paradisalost | the fifth loophole

[Boy, last night was a really cool meteor shower, wasn't it? Not that the man in black really cared much- he had seen several meteor showers back on the island, and so yesterday's event was something not worth his time and interest.]

[Right now he's going around the castle grounds in smoke form, flitting to and fro throughout the underbrush. People nearby can catch glimpses of black smoke and the strange sounds of the smoke monster. He's bored. Incredibly bored. And suddenly, he spots something.]

[The duck pond.]

[Sometime later, people walking out near the grounds might spot a man dressed in black examining something red and brown in his arms while sitting by the duck pond. As you come closer, you may realize that he's picking off the feathers one by one off a rather dead duck. It doesn't look harmed at all, surprisingly. No wounds or cuts or anything.]

[He has his journal open next to him, and he speaks, still engaged in his task.]

It's been a while since I asked you people anything. So, here's another question to keep your busy.

[A pause.] If you suddenly saw somebody that you loved that had died a while ago one day, what would you do? Would you think that it was an illusion? A ghost? A mere hallucination of your already tormented mind?

For, it's not every day you can see the dead. But what if you could...?

[ooc: Feel free to run into him in his smoke form or wonder why the heck he's plucking a duck. Or just reply to his question. All up to you. :)]

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Me?

[He scoffs slightly, and then he recognizes that voice. Oh. That kid. He frowns, glancing back at the boy with those cold blue eyes of his.]

I don't seek anything. I was taken against my will.

All of us here were taken against our wills. That has nothing to do with what you seek.

What does it matter to you what I seek?

[His tone is the same as ever, that flat almost emotionless sounding tone, but there's a certain sharpness to it.]

"I am the Watchman the Light," Will says in a level tone. "What those of a dark choose to do is my business."

[That makes the man in black stop in what he's doing. Dark? He was of the dark? My, my, the kid was more astute than he thought.]

Is that so? [He smirks ever so slightly.] Then sorry to say that I'll have to decline the offer to tell you what I'm up to.

Then you should know that I will be opposing you.

Oppose away. I knew a person exactly like you. All he could talk about was how humanity was good and nice and kind. But I know better.

[He had learned to hide his emotion well. Inside he was raging like nothing else, but on the outside he was like the tip of a very fine iceberg, placid and calm.]

Just so you know, I wasn't born like this. I was the victim. I had it forced upon me. And here, boy, here's what I seek: all I want is to go home. That's it. I don't want to cause any trouble.

[Will responds slowly, measuring his words as he speaks. He was the Old One first, for now. When he was like this all of his thought were for his duty, only.]

Humans are very complicated. Maybe more complicated than anything in the world. In each of them there is Light and Dark. There is no such thing as a human who cab be simply categorized as good or evil. And yet it is their world.

My kind exists simply to oppose the Dark. It is our nature and we have no other purpose. And... I can feel something very like it in you. [For a moment Will wished miserably that he could ask Merriman's advice. The Walker had repented in the end. When all they could give him was a mortal death. Had there ever been another? Where did his duty lie here?]

I'm not saying that people can't be good. It's just that no matter what, they come, they destroy, and they corrupt. It always ends the same. You could be a saint for all I care. But there always will be that need to taint the things around you, whether you like it or not.

[He lets out a frustrated huff.] Like I said, I didn't choose to be this way. I'm not a monster. All I want is to go home. Just let me go home, and all your friends, all your allies, none of them will be touched. You think I like doing what I do? Quite the opposite.

[His eyes never leave Will's face- it's very hard to tell if he's lying or not. He's perfected the skill for over two thousand years, after all.]

In every human there is some of the Dark. But there is some of the Light as well. There is cruelty and anger and hate, but there is goodness and mercy and humanitarianism as well. And all of it is their own choice. Should be their own choice, free of any influence from any other force.

[Will dips his head in acknowledgement of the point.]

Whether you go home or not is not within my power. I am trapped within this world as well.

Still, so long as I am here it is my duty to watch over the people here. This is my nature.

Choices, choices choices...heh. What a word. You see, I knew a bunch of people who thought they could make their own choices in life and have free will. But it was all a lie in the end. They were just being pushed along the direction that somebody else thought they should be on. They were nothing more than puppets.

[A level stare.] And he said the exact same thing as you- "It is my duty to watch over people. It is my nature." Tell me- how much of it is watching, and how much of it is toying in the lives of people who don't deserve to be saved?

I am a watcher, only. [Will says this firmly.] To interfere and manipulate free will are actions of the Dark. My kind exists only to oppose this. To ensure that whatever choices humans make, whether they are good or evil, are entirely their own choice.

[He scoffs at that. Oh man, this boy was exactly like Jacob. Just what he needed, another person higher than him to keep him in line.]

Let me ask you this. I'm curious- if people died under your jurisdiction, would you do anything to help them? Or did their fate result out of their own choices?

It is not my place. [Though he says this unhappily. It was one thing to know that he could not interfere in the choices humans made. That did not make it easier to watch people get hurt from their own choices.]

the fifth loophole

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