Argus
patreon
[Writing Prompt] There are dragons now. It's fine.
🕑 Added 2019-11-12 01:34:29 +0000 UTCThere will be an actual chapter of TDG later tonight. I just got distracted, which should surprise no one.
_____
"Okay, look." I open with, rolling the words in my mouth along with the cigarette, trying to figure out how to explain this and also putting a lot of effort into not drawing my service weapon. "Have you considered, maybe, that what you are doing is a crime?"
"The laws of an unjust tyrant are no laws at all, to the noble!" The knight replied in a booming, charismatic voice.
God, fucking dammit, he really was a knight. Like, capital-K took-class-levels-in-it Knight.
For a while, we'd thought we'd seen the last of these. But they keep showing up, every few years now. Causing trouble, usually causing a lot of deaths, too. They always had that palpable charisma around them. And it was at this point that I realized I'd made a mistake.
I think the biggest mistake that I've made in my life was joining the service in the first place. 'Make the world safer' got a lot more appealing after the Restructuring, and I'd wanted to... I dunno, have a shot at making something better. The fact that they let me be kinda snarky was a plus, as long as I got results. The results, usually, were breaking up fights between drunks or giving compassionate but firm talks to the local kids when they went a bit too far with a prank.
The second biggest mistake I'd ever made was being a week away from retirement. Honestly, I'd kinda walked into that one.
And now, here I was. Standing on the street corner at the intersection of Main and Third, trying to hold out my hands to convince a madman with a magic sword to stand the fuck down.
"Okay, so, look. Here's the thing." I rubbed my forehead. "I know that you guys never listen to this, but we'd really prefer you didn't try to murder our elected government."
"Your tyrant king will fall before my blade!" The knight yelled back. "All those who stand with the corrupt shall be purged!"
"Yeah, look, buddy, I'm really trying to tell you. We aren't a monarchy." I gestured around, trying to get this dude to look at the clean sidewalks, the park that was a literal dump not even ten years ago, the worried looking crowd that was rapidly clearing out as they realized what variety of man was shouting. "This is a socialist democracy, at most. We don't have tyrants, except maybe for the city planning counci. But they mean well."
"All shall!... I'm sorry, you're not a what?" The Knight's booming voice faltered for a second. And in that instant, I felt like I could see his polished breastplate shine just a little less.
"Monarchy." I told him. "We don't have kings. We elect our leaders. Well, 'leader' is the wrong word. We elect experts and managers based on credentials and, these days, a more complex machine intelligence that pairs public charisma with specific ability."
The Knight looked vaguely confused by that. I didn't blame him, I was too, until my daughter had explained it to me. I let my hands drop, keeping them away from my weapon, but no longer quite so tense. This was, honestly, new ground. Normally Knights didn't open dialogue; they just started brainwashing and killing until they were put down.
"But your world... is ruled by the dragons."
"Well, I mean, parts of it? Again, 'ruled' is the wrong word. 'Managed', maybe? Sometimes dragons get elected. A lot of them are good at what they do; being a few hundred years old does that. A lot of them don't get elected, though." I shrugged; honestly, forty years of living alongside another species did wonders for an integrated society. "Makes sense, though. A lot of humans don't get elected either. I'm not gonna be put on the city planning council anytime soon, you know?"
The Knight shook his head, looking around through helmeted eyes as if seeing the world for the first time. He drove his sword into the asphalt, the enchanted blade sliding into the road like it was butter. "I... I do not understand. I thought that in coming here, I could slay great evil...." He sounded almost sad.
I gave him a sympathetic wince as I answered. "Yeah, man, we don't really have that anymore. I mean, some people are evil, sure, but ever since the global reforms, the police are pretty good at making sure that murderers and rapists and sh.. stuff.. get taken to justice. I'm sorry, but we just don't have any monsters for you to kill."
The Knight dropped to his knees. "I left my world behind, for this." He said. "They told me that I would be a hero." The whispered words barely made it through the helm.
I walked up to him, and gently set a hand on the shoulder of his armor. "I get it. I do. Things get... turned upside down, sometimes." He looked up at me, almond eyes peering out through the slits of his helmet, and I gave him the best cop smile I had. "But hey," I said, "if you want to be a hero, I know a district that's gonna need a new beat officer in a week."
Comments
Argus
Thank you. I need to get around to touching up and reposting all the old ones that are scattered around the internet.
Dylan
This is great. I love your short stories.
Nickel
Aww, I want to hug him!
