GNOMON [vs Mike Lane]

“When things are dark, as they are in the OSW right now, it’s easy to lose your head. Darkness feels like it is enveloping the landscape we fight to protect, the crumbling wasteland we once called the Tap Room succumbing to the gloom. This is wrong. To look at our situation in this way rules out the possibility that we find a way to stop it. And we can never stop looking for this beacon of hope because we are human and we have an instinct to survive.

And because we never give up, we will see the fruits of our labour. Armies will form, to dethrone a mad King, Superheroes will rise from the ashes of our home to lead the fight, and new ways of thinking are both common and paramount to the cause.

This darkness that surrounds us is not eternal. This darkness is but a shadow. For you see while the beacon of hope still glimmers, there is still light in the world. Hope is light. And the dimness taking over is just where the light is struggling to stay alive. But shadows pass, and this one must too.

A shadow is a darkness caused by light being blocked by an opaque object, and there is nothing less transparent than the proponents of this war against humanity. Shadows are created by the light dying out.

Not all shadows are bad things. Sometimes we need the light to fade, and shadows to form. And Mike Lane, you are one of these shadows. You were created for this particular time, and this particular place, because this shadow was always going to be cast over OSW. It has been a long time coming, but it has been inevitable, and your presence within this war was just as inevitable again.

Mike, you are the Shadow, but your purpose is to fight the darkness and replenish the light. Whereas many shadows exist for no other reason than as an unwanted consequence to more tangible objects existing too, some shadows have purpose. Take, for example, the gnomon. The little triangular shard of metal in the centre of a sundial. The shadows created by this shard are wanted and needed, created for a specific purpose and to serve a certain people. Well Mike, we are your people, and this is your purpose.

I have been watching, whilst fighting in my own way to stop this madness, and I have seen just how important you have become to the cause. In many ways, I don’t want to fight you. I wish things were different and we could have this fight in a different scenario, but this is what we have been dealt. Janus tells me that going ahead with this fight is important, that there is purpose for my effort this week. So whilst you are the Shadow, Mike, this week you’re the Gnomon too. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll create something with a purpose out of this whole mess too, and finish what others have started.”