"As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come."
Heroes, supervillans, sidekicks; illusions locked in their cells of fictitous artwork. Two dimensions of life; characters modern to the realm of storybooks and fables. Each endowed with gifts, super powers and devastating evil. One side, protects the world: the other, destroys it. Hidden, disguises flamboyantly costumed. Yet as such, lines were always well defined; paint or ink coloured blood. Peering inside their beating chests, only paper; deceit's sway too far from this reality. Coloured in transparent paper glass on the open sheets. Adolescent literary nourishment; edible simplicity. Keys printed to feed childhood imaginines. The lure of paper honesty; it burns brightly. Comicbook well fully containing, perhaps stalling thirst. At times stealing childlike minds from the real world, as it continually grew around them. Carelessly plunging, sinking into its all encompassing depths; cocooned in stone. Hero, villian, reader; each wishing to be the other. Ponder. Sadly, never comic in any sense. Isolation, loneliness and the longing for understanding; the world is always against them. Plagued, normality questioning, such are the creation of stories; being more than words alone. Windowpanes capturing life in truth, a fairytale? Reflective. Hmmm, I can't really draw...
Literary wings carried on the wind, a mended voice returns to his fortress of solitude, seemingly faster than the speed of a single thought.
"Geez, what's going on in here?"
Distracted. Hmmm, reminiscent talk trip, up comical heroes... Flash. ...a big group around the break table today. Wonder what all the talk is about. Huh superheroes. Blonde haired waitress is discussing the thesis of her psych paper. "So you're saying Peter Parker was crazy then?" At least the coffee is good. "What? Wait, so what you're saying is that Spiderman wore a mask because of mental difficulty..." Refocus.
"Hey, are you tuning me out? I just asked you a question. What was with the flashback there? You know what...nevermind. I don't want to know. Reminiscing are you? Hey I remember this comic. 'Sleepwalker'... that alien use to live in this guys dreams, fought crime at night. Hey, sound familiar. Hahaha! Sigh. You know, when we were younger, I was never really big on collecting comics. Not like the others. I only liked reading them for the stories. Hahaha, I guess it was just easier to flip through their collections to find out about hero origins."
"Hee-he-he. Yes, I have recollections too. Lively spirit?"
"Somewhat. Working again, not really doing what I wanted to but at least we're not starving. Hey, you don't think we have superpowers do you? That would be awesome. Is that why you're going through all of this material? To see if you are sent from Galactus or something? Hahaha."
"Questions. Question. Times submerged, always seeking confusion. Style defining duality of personalities... always cradles protection; disguised selfishness, opaque selflessness. Without lynch pins, unhinged became villiany. Desires open to the criminal mind.
"Hmm, you know this reminds of that book I read a little while ago. When I had all of that free time on my hands. It was about this guy going back to his hometown after years of being away... I think it was for a funeral or something, He had inherited his family farm. Anyways, all of these weird things started happening, horrors coming to life and attacking the citizens in his small town. Longstory short, it turns out this guy was born with some special psychic abilities. As a kid, they would manifest themselves as the comic book stories he read coming to life. Then something tragic happened to him. He moved away to live with other family and soon forgot all about his gifts. Turns out he ended up mentally repressing the whole ordeal as a child; as the story progressed he rediscovered that he had another buried personality more intune with his natural born gifts. So it was thought that it was this personality wreaking havoc because of all of the emotional attachment and memories of childhood and home flooding back to him. Hahaha, the sad twist was that he actually had another repressed personality, an evil side, that was the one causing all of the destruction. The second one was just a manifestation of his childhood state, and he was merely trying to guide the main character. I'm sad to say, it really wasn't a good book. Someone gave us that novel to read. You don't think it means anything do you?"
"Hmm, we are only us; dual assured certainty. Seemingly, any other us defines evil? Third voice; distant copy... Dismiss. Consume more; devour books. Question. A writer who cannot read? Crawl, crawl, walk. Run. Fly."
"So I guess, now what I really want to know is, what does all of this, the comics, the idea to start reading more books,...have to do with anything? What does this have to do with us? Humour me, I'm curious."
"Strength mirrors knowledge." Flash. ...another stranger on the couch. Whats wrong with those two? Who is this guy. "Hey Gin, Juice, what's going on? Sure, its alright I guess." He drives for Nascar? This guy? "Hey, nice to meet you. So these two met you at the bar. Uh-huh. So what, do you work in the pitcrew or something? Ah, you're a spare driver." Why is he showing me a photo for?... Blur. Shift. ...Ugnh, wh-at? Wake up. Get out of bed and go get your poetry book. I'm sure its fine. No, go get it... its sitting on top of the minifridge in the living room. You woke me for this? Trust me... I had a... dream. Sigh, Fine, I'll get it, then let me get back to sleep... Blur. Shift. "...no, I really don't feel like coming down to the bar. I'm in for the night but have fun. Okay yeah put him back on." Readjust the phone. "Hey man. No, he's not my friend. I won't vouch for him. Becareful Teddy and watch out for that credit card he's using..."
"Yeah, I totally remember that guy, its funny that you bring this up now. Gin got a long-distance phonecall from him just the other day. He was calling from prison. Turns out he was lying about all the nascar stuff. He ended up getting convicted for credit card fraud or something. So are you telling me that you knew this was going to happen?"
"Yes."
