“When I look around Arcadia all I can see is the horrors that go on within its walls.”
“Pain, death, desolation, poverty.”
“But what if I closed my eyes?”
“Refused to look at the pained, to glance upon the damned?”
“While I wouldn’t be able to see the sadness on their faces or the danger in my path, I would still be able to do something else.”
“I could hear it.”
“Smell it.”
“Fear it.”
“No matter how tightly I shut my eyes I’ll never be free of the pain of the slums or the evils of The Bleak.”
“The screams of the impoverished will still pierce my ears like knives, the feeling of dirty women and children grasping my arm and begging for just a few credits to get their next meal.”
“The scent of death in the air as the iron and decay fills my nose.”
“By choosing not to see it, I simply become all too aware of it.”
“Vision, your cult of hopeless acolytes like to believe that your way of viewing the world is the one true way to be free of it. That by gouging out their eyes they will become enlightened and free from all the terrors of the lower levels where they live.”
“But you and I know the truth, don’t we?”
“The world we cannot see still surrounds us, encroaches on us and threatens to swallow us whole. Whether you’re in the darkness or in the light you’ll never truly be free of all the things that surround you.”
“There is no knowledge in deprivation.”
“No wisdom in seclusion.”
“Because the only way to truly be enlightened is to open your eyes, see the world, and take in all the horrors wrought upon it by those who share it with you.”
“But you’ll never be able to do that, will you?”
“Unlike myself, unlike the whole of the APD, unlike Zeus himself.”
“You’ll never be able to see the world as it really is ever again.”
“You gave up everything so that you could hide yourself from Arcadia itself, a cowardly and futile attempt to shut your heart to the horrors in an attempt to live your life as a paragon.”
“Though you cannot see the world anymore, allow me to do you a service, Vision.”
“I’m going to open your eyes in the only way I know how for a man like you.”
“You will feel every blow I rain down upon your body as I clobber you into the turnbuckle.”
“Hear the crowd roar in anticipation and glory as I take you down in front of everyone you refused to set your eyes upon.”
“And as you hit the mat you’ll be able to feel the weight of Arcadia’s finest standing upon your chest.”
“Fight me.”
“Feel me.”
“Hear me.”
“Eagles soar.”