Tuesday, January 23, 2007

ParaNoirmal?

So here we are again. Just me an' the world. Just me against the world.

Well, you know the world. You know how it can be- even if you try not to think about it much.

Me? Me, I'm just a guy, y'know? Any old guy you see on the street- that's me. I've saved people, but I'm not the good guy. I've killed people, but I'm not really the bad guy, either.
Just a guy. But when the world breaks down, when reality itself gets kicked in the teeth, I always seem to get left holding the bag. But that's alright. I don't mind- I've got a killer set of tools.

Just me against a broke world; like the Spartans at Thermopilae, like those cats at the Alamo. Standin' because there's nothing else they could do. Taking a stand and damn the consequences. Not because it's good, not because it's right. Because it's the only option we can see. Because some things are black and white. I know that for sure- I'm the place where they meet up.

Thirty six years ago, I was christened Francis Cole Rook. Some folks know me as Frank, some as Rook. Those who know me well sometimes call me Purgatory.. but rarely to my face. Like I said- I'm the place where dark and light bump into one another like icebergs and unsinkable ships. I've been almost killed so many times, Death now has near-me experiences. I've got more scar than skin these days and more mileage than any three Cadillacs. You might say it's part of the job.
What the hell is all that supposed to mean? Hell, I dunno. Look.. it's like this: the priests and the imams and them have got it wrong. Sort of. See, 'good' and 'evil' are Man things. They don't exist outside humanity- sort of like boredom, I guess. What does exist is more like.. like, Order and Chaos, maybe.
Chaos isn't 'evil' per se, but there are.. entities, intelligences within the whole, ones that want to directly interact with mankind for whatever reason, and let me tell ya- some of those guys are sick. Well, by human standards, anyway. Likewise, some of Order is no more good than Facsim on a cosmic scale.
It's the tension of the relationship between these two forces that makes up the fabric of reality. Sometimes one side is a bit more dominant.. or prevalent, maybe, but it's part of the normal ebb and flow. But when one side.. overcomes the other in a concentrated area, it's my job to help balance things. It's the.. localized activity, the spikes and jaggy bits in the sine wave that concern me. There's other folks like me, of course- hell, there may be folks on other worlds that are like me, I don't know.

It's not really accurate to say that it's my job. It generally don't pay a damned cent.

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