USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FIFTH ASSIGNMENT- 'The Pagoda'

"Oh, I asked you that a long time ago, Azrael. It's a little late to worry about that one. No, I asked you one far more recently. At the Monastery."

That's the one you should have been thinking about, Trick, so I hope you have.

"Oh, yes. The reason behind your prophecies. To be honest, I had never thought about that before. Perhaps you seek to push us in certain directions, so when events turn out in the way you know they will, we are more likely to act according to the way you think is right.

"That said, I think I must point out to you that the greatest fight of my life must have passed by now, since I'm dead. And my body will surely show scars from Jericho's sword."

"Well he didn't actually stab you with the sword, but I'm not sure it makes a difference.

"But let's say you are right, and I am trying to get someone to act in a certain way. Why did I make your one, Azrael?"

Well, obviously we are very much waiting on Trick here. I'd state your current frame of mind if nothing else, just to keep things moving.

Yeah, I'm sorry about the wait (yet again). It stems partly from work and partly from my frustration at not being able to think up an obvious reply.

"My prophecy? Perhaps it was meant to make me feel invincible - I had always thought of it as a promise of my greatest fight being successful, but that was clearly a mistake on my part," Azrael replies, "That said, though, some optimistic piece of me thinks that maybe it's a suggestion that I could live on, that I will live on, to have a greater fight yet, or even maybe that defeating death is a possibility."

"Everyone dies, Azrael. Sooner or later. Anyway, your fight was successful in a sense. If there wasn't someone there to get in Jericho's way he would have destroyed the Shield."

She drags on her cigarette again.

"Of course, anyone could have done that. You think you were any better at it than, say, Hephaestus may have been? Berserker? Or Dallas for that matter."

"I wasn't any better, no. But still, I got the job done. Even if they could have done better, maybe the others have greater parts to play in your plan."

"Maybe they have, maybe they haven't. But it does seem to me that if anyone could have done it, I was wasting my breath when I made you a prophecy. If not you, then someone else. Don't you think?"

"When you say it like that, I find it difficult to disagree. That said, I don't think you're the kind of person to waste words. So, I can only assume I misinterpreted my own prophecy. Are they always so unclear?"

"In a way, you decide your own Prophecy, though you have to understand why. If it was unclear, then that represents how you are thinking too.

"I make so many, of course, and I do lose track of them. Why did I make your one? I wish I could remember... do you have any ideas? About what I might have changed?"

As ever, please just state your current frame of mind if nothing else; we must keep things moving.

"What the prophecy might have changed? For me, it always felt like I was going to do something heroic, and somehow get away without being hurt while doing it, but that's not the case. Instead, I guess it changed my perspective of the Matrix, from a place full of danger to a place full of opportunity."

I'm sorry about the delays, but I'm really struggling. 😉

"Did my Prophecy really do that? Well, what do you know. But that brings me back to my question,. why do I make Prophecies? Is it just so you can change your mind on your view of life? I doubt that's why I did it.

"I still think that if I hadn't given you that motivation, Jericho would have killed you. Jericho remembers you, of course, and he likes his little vendettas. Even if you had not gone for him, he would have gone for you, and he would have killed you."

"You're saying that if I hadn't engaged Jericho, he would have killed me anyway? Surely I would have more chance of survival by not engaging?"

"Well, I am saying he would have attacked you, in that case, and still killed you. Without the motivation of that Prophecy behind you."

"The belief I was going to live made me survive? Don't you think I could have held him off without that motivation - after all, I wasn't thinking of your prophecy while we fought."

To be fair, everyone told you to go for Jericho because of the prophecy.

Okay... Changing tack, then.

"So, you're saying I survived that fight with Jericho because of your prophecy. What was the point of my survival there, then? I mean, if I'm dead now then surviving another couple of minutes really hasn't changed things."

"Hmm. You know what? You're absolutely right. Guess maybe I was wasting my time after all..."

She pauses for thought as she inhales again.

"You know, Azrael. Some might say I tricked you people into opening that Door. I did want it open. I wanted it open and the Virus removed as a threat. But I couldn't just ask you to kill yourselves for that purpose so I relied on your own curiosity to do it instead. That's easy enough. If I start being mysterious about something, one thing I can guarantee for sure is that you people will poke around at it until you find something.

"But some wouldn't like that. Sending people to a certain death they didn;t ask for and didn;t know would happen. I asked you how far you would be willing to go, Azrael, but that's not the same as telling you you would have to go all the way. Yes... some people really wouldn't like that I did that at all, no matter how important the goal."

"I understand your reasoning. I would like to think, though, that even if you had told us we would die, that we'd have undertaken the mission anyway.

"I may not have asked to die, but I was aware, fully aware, that eventually it was likely I would be killed fighting for humanity. I bear no ill will against you for your decision."

(Hard weekend.)