Experiments in Fiction: Case 2
Written 30 Jun 2004
Last time I looked at the character Sirak who is haunted by a tragedy in his past. A tragedy that is hidden from his own consciousness but surfaces periodically to horrify and mystify. This time we will study The Edwards.
The premise is simple: often we have regrets, things a person wishes he did or did not do. Decisions that we dislike. Sometimes a person obsesses over these regrets, fixating on them so strongly they imprison him. Each day he lives the regrets, paining himself constantly. What if the regrets were given a corporeal form?
Thus we find The Edwards: Edward the Older (EtO) and Edward the Younger (EtY). EtO has the regrets. Periodically EtY appears and re-enacts the regrets. Not the specific instances in EtOs past, rather the attitudes and choice types.
EtO is made into a dispassionate man, apathetic to the extreme. No life or emotion flickers in his eyes, his voice, his manner. Flat, gray and lifeless does he seem. EtY is the repository of all that. When he appears, ill is afoot. EtO is powerless to change (at least for now) what EtY does. To compound the situation, when EtY acts, the negative emotions generated by the victims is channeled to EtO.
At this point, what exactly is happening between the two Edwards is unrevealed in game. Other characters and authors are greatly mystified and piqued regarding the two. With EtY's first re-enactment, what I envisioned for people's reactions was correct, with their own small twists. It was quite the explosive (between characters) and educational encounter.