03-26-2019, 11:59 AM
It's always fascinating to look back on where a story begins, because those willing to use their minds will often never resist the temptation to know more. Even I can't help but look back myself on how I became Ruby Amarant and become curious as to what caused me to stick with it for so long. It may not seem as long as some of the identities I've taken over years, but it certainly feels that way when you realize that having Scarlet Grey in your life has this way of making you easily forget about everything else, including the passage of time itself.
I'm not referring to any of her bedroom antics either, for any of you perverts trying to connects the proverbial dots after reading this.
I wasn't too surprised when the night where I met Scarlet in that club where my new identity was born didn't actually end with me going back to her place. By her own claims, she wanted to prove she could truly trust having me in her humble adobe, though considering she seemed like she was simply looking for a good time anyways and I had deduced she wasn't exactly from the area I happened to end up in that night, I was barely fazed when she brought me to a motel room for the night instead. As for what followed... I won't argue against the fact that I've slept with both genders before, and Scarlet certainly ranks very highly in terms of the 'fun' I've had, but I still made sure I was acting enough to put her in a state of trust in me. Given that everything I'd just become was all for the sake of playing to her whims, I was interested to see where this was eventually going to end up before I debated the merits of abandoning this persona in record time to give more thought to another, far more thought out fresh start.
When she finally brought me to the place I now call home alongside her, even I won't lie about how surprised I was at what I found myself looking at.
Amarant: What... am I looking at...?
Grey: My home, silly? Welcome to my castle!
She wasn't exactly wrong on that front, though it certainly defied all logic for any castle I had ever seen, and believe it or not I do recall some of my identities have existed outside the borders of the United States so I can truthfully claim to have seen far more traditional castles firsthand. A mansion might be the easier way to define it, but it had all the architectural appearance of a castle complete with what looked like towers and yards that definitely were more akin to royal gardens surrounding it. The biggest curiosity however wasn't even the fact that the place was painted head-to-toe in different shades of crimson, considering I came to expect nothing less already from this woman, but the fact that this mansion/castle structure had no traditional materials involved at all, almost looking like it was completely built out of steel and cybernetics meant to give it the most futuristic appearance possible. It easily classified as perhaps the biggest anomaly I'll ever admit to seeing in my lifetime, and also caused me to question internally what I'd just gotten myself into. After all, this woman had to be beyond loaded to be able to have a place like this clearly built from scratch, but joining in with what I already knew reminded me that she certainly had some other motives that might justify to her living inside this proverbial fortress that almost looked like it was ready for some kind of potentially nonexistent war.
Amarant: It's... unique, I'll say that.
Grey: Thank you! How about we head inside and I can show you around before we get down to business.
This is when I would learn that, outside of a few more “curious” rooms contained within, the internal view of the house did not match with the external view. Despite the castle-like appearance from outside, the inside definitely lent itself more to the curiosities of a more traditional home, foregoing a foyer in place of a typical living room of some kind and seeing everything slowly branch out from there, with some areas where one was meant to move from one level of the house to another even being worth questioning. She seemed to take it all in stride and never seemed offended when I did ask for an explanation and never really got one beyond something that seemed to fall in line with her eccentricity. I saw several rooms whose mere existence left even me scratching my head, rooms that she seemed to want to linger in to further explain where I fit in to whatever she was planning before pulling herself onward for the time being, rooms that were currently blank space she said she might figure out a use for later (three of them have since been re-purposed as my room when I don't want to spend the night with her, my own personal study where I'm writing this right now and my little gift to her in the form of a “fantasy-fulfilling promo room” that part of me is surprised hasn't gotten more use than it has) and... well, would you be surprised if I told you she seemed to take the most delight in showing me her room?
It was a curious experience looking around at where this woman called home, I have to admit, even if it didn't answer any of my questions. Considering I still needed to figure out what exactly I'd gotten myself into before I fully agreed to anything, I had to resist her attempts to try and convince me into another round of “passionate fun” to get down to business, and while this did seem to trouble her to some degree she eventually complied and ultimately brought me to sit with her at a round table in what would've passed as a war room if she was actually at war with anybody... which I now realize was more true in her own head than I would bother admitting at the times.
Amarant: Alright, I'll bite Scarlet. All of this is... very interesting to say the least, I can't lie. But what is it, exactly, that you're hoping to get out of all of this, especially with me now?
Grey: Well, you do recall that I'm kind of hoping you'll be the missing piece to my Red Empire... I think I told you that when we first met.
Amarant: But what exactly does that mean? No offense, but as willing as I've been to come all this way I'm not just going to blindly walk into something that's going to come back to burn me. I'm not that naive, especially after that same scenario's already played out in my life more times than it probably should have.
Scarlet certainly took an interest in this little revelation I was willing to share with her, and it wasn't exactly a lie. For the sheer amount of times I've had to scrap everything and start my life over even for someone my age, you would think by now that I'd have picked up some valuable lessons along the way. While that was certainly the case, I will admit that no matter how “perfect” I try to convince myself I truly am, I do have one flaw that I can never seem to shake, and that's becoming far too tunnel-visioned on the task at hand that small things my intellect would rightfully consider a red flag down the line are forgotten about until I slip up and it all falls to pieces. If it meant playing things cautiously, I wasn't about to let that become the case this time around, especially when this woman had already given me plenty of possible red flags despite her hospitality that had me legitimately questioning if this was even worth it to start anew.
Grey: I guess if you want to put it into simple terms... the idea of the Red Empire is what I want to call the world in which I rule. Call it my own little world if you wish, but I want to be the goddess that rules over all and tells people how they should live their lives.
This is probably when I gave her the most deadpan look I could manage, which at least was a contrast from wanting to laugh at her like most probably would. It sounded like something out of a cliched super villain declaration, and I wasn't exactly looking to end up in someone's attempt to try and turn fantasy into reality no matter what position I was in. She seemed to see where my thought process was going with this as though she could read my mind, so she decided to elaborate.
Grey: I know, it sounds silly, but answer me this: do you trust the judgment of most people in the world today? Do you agree with the decisions of anybody for themselves or for others?
Amarant: If you want me to be honest, then no.
Grey: Then we have common ground. Every day I see all these people making decisions that just make me shake my head because they make little sense in the grand scheme of things. Ideas and concepts that claim they'll help the world or solve all these problems that have the exact opposite effect, people that try to do good deeds and claim it's the right thing to do as to why they do it... a world divided by too many beliefs and opinions because there isn't one concrete figure that humanity can agree upon knows what the proper solution is and should be the only thing they can trust in.
Amarant: And you presume yourself to be that figure?
Grey: Perhaps. I mean, I would like to be, but I know the idea isn't so easily believed. You've no doubt noticed that I don't always seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. A lot of it is actually an act to satisfy my own “primal urges” and otherwise simply get into people's heads for my own amusement, but there are many who believe that because of some of the things I say and do I'm not entirely “all there” and disregard my ideas, even though I have all the documents of someone who knows the human mind very well and can probably help people far more than I'm truly being given a chance to.
Amarant: Interesting... and the Red Empire is your answer, in a sense?
Grey: It's my hope that if I can build the idea, one way or another, into something universally accepted, then maybe one day we will see a world that is more united than anything humankind can truly recall. One world united by one belief, their devotion to the goddess Scarlet Grey and her word that leads everyone into a new era free of everything that would ultimately result in the complete annihilation of humans themselves.
I couldn't help but blink dumbfoundedly at this. Despite all the obvious signs of how impossible this seemed, she had the self-designed logic and very clear passion for what she was preaching, to the point where she not only genuinely believed it was possible, but had a small part of me convinced that it was possible as well if I were to get on board. I still had questions about my role in all of this that I needed answered, but even I had to admit that this woman knew what she was doing when it came to playing mind games to get her way... a trait that someone like me couldn't help but admire and respect even if I wouldn't be beaten so easily without pushing back a bit.
Amarant: I certainly won't deny the current pace of the human race to its own extinction, even if I'm not exactly in a position to care about whether or not it should even be saved at this point. I do have to ask you, however, what my role in this is to be if I were to simply climb on board.
Grey: Well... if I can be honest, this isn't a task I want to tackle alone. I've tried in the past, and it's simply led me to points where I've sabotaged myself for one reason or another. Maybe I do have the occasional issue where I'm not entirely all there, and trying to deal with it myself usually tends to lead me to ruin. I've realized that I'm going to need a partner of some kind if I want this to work the way it does in my head... it doesn't have to be anything completely romantic, but simply someone to rule by my side and especially to keep me on track if I start to fall apart when everything else does as well. Someone willing to share their own ideas and accept the position of power by my side knowing that for as much as they are there for me, they can rule themselves in my stead if things need to be that way. I firmly believe that you are meant to be that person.
Amarant: Even though you know virtually nothing about me?
Grey: the fact that you've entertained this idea for this long already without walking away tells me that at least part of you is considering what kind of stability your own life would be getting out of this, outside of anything I could offer you in the ways of the flesh on top of all the power of course.
The fact that she had a point stunned me, and clearly I should have been a little wary about how much this woman seemed to be able to read me despite her own self-admitted mental imbalances. If nothing else though, this proved to me the validity of her claims about knowing the human mind and how to deal with it, as it would take nothing short of a truly gifted psychiatrist to be able to understand me to any minor degree only by looking at me and considering how little I've shared on the matter.
Ruby found herself growling silently in annoyance as yet another attempt to write in her little journal found itself needing to be scratched out for later revision due to a loud noise that raised concern about her partner-in-crime. Unlike the crashing sound of the last time this had happened, this one almost sounded like more of an explosion of sorts, and it had Ruby exiting her room in the quickest walk she could muster after being torn from her relaxing seat after being in it for so long to find the nearest window leading out into the backyard, where she saw a huge roaring bonfire having been started in what probably wasn't the safest of manners considering it resided in a huge hole in the ground. At least enough precaution had been taken to avoid it spreading and creating an even bigger problem, but it didn't erase the sight of Scarlet angrily dumping everything relating to Kelcey Wallace into the flames in a sight that eventually drew Ruby down to her side.
Grey: Why did I think she was right? Why did I let her lust drive me into making such an ass of myself? And for what? Some guy who wasn't even paying attention because he was too busy focusing on his own little vendettas?
Amarant: Scarlet... I know you might have taken this latest game a little too far... again... but if you tell me who convinced you that it was a good idea I-
Grey: Can't do anything about it anyway. How could you? To you, she's nothing more than a figment of my own imagination I let allow me to believe that I was going to get something I deserved if I stopped acting like Scarlet fucking Grey!
The box containing the replica of Kelcey's attire she'd worn for Retribution found itself bursting into flames as an exclamation point on her rambling, and it didn't take Ruby long to put the pieces together. She was more than aware of the fact that among Scarlet's issues lay the potential for “split personalities” that would emerge every now and then, though what she didn't tell Scarlet was that she'd met some of them when they seemingly emerged and took over at times when she was really out of it. It was a notoriously sensitive subject for the woman even in the face of her own admissions of instability, and while she could only guess which one managed to emerge just enough to lead Scarlet down this path, it didn't erase the fact that she had a job to do as Scarlet suddenly clung to her once the last of her “toys” from this latest game were slowly being reduced to ashes.
Amarant: It's over now Scarlet... I know it didn't end with you embarrassing that self-satisfied goody two-shoes Peyton, but now you can move on and start fresh.
Grey: I'm tired of starting fresh though Rubes...
Ruby knew better than Scarlet may ever know exactly how mutual that feeling was, but she held her tongue. The last thing this situation needed was for Ruby to inject some of her own occasional self-loathing into the mix. That would easily turn a delicate situation into something more out of control than Scarlet's self-started bonfire.
Amarant: Maybe this will cheer you up: I got word that despite Katya no longer being in power, apparently I've still secured a tv title match on Breakdown against that troglodyte Konrad Raab. Would embarrassing him and claiming our first piece of gold at long last in the name of the Red Empire help to ease the pain?
Grey: Are you sure you can do it Rubes?
Amarant: It's Raab... I think that's all that needs to be said. Besides, if it'll cheer you up and help take the next step forward towards whatever we do next, you know I won't have a problem doing whatever you need me to do.
Scarlet nodded her approval as she continued to cling to Ruby tight as they both watched the blaze, one that Ruby mused to herself would easily melt Konrad for more reasons that just a way to poke fun at his “Iceman” moniker. Something about making Scarlet happy still left her questioning to this day what about this woman kept things this way, and yet it didn't seem to matter. As long as things seemed to be moving towards the future the Red Empire wanted, even Ruby couldn't deny even after all this time that nothing else mattered. And if that meant finally getting championship gold around her waist?
Konrad Raab should consider himself lucky he had a chance to call himself tv champion one more time at all before his entire world came crashing down in pieces around him.
I'm not referring to any of her bedroom antics either, for any of you perverts trying to connects the proverbial dots after reading this.
I wasn't too surprised when the night where I met Scarlet in that club where my new identity was born didn't actually end with me going back to her place. By her own claims, she wanted to prove she could truly trust having me in her humble adobe, though considering she seemed like she was simply looking for a good time anyways and I had deduced she wasn't exactly from the area I happened to end up in that night, I was barely fazed when she brought me to a motel room for the night instead. As for what followed... I won't argue against the fact that I've slept with both genders before, and Scarlet certainly ranks very highly in terms of the 'fun' I've had, but I still made sure I was acting enough to put her in a state of trust in me. Given that everything I'd just become was all for the sake of playing to her whims, I was interested to see where this was eventually going to end up before I debated the merits of abandoning this persona in record time to give more thought to another, far more thought out fresh start.
When she finally brought me to the place I now call home alongside her, even I won't lie about how surprised I was at what I found myself looking at.
Amarant: What... am I looking at...?
Grey: My home, silly? Welcome to my castle!
She wasn't exactly wrong on that front, though it certainly defied all logic for any castle I had ever seen, and believe it or not I do recall some of my identities have existed outside the borders of the United States so I can truthfully claim to have seen far more traditional castles firsthand. A mansion might be the easier way to define it, but it had all the architectural appearance of a castle complete with what looked like towers and yards that definitely were more akin to royal gardens surrounding it. The biggest curiosity however wasn't even the fact that the place was painted head-to-toe in different shades of crimson, considering I came to expect nothing less already from this woman, but the fact that this mansion/castle structure had no traditional materials involved at all, almost looking like it was completely built out of steel and cybernetics meant to give it the most futuristic appearance possible. It easily classified as perhaps the biggest anomaly I'll ever admit to seeing in my lifetime, and also caused me to question internally what I'd just gotten myself into. After all, this woman had to be beyond loaded to be able to have a place like this clearly built from scratch, but joining in with what I already knew reminded me that she certainly had some other motives that might justify to her living inside this proverbial fortress that almost looked like it was ready for some kind of potentially nonexistent war.
Amarant: It's... unique, I'll say that.
Grey: Thank you! How about we head inside and I can show you around before we get down to business.
This is when I would learn that, outside of a few more “curious” rooms contained within, the internal view of the house did not match with the external view. Despite the castle-like appearance from outside, the inside definitely lent itself more to the curiosities of a more traditional home, foregoing a foyer in place of a typical living room of some kind and seeing everything slowly branch out from there, with some areas where one was meant to move from one level of the house to another even being worth questioning. She seemed to take it all in stride and never seemed offended when I did ask for an explanation and never really got one beyond something that seemed to fall in line with her eccentricity. I saw several rooms whose mere existence left even me scratching my head, rooms that she seemed to want to linger in to further explain where I fit in to whatever she was planning before pulling herself onward for the time being, rooms that were currently blank space she said she might figure out a use for later (three of them have since been re-purposed as my room when I don't want to spend the night with her, my own personal study where I'm writing this right now and my little gift to her in the form of a “fantasy-fulfilling promo room” that part of me is surprised hasn't gotten more use than it has) and... well, would you be surprised if I told you she seemed to take the most delight in showing me her room?
It was a curious experience looking around at where this woman called home, I have to admit, even if it didn't answer any of my questions. Considering I still needed to figure out what exactly I'd gotten myself into before I fully agreed to anything, I had to resist her attempts to try and convince me into another round of “passionate fun” to get down to business, and while this did seem to trouble her to some degree she eventually complied and ultimately brought me to sit with her at a round table in what would've passed as a war room if she was actually at war with anybody... which I now realize was more true in her own head than I would bother admitting at the times.
Amarant: Alright, I'll bite Scarlet. All of this is... very interesting to say the least, I can't lie. But what is it, exactly, that you're hoping to get out of all of this, especially with me now?
Grey: Well, you do recall that I'm kind of hoping you'll be the missing piece to my Red Empire... I think I told you that when we first met.
Amarant: But what exactly does that mean? No offense, but as willing as I've been to come all this way I'm not just going to blindly walk into something that's going to come back to burn me. I'm not that naive, especially after that same scenario's already played out in my life more times than it probably should have.
Scarlet certainly took an interest in this little revelation I was willing to share with her, and it wasn't exactly a lie. For the sheer amount of times I've had to scrap everything and start my life over even for someone my age, you would think by now that I'd have picked up some valuable lessons along the way. While that was certainly the case, I will admit that no matter how “perfect” I try to convince myself I truly am, I do have one flaw that I can never seem to shake, and that's becoming far too tunnel-visioned on the task at hand that small things my intellect would rightfully consider a red flag down the line are forgotten about until I slip up and it all falls to pieces. If it meant playing things cautiously, I wasn't about to let that become the case this time around, especially when this woman had already given me plenty of possible red flags despite her hospitality that had me legitimately questioning if this was even worth it to start anew.
Grey: I guess if you want to put it into simple terms... the idea of the Red Empire is what I want to call the world in which I rule. Call it my own little world if you wish, but I want to be the goddess that rules over all and tells people how they should live their lives.
This is probably when I gave her the most deadpan look I could manage, which at least was a contrast from wanting to laugh at her like most probably would. It sounded like something out of a cliched super villain declaration, and I wasn't exactly looking to end up in someone's attempt to try and turn fantasy into reality no matter what position I was in. She seemed to see where my thought process was going with this as though she could read my mind, so she decided to elaborate.
Grey: I know, it sounds silly, but answer me this: do you trust the judgment of most people in the world today? Do you agree with the decisions of anybody for themselves or for others?
Amarant: If you want me to be honest, then no.
Grey: Then we have common ground. Every day I see all these people making decisions that just make me shake my head because they make little sense in the grand scheme of things. Ideas and concepts that claim they'll help the world or solve all these problems that have the exact opposite effect, people that try to do good deeds and claim it's the right thing to do as to why they do it... a world divided by too many beliefs and opinions because there isn't one concrete figure that humanity can agree upon knows what the proper solution is and should be the only thing they can trust in.
Amarant: And you presume yourself to be that figure?
Grey: Perhaps. I mean, I would like to be, but I know the idea isn't so easily believed. You've no doubt noticed that I don't always seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. A lot of it is actually an act to satisfy my own “primal urges” and otherwise simply get into people's heads for my own amusement, but there are many who believe that because of some of the things I say and do I'm not entirely “all there” and disregard my ideas, even though I have all the documents of someone who knows the human mind very well and can probably help people far more than I'm truly being given a chance to.
Amarant: Interesting... and the Red Empire is your answer, in a sense?
Grey: It's my hope that if I can build the idea, one way or another, into something universally accepted, then maybe one day we will see a world that is more united than anything humankind can truly recall. One world united by one belief, their devotion to the goddess Scarlet Grey and her word that leads everyone into a new era free of everything that would ultimately result in the complete annihilation of humans themselves.
I couldn't help but blink dumbfoundedly at this. Despite all the obvious signs of how impossible this seemed, she had the self-designed logic and very clear passion for what she was preaching, to the point where she not only genuinely believed it was possible, but had a small part of me convinced that it was possible as well if I were to get on board. I still had questions about my role in all of this that I needed answered, but even I had to admit that this woman knew what she was doing when it came to playing mind games to get her way... a trait that someone like me couldn't help but admire and respect even if I wouldn't be beaten so easily without pushing back a bit.
Amarant: I certainly won't deny the current pace of the human race to its own extinction, even if I'm not exactly in a position to care about whether or not it should even be saved at this point. I do have to ask you, however, what my role in this is to be if I were to simply climb on board.
Grey: Well... if I can be honest, this isn't a task I want to tackle alone. I've tried in the past, and it's simply led me to points where I've sabotaged myself for one reason or another. Maybe I do have the occasional issue where I'm not entirely all there, and trying to deal with it myself usually tends to lead me to ruin. I've realized that I'm going to need a partner of some kind if I want this to work the way it does in my head... it doesn't have to be anything completely romantic, but simply someone to rule by my side and especially to keep me on track if I start to fall apart when everything else does as well. Someone willing to share their own ideas and accept the position of power by my side knowing that for as much as they are there for me, they can rule themselves in my stead if things need to be that way. I firmly believe that you are meant to be that person.
Amarant: Even though you know virtually nothing about me?
Grey: the fact that you've entertained this idea for this long already without walking away tells me that at least part of you is considering what kind of stability your own life would be getting out of this, outside of anything I could offer you in the ways of the flesh on top of all the power of course.
The fact that she had a point stunned me, and clearly I should have been a little wary about how much this woman seemed to be able to read me despite her own self-admitted mental imbalances. If nothing else though, this proved to me the validity of her claims about knowing the human mind and how to deal with it, as it would take nothing short of a truly gifted psychiatrist to be able to understand me to any minor degree only by looking at me and considering how little I've shared on the matter.
Ruby found herself growling silently in annoyance as yet another attempt to write in her little journal found itself needing to be scratched out for later revision due to a loud noise that raised concern about her partner-in-crime. Unlike the crashing sound of the last time this had happened, this one almost sounded like more of an explosion of sorts, and it had Ruby exiting her room in the quickest walk she could muster after being torn from her relaxing seat after being in it for so long to find the nearest window leading out into the backyard, where she saw a huge roaring bonfire having been started in what probably wasn't the safest of manners considering it resided in a huge hole in the ground. At least enough precaution had been taken to avoid it spreading and creating an even bigger problem, but it didn't erase the sight of Scarlet angrily dumping everything relating to Kelcey Wallace into the flames in a sight that eventually drew Ruby down to her side.
Grey: Why did I think she was right? Why did I let her lust drive me into making such an ass of myself? And for what? Some guy who wasn't even paying attention because he was too busy focusing on his own little vendettas?
Amarant: Scarlet... I know you might have taken this latest game a little too far... again... but if you tell me who convinced you that it was a good idea I-
Grey: Can't do anything about it anyway. How could you? To you, she's nothing more than a figment of my own imagination I let allow me to believe that I was going to get something I deserved if I stopped acting like Scarlet fucking Grey!
The box containing the replica of Kelcey's attire she'd worn for Retribution found itself bursting into flames as an exclamation point on her rambling, and it didn't take Ruby long to put the pieces together. She was more than aware of the fact that among Scarlet's issues lay the potential for “split personalities” that would emerge every now and then, though what she didn't tell Scarlet was that she'd met some of them when they seemingly emerged and took over at times when she was really out of it. It was a notoriously sensitive subject for the woman even in the face of her own admissions of instability, and while she could only guess which one managed to emerge just enough to lead Scarlet down this path, it didn't erase the fact that she had a job to do as Scarlet suddenly clung to her once the last of her “toys” from this latest game were slowly being reduced to ashes.
Amarant: It's over now Scarlet... I know it didn't end with you embarrassing that self-satisfied goody two-shoes Peyton, but now you can move on and start fresh.
Grey: I'm tired of starting fresh though Rubes...
Ruby knew better than Scarlet may ever know exactly how mutual that feeling was, but she held her tongue. The last thing this situation needed was for Ruby to inject some of her own occasional self-loathing into the mix. That would easily turn a delicate situation into something more out of control than Scarlet's self-started bonfire.
Amarant: Maybe this will cheer you up: I got word that despite Katya no longer being in power, apparently I've still secured a tv title match on Breakdown against that troglodyte Konrad Raab. Would embarrassing him and claiming our first piece of gold at long last in the name of the Red Empire help to ease the pain?
Grey: Are you sure you can do it Rubes?
Amarant: It's Raab... I think that's all that needs to be said. Besides, if it'll cheer you up and help take the next step forward towards whatever we do next, you know I won't have a problem doing whatever you need me to do.
Scarlet nodded her approval as she continued to cling to Ruby tight as they both watched the blaze, one that Ruby mused to herself would easily melt Konrad for more reasons that just a way to poke fun at his “Iceman” moniker. Something about making Scarlet happy still left her questioning to this day what about this woman kept things this way, and yet it didn't seem to matter. As long as things seemed to be moving towards the future the Red Empire wanted, even Ruby couldn't deny even after all this time that nothing else mattered. And if that meant finally getting championship gold around her waist?
Konrad Raab should consider himself lucky he had a chance to call himself tv champion one more time at all before his entire world came crashing down in pieces around him.