Art of Domination Thread 04

Thanks for the info!

Project #5 seems the most all-around useful so lets pick it. The others are nice, but all have only a specialized application.

Dr. Ushah: Understood. We’ll work on the Cover Blob right away.

Ghulls: Uh, Vora?

You: What is it, Ghulls?

Ghulls: I’m getting reports from Homeworld. General Lagan’s gone missing.

You: What?

Ghulls: He was leading an expedition to stop the corrupted members of High Command from wiping out the planet, but according to everyone on the ground… he’s vanished. He WON, but everyone says he disappeared into thin air as soon as they entered the enemy’s command center. There’s nothing inside anymore. Just… empty. He was trying to stop an Author in a saramis body from activating a Cosmic Organ.

You: Wait, Cosmic Organ? Are you telling me-

Ghulls: Well, according to Lagan and his followers, the universe is alive, and it has organs we normally can’t perceive.

You: So they’ve found it, then?

Ghulls: Yes, but both it and Lagan are gone. Nobody knows where they are now. The Author in disguise is missing too.

SWITCHING ===>

You are now Lagantis Primevex, and you are in very deep trouble.



You have come face to face with Courage, an Author in saramis form. Even now you can sense menace and power radiating from him.

You are unable to move your arms or legs. Hell, you can't even feel them anymore.

Courage: Don't bother struggling. I've already shut off your nerves.

His voice reminds you of string instruments being played very badly and glass being smashed.

You: Why are you doing this? You’ve lost. The Cosmic Organ is not in your hands anymore.

Courage: You know, being an Author who loves tales of bravery and sacrifice, I also happen to know a thing or two about fear. I know what you're scared of, Lagan.

You're not afraid of death. You're not afraid of losing your family either. Well, there's a smidge of that fear, but it's not the biggest.

It's something deeper. Even more intimate. Even more personal, and I know what it is.

You're scared of becoming a complete monster.

I know you're terrified of the day you become addicted to that feeling.

That wonderful delight you get, the kind you only get when you know you've beaten someone beyond all hope of ever making a comeback. When you've ground your foe's hopes into paste. You love it. You LOVE watching hope shatter. You don’t just kick people when they’re down, you stomp them into dust and send their remains into the sun.

It's the reason why you wouldn't ever murder off an entire race.

Not just because you think it's morally wrong, but because you think that would be the first step into monstrousness. Putting people into despair or disillusionment is one thing, or so you say, but genocide is another.

As if the moment you cause the extinction of an entire civilization, you have crossed the bounds and can never come back.

You're scared that you will never redeem yourself, and then you will have no choice but to play the villain until you die. The fear that once you commit that sin, you will be marked forever and no one, not even your wife Vora, would forgive you.

The fear of becoming an all-devouring monster with neither compassion nor hesitation. A creature that would solve all rebellions with utter annihilation.

Am I wrong?

You say nothing.

His face is cracking open.



Courage: Doesn't matter whether you answer me or not. That was more of a... rhetorical? Hypothetical? Point is, I KNOW your fear, Lagan.

It's kind of funny, really, how it drove the decisions you made in your life.

You started sending little letters and gifts to Vora after she went through her tests for candidacy in Spec Ops, all the way back when she was a young, reluctant recruit.

The official line, the lie you tell everyone including yourself, is that she's 'crazy' in the same way that you are, obsessed with doing what's 'right' and 'just'.

The more shameless aspect of you just tells everyone you have a fetish for tomboys.

But the real reason is much simpler: She's stronger than you.

She was someone who could keep you in line. Stop you before you'd make a mistake.

Despite being only eighteen, her infantry combat abilities were off the charts.

Only above average in battlefield tactics, but that wouldn't matter much in a one-on-one duel.

She was one of the few people in the world who wouldn't break a sweat killing you, and you knew it.

A failsafe. An emergency stop button.

Granted, that's not all she is to you. At least, not anymore.

Still, kinda fucked up that you chose her mainly because she could end you before you become a one-man extinction event.

You: What. Is. Your. Point?

Courage: My point being that I know EXACTLY what you're afraid of. I know you're terrified of being turned into a monster, and I can make it happen.

You: Is that a threat?

Courage: No.

It's a promise.



Time is short. Courage is focused on your head right now, and you can feel some control over your limbs returning. However, your head feels like it’s about to split open like his.

Make your decision:

- Use your massive mandibles to decapitate him!

- Shout “WAIT!”

- Fall backwards and kick him in the crotch!

- Fall backwards and roll towards the exit (The glowing… rectangle thing? You hope that’s an exit!)

- Get up and run to the exit!

- Punch him!

- Grab his head and tear it off!

- Shove your arm into his loop-face!

- Pull down his pants!!!!

- Something else!

>_