Who: Dominic, anyone who came to kill him, Violet, Arkin (Narrative) What: The final showdown When: Sept. 5 Where: Dom's Mayoral Office Warnings: violence and death
Everything had been culminating to this and at Dominic knew he shouldn't be surprised at all. He'd tried to play God in a way that the thought the people of New Waverly would appreciate but at the end of the day he was just the same kind of problem-causer that he'd resented so much. As someone who wanted so badly to rewrite their own life and start anew he couldn't imagine anyone that would actually choose to keep truckin' on in the life they were living. And that was his problem.
Not everyone in the town of New Waverly thought the way he did. Not all of them wanted new starts and not all of them had nothing to lose. Not all of them wanted to burn the past to pave the way for a fresh new future. He might not understand the world but now he understood that it was that fact that meant he shouldn't have tried to change it.
The road to hell was paved with good intentions and he looked back on the path he had forged in secretive selfishness. Looking back on it now was almost as painful to him as the world had been before he rewrote it all. He was no saint. He went through his stages of denial and anger at the people in the city. Why couldn't they just appreciate what he'd done for them and just live their new lives? It had been their OWN minds that helped him to construct it and because of that he felt like he was in tune with all of them, up close and personal to their ungratefulness.
It took time for him to realize that not only did he not have some kind of divine answer to suffering because he'd suffered so much, but that the people in the city might even be right to be angry at him. He'd changed their lives so drastically against their will. It was still a bitter pill in his throat but he wasn't angry anymore.
When he started to lose control of everything it was almost a welcome sensation. He'd lost control of one world and that's what got him here and now he was losing control of this world as well. If the people here wanted to revolt.... so be it.
Dominic was tired of trying to make the world right and he was tired of trying to make himself right in it. He was just plain tired. So he sat in his big brass studded mayoral chair in the middle of his office and he waited. The office wasn't impenetrable but he didn't make it too easy for them to get in, either. He didn't want them to feel like their accomplishment had been too easy, to lessen their feeling of success. It was strange being so completely done with everything and still thinking about the feelings of everyone else.
Their good mayor was ready to go. He just needed everyone else to come to him. The wait felt so..... peaceful.
Alarms were going off through the building at the beginning but soon they stopped, he couldn't help but smirk to himself at the idea of his favored prodigy hacking into the building's systems. He knew people would shoot at them and try to stop them but in the end relent to let them pass because they weren't real people...the guards in the building were extensions of Dom's consciousness, tendrils of his mind walking around and interacting with a life they so very briefly experienced.
He was also aware that Arkin led the pack, maybe not so much led in that many words, but he was the one. Arkin was the one Dominic could depend on.
They stormed the castle, barging their way up all the floors and through all the obstacles before they came to his office. He heard the commotion outside and for once during this entire ordeal there was a little tingle of fear at the base of his neck. Maybe it was only apprehension, but it was enough to make him pause. A moment later he forced himself to take a deep breath and let it go, he'd decided all of this so long ago.
The door flew open. There were so many of them in the building that rejected his reality with determination in their eyes, he could feel them like errant thoughts in his mind. What had his efforts conjured for them? What about this fake reality had been such a deal breaker for them? He didn't want to ask even if he wanted to know.
It was Arkin that came into the room with a gun in his hand. Dominic put his hands up to his chest and flashed his palms at them as he rose and stepped out from behind his desk. "Well... hello, everyone." he greeted the ones that made it to his office. It was easy for him to pretend like he wasn't shaking.
Arkin didn't look happy, he didn't have time for this and Dominic understood. He tried to smile at him, tried to make him understand without words but the moment he opened his mouth to actually voice his feelings and took another step forward he heard the bang. It took a minute for him to understand what happened, looking down at his chest as blood blossomed on his shirt like the most beautiful flower. The pain didn't begin to register until he saw it with his own eyes but when it did he fell to his knees, they felt like jelly and he already felt so cold.
This wasn't reality so the rules of life and death were different but he didn't know what to make of it all. Dying here felt so real. Was it real for him? Was this release real? He wanted to laugh but instead he started and a choking sputter of breath cut off the sound. There was no energy left inside of him for any big finale of finesse. That's when he saw her. Violet.
Even Dominic didn't know why he cared about her so much. It wasn't some odd sexual attraction or anything so lewd, when he looked at her he saw someone lost like he had always been. He wanted to help her the way no one had been able to help him before the monster made of darkness and bad thoughts in her head took her over the way they had him. Maybe it was conceited of him but he wanted to save her from herself.
She walked into the room and up to him as he let himself fall onto his back, a hand futilely trying to catch the blood coming from his wound. Violet was no vision, she was no angel coming to his side or any cause of excitement... but he still would have chosen to have her there. She must know he was dying and that there was nothing else that needed to be done because she didn't seem to be considering a final blow.
"I... just wanted to give you a chance.. to shine." he explained with another cough of effort. The feeling of the bullet in his chest and the pooling of blood around his internal organs made his lungs feel like they could push out the issue with a cough but his mind knew better. No matter what he tried to do this was going to be the end.
Whether or not she was receptive or even the least bit understand he knew he had to say his last words to her. To her and to no one else. He didn't know if it would stay with her or if she would somehow see what he was trying to say but he had to try.
"Travel well, firefly."
And that was it. That was the last of his effort and all his life. So he allowed himself to fade away into the deep that had been chasing him for so so long.