Post by Hitamatori Akuma on Nov 20, 2007 2:51:26 GMT -5
This is part of a project I am working on and I would love to get some feedback. Also it was my first time doing any serious writing in 1st person.
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There are some people that say heroes are not born but made. Great men don't exist except in times of great need. It is then and only then that acts of greatness, kindness, and sacrifice are truly honored. The truth is these men are not heroes, in fact they are no diffrent from anyone else. We make them heroes because we need a hero. We expect them to lift up mountains but we end up crushing them with our expectations. As a people we need to feel protected, We want our mother to tell us that monsters do not exist and have our dad check under the bed for the boogie man.
I write this no so that you will see me as a hero but to see me as a man both good and bad. To show you that monsters do exist inside and outside of ourselves. Mostly I write this so that what really happened has a chance to be known. So that these events are not glorified by a politician trying to get elected or a journalist trying to make a name for himself. I write this with the hope that true understanding can be reached of these events and of the men and women that took part in them. I write this in the hopes that we did not die in vain.
Before I go any further I am sure that you all must be asking yourself who the fuck I am to be writing this. What gives me the right to be the one to give this account of this.... abomination of a war. This tragic event. My name is Darwin Classum and I am a simple soldier. What gives me the right to be the one to put this all down is that I lived it and I am alive. If that doesn't suit you then by all means you are free to burn this document and have it be lost to time.
I don't know who will find this or when. Or even if this will be found. I think it would be best if I started with talking about myself. Let you know about the man before you judge him by the events. My aim is not to be glorified but to be understood. To pass on my story before our time is up and hope that people can learn from this. Learn from our mistakes and not fall prey to the same ones.
I was an average kid growing up. I had a small family living in the middle class of America. A small town a few hours from the major city of Seattle. My childhood was a very happy one and even though we didn't have a lot of money I never found myself lacking in what I needed or love. I think that is what was most important looking back. I had two very happy parents that cared for me very much, me and my little brother Scott.
I think what I remember most about my childhood was the park by my house. Me and Scott would always play there pretending to be in a war or knights rescuing a princess. Just like in the stories we were told growing up. Sometimes we would play alone and other times kids would join us. But no matter what we were inseparable. We were an oddity I realize. Two siblings a year apart that got along with almost no conflict. We were actually good friends and we were able to openly say we loved each other. That is something considering some people I have known couldn't bear to say it to their parents for fear they would surely die of shame. Love seems to be a guilty pleasure. One has no problem saying that they hate someone but to say you love someone is hard. Maybe that is wrong with our society, we are afraid to let ourselves love but are eager to hate. And here I go rambling, I am going to warn you I have a bad habit of going off on tangents. However it is part of who I am and I don't have time to edit this out of information you might not care to read, I can only hope that even my tangents can give insight in to what happened as well as the brave men and women that died for us all.
I think growing up the only thing I really wanted was to be great. To have a chance to be a hero. This meant being a soldier and like many boys I would dream of being a war hero every night. Though of course the dreams of a small boy don't come close to touching what war is really like. The horror and pain caused and how devastating it really is. All they see is the glory and nothing else until they grow up. The sad thing is some boys never grow up.
I am sure you are tired of hearing about me talk about my childhood now so I will move on to what is really important. The first encounter. It happened when I was ten years old and no one was ready for it. When you think of aliens you think of those cheesy science fiction movies. Green things with tentacles and a lot of eyes. Sharp teeth and out to destroy all life on Earth for some obscure reason. See it is universally excepted among Humans that we are special and that destroying us and taking our planet would be of value. Never mind that to even get here the aliens are most likely far advanced and don't need us. That concept is almost unthinkable.
I am not sure when the actual first encounter with the Thromites were but I do know when it was made public. It was obvious that they had watched us before making contact with us. Likely blending in among us because you see.... they looked exactly like us. Put 1 human in a crowd of 50 of them and I would not be able to pick him out. Some were fat others skinny. Some had dark skin and others light skin. If they worked out they were buff if not they were not. They were human for all practical purposes.
They didn't show up in a ship blasting us but on Television announced by the President of the United States himself. Well in America at least. From what I understand most of the major countries had a similar announcement on the same day at the same time. The calm and peaceful manner that they were presented didn't help things either. Sure it was certainly better then being aggressive but people's reactions were still all over the place. Some claimed it was the end of the world and went in to a mad panic. Others just killed themselves afraid of Aliens no matter what they or the President said.
I still remember what was said word for word. How could I not it was a shattering event that spun the general Human population in to a panic. It was hard to deny it when not one but all of the major world leaders said that they had been contacted by life outside of the planet Earth and then let the so called Alien speak to the masses. We were able to understand them because they had a device that translated what they spoke in to preprogrammed languages. Who knows when they learned Earth Languages enough to program them but it is another reason I assume we were watched long before being approached.
The representative to the United States of America appeared to be a pudgy looking man well in to his middle years and balding. He wore a suit and didn't appear at all comfortable in it. It was as if it was the first time he had worn something like it. But when he spoke he spoke with a voice of confidence that didn't seem to quite fit with the balding man on screen. Like most people I sat and watched intently as he spoke believing without question in my youthfulness that he really was from another world.... I truly wish he had been lying.
"People of Earth my name is Dar Aries and I come here on behalf of my people to offer you peace and aide as well as a home in the Thromite Union. We offer to teach your young species the secrets of space flight and the universe. We offer you a place among some of the greatest civilizations of the universe and your wise leaders have agreed to join us and become our brethren."
At this point I had stopped listening and ran out of the room excited at what had been said. Aliens real aliens and there were more. And we were joining their union. Not that I really understood what was going on at that age. I believed everything that was said. We would be equals. A valued member of a wise union. Hell I didn't even know what a union was back then. But boy did I think I understood it all. My only comfort is knowing that even knowing what I do now I couldn't change anything.
©2007, Endrin, All Rights Reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are some people that say heroes are not born but made. Great men don't exist except in times of great need. It is then and only then that acts of greatness, kindness, and sacrifice are truly honored. The truth is these men are not heroes, in fact they are no diffrent from anyone else. We make them heroes because we need a hero. We expect them to lift up mountains but we end up crushing them with our expectations. As a people we need to feel protected, We want our mother to tell us that monsters do not exist and have our dad check under the bed for the boogie man.
I write this no so that you will see me as a hero but to see me as a man both good and bad. To show you that monsters do exist inside and outside of ourselves. Mostly I write this so that what really happened has a chance to be known. So that these events are not glorified by a politician trying to get elected or a journalist trying to make a name for himself. I write this with the hope that true understanding can be reached of these events and of the men and women that took part in them. I write this in the hopes that we did not die in vain.
Before I go any further I am sure that you all must be asking yourself who the fuck I am to be writing this. What gives me the right to be the one to give this account of this.... abomination of a war. This tragic event. My name is Darwin Classum and I am a simple soldier. What gives me the right to be the one to put this all down is that I lived it and I am alive. If that doesn't suit you then by all means you are free to burn this document and have it be lost to time.
I don't know who will find this or when. Or even if this will be found. I think it would be best if I started with talking about myself. Let you know about the man before you judge him by the events. My aim is not to be glorified but to be understood. To pass on my story before our time is up and hope that people can learn from this. Learn from our mistakes and not fall prey to the same ones.
I was an average kid growing up. I had a small family living in the middle class of America. A small town a few hours from the major city of Seattle. My childhood was a very happy one and even though we didn't have a lot of money I never found myself lacking in what I needed or love. I think that is what was most important looking back. I had two very happy parents that cared for me very much, me and my little brother Scott.
I think what I remember most about my childhood was the park by my house. Me and Scott would always play there pretending to be in a war or knights rescuing a princess. Just like in the stories we were told growing up. Sometimes we would play alone and other times kids would join us. But no matter what we were inseparable. We were an oddity I realize. Two siblings a year apart that got along with almost no conflict. We were actually good friends and we were able to openly say we loved each other. That is something considering some people I have known couldn't bear to say it to their parents for fear they would surely die of shame. Love seems to be a guilty pleasure. One has no problem saying that they hate someone but to say you love someone is hard. Maybe that is wrong with our society, we are afraid to let ourselves love but are eager to hate. And here I go rambling, I am going to warn you I have a bad habit of going off on tangents. However it is part of who I am and I don't have time to edit this out of information you might not care to read, I can only hope that even my tangents can give insight in to what happened as well as the brave men and women that died for us all.
I think growing up the only thing I really wanted was to be great. To have a chance to be a hero. This meant being a soldier and like many boys I would dream of being a war hero every night. Though of course the dreams of a small boy don't come close to touching what war is really like. The horror and pain caused and how devastating it really is. All they see is the glory and nothing else until they grow up. The sad thing is some boys never grow up.
I am sure you are tired of hearing about me talk about my childhood now so I will move on to what is really important. The first encounter. It happened when I was ten years old and no one was ready for it. When you think of aliens you think of those cheesy science fiction movies. Green things with tentacles and a lot of eyes. Sharp teeth and out to destroy all life on Earth for some obscure reason. See it is universally excepted among Humans that we are special and that destroying us and taking our planet would be of value. Never mind that to even get here the aliens are most likely far advanced and don't need us. That concept is almost unthinkable.
I am not sure when the actual first encounter with the Thromites were but I do know when it was made public. It was obvious that they had watched us before making contact with us. Likely blending in among us because you see.... they looked exactly like us. Put 1 human in a crowd of 50 of them and I would not be able to pick him out. Some were fat others skinny. Some had dark skin and others light skin. If they worked out they were buff if not they were not. They were human for all practical purposes.
They didn't show up in a ship blasting us but on Television announced by the President of the United States himself. Well in America at least. From what I understand most of the major countries had a similar announcement on the same day at the same time. The calm and peaceful manner that they were presented didn't help things either. Sure it was certainly better then being aggressive but people's reactions were still all over the place. Some claimed it was the end of the world and went in to a mad panic. Others just killed themselves afraid of Aliens no matter what they or the President said.
I still remember what was said word for word. How could I not it was a shattering event that spun the general Human population in to a panic. It was hard to deny it when not one but all of the major world leaders said that they had been contacted by life outside of the planet Earth and then let the so called Alien speak to the masses. We were able to understand them because they had a device that translated what they spoke in to preprogrammed languages. Who knows when they learned Earth Languages enough to program them but it is another reason I assume we were watched long before being approached.
The representative to the United States of America appeared to be a pudgy looking man well in to his middle years and balding. He wore a suit and didn't appear at all comfortable in it. It was as if it was the first time he had worn something like it. But when he spoke he spoke with a voice of confidence that didn't seem to quite fit with the balding man on screen. Like most people I sat and watched intently as he spoke believing without question in my youthfulness that he really was from another world.... I truly wish he had been lying.
"People of Earth my name is Dar Aries and I come here on behalf of my people to offer you peace and aide as well as a home in the Thromite Union. We offer to teach your young species the secrets of space flight and the universe. We offer you a place among some of the greatest civilizations of the universe and your wise leaders have agreed to join us and become our brethren."
At this point I had stopped listening and ran out of the room excited at what had been said. Aliens real aliens and there were more. And we were joining their union. Not that I really understood what was going on at that age. I believed everything that was said. We would be equals. A valued member of a wise union. Hell I didn't even know what a union was back then. But boy did I think I understood it all. My only comfort is knowing that even knowing what I do now I couldn't change anything.
©2007, Endrin, All Rights Reserved.