If you’re new to the Great Game, please have a quick look at the blurb to your left, where you’ll find a short catch-up introduction!
“Surrender to your intuition.” The Victorian gentleman leans down and ruffles the wolf’s mane fondly, before glancing back up at me. “Unleash yourself.”
I shake my head, and say “Leashes serve a purpose.”
His face tightens for a second, although his voice remains pleasant. “Ah, yes. Keep the beast restrained, eh? Lock away anything with a bit of power, so that it isn’t a threat to the common good. Tie it down — so it doesn’t threaten the herd.”
There’s an edge creeping into his voice, one that I don’t much like. I start to say something placatory, but he rides straight over me.
“That’s the morality of the victim. The morality of the weak. Do you know why herds exist? So that every member can blend in with all the others, so that no-one stands out, so that when the predators come circling, there’s no reason to pick you. Take the neighbour. Take the relative. Take anyone, please, just don’t take me. Nothing to see here, move along.”
His face is full of scorn and anger now, and he brings it near to mine, stepping in close to me. The wolf begins growling, a low, deep, horrible sound. The man smells of cinnamon and frankincense and freshly-turned earth, and the room darkens as his monocle seems to glitter and swell. It feels as if it is pulling at me, draining me of the will to do anything but stare.
“Sheep,” he says, and it sounds like a death sentence. “Pathetic sheep, huddling together on the mountainside, praying that it’ll be one of the others tonight. Any of the others. Is that what you are? Another sheep, waiting for the cull?”
It feels as if the world has narrowed to that horrible, depthless monocle and the wolf’s relentless growl.
I blink, and...
- ... say "Why don’t you come and find out for yourself, fool." (47%)
- ... say "I'm sorry. Please." (26%)
- ... say " 'There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.' You forget that wolves run in packs." (21%)
- ... throw myself backwards as hard as I can, desperate to get away. (6%)
Voting Closes at: September 4, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Loading ...NOTE: By request, I’m adding another option, to point out to the Gentleman that wolves run in packs. If you’d like to vote for this option and have already lodged a previous vote, please leave a comment below, letting me know what that your first vote was for, so I can take it off the total! See, I do listen 
Today’s picture: Tuscan Hills by vgm8383.
It goes without saying Tim, that this Great Game is a great idea. It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable read so far, and I look forward to where you take the story in the future.
I’ll admit to voting for the choices that make the main character more flawed and less noble. I suppose I like my protagonists to grow into their redemption, rather than starting off as generally great characters. I appreciate that you’re giving us those choices, rather than always having the main character always sound smart, capable, and awesome.
Thank you. I really appreciate the kind words. I’m interested in flaws myself, and I intend to do my best to always provide a range of plausible choices from different parts of the moral spectrum. As reader choices firm up the narrator, I guess what is plausible will narrow slightly, but I’m never going to stop offering curve-balls, cop-outs and so on
I don’t want to go for any of those options!
d) respond with psychobabble of my own about wolves running in packs
Ok, that seems fair enough
I’ll add a note below the poll asking people to leave a comment if they’d rather do that!
Ha! Serves me right for voting for a LEASH. You’ll never lease me! This time, I chose the fool. Just what will our hero do to that fool?
One little typo: “…draining me of the will [to] do anything but stare.”
I really didn’t think the ‘leash’ comment would cause a problem when I made the poll, but the Gentleman — I think he’s called Thomas — just seemed outraged… *grin*.
I blink and ….try and remember a suitable quote by Nietzsche.
Tricky — the old boy doesn’t seem to have left any pithy and vaguely-relevant wolf quotes. I’ve made do with a quote which at least seems reasonably useful to our narrator’s current situation!
Oooh, I just voted for c, “why don’t you…”, but I’d like to change my vote to the soon to exist ‘d’ option of psychobabble re: wolves running in packs.
I vote d) to point out to the Gentleman that wolves run in packs.
Thanks Tim – this is great so far!
D. Wolves run in packs for me too
Do not stare too long in to the monocle, or the monocle may stare in to you :p