"The Sinners"
Based on Theodore Roethke's "Fourth Meditation"
Prologue:
War. Lost lives. The fire that tears lovers apart.
The flames of war are ablaze once again.
Before I was born, war broke out between the Union and the Empire.
Many lives were lost, and the world marched towards destruction.
Caim, the soldier without a voice.
Angelus, the red dragon.
And now, after eighteen years...
Five Seals hold in place the red dragon:
The last bastion against world destruction.
Charged with protecting them are the Knights of the Seal.
In charge of each Key is a Guardian, a Lieutenant among the Knights.
Now, a new warrior has been accepted into the Knights of the Seal.
A young man, raised by a blue dragon.
His name... is...
Nowe.
It was so simple.
It always was.
Listen, obey, follow orders.
Don't think.
Everyone else was okay with it.
Scout ahead. Clear the way.
Capture traitors.
Kill resistors.
This is right
Ask no questions
Dreams are for fools
Power as rule
Death.
Blood on my hands.
I could not doubt.
I didn't want to see her sad.
I thought I understood.
But… what was the reason?
Was there a purpose?
Justified cruelty:
Or so they said.
This is right
Ask no questions
Dreams are for fools
Power as rule
Treason.
Not me! Never me….
But why?
What had I done?
Shown prowess? Talent? Cunning?
Now my eyes….
Open.
I had no guide
Except myself.
Perhaps to rebel was right?
At least there was proof.
This is right
Ask no questions
Dreams are for fools
Power as rule
To atone for our sins:
That was our goal.
Or so I thought.
But this way still bore blood.
This way was more death.
Lies?
I was never promised peace.
This is right
Ask no questions
Dreams are for fools
Power as rule
Do I hope to end this?
We were not right.
Neither were they.
All of us were right.
Our actions were wrong.
She…
She did not deserve this.
The sacrifice for our sins.
Sins we could not be forgiven.
This is right
Ask no questions
Dreams are for fools
Power as rule
The highest honour,
The cruelest punishment:
Because of me.
Because I was a soldier.
Because I was a traitor.
Because I blindly followed.
Justice? Prejudice.
Revenge.
So many deaths.
So much loss.
Who will weep?
What is right?
Decide yourself
Dreams of the living
Life without sinning
I am alone.
I will mourn.
It is all I have left.
Notes
Ah ha, fear me! Actually, don't, please. Um... about this poemy thing...
Sorry about putting that 'prologue' thing in there. I tried to remember as much as I could, so it's obviously not word-for-word, and I missed some parts...
We were given this really cool but really weird poem called "You're beautiful..." which was written in a beautiful lyrical format, and then given "Fourth Meditation", as well as another one called "Another angry poem". I think we were supposed to chose one of the three and write something based on it (the style and rhythm, the 'journey' idea of Fourth Meditation, the complaining of the Angry Poem). I ended up doing a mesh between "Fourth Meditation" and "You're beautiful..." Um, ta-dah!
Enough of the technical stuff. This is, if you're wondering, from Nowe's perspective. The other Drakengard otaku in our group, Krissy, started laughing at the first part: "That's ALWAYS what they make him do! Fly ahead and clear the way... you have to put a disclaimer on that, since I think you just quoted Gismor!"
By the way, I don't own Drakengard, Drakengard 2, the prologue, the plot or anything associated with it. Or that line (if I did, in fact, quote it).
I've recently become obsessed with Drakengard 2 (I would be obsessed with 1, if I could find it anywhere). It was pretty bad how we found it, too: we were over at my friend's for her birthday party and, being the otaku-nerds that we are, decided to play some PS2... actually, let's do it in story format, since this is fanfiction dot net, right? Right.
Here we go!
"So... what do you guys want to do?"
"Um... bake a cake?"
"Yeah! The candy cake!"
"Sorry... Heather used the cake mix for cupcakes two days ago. We haven't been out to buy some since."
"Aw..."
Five girls sat around in a small and fairly cramped living room. They seemed depressed for a moment. Then one looked at a shelf hidden behind a chair, two looked at the television in the corner, one continued to type furiously away at a laptop, and the last looked between her four guests. "Um... since Potato is attempting to steal my laptop... you guys want to play PS2?"
"Heck yes!" Two girls simultaneously cheered. The third, somewhat meekly, nodded her head, sipping on her pop.
The host stood up, walking over to the shelf behind the chair and pulling out a box. "Here you go," and she proceeded to dump it's contents onto the carpeted floor before the television. Two girls pounced on the games while the third slowly made her way over.
"Let's play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City!" suggested one, holding out said game's box and simultaneously pushing her glasses further up her nose and tucking a loose strand of curly light brown hair behind her hear.
"No!" countered the other enthusiast, digging through the pile and tying her braided long, black hair into a bun to keep it out of her face. "We should play... Final Fantasy Ten part Two!"
"Um... can we play a new game?" The third girl asked, staring at the pile of video game boxes with some confusion and awe.
The girl with the curly hair and GTA game tugged on the meek girl's pony tail of straight, dirty blonde hair. "You don't have a PS2- everything here is a 'new game', Krissy!"
"So says the only person in the world who still- and only- owns a Nintendo 64, mommy" the girl with the FFXII game retorted, looking at the curly-haired one.
"I like retro things! And if I'm your mother, you have to listen to me, Cely!"
"Jen-nee-san, mommy's being mean!"
The host, 'Jen-nee-san' looked between the three arguing girls. "Um... Potato? Any ideas?"
The girl on the laptop looked up quickly, too absorbed in her online game to pay much attention to her surroundings. "They're your sister, mother and aunt."
"But they're your sisters and niece!"
"I'm too busy trying to get my eggs to hatch."
The three arguing: Krissy, 'mommy', and Cely, looked over at Potato. "That sounded wrong somehow, Potato." 'mommy' commented, frowning at her 'twin'.
"Do you guys want us to make a decision?"
"Yes!"
Jen and Potato looked at each other before walking over to the games. "I haven't played most of these," Jen commented, frowning at the pile. "I'm not too sure what some of them are."
Potato spent barely a second looking through the pile, eventually pulling out a box that was primarily white with an interesting collage on the cover, involving a bloody person dressed in armour holding a bloody sword, some random females and a masked man around the armoured man, and what looked like the head of a dragon in the background.
"There," Potato told them, tossing the box to 'mommy', "play that one."
The other four looked at her. "Um... why?"
Potato shrugged, sitting back down at the computer. "Because the bloody guy is hot."
"...Potato likes kink!"
"Shut up, Angie-chan!"
"Mommy!"
'Mommy', now dubbed Angie-chan, edged slowly away from the three surprised and one murderous look of her friends. "Um... it was a joke?"
And that was how I was introduced to Drakengard 2. If you're wondering, I'm 'mommy'. Not a very good role model, am I? Especially considering I grim-repeared Jen-ki last year and sent her to the hospital for a tetnus (sp?) shot and stitches...
So, More Notes!
This was based majorly off the first ending, since that is as far as I've gotten (Caim is harder to beat than Gismor... I hate playing it through the second time!). We know that Eris has a thing for Nowe, that Nowe has a thing for Manah, and that Manah has a thing for Nowe, but Nowe's relationship to Eris from his perspective is rather... not explained. They're friends, obviously, but are they like siblings, or the whole protector and protectoree thing...? I don't know. I just think that, since Eris is the major female personne in most of Nowe's life, he'd have a soft spot for her. And since she's his senior in the Knights and also the only remnant of what family he had with Oror left with the exception of Legna, he'd obviously have that superego thing going, wanting to make her happy and proud of him. He displays a definite sense of self and morally developed conscience (see? I have been studying for my religion-philosophy exam!), especially during/after the first trip to Shining Life, but there still seems to be this desire to not have Eris angry with him.
He's also distraught when Eris agrees to become the next Goddess... aw, poor Nowe. So much confusion in his life. He's all emo in the video ending, 'Remembering Eris'. Well, not really... but Manah at least is optimistic about eventually finding away around needing a Goddess- or, at least needing Eris as the Goddess. Nowe's all, 'boo hoo'. Aw... he's so cute!
Sorry, that was a random rant. Whee!
Review, please?
