*Two glasses sit upon a table. Harvey Escher pours water from a jug into the first glass. The second remains empty for a moment until he adjusts the light at his table to reveal an unconscious man, strapped and posed on a nearby chair.*
“I’ve seen it written that blood is thicker than water.”
*Escher takes a blade, slitting the throat of the man. Blood drips down his neck, Escher collecting it in the second glass*
“To some, this speaks of friendship and loyalty.”
“In truth, this is a saying that speaks to what unites us. Some unities are as transparent as water. A unity of chance, thrust together through circumstance alone.”
*While the blood pours into the glass, Escher returns to the glass of water, swishing it about.*
“My friend here met a young lady at a bar last night. They shared a drink or three and a connection was made. But alas, that is all it was, a fleeting moment. A unity that only ran skin deep. He had no way of knowing who she really was loyal to, or what she truly was capable of.”
“Their water-thin union was but a fleeting moment beneath the sheets compared to the loyalty she holds for my art.”
“You Pool Boys are brought together by your shared baptism in the Odyssey Pool. Without that fleeting moment, your unity disappears. Somewhere in those bubbling waters, you found your connection to each other, but that connection is only as deep as the waters you were plunged into.”
“Without it, Doom loses his control. Without the pool, Father and Son return to their wayward relationship.”
“A relationship built on bonds of water merely quenches the thirst. True strength is built on something more.”
*Escher drinks the glass of water, then returns to the dying man. By now, the glass is full. He picks it up, swirling it like a glass of fine wine.*
“Other unities run deeper. A shared goal and the unrelenting drive for that goal no matter what stands in the path.”
“There is one thing that unites every member of the Uprising Narcissa has recruited to fight alongside her.”
“Blood.”
“Everyone on Deathrow is united by the blood shed to get there and the blood shed to survive there. It is blood that binds us, as we know exactly what lengths each other are willing to go to. We are united by the spilling of each others’ blood, and fight alongside those that spilled ours.”
“Our ties run deeper than water, for we fight for our very survival every day we are free. The Uprising are united by the bonds of blood, thicker than water.”
*Escher drinks from the glass of blood, smiling and smacking his lips together.*
“Blood nourishes the body. It sustains us.”
“Where bonds of water only run skin deep, the Uprising fight for blood. At Attitude, Roderick Pym and I will show everyone what happens when the bonds that unite us run truly deep.”
“Blood deep, because blood is thicker than the water of the Odyssey Pool.”