NationStates Jolt Archive


Why a Million Men Wake

The Osservatori
22-01-2006, 22:41
Marcus lounged in the low beach chair, his head resting on a green folded towel. His unkept suit was damp with the salty mist of the ocean, propelled skywards by the waves rolling against the rocks below. The cove was beautiful in the twilight hours. The brilliant sun sat half submerged on the horizon, extending a glowing carpet along the sea, as if beckoning man to heaven. The sparse clouds were illuminated, glowing every shade of pink and orange, so beautiful even the greatest of the masters dreamt of matching their magnificence. The worn black cliffs rose mysteriously among this portrait of perfection, adding a flavor that is not to be missed. The cool breeze fell from the trade winds, unveiling itself to world below. If this place stolen from the earth and sewn into heaven, it would stand undistinguishable from the celestial realm about it. This was not where Marcus was, though.

His mind moved about the world, to realms where it seemed hell had risen, to places man should never live. Before his minds eye, stretched war zones of epic proportion. Where the bodies of men and boys laid sprawled, horizon to horizon. A million live cut short by the squabbling of rulers. Great cities, once artwork in and of themselves were incinerated by the weapons of war. Swaths of flame passed through, replacing the works of many a golden age with landscape of twisted metal and doom. Children starved, the body devouring itself, limbs dying under their own weight. Those hollow eyes stared and stared, then with one final gasp, closed for eternity. Families were torn asunder, as mother screamed to their husbands and children who disappeared over the horizon.

Body in paradise, mind in hell. All of this could be stopped, suffering and pain, death and war, the very darkest aspects of humanity purged. Marcus and a billion other knew it. The evil of this world could be made nought but a shadow of the past. The journey would be a long one, consuming a million epochs of man. It would itself, be as terrible as what it sought to end, a butcher’s bill like no other. For two thousand years, this quest had been led by a single entity, The Osservatori, and they would lead it for a million more. When the darkest moments of man came into life, and the spirit humanity was threatened with extinction, The Osservatori has stood there, the first and final stand against the darkness before them.

Tears slowly rolled down the sides of Marcus’ face. Slowly he stood, straitening his tie and fastening his shoes. He slowly turned from the beauty of the sunset before him. With a slow and steady stride he made the long walk back to his home. Soon his body would join his mind, and one piece of the greatest and most important puzzle man had ever tackle would be put in place.

As he walked the words of his late mentor rolled through his mind, “I have never presumed to be making a difference in the world, but I have presumed to be making a difference in a human’s life, and that my friend is worth all the sweat of my eternity.”

OOC: Well hello everyone. I dont know if I will be taking this RP anywhere, or just using this post and a few other to establish what The Osservatori do.
Delta Green
22-01-2006, 22:43
[OOC: Certainly have got my attention, though you haven't given much of an opportunity for others to jump in IC, still, to comment OOC, I'm quite interested in where this will lead.]