Scene VII: The Scorned Path (Scum on the Trail)

[Stormbringer]

He takes Cadaver Kid's canteen and drinks from it, letting out a long satisfied sigh afterwards.

"Thank you, son."

(just rolled a natural 20 to see how his body deals with it!)

He hands CK his canteen back.

"A work in progress, ya say? Truth is...'progress' suggests a movement toward overall improvement...things gettin' better. Order risin' from chaos. Isn't it the truth that everythin's headin' in the 'xact opposite direction? Order breakin' down. Things slowly reducin' to their component parts; everythin' tearin' itself apart, pilin' layer onto layer of the trash-heap. That's the way o' things, ain't it? What duty do we have to fight that? To slow it down? No sir...we should embrace the pattern. You can learn this lesson from nature...seeds break down to become flowers. Caterpillars break down to become butterflies. Eggs break down to give life to the chicks inside. Rottin' flesh breaks down to give life to the swarm o' flies, feedin' off o' it! This whole world we're in...it's breakin' down, ye see? It's fallin' apart. Way I see it...our duty is to let it! Maybe even to help it! Because the world...the world that is to come...can only come when there ain't nuthin' left of o' this shell! We gotta stop fightin' it...let it consume us...slide right down into the dirt...then mayhaps we'll be aidin' the birth o' the better world to come. And that's what I'm doin' right here; I'm lettin' it all go, son. Lettin' decay take it's hold on me...I ain't fightin' it no more."

"We are bad men, we've done terrible things and our souls are lost. We're angels compared to some of the evil bastards we've thus far encountered. My advise to The Horsemen? Stay at home boys, ain't no one go'n even notice Judgement Day in this place."

The old man looks at Cumflutter and grins inanely, a twinkle in his wizened eyes.

[Wrathbone]

“I ain’t the despairin’ type. If the world’s gonna eat itself, so be it, but I’ll keep shootin’ till it eats me.”

[Stormbringer]

"Oh, I ain't despairin', son! As you can see, I'm a happy man, for I am livin' in accordance with the order o' things. I ain't fightin' 'gainst the decay, I am embracin' it, like a piglet embraces the teat o' its mother! I rejoice in my convictions!"

[Animalmother]

Everyone gives the Doc a quick glance to see if his pique levels are stable...

[Sly Boots]

Doc spits out a wad of tobacco. "Seems to me, friend, that what you're talking about is entropy and the inevitability of fate. If nothing you do makes a difference, and nothing you may achieve matters a whit, then why bother, am I right?

"Well, the problem with that line o'thinkin', to my mind leastways, is that fate cares not one whit about you or any of us. By leaving yourself entirely at the whims and eddies of fate, you give up any control you may have over what may transpire."

"Now, consider yourself. Sitting out here in the sun, naked as the day you were born, without seemingly a care in the world. Fate decrees that four strangers happen upon you and, trusting to fate, you are entirely at their mercy. Much like luck, fate can play out one of two ways, opposing sides of the same coin you may say. But entropy and decay... well, she's a bitch whose hunger ain't sated until she's feasting on your bones, and the sooner the better.

"Betting on entropy ain't ever going to be anything but a losing hand. Allow me to demonstrate."

And then Doc will shoot him in the foot.

[Wrathbone]

"Guess we're leavin' this place a little less better than we found it."

[Stormbringer]

The man screams and cries, holding the ruin of his foot.

"Curse you! Curse you all! May your rotting flesh be the birth-banquet of better forms of life! And sooner the better! Sooner the better, I say!"

[Wrathbone]

“Doc, in your professional medical opinion, is this a wound that could be treated with some thorough ball-lickin’? Worked a charm for me.”

[Sly Boots]

Doc looks confused. "Well, I mean to say, it's possibly the case. Pornelius, get Rufus to back up to the gentleman and see if he's willing to give it a try."

[Wrathbone]

I nod suggestively at the bag in which Doc has the relic, but I don’t correct him out loud.

[Sly Boots]

Doc said what he said. ¬_¬

[Animalmother]

Cumflutter nods and hoists the hog up gently so not to alarm him. With a deft shove he thrusts the surprised pigs splendid pork boulders into the even more surprised man's face.

[Wrathbone]

Of all the ways I imagined this poor, elderly NPC might end up dying at our hands, being teabagged by a pig was not one of them.

[Sly Boots]

Doc observes the wounded man's utter degradation.

"Cruel bitch indeed, that entropy," he muses.

[Animalmother]

Cumflutter makes soft shushing noises, either to calm the rather alarmed pig or to ease the passing of the old man choking on sweaty hog orbs.