[Tower's Idol Slanderer]The Truth Hurts (Solo)

[Seidaku]

Timestamp: 15th Day of Fall, 511 A.V.

Seidaku trudged through the streets, sweating in the unseasonably warm weather that blanketed the city today, a small bag of food and other necessities clutched under one arm. He turned a corner and stopped dead, cringing at what lay in front of him. An almost empty square, and Tower's carving of the Idol Slanderer.

He closed his eyes and willed it away, hoping that when his eyes opened, he would be somewhere far away. Or that it would be. Or both. Ionu was not favoring him though, and when his eyes opened, he beheld the same scene as before. A sparely populated square, not uncommon, given its most prominent feature.

With a shake of his head, Seidaku turned away, refusing to subject himself to the hurled abuse of the statue. When he turned fully away though, the scene that greeted him was the same as the one he had just turned away from. The same sparely populated square, the same buildings, and the same gods cursed statue. It was as though Ionu were mocking him, personally.

One frustated sigh later, Seidaku ducked his head and hurried past the statue. Hopefully, it would be too occupied hurling insults at the few others in the square to notice him today.

"Well, well, well," came the voice of the statue, eliciting a visible wince from Seidaku when he looked up and could almost feel the weight of its glowing red eyes on him, "What do we have here? If it isn't Seidaku the 'scholar', hoping that no one would notice him cringing and sulking by. What's the matter, afraid to, umm, ah, umm, well, come over and say hello? The statue laughed cruelly, red eyes blazing.

"That's okay though," it called after him as he quickened his footsteps, trying to get through the square and get home as quickly as possible, "Even if you don't want to talk to me, I want to, umm, ah, well, umm, umm, umm, talk to you. I'm just friendly like that, I guess.

Almost running now, Seidaku fled the mocking laughter from the statue and made it to the end of the square. He breathed a sigh of relief that turned into a sound suspiciously like a choked sob when he saw what lay in front of him. The same sparely populated square, the same buildings, the same thrice cursed statue. Why? What had he done to deserve this fate?

"Aww, did you miss me?," the statue called when he entered the square again, "Decided you just couldn't get enough of Tower's greatest marvel? Aren't you tired from a hard day at 'work'? Teaching all those eager young minds that haven't figured out what a fruad you are? Bilking their parents out of their hard earned Mizas with promises of a better future when you know as well as I do that what you are teaching doesn't amount to anything? Of course, maybe if you were not such a, fa- fa- fa- fa- failure."

"Now, you see here, you, umm, pointlessly cruel training aid!," Seidaku shouted, drawing looks from those in the square who wanted nothing more than to escape the statue's gaze, "I don't have to, ah, take that from you! What I am giving those students does give them a chance at a better life."

"Oh, growing fat, and hunched, and cross-eyed staring at dry, dusty ledgers?,," the statue answered, "Like you? Never accomplishing anything but creating another generation of spineless wastrels?

Seidaku wilted under the heaped scorn, "It is more than that," he muttered, but this time it lacked the angry fire of his original outburst, "Knowledge has to be, umm, passed on. Shared. Or it is, umm, lost. The world lost so much in the Valterrian. Magic, music, art, science... more knowledge than exists in the entire world was, umm, erased in the first seconds of the Valterrian, and so much more so, ah, afterwards. Without learning what there is to learn, and umm, expanding on that for future generations, we will, never recover that."

"Is that it, then?," the statue called down at him from its pedastal with a laugh, You're the great genius that is going to rebuildeverything? Give everyone back what was lost and make sure that everyone lives happily ever after? Don't make me laugh! Greater men than you have tried and failed. Men whose boots you are not fit to lick have spent their lives trying to recover, relearn, and record the advancements of the past. How far do you think they have come, hmm? Humanity still cowers in their cities, magic is rightly hated and feared as teh source of all of that destruction. In the face of the day to day dangers of the world, your precious knowledge is a frivolous waste of time."

"No! Just because they have not, umm, restored all that was lost does not, uhh, mean that they failed, that I am going to fail. Even if the advances are small, they are advances. Steps forward in the right direction. If I can teach those children the importance of that, that every step forward is a small success, then I have done more than enough... and no enchanted paper weight is, umm, going to convince me otherwise."

The statue had more scorn to heap, more venom and bile to spew, but Seidaku was deaf to it, at least for today. Certainly, the points it raised had merit, but that did not mean that he had to simply lay down and accept them as inevitable.

As he stepped out of the square onto a straight paved in irridescent glass with a smile on his face, he considered that perhaps Andres Tower had succeeded after all. Inevitably, you had to face the things you were afraid of, or they consumed you from the shadows.

Yes, he decided, that was the lesson after all.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Seidaku XP Award: N/A Lore: Towers Idol Slanderer The truth hurts Being mocked by an animated statue Learning a lesson from harsh criticism Learning to work past your flaws Notes: This was a very good thread. I enjoyed reading it and it even made me laugh. You did a fine job doing the Slanderer and it was very nice. Also a good location for character growth. Again, very nice job; I just hope people do as good a job as you with the slanderer. Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM