Chapter Forty-One, Page Two

You can probably disregard this; I just want to write down my thoughts on Zerosage and some things (and I don't have any paper!). If you do so, move on to the previous post with my sucky drawings.

I can't say I understand Zerosage's plan, his goal. I don't want to think for him or assume anything - but this is the way I think of it.

If the Slender Man only kills people who know about him, then he (Captain Obvious time!) doesn't kill people who don't. If Zerosage kills all the Runners and Fighters and whoever else there is, then there will be nobody left to think of the Slender Man. If there's nobody left to think of the Slender Man, he'll have no place to feed, and he'll die. Where's Robert's quote from the Revised Core Theory? "It WILL die, and there will be no young. It is a singular creature feeding off a limited resource." If the resource runs out, he dies. Sabrina mentioned on the post that I'm writing in response to that by continuously posting that he's going after Runners (which he's already started, apparently) that everyone will be expecting him.

I won't, for one. What does he look like, for starters? I know he's got that mask, but does he STILL have it? He could be anything, anyone. He could, theoretically, get a sex-change operation. And anyway, why would you expect your hero to ACTUALLY come after you, no matter how much he blogs about it, especially if you're secretly thinking he's insane? I wouldn't. I'd be so...messed up that I wouldn't be able to do anything about it when it happened.

Zerosage also incessantly insists that he be called "Zerosage" as opposed to Zerombr or Zero or even Zerombrsage. (I've never really tried that last one, but he hasn't mentioned it.) In at least one of Frap's email convos with Zerosage (Is it illegal to read his mail? Well, he gives me permission anyway) he said the same thing after Frap asked something that included the name "Zero". The fact that he had taken up the title (Sage) and is now refusing to be addressed by any name besides one that INCLUDES that title is...interesting, to say the least. It shows some kind of attachment to the title, at least, some kind of bond.

Then again...somewhere, one of the (Sage)s said that they're not a fighter or anything, they're a (Sage). In fact, it might well have been Zerosage. Sages are not, traditionally, supposed to fight, are they? Only in Fire Emblem. The sage is, besides a plant and an adjective, is a wiseman, a mentor, especially in spiritual and philosophical topics.

And then...Frap and Zerosage's relationship.

...

There's something private there. I shan't reveal it yet.

I won't advocate for the slaughter of innocent Runners.

But I'll advocate for Zerosage.

Also, nice quote from Noah and the Whale's L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.:

Extended works of fiction about imaginary success
The chorus girls in neon were his closest things to friends
But to a writer, the truth is no big deal

*Joce