1. Silicon Sabre
I never knew what slavery was, until I found myself free.
It's
a concept, as much as physical bonds. One can be able to go anywhere,
do anything, and still be enslaved. Iron bonds can hold your hands, and
locked doors can imprison your body, but to be enslaved is to trap your
mind. And it can be captors, doubt, or fear that enslaves your will as
much as any physical chains.
These days I look at the ones we're
freeing and I see them fresh and new, and hopefully unencumbered. I do
my best to see that they don't feel bound by duty to those who rescued
them. And there are those like that. The ones that hang up the armor and
disappear into the city. I never see them again, but I hope they're
still safe. And there are those that stay here, stay and fight. The ones
that that find themselves unable to let go for a variety of reasons. I
can't say they're wrong.
But I remember a time when slavery
wasn't what I fought. When I fought corruption and abuse of power on a
level that I hope never to see again. And I remember that slavery was
still present there nonetheless. And that I was one of the enslaved.
With chains made of things far more unbreakable than steel. A debt, a
duty, a doom that I set upon myself. That crushed, squeezed, and
constricted what I allowed myself to be.
Waking up in this city
every day, rolling over next to her, and knowing that that's
forgotten...that's what helps me appreciate being free.
2. Net Sabre
They say you shouldn't play with fire, but I was never one to take other
people's rules at face value.
I've been like that my entire
life. A sign to stay out just meant finding some way to get in. Saying
something was wrong without explaining why just left me with more
curiosity than fear. My attitude caused me a few problems, but more than
a few benefits. It got me a fulfilling career, a loving wife, and a
life better than any I could think of growing up. I'm not the scared
little girl that hides behind the front lines anymore. In a way, I'm the
one the scared little girl would've looked to. That desire to push the
limits of what I can get away with, of not accepting what I'm told is
what I should say, do, and be, is why I'm where I am today. But am I
taking it too far? I should be content, but I can't help but try to push
it that extra mile, go for that extra bit just out of reach. I'm
happier than I have any right to be, but part of me just wants a little
bit more.
What is it about those clear blue eyes that pulls me in
like a moth to flame?
3.
I've defeated so many opponents in my time. My skill is honed to
a razor's edge. My instincts are next to precognitive. I've known
defeat, but never for long. I am a weapon and an exceptionally well made
one.
But it was her eyes that made a weapon question its
purpose. It was her unspoken plea that turned that weapon against its
makers. It was defending her that taught me to fear loss. It was saving
her that saved me. Every day I wake up beside her reminds me of what I
might have been without her, and what I've become because of her. Every
word, every look, every touch reminds me that behind the weapon, there
is the heart of a living being. A heart that belongs to her as surely as
the blade defends her. It's because of her that I have friends,
companions, colleagues. It's because of her that I've become the hero
she needed me to be that day.
But how many know that her standing
behind me is what holds me up? Not that it's a bother. She's all I
need.
4.
Existing is simple, but living is hard.
Existing simply means
you're there. Any rock can exist, standing alone and unnoticed until it
eventually crumbles into dust. But living, living challenges you.
Living things adapt, grow, and evolve. They grow beyond what was
intended of them and become what couldn't be predicted. Life is change,
and change is hard. But like all hard things, what it needs is a will to
succeed and the battle is done. It may take some time, but every little
victory is a step forward. Every smile to a friend. Every unnecessary
conversation just there to talk with someone. Every simple touch. Every
precious memory. When your progress is rock bottom, all it means is you
need to start working upwards. Either your goal or you will give in
first, but with proper determination, it's always the goal that crumples
first.
I have a life and friends. I have companions and sisters. Maybe even love, though I'm still not sure I know exactly what love is. These things tell me I'm alive. They tell me that I'm someone I'd like to know.
5.
My life hasn't been long, but for its brevity, it's always been
driven by what I feel.
My instincts led me to the family I'd
never known in a world I'd never seen. My instincts kept me alive when a
weaker woman would've crumpled. It's a simple path, thin as a razor and
straight as a line. A warrior's duties are simple, and I perform them
with the excellence built into me from birth. It's the other things that
confuse me. If I've never seen it, why do I dream of open plains? If
I've never felt it, why do I wish for the wind tossed gusts to blow out
my hair? If I've never touched it, why do I feel the grass between my
fingers as I walk? If I've never smelled it, why does the scent of
burning wood make me long for home? If I was born in this city, why do
the wilds that no longer belong to it feel more like home than its massive
metropolis?
Is it ironic that the product of such advanced
technology finds the place of her birth more alien than places she's
never been?
6.
Trust is valuable. Truth essential. I wish they didn't seem to be
mutually exclusive.
I was dedicated to bring forth the truth from
wherever it hid. I thought that no matter the reason, the truth should
be known to everyone. That in the end, it would benefit everyone. But
finding out the truth meant gaining trust...and as they trust me not to
reveal the truth, I find myself questioning whether I should. When I was
a little girl, things were black and white. Such debates of morality
and obscuration would've been brushed away by a child's simple belief
that telling a lie is a fundamental wrong.
But now that I'm where I am, do I lie to myself to preserve their trust?
Or lie to them to bring out the truth?
7.
Every day I wake up, I wonder at my betrayal.
Some things
can't be changed. And so many things that shouldn't be are, regardless
of what we want. We can only change the things that haven't been yet.
But as I work with those that should share the same feelings as me, I
realize that our feelings are completely different. They seek justice,
but all I want is blood. They're heroes, but I'm just an assassin
waiting for my moment. Every bloodstained uniform, every limp body, only
dulls the pain. Every night when I sleep, I can almost feel their eyes
on me, wondering why I let them die. Wondering why the one that killed
them hasn't joined them yet.
I will find the one I seek, and I will have my bloody satisfaction. I
wonder if those that call me comrade will understand the things that I
have to do so the dead can rest easy.
I wonder if I should be disturbed that either way, I don't really care.
8.
My life's never been better, but I wonder if that's a good
thing.
I'm improving with every day spent studying, and I never
lack for a good practice partner to test what I've learned on. My
teacher says I'm catching up to her, that I'll be faster than her soon.
Faster, maybe, but not stronger, but that's alright. My teacher's been
at this for much longer than I have, and if I surpassed her too easily,
it just wouldn't be right. She can still stomp me into the ground
without trying, but I'm getting closer to hitting her...
But is
that all there is? Improving my work, the next fight, the next
challenge, ever progressing towards a journey that I don't know the end
of? I never feel better than after winning a hotly contested match, but I
wonder if I should be wanting more. I have friends, I have family, and I
have fights, but is the fact that it's the last of those that thrills
me the most a hint that I'm supposed to be a weapon?
And if I'm
supposed to be a weapon and that's natural, why do I feel so uncertain
of my path?
Author's Note: Each entry corresponds to one Sabre. Have fun.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
I never knew what slavery was, until I found myself free.
It's
a concept, as much as physical bonds. One can be able to go anywhere,
do anything, and still be enslaved. Iron bonds can hold your hands, and
locked doors can imprison your body, but to be enslaved is to trap your
mind. And it can be captors, doubt, or fear that enslaves your will as
much as any physical chains.
These days I look at the ones we're
freeing and I see them fresh and new, and hopefully unencumbered. I do
my best to see that they don't feel bound by duty to those who rescued
them. And there are those like that. The ones that hang up the armor and
disappear into the city. I never see them again, but I hope they're
still safe. And there are those that stay here, stay and fight. The ones
that that find themselves unable to let go for a variety of reasons. I
can't say they're wrong.
But I remember a time when slavery
wasn't what I fought. When I fought corruption and abuse of power on a
level that I hope never to see again. And I remember that slavery was
still present there nonetheless. And that I was one of the enslaved.
With chains made of things far more unbreakable than steel. A debt, a
duty, a doom that I set upon myself. That crushed, squeezed, and
constricted what I allowed myself to be.
Waking up in this city
every day, rolling over next to her, and knowing that that's
forgotten...that's what helps me appreciate being free.
2. Net Sabre
They say you shouldn't play with fire, but I was never one to take other
people's rules at face value.
I've been like that my entire
life. A sign to stay out just meant finding some way to get in. Saying
something was wrong without explaining why just left me with more
curiosity than fear. My attitude caused me a few problems, but more than
a few benefits. It got me a fulfilling career, a loving wife, and a
life better than any I could think of growing up. I'm not the scared
little girl that hides behind the front lines anymore. In a way, I'm the
one the scared little girl would've looked to. That desire to push the
limits of what I can get away with, of not accepting what I'm told is
what I should say, do, and be, is why I'm where I am today. But am I
taking it too far? I should be content, but I can't help but try to push
it that extra mile, go for that extra bit just out of reach. I'm
happier than I have any right to be, but part of me just wants a little
bit more.
What is it about those clear blue eyes that pulls me in
like a moth to flame?
3.
I've defeated so many opponents in my time. My skill is honed to
a razor's edge. My instincts are next to precognitive. I've known
defeat, but never for long. I am a weapon and an exceptionally well made
one.
But it was her eyes that made a weapon question its
purpose. It was her unspoken plea that turned that weapon against its
makers. It was defending her that taught me to fear loss. It was saving
her that saved me. Every day I wake up beside her reminds me of what I
might have been without her, and what I've become because of her. Every
word, every look, every touch reminds me that behind the weapon, there
is the heart of a living being. A heart that belongs to her as surely as
the blade defends her. It's because of her that I have friends,
companions, colleagues. It's because of her that I've become the hero
she needed me to be that day.
But how many know that her standing
behind me is what holds me up? Not that it's a bother. She's all I
need.
4.
Existing is simple, but living is hard.
Existing simply means
you're there. Any rock can exist, standing alone and unnoticed until it
eventually crumbles into dust. But living, living challenges you.
Living things adapt, grow, and evolve. They grow beyond what was
intended of them and become what couldn't be predicted. Life is change,
and change is hard. But like all hard things, what it needs is a will to
succeed and the battle is done. It may take some time, but every little
victory is a step forward. Every smile to a friend. Every unnecessary
conversation just there to talk with someone. Every simple touch. Every
precious memory. When your progress is rock bottom, all it means is you
need to start working upwards. Either your goal or you will give in
first, but with proper determination, it's always the goal that crumples
first.
I have a life and friends. I have companions and sisters. Maybe even love, though I'm still not sure I know exactly what love is. These things tell me I'm alive. They tell me that I'm someone I'd like to know.
5.
My life hasn't been long, but for its brevity, it's always been
driven by what I feel.
My instincts led me to the family I'd
never known in a world I'd never seen. My instincts kept me alive when a
weaker woman would've crumpled. It's a simple path, thin as a razor and
straight as a line. A warrior's duties are simple, and I perform them
with the excellence built into me from birth. It's the other things that
confuse me. If I've never seen it, why do I dream of open plains? If
I've never felt it, why do I wish for the wind tossed gusts to blow out
my hair? If I've never touched it, why do I feel the grass between my
fingers as I walk? If I've never smelled it, why does the scent of
burning wood make me long for home? If I was born in this city, why do
the wilds that no longer belong to it feel more like home than its massive
metropolis?
Is it ironic that the product of such advanced
technology finds the place of her birth more alien than places she's
never been?
6.
Trust is valuable. Truth essential. I wish they didn't seem to be
mutually exclusive.
I was dedicated to bring forth the truth from
wherever it hid. I thought that no matter the reason, the truth should
be known to everyone. That in the end, it would benefit everyone. But
finding out the truth meant gaining trust...and as they trust me not to
reveal the truth, I find myself questioning whether I should. When I was
a little girl, things were black and white. Such debates of morality
and obscuration would've been brushed away by a child's simple belief
that telling a lie is a fundamental wrong.
But now that I'm where I am, do I lie to myself to preserve their trust?
Or lie to them to bring out the truth?
7.
Every day I wake up, I wonder at my betrayal.
Some things
can't be changed. And so many things that shouldn't be are, regardless
of what we want. We can only change the things that haven't been yet.
But as I work with those that should share the same feelings as me, I
realize that our feelings are completely different. They seek justice,
but all I want is blood. They're heroes, but I'm just an assassin
waiting for my moment. Every bloodstained uniform, every limp body, only
dulls the pain. Every night when I sleep, I can almost feel their eyes
on me, wondering why I let them die. Wondering why the one that killed
them hasn't joined them yet.
I will find the one I seek, and I will have my bloody satisfaction. I
wonder if those that call me comrade will understand the things that I
have to do so the dead can rest easy.
I wonder if I should be disturbed that either way, I don't really care.
8.
My life's never been better, but I wonder if that's a good
thing.
I'm improving with every day spent studying, and I never
lack for a good practice partner to test what I've learned on. My
teacher says I'm catching up to her, that I'll be faster than her soon.
Faster, maybe, but not stronger, but that's alright. My teacher's been
at this for much longer than I have, and if I surpassed her too easily,
it just wouldn't be right. She can still stomp me into the ground
without trying, but I'm getting closer to hitting her...
But is
that all there is? Improving my work, the next fight, the next
challenge, ever progressing towards a journey that I don't know the end
of? I never feel better than after winning a hotly contested match, but I
wonder if I should be wanting more. I have friends, I have family, and I
have fights, but is the fact that it's the last of those that thrills
me the most a hint that I'm supposed to be a weapon?
And if I'm
supposed to be a weapon and that's natural, why do I feel so uncertain
of my path?
Author's Note: Each entry corresponds to one Sabre. Have fun.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
