My friends are always poking me to watch or read this that and the other thing. For once, I had enough time to actually comply with their pokes. Their latest obsession was a supernatural drama named The Guardians. As I sat down to watch it with them, they started interrupting each other in their attempts to introduce characters when they came on screen during the opening sequence.
"That's Malique, that guy with the baby face. He's Sarah's guardian -"
"Which is funny because -"
"because he's such a sweetie pie, but she's - "
"a bi-"
"Mmmh! Anyway, but - "
"Ooh! Gentleman! He's great. You'll like him -"
"He's an angel!"
"Aren't they all?"
"Technically? but..."
While they argued, I tried to keep my attention on the show. The premise seemed to be that people in desperate straights would be visited and assisted by their guardians. A guardian is an angelic being that takes of the form of the closest thing to an angel in the culture of their ward. However, each guardian is specific to their ward, and the ward's personality can overpower their cultural identity when it comes to the sort of guardian they get.
"So guys, who's your favorite guardian?" I asked the still bickering duo. They broke off their discussion immediately.
"Kyo," they said in unison.
"Who's he?"
"See that guy with the knife?" one of them asked
"I thought he was a villain."
"No! Also, he doesn't take one ward at a time. He's got, like, 5. He's just that awesome."
Finally, the show actually began, cutting to an image of a rundown house at night, the lights off. Next image: Kyo, grilling up bacon. Next: three white theater masks resting on the arm of a chair, Kyo's back visible in the background. One mask is tragedy, one mask is comedy, the third looks warped, as though someone had squished it.
Another man, this one fat and wearing a grease stained undershirt, stumbled into the room, saw Kyo and turned beet red.
"Whah bloody'ell dyo think yer doin' in 'ere?!" slurred the man, doing his best to stumble threateningly towards Kyo. The guardian simply turned around, sticking a slice of bacon in his mouth like a cigar.
"I got hungry" he retorted through the meat, "Have a seat."
Confused, the man acquiesced and in doing so noticed the masks on the chair.
"Like 'em?" Kyo asked, making his way over to the chair. He picked up the squished one, flipped it once in the air, and held it over his own face.
"My model wouldn't stay still. Kind of pissed me off. It's hard to take off a face when they don't stay still. Maybe you recognize it. No?" He tosses the mask into the man's lap. "I'm not surprised. It's been a good 20 years since you saw your dad."
"Whaddaya dooda 'im!" the man shouted, leaping from his seat.
"What I needed to," Kyo replied. Almost lazily, he whipped out his knife. "Now let's get your face off."
"What the heck!" I yelled at my friends.
"Shoosh! Only guardians now."
Unsurprisingly, the man had bolted out of the room. Kyo was in pursuit, muttering to himself about how they always run. After a time, the man found himself cornered. He didn't try to fight Kyo or the tears.
"Relax. It won't hurt." Kyo ran his knife in a clear oval around the man's face, severing it.
However, instead of agony, surprise flashed in the man's eyes. Kyo lifted the face away, which hardened almost instantly into a mask. The man's new face was pinker and a bit smaller than the first one, but he didn't appear skinned.
"It, it didn't hurt!"
"Told you." Kyo put his knife hand back in his pocket, withdrawing another piece of bacon.
"I feel so much better! It's like, it's like I'm free!" the man exclaimed
"And apparently sober again. Funny how that works," Kyo commented, mouth full of bacon once more.
The show then moved on to other Guardians, like Gentleman, who spoke with a British accent and whose ward was 16 and believed she was a toddler.
Final verdict. Would dream again.
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