We find ourselves in a small gray room, eyes set upon a tall gray man. Aster Gray sits back in a chair, a pendulum sat in the center of a circle of dominoes. Gray grabs the pendulum, pulling it back and letting it swing.
“This,” he says, “Is a Foucault pendulum. It’s a strange little device that swings freely in place, oscillating in long ellipses once its set into motion. As it swings, the dominoes around it will slowly but surely begin to fall.” As Gray speaks, the device does as told, slamming into a domino and knocking it flat on its back.
“At first the order in which the dominoes fall seems quite random, doesn’t it? The ball swings back and forth without any rhyme or reason. Its destruction of the subjects around it seem, almost, accidental.” Gray chuckles as the device swings back, smacking another domino onto its back.”
“Again, you’d be mistaken. This little device is a bit of a paradox in of itself. You see, as random as its attack on the structures around it may seem, it is actually perfectly controlled. Depending on where you swing it from first, it will always go towards the domino directly across from its last victim.” The pendulum swings back, knocking over another domino just as Gray said.
“So,” Aster stops the pendulum, bringing it back and letting it go in another direction. “One with his knowledge can control the outcome of this experiment, forcing the pendulum to take out dominoes in any order they please.”
“Not unlike Lambs to the Slaughter, you know. Many of OSW’s roster find themselves as dominoes on a board, waiting for the pendulum to knock down all of the little pieces next to them. While some could say they have a plan, in the back of their heads they know, at any moment, they could be the next one with their backs on the floor.”
Aster leans forwards, watching the device knock over each and every domino in sequential order. Soon, however, only two dominoes stand tall. Before the device can swing, Aster grabs the pendulum, stopping it. “The pieces may fall, but only a man who sits outside of the black and white of reality knows just how much power they could have.”
Repositioning the ball, he drops it again, letting it swing forwards to knock down one more domino before swinging back, taking the last one down in one swift motion. “Everyone else views themselves as pieces on the board, dominoes waiting to fall. Some? Some may see themselves as the pendulum itself…”
Gray stops the ball in place, bringing it to rest in the center of the board. “But I’m none of the above. I do not move, I do not rest. Rather, I am the hand that sets this in motion. I will make the pendulum move as I see fit.”
“Pieces will fall as I decree them.”
“And in the end, when the pendulum stops by my hand?”
“Nothing will be black and white. Arcadia will be all Gray.”