“Oh Zeke, we keep doing this dance, don’t we? You take the lead and I follow, you’re always the star of the show as I fade into the background… In fact, you aren’t alone in that. There are two people who time and again, I have faced and I have failed – You and Anton Savor. You two have been the proverbial white whales. Fortunately, I am no ship’s captain, driven to madness… Just a humble fisherman’s child, with a rod, a line, a dream… And two feet planted firmly on solid ground.”
“I’m sure you would have yourself believe that our past interactions have been proof of your favour with the divine. We’ve seen how this confirmation bias pervades your thinking as you smugly paraded your Golden Ticket in front of Destructo, under the mistaken assumption that God has singled you out for fortune, and those you believe He considers worthy. So allow me to ask you… Why are you not undefeated?”
“That gold no longer adorns your waist. Your conqueror was not draped in the armour of faith, not wielding the sort of righteous wrath… Yet you lost. They were not a champion of The Lord, so there is only one conclusion – you are not blessed by an almighty benefactor. You are a human, nothing more and with enough patience and effort… The White Whale can be caught. What has happened before will happen again.”
“The difference between the captain and the child is one of obsession. The man was driven to madness when his obsession overcame his ability to bide his time… But the child has time in abundance. You see, if I catch a whale, I can feast in gluttony until the flesh spoils, but here’s the thing… I don’t need to rush. I know we are linked. I know we are bonded together by fate. We can only be so far away from one another, and as the threads twist and tangle… That distance grows ever shorter.”
“So, do I build a raft? Do I take to sea? No. I take my rod with my heart on the horizon and my eyes on the shoreline. I feel the tide lap against my toes and I cast my line. For tonight’s dinner, I will eat the humble tuna, not your blubber. To beat you, I don’t need to ‘beat you’, I just need to defeat the small fry and my plate will be full. Hatchet will be so much easier to land… And Nero already was. As I stay and survive, you will come to me.”
“You will encroach upon my domain to cast your eyes upon me, reeled in not by a rod but by destiny. You will think yourself safe… Until the tide rolls out. Your eagerness to win the fight means we never even raise our fists. You will wash ashore, you will drown in air… And then, I will have my white whale, and I needed no ships, no nets, no harpoons… Just a line, a rod, and some tuna fish.”