[otc] 20.2 - dead poets society quote
"Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
The night felt so disconnected to him it hurt inside.
He should have been home with the mother of his child, holding her and watching HSN with her as she cooed over children’s furniture and baby clothes, should have been riding herd on her credit cards again and bearing the brunt of her hormone-fueled fits of temper.
Instead he was in the dark, cut with the artificial illumination of fluorescent lights outside a Lutheran church, watching as a trio stood outside and conversed just beyond his range of hearing.
They were members of a support group for those with mood disorders. Two of them were suicidal. One of them was going to go through with it. He had enough power to tell him that, and not enough to stop it.
Hell, it barely even hurt to stand this close to them.
Tommy knew it was what he wanted, but he’d lost so much he had to wonder if it was right. Thoughts like that plagued him with guilt, ate at him every time they came up…
Shutting his eyes, he lowered his head and took a drag off his cigarette. He rarely smoked unless he was doing magic or deeply troubled, and he never smoked around Zee…these days, he was smoking at every lunch break and evenings before he went home.
I need help.
It wasn’t meant as a prayer, but still it felt like one as the air stirred his hair and the scent of night jasmine touched his nose…warm, sweet earth and humid hothouse air…
“You’re killing someone.”
He wasn’t surprised by Dog’s voice at his side…he’d gotten a visit from Elpis already, but Tommy still couldn’t bring himself to think of him as anything more than good old reliable Mad Dog.
“Who?”
“Your misses. Your love…Channing Vale. Bess Houdini.”
His head shot up, cigarette falling from his fingers in shock. “What?”
“I just saw her, and I spoke to them that know. Bess was rewarded for her fidelity to you, but she spoiled the gift. She was reborn, but she didn’t drink.”
“Drink what? Dog, I don’t remember shit from before.”
“The cup of Lethe, the waters of forgetfulness. We’re all born brand new, we can’t come into this world knowing what it holds. Bess didn’t drink…knowledge ripped her apart and her pieces fell into the void only avatars can leave.”
The words meant nothing to Tommy, but they somehow felt important. Something he’d done in Vegas, something that had happened…why the hell couldn’t he remember?
Dog grabbed his arm then, spinning him around to face him. One hand flew to his cheek, gripping his face tight to force their eyes to lock. “Remember, little master…save her life, take back what’s yours, damn you, and remember!”
Power not his own poured into him, forcing the change in his body. The void left by magic’s slumber filled with white light again and the agony of the humans nearby made him scream in pain.
They didn’t hear, nor did they see…Tommy knew well enough that the gods had power over just how much the mortal world was aware of.
// “You’re not going to understand this now, Mr. Karras…but you need to know I’m well. And happy for all your success, and your life. Call it a message from an old friend.”//
//Lips on his…soft, warm, sensual, but innocent as a child.//
// “Go with the gods, love.”//
He’d met her in the evening, helped her with a charge ready to leap off the roof of a building. An averted suicide, a hard night…and a farewell kiss he hadn’t understood until now.
Bess Houdini should have been reborn as Channing Vale…if she’d done it right.
Dog finally released Tommy as he fell to his hands and knees, darkness screaming through him. Elpis…this was who he had become, god of hope and twilight, filling him back up with his own power long enough to undo the damage he’d unwittingly caused, giving him knowledge he had no right to.
Giving up his power was killing all that remained of his soulmate, now a fellow avatar. Surrendering magic, surrendering hope…
“We’re killing our own kind.” He gasped, lifting his head to look up at Dog, prostrate before the patron of his people. “Every time one of us retires…when we give up magic, we’re killing our own kind.”
Elpis nodded. For the first time, Tommy feared him. “Yeah…now fix it.”
Closing his eyes, Tommy called on his borrowed power…and fixed it.
For an instant, he was all magics…shamanism, translocation, escape, levitation, mentalism…he could do it all. It belonged to him, the power, given to him by the gods themselves.
By the Mother…by his greatest love…
In my Titan soul, I pray…
* * * * * * * * * *
When he came to, three faces hung over him. All were filled with concern…all of them touched his soul. It was a weak brush of life and despair, but it hurt more than it had before.
“Jesus, Mister, are you all right? That earthquake knocked you flat…we thought you were dead!”
Slowly, he climbed to his feet, brushing himself off with a little help from the three good Samaritans. He could see his cigarette on the ground, still whole and still burning as if it had only been there a moment.
Reaching out, Tommy focused on the cigarette, hand outstretched…
The cigarette rolled as the three humans watched, but it didn’t lift into his hand. The borrowed power was gone.
Yet if he shut his eyes, he could remember the icy waters of the Mississippi, the salty spray of the Aegean Sea, the agony of infection stealing his life away…
“Mister? Do you need some help?”
He turned to the female voice that touched him…the woman who was going to take her own life as soon as she got home.
“No, I don’t.” he replied quietly. “But I think I can help you…Brenda.”
Watching her gape, he smiled a little as he discreetly got a coin out of his pocket and palmed it, ready to pluck it from thin air until he could start doing it for real again.
“I’d like to try something with you, if you don’t mind…”
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 1,046
The night felt so disconnected to him it hurt inside.
He should have been home with the mother of his child, holding her and watching HSN with her as she cooed over children’s furniture and baby clothes, should have been riding herd on her credit cards again and bearing the brunt of her hormone-fueled fits of temper.
Instead he was in the dark, cut with the artificial illumination of fluorescent lights outside a Lutheran church, watching as a trio stood outside and conversed just beyond his range of hearing.
They were members of a support group for those with mood disorders. Two of them were suicidal. One of them was going to go through with it. He had enough power to tell him that, and not enough to stop it.
Hell, it barely even hurt to stand this close to them.
Tommy knew it was what he wanted, but he’d lost so much he had to wonder if it was right. Thoughts like that plagued him with guilt, ate at him every time they came up…
Shutting his eyes, he lowered his head and took a drag off his cigarette. He rarely smoked unless he was doing magic or deeply troubled, and he never smoked around Zee…these days, he was smoking at every lunch break and evenings before he went home.
I need help.
It wasn’t meant as a prayer, but still it felt like one as the air stirred his hair and the scent of night jasmine touched his nose…warm, sweet earth and humid hothouse air…
“You’re killing someone.”
He wasn’t surprised by Dog’s voice at his side…he’d gotten a visit from Elpis already, but Tommy still couldn’t bring himself to think of him as anything more than good old reliable Mad Dog.
“Who?”
“Your misses. Your love…Channing Vale. Bess Houdini.”
His head shot up, cigarette falling from his fingers in shock. “What?”
“I just saw her, and I spoke to them that know. Bess was rewarded for her fidelity to you, but she spoiled the gift. She was reborn, but she didn’t drink.”
“Drink what? Dog, I don’t remember shit from before.”
“The cup of Lethe, the waters of forgetfulness. We’re all born brand new, we can’t come into this world knowing what it holds. Bess didn’t drink…knowledge ripped her apart and her pieces fell into the void only avatars can leave.”
The words meant nothing to Tommy, but they somehow felt important. Something he’d done in Vegas, something that had happened…why the hell couldn’t he remember?
Dog grabbed his arm then, spinning him around to face him. One hand flew to his cheek, gripping his face tight to force their eyes to lock. “Remember, little master…save her life, take back what’s yours, damn you, and remember!”
Power not his own poured into him, forcing the change in his body. The void left by magic’s slumber filled with white light again and the agony of the humans nearby made him scream in pain.
They didn’t hear, nor did they see…Tommy knew well enough that the gods had power over just how much the mortal world was aware of.
// “You’re not going to understand this now, Mr. Karras…but you need to know I’m well. And happy for all your success, and your life. Call it a message from an old friend.”//
//Lips on his…soft, warm, sensual, but innocent as a child.//
// “Go with the gods, love.”//
He’d met her in the evening, helped her with a charge ready to leap off the roof of a building. An averted suicide, a hard night…and a farewell kiss he hadn’t understood until now.
Bess Houdini should have been reborn as Channing Vale…if she’d done it right.
Dog finally released Tommy as he fell to his hands and knees, darkness screaming through him. Elpis…this was who he had become, god of hope and twilight, filling him back up with his own power long enough to undo the damage he’d unwittingly caused, giving him knowledge he had no right to.
Giving up his power was killing all that remained of his soulmate, now a fellow avatar. Surrendering magic, surrendering hope…
“We’re killing our own kind.” He gasped, lifting his head to look up at Dog, prostrate before the patron of his people. “Every time one of us retires…when we give up magic, we’re killing our own kind.”
Elpis nodded. For the first time, Tommy feared him. “Yeah…now fix it.”
Closing his eyes, Tommy called on his borrowed power…and fixed it.
For an instant, he was all magics…shamanism, translocation, escape, levitation, mentalism…he could do it all. It belonged to him, the power, given to him by the gods themselves.
By the Mother…by his greatest love…
In my Titan soul, I pray…
* * * * * * * * * *
When he came to, three faces hung over him. All were filled with concern…all of them touched his soul. It was a weak brush of life and despair, but it hurt more than it had before.
“Jesus, Mister, are you all right? That earthquake knocked you flat…we thought you were dead!”
Slowly, he climbed to his feet, brushing himself off with a little help from the three good Samaritans. He could see his cigarette on the ground, still whole and still burning as if it had only been there a moment.
Reaching out, Tommy focused on the cigarette, hand outstretched…
The cigarette rolled as the three humans watched, but it didn’t lift into his hand. The borrowed power was gone.
Yet if he shut his eyes, he could remember the icy waters of the Mississippi, the salty spray of the Aegean Sea, the agony of infection stealing his life away…
“Mister? Do you need some help?”
He turned to the female voice that touched him…the woman who was going to take her own life as soon as she got home.
“No, I don’t.” he replied quietly. “But I think I can help you…Brenda.”
Watching her gape, he smiled a little as he discreetly got a coin out of his pocket and palmed it, ready to pluck it from thin air until he could start doing it for real again.
“I’d like to try something with you, if you don’t mind…”
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 1,046