Men Love Violence Ep1
LADIES AND GENTLEMENN TODAY WE WILL HAVE THE BATTLE OF THE YEAR , TODAY , TWO MEN WILL WAR JOUST TO THE DEATH , ON THE RIGHT SIDE COMES OUR DEAR PRINCE JAJA “claps w cheers” , AND ON THE OTHER SIDE DYING TONIGHTTTT WE HAVEEEEEEE. UM . imp sorry , what’s his- ohh , okay , ALL WELCOMEEE ARSHHHHHHHHHH .
Cheers all around me , thousands thrown for Glory , it is disgusting yet true , Men , Love , Violence. Ah frankly , What the hell was I doing , I don’t even know , 10 month ago I was a simple chef , now I am fighting a wannabe mafia boss .
“Jaja” what a dumb name , oh and by the way , im killing him alright?
He doesn’t know how to move properly with a sword. OH did I mention that this is not the 13 , nor it’s the 14 , nor the 15 , nor the 16 century oh you get it , we are not in medieval times here .
We are in 2025 where nukes fall every day somewhere in the world , why?
well because one tyrannical deranged masochist guy decided to invade a sovereign country.
Ahem-My Ukrainian fiancé would be proud of me . That being said , World war 3 broke out and well , the whole world order collapsed , but you’ll keep up. Now why are we war jousting in plain war ?
, is because well , the war has become so chaotic and so needless and so stupid that so many people left to build a horrible new world .
Way more diverse , and frontiers changed a lot. I am currently in Beirut , you probably don’t know where that is if you’re not an Arab , it was basically the Capital of Lebanon , a country near Palestine and Syria.
ANYHOW , back at it , why am war jousting? Well , ask Victoire , her name translation into English would be Victory . Or maybe listen to the story. I’ll keep it light , even thought it is far from being light and fun.
Buckle up , for I am about to tell you the story that I will entitleeee
“Men Love Violence”
Oh yes we are going philosophical on this , My name is Arsh , sounds like Ash , but more unique .
I didn’t go to the world war , I thought it was stupid and idiotic . Or maybe I was just a coward. I always considered myself as a citizen of this Earth and not of a specific country , we’re just one race aren’t we?
Obviously men and women in suits and in high places did this to our world did not believe this , or maybe they did and did not care?
Ukraine got invaded by Russia , that blamed her for many killings in the Donbas , a region in Ukraine that wants to become independent , and close to Russia. After a year of fighting , Kiev was not falling , and the man in the Kremlin threw the big bomb .
The Europeans did not sit with it , and for the years to come were a back and forth of Nukes , The Us got involved once China did , and the whole world was set aflame . Now there are 5 Big fronts where the mass killings of young men are happening.
One in Germany , One Between India and China , One In the Pacific and the East coast , one in the sea separating Iran and The rest of the Gulf , and basically all of Africa at this point. No one was spared , but hierarchy crumbled as capitals and major cities got nuked , and millions died .
Now some armies are marching with no clear orders nor objectives , just armed masses roaming those fronts , years of fighting to survive not to win.
Famine , plague and death was all around the globe . And well , people just put up with it. I was conscripted true , I saw the horrors , but I refused to fight and fled with some people back Home in the mist of battle , I was lucky that the majority of my battalion all agreed to return Home and not fight in Iran, the sea in between was filled with corpses , like a bridge .
I returned without firing a bullet and since then the “authorities” would just come every month to check if anyone hided bullets or guns , these are illegal all around the globe and only legitimate only in the bloody fronts. These authorities are not national , they are a company , that operates all around the world to enforce it , and oh boy they do enforce it.
If they find you having a single bullet , they’ll burn you and your whole family. Warmongers accepted this enterprise to enforce this , for two reasons , 1 because it does stop civilians that are not going to war to not waste bullets , and second because this will not raise any more armies here and there behind lines.
The warmongers accepted the fact that some people don’t want to go to war , they know with all this chaos , they cannot keep everyone there , on the big fronts we are talking about 50 millions on the bare minimum , with barely any leadership. In either case , the war kept happening for 10 years , I am now 25 , last year of my masters in mass communication .
Father went to war and never came back , another reason I give myself to not go myself and leave mama alone. I try to take care of her with all I can , while working and studying at the same time . I was able to stay in the Middle class , but it’s not getting better , each year is worse .
from 5 loafs of bread per week , to three this year.
One Sunday I was playing a board game with mama , i go to the toilet for a minute and I return and I see my mother coughing more than yesterday, way more than last week , she coughed blood.
I knew directly what it was , she looked at me with watery eyes , I tell her it’s fine but we should see a doctor , I smile and tell her it’s probably because of last month’s radioactive storm , she doesn’t believe me , we all stayed inside that day , but she smiled back and shook her head , she went to get dressed. I get inside my room , put a pillow on my face and scream . then I throw the pillow and open my drawer where store my money , I look at the emergency ones , maybe that’s enough I told myself?
I took most of them , and took my sword with me just in case some bandits came around. We rush to the hospital , we wait in a line for 5 hours , then we finally get in , we only get 15 minutes of check up, the blunt emotionless doctor said to my face “Yeah , it’s cancer” .
My mother gets out for fresh air , without a word. I ask him how much to fix this . He tells me 80 thousand , and the earlier the better , otherwise she’d die. He does what all rich folks do , “it can get fixed in one month if” if I go to their stupid war , soldiers get paid a lot , true , surviving sane soldiers.
I tell him I’ll think about it , while getting out , I call college and tell them I need to drop off. I go to my restaurant , me and mama don’t talk all the road , but I do tell her something when I drop her off home, I tell her to not worry , she kisses me , we both knew it was cancer after all since the first time she coughed blood , we just always gave excuses.
WOAH OKAY , THAT WAS SAD , I KNOW BUT HEAR ME OUT IT GETS BETTER , KINDA.
Something that I did not say , that I am the founder of Full contact medieval MMA in Lebanon , I started very young as a hobby , me and my friends bought armor and trained every week in the dad’s resto after hours.
That , was before the war , now all my friends are at war or abroad. I find my armor in the restaurant as decoration , i know it’s weird , I know I am freak , but , I loved it. I took it off , and started dancing with it , with the stand on , it’s my fiancé after all, I sleep , play ,, eat with this armor , my baby .. I am joking, I don’t even have a fiancé , I did dance with it thought , my friend , which works with me , saw me , she laughs , she still doesn’t know. I tell her about what happened she tells me that she can help, I decline , we’d still need a lot more anyway.
I tell her I am thinking of selling the armor , it can make lots of bucks , back in the good days , dad spoiled me with this rich armor for my 18 birthday , don’t ask me how it wasn’t robbed yet.
in any case She helps me take good pictures of the armor and post it online for sale on m blog, she’s an artistic person so that surely helped and well we just continued with our day .
many people came today , and the day after , people started to come a lot , I had to hire another person , the next week , It became more normal but people kept coming , I knew why , and I asked Vivienne if she actually told anyone and she said no , but I knew she did, she is a horrible liar , like me …
I thought people would stop , but the resto is having good days , even tho with all these people it might not be enough , mama and I and Vivienne , felt alive , we were happy to see all these people. after a month , joy came back , I knew mama didn’t have much time , but still fought for her , the money was not enough , but maybe just maybe in three years it could work out. Vivienne told me to check my mails , maybe someone wants the armor , this can give a boost for sure , and well , yes , yes there was someone, they are actually coming from France and ready to get it , I immediately texted them back and apologized for not answering quickly , and I asked if they are still interested .
They said yes , I was very happy , that is 10 thousand ching chings.
We will meet in the Resto. Too good to be true I thought? Who would come to Beirut now from France for an armor? And well this day came , so did my answer.., I didn’t know how the person looked like .
I would have known directly who’s European and who’s not , and I do , however when the war started , people of all colors and races started to integrate different cities and societies , I heard there’s a big Algerian community in Mongolia Now .
if there Is one thing the war did good was diversity , however hate was still there , racist people still breathe life. So Anyway , Beirut was home to lots of Europeans , and lots of Africans as well. The resto was half full , I was making falafels , Vivienne comes in the kitchen and tells me there’s a lady that wants to see me , she tells me to change my clothes and to add perfume before going there , and so I did.
The lady small talks with me first , but she makes it clear she is here to buy . I invite her inside the storage room , a quiet room.
“Thank you very much for choosing the Armor , here it is if you want to check it out up close”
She paces towards the armor. She smiles “How many battles did it see?”
“Around 100”
“Why are you selling it?”
“I need money for a particular thing, I have to get it done , otherwise I wouldn’t have put it to sale, it’s my baby.”
“You can keep it then” she smiles then finally turns to me
“I am sorry , did I say something wrong? Is the armor filled with a flaw?"
She pauses
“No , I have a new deal for you”
I don’t understand where she wants to go with all this
“I am rich , and I decided to spend all my money for a project of a lifetime. These wars are not going to end anytime soon . However I’ve heard from people in very high places that warmongers don’t want to do ammunitions anymore , they are starting to get rare , most firearm enterprises were destroyed , the storages won’t last two years , but signs of peace are not coming either. I Hate this war , I lost my parents because of it and all the people I love. I’ve been hurt physically by it too.”
“I am sorry”
I tell her , since I really don’t know what to say at this point , I sip myself and her some water.
“It’s fine , call me crazy , but i made a promise , I vowed to stop this war. And well , to stop this war , I need many things , I planned all of it for a year , and now I come here to you , to start my first step. I want to buy 50% of your restaurant and transform it into something that will let us change the face of this globe . If there is one thing I’ve learned from business , is that , make it unique , and it will be successful. In less then a year we will be able to save your mother and start a journey to stop all of this madness. Will you fight for me?”
she hands me my sword
Okay , don’t look at me like that , I know it seems like lazy writing , but put yourself at my place , a rich lady says she got a plan to make your life full of adventure and money . something you didn’t have back then. Also I don’t know how she knew about my mother , but if what she says is true , why not.
“Are you narrating out loud?” she asks
“um no”
“We got a lot of work to do, come on”
“I didn’t say yes-“
“Okay , do you accept?”
I don’t know , It sounds so stupid , yet when she said all of this I felt so much truth behind it , so much passion , plus she a French lady that-
“For the love of God , stop narrating out loud”
“Okay , yes , fine , tell me all your plan”
She smiles and gets out of her backpack a pack of papers.
“Our ultimate goal is , Jerusalem” she says pointing to a map with big circle around the City.
Picture credit :
https://pixabay.com/vectors/lion-sword-heraldic-symbol-crown-32431/
