Stampeding Emotions
Warning: warped views of classic literature, homosexuality, major spoiler for Julius Caesar, et cetera.
Disclaimer: Don't even.
This should go along with the plot, though the dialogue is mostly changed, words in boldare directly from the play, but the rest will be my own. So, without further ado:
(Act Three, Scene One)
"Et tu, Brute?" came a whisper from Caesar's paling lips, Brutus' knife still freshly within his heart.
'I apologise, sweet Caesar, for my hands know not what they do, only that they must. And my heart shouts in pain for what could have been, and for what will,' thought Brutus, unable to speak.
"Then fall Caesar," the the final words of the near-king.
'Why must you say words as such? As if only my blade could stop breath from touching those lips? As if you might endure Hell before being killed by another?' Anguish marked Brutus' features before being replaced by a masque of false apathy.
"Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!" cried Cinna.
Passer-bys saw blood pooling beneath their ruler and cried murder, doomsday.
Brutus could handle the blood, he wasn't weak; but when it came to Caesar's lifeless eyes, his lover's unmoving lips, he almost retched at the sight.
Yet he couldn't. He couldn't retch in fear, or cry in sadness. He could only stare blankly and attempt a straight face. The show must go on, he had to carry on.
The people wanted to hear from him, so he spoke. Caesar never wanted anyone but Calphurnia to know of their relationship, so Brutus lied for him. "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." Bah, what a load of horse dung. Rome could go to Hell for all he cared, he's fighting for... For what? He didn't even know. Were his actions rash? Acting like a boy who didn't want his crush known, so he hurts him? Why did Brutus listen to the scheming man, Cassius, when all he wanted to do was kill his lover?
Pondering this while attempting to keep a straight face, Mark Antony finished his speech and a crowd was soon to be after him and the other Conspirators. He fled Rome for the relative safety of the battlefield.
There will be a part two taking place in Act Four, Scene Three, but that will be Cassius/Brutus.
Also, in case you weren't blissfully/obsessively aware as I am: Shakespeare was gay. You can tell by reading the sonnets (especially 20).
R&R?