Masa con Papas: Proxy's Memory

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

A Reaper's Dilemma 
[Sixth Reading]
CW: Death, Existential Horror, Manipulation 

 

 

You Jab him with Zero Hesitation. 
 Charon: What do you want?

Styx: Didn't even wait... A second chance I’m not going to get. Worked my ass off and gave you everything you needed to survive. When the time came to pay up? You burned that contract and didn’t pay a dime’s worth of what you promised.

Charon: You know what you wanted wasn’t fair.

Styx: You took the deal anyway.

Charon: I was a kid.

Styx: Then you should’ve stayed home and played your little games instead of summoning demons, hmm? Not that it matters now. Doubt there’s enough of me to qualify as my own person anymore. A fragment.

Charon: A pretty talkative one.

Styx: Maybe… one who’s keeping you together however. Even now my work’s still being used without compensation. You’d be a damn good executive.

Charon: I don’t think I understand.

Styx: Your mind should’ve shattered and your body crumbled underneath the pressure of forbidden knowledge.

Styx: You’re a dead man walking and you haven’t noticed all this time. At least you pretend not to.

Styx: The truth is that you’re a toy knight held together by glue and string. The name you wear is a pile of lies and the real you was left behind back in that other world.

Styx: Charon Judgment died and what you are now is an amalgamation of the suffering you couldn’t prevent.

Styx: You ever feel so dissociated from yourself that you can’t tell what’s real anymore? Because you aren’t. What’s left of that child is truly dead. Those eyes tell that story to anyone who’s witnessed one suffer that fate.

Charon: Why should I believe you? Why should I believe anything you say?

Styx: Because I’ve never lied to you once, simply told the truth in a way that was most convenient for both of us.
Charon: You took advantage of me! Advantage of everyone you’ve met!

Styx: I put you in the right place at the right time! Everyone got to make it out of there except for me. You abandoned me, left me to die in the hot sun.

Charon: Geezer lost his body. He doesn’t talk about it, but I know it bothers him.

Styx: And who’s fault is that? You knew the risks that came with your little dabbling in the dark arts and dragged him along. That’s on you just as much as it’s on me.

Charon: I know, and I can never forgive myself for that, but-

Styx: You’re lucky you ended up coming into contact with me, if it was anyone else you’d both be emptied out and turned into envoys for something much worse. That kid who got left behind? He had potential. You? You’re a loser and until you accept that, you won’t get better.

Styx: And the funniest part is? Even if you did? I think you’d still run your life into the ground. All I see in your future is suffering and a fight you can’t win.

Styx: That’s the curse of your family, anyone who takes the mantle will die painfully and alone against a foe they cannot beat.. You’re not special. The angel? The Cult? That’s just a prelude to the wickedness ahead.

Styx: And the best part is? It’s all misery you’ve inflicted on yourself.

Charon: I know the risks ahead. My mistakes are my own, and my future is a responsibility I accept.

Charon: And no matter how much it hurts, no matter how hard it gets? I can’t allow people like you to roam around freely.

Charon: I’ve seen the worst of people and I’m tired of it, all I want to do is leave behind the best I can make.

Styx: A pact just like yours and mine limits the time you have. Your predecessors did what they had to and were more than willing to sell out their future kin. 

Charon: Eye for an eye, a debt paid in blood. For every darkness quelled, a light must be snuffed out. All things stay balanced.

Styx: You’ll perish in the process like everyone else.
 

Charon: So be it, but if I’m honest? I don’t think I will.

Styx: You seem really sure of that.

Charon: If the light gets snuffed, then the answer is to be anything but.

Charon: I chose to be the devil of a lesser evil.

Styx: Painfully optimistic… and incredibly garish.

Charon: I don’t apologize for it.

Styx: Worthless words.

Styx: I wasn’t planning to be here today if I’m frank. Bastard dug through here and managed to wake me up.. Whatever’s left anyway.



Charon: Just a fragment, a pile of memories held together by blood.

Styx: And a shadow of a knight kept intact by string.

Charon: You know, I missed you early on. You’re bad for me but… there were times I wanted to believe you were looking out for me.

Styx: To some degree I was, even if the reasons were selfish.

Charon: A fallen king without people.

Styx: And yet a single knight managed to find his way into my court. How curious.

Styx: What power I have left is dwindled… and this exchange may have finished the rest.

Styx: Despite being a fragment of a person, I don’t want to die. I will keep you alive by giving you my last blessing.

Charon: And what would that be?

Styx: Your true self, you’ll witness it. It’ll be a hard road ahead but… if you can figure out that much, you’ll be able to make it through the storm.

Styx starts to fizzle.

Styx: The people in your life will take good care of you if you do the same.

Styx: I just hope wherever I return… they’ll be willing to forgive me.

Styx: I hope he’ll accept me even with all the wrong I’ve done.

Styx: I want to be happy, I think.




You awake abruptly, Esperanto looking over you.

Esperanto: I’ve purged you of what was compromising you.

Esperanto: You carried a nasty mark on you, one that should’ve done a number years ago.

Esperanto: I do sense something different…

Charon: Mm… a lot happened…

Esperanto: Certainly did.. Your friend seems to be having a bit of trouble right now but I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Charon: My friend?

Esperanto: Your proxy.
 

You look over. Your proxy rests, leaning against the wall. Its form having shifted dramatically. Its new face seems tired in a way you’ve never seen from it. A weight has been taken off its shoulders.

Esperanto: It’s form was maintained by whatever burden you carried previously…

Charon: Will it be okay?

Esperanto: Mm… this sort of thing is bound to happen when someone has a proxy for as long as you have. It develops multiple faces.

Charon: I’ve read about this, but never was sure what it meant.

Esperanto: Just like you have various phases emotionally, it will too. It hasn’t discarded its old shape, simply made it one of many it’ll develop. Perhaps it’ll find its old form again but as it is now?

Charon: It’s more honest to who I am at the moment.

Esperanto: Exactly.

There was a knock on the door.

Esperanto: I’ll handle that, just figure you’re being checked on. Go comfort it, I think it needs it.

You make your way over to check on it. You grab its hand, now skeletal and with claws rather than its usual smooth porcelain-like finish.
It doesn’t look at you but seems to acknowledge you by squeezing your fingers.

 

Charon: You’ve been faking it for so long, huh? Me too. We’ll work on ourselves together.

Charon: This is going to be the start of some help we’ve both needed. It might be hard but….

Charon: We’ll have plenty of good folks with us the whole way.