the fall of ideals: chapter one - and the hero will drown

the fall of ideals
chapter one: and the hero will drown
prelude
september 2015
anaheim, ca

As promised, there was pancakes.

The table was always full for family meals, Jonathan Collins didn't like making food and letting it go to waste. If meals were to be made, they were to be made big and shared with those you loved.

Even if currently, they weren't that crazy about you.

"I'd ask if you all wondered why I called you here, but it seems like you all called me first," he told them, placing syrup at the middle of the table with one hand, and a big plate of freshly finished pancakes in the other. Around the table sat the inner circle of people he knew, loved, and trusted. Jimmy and Maggie Riley, his wife Fiona, his daughter Madison, one of his closest friends in Angela Jameson, and his tech girl, Ginny Gerrard. "Where's Daniel?" he asked her.

"He needed to start getting ready for his trip to Boston. He's doing pre tapes and I just...did you send him away because of this?" Ginny asked him.

"Well, it certainly gives him time to not think about this, which is kind of the point," he remarked after untying his "Kiss the Cook" apron before taking his spot at the head of the table. Even with the controversy, he was still the undisputed king of this family. "So where would you like me to begin?"

"You could start by explaining you and Furor at the end of Monday's show," Jimmy Riley quickly said. "How on earth did the two of you even start to get on the same page?"

"To understand how we got to here, we have to understand this has been close to a year running. And you have to understand that a lot of this has come before I had any intentions of it being brought to light. To be completely honest, thanks to the expediting of a lot of x-factors on Nicholas Gray's end, I'm doing something I've never done before," he explained, bringing a carafe of orange juice to the table for his family, pouring Madison's glass for her.

"What's that?" Fiona asked, eyebrow raised.

"I'm sort of winging everything by the seat of my pants. No plans, no Kansas City Shuffle, no idea. I'm kind of flying blind here," he confessed.

"So start talking, Jon," Angela said. "Where does this outburst, these files, and Christum Furor fit into all of this?"

"Alright. Let's go to the beginning. It was right after Autumn Effect 2 ended..."



the fall of ideals
chapter one: and the hero will drown
pt. 1
november 2014
la jolla, ca

The lights had been turned off. The RW students were helping a school clean up crew tear down the ring and make the open field they had held the Autumn Effect in nicer and as if EXODUS Pro had never been there. While the fans and the Sekigun had been celebrating the victory and rejoicing over the nails in the coffins of Chuck Matthews and Christum Furor, one man sat in silence.

Jonathan Collins had cost himself many, many things in the name of fixing EXODUS. He had lost credibility in the eyes of friends and fans. He had to take himself to places he hadn't normally gone to just to save the day. In short, he had spent a lot of the currency of goodwill that he had earned to make this plan work. Even if Andreas Lasiewicz had given him his full backing, Jon's insistence on being the silent general had forced a lot of people to look at him in a negative light, a position that he wasn't comfortable in, despite being thick skinned. And even then, after Fiona's big victory, he had a new threat it seemed, the black lantern that had enamored Brianna Singer and been left as a warning to his wife. Sitting there quietly, watching the crew clean up, Jonathan had felt very small in that moment and yet somehow like he had started to make the right decisions to help people, especially as a blonde woman came to stand next to him.

"You promise me he's going to get help?" she asked him.

"I swear to you he's going to be okay. As long as you've signed the papers to get him into care, I've managed to find one of the best therapists in the state to work with him. I don't know how long he's going to be away, and I don't know how long I can make this work, but I don't hate Magnus, I never have. I want him to get help, and I know that deep down inside whatever you could call this...Christum Furor...I know that it can be helped. Ms. Silver, I've done all that I can, the rest is up to him. I don't know what more I can tell you other than I can't promise that he's ever going to be the man you knew. Maybe he's not all that, maybe he is and it just needs to heal. Maybe he's some, maybe he's none. All I know is that I've done what I can for you and him," he told her, glancing at her. "He's going to need you to be there, because he's going to need support. I can't do that for him, because I'm going to be a reminder of the failure he's left here."

There was a moment of silence between Haven Silver and Jonathan Collins. Haven had been told for so long that Jonathan was the enemy. She had been informed that this man was the root of evil in her life, the man that had helped create Christum Furor. Even after the accusations and the pain he had put Jonathan, his friends, and his family through, Jonathan Collins had chosen to help him with no strings attached. It was a selfless motive few would ever really know besides Haven and him.

"I don't know if I can, Mr. Collins," she said quietly, fidgeting as nerves kicked in.

"But I do. You saw him at his best, and you've seen him lately at his worst and yet you came here tonight for him. I think that should tell you whether or not you're strong enough," he told her with a nod. "So go home, get some sleep, I'll have the doctor call you in the morning about when would be a good time to visit him," he told her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "If you need anything, I've given you my personal cell phone number. Call that one, I don't think it's a good idea for now people know Furor is still being looked after."

"Will they hurt him?" she asked.

"No, I just don't think they'd like to know the company that just rallied together to destroy him are going to help him get his head right and clear," Jonathan said as he looked at her. "I promise you, I'm going to make sure he's looked after. My sister is a fantastic therapist and Fur--Magnus has my support."

It was the last time Jonathan Collins and Haven Silver spoke that year. It would not be until almost seven months later that they would speak again.



the fall of ideals
chapter one: and the hero will drown
interlude
september 2015
anaheim, ca

"So you mean to tell me all this time, you've known where Furor was?" Riley asked him, pointing his fork at Jonathan, who simply nodded.

"I knew, Gray knew. We began putting together the War Room, the thing we all discussed in Japan when shit started getting exceptionally weird. I started to monitor Magnus closer when Michelle wound up taking the job as Director. It was a power play on my end, not because I wanted to shut Nicholas out, not because I wanted you out, but because I wanted to make sure I didn't push him to come back before he was ready. Say what you will about Furor, he is still a human being. And I know I can help him," Jonathan insisted, emphasizing his last point with a bang of his fist to the table.

"So where did it all go wrong?" Fiona asked. "Because as far as I can tell, he's the same old Furor, just a different miserable haircut."

"Where it all went wrong was Zack Lifer. Lifer changed something in Nicholas Gray, and I don't blame Nick for being mad about him. I never wanted Lifer around, and he trusted him. That trust, ultimately, brought a lot of this about," Jonathan responded.

"What the hell could that idiot have possibly done?" Riley asked him, Jonathan shaking his head and laughing.

"You mean besides pounding his chest and threatening everyone under the sun in an attempt to make himself sound like a big bad villain? Zack Lifer didn't do anything but unify Nicholas and I together. Something about Nick keeping secrets was gnawing at me, I can't explain why. I thought he was going to start letting me in on things until--" he went on before he got interrupted by a new voice entering the room.

"--he kept a major secret from brother mine, and that's where I come in," chimed in the voice of Mara Collins, another presence that didn't set well with Fiona. "Oh don't give me that look, I'm done beating you up," Mara told her with a smile before pulling up a chair and making herself a plate.

"Lovely," Fiona grumbled as she glanced. "Okay, so secrets from Nicholas Gray which may or may not be deadly. Where does Strike come into play on this?"

"Ooh, I've got this one!" Mara jumped in, a giddy little smile on her face while she clapped quickly like a tiny child, leaving the actual kid in the room to laugh. "So there's these marks Strike happens to be looking for. I was able to get that much from Brianna while I still had a hold on her. Then I realized the bitch is just fucking insane. Here's the story though...he's looking for marks Hal Snyder put on people, voluntarily and involuntarily. He's got one, Carey Caldwell has one, and I can tell you that I've got one, but he doesn't know ittttttt...." she said in a sing song voice before she stood up and revealed her calf to show a constellation in the form of Aries.

"Oh, lovely. I was wondering when we were going to get around to it," Riley said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"We have a jump on Strike knowing Mara is Aries. I've also been able to gleam that Carey Caldwell is Taurus, but I figured that's more than obvious at this point. The truth is, I don't know what his intentions are anymore, and I'm not exactly sure they're on our side. The reality is I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. You all don't want secrets? Well here's that. Here's the truth. There's a lot more going on here, and the last thing people in this room need happens to be blow back from my actions. Jimmy, Fiona, you're entitled to take my side if you want, but I'm not in this to hurt either of you here. Angela, same goes to you, and the same to you, Virginia. My actions are my own. I can't sit here and tell you that I'm going to take you to the promised land like I could last year. The reality is I'm going to make this up as I go along and pray that Furor doesn't double cross me when it suits him," Jonathan sighed. "I don't know who's going to have my back other than DeMarcus. Cthulhu has never exactly been an easy person to track down or work with. He does what he does, really."

"What do you need from us?" Fiona asked.

"Faith. Because I've finally lived long enough to see myself become the villain."