carpe-noctem.md

CARPE NOCTEM

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most? ~ Mark Twain

Twice victorious is the man who conquers himself in battle. ~ Anonymous

Sometimes ya' gotta back up, to go forward! ~ Bryan the Beach Master, Happy Feet Two

PROLOGUE

• "The Monster is Loose": A man named Luke Daystar battles the fire-breathing Bat King, Chiroptera, in the ruins of the Roman Colosseum, but despite recklessly ramming it with a motorcycle and slashing his sword at it like no tomorrow, he is soundly defeated and falls unconscious while reaching out to his lover, Julia. He awakens to find her gone and a mysterious voice tells him he has one final chance to make things right. "No more do-overs."

ACT I - LOVE

• "Blind as a Bat": As his strength slowly returns, Luke reflects on how Julia never left him despite his mistakes, and despite everyone else treating him as an unrepentant monster—and him fully believing himself to be one. He realizes that as long as he's with her, he doesn't have to feel ashamed of any of it, because she's always forgiven him no matter what, and laments that he failed her right when she needed him the most.

• After being mugged by a group of beggars, Luke is saved by a man named Jesse who takes him into the Colosseum's basement, where a friendly old man standing at a podium with a Bible greets him with a smile. They happen upon a pentagram; Jesse notes that, while people now associate this symbol with paganism, it's actually a very old type of crucifix which emphasizes the suffering Jesus experienced on the cross; many people now carry a bare cross which deemphasizes this aspect of sacrifice in favor of highlighting His love a bit too much. "There are two sides to that coin."

• Luke wakes up on a street corner, disoriented and with memories of his past in a scramble, but he manages to find his way home. While petting his cat, he reflects on his relationship with Julia again, believing he doesn't deserve her but admitting he would go to the ends of the Earth to save her anyway.

• "It's All Coming Back to Me Now": Luke meets his old girlfriend, Viola, who addresses him as Lucius. They had a falling out after he went behind her back to be with someone else; he walked out after the fight out of anger (she never stopped loving him), promising himself he would never go back, but as he looks at her now, all the memories come flooding back and he begins to think he made a terrible mistake, especially as he's begun to believe Julia would be better off without him.

• "Bad for Good": Luke and Viola get back together and have a ton of fun together. Before long, Luke is riding so high that he finds he has no cares in the world; whatever terrible things he's done in the past he'll be "bad for good" and will be proud of who he is, no matter what anyone thinks.

• Meanwhile, Jesse looks on from the sidelines, seemingly watching this all unfold, wondering whether what was done was the right thing to do.

• "Cry Over Me": Luke starts to notice Viola is holding back affection when he gets knocked down, instead of justifying his mistakes for him; as his memory is still hazy, he starts to wonder if Julia and his battle with the Bat King, which up until now he'd believed was real, was all just a dream meant to guide him back to Viola--that, in order to patch things up with her, he would have to make her love him enough to show the blind love that he remembered getting from Julia. This, he thought, would placate the monster of his past that loomed over both of them--the one he couldn't defeat alone--and allow them to be together.

• "In the Land of the Pig...": Luke reflects on all the corruption in the world: People brazenly take what they haven't earned, sometimes through very subtle means, in an endless pursuit of power. He considers how everybody is guilty of this in one way or another; that even when they deny it and insist they're better people, they still do it on smaller scales. Luke notes that this cycle is self-perpetuating and decides that perhaps he isn't the monster people make him out to be: Everybody wants to survive, but the world is a slaughterhouse and it's better to be the butcher than the pig.

• Luke continues trying to win Viola's loyalty and she calls him out on it, making it clear that she doesn't approve of his past choices and, while she loves him and won't hold his past against him in the present without reason, she also won't pretend it didn't happen; if he does something stupid and it comes back to bite him, she won't coddle him just to stroke his ego. He realizes that this means she can never give him the blind love he so desperately needs, and ends up very conflicted over whether he should willingly walk away--at the risk of hurting Viola--or not.

• "Monstro": As Luke returns home, he's stopped in his tracks just outside his front door as an angel descends from Heaven to greet him. It's Jesse. He reveals to Luke that he is actually Lucifer, and has been sent down to Earth as a mortal, though notably Jesse doesn't say why. He does confirm that Viola is mortal and believes Luke to be a mortal named Lucius; Luke, while wandering the Earth as Lucifer, had fallen for her many years ago, until they broke up when he stormed out on her over Julia.

ACT II - SACRIFICE

• "Alive": Luke reflects on the revelation of his true identity. By some insane miracle, despite all the unforgivable things he must have done as Lucifer, God not only didn't destroy him, but even gave him a chance at a mortal life on Earth. Thankful for this, he resolves never to let himself be controlled by anything but himself: "Let the end of the world come tumbling down; I'll be the last man standing on the ground!"

• Luke is given a choice: He can attempt to reconcile with Viola and they can live out their mortal lives together, allowing Evil to pass away with him; or he can accept his fate in the Lake of Fire and pursue Julia, to which Jesse admits he doesn't know what happened to her after the battle in the Colosseum. Jesse says he will not intervene further, as Luke must make this choice for himself.

• "If God Could Talk": Luke wonders where to go from here. Jesse isn't talking, but Luke really wishes he would, to help him figure out whether to break up with Viola or not. He knows she loves him, and he loves her, but he's not blind and sees that the relationship is rapidly falling apart at the seams. She can never give him what he needs, and he knows it, but he also knows that if he walks out now, she will be hurt. At some point he gets angry and rationalizes that she must see it coming and probably put it all behind her already, so who cares.

• "If It Ain't Broke, Break It": Jesse doesn't reappear, and Luke, unsure what to do now that he's alone, lapses into his old rebellious ways: The world is out to get him anyway so whatever people say is best for him, he's going to do the opposite; his life is his alone and he won't let anyone control him anymore. The irony doesn't seem to occur to him that this makes him even easier to control than even those who follow the crowd.

• Ultimately, Luke does finally realize he's on a self-destructive path when Viola calls him out on it again, trapping him to prove her point, and comes to his senses. He knows both he and Viola will be hurt if he leaves, but she's strong enough to survive and move on with her life, while Luke is not and his true love lies with Julia. He decides he has to make the sacrifice, even if it means he ends up alone in the end, and says his final goodbyes to Viola. As she kisses him one last time, she assures him she will be okay, but she wants him to be happy. "Go. Find your angel, Lucius."

• When at last Jesse returns, Luke tells him he said goodbye to Viola, to which Jesse is notably surprised--he selflessly set her free before he knew if he would ever see Julia again. Luke then asks him what he has to do to find Julia, that he will do anything to save her. Jesse says he found her searching for help while looking over the destruction caused by Chiroptera and takes Luke back to the Colosseum, where he comes face-to-face with the Bat King once more. The monster is asleep, but the sun is beginning to set so it won't be for long. Julia is waiting for him, but the Bat King is a threat to everything and must be stopped.

ACT III - VOLITION

• Luke's memories still haven't fully returned, so Julia tells him what happened before he fought the Bat King last time. They had been dating for a long time, but Luke didn't tell her who he really was until recently. She explains that he snapped, that everyone was treating him like a monster, so if that's what they wanted to think, screw it all--he would be that monster for them. This awakened the Bat King Chiroptera, the physical manifestation of Lucifer's will thus unchained. It attacked; Luke tried to fight it off, caring only about Julia's safety at that point, but was overpowered. Afterwards Chiroptera took off and Julia ran to get help, finding Jesse.

• "What About Love?": Luke makes his decision to stay with Julia, even if it costs him everything. He understands that this means he will continue to be seen as the Enemy forever, but he doesn't care: Julia means more to him than anything else in the world. He failed her last time, and he will never allow that to happen again. Jesse accepts his decision.

• "Seize the Night": As night falls, Chiroptera awakens and attacks. Luke prepares to fight it off, but before long he finds that every single angel and demon in Heaven has come down to help him; no matter the cost to themselves, and fully aware they will be judged for it, they will nonetheless put aside their differences because they know the Bat King is a threat to all of Creation and Luke can't fight it alone. This not only demonstrates all three virtues (Love, Sacrifice, Volition) but is powered by Opposition--angels and demons working together. Thus, after both Luke and Julia—who is revealed during the battle to be an angel—put on one Hell of a show for everyone, the Bat King is slain. Lucifer has conquered himself at last.

• As Luke's memories of being Lucifer begin to return and he awaits his punishment from God, Jesse steps forward. To Luke's great surprise, Jesse ensures him that the angels will not be punished for what has happened, nor will Luke. Luke asks him how he knows this and Jesse, laughing, reveals his true identity: Jesus. As it turns out, this was all according to God's plan!

• Jesse explains that because Lucifer was the first demon to ever fall in love with an angel, God used it as a means to save the entire world from corruption by teaching humanity the value of the three virtues of Love, Sacrifice and Volition, kept in balance by Opposition. If even the Devil could learn this, he would serve as a shining example for all mankind for all time. Because the angels and demons also put aside their differences in the final battle, forever, nobody has to be destroyed, which pleases God very greatly.

• "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be": Luke and Julia realize that everything has changed as a result of their actions, and wonder where things will go from here; everything they thought they knew about the future has been rendered irrelevant and they must now find their way forward without guidance. This greatly worries both of them, but they ultimately decide it doesn't matter: The future always comes no matter what. They will face it together.

• Jesse talks about God’s two previous interventions, both designed to set an example for mankind. First, the Great Flood, which was an act of Sacrifice and Volition powered by Love: God’s abiding love of mankind gave him the power to make this sacrifice in the name of a better tomorrow, and He asserted His will to do so. Second, the Crucifixion, which was an act of Love and Volition powered by Sacrifice: Jesus died on the cross so that mankind would live and thus love Him in return; the Agony in the Garden proved that this was His will alone. "I was just having a little fun with the empty tomb!"

• Now, Lucifer’s trial by fire completes God’s work, being an act of Love and Sacrifice powered by Volition: God loved Lucifer, but sacrificed His power over him so he would learn how to make a nearly-impossible choice by himself. As proven during the final battle with Chiroptera, all three virtues were perfectly in balance. Love, because the angels and demons agreed to disagree and came together to fight a common enemy that threatened all of them; Sacrifice, because they knew they would certainly be punished for it but carried on anyway; and Volition, because nobody else made the decision for them. And just as importantly, this was balanced by Opposition, as neither the demons nor the angels could have succeeded by themselves. This event will come to be known as the Redemption.

• Thanks to what has happened, Lucifer himself will now serve as the ultimate symbol of virtue for humanity: Love, embodied by the blind love between him and Julia; Sacrifice, because he gave up his chance for a normal mortal life with Viola in order to be with his true love, regardless of cost; and Volition, because he made that choice for himself. This was all made possible by Opposition because, well, God did all of this by working through the Devil!

EPILOGUE

• "Cry to Heaven": Volition has been reasserted, and the exercise of free will shall no longer be demonized in Heaven. However, Luke and Julia have since grown apart—her blind love having proven smothering—and Luke is now living with Viola. Julia is sad as she reflects on it, and so is Luke, but both have learned that it’s more important not to have to worry about anyone looking over their shoulders—or anyone else’s. "Cry, cry to Heaven. If that doesn't do it for you, go ahead and cry like Hell!"

And so it came to pass that after a very long rest on the seventh day, God worked through the Night in order to complete His great Masterpiece. And when the sun had risen at last on the morning of the eighth day, the day of the new beginning, so bright was the morning star that all who gazed upon it understood, and promised to uphold the three virtues of Love, Sacrifice and Volition, and to remember always the importance of Opposition, for all time. And God looked upon His Creation, smiled, and saw that it was very, very good.