I really need something to pop up and remind me that this blog exists

Whew, okay!  Sorry, another blank stretch.  It's been quiet all around though, hasn't it?  Almost enough to make you forget there's a war going on.  A war most people are completely unaware of.  A conflict that is out of sight.  An...

...sorry.

Well I'm a bad joke in, so you know things can't be TOO bad.  The worst of it is that I haven't found Rae.  Back to fucking square one with regards to that.  I swear, if those suits locked her up again...

That's a threat to be made another time.  For now, onto another mystery.

A couple weeks ago I received an email.  The address was...weird.  There WASN'T one.  It was just a blank email.  Subject line: "Pregame is ending"

And then the body was this:

"what measure is a man in the face of a million?  you must sacrifice to succeed

all that matters is winning

and if your enemy wins the future you fear will come about

decadence, despair, a broken man clad in red leading cloaked nobodies to bow before a faceless idol

a single tower of fragile hope in a sea of blood, fear, and slime"

Asshole.  I'd JUST eaten.

Believe me, even with the eerie lack of a return email I'd be condemning this one to the spam folder, but...Come on.  With what we know, it's honestly stupid to NOT think of most strange things as supernatural in some way.  So, I decided to humor Mr. Doom and Gloom and Apparently Chess and hit reply.

Error.  Fuck.

So I thought about what the email said.  Pregame.  As in...warmups.

...What I've gone through to get to this point was a warmup?  Wow, great confidence booster, there.  How many more times am I going to get horrifically maimed?  I can't count on spatial rifts to appear and devour my hospital bills every single time!

Okay.  So what measure IS a man in a million?  Well...enough.  I'm not saying I'm some sort of philosophical expert here (I don't even have my fake degree!) but every single person I've run into, for good or ill, has been just as much of a person as the other.  The only man I've ever met to escape that classification is Rhodes.  He's not a person, he's a monster.

But every runner and proxy aside from him all have very human reasons why they do what they do.  And every person I've met who's lucky enough to not be involved- well, people talk about mindless sheep, but they've all got families, friends, people who love them for who they are.

Life is unique, no matter where you find it.  This is why I've sworn to never take a life.  A vow I hope to uphold.

So, assuming the email's author meant for me to do what I'd do, and not take the pragmatic but DOUCHE approach, all that I have left to sacrifice is myself.  Eesh.  Not that I'm saying this random eerie email is prophetic or nothin, but it's still enough to make me uneasy.

All that matters is winning...Bullshit.

The next part...I have no friggin' clue.  The tower could literally be Hope, but that place is done.  This is talking about the future.  The only other thing I recognize amongst this is the guy in red.  You know who.  So, does he become some sort of cult leader in this...evil bad future?  I dunno.  Why is the Oracle delivering her prophecies in email format now?  Did Delphi decide to go modern or something?

I gave all of that a good thought for the next few days.  Then another one popped up tonight.  No subject, no address.  Just this.

"player or pawn

be grateful

not everyone has a choice

choose now."

Got a little forceful at the end there, with its first ever period.  Okay, bossy email prophet.  Here we go.

I pick player.