Topic: Perchance to Dream: Forever in a Day

Giminicka

Date: 2008-06-21 01:04 EST
Part I - Never Too Late


"This world will never be
What I expected
And if I don't belong
Who would have guessed it
I will not leave alone
Everything that I own
To make you feel like it's not too late
It's never too late

Even if I say
It'll be alright
Still I hear you say
You want to end your life
Now and again we try
To just stay alive
Maybe we'll turn it all around
'Cause it's not too late
It's never too late

No one will ever see
This side reflected
And if there's something wrong
Who would have guessed it
And I have left alone
Everything that I own
To make you feel like
It's not too late
It's never too late

Even if I say
It'll be alright
Still I hear you say
You want to end your life
Now and again we try
To just stay alive
Maybe we'll turn it all around
'Cause it's not too late
It's never too late"

~From "Never Too Late" by Three Days Grace



Suicide.....indeed a witty little sentiment, really. A clever blending, it is derived from the ancient word "suicidium", from "sui caedere?, meaning, quite literally, to kill oneself. Its definition was of course crafted by those scholarly men of perceived self importance who ultimately decide what mere words are to mean.

Suicide is in fact classically defined as ?the act of intentionally ending one's own life?, though it is also used as a metaphor for the "willful destruction of one's self-interest".....either as an individual or as a group. Willful destruction....that's what they choose to call it....yet they also deliberately fail to mention in this grandiose definition how it gravely effects those surrounding the committer of such a selfish deed.

Now, despite this transparent omission, it is considered common knowledge that suicide may indeed occur for a number of reasons. Our self-opinionated gentlemen cite depression, shame, pain, difficulties with finance, or other ?undesirable? situations as all credible reasons for this horrific act.

Undesirable.....Hmmmm.......a worthy term to describe the very beginning of all this.

It was beyond odd....beyond insanity......both troubling and infuriating all at once....at least to her. Giminicka Orcand did not know where she was.....or more pertinently WHY she was in this place yet again. As it would unfold, the wrath-filled priestess was seemingly watching a replay of life events.....or rather stuck in her own powerful body reliving its tragic game once again.

It was, aptly enough, an extremely dark night of violent storms which ravaged the foreboding skies and churned the surrounding seas to an angry, frothing frenzy. This night, The Isle of Shadow was outwardly caught in the proverbial 'End of Days'

Inside their quaint Grecian-styled home on the blessed Scathachian Island of Shadow, two desperate women spoke in raised tones of wrath, anguish, and despondent sorrow.......one locked inside of a bathing chamber, the other pounding on the heavy oaken door with the fury of great Zeus?s harpies.

Giminicka, known by her loyal Scathachian Sisters as Eris, was fittingly the incensed harpy.....hammering on the unmoving door with her bare hands......striking the thick wood so hard in fact, that her large bloody handprints now adored its facade. Her true blood sister Diaranil, renamed Apollonia in the Scathachian sect, had locked herself in the bathing chamber over an hour ago.

Giminicka was not home when her sibling Diaranil wrote the melancholy note explaining exactly why she was bowing out of this miserable dance and ?leaving?. The brutal storm, perhaps a baleful omen, drove Giminicka back home from the Temple earlier than expected.....early enough to hear the heavy bolt soundly lock the bathing chamber door.......

When Giminicka had found the note which her disheartened sibling had left for her on dinging table, the large Scathachian Eris bounded for the closed door with the speed of Mercury, himself. Diaranil, however, was no fool....and she threatened outright in her sorrow to do the dark deed immediately if Giminicka took a weapon to the door or left to seek help from the other Sisters on the scared island.

Their morose conversation, separated from one another by this cold and impersonal slab of wood, ranged back and forth.....the sad truth, however, was vividly blatant. Diaranil Orcand, now a sanctified Daughter of Scathach, was in truth, spiritually drained and emotionally finished....she was all but done with this world of mourning and barren heartache. Apolllonia could no longer force herself to live for her sister...depression's crafty and unfair tendrils had dragged her too far into the murky depths of both sorrow and self-loathing.....from which there was no resurfacing.

The older Orcand sibling had done all she could do to ensure her younger sister Giminicka's safety and future, since their parent?s untimely death well over a decade earlier. Diaranil had even take the greatest part of this daunting journey with her oft angry sibling, as they both utilized their exceptional skills to train and sacrifice in order to become genuine Scathachian Judges. Both blood sisters had been initiated into the great sect of Justice not more than four months prior to this night of Hell?s rebellious upheaval....this night when the powers of darkness began their ruthless bid for a new champion to raise their black banners.

Giminicka

Date: 2008-06-21 01:27 EST
The painful rouse of happiness for Diaranil, however, had sharply ended. The arduous time spent in training to secure opportunity and prosperity for her beloved sister was at long last over. The morbid and poignant reality of the matter was plain, Diaranil Orcand had earnestly wanted to die since she buried her parents and her young fianc? all those years ago.

The overwhelming sadness that smothered her every daily breath, was vehemently kept at bay when she believed that her adored sister would be completely alone if she left. Well....her Giminicka was alone no longer....now she had a complete and warm family of Scathachians....a caring family who would love her unconditionally and lead her to her ultimate destiny. And thus, the iron gate of will which defended the elder Orcand sister?s psyche against the crushing sorrow around her, was all but decimated.

"Why!!!?? Diaranil...why!!!???, Giminicka frantically inquired, ?...Please.....please don?t! It?s not so bad Dia.......it's not.....IT'S NOT THAT BAD! ***damn it....DON'T you do this!!!?

This was accentuated by a lone, solid punch on the wooden wall by the volatile red headed woman.

Giminicka?s Amzonian form was now slouched against the sealed door, as she pressed her cheek against its bulky contour. Looking more like a petrified child then a holy defender of justice, the Scathachian wept. The distinctive scents of the torrential tropical rain and the wet island grass quaintly drifted into the hall from an open window......Giminicka never forgot that mixed smell for the rest of her life.

Tears....copiously shed in anger and frantic heartache streamed from her swollen, emerald green eyes and left a glistening path down her face. ?Please....please Dia...don?t go.....p.p..please.......don?t leave me alone here....I...I love you so much.?

Though she was speaking the exact same words which she had uttered on that fateful night many years ago, Giminicka already knew in her warped mind that this turbulent night would end in tragic death. There would be no chance for true "goodbyes", no physical exchanges of loving sentiment. It would unkindly end at the end of a thick rope.....a brief interlude of strangulation before a tensed neck snapped like a sapling?s twig under the strength and position of the rope?s woven knot. And all behind a closed, locked door.....indifferent and callous.

?Diaranil.....please.....it?s not over.....?, Giminicka fiercely wept.....she couldn?t contain her anguish over losing her sister.......it was raw and evocative.....?I love you......?

?And.....what if I don?t love myself? What if I have nothing left to give anyone.... Giminicka??, was the hollowed and lost response from beyond the bulky oak.

Giminicka knew exactly what she was going to say next......even before her mouth began to sputter the words....she had said it this same night once before.....?Then I?ll love you even more Dia.....I will give everything to you Dia, just like you did for me since mom and dad were taken from us. Please......don?t give up on your yourself.....don't give up on me....?

Giminicka knew all too well what came after that phrase....the grief filled voice of her "emotionally undesirable" sister whispering with forlorn absence, ?I do love you Giminicka......always.?

These words were then followed by the sharp sound of something.....no, no, someone falling, only to be abruptly stopped by an unforgiving noose. Then....the sickening crack.....that dreaded noise which had haunted the waking nightmares of the forceful, unstable warrior for the remainder of her Scathachian tenure.

It was coming.....any moment now.........

Yes, finally there was a noise.....but....it was the creak of the door slowly opening. No....it couldn?t have been.....it literally could not have been! Diaranil had ended her life at this moment....years ago.....a lifetime ago......dead by her own competent hand that had fastened the killing noose. Dead by her own will to take that fateful step of completion and thus hang herself in defiance of life's cruel mockery.

But not this bizarrely destined night. Giminicka immediately rose to her feet as her august sister stood in the doorway....rope folded in hand.....her own face stained with tears of heartfelt depression and pain. The sounds of the storm and the crashing ocean waves echoed in her passionate emotions as they filled the night sky outside. Cold rain slammed down in droves onto the side of their home, followed by deafening thunder which rocked the very core of The Isle of Shadow.

Eris, Daughter of Scathach opened her mouth to speak......Apollonia, Daughter of Scathach spoke for her ?Thank you my sister... I.....I was lost. Thank you.....thank you for saving me Gim. I love you too....more than you'll ever know.....more than you'll ever know.?

Giminicka had absolutely no understanding of this series of emerging events.....all she knew was that she was standing here in her old Scathachian house.....before her beloved sister on an abysmal night which was supposed to end in calamity and endless despair........it was even outside of supernatural. All Giminicka Orcand did know, was that she had witnessed a true miracle.

The tall, crimson-haired Scathachian embraced her equally statuesque sibling. She held Diaranil in this embrace so tightly.......afraid to release her....terrified to realize that her sister was indeed dead. Subconsciously Giminicka feared reliving this final and decisive moment of blackened truth....of dire shock......of helpless bereavement.

Therefore, Giminicka did initially hold on firmly....but then, she gradually loosened her hug and steadily prepared for the unavoidable heartbreak which she was certain would undoubtedly spiral forth when she pulled back to gaze upon her devoted sister, Diaranil.

She knew Dia would be dead......it was after all, written destiny.

Giminicka unhurriedly pulled back and her gaze leveled forwards....she was ready for the sorrowful torment to strike like a kindred hunter's swift stake.

However....

There was no heartbreak.
There was no bereavement
There was no torment.
There was no death.

Instead, there was a peaceful calm which was reverberated by the glowing reflection of herself in her sister?s tearful eyes......eyes that did hold some glimmer of hope and possible happiness; a divine opportunity to escape from and survive this drowning mental hell.

On this fateful eve....Diaranil, whose Scathachian name 'Apollonia' translated to literally mean ?The Apple Keeper?, did not tragically depart the unruly life of her adoring sister Giminicka.........Giminicka, whose Scathachian name was ironically, if not fatefully, 'Eris'....the chaotic warrior goddess best known for her elusive, golden apple.

It was indeed never too late. With heavy sobs, the lonely siblings lovingly embraced once more.

Giminicka

Date: 2008-06-28 04:53 EST
Part II - Choices


"CHOICES"

That a leopard cannot change its spots
Is an old adage certainly true.
But I am not a leopard
Neither, my friend, are you.

Living in the past is dangerous
If you repeat the same mistakes,
Or forget it is the past in
Choosing the road one takes.

Because only human beings have a choice
In the decisions that they make.
We can thus take the truest path
Where nothing is a fake,

Or we take the path of least resistance
And ride upon the road of ease.
Mindless of the final cost,
We can do whatever it is we please.

We can aslo show love to all mankind,
And spread what happiness we can
Wash the world in splendid beauty
To touch the very heart of man.

So choose your path most wisely,
As your choice can cause either joy or pain.
And yes it can make you mankind?s glory,
Or forever its deadliest bane.

~B.A. Duffy


The loving embrace lasted a virtual lifetime......but as Giminicka slowly opened her eyes, her sister Diaranil was no longer before her.....but rather another blackened chess piece of destiny was.

Blustery winds whipped through Giminicka's crimson tresses as she turned to face the loud and harsh sounds of battle on her left flank. The skies were mottled with dark, macabre clouds as misty tendrils lapped down towards the engagement of the two warring factions.

This was not her quaint home on The Isle of Shadow......but she did know this ominous place, however. Alas Giminicka Orcand, the Scathachian Eris, knew this threatening locale quite well....for it was seven years ago that she in fact "died" here.

As the myriad of deadly arrows sliced through the very air, the thundering noises of war-horses and the shrill, pitched grating of sword against armor mingled in the firmament to create a literal diorama of chaos and bloodshed.

Here, at the infamous Battle of Rorgrorc, the brave and battle-tested Scathachian Sisters waged a crucial clash against the tyrannical hordes of Temple Bhaal. It was here that such Scathachian battle champions as Illea, Derinoe, and Lamia led Mother Lenai's skilled forces against the overwhelming numbers of the Skeletal Ram under the command of the notorious high priest, Lord Dargaan Naehacl.

The thick stench of death was strewn everywhere.....permeating each damaged street corner as the conflict spread to the nearby city of Chriysh.....one of Rorgrorc's many civilian settlements. These poor people and their local militia were grossly unprepared for the onslaught which had spilled over into their literal back yards.

Undeniably, as Chriysh became yet a new stage for these two brutally dancing antagonists, the howling wind made a fitting companion to the battle cries of the incensed Scathachians which mingled with the militaristic, warlike drums of the maniacal Bhaalites.

As the spiraling memories flooded back to her.....as well as the passionate shock of just having saved her sibling from the hellish fate of suicide......the enemy on the field wasted no time in attacking the tall, sullen Judge. Giminicka turned just in time to skewer a menacing Bhaalite with her left blade and then take his helmed head off with her right.......followed by another.....and yet another.

Splashes of wet blood spattered across her silver chain and brown leather armor, her crimson sash proudly displayed at her waist. All at once she heard her Sister, Harlequin, calling her over to the far street position......in the city's center......an order she that Giminicka had already lived, seven long years ago.

Almost entranced with this continuing deja vu, Eris ran to join her fellow Judge Harlequin as the latter literally tore through the evil soldiers with her bare, Damphyr hands.....Trixie was not to be trifled with in any way, and most foes found that out very quickly.

As she rushed by a vacant alleyway, Giminicka instinctively knew that there would be a crouching Bhaalite laying in wait for her with a barbed spear.....just as he had been all those years ago. She allowed him to make his deft move, before slashing open his chest with her blessed blade and then snapping his neck in her powerful hands.

"That damned building is filled with them Eris!", Trixie growled as she stared up at a rather large tower in the center of the city, "They must have been using this place as some kind of goddess-damned hidden staging ground! They are pouring out of this place and using the highest spires as perfect spots for their cowardly archers to pick off our Sisters. Eris, we have got to shut this position down now!"

'FIRE'

It was so seductively whispered into Giminicka?s confused ears.

For Giminicka knew what this meant, as she had done this 'exercise' before....in the distant past at this very same moment. Despite the harsh orders of her superiors.....she had deliberately set fire to the tower; she had allowed it to erupt in a great globe of flame which subsequently murdered all of the Bhaalites within.

Unfortunately, as the astute Battle Maidens of the Sisterhood had predicted, the blistering fire quickly spread like a horde of frenzied locusts, engulfing most of the city of Chriysh and its blameless inhabitants. Hundreds and hundreds of innocents died agonizingly that ill day.....burned to death by the merciless blaze which the angry Scathachian had herself set. Set out of disobedience....set out of rage.....and set out of a compelling death wish that Giminicka had possessed ever since the tragic suicide of her sister Diaranil. Despite all of their noble efforts, the brave Scathachians were unable to contain the fire or extinguish its fury.

Later, during this same great Battle of Rorgrorc, Giminicka, would meet her miasmatic doom in the inferno which she had set herself set ablaze.....and from these cleansing fires she ironically would also find an eventual bloody rebirth within the toxic womb of the same villains she so desperately sought to exterminate.

Giminicka

Date: 2008-06-28 06:03 EST
Indeed......that is what should have happened.

At this precise moment, a platoon of nearly twenty readied Judges appeared through the smoke and dust. This detachment included the likes of Phin, Illea, Derinoe, Rae, Aello, Lameia.......and....yes....Diaranil. These female warriors joined with Giminicka and Harlequin at the Bhaalite-infested, heavily fortified tower.

As history dictated, it was now time for Giminicka to make her intentions known and to execute them despite the strict orders handed down to do the contrary. It was a very anomalous sensation....things were the same yet.....she herself was different. Eris slowly looked down at the blood stained earth beneath her large booted feet......this was all becoming so surreal to her. A whirlwind of passion and reminiscence was abound.

Giminicka paused. This whole event was genuinely ?feeling? different....and in her heart she intensely liked it. The searing pain was not stabbing within her; the abyssal emptiness was not boring into the dark caverns of her soul. It was all changed....her beloved sister Diaranil, known to the Scathachian sect as Apollonia, was not dead....rather she was here at her side on this fateful day in Rorgrorc?s province of Chriysh. By the great goddess's mercy this already was so altered now......and with no crippling pain of loss, Giminicka suffered no longing, morose wish or drive of morbidity to utterly destroy everything and everyone, including herself. She was now spiritually balanced in this shining hour of warring mayhem.

Giminicka's voice was clear and without hesitation, "You were right Illea...no fire. It will spread out of control with the fury of these winds. With your and Derinoe's permission....Harlequin, Apollonia, and I will take a small contingent into the very tower itself....and we can hammer them down level by level. That way you, Mistress Lamia, and the others can get these people out of here...that is the important task. We can not let harm come to these people simply because these monsters have spilled into their homes to do wage war upon us and our Sanctuary."

"Eris..." Illea looked concerned as she shouted above the battle's clamor, her usual stern expression plastered upon her chiseled countenance, "That battle tower is heavily fortified.......the casualties suffered by the initial direct Scathachian assault will be grave.....Eris...."

Giminicka abruptly interrupted her inflexible friend, which was a rarity when dealing with the no-nonsense Issy, "I understand Illea. I do...but please.....I beg you, let me have this honor......we have no time to waste my friend. See to the people and then make sure you and the other Sisters are here to finish these bastards off should we fail....I vow to you on our friendship that we will, at the very least, severely cripple them and this nightmarish, provisional tower, in Mother Scathach's holy name. Trust me....."

Illea promptly clapped a powerful hand on her shoulder as did mighty Lamia, and finally the ever-commanding Derinoe. It was her friend Illea who spoke first, "Justice as your guide my Sister......Justice in your heart....we fight with you in soul and spirit."

"Go...go now Sister! To Victory!", echoed Derinoe with the command of a readied war-sergeant and true Amazonian titan.

Eris stiffly nodded to her friends and mentors.....her Sisters.

A small smile spread on Giminicka's tanned face as she immediately followed her orders and rallied with Apollonia , Harlequin, and ten of the other Judges........executing her plan and swiftly mounting a crafted assault upon the long tower and its devastating ballista.

Giminicka...?Eris?.......did not care if she met her fate here on this anarchic chess board, for the glory and precision which permeated her very soul was as the divine touch of the exalted goddess herself. Redemption was at hand........so long past its due.

The ravaging winds of war were quite fierce this day. Furious battle cries were sounded.....bellicose drums thundered with each charge....horrific mortal screams of pain serenaded the countryside as sharp weapons of steel claimed their very lives. Such was the fruit of these violent campaigns.....such was the setting of this grim theatre.

The first time that this scene had played out, Eris the Scathachian perished inhumanly in the unforgiving fires she had created.......in the very Hell which she had fashioned from her own instability, guilt, and rampant hate. But not this day......not this given time.....the bronzed scales of justice were unfalteringly weighted in favor of salvation.

The day was packed with unbridled righteousness as the avenging angels dispatched the true nature of war upon the murderous Bhaalites. The dreaded armies of the Skeletal Ram were in fact routed, and as their tower of skilled marksmen was destroyed from within by mother Scathach?s long arm, the ever-truculent cult lost their vice grip on an eminent victory.

It was nearly a Biblical familiarity as the miraculous shroud, lifted as if it were covering an elusive second chance at redemption and peace, was spirited far and away. Indeed, it was a series of choices and their consequential bearings which had sincerely governed this triumphantly momentous day. Despite the gruesome scene, when Eris and the other bloodied female warriors materialized from the dusty ruins of the tower, it was with a light heart.

The Judges had dispatched the feared servants of "The Red Ram", the Bhaalite High Priest Naehacl had been slain on the field of battle, the city of Chriysh was ultimately saved from this looming atrocious catastrophe, and the fleeing innocents were spared any further calamity by the swift actions of Illea and her powerhouse Scathachian contingent.

And yet, most striking.....Giminicka Orcand, emerging from this fateful battle shoulder-to-shoulder with her true sibling Diaranil and her fellow Scathachians, was not forever counted amongst the lost dead......nor was she branded "Nocent" and eternally marked as one of the most vile of the ill-fated damned.

The Heavens be Praised.