“What is the most important piece in a game of chess?”
“Is it the pawn who throws itself into the fray to be the front line? Sacrificing itself for those behind it?”
“Perhaps it is the knight for its versatility?”
“Or maybe the queen for the sheer power it proclaims on the battlefield?”
“As open as the question is, there is only one answer to it. The most important part of a game of chess? The king.”
“In the backlines unmoving, watching over its soldiers as they advance on the enemy and throw their ebony and ivory lives away for its amusement.”
“Of course, they do everything to keep the enemy side from reaching it. The king is the key to everything. At the end of the day no matter how well you do as a pawn or a knight or a queen, if the king falls… the game ends.”
“You know that all too well, don’t you, Simon?”
“Amongst the OSW chessboard you sit back, seated in a throne of your own ego as you construct the perfect little chess game laid out in front of you.”
“Everyone is just another piece on the board with you as the monarch, the ivory king sitting in the back and indulging in the carnage in front of you.”
“Jet Set Radio and Vayikra alike acting as your precious pieces as you lead the unending assault on the Bad Mother Fuckers across the board.”
“Sir Bellator now your pawn as he charges forward, becoming a piece that Luke Storm must knock down if he even wishes to get near you.”
“And after he falls? Jet Set Radio stand in his way, your knights and queen, a trio of terror that can burst through the front lines and tear his pieces apart by share power and versatility.”
“Meanwhile you sit in the back, watching the war you started go down without you lifting a single finger.”
“You think you’re invincible, don’t you?”
“Everyone is so busy asking which piece is most important to ending your little game that they never even realize that the only piece that matters, the only one keeping the game going, is you.”
“You’re the key to the end, the infinitely precious ruler of the board.”
“If you fall, then your game ends, the plan fails, and all the other pieces on the board become useless in their own right.”
“Here’s the thing though, Simon.”
“I’m not like the rest of the pathetic pieces littering your board.”
“No, I’m not even a piece at all.”
“I’m the player.”
“My hands are time, they are reality, and I am in control of the pieces.”
“The game goes on as long as I say it goes on. Death can’t stop me and neither can you.”
“When the end is on the horizon, I will simply reach out past the pieces, take the king, and knock it down.”
“Because once you’re gone, everything else will follow.”
“I have walked this path before, I shall walk it once more.”