Promo: A casual stroll through the insane asylum..

[Atlas 0]

Fading in on the constantly moving view of a road, we're given an inside-the-car persective of Route I-90, headed for Chicago. As the camera zooms back, all we see on the steering wheel are two hands, carelessly controlling the car as the speedometer behind it borders on the eighties. As the view pans around the interior, parts of the SJL World Championship peek out of a gym bag placed in the passenger seat.

 

The dim glow of daylight reflects off its gold surface as the car steers down an exit ramp and quickly turns down a narrow road, passing right by a sign...

 

CHICAGO STATE HOSPITAL

A Cook County Insitution Facility

Est. 1912

 

Pulling up next between two vans, the driver stops the car and shuts off its engine. Stepping out, he surveys the scene: A gray building, no more than three stories above ground, surrounded by two chain link fences, the outer laced with barbed wire, the inner likely electrified. Walking parallel to the outer fence, Sean (whose face is never shown) begins to remember his time spent in the facility...

 

 

"Fourteen months in this shithole... fourteen fucking months. Why did he commit himself here? it couldn't have been the injury, he was fine after that... But he fell out of view too soon... people forgot and it drove him out of mind... But why here? Why Chicago? If he got out after just over a year, was he really that fucked up to begin with? He had to be. To spew out the kinds of thoughts he was spewing... The people he was quoting... Can't even get them out of my mind."

 

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"...Where, for example, while loading his ark, did Noah find penguins and polar bears in Palestine?? Where, dammit?! Answer me!!" Says a man with a black book in his hand, screaming at the top of his lungs at a panel of five elderly doctors behind a desk...

 

"But who? Who prays for Satan? Who, in twenty centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?!?" Says the same man, tied in a straight jacket, screaming at a mirror behind thick glass, inside a white padded room...

 

"God puts an apple tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and says, 'do what you like guys, oh, but don't eat the apple.' Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting 'Gotcha!' He says, standing in the courtyard with two chain link fences in the deep background. "It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it, because if you're dealing with somebody who has the mentality that likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them, you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end!"

 

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Out of the flashback scenes, we once again see Sean Atlas from behind, staring through the fences...

 

"He could have come back and been stronger than ever, allow people to see him for who he is... But no. No, he donned the mask. He hid his face away behind a piece of leather... I hid it. It wasn't him anymore... By then it was all me...

 

By then it was me who came in and demolished everyone. In a new group, surrounded by guys with much less experience... Who are they to tell me I'm wrong? To them I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the loyal opposition. To them I'm the loyal opposition. Does that make them think they're the holy fucking lord all of a sudden? No, I stand by the fact that we are all atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than they do. Once they understand why they dismiss all the other possible gods, they'll understand why I dismiss theirs...

 

It'll be over then. The hiding, the whole masquerade. Then, he'll be back. Fresh out of hiding, out of the hole he's been trapped in for years. Set loose on new challengers, on new crews... Yeah, he'll be back. Mightier than before, more powerful than before... And they don't even know he's coming..."

 

Quietly in the background, just as Sean ends his prophetic promises, Alice Cooper's words resonate through...

 

 

Oh, but he's back

 

He's the man behind the mask

 

And he's out of control

 

He's back

 

The man behind the mask

 

And he crawled out of his hole

[Guest Dace59]

I'll have whatever you're having from Atmospheres 'R' Us man.

 

Once again Champage flexes his kick ass promoage muscles.

 

Creepy work man, I like it.

[Guest TheBostonStrangler]

I agree with Dace on this one. The atmosphere was truly amazing. Keep up that quality of writing, man.

[Guest Powerplay]

"...Where, for example, while loading his ark, did Noah find penguins and polar bears in Palestine?? Where, dammit?! Answer me!!" Says a man with a black book in his hand, screaming at the top of his lungs at a panel of five elderly doctors behind a desk...

 

"But who? Who prays for Satan? Who, in twenty centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?!?" Says the same man, tied in a straight jacket, screaming at a mirror behind thick glass, inside a white padded room...

 

"God puts an apple tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and says, 'do what you like guys, oh, but don't eat the apple.' Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting 'Gotcha!' He says, standing in the courtyard with two chain link fences in the deep background. "It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it, because if you're dealing with somebody who has the mentality that likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them, you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end!"

 

This part of it is utterly brilliant. I'm sorry, but I'm just amazed at this piece as a whole, as well. Atlas = 0wnage. Blackwell and Crowe may have something to fear.

[Guest Crowe]

Fear? Ha, I laugh in the face of fear. That said, shit that was a cool promo and dude, love the mocking of bible tales. Oh, and is it just me... or does anyone else pick up a very Michael Myers/Halloween-esque influence on the Sean Atlas character? You know.. the whole mask, insane asylum, never showing the face etc...