The Perceptions Of An Observer: A Short Story Collection

XII. The King

Perfection was the end goal of The King. The ending that was expected for him at his social standing.

Be the golden ruler. Be the example. Be strong. Be smart. Be handsome. Be perfect.

All of this came from what on the outside was a loving, nurturing environment of origin.

The palace of The King always seemed golden and beautiful from the exterior. Beautiful, clean, perfect like the rulers living within.

If only it was common knowledge that the rulers within weren't the golden citizens they were believed to be.

If only the true toxicity of these rulers, particularly the seniors above The King, was known. Even more particularly, the poisonous nature of the king before The King, the one who exerted his influence over his heir to the throne in the most dangerous ways thinkable and possible.

When the history of The King's lineage was examined, multiple questions always came to the minds of the scholars considering this history, none of which would ever have concrete answers. However, they all seemed to come to the same inference of what happened to this young ruler, the conclusion that the king before The King was the one that instilled his most dangerous ideologies into his heir. He was the one that taught The King how to desire perfection, no matter how much damage was done to the surrounding population in the achieving of the end goal.

He was the one that made The King the brutal monarch he was known to be.

In the words of The King in regards to his predecessor, it was evident that the effects he had were not those to be taken positively or lightly. It was all but clear that he had a toolbox of toxic beliefs in storage about how to rule, how to be the perfect ruler, how to be perfect in every aspect of a life well lived.

And with those tools he fixed up the next in line for the throne, installed his own beliefs straight into the hardware of a vulnerable audience that would soak up his beliefs like a sponge, a new model that would react well to changes in his wiring.

The King's predecessor was proven correct in his experimentation of the ways to alter a mindset of a youth. By the time The King took over the throne, made the kingdom his own, he was fully indoctrinated in the deadly aspects that made up what he was taught about perfection.

And these ideas would manifest into the beginning of the poisoning of the soil that made up his very kingdom.

The most particular case of The King's cruelty on the throne was none other than his infamous abuse of The Butterfly. It would not be fully forgotten in the course of history how, one day, without any explanation or reason why, an old friend was no longer good enough for his presence.

It would never be forgotten how The King took control of The Fish as a puppet of his, a willing servant that didn't see the malice in the monarch's actions, and decided to break down The Butterfly little by little until he was satisfied with his work.

It would never be forgotten nor understood why The King chose to poison The Butterfly and only The Butterfly at every turn, tear him apart like he was playing a game.

Nothing in the history of the world would ever turn stomachs quite like this methodical destruction of an old friend.

But even with that dark scheming in mind, The King's rule wasn't the worst the world had ever seen.

In fact, it was bliss compared to what happened next, the rule that came in because of The King's heart and his own selfish desires.

One day, one infamous day, The King fell in love. His one act of rebellion that would bring upon his kingdom dire consequences, falling in love with not a princess as had been hoped but with an old friend of his.

Maybe this would not have been as dangerous, as consequential as it was had that friend in his heart not been The Puppet Master.

The Puppet Master was already racing towards his destiny as the danger he was infamously remembered as, but The King was oblivious to this. His mind and heart were on a one way track, side by side, guided by being so hopelessly in love with the most challenging of public enemies to grapple with.

It would never be known if The Puppet Master loved The King back in the same way. He did act like it, but it could not be decoded by a single soul whether this was a genuine love, or if it were the manipulation wielded to gain power over the kingdom.

Not that he needed to do much manipulation on the matter, anyways. The King was so blinded by his love for The Puppet Master that he went as far as to sign away the rights to his kingdom and make it The Puppet Master's in a desperate act of love for this corrupted boy who wanted nothing more than full power over anything he could reach.

And this careless act of desperation was the one that threw the world into the most treacherous turmoil ever seen before.

The King's kingdom lost its lineage it had known for generations, became the fearsome place it had gained its reputation of being. The Puppet Master's kingdom, The Puppet Master's world, The Puppet Master's universe, usurpation disguised as love as he took control.

And all of a sudden, The King was desired as a ruler again.

He still had a spot on a ruling council, part of the exchange he made with The Puppet Master when he gave him his crown, but he was not the true ruler. Maybe if it weren't for lovesick actions, though, The King would not have grown more bitter and vindictive, a dangerous ruler in his own right, learning the tricks of his lover and parroting them back as the loyal partner he was.

The Puppet Master was the one believed to have made The King crueler, to have made him even more dangerous to cross. To have fueled his long ingrained perceptions of perfection and caused them to manifest into a storm that could suck up anything in its path.

The King had gone from a somewhat harsh and poorly raised boy to a force full of brutality, all because he was sidetracked by the pursuit of romance.

There was, admittedly, something both The King and The Puppet Master understood about each other, something similar between them and their youth and ideals that tied them together This was what was believed to have caused The King to fall in love as quickly and as hard as he did, but in the long run, these similarities made them even more toxic than before.

These similarities poisoned everyone else, poisoned the whole world.

And this poison turned an act of love into an act of bitter selfishness.