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The Monster in the Mirror

The reputation of the Titan Syndicate was growing by the day. The nobility feared, and the impoverished peasantry adored, the organization bent on upending the hideous status quo of Oplentis. As it’s leader and figurehead, the mysterious “Volpes” became a powerful voice for the voiceless.

In almost direct contrast, glowing heterochromatic eyes unrecognizably glared back at him from the mirror. It was true that the Titan Syndicate did much to improve conditions in the slums and the undercity. Free clinics ensured that the poor could always have access to life-saving medical care. Soup kitchens and food drives filled in nutritional gaps. He even personally ensured that the orphanages in his territories were running to his strict standards, so that those children would never grow up feeling alone, unloved, and unwanted the way he did.

But in a city like Oplentis, where everything and everyone had a price, such initiatives never came cheap. He had never felt a pang of guilt about siphoning funds from the nobility, either through blackmail, theft, or advantageous backroom deals. Nor did he mind strongarming his “fellows” in the Oplentian criminal underworld.

No, reflecting back at him were the days when the reality of running a criminal enterprise in the most corrupt city on the plane came into stark relief. The chemical additives he added to his transformative potion by his own hand, designed to make all of his elite “titans” fiercely loyal. The innocent witnesses who needed to be threatened into silence, when bribes and good will weren’t enough.

He gazed upon himself and saw loathing in his eyes, focused directly unto him. Would his younger self be proud of the lengths he had gone for the downtrodden? Would he have even recognized the monster-fox that his future self turned into?

Did he even recognize himself? Was this a mask or his own, brutal face?

This was a YCH from the ever-dependable Marsel-Defender that was perfect for Volpes, back when he was still the boss of the Titan Syndicate. The push and pull of who he wants to be and who he feels he has to be is something I think most people can related to (though hopefully most people go through that without the intense self-loathing Volpes does).