04-20-2023, 08:53 PM
Leonie Bennett was not happy. She attended one Watchdogs of Our Earth meeting, which had been a bit extreme and off-putting, three years ago. She hadn’t been to any of their events since, and if she was honest, the more she read about them, the more disdainful of them she had become. Oh, and after that meeting she’d been accosted in the street by a literal Kerlian spy, so it was hardly her favourite day of her life.
Yet now she was sitting in a jail cell for the apparent crime of being on their mailing list. At least when Kerlile detained her it had been because she was literally fighting against them in a war! True, the Kerlians had treated her far worse, but Leonie felt a righteous indignation at her current detention that she’d never felt in Kerlile. How dare her own government treat her like this!
“Leonie Bennett?” a voice asked through the door.
“What? You gonna make like a Kerlian and torture me now?” Leonie responded bitterly, without moving.
“You’re free to go.”
“Excellent,” Leonie said, standing up and folding her arms as they unlocked the door. “Perhaps next time you could, I dunno, not arrest everyone on a stupid mailing list? Xiomeran is not a good look on you.”
The police who’d arrested her did not respond, instead leading her out of the cells to return her belongings to her and let her out onto the street. She fastened her watch strap back on, and checked the time. Sometime after 3am. Great. She sighed and began to walk home. She did, however, check over her shoulder multiple times, and avoid dark streets. She’d seen the news about Irene and Clay, and she did not fancy an unplanned trip to Xiomera.
“What are you even doing, Alvarez?” she muttered to herself as she walked. “Do you really think this is gonna solve the problem? At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if WOE turned out to be Xiomeran plants in the first place to justify an invasion.” She grumbled more, not really believing her theories, but feeling hurt and disappointed in the actions of her own government. What was the point in fighting for democracy when everything just ended up like this regardless?
*
Irene Ramos sat silently as her parents haggled with a tattoo removal professional. At first, she hadn’t wanted to go, fearing that Xiomera would somehow come and punish her if she tried to remove their parting gift. Her parents had insisted, and Sofia had convinced her that if the Xiomerans wanted to leave a truly permanent message they could have done much worse. She threw up again at that point.
There was something about being free from a traumatic experience, and being allowed to process the emotions of such an experience, that made it feel almost worse. When she was still at Mariya’s mercy, she’d managed to hold it together at least a little bit. She’d been able to control her responses, preventing herself from pulling away and making things worse. But now she was back in Lauchenoiria, she’d lost what control she’d managed to keep, and would wake up at all hours of the night screaming uncontrollably. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t be alone for five minutes and her panic attacks ran into each other, there was so little time between them.
She’d deleted everything about WOE from her devices when she got home. She unsubscribed from their lists, logged out of their accounts, deleted the passwords from her password manager. She permanently erased their documents, cancelled the payments to their cloud storage, deleted the photos from their protests. Then she went around her flat gathering everything that so much as mentioned them, took it all to her parents’ house, and threw it in their fireplace.
On her own social media accounts, she unfollowed them, deleted her posts about them… in fact, after realising how much time it would take, she deleted the accounts and made new ones. Everyone she’d met solely through WOE had their numbers blocked on her phone, their contacts deleted. She made new email accounts that they didn’t know. She cancelled the card for an account she’d once used to donate to them and ordered a new one. Irene Ramos erased WOE from her life. She only wished she could erase them from her memory.
*
Clay Moss, on the other hand, had embraced his role of the suffering martyr for the cause who’d faced the evil Kerlian demon and her boss, the terrifying Empress Calhualyana. He wore tops that showed off his scars as he made video after video about his ordeal for his online audience. It didn’t even occur to him to get the tattoos removed. Not yet, at least. First, he had to make sure everyone understood how much he’d suffered for the great cause of climate action!
The police had questioned him, of course. In fact, if the FPIS had been obeying their orders literally, they would have kept him in custody. But nobody wanted to be the person who locked up the guy who’d just escaped torture in Xiomera. So, Clay sat in his bedroom, making videos, the only known member of Warriors of Our Earth in Lauchenoiria who wasn’t sitting in a jail cell. He gathered a following online of the type of people who would stare at a car crash in the hopes of seeing something gory.
*
One of his followers was the Kerlian demon herself, Mariya Adema. She found it greatly amusing that he was publicising his ordeal so openly. Most of her prior subjects had remained silent about it forevermore. Well, that wasn’t strictly true – most of her prior subjects had ended up dead, or wishing they were. But the few who ended up free had usually disappeared into a hole of denial or severe PTSD. So, Clay amused Mariya greatly.
She hadn’t heard so much about Irene, so she’d gone looking in her downtime. She still had the passwords to many of Irene’s accounts, so she witnessed their domino-effect deletion, one after the other. She saw the email Irene sent to WOE telling them to never contact her again; threatening them, in fact. She saw the drafts of the blog post, never published, where Irene decried WOE for their failure to live up to their standards of looking after the wellbeing of their members.
Mariya smirked. Perhaps she hadn’t turned Irene to Xiomera (or Kerlile), but she’d certainly turned her away from WOE. She still had it; her ability to get inside a person, rip their world apart, and replace it with something of her own design. Speaking of, she had a standing appointment to get to with her favourite former subject. Yes, Mariya was very happy with how events had turned out.
Yet now she was sitting in a jail cell for the apparent crime of being on their mailing list. At least when Kerlile detained her it had been because she was literally fighting against them in a war! True, the Kerlians had treated her far worse, but Leonie felt a righteous indignation at her current detention that she’d never felt in Kerlile. How dare her own government treat her like this!
“Leonie Bennett?” a voice asked through the door.
“What? You gonna make like a Kerlian and torture me now?” Leonie responded bitterly, without moving.
“You’re free to go.”
“Excellent,” Leonie said, standing up and folding her arms as they unlocked the door. “Perhaps next time you could, I dunno, not arrest everyone on a stupid mailing list? Xiomeran is not a good look on you.”
The police who’d arrested her did not respond, instead leading her out of the cells to return her belongings to her and let her out onto the street. She fastened her watch strap back on, and checked the time. Sometime after 3am. Great. She sighed and began to walk home. She did, however, check over her shoulder multiple times, and avoid dark streets. She’d seen the news about Irene and Clay, and she did not fancy an unplanned trip to Xiomera.
“What are you even doing, Alvarez?” she muttered to herself as she walked. “Do you really think this is gonna solve the problem? At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if WOE turned out to be Xiomeran plants in the first place to justify an invasion.” She grumbled more, not really believing her theories, but feeling hurt and disappointed in the actions of her own government. What was the point in fighting for democracy when everything just ended up like this regardless?
*
Irene Ramos sat silently as her parents haggled with a tattoo removal professional. At first, she hadn’t wanted to go, fearing that Xiomera would somehow come and punish her if she tried to remove their parting gift. Her parents had insisted, and Sofia had convinced her that if the Xiomerans wanted to leave a truly permanent message they could have done much worse. She threw up again at that point.
There was something about being free from a traumatic experience, and being allowed to process the emotions of such an experience, that made it feel almost worse. When she was still at Mariya’s mercy, she’d managed to hold it together at least a little bit. She’d been able to control her responses, preventing herself from pulling away and making things worse. But now she was back in Lauchenoiria, she’d lost what control she’d managed to keep, and would wake up at all hours of the night screaming uncontrollably. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t be alone for five minutes and her panic attacks ran into each other, there was so little time between them.
She’d deleted everything about WOE from her devices when she got home. She unsubscribed from their lists, logged out of their accounts, deleted the passwords from her password manager. She permanently erased their documents, cancelled the payments to their cloud storage, deleted the photos from their protests. Then she went around her flat gathering everything that so much as mentioned them, took it all to her parents’ house, and threw it in their fireplace.
On her own social media accounts, she unfollowed them, deleted her posts about them… in fact, after realising how much time it would take, she deleted the accounts and made new ones. Everyone she’d met solely through WOE had their numbers blocked on her phone, their contacts deleted. She made new email accounts that they didn’t know. She cancelled the card for an account she’d once used to donate to them and ordered a new one. Irene Ramos erased WOE from her life. She only wished she could erase them from her memory.
*
Clay Moss, on the other hand, had embraced his role of the suffering martyr for the cause who’d faced the evil Kerlian demon and her boss, the terrifying Empress Calhualyana. He wore tops that showed off his scars as he made video after video about his ordeal for his online audience. It didn’t even occur to him to get the tattoos removed. Not yet, at least. First, he had to make sure everyone understood how much he’d suffered for the great cause of climate action!
The police had questioned him, of course. In fact, if the FPIS had been obeying their orders literally, they would have kept him in custody. But nobody wanted to be the person who locked up the guy who’d just escaped torture in Xiomera. So, Clay sat in his bedroom, making videos, the only known member of Warriors of Our Earth in Lauchenoiria who wasn’t sitting in a jail cell. He gathered a following online of the type of people who would stare at a car crash in the hopes of seeing something gory.
*
One of his followers was the Kerlian demon herself, Mariya Adema. She found it greatly amusing that he was publicising his ordeal so openly. Most of her prior subjects had remained silent about it forevermore. Well, that wasn’t strictly true – most of her prior subjects had ended up dead, or wishing they were. But the few who ended up free had usually disappeared into a hole of denial or severe PTSD. So, Clay amused Mariya greatly.
She hadn’t heard so much about Irene, so she’d gone looking in her downtime. She still had the passwords to many of Irene’s accounts, so she witnessed their domino-effect deletion, one after the other. She saw the email Irene sent to WOE telling them to never contact her again; threatening them, in fact. She saw the drafts of the blog post, never published, where Irene decried WOE for their failure to live up to their standards of looking after the wellbeing of their members.
Mariya smirked. Perhaps she hadn’t turned Irene to Xiomera (or Kerlile), but she’d certainly turned her away from WOE. She still had it; her ability to get inside a person, rip their world apart, and replace it with something of her own design. Speaking of, she had a standing appointment to get to with her favourite former subject. Yes, Mariya was very happy with how events had turned out.
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax