Blade stared at him. I looked on, my eyes darting from Joe to Blade, to Blade’s gang, and back again. Joe was gambling, I knew. At any moment, one of them might simply think, “!^$* you”, make a stupid move, and sooner or later, people would die. I’d be one of them.

The seconds stretched out into eternity. I watched, my heart racing, drumming out a rhythm that urged me to fight - or run. Or scream. I tried to move once; twice, but through it all, the Joe’s outstretched hand was there. His lightest touch seemed to hold me firm, defining my boundaries. My only boundaries. To step beyond was to wade an ocean.

Suddenly, Blade’s head dropped; the tension shattered. He muttered some last defiant insult at Joe, but his body language said the opposite, crying submission as he shrank and moved aside. He turned to his gang, his words beginning to mirror his shrugging shoulders, as he laughed his way back into their safety. Soon, they were all laughing it off.

Joe moved not an inch, until they began to leave.

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Hi all :)

I don't want to add strict rules to this or anything, but for anyone who's curious about my own intended direction with the story (Hi Tasha, thanks for your interest in this!), I'll try to explain.

I'm experimenting with the idea of truly good, pure characters as strong, rather than weak victims.

I often notice that, even in "ethically driven" shows like Smallville, when a character is split into good and evil halves, the good half is normally portrayed as the weaker half. I find this notion strange, at best.

It seems to me that, stripped of our darkness --- our fears, our longings, our insecurities, our internal lies --- a truly good, ethical, loving, conviction-driven, honest, wise character would be at least as strong (if not stronger) than the often depicted truly malevolent characters, who act out of pure hatred, pure vengeance, etc.

It also seems to me that dark characters are often SELF-destructive as well as destructive. They're full of conflicts and insecurities, and often do things to sabotage themselves, or are simply so angry that they break their belongings, their relationships, their own hands when punching walls, etc.


Related to this idea of strength in "light" vs. weakness in "darkness", I often wonder, for instance, whether crime is really a thing good people should fear. I wonder what power criminals would have, for instance, if no one responded (as, for instance, Martyrs do not) to force or negative pressures. If violence and threats had no effect, I wonder what actions would be left to the criminal, but to give up his negative path, and develop respect and concern for others instead. The concept is much like one of those Nanny shows where the parents simply set firm rules, and refuse to play along with the unruly child, until that child starts to act respectfully.


This story started as a challenge on ficly.com, to write a piece between two characters: one human, and one not. The idea is that the alien character would lack some human attribute.

You might say Joe lacks the fear that makes humans want to hide their hearts behind an impenetrable wall. Without fear, he is free to explore his motivations, his heart. Since he knows He knows his own heart so intimately, he knows other, similar hearts -- even when they lie buried deep, within dark, angry, hateful characters. Since he can speak with the truth of real understanding, he can get awaken recognition of that same truth by expressing it to others.

For rules Joe might live by, I'd suggest looking to the Prayer of St. Francis. For a sense of his strength of character, I'd suggest thinking of characters like Gandhi and Palden Gyatso (who endured 30 years of torture in tibet, and said of it that "the worst thing was that the Chinese ALMOST made me lose my compassion for them").

updated Jun 5 '09 by DrTheopolis