Quoted By:
You rocket up. "No I <span class="mu-i">haven't!</span>"
YOU HAVE.
>[-0 ID]
"No, I— you don't understand! I'm a heroine!" If you could explain it, they wouldn't be mad at you. "I don't— I don't do horrible things. I don't do things wrong, okay? I've never done things wrong. I've— occasionally I have made small mistakes, tiny mistakes, but I fix them! And if I fix them, they're not— it's like it was supposed to happen. You're judging way too fast. I didn't mean to melt— I didn't mean to— just because 5000 people got melted together, doesn't mean it's <span class="mu-i">horrible.</span> Aren't you happy?"
HAPPINESS IS A STRONG WORD
WE ARE HAPPY IN OUR DREAMS.
IN THE HARSH LIGHT OF MORNING
WE ARE AT MAXIMUM CONTENT
AND AT MINIMUM RESIGNED
TO WHAT HAS BEFALLEN US
"That's close enough," you mumble.
WHAT'S MORE, WE HAVE SALVAGED
SOME MEASURE OF LIVING
FROM DEATH'S CRUEL GRASP
IT SOFTENS THE BLOW.
"Okay, but—"
CHARLOTTE FAWKINS
THESE PEOPLE WERE ALIVE
AND HAD THEIR LIVES AHEAD
WHEN THEY MET OUR FATE
>[-0 ID]
"Not really! They were all manseified. They were basically fake people." Gosh, you're glad you listened to Gil. "Maybe they thought they were alive and real, but that's not the—"
PLEASE
GO TELL THEM
THAT THEIR PREVIOUS LIVES
WERE FALSE AND MEANINGLESS
SEE IF THAT ABATES THE SCREAMING
"Maybe I will!" you say. "How do I talk to them! I can fix this, no problem."
YOU ARE HANGING BY A THREAD
You look down at yourself, your strange vulgar clothing, your exposed knees. Then you look up. "I am not! What do you know? Sorry, clearly nothing, since you think I— since you think I could've done something wrong. I've never done anything wrong in my life. You're going to talk to them and find out they're way happier like this, okay? They need to get over themselves, is all."
YOUR THINKING IS DISTORTED
BUT VERY WELL
THEY ARE BEHIND THE CURTAIN
"The curtain?" you say, and hear a noise like birds in flight: every member of the audience has pointed. You turn. At the back of the stage is a dramatic curtain. "Oh. Okay. Neat."
WE ARE SURE YOU ARE EAGER TO ENTER
"I am!" you say, because you can't not be. "I hope you feel lucky, because you're about to witness a fantastic act of heroism. Watch as I—"
You fling the curtain open. It's like opening a furnace door, that sudden wash of heat, only it's— not screaming. Not only screaming. Some screaming, but mostly wailing, sobbing, cursing, babbling, yelping, weeping, all noise, a solid wall of noise, a brick wall to the face. You slam the curtain shut, steady yourself. It can't be wrong. It can't be wrong because you don't do wrong things. It'll sort itself out. You pivot. "Why don't they do the dream thing you do? Where they pretend they're normal people? It's not like they'd be any faker in there than they were already."
THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW
IT IS NOT CLEAR TO US
HOW MUCH THEY KNOW OF ANYTHING
(3/4)
