I remember going camping.
The best part was the campfire.
We’d go around the forest, collecting random sticks and brush. Refuse that had been abandoned by whatever tree it grew off of.
When we had enough, we circled up and laid it all out atop our designated area. Every stick had its place, and it needed to be built to last what was to come.
Then came the big moment.
Ignition.
If we did it right, the fire would bloom up, first a small spark and then a deliciously hot blaze.
While we were out there, the fire helped to sustain us and defend us from a dangerous outside world.
But the fire wouldn’t last if we didn’t continue to feed it. If we didn’t keep finding more tinder for it, the campfire began to die down. The pickings were slim, but we did what we had to so that our fire didn’t die.
That’s kind of what’s happening to Vayikra right now, isn’t it?
Solomon Rhodes decided to go built him up a campfire. He went out into the forest and collected wayward sticks, each one of them feeling abandoned by the trees they’d grown from.
Bellator by his own father.
Gable by his own life.
And Renault by his own father.
But he took those wayward souls and laid them all out in their place, built to last what would come next.
He lit a fire in them.
Not a real one, of course, but the kind that turns your rage into an inferno. The small spark of Sanctus and Renault meeting soon became a blaze that threatened to overtake OSW.
They defended their beliefs from the outside world, so resolute in their mission to resurrect Yahweh that they went to extreme lengths.
But somewhere along the line, they stopped feeding that fire. Maybe it was Starboy and TGK escaping their control. Maybe it was learning the true natures of their fathers. Maybe it was no one giving a fuck that Cael Gable’s boyfriend is trying to turn him into a sea monster.
Either way, the inferno that was Vayikra began to die out. Not with an explosion, but with the small whimper of a dying campfire.
Because they got so focused on their mission, their ideals, and their very lives that they forgot why Rhodes lit the fire in the first place.
The whole purpose of a campfire.
To protect them from the dangerous outside world.
So hi Vayikra, it’s me, I’m the dangerous outside world.
And I’m here for your asses.
It’s been a long night in OSW, and all of the terrors you swore to fought see the weakness in your eyes.
I see the weakness in your eyes.
And you bet your ass that Zero and Storm do too. They’re just like me, predators looking for easy prey.
You boys let your fire die during the night. You let personal grudges divide you, until you’re no better than those you once crucified.
As your campfire dies, the Bad Mother Fuckers rise.
One last time.
All that remains…