if truth been told, I believe that's a cue for those little ears of yours to perk up a tick." MAN: "No. I'm through with all this. I'm through with you. This is nothing. There is no stock that can be put into you, or anything you say. You don't exist here. You are not the devil. Now get out." THE DEVIL: "Believe what you will, but I promise that you're sure to miss the opportunity you've been waiting for for almost a decade." MAN: "I've already seen what comes of that opportunity realized. Lest you forget, that last was the third. There is nothing there." THE DEVIL: "There was nothing there because you didn't allow for there to be. You can do undefinable, unfathomable amounts better than you have done. Your love is-" MAN: "My love is what?! What can MY love do to change the course of ANYTHING?! Listen to me, you son of a bitch, I'm tired of the false sense of affection, and I'm tired of clinging to straws, and I'm tired of every waking moment being a constant BATTLE to earn my own affection, let alone trying to chase something that's never existed in the first place! I WANT YOU OUT! GET OUT, GET THE FUCK OUT!" THE DEVIL: "As you wish, for the time being. But your future is waiting-" MAN: "There is. No. Future. With. Her... ...THERE IS NO FUTURE WITH HER!" The lights swell, and then dim out.
*bump* Oops...excuse me... (This is great stuff folks! Is there more...? Was that intermission, or the fini???)
Buddy, there's a shit load more. It's not really a prolonged story, they're excerpts from a continuous set of dreams that the Man has. There will be ups and downs, a wide range of emotions, etc. There will be much more.
Speaking of new, here's some more. The man sits at the bar, staring ahead, but downward. His countenance is of empty bereavement. Every once and a while, he takes a long, hard drag on his cigarette, and sips generously from his scotch. The Devil enters, sits at the bar next to the man, looks over at him, looks ahead, and sighs. THE DEVIL: "You may not believe this, but I would like to apologize for antagonizing you last night. There's too much to be done before all this hopeful, however seemingly unlikely romanticism can take place. So this time...I'm going to let YOU talk. Tell me about her. What you think of her, anyway. I already know enough about her inside, so I figure it may be interesting to hear an outside perspective." MAN: "Well I can try to *cough*, I can try to express my image of her, but recently I've been writing these conversations out. Posting them online." THE DEVIL: "I know. But I'd like to hear your explanation as to why you might want to do such a thing, and risk showing the fact that you're still affected in some way by her. You know she reads them, don't you?" MAN: "It's hard to tell. She said she did, but I figured something I've said here that I posted might upset her. Seems like I'm waiting for an unpleasant reaction, sometimes." THE DEVIL: "She doesn't respond because she has no idea how to react to you when you don't speak to her for months, and post things like our conversations. Can you really blame her? That being said, I suppose this is a good a time as any to confess my reasons for apologizing, and asking you to speak your opinion. I believe she needs to see it, in all it's honesty." MAN: "If she really wanted to know everything I felt about her, she would've asked." THE DEVIL: "Don't say things that you know very well aren't true. Since when has she ever been one to outright ask you what you think? On very few occasions, and when you gave her an answer, she became upset and swore she only asked how you were doing, and not for your opinion of her. She wanted to know what you thought, she just didn't like the reality of what she did to you. Remember, that occurred before you knew about...well, you know." MAN: "I've given her more than enough opportunities to ask anything she wanted. She never said a word. I asked her if she had any thoughts, she always said no, and we drove on in silence." THE DEVIL: "That has already been put behind the both of you. You both found a new respect for each other, and following that, you haven't given her any kind of opportunity to talk to you. She would've loved to had talked when you visited last, but what did you do? You drank and vowed of an intention to do all in your power to never come back. What the hell kind of message is THAT going to send the poor girl?" MAN: "Woman. She's not a girl anymore. She's been a woman longer than most women are throughout their entire lives. ...I've sworn myself away more times than I can count. Recently, especially. ...I am the last thing she needs in her life." THE DEVIL: "You're the first thing she needs. This life will not last forever. She'll grow tired of it. You know her well enough to know this. One thing you were always afraid to tell her is how affected you were by seeing her in the environment she's surrounded herself with." MAN: "Because I knew she'd be terribly offended by it. Who wouldn't. Who am I to say what's right for her." THE DEVIL: "Her truest friend." MAN: "No, we went through that. I am not her best friend." THE DEVIL: "I didn't say best, I said truest. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. You know that. I know you don't like hearing all this from me, because you've wanted to believe all the things I say for a very long time. And here is what may very well be a product of your subconscious telling you everything you want to hear. But I swear it's true." MAN: "If it were true, things would never have turned out the way they did." THE DEVIL: "I'm going to let you in on a little secret about her. One you've considered, but denied to save yourself from feeling self-righteous. ...She strays from you because of how close she feels to you. How close you've made yourself, and how invasive your passion is. She's absolutely petrified of you as a result. She's afraid that you know her too well, David. And if you take any truth from what I say, let it be that she loves you like no one she's ever met. Now that isn't to say that she loves you romantically, know this, but you are to her what no one has ever been. ...No one has ever been so clearly passionate about her in her entire life. She even felt like she had to search C*** for that kind of affection. Wanted to believe in it so deeply, that she risked more than you'll ever know just to assume there was a true love within him." MAN: "What good is all this information going to do me? I can do nothing with it." THE DEVIL: "Come tomorrow evening, you'll go about posting this, and feel compelled to spare no amount of detail. ...So, now, let's move along. Speak." MAN: "Of what?" THE DEVIL: "Just speak. As soon as you begin, you will feel it pour out." MAN: "I-" THE DEVIL: (interrupting) "And this is where you will end." MAN: "What?" THE DEVIL: "Your post. This is where it will end. Actually, you considered ending it a few moments ago when you looked at the clock. But upon the realization of where this part fell, you decided to continue for a moment, so those that read it might find humor. Something these conversations tend to lack." MAN: "Now, that's nothing but a self-fulfilling prophecy." THE DEVIL: "Isn't it?" ....To be continued. It's 1:45 in the morning. And I have work at 10:30. He's a clever bastard.
THE DEVIL: "Now the humor is over. It's many days later, so let's lose the comedy and get to the point, because by the time you continue this, you won't be in the mood for laughter." MAN: "That's reassuring. What the hell happens that makes me such a sourpuss?" THE DEVIL: "A drawing forces you to look for a good photo of her from a profile view, and the pose gets you a little retrospective." MAN: "As specific as that was, it wouldn't be the first time that's happened, so I can't even put much stock into it." THE DEVIL: "I'm not here to prove to you that I exist. That wouldn't be too fair, would it?" MAN: "Yes, I know, you're here to destroy her and I, we've been through that enough times." THE DEVIL: "On one note, yes, that's a goal of mine, but at the moment, I'm here to drag some deep seeded feeling from you. Talk about her. Like I said, just speak and the words will come to you. You will lose yourself in her." MAN: "Alright...uh..." (he drags his hand down his face, and sighs as he speaks) "...Well...I-I don't really know where to start. There's a lot to talk about." THE DEVIL: "I suppose I can give you a boost. Your memories of her. Talk about your memories. This is always a great place to pick up the emotion quickly." MAN: "Memories? *sigh* Alright. Well...I suppose the one that stands out most in my mind is her wedding. Seeing her in a white dress. Seeing that big red smile under dark bordered eyes. I saw her, fair, clear skinned, crimson lips, in an understated traditional white dress...and following was the tall, pasty, dark-eyed bridegroom. A man who's appearance didn't lend well to formal attire, and who's demeanor was inherently simple and easy-going. This made it near impossible to judge the nature of his lax behavior. Was it care-free or careless? The answer came in on the latter end, and with all the fervor, of a disorganized parade. ...But my words have digressed from my thoughts... It was then that an odd change had taken place. At this time, I began to feel a distance being created. She was keeping something from me, and it was clear that it was something between her and I. But I never asked about it, I just complained about feeling left out of the wedding during the issue of being removed as best man without my knowledge. It's been my biggest downfall when regarding our friendship. Every issue we ever had could be directly contributed to my feeling as if I were being replaced. With her husband, it was not nearly as large an issue. I was legitimately happy for her, regardless of any feeling as though I could have been standing there." THE DEVIL: "But you were always able to separate your emotion for her from your judgment of those she became interested in. Though you've always questioned your own motives, and were reserved as a result of that, you need not worry that you're biased. You've looked after her best interests, putting yourself aside far more times than you've been selfish with her. That's not to say you've never been selfish with her, because you have, but never over something as important to you as her happiness." MAN: "Good to know, but you know as well as I do that that's not going to keep me from beating myself up every time I want to express discomfort over even the clearest of issues. ...Other memories... ...Most of them aren't even of any specific event, but rather, of moments in time where we were close. Holding her when she was upset. Those times were always my favorite times. Being the support. Being given the opportunity to take care of her. Knowing it was then that I could freely give up on my own inhibitions to be there whole-heartedly for her. I didn't have to think about myself. I wasn't as important as what she was going through in that moment. ...Knowing that it was never to feel good about myself. The feeling of having no concern for myself, but all focus has been moved to someone else's needs is the greatest feeling in the world. And the act doesn't beget the gratification. The gratification is no condition by which the act is done. It's the emotion that begets the act. ...All I can think of now is the heat emanating from her body. Feeling the cold beads on my chest as my shirt soaks up the tears. The top of her head pressing under my cheek bone... ...My hand under the back of her head, fingers tangled in the thick, short waves of her hair. Kissing the top of her head. Kissing her...Always just the tip of the tongue...How her upper lip was soft and warm, but her lower lip, just where they meet, was cool and wet. And how every time, she would pull away just a little at the end, and come back again... There was another world in those wide, dark eyes. Always something going on behind them. Always anxious. Always worried. Often suspicious that anyone could find her out. Feeling as though I was a danger to her natural tendency to reserve the depths of the origin of her personality. The things that make her who she is. Why she's obsessed with the darker side of life. What triggered her interest in *******. Specific acts against her that only one person knows about... She hides a great deal from me, hoping that though my intuition has allowed me to surmise a great deal about her, it won't lead me to the truths of her past that she holds very...very...close. Her posture was one that did not hide her mortality, however, there were always moments of understood elegance. When she smokes, though she slouches often, her lips pucker, and her pinky finger juts out as if she's holding a champaign glass. ...I always thought it a perfect example of her to watch her smoke. Though much of the time, as most of her body shows, she is hard, strong, and human. But a small part of her, that she tends to keep well hidden, as the smallest gesture of the pinky, yearns to be an elegant, immortal image of woman-kind. She holds the symbol of her mortality like a fragile glassware grail." THE DEVIL: "Well you certainly pay close attention." MAN: "It's what I do. I've made a lifetime of studying movement and finding poses to remember as symbolizing a certain state of being. I always wanted my characters to be unique, in that they express themselves more human-like than any other cartoon characters ever created." THE DEVIL: "But with her, it wasn't about cartoons, of course." MAN: "There's something about her that I've tried to describe to her. It's difficult. It's her humanity. It's everything about her, as it's created this person. Literally, everything that makes her up as an entity. Her thoughts, her feelings, her physical appearance, physical make-up, posture, memories, history, every moment of her life as time slowly broke down in her mind who she is meant to be, and how devastatingly clear it is that this process continues for her. And the fact that I see all this, and appreciate all this as much as I do, which is an indescribable amount, makes me feel good about what I'm capable of understanding. And it is this which makes me worry that she may never find someone who sees her in this light. It's too incredible to be commonplace. There is nothing conditional or temporary about it. It encompasses everything that can be loved about a person, and so I know that there is nothing greater than it. It is impossible to find anything more to love about a single person. Impossible. ...It seems...transcendent. It goes beyond a finite level, into something like...like a memory of a past life. Something inside me has been somewhere with this person that I've never been, but it returned with the memories of it's journey. And it shares this with me only through feeling. From which I have to develop my own memory of what that feeling represents. Often...it reminds me of being an adolescent, alone in the dead of a dreary winter afternoon. Just outside the city, standing under a long, steel railroad overpass. And I see her face in the rear passenger seat of the only car on the road, sitting at a stop sign. An old gray 80's model. And my only thoughts are of what kind of person she might be, and what it would be like to know her. But this girl is heading somewhere, and I know I'll never see her again... but I feel connected to her in a dreary, distant, dark, dreamy sort of way. That's what happens. I can't believe I was actually able to describe it so closely, though I don't imagine it helps any as far as some insight into the absolute strangest phenomenon about me. What it does is it reminds me that I don't care what kind of memory I see her in, as long as she's involved in creating them." THE DEVIL: "It won't be any consolation, but I know precisely what emotion you speak of. And no one will ever fully understand what the hell you go through when it happens. Ever. It's far too difficult to describe. People may get that it sends you to another world of vivid imagery, but they'll never know that feeling...that cold, distant phantasm. And that is the best word to describe it. It's very much a phantasm. The problem is, people have different perceptions of what a phantasm entails." MAN: "I've tried to explain to her what happens to me. I've mentioned that antique objects can set it off. Being in an old house, especially one inhabited by a friend who's lived there his or her entire life. There is a definite aura of memories. A physical aura, that penetrates the body and is picked up by the brain. I've often wondered if it's this feeling that crackpots always confuse with some spiritual presence. Ghost hunters hoping to find ghosts, when really it's nothing more than the residue of strong memories tied to memorable events. I've never been one to believe in ghosts. But there is, without a doubt, some presence of something. I won't pretend to know what it is." THE DEVIL: "And her reaction to this was...?" MAN: "It's been so long since we talked about it...I remember she took an interest, and asked questions. But I don't think she ever really understood what I was trying to describe. It wasn't the presence of spirits, but of human memories. An aura, not an entity." THE DEVIL: "And it occurred to you recently that this may be one reason she's 'scared' of you, as she said." MAN: "I wonder that it isn't a mess of strange things. I wouldn't consider myself the most average person in the world, and there are certainly things about me that would make anyone worry." THE DEVIL: "You also worry about talking so often about her." MAN: "Well it isn't as though I have a choice, with you constantly badgering me about every detail." THE DEVIL: "Even so, you worry that people may think you're using me as a place to lay blame on your persistent thoughts about her. You worry that people may think I don't exist. That perhaps you made me up to help cope with your personal issues. And while you and I know that it isn't the case, who would ever believe that this is anything more than your subconscious creating an interesting and symbolic setting for you to work through your problems with her and the boy." MAN: "It doesn't matter what I do or say, those who believe that are going to believe it either way." THE DEVIL: "Very true. Do you think she believes that I'm really here?" MAN: "I don't know. I really don't. I think she has enough evidence with Eris to believe it's at least possible. But that doesn't mean she believes me." THE DEVIL: "You're going to get tired around this time. You ought to rest." MAN: "Are you trying to give me advice days before I even need it, or know of it's necessity?" THE DEVIL: "I suppose so. But the real issue is, I don't want you to move from this conversation into a new one by sliding into this bar half asleep while you're posting." MAN: "You mean you don't want me typing in my sleep?" THE DEVIL: "Sort of... I suppose that's one way to put it." MAN: "Well I can't very well go to sleep right this moment, I'm already asleep. So how do I end this?" THE DEVIL: "It's already assumed to be over, you can simply end the text." MAN: "Alright...Well, just for the sake of it showing up in the post as something to laugh about later.... Goodnight, readers. I just said goodnight, and I'm already asleep... This is getting ridiculous."
