#they are minors and if you don’t agree then you’re uneducated | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dabi0118 · 3 years

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“You’re no better than predators grooming minors.”

Listen I completely agree with your sentiment no fucking minor should be interacting with 18+ spaces but are you fucking kidding me?

They are the minors, they endanger everyone in situations like that, most importantly themselves because they’re children and children cannot safeguard themselves

It is wild because I completely agree with you but that statement is maddening

THEY ARE THE ONES IN DANGER OF BEING GROOMED

They’re terrible people who are endangering themselves and creators but you don’t need to compare them to pedos to get that point across

Ohhh I'm sorry- no I'm not.

TW/CW: DISCOURSE, HARSH LANGUAGE, GROOMING, MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE, MANIPULATION, MINORS

First off, since ya know so much about child predators already, lemme just give you some quick definitions and examples of grooming.

If you so happen to grace us with your reading skills- grooming includes the act of manufacturing a FALSE BOND of trust in order to get something out of another individual. Which is what child predators do. When they groom minors. It is a valid comparison. And I'll tell you why.

Oh and another thing? Don't fucking talk to me like that. You don't know me.

You might think I'm just spewing bullshit out of rage, or you've already stopped reading at this point because you can't bear to accept my honest opinion- which by the way, fuck off. If you really hated my statement so much, just block me and ignore me. Can't believe I'm sitting here typing out a useless fucking response. But I'm going to, so you and all these other shit for brains can maybe understand where I'm coming from.

Didya know that minors can exploit/groom other minors? Okay. Well did you know minors could also do that to adults? No?

Well it happened to me. 😍

Now listen, I'm not talking about 12 year olds pretending to be 18 on roblox.. I'm not talking about 6/7/8 year olds stumbling on omegle. No.

I'm talking about 17 year olds who deliberately lie because they think- oh one more year isn't so bad. Then continue to build and form trust with adults who really don't want to be involved in this shit. Then they distribute harmful content to them. They possibly even make the really awful terrible decision of sending inappropriate photos to them- unsolicited!

I'm talking about 14 year olds like sugarbunkatsu- YES I'M NAMEDROPPING - who flew under everyone's radar and built trust by trying to "expose" minors herself- sending me and other people suspicious evidence of other accounts... Pretending to be 18 when she was really fucking 14. And she knew it was wrong. She knew. You know how many people were fucked up after that purge post?

In my case, when I was 18, I was mentally and emotionally manipulated and exploited by somebody younger than me. He was a minor. He knew he was doing it. He built false trust with me for years before this, making me believe shit, literally was overly nice to me just to paint a good guy act- and to top it all off, he painted me as the villain infront of family and friends.

Of course I got blamed for it, because I was the adult in the situation.

And even as I tried to cease contact and communication, he guilt tripped me. Made my life a living hell. I still have nightmares about him, and his entire presence still triggers me and fucks me up to this day. I am 22.

But I'm supposed to excuse that cause he was just a child and he can't safeguard himself right?

So yeah, as you can see, it makes me fucking mad to see minors do this. There's simply no excuse. It is predatory behavior to scope out ADULTS to interact with even when they see that big ass MINORS DNI on the front fucking page of 18+ blogs. It is GROOMING when they build trust with someone for some time just to get what they want- IN THIS CASE, it's NSFW roleplay.

Yes you're right, minors are harming everyone in this case, including themselves. But I'm talking about the fuckasses who know they are. The ones who think this is all a joke, or a silly little game to satiate their desires- which is OH!predatory behavior.

But

in the end.... Who gets blamed for all this shit? Us.

The adults.

We're the ones responsible for this bs even if we wanted nothing to do with it in the first place.

I made the comparison because I want everyone to know how fucking serious this shit is. I didn't make this comparison for fun, I didn't just take an uneducated leap of faith writing that shit. I meant every word. I WILL compare them to "pedos" to "get my point across" because they are acting just like those pedos that enrage you so much.

Of course, after all of this, if you don't agree with my opinion, or you want to keep fighting..

Unfortunately I don't have the time to sit around and explain myself for 5 hours just for my words to fall on deaf ears. If it's an argument you want, go fuck with someone else.

Goodbye. I better not see you in my inbox again.

#reaper.visits #trigger warning #content warning #fuck im so tired

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matthewtkachuk · 4 years

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mad woman - topper thornton

The one where Topper’s insecurities and jealousy have driven you mad

Warnings: toxic relationship, domestic abuse of the emotional/psychological/slight physical variety, gaslighting

Pairing: Topper x reader

Words: 2.3k

A/N: This is based on mad woman by T Swift. Y’all I just love folklore so much, I couldn’t help myself. Special s/o to my bb @jellyfishbeansontoast for encouraging me to write this one ILYSM 🥺

(gif found on tenor - pls pls let me know if it’s yours and i’ll credit you!!)

What did you think I'd say to that? Does a scorpion sting when fighting back? They strike to kill, and you know I will

Fighting with Topper is nothing new. He’s a full kook, living on mommy and daddy’s money, five hundred dollar shirts, five thousand dollar watch. You grew up on the other side of the island, mama shuffling three jobs on top of taking care of you, your father having bailed before you had even made your entrance into this world. His overprivileged upbringing causing him to spout off some really uneducated opinions about class and income disparity in your presence. He used to admire the way you would pop off, trying your best to educate the boy who had stolen your heart. He loved your fire and your heart and honestly it was kind of hot watching you get mad. Now it just annoys him, you can tell. He no longer entertains your rants, but rather shuts you up quickly.

“You know, those pogues just don’t work as hard as we do. That’s why they’re over there in their run down houses, and we’re here sipping expensive champagne on a hundred thousand dollar yacht.” Topper announces unexpectedly one afternoon as you sit tucked under his arm on the Cameron’s yacht. Your mouth falls open in indignation as his friends all agree with him.

You’re not stupid, you know the group you’re in don’t think highly of your kind, but they’ve always treated you with a modicum of respect as Topper’s girlfriend.

“Are you serious, Top? You think pogues don’t work hard enough? My mom works three jobs, Top. Three! I work two jobs myself, and here I am choosing to spend my very limited free time with you and you’re going to say shit like that.”

Topper rolls his eyes, reaching for your arm but you jump back from him. “Come on, y/n it’s not that serious, sit back down.”

“Not that serious? Fuck you Top, of course it’s not that serious to you. You don’t understand the meaning of hard work, you’ve never had to lift a finger to get to where you are.” You’re glaring at him now, so unbelievably frustrated that he’s stubbornly sticking to his earlier statement. “Take me back Rafe,” you turn your glare on Rafe who looks between you and Topper, clearly conflicted.

“Listen baby you’re being crazy,” Topper tries again to reach for you but you swat away his hand.

“I’m serious Rafe, take me back or I will jump off this boat and swim back.” You threaten your boyfriend’s best friend. Despite his earlier aggressions against your friends, he’s always treated you the best since becoming Topper’s girlfriend. And he knows you’re more than likely serious, so he sighs and steers the yacht back towards the docks. You sit on the other end of the boat, ignoring Topper’s attempts to half-heartedly apologize.

The second you near the docks, you don’t waste any time waiting for Rafe to tie the boat to the dock, you make the jump unaided. You see JJ and Pope giving you a concerned look from Heyward’s boat. Their concern only grows as Topper yells your name and tells you to come back. You don’t even look back as you throw your middle finger at him over your shoulder before hopping into Heyward’s boat.

They try and ask you if you’re okay and what happened, but you just shake your head and tell them you don’t want to talk about it. You hear Topper swear as he hits the dock, not fast enough to reach the boat before JJ is driving off.

Your friends don’t like him. They really, really don’t like him. Years of bad blood between him and all of you have them suspicious and untrusting. You don’t fault them for that, having been witness to some of the worst kook v pogue showdowns, but you know both sides have their faults. Sure Topper was responsible for ratting out Pope which resulted in JJ going off the rails after being forced to pay 25k in restitution, but Pope sunk his new speed boat.

But your friends said they would try, for you, and so you don’t really want to get into the specifics of why Topper has made you so mad, lest they renege on their deal.

Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy What about that? And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry

You’ve cooled down by the time night rolls around, and so you find yourself sitting on the beach between Topper’s legs, your back pressed to his chest and his arms wrapped around your middle. You’re enjoying the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach and the feel of your boyfriend wrapped around you when he has to open his mouth and ruin the moment.

“I don’t understand why you have to get so crazy. I was just talking with the boys,” he murmurs behind you. You can’t tell if he’s actively trying to rile you up or if it’s just a side effect of his lack of courtesy.

“Crazy?” You ask him incredulously before repeating yourself, “Crazy?! Oh I am sorry for being so insane standing up for my mother. How would you like it if I made a comment about your mom, huh?”. You struggle against him, but he links his arms around you tighter.

“Hey, calm down! I didn’t say anything about your mother, you’re the one just looking for something to be angry about.” He replies, more than a little annoyed at your combative response.

You throw his arms off of you, angrily scrambling to find purchase in the sand to pull yourself up. “I’m not looking for anything! You drive me crazy, you make me angry!”

You were never the most combative of people, growing up around JJ you let him be the hotheaded one whose temper flared at every minor sleight. You on the other hand preferred to sit back from the action, only stepping in when your friends were in trouble.

Topper brought out another side in you. At first you thought it was a good thing, he made you feel so much, made you so passionate.

“I’m sorry baby, I didn’t mean it like that,” he sighs as he stands up to walk in front of you, grabbing your hands.

“Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy,” you admit to him, “and when you say I seem angry I only get more angry. Why are you trying to antagonize me?”

He drops one of your hands to rest one on your face, letting his thumb stroke your cheekbone first and then your bottom lip. You look up at him

“I don’t mean it like that, you know that baby.” He leans in to kiss you and you let him, “Can you just try and be a little more calm and unassertive around my friends, you know it bothers me when you act out like that.”

“I know,” you reply quietly, all fire in you extinguishing further with every press of his lips to yours.

“Thank you, baby. You know I love you, all of you. Even the scrappy, crazy, angry pogue parts of you,” he kisses you again.

You think his words are supposed to be a compliment, but they just sit around in your gut causing you discomfort.

No one likes a mad woman You made her like that And you'll poke that bear 'til her claws come out And you find something to wrap your noose around

“You’re cheating on me aren’t you?” He yells, under the influence of several beers and at least one line of coke you imagine. You roll your eyes, attempting to push past him, not wanting to get into this again. Especially not in his inebriated state. He has other ideas though, spinning you around by grabbing your wrist before pushing your shoulders into the wall, caging you in between it and his warm body.

You struggle against him, “what the fuck Top get off of me!”. He only presses you into the wall further.

“Answer the fucking question, y/n. Are you cheating on me with one of your shitty little pogue friends?” He spits in your face, anger taking over his usually delicate features. As you look into his blue eyes, pupils dilated almost entirely, you realize you don’t recognize this Topper.

Topper has always been jealous and insecure, Sarah Cameron really did a number on him when she went and shacked up with John B behind his back. You had tried your best to reassure him at every turn that you weren’t Sarah and you would never do that to him, but that didn’t stop him from blowing up with jealousy over your friends. It probably related to the fact that you hung around Sarah and John B, or maybe your close friendship with Pope and JJ. Topper was jealous of how close you were with all of them, sometimes angrily calling you every five minutes when you were alone with any one of them.

“Of course not, what are you talking about?” You shout back, hands wrapping around your body defensively.

“I’m not fucking stupid, I know you’re doing something with one of them, so which is it? Heyward? Maybank? Or do you share Routledge with Sarah?”

You’re trying to placate him, but he just keeps poking and poking, “I’m not fucking any of them, God Topper what the fuck?”

“You’re just a stupid pogue whore,” he snarls at you, shoving you harshly against the wall once more before letting you go. You cry out, as your head smashes against the wall painfully, causing you to see stars.

“Fuck you Topper,” you seethe, pushing him back with all of your strength. The alcohol coursing through his veins causes him to stumble a bit more than he would have sober, allowing you to escape. “It’s fucking over!”

“Good, I never fucking loved you anyway,” he shouts back at you, “It was just a game, to try and fuck a pogue and make her fall in love with me.” You feel his words like a noose around your neck, pulling tightly and suffocating the breath right out of you.

You’re sobbing, unsure of how you managed to escape that house with Topper’s words chasing you the whole way. Every kiss, every word, every I love you passed through your mind. You gave him your virginity for fuck’s sake, you gave him every part of you and he had taken everything from you, thrown it in your face, insulting you and calling you a whore.

You know you can’t go home like this, so you head to the one place you know you’ll be able to find comfort, walking into the Chateau and directly into Kie’s arms.

Now I breathe flames each time I talk My cannons all firin' at your yacht They say "move on," but you know I won't

You’re angry now, the spell broken between you and Topper. Realizations of the months of gas lighting and emotional abuse crashing into your world view like the waves in tropical storm. You recognize that your months of excusing his behaviour based on what he went through in the past was just that – excusing his shitty behaviour. His prior relationships had nothing to do with you, and it wasn’t right of him to take it out on you.

You spend many nights ranting and raving to the pogues, who mercifully limit their ‘I-told-you-so’s under the threatening gaze of one Kiara Carrera.

“I can’t believe I was blind for so long, I let him treat me like shit and I pushed you guys away.” You’re laying on the bow of the HMS with Sarah and Kie beside you.

“It’s not your fault, y/n/n, believe me,” Sarah tells you, running a hand through your hair soothingly.

“I don’t condone cheating, but I almost understand why you did it,” you admit tearfully to Sarah, who only smiles at you.

Two weeks pass like this, before JJ interrupts your ranting telling you it’s time to move on and that any guy would be lucky to land the hottest chick on the island. The sentiment makes you smile, but you know you won’t be able to move on. Not just yet. Topper had your whole heart and had tossed it onto the concrete, shattering it into a million pieces.

The pogues decide the best cure for heart break is to throw a wild kegger and let you get drunk out of your mind to forget. JJ even gives you a joint, winking at you and telling you “hydroponic” before throwing finger guns at you and walking away. Things are going well, you’re three or four beers in, all cares thrown into the wind when your spine stiffens as you spot Topper.

You catch his eye from across the boneyard, your pulse painfully beating in your ears as your traitorous heart races at the sight of him. He’s got his arm around some pretty little kook who you’d only really seen at Figure 8 parties he had dragged you to. You think there’s a little guilt in his expression, maybe a little longing and regret too, but his arm remains firmly around the girl. She looks up at Topper, before following his gaze right to you. You see her tense, and then relax as you hear clear as day not to worry, that you’re just some crazy pogue.

You meet his eyes again, mouthing “Fuck you forever”, before leaning into Kie’s side as you walk back into the thick of the party, letting Topper tell the next girl you’re just a mad woman.

No one likes a mad woman What a shame she went mad You made her like that

obx tag list (ily guys!!): @danicarosaline @velyssaraptor @copper-boom

#obx #obx fanfiction #topper obx #topper x you #topper x reader #topper imagine #topper fanfiction #topper thornton x you #topper thornton x reader #topper thornton imagine #topper thornton faniction #diverdcwn writes #t swift folklore #songfic

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dystopiandilfs · 3 years

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I just remembered some other things that really annoy me so here's another list.

Repost tiktok and Instagram accounts especially ones that don't give credit.

The honey chewing videos like stop looking at the camera whilst you eat honey it's gross fuck off.

People who shame interests that don't match theirs. Like not a football stan account shaming someone for liking Minecraft. Their interests have nothing to do with you and yours has nothing to do with them so leave them alone.

Adults who fake having child like mannerisms like taking small bites of foods and trying to look cute and childish.

People who think that only child means snobby. Especially when most kids are the only child because their parents couldn't afford to pay for more than one child. We're not in a wattpad story where the rich bully is an only child.

Daddy Long legs and stick insects.

People who try to force their opinions on others no matter the subject like let people have different opinions and ideologies than you.

People who think that not downloading tiktok is a flex or a personality trait.

People who pretend to be living under a rock it's not making you a unique person.

I don't like people who gatekeep "fandom" things like i promise you a 13 year old discovering MCR isn't going to ruin it for you but if it does that's completely on you not them, you're the one getting offended over someone else's entertainment.

People who spend time defending their favs from the general public. The person you're defending doesn't care and in a week the person you were fighting will have forgotten that some random fan account started attacking them for having an opinion.

People who try to assign colours to school subjects and then fight over it. It's a colour and subject why are you upset over it.

Artificial fruit flavouring especially banana.

Healing and meditation stuff. If you like it and believe it that's fine but my ADHD can not sit still for that long and listen to some woman ramble about inner peace and tranquility.

People who claim that new fans ruin things. For example saying that the original Harry Potter fans were way better than the new ones is weird like it's not that deep and I'm sorry you can't handle change but get out of the past grandma.

People who shame situations like why are you bullying a child for having lice, why are you bullying someone for being uneducated on things. Same as poor shaming. That's weird.

Instagram couples.

Burner accounts made with the sole purpose of bullying people like do it on your main account you fucking coward. At leas they're open about their opinions instead of hiding anonymously.

Carrds. Especially ones used as informational things.

The phrase "through thick and thin" or "through all the ups and downs" being used in celebration or anniversary posts like that is low-key a backhanded compliment. We're still together even after the 6 times you cheated on me = We've been through thick and thing together.

Stairs without railing or with gaps in-between them. I hate them.

People who use their minority card as a way to get things. "You have to agree with me or you're racist" or "@ *insert celeb* follow me or you're homophobic" Same as guilt tripping people by using the minority card and trauma card. Like I'm sorry your whole family got eaten by a dragon but it doesn't give you the pass to be a demanding bitch.

The whole "Android is worse than iPhone" and "Android user derogatory" thing. First off the only reason is because iPhones can't save android photos without ruining the quality which is by the iPhone fault. Secondly it's poor person shaming. Like why is it any of your business what phone someone uses they all have the same functions. Like I hate to break it to iPhone users but you're literally being ripped off, you can get the same phone or an even better one for less than half the price.

Unsolicited dick pics and people who blackmail using revenge porn. Both of which is illegal might I add both under sexual and cyber harassment.

People who shame things like tattoos, piercings and dyed hair. Like let someone express themselves they're not harming anyone by tattooing a heart on their wrist and getting a nose ring.

#things that annoy me

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olivieblake · 3 years

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Have you discovered any people you causally know who are actually much worse than you thought this year olivie? I cut out facebook completely cause of someone who was giving me anxiety but saw something he said today via a friend and I was just like wtf. He’s still using year old talking points about how we should have only locked down the elderly and let the rest of us carry on which 🙃 and he actually said whoever dies after that its for the greater good which is so icky? it feels like bio fascism or something. He literally compared it to going to war and dying (I never signed up to go to war thanks) He makes it seem like he’s more altruistic for being willing to “lay down his life for the good of the next generation” as if the rest of us are selfish for attempting to live. The good of the next generation was mentioned so many times but it falls flat when he’s against anything that actually helps the next generation. It’s like taxation is theft, no mandatory raises for minimum wage workers cause companies should decide that on their own, teachers striking for better conditions should be illegal, he hates “socialism” it ruins creativity and socialists want to destroy the middle class take their money and give it to the ultra wealthy - which tells me he doesn’t understand socialism at all, but ya he ironically hates all social programs that actually benefit the greater good but don’t benefit him ... the math isn’t mathing lol. So he’s a a fairly standard libertarian/conservative I guess. He also mentioned that the majority often paints the minority as uneducated when historically the minority is usually proven right which idk if that’s really a big issue I mostly thought it was a bad take lmao. I’m just venting/gossiping now so I feel bad. To wrap up I try to critically examine my own thoughts I don’t think I have it all right so I have a hard time figuring out what to do about people I so strongly disagree with. I don’t want to be that person who only engages with people I completely agree with and yet “If you die in a pandemic oh well at least I got to shop in a store that didn’t have to limit its capacity” is a hell of a take. I know a lot of people can’t wait to get back around people but I’m really not looking forward to being around all the newfound people I secretly don’t like😭 (I can’t disengage either I know him through the work I do with his kids so I’ll see him and I’ll have to remain professional lol.)

I honestly feel like I fall through the twilight zone every time I open any form of media that isn’t tumblr (which is a crazy thought on its own). this whole year (actually, since 2016) has been an extremely alarming experience in “who doesn’t believe in obamacare” and “who will attend weddings in the wake of a mass pandemic” and it’s honestly not very fun. it’s very much a thanks, I hate it situation

we discussed something like this last year (here is the original question, here is the answering video) about engaging with people whose ideologies differ from yours, and.... I have to say I don’t have a lot of patience for the argument that we need to see both sides when it comes to like, the fundamental value of human life...? The idea that you should engage with others who have different experiences from yours does not include those whose privilege insulates them from marginalized experiences, or whose ideological beliefs are rooted in misinformation, which is itself a result of insular privilege. where would he get these beliefs if they did not already benefit his position in society, you know what I mean?

I don’t think you’re required to engage him in any form of discourse (in fact, don’t, it would only reinforce his belief that he has a valid argument to begin with) but I get that it’s hard to dismiss the sensation that you’re taking crazy pills. I don’t know if there’s much to add on the subject, but I will add it to the list of things to discuss for next week, because yeah. it might be worth it just to vent about how bizarre and harmful certain popularized ideas have become

#olivie blake is not writing #Anonymous

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northoco · 28 days

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sonadow songs

a thing i’ve been thinking about recently is sonic songs that specifically resemble sonadow

now bare with me because i swear i have a point

the songs i think fit most are both adventure 2 songs, one of which is obvious and the other not at all as it’s a pretty underrated song!!

the obvious one is live and learn! the lyrics just scream sonic, and specifically him being the pov singing to shadow

sonic beats shadow around twice in the game, same for shadow beating sonic depending on if you play hero story or dark story — that second line to me is practically just sonic saying that. life is complicated, ‘tangling you up inside’. one moment the guys on the floor and the next hes towering above him, it goes both ways. right after that we have:

knowing roughly about the pain he’s dealt with and all he’s paid for, even if undeserved. however by following that grief and negative expectation from others he’s practically pulling himself further down, ‘putting him right back where he came’

then it hits with the live and learn which is obviously just the. you know. final kick. however the bridge sort of just beats you when you’re down because johnny what the fuck is this

this is just painful (in a sweet way). to me it’s sonic giving shadow that final hope. the entire rest of the song is pretty aggressive, kind of just yelling to live and learn and get over things but the bridge is such a gentle reminder of why he should do it in the first place. ‘hold on to what if’ aka the what if that shadow will move on from the ark and learn to live. that place sonic is referring to the line before is peace and home.

and then live and learn and shadow fucking dies lmao

but i mentioned two songs!! and that’s because the other song is shadows perspective which is somehow more miserable

this song is none other than supporting me for the biolizard, one of my probably top five sonic songs if not number one. i love it so much it’s so perfect

this song is pretty over looked. you hear it in the biolizard fight but you don’t really listen to the vocals. hell when i first played i didn’t even hear the vocals because i was too busy trying not to fall down the streams and slam my laptop in

the song, unlike live and learn, starts out gentle and soft, and only after the guitar picks up does the first line drop:

after all, it’s what shadow assumes is the final fight. it’s what he thinks is the last thing he needs to do to destroy the threat, hence the desperation.

the verse eventually comes, which could not start harder somehow

now, important. this song could be viewed as a song about maria and his final words to her before he moves on (which you’ll understand when i bring up the next lyrics) and that’s a perfectly good interpretation of it, and probably the intended one.

HOWEVER, it can still be interpreted as a song to sonic, and there will be more on that soon.

anyway, these lyrics are just so good and well sung. the line “i believe in my future, farewell to the shadow” is him accepting the idea of moving on once defeating the biolizard, and believing in what’s next to come via abandoning his past with the destruction of the ark.

‘it was my place to live, but now i need your hand’ the sibling/maria interpretation would be the fact maria died in what shadow thought was his place, and now he needs her support in?? i can’t exactly figure out the last line and it’s tie to maria— WHICH IS WHERE THE JOINT SONADOW INTERPRETATION COMES IN! it was his place to live, it’s his realisation and moving on of his grudges and self + outward hatred. he needs sonics help, and the thing that makes this more fucking painful is the fact it’s a FORESHADOWING OF THE SUPER TRANSFORMATION WHERE THEY REACH THEIR HANDS OUT TO THE SKY TOGETHER.

SHADOW TAKES HIS HAND METAPHORICALLY AT THE FIRST BIOLIZARD FIGHT AND LITERALLY AT THE SUPER TRANSFORMATION.

‘lead me out with your light’ and the line below it to me is what slowly underlines the tie to sonic. he spoke to amy shortly before this fight, and then went straight to sonic, being led out by his guidance to help save the world, the light that he was trying to destroy.

and then the fucking HOLY SHIT THIS PART

this is a straight follow up from the last line before. everything currently IS like an illusion to him, so much is changing and he can barely comprehend its reality.

‘i’ll be losing you before long’ WHICH PLAYS RIGHT AFTER THE LIVE AND LEARN RIFF???? it’s a strong foreshadowing of his death, and the person he’ll be losing is sonic!!! before long!!! it can also be mixed with maria. he’s losing both him and maria by destroying his home and what’s remnant of its present.

the last lines here are what really made me believe this was more towards sonic lmao. ‘i know you are supporting me’ as sonic is currently doing his part in the fight whilst shadow is facing the biolizard. he knows he’s supporting his decision to join his side, and to realise what the right path is.

anyway that’s about it uh shadria and other weirdos dni also go listen to supporting me

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mueritos · 4 years

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Not voting is never the educated option. You're leaving decisions up to other people. It's a copout so people can say "oh well it wasn't my choice". You have to do research and vote for the lesser evil. Make the poles see that young people ARE voting. We are the biggest demographic and we should be voting so politicians wise up and see we care

We’ve been taught that not voting is seen as going against our civil duty, and we often believe that if you don’t vote then you’re obviously contributing to the problem of a shitty president being elected, etc. There are numerous reasons people don’t vote (”educated” or not) and its highly privileged to assume everyone does and should.

At times we do not want to vote for the “lesser evil”, because it is still evil. I would not blame anyone for refusing to participate this year; Trump and Biden are essentially the same evil person. Young people may not be voting, but they are participating in many other ways (canvassing, rallies, policial associations, clubs, volunteering). Many people cannot vote because they are undocumented, are incarcerated, or there are structures in place to make voting or registering to vote incredibly difficult (black/brown neighborhoods).

The choice to not vote is definitely an educated one and has been used by grassroots activists, anarchists, and a lot of indigenous peoples who reside in the colonized state. Refusing to vote is an act of decolonization. Imagine what would happen if millions of people just decided not to vote? Some may call that complete chaos, but it might just be proof of rejecting an incredibly failing system that was already designed to not give voice to certain people. And it is not someone’s fault for not voting and the wrong person gets voted into power; the electoral college exists in this country and its existence in itself marginalizes black/brown/indigenous voters and voices. There’s already so many issues with polls in this country (long lines, unable to take off work, inaccessible polls, harassment) and even structural problems (gerrymandering, etc). There are a lot of leftists movements who refuse to participate in the system here because it is broken beyond reform. The country is increasingly moving to the right, the Democratic Party is defending fascists, and any true leftists politics here gets shut down, censored, silence, or disappeared.

I agree that voting is all we have, but so is the choice to not vote. I dont ever intend to tell anyone what to do with their civil duty, I simply would prefer people to shed the rhetoric that not voting is stupid or bad. I also already explained that I personally would vote whenever I can, but I also wouldn’t feel bad about not voting. If anything, local elections impact a person’s immediate community more than presidential elections, so voting in those are definitely important. In fact, I’d argue they’re more important. We won’t be able to change the fascist political system in place now by the top down, its by the bottom up. If we put judges, senators, governors, etc, in place that care for the working class and minorities, then it would only continue to trickle upwards.

While there are certainly people who dont vote because they feel their voice won't count or just because they dont care, those are still educated choices because it requires an understanding, and that understanding is that the political system is a failure to the marginalized and always has been.

Overall, I do agree that we should be voting and that if you are able to you should do it. But we shouldn’t dismiss those who dont as uneducated. Bernie is still on the ballot and I will be voting for him, as will everyone hoping that Biden does not get the nomination. But there's a growing movement of rejecting the establishment, and with that is the refusal of voting between a piece of shit rapist and a piece of shit rapist, regardless of party. Biden and Trump are the same person, dems do not even do a good job representing the voices of the marginalized (there are obvious exceptions like AOC, Omar, and Bernie), and this country is becoming disturbingly fascist.

Hope that helps.

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kapowtownsims · 4 years

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I agree anger is a powerful tool if utilized properly. And what simv*cii and co. has said was horrifying. But our anger doesn't have any direction. We need a goal to lessen discrimination on simblr. Cancelling people is warranted in this case, but sometimes we jump the gun. Anyone can choose who they want to follow, but ganging up on people when they might just be uneducated and threatening to do it to people who don't follow you is an overreaction. We need balance, anger and mercy, we need to ask ourselves if what we want is change or to punish people. None of you are perfect people, not a single one and one day you too will slip up. You cannot expect everyone, regardless of nationality, age and class to be educated about every single social issue, you aren't either, stop acting like it.

I apologize for being angry, but simblr has to learn some nuance soon.

wow hello

i’m kinda confused why all this talk of “none of us are perfect” and “stop acting like you’re educated about every single issue” and even “canceling” or “threatening” is being directed at me.

all i said in my post was that anger is productive and we have a right to be angry. clearly you agree with that, as you said so.

i never said i was perfect, or immune from making mistakes, or educated on every issue. i know that i’m not. however, the way i see it, i try. every day i try to be better. and i know, that if i ever behaved the way simvicii and co. did, i have friends that would never let me get away with it the way they did.

i think our anger does have direction. whether you agree with that or not is up to you. i don’t believe anyone is being needlessly “canceled” and, as i’m sure you’ve seen the screenshots, these people may be beyond being kindly educated. some people just don’t want to learn. not to mention, teaching people how not to be racist is not the responsibility of minorities or those who advocate for them. you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

you took my post and made it about a lot of things that it wasn’t about, like “canceling” and my own personal merit. you made some valid points, and it seems like you really needed to get them off your chest, i’m just confused as to why you came to me.

again, all i said was that anger is productive and that we have a right to feel the way we do. i’m just a small blog, and i have a good bit of privilege myself, so i can really only speak so much about these topics. i think your energy would be better put to use somewhere else.

#?????????#anon

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eor-interaction · 3 years

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It's just a little mean to imply that fat is good and thin is bad when both types are good

Wow! You really came all the way to this blog!

Look. I'll be nice- as nice as I can, given how disgusted I am with your last ask, and believe me, I'm furious- and i'll explain why I think you should be ashamed of yourself and why you should reconsider how you treat others. I don't want to block anyone who hasn't yet seen an explanation and had time to consider their actions, so I'll give you this.

You really didn't imply ANYTHING of the 'all bodies are good' sort when you came in my inbox spewing disproven science in an attempt to shame and other fat and chubby people. I really doubt your good intentions and your "both are good" when you decided to state that any body type that isn't Chara's extreme ectomorph is unhealthy in a very snide manner showing clear disdain. If you'll see the things I've reblogged, you'll know health and weight don't connect. I'll re blog even more tomorrow. Just for you.

Minority groups get to joke about the people who have harmed them without someone coming in and pulling a 'that's not nice.' And if you'll note, I was also making it clear that Chara's body was right for them in another ask... Beyond that, all I made was a playful joke that amounted to 'skinny people aren't cool haha." If you take sincere offense with that, please, for the love of God, I hope you're in middle school, because someone 16+ getting offended by that is just fucking embarrassing. If I said 'skinny people smelly' would you be upset?

So, let's break it down: either you have the emotional skin of an infant, OR you just don't like fat people joking about being better than the people who dehumanize them.

If you're LGBTQ (because most of my followers are), would you bitch about people jokingly saying "haha cishet people aren't in the cool kids club," too? Or is it only fat people, who are routinely dehumanized and medically abused based on misinformation that has been proven false, that don't get to have fun calling themselves better? Do minorities not get to joke about the people who hurt us? Me saying 'cis people smelly' doesnt compare to the medical abuse I've faced from transphobes. It's me joking. (If you are LGBTQ and that bothers you than you should probably just leave.)

I agree that body shaming ANYONE is not okay. But... Did I say anything other than a playful "Chara is slender and isn't allowed to be cool 😔" that implied genuine distaste or disregard for their body? Did I do anything but make a playful joke that is absolutely nothing compared to the dehumanization fat people face for existing while being fat? No. I made a playful joke about how skinny people arent in the cool kids club. The chubby kids club. Which Chara is not a part of because they are not chubby. They are not real and real skinny people aren't being excluded from anything, they're the ones telling fat people that they're too fat to be a part of skinny people's clubs and lives.

Note how I even follow up later with an ask stating that Chara is in the right body for them.

I am absolutely disgusted with anyone who responds in such a way- body shaming children!- fictional or otherwise. Your last ask was repulsive and you should be able to take a light-hearted joke without acting like this. You need to understand that it is not okay to speak to people that way and shit on anyone for their bodies, because for all your 'all bodies are Good' drivel, your ask made it clear that you think fat bodies are inherently unhealthy, period. All it did was expose your true colors.

If you're autistic and legimately misunderstood my tone, then let me explain: It shows a massive lack of compassion and a massive amount of entitlement to jam your face in going "HEY WHAT ABOUT ME" whenever minorities joke about being the best when they've been treated subhuman for so long. It shows a profound level of disdain for fat people, subconscious or otherwise, if your instant response to them joking about being better then others is to shame and treat them like they're sick based on the sole fact of being fat. Which, as modern research actually SHOWS, is completely inaccurate.

Your response was disgusting and bigoted, and I'm not tolerating that kind of repulsive behavior. I'm not exposing my EOR followers to it. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Make an honest effort to educate yourself until you genuinely believe and understand that both are good, not just when you're being called out, or shut your fucking mouth about the bodies of people that are not you. Did you want me to post the ask and remind all the fat and chubby teens following that people still think they re repulsive? Do you go and tell little kids theyre going to die young for being fat? Come on.

It says a lot that you went on anon to send these. I think you know what you said was wrong (or you're afraid that people will hold you accountable for the way you acted. I don’t post off-anon urls because I know how tumblr is, so you wouldn’t need to worry about that anyways. I don’t really WANT to know who you are, though.)

Got it? You're more than welcome to unfollow if any of this bothers you, but you are even more welcome to stick around and see what happens and why Frisk is better off the way they are.... As long as you quit being a hateful person.

edit:

And one more thing- if you were truly concerned that I was shaming Chara, you would have said that first. In which case, I would have been fine clearing up that I was just joking and Chara’s body is right for them! I could’ve even done it in character and had some fun with it to show just how genuinely it doesn’t matter.

But you didn’t do that. You didn’t send anything specifying you felt it was mean until after I called the first ask out.

No, you saw me joking, PLAYFULLY, about fat and chubby people being better, and decided to send something hateful- or, at the very least, EXTREMELY ignorant. And I can understand ignorance and being uneducated- not everyone has access to information and biases can be hard to unlearn! I can understand that. I can forgive that if someone genuinely wishes to change and learn.

I would really, really like to believe in the best of people. I want to believe people can learn. But you need to put in the effort and compassion to be a better person. I am giving you this explanation because I want to believe in you. I could have blocked you with that first ask, but I didn’t.

Do some thinking. If the idea of letting fat people be themselves, love themselves, and have fun wounds you so much, then the door is right there. I don’t want the support of a bigot, anyways.

If you genuinely care about others and about what you can do to learn, well, I’m right here, actively posting resources about fatphobia that I suggest you read. I am very nice to people who are respectful of others.

#fatphobia #feel free to ask for more resources. i'll reblog as many as i find.

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pokeheros-drama · 3 years

Text

Ooo apparently I didn’t scroll down enough. I’m blind lol. “No Taavi, I'm gonna disrespect your religion if it includes being discriminatory towards minorities Deal with it lmao.” Honestly you should do your research first. My religion was the first religion who was against discrimination. We gave women their rights before anyone else. We made slavery a sin before anyone else. We gave black people equal rights before anyone else. My religion is against discrimination. We were the first to treat people outside our religion as equals. So don’t you bring this discrimination thing to me. We believe there is a difference between choices and things which he have no choice over. Caste, colour, creed, sex etc are things you can’t choose. Our religion and in some cases sexuality are things we can choose. We do not disrespect. We do not force you to become Muslims and start believing in what we believe In. We do not force our practices on you. In a Muslim state a Christian, a gay, and everyone of the minorities can live with security and with respect as long as they follow the law. That is Islam. That is my religion. Im not denying Muslims have done hate crimes in the past. But don’t forget Christians have too. There are black sheep’s who show extremist behaviour everywhere. But that is not our religion. If besides all that you continue to disrespect my religion and judge it based on the extremists. Then that just shows who you are as a person and you should be ashamed. “If your religion told you to jump off a bridge when you turn 50 would you still do that? If your religion told you black people were a mistake would you still believe that? If your religion told you in order to go to heaven you had to kill somebody would you still follow it?” As stated earlier my religion was the first one to give black people their rights so them being a mistake is out of question. I doubt my religion would ever tell me anything like this. But for questions sake. No I won’t kill the person. At least not without knowing why they want me to kill the person. But unless it’s not anything major no I won’t kill him. Again as stated before I don’t just blindly follow my religion. I have been given a brain to differentiate right from wrong. So I use it to decide if I want to do something or not. About the jumping from bridge. I believe enough in my religion to know it won’t just ask me to do something for no reason. But to be honest unless they tell me that reason I won’t jump. Again as stated before I don’t just blindly follow my religion. I have been given a brain to differentiate right from wrong. So I use it to decide if I want to do something or not “Taavi shut the fuck up already, no one cares about ur long ass replys.” You cared enough to write this. Just don’t read them if you don’t want to. “Her age was never specified on the feed. Age and sex aside, nobody owes it you to be nice. By posting that feed publicly, it shows that you're still salty over their actions despite you "understanding and not insisting anymore".” Yeah I never mentioned her exact age. True. But I clearly remember saying child/girl and not women. So don’t spin my words please. I wasn’t salty about her not being nice, I was salty about the things that drove her to be like that. I was salty about the world we live in, in which kids have to afraid of other people offering help. Whether that is the fault of society or the way this stupid world works. And honestly if you can’t understand that then there’s no point in continuing this. “I don't even know Taavi but honestly if you defend homophobic/transphobic/racist/sexist/bigoted people you're no better than the people you're defending. People have been murdered for this. Killed in the fucking streets. Executed in their own homes. And even if they're not killed, you cannot fathom the mental and emotional abuse these people face every day just for being "different from the norm." Any religion that says "turn a blind eye to bigotry uwu" is a shitty-ass religion. Trans rights.” Ok so first the people you are mentioning are extremists. I’d like to make it clear I am against all kinds of extremist behaviour. Sadly there are extremists in every religion and society. let’s just say for a second that person A is trans. Person B is transphobic. They are against trans people. They hate them, don’t respect them and believe they shouldn’t have equal rights. Person C is not transphobic. They respect trans people. They treat them as equal and believe they should have equal rights. They just don’t support them. They don’t believe being trans is the right thing to do but if someone is they got nothing against it. Now Person A is in the white zone. Person B is in the black zone. You guys automatically put person C in the black zone too when in reality they are a shade of grey. So does person C deserve the same witch hunt person B gets? No they don’t. Yet they are treated the same. Does everyone has to support you to be a good person and if they don’t see eye to eye with you they are automatically a bad person? Then explain the difference between you and the person B? Why is it just not ok to just like not support anything. I treat you with respect as much as I treat the straights. I don’t judge you. Why can’t just not be enough? You guys want equal rights? What more equality you need? We literally treat you the same. “Taavi listen man I try very hard to understand where you're coming from and I don't believe you deserve hate at all, but I really don't understand what you want to sway your opinion on the subject at hand. Truth be told, you arent lgbtq, so you have No idea what the oppression and hate we face is like. So of course some of us will get rightfully upset when you say homophobes don't deserve the witch hunt. I personally try to educate before berating someone but even then some people aren't homophobic because they're uneducated, they are like that because it's safe for them to be that way in the eyes of Society(3). So to other lgbtq people the first resort is to make homophobia something to be ashamed of, so that, you know, less hatecrimes are committed. Obviously you wouldn't understand this though, or at least not as much as we do, because you arent lgbtq. You have talked to me and my friend and we try our best to help educate you so I dont get why you haven't changed your opinion really. Just because some others get mad at you, from years of repressed oppression? I just don't understand it. - pokeheroes dot com user Riordan-“ First of all I respect you a lot for not hiding behind the mask of anonymity. More then anyone on here at least. As mentioned above all I want is for people to not treat us people in the grey zone the same way they treat the people in the black. Yes sure we aren’t in the white. But we aren’t in the black either. We don’t deserve this witch hunt these people start every time. My friends aren’t even transphobic but they just labelled them as one and continue to spout hate about them. I honestly myself believe that the people who harm others deserve the criticism yes, but me or my friends never harmed anyone. Name one person I disrespected, or treated badly just cause they were not straight. I’m sorry I can’t agree with everyone on the matter that it’s perfectly alright to be gay or whatever. I won’t force my opinion on you. I won’t ask you to stop being you. I won’t judge you just cause of that. I will respect you as much as I do others. All I want it you do the same. I’m not harming anyone. So why do you force your opinions on me. Why can’t you respect me? Why do you judge me? As to the part of you guys educating me. Trust me that is seriously very much appreciated. Maybe one day I will change my opinions. That day isn’t here yet sadly. Also I do understand the oppression they feel. Trust me I know it a lot more then you would think. (Maybe one day you will but that day isn’t t near) I also understand the hate you are talking about. It isn’t much different from the hate islamophobics give to Muslims. Just for being a Muslim I’ve been hated in the past. Just for being from Pakistan I’ve been hated in the past. That’s why I’m saying. There are people who just don’t support your views. I have seen aethists, Christians, Hindus and many more who don’t meet eye to eye with me on my views. They don’t consider my beliefs right. I don’t consider theirs. But we respect each other’s beliefs. You know? It wouldn’t be fair to categorise those who don’t look eye to eye with me but still respect me and treat me the same way they treat others in the same category as people who are against my beliefs and just wish Islam would disappear from this world. Who don’t respect me and my beliefs. Get what I’m saying? Honestly I could care less if people start getting attracted to their cars or their frying pan. It’s their choice. Sure I won’t support it. I won’t be like it’s perfectly alright to be like that. But I won’t be against it either. If someone is that’s their choice. I don’t care. I will treat them the same I treat any other person. End of story. ~~~~~~~ Love Taavi

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

Text

Going through some old pages on the wiki I keep for my projects (can not more highly recommend building a private wiki site for yourself if you’re a writer with a ton of different or extensive projects. Soooo helpful at keeping me organized).

Anyway, came across this old short story I wrote set in the days of the Holy Wars from the Citadel ‘verse I was talking about a couple weeks ago, that was the original setting for what became By Lost Ways. Tossing it out there in case anyone wants a read. Its fairly short and is a glimpse at the future gods of Night and Day from that ‘verse, Adana and Reyus. *Shrugs*

Even Heaven Can Break

“God is dead.” Nerrick sighed and pulled off his glasses, mopping at them again with his now wrinkled shirt front. It wasn’t as though he held any great hopes that clearer vision might give him any further insight into the utterly inscrutable - and likely insane - young woman sitting across the table from him. He‘d already tested that theory and found it lacking. It simply gave him something to do. An ever so slight distraction from the roundabout circles they‘d been engaged in since - what was it now? Some six hours past?

“Yes,” he heaved, long past the point of trying to disguise his weariness. “You’ve said as much, multiple times. I don’t suppose you’d care to elaborate?” The girl - and she was nothing more than a girl, no matter what foolish superstitions she’d inspired amongst the lower classes - smiled again that same enigmatic smile that half made him wish he was a man more inclined to act on violent urges.

“God is dead,” she repeated with a small, careless shrug. “It seems a fairly straightforward statement of fact. I’m confused as to what more you expect me to say on the matter, Sir Magistrate.” His back molars ground together audibly. His patience maintained only by the constant vigilance of his temper. Nerrick reminded himself, not for the first time that morning, that he was a man noted for his restraint, his even temperament and unemotional dedication to justice. He was not about to be bested in a contest of wills by some ignorant, backwoods child, in his own prison.

The small dank room stank of mildew and rot, not to say anything of the havoc the dim torchlight was wreaking upon his fragile eyesight. Only his own personal ethics kept him from abandoning the girl to a more permanent exile in the deeper catacombs, an option that grew more appealing by the moment.

But as long as the possibility remained that she was merely repeating some heretical pagan belief, unaware of the repercussions her words had upon more civilized folk, he could not in good conscience treat her as just another rabble-rouser. Or, the Citadel guard against, condemn her to a space in the asylums, no matter how mad she seemed. Sitting comfortably three levels below the surface of the great granite and steel prison as though she were some grand lady awaiting tea in her parlor. . “Perhaps you speak of another god unknown to me,” Nerrick conceded gracefully. The wooden chair, almost entirely rotted through, creaked ominously beneath him as he shifted his weight, but God above, even his ass was falling asleep. Still she remained poised, back ramrod straight and never shifting those dark, pupil-less eyes from his. He was a man of reason and science and knew the unnerving Berut eyes to be nothing more than an unfortunate physical trait of her people, but it was easy enough to see how they’d gained their reputation for witchcraft and beguilement. Only the sternest of wills kept his gaze locked with hers. “I admit to being unfamiliar with all the customs of your people, and perhaps we speak of two entirely separate entities. The God of my people is eternal. He created everything we know, and much else besides, and He will endure when all else has turned to dust. He can not die.” “No.” Still she smiled. “There is only one God. In this, my people believe much the same as you. But you speak of faith, things that you can not know but believe to be true. I speak of fact. God is dead. This I know.” He tried reason. “God is the creator of all, and has no peer. If you admit this to be true yourself, then how can God possibly die?” She shrugged again. “Perhaps he willed himself to die. One can imagine eternity might grow tiresome after a time.” Nerrick could almost agree with that sentiment, as for a moment, he entertained the blasphemous thought that even God could be moved to suicide after sufficient time spent with this wretched creature. He dispelled such thoughts with a shake of his head - down that road lay this girl’s particular stamp of madness, no doubt. He tried another tack. “God created the universe. If He is gone, how is it that we are not? Shouldn’t the creation end with the creator?” “Perhaps it is ending, and it just hasn’t finished yet. We can hardly expect the universe to work on the same timetable as ourselves.”

“Tell me then,” he finally indulged her. “What makes you so certain God is dead?” “I saw him.” He sketched disbelief with an aged ashen brow. “You saw God.” “We seem to find a language barrier between us again, Sir Magistrate. Is my Erudi not accomplished enough for our conversation? Among my people, I’m considered quite proficient in your tongue, but perhaps I’ve been misled.” Nerrick flushed. Her Erudi was quite fine - more than, in fact, if a bit stilted. Another minor detail that bothered him, though he could not say why. How did such a young representative of an infamously uneducated people come to speak his tongue with the skill of the most lettered gentry? He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “How do you know that the man you saw was God?” “Wouldn’t you know God if you saw him?” “God is above humanity,” he rasped impatiently. “He doesn’t appear in human form. Should we see him, we’d hardly be capable of comprehending his glory.” Her lips moved in what he imagined to be an expression of pity. It was impossible to be sure, the way her eyes resisted any attempt to read emotion in them. They quivered like liquid night, reflecting the faint torchlight as unsteady flames alit on twin seas of oil. “You speak again of what you believe, because you have never known otherwise. I have known otherwise, and speak again of what I know.” “Enough!” His hand cracked down on the wooden table top, spearing his palm with splinters. His reddened face, already contorted in rage, barely registered the pain. Her face registered nothing at all - just the same painted mask of gentle amusement she’d worn since first escorted down here in the company of his guards. And it was a mask, he was sure of it now. She was too clever with her words to be either ignorant or insane. Whatever game she played at, he wanted no further part in it. “I have no more patience to waste indulging your heresy, and I refuse to subject more of my city’s people to it. You’ve caused nothing but disruption since you first arrived, inciting riots and restlessness among the lower classes, using their faith in service to your own twisted agenda, whatsoever that may be, and it ends here, girl.” She remained unmoved. A pale statue in a plain white dress, inky black curls spilling down both shoulders like curtains cut from the same cloth as those damnable eyes. Her lips twitched. “You may call me Adana.” Nerrick froze, save for where his chest heaved like the billows of a forge, grasping greedily at air to feed his exertions. The tinglings up and down his spine were more than just pinched nerves from too long sitting in one position. This girl, with her damn eyes and impenetrable nerves and heretical talk was more than just some insolent brat from the savage lands north of the city. He was no longer completely convinced there was nothing to the stories and legends of Berutian bewitchery. But those eyes held him now, and he didn’t think he could look away even if he willed it. “You resist giving me your name for these past several hours, and now offer it freely, without me even asking. Why?” “It no longer matters,” Adana told him, heaving a sigh of her own for the first time all morning. Nerrick almost felt that there was regret in that sigh, but her painted mask hid that as well as any other emotion, were it there at all. “For what it’s worth, it was never my aim to disrupt the peace of your city. Call it an unfortunate symptom…nothing more, nothing less.” “Then why?” “Everything you know is about to change,” she said gently. “Well, not for you, I suppose, but for them. They needed to know. It’s time for man to take charge of his own destiny, not spend the coming days huddled in shrines chanting desperate prayers to a deity dead and gone. They won‘t listen, not nearly enough of them at any rate, but some maybe.” Why not for me, Nerrick wondered, but instead he merely asked, “Why now? Why do you tell me all this now, when before it was just a game to you?” Adana laughed, a low throaty chuckle laced again with that hint of pity. “It no longer matters,” she said again. “You want to be here,” Nerrick intuited suddenly. “You evaded the guards for over a week, and then when they arrested you today, you hardly resisted. Like you wanted to go with them. Why? Why now, why here? What is it you want?” “To wait. Here with you.” And then, before he could ask for what, she continued. “There’s a mountain two day’s journey north of here by horseback. My people call it the Degatoi. Yours call it the Foothill, I believe. They say that’s where the Citadel rests, where God makes his home.” “That’s just a myth,” he frowned. “God doesn’t dwell amongst his creations, the Citadel exists in a realm untouchable by our own.” “Some myths are make believe. Others are facts that have since been forgotten. I believed it to be fact, as do my people. So I journeyed there, a pilgrimage of sorts. My…reasons are my own.” “And did you find the Citadel?” “No, it wasn’t there anymore. It moved. It does that, you know.” “Of course,” Nerrick snorted. “Why wouldn’t it?” “Why indeed,” Adana smile wryly. She smoothed her dress in her lap. “I did however, find God. He was lying at the base of the peak. Roughly your height, wearing unfamiliar clothes, though I suppose that’s only to be expected. His hair was strange, almost feathery, and he looked like no man I’d ever seen before. He was dead. And I looked into his wide, staring eyes and in them beheld the Abyss. And I knew then that he was God, and knew all the mysteries and secrets of the Universe that he’d known then at the last. My people can do that, you see.” Nerrick nodded, numbly. He had heard that, any schoolchild knew that myth of the Berut people, the legend that kept even the greatest sorcerers of the South from their doorstep lest it turn out to be true. They could see into a man’s soul with those strange eyes of theirs, see all the way into them into their deepest, darkest reaches and pull out every twisted secret and hidden truth for accounting. It was the kind of legend he’d always held up to be nonsense, but now, staring into those eyes of myth and reckoning, he knew it to be true. Knew all of it to be true.

He started to tremble, sweat dotting his brow, tracing salty rivers down the cracked parchment of his skin. The torchlight grew fainter and fainter and the air was dryer and thinner, harder to grasp at. Black flecks spotted his vision, and he took off his glasses again. Wiped them, though he suspected the problem was his eyes, not the spectacles. He’d heard these were all symptoms of a heart-death, but it was hard to worry about such things now. He had to know, had to wonder instead, what kind of things might one see in the eyes of a dead God? What kind of things might one know? “The same things we all know at the end,” Adana said softly. She looked at him in the rapidly regressing torchlight and he knew with the same certainty he knew everything now, that yes, her eyes held pity. For him. “You feel it now, don’t you? When it’s so close, that no reason, no logic, none of the games we play to convince ourselves we don’t know the things our soul senses - that little piece in each of us that’s the smallest sliver of divinity linking us to the rest of the universe - none of them can hide it anymore.” Nerrick shivered and licked chapped paper-dry lips. His voice came out a croak. “Why are you here?” “To wait.” “For what?” “The end.” And then, “I’m sorry.” The earth split with a roar, but to Nerrick, all seemed silent. He leapt back, knocking over his chair with a hoarse shout his ears could never possibly hear over the sound of walls crashing down, thunderous echoes reverberating throughout the small chamber. The stained slate floor rent with a crack right through the center of the room, and he stumbled, tried to right himself, stumbled again as the earth shook and danced and trembled like a living thing, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Dust stormed the air in gray, ominous clouds that twisted into his lungs with every breath he took. The sound and fury buffeted him on all sides, splinters and shards of broken rock bombarding his skin. Pricking, ripping, tearing and gouging.

His glasses cracked and fell, but before he the torches finally failed, he could still blurrily see the girl, Adana, seated serenely on the other side of the table, riding out the madness with perfect poise and watching him with those damned eyes. He fell himself finally and the ceiling split, raining clouds of dust and slate and broken rafters. One struck him full in the chest, pinning him to the floor. He felt ribs break, felt his terrified screams silenced by a shard of wood spearing him through one lung, all his breath going to granting him a few last gasps of air. Adana’s face filled his blurred vision then. In all the din, there was no chance of hearing her get up from the table and walk over to his side, but then there she was kneeling over him. She looked deep into his eyes. “You see? We all know things, even if we don’t know we know them,” she told him gently. “It’s because we’re all a little bit of God. Or maybe the Universe. Creation. I’m still figuring out where the line separating one from the other begins and ends. You were special, Sir Magistrate. Even if you didn’t know it. Take whatever comfort from that you can.” “Go with God.” Then her hand covered his mouth and nose, and she looked into his wide, staring eyes and beheld in them the Abyss, and all the secrets and mysteries of the Universe he had known at the end. ************* Adana rose with some difficulty, and drew the magistrate’s keys from his belt. She smoothed her dress - it would never be white again, she feared - and made her way to the door over a floor that still quivered and rattled, but only restlessly now. Much of its temper had been spent. The hallway beyond was relatively untouched. She quirked dry lips at divine providence, but perhaps it was more accurate to say she enjoyed the favor of the Universe at the moment. The torches were all spent and broken, save for where one had fallen upon the corpse of one guardsman and set his skin and hair aflame, lighting the gray hall fitfully with its macabre light. It was more than enough to see by. At least, more than enough for her eyes. She stepped over another body and ascended the small, tight stairwell at the end of the hall gracefully. Less so, when she almost ran into the blond, dirtied youth who came clattering down the stairs in the opposite direction. He reared back, startled, and she saw that she’d been accurate in her assessment: he was probably no younger than she herself, but his youth shone from his eyes and the sprightly smile that sprang to his face. She recognized him as one of the city-folk always to be found at her gatherings, listening intently to her words. Reyus, she thought his name was. She smiled. “Milady,” Reyus rasped out. The air was still thick and heavy with dust, and he had to stop and pant for breath before continuing. “We were just coming to rescue you!” He waved aimlessly behind himself with what she took for a stolen sword, perhaps looted from a guardsman dead in the earthquake. Coming down the stairs behind him were another young man and a slightly older woman, similarly ill-equipped. Adana favored them with a bemused smile. “How thoughtful.” Reyus blushed a rosy dawn and pressed his back to the wall to allow her passage by. He followed quickly at her heels as she passed the other two and continued up the stairs - rather like an eager but ill-trained pet, she contemplated with some amusement. “Well, there was a number of us - rather, we thought…we weren’t certain what the magistrate would do to you, and we were concerned…” “So I see,” she murmured as they alighted on the ground levels of the prison and found ten or so more men and women of varying ages and garb awaiting them with anxious expressions. They filled in silently behind them as Adana continued towards the front gates, kicking aside the outstretched limbs of the dead where they littered her path. “And are these all your enemies slain? What fearsome warriors have come to my aid here?” She suspected she might be needling Reyus just to see how much further his face could purple in shame and embarrassment. But it was the end of the world, after all. One should take one’s entertainment wherever they found it. The hues of his face performed admirably. “The rest of the guards fled when the earth shook. We never suspected - milady, what is happening? Is this your doing?” “God is dead,“ she said softly. “Such a thing is not without consequences.“ Adana stooped and unwrapped a relatively undamaged black cloak from one body, throwing it over her shoulders. “You’ll want one as well, I believe,” she told the boy.

His eyes held hers bravely, and he nodded. His was an interesting soul indeed. A cult had hardly been her intention. Gaining the attention of the magistrate had been her only real aim, and if she happened to seed her own mystery a bit early, and allow it more room to grow - well, that had hardly seemed at cross purposes either. But, she supposed, it was never too early to find one’s faithful. A boy like Reyus might come in handy, and who knew what secrets the others might hold? She nodded decisively, and raised her voice to address them all. “Everything you know is about to change.” “I have a long road to walk ahead of me,” she continued. “It is not for the faint of heart.” She turned and walked from the prison‘s gatehouse. All of them, she noted with some interest, followed close behind. They raised scattered cries and shouts of alarm as they beheld the vista outside, but she barely looked up. She already knew the sky overhead was a dark red as though aflame. Roiling purple thunderclouds collided and went to war, crimson lighting stabbing at one and then another underneath. A long black tear split the heavens, stretching from one horizon to the next. Consequences were to be expected. The streets ahead of them were filled with the ruins of buildings and the bodies of the fallen. Survivors milled about in small groups, suffocating in shock while scattered fires raged. Flames crackled hungrily, fitful tongues licking at the sky and spewing their venom of smoke and ash. She could hear, faintly, the desperate prayers for salvation and succor. She sighed, and would have told them to save their breath, but then, she’d already done so. Reyus spun about, lost for even a direction to point his horror. “Milady, what about them?” Adana shook her head without slowing. “They’ll follow, or they’ll die. This city is not long for this world. It’s too close to a Vein. Nothing more can be done, and the whole world will follow if we do not reach our destination.” “But where are we going?” She favored his persistence with another small smile and drew the hood of her cloak up over her head. “We‘re going to the Citadel. To seek divinity.” It began to rain, thick, heavy drops that were warm to the touch, quickly soaking them through and through. She was glad to have found a black cloak, as the imagery of her white dress stained by this unnatural downpour was not one she cared to contemplate - even if it would already never be white again. She reached out to raise Reyus’ hood for him when he remained too distracted to care. The blood staining his golden hair, still vibrant even beneath the dust of dungeons, was not an image she found herself caring much to contemplate either. His was a curious soul indeed. “Milady, I don’t understand. If God is dead, what divinity do we seek?” Adana laughed, a deep throaty chuckle that echoed through the ruins of the broken city. “Ours,” was all she said. They picked their way through the rubble as the skies continued to bleed.

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