"Let's think about the future for a minute. I know Pentex is quite focused on the 21st century, and I need you to see that's what I'm targeting as well. I'm trying to broaden Avalon's efforts beyond churning out child killers and instead mold them into useful, eager citizens ready to consume whatever Pentex feeds them — perhaps not at present, but five, ten, even twenty years in the future. Tell me, Kathryn, what would you rather have, a 10-year-old who pulls the wings off butterflies and steals comic books from his buddies after raping the poodle, or millions of slack-jawed adults who gobble down O'Tolley's fast food as they mindlessly work in a Magadon assembly line? Wouldn't you say that's worth a little overlap in the present, with the voice-chip technology for example? Because those kids I'm trying to merely influence, as you've put it, are those glassy-eyed thirtysomethings of the next millennium."
— Daniel Dial, Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Subsidiaries: A Guide To Pentex
Meelak: The Establishment has sent out many messengers like you and Nerri, spreading the contagion for nearly 20 cyclesnote .
Varla: The contagion spreads quickly. It shows no outward symptoms. It merely waits.
Chiana: Waits for what?
Varla: A specific time, Chiana, ordained by The Establishment.
Meelak: We don't expect it to have infected entire civilizations. Only enough to throw those worlds into chaos, so that when our emissaries arrive, they'll be met with minimal resistance.
Chiana: [horrified] The contagion will take control of everybody it's infected... all on the same day?
Meelak: Hopefully not too long from now.
Varla: The contagion spreads quickly. It shows no outward symptoms. It merely waits.
Chiana: Waits for what?
Varla: A specific time, Chiana, ordained by The Establishment.
Meelak: We don't expect it to have infected entire civilizations. Only enough to throw those worlds into chaos, so that when our emissaries arrive, they'll be met with minimal resistance.
Chiana: [horrified] The contagion will take control of everybody it's infected... all on the same day?
Meelak: Hopefully not too long from now.
"And exactly how does one go about harvesting the ghosts of 100,000,000 dead people? Very slowly, and with the patience that only immortality can give you."
— Vampire: The Masquerade — Clanbook: Giovanni
Great Seo: I underestimated you. You planned this all along: you've been waiting for him all these years.
Great Quel: Days into weeks into months into years, Seo. Marking time... and watching. Always watching. After the fire at the clinic, I came to understand who he was, what he represented. The Doctor is as much a slave to his nature as we are to ours, and I knew then that he would come back. Time, for once, was on our side.
Great Seo: Singularity. It will be glorious... and we shall ride at the godhead!
Great Quel: Days into weeks into months into years, Seo. Marking time... and watching. Always watching. After the fire at the clinic, I came to understand who he was, what he represented. The Doctor is as much a slave to his nature as we are to ours, and I knew then that he would come back. Time, for once, was on our side.
Great Seo: Singularity. It will be glorious... and we shall ride at the godhead!
McCandless: Let me get this straight. You're planning to invade the planet... from inside a prison? I've got to admit, as plans go, it's pretty crappy! Couldn't you have picked somewhere a little less conspicuous? Once the authorities get wind, they'll turn this rock into a hole in the ground!
Sorrel: Perhaps... but they won't destroy us all. This plan has been millennia in the making. Some gateways will endure long enough to become bridgeheads and bastions. We only have to wait while we turn your world into ours.
McCandless: There are more of you?
Sorrel: Many more. In places just like this.
Sorrel: Perhaps... but they won't destroy us all. This plan has been millennia in the making. Some gateways will endure long enough to become bridgeheads and bastions. We only have to wait while we turn your world into ours.
McCandless: There are more of you?
Sorrel: Many more. In places just like this.
The dominion of the Chaos Dwarfs is a slowly expanding power, which has with grinding, calculated savagery carved itself a realm from one of the most deadly lands conceivable and its masters' dreams of conquest are things of brooding hatred and bitter perseverance. They are content to see their plans unfold over the course of centuries, perhaps even millennia until one day, all the world lies a blasted plain in which the Chaos Dwarfs stand unopposed and alone, save for their cowering slaves and the ashen bones of the dead.
For weeks, as it stared forever sunward with its strange senses, the Star Gate had watched the approaching ship. Its makers had prepared it for many things, and this was one of them. It recognized what was climbing up toward it from the warm heart of the Solar System. If it had been alive, it would have felt excitement, but such an emotion was wholly beyond its powers. Even if the ship had passed it by, it would not have know the slightest trace of disappointment. It had waited three million years; it was prepared to wait for eternity.
"The entire universe is just a reaction by the stone to Lotus's parasitic presence. Because that's what the old hag is: she's a leech. And the stone created the universe in order to get rid of her. The whole thing is like a giant immune system. It's a billions-year-old struggle between the stone and Lotus. Older than this universe. Lotus isn't as powerful and all the power she does have is borrowed, but she's smarter in the short run. That is her advantage. But the stone thinks long term. It's slow to adapt, a little dumb when you get right down to it, but it moves in ways too large for anyone, even her to grasp."
— Monster Dionysus, Monster
Sooner or later, the world's only consistent direction was backwards.
The only solution was a centuries-spanning stratagem known only as the Great Work, the end goal of which was to wipe the slate clean for all of Westeros and beyond. That primogenitor had prepared the way for the end, as had his successor, and her successor, and every living soul taken under the Raven's wing. And since the last of the Children had sacrificed themselves to pave the way for Bran's ascension, there were precious few with the power or the knowledge to stop him.
The only solution was a centuries-spanning stratagem known only as the Great Work, the end goal of which was to wipe the slate clean for all of Westeros and beyond. That primogenitor had prepared the way for the end, as had his successor, and her successor, and every living soul taken under the Raven's wing. And since the last of the Children had sacrificed themselves to pave the way for Bran's ascension, there were precious few with the power or the knowledge to stop him.
— (Il)Logical Conclusions: Chapter 6
"Five lives, Harry! Five more lives and I think we'll have it!"
—Vincent Rankin, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Mammoth Mogul: I shall use small words so you can follow. Twice I've risen to godhood only to fall in your presence. No matter what power I wield, the fates convene to ensure your victory. Even if I were to act now, something would thwart me or rescue you. It is a cosmic punchline I have grown quite weary of. The advantage I have is time. As an immortal, I can wait you out. I may not defeat you, but you will never know peace. Nor will your children...or their children.
Sonic: Vindictive much?
Mammoth Mogul: I call it "patience."
Gretel had prepared their escape long before they were captured. She had caused an innocent woman to kill herself, just to ensure one perfectly normal jar would be there twenty years later, exactly when and where they needed it. The sheer callousness rivaled anything ever done at the Reichsbehörde or Arzamas. But the scope of Gretel's machinations... It was a wonder Klaus's blood didn't crystallize in his veins. Gretel was weaving cause and effect across decades.
I made the decision then and there, that the Galactinsect King had to fall. And to make that happen...I would become a villain myself. My long, enduring days of planning began.
—Rcules Husty/Ohkuwagata Ohger, Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, "King Racules Secret"
