Beware the one's that smile too much [Work in Progress]

I will show you fear in a handful of dust. Pictures Mangled By: Me

Pictures Mangled by Me: Any picture with this in its caption means it is a collage I made using 19th and early 20th century illustrations. All these illustrations are public domain, meaning I didn't rob anyone by using these pictures for my own gains.

Author's Note: I will be posting the stats/crunch as well as a bit more fluff this weekend, but I wanted to post something. As of late my rate of production has slackened due to me making more collages. I wanted to post at least something, I have felt rather unproductive as of late. 

A smile can be as deadly as a knife between ribs. Pictures Mangled By: Me

 

A smile. That is all that can be remembered of them, their faces nothing but static. Cordial to the point of absurdity, caricatures of polite behavior, they charm their way through crowds to place a gift among them.

Truly, they are gifts to the whole city, but unfortunately these gifts will be confiscated before the rest of the citizenry can enjoy them. No matter, there are always more gifts to give, more minds to enlighten.

The gifts? Radio Idols, clay and porcelain faces, eyes replaced with dials, mouths now speaker grills, ears now vacuum tubes. But the gifts really aren't the Radio Idols at all, it's the broadcasts that are the true gift to the city. A sweet girl's voice counting away the world for all to hear.

1, 13, 7, 4, 23, 11... Pictures Mangled By: Me

Her numbers quantify the pointlessness of life itself, showing its insignificance to the true depths. In hearing the numbers, the people's minds are opened, freed from the arbitrary constraints of society. Then the screaming starts. Then the blood. Then the realization of what they've done. Then the screaming. Then the blood. Then. Then. Then.

Interview: City Works Contractor #1723-A Dravok, Olvia.

Interviewer: After you saw the target place the device in the crowd, what did you do next?

Olivia: I waited until he [pause] no, it, left the crowd. I then activated the [REDACTED] device issued to me by [REDACTED] before following it.

Interviewer: Then what happened, Olivia?

Olivia: Please, don't make me relive this [unintelligible].

Interviewer: If you want us to fulfill our end of the agreement, you will have to give me the full details. 

Last known picture of Olivia Dravok.

 

Olivia: Alright [pause] Alright. I followed it through an alley off of [REDACTED] street, though it had a number of differences from the map I had memorized.

[pause] I realized I was no longer in the city cell when I noticed the sky had changed. It [pause] it was thin somehow, like there was something behind it pushing at the very fabric of the sky.

[pause] I saw the tower first. It was so tall, I couldn't believe how tall it was. Its facade was cracked, and out of it spilled [pause] un-fire, fire that's not fire, that tricks you into thinking it's fire but your soul knows it's something else entirely.

It had a [expletive] baby's face, moving like it was crying without physical noise. [pause] It was soul noise, I could hear it with my soul. I can still hear it now.

[pause] The whole area was ruined, like a war zone. Bombed out buildings, collapsed houses, like the stuff I saw in the war. There were occasional bright flashes of light, like explosions. But the colors were off, and there wasn't any noise. I saw the [pause] people next.

Some were just silhouettes, but colorful, a spectrum just rolling ever onward. Others [pause] others I could see right through except for a part of them, like their veins or nervous system just floating in a dark shadow. Most of them just kept on repeating the same movements over and over, like they were caught in a loop.

Oh sweet Sanctus that's [pause] that's when the face on the tower looks right at me. And it saw me, it saw me like no one else ever had, and I knew that it knew me totally.

I [pause] I can't remember what happened next. My next memory is standing in [REDACTED] square holding two severed heads of those smiling things, I was covered in blood, I could taste it in my mouth.

Please [pause] Please can we be done?

Interviewer: Yes, that will be enough. Thank you Olivia.

Olivia: You'll keep your word won't you?

The City Works Agency always keeps its promises. Pictures Mangled By: Me

Interviewer: Of course, we're the City Works Agency, we always keep our promises.

Olivia: You know how to kill me then? I've tried so many times, but I keep coming back. That [pause] that face told me it wouldn't let me go. That I had to stay in the city, with it, forever.

Interviewer: Don't worry Miss Dravok, you'll be dead soon.

Olivia: Thank you, you have no idea how tired I am. I just want to close my eyes and not... [Loud unidentified noise]

[END OF RECORDING TRANSCRIPT]