THIRD EYE VISION
We cut backstage, again joining Ria Lockhart. She holds a small business card in her hands. Her gaze is fixed on the item. If she had laser eyes, the thing would’ve been vaporized minutes ago. Her concentration is broken by a voice calling out to her. Ria looks to her right before immediately groaning and throwing her head back frustratedly.
Ria Lockhart: Oh. My. God. Dude, would you just fuck off already?!
The words are directed at one Sage Pontiff, who draws just outside of Ria’s personal space. Fortunately for him, Ria still lacks laser eyes. He has found a shirt–but, in typical fashion for guys like him, it appears to be some manner of short kimono top, entirely open. He bows slightly, his voice honeyed wasteoid creak.
Sage Pontiff: “Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be realized.” Namaste, Ria Lockhart.
She looks like she’s about to speak up–or spit in his face, truth be told–but he holds up a hand. Either by sheer annoyance or his magnetism, she decides to play along.
Sage Pontiff: I grasp that you don’t like what I’ve said to you. From the bottom of my heart, I want to apologize, as it was never my intention to cause you distress. I merely wanted you to embrace the…totality of Ria Lockhart. But I see now that you aren’t ready for that, right? Otherwise, you would embrace the lesson. You would absorb the word. But instead you lash out. Threaten. But I forgive you for that, I really do.
He bows his head slightly, his face the picture of pure Buddha calm.
Sage Pontiff: Oftentimes, truth-tellers are hated for the mere act of telling the truth.
Ria closes the aforementioned personal space between the two. She stares into Sage’s eyes, her own ice blues full of intensity.
Ria Lockhart: A foolish mouse will take advice from a snake. I might not know much about you, but I know enough to not give you the benefit of a doubt. These ‘lessons’ you prattle on about? Garbage. What’s your game? What do you want from me?! Trying to lure me into some kind of alliance? I’m not interested. Attraction? I’m not interested, regardless of how physically attractive you might be. I want actual answers, not this cat and mouse shit!
Sage Pontiff: Alliance, attraction–things, things, things. This world has poisoned you, Ria. It made you think that people only want something, rather than acting altruistically. I only seek to help those on their paths, to offer a new perspective, to heal the troubled spirit. Your mind and your soul are linked together and running in opposite directions, and the face you tell yourself is for the world is really just masking the fact that you’re beginning to tear yourself in two on a metaphysical level. You can despise me, loathe me, rage at me…and at the end of the day, I’ll still be correct. You are a being in disarray. I’m offering you a doorway into a new future. A future where you embrace the parts of yourself that you don’t like to talk about, the parts of yourself you starve. You are incomplete. Take my hand on this journey or don’t, but take the journey. “There are two mistakes one can make on the road to truth: Not going all the way, and not starting.”
Ria scoffs at Pontiff’s words.
Ria Lockhart: You really think I’m gonna believe you have altruistic goals? Please, explain to me why I should trust that? Your word doesn’t mean crap to me. The fact that you’re talking about me being torn in two when there was a period of time in which my mind was fractured into three makes me wanna slap you! I’m not sure what the hell it’s gonna take for you to get it, but you don’t know me. Quite frankly, it sounds like you want to lead me down some path of dark decadence… Been there, done that, have the overpriced t-shirt. I’m on my own journey and I don’t need a tour guide that looks like he showers once a week.
Sage Pontiff: Decadence? Decadence holds no interest for me. But elevation, ascension, becoming more than you are, escaping the mire of who you’ve let yourself become–embracing all that you are, in all of its faceted technicolor glory? That…that interests me.
With this, he places an entirely unwelcome hand on her cheek. Ria’s eyes dart to said hand before growing, resembling golf balls. They lock back onto Sage’s for a nanosecond before Ria launches forward!
CRACK
Lockhart’s head smashes into Pontiff’s, a vicious headbutt unleashed! Sage’s head whips back, a splash of blood streaking through the air. He drops to a knee, a puddle of plasma forming below his head as it leaks like a loose faucet. He looks up… Blood is oozing out of both nostrils, as well as seeping from a gash on his left eyebrow. He stares up at Ria… and smiles. Ria turns on her heels, storming off, fuming probably less at his words than the fact that he had an effect on her whatsoever. Sage watches her, gathering crimson from his chin and drawing a perfect third-eye circle on his forehead.
Smiling all the while.