Signless (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
withoutasign) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
caughtinanetwork2012-03-02 07:59 pm
withoutasign) wrote in caughtinanetwork2012-03-02 07:59 pm
Sermon Two
[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.
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.
action;
[ And that's fine. If she was just another mouth to feed to him, that's fine. Whatever. She doesn't need him.
She lets go of his shoulders abruptly, scooting away on the bench slightly. ]
action;
I would not doubt that. However, in my case, I saw you fairly recently before arriving in the city.
action;
[ She sounds flippant and not sorry at all. They're not kids anymore. Not friends. He's an Archeradicator, and she's free and alone as she always wanted. ]
action;
No... Although, knowing you, I'm sure you made sure to take some time for some illegal activity or another before running into me.
action;
[ Acquaintances. Not friends. They were never friends. ]
action;
[So not friends.]
...Not exactly.
You'll find out when you're older.
[For some reason, he's still not exactly comfortable with admitting his exile... And with Mindfang, the one who made sure he escaped with his life? Well...]
action;
[ She's quiet, then under her breath, almost too soft to hear- ]
I wish it did, sometimes. Damn that man.
action;
[The panicked reaction he saw on the SFC flashes to mind.]
Are you talking about Dualscar? Or, perhaps, Summoner?
action;
[ You know who she's talking about, sort of. ]
action;
[And there were just little notes that were nearly impossible to read, and vague mentions of a doctor, and that was it. Darkleer finds his jaw locking at the memory.]
You never did tell me what that was all about.
action;
I think he knew this would happen. What I would look for. Maybe it made him laugh.
action;
[Sigh!]
Why did he come to mind?
action;
[ She's quiet, for a little while. ]
Do you know how you're going to die, Chiron?
action;
Perhaps that is for the better.
action;
I do, you know. Know how I'm going to die. I'm eleven and I know how my life ends.
-Fuck, why am I even talking about this. This is stupid, you don't care.
[ She gets up, brushing off her skirts. ]
action;
[Calmly, Darkleer reaches over and takes the back of her skirt between a few fingers and tugs. Either she'll tear her clothes, or will smack her ass right back down in that seat.]
Talk.
action;
Fuck you. You're not part of my life and I don't owe you a damn thing. You've made it very clear that my affairs are none of your concern unless I happen to interact with someone you feel isn't appropriate to be talking to me.
[ Getting up again! ]
action;
In the time you are from, perhaps it is true. But in my time, things have changed. I am very much stuck with you.
So.
Talk.
action;
action;
And you've never had anyone else to get stuck to. All the people within this city, and you still find me! But if I dare to ask about you, anything about you, you lash out!
[A snort through his nose, a horse-like mannerism he picked up from his lusus.]
Maybe I should be glad!
action;
[ She doesn't know how to deal with this, not with any of this. Not with Darkleer, not with her situation, not with any of it. She's lashing out because she doesn't know what to do and that's only making it worse. ]
I hate you and I hate everything about this place! I hate that everyone is treating me like an adolescent, I hate that I can't go where I want and do as I will, and I hate that stupid brownblood for acting so very injured that I dislike the person who is going to kill me! So fuck you, fuck this place, fuck whoever brought me here, and fuck everyone in it!
[ And now she does get up and, if he grabs her skirt, is too determined to stop for if. ]
action;
[If not her skirt, then perhaps her arm will do the trick, because he is certainly springing to his feet and reaching out to grab it.]
I never- [The rest of her words hits him and he can only stare.] Lysunder does... No. [He holds up his other hand and breathes in deep.] We are not going to have this conversation in the middle of the street. You're coming with me.
action;
Take your hands off me. [ She jerks her arm, trying to pull herself from his grasp. ] We don't need to have this conversation, whatever it is, at all.
action;
[It's so easy to get frustrated with her, so easy to find her crawling beneath his skin and plucking out parts of him he thought were dull and buried. But here he is, fingers staying locked around her wrist. She should know what a strong grip he has.]
We do, and we will.
action;
You just don't know when to fuck off, do you?
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;