Sermon Two

[withoutasign]

[Signless has chosen his location carefully; when he turns on the video function, there's a wall of water behind him, and a school of brightly colored tropical fish swimming past. He's very clearly in the bubble again.]

My friends, today I want to talk to you about fear.

[His voice is low and soothing, his story-telling voice.]

I have known great fear in my time. In my world, the color of my blood was a source of fear, something that drove me into hiding for a long time. Then, when I dreamed of the world that could be, rather than the world that was, I was afraid again... afraid that I would never see what I knew we were capable of come to pass. I was afraid to speak out, afraid to make a ripple in the still, stagnant waters of our society, and tried instead to live my meager little life underneath the notice of the highbloods.

But then I saw what my silence was doing, what those in similar positions were suffering, and I knew I could not stay silent. I could not sit idly by while our world rotted away from its very core, while its corruption bled away the talents and very lives of so many trolls who had done nothing beyond being hatched the wrong color. I could not wait for another to come along and demand change, or I would wait the rest of my life. I needed to cast aside my fear, to find a reserve of strength within me, and rise to what my world needed me to be.

[His voice falls, becoming hushed and soft, almost painfully honest, and he looks down, his cloak hiding his eyes.]

I was terrified. Casting off fear is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Fear is something I knew, its cold comfort as familiar to me as my guardian's face. It would have been... easy to live my entire life in fear, I thought.

[He looks up then, and his eyes are burning, his voice strong once more.]

I thought that fear was a cloak to hide me, but it was a chain I wore around my neck. When the fear was gone, when I made the decision to cast it aside, I have never felt so free in my entire life. It was how I imagine it must feel to wake up one morning with wings, and look out the window into an endless sky. When the fear was gone, I could breathe a deep breath for the first time in my life, and look to the future not as an ominous, foreboding thing, but as a path bathed in light and redemption.

I am not afraid any longer, Vatheon. This is my home now, and it is worth fighting for. I will not be driven out of my home again. I will not let fear control me.

Comments

[aim_exorable]

D --> ...
D --> I do not believe they are particularly picky when it comes to the type of individual who is chosen
D --> When did you arrive?

[o8liter8]

O8viously not!
I got here yesterday.

[aim_exorable]

D --> You always have had such timing

[Eyeroll!]

D --> I see you've learned how to use the communication device quick enough

[o8liter8]

Of course I did.
Who do you take me for?
So, where are you? Call it a reunion of old partners.

[ SHE WILL FIND YOU, DARKLEER ]

[aim_exorable]

[OH GOD]

D --> I'd really rather not
D --> But I doubt that matters to you
D --> At all
D --> I'd rather come and find you
D --> If it's all the same

[Sob no he doesn't want her to know where he lives...]

[o8liter8]

Oh, are we doing hide and seek like when we were wigglers?
That's fine too.
Ready or not here I come!!!!!!!!

[ Mindfang, no, when you were kids Darkleer hid from you because he didn't want you to bother him ]

[aim_exorable]

[Why is it that staring at those cerulean words fills him with more dread than realizing that Her Imperious Condescension was in the city? Why is that even a thing?]

[Darkleer is pretty sure somewhere in his life, things got severely messed up.]

[Darkleer is also absconding from his hive without a second thought.]

D --> Why
D --> is that your first course of action?
D --> WHY?

action;

[o8liter8]

[ Sorry, Darkleer. You were doomed from the start.

After a lot of running around and eventually some frustrated and judicious use of the Vision Eightfold, Mindfang tracks him down and flings herself onto his back, giving him a spider monkey cling. ]

It's my favorite stuffed shirt! Fancy meeting you here.

action;

[aim_exorable]

[Mindfang always has been one of the only people in Alternia who could ever find him. Stupid Vision Eightfold.]

[Sighing in defeat, Darkleer just looks back at her. She might notice that those fancy Archeradicator glasses he's always been absurdly pleased with ever since he joined are missing. In their place are a pair of cheap and simple black shades, mimicking those of his descendent.]

'Fancy' indeed. I assume you use your eye once more?

action;

[o8liter8]

Pfft. As if I ever didn't!

[ She's cuddling a little, though she will vehemently deny it till the day she dies; sliding her cheek into the space between Darkleer's neck and shoulder. It's familiar and comfortable. ]

What happened to those glasses you were so stupidly proud of? I thought you'd never take those off willingly once you had them. Not even in the ablution trap.

[ coarse lowblood terms? you betcha! ]

action;

[aim_exorable]

[The closeness is indeed familiar, but more in a nostalgic way for him. He half didn't know what to do with himself when he returned to the hive one day and suddenly she was gone. What was he supposed to do with all that space?]

[Get a life, apparently.]

[But he adjusts to the miniscule weight easily and eyes her from the corner of his vision.]

Bathroom, Mindfang. And it is of no consequence what happened to them.

[...He needs to tell the Helmsman to never deal with this troll. Mindfang would catch on quick.]

action;

[o8liter8]

It is so! You wouldn't give those up except for something really big.

[ And oh, she's a little bitter about that. You can't go home again. Leave before they leave you. ]

action;

[aim_exorable]

You're looking far too deeply into things.

[Except she isn't.]

[Sighing, Darkleer trudges off with his new passenger to go find a place to sit down.]

How much has anyone actually told you of this place?

action;

[o8liter8]

Wow, you are totally underestimating how well I know you right now! Whatever, I don't care.

[ Except she does. That stupid helmet was more important to him than anything. ]

I have bits and pieces. Dualscar was a bit too busy strutting and preening trying to look good to really have a lot of conversation.

Re: action;

[aim_exorable]

[He's really not sure how she would react to knowing that he gave them away to a yellowblooded Helmsman. Best to just... not mention it. Ever.]

Yes, well, that's not surprising. Where have you been staying?

action;

[o8liter8]

I found a shipwreck!

[ stupidly proud. ]

action;

[aim_exorable]

[...]

You stayed the night in the shipwreck. The haunted shipwreck.

action;

[o8liter8]

I think it's homey. Even if I could do without the ghosts, the traps are excellent.

action;

[aim_exorable]

[Darkleer presses his hands up against his face, fingers nudging up the glasses up the bridge of his nose. It's the kind of action Mindfang always seems to bring about in him.]

You are ridiculous. I should remain unsurprised after all this time.

action;

[o8liter8]

What? It's not like there's anywhere else particularly great to stay. I liked my captain's cabin.

action;

[aim_exorable]

I could disagree with this. In fact, I am disagreeing with this, because you have the entire city to choose from and you choose the wrecked ship.

action;

[o8liter8]

Well, where are you staying then, Fussybritches?

[ She grins a little. Just like old times! ]

action;

[aim_exorable]

A hive. Like a normal troll.

[That's right, he's not giving the address.]

action;

[o8liter8]

You know I'll just find out anyway. Anyway, normal is overrated.

[ nyah nyah. ]

Keep this up and I'll almost think you don't like me anymore, Chiron!

action;

[aim_exorable]

[weh]

To my deep misfortune, I am well aware of your stubbornness in finding me.

[Sigh.]

Whether I like you or not doesn't really matter.