Perspektive

[Margrave]

Luis sputtered, gasping for breath; water came in through the doors like hunger, petulant and angry; it bowled him over, end over end. His fingers raised high, clutching at the light, the cry on his tongue "Don't Give Up The Ship!" dying like a cold fire on his lips....He felt his eyes burn, his eyelids closing tightly shut, the dull beat of his heart slow as he dissapeared...

He awoke in a field of flowers.

She was there (when was she not?) In a white dress, standing barefoot, as natural as a doe in the forest, fleeting as a dream.

"Where am I?"

"Reality."

"Then what was everything before?"

"All the things you have seen...and ever been...are all a dream."

Luis snorted. "That's preposterous! If it had all been an imagining; an inkling in my head...I would have changed everything! I never wanted to lose the ones I loved! I never wanted to see the death of my friends! I would never have dreamed so many dark fates and unhappy endings!"

She shook her head, golden flax making a curtain around her face. "Silly...Life is the dream we dream for ourselves. Didn't Pons teach you anything?"

Luis laughed and shook his head. "Less than I thought, apparently. And he never was given to overly idealistic clap-trap, either. So, if this is reality, and all has been a dream...what does that mean now?

"What do you want it to mean, Luis? This place certainly isn't mine. It's yours, Luis. It's where you always wanted to be; it's what got you through the firefights and the long marches and the days without food and the nights spent in fear. It's the hope you nursed when you first fell in love and it's the place you forgot when your heart got broken."

"What do you call a place like this?"

"Call it Love, Luis. Call it arms open, welcoming you back. Call it the smile you saw through your tears, the shadowed silhouette dancing on the wall...call it Home, my love."

"Now I know this is a dream. She'd never say a thing like that to me...Even with all that passed between us."

"You think so? Your heart knows better than your mind, Luis. She loved you, even if it was in a fashion you couldn't accept or understand. But you can't hide from yourself here, Luis...the truth is all around us."

His eyes brimmed with unshed tears.

"Why couldn't it be simple, Sarah?"

She smiled then, honest happiness breaking across her features like light over the morning horizon. "You remembered my name!"

Luis cocked an eyebrow and gave her a look. "How could I not, Sarah? I stood by you for years; always supporting your dream, always following your fire...how could I not?"

"You never really could admit it, Love. Always thinking of me, of the damage you would cause if you ever lost your control, of what hurt she might feel if you ever really gave her what dwells within...You never have to feel that way again, Luis."

She looked down at her feet, suddenly shy, years of maturity falling away as she "Lu...why did you care about me so much? There was so much you could have done, so many times you could have walked away from me. Why me, Luis?"

Luis wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, a grin working its way through the tears. "How could I not, Sarah? Everything you were and are...everything you dreamed and hoped for...everything you wept and bled for...all of it, was beautiful to me. You shone like a bright star; you had a pure heart. You were clean where it mattered, despite all the garbage life threw at you. What a silly question."

She shifted around, looking uncharacteristically uncertain. "You don't know, Luis...how many times it was your strength I fell back on, how many times your belief pulled me through. How could you? You were always so certain I held the answers...sometimes I was just winging it too, you know?"

She shook her head. "But none of that matters now."

Around her, a mist slowly formed, undulating and separating, white and black, till two doors coalesced out of the fog. One was bright, glorious marble post, a portal to a land of love and light. The other was a dull black, wooden framed...sickly and easily broken, leading to a churning sea and an uncertain future. She smiled sadly as she came to stand between them.

"This place of yours is beautiful, mes ami, but it is not permanent. You can't stay here, isolated and alone forever. So...you have two choices. You can follow me to a place where there are no more tears..." She gestured with a tender smile to the white door "Or there, back to that uncertain place where no man goes unmasked. You have the choice, Luis...Only you can decide when you've done enough."

Luis scratched his head. "So wait, what happens if I make this bold declaration to go and live...and I die back there, as soon as I go back?"

She smiled sadly, strain showing in her face. "Then you'd come right back here, and never have to see the evils of the world again. But what if you live, Luis? are you willing to go back, back to a world where you have lost so much? Can you accept that you might grow old and die without her love in your life? Or that your life might be spent on wasteful things and lost causes? You've earned the respect of your ancestors; you've served your people without regard for self; your whole life has been a living sacrifice of faithfulness and good works. The feast is waiting on the other side, Luis. Taste and see, be free from your doubts and pains. Be at peace now and forever."

This was it. This was really it. It was all clicking now, a sense of rightness, a sense of belonging...what he'd dreamed of, what he'd longed for. He took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers, slow and sure. He saw all the promises of heaven in her eyes, holding her then.

"You know this is what I always wanted, right?"

"Of course. Didn't you know I wanted it too? There was so much in the way back there..but none of that matters now, Luis! Let's go to the next place, love, where there are no closed doors and no empty hearts. We can finally go home, Lu...back to the place we belong."

He closed his eyes, then...there were tears in them, blurring his vision, making her a hazy, unreal. "I..."

"You don't have to apologize, Luis. You don't have to convince me or earn my trust, you don't have to cover me in flowers or cascade me with kisses. Just come with me."

There were no words, then. How could there be? He felt his heart leaping in his chest, the redemption he'd dreamed of for so long making his face shine like an angel. Instead, he cupped her face and leaned in, whispered those three sweet words, and kissed her, slowly and sweetly. It felt as right as he imagined, acceptance and peace, as sincere as a prayer and as gentle as the breeze. He let himself be free, then; he held her without regard for his stiff propriety, each kiss accompanied by a promise, an oath, a confession of all that he had held back:

"I've loved you since we first dreamed the dream of a new world, that night by the fire"

"I was so terrified when you'd been kidnapped, out of my wits"

"I carried a picture of you with me in China"

"I wrung myself dry for your smile"

"I couldn't chase you out of my mind even when I tried"

He felt the secrets, the lies, the things he had shielded from her, all flow out of him like a broken dam...everything he had sworn she'd never hear, all the soft spots, all the weaknesses he'd hidden and lied about and covered up so he could be her strong pillar of support when everything was dark. She smiled, listening to every word, accepting it, accepting him; a refugee and a wanderer taken into the arms of the queen of peace.

He took her arm; hand in hand they approached the portal; suddenly their raiment was white; in an instant they were clean, white fire flickering around the portal's edge cleansed and purified them. All of the heavenly host beckoned from the other side; a loving family awaiting the return home of their beloveds, sheperds celebrating the return of lost sheep.

He turned her around, then, his face bright with relief and the joy of a clean conscience.

"sarah?"

"Yes, Luis?"

"I love you."

With that, he kissed her once more, pure and whole, the kiss the groom bestows upon the bride...

and then leapt through the black door, back to uncertainty, back to the mad realm of the living.

[Zarfef]

OOC: Excellently deep work of RP Margrave, poetry like that is much like fine whine, it should be taken in sip by sip, not gulp by gulp. Look forward to seeing your future RP with Afghanistan Margrave. Unfortunately I probably won't be able to convince you to rule it with crazy evil mad-men .

[Margrave]

OOC: Excellently deep work of RP Margrave, poetry like that is much like fine whine, it should be taken in sip by sip, not gulp by gulp. Look forward to seeing your future RP with Afghanistan Margrave. Unfortunately I probably won't be able to convince you to rule it with crazy evil mad-men .

OOC: Afghanistan prolly won't be happening, save in the sense that I'll be going there soon.

Also, more comments would be appreciated, folks.

[Lynneth]

OOC:While written very nicely with a good flow, it has a bit too much romance for me. I'm one of those people who go "urrrrgh" when romance and stuff suddenly happens for no reason in an action movie, etc.

Other than that, I like it. That last sentence made me laugh out (in suprise), though I had kind of expected that.

All in all, me like.

[Margrave]

OOC: Should I explain the circumstances/continue writing pieces like this, or no?

[Lynneth]

OOC: Should I explain the circumstances/continue writing pieces like this, or no?

OOC: 'No' is not an option.

Proceed.

[Zarfef]

OOC: Of course you should, although some kick butt Margrave wouldn't be bad either.

[Margrave]

OOC: 'No' is not an option.

Proceed.

OOC: Ah....part of it is OOC frustration, part of it is just....a desire to write something so deeply, truly loving and right. It's the kind of thing I'd want for myself when I die, right? Hell, who wouldn't want their beloved there to go with them?

[Subtleknifewielder]

OOC: Ah....part of it is OOC frustration, part of it is just....a desire to write something so deeply, truly loving and right. It's the kind of thing I'd want for myself when I die, right? Hell, who wouldn't want their beloved there to go with them?

OOC: That is a very good question. The answer is, no one in their right mind.

That said, I look forward to reading anything you write.