Hell in a Dry Place

[Doktor Howl]

This is a story about people who need the shit kicked out of them and get it. Me likey.

There's going to be more to it than that, as Man Green's demands become more and more Old Testament.

It's off to an awesome start.

Thanks.

[Don Coyote]

Damnit Roger, just seeing the words "doll" and "house" in a thread you started kept me from reading this steaming pile of fucking awesome.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

When I see it here, I love it because it's great writing and it hooks me right in.

When I see it there, I love it because of THIS:

This is a story about people who need the shit kicked out of them and get it. Me likey.

[Doktor Howl]

Damnit Roger, just seeing the words "doll" and "house" in a thread you started kept me from reading this steaming pile of fucking awesome.

It's only comedy, Coyote.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I love this, and I am amazed that none of the board regulars will TOUCH it.

[Doktor Howl]

I love this, and I am amazed that none of the board regulars will TOUCH it.

Then it's time to ramp up the horror a notch or two, isn't it?

It's like the tea party.  I just wasn't doing it hard enough.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I love this, and I am amazed that none of the board regulars will TOUCH it.

Then it's time to ramp up the horror a notch or two, isn't it?

It's like the tea party.  I just wasn't doing it hard enough.

YES

DO IT MORE HARDER.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I love this, and I am amazed that none of the board regulars will TOUCH it.

Then it's time to ramp up the horror a notch or two, isn't it?

It's like the tea party.  I just wasn't doing it hard enough.

YES

DO IT MORE HARDER.

LIKE A 1000 LB TRIPHAMMER

[Doktor Howl]

I have removed this from PJ, due to imminent ban.

I'll move it to apple talk in a couple of days, and continue it, because I like it.

[LMNO]

Good, because its awesome.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Seconded!

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Thirded.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to speak for the F5 crowd and call it unanimous.

I think we should ALWAYS speak for the F5 people, THEY NEED A VOICE. 

[Doktor Howl]

Working on this today.

[Doktor Howl]

Part 4

Sometimes, the devil talks to you.  He isn't some red spandex-wearing clown with a pitchfork, of course.  Sometimes he's on the TV.  Sometimes, he's the guy next door.  And sometimes, he's in your head.  When he talks to you, he doesn't lie...On the contrary, he tells you horrible truths, things that are not false, but that you didn't want to know.

"Your liberties are an illusion; you have only the rights you can seize.  Your freedom is encompassed by the area between 'chattel slavery' and the point at which you stop fighting.  For most people, this area is very small."

"Might makes right."

"There's nothing to be done; you can't save everybody.  In fact, you can't really save anybody."

"All the others are doing it.  Swallow your ethics or be buried alive by the competition."

"What someone doesn't know won't hurt them."

So, yes, we hear all of this in Hell, each and every day.  The props of hell, the weird stuff like those infantry boots with someone's feet (and nothing else) still in them that march around the outside of the Calvinist church all night leaving bloody footprints, that's just window dressing.  The train that goes through the city at night, that train, with the shuttered cattle cars and no engineer, well, that's just for show. 

The real hell is knowing that there's no such thing as justice, and still trying to pretend that there is.

So you can safely ignore the horseman statue, when it breaks loose and starts clanging down the legal district at night...Well, not safely, I guess, there's just nothing you can do about it.

What you CAN do, Man Next tells me, is to not listen to what the devil has to say.  She says that, yes, those horrible things ARE all true, but only as the default state of humanity.  You CAN have justice, if you're willing to go through the exertion of obtaining it.  You DO have rights, if you're willing to FIGHT.  You CAN be better.

While she's talking, you can SEE this better world.  It's right there, just outside of your reach.  Ivan says Man Next is here as part of our punishment...Giving some sort of contrast or means of comparison by which we can appreciate our lot, and despair.  What can I say?  He's Russian, they think that way.

I don't agree.  Even in Hell, everything you do belongs to you.  What happens TO you is a different story, but you are judged on your actions and your words and the company you keep, not the arbitrary lethality of Hell.

So when Man Next came back around, I was ready to go.  Ivan didn't think the same way I do, but he was in, too, on account of extreme boredom.

Which, of course, didn't last.

To be continued

[EK WAFFLR]

Fucking goosebumps!